It is now 2012.
It was 2011.
I have made Stockton my home for 19 years and 8 days. I had never been in one area longer than 5 years before I arrived in Stockton. I was in Lodi for about a year and a half before that moving to our current residence on Christmas Eve, 1992. As a little kid we moved often like lots of other poor people have for generations. I was in California’s Central Coast between San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria for about 5 years prior to finding a job in Lodi. The coastal region was what I considered to be my home from childhood. Many memories and all members of my preceding generation are buried there.
Stockton is now the place I call home. To that end I have twice before tried to stir the community into some actions to make Stockton a better City.
My first experiences in Stockon of note occured about 6 months apart. While job hunting in July 1991 I was exploring this town and found myself wondering why Weber Ave dead ended at Wilson Way. While pondering which direction was less likely to get me lost, a scrawny woman hopped into my truck. She asked me to just drive, please. It turns out she was a prostitute and she jumped in so her pimp would think she was working and hence avoid a beating. I drove her around as she told me the sadness of her existence. She had some orange juice and I dropped her off up close to the McDonalds. No sex act. No money exchange, Just some healthy conversation and OJ.
About 6 months later I was working at a respected large winery for Crush and living in Lodi.. I drove to Stockton to look around, discovering the Cesar Chavez Library downtown. While I was outside the main entrance I noticed a guy pull out some bolt cutters out of a duffle and start to cut a lock securing a nice bicycle to the railing. I stopped and held him for about 30 minutes while waiting for the police. He managed to weasel away and I lost him behind Canepa’s Car Wash.
Some introduction to Stockton. I was inclined to stay away from the city as I could see that crime was rampant.
Today in many ways the City is the same, full of petty crime as well as the serious stuff. However I have found that if I LOOK past the bad stuff I see an awesome community.filled with Real People that are generally pleasant to be around. I find there are all kinds of activities from the Asparagus Festival to the festival at St. Mary’s downtown. There is College baseball, High School baseball and Little League baseball. There is a hugely popular Hockey team, and Minor League Baseball. There are several stages around town filled with musicians and actors both professional and not.
There are a lot of awesome people doing awesome stuff on a very regular basis all over the City. Take a bit of time out of your busy schedule and try to count how many people you interact with that are NOT criminals. Then try to remember the last time you encountered a criminal. The police arrested a person every 39 minutes last year. That means about 13,500 arrests or 4.6%, of the population, many of whom are repeat offenders. This is about the same rate as the state as a whole.
The good people of Stockton hugely outnumber the criminals in our community. The intent behind RealStockton.com is to push those relatively few criminals aside and focus on revealing the good people doing good things in a Good City.
Thank you for reading and Welcome to the future.
Join the Real Talk forum and tell us the good stuff. http://realstockton.com/realtalk/
