There’s a new vibe in Manteca.
What kind of vibe?
It combines trendy with traditional.
Call it “T & T” or by the moniker “Teca Town.”
The latest is in the crosswalks Poplar Avenue at Center Street.
They are not your typical ho-hum crosswalks with two white or yellow stripes running from curb to curb.
Nor are they the “high visibility” crosswalks with a series of two dozen or so bars.
One has an agricultural theme, celebrating the Manteca’s areas two signature crops marked by street fairs each year — pumpkins and watermelons.
Pedestrians can take the crosswalk to reach the community garden and Center Street tennis courts.
The other is a fanciful take on butterflies that the young and young at heart can enjoy on their way to the library. A library, by the way, that just got its first coat of paint in 54 years.
It’s a block down from the gigantic teal colored Manteca Adirondack chair as well as a block as the drone flies from where the Mural Alley at Yosemite and Sycamore is being dedicated on Thursday, Sept. 17, at 5 p.m.
It’s where you will eventually see three more whimsical Adirondack chairs, but in diffferent sizes and colors.
They will be a part of a space the city is preparing to serve as a low-key gathering spot for food trucks and such and possibly inline skaters.
The murals — and non-traditional crosswalks — feed off a city goal established in 2002 to use public art and murals as a way to celebrate the Family City, share Manteca history, and give the city a sense of place.
The Manteca Mural Society has done the heavy lifting for years as witnessed by more than 30 murals.
Now the mural vibe is catching on.
The latest is a block south of the new Manteca arch on South Main Street whose thousands of LED lights were white, blue, and gray to mark the Sierra High homecoming Aug. 31 thru Sept. 4; to celebrate East Union High’s homecoming now through Sept. 11 the light colors will be red, blue and white; and Oct. 19-23 to recognize Manteca High’s homecoming the colors will be green and white.
They will be all pink during October to acknowledge Breast Cancer Awareness Month and then all orange on Halloween.
The mural, which is still a work in progress, is going up on the block wall of a nondescript South Main industrial-style building with a roof that a bit worse for the wear.
Half a block north from the arch is one of the latest utility box art projects at the corner of Moffat and Main.
It is a whimsical design with a mailbox and various postcards of Manteca with the message, “Greetings from Manteca California.”
A precursor to the
big picture work ahead
Clearly, not everyone is a fan.
That said, it has caught the attention of the owner of the building where the former Minerva Furniture Gallery on Center Street was located which most recently housed a church.
The “little things” Manteca is doing prompted the building’s owner who is in Texas to fly out to Manteca and meet with city officials.
The bottom line, now that he sees the city investing in the immediate area he says it is time to invest in Manteca.
Given the size of the building and its location, that could have major impacts on pumping new life into downtown beyond the six smaller retailers, food/dining, and other ventures that have opened in the past five months.
City Manager Toni Lundgren noted the city’s investment in the downtown area is designed to give it a vibe to catch people’s attention.
Lundgren said, “people may not think so, but in the long run” it should be a positive way to bring more people downtown.
That cues up the big picture: A holistic game plan for downtown’s future complete with an overlay environmental document to cut red tape making private sector investing even more enticing with Manteca a year or two from 100,000 residents.
Such a plan involves political buy-in.
Ascend, the consulting firm secured to devise the plan, has had a sit-down meeting with city officials as the initial step in a process that includes a series of community meetings.
The city shared what they want addressed during the process and the city was asked what they were willing to consider.
The list includes altering intersections, extending Moffat Boulevard to Yosemite Avenue by Library Park for an east-west bypass of downtown, possibly adding a second one-way street, and future areas they hope to encourage new ground floor retail with multiple story housing above, among other things.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
