Los Gatos Historical Society Launches Wildfire Safety Campaign

Los Gatos Historical Society launches Wildfire Safety Campaign!! On Friday, September 6, 2019 - Los Gatos Historical Society launched a Wildfire Safety campaign reaching out to the media in the Bay Area. Multiple newspapers are picking up the story of the campaign - that Google's arrogance and indifference to whether people live or die in the aftermath of a Wildfire in the adjacent Santa Cruz mountains is no longer an acceptable situation. There will be multiple newspaper stories coming it within the next few weeks, but the very first story was covered by ABC News 7 Bay Area News at 11pm, Friday, Sept 6th. https://abc7news.com/society/los-gatos-residents-say-waze-app-causing-gridlock-blocking-wildfire-escape-route/5521797/ (there's a brief ad at the beginning followed by the news coverage) The news coverage comes on the heels of several months of direct communications between the Los Gatos Historical Preservation Society and Google, in an attempt to educate them about the severe risk they are causing with Waze directing tens of thousands of cars through Los Gatos historic neighborhoods, blocking the one and only escape route that exists for Los Gatos residents living in the urban wildlife zone above Glenridge neighborhood as well as the residents of Glenridge and Almond Grove. This severe wildfire risk was first reported by USA Today in August, that reveals that Los Gatos has a higher wildfire risk score than Paradise, CA. All of this has been brought to Google's attention but their lack of action is a clear signal that people's lives simply are not important to Google. The Los Gatos historical Society charter is to celebrate and preserve the quality of life of our historic neighborhoods that have endured for over a century. We are an advocacy organization that gives voice to our the residents of our historic neighborhoods. Issues that we are tackling include 1) ensuring safe evacuation routes from wildfires and 2) pushing for economic incentives made possible through the California historic preservation Mills Act. These economic incentives are significant and are already available to nearly every major historic town throughout the state of California - Los Gatos has been left behind because our town council has yet to adopt it. Without their voting to do so, the residents of our historic neighborhoods are denied access to these funds, that are intended to cover the costs of ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation projects. To learn more about what we are doing, visit: www.losgatoshistorical.org and register to receive information updates as they are posted as well as our soon to be published monthly newsletter. Attachment with no description Los Gatos residents say Google's Waze app causing gridlock, blocking only wildfire escape route Residents living in the Los Gatos hills and historic neighborhoods are blaming the popular navigation app, Waze, for blocking a wildfire escape route. abc7news.com