Taking a page from the IrriGator, I would like to submit my Christmas wish list to the Patterson IrriTator crowd. My wishes for the city of Patterson:
1 – My first wish is for better health care for the west side. This would include a move of the health center to facilities better suited for the care we need. It also includes the wish that the specialists have not been turned off by the delays and will be out, caring for us, in the very near future.
2 – Public safety. My next wish is that with a new police chief, the streets will once again be safe for our citizens and that the gangs and drug dealers will no longer consider Patterson a safe haven. I wish that those that want the peace and quiet will get it, that those that constantly play their music loud are finally silenced and those that harass the citizens no longer do so.
3 – Common sense with the traffic lights. I still can’t believe that the signals at 33 & Las Palmas still give the green arrows for left turns when nobody is there to trigger it. The city wants to go green, yet they don’t do anything to stop the fumes and pollution that is being put out with cars waiting for nobody. Also, that the city take another look at the traffic engineering at Ward and M/American Eagle. Talk about idiotic traffic flow. Why do both M and American Eagle get their own greens while both directions on Ward go at the same time? Doesn’t make any sense at all, especially during the beginning and ending of the school days. And, the third item would be that whoever programs the signal at 33 and M is NOT the same idiot that did Ward and M/American Eagle.
4 – No Wal-Mart. As has been mentioned here, on the Pattersontimes and IrriGator websites, the citizens do NOT want the Wal-Mart. There have been a lot of reasons why we don’t want it, and only one (greed) as to why we are going to be forced to get it.
5 – A smarter public works department. When planning a major project that will involve tearing up the streets and alleys, a bit better planning could go a long way. First off, if you know that the alleys will be torn up, why begin the project right before the rains? Why not do the alleys in the spring and summer? This way, the issues that have cropped up with the alleys and the mud wouldn’t appear. Plan the street closures a bit better. Create a time-line that is more suited to reality than what looks good on paper. There are more, but I’ll leave it at this for this wish.
6 – Common sense on the city council. I know this is just about as difficult as asking for world peace, but I gotta wish for it. This has been hashed out so much, I won’t go in to details.
7 – A new city attorney. It pains me to think of all the money down the drain on account of one man. All our tax dollars wasted on bad advice or no advice. As I have said many times, if he were the counsel for a private business, he would have been gone a long time ago.
8 – A good 2010 for John Ramos. I know I have slammed him on the health center, Wal-Mart and other issues. But, when you take a look at some of the other things he has done within our town, he has made a lot of improvements. I appreciate what he has done with the Plaza building and other buildings. Not only has he taken care to improve his downtown facilities, but he also maintains the outsides of them. They are never the eyesore that they could be if he didn’t care. He is also very generous with our community service clubs and organizations, donating money, time and items to almost any of the community service groups if they ask. (Honestly, I am not aware of him ever saying no to a community group request) In reality, the better his year is, the better our community services will be during these hard times. While we all love to get on his case for certain issues, we all also owe him a big thank you for what he has done and continues to do.
9 – A good year for all the readers and contributors to the Patterson IrriTator, even the liberal/socialist red/blue state. 
To one and all, I would like to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
The OldTimer
Today, we offer residents an opportunity to take part in our “Fix Patterson” campaign. We have partnered with SeeClickFix.com, a local advocacy Web site that lets residents write about issues to encourage communication with city hall.
