Downtown San Jose builds new parklets in the Central Business District

Work has begun on a new
downtown parket.

This morning I had a chance to witness a new parklet being constructed on San Fernando St. in downtown San Jose in front of Azucar restaurant.  The expanded sidewalk will allow for outdoor dining just in time for Spring.

What's nice is that dinners will not be subject to car fumes and noise due to the planed bike corridor on San Fernando from Diridon Station to city hall.

Show some thanks to your elected city officials and the Department of Transportation for the improvements being made downtown, by stopping to dine downtown. Council member Sam Liccardo's district includes the downtown area.


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Roy's Station, a cornerstone in Japantown

Frank Rast and his family host the
community to Roy's Station,
a well-loved neighborhood coffee shop.

Just about every morning Frank Rast can be seen sweeping up the sidewalks and gutters around Roy's Station, a pre-World War II area gas station converted into a neighborhood coffee shop. "Around Roy's" is somewhat of an understatement. On many mornings Frank can be see a block away making sure the sidewalks are clean, the gutters clear, and the street side flower pots watered and trimmed.

Most mornings Frank puts in about four, yes four hours, cleaning up the area around his shop and around the neighborhood. While the Willow Glen Business Improvement District has its hired street crew, some merchants will sweep just outside their doorway, but nowhere in San Jose have I seen the commitment that Frank puts into his business and the surrounding area. And it shows.

If there was a prize for the cleanest,
most walkable streets in the city,
this block would be your winner.

Just about everyone I've talked to (and I talk to a lot of people on a daily basis), love, absolutely love Roy's. They all tell me that they do notice the little things that make it a pleasure to walk, yes I said walk in San Jose's Japantown.

That and the wonderful art inspired by Issei (first generation) and nissei (second generation) experiences in the Valley concerning agriculture, wartime internment, and post war re-settlement. The art and special care that Frank brings to the neighborhood makes Japantown stand out among other local business districts.

So make a special effort to stop by and say hi and thank you to Frank any morning. Let him know what an impact he has on Japantown. But don't linger too long, he's got a lot of work to do.

Obon Festival

So stop by this weekend, July 14 and 15, for Japantown's annual Obon festival (hosted by San Jose Betsuin). Also, the dedication of the Japantown Mural Project will be held in conjunction with the 2012 Obon festival on July 14.

The Mural Dedication is at 3:45 pm at the corner of Jackson St. and N. 7th St. There will be a short program, followed by a walking tour (yeah!, San Jose has a walking tour) of the entire mural project with lead artist/designer Tamiko Rast and some of the project artists. The event is free and open to the public. All are welcome.

Chuck Marohn with Strong Towns brings the Curbside Chat to California

Chuck Marohn of
SmallTowns.org

Yesterday amidst late-season hail, lighting, and blustery rain, Chuck Marohn of the non-profit Strong Towns visited the city of Rancho Cordova, California. Chuck is making a (big) swing through California, starting in Redding and finishing up in San Diego to promote his "Curbside Chat".

The Curbside Chat (companion booklet) is a presentation, followed by a community-specific discussion, about the financial health of our towns and cities. Some of the questions discussed are;

• Why are our cities and towns so short of resources despite decades of robust growth?
• Why do we struggle at the local level just to maintain our basic infrastructure?
• What do we do now that the economy has changed so dramatically?

Chuck is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in the State of Minnesota and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP). He has a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota's Institute of Technology and a Masters in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

Like James Kunstler, another noted planning critic he studies our post World War II suburban experiment, which is now over 50 years old. But unlike Kunstler who attacks the experiment based on urban design and its effect on its residents well-being, Marohn views it from a financial sustainability and resiliency standpoint.

Chuck's words ring well with me. As a former commercial banker I agree in his analysis of how cities evaluate infrastructure projects. Many times, cities are more than willing to absorb the low upfront costs of a project (offset by grants, developer fees and mitigations) without carefully considering what the future costs of maintenance and repair.

Without revenue generating business tied to many streets (street, sidewalk, lighting, street furniture, signage, curbs and gutters) many projects will never pay for themselves given the usefull life of a street is rarely more than 30 years. His financial analysis is similar to that of Joe Minicozzi out of Ashville,  North Carolina. I also plan to do a post in the future on Mr. Minicozzi.

But without giving to much away about Chuck's mission and presentation, check out his webiste, blog, and podcast. Start at http://www.strongtowns.org/.

Isaac Porras, founder of Solar Cycle takes his product on the road

Isaac Porras founder of Solar Cycle
Power at the start of last year's
start of the New York to DC
Climate Ride.

I first met Isaac a couple of years ago in San Jose at a key time in his young life. Armed with a recent graduate degree in engineering, a new job at a local Silicon Valley technology company, and a budding interest in cycling advocacy and transportation advocacy in general. He had recently decided to part ways with his car and use his bicycle as a primary mode of transportation.

Isaac is young man in motion. After founding Solar Cycle to produce solar kits for cyclists, his Solar Cycle product was recently featured in Wired magazine's Gadget Lab, and he currently has two projects listed on Kickstarter's website.

Isaac grew up in San Jose, California and earned a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University. His father owns a sheet metal shop and he learned most of his manufacturing and design knowledge making sheet metal parts for customers.

Most of his experience after college has been in the semiconductor industry designing parts for machines, however after being laid off in 2009, he got rid of his car to save money. The difficulties of transitioning from a car to a bicycle led him start Solarcycle and design USB solar charging devices that attach to bicycles.

Isaac came to the realization that a smart phone would run out of power using the phone for GPS navigation, taking pictures, surfing the web, using apps, making phone calls, watching videos and listening to music. The possibility of attaching a solar panel on a bicycle to charge a phone and any other USB enabled device  became apparent. That’s how Solarcycle was founded.

His product will allow cyclists to enjoy the advantage of their Smart Phones and other USB enabled devices on their trips without having to worry about running out of power. The lightweight, high-power, weatherproof Solar USB charger allows charging of any USB device directly from the sun.Isacc is extremely happy with the extent that is new product has sparked interest in the cycling community even among those of cloudy, rainy Portland, Oregon.  In fact, Solarcycle has signed up for the next charity ride in May and the new Solarcycle Delux Kit will  generate even more power!

359 State St. - New Los Altos bike store now open

It seems as though it is becoming a monthly event in the valley nowadays; a new bike store opens in some local traditional business district in the process of being remade as a hipper, friendlier version of the mega-malls. Whereas the last three San Jose based mega-malls have all included the standard Panera and Panda food vendors, smaller historically centered business districts are changing their look with outdoor seating, farmers markets, and (as I mentioned in a post about downtown Campbell) bike shops.

359 State St. which just happens to be on 389 State St. in the heart of downtown Los Altos, right next to Peet's coffee, a local landmark for cyclists who use Foothill expressway as their own local highway.

Jeff in front of Palo Alto Bicycles

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359 State Street is the latest creation of Jeff Selzer, who many bicycle enthusiasts know around the valley. Jeff is all things bicycle. Bicycle store manager, owner, bike parking fixture manufacturer and tireless bicycle advocate from local Palo Alto issues all the way to the National Bike Summit held in Washington D.C. every year.

Jeff is the General Manger of Palo Alto Bicycles located right across El Camino Real from Stanford University. He also started Bike Arc with a partner to provide a unique type of parking solutions in cities. I first met Jeff with his work at the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition where he serves as a board member as one of two bicycle retailers.

April Economides and Andrew Boone
 connect  before hearing her presentation
 on cycling in Long Beach.

In the world of bicycle advocacy and retailing Jeff brings a fresh face to the industry. With a tall and lean demeanour, he carries himself like a former road racer. The absence of any silver tinged facial hair and bright green riding ensembles however sets him apart from other advocates. In fact the ever present smile and upbeat attitude clashes with the stereotypical vision of a bike advocate. As we started the interview, it was readily apparent that he sees the ever changing cycling industry from a different perspective.

Store owner Jeff Selzer
 explaining the Bike Arc
 rack system to a customer

While speaking amongst a small group of local activists, Suzanne Ambiel a Los Altos resident asked, "Where's the shop?" Jeff replied enthusiastically, "Don't have one". Now I knew this was going to get interesting; a bike shop without a shop.

Jeff went on to state that the "store" was to entice local residents who wouldn't normally ride but wanted to use a bike for those local errands within a two mile radius from the house. With his many years in the bike business he noticed that most potential customers feel intimidated when talking with shop technicians or (typically) guys in shop shirts and aprons. I guess that's why car dealers always put their repair facilities at the back of the property. Jeff's goal is to make the traditional bike "shop" look more like a bike "store". His goal is to highlight three main products; the beautiful bikes themselves, fashionable as well as quality clothing, and the graceful racks that he sells under the name Bike Arc.



Clothes by Ibex and Rapha

 Eventually he may consider moving on to even more utilitarian bikes such as bakfiets and Xtracycles (bakfiets vs. Xtracycle), but for now traditional bikes fitted with baskets and racks will suffice. With the bright, light, and light interior its as if he took a page out of Paco Underhill's "What Women Want: The Global Market Turns Female Friendly", or took a couple of pages out of the now ubiquitous Apple store's playbook. The store is open and airy without a hint of bike grease or chain solvent.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the community welcomes Jeff's new store. Stay tuned.

A modular Bike Arc rack

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James Howard Kunstler

James H. Kunstler

The other evening my local city council member held one of his regularly scheduled movie nights, this evening featuring the movie "Radiant City", which IMDB.com tersely describes as "An examination of the nature of modern suburbia".  Featured in the movie was the prolific author and chief American critic of post World War II city planning and architecture, James Howard Kunstler.

After the movie the audience was able to ask questions about the themes of the movie; sprawl, placemaking, and community. This was a very timely event given that the city just adopted their 2040 General Plan after many committee meetings, workshops, and public outreach. Along with my council member the cities Planning Director, Assistant Planning Director and Director of Economic Development were on hand to answer any of the audiences questions.

What stood out most vividly was the the cities planning director had not even heard of the author James Howard Kunstler. Kunstler is the author of two highly acclaimed books, "The Geography of Nowhere" and "Home from Nowhere". He has spoken at the annual TED.org meeting (see video below), a homegrown Silicon Valley geek fest of which San Jose is the capitol. Actually I seem to recall during the 2040 General Plan process writings by Kunstler were even given to the participants to read as additional background material. In addition to his books he also keeps a website where one of his most popular posts are "The Eyesore of the Month", where he chronicles urban design failures. (Check out November's eyesore;  a blast on a street crossing in Reading, Pennsylvania.)

Any urban planning student today has read, studied, reread, and dog-eared the pages of Jane Jacob's "The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Kunstler's "The Geography of Nowhere", or William H. Whyte's "City: Rediscovering the Center". Looks like we have some educating to do.

This is just one aspect of a bifurcation of dreams, visions, thoughts, use of technology, transportation choices, and the definition, if any of that often used term of - placemaking. It seems as though gap between these ideas and experiences (James Kunstler is just one of many) that I have experienced in working with both older and younger citizens just keeps getting bigger. I plan to write on this more in the future since it is a trend that I see becoming more prevalent every day.

Here in the capitol of the Silicon Valley, in an advisory committee meeting last month we were trying to find ways to get the city's bike plan in the hand of citizens. One not so young member interjected, "How about advertising in the phone book", on which I replied, "What's a phonebook?"

 Any comments?