Published in the Oct. 28 – Nov. 10, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Marty Cheek, publisher Morgan Hill Life
Someone warned me not to write this column, fearful for my safety and reputation in town. I know they had good intentions with their wise advice, but I’m still going to ignore it. Right here and right now, I make the confession that I enjoy watching all the chaos and cacophony coming from the construction work that’s now going on in downtown Morgan Hill.
Yes, I know it’s not cool to admit enjoying the messiness of construction. Some people call me crazy when I let them in on the secret that sometimes after hours of working on the newspaper, I step outside of Morgan Hill Life’s downtown office and take a stroll, watching the construction workers in hard hats tearing up the streets or digging trenches in the median or plowing up Third Street or working on the parking garage. In the office where I’m now writing this, it’s fun for me to gaze out and view the transformation of Monterey Road.
Drivers complain about the back-up traffic — and yes, I’ve seen cars backed up on Friday evenings — and I’ve been inconveniently stuck in the gridlock myself. But I know the inconvenience is only temporary and part of the process of achieving a modernized downtown.
When I was a student at San Jose State University during the late 1980s, downtown San Jose was undergoing a major redevelopment project. Between classes, I enjoyed strolling through the chaos of the streets, watching the action. The sound of jackhammers riveted the air as a worker tore up asphalt. Some guy with a welding torch connected a beam on the sixth floor of a skyscraper, the streaming sparks shooting out like stars. I dodged bulldozers and forklifts.
What is this fascination in watching a city’s downtown transform? Perhaps there’s a deeply-buried desire in me to build things. At one point in my high school years I considered becoming an architect and designing and building structures much like Frank Gehry or Frank Lloyd Wright. And maybe walking around downtown Morgan Hill and seeing the construction satisfies this interest in me for civil engineering.
We need to remember that downtown Morgan Hill is a work in progress. If you go back 120 years, what is now downtown was a quiet Santa Clara County country hamlet where cowboys and Victorian-dressed women mosied down a dirt road bordered by a gauntlet of a few wood-built businesses and railroad depot. As more people came to live in the village, the wood buildings were torn down for more modern constructions such as the Votaw building built in 1905 where GVA Cafe now stands.
In the 1920s, as automobiles started becoming more popular and horses and mule-drawn wagons no longer were common as daily modes of travel, people saw the need to make Monterey Road part of a state-wide highway system. That meant the buildings had to be moved to make room for the downtown thoroughfare to have enough room for four lanes to accommodate the increasing traffic.
And now, Morgan Hill’s downtown is transforming for a 21st-century world. I can’t wait for the grand opening in December to see how the new garage, with its head-light artwork spider on the wall, turns out. And next year, several new restaurants will open where the Pop-up Park now stands.
I’m especially keen on seeing how entrepreneur Frank Leal will transform the old Granada Theater into a stylish new conference center with state-of-the art seating and equipment. Next door, the Downtown Mall will come down and Leal will replace it with a brand-new 36-room boutique hotel which, designed by Weston Miles Architects, should help make downtown a prime tourist destination.
The city of Morgan Hill is trying to help downtown businesses and merchants by dampening the negativity with its “Construction is Cool” message seen on advertising and billboards. Some people might laugh at the slogan, but it’s true. We’re undergoing the inconvenience now, but when all is done and we have an upgraded, newly remodeled downtown to enjoy, the chaos will be well worth it.
I encourage local families with young children to visit during the construction and let the young ones be amazed by the process of construction. Maybe the kids can even wear the pink construction hats being passed out by the city and various stores. I also encourage residents to patronize the downtown merchants and restaurants, who I’m sure really appreciate the community’s support right now.
What’s going on in our downtown is the creative process — and creativity can get really messy. That’s how it works. My bet is that when the dust settles, Morgan Hill residents will say how much they love their new downtown — and because of human nature, many will forget how much they complained during transformation.
I hope you will join me in learning to love the chaos of construction and see it as a necessity to get a downtown we all can be proud of.
