Can agony over dearth of new housing in downtown Modesto be nearing an end? | Opinion

Writing over the years about the prospect of new housing in downtown Modesto has to be about as soul-draining as waiting for Modesto to get an Old Navy, Cheesecake Factory or Chick-fil-A.

We get our hopes up, time and again, but then it never happens.

In 2002 — 21 years ago! — I fell for the latest rumor, convinced that Brenden Theatres and Tenth Street Place would be the catalyst needed to encourage condos and apartments. Downtown Modesto is poised for new housing based on natural evolution, I gushed at the time, taking bait cast by presumed experts who sounded so confident.

But it didn’t happen.

In 2005, Modesto found itself in the middle of a huge economic boom. Three seemingly legitimate plans were pitched to City Hall, all captivating us with multiple stories of home units above ground-level shops and restaurants. An end to downtown Modesto’s 31-year drought in housing development could be drawing near, in a big way... I wrote in The Bee.

But it didn’t happen. The Great Recession did.

In 2019 — hearing rumblings of two modest and two additional multistory downtown projects in the works — I tried once again, with some reluctance. It’s just that we’ve heard this story before, multiple times, with nothing to show for it but heartache. Once bitten, you know, I wrote, noting that downtown had welcomed only Ralston Tower (1974) and Tower Park (2016) — both affordable housing for seniors — in five decades.

And none of the four new proposals happened.

Will I never learn?

What kind of self-respecting cynical journalist keeps getting sucked in like this?

I’m done.

No more cheerleading. No more “if you build it, they will come,” because no one ever builds it. We’ve tried luring, begging, pleading and catalyzing. The only thing left to try is reverse psychology.

So, you people behind the Seventh Street Village vision, I’m not listening. Tell someone else about your 79 affordable one-, two- and three-bedroom units in six stories across J Street from the Old St. Stanislaus Catholic Church.

Brag all you want, Visionary Home Builders, about the folks who someday will walk out their doors and catch trains to the Bay Area, Sacramento and even Southern California, or buses heading anywhere in town. Don’t forget to throw in the part about donating a $6 million zero-emission locomotive to the cause — la la la la, I can’t hear you!

Tell anyone who cares about the grocery store on the ground level, next to day care, a computer lab and a community center. Be sure to mention the playgrounds and indoor basketball court.

Never mind that Modesto already boasts dozens of fantastic restaurants and a world-class performing arts center, all within a short walk, and that a state-of-the-art courthouse is going up around the corner, and that some of our most dedicated citizens are working up plans for a brilliant river district complex nearby.

You can’t sway us with reminders that Stanislaus County expects the prominent I Street lot it owns just across the way to transform into something spectacular as well.

Don’t even bring up the fact that costs of building materials finally are calming down, that market construction has begun to slow, and subcontractors are more available and eager for work. Who cares that you, Visionary, have an excellent track record, with successful affordable housing communities in Stockton, Ceres and Oakdale?

New Modesto leadership

Proud skeptics will gladly ignore the fact that the Modesto City Council — your partner on a $50 million state grant application — finally is competent and functions. That they managed to earn enough trust to convince people that higher sales tax was necessary for the health and future of a vibrant city — that was pure luck. It means little that that these leaders — while previous councils dithered — are actually moving forward at long last with a general plan reboot.

So yeah, take your best shot. For decades, the stars have refused to align and no one has any reason to believe they ever will.

See if you really can be the first in such a long time to breathe new housing life into the heart of our downtown. Do your best to convince the cynics, the critics, the skeptics and the negative Nancies. Prove us wrong. What do we know?

Only that Modesto still doesn’t have an Old Navy, Cheesecake Factory or Chick-fil-A.