They were six deep at the taqueria counter at La Super Altena Market in the 200 block of East Yosemite late Sunday afternoon.

By the  way — they have a great bean, rice, and cheese burrito.

The meat counter had two customers in line. There were perhaps seven or so other customers shopping in the aisles.

It’s been close to 20 years since they opened in space vacated by the Goodwill Store a few years before.

A few days, actually evenings, earlier a group of well-dressed men and women were milling in front of the latest elegant reincarnation of the El Rey — The Veranda Event Center just a block down the street. It was one of a number of events that have taken place there in recent weeks.

Right across from the Veranda the Spin Cycle — a clean and bright modern version of a laundromat — was busy as usual.

As the pandemic fades in intensity the two solid anchors of the community’s fabric — the two double event centers of the community in the form of the Manteca Ripon Pentecost Society and the Festa de Espirto Manteca — will be back humming at full throttle. That means Friday and Saturday nights will see almost every one of the four halls between the MRPS and FESM in use for crab feeds, benefit dinners, and social gatherings. Weekends are also filled with wedding receptions and such.

Just across from La Super Altena is a small-scale version of the FESM and MRPS halls in terms of community use — The American Legion Post.

Altogether – along with the Deaf Puppy Comedy Club, the Brethren Brothers Brewing Company, and a second Mexican market-bakery-taqueria dubbed the El RIncon moving toward their debuts — represent the current success of downtown and its future.

It reflects the wants and needs of the community, the community of Manteca as it is today and how it is changing.

The Family City as it speeds toward the 100,000-population mark will still be The Family City.

The obvious meaning of that is lost on some. Manteca is not Livermore, San Jose, Pleasanton, Mountain View or even Turlock of Lodi. It is Manteca.

It is not exactly the Manteca of yesteryear. It is  not a trendy cookie cutter of a Bay Area-style town.

But it is a family city. If you doubt that look at what has been going on for the past 20 years. The endless almond orchards haven’t been converted to condo complexes aimed at singles as well as young couples yet to have children.

The family tree of Manteca is also branching out. Three decades ago, there was only one ethnic business. Today they are proliferating.

They have become the backbone of downtown.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room that never leaves — a push for yet another mega-dollar consultant to change the direction downtown is heading.

You know, the dead and dying downtown Manteca. The one that had five banks/savings & loans in 2000 and now has eight. Name another downtown that paid consultants have poked, probed, and come up with a game plan that not only has the same number of financial situations it did in 2000 but has increased the number by 60 percent.

How many of those downtowns have four viable furniture stores, thriving events centers and not merely sidewalk dining as well as ethnic businesses that truly cater to ethnic cultures and as California-washed diversion.

It is why this city’s leadership needs to dust off the $160,000 plan that has made all of what is happening possible despite fumbling left and right.

It is the one commissioned in 1998 by Amphion Design.

It is what gave Manteca the stylish traffic signals and street lights that replaced the bland 1960s era standards that were in place.

It brought the Library Park expansion. It brought downtown the city’s most stunning public building — the stylish brock transit center with the clock tower.

It spawned the Manteca mural project — the largest downtown public art project of its kind in the Northern San Joaquin Valley. It also delivered the first wave of the façade improvement program, upgraded crosswalks and sidewalks, as well as two mini-plazas, parking lot upgrades and landscaping.

A decade ago — 14 years after the plan that had an $18.4 million price tag was rolled out — an assessment showed the Amphion Design playbook for downtown only had been a fifth implemented.

What ails downtown and the City of Manteca are one and the same.

And it is on full view on Woodward Avenue, the Rorschach test of Manteca governance.

It started out as a two-lane country road with homes facing the street.

Then the city decided it would be a four-lane arterial with homes walled off as you can see by Woodward Park.

Then the city decided it wanted to mirror the original country road feel with homes equipped with circular driveways facing the street as seen west of Union Road.

Then the city decided to revert back to the walled off approach as you will see as the new development start popping up on the western end of Woodward Avenue in the coming months.

See a pattern?

The city — for reasons that would keep a small army of psychologists busy for years — can’t commit to a plan and follow it through.

Perhaps since such an approach has been less than stellar, then maybe trying something different for a change might work.

Amphion Design’s plan should indeed by dusted off and given a thorough once over.

Then the city council subcommittee should look at it, reweigh the objectives, and decide whether to pick up where the city left off and add their own wrinkles.

Why start again?

Take what has worked and finish building on it.

Unless, of course, the city may have no idea where it buried the $160,000 Amphion Design Plan.

Or the real problem may be egos.

Every new kid on the block wants to make the “city” their own. Its standard resume padding.

Take a drive down Woodward Avenue. Walk around downtown with eyes open.

Then you decide whether the city has a problem with things they have control over such as how Woodward Avenue has developed that they can’t resist changing direction every six or so years.

Perhaps the best course of action is to continue downtown on its current path that started with the 1998 plan and step up its implementation instead of answering staff’s call to commission for close to $1 million yet another downtown plan.

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