Morning commuters tuned in to the sound of downtown Gilroy
Thursday, where radio DJs heralded the Garlic Capital and its kids,
broadcasting from a bright-yellow tent outside Sue’s Coffee
shop.
Gilroy – Morning commuters tuned in to the sound of downtown Gilroy Thursday, where radio DJs heralded the Garlic Capital and its kids, broadcasting from a bright-yellow tent outside Sue’s Coffee shop.
“Everybody knows everybody here, I’m not kidding,” said Lissa Kreisler, one of KBAY 94.5’s morning DJs, gazing at the people gathering around Sue’s – Mayor Al Pinheiro, famed boxer Robert Guerrero, and Councilmen Dion Bracco and Craig Gartman among them.
“Everybody knows everybody – except us!” countered Sam VanZandt, another DJ.
As KBAY’s DJs kidded with the downtown crowd, nearly 100 volunteers scrubbed grates and taped off doorways, preparing for a makeover of the city’s Youth Center, a few blocks away. The event, KBAY Cares, linked the radio tribute with the cleanup of the Center, where the city and the Mexican American Community Service Agency run a dizzying array of youth programs.
“It’s phenomenal,” said Maria Elena De La Garza, MACSA’s deputy director.
“This place needed a big old touch-up,” added Orlando Salcedo, who teaches a cartooning class at the Center, as he rolled coral-colored paint onto a door. “It’s been years. Years … for our kids, this is like their home.”
South County Housing cosponsored the KBAY event with MACSA and the city. A few blocks away, the nonprofit developer’s Cannery project is rising, a mixed-income project of 139 homes. Through it, SCH hopes not only to catalyze downtown development, but to promote vital neighborhoods, said executive director Dennis Lalor.
“Part of our philosophy is we don’t just build houses – we build communities,” added Lynn Magruder, an SCH management analyst, explaining SCH’s role in the event. “Every kid deserves a clean, safe place to be.”
From KBAY’s post at the corner of Monterey and Fifth streets, a few blocks from the cleanup, VanZandt described his memories of downtown Gilroy, where he once DJed for KPER, and his disappointment upon passing through six years ago, before its redevelopment.
“I felt like downtown had died,” he recalled. “To me, it’s really uplifting to see everything fresh, clean and new.”
As barista Karen Covington took her break outside the bustling coffeeshop, she echoed his words.
“We need more things like this downtown,” Covington said. “I wish it were this busy every day!”
