Bring back cruising in Manteca?

Not so fast, says Councilman Charlie Halford.

A rite of passage that stretched from the 1950s to the early 1990s was officially outlawed 31 years ago this summer in Manteca.

It was killed at a special meeting of the City Council called in 1992 three days after a Saturday night cruise ballooned into a near disaster.

It happened after county law enforcement forced the early closure of a concert due to aggressive behavior among attendees at what was once a concert venue at the now defunct Oakwood Lake Resort just west of Manteca.

Many of the dispersed concertgoers headed to nearby Manteca — one of the last, if not the last, Northern San Joaquin Valley communities that still allowed cruising.

Streets in downtown and nearby neighborhoods were paralyzed with bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Public urination and littering — relatively small issues before during weekend cruises — ballooned.

One individual was stabbed. Shots also rang out but no one was hit.

Halford remembers the end of cruising in Manteca well.

He was a Manteca Police officer at the time.

Cruising resurfaced as a community concern on Tuesday when Councilman Jose Nuno brought up the subject.

It wasn’t that he favored one way or another about bringing it back.

Instead, he wanted staff to determine if there were steps the city could do to possibly preempt having what it can or can’t allow to occur on its city streets be dictated by the California Legislature.

Assembly Bill 436 — which would end limits on cruising on California streets — passed the lower house in Sacramento. It is currently making its way through the State Senate.

Last week, Modesto — hometown of George Lucas who created the 1973 movie classic “American Graffiti” as homage to the cruising of his days as A Downey High teen — repealed its cruising ban put in place in 1990.

Modesto had banned cruising two years prior to Manteca doing so.

Modesto’s concerns were the same as Manteca’s: Traffic congestion crowd control issues, littering, public urination, drinking and, and spats of violence.

The Modesto cruise basically tied up McHenry Avenue after most venues had closed save those that could cater to cruisers: Dining spots, gas stations, and convenience stores.

In Manteca, today a cruise would create issues around three major social hall venues within a block of the center of downtown.

It also would pose serious issues for Manteca District Ambulance that is also located near the heart of the city.

The ambulance service relies heavily on Main Street and Yosemite Avenue — two streets that were thoroughly congested during legal cruises three decades ago — to reach various points in the community when responding to medical emergencies.

Modesto’s leaders unanimously repealed the ban after noting similar rollbacks prohibiting cruising in places such as Sacramento, San Jose, and National City hasn’t resulted in a return of violence or many of then other problems that occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

One Modesto council member, Chris Ricci, at a 2022 meeting contended “cruising bans are rooted in racism and perceptions on gang culture from the ‘80s and ‘90s, so I believe it is time to lift this ban.”

As such Ricci’s observations partially coincide with Halford’s.

On Tuesday, Halford noted the cruising depicted in “American Graffiti” from the 1960s and 1970s wasn’t the same as what cruising represented in the 1980s and 1990s.

“It is not the same as when you and I were young,” Halford, age 66, said, of the cruising culture in 1992 that triggered Manteca’s decision  to outlaw it on city streets.

No one on the council after a brief discussion seemed eager to find out whether cruising in 2023 — when  a growing number of teens are delaying even learning how to drive until they are out of high school — is like the 1960s, the early1990s, or something else entirely.
City Attorney Dave Nefouse was given general direction to monitor the legislation that could prohibit communities from banning cruises if the proposed legislation passes the Senate and is ultimately signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com