All Camino

The first full-blown community meeting for “The Alameda: A Plan for the Beautiful Way” is happening on Wednesday, September 30, 2009. The full details are below. They had held smaller meetings for individual neighborhoods but this is the first at-large gathering. Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio will be there.

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I attended the last meeting for the Shasta/Hanchett Park neighborhood and got a real sense for the concerns of the residents and business owners, many of whom had been in the area for decades. I’d say the number one complaint was about traffic.  Cars drive too fast in their unfettered hurry to get in and out of downtown. There are no bike lanes so the speeding cars drive the cyclists onto the sidewalks where they menace pedestrians. And the poor pedestrians can hardly cross The Alameda at the crosswalks which are unprotected by traffic lights. When it comes to transit, the Beautiful Way has an ugly side.

I heard pros and cons for some notable ideas on how to calm traffic, better serve bikes and pedestrians, and favor local businesses. Some ideas: reducing lanes, widening sidewalks, reconfiguring parking, adding pedestrian bulbouts, building or extending medians. Barbara Maloney of urban planning consulting firm BMS Design Group gave a presentation on the current state of the street, the project, and on relevant government initiatives. I even shared my own views on the street not as a resident, but as a tourist. I let them know what draws me to the area and changes I’d like to see. Hilariously I announced this very blog hoping to gain readers, but forgot to mention its name. Publicity FAIL!

What I gained most from the meeting was a lesson on the civic process. I’ve never participated in neighborhood or local government like this, so I was impressed and inspired to see how plugged-in and productive people can be about their community. I attended a similar meeting in Menlo Park, so I’m all fired up.

The San Jose Redevelopment Agency has put together a survey you can use to express your opinions on The Alameda.

I plan to attend this next meeting. I’ve even been reading up a little on urban design so I can casually drop terms like “setbacks” and “massing” and sound knowledgeable. Most importantly, on my way there I’ll be driving just a little bit slower. It’s a start.

The Alameda:
A Plan for The Beautiful Way

I take El Camino Real as it is. As long as it is and as storied I accept that parts of it are going to be funky, unattractive, or even downright depressing. Yet for all its sketchy stretches still there are delightful oases. I freely admit that my favorite slice of El Camino is The Alameda.

The Alameda is three miles long and spans from downtown San Jose to the Santa Clara border, roughly from HP Pavilion to Santa Clara University. Alameda is a Spanish word meaning tree-lined boulevard and traveling south on El Camino that’s the impression you get as soon as you cross Interstate 880. With its lush canopy of green and its historic buildings The Alameda has an elegant yet quaint and intimate character which sets it apart from neighboring stretches.

The residents and businesses on The Alameda know they’re special. After all they had the cheek years ago to change their name. “El Camino Real” is good enough for 597 miles of the road, but for three miles The Alameda has to be different. In Spanglish, no less. I don’t mean to imply that they have a superiority complex. Rather they’ve long recognized their street’s unique appeal and sought to maximize its capital potential with a name change, like a Hollywood starlet taking on a more glamorous identity. They’ve got it, so they flaunt it.

For all its charm though The Alameda is not perfect so its stakeholders are doing something about it. In particular there are concerns about how safe and inviting it is to get to, from, up, and down the street, and how to preserve its historic heritage while growing and thriving. A coalition of residents, businesses, and non-profits has received a $250,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation and is working with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency to generate a 10-year plan for the Alameda immodestly titled The Alameda: A Plan for “The Beautiful Way.”

The Redevelopment Agency web site says:

Key elements of the final plan will include:

• Walkability (including safe crosswalks)
• Traffic calming
• Pedestrian and bicycle access from the neighborhoods
• Preservation
• Promotion of the historic character of The Alameda
• Transit integration including improved links to the Diridon Station

This project is community-driven so to engage said community there will be a series of public meetings. The San Jose Mercury News reports that the first meeting was August 19 at Westminster Presbyterian Church and the next one is scheduled for September 1 at 7:00 PM at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center. I have not confirmed this event and I have seen conflicting dates so if you plan to go, you might want to double-check its details. Update: confirmed!

Regrettably I missed the first one so I’ll try to attend the upcoming meetings and of course report on them here. My natural tendency is to be a lurker but who knows, I may challenge myself to bring a few ideas to the table.

I hope that these community meetings will generate some great ideas to preserve what makes my favorite tree-lined avenue so especial.

Update: A representative of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency has confirmed that this meeting is indeed happening as reported. The next meeting is September 30.

The Alameda Transportation Project Community Meeting

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 7:00PM Confirmed! [update]
Billy DeFrank Silicon Valley LGBT Community Center
http://www.defrankcenter.org/
938 The Alameda, San Jose, CA 95126
(408) 293-3040