NEW YEAR, NEW HOPE
Public health and economic recovery top priorities.
While the issues that plagued us in 2020 will still be with us in the new year, plenty of local residents were happy to show the old year the door. Community leaders are expressing cautious optimism about what 2021 has in store for the South Bay.
While the issues that plagued us in 2020 will still be with us in the new year, plenty of local residents were happy to show the old year the door. Community leaders are expressing cautious optimism about what 2021 has in store for Los Gatos as the pandemic wears on.
“I’m looking forward to celebrating the resilience and kindness our town showed one another as we dealt with the pandemic and its detrimental effect on our neighbors, local businesses and everyone’s mental health,” says Mayor Marico Sayoc.
Catherine Somers, executive director of the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce, has seen these detrimental effects on Chamber members.
“No one is coming out of 2020 unscathed,” she acknowledges, but adds, “Los Gatos will rebound quickly, I think. I predict we will slowly start to emerge in late spring, but we must get through January and February first … but then recovery will happen fast.”
Somers says the hope is that residents will continue to do business in Los Gatos once the pandemic restrictions are lifted.
“Before COVID, we were already seeing signs of a revitalization here, and now I think our businesses, government and residents are more excited than ever to see what that revitalization will mean,” she adds. “Through this pandemic, I think people have realized how much they value their own communities and how important it is to invest in them. I think we will see a resurgence in the retail industry, as crazy as that sounds.”
Andrew Welch of ASA Los Gatos Restaurant says his takeaway from 2020 is that “everyone is doing their best.”
“Competition has its place, but especially now in the restaurant business, it is important to respect
your peers, stick together and help each other,” Welch adds.
Richard Hanke of Left Bend Winery is grateful for the support his tasting room has received.
“Like others, we are hoping spring means a return to outdoor dining,” Hanke says.
In the meantime, Left Bend is partnering with Los Gatos Rotary for “Don’t Be Crabby, Come Wine with Us,” a Jan. 30 fundraiser in lieu of Rotary’s annual crab feed.
Rotary president Andrew Stearns says the club is looking forward to more hands-on community service projects and fellowship in the new year.
“While our fundraising efforts have been modified this year, we are continuing to raise money to
be able to contribute to local, regional and global needs in 2021,” Stearns adds.
Los Gatos attorney Tim Lundell says the new normal in 2021 will include vestiges of the pandemic.
“Los Gatos businesses and restaurants will, for the most part, quite quickly return to pre-pandemic levels, but there will be differences,” he predicts. “I expect outdoor dining to continue to some extent far beyond the lifting of indoor dining restrictions.
“Similarly, working from home will affect many aspects of daily life, including traffic congestion and travel patterns,” Lundell adds. “Socially, the conditioning of people to wear masks and keep their distance from each other is going
to impact personal interaction for a long time and may negatively impact events that count on large crowds packed together.”
Local schools are hoping that students can come back to campus early on in 2021.
“As a board, we want to return our kids to the classroom as soon as it is safe,” says David Guidrey, board president of the Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District. “Our plan was to have a hybrid COVID school model up and running. The problem is that the virus is heading the wrong way and caused that plan to be delayed. We recognize that we need to take a step back; our priority is to make returning to school as safe as possible.”