Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
Manteca is my home town.  Although I don’t live there now, I grew up in Manteca, we raised our children in Manteca, and I spent my career as a teacher in Manteca. I love Manteca.  However, needless to say, Manteca is beginning to look like a Third World city.  There is certainly a lack of pride evident.
I went to my eye doctor in the pink building on Cottage Avenue.  I go there because they have some of the finest doctors around.  I had not been there in a while, and I could not believe the lack of pride evident in the surroundings.  The eye doctors’ offices were immaculate and staffed with people of the highest caliber. However, the parking lot was dirty and not very safe to walk on, with no markings to delineate parking spaces.  The building looks run down with dirty windows, unkempt landscaping, and general disrepair.  In a nutshell, it is disgraceful. The sign in front is even ugly.  This building used to be a jewel of a building and a landmark.  Everyone knew where the “pink building” was. 
Are the owners out-of-towners who have no respect for the city or the fine people that they rent to?  Do the people on the City Council have any interest in encouraging owners to take better care of their properties? I learned in the classroom that if you allow trash to collect on the floor, the students will contribute more trash.  Why can’t the City of Manteca realize that in allowing the city to deteriorate, the homeless will come?

Joanne M. Miller
Ripon