Sometimes it is what is coming down as opposed to what is going up that is good news when it comes to building activity in Manteca.

Requests have been submitted to the City of Manteca for permits to demolish two houses on Mylnar Avenue  — 110 and 126 — that are the second and third homes  on the east side of the street from its intersection with Yosemite Avenue. Mylnar is about midway between Cottage and Powers avenues along Yosemite.

The two houses, much to the chagrin of neighbors, have been flop houses for the homeless. They’ve been complaining to police and property owners for months. The police have responded a number of times and have moved trespassers out.

The houses are part of the estate of the late Antone and Marie Raymus. It is unclear what will happen to the property after the houses are leveled and the debris removed.

Raymus siblings Toni and Bob of Raymus Homes — who have no connection with the two homes being demolished — do, however, own a large parcel directly behind the two homes that they cleared old rentals from years ago.

Raymus Homes submitted a request for the new general plan for the city that is moving forward to have the property rezoned for medium density with the hope they will be able to secure a buyer who can develop affordable rentals as has happened with nearby infill projects such as the one on Fremont Avenue where aging, small homes were replaced with a small apartment complex. Given that Raymus Homes’ bailiwick is strictly development of traditional single family homes for sale, they are looking for a buyer for the parcel.

Over the years a number of older houses have been commandeered by the homeless. There is a mixture of homes the property owners decided to stop renting and while they were making plans for other uses and before the dwellings could be demolished upon the sale of the property, the homeless have moved in.

There are a few examples of where a home was vacant between renters for less than two weeks where homeless have broken in and done damage before being chased out. Then, before repairs could be completed and the house rented, they were back into the dwelling. The homeless ended up driving the property into the ground as the owners usually had limited means or else were from out of the area.

In some cases the homeless besides taking over residency would create flop houses for illegal drug use. There have been more than several instances where warming fires started by the homeless have led to structure fires.

It goes without saying most homeless breaking into vacant houses end up doing substantial damage rendering them unfit for rentals.

At any rate, homeless related issues in the 100 block of Mylnar Avenue should improve significantly in the coming months.

An eyesore and mess

cleaned up by city

along Airport Way

The City of Manteca’s replacement of no parking zone signs along Airport Way next to the Stadium Retail Center between Daniels Street and the 120 Bypass and subsequent enforcement has not gone unnoticed.

More than a few people have commented about how less cluttered and less congested the area is today.

Manteca Police, in following up on complaints about the stretch being turned into a make-shift on-the-street used car sales lot as well as a popular place for semi-trucks to double park, came across references that said it was a no parking zone. They checked Google maps and found out the no parking signs that had been replaced had been illegally removed at some point.

Public Works erected new signs and community service officers started ticketing offenders.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com