Saratoga Stereopticon
Saratoga slogan should celebrate citizen passions
By Willys Peck
Granted, Saratoga needs a promotional slogan about as much as Pompeii needed Mount Vesuvius. Still, it's kind of interesting to speculate about what might be an appropriate encapsulation of the town's attributes, especially when you look around various communities in the region.
For instance, there's San Francisco, "The city that knows how." Across the bay, Oakland probably never will shed the epithet inflicted on it by Gertrude Stein, "There's no there there," although Mayor Jerry Brown has been working assiduously on their there there.
Over in the Central Valley, we see Modesto with its "Water, Wealth, Contentment, Health" slogan writ large in a sign over the main street. Closer by, we have San Jose, "The Garden City." Frankly, I don't know if that sobriquet survives on any stationery or promotional literature, but it still is part of the name for many business firms. For my part, I figured San Jose lost its claim to the garden image when it went on its manifest-destiny annexation binge in the 1950s.
Then there's Campbell, "The Orchard City," a name that survives as a real throwback. Puzzle: Find the orchard. It's interesting to note, however, that the appellation was being used by a number of businesses a good 30 years before Campbell achieved official city status by incorporating in 1952.
Which brings us to neighboring Los Gatos, "The Gem City of the Foothills." This involves one of those anomalies that I like to toy with: Los Gatos isn't a city, it's a town, incorporated as such in 1887. The only similar designation in Santa Clara County is Los Altos Hills, which wasn't incorporated until 1956, the same year as Saratoga. Hence for these places there aren't city limits but town limits, not city councils but town councils, and so on. But "Gem Town of the Foothills," while technically correct, just doesn't sing. In years past, "Gem City" figured in several business names; now there are none listed.
OK, so where does all this leave Saratoga? Well, the fact is, we did have a more or less official moniker: "Saratoga, Home of the Blossom Festival," used by the Chamber of Commerce and some others. Trot out that tag today and you'd get a blank stare from a significant segment of the population. Blossoms? Whaddaya mean, blossoms? And festival? Get real.
Having gone this far with the subject, and despite the fact that I am definitely not trying to promote any such label, I might as well say that if Saratoga were to go the motto route, I'd favor the upbeat tone of San Francisco's theme. Not a copycat "Saratoga, the city that knows how," but "Saratoga, the city that gives a damn."
This could apply to efforts ranging from historic preservation to securing youth soccer playing fields. It would enshrine not only governmental measures, but the kind of citizen participation that is essential to civic vitality.
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Saratoga, it seems, has never been in want of issues. Nowadays we talk about Jamba Juice, the Heritage Orchard and the somewhat amorphous "hub" concept, none of which has gotten to the hanging-in-effigy stage. Turn back the calendar almost 40 years, though, and you find a real zinger, the Saratoga Village Development Plan. It had almost slipped from memory, but in looking over the June 29, 1960, issue of the "Saratoga Citizen," some of the rancor, if not the details, came to mind.
Back then, the county gravel quarry was still in operation, a massive gash in the hillside that could be seen clear across the valley. Situated as it was just a short distance above Saratoga on the road to the summit (Highway 9), it was only natural that heavily laden gravel trucks--there were a lot of them--had to travel along Big Basin Way through the Village to their various destinations.
The Village Development Plan envisioned a "Saratoga Avenue Extension" that would have channeled this and other heavy traffic along a new thoroughfare close by the creek. Where Saratoga Avenue now runs directly into Big Basin Way, the new route would have angled off northward to tie into the extension that would run behind the business district and along the creek. The extension would have merged into Big Basin Way again past Sixth Street.
There was quite a flap, pro and con, but it didn't happen.
Jamba Juice, anyone?
Saratoga, California Since 1955
