Dear Editor,
I applaud James Fennell’s column regarding indifference and
trash in the city. He wrote,
”
The opposite of art is not ugliness. It’s indifference.
”
Dear Editor,
I applaud James Fennell’s column regarding indifference and trash in the city. He wrote, “The opposite of art is not ugliness. It’s indifference.”
His subsequent examples were honest and accurate. But the biggest trashy news for the city of Gilroy is the under-the-table slide into our city of a huge dump very near the new Lowes in Gilroy. Perhaps this is the source of the rumors that The Red Lobster and Mimi’s restaurants are backing out on plans to build there. What restaurant wants to be within one sniff of a massive trash dump?
What is the planned site? A dump, at least four times as big as the San Martin dump straight across from the Gilroy Foods garlic plant. Furthermore, it is on the edge of a creek, so that seepage can contaminate water going to another city, which will promptly sue us for allowing the pollution. Add to this the fact that the environmental impact report states that not less than 150 diesel trucks will go to and from this site daily. It further stated that “the technology does not exist” to control the pollution from these trucks. For newbie’s to the city of Gilroy, this city is already a severe geographical smog trap.
Imagine 150 trucks backing up traffic every day to turn left into the facility?
Although the city assured me that the road was built to take it, I wonder if this is true of Leavesley Road. Any intelligent driver would do the “Leavesley-loop” to be able to enter the new dump as a right turn instead of a left. These stinky trucks will pollute a circle around the outlets, the Kaiser medical offices, Costco, Lowes, any restaurants inside that circle, all the way to Target.
One other thought: Although we benefit, most of us, by living on one side of the freeway with all the retail on the other side, shifting winds know no such boundaries.
Stink up our neighborhoods, and watch YOUR property values fall. Add to that the fact that this facility is not there just to service Gilroy to Morgan Hill. It is planned to service resident haulers from south San Jose to Hollister and beyond!
We’re not talking a small effort here, folks. We’re about to host the Mother of All Dumps from San Jose to Salinas, and from Gilroy to Los Banos. Much trash falls from trailers, so the roads will be a mess.
In addition, the information I read tossed in a side-story of how another facility, a fish guts processing plant, is also being squeezed out of San Martin by the new nasal-conscious well-to-do residents. How convenient this would be if melded with the dump!
“Indifference,” Mr. Fennell? Oh, yes. Just as we are the first and only huge Wal-Mart host in the whole state of California, since other cities raged against them (but we are … indifferent). We are about to allow everyone as far as good binoculars can see bring to us all they believe is not good to them, in other words, their trash, truck pollution, and stinking wastes. Nice trade folks; fine restaurants for a fish and trash dump.
Anyone NOT indifferent is encouraged to rebut this comment. Let’s get this one the radar screen and ask what is keeping the City Council quiet on this as it slithers into town. The plan simply stinks.
Tony Weiler, Gilroy
