Second Chance Day is a donation drive hosted by the Town of Los Gatos this Saturday October 10 from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Your donations (clean and in good condition) will be given to Saint Luke’s Church Pantry Program, Emergency Housing Consortium Lifebuilders, InnVision, Career Closet, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence and the Humane Society of Silicon Valley. These are local agencies within Santa Clara County.

Accepted donations in men, women and children sizes include: sweaters, sweatshirts, jackets, coats, raincoats, wind breakers, jeans, and sweatpants.

The donations of towels and blankets go to help animals housed in the Humane Society of Silicon Valley in Milpitas.

Donated eyeglasses will go to the Los Gatos Lions Club’s “Lions in Sight” program, which donates refurbished glasses to people in third world countries. Prescription eyeglasses and UV protected sunglasses, non-prescription UV-protected sunglasses, along with non-prescription reading glasses are accepted.

Los Gatos Neighborhood Center
208 East Main Street, Los Gatos

Saturday October 10, 2009
9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Last night my husband, Ken, and I were remembering that September morning… I dressed for work, took my bowl of Cheerios and sat in front of the TV. I was expecting the usual morning news and traffic report. What I saw was so shocking. I could not believe my eyes and started to yell. Ken ran in holding his razor with his face covered in shaving cream just in time to see the second plane hit.

We considered not going to work, but as taxi drivers we knew that our services would be in demand. At San Jose Airport all flights had been grounded. The nervous travelers had only one thing on their minds; getting back home or to a hotel. We were busy for most of the morning and early afternoon. The airport emptied out, and then it was as if the city had just stopped. We drove home.

What are your memories of that day?

* National Day of Service and Remembrance in San Jose
A ceremony to honor attack victims and the brave firefighters, police officers, and civilians who gave so much. After which off duty San Jose firefighters and police officers along with volunteers will help with vegetable beds and neighborhood cleanup.

September 11th
Sacred Heart Community Service
1381 S. First St, San Jose
Scheduled 8:30 AM

9/11 Becomes Day of Service

As part of the Envision 2040 general plan update, the city of San Jose is introducing “Wikiplanning“. This new web project allows residents to participate in the general plan update project without having to attend a (possibly inconvenient) public meeting. There is a loosely guided set of “activities” that gather users’ inputs, and inform us about the general plan update. There’s also a message board and a photo gallery where we can comment on photos that show things we might want to bring in or keep out of the city over the next 30 years.

Looking at the website, I think it might best be considered an promising experiment. It’s certainly not a wiki, which is a highly hyperlinked web site that encourages users to add and edit content freely (the city of Davis has a good example of a civic wiki). There is no way for users to add new content, except for uploading photos. Even on the message board users can’t create new discussion topics.

Also, there’s still a few bugs to work out in the site (I think of these bugs as the price of admission to a relatively advanced-technology city). Trying to go back from an individual photo to the main photo page I got a database error message, and the photos are shown in a way that’s inefficient in bandwidth and distorted to look at. Prominent tabs at the top of each page (”About Us”, “Thinking Green”, “Help”) don’t lead to information about San Jose, but to the Wikiplanning software company’s sales site, with no way to get back to the San Jose-specific website.

On the other hand, the site shows promise. A true wiki, with the kind technical learning curve and geeky culture you see on Wikipedia, for example, would not be the best way to get more people (except wiki geeks) involved in civic discussions, and the bugs I found in the site could easily be fixed for the next project. Most importantly, even with a few warts, the web site should be able to bring more residents to the table in the planning process. That includes people with limitted free time to go to meetings and people with disabilities.

To use San Jose Wikiplanning, visit wikiplanning.org and log in with your email address and zip code or just use the password “2040″.

Tuesday August 4 is the 26th Annual National Night Out.

So, what the heck is National Night Out?

It is America’s night out against crime, a way to strengthen community partnerships with local police and to create a united front to combat crime and drugs.

It is designed to:

Heighten crime and drug prevention awareness;

Generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime programs;

Strengthen neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships; and

Send a message to criminals letting them know that neighborhoods are organized and fighting back.

Scheduled participants include Mayor Chuck Reed, Vice Mayor Judy Chirco, San Jose Councilmembers Pete Constant, Ash Kalra, Sam Liccardo, Kansen Chu, Nora Campos, Pierluigi Oliverio, Madison Nguyen, Rose Herrera, and Nancy Pyle, Police Chief Rob Davis, along with community members throughout San Jose.

National Night Out
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
4:00 pm to 10:30 pm (times vary by location)

Participating San Jose Neighborhoods

Community Hospital of Los Gatos, which closed its doors back in April, has re-opened as El Camino Hospital Los Gatos.

El Camino Hospital purchased the former Community Hospital of Los Gatos then renovated the buildings, installed new medical equipment, and added a new electronic medical records system that ties into the system at El Camino Hospital Mountain View.

The hospital is having a community fair this Saturday, August1, where you learn about what is new and to meet staff members. There will be health lectures by local physicians, BBQ, face painting, teddy bear clinic, tours of emergency vehicles, and more.

El Camino Hospital Los Gatos Community Fair
815 Pollard Road
Los Gatos, 95032

Saturday, August1, 2009
11:00 am to 3:00 pm

800-216-5556

Looking for something fun and free for the family this evening? The 14th Annual Dancin’ on the Avenue in downtown Willow Glen runs today (June 20) from 5-10pm. This is always a fun event with lots to do for everybody. There’s a kid’s court full of games,arts and crafts  and face painting and of course dancing and music just  for  kids too.

Lincoln Street shuts down from Minnesota to Willow, with three stages of music and dancing throughout the event. Entertainment ranges from bluegrass, jazz and salsa to classical ballet, hip hop and belly dance. Visit the official site for a  list of performers. Look for plenty of great food and drink, much from local vendors as well.

Last year 30,000 people attended the event, so parking fills up fast. If you decide to park in the neighborhood, please be respectful of the neighbors. Here’s a map of the event and suggestions on parking.

Mayor Reed and vigil organizer Kathleen Flynn

A group of 100 or so citizens and civic leaders convened this afternoon at City Hall Plaza for a vigil to honor San Jose police, fire fighters, and crime victims. Speakers included Chuck Reed, Councilmembers Ash Kalra and Nora Campos, District Attorney Delores Carr, Police Union President Bobby Lopez, and Fire Fighters union president Randy Sekany. All of the speakers expressed thanks to the city’s police and fire fighters for their dedication to the city and the risks they take on our behalf. They also showed support for the families of crime victims, with particular attention to the family of Vahid Hosseini, a shopkeeper who was robbed and murdered almost exactly one year ago while making a deposit at a near-downtown Bank of the West branch.

It’s a shame that at the same moment, rhetorically speaking, as they joined together to honor and respect those deserving public servants and crime victims, so many of these same people are engaged in a game of “who can get their foot deeper in their mouth?” First, community organizer Raj Jayadev made a speech at the City Council that seemed to threaten a radical “street response” to perceived police bias against certain groups. Then, Police Officers Association president Lopez posted a video of the speech on the POA’s new blog in which he added titles that might be called snide (or maybe just childish) commentary on Jayadev’s speech. Somebody returned fire anonymously with an equally snide (and childish) response video.

Finally, councilmembers Kalra and Sam Liccardo got into the game by issuing a letter that seems to be meant to return this debate to a civil basis. Unfortunately Kalra and Liccardo’s letter has been interpreted as (and reported as) scolding the POA for the video, and infringing their first amendment right to keep their foot solidly in their mouth. In the end everybody seems to come out a loser in this debacle.

Our own San Jose Repertory Theatre is a really beautiful venue, even more so inside than out.  They also generously support our community and youth, and are a huge contributor to the Cinequest Film Festival.  San Jose would not be such a fun place to live without the Repertory Theatre.

However, upon exiting the balcony from a recent show that I attended, I happened to look down at the steps and was shocked at the condition of the carpet.  Threadbare, dull and worn, it really showed the effects of having thousands and thousands of feet walking through over the years.  It was so disappointing to see how worn it was, and it really takes away from the great beauty of the rest of the building.

So I was surprised and very happy to hear that the SJ Rep has received a Challenge Grant to remedy this exact problem!  Emeritus Board member John Michael Sobrato has pledged to pay half the cost of new carpet if The Rep can bring in the other half with contributions.  This is a very generous gift, and one I hope will not be missed.  In even more wonderful news, The Rep has already raised one third of the matching funds.  The other 2/3 must be raised by June 30, 2009, and despite their very generous regular donors, they need funds specific to this fundraising goal.

Offers as generous as this don’t come around very often.  It is my sincere hope that although we are all in some very tough times, the people of the South Bay can help pitch in to take advantage of this offer.  If you could contribute just five dollars it would be so appreciated.  If you could contribute $20 or $50 it would bring them even closer to their goal.  They only have one month to collect donations in order to receive this Challenge Grant; I hope we can all pull together and help The Rep achieve this goal.

Time is of the essence.

Please contact Development Associate Janet Herrington to make a donation to this cause.  She can be reached at 408-367-7264 or JanetH@sjrep.com. 

The neighborhood of Hanchett Park will host its first first Historic Homes Tour on Saturday. Hanchett Park was developed as a residence park in the early 20th century. Today, the area still has some of San Jose’s best preserved historic homes.

The tour theme is “Preservation and Inspiration”, and the tour features five homes reflecting an “eclectic mix of architecture and lifestyles.”

When: Saturday, May 30. 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Where: Purchase same day tickets at 1265 Sierra Ave., San Jose. Addresses of Tour homes are provided on your ticket. Purchase advanced tickets at Silver Leaf Antiques (1343 The Alameda), Willow Glen Home and Garden (1123 Lincoln Avenue), or online.

Price: $21 per person in advance. $25 on tour day.

Saturday, May 16, 2009 – 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Creek Connections Action Group and the City of San Jose are teaming up with Save the Bay to clean up the levee for the Guadalupe River, and the banks of the Coyote Creek, as well as a number of other watersheds in and around San Jose next saturday, May 16 as part of the National Rivers day trash clean-up.

Anyone who wants to help (over 10 yrs old please) can chip in and help clean up our creeks. You can download a PDF file with a map of the creeks and find one near you, or go to the website to see a list of creeks being cleaned up.

You don’t need to bring a thing with you. Gloves and tools will be provided on site with instructions. Just make sure you visit the website to download a waiver form and get signed up!