Building Up Downtown

Dear Editor, Is the push to build a large number of residential
units downtown the answer to the downtown business problem? That is
not abundantly clear to this writer.
Dear Editor,

Is the push to build a large number of residential units downtown the answer to the downtown business problem? That is not abundantly clear to this writer.

There are many issues surrounding the lack of a strong downtown business base but in the interest of keeping this letter to a manageable size, I am dealing only with housing and the belief that building more housing quickly will increase business.

The first input to this decision should be a study by each business of how many residents they need to produce a sound business and from what radius people would be expected to come to patronize the business. I have not heard of such a study being available although it may be. 

I believe that such a study would show that it is not possible to build enough residential units downtown to support run of the mill businesses. In addition, one must consider the demographics of the people who would settle in the downtown area. Are they going to be people with a significant disposable income who can support downtown businesses at the level of which they dream?

Also will the people shop downtown? It is nice to assume that the people will walk to the store or restaurant but is that always a valid assumption?  Recently it was announced that Albertsons is departing. Now there will be no supermarket downtown. So when we need groceries we hop in the car and go to Safeway and since we are out with the car, we go to Cochrane Road or the Outlets. There goes the downtown business.

Has there been a study of successful downtowns and unsuccessful downtowns to guide the decisions for Morgan Hill? Has a comparison been made of building high density units downtown versus in the unfinished areas around town?

Combine the latter with free Jitney service from the neighborhoods and peripheral parking lots to make it easy for people to come downtown.

Lastly what about building more business units downtown? More businesses mean more workers who will be downtown everyday spending money and will probably stay after work if there are strongly attractive businesses.

As I said at the beginning there are many issues that should be considered and experience shows that the stake holders are not always the best people to make decisions or plot strategy especially when it comes to determining how others will react.

The City Council has shown us the benefit of Community Conversations, why not apply that to the downtown question.

Chuck Dillmann, Morgan Hill

n Thanks for a Great Grad Night Party

Dear Editor,

I live in another state but I had a relative who graduated from high school on June 16. I had heard of the Grad Night celebration, and because all of my family members were going to be working at it, I told them to sign me up for a shift as well.

I saw the preparation the day before and was very impressed with the amount of time and effort that the volunteers dedicated to making this event a great experience for the seniors.

I later spent more than three hours at the school during the height of the celebration. The variety of activities, food and decorations was absolutely amazing. The kids all seemed to be enjoying themselves, and I was also appreciative of the amount of security on hand to make sure that the event produced only happy memories.

None of the people I worked with knew me, of course, but they were all very friendly and cheerful as we went about our business. I can easily imagine the kind of quality young people who would be raised by parents like them.

I have a pretty good understanding of what it took to pull this celebration off, and I just wanted to write and congratulate the community for this outstanding effort. I hope that despite the splitting of the school, this worthwhile tradition will be continued for many years to come.

With sincere thanks in behalf of my family and myself,

Kimberly Quintero

n Let’s Save Live Oak’s Animation Program

Dear Editor,

I graduated with the class of 2003. I was lucky enough to have attended Live Oak High School while they had an animation program. Currently, Live Oak is in danger of losing the animation program and Mr. Brown-Korbel, despite a high registration rate. Mr. Brown-Korbel, Mr. BK to those who were fortunate enough to be one of his students, has an incredible ability to give every student in his class the same love, respect and most importantly, time. It never mattered to him what our reputation was, what our grades were in other classes, or what our class rank was. His confidence in me and in other students helped us to believe in our futures. I saw many other students from different backgrounds apply themselves to animation and a lot of it had to do with Mr. BK’s guidance and care.

Mr. BK sees that animation is a large part of the future and has worked incredibly hard to bring that technology to the students of Live Oak. Offering animation in a public high school such as Live Oak helps our district stand out from other public education systems. More and more top rated film companies are turning to animation for their special effects, such as the Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and X Men trilogies. Video Games have become state of the art animation programs. Job opportunities in these fields can provide graduating students a direction for their future.

It is a shame the school board thinks animation should be taken away from Mr. BK and even more importantly, from the students. If the school district really cared about their students and their student’s futures, they would think twice about making this terrible mistake.

Tom Tobar, Class of 2003

n Tired of Ben Gilmore

Dear Editor,

I want to thank those who voted for me during the June 6 Primary Election.

It was difficult to run for Congress in 2002 and do pretty well against Congressman Richard Pombo. I believe the figures were 21 percent overall in the 11th Congressional District against an incumbent. This time with Pete McCloskey running as another Republican I didn’t even make 10 percent. That is OK. We sent a message to the people of the district that change was in the wind.

With that change comes responsibility. I believe that people like Morgan Hill Times columnist Ben Gilmore are the root of the problem. He set out in 2002 to say things against me just because I ran against Pombo. He did it again during the latest race.

I was invited to a CRA endorsement meeting, that I could not speak at because the other candidates did not show up. I introduced myself to the membership and then was told that my time was up. I sat down and the next thing Gilmore said the other candidates didn’t show up and we would have to postpone the event.

Being I was the only candidate there, I asked to let me speak and leave because I had another event to go to. Gilmore said “no” so we packed up and left the meeting. We waited for two hours for that decision to be made. 

Gilmore makes it sound as if he is the prophet and all is good, if you believe in the Bible.

In his June 27 column titled, “America was founded on Biblical Principles of Government,” he states that study groups come to Morgan Hill, such as the ACH, whoever they are, to preach. I think they need a new leader and a new venue. Let God be the judge of people, not a political crony like Gilmore.

To all the CRA members at that meeting, I hope you wake up and smell the coffee. The Republican Party needs new leadership in Washington, D.C. You have changed that process by allowing Gilmore’s and your agenda to cloud the issues. You have put the party back 50 years.

Thomas A Benigno, Tracy

Former Republican candidate for the 11th Congressional District    

n Building Up Downtown

Dear Editor,

Is the push to build a large number of residential units downtown the answer to the downtown business problem? That is not abundantly clear to this writer.

There are many issues surrounding the lack of a strong downtown business base but in the interest of keeping this letter to a manageable size, I am dealing only with housing and the belief that building more housing quickly will increase business.

The first input to this decision should be a study by each business of how many residents they need to produce a sound business and from what radius people would be expected to come to patronize the business. I have not heard of such a study being available although it may be. 

I believe that such a study would show that it is not possible to build enough residential units downtown to support run of the mill businesses. In addition, one must consider the demographics of the people who would settle in the downtown area. Are they going to be people with a significant disposable income who can support downtown businesses at the level of which they dream?

Also will the people shop downtown? It is nice to assume that the people will walk to the store or restaurant but is that always a valid assumption?  Recently it was announced that Albertsons is departing. Now there will be no supermarket downtown. So when we need groceries we hop in the car and go to Safeway and since we are out with the car, we go to Cochrane Road or the Outlets. There goes the downtown business.

Has there been a study of successful downtowns and unsuccessful downtowns to guide the decisions for Morgan Hill? Has a comparison been made of building high density units downtown versus in the unfinished areas around town? Combine the latter with free Jitney service from the neighborhoods and peripheral parking lots to make it easy for people to come downtown.

Lastly what about building more business units downtown? More businesses mean more workers who will be downtown everyday spending money and will probably stay after work if there are strongly attractive businesses.

As I said at the beginning there are many issues that should be considered and experience shows that the stake holders are not always the best people to make decisions or plot strategy especially when it comes to determining how others will react. The City Council has shown us the benefit of Community Conversations, why not apply that to the downtown question.

Chuck Dillmann, Morgan Hill