”
There’s a couple of streets in town that I have heard pronounced
a couple of different ways and I was hoping Red Phone could clarify
for us.
the name game
“There’s a couple of streets in town that I have heard pronounced a couple of different ways and I was hoping Red Phone could clarify for us. ‘Princevalley,’ ‘Princevail’ or ‘Princeval?’ I’ve heard it pronounced all different ways and I was wondering if you could tell me which way is correct? Also, ‘Eagle-berry’ and ‘Eye-gle-berry’ not really sure, so let us know thanks.”
Red Phone:
Good caller, tomatoe, tomato right? From street to sur names, pronunciation isn’t necessarily the key, spelling is. However, you got Red Phone thinking and it decided to call a few buffs on Gilroy history to see if they might know.
President of the Historical Society, Connie Rogers said, “Well, I know how most residents pronounce them because I have lived here for 40 years, but I don’t know that is the correct way. I’ve always heard it pronounced, Princevalle as if there was a ‘y’ at the end, and Eigleberry pronounced ‘eagle-berry’ like the bird.” Connie then helped Red Phone on its hunt by suggesting a call to the Gilroy Museum.
Museum Coordinator, Lucy Solorzano had a similar reply. Solorzano gave the same answer, she said everyone around the museum uses the same pronunciation Rogers gave. She said she actually asked a long-time Gilroy resident once and he told her that those pronunciations might not be right, but it’s what everyone uses.
So caller, you now have the choice, go with the flow, or start your own street name revolution by using your own, different pronunciation. Who knows, years from now it just might stick, but until then, ‘majority rule’ is the answer to your question. Red Phone thanks you for a fun search.
same building, different day
“I would like to know what’s going on with this building on the corner of Fourth and Monterey streets. It was bought by Century 21 and Su Casa and they started to remodel it and it’s been sitting here for a good six months as an empty shell and I’m just wondering if this is the kind of thing that the city is going to pass permits to have things remolded for and then the owners are going to go broke and we’re going to end of with just buildings just sitting here looking worse than the street does. So if you could please address this issue because this building really needs to be taken care of at this point.”
Red Phone:
You are right caller, that building has sat abandoned and in need of much love for quite some time now, so long in fact that another caller beat you to Red Phone with the same concern. In the Sept. 2 Red Phone column the issue of the vacant building on Fourth and Monterey was addressed. Red Phone spoke with building owner, David McCain, who said he decided to change the bank that was financing the building. Because of the change, he had to restart all his paperwork again and that it was taking a longtime and in effect delaying his ability to restart construction. During that conversation with McCain, he said he estimated that he would be able to get his financing completed and a crew back on the job within a couple months.
After receiving your second inquiry good caller, Red Phone decided to ask Senior Plan Check Engineer for the city, Stephen Lau. Lau gathered information on the building from planning and code enforcement.
He said, “At this time, the construction permit has not expired yet. We have notified the owner and contractor of the current permit status and they are entitled a one-time 180 day extension. Once the permit is expired, we will turn the project over to our code enforcement officer and he may pursue an investigation on and take necessary actions.”
So caller, there is accountability in this situation, but all things take time, just look on down Monterey a short way for sufficient evidence.
