There seems to be a new parks and recreation mission statement guiding the City of Manteca.

It goes something like this; “The City of Manteca giveth parks and recreation amenities, and the City of Manteca taketh parks and recreation amenities.”

First the giveth.

The sprawling newer neighborhoods south of the 120 Bypass by summer’s end will have close access to a splash pad at Woodward Community Park.

The $3.8 million project has the promise of strengthening Woodward Park as a community gathering place while being a go-to place for wholesome family fun.

Now the taketh.

The central district neighborhoods around downtown, the other Manteca if you will, could lose all or most of a park complete with an interactive water play feature the city a few years back opted not to retrofit to bring it up to state standards for what was then a $400,000 price tag.

In its place could be a trendy food truck park whose clientele likely will be from newer neighborhoods with a lot more disposable income.

Library Park, that may be soon leased to a private vendor, is basically a community park as it has attractions designed beyond just what a neighborhood park offers.

But back in 2012 a grateful single mom with two kids holding down two jobs, appeared before the City Council thanking them for adding playground equipment.

It meant she had a park close to her home she could take her kids while juggling a hectic schedule.

That prompted a council member to note Manteca had created a neighborhood park for underserved older neighborhoods with the Library Park expansion and redo.

So how did the city get to the point where they basically are going to take a park — designed to be able to program various leisure and cultural events based on community input including a healthy dose from downtown concerns — and turn it into a commercial venture.

You could say it’s complicated, but it’s not.

Manteca, after spending eight years trying to secure the land to expand the park from ConTel and then Verizon as well as ripping out a city street, failed to follow through as the city was once famous for doing.

The gazebo and amphitheater for small scale concerts and such plus the ability to stage Cinco de Mayo events, art programs for kids, as well as car shows and such as was the case before the redo started never materialized.

Why?

The city of Manteca Parks & Recreation Department, which was on life support for years in terms of inadequate staffing, was missing in action.

No city personnel were working to program events and such working in concert with the community as the game plan called for when the parameters for the Library Park expansion and redo were fashioned.

The Great Recession was a factor.

Then a decade later, the city made their move. They rechristened parks and recreation as the Manteca Recreation & Community Services division and let the “department head” level position remain vacant.

Instead, there is a manager who does a Herculean job given staffing resources.

Minimal effort was made on the park of the city to make Library Park reach its potential despite a $1.3 million taxpayer investment.

Of course, they could — and did — point fingers over the years that downtown concerns couldn’t get their act together to take advantage of Library Park’s potential.

Meanwhile, the gathering place the city envisioned was — right or wrong — stigmatized as a homeless park.

Today, that is an unfair characterization. There are homeless individuals in the park at times but they are doing what many housed people are doing which is spending time in a public place.

The illegal camping, wholesale trashing during daylight hours, and drug and alcohol use for the most part is history thanks to the current city’s leadership both elected and unelected.

The stigma of Library Park being a homeless hangout can be tough to overcome.

But instead of recommitting to the original intent of what Library Park was supposed to do to bring the community together and do so downtown, it now appears to be destined to a place to go if you want a $20 trendy meal or perhaps a cutting edge alcoholic creation for $8.

The recommitment would have required elevating the importance of parks and recreation with adequate staffing to organize and execute community events as well as generate relationships with non-profits to bring more cultural and community social events to the heart of Manteca.

None of this is being done in secret, but the city side is doing its best to stay as quiet as a mouse.

You would think a park with a 60-year history and one the city invested $1.3 million in just 15 years ago, would have prompted city leaders to have a robust community outreach into what they should do with Library Park.

Instead, they did the legal minimum.

They advertised for a request for proposals of what to do with Library Park.

Clearly, they had at least one interested party that wanted to create a food park with converted containers and food trucks.

But do you think residents who live within walking distance had any inkling what a request for proposals would mean for Library Park that also serves as their de facto neighborhood park?

They never even ran any proposal past the fee program fee hike rubber stamp commission better known as the Parks & Recreation Commission.

And apparently the use of Library Park is inconsequential to the downtown master plan the city is about to embark on creating at what will likely be a significant cost.

If it were, you’d think the city would weigh how it fit into the overall vision they might have for downtown.

What is a tad disheartening about the city basically letting homeless related concerns dictate the future of a city park is how it differs from 20 year ago when gangs had basically taken over Southside Park.

It was a summer when there was a drive-by shooting every two to three nights although the shooters, most of the time, proved to be bad shots.

The city refused to backdown. They went after the gangs. And equally important, they partnered with community groups and residents to take back Southside Park.

Today, there are individual gang members that use Southside Park just like other residents but it is no longer controlled by gangs. It’s because by and large they follow city rules.

The same is true of Library Park and the homeless.

For the most part, they follow the rules like everyone else although they may clearly look homeless.

The homeless, though, do not control Library Park.

If city leaders back 20 years ago didn’t throw in the towel on Southside Park when the problems seemed much more insurmountable, then why are municipal leaders today willing to ditch Library Park as a true city park simply because homeless following the rules can be seen there either solo or with others?

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