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On proposed changes for taco truck policy
Opinion

A more sensible plan to expand the number of mobile food vendors in Ceres is making its way to the council.

As you may know, Ceres didn’t allow mobile food trucks at all until 2018. A pilot program that year allowed no more than 10 permits for vendors with stipulations they have access to washing facilities and restrooms and spacing vendors so far apart and restrictions on where they may park and do business.

The city was negligent in revisiting the matter – it was supposed to be every year – so now the regime in charge feels 10 isn’t enough, citing that 17-19 more have applied to be in on the action.

In July we reported that Christopher Hoem, the city’s Community Development Director, was talking about opening the flood gates. Among the things he suggested were that based on what’s allowed in Modesto relative to its size, Ceres could have 37 or 38 food vendors. He also recommended allowing tables and chairs and awnings. He also advocated for dropping the spacing requirement of vendors, saying the city does not preclude fast-food places from being located in close proximity to one another, which is really an apples to oranges comparison. Was the director suggesting then it would okay to allow a taco truck to park outside of La Morenita or La Cascada?

Fortunately, the committee studying those changes is steering away from Hoem’s go-too-far plan. They don’t want to allow tables and chairs and don’t want to drop the spacing requirements and they want no more than 20 in town.

Councilman Daniel Martinez said the group remains opposed to tables and chairs because “that would take away from the brick and mortar establishments that we already have.” If the city is truly concerned about the viability of brick and mortar eateries, they wouldn’t even be entertaining the thought of expanding the competition by allowing more food trucks.

With the restaurant business struggling in this horrible economic time, expanding taco trucks will only add to their loss of income.


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It concerns me that one Ceres resident continues to push the council to drop the restrictions on how many yard and garage sales are allowed.

The city allows a maximum of two sales per year per residence – if they obtain a permit from City Hall.

Over 10 years ago, Police Chief Art deWerk addressed the prevailing view of limiting garage sales in his column in the Courier: “There are several reasons that yard sales are regulated. Included in the reasons is the fact that there is almost always an impact on the neighborhood where the yard sale is taking place. The common problems are traffic, parking issues, noise, and general neighborhood disruption. It is also the case that some people try to bootleg what should otherwise be a regular business. Regular businesses are subject to zoning restrictions, they have to comply with the appropriate business permitting and rules and they are required by the state and city to collect taxes. To allow some people to skirt the requirements is not fair to established business owners who comply with the rules and regulations. It is in effect allowing some people to operate with an unfair business advantage. The city is also interested in yard sales to the extent that they sometimes feature the sales of stolen property or other items that are prohibited.”

DeWerk continued:  “A significant annoyance associated with yard sales is the illegal posting of signs that point to or advertise the yard sale. Not only is it illegal to affix signs on telephone poles, traffic sign posts, on streets and sidewalks, but it costs the city money to remove those numerous yard sale signs after each weekend throughout the spring, summer and fall. These signs, especially after they have been up for several days, take on the appearance of trash. They frequently become detached from their posts, ending up on the streets as unsightly litter. Technically, persons who post signs illegally are subject to citations and fines.

“Yard sales are a great way to clear out houses, garages, sheds and attics of things that are no longer used. At the same time, it is not the intent of this city or others to cast a negative light on yard sales; in fact, these activities are seen as being quite normal and expected community activities. But there are sometimes instances of abuse, which us why local governments have to make laws that protect the best interests of the community and all individuals otherwise affected by yard sale activities.”

The council should not touch this issue with a 10-foot pole, unless members want more blight in Ceres neighborhoods.


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I think I’ve done three stories in the past months about locals dying in motorcycle accidents. And I’ve commented about it before.

• On Sept. 21 21-year-old Christopher Lopez of Ceres was killed when he rear-ended a stopped car in backed up traffic on northbound 99 in Salida.

• On May 26 38-year-old Keyes resident Esteban Diaz was killed in a solo crash on Friday evening, May 26 on the county’s west side.

• On April 4, 24-year-old Ireland Rolon of Hughson died in a 99 crash on a motorcycle.

Every one of the deaths involved careless riding.

Sometimes things that appear in the road can take out a motorcyclist too. A 29-year-old Ceres man died in a motorcycle crash in Fresno in September 2022.

Earlier we reported:

• In October 2018, Hugo Alvarez, 34, of Ceres was killed while riding a motorcycle on Paradise Road at Illinois Avenue.

• On Oct. 24, 2020, Edwin Medina-Corona, 21, of Hickman was killed at Whitmore Avenue and Baldwin Road in Hughson when someone turned in front of him.  

• In October 2017, a 34-year-old man on a motorcycle was killed on Highway 99 near the Hatch Road off ramp.

Riding a motorcycle is already inherently dangerous but riding one in careless fashion just makes it that much more dangerous. Life is unforgiving when you commit the last careless action that sweeps you away forever.

Please, if you ride a motorcycle, ride as safely as you can.

 

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I probably sound like a broken record but someone needs to push back from these gun rights grabbing Democrats.

On Tuesday last week Gov. Gruesome signed AB 28 labeled the “Gun Violence Prevention and School Safety Act” which will do absolutely nothing but increase taxes on guns, the tool that many of us use to protect ourselves, our loved ones and our castles. It should been called the “Democrats Trying to Tax Guns out of Existence While Doing Absolutely No Good Act.”

Authored by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel (the Encino Democrat who tried to take away your choice to eat Skittles), AB 28 imposes an 11 percent excise tax on the sale of guns and ammunition and so Democrats can generate $160 million each year and spend it on safety and violence prevention programs. If they really wanted safer schools they wouldn’t oppose posting armed guards at each and every campus to thwart school shootings. If they want to prevent violence they would start a dialogue about strengthening the two-parent, mother-father family unit in lieu of their insidious obsession over catering to the small segment of our society confused about their gender.

Ever the pandering politician, Gabriel issued this statement about Newsom signing his crappy legislation: “It’s shameful that gun manufacturers are reaping record profits at the same time that gun violence has become the leading cause of death for kids in the United States.”

Making profits is an offensive to socialists like Gabriel and Newsom who often bemoan companies making profits for their efforts. They pick and choose which companies to attack (cigarettes and oil) based on their perception of products.

If gun manufacturers are reaping record profits, it’s because they have ready customers who want to buy guns to not commit crimes but have personal protection. For crying out loud, my dear late grandmother was in her 90s living alone and kept a gun by her side for protection in case someone broke down her front door which had a chain that could have been snapped with a kick. I suppose Democrats want old grandmothers completely defenseless.

Most all the violent crimes being committed are by young people who are stealing guns or obtaining them on the black market, not going to legitimate gun dealers and undergoing background checks.

Gabriel’s legislation is such a joke.


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The supremely haughty Gov. Newsom appeared cocky and smug in his interview last week with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. The dude is one slick politician and I’m sure he will have a lot of Americans falling for his professional sounding swill.

What amazes me is how Newsom acknowledges all of the significant issues that negatively affect Californians which he hasn’t fixed while deflecting and denying that he helped exacerbate the problems. Take gas prices, which are crushing the budgets of most of us. The cheapest gas I found last week was about $5.75 per gallon while most states are paying $2 per gallon less. Newsom would have you believe that oil companies are the reason why because they are gouging Californians. He doesn’t explain why they aren’t gouging in the other 49 states. My brother pays less in Hawaii!

Over the past year, he and his Democrat cohorts in the Capitol have refused to suspend the gas tax to help struggling families at the pump.

When Hannity confronted Newsom on how low gas prices were under Trump (I recall paying $3.25 / gallon when Trump left the White House), Newsom blamed the Saudis scaling back in production, and said, “we didn’t have OPEC screwing us, we didn’t have a war in Ukraine and we weren’t going through this COVID supply chain reality…”

Seconds later Newsom mentions how America is energy independent.

For the record, the supply chain issues intensified during Biden’s presidency.

Earlier this year the state Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications committee spent four hours investigating supply chain issues surrounding gas supplies. Newsom immediately announced: “Today’s hearing provided even more evidence that we need to crack down on Big Oil’s price gouging at the pump.”

He was pontificating, of course, because that’s not what happened in the hearing. Even Democrats suggested Democrat policies were mostly to blame. This from state Senator Steven Bradford, a Democrat from San Pedro: “What are we trying to solve for?…We have passed legislation here in California that has encouraged leaving oil in the ground…Have we created a scenario that has helped create this problem?”

Well, yes, your party has created this problem, Senator Bradford.

According to Dan Walters of Cal Matters, California’s gas prices have been higher than other states, “thanks mainly to its high taxes, both direct and indirect, and its distinct formulations to fight smog, which make it almost impossible to import fuel from elsewhere.”

And with Newsom’s push to make everything electric in a state where electricity is in short supply (because of their refusal to build more dams and hydro plants), oil refineries will be scaling back production and what do you think that will do to gas prices?

Newsom also told an outright lie when he said he believed in a strong border. It’s an outright lie. His administration and former state Attorney General Xavier Becerra did what they could to fight the building of the border wall when Trump was president. His declaration of “sanctuary state” status served as a magnet to draw illegal aliens. Now the policies of the Biden Administration have effectively given all 50 states “sanctuary” status, even cutting the barbed wire erected by Texas to keep out illegal aliens.

When Hannity told Newsom: “But you’re a sanctuary state,” the governor shrugged, “And … what’s the point?” He deflects and goes into bragging about how big California’s economy is. When Hannity asks who pays for aliens’ education, housing, food and healthcare costs, Newsom said: “We had a $177.7 billion operating surplus over two fiscal years and I just did an $18.5 billion tax rebate, the largest in American history as we expanded universal healthcare.”

Let’s be clear, Newsom signed the 2023-24 budget to cover a $31.7 billion general fund deficit through gimmickry. The budget only contained a quarter of spending cuts while employing some accounting maneuvers like shifting expenditures from the general fund to other funds ($9.3 billion), delaying some spending to the future ($7.9 billion), and borrowing money that must be repaid later. Newsom failed to tell Hannity that Legislature analyst Gabe Petek, predicts that revenues in this fiscal year alone will fall short of the Newsom’s estimates by $11 billion, meaning the red ink would continue to flow even with the so-called solutions adopted by him and the state Legislature.

And that rebate he mentioned was in part from the federal government gifting COVID money to California.

Newsom also is wildly delusional when he stated: “I believe Joe Biden has been an unbelievably successful president.”

Newsom apparently is out of touch with reality.


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And I thought it was already illegal to physically attack anyone.

Why do stupid questions come up in presidential debates like the one posed to Mike Pence in which the moderator posed this: “The Department of Homeland Security warns that violence against LGBQ plus people is on the rise and intensifying. According to a recent study, members of that community are nine times more likely to be victims of violent hate crimes. As president how would you protect this community from violent attacks and discrimination?”

The question is falling in line with class pandering. No law should favor or elevate one person’s protections over another when it comes to punishing attackers. A violent attack on a gay person is no more or less serious than an attack on a straight soccer mom, a heterosexual man in a business suit or an 84-year-old granny on the sidewalk. Why are we always trying to craft laws that break the standards of equal justice for all?

According to a Gallup Poll, seven percent of U.S. adults identify as LGBTQ+. While I think that’s high, that would mean 93 percent are heterosexual. Undoubtedly the vast majority of assaults are made on straight people. The protections are already there, whether it’s a white man assaulting a black man, a black man assaulting an Asian or a white man attacking a white man. You get the point. Violence against anyone is not to be tolerated.


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Councilman James Casey often bemoans the fact that there isn’t much public input on matters. He did it again last week, saying: “In my limited time being a council person, I recognize that oftentimes we make an assumption about Facebook and media coverage but the public ought to understand…”

Councilwoman Rosalinda Vierra also mentioned how not everyone reads the newspaper. Maybe they should. I constantly see people ask questions on social media about what development is taking place in parts of Ceres – things that the Courier has covered. It’s very discouraging to spend your career covering a city to see so few people care to read it.

The city could skywrite letters in the sky about a public hearing on mundane matters and nobody will show up. People are on the whole apathetic as we can all see in the pathetic voter turnout. That apathy is why we keep getting public officials who lining their pockets, dealing with senility or strokes are so old they die in office.


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If you flip through back issues of the Courier, you’ll see stories about U.S. senators occasionally visiting Ceres. Clair Engle (1959 to 1964) comes to mind when Ceres did its 1961 Paint Festival. And in 1962 former Vice President Richard Nixon took his gubernatorial campaign to Richland Shopping Center.

Now that Dianne Feinstein has passed away, I can’t think of a single time when she ever visited Ceres but in 2012 she did give a speech in downtown Modesto. I can only think of one time that Barbara Boxer came to Modesto and that was to see the progress of the Tuolumne River Regional Park next to the Seventh Street Bridge.

Kamala Harris toured Modesto Junior College a few years back when she was a senator.

Perhaps even more evidence that California has become ungovernable and is too large for even elected senators to show up on occasion.

In the days when California was less of a blue state and used to be in play for the White House, we routinely had visits by presidential candidates. George H.W. Bush stopped in Modesto and Turlock (zipping down Mitchell Road through Ceres on a bus in 1988). Michael Dukakis came to Graceada Park and so did Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney. Bob Dole visited in 1996.

As California has grown since then – yet shrinking the past few years – this part of the Valley seems to be nothing but “fly over country” for state and national politicians.


This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com