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Saratoga Stereopticon
'Keep It Rural' was incorporation battle cry
By Willys Peck
Those of us who traffic in nostalgia--I like to think of it as historic preservation--are used to seeing the terminology used to the point of triteness. Key words such as "significant," "heritage," "historical," "landmark," "preservation," and one of my favorites, "essence," get tossed around to the point where some may question their true importance and relevance to today's culture.
What makes a thing historical? Is it mere age? Who are the real beneficiaries of something labeled a heritage? Isn't any object of appreciable size actually a landmark?
It's a theme I dwelt on in a couple of early Stereopticon columns and the questions continue to be raised as Saratoga sprouts new tracts of cheek-by-jowl million-dollar houses. (By the way, whatever happened to the large-lot-size theme played up in the "keep it rural" drive to incorporate Saratoga back in 1956?)
I have belabored this subject before but the question pretty much boils down to: What is worth saving and, if something is worth saving, to what lengths should we go to achieve that objective? What, if anything, should be sacrificed to maintain some vestige of the past? Why shouldn't we look to the present and the future in this period of unparalleled prosperity? There must be any number of aspiring residents who would trade their chances at heaven for a 95070 ZIP code, people willing and able to pungle up the necessary cash. Give them what they want, luxury in a matchless scenic setting. No use dwelling on, or in, the past. Granted, it's a potent argument.
As long as it survives in its present state, Saratoga's Heritage Orchard will be a laboratory example of this very issue, a burning focal point. Why in the name of platinum-edged real property deeds should 13.9 acres in the heart of one of Saratoga's most desirable residential areas be given over to, of all things, an orchard?
Why indeed? Let me count the ways. As a certified mossback and, thanks to a proclamation signed by former Mayor Gillian Moran, official Town Character, may I point out that orchards once were what Saratoga was all about. Pick out practically any location within the present city limits and there's a better-than-even chance that it was once studded with prune or apricot trees. OK, there's your history, for whatever preservation is worth.
But it goes beyond that. That orchard is a distinctive and picturesque feature that raises Saratoga above the level of the average platinum ghetto. Its presence says something positive about the city.
Look at Los Altos. That city has a heritage orchard as part of its civic center. Los Altos, it may be remembered, is one of the leading contenders, along with Saratoga, Los Altos Hills and Monte Sereno, in the highest-average-home-price sweepstakes as reported weekly in the Mercury News.
It is true that the Los Altos apricot orchard--where maintenance work is contracted out to the party who harvests and sells the crop--being about three acres is only a fraction of the size of Saratoga's. This suggests that Saratoga could maintain its Heritage Orchard on a much smaller scale, with some of the area being given over to, say, recreational uses.
That was Councilman Nick Streit's suggestion at a recent meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission. He outlined a proposal for a gym on the orchard property, and maybe a museum. He didn't elaborate, but I suppose he meant a museum having to do with the orchard. Now there's something that strikes a responsive note with me, especially since we already have a Historical Museum that includes artifacts and pictures pertaining to Saratoga's agricultural past.
But I did like Streit's emphasis on keeping a good part of the orchard intact. Then I got to thinking about the thin-edge-of-the-wedge principle. It's already a given that the Community Library will need more space for its expansion, which I support. OK, then we get a gym, and maybe a soccer field and maybe a--who knows what next?
I say, keep the orchard intact except for the necessary incursion of the library. Situated as it is, as a main gateway to town, with a backdrop of the Blue Hills of Sierra Azul, that orchard states more eloquently than any ornate sign: "You are now entering Saratoga."
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
