Los Gatos Weekly-Times Council candidates speak at Chamber of Commerce forum By Jeff Kearns Town Council candidates took on issues facing the local business sector Oct. 15 at a forum jointly sponsored by the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce and the League of Women Voters and--big surprise--the issue of parking dominated the discussion. Randy Attaway, Joe Pirzynski, Steve Blanton, and Paul Merchain took questions from a panel of local business people. The panel started by asking if the town needed to do a comprehensive traffic study. Merchain disagreed with the other three candidates, saying that he wouldn't favor "wasting money" for a traffic study "when we already know there's a problem." Blanton supported a study, but stressed that the local problems are beyond control of the town because "traffic is a regional issue ... to make a dent we must work regionally and look at the overall picture." Pirzynski called a comprehensive study the first step toward solving the problems. Pirzynski, who is currently a planning commissioner, said that traffic was one of several issues where the town is at the mercy of regional trends--such as the economy or the housing market. Blanton said that the diversity of the downtown merchant base usually makes it difficult to come to an easy solution on how to solve parking problems; he suggested the business community should work together to build a consensus. He said that more parking might endanger the unique character of downtown, adding, "that character is jeopardized by parking right now." Attaway, who stressed his 16 years of experience with various aspects of the town and two previous terms as a councilmember, also said that local problems (like parking) often require regional solutions. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 21, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.