Through numerous community discussions, residents and business owners in the West San Carlos and South Bascom Urban Villages have called for streets that are safer for people walking and biking. One priority in the area is the completion of a bikeway on Scott Street.
In honor of Bike Month this past May, the Buena Vista Neighborhood Association worked with
the Greenbelt Alliance, the Street Plans Collaborative, and many other partners to create a 2-day “demonstration project” showing what a safer Scott Street could look like. The two-day project featured:
Temporary sharrow markings on the street (created with sidewalk chalk in advance of a planned permanent sharrow installation by SJDOT this summer)
An “energizer station” with coffee and snacks for people walking or riding their bikes along Scott Street.
Free bike repair donated by Performance Bicycle
A bike-themed block party following the neighborhood tree planting led by Our City Forest on the morning of Saturday May 14th. The block party included:
Free yoga in Buena Vista Park by Be The Change Yoga & Wellness;
Games for families by Viva CalleSJ;
Bicycle safety classes by San Jose DOT;
A BBQ lunch donated by BVNA members; and
A surprise Fire Truck tour for kids, thanks to the San Jose Fire Department.
Many thanks to the partners, neighbors and volunteers who helped make this event possible!
The Scott Street event was one of two “Tactical Urbanism” events being led by the Greenbelt Alliance, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, and local neighborhood associations this summer to jump-start implementation of the West San Carlos Urban/South Bascom community platform. This approach is all about ACTION. Also known as DIY Urbanism, Planning-by-doing, or Urban Prototyping, Tactical Urbanism is an innovative approach to neighborhood building that uses short-term, low-cost, and scalable interventions to catalyze long-term change.