A solar system in search of a sun - decentralization has its costs




photo:Destination:Freedom

 Most readers of this blog may know of my involvement with trains. While a student in Japan, I had used local trolleys, commuter and express trains, and even have considerable experience with their "bullet trains". Travelling throughout Europe, I have travelled to and within thirteen countries by train.

Here locally in addition to the Caltrain and Bart systems, I have also used long distance Amtrak trains as well. I have chaired  a Caltrain committee and have participated in the process of developing station (rail) plans. Recently while browsing Caltrans (Caltrans administers Amtrak California) I came across the draft of a new California State Rail Plan. I was surprised to learn that the public open house meetings to comment on the plan was taking place only during the month February of this year.

When I check the locations of the meetings these are the cities that were listed:

• Sacramento
• Oakland
• San Diego
• Los Angeles
• Fresno
• and an online webinar

Except for Sacramento (the state capitol) they were all the home of a Caltrans district offices and the venues were either in Caltrans offices and state office buildings.

This got me to thinking. If San Jose is the third largest city in California, the future home of the "largest train station west of the Mississippi" (during station plan meetings city planning staff often repeated this phrase), and a future high speed rail station,  how did we get passed up by places like Fresno, Sacramento, and Oakland?

One reason comes to mind. When it comes to San Jose, and especially downtown San Jose; the city is a government, corporate, agency, and non-profit leadership backwater. Every city on the list for the rail plan open house is the home to some type of California state district office. San Jose has none. It was only recently that the city even got additional representation on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC is the regional transportation funding authority) board to match the growth in population.

To develop a more vibrant downtown, yes you need to have housing, jobs, retail, and entertainment. But to truly be a central part of a major city you need to be a nexus, a hub, a network; were leaders, administrators, legislators, media outlets, judicial bodies, doers, thinkers, creators, and innovators all come together; face to face; and not just on Skype.

If you look at the downtown area it is absent many of these institutions. Yes the city brought back city hall to downtown San Jose after a long absence, and yes San Jose State University never left, and yes thanks to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group's muscle the U.S. Patent office has relocated for the first time an office outside of Washington D.C.; although in a much vacant city hall.

Absent are governmental organizations that in most cities are located in a downtown core. Santa Clara County headquarters left downtown long ago, as did the city's largest newspaper, and the NBC affiliate vacated several years ago. The state office building is a depressing two-story concrete bunker that houses only a few offices. Likewise the federal building is only five stories hosting mainly a immigration office. Above the city level, no elected official has an office in downtown San Jose (see map below).

Likewise agencies, such as the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the Santa Clara County Open Space Authority are located in the sprawling suburbs to the south. The San Jose Water District and VTA (both the regional transportation authority and transit provider) moved out to the northern suburbs. Many nonprofit institutions like the United Way and YMCA, and even the Silicon Valley Leadership Group also mange their affairs from outside the downtown area.

If San Jose truly wants to be "the Capitol of the Silicon Valley", to make their city a more vibrant, lively, and more enriching city it should start to woo these institutions, these leaders to this corner of the world. The city would benefit greatly to have a central place for leaders and ideas.

In my train example, if more locals could have provided input to a rail plan as residents of a city with the largest train station west of the Mississippi, we could be on our path to a true transportation hub as well as a modern technological center.

Partial listing of goverment and agency offices in the Bay Area


View San Jose Administration in a larger map

Where have all the tables gone?

Starbucks at 3rd & Santa Clara
Says good-bye to street life.

I've been meaning to write about this for several weeks, maybe waiting for some downtown denizen to comment, but I have not heard a peep. While Mountain View and San Fransisco add street furniture to their business districts, downtown San Jose's tables and chairs have been missing faster than my mother's enchiladas at a family party.

Last year I wrote about Peet's coffee getting rid of their modest street inventory of exactly one table and two chairs with some lame excuse (Cafe Culture is for Canadiens, not Californians). Then a month ago I notice that the overly hyped up Safeway market, located in the 88 building, with its soft focus pictures of bikes with a basketsful of flowers, got rid of their street furniture as well. At the same time the store installed very inconvenient entrance turnstiles as well (see photo). Is this a sign of the times or a part of a corporate policy to start nice and "purty", and then slowly change the look and feel after the newness and grand opening publicity wears off.

There used to be tables right there.
Right behind the cyclist.

Well now the 3rd St. and Santa Clara St. location of Starbucks, one block from city hall has pitched they tables and chairs in to the trash bin. Gone are the tables that fit rather well on the west side of the building, where (you can see in the picture) the sidewalk is wide and now sits on the quiet bike lanes just installed just last month.

What makes this even worse is that the interior of this Starbucks is so small, there almost isn't a time of day when you can find a vacant chair. Bad business on your part Starbucks on 3rd St. and Santa Clara, and just as bad as the San Pedro Square Starbucks. With no restroom available to customers, employees at the San Pedro Square store instruct you to use the "porta potty" around the corner.

 In a recent Metro article titled "Dreams of Instant City" by Michael Malone, the Metro introduced the article with the following comment on downtown business;

While trendy, small, owner-operated restaurants sprout up in Willow Glen, the downtown restaurant mix leans toward seafood and steak chains and Italian restaurants for executives on expense accounts. (emphasis is my own).

Welcome to Safeway. Now try and
squeeze you and your bags through
turnstile.

To this I would add any chains. Whether its Starbucks, McDonald's, Jack-in-the-Box, or Walgreen's. Large chains do not encourage community with street furniture or actual windows when the focus is solely on the bottom line.

To show you what a real effort at invigorating street life looks like I have included a street view of Rues de Forges in the town of Trois Rivieres in the Canadian Province of Quebec. Trois Rivieres is a town of only 130,000 along the banks of the St. Lawrence river, but after you view the photo from different angles you get the feeling that its a city of over 1 million. Don't forget this is a city that has a daily average of 10 degrees Fahrenheit in the month of January and gets only a couple of months of really good weather. On midweek summer days and evenings that I have visited the street life is dense and lively; leaving me completely dumbfounded as to why we can't do that here.

Sometime you'd think we lived in Alaska instead of one of the most wonderful climates on the planet. Any comments? See any other instances of disappearing street furniture? How can we create a vibrant street life?


 I will be commenting on the article "Dreams of Instant City" in a future post.


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Bike Blocking as a Business Model?

Segways line up outdie San Pedro Square,
 blocking bike parking

While at the downtown Farmer's Market last Friday I came upon this sight; Segways blocking a bike parking fixture. I had recently heard that a Segway rental service was starting up out of the San Pedro Square Market but had not realized that blocking bike parking was part of the business model.

With the increase in bicycle traffic and infrastructure, bike parking in some spots is at a premium (MLK Library, SOFA). If you want to encourage more customers to your new retail development, please don't alienate cyclists, welcome them.

Remember, since bicycles do not require expensive parking structures (estimated a $50,000 per space, with equally expensive rates), their owners have extra spending cash jingling in their pockets to spend at your stores.

So here's three key things to remember food retailers;

1. Bicyclists work up an appetite just getting to your shops.
2. They shop more locally and can be incredibly loyal.
3. By spending less on gas and oil they have more discretionary income.

A new stardard for civility. How about liveability?

Gone! No more street furniture.
Such a gorgeous day, too.

What a beautiful day today. At lunch I ran over to the Safeway Marketplace to get a bowl of soup. Since it was wonderfully warm outside I proceed to grab me a spot on one of the tables before they were all taken. As a headed out the door and around the corner I was surprised that all the tables and chairs were gone.

I stepped inside to ask the manager what happened to this wonderful space. She said that (you can insert your standard orders from headquarters speech here) they were removed the day before yesterday. When I pressed her a bit more for information she mentioned that their had been fights and other behaviours that warranted their removal.

Its funny that we use terms like "canary in the coal mine", and "indicator species" to euphemistically highlight environmental sustainability but we are ignorant to indicators for civic sustainability or civic vitality. Cities can print out reams of LOS (Level of Service) data or traffic volumes cross tabulated by time of day, but we don't track or show concern for indicators of civility or even personal safety.

Another change since the store opened
 is the addition of this turnstile.
Most urban folk walk and thus carry
bags that make this a real obstacle.

The only statistic or indicator that cities, especially San Jose has historically relied on is the annual homicide rate as if this is a true indicator of livability.

This comes after last year's removal of the street furniture in front of the only downtown Peet's Coffee shop. I do wish we somehow could figure this thing out. Cities in countries like France, Italy, Romania, and even here in North America, Montreal seems to have it figured out.

Oh well, at least the weather was nice.

Recent and related posts:
New building going up in the heart of downtown Campbell

Cafe Culture in Romania

They make great coffee, just not great places

My new phrase for the day - Drive-Thru Highway

Now entering Drive_Thru
Highway. No Bicycles or
 Pedestrians allowed.

Since I don't go to (choose from below):

1. Big Box Stores
2. Auto Oriented Retail
3. Strip Malls
4. Concept Malls

I don't get out to these places much but today I came across a double lane McDonald's Drive-Thru; right next door to a Pollo Loco Drive-Thru. We sure are innovative here in the Silicon Valley.


Just to prove that it is just like a real highway this highway on ramp comes with real traffic monitoring cameras. I can just imagine at rush hour they might even issue a Sig Alert. 




3 Cameras to cover the pile up
on the Drive-Thru Highway.
Two on the left, 1 on the right.

 As you can see from the photo taken from one of the lanes of the DT Highway there are no fewer than three cameras following the action down below. Maybe there are even sensors in the roadway.









Wait, too many fry pits.
 Is this the Drive-Thru for
Panda or Pollo Loco?

 The Plant - Curtner and Monterrey Rds., San Jose, CA


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Level of Service (LOS) <=> Level of Casualty (LOC)



pic. #1
Santa Clara Street looking west
from City Hall Plaza. Car
turning on left arrow



I spent many hours in meetings last year regarding San Jose's Envision 2040 General Plan, in which participants called for the need to "design for people and not for cars", along with other catchy slogans. But in reality most of those who advocated for people, drove cars.

I really can't blame them because the streets of downtown San Jose were designed with the movement of large volumes of cars at the most effective speed, as top priority. Transit, pedestrians, bicycles, the elderly, and the disabled were all designed into the system as afterthoughts. Yes there are crosswalks and pedestrian signals but the priority on downtown streets is to move cars; pure and simple.



pic 2
With pedestrian signal green
autos are required to yield.
(Electric sign next to signal)

Technically priority is expressed as LOS, or Level of Service.



Current planning tends to evaluate transportation system performance based primarily on motor vehicle traffic speed and delay (tables 1 and 2). There are generally no LOS ratings for other modes or problems. This tends to favor highway expansion over other types of transportation improvements, contributing to Automobile Dependency. (Multi-Modal Level-of-Service Indicators Tools For Evaluating The Quality of Transport Services and Facilities

- Victoria Transportation Institute)

Given this priority, automobiles assert this right whenever possible and this morning was no exception. I had my own encounter with an automobile that although had violated traffic laws, obviously felt that it was in her right to do so.

pic 3
S. 4th Street looking south
towards 280 entrance

In downtown San Jose 3rd and 4th Streets mainly serve as arterial collectors for autos entering and exiting Interstate 280 to the south. These serve as 3 lane thoroughfares on the eastern end of downtown adjacent to dense areas such as San Jose City Hall and San Jose State University.

While crossing S. 4th Street heading east towards City Hall Plaza this morning I was almost hit by a driver that did something which is becoming more common on our streets these days. When a vehicle approaches another from behind at a stop sign, signal, or intersection it is assumed many times that if the car is stopped in the intersection it is because the driver is incompetent or confused. The driver behind many times will not see the pedestrian or cyclist that the first vehicle is yielding to. Horn honking and hand gestures are the usual result.

However this morning the impatient driver didn't even wait but continued into opposing traffic to and narrowly escaped from hitting me (see map below).

This morning's incident brings up to important questions:

1. Does a struggling downtown still need to give automobiles top priority or should it encourage shoppers, residents, students, and employees to the area by making the streets safer and more comfortable. Should we revert 3rd and 4th Streets back to two-way streets?
2. Given that 4th Street is a high speed connector to the Interstate, if the driver had hit me would she have continued at high speed to the freeway without stopping? Hit and run incidents are becoming more common.
3. This intersections is only two blocks from a large downtown elementary school which is in conflict to a move traffic at high speeds at all cost policy.

So more than just provide a two minute public comment at planning meetings let your elected officials (and your newspaper's auto columnist) know how dangerous your streets are. In fact encourage them to try walking, cycling, or taking transit for at least one month to experience the status of our streets. Until then, Level of Service might as just as well be an indicator for Level of Casualties.

View San Jose City Hall in a larger map

Innovating our way to congestion

Valley Fair 1958

Like the greeting "Aloha" which is heard constantly in the Hawaiin Islands to inflect several meanings, here in the Silicon Valley you hear the word "innovation" so many times you just want to call a hyperbolic time out.

In almost any San Jose city function or staff presentation, the word is often used in a sentence such as, "San Jose is an innovative city', as if some of the Valley's fairy dust somehow sprinkles everything done here even if it is not tech related. At a neighborhood meeting several months back, after hearing the word proudly proclaimed yet another time, I had to stand up list examples of real civic innovation, mentioning the work on Broadway in the Times Square area of New York, Portland's Greenways , along with San Francisco growing use of "parklets". These I mentioned are real urban innovations. I have yet to see anything that I could add to the list from this area.

Valley Fair & Santana Row 2007

In Monday's  (December 19, 2011) edition of the San Jose Mercury News the "I" word was used in a front page article in both the heading and the first paragraph no less ("New York throws down the innovation gauntlet") and in the first sentence in an opinion piece ("VTA's creative solution require Caltrans' help") written by Michael T. Burns, General Manager for VTA the Santa Clara countywide transportation agency. See also last Wednesday's post, "San Jose's coming of age?"

The first paragraph sets the stage

Focus and innovation. Here in Silicon Valley, these are words you usually hear from high-tech firms, but the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) is taking these principles to heart. We are looking to employ focus and innovation in a new way to accelerate highway projects and get them done more cheaply. And we need Caltrans' help.

VTA is responsible for planning, designing and, in some cases, constructing highway improvements in Silicon Valley, as well as for building and operating the public transit system. On a daily basis, we move 700,000-plus commuters along our county's highways, not including the number of commuters coming in from neighboring counties. Because of this, VTA has a close and important working relationship with Caltrans. VTA has several high-priority highway projects awaiting funding, while at the same time, local, state and federal funding sources are diminishing. Not satisfied to accept the status quo, VTA is looking for creative solutions to address our county's highway needs. (emphasis in bold is my own)

The opinion piece goes on to describe how "simple interchange improvement in Santa Clara County competes for staff time with the building of the new Bay Bridge; the reconstruction of Doyle Drive, which is the gateway to San Francisco off the Golden Gate Bridge; and the $2 billion Devil's Slide project". But making administrative and approval processes more efficient to build more congestion is like handing two large spoons to the

In addition to the 700,000 commuters mentioned above, according to MTC, there was a 47% increase in the number of commuters to Santa Clara County from surrounding areas, with over 100,000 daily commuters coming from the east.

The simple interchange improvement is one of the most congested intersections in the Bay Area handling traffic coming directly into the county from Gilroy, Los Banos and Salinas from the south valley, Santa Cruz from the coast, Oakland and the East Bay from the North East and San Francisco and the Peninsula from the northern peninsula.

The expansion of two regional shopping areas (Valley Fair and Santana Row) have now "necessitated" the expansion of this interchange. And when the construction dust has settled Valley Fair is seeking to expand the center with two additional anchor stores along with small shops. Meanwhile downtown San Jose has a Ross discount store and San Jose's small number of traditional merchant districts such as Japantown and Willow Glen find it more difficult to compete.

By concentrating the massive single use regional shopping development near a equally massive freeway interchange we have a created an auto dominated, congested, polluted gateway to the city of San Jose. While the state, with the recent passage of SB 32 and SB 375 seeks to reduce the region's congestion and auto pollution (through a reduction in VMT or Vehicle Miles Travelled) and the city seeks to do the same as stated in the recently prepared 2040 General Plan

Most recently Sam Liccardo, the council representative for the downtown and airport area also used "the word" in a Sunday, Juanuary 8 Op/Ed piece ("Redevelopment is gone, but downtown can thrive") to describe the city's Economic develoment team. The essay went on to describe all of the great improvements being made to the downtown and airport areas. I would caution however that anything that increases parking in the downtown core is not "innovative". Innovative would be tyring to bring more residents, employees, and visitors downtown without increasing the demand for parking.

I applaud the desire to make the process more innovative and efficient, however we need to realize that our innovations haven't done much to decrease our freeway frustrations. With an economy that is struggling, most Silicon Valley freeways and expressway are at a standstill at rush hour and beyond. With shopping activity having been promoted in mall and big box configurations roadways around these developments are packed during the weekends and holidays.

We can do better. But instead of wearing a false badge of innovation on our sleeve, lets look to other cities and what they have done. Long Beach has promoted the bicycle as a way for businesses in each of their four traditional business district to attract customers, Minneapolis attributes its growth in bicycling and walking to an array of new street improvements such as more bike lanes and special bicycle-and-pedestrian boulevards, and Los Angles has expand their Metrolink rail system.


So for 2012 let's just focus on tackling the big projects, the useful projects because they are right. Let's save real innovation to the tech industry with its R&D labs and rapid obsolescence. So for 2012 lets all agree that the "I" word is now officially off limits.



Online Resources

I280/880 Stevens Creek Interchange
http://bikesiliconvalley.org/content/1747

I-280/I-880/Stevens Creek Boulevard Improvements Project Website

photos: Buena Vista Neighborhood Association


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Cash For Clunkers Approved!

Had to take a photo of this car while riding


by this morning. The sign on the windshiel says "Cash For Clunkers Approved.

The car was parked at a Shell station at the corner of Stelling Rd. and Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino. Can't figure out what the direct connection to the Shell Station.


-- Post From My iPhone

This was not an accident! - Crash Kills Mom, Uncle, One Twin Son, other Twin on Life Support

We are so used to seeing those two words Traffic Accident.  But many times the incident cannot be described as an accident.  Trees falling in the roadway striking a car; that's an accident.  Deer enters the roadway causing a car to loose control; that's an accident.  But the Modesto Bee calls it an accident.

The solo vehicle accident claimed the lives of two of the Terras' adopted children, David, 20, and Sara, 23. Sara Terra's 3-year-old identical twin boys, Jason and Jessie Woodson, were critically injured. One later died.

Here are some reasons it doesn't warrant the term "traffic accident"

1. The car was travelling at a high rate of speed.
   
2. The car was seen to be weaving in and out of traffic.
   
3. The 3 year old twins were not placed in car seats.
   
4. The twins were not restrained in any manner.
   
5. The driver was driving on a suspended license.
   
6. The driver was described as smelling of alcohol (toxicology tests pending).
   
7. The driver was driving on one the most dangerous days of the year (Memorial Day Holiday).
   
8. The driver was driving at one of the most dangerous times of the day (or night).
   

With all of these risks; most of which were obvious to the mother, why did Sara Marie Terra allow her and her family to be driven in such a risky situation.  Three lives lost with one twin unlikely to make it of of life support; this shouldn't have happened.

Gone in an Instant: Modesto family devastated by Oakland wreck- Modesto Bee

Three Year Old Has No Brain Activity - SJ Mercury News 5-27-2009

In Memory of Paul Benabides, 20

In was only just over a week ago, Saturday, that Paul Benabides was killed in a car "accident" near my house. This morning I went to go find any evidence, of the spot where he was tragically killed. I though I might spots flyers, posters, flowers, or candles. Since the newspaper report listed only Lois Ave., which runs North/South for about a mile, I peddled through the neiborhood slowly trying to find something that would remind neigbors ofthe tragic incident.

Peddling at a slow 5 mph I found no evidence of any accident.

Paul Benabides RIP

August 10, 1988 - May 15, 2009