Talk:Los Gatos, California

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[edit] Town photos

Do we really need TWO picture of the same front of the high school? --AJseagull1 05:28, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

We could remove the image next to the Geography section, it isn't really needed there. Mike24 23:32, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

Hey guys, I agree with Joe here, I recently came back from vacationing in the Los Gatos/San Jose area (Los Gatos is the best place on Earth!) and I took some snaps of the town. I got this one of the La Canada building, and I think it looks better. I also replaced the Los Gatos High picture down at the bottom. The other one was 10 years old so I'd thought it needed updating. Also I got a few more shots of places downtown. If you want I could upload those to see if they would work on the page. Mike24 08:24, 4 July 2006 (UTC)


That picture showing the back of a truck on N. Pacific Ave. is a terrible way to represent what is quite a lovely town. When I think of Los Gatos, what stands out is the skyline view of El Sombroso with the homes dotting its foothills. I'll see if I can get a good snap of this and post it, but if anybody else has one, please, use it. -- Joe

The problem with Los Gatos is that its downtown is REALLY congested so it's hard to get a good clean shot as I was able to do for Los Altos. I don't know the surrounding hills very well, though. --Coolcaesar 09:20, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Night clubs

The only night club is Mountain Charlie's on Santa Cruz. The bars are great. CB Hannegan's, the Black Wach and Carrie Nations are primarily bars that serve food. Most restaurants also have bars that are open to non-diners. Fortunatley, the cabs are running up and down Santa Cruz and Main Street until well after 2:00 am. (Maguire)


... and a really dodgy nightclub. (OK, I've only been once). But I digress, is this the same Los Gatos as Woody Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Crash At Los Gatos)"? -- User:GWO

I don't actually know -- I haven't heard the song. I don't know of too many nightclubs in Los Gatos (there might be a couple -- it's a pretty small town). It has a high number of bars for its size, though. --Frecklefoot

Apparently it's a different Los Gatos. According to http://www.schweich.com/geoCAFreLosGatosCynCrash.html, the crash was in Fresno County. There is a Los Gatos road there, so I presume there is a Los Gatos Canyon as well. --Steve Pucci | talk 03:12, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

At the time of that song's release, Los Gatos was a rural, laid back winery and orchard community, with big estates on the hills in Monte Sereno which were still being used as summer homes for the wealthy in San Francisco. The only thing which might have been considered a night club was The Cats restaurant, which has been around forever and has a stage and a wood oven for cooking chops and seafood.

Now there's a bunch of bars and restaraunts in downtown Los Gatos, and the town is now one of the most expensive places to live in the Bay Area, if not the whole country.

FYI, the actual story behind those lyrics are posted and commented at [1]

FWIW, popular legend has it that downtown Los Gatos, Santa Cruz Avenue and environs, has the highest concentration of liquor-serving establishments in Santa Clara county, and I've heard that the downtown has been nicknamed "whiskey gulch" on more than one occasion. Having grown up in Los Gatos, I can verify that since about 1992, downtown definitely has had a "happening" social scene, particularly on summer weekends. It may have been the case before that, but having only been 12 years old in 1992 I wasn't really aware of it.
As for the Woody Guthrie song, now that it's been mentioned, it vaguely rings a bell in that I feel like I've heard of it before, but no details come to mind. Having consulted the page linked above, it doesn't seem to bear any relation to the town. Nohat 01:57, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

There are no nightclubs in Los Gatos.

[edit] Known for its antique stores?

Is there any evidence that Los Gatos is noted for its antique stores? I've lived here for 8 years and hadn't heard that. Well, OK, I'm not an antique shopper, so maybe that doesn't mean anything. But the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce site only lists two antique stores that I can see (Antiquarium and Vintages). There's lots more hair salons and restaurants than antique stores. :-) -Steve Pucci | talk 04:59, 15 May 2006 (UTC)

Well, it sure was known for them when I lived there (1980s and early 1990s). I didn't shop for antiques either, but I knew that LG was a hot spot for antique shoppers. I don't have strong feelings about removing it. — Frecklefoot | Talk 17:29, 15 May 2006 (UTC)
You're probably right. I don't get out much. :-) I may take a stab at rewriting that sentence to make the antique stores somewhat less prominent, though. -Steve Pucci | talk 04:20, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
I took a stab at it. Feel free to tweak. Steve Pucci | talk 05:05, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
On the topic of being know for its antique stores, the only two antique stores went out of business a while ago. One was across from Posh. Gavinthesavage 16:30, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] History of telephony

Does it seem odd to anyone else that the history of telephony is the largest section in this article? -Steve Pucci | talk 05:13, 19 May 2006 (UTC)

It seems odd to me too. Some idiot added a huge amount of telephony history to a lot of NorCal cities a few weeks ago, when all that stuff really should be going into the area code articles. I have been getting rid of these sections when I see them (last time I checked this is not the Telephonypedia) and he hasn't bothered to contest my removals. Feel free to get rid of it. --Coolcaesar 05:29, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
I moved it to Area code 408. --Steve Pucci | talk 18:59, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] las gaddis?

I can imagine a farmer using this pronounciation, but does the other 60% of the Bay Area say it this way?--Old Guard 02:54, 18 July 2006 (UTC)

In fast speech, which is the way most people talk most of the time, (in IPA: [lɑs gæɾəs]) is a pretty accurate representation of how the town's name is pronounced. "Los" is pronounced with the vowel of "cot", the 'a' of Gatos is pronounced with the vowel of "cat", and the second vowel is reduced to schwa. I graduated from Los Gatos High School and unless in Spanish class or speaking very carefully, this is how everyone pronounces the name of the town. "Las Gaddis" is a town near "Sana Zay" (in IPA: [sænəzeɪ]). Nohat 04:29, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
I know my parents have told me before that before "las gaddis" became a high wealth and populated area that in fact it was pronounced "las gaddis". Heck I say las gaddis and I only lived there for the first 3 years of my life. And it makes the most sense. we dont say San Ho-say or Los Anheles. We say San ozay and los angales. Yeah sorry for none of those fancy dictionary letters and all but thats the best way I could explain it >.> --Mike24 05:59, 19 July 2006 (UTC)
I don't know about "las gaddis". I've lived there my entire life and I'm currently a student in LGHS. I usually here "Las Gatos" or "Los Gatos" and I've never heard "las gaddis" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.116.73.99 (talk) 20:19, 3 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Loma Prieta

This section seems very generalized and not specific to Los Gatos. Perhaps it's still being worked on but that earthquake did do a lot of damage to buildings in Los Gatos yet it is not mentioned. "Killed many people" is pretty vague and should be put into numbers. Did any of those people die in Los Gatos? If not, perhaps this shouldn't be here at all.Shishigashira 18:33, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Los Gatos cat festival?

Has anyone else heard of the Los Gatos cat festival (per the recent unsourced addition to article)? --Steve Pucci | talk 09:07, 26 May 2007 (UTC)

No, only the annual Strawberry Festival. But I haven't lived there for years. Is it something new or vandalism? — Frecklefoot | Talk 12:00, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
I've removed it. Feel free to reinsert with a reference. --Steve Pucci | talk 05:01, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sister cities?

What's up with these cities? Are these cities that want to be like Los Gatos? Do they have any "official" sister status? I grew up in LG and never heard of any "sister cities" of the town. Until some references for the claims can be made, I'm removing them. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 16:58, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

Okay, found the reference in the extern links. Made it an official reference in the article. There still isn't any explanation of what the sister status means. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 17:04, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bobcats or mountain lions

I had a feeling this would come up sooner or later here...

As far as I've been able to tell there isn't a consensus about whether Los Gatos was named after bobcats or mountain lions; both still live in the surrounding foothills. In http://www.los-gatos.org/main/history.html, the official Los Gatos website describes several popular legends, but doesn't mention either bobcats or mountain lions specifically, and instead just talks about "wildcats". The term "wildcat" generally appears to mean Felis silvestris according to Wildcat, and that species doesn't live near Los Gatos. I take it the intent was to talk about "wild cats", without specifying a species.

I checked a recent book I bought called Images of America: Los Gatos, by Peggy Conaway, in which there is an introduction by Kevin Starr, State Librarian Emeritus, in which he says, "During the Native American, Spanish, Mexican, and early American years, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and bobcats roamed the foothills -- mountain lions especially, for which the town was named". But without a better source I think we're safer just saying the town is named after "wild cats". I'm kind of curious about this myself, so if anyone finds a better source please reply here... --Steve Pucci | talk 02:50, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce says it's mountain lions... --Steve Pucci | talk 02:57, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] County & Zip Code Errors

Los Gatos is in both Santa Clara and Santa Cruz County and covers 95030, 95031, 95032, 95033 http://losgatos.areaconnect.com/zip2.htm?city=Los%20Gatos&qs=CA&searchtype=bycity LosGatosMtns (talk) 20:55, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Try it, search Google for:

Laurel Rd, Los Gatos

Summit Woods Dr, Los Gatos

Loma Prieta School
23800 Summit Rd
Los Gatos, CA 95033
www.loma.k12.ca.us

All located in Santa Cruz County LosGatosMtns (talk) 21:24, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

Since this is a wiki, you can just make the corrections yourself. References are appreciated for any new information. — Frecklefσσt | Talk 16:33, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
No part of the Town of Los Gatos is in Santa Cruz County. It is not uncommon for Post Office and ZIP code boundaries to not coincide with municipal and county boundaries, and the Los Gatos Post Office serves many properties which are located in Santa Cruz County. They only have Los Gatos addresses because they are served by the Los Gatos Post Office, not because they are located in the Town of Los Gatos. These properties are not in The Town of Los Gatos. They are in Santa Cruz County and pay property taxes there. Nohat (talk) 22:59, 3 April 2008 (UTC)