Ben Cantu doesn’t want to wait for residents to come to the city in order to alter streets to slow traffic.

He wants the city of Manteca to proactively identify such needs and address them.

That would mean citizens wouldn’t have to go through a laborious process to get stop signs, speed tables, and other such improvements in place that will show down traffic.

Cantu — who along with Lei Ann Larson and Gary Singh is running for mayor Nov. 8 — is holding a Facebook Live Town Hall this Friday, Sept. 30., at 6:30 p.m. on his Facebook page.

Viewers can tune in live at that time to Ben’s Facebook page www.facebook.com/mayorbencantu to hear Cantu’s  plans for the next four years and also ask the mayor questions in real-time.

This Facebook Live comes on the heels of the mayor’s announcement Tuesday of his proposal to help slow down traffic in residential neighborhoods throughout Manteca.

“Traffic in our neighborhoods is too damn fast,” Mayor Cantu said. “I am proposing that the City take a proactive approach to this problem by completing a city-wide traffic and circulation study next year to determine which neighborhoods can add four-way stops and additional traffic calming measures to slow down traffic. The safety of our kids and families is too important to ignore this problem.”

The typical process for neighborhoods to receive traffic calming devices is for local residents to apply with the city for a study to take place, at which point the city could conduct a study to determine if traffic calming devices are warranted.

The mayor’s proposal would be for a city-initiated study that would cover all of Manteca and would focus on determining which neighborhood streets warrant traffic calming devices.

Cantu is the first mayor to routinely utilize Facebook Live for communicating with Manteca residents, a communication tool that he began using during his mayoral campaign in 2018.
This will be Cantu’s eighth Facebook Live since taking office, and 10th overall. In 2018, Ben was elected Manteca Mayor with more votes than any candidate for mayor had received in our city’s history .

Follow the campaign online at www.cantu4mayor.com, and on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at the username @mayorbencantu.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com