Happy New Year friends!
These last few years have been so special with grandkids in our lives and with the little ones around and we are making new memories. Becky and I love every minute and it is amazing how your priorities change and do all we can to help these kids grow up. But one thing that hasn’t changed is we need to make sure Modesto is a good place for kids and grandkids to grow up, get a great education, get involved, find their passion, and hopefully, just hopefully, there will be a thriving economy here for them to “want to live here” to start their own adult lives and families.
With this in mind, January is always a time to start fresh. It’s up to this generation to make sure that the next generation will appreciate our community. 2024 was tough with so many moving pieces, and it seemed like every day was a 3-D chess game. Everyone needs a cleansing, and like the Chinese year of the Snake, you can shed your skin, come out fresh, adaptable and regain some idealism to really got out there and make a difference. Everyone can do this, but what deserves your attention? Think about it, there are so many things asked of us, but what are the things that leave you fulfilled about how you lend a hand.
New Years is like a brand-new day, where you can chart the path you want to be on, and in Modesto, there are so many worthwhile things to connect with. For me, it is my family, my company, completing the Graffiti USA Museum and supporting our culture and music community.
The arts have a big opportunity here in Modesto in 2025. Our friends started the Modesto Artists Movement (MAM) that is a new energetic source of support and inspiration. The Stanislaus Arts Council (SAC) has a new location, a focused mission and an executive director looking to improve the art community and we interview Dominique Johnson in this issue. Middagh Goodwin and I are focused on the Modesto Area Music Association (MAMA), where the mission is to promote “live music’ in the Modesto area. There are more, but what we need to do is to make sure that each of these areas could actually be a career. It’s not enough to have art galleries to look at art. We need to buy and commission art so that artists can focus on “being professional artists”. At the MAMA, our events like Music in the Plaza, Rockin’ Holiday, May the 4th are all about making sure that musicians get paid to play. Modesto Artist Movement wants to make sure that writing, beat boxing, poetry can be a career, and arts organizations succeed. To truly be an arts community, the people that make the art have to be celebrated and compensated to make a living. When this happens, we get more art, more venues, more vibrancy and Modesto will truly be, as Sam Pierstorff says, “the next great art city”. Why not us? The Modesto music scene can be every big as good as the Athens GA, scene. What do we need to do to make this mission a reality? Always looking for good and fresh new ideas.
With this comes accountability. Are we getting things done? We do a lot of visioning and planning here in Modesto, but are things really getting done? We seem to be having the same meetings over and over again. Are the organizations that are tasked with economic development, heath and homeless services, streamlining planning and building completing their goals? Do we even know what the measurable goals are? That my friends is what we need to focus on; who and what is delivering and what are the measurable goals. Visit Modesto, for example is an organization that has delivered results on a shoestring budget. The Almond Blossom Cruise was a program created to turn what has happened every spring for decades, into a commercialized tourism program attracting world-wide attention and visitors.
It all comes back to our local focus. Are we supporting the local businesses that make Modesto happen? I am grateful to the advertisers in ModestoView that make it possible for us to deliver good news and info each month. If you would like to advertise so we can continue on our mission to “Serve Civic Pride Daily” please let me know and we will connect you. If local business is good, if new businesses are starting, then, and our infrastructure encourages national and global business attraction, our economy is good and we get closer to making the place that our kids will want to come back to.
We can do this in 2025. Let’s stay engaged. Tune out the national noise, and let’s make the place we live in the best we can. There is something that each of us can do. Big or small, it all adds up.
I am grateful to all that read ModestoView and get out and about and become part of our community.
Thank you and Happy New Year,
Chris Murphy
Founder and Publisher, Chris Murphy chrism@modestoview.com<mailto:chrism@modestoview.com>
