If you aren't failing you aren't trying
Policies that didn't Pass.
Not every idea is necessarily a good one. Not every idea comes along at the right time. Not every action gets the desired outcome. Some ideas ended up solved in different ways and others not at all. Below you'll find the things I've tried, but haven't gotten results...
Make A&W a Modesto Landmark - Even after a massive effort finding people to fill the empty seats on the landmark preservation committee the city failed to act and save A&W. That cruising history is lost to future generations.
Safe Camping - After much hard work a safe camping ordinance went to city council. The Modesto City Council voted against safe camping meaning that it will not be a tool we can use to help start the homeless on a path to housing.
Regionalize Wastewater: Tried hard to do some work regionalizing wastewater with the City of Riverbank, unfortunately both sides were unwilling to work together.
Library of Things: Although the library liked the idea they felt they didn't have the resources to administer it right now.
Relaunch the American Legion Hall as a Concert Hall / Special Events Collective The American Legion Hall has burned down. Can revisit if it gets rebuilt.
Scooters: The city council voted on Scooters in Modesto. The No vote meant that rental scooters won't be rolling around in Modesto for at least the foreseeable future.
AirBnb Rules: Due to costs involved with collecting fees, current rules governing AirBnb's and a tragically tight housing market the timing and the current rental environment doesn't make sense to expand AirBnb tax revenues at this time. We may return to this in the future.
Civic Bank: Work has stopped on creating the Civic Bank for now. The partner I was working with has moved on to create an even better thing for Modesto, The Community Development Corporation. This important new entity will provide funding for critical priorities like housing.
App Competition: Didn't work out as well as it should have. Needed better interagency coordination to be successful. With massive changes to Modesto's congressional delegation unlikely to be a priority.
Ideas on Hold
Warehouse Market: Great idea, but haven't found the right location - Maybe cook's market downtown? It's still on the mind, but we haven't found that location yet.
- How to get it going again: Find a good location downtown that's around 12,000 square feet.
Ornamental Lawn Ordinance: By mandating new lawns can't be installed we could reduce water use by half.
- How to get it going again: Just needs more support in the community and on the council. Right now people want their lawns and that's ok.