Guest View

Health insurance—can’t live with it, can’t live without it… or can you? These days, it seems the price we pay for health insurance is more than what it’s worth.  When you tally up the monthly premiums, health care deductibles and copays, the average healthy American...

A Happy New Gear to you! May 2023 add mile after mile of wonderful new bicycle adventures! Three items for you as we kick it off: 1. Is “A New Me in ’23” one of your resolutions? Weight loss, more cycling, new distance goals: whatever...

Part 1 of this article, “Steps needed to create a thriving community,” which was published in the May 20 edition of the Gilroy Dispatch, covered the first five common characteristics of thriving communities. This final installment will discuss the remaining four steps and stress why...

As communities across the country grapple with racial injustice and a broken criminal justice system that is fed by a school-to-prison pipeline, leaders are taking a closer look at the impact of school police or resource officers. More and more school districts are taking...

In Gilroy, we have many examples of properties where we used to not require vehicle parking many decades ago, before a majority of zoning codes have been adopted that require more land to be developed for parking. With the recent implementation of Vehicles Mile...

As we bid farewell to 2023, I, Fred M. Tovar, a proud member of the Gilroy City Council, would like to take a moment to extend profound gratitude to the unsung heroes who relentlessly contribute to the well-being and vitality of our community—the dedicated...

School safety has been a hotly debated issue everywhere in America, as kids start to emerge from their homes to in-person education. While Gilroy is no exception, there seems to be a similar discussion around students from the view of drugs and drug safety,...

There’s an old adage that one must first acknowledge a problem exists before it can be addressed. It bears repeating because of a huge disagreement over the size of California’s state budget deficit. In December, the Legislature’s independent budget analyst said the state faces a...

As a lifelong resident of Gilroy (since 1964!) whose family comes from farming throughout Santa Clara County, I’ve lived through the change of our once prevalent orchards to today’s Silicon Valley. As Silicon Valley developed and job opportunities soared, so did the cry for...

World War II changed the face of the world and all the people in it. In California, attitudes on how to view and treat mental illness were changing as well. Growing up in post-WWII California, we didn’t have homeless people per se. Of course there...