Guest View

In a recent Los Gatan article, titled “Town’s effort to acknowledge earliest residents fraught with challenges,” journalist Drew Penner was attempting to shed light on the efforts of the Town of Los Gatos to acknowledge its less-than-inclusive telling of its own history. But the...

As I move through my senior years in semi-retirement mode, I share jokes about ailments and commiserate with fellow old timers about lost loved ones. At the same time, I apply myself to my job as a commissioner on the Community Health and Senior...

Perhaps I’ve read too many articles and listened to too many podcasts decrying the level of vitriol and partisanship existing in Washington D.C. and in many communities throughout the country. Add to this sorry situation the scenes of conflict I’ve seen on television and...

When my husband and I moved from Germany to the United States in 2017, our oldest daughter was three and I was expecting the second of our three children. It was a time of major transitions, and it was important to me that they...

Volunteers know it is difficult to accomplish change. When I sought along with several others to get a Restorative Justice program implemented at a Los Gatos school, I initially encountered great enthusiasm for the idea. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm was followed by inaction on the...

Jak Van Nada considers the consequences of Los Gatos failing to get its Housing Element certified, despite sending in multiple drafts.

Somehow through my years as a volunteer in many different endeavors I’ve gotten the notion that I know how to generate interest about the organizations I’ve been involved in. In many cases I did this by writing articles about the organization, such as the...

The Community Health and Senior Services Commission (CHSSC) recently reported to the Town Council, detailing deficiencies in the delivery of mental health and substance abuse services in Los Gatos. CHSSC’s possible next step, subject to council approval, will be to develop a roadmap to...

On Aug. 10, 2022, the Los Gatan published an article by Drew Penner on the Town’s efforts to acknowledge the first people of Los Gatos. We were dismayed by the comments anthropologist Alan Leventhal made regarding the Tamien Nation, which were repeated by Muwekma...

In our increasingly digital world, it seems we can’t buy a belt or call a bank without being asked to take a survey. These requests have become a routine part of modern life. But not all surveys are created equally, and some are far...