A few months ago, I wrote a column decrying the sorry state of
affairs in our downtown area. Since then, there has been little
change in beautiful downtown Gilroy.
A few months ago, I wrote a column decrying the sorry state of affairs in our downtown area. Since then, there has been little change in beautiful downtown Gilroy. Some of the stores that were open six months ago are closed now. There are also a couple of new businesses. But the overall picture is pretty much the same.
I was discussing the problems of downtown Gilroy with a friend recently. This friend happens to live in Morgan Hill. We both acknowledged that Morgan Hill has a great downtown area. You can dine, shop, bank and see a movie within a three-block radius. And your choices are not limited either. Morgan Hill has a downtown that exudes a warm welcome. It targets both local folks and visitors, with one caveat. In Morgan Hill, the customer who is being catered to speaks English.
Gilroy has a bit of a problem in that respect. Our downtown, for better or worse, has become the type of place you might find in a much larger urban city. There are numerous downtown businesses that cater just to Spanish speakers. I have no problem with this scenario, because I have lived in New York. But this is Gilroy, not a large city that can support a Chinatown or an Armenian quarter. So these local businesses which target Spanish speaking customers must realize that the majority of Gilroyans don’t speak Spanish, even if half us are named Garcia or Lopez.
I have come to the conclusion that our downtown is never going to be a vibrant downtown like Morgan Hill. It could be vibrant, but it won’t attract the masses without gentrification. There is a term that scares a lot of people. I am not suggesting we run any mom and pop businesses out of downtown Gilroy. But the average person who has moved to Gilroy in the past few years will feel no pull to our downtown. If we do away the Spanish language businesses, those Gilroyans who don’t speak English will feel no pull towards our downtown either.
We as a community have gotten used to having a Gilroy Chamber or Commerce and a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Our community embraces the “tale of two cultures” that we have going on in downtown Gilroy. Heck, maybe we should just facilitate the whole thing. Perhaps it is time to accept this fact and get on with other business.
Our downtown cultural center will be right in the mix, even if it won’t actually be there for another few years.
Whether or not the medical clinic opens downtown, there are sure to be some medical offices over the course of the next few years. Businesses will come and go, just as they have since I moved here nearly 10 years ago. Our unique Gilroy way is to keep on trying to “fix” a downtown that I now realize can’t be fixed.
Well-meaning people like me have been envisioning the kind of downtown that we remember from our childhood or see right around us. The truth is, Gilroy is not Willow Glen, and it is not Morgan Hill. We can’t be those places, because deep down, the majority of downtown stakeholders don’t want Gilroy to be like anywhere else. Gilroy pride runs deep, even when it isn’t necessarily the best business model. I expect to see many more incarnations of the Old City Hall. I expect that some years we will have more boarded up storefronts than retail shops. I expect it is all cyclical, and some businesses will survive, even if they continue to cater to a small segment of our population. I have stopped worrying about it, because maybe our downtown is just the way it’s supposed to be.
So while I would love a Whole Foods, or an Outback Steak House, or a real pizza parlor, or a place to have overpriced cocktails and jazz, I am not holding out hope for these things to locate to downtown Gilroy. They will probably all come, to other parts of the city, and I will drive to wherever they land. I now accept downtown Gilroy for what it is. I have seen the light at last, and I don’t want to change a thing.
