Earlier this week, Tracy Finance Director Zane Johnston was quoted in the Press as saying the city faces a “new normal” when it comes to reduced revenue. That means we, too, face a new normal of reduced services and an increased relative cost for the services that remain.

What really makes the bad news bad, though, is the admission by Johnston and others that this isn’t going away in a couple of months. Or maybe even in a couple of years. As far as planners can tell, this Sahara of a fiscal landscape is here to stay.

This news has been greeted by much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth.

It’s not as if things weren’t bad enough — we’ve had teacher layoffs, entire schools shut down, 220 state parks presumably set to close and welfare on the endangered programs list.

At least, it seemed, Tracy might weather the storm relatively unscathed. The city’s multimillion-dollar reserve was the one stable platform in the wreck, the life-preserver that could make layoffs and a drastic reduction in services unnecessary.

Can’t count on that now. Tracy’s still in a better position than most California cities, but its position is not unassailable.

Yet, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a Tuesday speech on the state of the economy, “Let’s use this crisis as an opportunity to make big and lasting change.”

There is a small kernel of opportunity here that shouldn’t be missed.

Unlike the governor, I don’t mean a more efficient government that does more with less. There isn’t anyone I know who opposes that, but such a matter is largely in the hands of other people. I see another opportunity, one that doesn’t rely on bureaucrats or politicians.

This column has long touted the benefits of self-policing — citizens stepping up through Neighborhood Watch and other community organizations to back up a police department that can’t be everywhere at once. Several groups in Tracy have proven that when residents make their public presence felt, crime decreases (or at least moves somewhere else).

It’s that same type of step-up, take-responsibility attitude we need now. And we need it to grow.

Schools will need more help educating students. Cities will need help maintaining trees and parks. And, yes, the police will still need watchful eyes and able volunteers.

Passing the buck is no longer an option. There are simply no bucks to be passed.

Even as the need for government assistance grows in the coming months and (probably) years, government across the board will probably be forced to do less and less. And the rest of us, who are committed to our communities and have the resources, will have to do more.

Consider it a new age of self-reliance, one that I hope can outlast even our deep-seeded financial troubles.

Storm of a lifetime

If you weren’t woken up late Wednesday or early Thursday by lightning and thunder, you missed out.

I’ve lived in the Central Valley off and on (mostly on) for 26 years, and I’ve never seen a thunderstorm here like the one that ripped through a few days ago.

I watched the nearly constant flashes sear the sky from 11:45 p.m. Wednesday through 1:30 a.m. Thursday, tracking the storm as it flowed northwest up the valley from Fresno through Tracy, culminating in hail and a battering rain more at home in a Century City movie lot than in San Joaquin County.

It rivaled a mudslide-instigating storm in Los Angeles and a tornado-spawning tempest in Montana as one of the most awesome displays I’ve ever seen.

No one I’ve talked to — even those who have lived here 70-some years — has seen anything like it in the Central Valley.

Truly the storm of a lifetime.

• Share your thoughts with columnist Jon Mendelson at jmendelson@tracypress.com.