On Saturday morning, a public workshop will be held at City Hall to help determine what revisions need to be made to the city’s general plan for growth. An Envision San Jose 2040 Task Force has been assembled to review the plan and they are seeking public input to assist them in setting the agenda. Since many of us will find it difficult to attend the meeting on Saturday, I thought we might give our bloggers an opportunity to express their views on the matter here on San Jose Inside where they can be seen by the denizens of City Hall.
The general plan has been frequently broken into and much abused in the past 10 years to suit the whims of the big-money developers and campaign contributors. Although some of the enablers are still on the council, things have changed with the new administration, and bringing ordinary citizens directly into the process marks a turning point for our city. However, those same powerful forces are still trying to control the agenda, so pressure and input from the public will go a long way in limiting what these forces can do for their own benefit in the coming years.
I think it is important to approach the matter with the interests of the city as a whole in the forefront. Too often the plan has been amended based on what individual council members wanted for developers or other powerful entities in their districts without taking the context into consideration. The general plan is a map for managing the future growth and development of our entire city, and everything that happens in individual council districts must fit into that puzzle in such a way that brings benefits to all of the city’s residents.
While housing and commercial growth are a big part of the plan, there are many other priorities as well. Infrastructure, police and fire, parks and recreation, traffic and transportation, etc.—all of these are part of the plan, and specifications for their future development should be on the task force’s agenda. Ideas are what the task force needs now, but growth isn’t the only issue. They need to hear from the citizens about what limitations should be placed on the future too. The wanton and irresponsible abuse of the plan in recent years needs to be stopped dead and a new vision that takes the needs of citizens into account first and foremost must be carved into the revised general plan’s new stone tablets.
What ideas and comments do you have on the subject of the future incarnation of the general plan? Let’s get the discussion going now and keep it going for as long as the task force is in operation.
Anyone wishing to attend the Community Visioning Workshop at City Hall on Saturday, October 13, from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. can find more information here.
Great column Jack, very well done. I agree with everything you’ve said.
First, I’d like to see restrictions placed on building too far up in the hills, and other areas that drive wildlife out of their natural habitats. I’m also very concerned about the amount of building that will affect water supplies, and pollute the environment. I’d really like to see the City go as green as possible! I’m very impressed with San Francisco’s attempts at going green. They have been recycling ocean water, building buildings with solar power, and other natural materials. I hope with our very green, and environmentally friendly Mayor, that concern will be addressed because once our water, and clean air is gone, it’s gone.
I don’t want to see the beauty and history of old Victorian homes or businesses disappear either. I love the tree lined streets, and the feel of old businesses like Walgreen’s. I love some of the small businesses downtown they add charm to downtown. San Pedro Square is wonderful, and adds a very old fashion warm feel to the place. Some of the buildings downtown have some fantastic architecture. One of the things I do sometimes is drive downtown and look at the old homes, the trees, and the designs of the buildings. The church downtown is just beautiful. I don’t want to see new towering structures that kill the ambience of the past.
I’d like to see some type of massive transit system that is convenient to all, so we get out of our cars. I’d like to see grocery stores within walking distance. I would really like to see a hospital in downtown. Too many residents have to go too far for medical help, and the Police have to transport inmates to just one, may be two hospitals far from downtown. I personally think a hospital there is vital.
I’d like to see the old City Hall put to use by the Police or Fire Department. The present Police Station is just too small for their needs, and the Fire Department needs one building for all its needs. The old City Hall would be awesome for this. The grounds outside the old City Hall are just lovely.
I’d like to see more things like parking addressed in downtown. Perhaps if we had more, more people would go.
One of the most important things I’d like to see is ALL districts provided with schools, libraries, Police sub stations, and better Fire Stations. Man is that a big must! I’d also like to see some better community centers in Dave, Nora, and Madison’s districts. My God they have really small, dumpy centers. The Willow Glen area is also pretty bad.
What I really don’t want to see is a huge building frenzy here. The leaders, and citizens of San Jose need to keep in mind that we only have so many Police and Fire Fighters for our large city. They need to be mindful of replenishing them as they go along. They need to be careful of limiting our open spaces, wildlife, water, and other natural resources, and really work hard to ensure all districts get a piece of the pie.
I’d like to see most, if not all, new development be somewhere near the downtown core or along the Monterey, Santa Clara, San Carlos and North First corridors. Then focus should be on getting real rapid transit (elevated or subterranean) along these streets. Make it convenient. Stop clogging the suburbs and freeways. Create attachment to the urban center and then all the projects funded there (Cirque du Soleil, etc.) will take off. I know there are three great towers going in now (360, Axis, Tower 88) and something like eleven new ones are set to break ground next year. These should continue in smaller forms along busy streets such as the aforementioned. San Jose needs more concentration and flow to really take off. People are too detached from the city and simply live in a collection of small towns.
Jack,
Do you happen to know how many parks, hospitals, and medical centers exist in San Jose? I have heard several Council Members talking about needing both of them. Pete Constant’s district has few parks, and Nora’s, Dave’s, and Madison’s districts lack medical providers. If you have any idea, I’d sure like to know. If we have another big quake, or a huge fire, I’m concerned that certain districts would be more ill equipped to handle a natural disaster than others.
Thanks.
We have more hospital beds than can be filled. They’re just not around the corner from everyone, like gas stations and B of A branches in L.A.
Kathleen
Thanks for your posts here and all the great suggestions. I don’t know how many parks there are but I am sure we could use more of them in some districts. The lack of a downtown medical center is a problem and should be a priority. I would love to know what plans are in place to deal with a natural disaster. That’s a good issue that needs discussing here.
Nam Turk
Real rapid transit would certainly change everything, that’s for sure. And, it will come…..some day.
I do not think it is fair that East San Jose residents are treated as a privileged class, while the rest of the city has to suffer from a major recreation and transportation deficiency.
Why does East San Jose have its own recreational airport to which residents can walk, or bicycle, and then fly their airplanes all over the country and world? The rest of us would like to be able to keep our airplanes within walking distance.
Look at all the benefits that result from having a recreational airport in the middle of your neighborhood.
For example, East San Jose children have been inspired every day, and night, of the year for over 40 years. Just look at the wondrous school system, and high achievement, that East San Jose has reaped from all that inspiration. Just look at how having a recreational airport in the neighborhood attracts the affluent and educated aircraft owners from around the world to live in East San Jose.
Why should only East San Jose children be inspired while less fortunate children in other neighborhoods suffer from a lack of daily, and nightly, inspiration?
San Jose needs to build recreational airports in the middle of all neighborhoods so that we can duplicate the success of East San Jose on a city-wide basis.
#5- “I would love to know what plans are in place to deal with a natural disaster.”
It may unnerve you, as it has me, to know Jack that after attending a years worth of County meetings on disaster preparedness, and sitting on the Mayor’s Public Health and Safety Transition Committee, I can tell you, NOT MUCH is being done to prepare our communities for any huge disaster! I spoke to the Fire Chief, and he agreed we’re in trouble because our communities aren’t prepared the way they should be.
I strongly believe our Neighborhood Associations, community leaders, and others need to get out in the community and start working on this very issue. Almost everyone in D9 that I’ve spoken to doesn’t even know we have a Neighborhood Association, or that they meet every month. Isn’t that just ridiculous?
I would really love it if you did a column on this vital issue. With the pandemic flu’s, and other very contagious illnesses starting, we really need to get prepared!
From a meeting I attended recently, it seems that there is some thought of a collaboration between San Jose State’s on-campus medical center and the one ( St. James, I think) at 3rd and Julian. 25 N. Santa Clara is a possible site for the collaborative effort. No talk of a hospital with beds.
I agree the natural disaster or terrorist disaster is something that most people are not prepared for. Years ago when I took an earthquake preparedness course through the city we were told if a quake hits in the east bay, which seems very probable, many of our emergency services will go there; residents here need to prepare themselves and not have the mind set that someone will take care of them. Most people I know, do not even have a water supply on hand. This is not meant to imply that I’m as ready as I should be; in fact I have been contemplating taking a refresher course. Definitely a good topic to explore, and include where people can receive instruction.
Kathleen and Wonder Woman
OK, good idea. I will take on the emergency plan issue for a future column. Perhaps we can bring Tom McEnery and Pierluigi Oliverio in on it too. It will take some time to research (unless there is no plan—-yikes!).
Kathleen, I would love it if you could email me and tell me anything you know from the experiences you describe that might get me going in the right direction. Of course, I will keep everything confidential.
Thanks.
Jack, thanks for initiating discussion on the matter of General Plan revisions.
Kathleen, you hit the nail on the head when you indicated that water availability should be considered a top priority. I’ve been trying to instill the same thought in friends, co-workers and SJI readers for quite some time.
My diatribes most often go unheard. Put simply, if we don’t have the water, we shouldn’t build the homes. Monterey County adopted this posture years ago, yet we continue to pay no heed to the looming and critical water shortage.
Sky King, you must be a recent transplant from another locale. Or, perhaps, you’ve lived here for decades and your memory is failing you. Hillview Airport was built in the late 1920’s; only in mid-century did developers commence building thousands of homes nearby.
Moreover, people bought them with gusto, happy to pay less in exchange for the nuisance of the adjacent airport. Now they’d like to see the airport disappear. In my mind, that’s somewhat of a freeloader attitude.
The United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County will be holding our 2007 Neighborhood Conference on Saturday, November 17 at San Jose Community College. More information at
http://www.unscc.org/
There will be 3 sessions ( 5 workshops each) for 8 workshops ( repeating at least twice) on planning, code enforcement, event insurance and risk management, working with your elected officials, community colleges, CAP Grants. solar revolution in neighborhoods and 2 hour workshop on
“Home and Family Disaster Preparedness”
Presented by: Ken Foot, Emergency Planning Coordinator – Santa Clara County
Office of Emergency Services:
Are you prepared for an emergency? Find out what you and neighbors can do to ensure that you’re prepared for any type of disaster when emergency services cannot reach you right away.
Workshop Descriptions at:
http://gems.es-designs.com/unscc/WorkshopDescriptions.pdf
I would invite the members of the workshop to walk around San Jose’s neighborhoods, and ask themselves: “Would I like to live here? Would I be comfortable walking around this area at night—by myself?”
If they answer “no”, then their only priority should be to fix it. Don’t spend money on anything else.
#8- Wonder Woman, you are absolutely correct, Police and Fire say that each community should have 3-7 days of food, supplies, water, and medication should a disaster happen. We have been told too that we should be prepared to be self sufficient for at least a week. The bad thing is that Insurance Companies will not allow people taking medications, a back up for these possibilities. They won’t pay for meds that you need before you need them.
Another concern is house bound elderly and disabled folks being stranded alone, not having family, or neighbors to help. There’s no present way to track them accurately, unless they are receiving in home care services.
This and many other issues need to be dealt with before the big one!
Our neighborhood associations need to get out in the community, get known, offer training in CPR, and offer and take proper trainings to prepare for such a problem in our neighborhoods. Communities need to team up with first responders, non-profits, and other organizations to prepare.
Ed put up some notices of courses. Thank you Ed, but the problem here in lies that these notices are not given enough publicity, nor is there enough public outreach. No one who isn’t on a committee, task force, neighborhood association goes because they are ill informed! That really needs to change.
Jack, did you know that the Police Dept. has a new computer system that fails, and needs trained personnel on it? In the event of a real disaster, we could have serious communication problems. The list is absolutely endless, and frightening.
JMO pointed out that we have more beds than patients in our hospitals that would not hold true in the event of a true pandemic or natural disaster in a city this highly populated!
Public input sought on vision for San Jose
MediaNews
Article Launched: 10/11/2007 02:27:52 PM PDT
A new volunteer task force is shaping a vision for San Jose in the year 2040, and it is looking for some community input. Priorities, values and concerns for the city will be gathered at a workshop on from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday in the first floor meeting rooms at San Jose City Hall. The city council appointed the 37-member group earlier this fall, and a series of public meetings aim to collect suggestions. Workshops on Oct. 13 will be held in English, Spanish and Vietnamese in separate rooms, and will conclude with a presentation in the council chambers.
The Envision San Jose 2040 Task Force also plans to convene in the City Hall meeting rooms on Nov. 13 and Dec. 17 at 6:30 p.m. In December, the group will tackle goals for roads, bike trails and public transit, among other things, and in January it will take on sustainable environmental and economic growth. In the spring it will look at housing and public facilities.
Kathleen #14—true, we would not be prepared. But neither can we keep several hundred or several thousand hospital beds empty, but available in the event of a disaster. Who would pay for that? Those with health insurance already pay way extra to subsidize the poor/uninsured.
Envision 2040?? Let’s take care of 2015 first; better still, 2007.
#16- JMO, you absolutely correct. Got any ideas? Are you coming to the meeting tomorrow at City Hall? I’d love to meet you.
#10 – Greg,
The Hillview Airport was built in 1939, and owned by the Reid brothers. At that time it was 60 acres in size, and had one runway between Tully and Cunningham Av.
In 1961 Santa Clara County purchased this airport. Later, during the mid-to-late 1960s the county tripled the size of the airport from 60 acres to 180 acres, closed Cunningham Av, extended the runway to Ocala, built a 2nd runway, added runway lights for nighttime operation, and renamed the airport to Reid-Hillview Airport.
However, by 1961, most of East San Jose was already built, or planned to be built.
From the “San Jose News”, dated Monday April 16, 1962.
“Reid’s Hillview Airport, once an isolated Eastside airstrip for light planes, now is nearly ringed by schools, school sites and subdivisions. The county has purchased the existing airport property (shown in white) and plans to expand it to the west …”
Check out this USGS map from 1961 which shows a large part of East San Jose around the airport as already built.
http://www.reidhillview.com/Hillview_Airport_1961.pdf
Here is a 1970 photo of the just finished airport, and we can see that more housing has been built. Since it takes longer to build subdivisions than it does to pave two 3100 foot runways it is apparent the homes were planned, and built, before the airport.
http://www.reidhillview.com/rhv1970.jpg
Here is a current color aerial photograph showing the schools, parks, and homes around the airport. Increase Adobe’s magnification to 150% for a good view.
http://www.reidhillview.com/RHV_brochure.pdf
No matter how anyone tries to spin history, the fact is, Santa Clara County deliberately and negligently built a recreational airport in the middle of an existing and growing residential neighborhood.
Glad I could help clear up your confusion.
General RHV info:
http://www.reidhillview.com/
RHV history:
http://www.reidhillview.com/schools_first.htm
RHV lead pollution:
http://www.reidhillview.com/#9
RHV economics:
http://www.reidhillview.com/#1
http://www.reidhillview.com/#11