Opinion

The amazing story of Carole King is an inspiring one, showing what talent and drive could do in the world of popular music back in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. She has won four Grammys, been inducted into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame and was the first woman to receive the Library Of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Her list of achievements goes on and on.This musical, from the book by Douglas McGarth, bundles songs she wrote and some she co-wrote with others for an entertaining evening of great music.Take some of her words, add some of her music and Carole King will meld it all into something Beautiful. That’s what happened with the songs that King (played by an outstanding Abby Mueller) created in her brilliant, sometimes jarring life. Beautiful begins in 1961 with songs by King and her husband, Gerry Goffin (a solid Liam Tobin) and friendly competitors Barry Mann (a pleasant Ben Frankhauser) and Cynthia Weil (the exceptional Becky Gulsvig), then moves to the early ’70s when King leaves a bad marriage and reluctantly writes and records one of the most successful albums of all time, Tapestry, and realizes her dream of performing at Carnegie Hall.Starting in the late ’50s as a strong-willed 16-year-old, she convinces the tough agents in the songwriting field of Broadway to listen and appreciate her music. She churned out pop, rock, and blues songs with Goffin for groups like the Shirelles, Drifters and the Righteous Brothers, creating hits including “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” Splish Splash,” “Stupid Cupid,” “Yakety-Yak,” “Love Potion # 9” and “Some Kind Of Wonderful.”She went on to become successful singer-songwriter on her own with “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” “It’s Too Late,” “You’ve Got A Friend,” “Up On The Roof” and “I Feel The Earth Move” and many more. To be sure, Carole King remains a legend in the recording industry.Director Marc Bruni keeps this fine cast moving in a tightened up production from the 2013 version, which includes one additional song.Creativity is the watchword for scenic Designer Derek McLane with his innovative, mobile set that smoothly changes before your eyes. A grand piano effortlessly slides off center stage to be replaced with two-storey offices and living rooms as needed.Abby Mueller delivers King’s music as close as you can get to the real thing.  ‘Beautiful’  Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market and Eighth streets, San FranciscoPerformances through Sept 18Tickets: $45-$212For reservations and information: (888) 746-1799, or visit www.shnsf.com

Let’s try pedestrian safety suggestionsI appreciated Kathy Sullivan's more expansive solutions to the serious concerns about pedestrian safety downtown.As a member of the Downtown Association, she presented more proactive suggestions than just saying that flashing pedestrian lights would detract from the ambiance of downtown. It's obviously a tricky proposition. How do we create a situation in which downtown businesses thrive, which is the obvious goal of the Downtown Association, while providing a safe environment for residents and visitors?Perhaps the dialog has now progressed to the point where these are not mutually exclusive endeavors. Downtown businesses need patrons and people will not venture downtown if they fear for their safety. Expanding our creative options to benefit both downtown businesses and the safety of their patrons should be our goal.She has offered many good starting points for reaching consensus. Among them is closing Monterey Street downtown on select weekends or even every weekend when commute traffic is not an issue. Her suggestions merit further discussion and trial implementation.Working together and thinking outside the box, we can create a win-win situation for our downtown businesses and pedestrian safety!Debra UllmanMorgan HillCut down on wasteful spendingVery biased views on downtown presented in last issue. Let's interview and talk with a vast array of real citizens without vested business interest in downtown and find out what they are thinking.Downtown is not the only place that feels unsafe. More traffic in the entire town by distracted careless drivers is pronounced.My opinion: too much taxpayer money is being poured into downtown. Instead, that money should have been spent on infrastructure such as road and pipe repairs. No new taxes please.Learn to spend the resources more wisely. City government tends to be somewhat wasteful spending our tax dollars. The economy isn't going to be like it is now forever. We need to spend more carefully.Marie LambMorgan Hill

What an incredible quarter century I have spent working for these community newspapers.  Twenty five years spent learning, teaching and contributing to producing your local newspaper.  I had several mentors over the years, who each had many more years here than I have racked up.  They taught me so much about each department, how it works and how they all fit together. Thank you to each and every one of you (you know who you are) for investing in me and making me better.  Much of my work was behind the scenes, planning and organizing, making sure everything came together on deadline.  I loved every minute of it!

One unusual Friday night, with no plans on our calendar, my husband and I went to Sarah’s Vineyard for their Sunset Music Series. For $60 we enjoyed some of the finest pinot noir on the Central Coast, dinner and live music amidst an amazingly beautiful, 360-degree vista.

The Morgan Hill Downtown Association Board of Directors joins the entire community in the sorrow surrounding the tragic accident on the evening of July 4. While crossing Monterey Road, two young boys were struck by a car and critically injured at an intersection widely known to be one of the riskiest in the downtown.On a night when most of the community was celebrating our nation’s birth, those two young members of our community ended their day in a most horrific way that undoubtedly forever changed their lives, as well as the driver’s and both of their families.As historically safe as our downtown has been, the hard-earned growth in popularity of our businesses may challenge the past record. As the efforts of everyone—from the stalwart businesses of the community, to developers, to city staff—continue to contribute to the success of the downtown, we will see a growing competition for the use of our sidewalks, crosswalks and roadways.We still don’t yet know the details surrounding the July 4 accident. We don’t know if any of the traffic calming efforts like those currently proposed or seen during last year’s Complete Streets Pilot Project would have helped. We have to hope that we have the best possible solution to our traffic calming concerns amongst our current plans or options being explored, but we need to keep an open mind to additional solutions.The recent tragic accident has served as a reminder that we need to maintain a safe environment downtown, but at the same time we want to remind the community that the downtown is a business district that will continue to grow in its role as the community social gathering place and economic driver.Keeping this in mind, we would like to restate some of our previous recommendations that have not yet been implemented:• Install the traffic control signal at Fourth Street and Monterey Road as quickly as possible;• Provide enhanced law enforcement in a manner sensitive to the perception that excessive enforcement may be a deterrent to bringing more visitors to the downtown;• Identify ways to lower and implement a 15 mph speed limit through the downtown core;• Provide user-held crosswalk flags at pedestrian crossings as soon as possible;• Close Monterey Road to vehicle traffic on selected weekends, or on weekends in general.We do not support the following in the downtown core:• Speed cushions or speed bumps;• Raised pavement markers;• Flashing pedestrian crossing lights;• Vehicle speed indication signage.The recently proposed traffic calming strategy of programming the downtown traffic control signals to flash red in all directions (creating four-way stop sign intersections) during off-peak traffic periods should be further considered for implementation.Recent comments by City Council members have indicated an interest in revisiting the lane reduction, as experienced during the 2015 Complete Streets Pilot Project, when the Hale Avenue extension is completed or conditions present a better opportunity for successful implementation. Please consider a resolution stating that under the se conditions that Monterey Road lad reductions could be revisited.Kathleen Sullivan is a board member of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association. She wrote this letter to the City Council on behalf of the MHDA board, and presented it to the council at the July 27 meeting.

Editor’s note: The letter below was sent July 26 to the families of students attending Silicon Valley Flex, located on Jarvis Drive in Morgan Hill. The letter has been edited for length and style.Dear Flex Families,It is with heavy hearts and the deepest of regrets that we make this announcement. After extensive deliberation, and after exploring every option available to us, the Flex Board has made the decision to close the school.K12, the school’s service provider who managed and operated the school for the board for the last five years, terminated its service contract with Flex on July 1, five years early. While the board disagrees with K12’s grounds to terminate the service contract, it cannot operate the school without K12’s financial support, and does not have alternative funding for the school. Please note that the K12 staff supporting the school are working hard to assist with this transition.While this late notice is very unfortunate, the Flex Board does not have sufficient funds to operate the school this year without K12, and attempting to begin the school year without a sound economic base would inevitably result in closure mid-year, thus forcing staff and students out at a point which would be much worse.Silicon Valley Flex has served its students and families well for the past five years, and our sincere hope was to find a way to ensure it could continue to do so. Sadly, in the past week it became clear that we are simply out of options and can wait no longer to notify our staff and our families.We know that you have many questions and we are working as quickly as we can to get you the answers you deserve. Over the next two weeks, members of the leadership team and representatives from our partner, K12, will be onsite to meet with you to discuss next steps and other options available to you. We appreciate K12’s effort in this regard. We have also included some Frequently Asked Questions at the bottom of this letter to address some preliminary questions that we anticipate you’ll have.We want to hear from you directly and to answer any questions you have. School and K12 representatives will be onsite July 27 from 7:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and again on July 28 from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. For those who are unable to join us this week, we will be available next week from Tuesday through Thursday as well.Sincerely,Mark Kushner, Board PresidentOn Behalf of the Silicon Valley Flex Board of Trustees

On a recent Sunday afternoon, a group of us followed the Wine Trail of Santa Clara Valley and stopped in at Kirigin Cellars, which has been making wine on the property since 1916. There are so many things to love about Kirigin Cellars: to start with, their expansive property comprises rolling vineyards, over 1000 rose bushes and 100 sequoia redwoods.

I love living in Gilroy. We’ve got the natural beauty of open space (for now, anyway), mountains all around us, an extremely friendly community, the Premium Outlets and best of all, a dozen or so awesome wineries right in our very own backyard.

Don’t push a ‘blank check’ on votersEditor’s note: The following letter was addressed to the Morgan Hill City Council regarding an agenda item at the July 20 council meeting, to consider a “resolution of necessity” for $38 million in bonds for city street repairs and maintenance—a precursor to placing the bond measure on the November ballot. The council approved the resolution unanimously, and will discuss a possible bond measure at the July 27 meeting. While this resolution is only a step allowing the council to preserve the option of placing a bond measure on the ballot, it is a step in a direction away from another issue that needs to be addressed. Issuing a bond doesn't resolve the problem of city leaders not being more attentive to their fiscal responsibility. These funding gaps have been a known issue for Morgan Hill for years, particularly with respect to street maintenance. Every budget available on the city's website, from 2008 to the present, has identified funding for street maintenance and repair as insufficient. Those same budgets continually noted increases in street maintenance backlogs.Yet other than minor attempts to reduce costs, such as the LED streetlight conversion, it's only been recently that the city has purposefully addressed the funding gaps through contracted analysis.I have heard many excuses for the decrease in infrastructure funding: economic downturn, elimination of the Redevelopment Agency, decline in gas tax revenue, lowest per capita tax level among cities in Santa Clara County. While all may be valid contributors to this deficit, there has been little mention of proactive steps to address projected funding shortfalls.Maintenance has continued to be deferred, maintenance backlogs have increased, and the funding gaps have grown larger. The response by the city has been to publicly advertise community engagement and use designed surveys as crutches to excuse their decisions as to what the community has voiced as its needs and priorities.What the city has not done is publicly advertise their responsibility for this fiscal problem.As the City of Morgan Hill has continued to grow, so has the infrastructure funding gap. It seems apparent the city cannot continue to grow at the rate proposed and add to an infrastructure it cannot already support. During the period of updating the General Plan and Residential Development Control System, the city council had the opportunity to make adjustments to the city's long-range plans that could have helped narrow these funding gaps. One of those adjustments should have included slowing Morgan Hill’s growth rate in order to lessen the burden of demands on city services and the associated costs. That the city council and planning commission continued their insistence on maintaining a similar level of growth that contributed to increases in these funding issues is irresponsible.The "quality of life" categories presented through the Godbe survey and the city's own attempts at community outreach are not things to be voted on or prioritized or subject to being questioned about their importance to the community. These are services expected to be provided by the city and managed accordingly. Paying off this debt with more debt is not a financial plan; it's a reaction.As the city has somehow been able to determine the amount of this potential bond at $38 million, officials should be prepared to explain to the community how the number was arrived at and explain the spending plan that comes with it.I will not support a "General Obligation" bond that does not detail where, how or for what my money is being spent. I will not support a blank check.Chris MonackMorgan Hill

Thank you Morgan HillI would like to thank the citizens of Morgan Hill for entrusting me with the elected position of City Treasurer over the past 19 years (five elections).It has been a unique opportunity for me to serve the community while having professional experiences that were outside of my private sector employment and for me to meet many of you, plus elected officials and city staff, whom I may not have otherwise met.I have decided not to seek elected office this year but look forward to the spirited campaign I believe will ensue as others in the community seek this elected office.Thank you again.Michael J Roorda, City Treasurer City of Morgan Hill