After exam­in­ing 70 cri­te­ria, the 2006 Most Liv­able Cities rank­ing placed Modesto, Cal­i­for­nia last of 373 cities. In April 2009, Yahoo.com rated it the least liv­able metro area of more than 500,000 peo­ple, and in late 2008, Forbes Mag­a­zine rated it one of the 10 most mis­er­able cities in the country.

Modesto’s cur­rent rank­ing is in stark con­trast to its rep­u­ta­tion in the mid­dle years of the 20th cen­tury as a pro­gres­sive and desir­able com­mu­nity known for its cut­ting edge archi­tec­ture and urban design, and one of the fastest grow­ing cities in the country.

This project is ded­i­cated to rebuild­ing Modesto through imag­i­na­tive and for­ward think­ing solu­tions to Modesto’s liv­abil­ity issues. It will help con­nect local res­i­dents to the city’s resources, and fea­tures links to city offi­cials, and times and loca­tions of city plan­ning meet­ings. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with the Modesto Art Museum, as part of this project, artists Jes­sica Gomula and Chris­t­ian Hali will cre­ate a four-part video response to Modesto’s rank­ing as the most unliv­able city in the coun­try, and visions of how we can return to our ear­lier noto­ri­ety, or per­haps even a true Utopia.

Com­mu­nity mem­bers are invited to post com­ments and send emails, images, videos and/or post­cards to the Modesto Art Museum. These will be added to this blog. The responses will be for­warded to the city’s pub­lic art com­mit­tee and to appro­pri­ate city officials.