Columnists

I’ve just returned from a long week on the road, touring the great American Southwest where I saw the wide open spaces that crafted the world’s image of how the wild west should look. These places are stunning for their sometimes intense and sometimes subtle natural beauty. Man is still subordinate to nature here.After those many days on the road I returned home to something new in town, specifically downtown.Having stayed informed of a new temporary park being proposed for the downtown, I felt it could be something pretty special if it could actually be pulled off as discussed. This park would be temporary and located in the parking lot of the old liquor store at the corner of Third Street and Monterey Road. The planning was fast and furious. There would be a lot of donated time and materials from the private sector. There would be numerous departments at City Hall working side by side with the community to get this park done.  This kind of cooperative effort can produce some pretty impressive results.I returned to find an incredible little park and it is now hard to imagine that this used to be a blighted corner of our downtown.This little park is known as a “pop-up” park because it is temporary and it literally popped up in just a few days. However, the impact on the users would appear to be anything but temporary. Families have adopted the park and it doesn’t look like they’ll want to let go of it soon. On my first visit I just wanted to sit and look at every little detail and watch the children play while parents watched and some even napped—right here in our downtown!I took in the large mural which is based upon a French cartoon about bicycling and the smaller one that is the impassioned work of a local artist.There is a cool old map which showed that bicycling was important at the turn of the last century and a modern “fix-it” station so you can fix your bike today. There is plenty of bike rack space for cyclists to leave their bikes to explore the downtown. You can even fill a water bottle right here.A huge blue chair is waiting for someone with a rear end as big as the imagination of those who dreamed up this park. There is a large ceramic basket of grapes with a bottle of wine which looks like it should sit next to that big blue chair, just waiting for that giant person and a wine glass. There are lots of little chairs to match the big one that look like cute little spawn.An artist turned old propane tanks into chairs and benches—another of the many works of park art commissioned by the city’s mini-grant program.There are plants in planters which also serve as chalkboards. These two walls of chalkboards entertain the children and, from the looks of things, adults too. There is even a bookcase with books to borrow.All of this is on artificial turf that makes this look like the only green grass in any park in this town.A couple huge trees have been brought in to add some nature, but there is no mistaking this for a man made effort.Not much is subtle about this park, but it is very comfortable. Come see for yourself before it’s gone.McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and a co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

Originally, Charles Goren looked at a special class of hands holding seven cards in one suit, but lacking enough high card points (HCP) to open. Goren saw that this length was often wasted as discards. He also recognized that, as a trump suit, this length could be powerful in play. Since Goren used the entire two-level to indicate strong hands, he devised the pre-emptive three-level bid to show solid length in one suit even when lacking enough HCPs to open.

In my last column, I described an event that could be the biggest thing to hit Morgan Hill since the Swedish Crown Prince and Princess visited in 1926.The Amgen Tour of California is coming and will bring the world right into our living room. This world class event will be in our town, not 10 miles south or 28 miles north like the last two world class events, both of which pretty much passed us by.Again, this is a big deal for us.Are you one of those people that wonder how this event came to be in Morgan Hill? An event that I’ve heard could cost over $100,000 just to be provided the privilege of hosting—in addition to the direct costs associated with a world class event (just the part we’re paying for)? An event that normally gobbles reams of paper just to fill out the qualification forms to participate?We are the beneficiaries of someone else’s misfortune. Another community pulled out of the event, and Amgen Tour organizers gave the folks in San Jose a call, who in turn gave our folks in Morgan Hill a call.Yes, we have a relationship with San Jose that is strong enough for that call to take place. Bet you had no idea that could have happened.So how did that happen? My theory… In April 2013 the community of Morgan Hill declared that we wanted tourism to grow as a key industry. The city council heard that proclamation, and an environment was created that fostered reaching out to our neighbors to work together in the name of tourism.A couple years back, the very people that gave us that recent call were invited to Morgan Hill to see what we see every day—a beautiful community that could actually be an asset to San Jose.An asset to San Jose? Yes, an asset in the sense that one of the lures to potential visitors of San Jose could be our “charming” community just minutes away from the big city hubbub. When you’re done at the Tech Museum, head over to Morgan Hill for lunch and hiking, for example.A stage was set years ago where this event is now about to play out. This event will in turn hopefully set in motion a recognition of Morgan Hill as a great place to visit, build businesses and live. These are called investments in the future.There is a lot of work to do before we can show off Morgan Hill to the world, and at the same time feel comfortable our community will enjoy this event. We have to get everyone who lives in, works in, or regularly passes through the downtown informed about the event and work to minimize the impacts to them. That work will start right away.As short as the event may be, one day there will be some inconveniences that we need to minimize for the entire community. Careful planning will help with that.We need to plan collaboratively to make the most of the large number of visitors and event coverage. We may only get one chance to shine, and we’re going to make the most of it.Let the work begin.John McKay is president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance. He can be reached at [email protected].