Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 22, 1990 TAG: 9003222146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ELLEN UZELAC THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: MODESTO, CALIF. LENGTH: Long
"Hey, I love you!" yells Blake.
The air is thick with promise - and exhaust.
Alas, the boys don't stop. Soon, their truck is lost in a sea of taillights and headlights on the 1 1/2-mile strip of McHenry Avenue where boys have met girls for just about as long as anyone can remember.
"They were like really cute," gushed Blake, a Modesto High School sophomore. "Nice truck, too. Very decent. They'll be back."
On weekend nights, thousands of teen-agers cruise the four-lane boulevard in a time-honored tradition immortalized by filmmaker George Lucas in "American Graffiti," the popular movie classic about a mythical night of cruising here in Lucas' hometown in 1962.
Now, the Modesto City Council has threatened to outlaw this rite of passage, fueling a raging debate in the central California community whose illuminated arched gateway has greeted visitors since 1912 with the curious slogan: "Water Wealth Contentment Health."
"How can they outlaw fun?" Blake queried on a recent Friday night as she and her friends - "cowboys" and "cowgirls" as this band of local teens is known - engaged in some street-corner philosophy. "Cruising is Modesto. It's who we are. It's what we do. I do it. My parents did it. They can't stop it. I don't know why they'd even try."
Yet hundreds of residents and business owners in the McHenry Avenue corridor have signed petitions in support of a ban on the timeless activity that Lucas once called "the endless search for girls."
They say Modesto, a city of 160,000, has outgrown the mating ritual that draws teens from across the San Joaquin Valley. Up to 5,000 cars cruise McHenry on Friday and Saturday nights, and this has created problems with traffic conges tion, drugs, noise and occasional gang activity. Indeed, gangs have marked some spots along McHenry with their own signature graffiti.
It is not the innocent town of 30,000 that Lucas grew up in.
"We got ourselves a mess here," said Police Chief Gerald L. McKinsey, who asked the council to institute a ban after warning city officials that civil unrest loomed near if cruising weren't stopped. Fourteen police officers generally work the McHenry Avenue beat on weekend nights, compared with four on week nights.
The council is expected to vote on the controversial measure Tuesday. Under the proposed ordinance, police could set up checkpoints and cite cars that pass them more than twice during a four-hour period. Fines would range from $100 to $250.
"I don't want people to get the impression that it's the Wild West out here, but there are some real problems," McKinsey said. "Look, I don't want to be known as the man who killed cruising, but we've got to do something. My officers are totally frustrated. They want to do their jobs - not baby-sit a bunch of kids."
Typically, police issue some 65 traffic citations on McHenry each weekend when traffic is bumper-to-bumper, and the only thing that's racing are young hearts. More than anything else, it is the sheer number of vehicles and people that have created problems.
"A lot of things young people do now they didn't do 20 years ago, like drugs, gangs and a tendency toward violence. These all have made a rather harmless activity threatening," said Modesto Mayor Carol Whiteside, who favors the proposed ban. "The world is a different place. And it's not just Modestans you find here on a weekend night. We've become a magnet for cruisers from across Northern California."
Motels on the strip report that weekend business is down by as much as 30 percent because of the noise and gridlock. Meantime, neighboring homeowners have asked the City Council to seal off their streets with 8-foot barriers.
Twenty-five-year-old Kirsten Seymour, who lives a block off McHenry, says the weekend crowds have become unmanageable.
"There are crowds of people, like they're going to a stadium. They use our yard as a toilet and I've found their syringes, condoms and beer bottles in the gutters," said Seymour, who has two young children. "You can't live next to a party every Friday and Saturday night. The business people can go home at night but we have to live here."
Not far from Seymour's home, Tracy Blake lets out another holler, a "Wahoo" this time, and explains what she calls the etiquette of cruising.
"You kind of drive by and check out people in the cars next to you. You drive slow, and if you see somebody good-looking, you start a conversation. Sometimes you get into their cars and flirt," Blake says.
"Remember, though, you don't look at anybody in a Pinto," added this veteran of cruising.
"It has to be something that looks good. A jacked-up truck, that's good. There's nothing else besides trucks, God. Trucks and cowboys, that's all there is. You know like when I was in grade school this is all I ever wanted to do. You couldn't wait till you had friends who drove. They make us leave we'll just find another spot."
Cruising, which lasts from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m., is a tradition that has been accorded almost spiritual significance in this town.
The popularity of "American Graffiti" led to "Graffiti Night," the first Saturday night after high school graduation in June when tens of thousands of cruisers take to the streets. It is a spontaneous celebration. There is no official sponsor - it just happens.
"If you want your nostalgia, there's your nostalgia," McKinsey said. "You know I've gotten calls from all over the country about this ban, and it all has to do with that damn movie."
by CNB