People park in the street either blocking — or equally bad — crowding your driveway.

Amplified sounds sometimes mar the otherwise peaceful weekend 

And sometimes people are slobs, tossing litter as they make their way down sidewalks.

It happens occasionally in neighborhoods across Manteca.

But, to be honest, it is more of one of life’s little headaches if you live in and around high schools with football stadiums where the public address system blares for blocks, near rental hall venues, and high-use community parks.

On Tuesday, a 22-year resident near Woodward Park shared with the City Council that she and her neighbors had enough of amplified music and events that they contend pack in 10,000 people at a time and bring general chaos to their neighborhood.

She added the had no problem with big soccer tournaments.

Let’s start with short-term memory loss.

It was right around 2010 that big soccer tournaments were the bane of the existence of many residents near Woodward Park and for good reason.

People were not just blocking driveways but a few actually parked in them.

Others blocked fire hydrants and on corners illegally even across clearly marked crosswalks.

And the park, as well as nearby streets, looked like the aftermath of an outdoor rock concert with litter strewn everywhere.

Pressed by residents at the time — although you’d think city staff in charge of such venues would have done it without prodding, the then City Council directed staff to work with soccer organizers.

That led to a quick solution. Not only were more trash carts placed out for bigger events, but the soccer tournament organizers formed a group of volunteers to police the park and nearby streets after tournaments for discarded litter.

The parking problem took a little longer to address.

How it got under control was through using overtime to assign police officers during large  weekend tournaments to cruise the streets near the park and issue illegal parking tickets.

Between that — and organizers stressing the need to follow parking laws — attendees got the message.

If the city doesn’t have a clean-up deposit similar to what is standard for rental halls  charged to those staging large events that is high enough to make sure any mess is cleaned up after a Woodward Park event takes place, then Manteca needs one.

It would require an inspection after the event by the city to determine if the debris that remains is beyond a normal weekend. If it is, park maintenance crews could be assigned overtime work the following Monday. What is left, if anything, of the cleaning deposit would be returned to the group that secured use of the park.

Now let’s talk about the crowd estimate that might have been inspired by Donald Trump’s Paul Bunyan style yarns.

Supposedly, either the city’s recent Park-a-Palooza event complete with three live bands and food vendors or an ethnic festival last month drew 10,000 attendees.

The biggest concentrated crowd at Woodward Park was the first city sponsored food truck frenzy from 3 to 8 p.m. on a Sunday in April 2016. It featured 16 food trucks along with live bands and kids games.

Manteca officials projected the attendance was at 6,000.

How many people attended was an important estimate because police were handling continuous traffic backups on Woodward Avenue, South Main Street, and Van Ryn Road. No one wanted a repeat when the second food truck mania was conducted the next month

The Park-a-Palooza, that was also five hours, didn’t create a traffic mess anywhere on the same scale.

Without a doubt the largest event ever at the Woodward Park was the three-day Memorial Day weekend commemoration that ran for 12 years.

At its peak, the city estimated 20,000 to 30,000 people attended at some point during the three days.

The event had live music, amplified sound, fireworks, and even low military flyovers along with large crowds that filled parking spaces on nearby streets where some motorists intruded in driveway right-of-way.

Those are clearly things that the 22-year resident would not want to see at a park in her neighborhood.

This may not be a good time to bring it up, but there is a move afoot to bring the Memorial Day Weekend event back in 2026.

Now let’s turn the pages of the calendar back 22 years when the city’s original preferred location to construct a Big League Dreams sports complex was at Woodward Park.

No one today can legitimately argue that it would have been a great fit.

But during what ended up being close to a four-year battle royal before the project was switched to the current site on former wastewater treatment land and built, there was a steady cry from nearby residents that they didn’t want a baseball complex in “their neighborhood park.”

This brings us to reality.

Woodward Park at 50 acres never was, and never will be, a neighborhood park.

Not knowing how nearby residents might feel about it, but the city would never build a $3.7 million interactive water play feature for kids in a neighborhood park.

The fees collected to pay for that — as well as the lighted soccer fields and a host of other improvements you would not find in a typical neighborhood park — came from community park fees charged on new homes citywide.

And, as a side note, the use of neighborhood parks are not limited to those in the neighborhoods whose original home purchase price included the cost of putting them in place.

Community parks are just what the name implies. They are for larger community uses such as the extensive soccer use at Woodward Park.

Woodward Park is not “their” park when it comes to nearby residents although it also contains elements one would find in neighborhood parks.

That includes playground equipment although the apparatus that is in place at Woodward is essentially supersized.

That said, anyone who has ever lived near a school can sympathize with the lady who addressed the City Council Tuesday.

She didn’t express sentiments that would be considered way off the mark such as those in low trafficked neighborhoods where many get irked when guests of a neighbor have the “audacity” to park on the street in front of their house.

It is a city street. And it isn’t even right of way homeowners grant cities for the placement of public sidewalks.

If the city doesn’t have robust protocols in place like those in charge of private hall rentals to make sure Woodward Park is cleaned after an event then they need to make sure they do.

As for noise, with the exception of fireworks, unless it is on the level of being in close range to jack hammers and 747s taking off, it is likely complying to the city noise ordinance decibel levels tied to distance  as well as  time restrictions.

The city needs to cough up some overtime for a community service officer to spend time cruising the streets around Woodward Park looking for parking violations involving driveways, fire hydrants, and at intersections.

Inconveniences are part of living near a park, especially a community park, schools, and even churches.

That said, basic laws and rules need to be followed.

And at the end of the day, the investment in Woodward Park from Day One has been made to provide for community level uses.

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