It is a tale as old as California itself.

Do you want more neighbors or economic prosperity?

Ever since the cattle barons led by undisputed Cattle King Henry Miller controlled much of the San Joaquin Valley in the aftermath of the Gold Rush, enterprises gobbling up the land requiring vast movements of goods have collided with those putting down roots.

So it comes as no surprise that as 2019 is about to dawn, the struggle to define Manteca is heating up with the odds it will take another direction than the fight did in the 1970s when the city population virtually increased 50 percent in size in a matter of a few years as the first major wave of Bay Area housing market exiles streamed over the Altamont Pass.

Back then the struggle was framed as agriculture trying to survive against the coming tide that would push Manteca toward bedroom community status. The battle cry was “jobs, jobs, jobs” as well as the fringe that plastered homemade signs around town and scribbled graffiti on underpasses reading “BATS go home.” BATS — for those fortunate enough not to know what it means since they were not caught in the crossfire — stood for “Bay Area Transplants.”

For years the Greek chorus bemoaned the fact Manteca was getting more and more homes and not enough jobs. At is the time they revered trucking jobs as part of the promised land of economic prosperity. That’s back in the days when the City Council on a 3-2 vote rejected Yellow Freight from locating a freight terminal on South Main Street just south of the 120 Bypass touching off a political civil war that turned neighbor against neighbor for a good 10 years after the 1988 vote.

Now trucks have fallen from favor as more and more cry out against them slamming them for adding stress to pavement and making it so they can’t speed at will down city streets while texting on smartphones.

There is a growing mantra to make Manteca “livable” as if it isn’t livable right now. What they really mean is they don’t want jobs that will disrupt their view of the world. It’s a world in which people make their living not producing goods but services that require minimal truck movements. It is a world that sees few homes being built yet wants the retail and dining world challenged by a multitude of things including e-commerce to open every shop and restaurant they desire. They also want affordable housing for their kids without opening the proverbial door for everyone else.

The problem with that scenario is it is pure fantasy. This is not the Silicon Valley. It is the Northern San Joaquin Valley. Those vilified trucks that distribution centers and such rely on so heavily bring honest-to-goodness head of household jobs to Manteca. There are many driving jobs that being the driver home each night that are struggling to be filled even though many start at $62,000 a year, just a pinch under Manteca’s median household income. That benchmark is important as it is a level considered a must to attain in order to afford to rent or possibly buy a home here.

More rooftops are needed to land desired retailers and dining experiences. The threshold many firms have for deciding whether to locate in a community has been bumped upward thanks to the inroads of e-commerce. Manteca is realistically in the hunt because it is growing by 2,000 souls a year and it is at the center of a micro-region than has 130,000 consumers within a 10-mile radius of Union Road and the 120 Bypass.

It’s ironic that as many of those that want less housing are on the verge of getting their wish that some are now voicing displeasure with what Manteca may be getting instead.

The 229-acre project known as Villa Ticino West on the southwest corner of Airport Way and Louise Avenue has been approved for 1,014 more housing units. Scannell Properties — a developer of business parks — wants to purchase the property, drop the 1,014 housing units and develop it as an employment center that would include some of the distribution jobs being vilified in some quarters.

So you are clear on what this means, in one fell swoop a seventh of the 7,000 plus homes that have entitlements meaning they can be built won’t materialize, 2,000 permanent jobs will be created, and future traffic generated from developing the 229-acre site will be reduced. Toss in the fact the land where the housing was approved is more appropriate for business park use as it is surrounded on three sides by land either developed or zoned for similar use plus backs up to railroad tracks and you would think Scannell Properties has dealt the City of Manteca a hand with four aces.

But there are some secure in their six-figure household income who dream of making Manteca into Pleasanton East and not simply the best it can be in a region still highly dependent on agriculture and blue collar jobs that will view the move as a sellout. But then again they view the building of 1,014 more homes as a sellout.

And if the land were to be farmed as it was in the past with all of the dust issues and of pesticides that are part of acceptable farming practices they would be grousing about that as well.

Making everything all the more rich is part of the Greek chorus moaning and groaning over how Manteca is growing and the fact it is growing at all were once among the BATS vilified for moving  here during the 1980s and early 1990s who are less than thrilled that people have continued to follow them to Manteca.

Replacing the cry of “jobs, jobs, jobs” with the rallying words of the politically correct sounding term “livable community” hasn’t changed the basic dilemma.

There are clearly two major interest groups in Manteca — those that aren’t struggling to land a paycheck whether it is $62,000 a year as a trucker or $15 an hour in a distribution center and those that want a community that accents their desired lifestyle.

That said both objectives can be mutually inclusive if everyone wakes up and smells the almond blossoms. Manteca cannot economically, culturally, or even in terms of amenities be a carbon copy of Santa Clara, Pleasanton, Livermore, Lodi or whatever place you want it to emulate. Manteca just like every other place has its own set of physical, geological, and economic forces to work with.

If you want a lifestyle that emulates the Pleasanton lifestyle, then you might want to think about moving to Pleasanton. But be warned. The median sale price of a home in Pleasanton is $1.1 million or more than three times the going rate in Manteca.

The goal should not be to make Manteca into a cheap, knock-off version of another community that has an entirely different hand to play whether it is the weather, the economy or sociology-economic conditions. It should be to make Manteca the best Manteca can be which is not a carbon copy of somewhere else.

This column is the opinion of executive editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Bulletin or Morris Newspaper Corp. of CA.  He can be contacted at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com or 209.249.3519.