Mayor Ben Cantu is out to address a fallacy that he believes is hamstringing efforts to evolve downtown into a robust shopping, dining, and entertainment district.
The fallacy: High traffic volume on Yosemite Avenue is good for downtown business.
“I’ve talked to merchants over the years that think it is good people are stuck 5 to 10 minutes (getting thru downtown) because they can look into store windows,” Cantu said at the council subcommittee meeting on downtown revitalization conducted Wednesday at City Hall.
Cantu said merchants were of the belief that at a future date that if the motorists stuck in traffic want something and remember seeing it in a downtown window that they will return and patronize that store.
The mayor noted Main Street is the major north-south Street and Yosemite Avenue a key east-west street.
“If you want to get from one end of Manteca to another you have to go through downtown,” the mayor said.
Cantu added that people are frustrated by the delays getting through the Yosemite-Main intersection.
He said what is needed is to make Yosemite Avenue more pedestrian friendly.
His proposal for moving east-west traffic quicker through downtown and making Yosemite Avenue more pedestrian friendlyis diverting traffic. Cantu would direct traffic off of Yosemite Avenue to Center Street by routing traffic a block north down Fremont Avenue in the east and a block north to Walnut Avenue in the west.
At the same time he’d move forward with a project the council has already blessed — widening Main Street from the railroad tracks to Alameda Street to four lanes by reconfiguring lane striping.
Cantu didn’t offer details of how traffic would be diverted to Center Street — that will come up when the idea is vetted at a later date. How other cities accomplish such a traffic shift is by making it impossible to enter an area by the creation of a raised concrete area that typically has some type of landscaping or an island that blocks vehicle access but allows bicycles to pass thru.
“Cars would still be allowed on Yosemite,” Cantu said.
His vision would either create diagonal parking on both sides or on one side and parallel parking on the other. It could also allow for sidewalks to be widened making it possible for robust outdoor dining areas along sidewalks that are popular in cities such as Lodi, Turlock, Livermore, and Pleasanton.
Yosemite Avenue’s narrowness along with traffic congestion makes it difficult to establish a more pedestrian friendly atmosphere.
Center Street is significantly wider than Yosemite Avenue. As such lanes approaching the Main Street intersection on Center Street could be configured through the partial elimination of parking to allow more cars to turn left on greens or to line up in a que to turn tight.
At the same time reduced traffic on Yosemite Avenue could allow green lights for Main Street vehicles to intentionally stay green longer. That would ease backup congestion that occurs with signalized intersections in quick succession on Main Street at Moffat Boulevard, Yosemite Avenue and Main Street.
Cantu also believes as the city grows the central district boundaries should be expanded to allow homes to be converted to office uses or even restaurants — especially on Yosemite west of the railroad tracks.
He would like to see the initial district boundary established beyond the original six block downtown core. That would involve extending the boundary to Sherman Avenue to the east, Alameda Street to the north, Sequoia Avenue to the west where the Manteca Historical Society museum is located, and the railroad tracks and Moffat to the south.
Eventually Cantu’s vision for the extended downtown boundary is Fremont Avenue on the east, Alameda Street to the north, Walnut Avenue to the west and Wetmore Avenue where the animal shelter is located to the south.
Councilwoman Debby Moorhead is serving on the council subcommittee with Cantu.
Unlike previous efforts to alter downtown that have died after plans were developed, Cantu said the process this time around will involve the council subcommittee holding meetings with various groups instead of appointing a free standing committee to make recommendations.
The subcommittee will fashion recommendations along with an implementation plan, and suggested ways of financing whatever is ultimately adopted by the council.
Cantu noted in the past efforts hit dead ends when they were launched with the premise everyone needed to buy in or due to a lack of political will by the council. He also noted property owners believed the ball was in the city’s court to move forward once a plan was devised while the city thought the ball was in the property owners’ court.
This time Cantu wants the council to buy into whatever is devised and implements it by including downtown improvements and/or investments as on ongoing line item in the city’s annual budget.
