One of our Community Pulse Board members said it very well responding to the question “Do you agree with the City Council’s decision Monday to place liens against unreinforced masonry downtown properties that have not been brought up to safety standards?” She wrote, “Yes, the time has come to get this issue resolved. Many of the building owners have been non-responsive and not cooperative. I would like to see a low interest loan option available to those who want to repair their buildings.” In chewing on this issue and watching a downtown stuck in a yukky time warp for 25 years, I have vacillated on the approach. But I’ve come around to Mayor Don Gage’s way of thinking and agree with the Council’s action. If the building owners want to demolish, so be it. Let them cut off their noses to spite their faces. They’d better keep those empty lots pristine, though, or they could be declared a public nuisance and, by the way, perhaps there are additional standards of upkeep for downtown properties that could be developed which include empty lots and the alleys behind them. If an entire rebuild with historical sensibility needs to be the way something gets done, OK. But Gage is right, the pile has to move.
Moving right along, we’re on the cusp of the Garlic Festival and Donna Pray the Executive Director of the “Give Where You Live” Foundation otherwise known as the Gilroy Foundation sent me this email … “Just to let you know, Gina and I just plucked the gong out of storage for all the ‘tickled pink coolers and sangrias’ you’ll be selling!” Miss Jenny and I and Patty Filice and Jim Habing and Pam Martin and a number of others including the I-talian Stall-ion Frank Angelino have sold the heck out of those coolers every Saturday starting shift for years. We hoot, we cajole, we work our tails off keeping up with demand and we bring home the bacon every time. It’s a really good crew and a really good cause. Stop by, we’re on the way to the Cook-off Stage. You’ll get some great smiles, friendly service, a gong if you order Tickle Pink and a really refreshing wine cooler made by a seasoned mixologist.
Life’s mixes can be messy and painful, whether man made or of an inexplicable nature … imagine being a brilliant, admired computer science university professor making a wonderful living who, at 46 years old, has a beautiful wife and two young children. You are on top of the world, heaven on earth. Then, pancreatic cancer strikes, mocking the folly of your human existence. It’s deadly, you have six months. What did Randy Pausch do? He wrote an incredible book – a gift of life lessons to his children, a collection of beautiful insights, words of wisdom and humorous revelations of his personality so his children could know him long after he departed, which he did on July 25, 2008. If you haven’t read “The Last Lecture”, it’s well worth the short investment. You will take something valuable from it. The book is not preachy or gooey or silly, it’s just real and written from the heart with eternal highlights on subjects like this foundational one for relationships – his A-Number One Rule: “Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth.”
Truth is, I enjoy baseball books and movies and Hank Miller’s column, also on this page, gave me a good laugh. I love how Hank approaches a topic with such fluidity and grace – like Roberto Clemente playing the outfield. If you appreciate baseball as America’s game and its intertwining with our country’s history, then a fantastic summer read is “Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero” by David Maraniss. And even though it certainly would not be a purist’s pick, my favorite baseball movie is “Bull Durham.”
Ya know, that No Bull BBQ event the Morgan Hill Chamber put on for a couple of years really was a good idea. And it’s gone, but Gilroy could fill that South County void. John Melone, son of beloved Garlic Festival co-founder Rudy, is a BBQ guru who has appeared on the TV show BBQ Pitmasters and is the driving force along with Volunteer President Dennis Harrigan behind the Fest’s first BBQ rib competition billed as “Pigs in the Park with Garlic.” OK, the name needs some work, but the competition team names are bad to the bone. Big Ed’s Buzzard BBQ and Pig Night Run are in it to win it. Competition from 10:30 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Friday to the right of the Cook-off Stage and if I understand it right, the judging will take place center Cook-off Stage.
Stage right exit – the Caltrain express to the Garlic Festival. Shame on the Charter Bus Association that sent a letter to the Festival saying it’s illegal for the Gilroy Unified School District to rent buses to the Garlic Festival. The Fest had already executed a contract with GUSD: school buses would take all those who rode the train in one fell swoop from the Gilroy station to the festival. Now, the train is cancelled. This is an asinine example of a state law where monied influence trumped common sense. Festival folks looked into charter bus companies, of course. Lowest bid, $13,000 more.
Reach Editor Mark Derry at
ed****@ga****.com
