Chinese Version08-27-2024, Tuesday

Last night, I went to the monthly neighborhood meeting organized by Victoria，one of my neighbors.

Victoria prepared the agenda for the meeting. In addition to residents, local officials will also attend the meeting. Because many residents only speak Spanish, and officials mostly speak English, and I don’t understand Spanish at all, Victoria naturally became a bilingual translator. She translated Spanish into English and English into Spanish to facilitate communication and understanding among attendees. Later in the meeting, District 7 Councilor Bien stood next to Victoria and praised her many times: “You did an awesome job translating!”

Families Children Services

Before the meeting, during the self-introduction phase, the lady who sat next to Victoria said that she came from the county to serve families and children. I wanted to listen to her speech because I thought we (people with families and children) are her service targets. She did not speak during the meeting, so I looked for her after the meeting to learn about her work . I saw her standing and chatting with an African American lady and went over to ask her: “You said you provide services for families and children. What department are you in?” She replied: “Oh, I’m in the County Department of Family Children Services.” I asked again: “I have two grandchildren. What kind of services can you provide for us?” She said: “We provide services to protect children from abuse and neglect, to ensure that no child is left behind.” I nodded and thanked her by saying: “Thank you for your explanation. Now I know it provides services for children in special cases.” I immediately apologized to the African American lady standing next to me, “I’m sorry, I interrupted your conversation because I want to know more about family and children services I just heard tonight.” She smiled and said, “It’s okay. We are colleagues. I’m glad to see that you are interested in our services.” I said, “I’m also glad to hear that the government has such a service to care for children in our community.” Then, we exchanged names and family situations to extend our conversation. I’m Jean, and I have two grandchildren; Lina, who is of Burmese descent, has two children; Sinora, Lina’s African American colleague, has three grandchildren. They all grew up and work in California. After hearing their introductions, I guess that mothers or grandmothers who are working in the Department of Family Children Services would be easier to put themselves in the shoes of children in special cases, and perhaps provide more appropriate services for children in need. We talked about the responsibilities of taking care of children and grandchildren and some other things. I suggested taking a photo together and they both agreed.

After taking the photo, we exchanged contact information and I said to them: “I like to write stories about meeting new people and I am very happy to meet you at tonight’s meeting. I will write a story about tonight’s event and share it with you.” I also told them that the services they provide to our community make me happy as it shows our government really cares about children.

The residents’ meeting was rich in content and I felt deeply about a few of them.

Dumpster Day

One of the main topics in the meeting is planning the next “Dumpster Day” event. Before 2017, I lived in Almaden Valley in San Jose and enjoyed the convenience brought by “Dumpster Day” many times, so I like this event very much. Listening to residents and officials discussing: Where to park the garbage trucks? If there are not enough parking spaces where the garbage trucks are located, residents will spend a lot of time in the car lining up on the road to get closer to dump their junk into the truck, which means this event might cause nearby traffic jams. How to notify all the neighbors of this event? If the notification didn’t reach everyone ahead of time, the prepared garbage trucks could not be filled up which will be a waste of resources. How to prevent residents from piling up junk on the roadside instead of sending it to the garbage trucks? … I only now know that scheduling a “Dumpster Day” event is a big project involving both the government and the public.

Closing Schools

Alum Rock School District superintendent Manny addressed residents’ concerns about the District’s plan to close nine schools this year. Here are some Q&A I heard:
Q-Why do you want to close schools?
A-The government funds schools based on the student enrollments. In the past decade, the student enrollments in our school district dropped sharply, the funds received by schools also dropped sharply, but the cost of maintaining school buildings did not change, so some schools need to be closed to reduce maintenance costs.
Q-Why is student enrollments decreasing?
A-Because the birth rate is declining, high housing prices have prevented young families from settling here, and there is competition from charter and private schools.
Q-How to decide which nine schools to close?
A-The school district will set up an organizing committee, including principals of schools in the district, representatives of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), and representatives of four neighborhood committees. Your neighborhood committee can also apply to be a representative.

Concerns

Lieutenant Jesse, Foothill Division Commander of the San Jose Police Department, also came. He said, “Nancy Pelosi is coming to San Jose tonight. Many of my people are there now, and I will go there soon. Before I leave, do you have any concerns to tell me? ” Someone said: “I have noticed that there have been more graffiti on the wall and road signs in recent weeks.” Jess said, “Please use the 311 App to report the graffiti, and someone will handle these issues.” I am very happy that our area didn’t have concerns which needed the police chief’s immediate attention.

Beautify San Jose

Regarding graffiti, Tara, from the San Jose Mayor’s office, said that she and Victoria worked together to invite painters to paint beautiful pictures on the high wall next to the newly constructed children’s playground through the “Beautify San Jose” project:

Once I heard conversation about the children’s playground, I immediately raised my hand to say: “I hope to install a sunshade tent for the children’s playground so that children can play under the hot sun and utilize the playground fully.” Because I often took my grandchildren there to play, I noticed that the slides are too hot to play in the daytime on sunny day as they are exposed to the sun directly. This is a scene of I played with my granddaughter in the shade under the slides in the playground:

Someone also suggested that it would be safer at night by installing lights in the children’s playground. Someone followed the subject of night to say: “While driving at night, I saw more pedestrians wearing dark clothes crossing the road, it is very unsafe. Why was the law of ‘jaywalking is illegal’ repealed?” The official replied: “In over 20 years of relevant work experience, no pedestrians have ever crossed the road and been hit by cars. Pedestrians should be able to cross the road where they feel it is safe.”

Install a Speed Bump

An official also shared a case: “A neighbor suggested adding a speed bump on a section of the road where the speed is too fast. This is a good suggestion, but it will take a lot of time to implement. First, the relevant department needs to accept this request, then the task of installing a speed monitor equipment can be scheduled, and the actual installation will be much later. After the installation is done and the data is collected, the relevant department will analyze the data to see whether the conditions of adding a speed bump are met. If the conditions are met based on the data, then the relevant department will schedule and perform the task of adding a speed bump.”

This was my first time listening closely to the conversation between local officials and residents, after living more than 30 years in the United States. Not only did I learn a lot of knowledge which I had never been exposed to, but I also felt the people-friendly style of local government officials in the United States, which I felt grateful for. I hope more residents will come to attend this meeting in the future!

The photos from Monday’s residents’ meeting: