It has been an eventful month in San Benito County!
The First Annual Olive Festival out at Paicines Ranch was well attended and enjoyed by those who went. It was another occasion that helped us all to witness some of the riches of San Benito County.
The Open House at Luck Park gave us that opportunity to see some of the riches of what the San Juan Historical Society has been collecting, as well as the work of some of our other non-profit groups.
San Juan held it’s first Community Meeting to update our General Plan which will shape the City’s development through 2035. The Cal Poly grad students effectively collected people’s thoughts and ideas about the the strengths and areas of improvement and concern are and I am looking forward to the next meeting on November 12 to continue the process. There were stakeholder groups which were not in attendance, including the Mission and State Parks, but I am confident that they will be participating in the process.
I believe that there is much energy in San Juan which is waiting to be harnessed. People are waiting to have something that they can do to improve our community. The Hollister Downtown Association created a Fall Cleanup Day to address the clutter and state of cleanliness of their downtown. Certainly, San Juan could put something like this together as well. This wouldn’t require the kind of planning and coordination that addressing the future of our downtown will require. It is straight-forward and we all benefit.
San Juan faces some big choices in how to be a place where we can provide all of those who like to visit our town with enjoyable experiences. It is the experience they have when they are here which determines whether they return.
I believe that we can do a much better job of enriching that experience. The fact that many shops are closed affects those which are open. Irregularity of hours can affect whether shoppers feel confident about taking the time to go out of their way to come here.
The place where the identity of a historical town, and a destination for motorcyclists come together, has some rough edges. The identity of the town is blurred by the difference of experience people have when they come here. Our water supply needs improvement.
It is my hope that the General Plan update process will help us to have the discussions which will allow us to focus the direction we want San Juan to go in the next 20 years. I encourage you to make sure that you attend the next Community Meeting on Tuesday, November 12, to give input for the Update and get your friends to come as well. Let’s do right by San Juan and do the work that must be done to preserve and improve our gem of a community.
In San Juan . . we wave!