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San Jose Mercury News transportation columnist, Gary “Mr. Roadshow” Richards takes a test drive on the new Bay Bridge, with his wife Jan, during the first morning commute on the new $6.4 billion span Tuesday Sept. 3, 2013 in Oakland, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
By SAL PIZARRO | spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: January 9, 2024 at 3:13 p.m. | UPDATED: January 9, 2024 at 4:49 p.m.
At its first meeting of the new year, the San Jose City Council honored my late colleague Gary Richards, better known to his readers as “Mr. Roadshow,” paying tribute to a longtime columnist who helped drivers, transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians navigate the roads we all travel on.
The council adjourned its meeting Tuesday in honor of Richards, who died Dec. 17 at age 72 following a long battle with a degenerative muscle and nerve disease.
“Gary Richards wasn’t just a writer. He was a voice for the unsung heroes in the transportation world,” Councilmember Domingo Candelas said. “As we bid farewell to Mr. Roadshow, let us remember the positive changes he brought to our lives.”
Jan Richards, Gary’s wife, was in the council chambers with their daughter, Anne, for the special moment.
“We so appreciate this honor for Gary and if he were here he would appreciate it too,” Jan Richards said. “He knew that he could do good things through this work, for readers he wrote for and organizations who could do a better job when they knew the real concerns of the millions of people using this area’s busy roads and transportation systems.”
It was a touching gesture by the council. But one reader, Bobbi Lotman, made a suggestion to me recently that it might be more appropriate to remember Mr. Roadshow by putting his name on one of the city’s streets. Could anything be more fitting for Mr. Roadshow?
Of course, renaming a street isn’t simple. It means getting affected property owners on board, convincing the city council to approve the change and finding someone to pay for the new street signs. But it can be done. The Children’s Discovery Museum is on Woz Way, named after Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who provided a lot of early support for the Purple Museum. In 2020, the San Jose Earthquakes renamed a street adjacent to Pay Pal Park as Wondo Way to honor retired star Chris Wondoloski. And a massive effort culminated in 2021 with the renaming of portions of Autumn Street and Bird Avenue to Barack Obama Boulevard.
Here’s my suggestion: Gary spent most of his career working at the old Mercury News plant at 750 Ridder Park Drive, which was sold to Supermicro when the Merc moved back downtown a decade ago. How about renaming the portion of the street from Schallenberger Road until it dead ends as Gary Richards Drive? The rest of the street can continue to honor the Ridder family’s contributions to the area — Ridder Park Drive extends north past Brokaw Road — but that section can be Gary’s stretch.
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