Stockton, California: A Survival Guide (Continued)

As promised, the adventure continues…

CHAPTER TWO: WHO THE FUCK IS IN CHARGE HERE? (or The Puppet Masters)

One of the best Letters to the Editor ever published in the local paper was from a transplant resident that claimed our great city was the “most politically corrupt” he had ever lived in & he was shocked by how little uproar this causes. What the aggravated letter writer did not understand is that Stocktonians are well aware of how fucked up shit is, but the shame of poverty keeps us quiet for the most part. We have our very own, home-grown, rags-to-riches tale (The Legend of A.G. Spanos) to reinforce the idea that our lives suck because we don’t try hard enough. So many Stocktonians are barely staying afloat and, as popular mythology would have you believe, this has NOTHING to do with the misappropriation of city funds away from programs of social uplift and toward the pet projects of real estate developers or corporate interests. All sarcasm aside, think about it for a second. How many chain restaurants and big box retail stores do we need to subsidize with tax dollars before we kick down some feta for improvement of our shitty public transit system? Or how ‘bout local entrepreneur assistance on par with the millions we spent moving Paraguay’s into the Hotel Stockton? How is it cool to strip the library’s budget by 10% (no shit. See it HERE.) when we have the lowest literacy rate of any city in the NATION (pop. over 250,000), but in the same fiscal year we have enough money to earmark $22.4 million for a waterfront marina? Does that shit sound right to you? Me neither. I think the letter writing transplant was on to something.

It is true that this last election cycle replaced the mayor & several city council members, so it’s best not to jump the gun & assume the worse of them before they’re given a chance to fuck up. After all, these aren’t the dudes that gave Neil Diamond a million big ones to play at our arena & they aren’t the ones that stripped the Charter Way Renovation Project to fund the Downtown Revitalization effort & they aren’t the dingbats that sold waterfront land (site of the new Lexington Hotel) for a $1… you get the point.

My advice when it comes to the Powers That Be is to avoid buying into the bullshit they’re trying to sell you. Remember that Stockton has one of the highest sales tax rates in the state, that the city rapes local businesses on licensing fees & taxes, and that all the monies they collect are intended to fund the common good. If Stockton can fund a marina that most of us will never be able to use & we can kick down for yet another real estate development when most of the homes already built stand empty, don’t you think it’s about time our elected officials applied some financial aid to our wounded economy? Shouldn’t they at least pretend to fix our 13% unemployment rate? Or at least spruce up the shelter a little (since us broke fucks are headed in that direction soon enough)? You can ask the Budget Committee questions like these or get updates on the next meeting HERE. Power to the People, Bitches.

 

CHAPTER THREE: WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE SPD? (or Stop! Or Our Cops Will Shoot!)

Anyone that lives here will tell you that our Boys In Blue don’t fuck around. They will shoot you. If the Stockton Police Department offers any explanation for gunning down a citizen, it will be a short victim-blaming statement (issued by Officer Pete Smith), repeated without question in the local paper, and then the issue will be dropped. End of story. For whatever reason, the SPD is granted the authority to play Judge, Jury, and Executioner as they see fit. Don’t get me wrong, I understand how dangerous this town is (I live here, after all) & I know that extreme situations may lead to justifiable homicide committed by a police officer (like the recent situation where that dude stabbed a judge & was promptly gunned down. What the hell was he thinking?) BUT Stockton’s cops are out of fucking control! Latest examples:

March 10, 2009: Police gun down a 60 year old man in a pick-up at 12th Street & Tiffany. According to SPD, the truck displayed lost or stolen license plates & when they attempted to pull it over, a three-minute high speed chase ensued. All four officers that were pursuing the vehicle got out of their cars, anticipating the perp’s escape, but the truck flipped a bitch & headed toward the officers. Two cops started unloading on the truck & it crashed into a police cruiser. The cops attempted first aid, but Dude was pronounced dead at the hospital.

December 10, 2008: Police shoot & kill 30-year old Melecio Arquines at his South Stockton home on Sutter Street. According to the deceased’s family lawyer, Arquines & his wife were woke up by noises outside their home at 2 am. Arquines grabbed his gun & went to investigate, only to be gunned down at his screen door by officers attempting to arrest a 16 year old that had ran onto his lawn. The cops then questioned his grieving widow at the station for hours, prompting the woman to initiate legal action against the department. Look how the local news media handles this one…

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

As a general rule, y’all, the police are not your friends ‘round here. Especially if you are African-American. Even my skinny white ass got knocked around by a law enforcement duo. I wasn’t charged with anything, but was detained for the evening & I think I got off light! Don’t play with these trigger-happy police. Seriously.

Most aggravating about SPD’s brutal attitude towards Stocktonians is that this kind of shit doesn’t ease the violent crime problem plaguing our community. When the citizenry doesn’t trust law enforcement, how can the city expect to effectively tackle the crime problem? Most of us see the SPD as just another source of Stockton’s violence; no better than the North Side Gangster Crips or the thugs out by Louis Park. That can’t be helping the situation.

 

(To be continued…)

Stockton, California: Someplace Special (Indeed!)

It’s been awhile since I last spoke on the ridiculousness of my hometown, but don’t assume this means the topic is no longer among my favorites. In fact, it seems that Stock-town’s odd inner workings grow in their importance to me as the days go by. Like increasing concern about a festering boil, the state of my city demands more and more of my attention the longer I am exposed to it. What a weird, fucked up, and undeniably twisted place this is! The blatantly corrupt politics, the trigger-happy & inept police force, the myriad of seemingly unstoppable violent street gangs, our disgustingly polluted air & water, our local news media that can only be described as ‘fucking retarded’ (maybe ‘asleep at the wheel’, if I want to be nice about it), embarrassingly low literacy & high school graduation rates, shockingly high foreclosure figures and unemployment levels, fiercely segregated neighborhoods & an economically divided populace… Yes, there is something to bitch about for everyone, no matter what your interests may be! I don’t give a shit what the public relations team at City Hall says about our pessimistic attitudes being the source of Stockton’s woes. As I see it, our collective cynicism is the only sign that the whole damned city isn’t fucking crazy. At least we know shit is bad.

For all those Readers out there in Internet Land that have not had the misfortune of living ‘round here, let me give you a brief run down on my hometown. For those of you already aware of the hell hole I speak of, can I get an “Amen”? We’ll call my civic training manual…

STOCKTON: A SURVIVAL GUIDE 

 

CHAPTER ONE: WHO THE FUCK ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE? (or Diversity for Dipshits)

What a waste of a melting pot. Stockton has always been home to various flavors of folk with different ethnicities, religions, cultures, and backgrounds but, for whatever reason, it has never accepted this fact. Everyone here acts like invading hordes of outsiders are constantly threatening our Way of Life forgetting, of course, that our Way has always been more of a multi-lane highway than a one way street. Those folks that feel the need to defend Stockton by constantly pointing out it’s positive attributes always cite our diversity as our biggest asset, but dollars-to-donuts these folks socialize in groups of like minded people with similar skin tones and they car pool with their neighbors to church on Sunday. Sure we have the Japanese Obon Bazaar, the Greek Food Festival, a Chinese New Year parade, the Jewish Food Fair, and a slew of other ethnic or religious celebrations open to the public throughout the year, but all that proves is Stocktonians like to eat all kinds of food. We do not judge a chef by the color of his skin, only by the content of his cuisine.

As far as us residents are concerned, there are two kinds of people in Stockton; those from Here and those from Somewhere Else. It’s not like us Lifelong Residents dislike the newcomers or anything; it’s just easy to identify who is who. Newbies don’t understand the very real crime threat; they’re either too scared or oblivious to the fact that they should be scared. My advice? Find yourself a buddy that knows the lay of the land before you go traipsing about town, smiling & waving at folks. That kind of friendly behavior freaks us natives out. Or it can get you jacked. No joke. Stocktonians aren’t friendly folk. We further divide ourselves along economic lines: The Haves vs. The Never Had Shit. The homeowners vs. the terminal renters. Thanks to the real estate crash, we lower class individuals without property now make up an overwhelming majority but Spanos & Co. still wear the pants in these parts, since the President, the Governor, Congressmen, & other people with power have yet to swing by mi casa for lunch & lively political debate. Until then, I doubt any type of populist revolution will spring from our community’s financial dire straits. It’s still Us vs. Them (p.s. we’re losing, dudes).

Stockton was the first California city with a moniker that isn’t of Spanish or Native American origin, having been named after Commodore Robert F. Stockton, a guy noted for participating in the “capture” of California during the Mexican-American War. “Capture” can also be read as “underhanded jack-move”, depending on where you get your history. I think this inappropriate christening of the city after an Anglo uninvolved with it’s founding or settling, proves how at odds this place has always been with the reality of its racial make up. As if there were ever a white majority in Stockton! The first settlers were gold miners from all corners of the globe, so ever since Day One (Uno?) this place has been home to all kinds of humans; from Mexicans to Russians, Chinese to Filipinos, black, white, Christian to Sikh, and almost any other motherfuckers you can think of. Never the less, black people tend to live on the North & South ends of town, gangs out West are primarily white & Mexican, and nobody really bothers to interact with the Southeast Asian communities among us (unless you are getting your nails done, that is).

To summarize: We are a diverse community, but nobody here gives a fuck… unless you’ve got food.

 

(TO BE CONTINUED…)

Anal Asshole

There is this dude (or dudette… maybe?) that resides in my hometown of Stockton, California & he is politically, spiritually, and unequivocally opposed to homosexual behavior. Gay marriage, anal sex, and equal adoption policies drive this fella up the wall. I know this because he hand-paints crude and explicit statements expressing his beliefs, then rolls about town with the sign affixed to the back of his truck (complete with American flags, swaying in the breeze). His exercise of free speech is not the Yes on 8! variety of homophobic baloney. It’s obviously-closeted self-hate kind of explicit crap that serves no public interest other than exhibiting how fucking ridiculous people can be. The Sign Guy is a part of the Central Stockton scenery and has been for sometime, because I’ve been aware of his antics for several years now. His Constitutional right to spew his hatefully creepy anti-gay propaganda via truck bed is protected & I respect that. Along the same vein, so is my right to discuss his public displays of homophobic hate speech and mock the ridiculousness of this Anal Asshole’s mindset. Welcome to the first installment of Anal Asshole: Ignorance in Motion.

Picture taken by Ms. sherockmarie (of Cousin fame). Investigative work brought to you by maryjanefoxie & Co. Enterprises.

 

Let us consider the arguments that Anal Asshole brings to the table:

1. Anal – homosex is being taught to children.

2. This is shocking enough to warrant a “Wow” qualifier.

3. That the “Younger & Baby And You” need to be protected from the horrors of Anal –Homosex being taught to children.

4. This sentiment is reflected in the Holy Bible (“the holy fucking bible, Son!”) in Matthew 18:6.

Things that make you go “For reals, dude? You’re, like, serious & shit?”. Just to clarify, Matthew 18:6 reads

“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.” (King James Version)

This biblical passage is, according to some, about the physical or sexual abuse of children & how a person that harms the “little ones” is better off dead. Considering this understanding…

5. Anal Asshole thinks that the Anal – homosex threat is harmful to the “little ones” & ought to be punished by death, if possible.

 

I wonder if A.A. read the rest of the gospel of Matthew, or the Bible for that matter. I am a casual observer of the Christian faith and I’m pretty sure that I Anal – homosex isn’t a big theme of the Good Book, what with Forgiveness, Love, and Christ-like behavior being higher on the list of biblical To-Do’s. I’m going to take it a step further with my assumptions and suggest that A.A. has little understanding of how the educational system works in the state of California, since I am clueless as to when he thinks we teach anal –homosex technique to minors (is that what the boys do in the other room during elementary school sex education? We learned about tampons & they got pointers on fucking? What a jip!). Anal Asshole reminds me of these guys…

Or this guy…

I open the subject of Stockton’s Own Anal Asshole: What do you think? Spotted him around town lately? Send me a picture of his latest sign or leave some PFLAG flyers in his truck bed if ever you’re in his Eden Park neighborhood. 

UPDATE: No sign observed tonight. Maybe tonight is his brainstorming evening, devoted to making up his next bigoted bullshit line & painting the new sign. Write that down.

The Race to be Supreme Ruler of Crapsville

Why aren’t folks talking about Stockton, California’s upcoming mayoral race? Not even our local newspaper has said jack about Ann Johnston vs. Clem Lee since at least June! WTF? Never fear, Stockton, your bitchy neighborhood feminist is back with a little political punditry for the masses!

Before we even get to talking about the candidates for Top Dog of City Hall, let’s establish a few major concerns that the next mayor should be expected to address. I am sure you will agree to their importance.

1. Jobs. We need jobs. Real jobs. Our young men all suffer from the same I Want To Be A Drug Dealer fantasy until their early twenties because it is honestly the most viable option for financial stability ‘round here! Shit is so bad on the legit employment front, that when local boys fill out job applications they list hustlin’ as a relevant skill, The School of Hard Knocks as educational background, and “Pimpin’ ain't easy” as a reason for leaving their previous employment. We don’t need another fast food joint that will employ eleven or twelve residents part-time on minimum wage or another addition to the corporate restaurant boulevard along Pacific Avenue that will do the same. We need real industry, real employment prospects, and a real living wage!

2. Crime. I don’t buy the Party Line that more police officers & a bigger jail facility will solve the problem. Shit, I’m more afraid of SPD than any of the gang bangers I’ve come across and I have no idea how a bigger jail is supposed to deter criminal behavior. We need to restore the public’s faith in our law enforcement personnel and, honestly, I’m not sure what could get me to re-think my attitudes towards our Boys in Blue. They gun down residents without repercussions (or even adequate explanations) so often that any native Stocktonian would agree that “SPD don’t fuck around”. They show up twenty deep to house parties, are always timely when a noise disturbance is reported, and have been known to kick asses from Louis Park to Oakie-ville without batting an eyelash. Stockton has a violent crime problem and it is not entirely due to gang activity. After all, poverty and high crime rates are the Siamese twins of public policy; where there is one, there is inevitably the other & separation of the two issues is damned near impossible! We need to start looking at our crime problem with honest eyes and develop rational strategies to combat it, instead of behaving like having California’s highest violent crime rate is an unavoidable phenomena that is out of our hands.

3. The Budget Has to Serve the NEEDS of the Community! I think it’s cool that Downtown doesn’t look like Skid Row anymore and I’ve enjoyed my fair share of hockey & soccer games at the Arena, but I can’t justify the exorbitant costs of Downtown Revitalization being covered at the expense of our libraries, our social services, and our environmental responsibilities! City Council has thrown our money around and made piss-poor investments whenever possible; it’s like an alcoholic transient in pee-stained clothes living under the freeway in a cardboard box…but his box is decked out with a Wii and surround sound speakers. Seems like there are some major essentials being looked over, y’know? We need to fund our emergency shelters and low-income assistance programs, so that they can serve as stepping stones to a more stable future for city residents. We need to reward locally-based entrepreneurs for giving the city it’s rare glimpses of culture (where is the subsidy package for Stockton Joe’s? Or the TOB? Xochimilco’s?)! Our hometown businesses deserve to be propped up by the City, rather than beaten down by the current hostile permit & taxation policies that ensure only the Strongest Corporate Entities survive. We need low-income health options besides the County Hospital’s emergency room! We need to remember how broke most of us are & allocate funds accordingly. Our city coffers need to be at the disposal of Stockton’s residents, not it’s (Favorite Son) investors.

4. Address the Environmental Disaster that is the Valley! The air tastes terrible (go out of town for a few days & when you come home, you’ll know exactly what I mean). The water quality is pretty fucking scary (Arsenic! Selenium! Uranium! And enough Copper to line our intestines for decades to come!). The Delta’s eco-system is on it’s last legs, but it’s death rattle is virtually ignored. Huge sections of the world’s best farm land continue to be gobbled up by the Axis of Assholes (Spanos, Grupe, the Stone Brothers), then regurgitated along the city’s boarders as shitty housing developments that no one here can afford and no one else wants. We can fix our troubled streets, our economic crisis, and our community safety net, but if our environment remains a secondary concern, none of it will matter. If given a choice, who would want to live in a place with air that tastes like week old cigarette butts on it’s best days?

5. Knock Some Smarts into Us! Please? If we are going to spend money, we really outta’ allocate a good chunk of change to improve literacy in these parts. Proof that our local governing body gives a shit less about the illiteracy rates of this sad city is the damned coffee shop some idiot installed in the Adult non-fiction section of the Chavez Central Library. WTF? Of all the stupid places to stick a cafe… Now kids run ramped through the historical biographies like it’s a McDonald’s fucking Playland, while Mommy or Daddy enjoys a leisurely latte at a table next to the new release periodicals & I pull the hair out of my scalp strand by strand in an effort to refrain from throttling the little bastards. No joke.

Before I lose it & hop on the first Amtrak outta’ here, I’d better shift my focus to the candidates and their platforms. This way I can pump a little optimism into my thoughts for the city’s future or, at least, have an actual person to direct my anger at!

Ann Johnston has my vote (at this point) because she’s not currently a member of the Worst Case Scenario City Council. On her website she names her top Mayoral goals as:

* ridding the city of criminal activity, gangs, and neighborhood blight 

* finishing the downtown/waterfront redevelopment

* bringing in new business with high paying jobs and good benefits

Ridding the city of criminal behavior seems like quite a lofty goal, but I like the Can-Do Attitude she has with regards to the crime issue. She lists some strategic ideas for kickin’ crime in the tail, such as: enforcing truancy & curfew laws, creating Neighborhood Councils, and holding police District Commanders accountable for the crime rates of their districts (which is a fucking brilliant idea! Imagine that! Police Accountability! In Stockton!). She also suggests building relationships between schools and the business community,which I found to be a very fresh & interesting idea. “Smart Growth” is another aspect of Johnston’s platform that I can get behind wholeheartedly (see #4, listed above).

When assessing a candidate for political office, one of the smartest things you can do is peep their endorsements. Knowing who is backing their bid for power can tell you a lot about their motives & true intentions. Johnston’s long list of supporters (from her website, once again) doesn’t give me any cause for alarm. The local Teamsters, Operating Engineers, Longshoreman, City Employee, and Plumber’s Unions are all on her side. The Campaign for Common Ground (a local environ-friendly organization), The Sierra Club (the local chapter of the national environ-goodies), Planned Parenthood Mar Monte (saintly people), SJ & Calaveras County’s labor councils, and The Central Valley Stonewall Democratic Club (local lefties representing the LGBT community) are also on board with Ann. The feminist and the gay endorsement? Sounds like my kinda’ lady.

Opposing Johnston in November’s election, is current City Councilman Clem Lee. Full Disclosure: My sister & I both voted for him at least once, based entirely on his name recognition. Now, I see the error of my ways! Right off, Clem Lee’s website annoyed the shit out of me. The homepage is littered with that gossipy negative campaigning bullshit that sours me on political discussion (my opponent did such-and-such, so I deserve your vote! Whaaaaa…Cry baby bullshit). His biography reminds us of his life-long residency (which makes me wonder how he has been so blind to Stockton’s best interests while on the Council. I’m half his age & can’t help but see the shit) and proves his heterosexuality by bringing up his 17 year marriage and 14 year old offspring. No pictures though. No platform information either. Nothing but some garbage vague statement about raising Stockton to new heights based on a vision, or some shit. Lee should probably cruise by Johnston’s site & see how it’s done. Johnston is even rockin’ a MySpace, while Clem Lee’s homepage hasn’t even been updated since May! However are we expected to make an informed decision in such an important political contest, if Lee doesn’t bother to let us know WHY we should give him our vote? I guess he’s banking on that whole name recognition strategy panning out again. The McCormick Girls won’t fall for that shit this time!

I am totally 26-0

I have spent every one of my twenty-six years in the same sad shit-hole of a town and, hopefully, that doesn’t officially make me a sad shit-hole of a person (ew…that sounds really dirty & unpleasant). A departing comrade clowned me on this fact recently, as if I wasn’t already aware of the sucky-ness factor of my living situation! For those of you not in the know about just how much Stockton, California blows, allow me to present the following bits of regional current events:

* Currently, Stocktonians “benefit” from a $15,405 per capita income, with 18.9% of families and 23.9% of the population living beneath the poverty line. A Forbes Magazine review noted our soaring crime rate (6,570 crimes per 100,000 residents, the highest in California!) and a Central Connecticut State University study twice ranked us as the most illiterate U.S. city with a population over 250,000. The crash of the sub-prime lending market that began last year slammed Stockton like no other city in the nation, leaving one out of every 30 homes in foreclosure. CNN cited Stockton as the city expected to see the greatest decline in home values in the U.S. We have been named in Forbes most recent Worst Place to Live list, coming in second to Detroit. With all these glaring issues, you’d think the local government would be a bit concerned, right?

* Despite the above mentioned notoriety, our City Council has thrown Stockton’s sparse funds into the following cosmetic projects: there was The Stockton Arena to the tune of $69 million in construction costs and $4.8 million in additional losses since it opened, which does not include the $2.7 million in interest the city had to pay on the bond used to build the mother f**ker; the Port’s home @ Banner Island Ballpark cost $22 million to build and has lost another million since ‘06; we gave $2.5 million to lure Sacramento-based Paragary’s Restaurant to the Hotel Stockton, without any rent being charged to them until 2012; we tossed $500,000 in subsidies to the Sheraton Hotel after selling the land it was built on for a whole dollar; and the City just bought the Washington Mutual building for $30 million so that City Hall can be relocated there. Oh! We cannot forget the infamous Neal Diamond concert that netted The Jazz Singer a cool $1 million from the city coffers. Now, the folks at City Hall are doling out $26.5 million to build a downtown marina for the elite Stockton boating community. By the looks of things, Stockton must be rollin’ in the dough!

* Unfortunately, that is not the case according to the approved 2008-09 budget. Our “great” All American city has slashed $10 million from it’s budget; a little over a million from the library’s book & materials funds, $2 million from the Parks & Recreation funds, $2 million from the Safe Neighborhoods Measure W funding, almost $2 million from housing grants and emergency shelter funding… You get the point, don’t you? High crime, high poverty, low literacy, high unemployment, and a shit load of cuts for all our sorely needed public services in exchange for a multi-million dollar downtown full of amenities that most Stocktonians’ will never be able to use. Wow. If you wanted to learn about political corruption or terrible public policy, Stockton is the place to be! If your not entertained by living in a crime-riddled, economically stagnant, Real Estate developer’s playground where the air tastes worse than the water & the average resident is dumber than a box of rocks, I wouldn’t advise you to move here.

A Guide to Surviving the Rental Experience (or Renting for Dummies)

On three separate occasions in the last month, I’ve had conversations with friends about the pitfalls of renting a living space. Since it seems to be such a hot topic within my circle of buddies, I figure there must be many more enquiring minds or newbie renters that could do with a little advice on the issue. Then I started thinking how much knowledge I’ve accumulated on the subjects of tenant law, roommate disputes, lease agreements, house hunting, and moving in general. I’m up on game, to say the least.

I sort of consider myself a connoisseur of Stockton’s rental units. If there was a degree program for Professional Renter, I’d have at least a Master’s. I’ve lived in plenty rental homes as a tenant, a sub-leasing tenant, and a temporary couch surfer. I’ve lived in apartments, houses, duplexes, triplexes, attics, bedrooms, closets, and condos. Some where tiny spaces, others were expansive abodes. In some cases the monthly rent was a steal and other times it was inflated. I’ve rented from property management companies, from private owners, from friends, from tenants willing to break their own lease to rent to me, and from corporate controlled apartment complexes. I’ve had nearly every possible combination of living arrangements; from my current solo existence to an out of control tweeker pad with god knows how many other people during my lost years, from living with my sibling to living with a significant other, and I’ve moved in with complete strangers, casual acquaintances, and best friends. My roommates have been a mixed bag of characters: a crazy middle-aged karate instructor/Gulf War veteran (AKA Karate Rock) that rented me a room, the newly outed super-flaming gay guy that shared a couple of residences with me, the irritable lesbian with a vicious bark and no bite in my first apartment, and the raging alcoholic boyfriend with a penchant for destroying furniture and fixtures during drunken fits. I’ve lived with first time renters, under-aged high school students, hippy retirees, clandestine lovers, and quasi-relatives. I’ve been burned by roomies, neighbors, and landlords enough to have learned some painful lessons, but I’ve also benefited from living with some of my former roommates. Yes, mine is quite an extensive renter “resume” because I’ve never renewed a lease agreement (or even wanted to). Anyhow, here are a few pieces of advice from me to you, as an expert.

• Whenever you have a roommate, you should draft up a Roommate Contract & Agreement. ANY ROOMMATE. Even if it’s your boyfriend, even if it’s your best friend from childhood, even if the person is “hella cool” and you guys “get along really well”, even if you are the one moving into the home they already live in. Even if you never have to use the contract against your roomie in a court of law, the document serves a very valid purpose. All the headaches that come with communal living are put on the table up front, so miscommunication and the accompanying conflicts are greatly reduced. I’m not advocating the use of a contract to enforce a fascist dictatorship of your home; it’s just a mutually agreed upon Way of Doing Things. If nothing else, writing up the contract with your co-tenants puts everybody on the same page as far as how y’all want to live. You’d be surprised how many of the things you see as common courtesy or essential upkeep are entirely foreign to others! It’s better to be up on game about your roommates pet peeves or annoyances up front, rather than discovering he/she is a neat freak or nark months down the road when he/she flips the fuck out and/or flushes your stash. Such a document should include the terms of paying rent (how much, when, repercussions for late rent or bounced checks, etc.), the expected length of the living arrangement, what utilities exist & who’s responsible for them, and ABOVE ALL the agreement must clarify what happens when it comes to moving out. The last part is crucial! How long should their notice be? Do they forfeit their security deposit if they bounce out on you early? Are their certain activities or behaviors that could lead to a roommate’s eviction? Optional sections of the agreement can divvy up housework, stipulate the rules about guests, address noise curfews or studying/sleeping schedules, and establish a smoking policy. Trust me, a Roommate Contract is totally necessary.
• Familiarize yourself with your rights as a tenant and the responsibilities of your landlord. Remember that there are laws to protect you from oppressive or shitty landlords & living conditions, just as there are laws to protect their investment from you.
• The amount of your security deposit cannot exceed the monthly rent, unless an additional pet deposit is required. When you move in, a landlord can charge you a security deposit OR last months rent – not both! If the landlord intends on keeping any of your deposit when you move out, you can request a detailed accounting of what they are keeping it for. They are required to present you with receipts (or copies) and detailed time sheets or fee statements if they employ someone to make repairs, if you request it. If the landlord fails to give you this documentation within 30 days of your request, they forfeit their right to the deposit money & it must be returned to you in full according to California state law.
• Any correspondence with your landlord should be written whenever possible & you need to retain a copy for your records. If you need repairs made, you can call them BUT also send a dated letter. If you have a complaint, you can talk to them BUT also send a dated letter. Trust me.
• When looking for a place, put the time and effort in to evaluate your options whenever possible. A little searching can pay off big time and a hasty move can land you in a shitty over-priced place that you despise.
• Plenty of corny kitchen decorations and Lifetime movies have told us that home is where the heart is. This is true, but let’s not forget it is also where all your worldly possessions are too! Keep that in mind when picking a neighborhood, a roommate, or a lock for your bedroom door. If you have a lot of pricey shit, get renter’s insurance. If your thrift store / hand-me-down chic like me, just remember to lock your doors/windows and be mindful of the company you keep inside your castle.
• Get to know your neighbors. It is terribly annoying when neighbors routinely call the cops on you for being loud or having a party or because they’re fucking crazy, so open up a dialogue ASAP. Besides, it’s nice to have someone looking out for you in da ‘hood.

Valley folk handle the business!

As you may have guessed, I totally appreciate grassroots activism and rebellion. I do not appreciate my local government’s ignorance to the community’s well-being, so when people from ‘round these parts go up against the powers that be I am in hog heaven! Some recent examples of regional muckraking are as follows:

• Books Not Bars, an activist group dedicated to the demise of California’s Division of Juvenile Justice, rallied outside the site of the former DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility in Stockton on Thursday. The group of protesters were turned away from the facility’s main gates by correctional workers, but they continued the rally directly across the street in a field. Books Not Bars advocates youth rehabilitation, as opposed to the current system of incarceration. I am in full agreement. It seems awfully fucked up that juvenile offenders are locked up in our already bloated prison system when unemployment rates, homelessness, inadequate educational systems, and poverty have more than a little to do with their criminal activity at such a young age. If they aren’t old enough to vote, to drink, to give consent, then I don’t think they are old enough to serve hard time.
• Union employees gathered outside the Stockton Caltrans building on Thursday to protest Governor Schwarzenegger's executive order to slash their pay to the federal minimum wage ($6.55/ hour). The idea behind the Gobonator’s order is that pay cuts (& elimination of scores of part-time positions) would save the state $1 billion and ease the financial difficulties (a $15.2 billion deficit, to be specific) projected in the upcoming fiscal year. Unfortunately, I doubt Arnold took into consideration the cost of living in California. Nobody can survive on $6.55 here, that’s why our minimum wage is $8.00/hour. Why not freeze the pay of elected officials & state judges (who are usually upper-middle class folk that can manage on a temporary wage cut)? Or repeal the retarded block on taxation increases brought on by Proposition 13? Of course, the state wouldn’t be entirely fucked if it just carried the deficit into the next few years, but Arnold’s up for re-election & that type of financial crisis isn’t good for his image, I suppose. Never the less, state workers do not deserve to carry the financial faux pas of Sacramento’s politicians on their backs.
• The California Black-Brown Summit on Re-Entry and Recidivism starts tomorrow in Stockton and will address the fact that black and Hispanic prisoners make up 67% of California’s prison population. Workshops will focus on education, housing, gangs, and employment. Groups such as Homeward Bound (executioners of a prisoner re-entry program), the NAACP, and the League of United Latin American Citizens organized the two-day event at UOP’s Grace Covell Hall. Here’s to citizens actively addressing crime and interracial cooperation in the San Joaquin Valley! Good work, y’all.

Haven’t they heard the phrase “Shit rolls downhill”?

                       

Here’s the problem I’m having with the media’s coverage of our state’s financial woes: California has one of the lowest home ownership rates in the nation & has been criticized for years because a huge cross section of it’s population is doomed to permanently rent their homes. So, when the talking heads on my late night news shows discuss the foreclosure crisis (which has slammed Stockton, CA harder than any other city nationwide with 1 out of every 75 homes being foreclosed on in the month of May 2008), why aren’t they talking about how it is affecting us renters? Kitty-corner from my apartment, a four unit apartment building has just been foreclosed on & the people living there are pretty much up shit creek sans paddle. The property owner is obviously strapped for cash, so I doubt the four families will see their security deposits anytime soon, and the bank that has assumed ownership of the property has kicked out the renters but doesn’t owe them any thirty day notice or financial compensation for their loss, even though none of them are at fault for their eviction. Disposed renters are given only 72 hours to vacate their homes and then they face the task of finding a new rental unit, not to mention coming up with another first month’s rent and security deposit. What are these people supposed to do? They were already renting a low-income apartment, so I doubt that any of them are wealthy enough to up and move at the drop of a hat. What are we, as a community, doing for these people? AND WHY does the mainstream media act like the only people facing economic troubles related to the foreclosure crisis are those folks that defaulted on their loans? What about the renters? People that have been paying their rent, people that have abided by the tenants of their leases, people on Section 8, people already in dire financial straits because of rising gas and food costs, people that don’t have the credit or income necessary to get a fucking loan in the first place are being evicted left & right. Many of these people don’t know that their homes are in the foreclosure process, since the property owner is not required to relinquish this information to their tenants, and then one day…*POOF*… their rights to their place of residence are gone because foreclosing lenders typically evict tenants in order to re-sell the property. Someone that looses the house they bought & live in to foreclosure can rent another house. They already make enough money to qualify for a home loan, so they have the cash needed to rent & property managers don’t give a damn about that aspect of your credit, so they won’t have trouble getting a spot. Renters thrown out because their landlord defaulted on a loan are not in a similar financially secure position. So what if you’ll have trouble getting another home loan ‘cause your credit is fucked? Those renters are having trouble getting another roof over their heads because someone else fucked up! Now that is a situation that deserves some hard-hitting journalistic attention! I’ve scoured the Internet in search of articles, segments, or op-eds on the subject, but it’s slim pickings.

Approximately 1/3 of Americans rent their homes and in California that figure shoots up to 42%. The available evidence suggests that the majority of foreclosed properties are likely to be rentals (or multi-unit dwellings, like duplexes or triplexes), since a property owner isn’t likely to default on their own home loan before the loan they have out on their rental properties.** Estimates for how many renters are being royally screwed by the crisis are inaccurate and incomplete at this point. Experts warn that the current data grossly underestimates the numbers of disposed renters. What figures we do have suggest that as of 2007, 22% of defaulted mortgages in California were on rental properties. In other words, at least 1/4 of the homes lost are those of people that have no part in the whole loan-situation to begin with! And you know that plenty of rentals house more than one tenant (apartment buildings & multi-unit houses, for example), so counting the number of foreclosed rentals doesn’t even begin to show us how many people are being screwed over. Worse still, all those former homeowners are now joining the ranks of the renting class and, according to the laws of supply and demand, are driving up the cost of renting for everybody. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show a 14% jump in the nation’s median asking rate for rentals since 2003 and California is famous for it’s inflated rental rates, so you know it’s worse around here! Woe is the West Coast renter, I suppose.

On July 8th, Governor Swart..z… the fucking Gubernator signed into law Senate Bill 1137, the so-called Perata/Bass Mortgage Relief Bill, which requires tenants to be notified once a bill of sale is issued on the property and, once sold, tenants now have 60 days notice before their eviction…BUT only if the defaulted loan was taken out between January 2003 and December 2007. Now, these innocent parties have two months to pull a shit load of money out of their asses, find a new place in an increasingly cramped rental market, AND prepare to pay more rent each month to boot! Good looking out, California!

Here are a couple Stockton-specific annoyances this subject has planted in my head:

1. Why does the city General Plan include a few more Spanos & Grupe housing developments between now & 2013 if we can’t afford the homes we’ve built thus far? Why are we OK-ing more single family home development if predictions suggest the need for more multi-unit rentals? Shouldn’t a General Plan consider this type of shit? Isn’t that why we make a fucking General Plan? To generally plan for the future’s needs?

2. Why is The Record ignoring the foreclosure crisis as it relates to us renters? Aren’t the editors aware of the fact that many Stocktonians rent? Don’t they have a duty, as our main news outlet, to inform the citizenry of regional disaster like this, rather than use any article on the subject to paint faux-silver linings all over the fucking place? How about giving renters a heads up, in case they didn’t know they should be worried?

3. Where is the federal bailout for the poor victims of this crisis, like Stockton’s needy masses? How does Washington justify multi-million dollar bank bailouts for lenders that profited from the mortgage refinancing schemes and sub-prime loans that caused the crisis, when innocent displaced Stocktonians are too broke to cough up the cash for their security deposits? Why aren’t our tax dollars being used to protect us from poverty? From homelessness? From predatory financial entities bent on profit at any cost?

 

** Also, this assumption was stolen from a 2008 report issued by the  National Low-Income Housing Coalition, located HERE.

Big Picture Darwinism comes to Stockton…and it’s not here for a Spanos fund raiser!

                           

I have a T-Shirt that reads: Think Global, Act Local. I fully stand behind this message. It’s important that we think about things, like pollution or political corruption, in terms of their global effects because seeing The Big Picture reinforces the importance of issues. The only way any one person can change things on this planet is by doing their little part in their little corner of the world, by acting locally. I like to think that I try my best to Think Global and Act Local, but sometimes I feel alone in my efforts… especially here in Stockton, CA. So many Stocktonians are apathetic, unconcerned, or just convinced that the city is doomed to be Fucked for eternity. Doesn’t every native to the city dream of the day they can escape? Isn’t “Stockton sucks” our unofficial regional motto?

I have noticed that more & more of my fellow Mudville residents have been turning away from that kind of negative civic attitude in the last few years. A diverse music scene has developed because local musicians, promoters, and business owners have been doing their part to bring about change. While the economy is still dismal, small business owners in the area have done their part to improve the situation by banding together in merchant’s organizations like the Downtown Stockton Alliance or the Miracle Mile Improvement Association. Business coalitions like these are support networks and advocacy groups for Stockton’s small business owners, which is necessary in a city as hostile to entrepreneurship as this one. Citizens have been organizing senior-assistance meal programs, hosting teen leadership summits, and holding fund raisers to improve their neighborhood parks. Four years ago, I would have laughed at any asshole that preached about Stockton’s potential or suggested that local citizens were willing to work towards improvement. Now, I’m convinced that Stockton’s evolution will be brought about by the efforts of People Like You & Me. That kicks ass!

The most recent example of Stocktonians handling the mother f***ing business was reported in Tuesday’s Record under the headline Groups plan suit against Stockton. According to the paper, The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta and The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance have both decided to go head-to-head with the City of Stockton and San Joaquin County in two separate suits that cry foul on the way local government has been disposing of storm run-off and sewage. The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta is composed of South valley farmers & residents suing the city for allowing heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides to escape through storm drains and into the fragile Delta eco-system. The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance is beefing with the local government over claims that the city’s miles of sewer lines have overflown 1,487 times in the past five years. The waste usually ends up in the Delta’s waters, as do the pollutants from our wastewater treatment plant, & the Alliance is mighty pissed about what this does to the water quality.

Anyone that has ever drank Stockton’s tap water…or anyone that has spent an afternoon boating on the Delta, but were too grossed out to actually get in the water…or anyone that has heard urban legends about mutated Delta fish with arms & legs and didn’t doubt the authenticity of such tales… will agree that there is a problem & something has to be done to solve our water-related woes. We should all appreciate those hometown heroes doing their part to improve their little section of the planet & be inspired by their efforts. Visit the websites linked below for more information about the law suits, about the Delta, and about the water pollution that should concern us all.

The Coalition for a Sustainable Delta

The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance

Final thought courtesy of the groundbreaking anthropologist Margaret Mead:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Proof! See! I’m not crazy!

Most folks listen to my conspiracy theories regarding the City of Stockton, it’s beloved developers, and the complacent local media just to be kind. They nod their heads, offer half-hearted agreements, & their internal monologue goes something like this: “What the fuck is this bitch talking about? Did she skip her meds today?”. Fortunately, I am undaunted by the skepticism of others; I have plenty of my own, Thank you very much! Anyhow, all y’all nay-sayers (or nay-thinkers) can’t possibly deny the blatant example of my Stock-town conspiracy perched on the front page of today’s paper. The headline read: Brown puts pressure on Stockton. According to The Record, the city’s General Plan is being attacked by leftist-tree huggers backed by the state Attorney General Jerry Brown. The tone of the article suggests that Brown is involving himself in issues that do not concern him and is probably motivated by his own political ambitions (Governor in 2010!). I planned on relaying The Record’s retarded opinion sarcastically, but those two sentences annoyed me enough. Here’s the deal: Stockton, like other cities of similar size, has developed a General Plan (The Record calls it “landmark”, just like they called the stadium downtown a “can’t lose situation for the city of Stockton”). Our General Plan conveniently falls in line with the business plans of A.G. Spanos and Grupe; it allows previous zoning regulations to be disregarded so that these cocksuckers can erect more housing developments on the edges of town (houses that Stocktonians can’t afford, that the current infrastructure can’t support, and that the local community cannot possibly benefit from). The Sierra Club and the Morada Area Association (residents of the eastern edge of SJ County) sued the city, charging that the Plan was environmentally hazardous, detrimental to the community, and just plain sucky. These concerns should have been taken seriously by City Council, by the mayor, by the local news media, by the citizenry since our air & water quality is atrocious. We’ve been cited by the State plenty of times for our ham-handed approach to the Valley’s environment & any resident will attest to the nasty taste of our air. Still, the local government and it’s subordinate media arm present the law suit as an annoyance, not an actual concern. Attorney General Jerry Brown is considering intervening in the law suit to force Stockton to address the concerns of it’s inhabitants and abide by state laws that are clearly broken in the General Plan– y’know, doing the job we elected him to do. But, The Record clearly implies that his involvement is not wanted by the political machine running this joint, as evidenced by the following excerpts from the article:

• “It is not unusual for Brown to involve himself in local land-use policies. Since the state in 2006 enacted legislation requiring California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Brown has pressured agencies across the state to account for the impact of growth on emissions blamed for global warming.” READ: This mother-fucker is always getting in other people’s business.
• “Stockton's General Plan refers several times to the phasing of development. It also addresses global warming, having been revised to do so prior to the plan's adoption, after activists complained. The plan obligates the city to adopt policies requiring that new development reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” READ: What more do these whiny Environ-pussies want us to do? Gawd!
• “Representatives of developers A.G. Spanos Cos. and The Grupe Co. - two companies with significant interests in the General Plan - had heard Brown was interested in Stockton but said they did not know to what end.” READ: The only people that need to be concerned with the city’s General Plan are the one’s posed to make a killing on it.
• “Brown, a Democrat, is a former governor of California and mayor of Oakland and is widely considered a likely candidate for governor in 2010.” READ: So all this bullshit is just part of his political agenda!

Dudes & dudettes, read the article and try to believe the bullshit contained within. It is next to impossible.

The legacy of Baxter Dunn continues

Everyone’s favorite former Sheriff, Baxter Dunn, is up to his ridiculously slippery ways again! This time the bastard has weaseled his way into another Slap-On-The-Wrist jail sentence and another excuse laden Record article of support. Dunn’s participation in a corruption scandal a few years back earned him a mini-stay in a minimum security prison, followed by house arrest and probation. His probation status is still in effect until December. Earlier this year, Dunn rear-ended a vehicle on the highway & scored himself a D.U.I. conviction. This is a violation of his parole & Thursday’s hearing was supposed to punish him for this transgression. A federal judge sentenced him to a meager 30 day stay in a minimum security prison, even though he could have gotten up to nine months. If I was a parolee with a D.U.I., I doubt such leniency would be shown! The Record published the following excuses to ease our questioning minds, to assure the public that Dunn’s bullshit punishment is completely fair & unbalanced (italics are my comments):

• [U.S. District Judge Morrison C.] England said he chose the shorter term because Dunn showed "outstanding" behavior on federal probation since pleading guilty in 2005 following an FBI corruption probe. Drunk driving accidents aren’t really considered ‘outstanding’ actions in my book.
• England said he was disappointed to seeing Dunn again, but he called the recent arrest an "aberration." The definition of “aberration” is an instance that strays from the right or normal way, so the judge believed that acknowledging Dunn’s DUI as a parole violation was not the usual way the courts handle these cases. I’ve known plenty of parolees & he’s right. Usually, the court throws the book at them.
• Stockton attorney Albert Ellis said Dunn's health challenges also played a role in the judge's short sentence. Ellis declined to say specifically what ails Dunn, but Ellis said his client's unresolved health problems are "serious and significant." Since when do the personal issues of a convicted felon effect the sentencing? Honestly?
• Ellis said the month long sentence was adequate, considering other repercussions the drunken driving conviction have had in Dunn's life. His driver's license was suspended, so he can't operate his water truck, Dunn's new vocation. Once again, run this one past a parolee & see what they think about it.

Puke over the entire article HERE.

Some people are assholes

If you live in the Central area of Stockton, you might be familiar with the old dude that walks around the neighborhood and sells ice cream from his cart. Apparently, according to the news crew that was stationed outside my house yesterday, two dickheads rolled up on the Paleta-man & pistol-whipped him. They jacked him for his hard earned cash & sped off. The perpetrators were described as two black men, aged 20-30. If you happened to see anything that might be helpful in the quest to bust these pricks, holla' at the authorities. Next time you hear the vigilant paleta-man cruising the block, go buy a couple popscicles & help cover his losses.

Update on Stockton’s Trigger Happy Cops

As if the original articles didn’t justify the gun-welding officers actions, The Record’s follow-up piece attempted to villainize the two people shot by the SPD so that we can be sure that they deserved it. One was described as a transgendered woman with a history of mental illness and the other was identified as an increasingly agitated new-comer to the neighborhood. I hope this information has eased your concerns. Have no worries about our over-zealous police force because they only gun down the crazy, gender-bending, transplants of Stockton.

All the fluff that’s fit to print

The Record, my hometown sorry-excuse-for-a-newspaper, never ceases to annoy me. The editing staff manages to ignore issues that might actually concern local residents, while glorifying the city’s real estate developing elites, on a daily basis. Crime is reported in a manner that suggests it’s existence is some kind of unexplainable phenomenon and the direct link between poverty and violent crime statistics is rarely addressed. The upcoming mayoral election isn’t talked about in any real way – like discussion of the candidate’s platforms or whatnot. Basically, The Record serves as a cheerleader for City Hall and fosters the belief that local government should not concern any self-respecting Stocktonian. That having been said, I guess it is only appropriate to call out a few overlooked & underreported stories that caught my eye (even if Record staffers were apparently blind to them).

• Police Brutality & Excessive Force: The fact that Stockton’s police force is corrupt and overzealous is not news. Anyone that has had the misfortune of ending up on the receiving end of one of their famous ass-beatings will agree that the SPD don’t fuck around. How The Record manages to tap-dance around all the murders committed by our Boys in Blue is beyond me. They report them, yes, but the tone of the “articles” always suggests that the slayings were justified. I don’t know about you, but I’m not OK with our police force killing members of our community wily-nilly. A police officer should be more than willing to take a bullet or risk injury before their gun is drawn, much less fired. That is part of the risk involved with police work & if civilians like us are more likely to be shot than they are, we should be the ones receiving that hefty pension & benefits package! Still doubt the severity of the cop problem in Stockton? Today’s Record reported not one, but two instances of trigger-happy coppers doling out their unique brand of justice. The first shooting occurred on Sunday night inside an apartment on Dave Brubeck Way, across from the UOP campus. Officer Pete Smith, the SPD spokesman, said a “distraught” man in his mid- to late 50’s was shot by one or more officers responding to neighbor’s complaints that the victim was threatening to hurt himself. The officers engaged in “fruitless negotiations” with the man, who became noticeably “agitated and aggressive”. They were unable to subdue him using a taser, so one or two police officers felt they had “no choice but to defend themselves”. The Record mentions this shooting under the headline Man shot near Pacific, as if the story didn’t warrant a more scathing title such as “Distraught citizen gunned down by unapologetic police officers”. Seems a little ridiculous to me that cops dispatched to prevent a man from self-inflicted injury end up putting the guy in the hospital. The Record notes that the cops arrived on the scene at 7:45 PM, but it doesn’t mention the time of the shooting or when the man was admitted to the hospital which would be a vital piece of information when assessing whether or not the police spent an adequate amount of time in their “fruitless negotiations” before pumping the man full of lead, don’t you think? The second shooting also occurred on Sunday night. This time a 57-year-old man wielding a knife on South California Street was killed by police gunfire. According to The Record’s “in-depth” article on the instance, the man charged the police officers with his knife and was gunned down. Apparently, no further explanation is necessary. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see the need to shoot an almost 60-year-old man armed with a knife to death. I don’t buy it that these officers weren’t capable of disarming the perpetrator using any other methods. “Shoot first, ask questions later” isn’t an acceptable game plan in a free society.
• Correctional Institutions as Economic Blessings: The Central Valley already houses more than it’s fair share of California’s incarcerated population. In Stockton we have the DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility and the N. A. Chaderjian Youth Correctional Facility. In Tracy, there is the Deuel Vocational Institution (or DVI). Mule Creek State Prison and the Preston State Youth Correctional Facility are in Ione and the Sierra Conservation Camp is in Jamestown. There is the Folsom State Prison, directly across the street from California State Prison, Sacramento. The California Medical Facility and the Solano State Prison are just up the way in Vacaville. Even though 3 out of every 5 California prisoners are committed to prison in Southern California, only 18 of our 33 state prisons are located down south. In 1982, state legislation was passed that required Los Angeles County to build another facility that has yet to be erected BUT, for some reason, the state continues to persuade the Central Valley to accept yet another correctional facility. Stockton is a prime candidate for prison expansion & our trusty-dusty newspaper heralds prospective developments as Good For The Community, even though we already have a soaring crime rate that cannot be helped by introducing more of the criminal element here. We are expected to believe that the former youth prison location in southeast Stockton being turned into a male prisoner medical center (sick people jail) benefits the community because it is expected to create 1,200 new jobs. ??? Because a handful of jobs outweighs the increase in crime that such development will inevitably bring? Right… Read about the newest plan to stick Stockton with the State’s responsibilities HERE. Pair this newest development of the state’s first re-entry facility going up where the women’s prison used to stand & you’ve got Stockton/San Joaquin County single handedly carrying the state’s prison population problem on our backs. Joy.

There’s no place like home

Having been born & raised in the city of Stockton, California gives a person like me insight to some of society's greatest ills. There's the ever-present class warfare played out in our local courts, in our streets, in our schools. There is the complete detachment of elected officials from the populace, resulting in the ludicrous budget decisions that leave the community high and dry so that City Council can worship at the alter of the All Mighty Real Estate Developer(S). Our economic stagnation and sky-high unemployment rates leave many Stocktonians in poverty, still others barely keeping their heads above water, and even our middle class is stable at best. The housing crisis led to record numbers of home foreclosures here, so many brand spanking new housing developments look like ghost towns. Our city is unique in it's racial diversity, yet anyone that lives here will attest to the fact that our neighborhoods are clearly segregated along racial & ethnic lines. The local police department is notorious for it's callousness, it's corruption, and it's selective application of law enforcement. Our schools under perform on standardized achievement exams (meaning the district's federal funds will be reduced) and our high school dropout rate is one of the state's worst. In the center of the city, the University of the Pacific sequesters itself off from the actual Stocktonians (new students are assured that nothing of interest to them is found south of Harding Way & it's best that they stay north of March Lane whenever possible). All the while, the local newspaper, The Record, fans the flames of our discontent by reporting on gang violence as if it were a natural phenomena rather than a matter we expect the police force to address (if not solve). Our very own Billionaire Bush Supporter, A. G. Spanos, is practically royalty in these parts (treated as such by the regional news media, city & county politicians, the business elite, and anyone that is anyone 'round here). Yes, Stockton is a political dissident's wet dream. A place where enough dirty underhanded crap goes on & actual glaring problems are ignored that one can't help but comment on the stench of bullshit.

It's not enough to complain about it, though. Anyone that has spent any extended period of time here has a knack for talking shit about Stockton and all of us natives want little more than to escape our valley town, one way or another. This attitude has gotten us nowhere and it's about time people realized it. Why don't we start thinking about solutions, rather than excuses? How about endless tirades about the positive aspects of our community, instead of always reminding each other about it's shitty moments? We need to expect more than piddley-shit gestures & half-hearted excuses from our elected officials & law enforcement personnel. We need to see Stockton as a community, however temporary we intend our stays to be. Like it nor not, you're here now & that makes it home. Thoughts?