Hardly can believe the city has devoted so much time and energy
seemingly into squelching dancing downtown. What we need to do is
foster activity
– and that includes some nightlife – downtown.
Hardly can believe the city has devoted so much time and energy seemingly into squelching dancing downtown. What we need to do is foster activity – and that includes some nightlife – downtown. An alive downtown that’s safe, pleasant and inviting should be a shared goal. What we don’t need to do is to clamp down so hard with restrictions that downtown suffocates. It’s funny (well, not really) but the same City Hall “culture” that’s seems so intent on putting a stranglehold on the “downtown dancing beast” is the one responsible for all the empty storefronts downtown. Draconian restrictions, and an outrageous fine schedule, have resulted in blight – empty storefronts by the bucket. Storefronts that aren’t generating tax revenue, storefronts that speak volumes about what our city really cares about, storefronts that could be providing jobs. Again, what’s the goal? If the goal is to shut downtown down and lock the soul of our business community in a dark closet for a decade, City Hall is doing an absolutely wonderful job. It’s not just about streetscape improvements, it’s about policies and attitude and culture. Gilroy should relax the URM standards, figure out how to encourage dancing downtown and spend the money to hire a downtown events coordinator for five years. That person could do things like put together a dynamic downtown fundraiser that could pay for a fence around the community garden. CAN DO GILROY, let’s just figure out how!
How to tackle the huge issues associated with high speed rail steamrolling through our city? Well, the Dispatch Editorial Board strongly suggested quite some time ago that the city apply for a grant or hire a consultant. What did Gilroy get? A grant for $2.3 million to hire six firefighters for just two years. A city insider suggested that we hire those firefighters and put them to work tackling the high speed rail issues that the city politicos seem content to sit on their hands and moan about …
No moaning about a beautiful weekend – low 80s with a slight breeze, should be perfecto – with Passports available to visit all our local wineries. Here’s the $30 ticket tip from a local vino afficionado – visit a couple of wineries off New Avenue first – Satori Cellars – lovely wines with grilled sausages and homemade brownies; next to Creekview Vineyards to taste a few award-winning wines while enjoying delicious BBQ offerings; south to Sycamore Creek just off Watsonville Road for fabulous pupu’s paired with wonderful wines; finish with cheese tortellini at Fortino’s and perhaps a stop at Solis. That skips Fernwood Cellars and Martin Ranch, two beautiful spots on Redwood Retreat Road, and there’s no accounting for a stop at the Morgan Hill Tobacco Company or Tony’s Smoke Shop on First Street here in town for a suggestion on a good cigar to end the day’s journey. But the truth is, that unless you overbook, it’s tough not to have a relaxing day on Passport Weekend.
If you’d like to hear the seven City Council candidates before the weekend, there’s a chance at lunch Friday. For $15 you can enjoy a great meal at Lizarran Tapas Restaurant downtown and get an idea about which three candidates you’re going to vote for next month. (Yikes, it’s October pumpkin time and all that already.) It’s not too late, call Karen LaCorte to make a reservation, 710-4070. Civic event sponsored by the good folks at Leadership Gilroy.
What’s leading the list – we’re in the middle of Banned Books Week 2010 – truly shocked me. It’s an engaging novel, especially for an adolescent reader. I read “The Catcher in the Rye” in 7th grade. It was captivating and certainly helped fuel interesting class discussions and a lifetime love of reading. Author J.D. Salinger, a lifelong recluse, died this year and it’s counfounding that Jerome David, a WWII veteran who was on Utah Beach on D-Day led the American Library Association’s banned book “charts” in his final year. “Catcher in the Rye” has no more business being on a banned book list than “To Kill a Mockingbird,” also, unfortunately, on the list. Shutting down knowledge and, thus, communication, is just as ridiculous as shutting down dancing in Gilroy’s downtown.
Dancing in the streets will be the order of the day when the San Francisco Giants – now just a smidgen away from – clinch the Western Division title. What a great baseball season it’s been, going down to the wire, filled with unlikely heroes like Pat “The Bat” Burrell, Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff. Way back, in the days even before reading “Catcher in the Rye,” in the fall when baseball mattered I would sneak a transistor radio into class, run the headphone cord up the sleeve of my Catholic school uniform sweater and hope for the crack of a Giants bat followed by the telltale words “You can tell it goodbye …” A World Series Championship for the Giants and a hole-in-one on the golf course. Two things that remain on my bucket list.
The California budget bucket is filled to the brim with red ink. The shortfall is now estimated at $26.3 billion. Stop, just for a second and consider that number. It’s sure comforting to know, however, that the state is reimbursing the city of Gilroy for firefighter overtime spent fighting wildfires. There are hot dots – let’s connect them. Call me crazy, but I just don’t comprehend the reality that a Gilroy firefighter can make substantially more in just OT pay than a starting teacher gets paid in a year. That, I think, is nuts and it is going to change.
