Matt Morley, previously the assistant city manager for Cupertino, began his first day with the city on June 10, and will officially assume the responsibilities of city manager at midnight on Aug. 5. Morley will be taking over for current city manager James Lindsay, who is departing on June 29 after 10 years on the job.

Morley oversaw five of seven departments with the city of Cupertino, and helped address the city’s budget challenges during his time with Saratoga’s neighbor to the west. He previously served as the parks and public works director for Los Gatos, and before that held a similar position with the city of San Jose, according to the Saratoga Source.

Lindsay welcomed Morley to the city during his remarks at the June 5 meeting, saying the city is looking forward to working with him.

Jill Hunter, a former mayor of Saratoga and head of the Saratoga Village Development Council, thanked Lindsay for his work with the city.

“I am proud to say that I was on the council when James was selected and I never regretted my decision to select him with the other council members,” she said in an email.

Community Harvest

Community members can register for to pick fruit from the Saratoga Heritage Orchard this summer. The 2024 Community Harvest is set to take place on several dates from mid-June through August.

To sign up for the interest list, visit https://www.saratoga.ca.us/FormCenter/Community-Harvest-PreRegistration-57.Participants will be randomly selected from the list and notified of their harvest date.

Saratoga’s community harvest started in 2021 as an opportunity for Saratoga residents to pick fruit from the heritage orchard free of charge.

Jennifer Lin came to the chamber in July of last year, after former executive director Catherine Somers left the role along with two of her staff members. Somers had been in the job for almost eight years.

Since then, Lin said, she has worked to build relationships with local businesses and encourage commercial activity in Los Gatos, in addition to addressing the budget deficit the chamber faced at the start of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Among other strategies, the chamber will be increasing its dues for the first time in at least six years as of July. Lin said given inflation and rising costs, the decision would have been justifiable earlier in her tenure, but she wanted to allow the business community more time to adjust after the pandemic.

“Everything was still a little bit like this pandemic state of things, and I really wanted to get it to a stronger state before we made the case and demonstrated we’re providing you that value, and now it’s time to increase,” she said.

To help alleviate the chamber’s financial woes, the town council in May allocated $88,000 for the chamber to maintain the Los Gatos visitor information center and the “Visit Los Gatos” website. The allocation was renewed from last year; prior to that, the highest amount the town earmarked for the chamber’s services was $55,000.

The chamber has also sought to increase the amount of money it takes in through events like the Los Gatos Wine Walk. The spring wine walk featured a VIP experience that gave ticketholders a preview of Gardenia Coffee, which had yet to open at 115 N. Santa Cruz Ave.

“Just in an effort to stay ahead of other cities that have done something similar and make sure that we cement our position as one of the premier wine tasting experiences, we felt like adding that VIP experience really kind of enhanced our credibility, and it also happened to increase our revenue,” Lin said.

When she started at the chamber, Lin said, businesses were contending with a shift in consumer behavior and still adjusting to the long-term impact of the pandemic, including luring back customers who had grown accustom to shopping online. But she said she quickly learned that Los Gatos residents’ dollars are more meaningful when spent in the community instead of with big companies like Amazon, as it’s an investment in the town’s economic vitality.

“It’s not about saving a few cents or a dollar; it’s like, where do you want to invest?’” she said.

The town’s economic vitality is also dependent on patronage from visitors. To that end, the chamber has also been working on developing promotional materials to advertise tourism in Los Gatos that will eventually be available at the San Jose airport and hotels in town.

Somers, who now owns a flower shop in Los Gatos called Centerpiece, said the chamber has encouraged local business owners to advocate for what they want. But now that she’s on the other side of things, she’s realized how little time business owners have to do so.

“I think what I realized is that it really is the chamber’s responsibility to understand and to advocate for businesses,” Somers said. “They have to do that work because, as a small business owner, you just don’t have the time to do it, let alone the funds.”

But overall, Somers said she’s been happy with the work the new chamber leadership and staff have been doing.

“They’re really making an effort on reaching out farther to bring visitors into Los Gatos. I love that,” she said.

The planning commission’s recommendations pave the way for the Saratoga City Council to hold a public hearing on the matter on June 5. But residents of the retirement community, also known as SRC, have expressed concern that construction of the expansion will negatively impact their quality of life, and that the expansion itself will detract from the center’s historic and rural feel.

Planning commissioners approved three resolutions on May 8: to certify the final environmental impact report for the expansion, approve rezoning for the project and approve a master plan update and design review for the project.

While approval of the master plan update and design review passed with five “yes” votes and an abstention from commissioner Herman Zheng, commissioners expressed mixed feelings about the decision.

“Not that it matters, but I wish we could have piecemealed it,” chair Jojo Choi said. City staff had declined Choi’s request for the planning commission to approve only the parts of the master plan that the group liked earlier in the meeting.

Bob Berglund, a longtime Saratoga resident who moved to the retirement community almost 10 years ago, said the residents who oppose the expansion plan to appeal the planning commission’s decision in advance of the June 5 public hearing.

Several residents turned out at the meeting to express their disapproval of the proposed expansion, many of whom were wearing green shirts that read “preserve SRC campus.” The residents are not entirely opposed to the idea of adding more units to the campus, located at 14500 Fruitvale Ave., and as such proposed an alternate plan that would result in only one new building with 20 new units.

“Commissioners, there’s just no space for more buildings; we have reached the maximum already,” resident Tsing Barden said at the meeting.

The planning commission’s approval is the latest step in the SRC management’s efforts to expand its facilities, which started in 2017. The June 5 public hearing will be the third regarding the controversial issue since the expansion was proposed.

Ryan Hinchman, administrative services director for the city, said the budget for the current and upcoming fiscal years are both on track to be balanced. Key requests in the 2024-25 budget include $150,000 for the eventual implementation of the city’s housing element, which the city submitted to the state for approval in March, and $180,000 to improve the maintenance and management of the city’s trees.

Hinchman noted that the budget also includes rising insurance premiums. From 2021 to 2025, premiums have nearly tripled, he said.

“We’re seeing a lot of insurance providers exit the market, which makes it difficult to get competitive costing,” Hinchman said. “This is baked into the budget, but just to call to attention, this is an increasing cost outside of the city’s control.”

A public hearing on the 2024-25 budget is set for June 5, and Hinchman said the city council will consider adopting it at its June 19 meeting.

The Los Gatos resident’s longtime love for books fueled a childhood dream of opening her own bookstore, a dream that Sedneva eventually forgot about as she got caught up in the day-to-day routine of adult life.

When she got laid off from her project managing job at a tech company last year, she found herself returning to those childhood goals. She recently opened Beyond Text, an independent bookstore located at 318 North Santa Cruz Ave. in downtown Los Gatos. Sedneva said the store will offer books from a variety of genres in addition to gifts, board games and home decor.

Sedneva said she gave special attention to stocking novelty, illustrated versions of popular books to emphasize the physical experience of reading a book.

“How can someone read anything boring when such amazing editions exist?” Sedneva wrote in a caption for an Instagram post of a novelty edition of “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien.

The store’s name, Sedneva said, is a reference to that desire read a physical book instead of using an e-reader, to go beyond just words on a page and appreciate the feeling of a book, the shape of the text, pictures and cover.

“My idea is that having a physical copy in your hand gives you additional experience,” Sedneva said.

She also gave special attention to the design of the bookstore, hoping to cultivate an environment that welcomed customers and helped them feel at ease.

“I wanted to inspire the visitors to linger and immerse themselves in a world of books,” she said.

In addition to selling books and other items, Sedneva wants to host community events like book clubs, discussion groups and author talks, she said. The store already had a mafia game night scheduled for May 16, and author talks on June 1 and 8.

While Sedneva doesn’t have an official store website just yet, she said people can learn more about the store at her Instagram account, which is @_beyondtext_.

Beyond Text is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

These aren’t just any mangoes. They’ve been hand-picked, packaged and transported nearly halfway around the world — from India.

The sudden influx of Indian mangoes into the South Bay is thanks to Shastha Foods, a San Jose-based Indian foods company with a logo familiar to many South Asian American kitchens.

The company has been importing Indian mango varieties for customers across the West Coast over the past three years. It supplies a large number of Indian grocery stores, and its products can even be found in Costco.

But even Shastha wasn’t prepared for this new wave of “mango mania” that saw more than 1,100 people lined up on Sunday outside Shastha’s North San Jose warehouse for what the company calls “Mangofest,” where they provide free in-person tastings of the imported Indian mango varieties that the company stocks and sells from its warehouse.

Mangoes are a source of pride for Indians and the Indian diaspora. They’re a staple in the Indian diet for the hot summer months that they’re in season and an ever-present memory when they’re not. Often described as the “king of fruits,” they grow easily given the country’s tropical climate and exist in roughly 1,500 distinct varieties in India, the Times of India reported.

Kesar and alphonso mangoes, for example, are native to India’s western region; the bright yellow kesar are both sweet and sour, while the tangerine-colored alphonso are bigger, smoother and almost buttery in taste. And the green and red South Indian rajapuri mango is even bigger, more sour and softer in texture, compared to the almost egg-shaped green-yellow rasalu mango that’s smaller, more fibrous and juicy.

Shastha has roughly 14 varieties of Indian mangoes available on its website and is providing many of those varieties for people to sign up and taste at their events, depending on which ones are ready to eat.

Syamala Raghuram, co-founder and president of Shastha Fresh, the company’s food delivery arm, said they began the tastings after hearing about a demand for Indian mangoes from Indian grocery store customers.

“The mango, I cannot just call it a fruit, it is more of an emotion with Indians,” she said.

The company plans to continue hosting the weekly tastings until the end of mango season in late June, Raghuram said.

The huge turnout for the events is due, at least in part, to the influence of local Instagram celebrity Ronil California. California, who uses a pseudonym because of his visa status, posted an Instagram reel about an in-person mango tasting that Shastha was hosting at its warehouse on May 5 for the 83,000 followers on his page @californiaaa_baybae.

Hours later, the post had gotten 100,000 views and continued to climb to the 1.2 million mark by the day of the event. By the time the warehouse doors opened on May 5, lines of buyers wrapped around the building, and Teslas circled the lot looking for parking.

California, who is from the state of Maharashtra in India, features Desi restaurants and Airbnbs on his Instagram page, and posts content geared toward a South Asian audience. He said the company asked him to promote the events they host, such as the mango tasting, because of his large following.

Inexpensive mangoes typically available at American supermarkets often pale in comparison to Indian varieties, as they can be crunchy, sour or stringy, missing the familiar sweetness and bite that many South Asians know and love.

What many people of Indian descent are showing up to Shastha looking for, said California, is the experience of picking a sun-warmed mango off a tree, cutting it open and eating the fruit without bothering to slice and peel it, juice running down your chin.

“It’s a childhood memory for everyone back in India for the summer season,” he said.

It wasn’t always easy to find Indian mangoes in the U.S., especially when they were banned here in 1989 over concerns about pests spreading to American crops. Finally, when former U.S. President George W. Bush visited India in 2006 to work with then-Prime-Minister Manmohan Singh on a nuclear pact between the two countries, they agreed to a nuclear-arms deal.

Also part of the deal? A trade agreement that resulted in lifting the ban on the importation of the famous fruit.

“The United States is looking forward to eating Indian mangoes,” Bush famously said on his trip.

The agreement paved the way for the Bay Area’s sizable Indian population to access the beloved fruit. As of 2023, Indian-born residents made up the largest immigrant group in both Alameda and Santa Clara counties — a total of 250,000 residents.

California said part of what makes Shastha’s event so special is that it brings so many mango varieties all in one place — something that even Indian people living in India don’t often get to experience.

Raghuram said Shastha’s goal is to create that experience for everyone, whether they’re South Asian or not.

“Like each region has its diversity of people in India, likewise mangoes are diverse, the taste and the flavor is totally diverse,” she said. “We wanted to instill that flavor with the Americans as well.”

Those interested in attending mango tastings can join the list on the company’s Eventbrite page.

Town officials sent the much-revised Housing Element, which dictates the location and amount of residential development in town for the next eight years, to the state Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) for approval on March 18. The document outlines plans to build 1,993 housing units, a stark contrast to the goal of 619 units in the town’s previous Housing Element.

“Receiving state acceptance did not come easy,” Mayor Mary Badame said in a statement. “With six rejected Housing Element drafts, the town council established a focused agenda to openly engage the drafting and review process as a top priority.”

Discussion on the Housing Element had stalled in recent meetings before the final submittal to the state, as council members disagreed over the extent to which the document should dictate where small, multi-unit housing can be built. The document outlines plans to build the 1,993 housing units largely through redevelopment, since space for new developments in the town are restricted by the its geographical boundaries and wildfire risk.

The town council last voted to approve the Housing Element at a special meeting in February 2023 to meet the state’s deadline and avoid the possibility of developers proposing housing projects that are beyond the town’s control, while still maintaining the ability to revise the document to align with the state’s requests.

The council will soon be tasked with implementing the plans outlined in the Housing Element. The planning commission will first consider the document at a May 22 meeting, and the council will consider their recommendations at a June 4 meeting before sending the Housing Element back to HCD for final approval, according to the town’s website.

The committee, which Vice Mayor Belal Aftab and Councilmember Chuck Page are spearheading, will return to the council in at most six months with feedback from the public and a series of suggestions on how the city can get involved in promoting economic development in Saratoga. Page said he expects the committee will begin by hosting listening sessions with members of the public in the near future.

Several members of the public, business owners and residents alike, spoke in favor of supporting the city’s local businesses.

“I think our downtown is a bit on life support,” a resident said during the council meeting.

The committee was formed after the council at its Feb. 21 meeting directed staff to return at May 1 to discuss economic development in Saratoga, and specifically in its downtown area along Big Basin Way.

“The Village is near and dear to my heart,” Councilmember Kookie Fitzsimmons said of Saratoga’s downtown. “I think it’s a reasonable request to form an ad hoc committee.”

They also voted unanimously to approve four applications totaling $7,400 for the city’s community event grant program for the 2024-25 fiscal year. The events include the dragon boat festival, a Serbian food festival, a day of action hosted by Congregation Beth David and a public art contest called “Saratoga, My Home.”

“I think it’s just great to see the community organizations bring community together, [and] foster a kind of belonging,” Mayor Yan Zhao said.

The dry cleaners at 14495 Big Basin Way actually opened in the 1950s. Sean Lee said his parents bought the business from the original owners in 1985 and have kept the business in the family since then.

Now, due to the lingering financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Lees have made the difficult decision to shutter the business.

“Whether you entrusted us with your most cherished garments or simply stopped by to say hello, we have cherished every interaction and memory,” the owners said in a letter posted outside the shop.

Located in downtown Saratoga, the dry cleaners has become a staple in the community, and generations of residents have brought their business to the Lees. Residents come in to drop off and pick up their dry cleaning, but also to chat and catch up with the couple.

Lee said he’s witnessed the character of the city evolve over the years, adding that Saratoga was a “good American town” back when his family first purchased the business 40 years ago.

“There was a privately owned pharmacy, an Ace Hardware store, a local grocery store, barber shop, bakery and many other thriving businesses,” he said. “Now, all the stores that drove foot traffic have closed, and the town has felt empty for many years.”

Lee said retirement is not an option for his family at this time, so the couple will be pursuing part-time work after closing up shop.

“While it’s a bittersweet ending to this chapter of our lives, we are immensely grateful for the love and support we’ve received from the community throughout our journey,” he said. “We will never forget the kindness and generosity of all the relationships we’ve made over the last 40-plus years.”

After receiving word from the state’s department of Housing and Community Development that the town’s story pole policy “poses a constraint to the construction of new housing” and could therefore impede approval of its Housing Element, the Los Gatos Town Council in a split vote approved easing the requirements.

The town council sent a draft of the Housing Element to state officials in March, paving the way for state approval later this summer.

The council on April 16 voted 3-2, with Mayor Mary Badame and Vice Mayor Matthew Hudes dissenting, to limit the scenarios in which story poles need to be installed at the sites of proposed developments. Poles won’t be required for projects over 55 feet tall, and signage will be allowed in lieu of story poles for certain residential projects.

Though members of the council largely agreed on the essence of the updated story pole policy, they disagreed on a revised policy for notifying residents about new developments. Hudes and Badame voted in favor of implementing revisions such as posting information about new proposed developments on social media, but the motion failed in a 3-2 vote. Council asked town staff to return to the council with a new notification policy at a later meeting.

“I think what I’m hearing is that we support the spirit of the motion, but I think some of the details need to be ironed out,” Councilmember Maria Ristow said. “I think if we bring the noticing back, we can get further into where the noticing happens (and) when the noticing happens.”