Guest View: The City’s role in the Gilroy Garlic Festival
Two weeks ago, the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association announced that they would not be moving forward with the traditional large-scale Garlic Festival event for the foreseeable future. The news was met by all of us with sadness, disappointment and even anger. This event, a...
Guest View, Fred Tovar: Saluting the pillars of Gilroy
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...
Guest View: Open up schools to parents
I am very concerned by the Gilroy Unified School District’s decision to bar parents from the elementary campuses before and after school. This decision greatly diminishes the opportunity to build relationships within the school and is detrimental to building a positive school community. Good...
Guest View: They aren’t invisible, we are just blind
Reading the back and forth over the discourse surrounding the Time Capsule is a worthwhile discussion. As a resident of Gilroy for a little more than a year (most of it inside) the first bit of exposure I had to the project was the...
Guest view: AB 1454 shows how to improve child literacy, efficiently and effectivelyÂ
Every teacher in California wants their students to be able to read. But too often, we’re not given the tools to provide effective reading instruction.
While serving as an English language arts/English language development teacher on Special Assignment for Gilroy Unified School District, our Las...
Guest View: Raising taxes on corporations could chase businesses out of state
The governor just released his revised spending plan for the California budget, and while he did not admit that we are headed towards a recession, he did acknowledge the state faces economic uncertainty.
His assessment of the state’s growing fiscal challenges brings a greater focus...
Guest View: Teaching youth the power of voting
Every generation has grown up being told that they, the youth, are the future. In American society, this means that the youth (theoretically) have the power to sway elections once they are of voting age.
Unfortunately, the youth vote has not always met its potential...
Guest View: Celebrating the return of a reimagined Garlic FestivalÂ
This weekend marks the return of a reimagined Garlic Festival—a beloved tradition that, for more than 40 years, has played a vital role in supporting our local community. Through the tireless work of volunteers and the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association (GGFA), the event has...
Guest View, Marie Blankley: VTA’s 10-year outlook still threatens local streets and roads
By Marie Blankley
On Jan. 7, Valley Transportation Authority staff presented the VTA Board with a revised Draft 10-year Vision that allocates 2016 Measure B revenue among the categories of projects to be funded by Measure B over the next 10 years. Among these projects...
Guest View: State’s experiment puts lives at risk
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...























