Category Archives: Politics

November 29, 2016 · 1:23 pm

Honoring Jail Ministry

Bishop Mary Gray-Reeves honored dozens of jail and prison ministry volunteers last month, among them, myself. Since 2007 Bishop Mary has served as the third bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) in California. Since 2015, she has also been the Vice President of the House of Bishops. Some years ago, Bishop Mary created the Simple Servant Award to honor those working as faithful ministers in the community.

I was out of town – in Sewanee, Tennessee, renewing my Education for Ministry Mentor Accreditation, and being trained as the Diocesan Coordinator for EfM – so I missed the Simple Servant presentation at the ECR annual convention on 4 November 2016. However, my husband John Plocher helped Bishop Mary prepare her presentation slides, so I was able to contribute photos and information in advance. The Reverend Peggy Bryan worked with two of my student inmates on the artwork for the certificate.

Jack Fanning and I received our certificates the following week. Jack helped me to start the first EfM program at Elmwood Correctional Facility (Milpitas, California). There are about 25 EfM seminars in prisons in the USA but ours seems to be the first class in a county jail. We just started our second EfM term inside Elmwood. Our seminar includes have six men in Year-1 plus four continuing to Year-2. Thanks to the University of the South, The Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, CIC Ministries, and Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church for their joint and generous support of this program!

If you are interested in volunteering in a Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) jail, please contact the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy (CIC).

Two photos taken by Elrond Lawrence of the 4 November 2016 presentation in Salinas:

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2 Comments

Filed under Church, Home & Family, News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy - CIC, Jail, John, Silicon Valley, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, teaching

August 23, 2016 · 10:47 pm

Lincoln Avenue Road Diet, Pokemon Go

In the nearly twenty years my family has lived in the Willow Glen neighborhood of San Jose, California, we have enjoyed shopping and eating on The Avenue (Lincoln Avenue between Minnesota and Willow) several times each week. We often walk from our home near the Tamien CalTrain station to Lincoln and back – about 3 mile round trip. Recently, several of us have being playing Pokémon Go as we walk. My son Paul is our family expert and advisor on all things Pokémon. The Lincoln Avenue area is particularly rich in pocket monsters and PokéStops!

On 28 June 2016, the City Council approved proceeding with the Road Diet (“Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project”). Since then, there has been much road work and many changes on Lincoln Avenue. The 28 June 2016 City Council Synopsis for Agenda item 6.1:

6.1 Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project Report.
Recommendation: Accept the Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project Report, and support the
plan to pave and stripe Lincoln Avenue in the current pilot configuration, implement
minor traffic signal improvements at the Minnesota/Lincoln intersection, and traffic
calming improvements in adjacent neighborhoods. CEQA: Exempt, Section 15301(c),
Existing Facilities and Section 15304(h), Minor Alterations to Land, File No. PP16-063.
Council District 6. (Transportation)
The memorandum from Council Member Pierluigi Oliverio, dated June 27, 2016, was approved as follows:

Accept traffic and sales tax reports provided by Staff.

Accept Staff recommendation to make the current lane configuration
permanent in July.

Accept Staff recommendations for further improvements on neighboring streets verified by the Department of Transportation (DOT) data.

In the event that monies for improvement are depleted, DOT Staff is
welcome to fund improvements out of the District 6 Office Budget ending December 31, 2016.

Return to Council with an amendment to the existing ordinance that bans bicycle riding on downtown sidewalks, with an exemption for pre-teens and propose expanding the area to include Lincoln Avenue between Coe and Minnesota. This would minimize conflicts with pedestrians, strollers and canine companions now that bike lanes are permanent.

Changes I have noticed since June on Lincoln Avenue include:

Addition of “bump out” eating area for Tac-oh! restaurant (1384 Lincoln Ave. at Minnesota) – creating a seating area in what used to be parking spaces.
Upgrade of street light at Lincoln / Minnesota.
Addition of “Willow Glen” branded racks – for bike parking.
Slurry seal over existing paving (not a full repaving), with new road markings such as cross walk lines, bike parking signs, and arrows in turn lanes.
Addition of small statues in the existing planter boxes.

Most of these are welcome changes; however, the five categories of Lincoln Avenue problems associated with the Willow Glen Road Diet, described in my 17 June 2016 post largely remain unresolved:

Traffic safety and speed
Too Little Parking
Bicycles on the sidewalk
Delivery Trucks parking in the turn lane
Community Trust

Parking continues to be the biggest concern to local businesses (and the problem least addressed) – parking both for private cars and for trucks trying to make deliveries.

I am delighted that so many local treasures – like the US Mail Delivery Mural, Chase Bank mosaics, and the Pizza My Heart surfboards – are now Pokémon Go landmarks. The PokéStops help players notice some of the charming details of our neighborhood downtown and make walking The Avenue even more fun. I still wish that we could resolve some of the persistent larger problems during this time of cosmetic enhancement.

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Driving, Rafting, Hiking, Spelunking, and Trains

Our family took a short vacation together this week – a road trip from San Jose to northern California. Jessica and Matthew and Paul and John and I stayed for two nights at the Railroad Park Resort in Dunsmuir. John and I got to sleep in wooden caboose 12.

On Monday, we went on a white water rafting trip with Living Waters down the middle Klamath River, followed by a drive then a hike to 8,050 feet on Mount Shasta (elevation 14,179 feet above sea level). On Tuesday, we took a boat across the lake to tour Lake Shasta Caverns and then drove to Portola, seeing a train at the famous Keddie Wye junction just before full dark.

Portola is home to the Western Pacific Railroad Museum (WPRM), of which we are long-time members. WP668, our own backyard caboose, has four sister cabooses of the same age and design in Portola: WP679 (owned by the City of Portola), WP645 and WP646 at WPRM, and Sacramento Northern 1642 – also at WPRM. When we bought WP668 in 2006, it was housed at the Golden Gate Railroad Museum in San Francisco along with WP646 and SN1642. We enjoyed seeing these again on Wednesday.

In a variety of places during our trip, we saw signs, flags, and bumper strips for the State of Jefferson. Those supporting this proposed new US state seem to do so as a way of expressing dissatisfaction with our current government, or its representation of them.

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1 Comment

Filed under Home & Family, News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as Jessica, John, Matthew, Paul, San Jose, WP668

July 21, 2016 · 5:28 pm

Standing Up in Court

For the first time, today I was a witness in a criminal justice hearing. As I wrote on 11 April 2016, I have been teaching in jail every week as part of Education for Ministry (EfM), an extension program of the University of the South – School of Theology, for which I am an Accredited Mentor and the El Camino Real Diocesan Coordinator.

One of the Elmwood Jail student-mentees in my EfM seminar had a Romero hearing today and I was in court as a character witness. “The People of the State of California v. Superior Court (Romero), 13 CAL. 4TH 497, 917 P.2D 628 (Cal. 1996), was a landmark case in the state of California that gave California Superior Court judges the ability to dismiss a criminal defendant’s ‘strike prior’ pursuant to the California Three-strikes law, thereby avoiding a 25-to-life minimum sentence” (quote from Wikipedia). In today’s Romero hearing, the Defendant (my student-mentee) had the opportunity to reduce his sentence from an indeterminate number of years (that is, being sentenced to triple digit years without parole) to a sentence that may be completed during his lifetime. I was the only witness present in court today but others had written letters to the judge asking for mercy in his case. The hearing was brief but thorough. The judge listened to me and the lawyers for the Defendant and Plaintiff (“the people”), then reviewed submitted documents. What seemed to make a positive difference in this case was that the Defendant:

Has shown remorse and accepted responsibility for his actions
Has demonstrated a sustained change in his behavior, character, and prospects for the future
Did not use physical violence
Is middle aged already

I was glad that the judge ruled in favor of the Defendant today and gave him a sentence of 30 years without parole. My student-mentee will be an old man when he gets out of prison but with luck and good behavior, he will get out someday. This was the result he had hoped for.

When I serve each year as a Mentor in the TechWomen program of the US State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, my Mentees may go on to start businesses, accelerate their professional careers, attend graduate school, and change the world for the better. When I am a Mentor each year for the EfM class hosted by Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church, my student-mentees after four years of study graduate with more awareness of their personal ministry and with a solid education in the Bible, church history, theology, and ethics.

I am learning that as a Mentor for an EfM seminar in a county jail, my student-mentees gain the same education and potential for awareness of their personal ministry but have smaller potential to change the world for the better. Even after they leave jail or prison, their socioeconomic status is so low that their prospects are modest as members of the community. I am learning to celebrate the wins we can get, among them: passing the high school equivalency exam, reconciling with family, being accepted into a good reentry program, and getting a positive Romero judgement as we did today.

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Filed under Church, Mentoring & Other Business, News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as Education for Ministry, Episcopal church, Jail, Mentoring, San Jose, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, teaching, TechWomen

July 8, 2016 · 5:17 pm

Diplomacy and Community-Building

Just over a year ago, I was in Salt Lake City as one of the Official Bloggers from the Diocese of El Camino Real (ECR) for the Episcopal General Convention (GC). At GC, I witnessed remarkable diplomacy and community-building, especially with regard to the historic approval of the very controversial resolutions to create marriage equality in the Episcopal Church. The way this debate was managed has become my standard for excellence in respectful balancing of sides during heartfelt controversy. An excerpt from my 1 July 2015 post:

“Marriage equality has been passionately discussed for 39 years in our church and even today there were serious, prayerful, and heartfelt objections raised. Rev. Gay Clark Jennings (President of the House of Deputies, HofD) asked that the House maintain decorum and respect – as celebrations on one side could only be hurtful to our brothers and sisters taking the opposite view. Chaplain Rev. Lester V. Mackenzie lead HofD in prayer and song before each vote. Over a thousand people were present for this historic decision. We will be processing what is means to us and to our church for many years to come.”

In a highly-local and much less important community debate, on 28 June 2016, the San Jose Mayor and City Council voted to approve that the highly-controversial Road Diet be made permanent in my home neighborhood of Willow Glen. This final decision was welcomed by many and deeply regretted by as many. The way the discussion was handled did little to rebuild the community strength that the discussion has eroded during the last year. My husband John Plocher and I were among those who formally spoke against the decision, out of about a dozen citizens who were given one minute each to address the Mayor and City Council. We only came away with a tiny win: as part of making the “Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project” permanent, the City Council also voted to ban adult bicyclists from riding on the sidewalks of Lincoln Avenue – a welcome change for the better!

I wrote on 17 June 2016 how the problems with the Willow Glen Road Diet sort into categories, of which one was Community Trust:

“The way that the Road Diet was managed caused anger and mistrust of city government among most of the people I interviewed. … Many Willow Glen residents are looking forward to electing a new City Council representative in November 2016. Of the five problems, this loss of trust has the greatest destructive potential for our community.”

When I compare the diplomacy and sensitivity with which the Rev. Gay Clark Jennings managed the raging discussions last summer with the rough “take it or leave it” style in which our local Road Diet controversy was managed, I feel that San Jose’s leadership does not shine. I hope that now the decision is made, San Jose’s City Council and neighborhood groups like the Willow Glen Business Association (WGBA), and Willow Glen Neighborhood Association (WGNA) will start to rebuild the community peace that was lost to the Road Diet controversy.

WGBA Board meetings are open to the public: 8 am on the Second Tuesday of Every Month, at the Willow Glen Community Center (2175 Lincoln Ave., San José).

The next WGNA Board meeting will be Thursday, 28 July starting at 7 pm at the Willow Glen Public Library (1157 Minnesota Ave., San José). Meeting is open to Members and Residents.

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association Revived

On 23 June 2016, about fifty people attended the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association (WGNA) Board meeting at the Willow Glen Public Library Community Room. The WGNA was started in 1973 and over the years has done some good work speaking on behalf of our community within the City of San Jose. One of the most controversial topics discussed by the WGNA has been the Road Diet discussion which has sharply divided our neighborhood for over a year.

The San Jose City Council will discuss making the Road Diet (“Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project”) permanent at their 28 June 2016 meeting. Please join me there tomorrow if you want your voice to be heard on this contentious local issue. The Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project report by the San Jose Department of Transportation (SJ-DOT) has been finalized and will be reviewed by the City Council at its 28 June 2016 meeting.

The 23 June 2016 meeting started with much confusion. It seems that there was a WGNA meeting on 25 May 2016 that about six neighbors attended at which the 2016-2017 WGNA Board was elected. WGNA has shrunk so much that six seems to have been a valid quorum. Minutes of the 25 May 2016 election and Board Meeting were distributed on 23 June 2016, along with copies of the poster the WGNA Nominating Committee used to announce that meeting. From what was reported, it seems that some members of the 2015-2016 WGNA Board would not cooperate in announcing the 25 May 2016 Board election through WGNA email lists and website, so the 2016-2017 Nominating Committee did the best it could through other means of communication. There are still debates going on Facebook over who said and did what when. The 2016-2017 Board told us on 23 June 2016 about about closed-door Board meetings held during 2015-2016 about which there were no minutes posted (closed-door meetings are against WGNA By-laws and Policies). As of last week, the 2016-2017 WGNA Board was still working to get access to the WGNA bank account and website.

After this distressing context-setting, the neighbors who came to last week’s meeting seemed more interested in seeing what can be done to repair our community than in continuing to fight about the past. The neighbors supported the return of WGNA to being a grassroots organization. Many of us signed up for committees to help resolve neighborhood concerns. Key issues before the 2016-2017 WGNA Board include:

Road Diet resolution
Fire Department improved service coverage
Evans Lane Housing Project for homeless people
WGNA fundraising through sales of the Touring Historic Willow Glen book
WGNA treasury, dues, and financial management in general

The WGNA 2016-2017 Board voted on 23 June 2016 to write a letter immediately to the San Jose Mayor and City Council asking for a postponement of any decision about the Road Diet. The 2015-2016 WGNA Board was one of the strongest supporters of the Road Diet and on 13 July 2015 sent a letter to SJ-DOT endorsing it. This 13 July 2015 letter is Attachment J of the 6 June 2016 Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project report. The WGNA 2016-2017 Board will ask the city for a delay so that the circumstances and position of that letter can be investigated.

At the meeting on 23 June, I was glad to meet Helen Chapman in-person. She is one of two candidates for the San Jose District 6 (Willow Glen) City Council seat being vacated by Pierluigi Oliverio. Whoever replaces him will need to address the five categories of Lincoln Avenue problems associated with the Willow Glen Road Diet, described in my 17 June 2016 post:

Traffic safety and speed
Parking
Bicycles
Delivery Trucks
Community Trust

John Plocher and I have recommended that since parking is the biggest concern to local businesses (and the problem least addressed), if there were at least two multi-storey parking garages added to Lincoln Avenue, it would change the dynamics of traffic significantly for the better and would eliminate many of the problems of the Road Diet. More information about this recommendation is in my 22 June 2016 post.

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Filed under News & Reviews, Politics

Tagged as John, Road Diet, San Jose, Willow Glen

June 22, 2016 · 12:52 pm

Suggestions to Improve Willow Glen Road Diet

Although the pro-Road-Diet faction is distributing a handout declaring success, the controversy is still very active indeed here in Willow Glen. The San Jose City Council will discuss making the Road Diet (“Lincoln Avenue Pilot Project”) permanent at their 28 June 2016 meeting. Please join me there if you want your voice to be heard on this contentious local issue.

Good news is that the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association (WGNA), one of the loudest advocates in favor the Road Diet – which has not held a WGNA Board meeting in over a year in violation of its own By-Laws and the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation code 600b – has just scheduled a meeting for tomorrow night (23 June 2016: 7:00p.m. – 9:00p.m., at the Willow Glen Public Library Community Room, 1157 Minnesota Avenue, San Jose). This is the first community meeting on the topic since 18 June 2015.

Note after publication: The WGNA changed their 23 June agenda to take off discussion of the Road Diet.

What Next?

John Plocher and I have been discussing what our own recommendations are in response to the unhappy Road Diet feedback we have heard this last year from local business owners. The five categories of problems I described in my 17 June 2016 post are:

Traffic safety and speed
Parking
Bicycles
Delivery Trucks
Community Trust

Of these five, parking is the biggest concern to local businesses (and the problem least addressed) in the current Road Diet improvements. I was in San Francisco yesterday for a business meeting and noticed not only how many public parking garages there are (in addition to many private garages and lots) but how excellent the signage is to those parking garages (see photos). On Lincoln Avenue, we have one public parking lot with minimal signage (behind the Bank of America building on Lincolnshire Way). Several of the business owners I interviewed said that their customers did not know about this one parking lot.

Comparisons:

Willow Glen’s central business area on Lincoln Avenue is 0.7 miles long (from Minnesota to Willow) with one public lot.
University Avenue in Palo Alto, where the central business area is 0.8 miles long (from Middlefield to Alma), has at least seven public parking lots and multi-storey garages.
Downtown Campbell lists ten parking garages and lots for their downtown.
Murphy Avenue in Sunnyvale is surrounded by large parking lots – including the lots for Macy’s and CalTrain.

Proposal!

If there were at least two multi-storey parking garages on Lincoln Avenue, it would change the dynamics of traffic significantly for the better and would eliminate many of the problems of the Road Diet.
- Additional public parking would make it easier for Lincoln Avenue lunch customers t0 get in and out – helping to reverse the current drastic reduction in lunch traffic described by so many business owners.
- More parking would reduce traffic by the number of cars circling to find parking, and would help to keep Lincoln Avenue customers from parking on neighborhood side streets.
- Getting cars off the street would also make more space for trucks to park for deliveries.
- Public parking structures would also include more Disabled Parking Zones. As you can see from my diagram, there are few Blue parking spaces on Lincoln Avenue now – and none from Lincolnshire to Willow. There are Blue parking spaces in private parking lots – all clearly marked with signs saying some variation of “Customer Use Only” (some of the lots have private guards to keep out non-customers).
Add more and better signage to parking.
Two areas to consider placing new multi-storey garages on Lincoln Avenue:
- The fenced and empty dirt lot at Willow and Lincoln, across the street from Willow Glen Town Square
- Behind the Bank of America building (which I understand was recently sold), where part of the lot is now available for public parking

Multi-storey garages need not be ugly: the structure at San Jose Airport decorated with artful hands is a good example of civic art combined with parking.

Category Archives: Politics

Honoring Jail Ministry

Lincoln Avenue Road Diet, Pokemon Go

Driving, Rafting, Hiking, Spelunking, and Trains

Standing Up in Court

Diplomacy and Community-Building

Willow Glen Neighborhood Association Revived

Suggestions to Improve Willow Glen Road Diet

What Next?

Proposal!

Lincoln Avenue Diagram

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