Spikeidaho, I said the same thi "don't give up on Tracy".

I DON'T KNOW THE SOLUTION TO ALL THIS BUT I BELIEVE IF WE TAKE CARE OF OUR TEENS WITH MORE ATTENTION AND LOVE WE'LL HAVE A BETTER LIFE IN THE FUTURE!

I am a mom of 2 teens and I see a lot of parents kicking their kids out of their house with 15, 16 years old, a lot of parents don't care to know where their kids are and most important with who!!!

If your kids are going to sleepover at a friends house: talk with the parents, don't believe your teen kids even if they don't lie to you, its in the name of love,if your kids get home to calm or to hipper, do a drug test get it in the beginning if they are trying drugs(At longs they have home drug tests), if your kids get home smelling alcohol ask where they drink?REPORT PARENTS THAT LET KIDS DRINK, IT'S ILLEGAL!

Please, let's make this town better for our kids!!

Paty

Shelly,

We have two former cops on the City Council now, and five republicans (the party that is supposed to be about defending the citizens) The problem is runaway growth for many years, it is what caused this effect. And now those two former cops and the Mayor and Tucker and Tolbert are being controlled by the developer machine. It will be Serpaville and Tsakapoulis Metropolis not Tracy. Get the right people into office? The voters here are getting exactly who they voted for and deserve. It's a thug town and the people have to demand more street and gang police and less for the top ten at City Hall.

victor, I know I have high hopes for Tracy and the way things have gone I don't see it happening either. But it does have the potential if we get tough on crime and get the right people into office.

Yes the demographic is different. But back in the day Livermore and Pleasanton was very similar and they were able to grow and progress to the wonderful places they are now. I hope and pray Tracy can follow suit at some point. OUr downtown has a lot of potential.

Shelly13,

Let me give you a few reasons why Tracy will never be like Livermore.

First, the demographic in Livermore is different from the demographic in Tracy. Second, Livermore is nestled in a valley with other upper-class communities; Tracy is in a large valley with communities that are too large to manage over-breeding, crime, destitution and squalor. Third, Livermore’s population is better educated and this value is expected of its children; Tracy’s population is affected by many parents who are ill-equipped to feed its children, thus the schools do it for them. Fourth, Tracy wants to grow, as if a greater tax base will solve its social ills.

The Livermore downtown is clean and beautiful; Tracy’s downtown is dirty. Take an evening walk and look at the trash strewn in the gutters. Also, walk through the neighborhoods east and west of Central. There are some nice properties, but many are slovenly.

Towns sometimes change and there's something that all of us can do to spruce up our community. For an historical perspective, here you go: I grew up in Sioux City, Iowa, and later moved to Hastings, Nebraska. The wildest thing that would happen there would be the 'hoods' smoking a little weed and doing cookies on the school lawn.

I grew up in the Methodist church, got saved about a half dozen times (it was rush), loved the Boy Scouts, earned two college degrees and have taught for over 25 years. When you have a loving family as I had, a real life "Ozzie and Harriet" existence, there's little that can go wrong.

It all starts...and stops...in the family. You show me a "kick ass" father and I'll show you kids who show respect to elders, parents, teachers and cops. Show me an absent father, and occasionally (not always) the opposite is true.

Drugs were for disease, violence was reserved for football and wrestling, and gangs were your stupid pals on those idiotic bicycles. I kid you not -- life was like that in the Midwest in the 1960's and 1970's.

While we'll never have all of that back, one way to get Tracy back to its innocent past is to get more involved in community affairs. Ask yourself something important. When was the last time you volunteered at your public school? Instead of sitting around making false assumptions, when did you contribute? When was the last time you eagerly said yes to a church function? When was the last time you dug so hard into your wallet that you felt it?

Pull the wagons together, ladies and gentlemen. Close the gaps and find a way. There's no such thing as problems - only solutions. Lennon was right.

What's amazing about Tracy is you all believe all your problems are as a result of Bay Area people moving in. Here's a hint, look at the vagrants, adults on bicycles with the carts and the cans. Are they from the bay? Look at North Tracy in the trailer parks, are they from the bay? Look at the teenagers doing 60mph down your streets, are they all from the bay? The Bay Area is your scapegoat so you don't have to look in the mirror. If you believe the Bay Area residents are your only problems then moving is the best you can offer the community.

Having lived in Tracy for roughly 10 years I've seen this town change. When I moved out to tracy as a teenager I can re-call a time when I would walk with my father, along Valpico. He would smoke a cigar and he would tell me important lessons he learned in life during the 60's on the bench. We would sit there for a half hour on Valpico and Sycamore at 10pm and maybe see a total of 4 or 5 cars drive by. It really was a much better time.

In the 10 years I have lived in Tracy:

My families car and garage have been paintballed

My car has been egged

Some one tried to shoot me with a paintball gun

A drive by shooting down the street

An armed robbery down the street(went un reported to police)

A bag of meth left on the side of my property

Car and home burglaries

Some one smashing my Side mirror of my car

Seedy characters and gang members walking through the neighborhood at odd hours in the night

And this is all in a "middle class" part of tracy. Right next to Monticello Elementray school. Dont even get me started on the problems of the adjacent neighborhood park once it gets dark.Drugs, gangs, robberies, grafitti, public sex, etc.

All of these problems started happening, around 04-05 and it has just gotten worse.

There was some one with a vision for tracy. But too many fool hearty people did not vote for her to become mayor. Lord knows I voted for her, I tried to convince everyone I could to vote for her. She was for slow growth and smart growth in tracy and too many people wanted to go with the same old ding dongs we have now.

These fools we have now want to build more homes after measure A expires even though home values are tanking. They dont care if scum from the east bay moves here, as long as they get developer kick backs, every thing is A-OK. They could care less if Tracy turns into Antioch, Stockton, or pittsburg

And you see this in the Tracy PD. There is such a "soft on crime" mentality it makes me sick.You can tell all the cops do not care, they are just sticking it out to get their 30 years in, and retire with a FAT PENSION AND BENEFITS.

I have witnessed personally the Tracy PD convince an assault victim not to press charges. One of the things the officer said was "you don't want this guy to come and hunt you down". I have notified the police everytime I see some one looking through windows of cars or peering into house windows. Whats the point when it takes Tracy PD 25-30 minutes to SHOW UP AFTER I CALLED?

They keep giving us the same answers that lead to no solutions. There needs to be a SHAKE UP in the Tracy PD. THE TRACY PD needs some one who worked under Rudi Gulliani, some one with a tough on crime attitude to clean this town up. They need to focus on everything. Even the small stuff. The tweaker on the street, the thuggs walking in the mall, kids in the park. Check them, ID them, pat them down, check them for weapons and drugs.

You want to know why pleasanton, walnut creek, san ramon, hell even brentwood and roseville are so nice? Because the people do not tolerate the kind of crap that goes on this town. They call the police and the police show up in a timely manner. More over these towns do not keep building homes when they don't need them. They recognize how far their resources go and do not over expand them.

Tracy can not attract Corporate investment in the bay area because white collar people do not want to live here or raise children here. They see the crime rate and the quality of the schools API scores and they would rather live in a town house or condo in livermore or dublin and sacrafice the space for the quality of life.

This whole city government needs a shake up from top to bottom I am sorry.

Were you guys a little like me? When those kids knocked over two fast food joints, you knew that they were just amateurs, but when you hit a bank that's the big time. Now you're potentially bringing on your sorry a** private dicks as well as the TPD.

Don't give up on our town. I just moved here in August, but I immediately picked up on the bad vibes here. Maybe it's because I now live in a big apartment complex where few of us actually know each other.

Get to know your neighbors, write anything down which looks at all out of ordinary and call our police. Trust me, they don't want to continue to be the laughing stock of PD's across the state. They're motivated.

mnwild, okay yeah, sure we won't give up the ship yet. tell city of tracy to just get the rats off the ship. we can enjoy life here again if they would. freaking screwball ingrades should all move to one part of town and stay there. or don't come in to our town and do crime stuff. i mean ingrades, they are like flies, eat s*#t and bother good people.

Hey folks, don't "give up the ship" just yet. I grew up in a small town (less than 10,000) in northern MN and last week there was a bank robbery in that town. It's a matter of desperate people taking desperate measures. It also helps that Tracy is close to 3 interstates for a quick get-away.

So be hyper-vigilant and report strange cars, strange people sitting in those cars with the engine running in places like loading zones, get license plate and description of car and occupants, and any other info. that could be helpful. It's "no harm, no foul" if you get the info. and it turns out it's my uncle from MN visiting (just kidding), but you may also be the person who can give police and the feds (bank robbery is a federal offense) details to help catch these very scary people.

And as part of my "rose colored glasses" attitude I'd like to wish all of you a happy and SAFE holiday.

Tracymomplus5 yeah really. put the money where the rubber meets the road. dam city hall looks like gothum city. as for the police, its a great idea. crack down on thugger life. speaking for police, why have a fancy looking ink pen when they have no ink?

How does this happen with two former cops on the City Council?? Wasn't that the election spin? Oh yeah, it's a thug town, I forgot. But seriously, all City Council members are Republicans. Aren't they the champions of defense of the citizenry? Time to stop hiring consultants and slash the salaries of the top ten City administrators - get rid of a few. In the private sector we are all being asked to do more on our job so the company can save some dollars. Then put the savings into street level police and gang patrols - not top level chiefs and captains.

turkey - I recommend you do move. Try southern Idaho, you will find folks of a like mind out there.

ps police should simply start at the bottom, project #1 when the police drive by and hear car stereos BOOOOMBOOOOMBOOOOMBOOOOM they should ticket them, see cars speeeeeeeeeeding ticket them. this is they symptom of thugs getting away with annoying us alllllll dayyyyyy longggggg. thugs feed off of this behavior of annoying and challenging us law abiders. we are held hostage by the street thugs and where? are? the? police when we need them?

people are just too nice in this town anymore. the bad people take this as weakness instead of kindness and this is what we got now and we in place put on our blinders and blog in this blog-spot cying about it. it gets bad, police don't and district attorneys don't enforce the laws hardly. you wake up one day and whammo here we are in a place where crime is past the tipping point of decensisitation (spelled?) and we either live with it or move to someplace safer. seriousely i don't feel safe here anymore. thats sad but all so true. it keeps getting worse. two banks robbed? minutes apart? what does this tell you? so what if we move and they (badpeople) take over? it is better to move than be around bad sub human culture. it is too unsafe here.

You're right markj, I did disagree with that statement and still do. I do not think Tracy is at the same level as Richmond, Oakland, Hayward etc. I hope it does not get there.

Between what is going on here and generally in this whole state I have thought about leaving. But not until my kids finish school. I won't uproot them. It's still a decent city and I don't feel it is so unsafe that I would have to leave now. It's just hard not to react to the headlines lately. It is scary. Tracy could really be on the road to be more like Livermore etc., instead of Oakland. If we get tougher on crime and get the right people into office. People with vision.

Again too bad we cannot make sure that certain people cannot procreate. Only in my fantasy world:)

Really markj, you can handle yourself up against ten people? Maybe if you had a gun. Yes, you should think of your wife. The women in my family know how to handle one. I wonder if we all should get licensed to carry one? But these robbers handed the tellers a note, maybe they weren't armed. I'm only making this as a reference, not saying itis s better way to rob a bank, People take things literally here sometimes. People get killed or murdered everywhere in this country.

tomturkey

Running away is never the answer, you will always find these a@@holes everywhere. Good luck finding that perfectly safe place.