Hi Kathy: I haven't been to Manteca for many years but I lived there as a teenager in the late 1960's during Vietnam. All the boys had been drafted and would come home on leave. Many of them drove the newest and greatest car on the road - the Mustang Cobra. I used to carhop with a girlfriend at the old A&W - but mainly I laughed all through the shift. Great times. The picture of the corner there in the opinion column regarding saving downtown Manteca - had a darling dress shop there where all the girls shopped and right new door was a salon where all the girls just had to go to get their hair done. I don't know about making it a one way street - I saw where they did that in Tehachapi to save the downtown and it looks crappy now. It would be cute to have a downtown historical area lke another poster said. I think it would bring in the money! Just fix it up and don't make it over and modernize it. Too bad about Manteca - it sounds like it turned into the OK Corral! That is cured with tough cops, arrests, and tough judges. Bye! Bye! And prevention programs! No money? Hey. The state controller stated today that all the cities in California have to post the salaries of their department heads. Make them earn their money - if they are like every other city in California, they've got to be overpaid!

Kathy! The name of that cute dress shop was "Peggy's"! Just came to me!

We need help indeed. I am with you. I am armed and tired of being victimized by out of control kids, druggies, gangsters, etc and i won't be. For all our security and protection, do you feel any safer ? i sure don't. I encourage you to call the police frequently, contact the mayor Willie Weatherford and mayoral candidates Carlon Perry and Ben Cantu. I am bending every single persons ear who will listen and I am not done.

Manteca is a wonderful place to live and to raise a family. I have lived in Manteca since the early fifties, attended the schools and raised a family. Only in the past 10 to 12 years has the degree of safety even been questioned.

It is ironic that Manteca is advertised and known as "The Family City", yet the residents do not feel safe and are concerned with their safety and that of their children. It is my belief that inappropriate fiscal and budget decisions on the part of the current mayor and council have created the current situation. The residents approved a tax rate increase specifically to re-enforce public safety, then due to budget mismanagement the mayor and council laid-off 12 public safety personnel.

My #1 priority as mayor is to reinstate the residents' desired level of safety.