Recently I discovered a locally written two-page paper
entitled
”
The Gilroy Advantage.
”
It’s an economic and demographic profile of Gilroy produced by
the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation.
Recently I discovered a locally written two-page paper entitled “The Gilroy Advantage.” It’s an economic and demographic profile of Gilroy produced by the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation. I thought it was interesting how it states two things: first, that Gilroy has “kept pace with the awakening of the tourism industry in California.” And second, since the first Garlic Festival was held in 1979, Gilroy has not only become a tourist destination, but also has “an ongoing commitment for its future vitality by being a regional shopping hub.”
Shopping hub indeed. With over 150 stores at the Gilroy factory outlet center, it is, according to the paper, one of the largest outlet centers in the nation. And now with the addition of the two giant retail store complexes off of 10th Street and the freeway, Gilroy has solidified its first-place position as “the” regional shopping hub of the area. Now it’s not my purpose in this column to either defend or criticize the presence of these two new large retail complexes. I do however, want to raise two concerns about these newest additions to Gilroy’s retail “hub” stature.
My first concern is the matter of existing street access to get to the new retail complexes. For the majority of Gilroy residents and out-of-town visitors, there is only one major entry point to get to all of these new retail stores, and that’s at 10th Street – either exiting the freeway or traveling eastbound from Monterey Road. So the 10th Street overpass has become as it were, a choke point of traffic flow with its two lanes in each direction. Even now there are traffic backups at Chestnut Street, as well as at the signal lights controlling traffic exiting the freeway. Add more traffic when all of the new retail stores in these new retail complexes are completed next year, and it’s likely there will be one big kludge of vehicles to deal with on a regular basis.
While this is the first holiday season shoppers will be visiting Costco, Lowe’s and Target, just wait until all of the new retail stores are open and the traffic volume will increase even more.
While it appears to be a good idea to add another access-egress route, it seems the only quick fix right now would be to extend Camino Arroyo street ending at Costco into Gilman Road/Sixth Street. That would mean dumping traffic into the residential area along Sixth Street and then onto the single lanes at Sixth and Monterey Road in downtown. This option however does not seem likely.
So while we’re getting even more retail stores in Gilroy, it might very well be that we’ll have an ever-increasing challenge to get there to shop.
Concern number two deals with police and fire protection for this area.
By adding more people and more vehicles, it’s likely there will be an increase in emergency calls requiring police and fire department response. There will be car burglaries and car thefts. There will be shoplifters taken into custody that will require police transport to jail. An increase in this activity may strain the existing people resources of GPD/GFD and place other areas of the city at the risk of delayed responses. Even though GFD has a station on Chestnut Street off of 10th Street, it seems probable that when traffic is at a standstill bumper to bumper eastbound on 10th Street, GFD may very likely be delayed in responding to medical emergencies or structural alarm responses at these new stores.
Then there’s the matter of police protection and patrol for this new retail area. It’s my understanding that GPD’s goal is to have 1.75 officers per thousand city population. So for a Gilroy population of around 45,000 people, this would yield about 79 sworn police personnel. Even with a more realistic goal of 1.5 officers per thousand city population, this would still be around 67 officers, more that the 61-63 existing sworn officers now in the GPD.
Remember that GPD’s existing officers will be required to cover this expanded retail area. So it appears our existing PD resources will likely be stretched even thinner. Let’s hope that our City Council will apply some of the sales tax revenue from these new stores for additional police and fire resources for Gilroy, as soon as possible.
If these two concerns become actual problems, then the “Gilroy Advantage” could well become a real Gilroy disadvantage every holiday season and maybe every weekend. While I hope I’m wrong, time will tell.
