South Merced town hall focuses on familiar issues
By bhcmerced
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HIGHLIGHTS
Crime, youth services and McNamara Park were hot topics
Several residents said improvements are too slow in coming
Merced residents and at least one member of the City Council expressed frustration over the lack of advancement on common complaints that resurfaced Thursday during a town hall meeting in South Merced.
Crime, youth services and McNamara Park were hot topics, the same issues that have cropped up every year since the council began holding the public meetings in 2012.
“I feel like this is déjà vu,” Councilman Michael Belluomini said at the close of the meeting.
The meeting held in South Merced’s Tenaya Middle School typically is better attended and more contentious than meetings in the northern part of town. Many members of the community implored the council on Thursday to invest in programs for young people, which they say would be a preventive effort to fight crime rather than the punitive method of hiring more police.
Claudia Gonzalez, a Merced resident who works in the local nonprofits Merced Organizing Project and We’Ced Youth Media, said violence and incarceration are too common in South Merced. She said the council does not do enough to keep children from joining gangs.
“Over and over you ignore our concerns because the issues do not affect you,” she said.
All seven members of the City Council live north of Bear Creek.
I FEEL LIKE THIS IS DÉJÀ VU.
The council has contended for several years that the city budget is too tight to allow leaders to dole out money for new youth programs.
Still, other South Merced residents, like Teresa Franco, called for more police patrols through the southern neighborhoods. “It doesn’t feel right. It doesn’t feel safe to live in my neighborhood,” she said in Spanish.
Police Chief Norm Andrade said about 17 percent of calls to police come from the area south of Highway 99. The Police Department uses a computer program to organize where police patrol.
Members of the audience listen to public comments during the first Merced City Council town hall-style meeting of the year on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016. The recurring issues of crime and lack of youth services were popular topics. Thaddeus Miller tmiller@mercedsunstar.com