Street opens one month before sidewalks between Fourth and Sixth
Streets
Gilroy – Downtown Monterey Street opens to motorists this afternoon following six months as a construction wasteland.
City officials will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony at 4pm today in front of old City Hall, on the corner of Sixth and Monterey streets. The celebration comes a month before construction wraps up on sidewalks between Fourth and Sixth streets, but business owners long starved for customers are bubbling over at the prospect of cars passing their storefronts.
“We’re excited to see traffic out there and people on the sidewalks,” said Michael Brownfield, owner of the Vacuum Store just south of Fifth Street. “With the street open, we’re going to see a lot more people.”
A half block to the north, enthusiasm at Sue’s Coffee Roasting Company spilled over onto a wedge-board sign.
“Street opening tomorrow! Yippee!!!” the sign exclaimed.
Inside the coffee shop, regular patron Danielle Rhinehart said she’s noticed people wandering back to the area in recent days. She suspected the more curious were lured by the freshly paved road, towering street lights and expansive sidewalks that are partially complete.
“I think it’s about time (they finished),” Rhinehart said. “It’s beautiful. I think there should be a lot more focus on downtown instead of building another mall that we don’t need.”
Customers started to vanish from the beleaguered downtown in April, when the city sealed off a two block stretch of Monterey Street that serves as home to dozens of stores. Business owners reporting losses of 50 to 80 percent have grown impatient with the project as bad weather and technical problems delayed completion. Monterey Street was originally expected to re-open in July.
Meeting today’s deadline for roadwork was no cinch for construction crews, who Thursday were putting the last layer of asphalt on the road and installing wiring at crosswalks. Today, workers were expected to stripe driving lanes and angled parking spaces along both sides of the street.
“It’s been a mad dash down to the wire,” said Mike Masinter, an electrician laying safety blinkers in a crosswalk north of the Sixth Street intersection. He called the road opening premature since only half of the antique lamp-posts on the street are functioning and stoplights are not yet installed.
Stop signs placed in old tires are standing in for street lights at the moment, and it’s unlikely officials or business owners will stomach any more delays.
“That would not be good,” Brownfield said, joking that “they’d better open it up to bicycles or something.”
Steve Ashford, owner of Ashford’s Heirlooms at 7547 Monterey St., has been a faithful critic of the city’s handling of the project. He continues to worry about the pace of redevelopment and what he sees as an inevitable parking crunch, but he applauded the design of the street and sidewalks.
“It’s gorgeous,” Ashford said. “I would have been happy with the lights alone. They make it safe to walk around and the sidewalks are nice. I’ve always said the final product will be nice. It’s the pain we had to go through to get here.”
Other downtown areas have struggled through change as well, Mayor Al Pinheiro said Thursday as he stopped at Monterey Street businesses, spreading word of the ribbon cutting ceremony.
“We must give credit to all the downtown owners who endured the last six months,” he said, adding that revitalization efforts are far from over.
Empty storefronts dot the street and many businesses in operation have old facades. Not everyone can afford a full-scale remodel, Pinheiro acknowledged, but he’s hoping businesses will at least make efforts to tidy up their outward appearance.
“This is just the beginning of us once again making downtown the heart of our community,” Pinheiro said.
Sidewalk construction along Monterey Street is expected to wrap up by Nov. 22.
