I was going to write a piece this week about our annual Taste Of Morgan Hill (TOMH) street fair and, indeed, spent the weekend musing on how it compared with previous TOMH events and with its spring counterpart, Mushroom Mardi Gras. However, on reflection there is little to say of much note.
Monterey Road, where TOMH is held, is a better venue than Depot Street, to which Mardi Gras has now been relegated. The out-of-town stalls at Mardi Gras offered more carnival fare than the in-town ones that served up mini versions of their establishment’s usual fare. And the farcical ticket system this weekend really needs to go. We tried to buy a beer for six tickets, only to be sent back to line up again at the ticket tent to buy a beer glass for three more tickets into which to pour our six-ticket beer. And yes, tickets are a dollar each, making your first beer of the day nine dollars.
What did catch my attention was a stall staffed with volunteers with a petition to oppose Morgan Hill’s “road to nowhere.” At first I was skeptical, but the more I heard the more I agreed with them. Morgan Hill has three major roads leading down to it from the North: Interstate 101, Monterey Road, and Santa Teresa Boulevard. Santa Teresa is the bus route and ends in a T-junction at Main Street. The buses turn left, follow Main as far as Monterey, turn right again and use Monterey to continue on to Gilroy.
What has long been proposed is that Santa Teresa continues on south to the west of downtown, and link up to Sunnyside Avenue, which in turn changes names south of Morgan Hill to once again be Santa Teresa. On a map this seems to make sense, until the question is asked: just who is this $14 million project going to benefit? We live in this part of town and there is absolutely no traffic congestion of any kind that needs to be solved today. There is no more vacant building land on the west side of Morgan Hill. El Toro rises steeply behind our house, so no growth to plan for there. And if some mythical community were to arise to the south at some future time, why should we, the residents of Morgan Hill today, cough up $14 million right now for their future convenience?
This is another example of the muddled thinking of our town’s leadership, or perhaps of more nefarious activities. The funds for this are by and large the same money that could be used to give the downtown area a desperately needed rebuild. Yes, redevelopment agency funds are being diverted to a nonsensical expressway, while we are being asked in yet another audacious city-funded flyer this week to vote for a tax on our water, electricity, television, garbage and phones. We should abandon this crazy road project, use that money to pay for additional police as and when they really are needed—and not because of some lame statistics—and refocus the balance on the creation of a real downtown where we can all get a taste of Morgan Hill all year round.
Sean Kenny is the author of four novels and numerous essays. Born and raised in Ireland, he pursued a career in high tech which eventually led him to Silicon Valley. His most recent novel, The Memory Trap, was inspired by a stint at Apple. He is currently one of the founders and CEO of Fresco Solar, a renewable energy company that has installed the first wind turbine in Morgan Hill.
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