Antioch Starting to Turn Around

We’ve seen the news. Pittsburg is seeing fifty-year lows in crime. Brentwood reported zero homicides last year. Then there is the Antioch story, but no need recounting the grim tale. From both ends, housing boom and bust, Antioch suffered a tailspin that will take years of correction. Perhaps it’s the New Yorker in me that reveled in Rudy Giulianii turning the city around after decades of free fall. To think, it all started with graffiti and jaywalking.

Whatever my affliction of optimism, I hold hopes for Antioch. We boast a new community center, a glistening civic touchstone. We are awaiting Highway 4 widening and e-Bart. A ferry may soon grace Rivertown, making the Martinez-San Francisco commutes a joy and affording a major spark of downtown revitalization. The pioneering Youth Intervention Network is gaining national prominence and results-oriented traction. The School District had a 14 point jump in API scores last year and is trail-blazing a career-themed linked pathways program. The City Council seems to be working well together and is law enforcement and business friendly.

Best yet, the everyday people are making a difference. Dennis Jeglum and volunteer crew are graffiti-fighting tigers. The Neighborhood Cleanup people are magnificent; the Take Back Antioch movement is a blessing. Margaret Meade, in fact, was right; the most powerful force in the world is a few committed people- they can change the world.

Chaos breeds chaos, order breeds order. It doesn’t take a lamppost in front of every house to lighten a street. In fact, science tells us that a tiny fraction, about 1% of an iron bar’s atoms aligning, sets in motion the move towards magnetizing. The same is true of a light source; approximately1% of composite photons aligning is enough to signal a laser effect.  We don’t need everybody on board; it’s all about critical mass. It won’t happen overnight in Antioch but the momentum is changing, one family, one street, one neighborhood at a time.

Join the people power that are being part of the solution and not the problem.  Attend the Quality of Life Forum this Saturday, February 26th at 9 a.m. at the Deer Valley High School Auditorium. 80% of the topic discussion will center on city issues, 20% on school topics.

After all, if New York a city of eight million can turn around, so can Antioch.

Walter Ruehlig

No Comments so far.

Leave a Reply