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San Jose's $3 million budget will benefit all Willow Glen
Lincoln Avenue, new park and two schools to receive $.5 million funding
By Kate Carter
San Jose's 2001-02 budget could allocate more than half a million dollars for projects in Willow Glen, including one to assess the redevelopment potential of Lincoln Avenue, when it comes before the city council for approval this week.
Willow Glen and other neighborhoods in San Jose would also benefit from other significant investments in the city's proposed budget of nearly $3 billion, Mayor Ron Gonzales announced June 6. The investment priorities reflect his and the city council's focus on neighborhood and community improvements, he said.
"The budget is the most important policy action that the city takes every year," he said. "This budget makes many smart investments. It focuses on concrete deliverables."
The budget proposal came after months of discussion and defines how city and redevelopment agency money will be spent in the next fiscal year beginning July 1, as well as into the future. Gonzales emphasized "fiscal discipline in an economy with many mixed messages," and attributed many of the new expenditures to ideas from the 10 councilmembers and their staffs.
Each council member makes budget requests for specific projects in his or her district. The mayor then chooses which to recommend for the proposal. District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager said he made seven requests totaling close to $900,000, all of which were included in the proposal.
"We had to be strategic in knowing what to ask for," Yeager said. "They had to be feasible projects. These were really projects that we couldn't get money for any other way."
One of his budget requests was for $300,000 to develop a city park on a patch of open space at the corner of Bird and Fisk Avenues. Nearby neighbors and the new North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association have been working for years to get increased attention and maintenance to the unattractive area, said association vice president Dan Erceg. Eleven people participated in an association-sponsored cleanup there on June 3, he said.
Erceg said he was pleased the land could be overseen by the parks department.
"We've actually turned this into a reality quicker than we thought," he said.
Yeager also asked for money to improve two Willow Glen schools.
The new Ernesto Galarza Elementary School to open this fall could receive 13 street lights around its perimeter on Bird and Pine avenues and Willow Glen Way. The $60,000 project would include nine new and four relocated street lights. The lighting is required by the city but it cannot ask the San Jose Unified School District to pay for it as it is not within the city's jurisdiction.
The city could also approve $50,000 toward the reconstruction of Willow Glen High School's all-weather track. The city funds would be equally matched by the San Jose Unified School District and the school, with additional funds raised by the Willow Glen High School Foundation.
Another project, proposed but not requested by Yeager, is a $200,000 redevelopment agency study of land use and transportation issues on Lincoln Avenue between Minnesota Avenue and W. San Carlos Street. Mayoral spokesman David Vossbrink said the study would look at the changing character of the neighborhood business district, especially the stretch north of Coe Avenue, with a possibility that it could become a redevelopment area and be eligible for capital redevelopment funds.
Other general budget allocations include more than $400 million of bonds for library and parks improvements throughout the city and money to add an extra neighborhood clean up day in each council district.
A public hearing on the proposal was scheduled for June 11. The council was scheduled to discuss and approve it June 12 and will ratify the final version June 19.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
