Pete Mitracos for City Council
BRAND
Logo:
Pete wanted his campaign materials to resemble the American flag, though he didn't want to use the same color red that's used in the American flag. He felt that particular red was like fire red, which looks dangerous and angry. Nappic used a bolder red in Pete's logotype and incorporated the stars of the American flag to give the patriotic feel Pete wanted.
Identity System:
Pete's identity system is very simplistic, which he felt is very important in a political campaign when politics can get very complicated. The American flag iconography is represented in his identity system.
Vision, Mission and Values:
Pete didn't run for Tracy City Council for financial gain or for reasons to work his way up to higher office. Pete ran for Tracy City Council because he didn't like that his hometown was growing irresponsibly during the last 10 years. Pete felt he had the knowledge, skills and drive to do a better job growing the city responsibly. Pete's Vision, Mission and Values reflect those sentiments.
Vision:
To grow Tracy responsibly, preserving the city's hometown feel.
Mission:
To continually look into Tracy's future, to put very careful thought into all city planning and not rush into any development, to listen to the citizens, and to keep the community safe.
Values:
Knowledge
Responsibility
Collaboration/Teamwork
Innovation
Technology
Ethics
Reason
Open mindedness
Listening skills
Patience
Story:
Pete’s story is written like a newspaper. The style of writing offers a straightforward and matter-of-fact point of view as a means to address serious issues facing the city of Tracy. Nappic incorporated Pete’s Vision, Mission and Values into his story.
Pete Mitracos has traveled and lived all over the world. But he calls Tracy his true home.
Mitracos said Tracy is beginning to lose its sense of community, and he’s running for Tracy City Council to help grow the city more responsibly to preserve its hometown feel.
“The model that Tracy has used over the last 15 years is the Orange County (of Southern California) model,” Mitracos said. “What you do is you push your infrastructure—water, roads, sewer—as far as you can, and then you let developers come in and build whatever they want. And then you wait for retail and jobs to follow. I don’t want to become Orange County or the San Fernando Valley (in Southern California) where you have wall-to-wall city.”
Mitracos remembers when Tracy was a true small town. His family history in Tracy goes back to 1923 when Mitracos’s great uncle, Chris Farakos, came to town to work and live. Farakos worked for the Southern Pacific railroad as a boilermaker on the steam locomotives, and he later built and operated several restaurants in Tracy.
After World War II, Chris brought his niece—Mitracos’s mother, Dimitra—to America from Greece. Dimitra’s family helped arrange her marriage to Nick Mitracos.
Dimitra gave birth to Mitracos in Stockton, CA on Nov. 3, 1948—one month before Tracy Community Hospital was completed.
During the 1950’s, Mitracos’s father operated the Horseshoe Cafe on Highway 50. Today, Highway 50 is now known as Eleventh Street. Mitracos worked in the Horseshoe Cafe from a young age.
Mitracos, along with his brother John and his sister Angie, attended local schools. After graduating from Tracy High School in 1966, Mitracos attended UC Santa Barbara.
In the early 1970s, Mitracos spent nearly two years traveling through Europe, the Middle East and Asia. When he got back to America, he worked as carpenter with Union Local 701 in Fresno. After three years in Fresno, Mitracos moved to the Bay Area and began working as a remodeling contractor.
In the early 1980s, Mitracos traveled extensively through the South Pacific, Asia and Europe.
In 1987, Mitracos spent three months traveling in China and Tibet.
In 1991, Mitracos moved back to Tracy into the house where he was raised, and where he lives today. From then until now, Tracy has changed dramatically, to the point where it’s beginning to lose the hometown feel that Mitracos and many other Tracy residents love. Mitracos closely followed the changes in Tracy and the city’s policy decisions that effected those changes.
Mitracos said he saw changes that worried him. He said he felt Tracy and the San Joaquin Valley would soon look more like cities in Los Angeles County if the city didn’t start growing responsibly.
“Everything has kind of just grown into each other down there in L.A.,” Mitracos said. “And I don’t want that. In L.A., you just have all this infrastructure, and people driving everywhere . . . The problem with that kind of development is that there is no community.”
Mitracos said he feels that community is a healthy human need. Community, he said, is where family and friends live in close proximity with each other, where everyone looks out for one another other, where kids play safely in the streets, and where people open their garages, sit out in their lawn chairs and chat with neighbors. Shopping is nearby, jobs are nearby, and you don’t really have to leave town, Mitracos said.
It’s not that Mitracos is anti-growth, he said. Mitracos knows that growth is inevitable in the San Joaquin Valley. But Tracy must grow wisely, he said.
“To me, it doesn’t matter how fast you grow,” Mitracos said. “It’s what you build and how you build . . . You have to be careful on what you just sign off on.”
Mitracos said that just because something looks like it will generate revenues, doesn’t mean it’s right for the city. City economics are important, he said, but so too are the things that are healthy to the people of the community.
“Top quality city design and planning,” Mitracos said, “can create a highly desirable community that will draw high quality jobs and businesses, which in turn will provide Tracy with solid finances to fully fund essential services like police, fire and recreation.” Police, fire and recreation help create the quality community that Mitracos wants, he said. But Tracy can’t afford these things if the city doesn’t grow responsibly, he added.
In the year 2000, Mitracos showed his care for community by taking part in Tracy Tomorrow 2000, which works to solve the issues facing Tracy. Mitracos also served as co-chair of the Land Use, Agriculture and Open Space Task Force.
The Tracy City Council appointed Mitracos to the Tracy Tomorrow and Beyond Steering Committee twice, and in September 2006 to the Tracy Planning Commission. And Mitracos was a member of the Tracy High School Facilities Volunteer Study Committee, which reports directly to the Tracy Unified School District Board of Education. During Mitracos’s tenure, the committee morphed into a bond committee that successfully passed a bond in June of 2006 to rebuild Tracy High School and finish West High School.
Mitracos is self-employed, designing and drafting custom homes, additions and remodeling projects.
Mitracos is married to Mary. Mary was raised in Tracy, and she graduated from Tracy High School in 1971.
NAPPIC, INC.