Small-town character? It's the people

By Peggy Dallas

(I wrote this letter to the Weekly-Times in May 1999)

Our task was to record and prioritize our communities' visions for the future of Los Gatos. After two years, I learned that it is not the architecture but the citizens who communicate and are willing to be known to each other that give Los Gatos its small-town character. It is the communication that makes the community.

The General Plan Task Force was a wonderful experience. I heard hope, frustration, some discouragement and many dreams for what our town will, inevitably, become. But always there was palpable anxiety that the pressure to change created by the burgeoning Silicon Valley will destroy our small-town character.

While I was contemplating the town's future, my husband was compiling a visual history of the town (the book, Los Gatos Observed, is due soon), and I came to realize that Los Gatos has always been changing and will continue to change to the current definition of "better."

It changes for the better because people in this community care enough to speak up about their concerns, whether at a town meeting or in a letter to the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, and we have elected town officials who pride themselves on listening and incorporating the concerns they've heard into town policies.

This is what makes Los Gatos such a satisfying community to live in. It is the communication that gives the town its vitality and small- town character, not the buildings. They are just the physical manifestations allowed by the people who live in this town.

I have learned many things from listening at Task Force, Town Council and Planning Commission meetings. If I could return the favor, I would like to recommend two books: A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander, which describes the physical patterns that make environments human, ranging from town design to the smallest details of designing a home. And, Home From Nowhere by James Howard Kunstler, which describes the demise of the small town in America, in an effort to understand how to make things better in the future.

Although it's the people that make the community, the community can be better served by physical environments that allow for natural and comfortable interaction between the diverse members of our community. These books are invaluable resources when trying to quantify and qualify the built (or to remain unbuilt) aspects of our town and especially relevant for the current General Plan Committee and the Planning Commission who are struggling daily with issues on our behalf.

Peggy Dallas