September 15 – we found graffiti once again on the theater, a quick call to Santa Clara County Sheriffs and case numbers and photos were reported.  But then how to handle removal of the graffiti as we didn’t want to wait too long to get it removed. To our surprise a report to Code Enforcement at 10am resulted in a crew onsite and the graffiti was gone before 4pm!  WOW!

We want to extend our most sincere thanks to the Code Enforcement (Department of Planning and Development for Santa Clara County) – you all are doing a fantastic job keeping the entry to the Burbank district looking great!! Thank you!

As many know this corner at Parkmoor Ave and South Bascom Ave in San Jose, CA – is one of those places where depending on how you look at it – it’s either the State of California (CalTrans), or the City of San Jose (Department of Transportation), or it’s the County of Santa Clara (Roads and Airports), we’ve even been told it was Parks and Recreations?

So it’s no great surprise that this corner gets neglected, interestingly – while we were working through the list of people who may have jurisdiction / responsibly for getting this fence secured (as this is a direct path to Highway 280)…

Someone fixed the fence!  So we don’t know who to thank… maybe Caltrans? maybe City of San Jose? maybe a local concerned neighbor (like us) who got sick of it and just decided to fix it?

Regardless thank you to whomever or whichever agency did the work! Greatly appreciated!  As this is the walkway that leads to the Burbank Theater, having that fence secured is one more simple way people walking this corridor can feel safe.

For those of you who remember your Civics classes (if you had them in school), the separation of powers can sometimes get very confusing.  For example… as shown here.

This picture is the bridge going over highway 280 in San Jose, CA.  So when there is a small bush that is quietly growing into a tree in the drive lane… who do you call?  Is it the City?  This is also at the corner of Parkmoor and S. Bascom Avenue, which means it’s on the San Jose City Limit, so do you call the County?  But then it’s on a bridge that was built as part of Highway 280, so do you call the Federal Government?  But then the Federal Highways are technically a joint venture with the State – so do you call the State of California?

And then… if at the end of the bridge – there is a small road sign that says – don’t turn right.  But you can’t see it because of a tree/bush that is growing up from the embankment of the highway – then who do you call?

We decided to start with a 2 prong approach, and we decided contact both the City of San Jose, and the County of Santa Clara.

So continuing on the vague recollection of Civics class – we then looked up the “District Maps” of San Jose – and voilla!  District 6 – http://sjdistrict6.com/district-6-map/ – Councilman Pier Oliverio.

Then doing the same with the County – District 4 – https://www.sccgov.org/sites/d4/District%204%20Map/Documents/D4%20Map%20Jan14.pdf – Supervisor Ken Yeager.

So off go the emails at 8PM… and what happens?

Councilman Pier Oliverio – answers at 9pm!  Wow! And his reply said he’ll look into who to route our request too!  Great Service!

Supervisor Ken Yeager’s office – replies the next morning by 11am – stating they’d routed the request to the Roads and Airports department of Santa Clara County. https://www.sccgov.org/sites/rda/Pages/rda.aspx

So fantastic service from both our City Councilman and our County Supervisor!

THEN…. something amazing happens.

We get an email at 2:20pm – and a picture… it seems the actual jurisdiction was CalTrans (the State of California) – however the West Yard division of the Roads and Airports (Santa Clara County) took it upon themselves to grab their gear and run out and just solve the problem!  So just want to extend a special thank you to the West Yard division!  Our streets are now safer due to your quick response!