We must learn the lessons of the past. Mistakes that have destroyed small businesses and ruined lives should provide a cautionary tale for current leaders of our City and the VTA Board.
Bringing BART to Downtown is an historic redress of one of the most horrendous planning mistakes of the last half century. Yet, the gigantic trenching of Downtown from the Arena to the new City Hall the length of Santa Clara Street — sixty feet deep, sidewalk to sidewalk — will destroy small business as we know it, incapacitate the HP Pavilion, and make the hardy residents who have accepted the role of urban pioneers become the first casualties of World War BART.
Why is this happening? Apparently few lessons were learned by the Transit Mall fiasco. It was horrible for our businesses and residents. I know: I authorized it and I was responsible. We tried business assistance loans, grants, and other assorted programs—all for naught, and many, many suffered. The only thing you could say for those of us in powerful positions is that once we realized the extent of the construction chaos, we tried. Such is not the case today. No one has a program to ease the fear.
That project of the ‘80s will be to BART as a tidal system to a tsumami, and no one in authority is planning for its consequences. Not a voice is heard about the “acceptable level of casualties” that will occur. The Downtown Association, VTA, our City Council and the Manufactures Group ought to realize that they are on the verge of destroying the village to save it.
Next Week: A Plan to save the village. I hope some of our readers, or even leaders, have a better one in the interim.
Don’t look to VTA for help. Now that Cipolla has been pushed out by Gonzales no one is in charge. Didn’t Dave Cortese say it’s a spaceship hurtling out of control without a commander. Or was he talking about City Hall?
Cortese was talking about city hall. Its a good quote somewhere in a comment if someone can remember where it is.
I’m responding to the plan to install bart underground track on Santa Clare street in downtown san jose, and I think it is a disasterous idea and a tragic mistake, period!
The downtown area, which is lively and vibrant and so much work that was put into it, will go out the window for sure. The short memory of politicians and the new politicians just devastated the downtown if you look at the past what has deen done. Let’s keep downtown healthy and growing by putting underground bart track and station on St. John Street or St. James Street; therefore, we will have bart and downtown
Frankly, I would rather see BART extended down from Daly CIty to San Jose or Santa Clara.
I don’t see how/why anyone wants to go from the Easy Bay to downtown SJ just to jump on an other poorly-planned mass transit system for another 45 minute ride to Cupertino.
The cost it too high – put the money into expanding the number of lanes on 680, 101, 280.
Larry
I agree with Gary and Tom. Besides, won’t all that digging get in the way of the Grand Prix?
Or maybe they could just leave all the barriers up to cordon off the dig!
I’m very worried about the impact of BART on small businesses on East Santa Clara Street and on historic structures all along the proposed route. Changing the route to St. John or St. James would also have the potential for drastic impacts to the Northside. We should be very careful to assess whether the benefits BART would bring are worth the destruction it will cause.
It seems like for the money we are being asked to pay for BART, we could have palatial buses running up and down every street in San Jose every 5 minutes, 24 hours a day, connecting with every mass transit service imaginable…
Tom –
I am impressed by your insights, and your desire that we learn from past mistakes around the Transit Mall. As someone once said, “Those who do not learn from their mistakes are bound to repeat it.”
From SVMG’s perspective, we concur that we must do everything we can to protect our small businesses and residents as we build this important improvement.
I would also like to comment on the thoughtful response by Larry about BART coming down the East Bay. Sometimes we forget that the second most congested freeway corridor in the entire nine county Bay Area is the I-880 corridor, with 91,000 commute trips coming into Santa Clara County each work day. Another 40,000 trips leave Santa Clara County for jobs in the East Bay each morning as well. By 2025, the projections are for that in-bound commute to grow by more than one-third, to 131,000 daily in-bound trips, and the out-bound commute to increase by 45 percent, to 58,000 trips by our residents to East Bay jobs. That is why BART to Santa Clara County, with stations in Milpitas, San Jose and Santa Clara is expected to carry nearly 84,000 daily trips.
I am sympathetic to Larry’s comments about BART coming from Daly City to San Jose. The good news is that BART connecting with Downtown San Jose and Santa Clara directly links up with CalTrain, so that we at least have heavy rail running all the way around the region.
Tom and Jude, keep up the good work. These kind of civic discussions are outstanding.
Sincerely,
Carl Guardino
Bring Bart to San Jose will be another disaster. Digging up Santa Clara Street will not only destroy the businesses it will probably destroy all of the old buildings that are left down there. I think that possible Gary’s idea of St. James or St John Street has some potential.