Columnists

Super Bowl 50! Claimed to be the biggest single sporting event in the whole wide world, it officially landed in the Bay Area last week. “Stay out of San Francisco” is the word from the people that spend a lot of time there, and expect some big crowds in Santa Clara and San Jose too. This may be a real good time to take advantage of what we have right here.The Super Bowl Host Committee (the all controlling organization promoting the event) has put strict guidelines on what anyone can do with the name “Super Bowl,” so you might see some creative ways of expressing a connection to the big show without saying it.One example is the Wineries of Santa Clara Valley “Super Barrel” Tasting event this Saturday. That has to win the award for the most creative connection to the big event. The wine association did a wonderful job of putting together something special for wine aficionados who will have an opportunity to taste varietals still aging in the barrel. I keep hearing things like how much more fruit you can taste in the young wines and how some wineries are offering wine futures based upon the tastings. Taste a wine and if you like it, try to stake out a claim on a case or two. Ask about it.With the Super Bowl also came an opportunity by the Host Committee to help us get some playful items added to our community. There were a couple of grant opportunities offered that city staff took advantage of and parlayed into some new features in and around the downtown.On Monday a decorated crosswalk was highlighted at the north side of the intersection at Dunne Avenue and Monterey Road. You’ve got to go and see this. Some of the region’s most notable animals are represented, interspersed with grape vines. This whimsical and amusing artwork met the grant’s requirement that a) it be installed by Super Bowl day and b) it be fun. I understand that it was a heck of a push but it is there for all to see right now. Please just try to pay attention while doing so since you may be tempted to stop and take it in.Also unveiled Monday was an example of new wayfinding signage in the downtown. These aren’t just some signs hanging on non-descript posts; they are real pieces of art. The sign posts are very classy and made mostly of wood with directional pointers that indicate where you can go and maybe change your state of mind with directions to “Bright Future”, “Scrumptiousness” and “Divine Dining.”The youth of our community helped with the directions and I hope we can take their lead and follow them. These wayfinding signs also meet that requirement to be fun.Maybe we can learn something from the criteria for these grants: have more fun.Please get out and spend time in the downtown, in all of our city’s fine shopping opportunities, and hit the wineries too. Just get out and enjoy the incredible weather we’re going to have for the next week before the skies open up again.John McKay is a Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner, Vice President of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

So you’ve started 2016 out with a bang. Five weeks in, and you’ve established a regular exercise routine and eaten healthier for the most part. That’s before a Super Bowl party comes along to threaten all the gains you’ve made so far in the new year.

“Jersey Boys” is a show you can see over and over and never tire of the music, story or presentation.

Limelight Actors Theatre rolls into its sixth year with “Momologues”, an original comedy about Motherhood.  

Good theatre is truly magic and delivers you to another time and place of fascinating enjoyment depending on how good the players and playwrights are and that’s how good the magic can be.  

Gather Brad Nye, Whitney Pintello, Nick Fryou, Sarah Smith and Ronnie Misra and you have an adept group to provide a laugh a minute offering. The production moves with super timing that keeps tickling the funny bone without stopping for the length of the play. As usual as with Pintello’s production their secret weapon is the players have as much fun as the audience, which always makes a visit to one of these productions an enjoyable hoot.

I’m doing pretty good for a new year—I’ve only had to tear up a couple of checks because I was mentally stuck in the past. I think I’m ready for 2016 now and my check writing hand is following suit.2016 is the year the downtown will start to unfold and begin to show us what all of the dust, inconvenience and pain for some of the local businesses was all about; and it better be good.I know that several businesses have been impacted directly by all of the construction, but likely none more that Huntington Station on Third Street. They stand to reap the rewards of being right next to the new parking garage and the foot traffic it will bring; we just need to make sure they survive being right next to the construction zone. So let’s support this restaurant and all of our businesses downtown. They really need your patronage.Since so much of the conversation has focused on each individual aspect of work downtown, like the parking garage and completion schedule, I don’t think most of us are stepping back to imagine the bigger picture of how our downtown will look and function when everything is done.I am just now really starting to put a proper mental picture of the downtown together and I’m starting to get excited about it. What will it look like?On a walk down Monterey Road, you’ll notice that the median has a simple and clean look with native grasses and mulch. At the intersections, rustic looking fencing will define the public spaces—some might even sit a spell to take in the view of the downtown from this different perspective. Surely the “Dear Family” sculpture deserves some time tingling your optic nerves.Walking along the sidewalks you will now be able to sit at tree planter boxes, relaxing or socializing on built in benches. At night there will be a subtle glow coming from under the benches and the trees will help illuminate the sidewalks with their festive lighting. Unique lanterns hang from the trees in the median to add another dimension to this nighttime streetscape.I get to Third Street and I look toward the completed parking garage and see people gathered in the plaza right in front. Some will sit in public Adirondack chairs under the giant lantern supporting oak tree and others in front of the businesses that will front the parking garage, which I can only hope will complement the thriving scene at Huntington. There will be the unmistakable buzz of people happy to be out and enjoying themselves.I’ll miss the colorful pop-up park, but hope to enjoy a corner with yet another business that should thrive in our downtown.Looking up and down Monterey Road, it will look a lot like it has in the recent past, until you start to look at the details. And I think those details will make all the difference in the world in how we see and use our downtown.Please start spending more time enjoying our downtown right now.McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

HE FOUGHT to blink his eyelids open against the night’s crust of ‘sleep.’ Through the cinched-down opening in the hood of his sleeping bag, he gazed up at a slate gray sky. A new day was about to begin.