In 2007, when my husband took a job in Gilroy and we came here
to contemplate relocation, we were horrified by downtown. I got a
sick feeling in my stomach as we drove down Monterey and saw
business after business shuttered. I felt temporarily excited when
I saw signs for the
”
historic downtown
”
but it didn’t reveal itself as such.
(Loyal Gilroyans will be happy to hear that we felt Watsonville
was even worse … but affronted to hear Morgan Hill looked pretty
good to us.)
In 2007, when my husband took a job in Gilroy and we came here to contemplate relocation, we were horrified by downtown. I got a sick feeling in my stomach as we drove down Monterey and saw business after business shuttered. I felt temporarily excited when I saw signs for the “historic downtown” but it didn’t reveal itself as such.
(Loyal Gilroyans will be happy to hear that we felt Watsonville was even worse … but affronted to hear Morgan Hill looked pretty good to us.)
Yet, move we did, because we had to. And once here, I realized that downtown was actually okay … let’s not fool ourselves-it needs help-but there are some pretty incredible businesses there.
But to avoid that sense of dread visitors will feel when driving down our main drag, we need to do something to remedy its half-expired look. “Downtown is the front porch of your city,” says property owner Gary Walton.
Carol Peters and four Gilroy High School students are doing something about it. Peters, who worked for 30 years as a painting and drawing instructor at GHS before retiring, experienced a lightbulb moment. Why not make a vacant store look like it’s operational?
“When I was a high school student, I worked in a dress shop downtown and I decorated the inside windows,” she says. So naturally the idea evolved that painting vacant storefront windows would make it look like there’s bustling activity inside.
“The idea is to cosmetically beautify one building, the former Leedo Gallery at 7529 Monterey St.,” she says. She approached the current art instructor at GHS, Susanne Tobin, to enlist four advanced art students to join in the project.
Tobin recommended Jasmine Darbhamulla, Josh Morales, Alex Marshall and Michael Boehnker. The students worked independently to develop a concept for the imagined “business” in the abandoned store, coming up with a French Bistro, a health food store, an art gallery and an old bank. They drew detailed sketches of their concept, and developed a pitch, just as professional artists do.
Last month, they entered the Chamber of Commerce board room, dressed to the nines, serious and motivated. In turn, they each presented their design ideas to a panel composed of Mayor Al Pinheiro; Susan Valenta, president of the Chamber; Eric Howard, president of the Downtown Business Association; and the building owner Raul Yanez’s daughter Esmeralda. Marking the gravity of the occasion, “Raul’s children even came down from San Jose to be part of the panel,” says Peters. “I was so proud (of the four students). They had dressed up and were attentive, professional and very excited!”
The panel selected Josh Morales’s idea, The Old Bank of Gilroy. He therefore emerged as team leader, with the other three students following his lead on painting plexiglass and board panels to be installed at the Leedo Gallery. “I’m not interfering at all,” says Peters.
Since then, the students have devoted each Saturday (even during holiday vacation!) to working on the project at Peters’s home studio. Funds for the plexiglass were donated by the Chamber, and Peters is paying for paint and other supplies. She hopes to get donors for installing planters and a bench in front of the storefront as well.
She invited me to her studio to view the drawings and the in-progress panels. They’re spectacular. The most eye-catching image is of a surreally-vivid Victorian woman clutching a handful of cash.
The project is garnering enthusiasm. Selection panelist Eric Howard said at a recent meeting of the Downtown Appreciation Group, “That way, when you drive downtown, it’s not like ‘vacant, vacant, vacant.’ ” And local graphic artist Mario Moretti assisted with lettering for the sign.
Not only will downtown benefit – but think of the effect on those four students. They’ve made connections with professionals in the community and been part of a project that will look great on college applications and resumes.
Peters’s main goal is for other property owners to be inspired: “Others will follow suit. Let’s make Gilroy look beautiful.”
You can see the windows being installed on March 11 as part of a TV shoot for the Gavilan Educational TV show “Carol on Creativity,” which airs on Ch. 18 and online at www.gavtv.blip.tv. At that time, the mayor and others will add a few brushstrokes for posterity. And at the May 15 wine stroll, everything will be in place and completed. Erika Mailman is the author of The Witch’s Trinity, an historical novel named a Notable Book by the San Francisco Chronicle. You can reach her through www.erikamailman.com.
