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Live In Los Gatos

Los Gatos, California

Los Gatos real estate, neighborhoods, condos, houses, homes, market trends, history, events, lifestyle, parks, events, businesses, home, Mary Pope-Handy

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Live In Los Gatos

Images of Scenic Los Gatos

Sep. 19, 2008
Categorized in: Photos of Los Gatos

Today, enjoy a break from words and take in some pleasant photos of lovely Los Gatos.

Los Gatos in the News

Aug. 5, 2008
Categorized in: LG Lifestyle
Tagged with: crime, downtown, lifestyle, los gatos

Los Gatos FlowerLos Gatans recently have been amazed to see so much big crime-related news of their fair town hit the web. Usually the Los Gatos events of the unsavory variety consists of things like drunk in public, things stolen out of unlocked cars, or personal fights gone physical.

But not so long ago, Los Gatos had a murder - the first in 5 years in this "low crime town".

Then, Lunardi's Market, a favorite grocery store here in town, had thefts from their debit machines in the checkout stands that totalled hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And in the last week or two, there were two bank robberies.

Those are just the major items. Since when did Los Gatos get so much crime?

On the plus side, of course, is that suspects have been apprehended in all but one of the bank robberies - so far. Many thanks to the Los Gatos - Monte Sereno Police for that.

The poor economy is hard on most everyone, so perhaps that explains some of the uptick in Los Gatos crime.

Yesterday's San Jose Mercury (and the Los Gatos Weekly-Times), though, ran a piece about why our fair town continues to attract businesses. The article is "
'Quality of life' attracts businesses to Los Gatos".  

It is good to be reminded about what's right in town and too easy to dwell on what's wrong. Recently my husband and I spent a Sunday afternoon strolling downtown Los Altos - a lovely town where we'd once considered living. We were amazed that two-thirds of the shops were closed on a perfect summer day. A few interesting places were open, but more often we found that shops that appealled to us were not open. It was a reminder of how vibrant our downtown is. That's just one aspect of the "quality of life" in Los Gatos that can't be beat. Add to that our summer music, Shakespeare, movie nights and so much more, and you have a community that's highly desireable even when things are seeming bleak in many areas of the economy or valley life generally.

Visit the Los Gatos Farmer's Market!

Mar. 9, 2008
Categorized in: LG Lifestyle
Every Sunday, Los Gatans gather downtown at the Town Plaza Park area for the farmer's market. Stop by!


(Photos for this show taken with Palm Treo 700, btw. Also, when this slideshow ends, a link will appear to offer you others to view as well. Enjoy!)

Los Gatos is Home to the Smallest House
In All of Silicon Valley

Jan. 16, 2008
Categorized in: Homes & Housing Market


Los Gatos prides itself on being a town rather than a city, with the intimacy and friendlines that being a town implies.

Don't let the name "town" fool you, though. There's a lot of "big" in this small town. We do the holidays in a big way in Los Gatos: the tree lighting, the holiday parade, the fantasy of lights, the carriage rides, and the decor throughtout the downtown and neighborhoods are all on a great and beautiful scale.   Summer's the same scale of big with outdoor events: we enjoy Shakespeare in the Park, Screen on the Green, and more musical venues than anywhere else in the county (Jazz on the Plazz, Music in the Park, Vasona Vibrations, and last year a newcomer joined the musical scene in Old Town with Saturday afternoon music on the deck next to Borders - all of these are free musical events).

Valley of Hearts Delight - logo for Mary Pope-HandyLos Gatos real estate is varied; while it's a well-to-do town, not everyone lives in large homes or view estates with vineyards and olympic sized pools. In fact there is a lot of variety in the size and character of our houses from the inauspicious 1100 sf to 1400 sf track homes built in the 1960s to charming, 100+ year old houses in the heart of downtown - in the Almond Grove, Edelen, Fairway Plaza or Broadway districts. Close by, there are woodsy mountain homes in the neighborhoods off of Highway 17 that are "part of the town" if not legally incorporated into it. And there are the homes in great view locations on enormous lots. Most of these lovely houses that sit atop our closest foothills are not monster homes, but tasteful, larger homes. It's just that the collossal strutures are impossible to miss.

With so much variety, so much "big" and "small", is it any wonder that the valley's smallest home is also in Los Gatos?  The former chicken coop is now a showplace of stye and design and blends in modestly among its larger peers in the Almond Grove District. After a fire destroyed the old structure, it was rebuilt in 1997. Designed by Gary Schloh, it is a perfect fit for the tiniest lot (956 SF)  in the county too.  How tiny is tiny, you are wondering. Would you believe 514 square feet? Needless to say, there's no wasted space!

The smallest home is a private residence and is not for sale. Watch for the annual home tour events in town - the generous owners have offered it as part of charitable tours in the past, and if you are lucky, may do so again!