No, the city isn’t channeling Abbey Road.

There is though, more music in the works for this summer.

More about that later.

What Mayor Gary Singh was doing Thursday morning was crossing Center Street with  council members Regina Lackey, Mike Morowit, and Charlie Halford behind and City Manager Toni Lundgren bringing up the rear.

They were doing so in a crosswalk connecting the Manteca Library with the city’s first community garden they had helped cut the ribbon for just minutes earlier.

And while it was a crosswalk, it was a bit different.

Lundgren called it an experiment.

“We want to see what the public’s reaction is,” Lundgren said.

City crews had “filled in” the gaps between the white lines of the high profile crosswalk with light blue and light green bars

If the response is good, you might see a couple of more high profile sidewalks become even more high profile without overdoing it.

Councilwoman Lackey believes a red, white, and blue crosswalk would be apropos.

The odds are Councilman Dave Breitenbucher — who had departed before the idea to replicate the famous Beatles album cover was cooked up and caught on fire as a “why not” idea for a photo — would likely make a pitch to add green between white lines in crosswalks near his ala mater, Manteca High.

In a sense, the “Center Street” crosswalk is a tad symbolic of transformations that are starting to pick up speed in downtown and elsewhere in Manteca with a little help from the city.

The community garden, for example, includes a grass area along with strings of overhead ambiance lighting as well as solar light poles.

It is not just for evening gardening sessions.

They want to encourage open area yoga classes.

Imagine, if you will, stretching into yoga poses as twilight approaches as the cooling Delta breeze kicks in surrounded by 24 raised garden beds of lush produce plants.

Then there will be the whimsical solar-powered  light strands wrapped around mature trees in the parking strip along Poplar Avenue aa finishing touch.

The community garden, as was noted, can serve as the hub of endless community possibilities.

But that’s not the only seeds the city is helping plant to strengthen community ties and set the table for enhanced downtown.

Coming in October, the city is partnering with the United Way of San Joaquin to bring Manteca’s first Farm to Table dinner event to Maple Street.

As Breitenbucher and Singh noted at the community garden ribbon cutting, the city is working on addressing the “little quality of life” opportunities in Manteca for people to partake and enjoy.

It ranges from the recently completed cricket pitch to lighting at the Woodward Park basketball courts for evening play.

And by summer’s end, kids should be able to cool off in a new splash pad now being built at Woodward Park.

There’s more on the way as well such as a shade structure at Evans Estate Park.

Get ready to see little touches downtown beyond what the newly formed Downtown Business Association is planning.

Lundgren promises the next one will be a whimsical, practical touch.

It will come in handy if you take a walking tour of downtown murals including the one the city just commissioned for the community garden storage container that is keeping an eye on the garden and tennis courts.

As for the music, it continues with live bands at Saturday’s Movie in the Park at Woodward Park  that starts at 5 p.m.

Also on the horizon is Music on Maple at 6 p.m. on the third Thursday through October .

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com