Someone once said that a camel is a horse designed by a group.
That thought popped into my mind when I read The Dispatch article
about
”
Input sought on cannery project.
Someone once said that a camel is a horse designed by a group. That thought popped into my mind when I read The Dispatch article about “Input sought on cannery project.” While I didn’t attend the meeting held by South County Housing to get the input of the masses, I can guess that the meeting results were the same – just as when the city council requests input from the masses – specifically, local interest groups or people pushing their various agendas stuffed full of poor reasoning, and bordering on emotional frenzy.
While it’s politically correct to beat the drum of input from the community, I’ve been around too long not to realize that the planners will ultimately do what the planners want to do, because they are planners with college degrees in planning, and therefore experts, and the opinions of the masses are pretty much shelved as being irrelevant or downright dumb. The bottom line is that this is a project, even thought it’s sold as a “neighborhood.” I have a hard time swallowing political correctness in any form.
The article stated that Nancy Wright, senior project manager, would be happy to get anyone’s input on a number of questions she proposed. So, being an “anyone” myself, I’ll offer my answers to her questions.
Q. For which kind of people should this be built? A. Actually, this seems to be a rather silly question, if a “neighborhood” concept is driving this thing. What “kinds” of people are there? Well, young, old, poor, rich, healthy, infirmed, black, brown, white, etc. You’d think the planners already knew the answer to this question, and why would that answer be any different from asking that same question about the outlets or the new eastside retail stores? Build it for people that have the money to spend.
Q. What’s the best mix of apartments, townhouses, detached houses, live-work lofts, etc.? A. That seems to beg the question “Why should there be a diverse mix of building types in the first place?” Given that this site sits in Gilroy’s lowest income neighborhood (the residential downtown area east of the railroad tracks) then certainly the expert planners already have a definite idea about best mix or no mix at all. Again, this simply appears to be a politically appeasing question. Do the masses really think South County Housing is going to take an opinion vote with the majority opinion winning? I don’t think so.
Q. What’s the right mix of income levels? A. That’s a complex question I doubt non-experts can even come close to guessing. If South County Housing’s goal is to provide “affordable” housing, then it appears a combination of area income demographics along with current market conditions must be considered, along with projected income changes over time.
Q. Sales vs. rentals? A. Whatever combination or no combination, the real need will be to have appropriate CC&Rs (Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions) in place and enforced, to keep the occupied properties from owner/tenant abuse, including noise, parked vehicles, and general property disrepair. It’s true in a property community (residential or commercial) that one bad “apple” can spoil the barrel, and affect surrounding property values.
Q. How urban should the design be? A. Take the original purpose of the building – a cannery, and design the new project along the same theme. The city of Monterey has done a great job keeping their original cannery themes in a number of remodeled buildings there.
Q. Is downtown ready for a building with more than two stories or a parking deck? A. Sure, why not – especially if the design enhances the architectural theme.
Q. How comfortable would tenants be with walking downtown? A. That begs the question “Why walk to downtown?” I mean, what’s there now to really want to walk to? A tattoo parlor? A bowling alley? A pool room? A used car lot? Gilroy’s downtown, as we all know, is no Los Gatos or Campbell, where it’s desirable to walk to downtown. So until downtown Gilroy turns from “Cinderella before the ball” to “Cinderella at the ball,” comfortableness getting there is moot point.
Q. How could the complex connect with nearby streets such as Alexander and Forest? A. Let the Gilroy traffic engineers solve this challenge after they come-up with an enhanced design to fix the Monterey Road maze winding through downtown.
Will this project really become a smashing Gilroy success? Time will tell. But at least it will be a start – finally.
And yes, maybe even a catalyst for revitalizing Gilroy’s downtown.
After all, camels, while not horses, aren’t so bad. And given the right conditions, they can accomplish more than a horse could have done.
