RearView
Serving Civic Pride Daily
By Chris Murphy
We rarely look back here at ModestoView as our eyes are on the road ahead and focused on getting you, our wonderful readers the plan for next month. But Ferris Bueller had it right; there is a lot going on, and if you are not careful you will miss it. We have had some epic moments.
First of all, ModestoView would not exist with out the amazing team of contributors we have. They are passionate, they are the creators, they are the doers, they are the artists, the musicians, the chefs and the bartenders. This is what makes ModestoView special and why I wake up everyday waiting for the next thing to happen to be created. They are not professional writers or critics, they are writing from the inside, from their hearts and including us as friends.
We cooked up the idea to put a webcam up to chronicle the construction of 10th St Place back in 1997. One thing lead to another and we became the key resource for what is happening downtown. Now, here we are in 2016, we are still at it, keeping people in the know about the good things happening in the Greater Modesto Area. In 2006, our online world became a real, hold it in your hands, flip-the-pages “magazine”. Our first cover featured Flying Blind on stage at X Fest. 10 years later, we are reaching more people and have a lot of history and have evolved, but we never wavered from being a positive message beacon, yes we have even been called cheerleaders. We love it, we are always positive about Modesto and we celebrate the good in our people, places and things. We want you to be proud of where you live and we want you to be excited about bringing your friends, business partners and family here.
We not only talk about things in our community, we help create them. ModestoView helped create the Modesto Historic Cruise Route, the Walk of Fame, the Graceada Park Playground, the Virginia Corridor, Classic Community Murals, the MAMA Awards and so much more. Our writers put on some of the most amazing shows and festivals. ModestoView with our friends at Sierra Pacific and Collins Electric transformed 10th St Plaza into Rockin’ Holiday complete with a giant 50 ft Christmas tree.
I believe that we create the future we want and that was my dream when we started ModestoView. If we work together, we will make Modesto better everyday. We are counting on you to be our there spreading the word, sharing our posts, and letting the people you about the good things that happen here. Sure, Modesto has it’s issues, but so do all cities.
Let’s all be the change. Who knows, we may have an American Graffiti /George Lucas museum here someday, and possibly a real Gallo Tasting room downtown and a 10th St that is filled with live music, neon lights, art and dining. The day my daughter Madison told me she wanted to move back to Modesto from the bay area, it made everything worth it. If we get the next generation back in town, who knows what we can accomplish together.
We dream big and we hope you are dreaming along with us.
Thank you Becky, Madison and Abigail for putting up with all of this. Thank you to the team at Sierra Pacific for being a company that cares about our community. Thank you readers, friends, comrades, co-conspirators and idealists for being here all of these years. Can’t wait for the next ten.
