Local Business Community Invests in Lincoln Ave. Retail - Part I



Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio (D6)
and Hans Larsen DOT Director speak to
 a packed Willow Glen High School Library

As always, the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association had a packed agenda last week, but I have never seen so many attendees come out to hear what is happening on the Ave.  I counted over 85 in last weeks crowd.

These attendees could have been to put other things on their calendar, but the fact that they decided to come learn about changes happening on Lincoln Ave speaks to the exciting summer in store and the leadership of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Asssociation. Their montly meetings are becoming the place to find out just what is happening in the community. Next month Kim Walesh, the Director of the Office of Economic Development will be the speaker.

And now on with the program. There is so much I've split it into two parts.

Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio opened up the meeting with some announcements.

Upcoming events included:

• March 12 - Annual Meeting of Save our Trails
• March 12 6:31 PM- City Hall Council Chambers - Movie Documentary on Dogs and Cats follwed by a discussion about the Animal Care Services Division. (Please RSVP to dennelle.fedor@sanjoseca.gov)
• April 23 6:31 PM - City Hall Council Chambers - Movie Documentary "Crapshoot" on the most basic service the city provides...sewers. (Please RSVP to dennelle.fedor@sanjoseca.gov)

Hans Larsen - Director, San Jose
 Department of Transportation

Hans Larsen the City's Director of the Department of Transportation followed Pierluigi announcing the city recently being ranked 2nd in the country on resident's health. Part of that is due to our low obesity rate as well as our low smoking rate. Hans spoke to the choice of including active transportation, such as walking and cycling, in one's lifestyle as another reason we are so healthy.

In order to keep residents healthy, he stated the importance that they continue to follow the city's 2020 Bike Plan which calla for 500 miles of bikeways, including 100 miles of trails and 400 miles street bikeways. The city has currently completed 260 of the 500 mile total.

The city has a three year priorty strategy for the downtown core, which will enhance exisitng trails along the Guadalupe River, the Los Gatos Creek Trail, and surrounding, neighborhood trails.

Some of the changes in the downtown area include a separted and colored bikeway on San Fernando right through the heart of downtown, a bike share system consising of 400 bicycles and 15 stations by the end of the summer, taking 5 streets in the downtown area reducing the lanes and converting them to a buffered bike lane,  and other painted bikeways in the downtown area. The five streets which will feature the buffered bike lanes will be 3rd and 4th streets, 10 and 11th streets, and Almaden Blvd.

Two bright pieces of news on the horizon for the city's children. Councilmember Oliverio worked to get speed reductions near many San Jose Schools (first strarting with Trace Elementary) and now Hans Larsen has stated that with help from an MTC (Metropoliton Transportation Commision) grant the city will rollout their "Walk and Roll" program to over 30 San Jose schools.

Hans also mentioned that the culture of bicycling in the city is changing with San Jose Bike Party, Kidical Mass in the Glen (started by yours truley and Stacy Stafford Scott at Treehouse in the Glen), the upcoming Mayors ride with the Mayor of Dublin Ireland.

Kevin Swanson, President,
Willow Glen Business Association

Kevin Swanson, Chair of the Willow Glen Business Association Our Avenue Committee started off by saying how excited he is to see all the new changes on the Avenue and that given the state of affairs economically, they actually had a strong holiday season. They also had some very successful events this year such as the Wine Walk, Lady's Night Out, and Dancing on the Avenue. Kevin also mentioned that they are planning to have a new event called Mom's Night Out.

Kevin also was pleased with the newly painted "Coney Island" style lamposts as well as the new banner program on the avenue. The hope is to change out the banners on a quarterly basis. He was also happy to annoucne after so many years of planning that the Avenue will soon have manned kiosks by April.

A little further down the road he also mentioned the addition of pocket parks, bulbouts at corners to help pedestrians, and on-street bike parking.

Two new business will be opening shortly on the Ave.; Mikes Bikes and Unleased a smaller format Petco pet store.

The rest of the evening was devoted to the almost completed Willow Glen Town Center and other new businesses on the Avenue.

I'll cover that in Part II