“The wall” is gone.

The wall?

The one that has stood as a silent symbolic ruin reminder that downtown’s Golden Era was long gone.

That is not a rip on downtown on its present state, or what downtown has been for the past 50 years or so.

The unadulterated truth is traditional downtowns have been doing a slow fade for half a century in terms of being a traditional retail center, per se.

Some downtowns went into a death spiral.

Others re-invented themselves.

Manteca’s, contrary to the Greek chorus, was never on life support.

It took a different route. Thriving ethnic retailers. Numerous celebratory halls. Niche retail and services.

And then there are no less than seven thriving banks and allied financial institutions.

None of that is systematic of a dead or dying downtown.

All of that aside, Manteca is clearly on the move.

And while it may not be what some envisioned that have Livermore-itis or Pleasanton-phobia, it is clearly in the right direction for Manteca.

“The wall”, in case you are wondering, is the one that stood for roughly 40 years as an unwanted tribute to past glory days.

It was what remained after the deadly Waukeen Hotel fire that also gutted adjoining buildings.

To say the wall was an eye sore — especially for a number of years recently when the fire-gutted two-story Sycamore Arms across the street joined the downtown monuments to the destructive power of fire — qualifies as an understatement.

The city for years turned a blind eye to what was clearly an attractive nuisance.

If you doubt that, over the years the wall has helped serve as an outdoor hotel for hundreds upon hundreds of homeless who have overnighted against it exactly one block not just from the heart of downtown but the geographic and emotional center of Manteca.

Last week — under the direction of City Manager Toni Lungren — the wall finally was knocked down.

Full disclosure: The city has owned “the wall” and the parcels on either sides of it for more than two years after buying them for $80,000.

Manteca has a long term plan for the two parcels that likely will take three to five years to get rolling.

It involves a non-profit concern building  a 5-story apartment complex for low-income senior citizens with retail on the ground floor.

The city could easily have waited until there was a “project” actually under construction.

But Lungren clearly understood there was more at stake than just future housing.

She understands perceptions matter.

There is a lot of good things already going on downtown and even more coming down the pipe in the relativity near term.

Having a decrepit, non-functional wall greeting people as they passed by for 40 years on Yosemite Avenue — Manteca’s premier east-west street — didn’t shout “downtown’s the place.” It reeked of “run down.”

Tearing down the wall seems like a small thing.

But it is the little things done right that make for a good downtown.

You can thank Manteca’s management of the pandemic, by the way, for the funds to pay for the wall’s removal.

It was taken from residual federal funding Manteca received to the tune of $14 million to cover tax revenue losses from the forced COVID shutdown of much of the economy as well as to cover city-incurred expenses dealing with the pandemic.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com