Opinion

No development at Ace Hardware site My family and I have been living in Los Gatos for over 35 years now.  The housing development is out of control! (And overdevelopment in general.) It’s bad enough with the construction of the North 40. And traffic is horrendous, especially...

A family member dying and passing the family home onto their child or grandchild should not be a taxable event. Prop. 19 allows property to be reassessed to market value when it passes from parents to children, resulting in a massive property tax increase...

Simitian’s gratitude Thank you for the opportunity to serve in public office for more than 40 years at five different levels: as a local school board member, city council member and mayor, county supervisor, state assemblymember and state senator. At the end of next month, by...

Journalists seek to deliver, and society craves, fast information due to the evolution of the internet, social media and the 24-hour news cycle. But at what cost?  The Los Gatan's front-page article on the events of the Oct. 5 Town Council meeting was published in...

Have you ever wondered how prominent figures like Benjamin Franklin achieved remarkable success? One key factor in his rise as a writer, publisher and politician was his mastery of “social intelligence.” What follows is my analysis of how Franklin’s lessons might apply to our...

It strikes me that the major reason for allowing cannabis dispensaries in Los Gatos would be to generate more revenue. Assuming for argument’s sake that this is correct, there are options for generating revenue other than from allowing cannabis dispensaries in town. I often...

I mentioned in the article, “Group says Town needs to add more sites to housing list” (Los Gatan, Aug. 30-Sept. 5, 2023), that I thought the leadership, two mayors and the Town Manager have failed us for the past two years. They had to...

The Laurel and Hardy film “Perfect Day” is a masterclass in irony. In about twenty minutes, it captures the unraveling of a well-intentioned Sunday outing. The boys and their wives are dressed and ready for a relaxing picnic. But the car won’t start. Tempers...

We live in a society that often views aging through a lens of decline. From advertisements promising to “reverse the aging process” to assumptions that older adults are disengaged or deteriorating, the cultural script is clear—and frequently wrong. But a growing body of research...

I am writing today to urge our community and elected officials to support reauthorizing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).  Currently, DACA has not accepted new eligible applicants since October 2020. According to the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services website (2022), DACA is a...