Politics

The future is bright for Gavilan College with the passing of a $248 million bond measure Nov. 6 as well as the election of three new members to its governing body. A combined 57 percent of voters in Santa Clara and San Benito counties (who...

Councilman Perry Woodward's greater goal of transparency still

The Gilroy City Council voted unanimously to appoint a new council person to replace Paul Kloecker, who died last month.  People who want the seat have until Jan. 18 to submit applications. The Gilroy City Charter gave the council three options. Either, make an...

You would never know it was Thanksgiving at City Hall.Impending

It's been less than a month since City Council directed staff to further investigate financing options for downtown’s 18 unreinforced masonry buildings (deemed structurally unfit to survive a major earthquake) and to report back in the fall.

GILROY—Gilroy’s history is about a lot more than garlic. Take cigars, for example, and beer, U.S. Army rations, a cattle baron and a fancy mountain resort.And then there are the bricks—hundreds of them if not more—that will help share 150 years of that history with residents and visitors for many years to come.It’s all part of the Gilroy Historic Paseo Project, a public-private partnership that’s closing in the final months of a years-long effort to help revitalize the downtown and tell the city’s history at the same time.The city purchased and demolished a building and strengthened the remaining walls at a cost of more than $1.3 million to create the passageway on the west side of Monterey Road between Fifth and Sixth streets. It was opened officially  in July 2014 and is awaiting finishing touches by a citizens’ committee, which hopes to raise $100,000 for beautification.Lead by former Mayor Al Pinheiro, the committee now is selling personalized bricks that will be installed as part of the finished paseo, a landscaped, mural-decorated walk though history that will link downtown pedestrians on Monterey Road to free parking lots a quick stroll to the west. “It will tell the story of our town in its different facets, the times and eras of our community,” said Pinheiro, under whose administration the project began four years ago.Another paseo north of Fifth Street is on hold for now, according to Pinheiro, who said he’s still pushing for that one. Its theme will be Gilroy’s sister cities all around the world, he said.Paseo is a Spanish word that means passage or promenade.Bricks for the history paseo cost $250 and can be inscribed with a personal message by individuals, families, organizations or businesses, Pinheiro said.In addition to the bricks that will line the base of the paseo’s north and south walls, designers plan a mural by Gilroy artist Whitney Pintello and seven large history-depicting panels that will rise up to eight feet high and stretch along the walls from east to west, said Joan Buchanan of the committee and Downtown Business Association.The panels will show aspects of the life and commerce of the city and its environs under the titles Early Settlers, Agriculture, Commerce, Hospitality, The Com-munity, The Garlic Story and The Cowboy Era.Each sponsored panel will explore its subject in more depth with photos and words. Among the detail are James Culp’s 1870 cigar factory, Gilroy Brewery started in 1868, cowboy star Casey Tibbs, Gilroy Hot Springs and a 1920s mural of ranch life that still adorns the Milias Restaurant at the corner of Sixth Street and Monterey Road.One panel gives a nod to the Gilroy Dispatch and its antecedents, which, interestingly, started the same year as the city’s first brewery. “It will be a great service to the downtown,” said Pinheiro, under whose administration the project began. “It lends itself to a wonderful place to come and visit and get to know our history, that’s important,” he said.Organizers included in the panels “the contributions of at least seven different nationalities who brought their skills and talents to form a ‘new community,’” reads  a project report.The panel sponsorships require a donation of from $10,000 to $15,000 based on the sponsored panel’s  size. The largest is 16-feet long by 8-feet high.Two panels still need sponsorship, Pinheiro said. Commitments for the others have been secured from the Gilroy Downtown Business Association, Rotary Club, Gilroy Foundation, Recology, Pinnacle Bank, Bob Dyer and Don Christopher, according to Buchanan. Completion of the panels’ design work is expected within six weeks, when several city commissions will review the plans before they go to the Gilroy City Council for approval. For more information about the Gilroy Historic Paseo Project, to make donation or to purchase a personalized brick, go online to gilroyfoundation.org/paseo.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, author of a bill hitting the Assembly floor this week proposing to increase the state’s minimum wage, said the legislation would assist lower-income families in keeping up with escalating costs and that it would dissuade municipalities from passing local rates.

When it comes to people advocating for safety measures in their neighborhood, Gilroy City Council candidate Cat Tucker is very familiar with the concept, as it is what drove her toward local politics in the first place.“I started getting involved in city politics because of traffic issues in my neighborhood back in 1990s when the city refused to put a [traffic] signal at Santa Teresa and Longmeadow,” Tucker said via email.Just like recent efforts from residents in Eagle Ridge and upper Welburn Avenue—highlighting the ongoing traffic stressors in the dense residential area surrounding Luigi Aprea Elementary School in the city’s west side—Tucker led her neighborhood in lobbying for Sunrise Drive to be constructed, then parlayed that experience into a stint on the city’s General Plan Update Committee, then eight years on the Planning Commission before first being elected to the City Council in 2007.“I applaud all the citizens for getting involved and letting us know their concerns,” said Tucker, who believes the city’s proposed citywide traffic study will help.As the only woman running for one of three open council seats and with current councilwoman Terri Aulman choosing not to run for re-election, if Tucker should lose in November it would leave an all-male City Council. Tucker said every month she gets asked a question from working mothers.“I bring a woman’s perspective and add diversity to the council,” she said. “One of the most common questions I [receive is]: ‘When will the city provide bathrooms at all the parks, not just the large parks?’ Every time, I tell them, ‘I ask about it every year during budget review time and I am outvoted, but don’t give up, we need to ask the men the same questions!”Tucker is an independent, moderate thinker, according to her website (http://www.cattucker.com), and active in the St. Mary Community as part of the church council. She goes on their Mexico Mission every year as the camp director, taking teens to build homes for the poor in Tijuana. Tucker is also the head of the Garlic Festival Association’s refreshments committee. A registered Democrat, Tucker and council candidate Fred Tovar are endorsed by the Santa Clara County Democratic Party.While she has served on the council for nine years already, Tucker feels there is still more work to do. If Gilroy voters re-elect her on Nov. 8, she says she will focus her next term on incentivizing business downtown by reviewing the development impact fees and creating a temporary pilot program for the reduction of impact fees specific to downtown; continuing to keep a balanced budget while still meeting the needs of Gilroy citizens; and finding a way to make a permanent arts center become a reality.Tucker voted against the 721-acre housing development proposed for north Gilroy when it was appealed to the council in December 2015 after being unanimously rejected by the Planning Commission, but that does not make her a fan of Measure H, the urban growth boundary initiative that would place city growth decisions in the hands of voters.“I have openly opposed Measure H, [and] there are many reasons,” she said. “It ties the city’s hands in regards to land use decisions for over 20 years and we don’t know the unintended consequences to our low-income community as far as rents going up in the future, due to low growth.”Passage of the measure also does not necessarily mean the downtown will benefit, she said.“There are no guarantees that it forces developers to build downtown,” she said. “They will do their market research and build whatever people are buying—it could be townhouses or condos or houses.”She added that there is already a process in place to stop sprawl—the state LAFCO agency.“I served on [the Santa Clara County] LAFCO [board] for three years and during that time attended two of the yearly LAFCO conferences so as to get a full understanding of the intention. I have a high regard for LAFCO’s mission and the staff,” Tucker said.She said she was not privy, however, to the lawsuit the agency filed against the city in order to keep the 721-acre housing proposal from going forward, citing issues with the project’s environmental review.“I was not included in any of the meetings when they decided to do the lawsuit, so I was very surprised. It was not needed since LAFCO’s authority allows them to reject any incomplete application.”But there were lessons to be learned, she said.“My main takeaway is based on data, and over the last 20 years LAFCO has only approved one project for Gilroy. I feel they take their position seriously and I don’t see any reason to think they will change. I doubt the next 20 years will be any different. Even the land included in Measure H will have to go through LAFCO, and I doubt it will get passed to be annexed.”    

Rather than collect $20 million in outstanding fees from dozens