News

“Petty thefts and opportunistic crimes like car break-ins  are up in most areas of San Jose, including in this neighborhood,” said Lt. Glenn Harper, SJPD. “It’s important to be aware of this and to be active in terms of reporting crimes and suspicious behavior to the Police so we can take appropriate action to promote public safety.”

• It is important that residents do not leave anything valuable visible in their cars included GPS devices or their mounts
• Call 311 to report suspicious activity unless it is going on right then, in which case you should call 911. If you don’t receive the response you need, call back and ask to speak to a Sergeant.
• Priorities for police response are set by statistics including level of violence and number of crimes, so the more substantive reports they receive on an area the more attention they will give that area.
• The SJ PD will try to improve safety near the railroad tracks along Monterey Rd.  Fencing will go up near Blossom Hill, no parking and no trespassing signs will go up and be enforced.
• Check http://www.sjpd.org/BFO/Community/Crimeprev/ for crime reports in your neighborhood.

The City Council, facing a budget deficit of $84 million, examined a number of cost cutting measures that affects the quality of life and safety of the Santa Teresa Foothills neighborhood. The FY 2009-2010 City budget (passed on June 23) preserves public safety, neighborhood services, economic development and other essential City services by streamlining administration and utilizing one–time revenues to balance the budget.

The approved budget saves many of the programs that were slated to be cut. Unfortunately, some programs have been reduced, including traffic calming and street landscape maintenance. The City will remove the higher maintenance types of landscaping in the coming months and will only implement traffic calming projects that improve safety.

Closing the budget deficit of $84 million would not have been possible without the support of the City’s employees. Nearly all of the employee union groups came forward to renegotiate their contracts and forego raises in order to save City services and jobs.

San Jose continued to receive a positive credit rating from three national rating agencies. S&P rated San Jose with an AAA rating, Fitch rated San Jose AA+ and Moody rated us Aa1. Having a sound fiscal profile enables San Jose to borrow at favorable interest rates and it shows confidence in the City’s financial management, particularly when a number of other Bay Area cities faced even more severe budget issues.

However, the State level budget woes are likely to impact San Jose in the future. Council Members Ash Kalra and Nancy Pyle are involved in dealing with the State to minimize the fallout on the city.

“I am proud of the fact that my Council colleagues and I were able to bridge an $80 million budget deficit without a major hit to services to the community and public safety. However, it looks like we will be suffering, once again, at the hands of the State as their budget fixes will inordinately impact our bottom line,” said Council Member Ash Kalra (District 2). “The Governor has proposed taking billions from local jurisdictions. The impact of the recommended taking to San José is close to $100 million, which is greater than the hole we just creatively dug ourselves out of in June! Rest assured we are lobbying hard to fight the State as hard as we can. In the end, we may lose the battle and tough choices regarding city services may have to be made. If that is the case, you can be certain that I will do my best to inform the community of impacts so we can weather this financial storm together.”

While the impact of State cuts has yet to be felt, there are many ways that the city’s budget cuts affects our neighborhood. 

Chef Deo Tupaz has opened Bistro Tupaz at Snell & Santa Teresa Ave (5899 Santa Teresa Blvd). The rustic European-style bistro and café offers a seasonal menu and dishes made with customers’ well being in mind, using local fresh ingredients whenever possible, supporting ingredients grown through sustainable farming.   “We pride ourselves on rustic European Cuisine, and we take the time to research, learn, and to replicate the dishes as they were made by our European counterparts,” said Chef Deo. “We value quality and turn a deaf ear to ingredients we feel have not been picked with pride and responsibility.”

Several volunteers worked the STFNA booth at this year’s Communityfest on September 19^th.  It was held at George Page Park, and was a free community event featuring all day Entertainment, Community Information, Children's Games, Old Fashioned Field Games, Craft Booths, Concession Booths, Great Food, Give-A-ways, etc.  Every year the Santa Teresa Citizens Action Group sponsors this event in conjunction with the office of city council district 2 – we’d really like to thank them for all the hard work and effort that goes into making this a successful event.  At the STFNA booth we had animal bones that have been found in the foothills and gave prizes to children that could correctly identify the animals.  Many of the adult volunteers were surprised to learn that when it comes to identifying animal skulls, we are NOT smarter than a 5^th grader!

September 19 was the 25^th anniversary of Coastal Clean-up Day, an annual event with a goal to pull out as much trash, debris and recyclables as possible from the nation’s waterways, lakes and ocean beaches.  STFNA provided the coordination for cleanup of the Canoas Creek between Blossom and Lean Avenues.  We had 30 volunteers cleaning two sides of the 1.4 mile stretch of the creek.  520 pounds of trash and 38 pounds of recyclables were collected.   This was the largest Cleanup Day ever for Santa Clara County with a total of 35 cleanup sites, 59 miles of creek cleaned and collection of a total of 23,173 pounds  of trash and 7,499 pounds of recyclables.  A big thank you to all who volunteered for this effort!

San José is considering a 25-cent fee to consumers for each disposable shopping bag provided at all retail establishments. Since this could very well be a controversial issue, we thought we’dpass on information regarding the public meetings where the city council is soliciting input:

Attend a public meeting to provide input and learn about how the fee will help reduce and clean uplitter:

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

or

Thursday, January 29, 2009
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm

City Hall Council Chambers
200 E. Santa Clara St.
San José, CA 95113

Come to a meeting to:

• Learn about the proposed ordinance
• Discover how you may be affected as a business owner and consumer
• Ask questions and provide feedback

For additional info, please call (408) 975-2570 or email bring-ur-bag@sanjoseca.gov.

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