Let’s face it; some areas of downtown Manteca are very old. Some of the buildings are in rough shape.

Years ago, the current council voted to spend money on bulbs that took away much needed parking spaces, thus causing more traffic and delays. This frustrated the citizens of Manteca who just couldn’t comprehend why on earth did we do this?

Over the years there have been so many opposing sides on what to do with this area. I’ll first give you what I have been hearing from citizens from my canvassing.

1. Some parts of downtown are older and falling apart. Why go there when the traffic is so congested? Some of the stores and shops downtown do not reflect what most Mantecans would want to purchase.

2. Downtown has been neglected for too long. We need to do something about it, but we keep spending funds on high-priced consultants to find out what we can do. Mantecans don’t like seeing money spent on something going nowhere.

3. Our downtown has crime elements that go on consistently which makes us not want to shop there. Now our expanding community has other stores to shop at which has better parking, lighting, security, and variety.

4. We need to do something that totally changes downtown. That might include tearing parts of it down to make the roads wider to accommodate more traffic. Then we could design and build a more advanced and friendlier place to shop and eat. And we could possibly add some condos and professional office spaces.

My take on this is the same as during the 2008 election. Let’s give this over to the voters to determine a long-term plan of eventually making downtown a “go-to” place.

We live in a democracy of having the voters decide what to do. I believe we can carefully and systematically reach all our goals of having this wonderful downtown that everyone envisions. But it’s going to take a while before we can do so. However, as a councilman, my job will be to set the item in motion and create the path for all to participate and choose along the way what we will do. Everyone must be able to participate and define downtown–not just the ones in the impacted area. It seems like the current council can only focus on the current occupants, consultants, and the city. But they will have to move beyond the norm and think outside of the box. This is where they have been lacking for too many years.

Even if we are able to move in this direction, I think the flow of traffic through this area is the most important thing. Next would be parking. I believe we have enough room to develop a parking structure that will allow hundreds of vehicles to park safely inside so we don’t have parking issues on the streets all the time. Many cities have successfully done this.

There is no “safe” way of doing this–only the right way. And once we make that decision by allowing our voting citizens to decide–we don’t stop–we do it, and see it through. I’m one to take calculated risks. I like getting it done right the first time, and seeing the project through.

Finally, the downtown must have ideas that reflect what our city’s history is about. It has to have an attraction that will make people want to visit our city downtown for numerous reasons. I believe our citizens will be creative enough to come up with the ideas, putting them to a vote, and then placing it back again for a final decision. It’s not going to get done overnight, or even a few years, but we can do it.

Doing it right is my way of conducting business.

Samuel Anderson
City Council Candidate
Manteca
http://samuelanderson.us/

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