In years to come, when downtown Morgan Hill has been fully rebuilt and you find yourself being asked by the person next to you in some splendid new wine emporium how the “Crash of Oh-Eight” affected our pleasant little town, you certainly won’t lack for anecdotes, if this week is indicative of where we’re headed.

Last Sunday almost seems like another lifetime now. The unsettled skies certainly bespoke the belated end of summer and the vines along Watsonville road were already giving up the crispest of their leaves to the squalls blowing in from the coast. Change, as they say, was in the air.

It’s almost time again for our annual Poppy Jasper Film Festival! Yes folks, it’s awards season in Coyote Valley and you are probably asking yourself should you stay clear of downtown and even avoid 101, lest it be congested beyond belief with fans and paparazzi. And, indeed, dare you show your less than camera-worthy face at all in the midst of this rarefied glitter and dazzle?

Metro Silicon Valley's Editors Take a Look at Measures E, F, G and H

Measure E: Municipal Election Date—City of Gilroy

Metro recommends: No

The city of Gilroy has been holding local elections on odd-numbered years since its Charter was adopted in 1960. Measure E would amend that Charter, moving municipal elections to even years. Proponents hope that the change will streamline the city's election process and help preserve tax funds for use on basic city services like police and firefighters. The measure would also extend City Council members' terms by one year.

I may be drifting a bit from my editor’s intent for this piece this week, but with all the doom and gloom around, let’s take a walk on the upside of our little city for a change.

How much do you think the Great Bailout is going to cost Morgan Hill? My math says it should work out at about $100 million on a pro rata basis of our population. On the one hand this is chump change for a town that can afford to build a $15 million road it doesn’t need. But on the other hand, for a town so strapped for cash that it has to charge you a new 2 percent tax on every utility to raise $1.6 million to pay for seven new cops, this would result in a 125 percent surcharge on every utility for a year just for us to pay our share. No need to go figure, I’ve just done that for you.

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.

Ever wondered if Morgan Hill is a good place to eat out? Does it offer everything the gourmet resident could desire? Or is it a Los Gatos wannabe that is still just a backwoods cow town? Let’s take a quick tour of the culinary options and see what conclusions we can draw.

We start our gastronomic odyssey early in the day with a choice of two eateries. There is Betsy’s, once again an appendage to the bowling alley on the south side, or Just Breakfast, right in the center of town on Monterey. Either will provide you with the eggs of your choice, newspaper, juice and coffee—transporting you back to the fifties with a flip of the hash browns. Or for a more fibrous bite on the go there is the Bagel Shoppe on 3rd St., which has endured for many years while the coffee shop on 2nd St. seems to change names and owners with the seasons. But then, Morgan Hill is replete with coffee shops, including no less than six Starbucks.

For lunch the possibilities expand considerably with eateries of every ethnic persuasion vying for your midday moolah. The Flying Dragon, China Orchid, Peking and China Palace offer the usual sub-ten dollar choices, while Maurizio’s and Sicilia In Bocca are open for their Northern and Southern Italian offerings respectively. Mexican fare can be had at Las Palmas, Jesus, Sinaloa or the outstanding, if tiny, El Rincon.

This week, every Morgan Hill resident received a glossy flyer in the mail from the city urging us to vote for a new tax on our water, gas, electricity, phone, cable, sewage and garbage. The city says that this is a “general tax” that is “necessary for the city’s financial health.” Both statements are outright lies.

On the face of the flyer is a large photo of a Morgan Hill police badge. As anyone who follows local politics knows, the true purpose of this deceit is to hire seven more police officers. The city council voted 5-0 to put this on the ballot as a general measure because they believe it would make it easier to sneak it past the voters.

When we launched the Morgan Hill Observer just over a month ago, we welcomed community members “to participate in this civic journalism initiative, because none of us are as smart as all of us.” A June 26 posting contains the following invitation: “Please join us in building an informative, community-spirited resource that's reflects the spirit of Morgan Hill.”

Starting now, it will be a lot easier to do that.