Today I was in The Tracy Press' OUR TOWN

http://ourtown.tracypress.com/content/view/4714/131/


Manuel Zapata runs a concert promotion business and sees himself growing more and more involved with politics, so much so that he canvassed for Rep. Jerry McNerney and mayoral candidate Celeste Garamendi in the 2008 election run-up.

His politics is a mix of leftist and libertarian ideals, and his musical tastes lie in metal, punk and rap.

He’s set the bar high for the upcoming years.

He wants to bring a venue to Tracy for metal and punk acts to play at and wants to run for City Council in 2012 or 2014.

“Tracy has a really bad drug problem,” Zapata said. “It’s not gonna necessarily stop if we get a venue here, but it would help if (people) had a safe, positive place to have fun where they could listen to local bands.”

“Lots of parents commute to work here in Tracy, leaving their kids to do whatever. Kids get bored, and boredom leads to drugs,” he said. “A lot of kids just want to be a part of something. Hopefully, through shows and straight-edge music, they can be without drugs and alcohol.”

Zapata eventually wants to be an in-house booker for a venue and an activist for youth. He sees a lot of potential in the bands he promotes, but stresses that they need more local venues — especially in Tracy — if they are to get their music more widely heard.

Zapata and a friend have been looking at warehouse locations to set up some sort of stage and sound system in town for kids to play at, but there have been road blocks.

“Setting up a business in Tracy is hard, especially for someone my age.” he said. “We need a place to call our own here.”

His call for a local venue is as strong as his political message, as evidenced by his blog at change209.blogspot.com.

Zapata set up a rally for President-elect Barack Obama near Tracy High School last week to show his support, but Zapata was disappointed that Proposition 8 passed.

“Just think, on a night where we elected our first African-American president, we also proved that such a progressive-in-thought state like California is really a discriminatory state in practice,” Zapata wrote in his blog the day after the election. “How the hell would that pass?”

Many questions lie ahead for the young man, but from the looks of it, he seems to be tackling them in his own positive way.

• In the spotlight is a weekly feature in Our Town. This week’s interviewer was reporter Our Town editor Aaron Rognstad. To reach him call 830-4221 or e-mail him at aaronr@tracypress.com.