The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

Won't You Be My Neighbor? "We all occupy this little spot on the map together, and we have to live together," says Ralph Serpe, the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's newest board member.

New WGNA board member has plans to expand group

Serpe wants to assign block captains for wooing new members

By Cecily Barnes

Before I even meet Ralph Serpe, the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's newest board member, I'm greeted at the front door by Brick, his giant, goofy golden retriever.

Ordering Brick out of the way, Serpe smiles warmly and shakes my hand, then leads me into his handsomely decorated living room with hardwood floors and a large bay window.

On the long white mantel, dozens of framed photographs display various family members. On the opposite wall hangs a lovely abstract painting of Serpe, composed by New York artist Anne Kovach years ago. Serpe, in jeans and a blue button-down shirt, settles into a large, cozy armchair--sitting Indian-style--and we start the interview. Brick settles in, too, directly on top of my feet.

Serpe, 44, joined the WGNA board of directors two weeks ago, after previous board member Donna Jones resigned due to increased demands at her job. Serpe has lived in Willow Glen with his partner, Tom Kushner, for 512 years.

The couple initially came from New York chasing a career opportunity. Kushner, who is a neurologist, had been recruited by Kaiser Permanente.

"We had no idea where San Jose was," Serpe laughs.

After coming to San Jose, the couple's first stop was the Billy De Frank Gay and Lesbian Center, where they searched for a gay-friendly community in which to purchase a home.

"There are three heavily populated gay and lesbian neighborhoods in San Jose. One is downtown, east of San Jose State, one is in the Rose Garden and one is in Willow Glen," Serpe says. "There's at least one gay couple on every block that we're associated with here."

Soon after they settled in, Serpe began volunteering at the Billy De Frank Center when he wasn't working as an operations manager at Wells Fargo. He worked to build up the center's membership base, causing it to grow it from 300 to 1,200 members in a few years. Soon Serpe left his job at Wells Fargo to become the center's executive director.

"I did fundraising, membership, community events and sponsored round tables on gay and lesbian issues," Serpe says. "We worked on a lot of the same community-type issues that the neighborhood association works on."

Serpe now hopes to bring the skills he learned at the Billy De Frank Center to the WGNA. While on the board, he will work to boost the association's membership from its current number of about 800 members.

Serpe pulls out a map of Willow Glen covered with hundreds of ink dots. Each dot, he explains, represents a WGNA member.

"It kind of looks randomly dispersed, but if you look again, people joined the neighborhood association because of an issue," Serpe says. "You look at where they wanted to put a 24-hour Taco Bell, and there's a cluster there. Right here on Blewett there's a cluster, because of Billiards and Brew."

For starters, Serpe plans to organize all WGNA members into a searchable database for organization and information. He will then encourage every board member to bring on at least one new member each month, and he will assign block captains to comb their neighborhoods and solicit new members.

"That one act of organizing your block and street really breaks the ice in neighbors helping neighbors," Serpe says. "And that's why I'm doing this; it's about my neighbors. We all occupy this little spot on the map together, and we have to live together."

Since moving to Willow Glen, Serpe and Kushner have bonded with their neighbors. Pointing out his window, Serpe lists the residents of each home, providing tidbits of information about what they do and where they come from.

Neighbors on Glenwood, Mercer and Hicks avenues and Cherry Glen Way together hold a street sale in May, a bonfire on Halloween, a pre-Thanksgiving dinner and a Fourth of July picnic and parade. Neighbors also take turns writing and distributing a monthly newsletter, and every Friday evening someone opens up his or her porch and living room for an evening of socializing and wine.

"This neighborhood is organized around various activities," Serpe says. "Right now we're planning for New Year's 2000."

Because of his involvement with his own neighborhood and previous nonprofit experience, Serpe is an ideal board member, says WGNA president Kris Cunningham.

"I think that he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience because of his past position as an executive director," Cunningham says. "Also I think he is a very positive and energetic person. He's been involved in his neighborhood and shown that he is concerned with issues like trees and parking. That's the kind of attitude that we would be looking for."

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