Gil1730

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ESTABLISHED 1868

A New SV Media publication

Friday, July 28, 2017

gilroydispatch.com • Vol. 150, No. 30 • $1

GARLIC FEST TIME!

GARLIC FESTIVAL 20 17 G UID E

SOUTH VALLEY | SAN BENITO 2017 VISITORS GUIDE INSIDE

Locals go first at Garlic Festival

LOCAL SCENE Family Night Friday, July 28 is Family Night at Fifth Street Live! Music by Kenny Thomas And The Southern Baptists. Bring your low-backed chairs and dancing shoes. Pick up dinner from the gourmet food trucks. Special kid-friendly activities including a visit from Heroes for Hope benefitting Unravel Pediatric Cancer, face painting and more! Shop at the Downtown Gilroy Spice of Life Farmer's Market and spend your Friday nights in Downtown! Many thanks to our co-producer the Gilroy Center for the Arts. Please note: no animals allowed and no alcoholic beverages will be served during Fifth Street Live Family Night.

WHAT TO EXPECT WITH THIS YEAR’S THREEDAY CULINARY CELEBRATION

National night out

Highway 152 Improvements The City of Gilroy announced that $14.165 million in funds for the repaving of Highway 152 through Gilroy was approved by the California Transportation Commission as a standalone amendment.

Night crawlers Guests are invited to explore the unique adaptations of nocturnal animals who thrive and survive after the sun sets. The exploration is scheduled for Saturday, August 5 from 7:30-9 p.m. at Coyote Lake Harvey Bear Ranch Park. The group will meet at the RV campground amphitheater. For reservations or more information, call 408.842.7800 or visit sccgov.org.

Bike Awards Do you know someone that strives to make Gilroy a better place for bicyclists and pedestrians? The Gilroy Bicycle Pedestrian Commission is seeking nominees each month for recognition. Award, including for adults and kids. Get the document here: http:// www.cityofgilroy.org/ DocumentCenter/Home/ View/6628

County Fair It’s fair time! This time around the Santa Clara County Fair is STEAM (science, tech, engineering, agriculture/art, math) themed. There will be interactive sci-tech displays, plus arts and crafts competitions, livestock, agriculture exhibits, carnival, food and way more fair fun. The fair is running until Sunday, August 6. The fair will be held on 344 Tully Road in San Jose. For specific times and more info, visit thefair.org

By Bryce Stoepfel

With nearly 39 years under its belt, the Gilroy Garlic Festival has had some time to fine-tune the visitor experience. Below are the top things everyone needs to know. Robert Eliason

Gilroy police will host its fourth National Night Out the first Tuesday in August. A nationwide event to support policecommunity partnerships, Gilroy’s National Night Out will include music, dancing, family-friendly activities including raffles, games, a bounce houses for the kids, crafts, face-painting, resource fair, photo booth and more on Tuesday, Aug. 1 from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at downtown Fifth Street, between Eigleberry Street and Monterey Road. Visit natw.org.

By Jack Foley Senior Editor

You can’t eat it, smell it or braid it, but in the nearly quarter century since its creation it has become an iconic symbol of the city that garlic put on the international map. Yet the designer of the sprawling downtown mural that boldly proclaims Gilroy, Garlic Capital of the World, has gone largely unheralded and long ago lost track of his original drawings for the colorful, bucolic image of garlic farming that has adorned everything from postcards to websites since it was painted by a visiting Italian muralist in 1993. That changed this week when former Gilroyan Martin Roberson, a 53-year-old San Jose tattoo artist and owner of Lucky Tattoo, was presented in front of the artwork with a framed original of one of his drawings for the mural – and perhaps the only one that exists. Heather Simpson-Bluhm presented it. She is the daughter of Caryl Simpson, the mural’s patron,

who died after a short battle with cancer in June 2015 at the age of 67. Roberson said he still recalls being hired by the neophyte businesswoman Simpson while a Gilroy High School student, and designing t-shirts for her silkscreen printing company. He’d lost touch with the family but after her death sent her children a poignant note explaining all she meant to him. He and his wife, Lori, and Simpson-Bluhm, 48, and her brother, Ted, 46, have since rekindled their friendship and have become close friends. Roberson even created a tattoo for each that honors their mom, according to Simpson-Bluhm. She and her husband, Greg, have a daughter, Hannah Caryl, 13, who is Simpson’s only grandchild. “She was everything to my mom,” said Simpson-Bluhm, who remains active in the company her mother founded. Roberson said Simpson taught him all he knows about running a business and really launched his successful career as an artist – not to mention her contributions to the city.

Alexander Station rumors swirl WHAT’S WITH GILROY’S TALLEST AND MOST CONTROVERSIAL BUILDING?

and owner of the building, the Idaho-based Pacific Companies, the apartments will fill a gaping void of affordable housing in Gilroy as rents in Santa Clara County continue to soar and outof-towners will not be favored. Alexander Station Apartments, the twin five-story, 262-unit construction project, is one of the most visible sights in downtown Gilroy, towering above everything else in the city. It will have 18 one-bedroom apartments; 110 two-bedrooms; 100 three-bedrooms and 32 fourbedrooms at rents between $1,076 and $1,997 a month. Each unit will be allowed two people per bedroom plus another person, prompting Gilroyans to question whether there is enough parking and rooms in schools for the new people. “Gilroy had a need for

affordable housing,” said Denise Carter, the Chief Portfolio Officer with Pacific Companies, based in Eagle, Idaho. “We're building in Hollister, Salinas and we're trying to find rural properties and fill a need that those communities may have. We saw the growth that was happening outside of the San Francisco area, and we have done other projects in the Bay Area and we saw that the growth was shifting outside of the San Jose area.” For housing to be considered affordable, the tenant must have an income four times the amount of rent. To be qualified to rent at Alexander Station an applicant’s monthly income must be two times the amount of rent. Section 8 vouchers, which allow those in need to get state funds, will be accepted but not issued

Bryce Stoepfel

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➝ Garlic Questions, 5

Mural is downtown jewel

Gilroyans say the Alexander Station Apartments, a $95 million project on the corner of 10th Street and Alexander, will be filled with residents bused in from Oakland and will lower the quality of the neighborhood. They say there aren’t enough classrooms for the kids and the future students will be bused to far away schools, rather than those they can walk to. Yet, according to the builder 58015 02001

➝ Mural, 8

Featured above are Heather Simpson and Martin Roberson.

By Bryce Stoepfel

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“A lot of people don’t realize how much she did for Gilroy, the downtown association would not have happened if it was not for her, she spearheaded the whole thing,” said Roberson, who still fondly recalls a downtown replete with mom and pop drug and a hardware stores, all the fading trapping of bustling, small-town America. “She was trying to help everyone, all the small businesses,” he said of Simpson’s efforts, which sometimes put her at odds with the folks. After she started her own condiment company and named it Garlic Festival Foods, she was even sued by the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association, which owns and runs the popular annual event that draws around 100,000 visitors a year to the city. Simpson won—and the enormously and still growing company she founded still boasts the Internet address of www.garlicfestival.com. “She was tough as nails but had a big heart,” Roberson said of

Friday is Locals Day and South Valley residents will be treated with a discount when buying tickets at the gate. With an ID from Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Martin, Aromas, Hollister, San Juan Bautista, locals get $5 off ticket prices. Three-day passes are also available on Friday for $30, only for locals. The three days passes come with a one-time use cloth wristband which is not transferable. Bowe severed as a human guinea pig testing out the bands. “We battle tested those,” Bowe said. “My staff and I wore those for a week to make sure they were comfortable. You won’t even notice it’s there.” Kid’s pricing has been adjusted this year, helping the Garlic Festival retain its family friendly reputation. Tickets are free for kids 10-years old and younger. Tickets are $10 for ages 10 through 16. “We pride ourselves on being family friendly, so we’re trying to make it easier for families to bring their kids and enjoy the festival,” Bowe said. Discounted advance tickets are back this year.

ICONIC SYMBOL Downtown mural is a visual legacy in the town of garlic.

CREATOR, DESIGNER LEGACIES

Locals Only

HOUSING NEED Upon

completion, Pacific Companies says they will have created 360 units of affordable living space. by US Residential, a property management company based in Dallas, Texas. US Residential has said that they do not prioritize ➝ Alexander Station, 4


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