Time flies!

Whew! Has it already been a couple months since my last post? Well I am pleased to inform the 1 billion readers of this blog that National Night Out went magnificently! We had over 600 residents from all over San Jose stop by and enjoy the park. I would like to thank Jim Reber from the San Jose Park Foundation and the neighbors who helped us set up and take down. I would also like to thank Rudy Ortega, Kymberli Brady, Brenda Buscher and Nancy Paul for all of their assistance. 

On a side note, I have submitted my proposal for my thesis to Professor Laurel Prevetti. I am looking forward to this upcoming year and working to create a report that benefits the park, the neighborhood and the City of San Jose. 

Btw, my wife and I are expecting our first child! We found out that we are having a boy in April. Any guesses on the first name? Ill give you a hint; its James! I can't wait to meet little James Aurelius Quevedo and share with him my passion for this park and the surrounding area.

I get by with a little help from my friends!

It looks like I will not be getting support from 8-80 Cities. I found out yesterday that I will not be traveling to Toronto to train as an Emerging City Champion.

Oh, well. I will be continuing this project as a Co-Coordinator with Rudy Ortega of the Vendome neighborhood to hold one of the largest National Night Out events at St. James Park. I have been working really hard on this project already and I hope we can generate a lot of support for the park. 

Stay tuned!

A Complete St James Park

I love old maps. This is one of my favorite maps of San Jose before the 1850s. This map shows two major squares; Washington Square and St. James Square. Washington Square would eventually turn into San Jose State University and St. James Square would become St. James Park.

I wish I would have been alive to see St James Park as a complete square. In the 1950s, San Jose would divide St. James Park in half by connecting 2nd Street through it. This division has done a number to the park and has contributed to some of the issues that effect it today.

Hopefully San Jose will listen to many Urban Planners and close up 2nd street so the park can feel whole again. Please read this interesting read from SPUR San Jose. They actually advocate for the city to reconnect St. James Park. I certainly hope it will happen in my lifetime.

Robert F Kennedy Speech at St James Park in San Jose

This is the speech that Bobby Kennedy gave to San Jose residents at St. James Park in 1968. It is said that over 10,000 people attended! (At times it sounds a little chaotic in the recording). A few months after this visit, Bobby would be assassinated in Los Angeles. Listen to the speech he gave and think about how it is relevant to the problems we face today.

Emerging City Champions Fellowship

I am entering the Emerging City Champions Fellowship, which is funded by 880 Cities and the Knight Foundation. For the past month, I have been working on an old idea I came up with during a class in my Urban Planning Department. With the help of community and civic leaders, I have been able to revamp my idea and submit a proposal that will help revitalize the park. My goal is to inform the public about the history within St. James Park, so that they and city leaders can make educated decisions for the monuments and memorials.

I am submitting a proposal to conduct a study of the historical monuments and memorials that are in the park. For too long, these wonderful monuments have stood neglected and ignored. I would like to study them and come up with creative solutions to bring them back to life. A study like this has never been done before. The hope is that once the study is completed, the City and community will have a better understanding of these treasures. A large group of residents, community and civic leaders are movingforward with plans to revitalize and restore the park. This study, which will be conducted with the help of the community, will make sure that all stakeholders are educated about the value of these monuments and understand the history existing in the park. Important decisions are going to be made about the park and all stakeholders should understand these monuments and memorials. In fact, according to Marybeth Harasz of the Parks and Recreation Department of San Jose, this study is the missing piece that will allow the revitalization to move forward.

This project will take place within the St. James Historical Neighborhood, a part of Downtown San Jose that has seen a rise in homelessness, crime, drug use and litter. This neighborhood has strong residents who have fought hard to keep the park a community park for all to enjoy. Considering its proximity to the core of downtown San Jose, this park is visited by more than just the neighbors around it. Alternative Transportation users travel through it on the Bus and Light Rail Lines that go around and through the park on 1st and 2nd streets. Pedestrians walk through the park to get to office buildings, court houses, restaurants and bars, or on their way home. Drivers drive around the park on the very busy 3rd and Julian streets. St. James Park is not only for its neighbors, it belongs to all San Joseans.

Reactivating St. James Park will take a lot of work. My partners and I agree with Jane Jacobs who came up with the theory of "eyes on the street": once this study is completed and the revitalization can begin, more people will come to the park adding "eyes on the street" which will make the park safer and more enjoyable. This should reduce the amount of crime that happens in the park and direct more city services toward the park to ensure that it is safe and clean.

Beyond allowing the park to be revitalized, this study will be good for the San Jose community. Many people feel that San Jose lacks a sense of identity and community. For years, our identity has sat here, waiting for us to recognize it, within this neighborhood and park. Our history is what gives us an identity, which also helps build our community. Who are we, if we do not remember our past? This study will help residents understand these monuments and the history surrounding the park. In doing so, we will help San Jose realize its identity. This study will also help attract people and attention to the park.

It is thanks to the community and city leaders who signed on to this project that we will be able to complete it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the partners I have already have signed on and shown support. It is thanks to them that I am submitting this proposal. These monuments represent a part of San Jose that very few know. I would like to bring these important figures of our past to light so we can unite behind them and their messages of community, peace and hope.

Partners and Supporters of my proposal

Raul Peralez, District 3 Council Member, City of San Jose
Marybeth Harasz, Interim Deputy Director, Parks and Recreation, City of San Jose
Brian Grayson, Executive Director, Preservation Action Council
Ken Middlebrook, Curator of Collections, History San Jose
Chad Bojorquez, Director of Services, Downtown Streets Team
Jack and Jill Sardegna, Community Leaders, St. James Neighborhood

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, St. James Park

Fountain that sits in St. James Park Today

President McKinley Monument

Bicyclist takes a break in front of Naglee Monument

Revitalizing a Park

The idea came to me long ago that something had to be done to bring St. James Park back to life. For many years, I would walk through this park as an admirer and think of what this park has seen in its very long life. I walk among its residents today and I stand before President McKinley, swap stories with Brigadier General Naglee and imagine a day that Robert F. Kennedy stood before a crowd of 10,000 to give a message of hope.

Sadly, if you walk among the park today, you will notice that there is a great deal of graffiti on President McKinley, a forgotten grocery bag full of canned goods on Brigadier General Naglee and a large amount of trash on and around the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial. What has happened? How did it get like this?

For a long time I would walk through the park and think hard about what could be done to revitalize it so that the history that surrounds it would be remembered and so people could enjoy this park.

It wasn't until I joined the Urban Planning Department at San Jose State University in Fall 2013 that I realized I could make a difference with the help of community partners. It was my first semester in the department and I decided to join a class that would test my courage immediately. I joined the Urban Design Studio 232 taught by Ginette Wessel.

By luck I found out that the main project in the class would focus on and around St. James Park. I immediately selected the group that would be working on the park for the semester and we started our research. We spoke with neighbors, leaders and community activists. We talked to historians who would tell stories about the park as if they were there the day events occurred. My group and I dug deeper and deeper, to discover that this park had been waiting to be transformed and enjoyed by the public once again.

After spending many hours on the park and doing research, we gave presentations to community groups, city officials and local activists about our findings. I remember vividly the conviction with which I would speak, as I addressed the crowd to talk about the history. I remember telling people that this park is something that should be respected and enjoyed. The findings of our project were published here on a website.

Once the class was done, grades were handed out and congratulations were given to the students and our leader, Ginette Wessel, who worked tirelessly on this project for a semester. It may have been one class, but with all of the work and effort we put into it, it felt like twenty.

Professor Wessel approached me at the conclusion of the class to ask if I would write a summary for a local group newsletter. I immediately agreed. I didn't want this class to end. I wrote the summary and it was published in the Preservation Action Council seasonal newsletter

For the entire year of 2014, I was pulled away to work on a job that required me to commit an enormous amount of hours. During my off hours, I would think about the ideas I had come up with that would help improve the park and would think of how I would accomplish that task when the year had ended. Although my heart was still with the park, I had to stay focused on the task at hand.

Once 2014 ended, I reached out to my old Professor, Ginette Wessel, and asked her to connect me with the community groups and neighborhood leaders who were still working on St. James Park. She connected me back to everyone I had been talking to and I got right back to work. This is where the story begins. I hope you will help me help San Jose find a way to revitalize St. James Park.