Saratoga News Photograph by George Sakkestad Saratoga High School principal Kevin Skelly walks home from work at the end of the day. Few teachers or city employees are so fortunate. Redefining Community For some who live far away from where they work, their 'home' is where they spend their time By Sarah Lombardo The debate over playfields and where they should be built. The controversy over school district boundaries. Traffic issues. Planning decisions. The topics are far-ranging, but from sports league admittance requirements to school district eligibility, they have one thing in common. They all play upon residents' sense of community. The rumble of Highway 85 is a reminder to Saratogans of what residents throughout Silicon Valley know: Commuting has become a way of life in the Bay Area, and in Saratoga. Escalating real estate prices have driven workers farther and farther from the job markets that employ them. These days, it's not unusual for people to work in Silicon Valley--where the jobs are--and live in distant communities where housing is still moderately priced. In a city like Saratoga, which has long boasted a strong sense of community, the long commutes of those who work in the community are beginning to take a toll. "I think one of the things it has done is it has kind of distanced people from those who work for them," city manager Larry Perlin said. "There was this sense once that if you wanted to talk to Johnny's third-grade teacher, you didn't have to worry about making an appointment. You knew that you'd run into Johnny's teacher three or four times throughout the week. So there has been this sort of disconnect between people involved in public service and the people whom they serve." Building and maintaining a sense of community in the face of a mobile population and a commuting staff is a challenge facing all cities, Perlin said. "I heard about it quite a bit when I was at the League of Cities conference," he said. "Cities up and down the state are dealing with this." Including Saratoga. In Saratoga's booming real estate market, few of the people who work in the city can afford to live in the city. Many can't afford to live anywhere in Silicon Valley without sacrificing the size of their homes or the lifestyles they desire. Perlin himself used to live in Saratoga, purchasing a residence in the city with the help of a city-sponsored loan when he was first hired as an engineer. The policy of offering such financial assistance to key staffers was abolished about five years ago. And with the city's financial situation now, says Perlin, there's little chance of bringing the policy back. When he was first appointed to the city manager position, Perlin continued to live in Saratoga, but his family lived in Capitola. Perlin would travel home on weekends. Recently, however, Perlin has joined the ranks of commuters, saying that while he could afford to buy in Saratoga, it would require sacrifices to his family's lifestyle. Gone are the days when city events were peopled with the familiar faces of neighbors, teachers, civic leaders and city staffers. In Saratoga, City Council members and school board members are required to live within the city. But many city officials--from the city manager and finance director to the community development and public works directors--fire department personnel and teachers live outside the city limits. Sometimes as far outside as Hollister, Modesto and San Mateo. So what is this doing to Saratoga? It depends whom you ask--and what they consider a community. "I feel every bit as connected to the community now as I was while I was here," Perlin said. "In some respects, I feel more of an obligation now to remain connected to the community than I did when I lived here. Maybe I took it for granted then." He added "Just because you happen to live somewhere, it doesn't make you a part of the community. I'm not sure there's necessarily a connection between the two." For city staffer Irene Jacobs, who treks in and out of the city each day, commuting hasn't affected the community, but it has affected her definition of community. "Everybody has a different definition of community," Jacobs, an administrative analyst for the city manager's office, said. "I live in San Jose, but I don't know anything about it. Saratoga is my community. In addition to the time I spend on my job, it's the relationships I have built with people in the city." Jacobs, who lives in the Blossom Hill area of San Jose, said she is hoping to become more familiar with San Jose issues and has begun signing up to volunteer for city commissions. But she also said she often travels into Saratoga on the weekends to drop off and pick up dry cleaning and to shop. "I think people get comfortable with doing that because you spend so much time outside your zip-code," she said. Just because you live somewhere, doesn't mean that's your community." And she's not the only one who thinks so. Acting public works director John Cherbone makes the arduous drive each day from Hollister. Does he view Saratoga as his community? "Yes, I do," he said. "Just because of the time I spend here. I spend more time here than I do in my own community." Cherbone added that the nature of his work also increases his feeling of connection to Saratoga. As a city engineer, he said, he is more familiar with streets in Saratoga than he is with those in Hollister, where he has lived for some 20 years. "I'm more intimate with [the city] because I help maintain it," he said. "It's just the nature of my job." But sometimes the reality of commuting has an effect on the nature of one's job, Saratoga High School principal Kevin Skelly believes. "I think it manifests itself in a lot of different ways," he said. "And one way is your involvement in activities past your normal hours." Skelly, who does live in Saratoga, said that sometimes teachers who are watching the clock and calculating what each minute spent after school could be doing to their drive home are sometimes unable to put in extra hours, or to attend games and events on the weekends. "My opinion of a high school is that it is such a treasure in the community, I'd love to see the place packed on the weekends. I'd love to see the track being used, and the tennis courts," he said. "The fact that it isn't, to me, makes the community poorer." Of 99 employees at the high school this year, Skelly said, only 12 live in Saratoga or Los Gatos. Of 134 employees at the school in 1976, 58 lived in Saratoga or Los Gatos. "Which is a huge drop," he said. "And I think that has a big effect on the community."And as an administrative viewpoint, it poses a challenge for scheduling. "Not only is that more people who commute, but they are traveling farther distances," he said. "And with some of them coming over from Highway 17 in bad weather and from other areas, sometimes it makes it difficult to have enough people to cover classes in the morning." In the Saratoga Union School District, less than 1 percent of the employees who work there live in the city, according to district superintendent Mary Gardner. The number used to be higher, she said, but, "after the last group of retirements, we lost a few, and fewer and fewer new teachers are able to move into the city." The result is predictable. "Not many of our employees can participate in community activities," she said. "And sometimes they are not getting a real sense of Saratoga." So what is there to do to make sure Saratoga maintains the sense of community residents seem so proud of? For school administrators, one step has been interdistrict agreement that, Gardner said, allows the children of employees working in the district to attend school in the district. "If their children are involved, that certainly makes a difference," Gardner said. And it gives children a seamless transition from grade school through high school, according to Skelly. For Saratoga Fire District Chief Ernie Kraule, who is a longtime Saratoga resident but whose staff consists primarily of commuters--some from as far away as Tracy--the challenge is simply scheduling, not community. "The fact that this is a headquarters, and the staff answers the phone and handles walk-ins puts them in direct contact with the community," he said. Not to mention CPR classes, scouting and class tours of the station, and, Kraule said, even children's birthday parties with pizza and cake held at the station make the staff feel connected to the Saratoga community. "We get enough community exposure that it keeps them tied to the city," he said. So his challenge is planning to have enough staff to take care of emergencies; a task, Kraule said, that is simpler than it sounds because of the fact that firefighters live at the station for days at a time when on duty. If the need arises, he said, he simply keeps staffers on duty to take care of emergencies. Add to that the volunteer program. "They must live within five miles of the school at which they are taking their classes," Kraule said of the volunteers. "They can be used as backfill if we need extra people." Gardner said she tries to schedule events as close to the end of the school day as possible so that teachers can stick around. Perlin said many of the city's employees do feel connected to the community because they are often in direct contact with residents on a daily basis. "Compared with most of the other cities that I'm familiar with," Perlin said, "I'd say Saratoga is doing better than the norm in coping with the challenge. Despite the fact that there are seven school districts serving the city, two fire districts and a number of outside agencies, I think, overall, Saratoga does fairly well." But Jacobs pointed out that Saratogans will face a lot of changes in the coming years, changes that will further threaten the city's sense of community. "With the job market and traffic and more people, things are going to change. We have to take a look at traffic, for instance, and we have to make that better, but it will not go away. And as a community, Saratogans are going to have to grow with that but still retain what they want--that small-town feel," she said. "It's all about attitude. It takes effort to maintain and build community. And as a community, Saratoga residents are going to have to look for the common thread among everyone--and that's that we all share in Saratoga." [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 9, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.