March, 2002 editor: Larry Ames

Well, you are owed a newsletter about now, but we've been so busy that there hasn't been time to write much. The pressing reason for a newsletter now is to send out the "solicitation for candidates" (see below), as required by our bylaws, in preparation for the election this spring of the next WGNA Board. I promise that the next newsletter will be more substantial

The big news is that we're taking on the hosting of the Willow Glen Founder's Day Festival this fall. September 2002 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of Willow Glen as an independent incorporated town, and we want to make sure that the occasion is suitably celebrated.

A quick timeline: Willow Glen was incorporated in 1927, to keep San Jose from routing too much train traffic through the middle of town. In 1936, Willow Glen chose to join San Jose, mainly to join the sewer system and the school district. In 1973, WGNA was founded, to keep San Jose from routing too much vehicular traffic through the middle of town (sound familiar?). The first Founder's Day Festival was about 20 years ago, organized jointly by WGNA and the local merchants. Over the years, the merchants organized the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association (WGBPA), which took over responsibility for the Festival, and WGNA just ran a booth and the historic tours. The WGBPA was unable to put on the event last year, and so, with short notice, WGNA tried gallantly to carry on the tradition with a small event at the library. The WGBPA hopes to resume their role as organizer next year, but, for the sake of continuity, and because we want properly celebrate Willow Glen's 75th anniversary, WGNA is taking on the challenge this year.

The City of San Jose has various grants for neighborhoods and other organizations that wish to have events. It involves a fair amount of paperwork, but we got it filed by the deadline and have high hopes for success.

With the grant application forms out of the way, we are now in the process of planning the Festival. The current thinking is for a parade down Lincoln, followed by an event down by the school: less "commercial", more "community" than in the past. We will be calling on you to help make this a memorable event. Dozens of WGNA members and friends have already indicated a willingness to help in some manner (either with planning or on the day of the event), and we will be seeking more volunteers. Please help! Give us a call (408/294-WGNA or email to admin@wgna.net) and we'll contact you to involve you in the process. Also, look for more details in the next newsletter.

We on the Board have been keeping busy with other matters, too:

• Long's Drugs, monitoring the impacts of the construction (see below);
• Traffic Calming, and participating in the Lincoln Avenue study;
• "Keep Willow Glen Clean": working on the Lincoln Avenue trash situation. (Twelve new trash containers are due to be set out on the Avenue by June.);
• Parks and Bike Route issues (see below);
• Group Homes: WGNA wrote to the City Council requesting that the regulations for "Sober Living Environments" be revised so as to help mitigate their impact on the neighborhoods. (This letter, and numerous others, are on the wgna.net website, and collectively document the various positions WGNA has taken over the years.)
• Schools: learning about the improvement bond, monitoring traffic impacts, offering comments on design criteria, etc.; and
• Maintaining the website (www.wgna.net) and the eList -- WGNA's community "talk-with-the-neighbors-over-the-back-fence" electronic forum. (If you would like to try WGNA's eList, drop us a note at admin@wgna.net with the words "add eList" in the subject line. Try it for a while: it's free, and you can leave at any time.) Recent "conversations" have ranged from recommendations for a plumber on to the appropriateness of chain outlets on Lincoln Avenue.

The Longs project is going smoothly. This is the schedule for March 2002. Rebar installation should be complete around the 1st, the dirt "mountain" removal soon after, concrete foundations will be poured by the second week. The concrete slab is scheduled for the week of the 16th. The wall on back of property (by the townhouse complex) has been started, and steel supports are in for the wood lattice extension. Longs is frequently in contact with our Board, keeping us updated. If you have any questions or concerns please call the WGNA hotline (408/294-WGNA) or email us.

A couple issues as we go to press:

The designs are just about finalized for the Guadalupe River in downtown San Jose. The routing of a trail system around, under, past and through the flood-control project, city streets, and sensitive environments has been tricky, and the resulting design has more flights of stairs and at-grade crossings than ideal, but still it should be a nice attraction. Some of the flood-control work is already underway, and additional portions will be started in the next couple months. It will look messy for awhile, but it should soon result in a flood-protected city, a major park system, and generally a preserved riparian ("creekside") habitat.

Further upstream on the Guadalupe: it's going to take years (decades?) for the Santa Clara Valley Water District to do all of the planned flood-protection work from I-280 to Blossom Hill Rd. Talks are underway between City and the District about the construction of interim, temporary recreational trails, so that we can enjoy them before we're all in wheelchairs. (I understand that a key link under I-280, from Grant St. to the Children's Discovery Museum, is being built now as part of the current phase of the flood-control project.)

On the Los Gatos Creek Trail: the City has the funding in hand and is negotiating for the needed easements to go from Lincoln, under I-280, and up to Auzerais. Trail is supposed to be built in a couple years. (Yes, this is the same report I gave last year and the year before...)

The City has a newly energized Bicycle / Pedestrian Advisory Cmte. (BPAC) and a new Bike/Ped Program Coordinator (John Brazil, City Dept. of Transportation, 408/277-4938; john.brazil@ci.sj.ca.us). At a workshop last week, the public was invited to suggest possible alignments for future bicycle facilities (bike-lanes, routes, and paths), funding priorities, and pedestrian enhancements. The only local street on the current "short list" for the near term is Meridian (between Fruitdale and Park), but a number of others are on an "inventory" for potential future development:

• Almaden and Vine, from Grant St. (see above) to Willow;
• Fruitdale, from Bascom to Race;
• Goodyear, from Lick to Market (paralleling Willow, basically extending the existing Willow St. bike lane to Market St.);
• Leigh Ave., extending the existing bike lanes north to Parkmoor;
• Lincoln Ave., from Willow to Park;
• Meridian, from Fruitdale to Willow;
• Minnesota / Alma, from Bird to Hwy-87;
• Race St., from Fruitdale to the Alameda;
• Southwest Expwy, from Fruitdale to Bascom; and
• Stokes St., from SW Expwy to Bascom.

Suggestions from the audience included the Los Gatos Creek Trail (already well known to them!); a "POC" ("Ped over-crossing": a bike/foot-bridge) over the Los Gatos near St. Elizabeth (to connect the Los Gatos Creek Trail to Willow St. near Meridian, and to provide neighborhood access to the future light-rail stop at Fruitdale); and Minnesota/Isabel, from Lincoln to Willow.

Someone recommended a bike bridge over the Los Gatos at Cherry. WGNA was formed 28 years ago to prevent the City from building a 4-lane thoroughfare across there (it was to have connected to the Race St. exit of I-280), and the community has been jittery ever since. Would a bike bridge there be "the camel's nose under the tent", opening the way for bigger and better (?!) bridges, or would it be "the final nail in the coffin", forever blocking the Cherry Ave. alignment to a vehicular bridge? It is a perfect alignment for a bike route, traversing quiet residential streets to extend an existing bike lane from the south on up to the shops and transit hub in Midtown. The trail could well help alleviate the traffic situation somewhat: people near Willow wouldn't have to drive to the swim club on the north side of the creek, and people near Avis wouldn't have to drive to get to the Lincoln Ave. shops. Give us feedback to relay to the BPAC next time they meet (call 408/294-WGNA or email admin@wgna.net).

There is an infrequently used railroad line that is due to be abandoned in the near future that in Willow Glen runs from I-280 near Lincoln, southeasterly across Coe, Willow, and Alma, and thence off to Kelley Park. San Jose's Park "Greenprint" (long-range strategic plan) calls for this to become a "rails-to-trails" recreational trail, linking Willow Glen and the Los Gatos Creek Trail to the Midtown area to the north and to Kelley Park to the east. WGNA has written letters and testified at public hearings to assure that planned developments along the corridor do not preclude future trail construction. The Mayor, Council, and Park Planners are all aware of this potential recreational trail, but it is also up to us, the public, to periodically remind them of it and promote its development.

And a final issue up in the air at press time: This year's "Measure O", the bond issue for Fire and Police stations and renovations, includes $19 million to overhaul the fire training facility on the Los Gatos Creek at Park and Bird. According to the Midtown Study and the SJ Park Greenprint, that site was supposed to soon be a much-needed park to serve the high-density housing that is to be built near the BART Station / SF bullet-train / Vasona corridor Light Rail transit hub. After a number of conversations and consultations, it looks like the overhaul of the training facility would still allow for the Los Gatos Creek Trail to continue on to downtown (on a 20' wide strip at the top-of-bank), but the park would be lost or relocated elsewhere. Still unresolved: would training exercises force temporary closures of the trail? And what about the City-mandated 100' setback for the creek habitat? Looks like WGNA will be busy next year, too!

Hamilton/Leigh will be the new home of Valley Christian elementary school. Planning approved the site last fall, but a very determined neighborhood group decided they had a better plan and appealed the project. The neighbors had legitimate concerns about traffic and noise, a problem that anyone living close to a school can relate too. Planning embraced the new project and recommended it to City Council, who then voted to approve it. This is a very good example of everyone working together to make Willow Glen an even better place to live!

Councilmember Yeager informs us that on Saturday, April 20, Mayor Ron Gonzales is sponsoring a neighborhood litter clean-up in each Council District in San Jose. Residents will be invited to meet at a central location (yet to be determined), briefed on the event, and then shuttled to the actual clean-up site. Details will be posted on the website as they become available.

Time for the annual process: the WGNA Nomination Committee is calling for involved members to volunteer for a year (or more) on the Board of Directors. Our bylaws require that officers of the Association (President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer) must be members of WGNA for one year prior to the May election date, and can serve in a given office for no more than two consecutive years. (This year, each of the current officers is now in his/her first term.) In addition, four directors are also elected (along with another 2 - 4 members appointed by the incoming President), along with next year's Nominating Committee: there are no minimum time requirements on their memberships, and there are several opportunities here to serve.

Following the process laid out in our bylaws, a five-member nominating committee (elected last May and which I chair this year) solicits members who are interested in serving on the Board of Directors. The committee may also actively recruit persons they think might be interested in serving. They then present a slate of recommended officers and directors to the membership for possible election. All qualified candidates who have submitted their names to the committee may have their names included on the ballot. The ballots will be mailed to all WGNA members in good standing in a newsletter several weeks before the May General Meeting. The membership then votes by mail (or in person at the General Meeting), the ballots are tallied about a week later, and the results announced via the wgna.net website, the media, and in the next newsletter.

Serving on the WGNA Board minimally requires attendance at most of the monthly Board meetings (generally on the second Wednesday of each month, 7 PM, at the Willow Glen United Methodist Church on Minnesota at Newport -- check www.wgna.net to confirm and for the upcoming agenda). Board members often bring their own interests and special skills to the table, such as the willingness to attend Planning Commission hearings or to take on the maintenance of the WGNA membership database (please! -- I'm even willing to give computer lessons if needed!) Interested in art and design, special events coordination, historical record archiving? Volunteer your skills and services!

If you would like to be considered for a position, please contact us by April 1st. Feel free to tell us of your qualifications, interests, community involvement, or anything else that you think is pertinent (a short paragraph would be great). If you can't do it yourself but you know someone who'd be perfect, let us know and we'll contact him or her. To submit a name, or if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us by mail (Nominating Committee, WGNA, P.O.Box 7706, San Jose CA 95150-7706), by phone (408/294-WGNA) or on the internet (write to admin@wgna.net), and we'll quickly get back to you.

Do we have your current email address? If an asterisk ("*") appears on the mailing label next to your name, then we don't have your email address (or we couldn't read the handwriting, or the server changed, or ...?) Please drop us a note at admin@wgna.net with "for the database" in the subject line. We do not sell, share, or otherwise distribute this, or any, personal information: you will not get spam because of this. You will receive renewal reminders by email (thereby saving your association the cost and labor of mailing a paper notice by snail-mail), and also we can acknowledge your membership renewals via email. Note: this information is separate from the eList: if you wish to apply for that, include "add eList" to the subject line.

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