Think big for Morgan Hill
Morgan Hill is going through a renaissance of sorts.
Downtown is finally blossoming into the vibrant scene we always wanted and knew was possible. Construction is booming, and not just on the Granada Hotel, Sunsweet project or any of the other economic developments going on, with three new parks scheduled to be built and finished this year in downtown.
Downtown Morgan Hill is actualizing into our dreams for a prosperous, inviting and sustainable city center, and I couldn’t be happier.
But the renaissance I’m referring to is not the one of our downtown. I’m talking about the rebirth of innovation in Morgan Hill; the revival of our Silicon Valley spirit.
If you’ve been following news on self-driving cars and the technologies used in them, you may have heard of Morgan Hill-based Velodyne LiDAR, a high tech sensor producer that has worked with Google, Baidu and Ford on autonomous vehicles.
If you’re into cutting edge recreation, you might have heard how Morgan Hill’s own industry-leading Specialized recently won 2017 Bike of the Year for its Roubaix Comp model.
Morgan Hill companies are leaders in their respective fields and now some South Valley entrepreneurs are trying to help make Morgan Hill a true center for innovation with their upcoming Innovation Goes Outside Disrupt Forum, a local networking event and pitchfest. Never before have local leaders taken such proactive measures to help grow an innovative incubation community in Morgan Hill.
Now is the opportunity to grow Morgan Hill as an integrated center of innovation in Silicon Valley. After all, this seems the logical step for a city with pioneering startups and an ideal location within Silicon Valley.
Mayor Tate and Councilman Spring both came from tech and most of the other city councilmembers have experience working with tech or with Silicon Valley as a region.
We are a population poised with the expertise to transform the future of Morgan Hill’s economy and culture. Our residents are more educated than both the California and national averages. Our schools continue to succeed above state and national graduation rates. In fact, our schools are now even expanding comprehensive opportunities for our students to explore (Paradise Valley Elementary transformed into Paradise Valley Engineering Academy last year).
Our infrastructure is constantly improving and the investment that’s been put into our downtown will radically improve our community and its attractiveness as a great place to live and work. We have a chance to come together and actively work to make Morgan Hill all it can be.
So let’s connect our local Silicon Valley veterans with new startups. Lets help incubate local businesses and support a culture of innovation. To do this we have to think big; we have to #ThinkMorganHill.
Christian Antunes
Morgan Hill
Rail is a Fail
We can glimpse what’s in store for South County with the arrival of the Bullet Train by looking at those Monterey Salinas Transit (“MST”) luxury yachts that sail past your old office every day going to the local Transit Hub. Why don’t you tell your readers the truth about the losses taxpayers sustain with those ultra extravagant examples of government transport gone amok? Of course, you’ll have to look at legal accounting for their losses, and not the losses reported by the transit agency.
Why? The legislature has exempted the transit agencies from using legal accounting (aka Generally Accepted Accounting Principles = GAAP), which federal and state tax regs require that everyone use. This has the effect of hiding the true extent of their losses. They all do it: VTA, TAMC, SCCRTC, etc. So, when you read Mr. Roadshow’s articles about the “fare box recovery rate” on transit, bus or rail, you are seeing what the transit agencies report—far from truth in transportation.
Since fares are not remunerative, meaning that they don’t cover their costs (all of their costs), they can never run in the black; only in the red. So, to keep going, they need heavy infusions of OPM—motorists, truckers and motorcyclists. If they wanted to be transparent and accountable, then they would use legal accounting, and tell us just how badly they are screwing us. But they use Enron-style, Bernie Madoff-style, “off book” accounting.
Take a look at Amtrak’s reported losses; Caltrain’s losses. Then adjust for GAAP accounting, if you want to let your readers know the truth about the waste, fraud and abuse at the joint power authorities (“JPAs”), MST, VTA, TAMC, SCCRTC, etc. Then, if you want your readers to get informed about what the Bullet Train is going to do to us, extrapolate the MST’s losses by factors of 100s, 1000s, etc.
Please give us truth in transportation; it would be a refreshing change.
Joe Thompson
Gilroy
