Guest column by Jack Wimberly
Neighborhood associations typically come with a uniqueness all their own but most share a common thread of yards and single-family dwellings, with a dash of charm. Downtown San Jose, an area playing host to many domiciles, lacks that thread on a sizeable scale. Her neighborhoods consist of busy thoroughfares, mass transportation, and transients—transient workers, transient travelers and transient residents.
Wind the clock back 30-plus years and you’d see a downtown emerging from a chrysalis of negligence. Mention the idea of a downtown “neighborhood association” to a court clerk crossing the street by Saint James Park on the way to work and you would be laughed into traffic on North First. Flip the hour- and minute-hands forward to 2009 and you find court clerks renting chic live/work lofts a few blocks north on First.
You also find a park much-changed. The transient women (and sometimes men) of the night replaced by a children’s playground and Frisbee-playing residents. Granted it takes time to overcome stereotypes; the neighborhood surrounding Saint James Park has changed remarkably. The key player in this progress was a plan, a plan implemented by those with vision and experience. A large portion of this plan was a mass effort to build infrastructure and structures for residents to move in and take hold of their surroundings.
New faces came, and new faces left. The concerns and issues affecting downtown residents can be similar to those affecting say Shasta Hanchett, but Shasta Hanchett doesn’t have the same gravitational focus downtown does—a regional “city center.” Non-profits, government agencies, trade associations and resident-groups buzz around the hive of Santa Clara and Market streets, all pollinating the continued blossoming of downtown, and many of these groups are quite strong.
Strong groups come from strong constituencies, whether a large constituency or a wealthy constituency. These act as collective, present voices for advocacy. These groups all push for change, each focusing on their special interest (not in the overused political sense). And just as faces come and go, groups come and go.
And just as residents came and went, the members of the Saint James Historic Neighborhood District Association (SJHDNA) did as well. After years of attempting to gather a strong constituency thus a concerted voice, SJHDNA unanimously decided that disbanding was in the best interest.
The factors contributing to the deterioration of the group’s impact are many. But optimism and, frankly relief, overshadowed the struggles of an organization with much at stake, vying for a voice, working for the success of downtown.
Jack Wimberly is immediate past President of Saint James Historic Neighborhood District Association.
I can tell you one thing the organization did poorly. It wasn’t very careful or sophisticated about who it sent to meetings to represent the SJHDNA.
I had the experience of one board member being extremely rude to me and other presenters at a public meeting. (Its one thing to criticize policy, but its over the line to hurl personal insults).
Its like whatever but at the same time, if there are six seats at the table and seven to invite, we all know who gets invited last …
I will finish by saying, however, the park and surrounding neighborhood has come a long way and I don’t mean to marginalize the efforts of all the good folk who put in hard work to make those improvements.
It takes perserverance, patience and perspective to keep a new neighborhood association alive through more than the first few years. It’s too bad the board of SJHDNA thought the work too hard or not valuable enough.
Editor said :“Downtown is a Neighborhood, Too”
Uh, not really, not yet.
johnmichael o’connor said: “Uh, not really, not yet.”
Uh, yes it is.
#4—uh, not really. Few residents, most of the money spent DT comes from office workers DT daytime, and partygoers nighttime. One semi-super market, soon to be two. Lotsa folks go to the new strip mall on Coleman, which is not DT. Many students, ergo transient folks with no permanent connection to the neighborhood, live DT. Defintitely NOT a neighborhood yet; nor will it be for at least 3-5 years after our recession ends.
JMO,
So insensitive! All true but not terribly PC. Just think, if the RDA can somehow snatch some more money, another 10 or 20 billion could make Downtown into a neighborhood.
Howe/JMO-
Do either of you live downtown? You have no idea what you are talking about. No one lives downtown???? On my block alone: paseo plaza paseo, villas, the colonnade there are over 800+ residents. Many students but even more professionals and families.
I have to admit that both of you do make some good points from your conservative view now and then. But your tone is so righteous most of the time that it makes it hard for me to agree only because you sound like a-hole holier than thou bullies. And I say this as a life long Republican.
Kevin, 800 residents! Only if you count the poeple sleeping in doorways nearby.
Not sure why I am responding to ‘Homer’s’ troll bait but I can’t control myself….
Colonnade: 220 units
Paseo Plaza 210 units
Paseo Villas 102 units
if we want to be very conservative and taking in account maybe a 10% unoccupied rate, how about saying that there are an average of 1.5 people living in each unit we get ~720 folks…. that’s is not counting the people sleeping in the doorways… again, it is ridiculous to say that nobody lives downtown…
Let’s not also forget about 101 san fernando, new century commons, 33 south 3rd st… and so on…..
End this speculation!
How about some census data numbers how many DT residents there are??
If you want to visit a city with no DT life after 5PM (except when there’s a ball game at one of three stadiums and arenas) then visit St. Luis, Missouri. I spent four nights there about five years ago.
The Main Library closes at 6PM every weekday (can’t remember if it even opens on weekends). Mc’Donalds on a riverboat by the Arch closes at 6PM also. There’s only one fast food place open downtown. You can shoot a cannon down the main drag without hitting anything. Don’t worry about street bums and homeless, there are none. The only activity is aboard the gambling riverboats.
All the action is in the neighborhoods, especially in the older sections surrounding Budweiser. Lots of pubs at nearly every block.
There’s even a youth hostel just as you leave the ghetty “Projects” towards the older neighborhood north of Budweiser, the “Huck Finn” Hostel. It’s a very ‘traditional” hostel something JMO might remember. Some people rate it only one star, but there’s no other. Used to be an HI affiliated hostel, but probably couldn’t meet the new higher standards.
It’s definitely a funky place, run by the same man for nearly 50 years. It’s not the cleanest, somewhat run down, not in the best area, but it’s a great place for mingling and meeting fellow travelers from all over the world.
Sure wish San Jose had such a place, or even better.
pgp3,
Kevin,
For a neighborhood in San Jose, 800 residents is little more than a rounding error.
Shame on you for calling JMO and me a-holes. Is that what you do when you’re frustrated and have no other outlet?
Kevin, no one’s questioning your math. I think what johnmichael o’connor was getting at was that in a city of +-1,000,000 residents, the population of downtown is just a drop in the bucket. ‘Homer’s’ troll bait was just that and you fell for it, completely ignoring the original point.