Red Line (March 25)
All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content some comments may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published. Some weeks, due to the number of comments and space, some may not be published.
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A woman who “walks the (Fresno River) Trail everyday near Riverview, between Schnoor and Granada,” said, “all of a sudden there’s a lot of graffiti,” and she would like “to know what the Madera Police Department is going to do about it. We are taxpayers and we see this ugly graffiti.”
Another man voiced his opinion on the subject. “There is graffiti everywhere. It seemed to be under control until better weather. When are the City Council, the police and the judges going to get tough with these gang bangers and taggers? With the city growing we had better start stopping it now before it’s too late.”
A woman, “and Madera County resident,” responded to last week’s caller complaining about (County Supervisor) Frank Bigelow’s photo in the paper. “I’m glad to see Frank Bigelow’s picture in the paper. He has been to every meeting and he is dedicated to his constituents.”
A woman voiced her strong, but hard to understand opinion, and said she was tired “of people judging others by their skin color.”
A man commented on last week’s caller “about donating to the indoor soccer league.” He said, “I think it should be ran as a business and not as a non-profit organization. Then maybe they can buy a scoreboard.”
A “regular caller” said he had “this to say to the lady who complained about (columnist) Leon (Emo) wearing shorts. She has nothing better to do, and he probably has better legs that she does. I’ve seen him helping around town. He’s a pretty cool guy.”
A lady began, “Mr. Doud, if my preacher was a major racist, and as anti-American as Reverend Wright is, I would not attend his services with my wife and children for 20 years. One service and I would be gone.”
“When is this town going to get some traffic control on Wednesdays over at the fairgrounds?” asked a woman.
A gentleman wanted to know “why Madera High North track has not been in the paper yet?” He said, “every sport is published, except track.” He said a lot of teammates and parents would like to see “if not a picture, at least the results.”
“I’ve taken my 6-year old to the Easter egg hunt every year since he was 3,” began a lady. “This year, I was out walking my dog just at sunrise and I saw (Madera) Parks (and Community Services) people already setting up for the hunt. Every year they do a great job, despite the fact that some parents cheat and gather eggs for themselves.”
“I will say it once again,” began a woman’s call. “This is a city, not a town. When is that going to get through to you occupants of our city?”
“It’s good that the police department has two extra motorcycles,” said a gentleman. “Maybe they can start enforcing the speed limit laws on Yosemite, Olive and all around Madera High School.”
“I think Madera should not have a new casino on Indian land,” said a female. “We can’t keep fighting what happened 200 years ago. Enough is enough.”
“I am so tired of reading about all these negative comments about the casino,” began a woman’s call. “Why are people opposing everything in Madera that is going to be a good thing for us? Eventually, if you keep opposing and opposing we are going to become a ghost town.”
A lady agreed with “the letter by Mr. (Jon) Barsotti today (Monday, March 24). I cannot understand our city fathers welcoming the casino. They are either innocent, naïve or incredibly shortsighted.”
The caller said she “grew up in Nevada and knows the effects of gambling. It’s like having a rattlesnake as your roommate. Compulsive gambling is an addiction worse than heroin or cocaine. It destroys life and families.” By being built “on highway 99 it would lead to a congestion, bad air and water affecting the whole Central Valley.”
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An online reader, “Karri Lewis,” commented on a Tribune news article on home schooling regulation, “Each family’s needs are different. Some home schooling families have children with ‘special’ needs. We have all found that a one-size fits all approach fails our children. In this regard, a one-size fits all approach to standardizing and ‘testing’ home schooling will fail our home schooling families.”
Another Web visitor, “floydy,” wrote, “Madera is a sanctuary for illegal aliens because Madera is a sanctuary for an agricultural industry that capitalizes off of their cheap labor. If your ignorance doesn’t allow you to deal with the sight of migrant workers, then I would suggest you move away…”
“Some guy” responded to a woman’s online critique of Madera as a “pathetic little” city, “You cannot visit Wal-Mart and maybe one McDonald’s in town and say you have seen all of Madera and make one general statement or decision about it from that…”
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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24-hours a day by calling 674-4478 or visiting www.MaderaTribuneRedLine.com.
As per usual, I’m taking the time to respond to a few of the comments left by readers, callers and netizens here on the Red Line.
First of all, to the woman who complains about the grafitti on the Fresno River trail between Granada and Schnoor. “We are taxpayers, and we see this ugly grafitti”. Well ma’am, you are also a member of the community, and can DO something about it, rather than taking the easy route and leaning on the local PD to address it. My suggestion; GET INVOLVED! Join or form a Neighborhood Watch in the area, have a neighborhood “clean up” day where grafitti is painted over and / or erased. Keep that up, and eventually the little cretins will get the message, and take their shenanigans somewhere else.
As for the casino, don’t you think that we have ENOUGH casinos in the area already, or are there THAT many people that are SO addicted to gambling, that they don’t want to have to make the drive to Table Mountain, Chuckchansi or Black Oak Casino to satiate their lust for pulling that lever, tossing those dice or watching a small ball roll around a wheel? COME ON people! This is NOT Las Vegas, another casino is NOT what this area needs. What this area desperately needs is more places and activities for it’s YOUTH, the ones that are otherwise relegated to spraying grafitti over on the Fresno River trail!
“I will say it once again. This is a city, not a town”. Well, if the “powers-that-be” would BEHAVE like Madera was a city and not a town, THEN we’d be getting somewhere, wouldn’t we?
If Leon Emo wants to wear shorts, then more power to him! The next complaint in THAT hit parade will be the color of the shorts he was wearing….GET A LIFE.
Ah, the casino again. This seems to be a major sticking point for many in the town. (Yes, I called it a T O W N!) “I am so tired of reading about all these negative comments about the casino,” began a woman’s call. “Why are people opposing everything in Madera that is going to be a good thing for us? Eventually, if you keep opposing and opposing we are going to become a ghost town.” Okay. Not having yet another new casino is NOT going to turn Madera into a “ghost town”. Casinos are not the basis of Madera’s economy, it’s AGRICULTURE! Can you say…..sour grapes? If you’re so tired of reading the negative comments, then I suggest you STOP READING altogether. YOU need to accept the unavoidable fact that there are TWO sides to every coin, and multiple sides to every discussion topic!
Finally, there was a nice write-up about the city fathers not being engaged in the discussions on the casino. This is not surprising. Parental absenteeism seems to be the modus operandi when it comes to the “city fathers” and major bones of contention in Madera. (Preemptive strike here!) If you disagree with my assessment on this one, prove me wrong, please!
Hopefully, these angstful musings will provoke action, motivate some discussion, and enlighten the dark corners of ignorance and complacency. Peace.
You know, I completely missed Mr. Singer’s comments on the proposed new casino, and would like to bring a few things to light;
Webmaster’s note: Jeffrey Singer’s comment that was previously above this one has been removed when I noticed it was exactly identical to a comment he posted days earlier elsewhere on the Red Line. Such repetition is considered ’spamming’ and violates the Red Line rules.
(”The people spoke loud and clear in support of the Casino at the meeting.”) I’m sure there were also sufficient voices of dissention.
(”The Casino will NOT create more pollution”) Oh yes it will, and here are the sources; Large amounts of consumer waste going into OUR landfill, and increased traffic along the 99 corridor generating more exhaust.
(”There are back roads right near the Casino, that go long distances, so many would not even take hwy 99 anyway.”) Mr. Singer, do you think for one minute that those coming in to the casino from Merced, Modesto, Fresno, Madera, Clovis, Chowchilla, etceteras are going to take a circuitous route over county roads just to get there? We are NOT ignorant. Most California drivers are aware of the immutable fact that the shortest distance between two points, is a straight line. This means that Fresnans are going to climb on the 99 north, as far north as Herndon Avenue, and travel right up to the Avenue 17 offramp. Those north of Madera will climb on southbound, gumming up the already problematic stretch between Chowchilla and Avenue 17.
Mr. Singer’s assertions are based on flawed logic, and a lack of understanding just how traffic flows from city to city. Evidently, he misses the entire point of the Eisenhower Freeway System. Now, he IS right about one thing, this area needs jobs. As the economy tanks, new home construction decreases, fuel, food and living costs increase and more people find themselves unemployed, I would definitely agree that SOMETHING needs to be done to alleviate the problem, but another new casino is NOT the answer. In fact, the more the economy tanks, the less people will (or should) go to the casinos to squander hard-earned wages on games of chance.
I’m reminded of another casino right off of the 99, one that was supposed to create new jobs and stimulate area economy. You know what I’m referring to, it was at Manning Avenue. Well, it FAILED, and the building is now a church…
Like I stated before, there are plenty of casinos operating in the area already. If someone absolutely feels the need to gamble, they have available;
>Table Mountain
>Chuckchansi Gold
>Mono Winds
>The Palace
>Black Oak Casino
>Jackson Rancheria
>Eagle Mountain
Come on people! That’s SEVEN casinos, all within comfortable driving distance, and all of them away from the 99, which already needs significant maintenance and upgrading BEFORE we even THINK about creating more traffic issues by building another casino right in the middle of the issue!
Graffitti is really bad in Madera.
It seems everyone hates it and why shouldn’t we? Maybe if PARENTS would ask their children who, where, what and why questions, maybe they would find out who their children are “Tagging with”, where they are tagging (like 1/2 of the buildings in Madera), what in the sam hill do they think they are doing tagging other people’s fences and community walkways, and mostly what gives them the right to be so stupid as to think tagging is a cheap fun thing to do.
If no one reports them, no one makes them pay for their poor choices tagging will just continue.
Too bad we can’t tag the taggers and make them clean up their own mess, as well as have Mom & Dad work right along side of them and foot the bill to boot.
Sure I would go for cleaning up this tagging crap, but why don’t we have a general meeting to get everyone on the same page to work together? (Like we could run all of the gangs and dope dealers out on a rail at the same time; wouldn’t be great? ).
Last I heard we hired homeless people to help clean it up and we have a city grafitti truck that has workers too, paid by tax payers.
So who will lose a job if we just jump in?
Why are not our city leaders doing more to address this issue?
It is election time!
Why not put more pressure on our encumbunt councilmen running for reelection.
Our neighborhood watch program decided enough was enough and we took our back control of our street. We all purchased a gallon of paint, painted over the graffitti and then each neighbor kept the left over paint for future touch ups. Admitedly I found it quite satisfying knowing we all banded together to make a stand, also when the tagger struck again how fun it was to immediately remove the ugly mark and maybe annoy him for once!
I am curious as to how much only a gallon of paint can cover. I know it is not much and I wonder how there can be extra paint for each neighbor to do additional touch ups in the future if it is so little to begin with. Could someone please clarify this?
Disregard my comment. I realized after reading the comment a second time that all of you may have purchased a gallon of paint each. If this is the case then do not pay any mind to my question.
NOw THAT’S what I’m talking about! Neighbors getting involved, and instead of leaning on the city to deal with the grafitti, going out and taking back the neighborhood. Kudos all, you rock!
I did just that and scrubbed off grafitti yesterday. Next time I will just buy paint to spray over it.
Can you get in trouble for cleaning it up on other blocks?
I would hate to be sprayng over it on PGE boxes and get arrested for cleaning up graffitti.
However, this past week I can say someone listened! My end of town Howard & Yosemite, looks a whole lot better.
Webmaster’s note: The anonymous writer below appears to have confused the frequent Red Line commenter, “JP,” with a somewhat well-known Madera resident who owns a Web site. However, as far as I can tell, they are not the same person.
The below comment has also been edited to better conform with the Red Line rules, which do not allow personal defamation or the promotion of other Web sites.
Why is JP so against the casino should be the better question! … (Your Web site is) not making any money, (and) that’s why you come to (The) Madera Tribune and question people’s right to have an opinion about something.
Listen, you have your own Web site that sucks. Go and yell at the world over there. (I’m) tired of reading your opinion about every single little thing. People have a right to want a casino here. Have you been to the welfare office? Lots of people in line over there …
Oh yeah, one more thing. I could care less if a casino comes here, but so many people are out of work, why not help that out? I wonder why people aren’t advertising on your Web site? Oh that’s right, it’s just your own personal blog. Learn to report, and not put your own thought into everything …
JM…