I have written previously about Vision San Benito, a group of
citizens working to forge an all-inclusive view of how San Benito
County and Hollister should look in the future.
I have written previously about Vision San Benito, a group of citizens working to forge an all-inclusive view of how San Benito County and Hollister should look in the future.
They are striving to maintain those things which make us unique, while allowing flexibility for population growth and changing land-use needs.
I recently became aware of another group approaching the future-of-Hollister puzzle from a different angle.
Their three-part plan involves reviving the increase in the sales tax, electing a Hollister mayor at large, and providing building exemptions for downtown Hollister.
An elected mayor would be more accountable for the performance of city government which could increase the palatability of the sales tax to the voting public.
Makes sense to me. I think the sales tax is a good idea since Hollister is currently scrambling to maintain even basic levels of city services. If you’ve tried to pay your water bill on a Friday, you know what I’m talking about.
But it will take a tax base coming from a revived downtown to get Hollister back on its feet. Building exemptions would speed up the permitting process and allow businesses to start retrofitting some of Hollister’s vacant spaces.
The vision of the group is influenced by the ideas of “new urbanism” and “smart development.” These ideas bring downtowns back to what they used to be: places where people lived, worked, shopped and had fun.
Imagine being a single person living in an apartment atop the old Union Bank building. In the morning, you could go get breakfast – not just a latte and a scone at an espresso bar, but a real breakfast, maybe oatmeal and strawberries or eggs and hash browns, with coffee served in a real cup – at a coffee shop, the kind with toothpicks and mints by the cash register.
You could then walk to your job at one of the nearby law or medical offices, or a title company, real estate office, investment company, publishing company, ad agency or another business attracted by Hollister’s friendly atmosphere and flexible, renovated inventory of office space.
At coffee break time you could, of course, go to the espresso bar, but you could also go to the doughnut shop for a doughnut or, if in a splurging mood, an eclair or apple turnover.
You could go to the local stationery store for a ream of printer paper, and on your way back, drop off a couple of items at the dry cleaner.
At lunch, you could get a taco or a hot dog from a (city licensed and regulated) street vendor to munch on while you did more errands: Drop off a deposit at the bank, pick up some athletic socks and a new carrot peeler at the variety store, a light switch at the hardware store and spend the last 20 minutes in the bookstore browsing the magazines.
After work, you could walk home, change clothes and run your lap through downtown, around Dunne Park, and back home again, before sitting down to a quick dinner of goodies from the local farmers’ market. Since it’s a weeknight, you forego your friends’ invitation to an evening of karaoke, and settle in to a sound sleep, soothed by the nighttime bustle of your cozy hometown.
Elizabeth Gage writes a weekly column for the Free Lance that runs on Thursdays.
