Community

Worried about sprawl and impacts to the city due to unmitigated growth, a group of Gilroy community members ranging from longtime residents to recent arrivals are in the process of drafting what they call a “smarter growth” ballot initiative that would give voters control over how much the city can grow.“The complete language of the initiative is still being authored as we speak,” explained Sandie Silva of the new advocacy group, Gilroy Growing Smarter, via text message.“We are making it so that the voters will be the decision-makers for the overall limits to Gilroy's growth and leave the responsibility for smart use of limited land within our boundaries to the elected officials.”Forged out of the controversy surrounding the 721-acre Rancho Los Olivos housing project proposed for an area north of Gilroy, Gilroy Growing Smarter includes the same folks that created the online petition in December that generated more than 2,200 signatures from people opposed to the 4,000-home development.Silva, who is part of a Gilroy farming family, said she has never been political before, but was dismayed watching people go to City Council meetings and voice their opinions, only to be rebuffed and have their concerns ignored by elected officials. So she decided to get involved.“We started because of the 721 acres and I started the petition,” Silva recalled. “And [the City Council] decided to vote against what the people wanted anyway.”She said the council’s actions raised “a lot of flags” with people who were left wondering what was going on at the council and why they were not being heard.Overwhelmed by public criticism and two lawsuits, the developers behind the large-scale development rescinded their application in January, deciding to take more time to sell the project to the public.  But for those who understand it is too late to complain about new construction when the tractors have already rolled in, the battle to save Gilroy from being another bedroom community for Silicon Valley has just begun.“We are a very diverse group,” said Silva. “We come from downtown and unincorporated areas; we are business owners, parents, and we feel we speak for the vast majority of Gilroy who want the city to grow in a compact and responsible way. We are not anti-growth.”In addition to working on the initiative and gathering enough signatures of registered Gilroy voters to make the November ballot, the group plans on forming sub-committees to tackle other pressing issues relating to Gilroy’s growth, including the state of downtown and infrastructure.“Downtown has been a thorn in everyone’s side for years, so we would want that area revitalized,” said Silva.“It is very complicated today to do something innovative downtown,” said David Lima, a member of Gilroy Growing Smarter. Gilroy resident, Lima has written on development issues for the Dispatch before. “There are a lot of rules and adversarial relationships that developed since 1989 when the buildings were damaged—a lot of factors have made it difficult to do clever things downtown.”“Existing infrastructure is another thing we want to look at,” said Silva. “Schools are already overcrowded and there are the poor street conditions.”On its website,www.gilroygrowingsmarter.org, the group lays out its aims: elect a responsive city council that will honor the wishes of the citizens; combat suburban sprawl through careful redevelopment of downtown, with gradual residential infill; preserve agricultural and open space land and encourage the creation of high-quality jobs in Gilroy for Gilroy residents.Asked if it was all the current construction underway which has made folks in Gilroy jittery (some projects were approved more than 10 or 15 years ago and delayed due to the 2008 economic downturn), Lima replied yes, that was part of it, but it was more to do with the potential impacts to the city and its residents that got people concerned.“All of the projects that have been approved, are in the planning process or under construction have the potential to add 15,000 people to Gilroy (about a 30 percent increase to its current population of 53,000),” he said. “That is a huge increase.”And with all that growth, he added, there will be impacts to traffic, water and air quality that have not yet been felt.Lima said he’s probably spoken to hundreds of people over the last couple years about why they live in Gilroy and what it is about living in a “small town” that people love.He said that overall people wanted a definite boundary, a green boundary of farmland or open space around their city. They also wanted a “clearly identified center in downtown” where you can find grocery stores and restaurants. Traffic should also manageable with motorists usually being able to get through the traffic lights with one change.“And you know quite a few of the faces you see at the store,” he said.“People are really concerned that if we grow beyond our 53,000 all of those lovely, small town characteristics will simply disappear, which will make people very unhappy.”

Valentine’s mixer

They sell antiques, piñatas and medical supplies, organize princess parties and major home repairs; they pour coffee, give facials and lead pottery classes, they are the women of downtown Gilroy, part of the fastest-growing segment of small business owners in the country.

While her victims and the district attorney said they hoped she would get more time, Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Edward Lee sentenced Leticia Gonzalez Sandoval to six years in prison for defrauding locals--many of them hard working immigrants-- of more than $400,000.

What's missing from these pictures?

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The biggest sporting event of the year is finally here and Gilroy businesses hope it will bring visitors 30 miles south.

A plan to slash the Gilroy school district’s energy bill dimmed slightly when officials discovered the price to repave the sprawling Gilroy High School parking lot will be more than expected.

Gilroy’s Waseem Rabih hopes Americans will take a good, fair look at the controversy surrounding Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the United States.

So you lost your job and times are tough; maybe the kids wear threadbare clothes because this week the choice was food or shoes.The Keeper’s Closet is here to help. And it’s free.Almost a year old, the Gilroy nonprofit serves the clothing needs of newborns to six-year-olds, a segment of the population its founder said was not being served in Gilroy when it comes to free clothing for the needy.The founder and board president of The Keeper’s Closet is retired attorney and former city councilman Brian Cunningham, 73. He has long been involved in charity work, including a stint as president of Martha’s Kitchen and as a leader in the St. Vincent de Paul Society of South County in Morgan Hill.In was while with the latter organization that he saw the unmet need that led to the founding of The Keeper’s Closet last February. It’s part of a larger nonprofit called Life Advocates that helps young women facing unplanned pregnancies, young people contemplating suicide and those in need of food and clothing.It costs about $50,000 a year to run The Keeper’s Closet, including rent and a half-time outreach manager. Cunningham pays for it all out of his own pocket.“He not only has a heart for helping and serving people, he definitely is a dreamer and a doer,” said Rochelle Henson, 25, the group’s outreach manager and only employee.The mainstays among the volunteers are Julie Gozzo, Cunningham’s legal assistant, Debbie Molyneaux, Mary Fierro Lisa Menge and Lisa Dimas Jessen.The mission of The Keeper’s Closet is “to serve families who can’t afford clothing,” to provide it for free and to unite the community to recycle and reuse clothing, according to Henson, an Aromas resident.“By doing that,” she said, “we are helping families who are going through tough times.”The group takes donations of clothing and shoes typically in large plastic bags, then sorts and stores the clothes by type, gender and size.Two of its greatest needs are consistent donations and increased visibility. For now, their go-to outreach tool is Facebook, at facebook.com/TheKeepersCloset/.In its 1,800-square-foot headquarters in a modest Gilroy office building on West First Street, Henson has created an elaborate but simple and orderly system that uses stacks of cardboard file boxes to store and easily find each category of clothing. Nearby shelves hold scores of shoes, while dozens of colorful jackets and coats hang on racks. In another room are dozens of bags of donated clothing awaiting sorting.The clothing is handed out, no questions asked, every few months at distribution events at the office. Those in need also can drop in during the week but must call ahead and make an appointment. The same goes for donors, because the office is not always staffed.“Because this is our first year it has been kind of a trial year and we still are planning which days are best,” Henson said, regarding the big distributions.“For our very first, nobody knew about us so we only had eight kids but at our second we served 92 and the third it was 75,” she said.The next events will be Feb. 22 and April 2.Needy families can receive shirts, shoes, pants, shorts, sweatshirts, jackets, dresses, socks and underwear. The Keeper’s Closet often also has a selection of strollers, high chairs and toys. Sometimes there are diapers and cribs.And all of those are the items that the group encourages people to donate, preferable gently used, clean and in large plastic bags.The group accepts sizes up to 8-year-olds because some 6-year-olds are bigger than average, Henson said.The biggest need is for boys clothing, according to Cunningham.“We are always running out of clothes, especially for young boys, sometimes we have to buy then from the Salvation Army,” he said.He hopes people who dump clothing in street bins around town will consider The Keeper’s Closet and its collection bins instead. They are located in USA Gymnastics and Strandz Beauty Salon in Gilroy, Artistry Hair Salon in Morgan Hill and at Aromas Free School in Aromas.Cunningham would like to hand out modest, free food packs with nonperishable staples such as beans and rice, for families really in a bind. He hopes someone in Gilroy’s food industry will come forward and help with that idea.The name, The Keeper's Closet, was inspired in part by the divine and in part by the whimsy of word play, Cunningham said.“The idea was that Keeper refers to God the Father and how He cares for us, and Closet was just sort of alliteration,” that they liked.Henson and Cunningham voiced similar sentiments when asked what they get out of the services provided by The Keeper’s Closet. Cunningham put it this way: “There is a certain uplift I get and others that join me get in helping others,” he said.“It’s a dramatic life lift you feel. There is no other human activity that matches helping others; in the autumn of my life I have found it to be one of the most rewarding things I have done.”To donate or receive clothing, The Keeper’s Closet is at 1335 First St., Suite C, across from Mama Mia’s restaurant. The office is on the second floor. Call ahead at (408) 847-2018 or contact them via email [email protected].