Gilroy Heading Into Sesquicentennial With Crop Of Festivities

GILROY, CA — You can almost smell the historic milestone now. The city known worldwide for its garlic will spice up next year's festivities by celebrating its 150th anniversary of incorporation on March 12, 2020.

In preparation for the celebratory year, the Gilroy Arts and Culture Commission is hosting an Art Logo Contest. The winning design will be used in commemoration of the city’s 150th birthday at various celebratory events throughout the year.

Gilroy's Mayor Roland Velasco expressed enthusiasm over the historic milestone and subsequent festivities.

“The 150th logo will play a significant role in commemorating this historical event and gives our community an opportunity to share, through art, what they value most about our community,” he said.

At 53, the lifelong Gilroy resident would like to see the city hold onto its past in plowing into the future of the ag-centric community's next 150 years.

"A lot can happen. But what I think is going to happen, will happen not just in Gilroy but statewide. As Sacramento places pressure on the cities to create housing and Gilroy continues to grow, I'd like to know it can still be able to maintain a high quality of life," Velasco told Patch. "And we may lose local control with the heavy hand of state government."

For one thing, the town's linear geography has limitations based on the railroad tracks splitting the commercial zone on the east side with the residential area on the west.

There's a specific character, isolation and whimsy mixed with the potential of a growth community trying to hold its own at the outer reaches of Santa Clara County.

First, as a motorist or walker meanders down Monterey Road — the old U.S. Highway 101 — the smell of garlic wafts everywhere to the extent it seems mostly visitors can detect. Longtime locals suggest no such aroma exists — at least at an unusually high concentration. To locals and those who contribute to the crop like Ken Christopher of Christopher Ranch, it's a just a way of life that serves as a backdrop.

Then, there's the balance of old and new, as Gilroy Visitors Authority Executive Director Jane Howard mentioned.

"For me, the whole concept of what's next is something I reflected on when we reached the 125th (anniversary). I hope we continue our commitment to the historic downtown," she said.

Albeit a tricky teeter-totter at times, the gutsy community has a way of making progress work to the betterment of its past. Take a stroll through the historic district, and one will find the barely year-old Golden State Brewery with its industrial, contemporary interior mixing in with the party pinata store filled with items special to Mexican heritage.

The blend is refreshing and symbolic of a town rooted in a double identity. It's just that type of notion the next budding artist may capture in the city's logo design contest managed through its Arts and Culture Commission.

Chairwoman Wendy Sue Kissa added that artists of all ages and career aspirations are invited "to participate in designing a logo representing the best of Gilroy."

Contest entries are due by 5 p.m. on May 31. Information about the contest including official contest rules and entry form are available online at www.YourVoice.cityofgilroy.org. Entries should be submitted online through this website or dropped off in person at the Recreation Department Office at Gilroy City Hall located at 7351 Rosanna St.