Community

What better way to spend a cool Friday evening than to sip hot cocoa, purchase dystopian literature and learn how to shoot a crossbow? These are the times we are living in folks! Tomorrow, Feb. 3, is First Friday in downtown Gilroy and BookBuyers, Fifth Street Coffee, Predator’s Archery, Gilroy Flower Shop and Garbo’s Antiques will stay open late.

Following the lead of other educators, Gilroy school trustees declared the city’s more than 11,000-student public school system a “sanctuary” district.

One day, Dr. Polly Kokinos, a vascular surgeon at South Bay Vascular Center, with offices in Gilroy and Campbell, was stunned when a man from a Gilroy nursing home rolled up in his wheelchair.

Come hungry Saturday night for a spaghetti dinner at Sandy’s Cafe that will benefit flood victims Colin Crooker and the Katherman family. Dinner is $12 and includes pasta, salad and garlic bread. It goes from 5-8 p.m. at 6120 Monterey Road.

San Jose has the third highest rents in the state and Gilroy is in the middle of the pack, according to a study by ApartmentList.com. The median rent for a two bedroom apartment in San Jose is a jaw dropping $2,600 and $2,110 for one bedroom. In Gilroy a two bedroom goes for $1,830. Both have dropped slightly from last year.

 As part of an emergency project to repair a slope south of Mount Madonna Inn on Hwy. 152 near Watsonville, just south of the Santa Cruz/Santa Clara County line, temporary guardrail and signal installation will begin Tuesday, Jan. 31, Caltrans officials have announced.

The Gilroy Unified School Board voted unanimously to declare the schools a "sanctuary district" for immigrant families "to the fullest extent allowed by law." Upward of $14 million in federal funding, including for Special Ed kids, is potentially in jeopardy if federal law is violated.

This past Saturday I had the privilege to march alongside 25,000 women and men in San Jose. Since then, people have asked—why did I go, what did I expect, what actually happened, and was it worthwhile?