By Chris Murphy
Brad Hawn, mild mannered engineer and architect by day, community organizer by night. Brad is a truly multi-faceted individual. Over the last few decades, he has been a Modesto City Council member, artist, gallery co-owner, property manager, active leader in his church, candidate for Modesto Mayor, advocate for homeless solutions, past President of Modesto Rotary Club, creator of the Modesto Art & Wine festival in the 2000s and maybe the most important, a leader in helping create the Modesto Neighborhoods Incorporated, a non-profit that is linking together the people in our various neighborhoods to work toward at better Modesto, giving a direct voice to the citizen in each region. Brad and his wife Nancy are truly making a positive mark in our community, truly living the life of community service and making things better all of our families. Brad is a lifelong Modestan, I have worked with Brad on many of these projects and know how committed he is to making a difference and currently he is helping us build the Graffiti USA Museum. During the pandemic, Brad has personally built some of the parklets along J Street. Let’s meet Brad Hawn.
ModestoView: What inspires you to make Modesto a better place?
Brad Hawn: I guess as I got involved in city business on the Redevelopment Commission and later the city council. I caught the bug of being part of the change to make Modesto a better place to live, a city that my kids and grandkids would want to stay and thrive in.
MV: What was your first job out of college?
BH: I worked for Bob Jacobsen. It was a tough time as interest rates were at 15-20% and construction was very slow. A tough few years to be an engineer.
MV: How did you meet Nancy?
BH: I was at a Boy Scout Camp, she was with her family at Modesto Reservoir and she was riding a Honda 90 but didn’t know how to shift. So I got a chair and set up on the pathway she was riding on and tried to help her. After a canoe ride and 7 years later we were married. Here we are 45 years of marriage later and still madly in love.
MV: It seems like there are so many issues that need our attention in town, how do we prioritize ?
BH: Jobs, Housing, helping our homeless neighbors and getting the neighborhoods involved so that each neighborhood knows each other and do several street parties a year.
MV: In my experience, things happen when our citizen are engaged, how did this inspire the creation of the MNI?
BH: MNI is a group of larger neighborhoods alliances gathering together to encourage each other and to inspire us to make our neighborhood better. It is a great conduit for working with the city police, parks, trees, traffic, etc.
MV: How many neighborhood organizations are currently operating in Modesto?
BH: There are currently 10, but we are working a plan to expand this number.
MV: What are some of the needs that you see consistently across Modesto neighborhoods?
BH: Safety, Homeless (mostly close to downtown and McHenry), and living wage jobs
MV: What do you think is the best way to get our citizens involved ?
BH: It all starts when a block of houses begins to become a neighborhood, National Night Out, 4th of July or any block party that gets us communicating with our neighbors. This makes the neighborhood safer and helps with isolated neighbors, gives us the ability to dream about how we can make the neighborhood better, etc. RELATIONSHIPS are the top reason people feel safe and connected!
MV: You are involved in so many things, what do you think is the most important issue that we can solve?
BH: Connectedness of our neighbors and city where we can have places to serve our city to make it a better place to live.
MV: Vibrancy is a mythical word, how do we design and engineer a city for vibrancy? Get everyone involved from the simple task of becoming a good neighbor who cares for an reaches out to the people on their block to becoming a community volunteer to take on tough issues (that’s how I got involved in the neighborhood and then homelessness)
MV: How do we bring back festivals in downtown, like Art & Wine or X-fest?
BH: I think some serious study of the citizens to see what they would like to see and support. There are lots of ideas that other cities have capitalized on, but we need what’s uniquely Modesto
MV: How do you balance the needs to manage your own business with the demands of being civically involved?
BH: Most the time I’m balanced but those closest to me think I’m unbalanced. Truthfully I limit my work schedule to free the time to do community work. I do this because I love trying to move the needle, but it isn’t for the faint of heart. It takes years to see change in many cases due to the complexity of the issue, perseverance is a great quality in this work.
MV: Describe your ideal Modesto day.
BH: I have coffee early get to work and start the day juggling my job and community work. The real benefit is the relationships that you can develop as you serve the community.
MV: Beatles or Stones?
BH: Bad question…should be best movie…. Princes Bride, Sandlot or Green Card favorite movies and oh yes don’t forget Hunt for Red October.
CM: Well, I put this down in the Beatles column based on the hints given in the movie selections.
Modesto Neighborhoods Incorporated is a very important part of our community. It began as a LaLoma Neighborhood group started by Mike Moradian to give neighborhoods a voice and a mechanism to get things done. Best of all, you can be a part of it and represent your neighborhood. Check out the neighborhoods that have organized groups and get involved. If your neighborhood doesn’t have a group, connect with MNI and learn how to get it started. Modesto’s future is in your hands.
modestoneighborhoods.com/
