BUENA VISTA NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Meeting Tuesday,, January 22 nd , 2013
Meeting called to order at 7::220 PM
PRESENT : [11 1 people present]]
Members :
Brian Habekoss (PPresident))
José González (SSecretary))
John Leyba (DDi rector))
Steve Rogers (DDirector))
Robert
Solís
(TTreasurer))
Loui Tucker (DDirector))
Sabine Zappe (DDirector))
Linda Solis
Scott and Amanda Myers
Guest :
Lara Tran (PPierluigi Oliverio’s office))
THE MINUTES
The minutes of the November meeting were posted on the website and the yahoo group files section.. The minutes were approved..
SPECIAL EVENTS ORDINANCE DISCUSSION
John Leyba attended a meeting to discuss the San Jose Special Events ordinance and came back concerned about the requirement for a permit for what the averag e person would consider relatively low level / low risk events.. The City is planning to implement guidelines about community events that would require a lot of complicated paperwork to get permits for things like a lemonade stand or a neighborhood ice crea m social.. This would discourage small the community building activities that we are trying to encourage.. John drafted a letter to Council member Oliverio outlining our concerns..
NEIGHBORHOOD PARK ISSUES
John informed us that the Buena Vista Park expansio n may start construction around April 1st,, 2013.. The San Jose Parks Foundation managed to raise $110,000 to operate the park,, but we still need more volunteers plus the paid crew to clean and maintain it.. The City received bids to build the park and it appe ars the option of leaving the existing park open while the new park is being built came in under budget.. We had been told the entire park would have to be shut down and worked on at one time to save on costs,, but we may be able to get the park done in phas es keeping one side open..
The San Jose Parks Foundation says there is the possibility of acquiring another property in the neighborhood to build a park.. We need more parks built in the under - served county pockets and have identified empty lots that potent ially could become nice parks in the past,, but there has not been the political will to address this situation.. Back in 2003 there were negotiations to acquire land on Clifton Ave.. in unincorporated Burbank to build a park,, but the effort was unsuccessful in part because the owner was asking 1.2 million dollars for the property.. Real estate conditions have changed dramatically since then so it may be time to reinvestigate this property for the next neighborhood park..
ART BOX PROJECT
Brian reported the pr oject is moving along but we have a limited number of available utility boxes in the neighborhood since AT&&TT will not allow their boxes to be painted.. John suggested that the best way to get at community relations people at AT&&TT is to get through to people they know.. John’s connections at PG&&EE community relations may be able to explain the benefits of the project to their colleagues at AT&&TT and get more traction within the company than Art Box SJ has been able to on its own..
Brian also asked for suggestio ns for communicating the status of the project and selecting the boxes and art to go on them.. Loui suggested that we could have an art box art selection night where neighborhood residents could meet the artists and make decisions on box locations and theme s for the art.. Brian said he wanted to have another meeting with the organizers of Art Box SJ and BVNA lead artist Marco to discuss the next steps.. Brian will send out a detailed status update for the project with an updated map of eligible box locations..
EAST BUENA VISTA DEVELOPMENT
Michael Van Avery from Green Republic said they will be the unofficial police force of Page near their development.. They want the neighborhood to look nice so they can rent at the premium rates they are looking for.. Despite th is,, the fence they have erected around the construction has been getting a lot of graffiti.. Laura agreed to follow up and ask Green Republic to clean up their fence.. We also expressed concern that the sidewalk on W.. San Carlos adjacent to the construction between Meridian and Paige is now gone,, and pedestrians are walking dangerously in the right traffic lane.. The legal crossing ways are too far away to be convenient so we feel there should be a temporary crosswalk built near the construction..
NEXT PARK D AY
Next park day?? John suggested getting food truck vendors (mmaybe contact Movable Feast)) to come to our next park day so we wouldn’t have to deal with health department.. We could get the street closed off in advance.. Brian will check if we can use CAP mo ney for this purpose.. We could do it before the end of March right before we do the groundbreaking around April 1st..
NEWSLETTER
The BVNA newsletter should come out after pictures of the park groundbreaking and art boxes can be included.. We have to finish before CAP money times out in June though..
TRASH AND DUMPING
Dumping,, dumpsters left out too long or overflowing,, and tagging remain a problem.. For dumpsters you can call the phone number written on them to complain.. Laura verified that Citysourced remai ns active and is a good tool for reporting these problems to the city..
Loui suggested we should really go back to Code Enforcement and talk to apartment managers on Willard,, and tell landlords that you can’t dump on the lot.. We need to have a chat.. We ne ed to get someone in Code Enforcement to actually go to the managers and say this is not acceptable.. They need to pay for someone to take it to the dump.. They are lowering your own property values by leaving trash and old furniture on the streets..
John s uggested we work with a realtor and get a data dump of all the people that own property here.. We can ask them to join as members and ask for help to highlight Code violations.. Code Enforcement personnel are still too busy to go out and enforce cases.. We ne ed to send pictures to the City so that the desk at Code Enforcement can deal with it..
DEL MONTE PARK
The Del Monte Park Phase One is on the books and moving forward.. It will be an internal design done by the City and will include a restroom and a dog par k.. The park will be located around the corner from Orchard Supply on Auzerais.. Phase 2 of the park is dependent on the Ohlone Towers construction..
BASCOM LIBRARY
The long awaited library portion of the Bascom Community center is scheduled to open on Febru ary 23rd.. The Friends of Bascom Library are very happy this is finally happening and may be planning an opening ceremony..
The meeting was adjourned at 8::330 PM..
Comments