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A New SV Media publication
Friday, October 27, 2017
gilroydispatch.com • Vol. 150, No. 43 • $1
BUSINESS: Rolling and grinning in style in your luxury home P12
Floors are sinking at Alexander Station
Mosquitoes pose new health risk in county
WINTER RAIN RESULTED IN SETTLING IN 162 UNITS, CITY SAYS
YELLOW FEVER MOSQUITOES FOUND IN MERCED MAY BE IN GILROY
By Bryce Stoepfel Reporter
By Bryce Stoepfel Reporter
➝ Mosquitos, 4
& AB OU T OF NDAR CA LE EN TS EV
YOGA EVENT MOVES FROM MORGAN HILL By Bryce Stoepfel Reporter
People may say that Gilroy is too small, too agricultural and too square for yoga and meditation. Amit Verma and Balaji Vaidyanathan, both tech workers in Silicon Valley and co-directors of the third annual YogaFest, aim to prove that yoga is for everyone, not just for big-city folks. The third annual YogaFest will be coming to Gilroy this year on Nov. 12 at Christmas Hill Park and its organizers are hoping for their biggest crowd yet–up to 2,000 after two years with 800 attendees. Formally held in Morgan Hill,
A section of the Gilroy Dispatch & Morgan Hill Times
Maze & grace BARTENDERS UNION P8 | AUTO WINTERIZING P16 | PROPERTY SPOTLIGHT P19
Inside this issue: Swank Farms sets new roots
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organizers feel that this year’s festival, which includes half a dozen luminaries from the yoga world, along with music, food and a whole day’s worth of activities, will help give Gilroy to a new peace of mind. “We wanted to go to a place where yoga was dormant,” Verma said. “We felt it was a good place to expand. We saw a need here. There aren’t many yoga studios so we thought we’d bring the knowledge to Gilroy. People are so nice here so we wanted to bring them some relaxation.” With tickets selling for $20, the event runs from 9am to 5pm and features six well-known yoga instructors, including Mariko Hirakawa a renowned yoga teacher from New York City and Darren
Parklets: Outdoor dining takes a new turn GILROY’S FIRST BREW PUB HAS TABLES ON THE STREET By Bryce Stoepfel
As Gilroy prepares to welcome its first brew pub in Golden State Brewery, the downtown will also receive a first-hand experience of a “parklet,” where outdoor seating juts out onto the street in front of the building. The Golden State Brewery parklet is the first iteration of a pilot program that was established in 2013. It took the enterprising founder of the Santa
Clara-based brewery, Seth Hendrickson, to reignite a program that was mostly forgotten as former members of city staff departed and were replaced. The parklet concept began in 2010 in San Francisco, and hasincreased in popularity throughout the Bay Area. The parklets are designed to use underutilized space for outdoor patio seating for bars and restaurants. The parklet in front of Golden State Brewery has replaced a handicapped accessible parking space, blocks a fire hydrant, juts out onto the road and partially obscures a crosswalk, raising concerns regarding the safety of the structure, which
is surrounded by metal posts and railings. For Zach Hilton, Chairperson of the Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, parklets are a good idea and are a step forward in making downtown Gilroy a more walkable destination. “I’m a fan of the idea,” Hilton said. “I’ve been in them and have seen them in the area and as a firefighter in Oakland, I have never seen one struck by a vehicle.” Hilton believes that rather than being a distraction, parklets focus drivers, who pay closer attention to the road and look out for pedestrians as they pass by the parklets. The structure
Brad Kava
Hollister’s Swank Farms moves its annual harvest attraction
➝ Alexander Street, 10
Yoga stretches south
Reporter OU T
➝ Yoga Fest, 14
UPWARD DOG Yoga organizers hope Gilroy will double the number of participants from the last two years in Morgan Hill for a day of yoga.
THE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE OF MORGAN HILL, GILROY & SAN MARTIN
OCTOBER 27, 2017
Main from San Francisco, whose yoga classes attract 500 students a week. Another fun feature of the festival will be laughter yoga with Manoj Joshi “While teaching you, he makes you laugh which brings awareness how important laughter is in yoga,” Vaidyanathan said. “It makes you feel light.” Verma, 36, and Vaidyanathan, 35, were in Gilroy last week going door to door, inviting local businesses to spread the word and enlist help in selling tickets for the event. Participating businesses will receive a 25 percent cut of the ticket sales. Organized by volunteers from
There's a sinking feeling at Alexander Station Apartments. City inspectors say up to 162 of 262 units in the buildings at Alexander and 10th Streets are sinking ¼ to ½ inches and repairs will be necessary before they approve the apartments for occupancy. “The excessive rains from the prior year produced some settling in one of the buildings,” said Denise Carter, vice chief portfolio officer with the Pacific Companies. “The repairs are well underway and will not affect the project.” To correct the settling in the affected units, the city has endorsed actions by the contractor, Pacific West Builders, to use jacks to adjust and raise the wood posts that inspectors say were “negatively affected by moisture.” The contractors will remove the compressed flooring to allow the installation of replacement posts to support the flooring. The new posts will correct the settlement issue in all affected units, according to the city. With the newest revelation of structural problems, the project’s completion date, which was expected to be finished by the end of the year, has been cast in doubt. “The engineer is not sure as to what has caused this problem and is working on a solution to get it resolved,” said City of Gilroy Community Development Director Kristi Abrams. “There has been some
YogaFest
The Santa Clara County Vector Control District is reaching out to residents of the South Valley regarding a nasty invader that has the potential to pack a powerful punch despite its diminutive size. The Aedes Aegypti, more commonly known as the yellow-fever mosquito, has been found in Merced. Despite the 50 miles separating that city and South Valley, there’s a distinct possibility that the little invaders may hitch a ride in a car or truck to make it's way here. It’s feared that owing to the hardy nature of the insect’s eggs which can withstand drought for up to 10 years, that it may already be in South Valley. “They are a game changer regarding mosquito control,” said Russ Parman, Assistant Manager for the Santa Clara County Vector Control District. “Since they bite during the day, even without spreading disease they are a very severe nuisance. They interfere with life the way regular mosquitos don't.” Aside from being a carrier of yellow fever, dengue, chikungunya and Zika, the new mosquito is hard to contain since it can breed in small pools of water the size of a bottle cap. While there have been no reported cases of these diseases being spread through mosquito bites, Santa Clara County has the third highest rate of infection from people who travel and bring back the diseases from where they came. “We call those imported or travel cases, where people travel to places where these diseases are everywhere,” Parman said. “They get the infection from that place mosquitos and they come back with the virus in their bloodstreams. If
STREET DINING Gilroy’s new brew pub is the first place in
the city to have outdoor dining on the street, not on the sidewalk.
constructed around the parklet also goes beyond what Hilton has seen compared to others in the Bay Area. Often, these spaces have little to no barriers separating them from the roadway, he said. Girum Awoke, Public
Works Director for the City of Gilroy, said the posts on the four corners of the parklet are firmly bolted to the ground. He said the bolts run several feet below the pavement. ➝ Parklets, 14