Rainy Cloud Over This Town
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10/3/2017
I grew up in Modesto and moved to Merced for work in 2012. I was in my early 20's and had my first real full-time job. Since I was in my early 20's and single, I wanted to go meet people. This was my first bad experience.. It seemed like everyone my age was about 4 years behind. They were 23 and partied, acted, and had the maturity level I did in high school. Since Merced has little to do, most of the people would go to dive bars every Fri and Sat night. The few times I did, Merced PD would be outside with long guns and tactical gear watching people come out. I found out later on shootings and stabbings around last call were common. When it came time to look for other career opportunities, I found that most jobs that required degrees also required you to be bilingual in Spanish. I guess it is what it is since about 50% of the population is Latino according to statistics. The streets have pot holes and are narrow, leaving little room to widen the road. In the time it would take me to get one mile in Merced, I could get 5 miles even in Modesto. Merced's street lights do not run on sensors but instead on timers. That means when you are driving on a main road like Olive, you will hit every stop light whether or not there are cars waiting on the cross streets. Some lights do not even make since. They turn green for 5 seconds and then red again. Does Merced not have any money to fix these things? Merced county officials have the second highest salaries of all county officials in the valley (behind San Joaquin Co.) yet the sheriffs deputies have the third lowest salary?? Bottom line is, if Merced was a company, they would have been out of business a long time ago. If you move to Merced, do it before you have kids. If you do have kids in Merced, do them justice and move out before they get older and acquire the simple minded mentality of the youth and young adults.
B | Merced, CA