If you took chemistry in school, do you remember the function of
a catalyst? It’s a substance that initiates or accelerates a
chemical reaction without itself being affected.
If you took chemistry in school, do you remember the function of a catalyst? It’s a substance that initiates or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. I’d like to compare the building of a railroad museum in Gilroy to a catalyst that (optimistically) has the potential to stir-up the process for Gilroy’s downtown rejuvenation, and not create environmental pollution, as some would argue.
If you’ve read The Dispatch for any length of time, you know that the battle over downtown revitalization has been going on for years. One recent letter writer to The Dispatch indicated that when he lived here in the 1970s, the subject of downtown renewal was an issue even then. And as he pointed out, nothing has happened since then “except a lot of talk.” So we’ve had at least 30-plus years of “clouds and wind without rain” on this issue. Unfortunately, that is so often the typical result of political hot air. Now however, it appears our City Council has a chance to generate some real “rain” results.
Last month I attended a luncheon featuring Rod Diridon as the guest speaker. Mr Diridon of course, is the Executive Director of the Mineta Transportation Institute located in San Jose. Mr. Diridon’s purpose was to explain the merits of a railroad museum for Gilroy. And no, the bullet train was not discussed.
Personally, I think the bullet train is an impractical (i.e. bad) idea, but I was impressed with his professional presentation about the museum. After the presentation, he was able to field some tough questions from attendees by providing realistic answers. A poster of an architect’s rendition of the railroad museum was a conversation piece, and it seemed most everyone present was impressed with the museum’s design and beauty. It was notable.
So I was rather amused a few days later on Sept. 25 to see The Dispatch print a front-page article titled “What’s Rod Diridon selling?” Just like Cinderella before the ball, the article showed two photos, photo one was a boiler of an old locomotive, and photo two was captioned “A rusted Southern Pacific railroad car, surrounded by overgrown weeds.”
Ugh, kind of like promoting cookie dough instead of the baked cookies. Including a picture of the architect’s drawing of the finished railroad museum would have been appropriate for the article in order to present readers with a more positive and optimistic image. Since the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true, those two pictures of railroad “junk” certainly didn’t present an effective selling tool for a future Gilroy railroad museum. Now, don’t get me wrong. Obviously, there needs to be controlled caution with this potential project, but let’s not throw out the baby with the bath water right from the start.
Yes, there are financial problems to overcome, but let’s be visionary and consider some long-range benefits for Gilroy:
The museum would be a tourist attraction. While not on the same magnitude as the railroad museum in Sacramento, it still would be worthy to excite any railroad buff or just plain curious visitor.
As a tourist attraction, it would compliment Bonfante Gardens and the Garlic Festival as good places to visit in town. A gift shop in the museum could offer added reminders of Gilroy for tourists.
It would be unique as a “working museum.” Two working trains would be housed there to run annual special attraction events like a “Garlic Train” to San Francisco and eventually Monterey. Even the Sacramento RR museum doesn’t have this feature.
It would be educational. Public and private schools from Gilroy as well as the surrounding communities would have a reason to visit it in order for students to see first hand the important role railroads have played in the development of the United States.
And finally, by virtue of its power to attract visitors to the downtown area, hopefully, it would act as a catalyst to begin new business development around its location.
According to The Dispatch article of Sept. 25, Gilroy’s Economic Development Executive Director Bill Lindsteadt said he hoped to have a plan (favoring the museum) ready for City Council approval by the end of October. Well, the end of October is coming, and I hope Mr. Lindsteadt has done his homework to figure out how this museum can be a win-win opportunity for Gilroy and the Union Pacific railroad. If not, then it appears our downtown redevelopment paralysis will continue. So good people of Gilroy, look on the bright side – opportunity is knocking! There’s light at the end of the downtown tunnel – and in this case it is a locomotive!
