The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Scott Hinrichs

Retail Rebirth: In 1987, the city of San Jose approved a $2.4 million plan to revitalize a lagging Lincoln Avenue economy. Today the popular street is home to chain retailers like Starbucks and Le Boulanger, and merchants share a new set of concerns: 'When rents get extraordinarily high, mom-and-pop stores can't function,' one retailer explained.

Ten years of headlines: history in the making

Take a trip down memory lane

By Maggie Benson

Newspapers do more than report the news as it happens; they also log history. Leafing through the back issues of The Resident is much like flipping through the pages of a history book--with one small difference. Unlike historians, news writers don't know what's coming next. This means headlines are sometimes prophetic, other times off base. No matter which, they make for interesting reading.

They can mark the beginning of trends: "Despite recession, business owners migrate to Lincoln Avenue" (July 1992), and they can illustrate times when a trend has been misread: "Neighborhood Association says NO to Arena" (April 1988).

They remind us of close calls: "District weighs closure of WG Elementary" (April 1994), and of important moments: "WG alums kick off Founders Day and their 100-year celebration" (September 1997).

They can remind us of sorrows: "Remembering Helen" (September 1993), and of joys: "Father's act of love saves son's life" (June 1997).

They can point out decisions that came back later to haunt: "School district buys new [Lenzen] building" (February 1994), and they can point out our imperfections: "Residents receive nearly half of [photo radar] speeding tickets" (April 1996).

We invite you to take a closer look at some of the most important headlines over the past 10 years--and at history in the making.

The times, they are a chain-gin': evolution of the Avenue

Nowhere are the headlines more prophetic than in the area of business. For ten years, The Resident has closely watched the ups and downs of Lincoln Avenue, logging its revitalization, its trends and the changing face of its business base. Founder Joe Guerra started this precedent in coverage in the first issue of the paper when he wrote a story headlined "Revitalization plans approved" (October 1987). In it, Guerra detailed the revitalization committee's $2.4 million plan to bring business back to a failing Lincoln Avenue. Ten years later, a Resident headline confirmed that the committee's plans had been a success. "The times, they are a chain-gin' " (July 1997) fleshed out chain stores' interest in Lincoln Avenue due to the area's high foot traffic and thriving economic base.

It also explored the pendulum effect of that success: "When rents get extraordinarily high, mom-and-pop stores cannot function," one Lincoln Avenue proprietor noted in the piece.

Trend stories on the Avenue have also helped to mark the changing demographics of Willow Glen over the years. One telling story, "Lincoln Avenue sales double in eight years" (October 1995), reported that Willow Glen was "one of the city's fastest growing retail areas."

Photograph by Hillary Schalit

Theatrical Center: The process of transforming the Garden Theater from an art deco-style movie house into a retail and office center was slow and painful, and was reported on with frequency in the pages of The Resident.

'Goodbye Bergmanns . . .'

The Resident has also kept careful tabs on the closure of longtime Willow Glen shops and the new businesses that replace them. Decades-old Avenue institutions, like Bergmanns, Robert Sawyer China and Gift Shop, and Lincoln Lane's foods were remembered in the stories "Goodbye Bergmanns, hello mini-mall" (September 1991), "Sawyer's closing" (December 1992) and "Old-fashioned grocery closes" (November 1994).

In the article on Sawyers, which described how Louise, the 82-year-old widow of Robert Sawyer, could no longer keep up the 45-year-old store, one merchant said, "We really feel sad about [the closing of the store]. It's part of old Willow Glen. They'll be missed."

Stories introducing new stores are particularly interesting looking back because we know how well they fared: Casa Casa came on the scene with a nondescript headline: "Garden supply store signs Bergmann's lease downtown" (July 1992). Owner Nancy Biagini said the store would sell "an interesting combination of things. It won't be one particular style. I don't think it will be like anything else on the street." Today, the store is one of the most popular on the Avenue.

The Garden Theater has appeared in The Resident's pages innumerable times as the paper kept track as it passed from one owner to another and eventually evolved from a theater to a mini-mall. Headlines stating the Garden Theater would soon be filled with new tenants appeared one too many times in our pages: "Garden Theater lines up seven new tenants" (February 1992) and "Eight offices set to open in Garden Theater" (December 1993).

Photograph by Lea Tauriello

School House Rocked: Over the years, The Resident has reported on several controversies in the San Jose Unified School District, including the attempted ouster of Superintendent Linda Murray. The debacle prompted protests from parent groups and students, pictured here inside the district's administrative office in February 1996.

'Learning from Baughman's mistakes': schools in the Glen

The Resident has always paid special attention to schools, mainly because so much of our readership is made up of parents of school-age children. Our aim is to provide coverage of local school happenings, like our series on Willow Glen Elementary's Olympic unit. Over the years, we've informed readers of the results of school walk-a-thons, highlighted programs unique to each school and profiled individual faculty and staff members and students at each of the schools.

We've also aimed to keep readers informed on decisions made by the San Jose Unified School District on an administrative level. Reviewing these headlines, it's easy to trace the roots of the mistrust that parents have so often voiced in the pages of The Resident.

A November 1989 Resident report, "Mistakes were made: Baughman and Weltzin admit WG Educational Park 'is not running smoothly,' " described parent concerns over academics and funding at the newly merged site.

'Broadway takes heat . . .'

An April 1992 article, "Broadway takes heat from some of its neighbors," details neighbors' complaints that Broadway students littered, sold drugs, stole and painted graffiti in the neighborhoods surrounding the school. It also reopened an old frustration: Ten years prior, the school had been "temporarily" converted from an elementary school to a continuation high school, a point of contention among many residents, according to later reports in The Resident.

Later that year, in October 1992, "Learning from Baughman's mistakes" by David Cohen explored the judgment errors made by recently deposed Superintendent Jim Baughman, who had admitted to fudging his credentials to get the job. Later, it was learned that Baughman, while principal at Leland High School, had taken money from a student fund.

A series of articles in February and March 1995 detailed the imminent teacher strike that the district was able to avoid, a bright spot for the administration. But things turned sour again in the beginning of 1996 when school board infighting led to the attempted ouster of Superintendent Linda Murray.

"Talk about creating a greater mistrust in the district," one parent said at the time.

An April 1996 article sums up the accumulation of years of such district mistakes: "Parents push for new school district."

Photograph by Hillary Schalit

In Protest: When Operation Rescue unleashed an effort to speak out against abortion in July 1993, it incited protests from pro-choice activists across the country. This group picketed in front of the Evangel Christian Fellowship on Pedro Street.

'The Quake in Willow Glen' and other national news

More often than not, the news covered in The Resident is strongly local, of interest mainly to those in the community. But there are those few times when it seems the lenses of the cameras of the entire nation are pointed in our direction. Such was the case when Joe Guerra penned this headline in the fall of 1989: "The Quake in Willow Glen."

"We surely should be grateful for the fact that we were not hit harder," The Resident reported. "The major damage on Lincoln Avenue seemed to be shattered glass at Victoria's Theatrical Supply and Bergmann's."

Nearly six years later, Willow Glen--along with the rest of the Bay Area--was again the center of national media attention when the storms of 1995 struck. Resident editor Barbara Wilcox wrote this headline in January after the Guadalupe River flooded, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of residents to emergency shelters, including Willow Glen High School: "Willow Glen battered by storm; 200 homes flooded."

On our pages, Willow Glen residents have often joined in debates on topics of national interest, but rarely do those issues come to a head in our own back yard. Such was the case in July 1993, when a Resident headline announced, "Stormy sanctuary: Willow Glen church opens doors to Operation Rescue." Nearly 400 members of the anti-abortion group gathered at the Evangel Christian Fellowship on Pedro Street for a "pro-life rally" in preparation for its "Cities of Refuge" tour. Operation Rescue organizers expected to shut down abortion clinics in seven U.S. cities during the July tour, including clinics in Philadelphia and Dallas. "America is currently morally bankrupt," an organizer told the crowd. "We're going to restore America."

More than 80 pro-choice advocates picketed the event. The story elicited numerous editorials and letters from the community.

Nancy Ianni

U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren

'Who will be your next mayor?'

Among the first items to appear in The Resident were monthly columns by then San Jose District 6 Councilmember Nancy Ianni and county Supervisor Zoe Lofgren. Ianni's "From the City" addressed local issues such as improving Willow Glen's streetscape and the creation of flag lots in single-family neighborhoods. Lofgren covered broader topics, including reports on the poverty levels of children, how to prepare for an earthquake and the happenings of county planning commissions.

But the early Resident did more than provide a forum for local politicians to voice their opinions each month. It also kept watch over city politics in its regular sections Eye on the City and the Inside Scoop. During election times, it provided in-depth coverage of local candidates, including running capsules of each contender's opinions on hot local topics. Later issues profiled candidates for both city and school board races in several-part series.

One issue before the March 1990 elections was headlined 'Who will be your next mayor?' followed by pictures of Frank Fiscalini, Susan Hammer and Shirley Lewis. Hammer won, and Fiscalini came back two years later to run for political office again, this time as a councilmember for District 6. The headline of the June 3, 1992, issue read "Fiscalini trounces rivals."

Photograph by Hillary Schalit

Water Logged: The Resident captured these images when the neighborhoods of Willow Glen flooded in January 1995.

'The unfriendly skies of Willow Glen'

Every paper is obliged to report on issues whose ugly heads surface again and again. In Willow Glen, we have three: parking, graffiti and airplane noise. Every few months or so, we get calls from community members asking us to explore any one of these issues. Over the years we have. Again and again.

In August 1993, "Fiscalini, WGBPA join forces on parking," and in October 1997, they are still working on the problem. The latest effort to combat the lack of Lincoln Avenue parking entails a city study on the issue, detailed in an article that came out two weeks ago. Once the study is complete, city officials may decide to revamp parking regulations placed on businesses looking to open on the street.

Willow Glen is noted for its proactivism in fighting graffiti, which is likely why the issue comes up so frequently--in recent years the only stories The Resident has written on the topic have lauded the association for its hard work. In fact, the city uses the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's monthly graffiti white-outs as a model for other neighborhood groups on how to fight graffiti. Before the anti-graffiti faction of the group became established, however, it was a big problem, judging by the headline of this June 1993 story: "Glenites rate vandalism, graffiti top problems."

The first article on San Jose International's impact on Willow Glen appeared in August 1991 in the form of "The unfriendly skies of Willow Glen." In it, Bonnie Blackwell reported that "the commercial traffic over Willow Glen, particularly along Curtner Avenue, is increasing." The same story resurfaced in 1996, and then--with proposed airport expansion--we ran several stories again in 1997.

Though infrequent, there is crime in the Glen

Willow Glen is noted as a low-crime area, but that doesn't mean crime doesn't exist. A quick scan through Resident back issues shows the area has seen its share of criminal activity--from shoplifting to murder.

In April 1990, a stabbing at Bramhall Park prompted the neighborhood to call for a ban on alcohol at the park. Nearly 148 neighbors gathered at a public hearing on the topic. All but one supported the ban. A month later, the City Council passed the proposal.

"Arson chars three avenue firms" (May 3, 1995) reported that a Lincoln Avenue arson burned a strip of businesses, including The Rose Collection, which is now located on N. Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos. "The public support has been fantastic," Rose said of the community reaction to the crime.

In 1996, Willow Glen witnessed its first murder in years when 25-year-old Jason Jeffrey was stabbed to death in front of his Willow Glen home, reported in the story "Slaying shocks peaceful Glen" (Jan. 10, 1996). Jeffrey answered his door after hearing pleas for help from the guest of a next-door neighbor, who was being attacked by her ex-husband. Jeffrey met the assailant's knife after going outside to investigate.

Photograph by R.W. Bradford

Two-Steppin' Out: Line dancers cut the concrete at this year's Dancing on the Avenue. Events like Dancing on the Avenue help to define the community.

'Once our city--still our home': Founders Day and other street fairs

Some would say Willow Glen's street fairs put the neighborhood on the map. Much of what gives this community a unique identity are the events that celebrate it, like Founders Day and Dancin' on the Avenue and, until recently, the Fairglen Art Fair.

The Resident has logged the evolution--and in some cases, the demise--of these important events in articles like "Community rescues Founders celebration" (September 1992) and "A farewell to arts" (April 1996). The latter article explored the ending of the 33-year-old Fairglen Art Fair, which enticed people into the neighborhood from all over the Bay Area. Describing the meeting that brought the event to a close, one organizer said, "There were tears."

Michelle Ku contributed to this report.

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