Hoots and howls from a night owl
“I hear all this crying from downtown business owners. How about OPENING your doors during regular business hours! AND I’LL SPEND MY MONEY!
I thought I’d have a meeting in downtown Gilroy, but everything was closed. I planned a meeting at Happy Dog Pizza, never thinking they would be closed during the week, but they were closed. So we walked over to Fifth Street coffee and they close their doors at 5 p.m. What is going on with these owners! So we walk down Fifth towards Fourth and we find one proud owner decorating his windows for Christmas, but guess what? He can’t open his doors to the public because of a city ordinance. It looks like the city and the owners need to check their policies or you’ll run downtown business into the ground! P.S. I went to Togos on First Street for a bite and they closed at 8 p.m.”
Red Phone:
Many restaurants close on Mondays. Small merchants, as much as they would like to make you happy all the time, would like a day off to be with their families or pursue their personal interests. If they are not open at 8 p.m. it is because they choose to focus on customers who live or work nearby who can take care of their business over a cup of coffee or lunch, of which there are many fine establishments in downtown Gilroy to meet those needs. If you need to meet at night, there’s always Denny’s. As for the “crying,” Red Phone doesn’t know what you are referring to, or to your reference to “an ordinance.” We would need a little more information to point the question in the right direction.
Why paint ’em if you don’t enforce ’em?
“Why did the City of Gilroy paint the curbs red on many of the city street corners, only to allow vehicles to continuously park there without issuing citations to recoup some of the money the city spent on the manpower and materials to supposedly stop people from parking there. There are two curbs painted red in my neighborhood, I have watched many people park in the red for hours and the police just drive by and not ticket them, also we have seen parking abatement ignore the fact that these cars are parked in the red. So I always wonder why did the City of Gilroy paint the curbs red?”
Red Phone:
I see you’ve met Red Phone’s cousin, Red Curb! Sounds like you, good caller, are seeing more red than the police. As The Dispatch has reported several times in recent months, much of an officer’s shift is spent responding to calls. The majority of calls do not require lights and sirens, so you might not know they are responding to a call for assistance when you seem them drive by. Police also must prioritize. If there is a lot of gang activity in your neighborhood, officers are more likely to be looking for suspicious behavior than parking scofflaws. But since these folks – who obviously have little regard for the safety of pedestrians, other motorists or the ability for first responders such as firefighters to quickly access emergency scenes – are so leisurely about their behavior, spending hours parked in the red, Red Phone suggests you call the police at their nonemergency number (846-0350), and report the infraction. That way an officer can respond and cite a motorist, if warranted.
