Locked gates leave much-needed shoppers without easy access to
parking lots
Gilroy – Businesses suffering through the slow pace of downtown construction are looking everywhere for help. But it appears they won’t get any from a group intended to defend their interests or from one of the city’s most high profile non-profit groups, which is squeezing one of their most important assets.
The Gilroy Chamber of Commerce and the non-profit Garlic Festival Association said they are willing to listen to merchants who have asked to keep the breezeway, or paseo, open during weekends. The arched passageway cuts right between the association and chamber’s offices and connects downtown shoppers along Monterey Street with the biggest parking lot in the area.
Some business owners are hoping to open it during the weekend to help them weather a seven-month overhaul of Monterey Street. Construction along a two-block stretch of the road has eliminated scores of parking spots, and plans by the GFA to construct new headquarters on a second lot farther north will erase dozens more.
“They don’t see it as a necessity or that it would help us. But it would especially at this time,” said Linda Graham, owner of Collective Past, about the breezeway that lies between Fifth and Sixth streets.
The paseo is open from 9am to 5pm on weekdays and is closed on the weekends, which are the business hours for the association and the chamber. The breezeway has remained closed during weekends due to fears of safety and a lack of monitoring since there would be no one in the offices.
Officials from the association and chamber said this has been the case for at least the past 10 years and that they are willing to listen to merchants’ ideas, but would take their time in any decision they made.
“As terrible as it has been for them, I’m hoping the (streets) will be open in the next month or two,” said Brian Bowe, executive director of the Garlic Festival. “Hopefully they can handle it a little longer.”
Chamber director Susan Valenta echoed Bowe’s sentiment.
“There are a lot of challenges right now,” she said, “but it’s a short window of time in the grand scheme of things.”
Businesses do not see it that way. Some owners such as Graham say they understand the worries, but that it would be “nice” if they would open up the walkway.
“People who find us are so proud of themselves when they finally find us and some people just don’t want to deal with us because of all the detour signs,” Graham said about the maze that is downtown.
“I would like to see them step up,” said Steve Ashford, owner of Ashford’s Heirlooms. “As the mayor always says, ‘Step up and be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem.'”
There are no plans in the works to change the times the breezeway is open, but Bowe said the businesses are all neighbors and hope they can work something out.
Ashford said there have been talks for a while and would now like to see something happen to make it more convenient for the people who come downtown to shop.
“(The city) relies on the business and we’re all struggling,” he said.
