Community

Not content with just “leaning in,” a new program launched in Gilroy this summer aims to close the success gap and equip young women and girls with critical leadership skills long before they send out their first resume.

Downtown Gilroy was packed with people on July 8, all hungry to sample from 10 food trucks at the inaugural Moveable Feast event at Fifth Street Live.Moveable Feast is a food truck collective based in San Jose. Making the trip to Gilroy last Friday were Akita Sushi, BBQ Kalbi, Brothers Gow Chow, H. Butler’s BBQ, Ketch It Seafood, Los Jarochos Grill, Siam Loco Wraps, Treatbot, Waffle Amore, and Grilled Cheese Bandits.“We were in line for a long time for the Korean barbecue,” said Yvonne Isles, who came with her family all the way from Los Banos. She said she’d heard of the collective because she works in San Jose, and got wind of the event through Facebook.“The Facebook Event page said that about 2,500 people were interested,” said Gilroy Downtown Business Association event coordinator Melanie Corona. “I think we ended up getting about 4,000.”The long lines didn’t deter attendees from enjoying the Fifth Street Live festivities.“It was like a massive block party,” said Moveable Feast founder Ryan Sebastian. “Families brought their chairs out, enjoyed great food, great music. A real sense of community. It was the best block party I’ve ever been to.”Food trucks were parked in Gourmet Alley and on Fifth Street between Monterey Road and Eigleberry Avenue. Morgan Hill-based band the Emphatics performed live while the crowd ate, drank and danced.According to Sebastian, Gilroy is the furthest south Moveable Feast has been in Santa Clara County.“It was the perfect storm for downtown Gilroy,” Corona said. “Amaretto had their annual fashion show, which is always a well-attended event. The District had a great band playing that night, and something was going on at Old City Hall. There were lots of complementary events happening.”Sebastian met some of the local restaurateurs and business owners downtown and said everyone was excited about the event.Corona said that the GDBA is always concerned with how the downtown businesses are doing.“We don’t want to take away from their success or their Friday night, but I don’t think that was a problem at all,” she said.Moveable Feast wasn’t the only business to turn a crowd. Restaurants like Old City Hall, the Milias Restaurant, and Garlic City Cafe were full houses—maybe too full?“I think it’s a good thing for Gilroy, but it’s on the wrong day,” said The Milias restaurant owner Adam Sanchez.Sanchez said that every Friday is busy downtown, and that parking is packed as it is. The long wait times at his restaurant caused frustration for all parties.The event could have significant economic potential for downtown Gilroy. And while there’s talk of continuing Fifth Street Live and Moveable Feast after the summer, nothing has been finalized yet.“We just had our first one so, we’re going to look at the first one or two to see, ‘Is this making sense? Is this making the live music series more successful?’” Sebastian said. “The answer is absolutely yes.”Corona is happy with how the inaugural event turned out. She said that two City Council members came out to help.“Roland Velasco was pouring beer and wine for us at our beverage booth, and Dan Harney brought his family down.”Corona is also grateful for how the community embraced the event.“People want downtown Gilroy to thrive,” she said. “That means we have a thriving and successful community.”If you missed it, you have another chance. The Feast returns Friday, July 15, starting at 5 p.m.

Nearly 20 years after plans for Gilroy’s largest housing development were first discussed, houses for the first four neighborhoods at the 309-acre Glen Loma Ranch are now up for sale.“It has been a very long process and we are really glad to see it’s becoming a reality,” said Augie Dent, project director for Glen Loma Ranch. “All the hard work is paying off to create a beautiful community.”Model homes for the first four of 17 distinct neighborhoods, named Ambrosia, Mataro, Zinfandel and Vista Bella, are now available to view. A grand opening was held June 19, featuring a Father’s Day pancake breakfast and guided tours of the glamorous, single-family homes.There are a total of 274 units in the first four neighborhoods.Starting prices range from the high $600,000s to the high $700,000s.Featuring spacious open plans, flexible room options, energy-efficient features, the homes range in size from approximately 2,113 to 3,740 square feet.Residents are expected to move in by July or later this summer, according to representatives from Brookfield Residential North and CalAtlantic Group, the project’s homebuilding partners.At full build-out, expected to be by 2020, Glen Loma Ranch will have 1,643 homes in all.“We are moving as quickly as we can to get more neighborhoods online,” said Dent.The economic downturn stalled the overall development. A Dispatch article from 2005 quoted Tim Felice, whose family has owned the majority of the land that is considered Glen Loma Ranch since the 1930s, as saying the first houses would go on the market by 2007.Nine years later, Dent said the downturn definitely had an impact.“It took time to get things back on track once the market started to recover.”The Glen Loma Ranch development has come with traffic improvements, including a new roundabout at Thomas Road and Luchessa Avenue, which was completed during the initial building phase.Work continues on the extension of Luchessa Avenue to existing Miller Avenue and a new roundabout at Santa Teresa Boulevard and Miller Avenue.Construction of some of the improvements is still ongoing, said Dent, including Cydney Casper Park, named after the former city planner who died in a motorcycle accident in 2007.Work on the park will begin later this year, he said.“It will be a big amenity for the whole city,” said Dent. “We have retained a whole bunch of open space [up to 150 acres] and trail network.”Looking back at the last 17-plus years of planning, which involved working with everyone from biologists and home builders to city staff and members of the local school district, Dent said: “It was really important for the Glen Loma Ranch team to make the plan something we can be proud of. With community outreach, working with various agencies, we are doing our best to benefit Gilroy as a whole and to make Glen Loma Ranch a special place to live.”

Speeding Along The construction on Highway 129 by Crittendon Underpass is moving along on schedule and should be finished in January, barring early rains, according to project manager Katie Beach, with Caltrans.

This is about Silva’s Crossing in the creek by Christmas Hill Park. There are “No Swimming” signs posted, but when I walked there today I saw about 40 people swimming there. I wasn't aware it was a swimming hole. It’s also a protected creek, so I don’t know why Gilroy Police Department doesn’t get those people out of there and enforce the “No Swimming” signs that are posted on the property.

Forty-seven years ago, two young men from Texas met at a canteen in Vietnam.The two Army soldiers, Francisco Barrientes, 20, and Juan Pequeño, 19, had just arrived in the war-torn country in 1969. They were in the middle of being processed when they met, becoming fast friends as they waited to find out where in the country they would be stationed.One day, over the course of a beer, the two young men made a promise to one another: if one them makes it out alive, he would lay flowers at the other’s gravesite.Barrientes, who was left critically disabled by the war when he took an AK-47 gunshot to his face and lost his esophagus and left vocal cords, came to Gilroy over the July Fourth weekend to fulfill that promise and pay tribute to his brother in arms, who died in battle just weeks after the two first met.“I knew I had to do this,” said Barrientes, dressed in full uniform, standing next to the gravesite of Cpl. Juan Pequeño, 6/10/49-2/14/69, on July 1 at Gavilan Memorial Park on First Street. “I can’t let time go by anymore.”He said that every February he remembers the young man, who before volunteering to serve in the military, liked to play baseball.“So many did not make it back,” said Barrientes, who spent seven years in a military hospital and underwent 50 operations after being injured twice in Vietnam, the second leaving him disfigured and unable to eat normally.During his pilgrimage to Gilroy, Barrientes had to stop every three hours to prepare a special drink, his only nourishment over the past 40-plus years.Barrientes would go on to receive two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for his service, then marry, raising three children as he devoted his civilian life to community service.After 30 years of volunteering at his local school district in Edinburg, Texas, Barrientes would have a middle school named after him.Barrientes, standing at the grave next to Pequeño’s brother, David, laid down a bright, floral bouquet in red, yellow and green, the colors of Vietnam.Born into a military family, Pequeño, was the son of a WWII veteran and sibling to two other brothers who also served.Youngest brother David, who was stationed in Korea for a time while he was in the Army, was only 11 or 12 when his brother died.“It was hard on our mom,” he said stoically at the gravesite. He pointed out his sister’s final resting place at his brother’s side.Not fully knowing how to process the surprising appearance of Barrientes, the story of a promise made over beers while war raged on a foreign battlefield 47 years ago, he said he wished Barrientes had gotten in contact earlier, that maybe they could have had a relationship.For now, the two former soldiers stand together, eyes cast downward, each remembering a young man whose life was cut short while serving his country.

SAN MARTIN—So first of all, I cannot oversell just how amazing it is to walk around Cordevalle and hear the languages being spoken and the accents of those speaking.

Gilroyans and visitors drawn to the world-class splendor of the Women’s Open at Cordevalle are in for a treat next Friday, as downtown Gilroy comes alive with live music, full-scale dancing in the street, gourmet street food and an open-air fashion show that will inspire you to take that summer holiday you totally deserve.

Imagine taking an exam that will permanently alter the status of your life. Imagine that you’ve taken the classes, completed the homework, and invested hours of time studying for this test. Imagine that the exam is in a language that isn’t your own, and that a translator is forbidden.

The candidates in this year’s presidential campaign have spent hours debating the subject of immigration. But how many of us actually understand the naturalization process?