Surrounded by Redwoods in Sanborn County Park

This afternoon, I took a tour through the forested Sanborn County Park, located off Highway 9 west of Saratoga. After less than a half an hour’s drive from downtown San Jose, I stood on a pristine dirt trail with enormous redwood trees shooting above my head.

Sanborn County Park offers the only walk-in campground in the entire county park system. Other campgrounds allow visitors to drive directly to the campsite. At Sanborn, campers park their cars at the main park entrance and hike along the park’s extensive trail system for a quieter camping experience.

Even with Sanborn’s 19 miles of trails, some areas of the park are hard to reach without driving to a different park entrance. County Parks and Recreation Department Director Lisa Killough and several parks planners showed me where they will connect Sunnyvale Mountain in the southwest corner of the park to the Lake Ranch Reservoir to the east.

Completing this trail, purchasing land for new trails, and extending existing trails will nearly double the miles of pathways in the park. Hikers will be able to use 38 miles of trails, all within a half-hour drive from San Jose.

Many of these trails connect to trails in adjacent parks in San Mateo County and nearby state parks, adding even more opportunities for recreation. I hope you get a chance to experience Sanborn’s beautiful greenery.

New Crosswalk Adds Shortcut to School Route

One crosswalk can make a huge difference for students walking and biking to school.

Students traveling across Lawrence Expressway in west San Jose to get to Archbishop Mitty High School or Cupertino High School used to have to cross at either Stevens Creek Boulevard or Bollinger Road. Using either crossing could add 30 minutes or more to a student’s route to school.

I was proud to open a new crosswalk this morning for pedestrians and bicyclists at the intersection of Lawrence Expressway and Mitty Way. This allows students to travel through quieter side streets rather than heading down busy roads.

The crosswalk can also lead residents directly to the San Tomas Aquino/Saratoga Creek Trail, rather than taking an indirect route far out of the way.

The crosswalk was a cooperative project between the county’s Roads and Airports Department and the City of Cupertino. But many of the advocates pushing to get the project completed were community bicyclist and pedestrian groups, including the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. Thanks to a grant obtained by the county, bicyclists and pedestrians now have a faster and safer way to get across Lawrence Expressway.

Keeping Up With the Team Bike Challenge No Matter What

My Team Bike Challenge teammate, Leslee Hamilton, found a way to hop on a bicycle even when she visited Washington, D.C., on a business trip this month.

While visiting the nation’s capital, Leslee rented a bike to explore the city’s sites.

“It’s a good alternative to taking a cab to get to the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial,” she says.

Leslee has been biking to work every day this month as a member of my team for the Team Bike Challenge. Leslee, myself and three other teammates have been biking as much as possible to show how easy it is to make the bicycle a primary mode of transportation.

For Leslee, however, biking to work is a much more serious endeavor. For about six years now, she has ridden the 3.5-mile roundtrip from her house near Cahill Park in San Jose to the Mineta Transportation Institute downtown. She parks her bike in her office on the fourth floor.

“The only downside is that I have to take the elevator,” she says. “Without the bike, I used to take the stairs.”

Although the ride from home to work is pretty much a straight shot for Leslee, she says she encounters a lot of traffic.

“That’s why I love to ride the Guadalupe River Park Trail,” she says. “I’ve never had a serious problem with cars, but I’d just as soon not share the road.”

As current president of the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens, Leslee has worked to improve and extend the trail running through downtown San Jose. She and I both look forward to the day that the trail goes from Alviso to Almaden Valley without interruptions.

For people who don’t regularly bike to work, Leslee says all you need is a little inspiration.

“Six years ago, I saw someone from my neighborhood bike to work, and it took the same amount of time as driving,” she says. “At that moment, I knew I could ride my bike to work every day.”

A Vision of Integrated Trails throughout Santa Clara County

The Friends of the Guadalupe River Park and Gardens had a lot to celebrate last night at their annual Window on the River Park event. Executive Director Kathy Muller and hundreds of volunteers could all be proud to hold the event in the River Street Historic Park for the first time.

I have worked with the organization for 10 years now to extend trails throughout our entire valley, and I was pleased to announce that the Guadalupe River Park’s trails will connect to Alviso by November.

The trail will also extend south to connect to Almaden Lake and eventually to the Los Alamitos Trail, allowing anyone to hike, jog, or bike the trail from north San Jose to Almaden Valley.

The grand vision I have is an integrated trail network that connects together the Guadalupe River Trail, the Los Gatos Creek Trail, the Penitencia Creek Trail, the Coyote Creek Trail, the Willow Glen Spur and many others.

I also got a chance to catch up with Leslee Hamilton, president of the Friends’ board of directors and a member of my Team Bike Challenge team, the Rainbow Riders. Our team is eighth out of more than 40 teams competing in Santa Clara County. Leslee and I took a short walk along the Guadalupe River Trail to talk about how bicyclists can incorporate trails into their daily commutes.
Corinne Winter, executive director of the Silicon Valley Bikes Coalition, joined us and reminded us about the official Bike to Work Day festivities on May 17. Energizer stations with free beverages and giveaways will help bicyclists in the morning, and the Silicon Valley Bikes Coalition is throwing a Bike Away from Work Bash from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. that evening at Gordon Biersch in downtown San Jose. I hope to see many of you there.

Finding Ways to Exercise Even When Biking Won't Work

I headed to Oakland this morning for a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. I am Santa Clara County’s representative on the commission, which disburses state and federal money for local transportation projects and oversees regional transportation planning for the Bay Area.

The issue of the day was how to divide up $419 million in regional transportation funding that the Bay Area will receive through Proposition 1B. The current proposal puts about 41 percent of the money into Urban Core Transit Improvements. These funds will be used to improve transportation in densely populated areas, including many parts of in Santa Clara County.

The next largest sum of money under the proposal will be to improve “Lifeline” transportation, which serves residents living in low-income areas who might have trouble accessing public transit. The proposal has also set aside money to improve smaller transit systems in the Bay Area and purchase zero-emission buses to aid in maintaining good air quality in the region.

Because I had to commute to Oakland for the commission meeting, I unfortunately had to leave the bike at home and carpool with a colleague.

However, I still found time to run during my usual lunchtime. I decided to start running from the Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club. Managed by the City of Santa Clara, the club includes an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, and connections to local trails, including the San Tomas Aquino/Saratoga Creek Trail. Anyone looking for exercise is sure to find a workout there.

With budget workshops all next week, I am spending the rest of the afternoon meeting with community leaders and my staff to find ways to keep as many vital services as possible. Later tonight, I will be attending a meeting of the West Valley Sanitation District, followed by the Guadalupe River Park & Gardens’ Window on the River reception.

Serenity and Fresh Air in Grant County Park

Santa Clara County residents can roll over the east foothills and dip into a valley utterly untouched by the urban lifestyle of the Bay Area.

Joseph D. Grant County Park lies less than 10 miles from San Jose. Its rolling hills, ancient oak trees, and green wetlands are the rewards for driving about 30 minutes the winding road east from Silicon Valley.

After biking to morning meetings in Santa Clara, I hitched a ride with staff from the Santa Clara County Department of Parks and Recreation to Grant Park. I thought I had landed in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains when I stepped into the quiet, serene atmosphere of the county’s largest park.

With nearly 10,000 acres of land and more than 50 miles of trails, visitors can walk for an entire day without retracing their steps. Grant Park also provides a great workout for mountain bikers with more than 23 miles of biking trails.

Local history buffs can learn about the Grant family at the restored family house next to the park office. The county purchased the Grant family property in 1975, and the park officially opened in 1978.

Since then, the park’s natural vegetation has slowly been restored. Park rangers and volunteers have been eradicating non-native plants and replacing them with the wetland vegetation that used to thrive in the area.

Park officials have built campgrounds, and many of the trails have been restored in recent years. Parks and Recreation Director Lisa Killough and Natural Resource Supervisor Don Rocha showed me the wet meadow that the department is in the process of rehabilitating.

With the park so close to the Bay Area, I hope many of our residents have seen the natural beauty resting only a few miles away. Grant Park holds many events throughout the year, and volunteers and park rangers are gearing up for the next stargazing party from 8:30 to 11 p.m. this Saturday. As beautiful as the park is during the day, it is a real sight to see at night.

Connecting to Meetings via Local Trails

Even though today began with gloomy weather, it cleared up just in time for me to take a 10-mile roundtrip bike ride to the Valley Transportation Authority’s headquarters for a lunch briefing on tomorrow’s Caltrain Joint Powers Board meeting.



Biking to VTA’s headquarters in north San Jose from the County Government Center near downtown was a pleasant ride. Rather than riding through traffic, I followed the Guadalupe River Trail part of the way. The trail gave me a quieter, more relaxing ride, as well as beautiful scenery and puffy white and gray clouds to enjoy along the way.

I then took Airport Parkway to Brokaw and headed up First Street to VTA’s headquarters.

I arrived early enough to meet with Scott Haywood, VTA’s policy manager. In addition to being on Caltrain’s board, I am also a member of VTA’s governing board, and my meeting with Scott gave me a chance to chat about the latest bus and light rail fee reduction proposals.

At the lunch briefing, we discussed Caltrain’s $3.7 million deficit. The good news is that this estimate is lower than the original $5.6 million shortfall projected in February. We heard data and recommendations from Caltrain staff today, and tomorrow we hope to work together to begin brainstorming ways to reduce the deficit.

While on the San Jose City Council, I was the city’s representative on the Caltrain board. Now my appointment is because I serve on the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and it is my seventh year on the board.

Even though I logged a lot of miles in the bike lanes and on the trails today, I haven’t had my fill of bicycling. Tomorrow I plan to take my bike on the train to the Caltrain board meeting in San Carlos.