Manteca is not — or better not be — buying the asphalt lot on the northwest corner of Yosemite Avenue and Main Street to turn it completely, or in part, into a downtown municipal parking lot.

Only a dolt would buy arguably the most prime piece of real estate in central Manteca to make it a public parking lot.

The corner lot is part of the $1.2 million deal the City of Council has entered into with Steve Lewis to purchase the iconic IOOF Hall that has housed the Manteca Bedquarters on the ground floor for more than 30 years.

The lot in question has been on the city’s radar off and on since the 1970s after a former Standard Station that stood there was razed.

City leaders back then did indeed pursue the parcel for use as a municipal parking lot.

But by 1998, they were angling to see the private sector to try and buy the property owned by a woman in Stockton in a bid to see a two-story office building constructed there.

Then by the time 2020 rolled around, Manteca leaders were openly talking about trying to acquire the property again and possibly convert the corner into a plaza with a veterans’ memorial.

There has been a gradual recognition that the corner is a gem in the rough.

It is why the acquisition of the asphalt parking lot has the potential to be as a big of a seismic event — if not bigger — for downtown and the community.

There is a hang-up about the corner.

A big one.

For want of a better term, call it “parking anxiety.”

Ever since the mid-1960s, every “downtown plan” focused heavily on the parking problem.

The laser focus on parking being the root of all of downtown’s woes reflects 1950s sensibilities, not 2026 reality.

The idea that downtown is a viable traditional retail center in Manteca is a ship that sailed decades ago and is now on the bottom of the proverbial ocean.

So is the idea that downtown can be a modern-day retail hub.

The only way downturn can compete with Walmart et al is to bulldoze it all down, put up a big box and pave everything else over for a gigantic parking lot.

Speaking of Walmart, shortly after it opened in Manteca at the dawn of the 1990s, there was a series of council meetings where people expressed angst during the public comment period about how downtown wasn’t cutting the mustard.

One lady complained about how she was “forced” to shop for fabric at Walmart because it was impossible to find a parking space anywhere near the downtown Hancock Fabrics store that happened to be on the ground floor of the IOOF Hall at the time.

She shared how one day she had to park on Maple Avenue outside of Tipton’s because there were no spaces on Yosemite Avenue.

It is why she said she had been shopping at Walmart for her sewing needs and not Hancock Fabrics.

The irony of her comment escaped her.

Back then when the Manteca Walmart had a fabric section, it was in the southwest corner of the store, the farthest spot possible from the main entrance.

Even if she had scored the closest parking space to the store’s entrance, to reach the fabric section would have been easily three times the distance to reach Hancock’s front door from Maple Avenue.

The real reason was simple. It was more convenient to combine multiple shopping needs in one trip.

Walmart was also open seven days a week and at night. That wasn’t the case for downtown retail.

Then there were details such as a bigger selection, and in many cases, lower prices.

Parking wasn’t the problem then nor was it 18 years later during the public debates about what to do with downtown that surfaces every two years or so.

It is when then City Manager Steve Pinkerton in 2009 noted at a meeting what downtown Manteca needed was “a parking problem” as that would be a good thing.

Sound nutso or illogical?

Not by a long shot.

Pinkerton’s point was spot on.

If Manteca has a parking problem, that meant downtown concerns were wildly successful as people were clamoring to go there.

The first thing Manteca needs to do is create a parking problem.

That is why the consulting firm, Ascent Environmental, that the Manteca City Council when they meet tonight is considering retaining to devise a downtown specific plan, has a lot of merit with their conceptual schematic for the downtown corner that the city is buying.

Keep in mind it is conceptual, and nothing else. That is especially true given it blocks, to a large degree, the community treasure that the five veterans murals have become

That said, with just a small bit of tweaking, Ascent’s concept has incredible merit as a downtown game changer.

Not only does their concept include the corner lot but also incorporates a segment of the alley and an existing municipal parking lot to the north next to the Deaf Puppy Comedy Club.

Ascent envisions the combined three spaces being transformed into a food court pavilion along with a plaza to transform the area into a vibrant gathering spot.

And let’s be clear about how vibrant it could be.

It would sit at “the” intersection in Manteca where the premier north-south arterial — Main Street — as well as the only east-west mostly commercial arterial that runs from one side of the city to the other as Yosemite Avenue.

There is absolute no downtown — revived, transformed, or otherwise — in the Northern San Joaquin Valley or even the East Bay — with such a crossroads with two parking lots and a short alley segment that are clean slates able to transform a community.

Manteca doesn’t have a parking problem.

It needs to create one.

And what better way than creating an attraction that people will park and walk five minutes to reach.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com