Opinion

CHEERS to Cecelia and Gary Ponzini, co-founders of the Edward “Boss” Prado Foundation, and their board members and countless volunteers who help the couple and their nonprofit organization provide clothing, food and other basic needs to Morgan Hill’s less fortunate residents. Cecelia and the energetic group that runs the foundation, which oversees Cecelia’s Closet and Food Pantry, even reached outside the community this week to collect donated items for families affected by the Butte Fire in northern California.JEERS to Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Steve Betando and trustees for trying to pass a secret note during the Aug. 4 board meeting—an action that would likely get any of their 9,000-plus students scolded if caught trying the same thing in the middle of Civics class. Although the content of the note written by Betando was generic—“Anybody can call for a vote at any time”—he gave the impression he was trying to unduly influence the decision on the table, which had to do with the integration of sixth grade into the middle schools. He passed the note to Board President Bob Benevento, who then passed it along to colleagues. This was during a public meeting, and the trustees should have immediately disclosed the note’s contents upon seeing it.CHEERS to Sobrato High’s football team for hosting its first El Toro Bowl. In the rivalry matchup’s eight previous editions, the Bulldogs played the annual game at Live Oak High School because facilities couldn’t accommodate football at Sobrato. Thanks to efforts that allowed Sobrato to host its first home games last year, El Toro Bowl is coming to north Morgan Hill. Varsity kickoff is slated for 1:45 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19. Good luck to both teams!JEERS to the city of Morgan Hill for the poor timing of current downtown construction projects which are causing disruptions to business and holding potential visitors to the neighborhood at bay. We know the city has been planning these projects for many years, and they have to spend the funds available for these infrastructure improvements on a tight schedule or else they lose them. But they could have implemented the projects—the Fourth Street Garage, Monterey Road streetscape, Third and Fourth street reconstruction, First Street utility upgrades, etc.—in succession instead of all at once. Now the entire downtown neighborhood is a cacophonous construction zone that is difficult to navigate on foot, on bicycle or in a car.

Downtown business owners, however, believe downtown is safer

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.

Once a year Morgan Hill gets to strut its stuff and the show the world how the Fourth of July should be celebrated, from parade to fireworks. This community has had 140 opportunities to get it right and I think you can safely say that they have done just that, and it continues to get better.I only recently started attending the parade because I’m not normally a huge fan of crowds. Much of our community shows up and we draw thousands of families from outside of Morgan Hill, many of whom have adopted our parade as theirs too. I’ve come to appreciate this crowd now.But the celebration really starts on July 3 with the Patriotic Sing and the Family Street Dance.I attended the Family Street Dance and I can tell you that moving it back downtown this year added a lot of effort for the Independence Day Celebration crew, but it was worthwhile. Just about every type of person could be seen strolling the streets having a good time. There was lots of energy with the music and the buzz of the crowd yet it was so calm that security had a relaxing evening.This year I was offered a seat in the parade on the Leadership Morgan Hill float and accepted. The parade was a lot of fun from this perspective.  First thing you notice is that there are a lot of people watching this parade. Next thing you notice is everyone huddles around every bit of shade available or tries to make some, with lots of parasols and pop-up canopies.If I were a business trying to do some advertising I would hand out those little fans that everyone seemed to be using as we rolled by (note to self: bring fan next year…).Another thing I noticed is that anyone with a home on the parade route probably just acquired a few dozen new friends. So many homes were having their own private parties that staying seated on the float was a challenge at times. Liquid refreshments seemed to be flowing and likely contributed to the many smiles to be found.I decided that if I ever come into a windfall I’m going shopping for a house downtown. Being on the float really opened my eyes to what is on the route and that included some nice homes. I’ve now got my eye on a couple because, God knows, you buy a home for location, location, location—one of those “locations” being on this parade route.We spent a lot of time on the float waving and yelling back at family members of those on the float. This is truly a family oriented event.Hopefully most parade spectators occupied themselves in town and went on to witness one of the best fireworks displays in the county to cap off the Fourth of July celebration—Morgan Hill style.Something I hear over and over again is that Morgan Hill embodies small town America. I think that what happens in this town around the Fourth of July cements that description with a lot of pride.We throw a heck of a birthday party.John McKay is a longtime Morgan Hill resident, city planning commissioner and co-founder of the Morgan Hill Tourism Alliance.