Los Gatos Weekly-Times The community should support holiday plan Under the leadership of the Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, the downtown business community has decided that when it comes to parking during the holiday season, it's time to put up or shut up. In the past, downtown merchants have mostly been opposed to a variety of proposals, including a plan to open up downtown spaces by having employees park in under-utilized lots farther away. This time, though, it's the business people who are stepping up and taking responsibility for coming up with a workable solution--and for talking it up with the merchants. When business people packed the Council Chambers Nov. 2 to talk about the perennial problem of holiday parking--expected to be worse than ever this year--the council wisely tossed the ball back to the business community. That's when the Town Chamber demonstrated that it is an organization to be taken seriously. Instead of waiting until the Nov. 16 deadline, which the council gave the organization to come up with a plan, Chamber leaders worked out a plan and took it to the 7:30 a.m. Parking Commission meeting on Nov. 5. We don't think downtown merchants are overdramatizing the seriousness of the parking situation. Between the expanded California Cafe and the newly opened Borders and Oakville Grocery, the 105 parking spaces about to open underground at Old Town will be a drop in the bucket. And when holiday shoppers see all the empty parking spaces and the 24-hour permit parking signs along University Avenue, they're not going to be happy. Town officials have already suggested they might be inclined to cooperate by looking the other way when it comes to enforcing town policy on valet parking. There are Los Gatans who would be just as happy if all those out-of-town shoppers stayed away and left downtown to local residents. But the fact is that for many of the small independent shops we all love so much, survival itself depends on a profitable holiday season. The business community and residents alike should applaud the Chamber's leadership in putting forth a holiday parking program and in taking responsibility for making it successful. Bringing Closure Nothing can ever take away the pain a drunken driver caused Judy Peckler and her two children, Jennifer and Jana. Nor can anything lessen the pain that tragic night inflicted on the entire community of Los Gatos. But with the sentencing of the man who drank and drove and ended the lives of Jim, Jeff and Jill Peckler, let's hope that closure has come. And with it, healing. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 11, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.