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Editorials
More good things from St. Luke's
For the past two years, St. Luke's Episcopal Church has worked to improve its music program, primarily for the purpose of complementing the church's liturgy. Happily, its goal of reaching out to the community and making its presence known has converged with its musical goals.
The Sunset Series, set to begin July 10, is not the first musical program the church has offered to the community, but it's certainly the most impressive. The chamber music series kicks off with the world-renowned Alexander String Quartet.
The dramatic increase in musical offerings to the community can be directly attributed to the church's hiring of Richard Coulter, organist/choirmaster, just a year ago. There's also an enthusiastic group of volunteers from the church who have helped bring this high-caliber series to Los Gatos.
The town's Arts Commission has provided a grant for the series, and efforts are under way at St. Luke's to bring in other grant money.
At $20 per performance ($50 for the series), the cost to the community is more than reasonable. But we're happy to see that reduced prices are offered to seniors and students, and that some tickets are being made available to people with limited incomes.
St. Luke's is not only becoming known as a church that makes a contribution to the community, it's also known as a church with a heart.
Land deal makes sense
Congratulations to the board of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District for putting together a deal that will preserve more than 1,000 acres of redwood trees, rolling hills and bubbling springs just above Los Gatos.
Credit is also due to the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which acquired the loan that sealed the deal.
Without the commitment of these two organizations, the Lexington Basin area would eventually have become a development of luxury homes around a golf course.
One need only look at the pace of life in Silicon Valley and at the growing disparity between rich and poor to know that preservation of this mountain retreat as public domain is in the public interest.
For the positive outcome of the long and sometimes belligerent struggle over this piece of property, the public owes a debt of gratitude to the Friends of Bear Creek Redwoods for keeping the pressure on to preserve the land for the public forever.
With Lexington Basin preserved as open space restricted to such non-invasive uses as hiking, a significant contribution has also been made to maintaining habitat for the area's native wildlife.
The Bear Creek Open Space Preserve is good news for people regardless of their means; it's good for future generations; it's good news for wildlife and for the environment.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
