Gilroy Pride by Weeklys

pRIDE

2017

ESTABLISHED 1868

PrOGRESS A SPECIAL EDITION OF THE GILROY DISPATCH

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gilroydispatch.com

ECONOMIC & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Brad Kava

HOSE GOES The last thing Chad Brownfield wanted to do was get into the family vacuum business, but he saw an opening

on the Internet and found ways to gross millions of sales with vacuumcleanermarket.com

Vacuum business cleans up online GILROY MAN MODERNIZED OLD SCHOOL VACUUM SALES AND MADE MILLIONS

W By Brad Kava

➝ Vacuums, 2

Brad Kava

hen he got out of San Jose State University with a degree in Criminal Justice six years ago, Chad Brownfield, 33, like too many millennials, was jobless and sleeping on his parents’ couch. He was playing a lot of golf, hoping, maybe, to turn that passion into a career, but it wasn’t going anywhere. Then, the idea came. Yes, it was in the one business he swore he wouldn’t get into, but it was just sitting there, the proverbial lowhanging fruit. He could sell vacuums, something his grandfather did door to door and his parents did in two separate shops, one in Morgan Hill and one in Gilroy. Like many kids, he had no interest in the family business. But he saw a huge hole and in the way vacuums were sold and marketed and a solid opportunity to fill it. Vacuum companies weren’t yet selling a lot online and vacuum store owners, many in their 60s, were some of the least

Internet savvy people on Earth, he said. “There was a big weak spot,” he said. “If I had tried to sell DSLR cameras it wouldn’t have worked. I would have needed to be huge and have huge funding and there would have been so much competition from people already doing it. But there was this big weak spot.” He pulled out his laptop and listed 10 vacuum parts for sale on Amazon and after a day, he sold one, a Kirby belt, on which he lost 50 cents in the transaction. He had a lot to learn. Then, something happened. He started to gain traction selling more items. People wanted to replace vacuum parts online through Amazon instead of driving to a store. He partnered with vacuum stores that were getting the parts cheaply from manufacturers and before long he was grossing $3 million a year. But, in the tradition of every startup, there was a failure that pushed him further. Suddenly, vacuum manufacturers realized they were missing out and began selling on Amazon. His vacuum sales went from $3 million in sales a year to $300,000 in the blink of an eye. Selling on Amazon wasn’t enough. “We had one of the top 500 sites on the Web and they crushed us,” said Brownfield. So he and a lifelong friend who became a business partner, Kevin Noto,

ROWS AND ROWS Unlike Amazon, the owners of vacuumcleanermarket.com don’t have robots filling orders. They all pitch in at the Gilroy warehouse.

More students, more tech at GUSD Flores spells out the latest on the three R’s and then some. (That’s Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmetic for you millennials.

By Bryce Stoepfel

Q: What is new this school year? A: During the recession years the budget was cut so significantly that the funds that were used to buy new textbooks and materials were cut. We are very excited that funding was restored to

Reporter

Math for kindergarten, focus on technology, solar power and new English materials are some of the highlights to students at the Gilroy Unified School District this year. Superintendent Deborah

the budget last year, so we have adopted new math material for kindergarten through twelfth grade. We had outdated math material everywhere because of that funding issue. The new math material is very modern with a strong emphasis on technology. This year we have adopted new English language arts material. We had language materials that were up to

12 years old, so to have brand new material is very exciting. In addition to that, over the last couple of years teachers have been given a lot of training how to use these materials. It's been great to go to classrooms with board members to see the evidence of these new adoptions. In an elementary school, we saw the new Go Math ➝ Schools, 4

Bryce Stoepfel

AFTER A DECADE IN THE JOB DEBORAH FLORES, HAS REACHED SOME BIG GOALS

SOLAR FLARE Gilroy High’s parking lot provides shade for

cars and electricity for the building. It’s made parking faster at the school, like unloading a 747 in 10 minutes said one official.

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Brad Kava

FORE Chad Brownfield doesn’t have as much time on the links as he’d like, but has a practice range in the headquarters of vacuumcleanermarket.com.

Vacuuming up profits by moving business to web Theirs is so much lower, they say, because they successfully match customers to the right product and with warehouses on both coasts and the Midwest, they got people products quickly.

including aging creams and a see-through bird case, looking for other spaces in the market that weren’t being served. “You can’t learn what we did in school,” said Brownfield. “The platforms on social media

Brad Kava

Vacuums, 1 figured they would launch a website, www. vacuumcleanermarket. com to compete, using all of the knowledge they’d gained about vacuum cleaners to help customers find the best cleaners and parts. Noto had also considered a career in professional golf. But then, they had another failure. They spent almost $100,000 hiring web designers, but were only selling $2,000-$3,000 a month. They hired and fired all kinds of designers, before they just did it themselves. They locked themselves in a room for 18 hours a day and created a new 500-page website with 100,000 new words and thousands of answers to questions. They came up with buying guides for those just shopping around. If a person came to the site and checked out a few pages, they got a questionnaire that helped the site refine the search and lead the customer to just right vacuum for them. They had lessons in which vacuums were best for allergen removal and asthma. They gathered information from thousands of buyers both in the store and online and found ways to give customers the best deals on the most appropriate vacuums. They did target marketing on all social media, sending out different ads for people in their 60s than for those in their 30s with two kids. They offered free shipping and coupons. Sales went up. They grossed $67,000 in the first month and before long got back to $2.5 to $3 million a year. Returns were minimal, under one percent, while Amazon’s return rate was 7 percent.

MAKING MILLIONS Business partners and web

marketers Chad Brownfield and Kevin Noto pushed through failures to launch a profitable Internet business selling vacuums and more. They have a studio to take great photos of their products north of Leavesley Road.

“Our mission is to help you find the correct vacuum cleaner for your needs and circumstance,” they say on the website. “Many customers over spend and even more, under spend. We want to help you find that sweet spot so you have every vacuum feature you need but none you don’t. The only way we can do this is to provide you with accurate information so you can make an informed decision.” They added other products to the site,

are constantly moving. Facebook and Twitter move so fast, if you’re not living it every day, you can’t keep up.” Brownfield said he wasn’t in love with the idea of vacuums, but was in love with Internet marketing that worked and building online incomes for mom and pop businesses. “My favorite passion is helping small businesses,” he said. And what of that other passion, golf? They built an indoor practice driving range in their Gilroy warehouse.

The platforms on social media are constantly moving. Facebook and Twitter move so fast, if you’re not living it every day, you can’t keep up —CHAD BROWNFIELD

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PRIDE & PROGRESS

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Learn from 20+ top speakers and many exhibitors how to reduce toxins in your life, home & body, and understand how to support the body’s immune system in an ever increasing toxic world. Millions of people in the US, with many of them in California, are concerned with some of the toxins going into their bodies, but many who are not yet aware about all of them, how to strengthen their immune system and #GetToxinsOut of their bodies and their environment. We have a growing number of children who are chronically ill – currently 1 in 2. In response we have created the LiveAware Expo: Living Healthy in a Toxic World (www.liveaware.com) with the premise to bring people in who are non-toxic in some way (eat organic, use nontoxic cleaners, etc.) but want to learn more about how minimize toxins in their environment, learn about illness basics and how to build a healthy immune system.

Sessions include: The Dirt Cure: How Getting Dirty Keeps Kids Healthy (October 1, 1PM), Dr. Maya Shetreat-Klein, MD. We’ve thought sanitizing our lives was going to make children healthy. Yet since we’ve gotten cleaner, chronic diseases as well as allergies and asthma, have skyrocketed. Join Dr. Maya ShetreatKlein, author of The Dirt Cure, to hear the science of how germs can make us stronger, and discover easy, practical ways to strengthen the immune systems in the process. Living in the Age of Aluminum (September 30th at 1pm) and Living Safely (and Healthily) in the Aluminum Age (Keynote Dinner Speaker September 30th at 7pm), Dr Chris Exley, PhD. The myriad of ways humans are exposed to aluminum in everyday life, including some of the latest results on where aluminum is found and specifically in brain tissue in diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and autism. Dr Chris Exley will discuss his research into non-invasive mechanisms to protect the body from the potential toxicity of aluminum. The Dangers of Wi-Fi and Other EMFs, Plus Creating a Healthier Home (September 30 at 9:15AM), Liz Menkes. What kinds of manmade electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can be found in your home? Why should you be concerned about wireless technologies and other EMFs? What are the symptoms of overexposure to EMFs? What does the science say about the health effects? Liz Menkes will share about this, plus simple things you can do to keep yourself and your family safer. Bringing Up Baby (September 30 at 2:15PM), Sally Fallon Morrell. From conception through pregnancy and weaning, Sally Fallon Morrell will provide practical advice for ensuring optimal health in your child, through the return of nutrient-dense foods to the diet of children and adults.

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

GUSD has plans for more students Schools, 1 curriculum and our new Benchmark language arts curriculum, so we got to see the high level of student engagement in all our classrooms. In the next couple of years, we will be adopting new science and social studies materials. This generation loves materials that are online, so that’s another exciting thing that has developed at all our schools. We have Chromebooks Carts in all our classrooms now and it had been one of our goals to have one computer for every two students, but many schools now have a one to one ratio. Google Classroom has also been adopted and that’s exciting to see us go into a new era.

Q: Do you have a feeling on how the scores turned out?

Q: How will the GUSD protect Dreamer students?

Q: With new math materials have you seen an appreciable difference in math scores?

A: I’ve been a superintendent for a long time and I’ve seen how these things turn out and usually it takes a year or two of a new adoption to see results. The first year the teachers are learning the materials. Pacing is a big deal in the first year because they’re going through the material for the first time. I’ve heard several teachers last year say that got about two-thirds through the textbook which is no surprise to me and is pretty normal. So, usually it takes a few years to see a big difference in test scores and that certainly was the case during our last adoption. This is not just Gilroy, but all over the state.

Q: Does GUSD have enough experienced teachers?

A: Yes, definitely. We hired 80 new teachers this year and the previous year we hired about 70. We grow as a district, so we need new teachers every year. Because of all the new developments we’re adding new teachers and other professionals. We’re having a shortage-of-teachers crisis in California and all over the nation, so hiring teachers is a challenge across

BY THE NUMBERS Zip Code 95020 57,349 people as of 2010 census 2,275 businesses 191 Nonprofits $89.9 million annual income $47.5 million in assets 2011 IRS income tax info(most recent year) $64,863 Average Adjusted Gross Income 24,765 tax returns 3,725 Business (Schedule C) returns

A:From the very beginning of talks of changing policy on the federal level we have made it really clear to our parents that we will continue to provide the best education possible to all our students. We don’t ask students for any kind of information that would identify them as citizens or not, that is not part of our process and it has never been. We treat all our students the same and we provide all our students with as much help as we can, particularly high school students who we hope will be going off to college.

Q: As Gilroy continues to add residents, what can the school district do to accommodate that growth?

A: We have a plan to accommodate the growth. We are building a new elementary school that we hope have up and running within two to three years. We need it. We are also adding a new wing to Gilroy High. All the new growth is south of First Street so that the new students will be attending Las Animas Elementary, Solorsano Middle Schools and Gilroy High. 184 Farming (Schedule F) returns 5,931 returns with primary taxpayer under 30 4,352 returns with primary taxpayer over 60 73 houses sold in last 30 days $740,000 average home sale price, last 30 days Zip Code 95021 (P.O. boxes only) 80 businesses 48 Nonprofits $6.8 million annual income $18.6 million in assets

Source: www.melissadata.com

Credit

A: The state is holding up test scores from last spring, so they have not been released yet. There was a technical issue at the state level. We have individual student scores and principals have been looking at their own scores, but we can’t release anything yet because they’re held back by the state. We hope the tests will be released soon so we can present that information at a school board meeting.

all districts. We have a huge crisis because we don’t have enough coming out of colleges. But, I’m pleased to say at the moment we have about 570 teachers and three full-time substitute teachers, who are great. We hope to have those positions filled with teachers as soon as possible, but fortunately, we have great full-time positions in those classes. Our biggest challenge we have is hiring for math and special education. There are so few people going into those fields and fighting over the small pool of candidates that are out there is hard. I’m pleased to say that last year we started with nine substitutes and this year we’re doing really well in filling our math and special education positions. We might have filled one of those positions already. Being in the southern part of the county we have not always been able to attract people away from the higher paying jobs in the richer districts. I’m pleased to say that many are coming here saying because of the more reasonable cost of living here and that because they heard great things about GUSD and that they want to work here. I think it’s a combination of quality of life of living in Gilroy and the opportunity to work in a school district that has done a lot of really great things.

MASSIVE BUILD Gilroy High stepped into the future over the summer with a solar parking lot and

underground pipes for services, expected to save $1.5 million in electricity costs.

Las Animas will be full within the next year according to the new developments which is why we are building the new elementary school near there becuase that’s the corridor where all the new housing is. We want to build before the students arrive because that’s where we know they’re going to be.” We feel good about where we are going to be because of the strength of Measure E and the support we have from the voters Gilroy we have the funds to build these new buildings. With additional classrooms, there will be additional teachers and we have a very aggressive recruiting plan which will begin in January.”

Q: In a recent meeting about Alexander Station Apartments, you said that the school district expects around 70 new students to come out of the project. Do you still believe that is an accurate number?

A: Because we had so many questions about that, we have asked our demographer to revisit that number. In light of the things we heard that day and what we learned about how many people are expected to live there, we expect there to be an upgrade of that projection. Right now I don’t know exactly how many new students there will be and it is hard to pin down a number until people move into those apartments, but the management company will notify us anytime there are new students. They will tell us the names and ages of the students so we can prepare their enrollment at Las Animas, Solorsano and Gilroy High.

Q: Is there a plan to add more advanced placement classes to the curriculum?

A: We have been working on this for ten years. When I arrived ten years ago we had very few AP

courses at Gilroy High and GECA, our early college academy at Gavilan. Now we have two comprehensive high schools that both offer 20 AP classes. We have a wide variety of AP classes. Our GECA classes are very rigorous and students who graduate there get a associate’s degree from Gavilan. There is an open enrollment in these classes. It is a self-selection of those students who feel they can handle these classes. We don’t screen students or require prerequisites because we want all students to be able to take AP classes. If they feel they are up to the work of taking college-level classes, they can enroll and we offer a lot of fo support from teachers and online for those students to succeed. Some of these students who go to GECA only need to go to college for two years since they already will already have had their AA. We are very proud of GECA; it’s usually one of the highest performing early college academies in the state.

Q: What do you think voters would like to see from Gilroy schools?

A: We are very excited about the new elementary school and the work we have been doing at Gilroy High, which is starting to look like a new high school. We built our first solar projects in the Gilroy and Christopher High parking lots, which is going to generate a lot of power for the district. At Gilroy High, we were able to add lights and replace one of the worst parking lots in the district. The solar panels at Christopher are coming online within a few days and the ones at Gilroy High will be running in October. We are working on the new wing at Gilroy High as we speak and we hope to have it built by midyear. By the beginning of fall next year we hope to have a new two-story, twenty classroom wing at Gilroy High. We are also doing some new acoustics work at our student center at Gilroy High, which is the largest building in our district. We

can fit over 1000 people in the building, but it’s a cafeteria, so the acoustics are terrible. We only have way done, but the acoustics are much better. The rest of the project will be finished in a couple of weeks. We’ll test it October 2, with our first choir performance there. We have had work done on the fire alarm system at Rod Kelly Elementary which was not working correctly but is now completely redone. There was a lot of wiring work done at Rod Kelly. We are focusing in on technology district-wide were we are working to make all of the facilities on our campuses wireless. We have already done the high schools and middle schools and we are about halfway done with the elementary schools. We are also increasing the speed of the internet. Along with buying more computers, we have done a lot of work on technology. Someday we want to have a one to one ratio of computers to students at all of our schools. We have spent $10 million of bond money into those projects.

Q: Should we expect more bond measures soon?

A: No. In my second year here we went up for Measure P and recently passed Measure E. We probably won’t go up for another bond issue in a while. We still have about $25 million in bond series from Measure P and we just sold the first series from Measure E and we would raise the tax rate too high if we were to sell a series too fast or got out for another one. It will be awhile before we go out for another one. We do everything in stages and we have a lot of things planned for the next five to six years. After we finish the new elementary school, we will sell more bonds from Measure E and renovate our two oldest middle schools, Brownell and South Valley. We have plans for the next ten years for these funds and we’re staging the work because we can’t just build everything at once.

London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Gilroy JANE HOWARD STRIVES TO PUT GILROY ON THE TOURIST MAP By Bryce Stopfel Reporter

Q: The hottest news in town in the proposed

Q: What do you think the city can bring in from tax dollars? A: We have a transient occupancy tax revenue perspective (TOT) of 9 percent so it could bring in about $5.5 million a year in revenue. As of now, we bring in $1.6 million in TOT from the properties that we have. Currently, we only have 736 hotel rooms in

town and the average daily rate is around $100. When you look at that daily rate compared to Great Wolf Lodge, which is more than double of that, you can see where the numbers become of interest. Q: How do you think the Great Wolf Lodge will affect local business; especially Gilroy Gardens? A: I think there's a lot of possibilities here with Gilroy Gardens and I believe the key is crosspromotion. From what I've read about Great Wolf Lodge is that they like to do cross-promotions. ➝ Tourism, 13

Brad Kava

As the promise of revenues from retail is fading, the face of tourism in and around Gilroy continues to evolve and become more important to the city coffers. Gilroy Welcome Center Director Jane Howard has taken out ads around the world to let people know about all that Gilroy offers and has high hopes for new tourist attractions.

development of the Great Wolf Lodge next to Gilroy Gardens. What do you think it will bring to town? A: There are a lot of possibilities here. In seeing what they have done in other communities, it's very exciting from a tourism perspective. It's a destination.

CIRCUS TREES Tourists visit Gilroy Gardens, formerly known as Bonfante Gardens, to try amusement rides and take comfort from the magically-shaped circus trees.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Brad Kava

CHEERS The Bartenders Union is one of the new businesses opening in a downtown

that was previously plagued by buildings that weren’t earthquake safe. Downtowners see it as a great step toward revitalizing the area. Owner Dustin Evanger designed the bar and meeting place.

How to bring new business to Gilroy GILROY’S ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHIEF TRIES TO SELL THE CITY TO SILICON VALLEY By Bryce Stoepfel Reporter

Gilroy is growing and to keep the pace the city needs more jobs for locals, says Tammy Brownlow, the CEO of Gilroy Economic Development Corporation. The past year has brought some success. Q: What does the Gilroy Economic Development Corporation do? A: We work very closely with the city, but we are a separate non-profit organization. We're a public/private organization that gets funding from the City of Gilroy, the Chamber of Commerce and some private funding partners. We also get grants from PG&E and other grant funders. I report to a board of directors that includes representation from the city which includes Mayor Roland Velasco and Council Member Peter Leroe-Muñoz. The EDC started in 1996, so we have been around for a long time. We were very instrumental in getting the major developments like the shopping centers done on the East Side of town. Primarily, we are involved in business attraction, retention, expansion and we spend a lot of time on boards and committees in the community. I also serve on the General Plan and Advisory Commission to represent our organization and be the voice of economic development and ensure that land use decisions are well examined. We also work with small businesses to help them to get through the zoning process and we help them get permits from the city. A lot of time small businesses and entrepreneurs don't have the resources or the know-how, so we can help them navigate these processes. Q: Will Measure H confine what the city can do in the future? A: Yes it will because

it draws a boundary around the city which doesn't allow the city to go beyond that limit to make any commercial or industrial expansion. There is an allowance to bring in up to 50 acres of industrial land each year, but, several criteria need to be met to make that happen. Q: What are some of the new businesses that will be coming into Gilroy? A: Performance Food Group, out of Santa Cruz will be putting in a new food distribution center. It will be about a 185,000 square foot brand new building. In comparison, the United Natural Foods Incorporated facility that was completed two years ago at McCarthy Industrial Park, is about 400,035 square feet. Q: How many people will Performance Food Group employ? A: There will be about 180 jobs there. They will have people transfer from their existing facility, but there will be job opportunities there. Q: What are some of the challenges of building commercial development in what has traditionally been an agricultural community? A: There are 15,000 people every day who commute out of Gilroy compared to 12,000 who commute in. We tell firms in Silicon Valley that Gilroy isn't as far as they think it is. We're in Santa Clara County, but for workers in north Silicon Valley, it's reverse commute for them, which is a big selling point how bad traffic is these days. Q: How do you think high-speed rail will affect Gilroy? A: That is the million dollar question since we're not exactly sure where the alignment is going to be. It will have a major impact on Gilroy. If we have a downtown alignment, then it will be very disruptive with the construction time. There are a lot of businesses angry with that because they are uncertain how it will turn out because you don't know exactly what the risks are going to be, which discourages investment. If it goes out east then it will be on county

land, so there couldn't be much development around it because of the urban growth boundary and an environmental study since it will be out of the city. Officially we have not taken a position on it. The High-Speed Rail Authority was supposed to make its determination in August and that was pushed back to maybe November or early next year. Q: What can Gilroy do to make the downtown a greater destination? A: The EDC, Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Business Association and the Welcome Center work together to identify what we can do, with limited resources, to revitalize what we can do downtown. At one point downtown, there was about 25 buildings downtown that could not be occupied because they did not adhere to California earthquake standards. That's pretty costly depending on the buildings and many of the buildings had been sitting here and deteriorating. Over the past four to five years a lot of those buildings have been retrofitted. I think there are only three buildings that are not in the process of being retrofitted or have been retrofitted and not occupied. That's a huge development. The next step is to get tenants in those buildings that will draw more people downtown like restaurants and entertainment venues. We want retail, but downtowns aren't very much retail destinations anymore. The successful downtowns are entertainment dining areas. We must concentrate on that. We have the Golden State Brewery coming in now and Bartenders Union, along with The Milias and Old City Hall along with new ownership at Station 55 along with Cafe 152 Bread Company. Q: Is there a limitation how long a downtown business can stay unoccupied? A: I don't think the city can do anything to force someone to get a tenant. It's very market driven. You can incentivize business in general with ➝ Economics, 8

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

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GIlroy strives to attract more tech workers Economics, 6 things like fast processing, but I think the city is looking at additional financial incentives downtown that will need to go through the city council first. Several years ago before the recession, the city had an impact fee waiver program. Impact fees (which the city paid for at this time) can be really large, especially with new construction and intensification of use. When the fee waivers were in place, we got six mixed-use projects built, including the Heritage Bank building, the Bertoloni building and the building where the Vacuum Center is. Mixed-use buildings have commercial space on the ground floor and apartments above. That is what Jose Montes will be doing with the Hall’s building, which is under construction across from The Milias. He will be looking for a restaurant tenant for the ground floor.

Q: Does Gilroy have trouble retaining a workforce? A: It's a problem everywhere. Typically entry-level service work is one of the lowest paying jobs out there and the restaurant business is a very thin margin business anyway, so labor is usually their biggest expense. We are struggling, but the cost of living here isn't as bad as what it is up north. We still have the lowest price point for homes in the region. Our median home price is $716,000 and Morgan Hill's is $847,500, so if you go 10 miles to the north, you're paying about $150,000 more for a home. The cost of living here is very high compared to other places in the state and certainly in the country. Employers need to account for that. But still, with the housing costs what they are the wage differential really doesn't make up for that. That's why you have a lot of people moving to cheaper places in the state or moving out of the state altogether because housing costs

are killing them. Even rental prices are high. I know for a fact that you can't get a nice single family home in Gilroy for less than $2,800 and apartments are reaching that amount depending on the size.

Q: How can Gilroy attract more tech industry firms? A: It's about getting over how Gilroy is perceived. We are removed from Mountain View and Cupertino and startups tend to stay close to their funders and the funders like them to stay close too. Again it's about perception and that businesses think we are so far removed from their workforce. But, their workforce is moving down here and buying houses because they can afford it. Granted a lot of young, single people will rent a place with roommates so they can stay up there, but as people get older and want to start a family, they realize that they can't afford to buy anything up there. They decide to come to Gilroy and do the commute.

Q: Do you think that changes Gilroy? A: There's still kind of a disconnect between people who have just moved here and people who have lived here for decades. The reason is that many of the people who moved here are on the road commuting two to three hours a day. When they get home at night, they stay there. They don't have time to get involved in the community. That commute takes a big chunk out of your life and there are lots of organizations and clubs here that could benefit from their expertise.

Q: If people are choosing to stay home, is that having a negative impact on business in town? A: The commute out of Gilroy costs the city a lot of every day. Commuters will often buy gas out

of the city and will probably shop out of town. Often they choose to get something to eat outside the city too. That's a lot of money that's not being spent in Gilroy and those are tax dollars that don't go to street maintenance, police and fire. It's the city's sales tax revenue that goes into the city's general fund, which goes to pay for the majority of those things.

Q: What can we do to balance that number? A: If we can get jobs here that will keep people working in the community they live in, that would do a lot to adjust that jobs and housing balance.

Q: What incentives can the city give to attract business? A: Right now they are working on a new program to allow large commercial and industrial developments to pay impact fees over a period of three years. When a new business comes into town, they are charged an impact fee if they are intensifying the use of the land. All cities have an impact fee schedule. The largest impact fees based on transportation, water and sewer, but there are ten different things that they need to pay for.

Q: What do you think about the possible addition of Great Wolf Lodge? A: I think it's a great project. I started working with Great Wolf in February of 2016, so I was one of their first points of contact. They started working with a local broker and showed them several sites around Highway 101. They weren't very interested in those locations. They have a very distinct architectural design that they want to blend in with nature. I think the site next to Gilroy Gardens is the perfect spot for them. I think there is a lot of

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LARGEST PRIVATE EMPLOYERS Christopher Ranch: 650 Saint Louise Regional Hospital: 460 Wal-Mart: 395 Olam: 350 Costco: 272 Rebekah Children’s Services: 240 United Natural Foods, Inc: 230 Community Solutions: 190 Monterey Gourmet Foods: 190 Kaiser Permanente: 175 Syngenta: 175 International Paper: 101

Source: Gilroy Economic Development Corporation Labor Force Availability Labor Force: 27,300 Employed: 26,000 Unemployed: 1,300 Unemployment Rate: 4.6 percent

Source: CA Employment Development Department, June, 2017

misinformation about it on social media. Members of the city council cannot go out and proactively talk about it because it is a real estate negotiation, so that needs to be done in a closed session environment. Great Wolf is not only talking to Gilroy. They are looking at sites in Brentwood and Manteca. I personally feel that Gilroy is their number one choice, but it is not without some significant hurdles that they will need to overcome because a lot of sites that they are looking at are already shovel ready. If they come to Gilroy, they will need to go through an environmental impact report process which will take up to a year and will cost a lot of money. Ever since the city took over that land and set up the Hecker Pass Ag Tourism Corridor, it was always their intention to attract something like Great Wolf. I think it would be a great thing for Gilroy. It would generate revenue and give Gilroy Gardens a shot in the arm.

Q: Is there an incentive to use local contractors and labor? A: When a project goes up to the city council, they can say that they would like to see that developers use as many local contractors and laborers as they can. The response is usually that they bid their projects, so if a local contractor is competitive and demonstrates that they can do the job, they would love to hire the local builder. The only problem is that with some of these larger projects is that we don't have a lot of local contractors that can build something of that scale. Some of these projects, like the food processing plants, are so vast and unique, that there are contractors out there who specialize in the major complex projects like those big industrial builds. It's a competitive market and it's unrealistic to expect a developer to pay millions more on a project.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Keeping that small-town feel

Brad Kava

FARMS TO HOMES Opens space along Hecker Pass is filling in with homes, part of Gilroy’s inevitable growth. Some now say the city should build upward instead of outward.

THE POPULATION WILL GROW FROM 56,000 TO 61,400 IN 2040 By Bryce Stoepfel Reporter

Gilroy leaders worried last week

about having a place for their children to live and work. High housing costs and not enough jobs were threatening the lives they had planned, they said at a meeting of the Gilroy General Plan Advisory Committee. Millennials can’t afford to buy or rent a house,

and there isn’t much nightlife to attract them here, officials said. “Their generation of people leave Gilroy and don’t come back,” said City Council Member Cat Tucker. “There’s nothing here for them to do. There’s not the downtown like San Jose has. You speak to a lot of people around here who

want a downtown like Los Gatos or Morgan Hill, these aren’t millennials. They want clubs like in San Jose. If they do come to Gilroy, they come back because they have got on their feet and they can afford a house. When they are young and single, no, there’s nothing in Gilroy to do,

not only housing and cost issues. We went out on Friday night and there was nobody there. I asked, ‘Where is everybody?’” Mayor Roland Velasco said the city needs to work toward keeping younger residents. ➝ Housing, 12

pRIDE HONOR ROLL

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

10 0+ YEARS Gilroy Dispatch 64 West Sixth Street, Gilroy 408.842.6400 gilroydispatch.com 150 YEARS

PRIDE & PROGRESS

CELEBRATING YEARS IN BUSINES S

50+ YEARS

Gilroy Medical Pharmacy 700 W. Sixth Street, Gilroy 408.842.3196 36 YEARS

Habing Family Funeral Home 129 Fourth Street, Gilroy 408.847.4040

Physician’s Skin Solutions 15585 Monterey Road B, Morgan Hill 408.778.4684 physiciansskinsolusions.com 18 YEARS

74 YEARS

McKinnon Lumber E Optometry Group 18181 Butterfield Blvd., Ste. 150, Morgan Hill 408.779.2000 www.eoptometry.com

217 Seventh Street, Hollister 831.637.5767 147 YEARS

33 YEARS

Hollister Free Lance PO Box 516, Gilroy 408.842.6400 sanbenito.com

Recology 1351 Pacheco Pass Hwy., Gilroy 408.842.3358 recology.com

Bertao Real Estate Group 330 Tres Pinos Road, Ste. F2, Hollister 831.637.8400 bertao.com 18 YEARS

62 YEARS

144 YEARS Custom One PO Box 1265, Morgan Hill 408.847.8197 30 YEARS

Morgan Hill Times 17500 Depot Street, Morgan Hill 408.963.0120 morganhilltimes.com

Mission Bell Manufacturing 16100 Jacqueline Ct., Morgan Hill 408.778.2036 58 YEARS

123 YEARS

18 YEARS

15+ YEARS

Frank’s Plumbing 305 East Dunne Avenue, Morgan Hill 408.779.3737 52 YEARS

Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital 911 Sunset Drive, Hollister 831.637.5711 hazelhawkins.com 110 YEARS

Morgan Hill Cellars 1645 San Pedro Avenue, Morgan Hill 408.779.7389 morganhillcellares.com 104 YEARS

75+ YEARS Rocca’s Market of San Martin 13335 Monterey Road, San Martin 408.683.2330

30+ YEARS Ernie’s Plumbing 7411 Railroad Street, Gilroy 408.847.3274 erniesplumbinginc.com

91 YEARS

San Benito Tire Pros & Automotive 246 Tres Pinos Road, Hollister 831.637.5804 sanbenitotire.com

10+ YEARS The Ford Store 17045 Condit Road, Morgan Hill 408.782.8201

27 YEARS

San Benito Mini Storage 897 Industrial Drive, Hollister 831.636.5470 25 YEARS

40 YEARS

13 YEARS

Johnson Garden Center 520 Tennant Avenue, Ste. C Morgan Hill 408.779.7171 johnson-lumber.com 11 YEARS

Professional Property Management 339 Seventh Street, Hollister 831.637.9273 40 YEARS

Ace Hardware - Hollister 1725 Airline Hwy, Hollister 831.634.1590 acehardware.com 20 YEARS

Mount Madonna School 491 Summit Road, Mount Madonna 408.847.2717 MountMadonnaSchool.org

Medical Pavilion Pharmacy 9460 No Name Uno, Ste. 100, Gilroy 408.842.2001

38 YEARS

21 YEARS

93 YEARS

Napa Auto Parts 140 Fourth Street, Hollister 831.637.5304 hollisterautoparts.com

Bay Sierra Properties PO Box 1265, Morgan Hill 408.847.8197

Johnson Lumber Ace Hardware 600 Tennant Avenue, Morgan Hill 408.778.1550 johnson-lumber.com 37 YEARS

Rianda Air, Inc 703 McCray Street, Hollister 831.636.3767 riandaair.isoars.com 19 YEARS

10 YEARS

Meineke Car Care Center 190 Welburn Avenue, Gilroy 408.847.2900 meineke.com 5 YEARS

Bear Flag Gallery Mall 207 Third Street, San Juan Bautista 831.623.4285 bearflaggallery.com 4 YEARS

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Gilroy is growing higher, not wider

SCHOOL ENROLLMENT Elementary Households: 14,989 Antonio Del Buono: 488 El Roble: 638 Eliot: 462 Glen View: 543 Las Animas: 769 Luigi Aprea: 670 Rod Kelley: 763 Rucker: 579 Middle School Ascencion Solorsano: 872 Brownell: 809 South Valley: 880 GPS Charter (Grades K-8): 539 HIgh Schools Christopher: 1,674 Gilroy: 1,670 Mt. Madonna: 123 Dr. TJ Owens: 291 Independent Study: 26 Advance Path: 73 Total District: 11,869

Source: GUSD

HIGH RISE Gilroy’s highest building is finishing up on 10th Street and Alexander. Alexander Station

will provide much-needed affordable housing in 262 apartments, developers say.

staying in their hometown has become less and less desirable for many. With home prices beyond their purchase ability and the lack of amenities in town, like night clubs and a vibrant downtown, they will most often pay more to live near people their age. Along with empty bars and restaurants, there are signs that the neighborly feel of Gilroy is going away. “I have a new neighbor, next door, a young couple from San Jose and it’s been a year and I don’t know their names,” Tucker said. “I don’t know how many times I’ve waved to them and they never wave back. Until people have kids, they don’t want to be involved. That’s something new with Gilroy with people moving in. That’s what's unique about Gilroy, we know our neighbors and people born and raised here like that kind of feel. Not everyone who moves here wants that. They want a cheaper house and a backyard. I’m on a committee at the Garlic Festival and I had a hard time getting volunteers. I never had a hard time getting volunteers and a lot of people felt that.” Sanchez, cited Paso Robles as a possible source of inspiration as to how to grow the right way while keeping true to a city’s roots. “They didn’t change their character or standards, they just remodeled their downtown effectively,” Sanchez said. “The planning department in Gilroy wants to be able to add the same positive impacts by maintaining the quality and cultural elements of the past but modernize at the same time.” As existing property owners hope to sell their properties for top price, efforts made to revitalize downtown have often been stymied. “We had a property downtown that we wished to buy so we could demolish the building and make park and plaza there,” Tucker said. “The owner wanted double the money. There are a lot of restrictions for government to buy property, you need to buy at fair market value. Just because the guy is gouging you and wanted way more than it was assessed at we couldn't’ do it.” With a short supply of available land the increase in demand has led to rising rents. As rents rise and incomes fail to increase at the same time, consumer spending lags behind. “Rather than people spending money on shopping and restaurants, consumptive spending, they spend all their money on housing and transportation,” Sanchez said. “The traditional merchants are really losing out. They don’t have customers with money in their pockets. If you have higher density and more reasonable rent you can start attracting people who have the ability to consume products around town.” Along with negative economic impacts, quality of life standards has taken a hit. The

average commute time for workers in Santa Clara County has exploded. In 2010, commuters traveled 16,922,000 miles a day for their commute, which has jumped to 27,533,00 per day in 2014. In the coming years, this number is expected to rise. High-speed rail, while controversial in Gilroy, has a potential to ease the congestion and attract potential builders. “It has to have downtown use,” said Sanchez. “That is going to encourage people to come into town or work in Gilroy. It does have a positive impact on traffic as well.” Citing how the ROEM Corporation works with cities to develop around mass transportation, Sanchez spoke of a housing project currently under construction in Santa Rosa. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit began service earlier in the month in Santa Rosa, prompting ROEM to buy 5.4 acres of property near Railroad Square for $5.75 million and is set to build an $85 million dollar mixed use residential and commercial project. For the ROEM Corporation, transportation was key to the deal. “They had the track and trains and the money but they did not have federal permission to operate,” Sanchez said. “The city of Santa Rosa could not wait to get us in there but we chose not to do anything until the writing letters in Washington were released and the permit for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit to run the train.” A plethora of complications regarding high-speed rail in Gilroy has yet to be resolved. Many feel that a downtown station would disrupt downtown businesses and that riders will not decide to stop and shop in Gilroy. “You don’t want that to be a stop, you want it to be a destination,” Sanchez said of the high-speed rail in Gilroy. “You can’t make that a destination if you don’t have a commercial and residential mixture.” Construction of large multi-resident housing complexes requires a lot of capital. According to Paul Ring, Vice President of Development for The Core Companies, each unit of housing requires between $500,000 and $1,000,000 to build

and when making decisions where to build, they must factor in how much rent or sale value can be extracted per square foot of a given residence. Given the cost of construction, developers prefer to deal with cities that have a clear and coherent plan and that there is assurance that they will stick with plans when they are made. “We have been to too many cities where it’s nice to read their specific plans for parts of town but then you see a giant stop sign when you get to the planning department,” Sanchez said. “We worked with one town where we had to go to the planning department 15 times because they wanted us to go away.” At the time, ROEM Corporation does not have any plans currently in place in Gilroy. The company had previously had plans to build in Gilroy, but a deal fell through with the property holder. Still, Sanchez does find Gilroy to have elements desirable for a housing developer. “It’s in the South Bay and there’s been tremendous development pressure in the Peninsula, San Jose, South San Jose and Morgan Hill and there’s some great stuff going on in Gilroy along Santa Teresa Boulevard,” Sanchez said. “I think all those things work well for Gilroy. There is a mature residential character and there are opportunities downtown and around downtown." There are also plenty of challenges in Gilroy. The cost of land in Gilroy, while lower than in San Jose, is still very high. The cost of land, taxes, permits, construction material and labor drives up costs. The single largest cost variable is land. “In San Francisco, the cost of land per unit is three times as expensive than the actual structure,” Sanchez said. “Oakland is 1.5 times as expensive and San Jose is somewhere in between that. Gilroy’s land value has gone up and you can’t charge rent to cover those costs.” With expected rents of comparable units for a two bedroom apartment in San Jose of $3,600 as compared to $2,900 in Gilroy, many developers feel they need

HOUSEHOLD SIZE Households: 14,989 1-Person: 2,167 2-Person: 4,160 3-Person: 2,488 4-Person: 2,820 5-Person: 1,836 6-Person: 1,012 7 or more: 506

Source: American Community Survey, 20112015

utilize higher density to make projects financially viable. “You just have to have enough density so that the seller of the land gets the same amount of money and the developer can build more units per acre than normally involved,” Sanchez said of balancing costs and affordable rent. “There's a missing middle, where people are not able to get into subsidized housing but can’t afford market rate properties. So they’ll get stuck commuting from lower cost areas into San Jose but also into Gilroy.” Still, city governments often shy away from encouraging home building, instead favoring commercial and industrial development that bring in higher tax revenue. “Commercial and industrial pays the bills for police, fire, libraries and those kind of things,” Sanchez said. “When we build residential we bring in more people who want services. So we bring in people who want to consume these services.” While the building of affordable housing the size of Alexander Station Apartments, the 262-unit project on the corner of 10th and Alexander street, is controversial in town, Sanchez believes it is in scale with what the city needs. “I think that project is totally appropriate for that part of town,” Sanchez said. “It’s not an overwhelming or imposing kind of building and it’s in a commercial area. I see it as being compatible with the area.”

Bryce Stoepfel

ance, loan cost, sales commissions or profit. Higher density building costs are more daunting, costing $250 per square foot and $375,000 per unit for construction alone. “I don’t know what else the city can do, what we have done and what we’ve followed is what the general plan recommends,” Councilmember Cat Tucker said. “Right now we have four affordable projects that have been approved. It depends on the builders to build them. As of now, I feel we are on target with what we planned to do.” As many young and educated Gilroyans embark on careers,

Bryce Stoepfel

Housing, 10 “Young people and singles like the energy and ambiance of living in the city,” he said. “We must work harder on the downtown and other amenities to keep them here.” Those willing to endure the daily commute into San Jose are often seeking a small-town lifestyle and homes with yards. With a median home value in Gilroy of $689,200 compared to $1.2 million in Santa Clara County (including Gilroy), home buyers can get more bang for the buck in Gilroy. Renters, who can pay less in Gilroy, will prefer to pay more in San Jose to avoid the commute and to be in a place where they can find the ambiance and convenience of city living. As the city grows and the specter of highspeed rail and the uncertainty that comes with it, many in Gilroy fear for the city’s small-town, agricultural ambiance. However, because of its growing population, which is projected to reach 61,400 by 2040 along with expansion limits that fit expansion limitations imposed by Measure H, the Garlic City will need to grow upwards, rather than outwards for residential units. “In order to provide the rental housing supply that we discussed you have to use higher densities to make demand work,” Alex Sanchez, Executive Vice President of the Bay Area construction firm ROEM Corporation said. With a lower median household income of $83,027 in Gilroy as compared to $96,310 in Santa Clara County, home buyers come to get more house and more yard for their dollar. However to keep up with the high cost of purchasing land, the rate of middle-class homes has struggled to Joseph Head, Managing Director for SummerHill Homes, paints a challenging housing situation in the San Jose area where costs are prohibitive. In order to afford a home that would be considered middle-class, a homebuyer would need to make 120 percent of the median income, which would be $99,632 annually in Gilroy. In Gilroy land sells at $200,000 per housing unit and $1,6 million per acre. Construction costs are $125 per square feet and $187,500 per unit. Including grading, streets, utilities, landscaping, storm drains and everything else that is included in building a home, another $80,000 per unit is added. A price tag per unit of housing costs $476,500 without city fees, insur-

BIGGEST BUILDING Alexander Station apartments on 10th Street has generated a lot of controversy because of its size. But proponents say that semi-urban projects like this are better than building on the city’s outskirts.

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

PRIDE & PROGRESS

Bringing more tourists to Gilroy Tourism, 4

Q: How have cities with Great Wolf Lodges benefited from having the resorts in their towns?

Q: Are there any new wineries coming into the area?

A: I understand that there will be one or two coming in. I'm not sure where they will be at the moment.

Q: Has the hot weather this summer negatively affected tourism?

A: I can speak to what I have heard from the wineries and it appears it hasn't made a huge impact. There have been some days where people have stayed away because of the extreme heat, but I don't think it's made a huge impact on them. Regarding shopping, for Labor Day weekend, which is a huge shopping weekend, the numbers

Q: How was attendance at this year's Garlic Festival?

A: Our attendance was 20 percent better this year compared to last year, which is amazing. We were fortunate to hit a really nice window of weather. We had great attractions, like our new garlic dish and Giada De Laurentiis and our marketing team who put it all together, Articulate Solutions, put together a great marketing campaign. We also had the CalTrain express train from San Jose which helped. I have been involved in the Garlic Festival for 24 years and I love hearing the stories about how people got involved.

Q: What group of international tourists to Gilroy is the largest?

A: By far the largest is from China. We lost some of them for a few years because of new outlet malls in the San Francisco area, but we have gained many of them back. It's not just the tour groups, but the Chinese are becoming more comfortable traveling independently. Often they come in generations, so they

Brad Kava

A: When you look at their locations Great Wolf Lodge tends to locate near large cities but not in the major cities. When you approach that strategy, being the smaller city you get put on the tourism map. Gilroy could benefit the same way. We are near San Jose and Silicon Valley. While Gilroy is not a well known as those destinations, so bringing Great Wolf Lodge here boosts our notoriety for shopping and especially our wineries. Our wineries in Santa Clara County are not they well known and there is a lot of work we need to boost awareness. Bringing more people into town will boost that awareness. Once here many will go on the Santa Clara County Wine Trail and that's a big deal. That increases the chances that they will come back to Gilroy to either go to the wineries or the Outlets for shopping. We really can't put a dollar amount to this until we actually see what happens.

for the really hot days were down. Then on Monday when it cooled down we were back to normal. So yes, it has had some impact. We track the people who come into the Welcome Center and we also track daily temperatures and we've had more hot days in any year since we moved here six years ago. The rain also had a significant impact on us. That usually doesn't affect the big international tour groups though. They get their rain gear on and they're ready to go. You can't control extreme heat or weather, so when we compare years we need to compare things apples to apples. So, our numbers were flat this year, with the bad weather.

GREAT GARLIC GIlroy’s famous plant comes to life at attractions including

Gilroy Gardens and the Visitors Center.

come in a van of six to eight people with one of them driving. Shopping is still a very, very big deal for Chinese tourists.

Q: What else attracts Chinese tourists?

A: They are mostly attracted to shopping and the larger tourist attractions in the Bay Area. They are not very much into wine or outdoor activity. The Outlets have a lot of appeal because they can get a lot of value in savings, but there are also attraction brands like Coach and Michael Kors. They're not just buying just one thing, but numerous things that they can give away as gifts.

Q: Has the online marketplace hurt the outlets?

A: There has been some change

regarding the stores who have shifted from brick and mortar to just selling online. We have spoken with the management of the Outlets and there are a few more vacancies than normal, but we were told that the stores that are coming in do not focus their business online. We just got a new anchor store Ariet and Francesca's will be opening soon.

Q: As far as tourism, what is there to do here for millennials?

A: We are looking at that from a strategic planning perspective from our organization. The downtown is addressing that with some things that have come in like Bartenders Union. Hopefully some of the wineries will eventually gain a bigger foothold downtown.

There's also an understanding that millennials like the outdoors so trying to get the word out on that better. But also, we are launching a whole new campaign to make Gilroy a wedding destination. It's something that has been out there, because we have so many great venues for weddings, but we are putting together a package that gets out a whole new message about Gilroy as a destination for weddings. The package will include things to do in Gilroy other than just the wedding. Be it a shopping spree, golf or the wineries for bridal parties or other guests. That taps into a lot of millennials. We believe that we can get them down here and expose them to things, we will get them back here.

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9/25/2017 2:26:44 PM

PRIDE & PROGRESS

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Creamed Parmesan Power Greens LOOKING FOR A GREAT SIDE DISH? Enjoy rich and creamy greens, blended with Parmesan cheese and a hint of nutmeg…delicious! Serve it up alongside beef, pork, chicken or fish (anything really). Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 10 min Total Time: 15 min Serves: 2

INGREDIENTS 1 lb Earthbound Farm Organic Power Greens 1 Tbsp unsalted butter 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour 3 ⁄4 cups whole or lowfat milk 1 ⁄4 cup heavy whipping cream 1 ⁄4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1 ⁄4 cup toasted breadcrumbs (optional) 1 ⁄8 tsp nutmeg, freshly ground Coarse kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

DIRECTIONS Steam the Power Greens in a steamer basket over boiling water until it wilts, about 1 minute. Transfer the Power Greens to a colander to drain. Let Power Greens cool. Squeeze out any remaining water in the Power Greens using your hands or wrap the Power Greens in a dish cloth and squeeze.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add the flour and cook for two minutes, whisking constantly. Add the milk and cream in a steady stream, continuing to whisk, and cook until the cream sauce thickens, another 2 minutes. Add the Power Greens to the cream sauce and stir to combine. Stir in the Parmesan cheese, nutmeg and cook until the Power Greens is heated through, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. If you are using breadcrumbs, place breadcrumbs in a small skillet and toast until golden brown. Remove from heat and sprinkle toasted breadcrumbs on top of dish. Serve hot. Keep up with our food and the farm at EarthboundFarm.com