GILROY
– For business owners and shoppers downtown, Flag Day this
Saturday will be the same as it has been for more than a decade –
flagless.
GILROY – For business owners and shoppers downtown, Flag Day this Saturday will be the same as it has been for more than a decade – flagless.
Passers-by can still see the holes in the ground where the flagpoles once stood in the area between Third and Seventh streets, but it’s been more than 10 years since American flags have flown downtown on Monterey Street.
Since Sept. 11, many young men and women born and raised in Gilroy have been called to active duty, or are already serving in the military. Jaime Rosso, 23, returned home to Gilroy last October after serving four years in the military, and believes seeing the flags, might give soldiers returning home a feeling of support from their community.
“We have a lot of young people from Gilroy serving in the military,” Rosso said. “Seeing the flags decorate downtown would be a nice feeling for servicemen and women to come home to.”
The idea of flying the flags was started by the city years ago, when it brought a proposition to store owners saying it would drill the holes in the sidewalks if the businesses agreed to pay a portion for the cost of the flags. The plan worked for years, and red, white and blue flew throughout downtown on Memorial Day, Veterans Day and the Fourth of July.
The flags were taken down because of wear and tear – and one huge mistake, said Nimble Thimble Owner Dave Peoples.
“The flags only had 48 stars on them,” Peoples said. “They also retained a lot of moisture and began to rot and had to be taken down.”
Since being brought down more than a decade ago, no one has replaced them.
Linda Ashford, part owner of Ashford Heirlooms, took the situation into her own hands by putting her own flag outside of the business at 7547 Monterey St. without any help from the city.
“I was just back east in a little town of 250 people,” Ashford said. “This place had flags at every streetlight in town. If a community that small can come up with a way to get it done, I don’t see why we can’t.”
While the wear and tear and obvious miscount of stars were l cited as reasons for taking the Stars and Stripes down, why didn’t anyone ever replace them?
“Money,” Peoples said.
A few miles north on Monterey Street, the city of Morgan Hill has flags lining its downtown for every United States holiday, with help from volunteer organizations. Signtech, the company that provides Morgan Hill’s flags, charges roughly $30 a flag.
Joanie Lewis, a sales associate at Dick Bruhn clothing store, said if the city isn’t going to do anything, businesses should put up their own flags.
“Thirty dollars isn’t much,” Lewis said. “I think most businesses could afford paying that themselves.”
The Gilroy Visitors Bureau, along with the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Development Corporation, have worked hard to beautify the downtown shopping area, but with “Welcome to Gilroy” banners instead of American flags. The welcome banners costs the city more than four times the amount of the U.S. flags – at $125 a piece.
“Having ‘Welcome to Gilroy’ banners up with no American flags kind of makes a statement saying ‘Welcome to Gilroy, we’re not patriotic,’ ” Ashford said.
Kirsten Carr, executive director for the Visitors Bureau, said the focus of its dollars have gone to the banners because the three organizations have tried to create a warm and welcoming image for downtown.
“I do believe it’s important to have the flags downtown,” Carr said. “As for right now, we have been trying to give downtown Gilroy a friendly ‘small town America’ feel, and the banners were our first step.”
The opportunity to bring up the issue is just around the corner. The next meeting of the three organizations takes place on the first Wednesday of next month.
City Councilmember Al Pinheiro agrees the flags are important, but it will take a group effort to get things done.
“I’m sure the city would be very supportive if we could make it happen,” Pinheiro said. “It would be another wonderful way to highlight downtown as a nice place to be, and we can use all the help we can get.”
Another group that would be able to help oversee the project is the Exchange Club of Gilroy, which is a service club that focuses on Americanism, youth and community services.
President Christy Bracco said the club would be interested in helping get the flag project going and believes in showing patriotism.
“I think it is very important,” Bracco said. “I have a flag in front of my house every day of the year.”
