I am writing in response to the Saturday article in the Tracy Press regarding the town hall meeting Friday night ("Police chief touts arrest rate at town hall meeting," Page 5). Chief Janet Theissen says the increase in Tracy’s population has caused an increase in crime. I am in total disagreement with this statement.
The City Council has granted the home developers permission to build and increase the population with no provision for the additional services this increase requires. The City Council and mayor desperately want to continue this practice.
The senior center has outgrown itself due to inappropriate allowances for aging residents and population growth. We must have some foresight and planning before acting.
Residents of Tracy, I urge you to oppose any further residential growth that will increase the population. We must establish limits, or the crime and other resultant problems will increase! Please don’t be fooled by developer campaigns. This will be your crime prevention tool.
We do not need the swim center that the city is investing money in. Joe Wilson Pool and the West High pool can be utilized. An expensive swim center places further strain on city funds and means less services for the residents who are so desperately in need of them.
Your taxes will be increased if Tracy builds any more homes. How does this work? New homes bring in revenue for three years and after that, the funds are depleted and the necessary resident services cannot be provided. I urge you to think about and remember this.
The seats of Councilwomen Suzanne Tucker and Evelyn Tolbert will be on the ballot. Both of these people have been very partial to new home development. I urge you to vote for progressive “no growth” candidates who have the foresight to see the ensuing problems that such growth creates, including harm to the community you live in.
Why didnt you tell the author about the Joe Wilson pool, which was closed much of last summer because of they were waiting for replacement parts? That's not a swim center. In-Shape-City has nicer pools than the old Joe Wilson Pool.
Sure, I used to go swimming in a creek when I was a kid too, but I would NEVER suggest selling a pool that is almost thirty years old in place of OUR "swim center".
Here is the alleged statement in the above article:
"The City Council has granted the home developers permission to build and increase the population with no provision for the additional services this increase requires. The City Council and mayor desperately want to continue this practice."
Simply hogwash:
For starters the letter says nothing about Bright homes that the city slowed the developer down and asked Bright Homes to first complete the infrastructure.
Where did the author get this statement from? Last time I checked the entire county, state, and country, is underwater because of decreased property taxes.
Looking for responsibility from Washington to San Francisco is like finding a needle in a haystack. Where is this letter leading us?
Stifling, should have worded the Measure A in a way that would leave room for business growth.
CN
Another problem with the letter is the claim that developer funding is the only revenue that cities have at their disposal. There are several factors in funding a city. The money you pay in property tax is by and far the biggest source of revenue. The loss of property values caused by the loss of jobs is the biggest single factor to why services get cut.
There is nothing anybody ever has shown that can prove that Measure A brought jobs to Tracy. It has done nothing for Tracy. In fact, looking around I think Measure A has moved jobs away from Tracy which we will never get back. Most likely Delta College is by far the biggest example.
To say that developer fees reduced services is ludicrous and ill informed. Developer fees are being used to pay for streets, infrastructure and in this case a swim center. Property taxes pay for city services like polcie. Please don't be ill informed about no growth agenda. This kind of thinking is reckless and ignores foresight and wise planning. The lack of attention to details here is disturbing.
The agenda speaks for itself. No growth. No business. The no-growth agenda wants to keep Tracy CA commuting instead of working locally. This type of scare tactic has always alleged two things 1. the swim center would be a drain on the local economy and 2. the population growth increased crime.
Here's why it is nothing more than a scare tactic.
You don't get all the facts 1. that the chief said at the meeting that crime rate was actually lower in Tracy. So low that we were denied federal/state funding. 2. That crime increases anywhere there is a population increase. Plain and simple.
This means that anywhere you have a population increase you need things like parks and swim centers. I personally think not having the parks that Measure A prevented had more of an impact on crime than population increase.
It was also mentioned at the meeting that TPD has a larger Gang Task Force than Oakland. Why didn't the author tell you that TPD has more gang officers than Oakland? If you are being fed a line about developers screwing up the city, how on earth can your city afford more gang officers than Oakland?
Now that we see crime and funding are not the real issue...
Why on earth would a fellow citizen oppose activities that a swim center could offer?
No wonder the content of that Letter to the Editor was the way is it. Look who penned it.
http://www.smartvoter.org/2000/11/07/ca/sj/meas/A/
I just know that Measure A left us UpSideDown.
Measure U would have allowed, "dedication of proposed open space and park property,".
Measur V would have allowed us to fix up the downtown with "permits in the bowtie".
I think that was all lost thanks to Measure A and the lawsuits that ensued, which prevented park after park and business after business in Tracy.
As an example, I think it even delayed the Gateway Business Park.
Your Voice: Not another lawsuit
Jan 8,2010
http://www.tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Your Voice- Not another lawsuit- &id=5504815&instance=home_our_town
"EDITOR,
I can’t believe that the Connollys are once again telling the residents of Tracy what is good for them. I must have missed the memo where God made them the king and queen who make the decisions for the poor peasants in Tracy.
When I first moved to Tracy, I went to some Tracy Region Alliance for a Quality Community meetings, because I did feel that growth was out of hand and needed to be slowed. After I discovered the group’s real agenda, I quit.
Now, time has proved what a bad decision Measure A actually was. The real estate market took care of itself — it did not need intervention, which badly damaged business opportunities in Tracy and family recreation possibilities, among other things.
Mark Connolly lives high on his hill, yet believes he knows what is best — for Mark Connolly and Celeste Garamendi, that is. He has brought lawsuits against anyone he can think of. Les Serpa tries to build some beautiful homes in Tracy by offering to assist in building a long-needed swim center, and Connolly sues.
Now, Carnegie Park, which has been a family recreation area for years, is suddenly in his sights. We could have had a swim center open in the near future if it were not for him and Garamendi.
Next thing you know, he will be suing the sports complex because a baseball may hit a low-flying bird. His excuses and reasons for doing these things to Tracy should fall on deaf ears.
I don’t have any small children to take swimming, and I definitely don’t ride dirt bikes, but I believe those families that do should have every opportunity to do these activities in their home town. I wonder what his family does for recreation, if anything.
Those families who want to swim sometime in the near future, or ride dirt bikes, or move to a new home someday, need to tell Connolly and Garamendi that they have been dethroned, and the City Council was elected to their jobs."
Enough!
Two things. It was mentioned at the meeting that some of the growth (and crime) is a result of sprawl outside of Tracy, CA.
In fact someone mentioned this at the meeting. The City of Tracy has adequately funded the DARE program. However, it is sprawl outside of Tracy where funding is lacking for DARE.
Measure A pushed growth and business outside of Tracy, CA. The citizens suffered under the lack of forethought and careless ambitions of Measure A because it is stagnant and unflexible in any economy.
We've had No Growth since 1990, under TRAQC's special interest Measure-A regime and look where it got us. You have outlined the results.
People even voted again on Measure UV and chose the NO GROWTH. We did this to ourselves and look where it got us.
A vote for a "no growth" candidate would be a disaster after many years of the No Growth debacle.
There is simply nothing to show for Measure A. The voters even decided to oust any and all Measure A candidates, finally.
It's unclear why some are still singing the TRAQC mantra when it clearly has failed us?
No to homes.
Yes to businesses, but Measure A discourages it, way too much.
Enough of listening to special interest group talk, and pay attention to what is happening to your own town/city.
While economy does affect every city, Measure A was just too extreme to allow business growth. The city would have had more revenue from the businesses.
Right, shelly13, seems we are on the same page on just about everything!
CN
already, yet, crime has increased at an alarming rate.
Growth stopped. Crime went up.This article is a complete contradiction in the 1st 2 paragraphs.
Tracy' population growth has caused an increase in crime, total disagreement.
Then, stop growth because of the crime. Make up your mind!
Why would anyone want to build houses when ya' can't sell the one's you have?