Editor, Manteca Bulletin, 

I do not understand the obsession of our current Mayor, city council, and some council candidates with building more and more homes as well as trying to make Manteca a destination city.  When my husband and I moved here 26 years ago it was a quiet relatively safe small town.  Back then we really were “The Family City” and did not have an ever growing crime rate.  Back then we did not have large numbers of homeless roaming the streets and begging, sometimes aggressively, at many of our shopping center driveways or living in our empty houses, parks and bushes.  Back then we smiled at and were polite to people we did not know.  

Why do our city officials equate “bigger” with “better”?  Why are they blind to the problems bigger has caused?  Problems such as those I have already listed but also the fact that in their efforts to get “bigger” they have been unable to keep up with taking care of what is already here.  They are unwise with their spending, such as hiring consultant after consultant for thousands of dollars then refusing to take their advice.  At great expense they built the ever infamous “bulb outs” downtown which they then decided to remove at more great expense.  Their idea of improving downtown was to paint the murals.  While I enjoy and think the murals are beautiful it is still like “putting lipstick on a pig”.  They need to enforce existing laws or add new ones to force downtown property owners to adhere to a standard that adds to the betterment of the city not just “gets by”.  Now they are proposing to spend thousands of dollars to put lights on the downtown trees as a new beautification project.  Really?  How many of you would feel safe walking downtown at night?  I drove home after dark through downtown last year and was fearful that someone might come up to my car at a stoplight or there might be a random shooting and I caught a stray bullet.

We need a new Mayor and city council with fresh and better ways of doing things and who listen to the citizens they work for not just the developers. 

Finally, I would like to thank all of the farmers and ranchers who have not sold out and continue to work their lands.  Please know there are many of us who appreciate you!

Sandra Ahrens

Manteca