The future is now.

It is why the repeating of spin cycles of previous elections is insanity spinning out of control.

You know the drill.

We need more police.

We need more firefighters.

We need better streets.

We need more “things.”

We need more “services.”

And do that all and more while not raising taxes.

Guess what?

Go back 4 years, 8 years, 12 years, 16 years — you get the drift.

We have more police.

We have more firefighters.

We have better streets.

We have more “things.”

We have more “services.”

And it’s being done with a combination of raising taxes and not raising taxes as defined by economic growth, fees, and such.

The real issue is what lies ahead.

And yes, the future contains all of those things as issues.

But what it doesn’t contain is a retro rival of Mayberry, California circa the 1960s, Little House on the Prairie, the Cleavers of Leave it to Beaver, or the Brady Bunch.

On Nov. 3, Manteca will be electing a mayor who— along with four elected council members — will guide that future.

Sides have been formed — or are being formed — based on the repeat spin cycle drenched with political rhetoric detergent that wipes clean all traces of retrospective, vision, or thinking out of the box.

It is why data centers and such are a better clue to the future of Manteca even if one is never built here.

That’s because a conversation about such an issue opens the door to the thought process of those that want voters to entrust them with helping shape Manteca’s future.

It is a future not just of voting-age people living here but their children and those who don’t yet live here.

Why the data center debate that is tearing communities across the nation apart, aligning the far left with the far right, shrouded in secrecy about water consumption, and portrayed as just benefitting big tech when everyone with a smartphone that accesses the cloud uses them and virtually every business including someone selling buggy whips depends on then?

It’s because a discussion absent of an actual application can provide insight into what someone that may be in a position to decide the community’s fate will do when faced with daunting challenges.

First things first.

There are a lot of data centers but we’re talking about mega data centers.

The million square foot structures needed for them clearly would fit right in with Manteca, Lathrop, Tracy, and Stockton.

They would generate less traffic by far than an Amazon.

The issues are overall energy consumption as well as water use data that compares apples with apples and not ChatGPT inquiries with almonds that the likes of AI Open CEO Sam Altman muddy the proverbial waters with.

At first glance, one would define insanity as someone that wants to build the Mother of All energy hogs in a service area like PG&E that consistently has the highest electricity rates in the continental United States.

That said, tech firms are the ones leading the charge to lessen the need for all of us to hitch an expensive ride on the PG&E gravy train that mostly benefits Wall Street hedge funds.

Mayoral challenger Jacob Naven opened the door on a local data center debate, if you will, by noting the need to get Manteca out in front so residents have more control if and when an application is made.

If you think such a discussion is fantasy, go back to 2016 and ask yourself if you thought having 15 new gas stations — either built or in the approval process over the next 10 years — was a possibility in Manteca.

Naven doesn’t want to see Manteca inadvertently put at a disadvantage in controlling its future.

Incumbent Mayor Gary Singh agreed with Naven of the need for perhaps a temporary moratorium on potential data center applications while city leaders get a framework of a game plan in place.

But Singh is taking it one step further. Why not make lemonade out of a lemon?

Singh sees a mega data center adjacent to the wastewater treatment plant as a perfect customer for the 7.13 million gallons (or 2.18 acre feet of water) and growing of treated wastewater the city returns to the San Joaquin River each day.

At the going average rate of $722 an acre foot for treated water, that’s $574,495 in annual income the city is forgoing.

That water then can be used to recharge the aquifer and even water city parks.

Such a tech friendly proposal in area with a deep pool of tech commuters could entice tech firms to start branch operations in Manteca on property by the treatment plant.

Ask Naven and Singh questions regarding Manteca’s future that aren’t subjects that are part of the perpetual spin cycle. It might just surprise you.