Greetings Friends,
First off, an apology. I got drilled with COVID in December. It took out my family, my friends, and my company. I was out of commission for a couple of weeks and we were not able to get a January issue to the printer nor did I connect well with people I like and love. Thank you Middagh Goodwin for keeping ModestoView alive and going during this time. You are amazing and I appreciate you.
Forgive this moment of bitterness. For those of you that think COVID is a hoax; it wasn’t and it’s not. I remember so many people that I know that were not wearing masks, sharing conspiracies and saying COVID would all be over on November 4 since it was a political ploy. COVID is awful, it is killing people and it is here to stay in one form or another. We’ve lost friends, family and great local legends like Pete Hischier, Bob DeLeon and others to COVID. I will be getting a vaccine as soon as my tier is called. If you don’t believe in it, give someone your slot in line. Now, let’s get on with daily life here in our community, where true trust, facts and friendship are really what we need to build on the good in our community. If we are not looking out for the greater good, putting our community and country first before ourselves, then we are not going to succeed.
But through all of this, we were able to still make some magic. We are able to get our Rockin’ Holiday decorations up and thanks to the AMAZING teamwork of Nick Crockett and our crew from Sierra Pacific, Matt Paine of Collins Electric and Mark Stotzer of the Ceres Drive In as it was without a doubt our most beautiful Rockin Holiday ever. It was magic. I was so very proud, but I was sick and quarantined so I could not enjoy it. There are truly no words to thank my friends that share my vision of trying to make our local spaces beautiful for our people to enjoy, whether it is lighting, magic or music. During these times, it is extra important to sprinkle the magic dust on everything that we do and try to put some magic in our, our kids and our friends’ lives.
What is normal? Everything is different know. Our rules of contact, engagement, meetings, gathering are all different now, and probably will be forever. Yes some of these things are smart and sensible and some will just be habits. You know what they say, bad habits take minutes to start and good habits take months. Well now, we have had over 9 months to change our habits. What do you think we are doing now that will last for years and change our culture forever?
I know, I’m a lot like you. I want to go to my favorite bar, I want a cocktails with a group of friends and I want my band to play in 10th St Plaza and have people dancing in the streets, but we can’t really do that right now and we have to do it right so we can get there again together. We are just exiting the Shelter in Place and into the Purple Tier again so let’s be smart and break through this. When it is safe and we are clear, I want my friend Mike Shelton at Ralston’s Goat to throw a 24-hour party and close down 10th Street where we can all party and rock and roll. It’s as simple as that and we all need to support each other while we punch through this. Just speaking for myself, I am not willing to risk my family, my grandbaby, my employees at my company all just for a fun night of partying, so I feel your pain. Let’s do this right Modesto.
There is opportunity here. There is an exodus from the Bay Area that could be really good for Modesto. Not everyone can afford a waterfront million-dollar house on Lake Tahoe. Modesto has decent internet, great work spaces and programs like those run by Phillip Lan and Bay Valley Tech that will bring the high tech, coder and digital life to downtown Modesto. Coders are creative. Modesto needs the creatives. We need the new young professionals and now with ACE train, Modesto is just a few stations from the greatest concentration of tech in the world. So what are we going to do? Let’s recalibrate. Let’s welcome our young tech people and encourage people to move from Portero Hill or an overpriced 450 sq. ft. condo under the Bay Bridge to live here. Let’s take this opportunity and bring innovation, tech, music and art to our city. I have been saying for 30 years that it is ultimately the Creative Cities that win.
We can do this. We have a great foundation of history, rock and roll, classic cars and innovative businesses and people and we can build on this for the next generation. Let’s do this.
And finally, this is all about local. ModestoView would not be the local good news force that it is without our local businesses that believe that we have to support each other, shop and live local and make sure that our $$$ stay local and advertise in ModestoView so we can bring this to you.
This is how we win. Live, Listen, Shop, Drink and Eat local. It is really that simple. If you believe in what were are doing, we would love to have your support to grow and spread more good news about who we are and what we can be. You can get involved at advertising@modestoview.com<mailto:advertising@modestoview.com>
Thanks to all of you that already believe and I am grateful for all of you.
With gratitude,
Chris Murphy
Founder and Publisher, ModestoView
chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
Read the new issue of ModestoView at www.modestoview.com/the-magazine
