”
Gilroy keeps an eye on the Coyote Valley
”
blares the headline in last Thursday’s Dispatch. Well, yes
indeedy; with 25,000 homes, 50,000 jobs, and 80,000 people Gilroy
should certainly keep an eye on it, although with numbers like that
the sharpest of vision will hardly be required.
“Gilroy keeps an eye on the Coyote Valley” blares the headline in last Thursday’s Dispatch. Well, yes indeedy; with 25,000 homes, 50,000 jobs, and 80,000 people Gilroy should certainly keep an eye on it, although with numbers like that the sharpest of vision will hardly be required.
Is this really happening? Is the pipedream of years ago that flitted briefly across our consciousness before an economic downturn blew it away on a summer breeze actually going to, like, occur? Are those swollen numbers an accurate reflection of the genuine future? Because, I mean, these are major, serious, significant, no-fooling-around quantities, figures large enough to sing opera.
If they’re not kidding this time we are in for a change of Biblical proportions; for all of you who work in San Jose and beyond, twixt you and your jobs there are about to be as many new folks as there presently are in all of South County. Gee, won’t that commute be special.
Housing, traffic, air quality, schools, on and on – the task force will say they got it covered, it’ll be fine, they’ve thought of everything, but we know there will be unintended consequences just as we know that this freshly-minted “community” is going to be stomping all over the semi-sacred, semi-rural, 2-1/2 acre ranchero, laid-back, rocking-chairs-on-the-front-porch-of-the-general-store lifestyle we fantasize having around here.
Nonetheless, this time it may be inevitable, so we have to protect ourselves as best we can from the worst of it, and I humbly propose that along with the rest of the worst of it is a name that makes me slightly queasy. I mean, come on, “Coyote Valley”? I suppose it’s OK for a wide spot in the road like it has always been, but for a real city, one that we’re going to have to live cheek by jowl with besides? When I hear “coyote” I think “jackal” or “hyena” or “dingo” – anybody want to live next door to a town called Scavenging Dog Valley?
There have to be consequences of such a huge development, and they can’t all be on us. It is the responsibility of whoever is going to make all this happen to come up with a better name, a real name, a name fit for a place with paved streets and Starbucks and city stuff like that.
I mean, face it, Coyote Valley just doesn’t cut it any more; we shouldn’t have to be embarrassed by being the older, smaller, quainter towns to the south of a burg with a bogus name. They owe us, damn it – Morgan Hill and Gilroy might not be the most elegant words in the lexicon, but at least they’re the names of people, not minor canids with a taste for carrion. Is it too much to ask that they come up with a really cool name? You know, something that sounds vaguely classy, like “Radcliffe” or “Cambridge.” At least one could tell somebody, “I’m from Morgan Hill; it’s just south of Cambridge” and maintain a little dignity.
Or we could go with bare-knuckle accuracy and call it “Encroaching Acres.” Anything but Coyote – I mean, really, that task force needs to get its priorities straight. Get to work, guys, we need a name we can live next to.
