GilroyDispatch.com | Crime's up more than the price of eggs

Crime's up more than the price of eggs – that's no yoke

Apr 4, 2008
By Mark Derry

Let's get to it: Crime is up in Gilroy, property and violent crime. The gangs are rearing their collectively ugly heads and it's time for MayorAl and the City Council to take a serious look at what's going on. New Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner has been around the block. She has the experience that only comes with the working cop territory, so it shouldn't take her long to assess the situation here. Gangs and traffic patrol are No. 1 and No. 2 in my book, and, though there's a wide gap on the surface, the more officers on the street the better. Gilroy simply hasn't had the feel in recent years of a strong force. And let's bring back the Lucky Seven program in earnest, where officers - probation and others - check on parolees daily. It's been more of a Web policy statement than a serious program for far too long.

My precipitous fall from NCAA basketball pool grace was just short of criminal … so the phone message from Lillian Crocker, who thanked me for the kind words about Stanford University in my column pool snippet last week, was much appreciated. In one loss, I tumbled from No. 1 in the nationwide NBC sports Web pool to No. 1,174. Alas, sunk with the Stanford ship. Well, fun while it lasted … if only I had picked Stanford in the women's pool …

Yes'm, we'll all have a nice swim pool someday in the aquatics center at the new Christopher High School - though it might take passing another bond to get it - a nice, expensive pool that will be a city-school district shared facility. No, I don't know who's going to pay the P&E bill to heat it ... wait, yes I do, it's you … and me.

But even as the cost of Christopher High rises surely as the sun rises in the east, George L. Sandoval picks up on a call to the Red Phone to report more illegal chickens coming home to roost in residential Gilroy near El Roble School. And it's no wonder … because if you flew the coop and didn't read last Tuesday's business section, the price of eggs has risen 45 percent in the last year. Yikes, call the school board, let's put chickens on the vacant Las Animas School property, the school farm and the donated school site land from Don Christopher and sell some GUSD nest eggs.

Belly laugh segue of the week … Katie Helland could run the egg project for GUSD. She's a bright young Mitty High School student who wants an internship at the Dispatch this summer. If she were on American Idol, she could tell the story about the time in third grade when she made the Tonight Show with Jay Leno to show off her chickens because she won Best of Show at the Santa Cruz County Fair competing against adults. The Helland Family, complete with chickens, were offered a limo ride to LA, but suggested the chickens might be more comfortable in a rental van. Katie graciously sent along a picture which seals the deal - on a great story and the internship.

On to the Garlic Festival's nest eggs which are nestled in the recently unveiled downtown residential/commercial project neighboring South County Housing's Cannery Project. All eyes on the Garlic Festival Board will be watching the auction for 28 of the neighboring homes in the South County project slated for public bid on Saturday, April 20 in San Jose. That sale will have an influence on "what the market will bear" - i.e. pricing for the festival building units. The views from 7600 Monterey, what the Garlic Festival's project is called, are spectacular and the amenities, including huge windows, underground parking, urban decks and fully wired units are impressive. Check it out on the Web at www.7600online.com. The first 10 buyers get two free GF tickets, 8 beer booth tokens and entry into a drawing for a chance to cook with the famous GF Chef Mas Ozzobakas …

Sssshhh, but there's a chance the younger teen set will get an opportunity to witness a Battle of the Bands at the fest … whoever thought of that, good idea, no, great idea … lot of hot local bands in South County, reports a younger M. Derry, who recites Novice, Salmon, Truth Favors Victims, We Came Armed, Make Believe, (something about) Get All the Girls, Capistrano …

Though I try to make beautiful music with words here, sometimes I skip abeat, abeat as I apparently did by omitting Karen Titus from last week's salute to the ladies Hearts of Gilroy shopping/auction/lunch fundraiser. Ms. Karen "spearheaded and launched" the wildly successful event a chastising patron wrote. All square, enjoy the weekend …

Mark Derry
Mark Derry is the executive editor of the Gilroy Dispatch. Reach him at (408)847-7010 oreditor@garlic.com.

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