Have you lived in or visited San Joaquin County, California? Tell us about it!
Manteca
San Joaquin, California, USA (North America) – July 2018 — Growing up I wasn’t a fan of my hometown because there wasn’t really that much to do. I lived there from when I was born in 1992-2016 when I moved away for college. Living in the Central Valley is hot and I was never a fan of the heat. My grandmother originally moved here because she like warm weather and at the time the town was relatively small. We had basic things like movie theatres and bowling alleys and coffee shops. There is this small local coffee shop that was right down the street from my high school that we would hang out at after school. I was a theatre kid so we would all go together before rehearsal. Now that I’m older I can see the appeal of living where we need. It’s within driving distance of the mountains, the ocean, major cities, and so many other fun things. It’s an amazing part of California to live. Everything is within driving distance and housing is much more affordable then the major cities. Fun fact about my hometown that I always tell people is that the name is misspelled. Manteca means lard in Spanish and was supposed to be Mantaca (I think that’s the correct spelling) which means flower or something like that but someone misspelled the name and it just stuck. One thing I do love about my hometown is that there’s so much agricultural so there’s always fresh produce. Freshly picked warm strawberries on a cool summer night will always be my favorite, same goes with nectarines. Manteca will always be my home.
Stockton
May 2018 — Stockton, California, USA is the largest city and county seat of San Joaquin county. The population is about 250,000 people. It is approximately 50 miles south of California’s capital, Sacramento and about 90 miles east of San Francisco. A lot of people that don’t want to live in the Bay Area or Sacramento move to Stockton because it is smaller, and they could still be close to those areas. Stockton is home to the University of the Pacific and there is also a satellite campus for Cal State University. There is also Delta College which is a large community college. The public transportation might not be as extensive as larger cities but it is expanding with new routes and plans for even more. Stockton’s weather is something that some people that live here don’t like sometimes. It can be over 100F in the summer and it hardly ever rains. It can drop into the low 20s at night in the winter. Stockton might be growing less than other cities in California but there has been some progress recently. There is a lot of new housing that is being built in the north side and downtown. There is also a lot of industrial growth in the south side of town with an increasing amount of jobs. Stockton is probably like most cities that have expensive and also cheap areas to live. Lastly, Stockton does have a small airport in the south area of town and has Allegiant Airlines there that has daily flights to Las Vegas and less frequent flights to a few other places.
Manteca
March 2018 — Manteca, CA in the USA use to be a small town. Even though it has grown, it still has small town ideas. First is that it places flags out on the sidewalks for appropriate holidays like Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day , etc. They have about 200 flags all around town and the citizens make sure they stay upright in their places. I didn’t live here twenty years ago but we did come visit family then so I know about some of the changes. Some of the biggest ones are the stores. They now have big box stores like Costco and a super big Walmart and malls to accommodate some of these. There is a big Senior Center in town and they provide lots of events for our senior citizens.