Video
Transcript
Segment 1
[00:00:00] Jessica Zenk: You know, we in the Department of Transportation with our colleagues undertook a study of the whole downtown transportation system and as you will hear later this evening, you know, Santa Clara Street was one of the critical priorities that really emerged. That is not a surprise to me. I live within a block of Santa Clara Street and, um, it's kind of interesting, I've had a lot of life experiences on or near Santa Clara Street. I went to St. Patrick's Elementary School, my children went to Horace Mann Elementary School. Again, I live on 14th Street, now you all know where I live. Um, you know, right off of Santa Clara Street. So we spend a lot of time, um, you know, traversing this area. I even before I worked here, because otherwise it's weird, uh, had my wedding reception here at San Jose City Hall. So like, this, Santa Clara Street is a very familiar location probably for many of us, certainly for myself. And, um, it has its bright spots and it has its rough spots. And so we're really excited for the opportunity to figure out, you know, how can, how can Santa Clara Street be the place that we all want to go to instead of all going away from, right? So that's my personal interest and I am thrilled to introduce you to our project manager and team, uh, starting with Eric Eidlin. And, uh, those of us who work in the Department of Transportation who can be resources afterwards, please raise your hand. Wilson, Colin, Nick, and then we have Julie who will introduce herself from our consulting team as well. So thank you again for attending and enjoy. Thanks in advance for all your feedback.
[00:02:28] Eric Eidlin: Thank you so much, uh, Jessica. Again, Eric Eidlin. Um, I lead this project with my, uh, fine colleague Nick Fry in the front row here. Um, all right. So we're going to give you a bit of a, an overview. Jessica gave you a bit of the context how this project came to be. And then I'm going to turn it over to Julie of SiteLab who's going to run us through the design alternatives. Okay. And it is not advancing. There we go. Okay. Uh, we, we also have done a fair amount of community engagement, uh, Nick and I especially in the past, well, really since the summer, but, uh, this past 10 days has been quite a bit. Saw many of you today as a matter of fact at the farmers market. Um, okay. So Jess already talked about this, called for in the Downtown Transportation Plan, which, um, actually I led with, uh, Wilson Tam who's, who's there in the back. Um, and so of the four big moves that that plan called for, it was, uh, Santa Clara Street and light, the light rail, um, realignment project. Some of you may know about that that are really moving forward right now. In the Downtown Transportation Plan we also did a lot of, um, this, uh, community engagement for that. Uh, we heard from many of you, a lot of strong opinions about Santa Clara Street. Overall there wasn't a lot of satisfaction. People didn't feel like it was the proud, you know, first address in San Jose that, you know, according to the street's grid it sort of is. Like it's the street you end up on if you're going, you know, from Diridon to downtown, for example. It was certainly my first experience, uh, in San Jose. So, anyway, uh, a sense that we need to improve that. Um, when we also were working on this Downtown Transportation Plan we were planning for Downtown West and a lot more people in that area. So it really started how do we get more people, uh, down the street? Um, but then many of us also said that, you know, that's not going to be enough. We don't just want, you know, fast vehicles just storming down the street and then, uh, empty storefronts. No, we need to think about the whole thing together. So really, um, that became a key, um, you know, underpinning of this project. This is a multidisciplinary approach so we're working closely with our Department of Economic Development, with the downtown businesses, uh, and businesses all along the corridor. Okay. So the corridor that we're looking at, um, I mean in some ways it's sort of ironic, the, the central part, you might say the most important part of the street, has been the least studied. So we really felt it was, uh, timely to look at this. So we're looking really, um, at the corridor from where it becomes Santa Clara, well, Diridon Station where it becomes changes from the Alameda to Santa Clara Street in the west through Diridon Station, SAP Center under 87, uh, all the way in the east to Coyote Creek, 17th Street. We see roughly three, uh, different zones. So in the west we say roughly from, um, Diridon Station to Almaden Boulevard. So that's the first where it's, you know, a little bit more, there are more park spaces, there's the event center. Uh, then we get into the downtown core with, with this more, um, historic, you know, urban fabric, you know, zero lot line in many cases. Um, meaning, you know, not, not big setbacks from the front building to the sidewalk. And then, uh, in the east we have, um, you know, somewhat lower density, uh, residential and business, uh, beginning, you know, just, just east of here at City Hall. In terms of the process, um, we, we started this project, um, a little over a year ago. We've spoken with many of you. We did, uh, existing conditions work on, uh, existing transportation assets, um, and we've been working really I'd say beginning this summer at, um, looking at different alternatives. Starting just with concepts for the street as a whole and now we, tonight we're showing to you some, uh, complete packages. Uh, Julie will tell you more. These aren't intended as final proposals, one or two, but, you know, to help you think through, you know, what, what, what's the best combination of elements for the street? Um, with this, uh, feedback tonight we're going to, uh, refine, uh, an option and move toward one option that will bring back to you, uh, early next year. Okay. Um, I think I've already touched on this, uh, somewhat, but, um, as I said this is a multidisciplinary project. So, you know, mobility is a given. The street doesn't work very well. You know, we often say it's trying to do too many things and doesn't do any of them very well. That said, it does need to improve mobility. It needs to be easier to get around and it has to be a more organized street. Um, but it shouldn't do that at the expense of the economy, which means it needs to be a great place for people to spend time. And there's all, it's often a tension right there. You can't have, you know, you don't have great cafes beside a freeway, you know, it's just not a pleasant. So, you know, there's this relationship between vehicle speed and how pleasant the environment is. And then as I mentioned, it's, it's the logical east-west street when you come to downtown so it is really, uh, uh, an iconic, it's the first impression many people have of the city. So we want it to reflect that and so we're looking at some of the, um, you know, elements, aesthetics, so on that we want to reinforce through this project. Okay. Um, so I've already talked to many of you. Uh, we've gotten, uh, many opinions. Uh, strong opinions in many cases. Uh, through this project we're trying to address as many of these as possible. However, we have limited space. So this is a street section from downtown, 97 feet from building to building. So we likely can't do everything that everyone wants. Uh, but, uh, just to give you a sense of some of the issues. So, in many cases we have, uh, accessibility issues. The, the curb ramps aren't, you know, ADA compliant. We often hear, um, the tree canopy is inconsistent, right? Uh, especially in the summer you notice that on hot days. You'll go down one, one block and there are nice trees and then the next one you're just in the blazing sun. That's not comfortable. People want the street to work better, um, to make it easier to close for, for special events. We've seen a lot of those. Um, there's a desire for, uh, dedicated bus lanes or at least ways to move the buses more quickly. And then a really strong one is, uh, you know, to, to the point I've been making about how the street needs to welcome people, a place to be, uh, wider sidewalks for dining as well as just to reduce the clutter on the sidewalk. So these are some fundamental things that we are, uh, looking to do across the corridor based on the feedback we've received. So generally we want to reallocate some of the vehicle space to walking, uh, and transit. And we're doing that in part by, you know, taking over largely space in the curb lane. Also in many cases, uh, dedicated left turn pockets. So it'll be, um, we would restrict left turn movements in some cases. Uh, we're looking at the street as a really, we want to make it vital for really 18 hours of the day. Maybe not, you know, 2 AM, but, uh, you know, 18 hours of the day probably and to think about that, so in our design, can we accommodate those various activities? As I've already mentioned, uh, fill in, uh, gaps in the tree canopy and right, include accessible design features. And then, um, this is really important. This is not, um, something that, uh, Julie and her team are going to fully design, you know. We're going to come up with a 10%, uh, street design plan as a result of this, uh, effort. But, um, another big piece of feedback we've gotten is that there are bright spots along the street. Jess mentioned this a bit. Um, but then there are sort of less active spots between them. So how can we maintain visual interest, uh, along the corridor? So we've identified also a number of spots along the corridor that are existing assets, whether it's, you see San Pedro Square here, or right close to there the Almaden Triangle. We think that's a place that's sort of underutilized. Could we not do something great there and, you know, help draw people along the street, maintain their interest? Okay? So those are not things we're going to design as part of this project, but we're going to seed future projects is our hope through this plan. So we'll include suggestions on how to move forward with these things. Okay. And I think with that I'm going to turn it over to Julie, um, to show us the concepts. Oh, sorry. Uh, I think we've talked enough about the feedback, but, um, this, these are just the four, uh, basic categories.
[00:11:08] Julie Guindo: Um, hi everybody. Welcome. Um, I'm so happy to be here. My name is Julie Guindo. I am the Director of Landscape Planning at SiteLab Urban Studio. Uh, we are a planning and urban design firm. Uh, we've worked in San Jose in other capacities. Um, so this is bringing us here again after some of our work at 20th Street, Little Portugal, and our work at Downtown West. So it's really nice to be here again. Um, the rest of our team, just to acknowledge them, Francisca is here from Fehr and Peers, there's our transportation, um, team members. Uh, we also have HD Harvey, they're local landscape architects. Um, fantastic community members, nonprofit here called Art Builds Community. Uh, some of you might be familiar with them, um, helping us with the art infiltration, um, kind of infusion on the project. And then TBD Consultants is helping us with some of the costing measures. So just to kind of go through a little bit on who those are. So, um, I think some of you had a chance to look at our boards here physically, um, when you first arrived. But I'm going to go through two concepts, kind of where we are right now. We've gone through many ideas and many concepts about what Santa Clara Street should be. What makes this iconically San Jose? Um, what makes it a place you want to be? What makes it a place you want to bring others? We just talked about like where do I bring visitors? Um, and so thinking about those things. So the two concepts are called Spark and Mosaic. I'll go through Spark first, um, and then Mosaic. And so after we go through the concepts we're going to have some open time for questions. So, um, hold your questions and we'll, um, give space for those. Um, so our first concept, Spark, is really about energy and dynamism and flexibility. Kind of creating a series of bright moments just as Eric mentioned through all these special spots that we're seeing along Santa Clara Street. How are we celebrating those and bringing them, um, through potential change through different times of the day, different times of the week, and also different seasons. Um, this is a diagram that we put together through some of our due diligence work, um, looking at existing conditions here on Santa Clara Street. And as you can see from this diagram there's kind of long distances between some of these highlighted moments. And also they're mostly pulled off of Santa Clara Street. So the idea with Spark especially is to, how are we bringing the energy from all of these existing moments that are gathering this, um, kind of concentration of energy both people, economics, social, um, investment and how are we bringing that onto Santa Clara Street? Here is a diagram of some work that we did with Downtown West, but we're talking here about the flexibility and what are these flex zones? How are, how are we going to, um, develop those? Could they be a food truck? Could they be a really great parklet? Um, are they an improved accessible bus stop? So there's many options of what these bright spots could be along Santa Clara Street. Um, I'm going to go through just a couple elements. These are design elements of what these flexible platforms can be made up of. Um, we know there's an initiative already happening in San Jose for pre-approved parklets. So really, um, this is kind of still in process, but having something that businesses would be able to use as adjustable modular systems that are already approved, they're not going to go through a process each time, um, through, you know, permitting of what this can be. These are things that they would be able to choose off the shelf so to speak and adapt as needed. Um, and these are able to improve that the curb isn't really a barrier here but it's an extension of the businesses. Um, and in adjacent to those kind of more fixed furnishings, we would have movable furnishings. So we talked about this Spark, um, concept being about adaptability. And so if you're going to have coffee with your friends in the morning, kind of gathering those movable seats around and seeing what those can be to a potential event in the afternoon or, um, the businesses could use them as cafe seating as well. So really kind of having both of those, um, furnishing and seating, um, to be used in different ways. Third, we're thinking about lighting. Um, and how can we bring this dynamic and programmable element that just really highlights and creates cohesiveness along the corridor to these schemes. Um, obviously this can be brought into both schemes. Um, on the right here you'll see the existing lights along Santa Clara Street and on the left, this is an example from Madrid. Um, so there's many practicalities through this that we're beginning to think through with fire and all of those pieces. Um, but really being able to string something from building face to building face or be it, um, street light to street light with accessibility to the buildings. But really creating iconic beauty and color and light all the way down the corridor. Um, and last we're going to talk a little bit here about planting. Um, Eric mentioned how are we looking at the canopy? So you'll see in Mosaic, our next scheme that I'll go through talks more about a linear concept for planting and kind of linear park that will lead you through. And here we're going to look at more consolidated unique plantings that would be paired with these adaptable programmatic spaces. Uh, this is just a quick corridor wide plan. You could see potentially how these different bright spots along Spark could be adapted based on the use of this portion of the corridor. Whether that be adjacencies to the Guadalupe River Park, whether that be at the historic core or really neighborhood serving in the East Village that they would, they would change depending on what the uses are along the street. Here's our section. So Santa Clara Street is 97 feet wide. Uh, currently what you can see on the bottom, it shows the existing curb. There's about 16 feet, um, of sidewalk on each side. What we are looking to do is increase the sidewalk zone into the street. So moving the curb into the street, having dedicated travel lanes and transit lanes, um, and these flex zones that at sometimes, like we mentioned earlier, would be a bus stop. Sometimes it would be an extension of the local business. Sometimes it would be an area to plant a tree. Um, currently there is some challenges planting trees adjacent to businesses because there's basements, um, and a lot of infrastructure that goes underneath. So this is kind of pulling the sidewalk out so you could have more opportunities, um, for these types of activities. Um, we have a, this is 7th Street. Uh, you're all familiar with this probably. Um, we've done a few little vignettes just taking the pieces that we've looked at already and like what, what could this be? How could we imagine this? If we're adding in lighting, special furnishings, um, great adaptable parklets and potentially some unique paving to, to bring you through. Yeah, that's a possibility for sure. That's a great point. I think it's something to consider for sure. Thank you. Um, okay. So we're going to move on to Mosaic. Uh, Mosaic is our concept that we're really thinking is about rooted in history and culture and the celebration of what can be here in San Jose. And the idea that we would be celebrating the cultural communities of San Jose. Be that bringing back all the way from our indigenous tribes to the local immigrant community and even things like the incredible murals that we have all up and down San Jose. How are we bringing those into celebration of the street and making more pointed efforts to include those in these different schemes? And then also even the low rider culture. So how do we bring everybody down the street and celebrating that? Um, and there's much more. This is just a few. So kind of thinking about leaping from these cultural communities to the linear park. Um, and the idea that we are creating a canvas through planting and a celebration of the landscape through these spaces for gathering, art, community, um, strolling with shade and, um, really nice new materials kind of underfoot. So we're creating a new space for these businesses and then also for tourists and locals alike. Uh, here is just thinking about the importance of the landscape as a storyteller and could we have something like an Ohlone Garden or specifics of native plants that are local to Northern California? Um, how are we using plants for stormwater? So it's a teaching, um, option as well for sustainability. Um, that would happen in either scheme, but really using planting to connect the entire corridor from one side to the other. Um, as we mentioned, fantastic art. So how can that be brought in and added to this canvas of expression for the linear landscape? And another really fun element which I think is something important to think about is seating. Um, seating, lighting. How can we use color and something that is potentially created especially for San Jose that then becomes this iconic moment? You kind of come out of the BART station eventually and you would say, I know I've landed here because of this. And it doesn't necessarily have to be red. This is an example from London. But really what, what speaks to San Jose and something that would give it this new iconic color. Um, here is a corridor wide plan. So one thing that's really interesting that we've looked at I think first we thought, okay, we're going to have the linear park. Would we have it along the south side going through the whole corridor? And really when you start to dissect and look at the street, that doesn't make sense. Um, you would really want it in some places on the north and some places on the south based on, um, the different uses and potential uses that will come in the future. Um, this is a first stab at what that might look like. Uh, there's a lot of kind of discussion and obviously equity things about where this would be placed. Um, but really it wouldn't make sense in some places to have it on the north or south. So this is a piece here that when we're looking along the section that you would also be able to see density of trees on each side, which is great. Again, you just, we have our section here, our 97 feet. Um, so you can see we're not decreasing the sidewalk at all on the side where there isn't the linear park, but we're really expanding it on the linear park side. We're giving ourselves almost over 30 feet. Um, so we're expanding the existing curb there by almost 17 feet. Um, and then if you include the loading zone, which at times would be parking and loading and other times can be a continuation of the park. Um, and again we have the travel lanes. So, uh, the vignette that we've done here is at Almaden because we already have kind of that green patch there on the corner. So if you think about extending that through the linear park and really using color and texture for what that may be. And, you know, these are artist renderings, these are impressions. These are just for inspiration. So you can imagine not all these pieces would be exactly like this by any way. But the idea that there is some great new textured colored ground plane to represent the kind of cultural communities, um, having a great interesting crosswalk and some furnishings that would carry through. Um, and really this idea if we have the linear park, can we bring some of these businesses that are inside, outside? Can we add kiosks that are currently in the buildings that are drawing people away from the street and come into the street more? So it's part of this idea as well. Um, yeah, and so we're kind of coming to the end here of explaining the two schemes. I think most of you have probably seen these on the board and really encourage you after comment period, please come up and add some, some comments to our boards. We'd love to hear what are the stories you want to hear? What, what things would you like to see pop up with Spark? What scheme really resonates with you more? Um, resonates with those in San Jose. So just really at this point we are not looking to choose an exact scheme as Eric mentioned early on. Uh, the idea here is with these two schemes concentrating on what's the look and feel? What's going to feel like the right thing that's going to make everyone here proud to be, um, arriving on the street that we can re able to turn around that commentary that San, Santa Clara Street is the least favorite street in San Jose. Um, and, you know, I think there's benefits to both of these. One being symmetrical, one being asymmetrical. One really depending on the businesses and flexibility. And the other creating an iconic corridor through the street that doesn't really depend on the businesses that carries more about a promenade and a place to be. Um, so I'll leave it there and we can kind of move on to some questions. Thank you so much.
[00:26:35] Vicky Harrison: Hi, I'm Vicky Harrison, I live in Paseo Plaza downtown. Um, question for you. Um, during the pandemic, uh, the bus corridor on San Fernando was was kind of removed and and stops, accessible stops were created and then taken down and buses were moved to Santa Clara Street. So now I'm wondering since Santa Clara Street is the one street currently with two traffic lanes in both directions, are you considering moving anything back to San Fernando or north to to St. James or where would you, are you imagining putting the traffic that's currently on Santa Clara Street?
[00:27:25] Eric Eidlin: Um, yeah, thanks for the question. So, you know, uh, one of the most, uh, interesting pieces of information we gathered in our existing conditions, uh, work was that, um, you know, we actually started this process thinking, oh, this is a major thoroughfare, everyone is driving through. We actually learned that 85% of the people on Santa Clara Street are driving to destinations right here in downtown. So, um, that gave us a little bit of confidence that, you know, the through function is somewhat less important than we thought. Um, of course we're doing, um, more and Francisca, we have Francisca here too from our transportation team, we're looking at this very carefully. Um, but at this stage I, it's a little early, I don't know Jess if you want to...
[00:28:18] Jessica Zenk: I was only going to add, so VTA is, um, partially here tonight with Adriano on the, with the BART project but, um, also part of our core team for this project. And so specific to the question of buses, around that time that you were referencing right before the pandemic, VTA, um, really looked hard at their overall network and they made some core changes to try to have more of the lines concentrated so that as a passenger you could go to one place and easily access almost all the lines that you wanted. And so that was a key part of that decision to concentrate on Santa Clara Street. And so I think, you know, the, the timing is such that that was their move and that also helps with people who are transferring from one bus line to another. So I don't want to overly speak for VTA, um, because they're not here in that capacity tonight. But that is still kind of how the, the bus routes get the most people to and from the most places is to concentrate the bus lines on Santa Clara Street. So we don't believe they have any plans to change that, um, from what it is at, at this point.
[00:29:40] Richard Ajluni: Thank you. Hi Richard Ajluni. I live on, um, I've lived downtown most of my life and I've been on South 12th for the last 25, six, seven years ago we had a whole bunch of meetings, we attended a bunch of meetings when, um, Councilmember Peralez was around and it was all about 7th to 17th and the city was going to work with all the development developers and their community and try to get all these mixed use buildings in place. And we went to all these meetings and, you know, like seven, eight years later I think there's one that's been completed and a lot of signs up and a lot of conversations. And with all due respect to your work and your creative energy, I feel like you're putting the cart before the horse. I feel like if those, if the city supported developers to build those projects, the people, the revenue, everything would be, um, this stuff would all be more organic than being forced on an empty Santa Clara Street. Sorry.
[00:30:41] Jessica Zenk: Thank you. Uh, Nick can take somebody on that side, but I will say Richard, it's such a good point. Um, and one of the things we honestly struggle with is when a new development project comes in and we have the opportunity to build out the streetscape that is desired, we don't ha, you know, like we literally don't know where to tell them to put the curb, right? And so this kind of effort can really assist for when the market is, you know, sufficient to kind of get more of those projects going. That is one of the driving factors in kind of doing this, this work. But your point is very fair.
[00:31:16] Julie Guindo: I'll say one more thing about that quickly that I think that's a great, great comment and I think some of the ambition here is kind of to think beyond that even and what are the improvements that can be made corridor wide and thinking about identity and the iconic nature of the street that it can become a great street and a great boulevard. And so I think having that energy from the development is of course needed and so important, but like how do we begin to think holistically about this street from end to end. So I think that's part of it as well.
[00:31:55] Carol Savoy: Hi, my name's Carol Savoy. Um, and I live on 10th Street and I've been there for 30 years and I also was president of all the Brown Act meetings for City Hall, um, because it took out a corner of my neighborhood. Um, two things. One is, um, well I should leave my cynicism to myself. Okay. So the second one is parking. Uh, as we build more, um, developments, the city has deigned that we shall not have a car for every person or even I think 0.7 cars for every person. So I, I notice none of this has any parking. And I'm, you know, I live on 10th and sometimes I have to drive to that building right there because the weather's bad. I'm not going to walk in it. So I'm, you know, if, if it's a boulevard, if it's like, does it have parking?
[00:32:56] Eric Eidlin: So, um, the answer to that and, and David, we've had many conversations with David here. Um, okay so the, the answer is it's different for different parts of the corridor. In, in the east, I think there are opportunities for replacing some of this parking potentially on some of the side streets which are very wide. For example, I know 9th Street for example is quite wide. So maybe you reconfigure the space, put in diagonal parking and gain a lot. That's an option over there as an example. Downtown, uh, you know, it's tough, you know. We, we can't do everything. Everyone's asking of us and, you know, maintain parking on the street. We, we know from our discussions with, um, our colleagues who, who manage parking that there is, I know not everybody likes to go in a garage, but there is a lot of available capacity in our three downtown garages. Right, a lot of capacity. You know they never post pandemic do not surpass 55%. So that's the most, that's for the, the Market Street garage. So, you know, I, it may be a little inconvenient for people, but we, we also can't provide the nice spaces that many in the community are asking of us by, uh, maintaining which, what is real, you know, I'm, I'm not, you know, saying it's not an important consideration, but in the grand scheme of things it's not the most important consideration that we're hearing from the community. That's sort of our, our take on it.
[00:36:10] Public Speaker: Hi. Is density considered as part of this? Because I've been in a number of other studies, uh, on Santa Clara Street and they included density as part of the overall discussion.
[00:36:23] Eric Eidlin: So, um, you know, I, I think I understand, so the, the, we're doing a, a streetscape project that is really to better equip the street for a future that is, is denser if that's, um, it, it's not a land use plan. We're, we're, you know, thinking about the land use plans that are in place and trying to, yeah, equip the street to better accommodate that, um, development. Yeah.
[00:36:50] April: Hi, I'm April. I live in San Jose, um, uh, near the Rose Garden, um, but I travel here by bus along Santa Clara Street and I love this plan. I have gone shopping on Santa Clara Street before in downtown. Um, and it's not a great pedestrian experience obviously. So seeing Spark and Mosaic, I mean this is great. I would love to walk down the Mosaic path or, um, see the parklets all along Spark. Um, but one thing that I do want to point out is I'm wondering if there are any considerations for bike racks. Um, oftentimes when I go downtown I'll be biking, easiest way for me to get there. Um, and sometimes I just can't find anywhere to park my bike. Not a bike rack for an entire block. Um, and if we want like a lot of people to be able to come here, um, I think just, just one or two bike racks per block could go a long way to enabling people to park here and then, um, stroll the Spark or Mosaic.
[00:37:44] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, thank you. I, I think that's definitely, uh, something we're, we're going to include in the plan. Another piece, um, you know, as we've emphasized we don't have a lot of space in many of these places so as part of that we also want to have it, um, coordinated and consolidated, right? So if we have a bus stop, you know, we want to make sure it's lined up efficiently with those bike racks so that we're not, uh, encroaching on the eight feet, I don't know if you noticed in this sur, we say we want at least eight feet of clear space for pedestrians to go through. So, um, so we're thinking about all those things together, but absolutely, um, very important.
[00:38:22] Public Speaker: Yeah just um, I really like the Mosaic design and I guess the Spark design, but not as much. It's nice to have be able to be a pedestrian on Santa Clara and not have to worry too much about getting killed by cars. Um, I think my main, some concerns I have with the Spark and also with Mosaic is like if you're going to do Spark, who's going to manage what space get used as the flex? Is the city going to use DOT for that? Is it a whole separate department? Are we going to establish a Santa Clara Street HOA for everybody that's affected by the flex situation? Um, and then the other one about Mosaic is that, um, I guess this also ties in with parking. There are, we, in your section from Diridon all the way to Coyote Creek, that's about two miles. And in this two miles there are more than 20 cross streets. So you have one cross street every 0.1 mile. We're not talking like a quarter mile, we're talking 0.1 miles. So it doesn't make sense to me why you would want to put parking on Santa Clara Street except in the residential area where people need to park in front of their house because 0.1 mile is like nothing for a delivery driver to deliver packages or whatever they need to do. So there doesn't seem to be a need for that, um, on this corridor. And for, that also plays into your linear park situation because now you need to prioritize the crossing at every intersection with the linear park. Uh, I would love to see the linear park but I would also love to know that like we're not going to try to cross the linear park with cross streets every, you know, 20, every 20 steps because that's 0.1 mile. And then that we have to wait three minutes for a car. So that's not really a park. That's more like a collection of 20 something parks.
[00:40:05] Eric Eidlin: Um, let me quickly respond and then I don't know Julie if you want to say anything about the crossing the linear park but, um, the, definitely that what you're bringing up about the manage, so the, the Mosaic there's no question that is a heavier, it's, it's a bigger move and it is a bigger, um, commitment for management. Not, not just management but also I understand also programming. When you're thinking about manage, how's that space used? How's it managed? Do we have, you know, extra Groundwerx contract or, you know, there are many examples. Um, and then, uh, as far as, you know, as you're, as you're talking also a big issue that we barely talked about is loading. So we've talked to in our engagement we've talked to Uber drivers and they talk about how chaotic it is and unsafe to pick people up. So that is something that is not going going away, right? So that, that is also part of our thinking. What, what we need to accommodate with the curb. Did you want to say anything about crossing the linear park?
[00:40:19] Julie Guindo: I mean I think that's a great point about the crossing. I think if you think about crossing across Santa Clara we're decreasing the cross distance which is great, but what you're talking about is the frequency. So that, that, that wouldn't change. You know that wouldn't change. Well that's clear. Um, I think the environment that you get to be in in terms of what the material is and the trees is going to give you a different experience, but you're correct that you would still have to cross between each of those blocks, sections. Yeah.
[00:41:38] Brent: Hi there. Uh, my name's Brent. I work at the VTA as a TOD project manager, but tonight I'm here as a local resident. I live across the street in Miro, so this is very convenient to come to. I'm apolo, I apologize for showing up rather late but, um, very excited about the work and the extensive work that you guys have done here. I popped in at the Diridon station and I saw a quick, uh, like I got like a brief snapshot of what the work that you were doing, um, while I was taking a train up. So it's very exciting to see the work that's happening on this as a main boulevard. Uh, being a resident in Miro, I recently saw the closure of Rulati and in the article, I think it was on Mercury News, it was about the reduction of or not enough foot traffic being in our neighborhood. Um, I heard some comments tonight about how the like we should wait for the development to come before we kind of implement these types of initiatives. I think it's a good thing that we bring on some of these plans and how we can tie that with development because if we don't have that foot traffic, some of these businesses that are coming in with these new developments may not have enough customers to even keep them alive and afloat. Um, so I just wanted to quickly remark on that and just say how important this is that we continue this conversation and keep these plans in motion and engage the community. I'm, I'm really excited about that effort. Um, I think, um, in another perspective too from my, from my position in, in, in work, uh, I see the tie-in with some of these plans with affordable housing and how with different grant funding like AHSC you can tie in different community initiatives in terms of bike pedestrian improvements and then tie that in with the creation of affordable housing. And so I don't know if you've considered AHSC as like a funding source for some future, um, future implementation rounds but I, I would implore the panel to explore that. Uh, thank you so much for the work that you guys are doing. Thank you.
[00:43:42] Julie Guindo: Yeah, thanks, great comment. I think what you're alluding to is this first mover dilemma in terms of like who's, who's going to come there and how are they coming there, you know, it's this chicken and egg situation and kind of what kind of development are we doing and how are we improving this and each of these schemes would do that in different ways, but I think it's such an important point in how, how we're bringing energy to downtown and the streets and if we're creating it then do the businesses come or are we depending on the businesses? And I think, um, both of these schemes do that in different way and it's a really good point.
[00:44:12] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, I'll just add so, yeah, many many chickens and eggs in this, on this project. Right, and we're, we're, you know, we work for the Department of Transportation. I think, I think you're right. We, we need to put forward a vision, you know, we're not going to attract any funding, uh, unless we put forward a vision that we've articulated and spelled out and sort of provided a bit of a roadmap about how it can happen. But you know this goes to the question, uh, asked earlier about, you know, the development, you know. We don't control that but we certainly can provide a bit of a platform where, yeah, maybe you see these photos here, you know, maybe this starts to make it more appealing for one visit, one business to come in and then, you know, maybe hopefully there's a bit of a, a snowball effect. Uh, sorry for the non-California analogy.
Segment 2
[00:45:05] Anne: Hi, um, my name's Anne and I live near Third and Williams. Um, and I, I guess just also for context, um, me and my girlfriend like we moved to downtown because we want to be like, well she still has her car but I want to be able to like walk and bike more and stuff like that. Um, and so I'm really excited to see these kind of city initiatives where we are really like trying to prioritize that like walking and biking experience. Um, and I guess maybe just a small follow-up question on the like crossings? Because I could see this like as someone who like typically will leave my house on Third and then walk to Santa Clara but maybe I'll like walk to the Sharks game or something like that. Like on those crossings, will there also be like, cuz sometimes I see around like there's, sorry I feel like I'm rambling but there's those pedestrian like walk ones where you get to push the button and then it kind of like stops the cars for you or is it like or maybe you haven't decided that yet but that's something maybe um to think about is like whether pedestrians have priority at those crossings and because that might make it more comfortable.
[00:46:12] Jessica Zenk: No, it's a great question. So I think um generally one of our biggest challenges probably probably all of you have had the experience of trying to cross some of our downtown streets like at Almaden Boulevard, right? Um and and you can juxtapose that exactly with crossing at First Street, right? And and so we have some big challenges with um signal timing, make sure making sure that those um intersections are safe for people of all speeds, right? Um and so that is what our signal timing is set for. When we are able to kind of bring in the curbs even just a little bit, it can really help us shorten the signal timing requirements and make the the crossings easier and faster for all people, but especially as a pedestrian when you're sitting there you're like I have really been here for three minutes I am ready to walk now. Um and yeah. Right. Exactly. Yep. Yep, exactly. So I think that that is something that goes into kind of all of these projects is trying to think about, you know, what is the most vulnerable user and what is their experience and how do we kind of change the intersection so that it works better for them and for everybody else. Um, all right, I see Alan has the mic and then I'll pass.
[00:47:32] Alan Williams: So one of the things I I my name is Alan Williams, uh North 12th Street close to Santa Clara. Uh, I've been involved in a number of the um the Quick Strike bike uh lane projects and one of the things that frustrated me was the uh lack of maintenance that came with that. They there was really no considerati- from what I saw, maybe there was something later, but is that there was no consideration for additional maintenance, peop- uh additional people, equipment to keep that clean. Um, and so uh maybe this project just want to make sure that maintenance is also being considered. I mean I I love either one of these designs, right, but there's lots of new chairs that need to be cleaned, uh lots of landscape that need to be cleaned, the garbage to be picked up and the such. It's not I I don't want to see this taken out of hide from the existing uh DOT or related uh you know budget it's got to have some increase in that. That's got to be part of the programming.
[00:48:30] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, maintenance is is key consideration. We'll address that in the plan.
[00:48:38] Jared: Hi, I'm I'm Jared. I uh live on Market and Santa Clara Street um and I just moved here uh from downtown from uh uh I used to live in Cambrian Park and I moved to downtown. Um, love what you're doing with the linear park. Um I think a lot of younger people do want to have a robust urban scene in downtown. I think something a lot of us are concerned about is kind of like safety, not just physical safety but psychological safety. And a lot of my friends do not feel safe going down Santa Clara. I think there's a lot of elements there. And so if we are going to bring a park structure, how are we also going to ensure that people can enjoy the park safely and the vibes are good?
[00:49:22] Eric Eidlin: It probably actually I I have here um a summary of everything we've heard and this was, you know, number one the comments so that we, you know, this is all for naught if we can't make uh the street safe and inviting and clean. Um so uh that is also something we're addressing in the plan. There are social issues that are clearly bigger than our project. That said, you know, it's a multi-disciplinary project so we are going to specifically tie in to efforts by others, um reference them in the smartest way possible. Um but yeah, I mean those are those are very important issues you're you're raising.
[00:50:04] Jared: Thank you.
[00:50:16] Michael Sullivan: Okay, I'll just go. Wait. I guess it's my turn. I'm sorry. Um uh I'm Michael Sullivan. I live on Eighth Street and uh I walked here as a matter of fact. Uh, so the two things I want to ask is will the buses have priority in the sense that not just having their own dedicated lane but can can we um, you know, um program the lights to turn green for the buses so they can always have the easiest time getting through all the intersections?
[00:50:40] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, queue jump we call that. Yeah, that that's definitely um a number of those um management uh trick uh tricks, sorry. Uh tools that we're we're going to use as well. Yeah. In addition to the physical design, yeah.
[00:51:00] Michael Sullivan: Okay.
[00:51:08] Michael Sullivan: And just to make a comment too, I know I don't want to be a naysayer because I love plants, I love native California plants, I have some in my backyard, and I love the idea of softening all the concrete that's downtown. However, I know too that the parks department is having some financial issues and keeping up with all the parks. Would this be a priority on their list in order to, you know, make sure that it's, you know, attracting people?
[00:51:38] Jessica Zenk: Yeah, I think um well one thing is, you know, maintenance has come up from all all three of you and it is actually a huge deal, right? We don't want to constrain good ideas by just taking them off the table because they are expensive, but we will be you know we we don't have funding to maintain this today. This would be a completely different level of of funding um scheme than we have available and that would have to come together and will, you know, um so that that is ahead of us, right? Is like, you know, what is the plan and then how do we make it as resilient as possible, as easy to maintain as possible? How do we perhaps talk to our partners at the Downtown Association and and extend the PBID potentially, which they just did, they're not doing right now, nobody tell them that I said that they were gonna do that they're not planning on doing that right now. But, you know, those are the things that have to be worked out to have something like this be successful because we agree we put in budget requests to extend our maintenance and have gotten some but not as much as we should for for things like Quick Strike. So I think that that's what I wanted to speak to real quickly. And then also just interestingly we do have transit signal priority on uh many of the lines on Santa Clara Street. Uh we also have signal priority for our emergency vehicles so sometimes the bus will get stopped if there is a fire or a police vehicle. So just you know, doesn't work perfectly. But I I stole the mic from you so I'm gonna give it back.
[00:53:11] Devin: Hi, I'm Devin. I work at 10 South Almaden, bike into work every day so visiting Santa Clara Street a lot. Um, I'm curious how come you guys, I know it's all very constrained space so I'm not gonna suggest bike lanes, but why no shared bus bike lane? It's a very novel concept but we are seeing it in certain places where it's feasible. This looks like a great feasible place like that. People already bike on Santa Clara Street, they just do it on the sidewalk and scare a bunch of pedestrians, or they do it on the street and almost get killed by cars. So it seems like a very interesting spot for that.
[00:53:48] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, thanks for the comment. Um, you know, as a city we've really prioritized, as you mentioned, we're we're trying to achieve a lot within this street. We have decided to prioritize east-west bike investments on the parallel streets, so San Fernando and St. James. Um, that said, I mean, you know, many people in San Francisco or elsewhere where they have the dedicated, you know, red bus lanes you'll see you'll see bikes there. I don't know. We'll need to work through that. I don't know.
[00:54:19] Jessica Zenk: Um, I can just personally say as a cyclist in San Francisco riding in the in the bus lanes is terrifying. Um, and you know that happens on Market Street sometimes in San Francisco and that's a personal thing with my children I wouldn't really recommend that. But um I see what you're saying and I think there is an importance of that but what Eric is saying about the prioritization of north and south of Santa Clara Street right now, I mean 97 feet, you know, isn't really that much. Um I'm with you, I'm a cyclist so I'm like let's do bikes over everything else but I think just thinking about what the priorities are and what there's space for. So, great comment.
[00:54:58] Adriano Rothschild: Hi hi everyone. I'm Adriano Rothschild. I'm here with VTA's BART Phase 2 program. Um the project the program's been coordinating very closely with VTA transit ops and the City of San Jose for many many many many years. Uh wanted to mention a couple of things. One is with regard to maintenance. One of the things that VTA's BART Phase 2 program did uh as part of our transit oriented communities playbooks which included an evaluation of what could be done around the downtown station was to identify potential funding strategies that go beyond our standard uh typically used. I know Jessica mentioned, you know, the PBID not ex- saying that it's gonna be extended but there are a lot of very unique ways that uh you can leverage development and investment to raise more funding uh and that was some of the recommendations that the playbooks uh provided to the city uh for consideration as we move forward. So uh and then just with regard to bike and ped I think or sorry bike and bus. Uh that was a big part of the conversation on uh why ultimately investment was made on San Fernando and buses were moved to Santa Clara um to to try and provide a better environment for each of those modes uh recognizing that there's some real scary challenges with really getting those two types of modes next to each other.
[00:56:53] Haojun: Oh, one last, I'll keep it short. So my name is Haojun. I uh I'm the uh VTA BPAC rep for uh for San Jose but I'm speaking on behalf of myself. So me and my wife, we live in uh West San Carlos Street and uh we we love to uh come to downtown for a date. So we go to Scratch for our best fried chicken, right? We go to Punjab Cafe. We go to San Pedro Square, right? We we love all the downtown stuff. And then we actually drive to downtown because of how generally not safe it is to to bike and my wife she's terrified of cars uh so she does not want to bike with me also because it's cold and she's really a wimpy baby. Uh anyway, doesn't matter. So she uh we how we do it is that we drive to one of the garages uh and then we we park our car for free 90 90 minutes free I think, right? Uh and then we we walk all along downtown and then we visit multiple businesses in downtown on Santa Clara Street. Um we sometimes go to the the Broadway uh go to a Broadway show, right? And then on the uh I forgot what is it called, Performing Arts Center? Center for Performing Arts, yeah yeah yeah, there's a couple good shows coming out by the way. Um anyway, so my point is um I I I really see that these designs are great um but in in terms of the bus lane if you don't have parking next to the bus lane uh people are gonna double park in the bus lane. That's what we see on First Street, Second Street. Uh I take the bus to uh to Monterey uh sometimes to the Fairgrounds and then the 68 never rides in the bus lane on First or Second Street just because people are always there's always loading cars loading uh in the bus lane. And then um so I I don't I I I think your intention is great but once it actually gets implemented then uh I don't think that the bus will actually travel in the in the in the bus lane. That's the first thing. And the second thing is I personally like I really like the designs but what I feel like is like this is not really reimagining Santa Clara Street. Like it's really more of the same. Like you you still have car traveling lanes, you still have a bus lane which is basically uh a car travel lane and then you have parking or loading zones on the side. So I I think that if you really want to do something drastic, something that improves downtown experience for people like me who drive to downtown, visit multiple businesses and spend the whole night in downtown, it would be great if this space was more prioritized for pedestrians. Something like you can have a car-free Santa Clara Street where you have loading times, right? You have a like a center like a loading zone in the center where businesses can park their uh delivery trucks in the middle instead of parking the bus lane, right? Or you can open that then you have a lot more real estate to do things like you can put linear parks on both sides of the street, right? You can you don't have to debate oh which businesses are gonna get the better foot traffic, which which businesses not gonna get better foot traffic, right? You can even put things like bike lanes if you really want to. Uh I'm not gonna I don't really bike uh on Santa Clara Street but like I walk on Santa Clara Street all the time. So that's just my two cents. I I think that you are not really imagining far enough in terms of what you could be done. I'm not saying that this should be implemented today and I agree with that gentleman, oh he left, but I agree with that gentleman that yeah yeah you have to coordinate with like density housing. But I if you think about 10, 15 years into the future when this is going to get built and people is going to come to Santa Clara Street and actually enjoy downtown, you have to think beyond things like car traffic or through traffic. Uh for downtown core. This is downtown core. I'm not talking about beyond 10th Street. I'm talking about um from 87 to 10th Street. Yeah. That's just what I think.
[01:00:48] Eric Eidlin: Yeah, one one more or we could take some somebody...
[01:00:55] Samantha Sternstein: Oh, okay. Everyone. Oh, my name is Samantha Sternstein. I'm a student at SJSU and I live on North 9th and St. James. So I walk everywhere. I don't have a car and I really enjoy that lifestyle. Um I love walking on Santa Clara every day, but I'm really excited about these new uh expansions. I for one think that it's going to really help our community and especially student life, um knowing that I can walk home safe from you know the Student Union and not have to worry about like oh it's getting too dark out or like wondering who's lurking in the background, you know? It's really exciting that we're gonna have so many new cool uh things going on on a street that I live literally adjacent to and pass every single day or walk on every single day. So I for one am excited. I think you guys are doing great work and uh thanks again.
[01:01:46] Jessica Zenk: All right, thank you. And and truly if uh if you are hungry we don't have food here you don't have to feel bad about leaving and going home but if you want to stay and talk to us we will stay and um as I think Julie and Eric both encouraged please use some sticky notes add some thoughts uh that'll help us get your words in your words. Um and so just appreciate all your time and thoughts.
[01:02:08] Eric Eidlin: Thank you very much. Thank you all.