Trouble in River City

River City, Chicago, Illinois

Downtown Stockton, California

An open letter to Michael Fitzgerald, Record columnist

Dear Mike,

I've given your recent blog post, “On the waterfront”, quite a bit of thought. As the varied though largely (and understandably) negative reader comments in your post illustrate, Stockton's woes are significant and complex. Are they insurmountable? No, I don't think so... Not as long as people still care... Which many still do, the purely negative naysayers aside. Still, I think most Stocktonians (even expatriates like myself) agree there are no easy answers.

Specific to the delta, yes, it's an asset, and yes, Stockton's already deriving significant economic benefits from it in the form of jobs at the Port of Stockton. There are also Stocktonians - yourself included, I believe - who view delta recreation as an essential part of their lives, lifestyles, maybe even their psyches. But Stockton is no Sacramento with it's 'old town', nor is it still named "French Camp" with it's associated trapping industry. Stockton is a bankrupt city with failing infrastructure, high crime, an understaffed police dept., an overcrowded jail, substandard public schools, limited higher education options... The list goes on and on. My intention here isn't simply to be negative or sing the blues though, but rather to show empathy and agreement that, while the challenges are great, said challenges are accompanied by dangers too great to risk inaction. That said, a few thoughts......

Crime will not decrease overnight, it's primary drivers are economic, and improvement can't await the more significant turnaround I believe is coming. So how about taking a page from my favorite Stockton film, "Cool Hand Luke"? What if, instead of building more empty houses, Stockton's rich soil was used for a new self-sustaining, low security work farm? While the idea of another Stockton-area prison rankles, such a facility could provide benefits in the form of produce to the entire California prison system (which might help it get funded), and could help address the short-term problem of a full jail.

Another thought is inspired by Chicago's River City. Yes, such a development bears some similarity to Stockton's exclusive, gated community, Brookside, but it could provide a starting point for future development... A safe, self-contained and secure place for boaters to live and commute from, that would bring in revenues and leverage the waterfront/delta locale. And, before anyone poo-poos such an idea out of hand because of the old adage, "Location, location, location" (or the equivalent naysayers response of, "No one in their right mind would ever choose to live in downtown Stockton!"), River City was developed in one of downtown Chicago's least attractive neighborhoods (the riverfront aside... And, actually, even the riverfront wasn't a slam dunk initially due to significant water pollution issues that have since been largely addressed).

One more idea I'm guessing the Stockton Chamber of Commerce might embrace... Real, powerful, effective PR in the form of more public events. While seemingly at odds with the challenges of crime and bankruptcy, I think most Stocktonians would agree that our fair (though tarnished) city sure cleans up pretty. Televised events like the bass derby and Amgen's Tour of California, both of which leveraged Weber Point instead of the controversial downtown Arena, show off the beauty of Stockton's delta locale and communicate to the wider world that there's more to the city than can be found between the pages of Forbes Magazine. Such events also foster civic pride, allowing citizens to see their hometown's glittering waters on TV and hear event attendees from across the globe comment on Stockton's beauty.

In closing, I'm fully aware that I don't have complete (or likely even significant) solutions to my hometown's woes. Still, to stop proposing solutions is to stop caring... To give up, to lose all hope. And, if there's one thing Stockton - and Stocktonians - can't afford to lose, it's hope.


Sincerely,

T.R. Nunes

Saving the planet... Or not

I read an article this morning that really got me thinking. In a recent issue of my local suburban Chicago newspaper, there was a story about a local author living in Westmont, Illinois, Joel Greenberg, and his campaign to raise awareness regarding the one-hundredth anniversary of the demise of a local species, the passenger pigeon.

Now you may be wondering why such an article would interest me. After all, there are a number of species that no longer exist, from the ancient dinosaurs to the more recent dodo bird, so what makes the passenger pigeon so special? The answer's simple, really... I'd never heard of the passenger pigeon!

True environmentalists (or simply those better informed about such things, including members of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, etc) are probably now shaking their heads at the appalling extent of my ignorance. As a matter of fact, anyone who grew up east of the Mississippi may be wondering if I slept through something they'd learned about in public school or on a grade school field trip. Unfortunately, I did not grow up in the Midwest, which is why this story interests me so much.

Generations ago, off the coast of my home state of California, literally billions upon billions of sardines swam in enormous schools. Steinbeck wrote about them in his novel "Cannery Row", and my paternal great-grandparents actually worked in the Monterey, California-based canneries that provided the basis for Steinbeck's novel. Every year, millions of sardines were pulled out of the Pacific Ocean, packed in oil, canned up in easy-opening tins and shipped across the globe. An industrial machine was created that sustained thousands of fisherman and cannery workers. California's sardine industry grew into such a powerful engine of wealth that, when the sardine market collapsed, it continued on, simply grinding the sardines into fertilizer instead of food.

The story of California's sardine industry is well known to me, but the surprisingly similar (and even more cautionary) tale of the passenger pigeon was not. As the article strikingly highlights, between 3 to 5 billion passenger pigeons once made their homes here in the United States, "their vast numbers when in flight stretching for miles and literally obscuring the sun." Initially viewed as a ready source of food for individual hunters, the massive numbers of passenger pigeons later inspired competitive hunts where, to win, hunters would have to kill 30,000 birds. The passenger pigeon even created an industry of sorts, where birds were hunted so that they could be shipped across the sea and sold for food.

Unlike the sardines off the coast of California, which now exist in significant (though hardly historic) numbers, the passenger pigeons are now completely extinct. Out of upwards of 5 billion birds and flocks that once "literally obscured the sun", not a single flock flies above our purple mountains majesty, not a single pair of wings takes flight above our amber waves of grain... Nor have they since the last bird died in 1914.

The 100th anniversary of this one American avian's demise is almost upon us, and I'm sure you can now see why author Joel Greenberg wants everyone to remember it... A date not to be celebrated, but rather remembered and reflected upon, so as to help prevent such a tragedy from ever occurring again. If you agree, please take a moment and help spread the story.

A Creation Care Sunday Devotional

NOTE: This devotional was written to be presented during an upcoming Creation Care Sunday service in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, where my church's Earthlings group will be distributing free battery recycling containers and accepting donations for reusable bags, rain barrels, bee houses, and other environmentally-focused projects.

Good morning, everyone.

This morning, I'd like to share a few words about Creation Care, and why it's important to me. Let me start off by sharing that devotions don't come easy to me. You see, my faith is an intensely personal, intimate part of who I am. Such feelings have always made it challenging for me to evangelize as scripture calls us to do… Which is perhaps why I became active in church service.

Starting with my ordination as a deacon of First Presbyterian Church of Tracy, California many years ago, I've never felt the same discomfort evangelizing through service versus word. I guess I've always simply appreciated how blessed I've been to be offered the opportunity to serve others and make a difference, in small but important ways, a blessing received through the grace of my various church families. Whether delivering Thanksgiving baskets to the underprivileged of Tracy, California, or serving those in need at Hessed House in Aurora alongside fellow members of Knox Presbyterian Church of Naperville, such opportunities have reinforced the importance of my church families both to me personally, as well as to our greater communities at large.

As members of First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn, we're blessed with a wealth of service opportunities. From assisting with worship to helping staff our PADS shelter, or participating in our church's many other ministries and missions, our church family offers each and every one of us opportunities to serve God, our congregation, and our community in ways that best suit who we are as individuals, or where we are in our own personal, spiritual journeys. One particular opportunity I'd like to share with you all today, on this Creation Sunday, is that of Creation Care.

To me, Creation Care is very similar to serving my fellow humanity. For service to our world is service to all, as we each share this wonderful gift our creator has bestowed upon us, this Earth. And, as we all share the many blessings of our creators gift, from the planet's natural beauty to the bounty of it's harvests, so too do we share the responsibility of it's stewardship. Practically every decision we make on a daily basis impacts the world God's gifted to us, from the transportation choices we make to the things we buy, how we chose to dispose of life's castoffs to how we help nurture our natural surroundings. All these things and more have a significant impact on the world we share and the lives of those who follow.

With that, I would like to personally invite each and everyone in attendance today to accept the heartfelt invitation of the Earthlings of First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn to participate in this, our congregation's Creation Sunday. As you leave today's service, you'll find a number of tables set up in the Welcome Center with fun and informational items (some of which are FREE) that you and your families can use to thank God for the many wonders that surround us.

In the words of John Calvin, “...let everyone regard himself as the steward of God in all things which he possesses. Then he will neither conduct himself dissolutely, nor corrupt by abuse those things which God requires to be preserved. …The creation is quite like a spacious and splendid house, provided and filled with the most exquisite and the most abundant furnishings. Everything in it tells us of God.” Let us remember those words and our shared role as creation's stewards as we exit the doors of our church today and step out into the grandeur that is, perhaps, God's greatest gift... A gift that both enables and encompasses life itself.

Thank you.

An Open Letter to Illinois State Legislators

Dear Illinois Representatives & Senators,

I am one of your constituents in Lisle, Illinois. I am writing to you today to encourage your support of Senate Bill 1716, House Amendment 1, and civil unions. As a long time resident, I love living in Illinois, a state with a rich heritage for doing the right thing. Illinois has set an example for other states time and again throughout its history, as exemplified by the underground railroad, President Lincoln, the sacrifices of tens of thousands of Illinois servicemen and women spanning eight different wars, the part of Chicago activists in achieving labor reform and an end to segregation, and more. Your own service in Springfield exemplifies that your passions for Illinois far exceed my own. Which is why I sincerely believe you'll share my desire that Illinois continue to set an example by legislating support for civil unions. Just as Illinois' largest city became known as "The City of Broad Shoulders" because of its near-Herculean industrial accomplishments, so too can the state of Illinois continue to be known for progressive thinking that includes rather than excludes, unifies versus divides, and proves that together, nothing can stand in our way.


Sincerely,

Timothy R. Nunes
Lisle, IL