City Hall Diary
A while ago I wrote that I wanted to tour each council district. Well, I got my wish. I have been touring San Jose over the past few months and last Friday I spent the morning with my colleague, Nancy Pyle, who represents District 10.
I met Ms. Pyle off Blossom Hill Road where we began the tour driving through the Hoffman Via Monte SNI neighborhood, which is right next to Pioneer High School—and, where I believe we made a mistake in planning. This area has about 40-50 apartment buildings that are clustered on three adjoining streets. This 1970’s planning mistake is replicated all over San Jose. Perhaps the recent focus of using RDA funds in partnership with the code enforcement will encourage landlords to clean up their properties. Neglect of the property leads to blight which leads to people not caring about their area. It’s nice to know that the SNI program has brought improvements to the area. Last year, I attended the grand opening of the new community center which was the number-one priority for the Hoffman Via Monte SNI.
We then went on what I call the “Almaden Valley Home Tour!”
Having grown up in San Jose and having friends that live in Almaden, I thought I had seen every street. However, I soon realized that I had not seen everything D-10 has to offer. There are some incredible streets with vintage ranch houses and houses that I pictured as being like ones in Los Altos, complete with families of deer passing by. One advantage of having housing stock occupied by upper income families is that some of these individuals start companies that employ people. If these individuals are living in Almaden, it is less likely for those new companies to be located in Palo Alto and Mountain View. At least that’s the hope.
On the way out to the Almaden Urban Reserve we passed the historic Feed and Fuel. It’s a shame that it is closed; it was like a tavern in the old west. The Almaden Reserve is HUGE (1000-plus acres) and quite scenic. This is the area where former Vice Mayor Pat Dando proposed building soccer fields but was met with opposition. The questions that came to my mind were: Do we plan for the development of this land now? If we plan, does it lead us to build on it prematurely? Is there an alternative route other then Almaden Expressway for the future? Where will the water come from? If we do “nothing,” there will be one house per 20 acres but no master plan—is this a “bad” thing in an effort to preserve open space?
Our tour also included the location of the tragic accident on Mockingbird Lane where Leland students died in the mid-80s while driving too fast. In this particular case, the youths came over a steep hill (and got some serious air) and crashed right into a garbage truck. Three of the four students died—very sad.
We stopped off for a tour of the Almaden Library and Community Center. What a gem! It’s an impressive structure teeming with people of all ages.
We drove the outline of the district and finished at a future VTA development site. There is a VTA station at Capitol and Highway 87 which has a surface parking lot. The VTA would like to build a transit-oriented development at this light rail station. The biggest questions from the neighborhood are how tall and how many units? I am glad that I am not the only one with the same issues; even District 10 has to wrestle with the density question.
pierluigi:
You write, “The VTA would like to build a transit oriented development at this light rail station.” Why is the VTA in the development business? Seriously. Why is that agency allowed to buy, sell, and “flip” property? Out my way (D1), the VTA was offering for sale the “Park and Ride lot” adjacent to Lawrence Expressway. (I don’t know if it was sold, or if they pulled it back). I think/fear that the VTA is making very bad decisions just to keep its franchise going, rather than providing basic service levels.
Pete Campbell
TODs are an urban idea. However, they would be wasted on the hideous blight we call Capitol Expressway. It’s the ugliness of a freeway and the speed of a surface street. Total crap with no upside. We can’t just slap these band-aids on bullet wounds.
Almaden Valley is bad. Large homes built in areas that are coyote and deer habitat. Families with five or six children instead of one or two children. People driving around in gas-guzzling SUVs, instead of hybrids. Almaden Valley residents are destroying the planet with pollution, overpopulation and a total disrespect for nature. Mayor Reed needs to wipe Almaden Valley off the map, immediately. Almaden Valley residents have destroyed San Jose.
Pierluigi,
Just so that you know, Pyle driving is not a matter to be taken lightly.
In fact Pyle driving has been banned from most major professional wrestling associations, including Mexico.
I’m sorry but there is no “density question”. We can either build out on our existing land, and put of the inevitable, or start building up right now. Unless we start building to catch up with demand, home prices are going to continue to spiral out of control. The problem exists as long as people still who work in San Jose are forced to live in the San Joaquin valley.
#5 RM
How can people continue to drive from the valley with today`s gas prices soon to be $5dollars and projected to be $7 Dollars by summer 2009? This is why we are dencifying San Jose.
Pierluigi and Nancy, for dencification is not going to work without more public transportation, express busses and more light rail(express) that serves the County where our jobs are located.
We do not need more light rail going to downtown San Jose or BART which is planned to travel 4.9 miles through downtown San Jose. BART through Downtown with multiple stops will have the same problem light Rail has traveling through Downtown San Jose,“SLOW BART”.
Gasoline p[rices in Europe are already at $12 dollars a litre. We have to change our ways and stop living in denile.Our gasoline companies in the USA are international and now live in the “New World Order”,if they can`t sell their oil here at higher prices they will sell it elsewhere, thats the new world order.
Our City Council needs to plan more public transportation within the County, Rapid Transportation.The “R” in BART stands for “Rapid” but BART is not Rapid transit.
I lived in Almaden Valley for 35 years an got out because of serious traffic problems in AV Valley which will only get worse if we build out the southern part of Almaden Valley without Rapid transportation. HOV lanes are not the answer on 85, only the wealthy will afford to pay the HOV tolls, the rest of the residents will put more pressure on Almaden Expressway to Lincoln to Pine or Almaden Expressway to Almaden street, or 87 which is already congested during commute hours.
Twenty years ago Almaden Expressway was planned to get Light Rail service south from where it stops near Almaden Lake and into The AV Valley.In stead our mayor at the time elected to plan trees down the middle of the expressway.
Not much has changed, the same has happened along San Carlos Street from Downtown to Valley Fair and beyond, “Light Rail” was planned along San Can Carlos through MidTown west past ValleyFair/Westfield Mall. In stead we got Palm Trees down the middle of San Carlos Street because our downtown people thought connecting Downtown with Valley Fair would slow their growth plans for the “Redevelopment of Downtown San Jose”.“Wrong Again”.
Berkley just took their “HOV Lane concept” and put it on the November ballot for voters to decide, taking the decision away from the “Political Forces”. Most of the Almaden Valley People are not all execuatives and can not afford to pay HOV lane tolls 5 days a week. In San Diego the HOV concept was introduced with lower fees then the fees were later doubled and may be raised again. Is this what our 5 City Council sitting on our VTA Board plan to do on 85, start low and raise the toll fees on 85?
@1:
It’s win-win for the taxpayers of Santa Clara County and the VTA. Income generated from joint development can go toward transit operations (or capital projects) without hitting up taxpayers for money. For the VTA, aside from increased service/revenue, higher density development around transit stations means higher ridership and higher farebox recovery rates for the rail line—essentially better metrics for the AV rail line. (VTA light rail does need better metrics, since it underperforms vis-a-vis light/medium rail in other U.S. cities.)
Transit companies around the world (in free market economies, no less) engage in joint development to the benefit of riders and taxpayers. See Hong Kong, Japan, and Germany.
@2:
TODs aren’t necessarily urban, and it’s not a total disaster if the development is simply suburban-style condos or townhomes around a transit station built at medium density. (Yes, it should be well planned, mixed use, etc.—but in all honesty, given the sausage factory mentality that seems to govern development and politics in the South Bay, it’ll probably be poorly planned.) If the immigrant family who moves to the South Bay decides to buy a home in a TOD + one car versus a home in the typical Almaden Valley development + two cars, thats a huge win for carbon emissions and for public transit.
(I know you’re talking urban aesthetics—but there are practical concerns to building TODs outside of making more beautiful urban forms.)
There was six children in the Mockingbird accident.
There were 6 kids in the car in the Mockingbird accident, the 3 in the front seat died, the 3 in the back seat were badly injured but did not die.