I consider Manteca my home.

I wasn’t born or raised here.  It is where I decided to move. I had three job offers within 24 hours back in 1991 — as managing editor of the Manteca Bulletin, copy editor of the Merced Sun Star and columnist for the Las Vegas Sun.

People who knew me were stunned that I would leave the Press-Tribune in Roseville back when it was a six day a week daily. For the better part of 150 years when I decided to move, my family rarely put down roots outside of Placer, Nevada or Sacramento counties. And when people found out I passed on what they — not me — thought my dream job was less than three hours from Death Valley where I have a mad love affair with to come to Manteca, they thought I had lost it.

Moving to Manteca is the smartest thing I ever did.

There are a lot of good people here.

Crime is on the low-side for similar sized cities according to FBI benchmarks.

The schools are decent.

Most of us are within a half mile walk of a park. There are more parks per capita than most cities.

There is real farming here and it is thriving.

Manteca neighborhoods are home to people who are nuclear scientists, tech workers, truck drivers, farm workers, construction workers, teachers, professionals, mechanics, truck drivers, logistic workers  — you name it.

People are willing to help others.

In just over an hour, I can be in San Francisco or San Jose. In just over two hours I can get sprayed by waterfalls in Yosemite Valley or hike among coastal redwoods. In three hours, I can walk along a Monterey Bay beach or start climbing toward peaks of the Sierra crest.

Manteca is a place that genuinely respects those who serve and have served in the military to secure our freedoms.

None of this is meant to disparage Roseville or Lincoln, where I grew up.
I am not looking at Manteca through rose colored glasses.

I’m aware that Manteca has its share of blemishes, problems, and warts — whatever you want to call them. We need to address them as a community more effectively than we have.

Some may call Manteca a “drab, dull, dirty” town. That’s OK. If that’s what they see, that’s what they see.

Part of the “dirty” may come from the fact we are in a bountiful agricultural region. Growing food can get a bit dusty at times. By the way if San Joaquin County were a standalone state, it would rank as the 37th highest state for farm production.

“Drab” might be a fair shot at times but it is also safe to say Manteca isn’t a rigid cookie cutter design type of place. That can be good and bad. But for a drab place it has an abundance of public art in the form of 30 plus downtown murals as well as  some nice striking buildings old and new. The art and architecture may not fit into some people’s tastes. That’s fine. The world would be pretty dull if every community was a carbon copy of Pleasanton or Livermore.

I happen to like both Pleasanton and Livermore a lot. But let’s be brutally honest here. Manteca cannot be Pleasanton or Livermore, but it can be the best Manteca possible.

The reasons are simple. Livermore and Pleasanton have household incomes — whether measured by either median or average — that are some 60 to 80 percent higher than Manteca. They also both have less extreme high and low temperatures that impact everything from landscaping to the air we breathe.

To think those cities don’t have problems is wishful thinking.

The homeless and panhandlers are one example. Both cities have them. In the past 10 months I have been aggressively panhandled twice. Each time was along the Hopyard in Pleasanton. I’ve had more than my share of encounters with the homeless in Manteca.

A surprising number — including those that seek help from HOPE Family Shelter — headed this way after rising rents forced them out of the Bay Area only to find it can be a challenge to secure housing here as well.

Say what you want about Manteca and the homeless but I defy you to find another community this size where the police department coordinates resources and steers those that decide they want help to places where they can get it. Yes, there are illegal encampments and related issued but they are being addressed in a lawful manner. It is not against the law to be homeless. You can’t run them out of town nor would you want to live in a community that believes that is what you do with people that the majority of residents don’t want to see.

I’ve heard all the snide names for Manteca such as “Mantweeka” and “Manstinka”.  It doesn’t bother me.  Yes we have drug problems and yes we have agricultural smells but so does the Napa Valley. By the way, the most scroungy looking homeless person I’ve seen so far this year wasn’t in Manteca but in Calistoga.

Those who see flaw after flaw and nothing else about Manteca shouldn’t be told to move.

That said, one hopes they understand the answer isn’t looking for greener grass. And if that greener grass is in a place like Pleasanton or Livermore where you can’t afford to live it makes no sense to pine over something you can’t have. It is true you can make own heaven or hell. We can all change things even if it is by small degrees. A lot of small gestures add up.

If you “settle” on Manteca because you can afford to live here it doesn’t mean you have to settle on your perception of Manteca. Help change it. After all, this is the place you chose to call home.

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