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.