Willow Glen Resident

News

Association plans to help merchants spruce up downtown

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

Willow Glen Business and Professional Association is launching "Pride of Willow Glen Month" in April.

The program is designed to encourage a spring cleaning of sorts in the downtown business district. Items on the association's list include repainting the crosswalk arches over Coe Avenue and the Coe Avenue bridge, fixing the bridge lights, affixing the association's logo to the arches, power washing the sidewalk and cleaning and replanting planters along Lincoln Avenue.

"Our goal is to restore the beauty and chic to the avenue," said association board member Emilie Highley.

Highley, along with six other association ambassadors, walked Lincoln Avenue and spoke with merchants about the project. Letters also went out to property owners.

"We want to bring more people to Willow Glen," Highley said. "We want residents to know we care about our downtown. There's a lot of great eateries and stores here. We want the residents to know that this is their town."

The program runs through the end of April and includes businesses on Lincoln Avenue that are bounded by Coe Avenue to the north and Minnesota Avenue to the south.

"I think this program will make people stand back from where they are and look at their own store and ask, 'What did my neighbor do to improve things?' " Highley said.

This program was not designed as a competition among merchants, Highley adds. "It's a beautification program."

Some businesses have already gotten on board and are doing their part to help lift up the look of the downtown area.

"MBA Architects is going to level the current sidewalks in front of its business and install new ones," Highley said, "and Kazoo has put in heaters and new glass inside the Garden Theater."

The response to the program overall has been positive. Bergmann building owner and association board member Tom Trudell says the program is not designed to be intrusive.

"It's not our business to tell people what to do," he said. "We're not the fashion police; it's up to them. We're just there to support them. We just want to encourage them to keep their storefront clean and keep an nice ambiance in order to encourage more shoppers to the avenue."

Trudell said the program was developed to enhance the appearance of the downtown and build interest.

"It's important to spruce up when we can because we have to compete with a lot of business districts," Trudell said. "We have to put our best foot forward."

Seeing the need for improvement, however isn't always obvious to merchants, he said.

"Speaking for myself, you don't think about it," Trudell said. "You don't see what the public sees. You are used to seeing your business or building that way."

The program also works to encourage a collaborative approach to issues, he said.

"It's a multi-pronged approach," Trudell said. "The association will work with the city, the business and property owners. We want to encourage them to work together because it will help the bottom line."

For his part, Trudell worked with San Jose code enforcement to clean up more than 100 newsstands along Lincoln Avenue.

The association plans to hold a thank-you party for the merchants at the end of the month to recognize their efforts toward the beautification of downtown.

"If this is successful, we will continue to do this annually," Highley said.

For more information or to help, contact Marv Bamburg at 408.297.0288.