2/3/2016 -- Board Meeting Minutes

Post date: Mar 5, 2016 6:02:00 PM

River Oaks Neighborhood Association

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Elan Meeting Room, 7:00-8:00pm

AGENDA

  1. Guest Speakers

    1. Captain David Tindall Commander Central Division Bureau of Field Operations San Jose Police Department

    2. John Brazil and Peter Bennet from Department of Transportation

    3. Discussion

      1. Crime and vandalism in the River Oaks Area

    4. John Brazil will welcome further inputs and ideas on modifications to the bike bumpers

MINUTES (Courtesy of Rick Collins)

  1. San Jose Police Department Central Division – Captain David Kindall

  2. Coverage area in San Jose is very large. On the south is 280. On the east is Highway 87 morphing into Highway 101 up to Santa Clara, Alviso and Milpitas on the north. The east side is from 101 downtown up with 680 on the border. The size of the Division is very large.

  3. The Department tracks incidents reported on the 311 (non emergency) and 911 numbers and put into the Department’s CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) system. In 2015 CAD recorded 1,000,050 event calls for service.

  4. The River Oaks area, for the last 90 days there were:

  5. • No aggravated assaults

  6. • 30 burglaries (mostly involving cars)

  7. • Other call types included domestic violence, trespassing, noise complaints, etc.

  8. The San Jose Police Department is severely understaffed due to extreme budget cuts over the last several years. The City is trying to increase staffing but it will take many years.

  9. Police staff and patrols are organized on a priority dispatch based on current situational conditions. Dispatching police staff and cars are prioritized in seven levels. Serious public dangers are in the first level. That would include things like bank robberies. The second would be situations such as assaults in action, violence with weapons, etc. There are five more levels in decreasing levels of seriousness. If there are a number of calls in the higher levels some calls may not be able to be handled. The City is looking to improve response with additional staff but that will likely take years. If staff is not handling more serious calls they will do some patrolling based on what they see from the crime statistics. Anecdotally, we have seen an occasional cruiser on our security camera.

  10. More “criminals” are taking advantage of River Oaks becoming (or at least presumed to be) a more “affluent” area. Appearances are more upscale and therefore we are becoming a target.

  11. Captain Tindall opened his part of the meeting for questions. Some of the questions were tabled for the Department of Transit presentation later in the meeting. Topics included questions about speed limits, traffic increases and others.

  12. One of the questions for Captain Tindall was about homeless issues.

  13. • We were reminded that being homeless is not a crime.

  14. • There are many categories within the homeless populations such as mental health issues,

  15. drug dependencies, alcohol, poverty and some people who do not want to be in shelters.

  16. • The city has a Homeless Response Team.

  17. • There are nearly 7,000 people in the San Jose area. This includes families with children.

  18. • Anti social behavior issues should be reported to the police.

  19. • A listing of contact information is on a separate document.

  20. “Lake Epic”

  21. For a number of years the area behind the Epic Apartments has flooded in the rainy season. We were told this problem would be addressed as part of the agreement for Epic to be built. It has not.

  22. We learned from the city that this was not public property and it indeed is an Epic issue. Epic will be contacted to try and get them to put in drains. We felt that this was becoming a health issue with standing water, mosquitoes, etc.

  23. Department of Transportation (DOT)

  24. Staff from the San Jose Department of Transportation (DOT) took the next set of questions.

  25. Concerns included speeding, congestion, lack of crosswalks and the growth of the neighbors. These concerns were recorded and we were told they would be looked into.

  26. River Oaks bike lanes are one part of approximately 500 miles of the lanes current and planned bike network.

  27. Bike lanes was a heated topic with a number of people complaining:

  28. • The “armadillos” were breaking up when struck

  29. • Broken “armadillos” left a metal bolt stick up from the pavement

  30. • The “armadillos” were difficult to see at night

  31. • The “armadillos” were too close to intersections

  32. • They made a lot of noise for neighbors fronting River Oaks

  33. • Vehicles were parking in the lanes

  34. • They were installed too far from the curb

  35. • Etc

  36. Suggestions were made and noted based on neighbors and not from engineers who might not know the neighborhoods.

  37. There were suggestions to reduce the speed on River Oaks

  38. There is a separate document from the DOT that will be made available. There is information on how they might make changes and a few pictures of their plans.

FOLLOW UP (post-meeting emails)

    1. From Captain Tindall to RONA Board

          1. Good morning,

          2. I just wanted to do a little follow-up since our meeting was so short and covered a lot of issues. It would be helpful to open a little dialogue about some of the specific issues so that I may address them. Here is what I have going so far:

          3. I have talked to our homeless abatement team and they are scheduling a posting and clean-up of the Coyote Creek area in the near future. While this may not be a long term solution, they will interact with the current homeless community in an attempt to give them available services.

          4. I plan on scheduling one of our mobile speed boards (displays speeds of vehicles) in your area. I did not get any specifics as to when would be the best day and time. Also, do you know if we are specifically talking about River Oaks Parkway or one of the other roads? Any information would help as to when and where for maximum efficiency.

          5. As we discussed, property theft is the main issue in your area. This includes vehicle burglaries, the theft of vehicles, and some residential and commercial burglaries. I would like to work with the management company first on the environment itself (lighting, security measures, and physical security) in area. I believe it would then be prudent to put information out to the community as far as prevention (does the community have a newsletter?)

          6. Lastly, and in the meantime, I will be following up with the district sergeants and beat officers so they are aware of your current issues.

          7. Thanks

          8. Dave

    2. Jean responding to Captain Tindall

    3. Hi David,

    4. Thank you for following up on these issues so quickly. We really appreciate it.

    5. I think best persons to talk to in regards to the mobile speed boards are Mike Bertram, our VP of RONA, and Paul Keane. I have cc'd them this email. They live closest to River Oaks Parkway and would best know about the locations and traffic. Our only concern is River Oaks Parkway, since it is highly residential. The other roads near by - Zanker and Montague, have faster speed limits. I will suggest that it might be good to have some kind of notice or posting on Seely, since many cars come off of Montague and race down Seely to get to River Oaks. But I will defer to Mike and Paul on where is the best place.

    6. As far a property management goes, there are five rental companies and five condo associations that would need to be contacted. Each one of these have their own newsletters. The only neighborhood newsletter is the RONA website and email list. The person to contact regarding RONA is Laura Carns, who I've also cc'd in this email. We can also put a notice on the NextDoor website.

    7. Again, thank you for your input and quick follow up,

    8. Jean Marlowe

    9. Mike responding to Captain Tindall

    10. Captain,

      2. Thanks for the follow-up e-mail. Per Jean’s suggestion, I have provided responses to your list of issues below.

      4. >> I have talked to our homeless abatement team and they are scheduling a posting and clean-up of the Coyote Creek

      5. >> area in the near future. While this may not be a long term solution, they will interact with the current homeless

      6. >> community in an attempt to give them available services.

      8. We appreciate the help of the homeless abatement team. Trash is a significant side effect of the homeless issue in the creek. A clean-up effort would be good. General sweeps of the homeless just seem to displace them for a very short time. They move out based on the posted sweep and then move right back in. It’s worth noting that Dave Cortese and his staff are making arrangements for a social service outreach to the creek homeless community. If the homeless abatement team is not already in contact with his office, it would probably be a good idea to coordinate efforts.

      10. >> I plan on scheduling one of our mobile speed boards (displays speeds of vehicles) in your area.

      11. >> I did not get any specifics as to when would be the best day and time. Also, do you know if we are specifically

      12. >> talking about River Oaks Parkway or one of the other roads? Any information would help as to when and

      13. >> where for maximum efficiency.

      15. I believe the majority of the speeding problem is on River Oaks itself, although it is probably worth reaching out to someone at the Epic Apartments to see if Seely Ave also has a problem. Mornings 7-10 seem to be more of a problem (East to West) than evenings 4-7 (West to East) or the reverse directions.

      17. >> As we discussed, property theft is the main issue in your area. This includes vehicle burglaries, the theft of vehicles,

      18. >> and some residential and commercial burglaries. I would like to work with the management company first on the

      19. >> environment itself (lighting, security measures, and physical security) in area. I believe it would then be prudent to

      20. >> put information out to the community as far as prevention (does the community have a newsletter?)

      21. Jean’s comments on this issue are relevant. “As far a property management goes, there are five rental companies and five condo associations that would need to be contacted. Each one of these have their own newsletters. The only neighborhood newsletter is the RONA website and email list. The person to contact regarding RONA is Laura Carns, who I've also cc'd in this email. We can also put a notice on the NextDoor website.”

      22. Mike Bertram