“Our expansion into Morgan Hill marks a milestone in our mission to continuously improve healthcare access and care delivery,” said Kevin Cook, Greater Silicon Valley president for Sutter Health in a news release. “We recognize Morgan Hill residents have unique healthcare needs, and this lease is a significant step towards meeting them.”

The health system finalized the lease in March for the nearly 10,000 square foot property, which will host seven doctors that offer primary care and imaging services. The site will open in phases over the coming months as follows remodeling, upgrading equipment and hiring staff. MRI services are slated to open this summer, followed by other imaging, with primary care planned by the end of the year.

Sutter Health, a not-for-profit healthcare system throughout California, has more than 13,000 patients in the Morgan Hill area, many who travel to San Jose, Los Gatos and beyond to receive care.

Paired with the recent opening of Valley Health Center, Edith Ramirez, Morgan Hill assistant city manager for community development, said that the upcoming medical center heralds increased access to health services for southern Santa Clara County.

“South County has traditionally had limited access to services, so having these kinds of resources are critical for our community,” said Ramirez. She also noted that healthcare was one of the areas where the city has focused for job and economic growth. “It’s another tremendous lift for our community to have these great jobs that are going to be available for the residents.”

In addition to the current lease, Sutter bought nearby 8.5 acre property in February — part of a larger parcel entitled for a massive healthcare facility featuring a 55-bed hospital, an urgent care and a medical center.

While Sutter Health greater Silicon Valley Ambulatory CEO Catherine Krna emphasized they had not made “long-term planning decisions” with the parcel, she said the center could be the beginnings of a “one-stop shop” for local residents to get healthcare and specialty care in one location if current high demand for healthcare remains.

While the report holds no legal sway, local leaders expressed an urgent need to address these disparities in Morgan Hill.

“What we discovered in all of these communities is that we have some high flyers and we have some people that are barely getting by,” said Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which publishes regular reports on the Silicon Valley economy.

The Elevate Morgan Hill Economic Mobility Report, presented Thursday at the city’s Economic Mobility Symposium, came out of a call for Morgan Hill to provide more job and housing resources to low-income and Spanish-speaking residents. The report used a mix of public data, surveys and pre-existing reports to illustrate the current state of Morgan Hill’s low-income, Latino and Spanish-speaking populations.

It found that Spanish speakers were less likely to have a college degree and to know where to find resources or connect to the city government. At the same time, they were more likely to have concerns about food scarcity. Half of the Spanish speakers who responded to the surveys made less than $35,000 — considered “extremely low income” in Santa Clara County, where the median income for a single person is $129,000. Latino residents were also eight times more likely to live in overcrowded housing conditions than their White neighbors and were more likely to be renters.

Additionally, for every unit of affordable housing, there are four low-wage workers in Morgan Hill illustrating the mismatch between housing need and housing supply.

This profile is consistent with the surrounding area, which has faced stagnant racial and ethnic inequality for decades, said Hancock. “Morgan Hill is right in line with the rest of the Silicon Valley community.”

Despite the similar results to the rest of the region, Edith Ramirez, assistant city manager for Morgan Hill who oversaw the report, asserts that the information is important for Morgan Hill. For one, because of the limitations in census data, small communities like Morgan Hill often lack readily available data that would allow them to easily do detailed analysis. This means the report helps paint a clearer picture of Morgan Hill and the needs of its residents, she said.

“Morgan Hill mirrors the rest of Silicon Valley from overall hurt and pain and challenges,” said Ramirez. “What is different is that here in Morgan Hill, we struggle to get resources and get the attention of nonprofits. But the data shows that the need is here.”

The report also lays out multiple suggestions to help improve economic mobility in Morgan Hill — from building more extremely low-income housing to improving outreach and efforts to foster a sense of belonging with Spanish-speaking and minority residents.

While the recommendations are not binding, Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner noted that he plans to find a handful of suggestions to work on with the City Council and staff to help improve the situation for economically disadvantaged residents.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but if we don’t start today, a year from now we’re that much further behind,” he said during the conference. “If we don’t leave here and do something, we’ve just wasted our (time).”

The full report is available at tinyurl.com/elevatereport.

Most days, Garibay labors as a field hand in Watsonville’s blackberry fields as she has for 25 years. But today, she is among scores of farmworkers being pampered in the back room of a chapel converted into a salon.

This year marks the second annual Glam Squad, where dozens of beauty professionals gather from around California to treat farmworkers to makeovers. They say the exercise is more than just skin deep – it serves as a rare moment of rest for those who labor to help feed the nation.

“I loved it. To me, it is almost magic,” said Garibay in Spanish after completing her makeover. “The farmworker wasn’t valued like any other worker and now, I love that they are valuing our work, because it really is hard.”

The Glam Squad began at last year’s Farmworker Caravan Conference and Retreat, which gathers farmworkers and service providers to rest and share resources. Darlene Tenes, who runs the retreat, helped come up with the idea as a way to treat the farmworkers who attended the conference.

So she and her team posted a call for volunteers, and dozens of beauty professionals from across the state heeded the call – styling hair, doing makeup, and taking pictures of the women.

Quincy Gonzalez, a makeup artist from Sacramento, was one of those volunteers. She said that last year she had one client break down into tears after seeing herself in the mirror. “She was like ‘I’ve never felt so beautiful in my life,” she said. “It was at that moment where I (realized) makeup can be something that empowers someone to see themselves in a different light.”

The experience inspired Gonzalez to come back and help run this year’s event in San Juan Bautista, along with another previous volunteer, Oakland-based Madge McCulloch.

Together, they gathered beauty professionals from Los Angeles to Sacramento – makeup artists, barbers, skin care specialists, hair stylists, clothing stylists, a massage therapist, and photographers. They also found companies to donate clothes, makeup, hair care and skin care products to give out to the farmworkers so that they could enjoy some self care after the retreat.

For McCulloch, the event goes above and beyond what nonprofits usually can offer their clients. “It’s so often just like the bare minimum – what you’re getting is like shelter, food, clothes,” said McCulloch. “But actually providing pampering sessions – giving people the gift of relaxation – there’s nothing I love more than bringing that to people.”

According to California’s Employment Development Department, an average farm worker makes $42,753 every year, which is considered “Extremely Low Income” for a family of four living in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

This means that many of the women Glam Squad is pampering are more often concerned with affording food and rent, and the opportunity to indulge is a rare gift, said Tenes.

“It’s very expensive to get beauty services done. It’s just not a luxury they can afford,” she said. “And what woman doesn’t wanna be pampered, right?”

Maria Catalán, for one, certainly does. She has worked for 37 years as a farmworker, and currently owns a small organic farm near Hollister. Last year was her first time ever getting her makeup done, and this year she smiles and laughs while her eyelids shimmer in gold. Working on the field is just as dignified as being a doctor, she said, but the stresses of work, children, and married life often take precedence over her time for herself. So today, she enjoys the opportunity to finally let others care for her.

“There’s never money or time for us to do something good for ourselves as women – as people,” she said in Spanish. “It’s something phenomenal to feel beautiful at least once a year.”

The massive ice sports complex will be fully operated by the San Jose Sharks and is slated to open in Fall of 2026 on the southern outskirts of Gilroy as part of the expanding Gilroy Sports Park

“This should be a destination building, and a reason to get off route 101,” said City Manager Jimmy Forbis. “You don’t even have to be there to enjoy the ice… It’s really a community center.”

Unveiled this week, the design plan for Gilroy Ice Center features an 80,000 square-foot complex with two NHL-sized rinks, a café, skate rental, store, and fitness center which will be open to the public. A bar and restaurant will occupy the second floor between the two rinks, allowing visitors to watch hockey matches or skaters through windows overlooking the ice.

The new rinks will host figure skating and ice hockey, as well as low income and after-school programs. The site could also serve as a hub for adult and youth hockey tournaments and curling leagues, which can draw in visitors and tourism said Scott Emmert, Vice President of Communications for the San Jose Sharks.

“I think the biggest thing for us is how excited we are to continue to grow youth hockey in the Bay Area,” said Emmert. “We have a very strong fan base in the South County, so it makes a lot of sense on a lot of fronts.”

This is not the Sharks first foray in operating NHL-sized rinks for public use. The team has partnered with Oakland, San Jose, and Fremont, but Gilroy’s will be among the largest in the Bay Area after the Sharks Ice Center in San Jose.

The reveal follows years of discussion with the San Jose Sharks stretching back to 2018 and 2019, said Forbis. After COVID-19 stalled talks, negotiations reignited in 2022 when the Sharks and Gilroy began to lay out the project. Last year, architecture firm Perkins&Will began design work on the project.

The design, and the project itself, were greeted with a warm reception from the public and the city council when discussed this week.

“I just want to say how pleased I am with how this looks,” said Mayor Marie Blankley. “It’s a real win for Gilroy.”

“It’s something that’s been in the works for a long time …but to now see the fruit of it is exciting,” said City Councilmember Tom Cline. “It’s gonna make a big impact on this community as well as the surrounding area.”

Palemon Fausto, a Gilroy resident and a member of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, said he worked on the Sharks Ice Center in San Jose and saw its impact — it provided a place for children and families, offering a “great benefit” to the community, he said. “It’s also providing somewhere for our kids to put their energy and (keep) them from staying out in the streets.”

Fausto and other members of the union called on the council to ensure that fair labor practices and local union labor were used during construction. The call was echoed by Councilmembers Zach Hilton and Rebeca Armendariz, who urged city staff and fellow councilmembers to include contract language that prevented labor abuses, such as wage theft and human trafficking, in the massive project.

City staff will begin taking bids for a contractor to build the project later this year. Current estimates for the cost of construction hover between $30 – $35 million. The project will be paid for by the Sharks through a bond measure, which involves Gilroy borrowing the money and the Sharks paying the bill.

After driving diesel trucks for 10 years, Martorella initially eyed electric trucks skeptically. Now, he has nothing but praise for the cutting-edge machines, which he says ride smoother, accelerate faster, and are all around easier to maintain.

“It’s crazy how consistent that they’ve been,” he said. “(They) definitely knocked it out of the park.”

The truck is one of seven heavy-duty electric trucks deployed to haul food at Performance Food Group in Gilroy, supported by an array of brand new charging stations, an upcoming installation of solar panels and a fleet of all-electric refrigerated trailers.

While the Gilroy site is one of only a handful across the country experimenting with the emissions-free tech for semis, state regulations will push more and more trucks in that direction in the coming years. By 2036, manufacturers will only be able to sell zero emissions heavy-duty trucks in California, and many fleets will gradually be required to incorporate more zero emission vehicles over the next decade.

“It’s important for anyone in their business to be thinking about these things. But they are out ahead of the curve,” Bill Robertson, vehicle program specialist for California Air Review Board. “We’re pretty excited about what they’re doing there.”

The Gilroy site will serve as a test bed for the new technologies — both for the company and the industry — allowing them to understand the strengths and limitations of the tech in the real world. “We’ll continue to learn from this and add other technologies to it,” said Jeff Williamson, senior vice president of operations for Performance Food Group. “This is somewhat of our flagship, our model that we intend to build facilities on as we go forward.”

Historically, trucking and shipping have been far from green. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation makes up about 29% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, and about a quarter of that comes from the medium and heavy duty trucks that drive industry and lug freight across the country. Almost all of those trucks run on diesel, a fuel with emissions that are associated with health risks such as asthma, and heart and lung disease.

“Diesel’s been a great fuel for us. We just didn’t realize 75 years ago that it was gonna kill the planet,” said Mike Roeth, executive director of the North American Council for Freight Efficiency. “Now we got to do something different.”

But doing “something different” is hard, especially for big rigs. Only 0.02% of the more than 5 million heavy duty trucks in the US are zero emission, according CALSTART, an organization that researches clean transportation. And switching over more of those trucks to electric comes with some serious hurdles.

To start, the electric trucks have a limited range. The trucks used in Gilroy reach about 200 miles per charge. Their batteries are also heavy, which means that electric trucks can come up against weight limits on roads, triggering potential trade-offs between energy and precious cargo.

Heavy-duty chargers for the batteries are also scarce, and often, relatively slow. Even rapid chargers can take 45 minutes to charge compared to the 10 minutes it may take to fill a tank with fuel. The batteries also require a lot of power to charge — each truck is the equivalent of about four to six Teslas, in terms of power, so larger truck stops and depots could need serious upgrades to their grids in order to provide what Roeth calls “a football stadium’s worth of power” to the trucks’ batteries.

“In today’s world, there is no battery electric vehicle that can truly replace, mile for mile, the capabilities that you get from a diesel engine vehicle,” said Len Lamkin, vice president of transportation logistics for Performance Food Group

At its pilot site in Gilroy, Performance Food Group is working to change that. The company ships food to thousands of locations across the country, and the Gilroy warehouse serves much of Northern California and beyond. Two of its current electric trucks have been running routes to Santa Cruz since last year. The company also just expanded its electric fleet to seven by adding new electric trucks made by Volvo that will be deployed for deliveries throughout the region.

This progress has been made possible by a new set of chargers from the company FreeWire Technologies, which are capable of powering the electric fleet. Each charger is equipped with an internal battery, which allows the charger to store up power over time when demand is low. Then, they can deliver the electricity to the trucks when they come in to charge without needing to pull energy from the grid all at once.

The charging set up is one of the largest for heavy-duty trucking in the nation, says David Hochschild, chair of the California Energy Commission. And by using the chargers with batteries inside, the site didn’t need to make upgrades to the grid, which would be expensive and could take years. The upcoming solar array also helps offset the expected increase in energy demand that would accompany an expanding electric fleet.

“This is really a postcard from the future,” said Hochschild.

All of this new technology comes at a cost, however. An electric 18-wheeler can sell for $365,000 to $435,000, more than twice the $170,000 price tag of a typical diesel truck, according to TEC equipment, which sold the trucks to the site. Some $120,000 per truck is offset by a state grant, and the site expects to recuperate much of the up-front cost in savings from maintenance and diesel fuel.

In the end, the electric trucks will likely be part of a multi-pronged approach that uses different technologies for different applications. The battery-powered cabs could be used over shorter distances where range is less of a concern, while other technologies, such as hydrogen-powered vehicles, might be more suitable for long-haul trucks.

“There’s not just one application that’s going to fit all … there’s no silver bullet,” said Williamson. “It’s going to be a mix, we believe, of various technologies. We’re just trying to hone in on the right mix.”

“The idea is, simply put, to legitimize the existing good actors, and keep the bad ones out,” said Matthew Mahood, Economic Development Director for Morgan Hill. “That’s the bottom line.”

Concerns began when the Morgan Hill Police Department received complaints from community members about assaults by massage therapists. The city also saw an uptick in new massage parlors, which jumped from 12 in 2009 to 21 in 2024. Several Morgan Hill massage parlors also had ratings on websites that catered to erotic massage.

The police department has executed multiple undercover sting operations. However, these operations often found victims of human trafficking, instead of yielding the ring leaders behind them.

Businesses that were shut down would often pop up again under a new “straw owner” — someone who signs their name to the business to allow the real owner to operate anonymously — or victims of human trafficking would be shuffled to other illicit massage parlors elsewhere, officials said.

As a result, the Morgan Hill Police department shifted its focus from undercover sting operations to providing resources to the victims of human trafficking and seeking ways to prevent it.

“This is a very real problem,” said Morgan Hill police chief Shane Palsgrove. “It’s not right to prosecute the women who are being trafficked, we need to have something in place to shut down these organized crime locations. That’s what we’re after.”

The new ordinance, modeled after one adopted in Sunnyvale, is meant to prevent the illicit parlors from taking root in the first place.

To that effect, the stricter permitting process establishes a suite of new requirements for massage establishments, for instance, all massage therapists must be certified by the California Massage Therapy Council.

The new permit also prohibits obscuring front windows or putting locks on the doors to massage rooms, which are meant to discourage human trafficking and prostitution.

Finally, if a permit is revoked, the owner cannot open another massage establishment in the city and the storefront can’t be used as a another massage parlor for five years. “One of the issues that we’ve had in the past is that we’ve been able to shut down some of the illegal operations, but they just pop right back up,” said City Attorney Donald Larkin. These efforts are meant to prevent that.

Some city councilmembers expressed concerns that the extensive permitting process might punish law-abiding establishments. However, city officials assured that legitimate operations are likely already complying.

“I don’t believe that this is a burden to a legitimate day spa that provides massage service,” said Larkin. “All the things we’re asking they do already.”

The City council voted 4-0 Wednesday to repeal the previous ordinance on massage parlors and replace it with the new permitting process. The new ordinance is subject to final approval by the city council on May 15. If adopted, the ordinance may go into effect by July 1, 2024.

More information on human trafficking and how to report it is available at countysheriff.sccgov.org/human-trafficking.

Currently, Gourmet Alley is a narrow street in downtown Gilroy that abuts a strip of restaurants, serving to house dumpsters and access parking. But the approved funding aims to transform the space into two blocks of pedestrian-only public space, resurfaced and equipped with greenery and bike racks.

Gilroy mayor Marie Blankley said she hopes the change will allow nearby restaurants to open their back doors onto the walkway, creating a gathering space a la European square or Italian plaza. “It’s going to be completely transformed, you’re gonna have pedestrian-only space that we don’t have downtown right now,” said Blankley.

The city was originally awarded a grant of $3.9 million from Caltrans in May 2022 to beautify Gourmet Alley and nearby Railroad Alley. After the design was completed in October, however, no construction companies responded to the city’s call for bids. A subsequent search found bids coming in more than $1 million over budget, so city staff downsized the project, cutting off a block of Gourmet Alley from the project and removing Railroad Alley entirely.

While the original deadline for construction was June 2024, the deadline was pushed back to December to make space for the delays.

Many on the council expressed their frustration with the downsizing and the delays in the project at a meeting Monday evening. Councilmember Fred Tovar noted that other cities who received the same type of grant already had their projects under construction. “There’s never been a sense of urgency,” he said at the meeting.

“I am supporting this tonight, but I would be lying if I said I was thrilled with this project because I am disappointed that we did not get (the original scope of the project),” said Councilmember Carol Marques at the meeting, noting that part of the goal of the original project was to beautify Railroad Alley located in the “disadvantaged” east side of the city.

Blankley echoed some of the sense of disillusionment. “When we got this grant, we were ecstatic. $3.9 million sounds like a lot of money – should be a lot of money,” said Blankley. “I am constantly amazed at how far the dollar does not go.”

Still, city staff noted that the project was among the largest funded by the Caltrans grant, and that the funding leaves some wiggle room to extend the project closer to its original scope if there is money left over once the current plan is complete.

Following the deliberations, the council voted 7-0 to move forward with the project as planned.

Construction is slated to start in April 2024 and finish in September 2024, led by Trinchero Construction.

The companies ordered pies in the hundreds to the low thousands.

So when another Silicon Valley giant – a representative from Tesla – called her on Valentine’s Day asking for 2,000 mini pies, Rasetarinera knew that she and her team could deliver. The Tesla rep asked for the pies to be ready for delivery on Feb. 20 and Feb. 22, said Rasetarinera.

The next day, complications arose around the payment, and Rasetarinera became worried. Later that night, at around 9 o’ clock, however, the Tesla representative called to double the order to 4,000 mini pies, making the order among the largest ever handled by The Giving Pies, a fixture in the Willow Glen neighborhood since 2017.

On Feb 16, Rasetarinera sent the revised invoice, asking for payment by noon, and the representative said she had “requested approval” by 11 a.m.

When payment didn’t arrive, Rasetarina called but got no answer. Shortly after, the rep texted to tell her the order was canceled.

The sudden change left her “reeling,” she said, comparing the move to a “break up … by text.”

In order to fulfill the order, Rasetarinera had redirected staff to work Saturday and Sunday, and began buying special vegan ingredients and making pie crusts. She even turned down other orders. Between the ingredients and the time of her staff, the cancellation cost The Giving Pies some $2,000, according to the owner.

The following week, she shared her story on social media in hopes others would understand the impact of the cancellation. “I wanted Tesla to understand that it’s not just frivolous:  it’s people’s lives that they are affecting and especially in this economy,” she said.

The outpouring of support and attention that followed shocked her, with other small businesses offering to help sell any extra pies and community members sharing messages of solidarity.

“What pies do you need to sell before they go bad. I’ll sell them at our store. I’ll market them for you… We are all in this together!!” said Tony & Alba’s Pizza and Pasta in a Facebook comment.

The phone line at The Giving Pies now goes to a message which warns customers that pies are selling out following the outpouring of support.

After the growing attention, Tesla reached out to The Giving Pies, Rasetarina said. She said the company told her that the rep had no authority to make the order and later offered to provide her another opportunity to make over 3,000 pies for events in early March. However, as of Thursday evening, that order had not yet been confirmed.

Late Friday morning, Elon Musk himself replied in a tweet. “Just hearing about this. Will make things good with the Bakery. People should always be able to count on Tesla trying its best.,” he said.

No matter what happens at the end, Rasetarinera says that the story is a testament to the resilience of small business and hopes that others know that they can speak up. “As small as we are compared to them. We still have a voice and we still can say something, you know, that’s the beauty of everything that happened,” she said.

According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, 45-year-old Sayed Tamim Faquiryan befriended members of the Middle Eastern community before offering them opportunities to invest in what turned out to be phony businesses, such as a gas station in Berkeley and a car wash in Gilroy.

The thefts happened between January 2016 and December 2022, prosecutors allege.

“Our community should be safe from financial predators and financial predators should know they are not safe in our community,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.

Faquiryan is charged with grand theft, securities fraud, identity theft, passing fraudulent checks and filing a false document, plus white-collar crime enhancements.

He is out on $250,000 bail, and is next due in court for a plea hearing on April 11. If convicted, Faquirtan could face jail time and have to pay restitution to the four victims.

His alleged co-conspirator, 41-year-old Navid Azizian, of Novato, has been charged with six counts of grand theft for alleged involvement with one of the victims.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact DA Investigator Justin DeOliveira at 408-792-2420 or jdeoliveira@dao.sccgov.org.

The council had voted 4-3 in December to let the permit for the parklet in front of local restaurant Station 55 expire, requesting that the owner take the structure down by Jan.12 while the city decided whether to craft a parklet program. But on Monday, councilmembers who had originally voted against the renewal said they had reconsidered their positions and would support parklets going forward.

“I wrestled with this problem. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this problem,” said council member Carol Marques about her deliberations. “It’s been a rough month, but I think we’ve finally crested that hill.”

“After the last meeting, I started thinking and as a business owner, times are tough,” said council member Dion Bracco. “I think a lot of this problem was brought on by the city. We gave a short extension then made them do some improvements on it and then to come back and say ‘no,’ I don’t think that’s right.”

After the council’s December vote, Teodomira Castillo, the owner of Station 55, refused to take the parklet down, arguing that the decision was unfair since another parklet in front of the nearby bar and restaurant Tempo was allowed to remain standing.

Although the two parklets were built years apart under separate programs, the perceived injustice led local citizens to a rally in support of the parklet, making claims of discrimination towards the owner of Station 55, a Latina woman. Supporters of the restaurant and the parklets then appeared en masse at subsequent city council meetings.

At the meeting this week, councilmembers discussed a city survey showing mixed public support and limited interest in parklets from downtown businesses. But public speakers spoke unanimously in support of a parklet program, some of whom vouched for the current parklets.

Tim Miller, who owns the building that houses Tempo, brought the architectural plans for the parklet to the meeting, explaining that he worked closely with the city under the understanding that the parklet would be permanent. “This (parklet) wasn’t a fly-by-night operation. It’s built like Fort Knox,” said Miller while waving the rolled-up plans in his hand. “It helps Tempo, and I strongly believe it helps downtown.”

“The decision you all make today on parklets, especially mine, will decide whether my business remains or falls apart,” said Teodomira Castillo, owner of Station 55, in Spanish. “This is for my family and the families of my employees as well. This parklet is our only hope for moving forward.”

Later, Councilmember Tom Cline stressed the need for fair and uniform standards that did not detract from the architecture of downtown.

Following the unanimous vote, supporters expressed their excitement about the decision.

“I’m happy — it was what we were hoping for,” said Castillo in Spanish. “We worked a lot for this, and I think we earned it. Thanks to the council who reconsidered and thought hard about everything.”

“I’m glad that they’re looking out for the benefit of the citizenship of Gilroy,” said Miller. “I think it’s vital to the liveliness of downtown.”

Moving forward, the city council directed that the city’s downtown committee come forward with recommendations for a parklet program to be considered by the city council at an upcoming meeting.