The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Julia R. Tranchina

Founding Father: Joe Guerra started the Willow Glen Resident in 1987. He's pictured here in 1988, while working on the paper from his home.

Here's where it all began

Armed with tenacity and little else, Joe Guerra gave the community a local source of news

By Michelle Ku

When Phil Keller asked Joe Guerra to start another Willow Glen newspaper in the fall of 1987, Guerra answered with a resounding "no."

For starters, he didn't have any journalism experience. He also had a challenging, more-than-full-time job. He was a volunteer. And--perhaps most importantly--two Willow Glen papers that had been started earlier in the '80s failed miserably. It would be too time-consuming, too risky, Guerra thought. But then he thought again.

"I did think it was still a good idea, even though they had failed. I didn't think the reasons they had failed applied to my trying to do it," Guerra said.

Today, 10 years after Guerra penned the paper's first headlines, it continues as a source of information on community issues.

"It's a vitally important resource for business people in the community as well as an important resource for the people who live here and read the newspaper," said Keller, co-owner of the House of Nutrition. "It's a place where local merchants can afford to advertise to the local community. It's also a forum for all different points of view, where people can fight over ideas in a healthy democratic way until a consensus is reached."

But the road to getting there wasn't easy. In the mid-1980s, theWillow Glen Town Crier closed suddenly and failed to put out another paper despite the fact that the publisher had already collected on several ads. Following that incident, merchants cast a skeptical eye towards the local press, and the community's other paper, the Willow Glen Sun Times, failed to gain advertising support and went under.

In the aftermath of the two collapsed newspapers, Keller believed that the business community of Willow Glen needed viable advertising avenues targeting the community. So Keller took to Guerra his idea of creating an advertising circular similar to Potpourri. When Guerra finally committed to the project, he dove in 100 percent.

"Joe's plan was much more ambitious," Keller said. "I was thinking of notices of meetings and school lunches, that type of thing. Instead Joe started a full-fledged newspaper. It served the interests of the merchants more because people read it and looked forward to it."

Guerra agreed with Keller that the community--businesses and residents alike--needed a local newspaper.

So Guerra contacted local printers and hired Copy Ink, a printing and copying business that closed in 1994, to design and paste up the newspaper.

The Resident began as a monthly newspaper, and the first issue was published on Oct. 28, 1987. The first advertisement was purchased by the House of Nutrition. The front-page article foreshadowed the future success of Willow Glen's business district. Headlined "Revitalization Plans Approved," the article detailed how the Willow Glen Commercial Revitalization and Implementation Committee approved a Lincoln Avenue streetscape plan.

Early editions also included a series of articles on the history of streets in Willow Glen, focusing on how streets got their name and on the people who lived there.

Despite having no journalism experience, Guerra wrote most of the articles, sold advertising and ran the newspaper.

The newspaper was not a one-man show, however, but a community effort, as was illustrated by the fact that community members wrote articles for free. For example, the articles on street histories were papers written by students at Willow Glen High School.

"This was really just a community project, and I happened to be responsible for it," Guerra said.

In 1992, Guerra sold The Resident to Metro Newspapers, an owner-operated regional publishing company based in San Jose. Shortly thereafter, the newspaper became a biweekly and then a weekly.

"It was time for the kid to move out. I could never have taken it to a weekly, but I knew it would be better as a weekly," Guerra said. "Plus, I wasn't a journalist, while [the staff of The Resident] are. The frequency is better, the quality is better."

Metro Newspapers publisher David Cohen said the paper was a logical complement to the company's other weekly publications, including the Los Gatos Weekly-Times and the Saratoga News.

"Community newspapers bring merchants and residents together in a very affordable way," Cohen explained. "We saw the impact we had in Los Gatos and Saratoga in helping merchants and residents stay better informed. Their retail centers were thriving, and the papers played an important role in these economies. Willow Glen seemed ideal for our kind of community paper. Its small-town atmosphere fit perfectly."

Cohen said the location and promise of Willow Glen were appealing as well.

"Lincoln Avenue was poised for a renaissance, and people were finding the proximity to San Jose's revitalized downtown, with its corporate headquarters and nightlife, a safe and convenient place to live," he added. "We knew a weekly newspaper plays a vital role in commerce and the fostering of a sense of community."

In the time that The Resident has existed, it has tackled controversial issues, including desegregation in schools, anti-abortion rallies and the questionable business practices of some area merchants. It has also covered important community events such as the recent 100-year anniversary of Willow Glen Elementary School.

"It's continued in the tradition that Joe started: never shrinking from controversy, always impartial on the news pages and taking what I think have been brave stances on the editorial pages--some of which I disagree with strongly, but I respect them," Keller said.

The Resident has strived to serve as a tool for businesses and families in the area.

"It has had a very positive effect on the downtown Willow Glen business community," Guerra said. "It did provide the marketing it needed. From a neighborhood standpoint, I can't imagine the neighborhood without it. Now every week, 40,000 people know what's going on. It has given the neighborhood a collective consciousness so that everybody has the same level of information."

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