Columnists

What a month we’ve had downtown!On June 10, the new pop up park made its debut to incredible enthusiasm and was an instant hit—you’ll see people having a good time there pretty much all day long. This is a concept that deserves a permanent home, but I wonder if a fancy permanent home will have the same charm and personal feel of this overnight success; it feels like we put it together with our community pride.Later, on June 23we celebrated the opening of the downtown parking garage, completion of the street improvements, and all of the downtown art. The parking garage is really, truly, finally done! The tarantula is lit and a hit. Poppy Jasper is always beautiful, but a three-story version is a truly remarkable sight. There is now so much art downtown that a walking tour had to be conducted to show it all off. The street improvements make the street scene feel festive all year round, and the median now feels like a park. Did you submit a name for our tarantula in the naming contest?The Downtown Visioning Summit closed out the month, and I felt that it recapped everything that happened earlier in the month. City staff put together what I felt was the finest overview of what has happened recently and what is about to happen downtown. There were two panels made up of real people that we could relate to. I think many of these folks are the new visionaries and as different as their approach may be, the vision seems to be consistent: we are going to have a lot of people downtown and most of them will be walking, hopefully from their nearby downtown homes.The Visioning Summit really opened my eyes; the new development coming downtown is pretty exciting stuff. There was an overwhelmingly enthusiastic buzz in the attending crowd. Now I’m sure a few were not enthused about what is coming but there seems to be a strong sense that the community is ready for the coming changes.We’re now in July and an event that the community has been working on for almost a year is here: the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Tournament! Women golfers from around the world arrive with their huge media presence, so be prepared and smile a lot when you’re roaming Morgan Hill the next few days.This event holds the potential to give us unprecedented exposure on the world stage, but even if we don’t get the anticipated exposure we know that we should have a hopping downtown while we entertain the best women golfers in the world.Not a bad month for little ol’ Morgan Hill huh? Oh yea, there was this little street thing and parade that I’ll discuss next time…John McKay is Interim President of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, a city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.

Somehow I have ended up being the official hostess for Thanksgiving dinner for a dozen or so people. I have no idea why. I can only assume it's a cruel joke. Anyway, to prepare, I consulted the Great Internet Advisors and found a handy little checklist that will ensure my turkey day goes off without a hitch.

Cruising through downtown on the way to the Times’ office, I had to wonder what visitors or newbies thought when they saw the chairs lined up in the middle of Monterey Street. “What kind of a crazy town is this?,” they must ask themselves. Well, it’s a crazy good hometown, tradition-laden-Fourth-of-July-parade-every-year town – and people come from all over to enjoy the nostalgic and patriotic feeling that comes with it. Uncle Sam would be proud of Morgan Hill.

My house has been overrun by tomatoes. I swear to you, they are everywhere. They are in the fridge. They are on the counter. They are in the freezer. It’s like a scene from that TV show “Hoarders” only instead of newspapers and clothes stacked up everywhere, we have tomatoes. Frankly, it’s terrifying. And the worst part? I planted the stupid things. Also? I used to like tomatoes.