Community

—This is the first in a two-part series. Summer is here, accompanied by the usual traffic gridlock, so let’s all take a deep breath while I share the mostly forgotten history of our much maligned Highway 17.  If you think traveling over the hill is an...

—This is the second in a two part series. Last month, I explored what traveling “over the hill” was like in the second half of the 19th century, when stagecoach passengers faced long, bone-rattling, and often dangerous trips along dusty or muddy dirt roads. Change came...

While many of us recognize the name Holy City, the fascinating story of the former mountain community and the eccentric character who founded it has largely been forgotten.  Holy City was built over a period of several years beginning in 1919 by a  charismatic cult...

In 1975 a Girl Scout Ambassadors troop in Los Gatos embarked on a big trip. At the time, the term Ambassador did not mean what it has since 2008, which is a membership category for ages 16-18. In 1975, the Ambassador program encouraged girls...

Have you ever wondered how the infamous U-shaped stretch of Highway 17 known as Big Moody Curve got its name? There isn’t much to say about early settler D. B. Moody, who owned the property. But what happened there is one of the most...

Saturation of the soil should be a rare problem within the local chaparral climates. Water is a limited resource. That is why plants that are not native or endemic to other chaparral or desert climates rely on supplemental irrigation. Many exotic species would not...

On Jan. 23, Belmont Village Los Gatos hosted select students at the Union School District to take part in “The Great Kindness Challenge” where together, students and residents participated in art projects, games, singing, storytelling and interactions focusing on being kind and what it...

Few sectors of the economy have seen as much volatility during the pandemic than the restaurant industry. And in recent weeks Los Gatos has seen its fair share of upheaval. But according to wine salesman Sebastian Balest of Benicia-based Winebow, who’s been making the rounds...

Halloween seems to be an appropriate time to bury early spring bulbs in shallow graves. The season begins about now, and continues until about the end of the year. Installation of new bulbs might initially be ungratifying. There is nothing to show after their...

On May 18, the Triton Museum in Santa Clara opened its new digital art gallery with poetry, video, essays and visual art from the Eating Disorder Resource Center’s “Be-You-tiful” contest.  Students were invited to submit pieces exploring how social media and the world around them...