The Hollister Downtown Association celebrated its 20th birthday
this year. But the group’s first president, Gordon Machado, said
there’s a small problem: the HDA is actually 23 years old.
The Hollister Downtown Association celebrated its 20th birthday this year. But the group’s first president, Gordon Machado, said there’s a small problem: the HDA is actually 23 years old.
“We lost three years of history,” Machado said.
The confusion goes back to 1987, back when the association was known as the Hollister Downtown Merchants Association. Business owners wanted to join the fledgling California Main Street Program, but Machado said state rules required them to bring in the whole community, not just businesses. And the name had to change, too, to reflect the group’s new inclusiveness.
“That’s how we became the Hollister Downtown Association,” he said.
HDA organizers seem to be counting from the name change, not the organization’s real birth, Machado said. But quibbles about chronology aside, Machado said he’s proud of the group’s accomplishments. He said he first brought business owners together in 1984, when his 12 years on the Hollister City Council came to an end. When Machado was a councilman, businesspeople often wanted him to speak out for the business community.
“I asked them why they didn’t bring it up themselves – they said, ‘Oh, I might lose a customer,'” Machado said. “We needed someone to come to the podium and speak for downtown.”
That’s where an organization like the HDA comes in, he said. For example, although the HDA wasn’t officially involved, Machado said top association officers were crucial in pushing for Measure A, the sales tax that funded the Highway 156 bypass and construction of the Highway 25 bypass.
Much of the group’s initial efforts were also focused on beautifying downtown, he said. Through the Main Street program, a Sacramento architect redesigned the color palettes of many downtown buildings. Then, if the business owners were willing, the association provided the paint and, sometimes, the labor.
Pointing to a San Benito Street rooftop, Machado recalled standing on top of the building with a paintbrush, freezing in the cold November wind and thinking: “What am I doing? This isn’t even my store.”
Now, Machado said “it’s very gratifying” to see what the HDA has become.
“Oh, it’s night and day,” he said.
