Columnists

On Dec. 20, the Morgan Hill City Council voted to approve funding to secure a local stop for one of the most prestigious bicycle races in the United States later this year, likely to inject an economic boost into our town.Due to the council’s approval, on May 16, 2018, the Amgen Tour of California will stop in Morgan Hill for one of the event’s time trial stages.Anyone even remotely familiar with bicycle racing, or who is a follower of the sports segment of the news, knows the Amgen Tour of California is a big deal. This race is considered a lead up to the Tour de France for many, and is the only race in the U.S. recognized by the key international bicycle racing sanctioning body.For those of you who really don’t pay attention to these kinds of things, you probably do know what the Tour de France is. This is California’s version of that.It’s a big deal and it’s now coming to our little town!So what does the Tour of California mean to us? It will be fun to watch, but the economic implications are extensive.This event will be televised around the world with a social media following that could bog down anyone’s internet to dial tone levels when everyone is in town: digital imagery of Morgan Hill will be floating around the world. A circus of riders and support crews, event staff, reporters and fans will be here in earnest. Hotel rooms as far as Monterey are already being booked.Morgan Hill will get to show off our regionally recognized active lifestyle. Did you know that Morgan Hill was touted as a Mecca for bicycling just a few years back, in conjunction with the Bicycling Spring Classic hosted by Specialized and Bicycling Magazine? Our Outdoor Sports Center on Condit Road regularly hosts top-flight events. You are minutes from city, county and state parks that many consider destinations. The world will see all of that on their TVs and smartphones.The event will begin and end right in our downtown, so the entire world will see this neighborhood we’re so proud of. Reserve a table at one of your favorite downtown restaurants now.The promoters will host a “Lifestyle Festival,” where our downtown will turn into a huge bicycle party with all kinds of bicycling related vendors and parties lining Monterey Road. A community event is being planned nearby, where we can highlight our local and regional assets.There will be immediate benefits to local businesses, but the exposure promises to help local tourism and other industries as our community and its attributes are seen far and wide.We get to have a 30-second promotional video shown during the event highlighting Morgan Hill that should excite potential employers about our town being a great place for their businesses and employees.This is our time to shine, folks. Let’s make the best of it.More to follow in my next column…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].

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].