January 2025 Meeting Minutes
January 2025 Meeting Recap
WONA President Daphna Woolfe kicked off the January 2025 meeting at the Cypress Senior Center with a pizza and salad dinner. She provided an update on neighborhood happenings, including the progress on grant ideas brainstormed at the September meeting. Katie Meitzler shared updates on communications and upcoming 2025 events, while Emily Lansing gave a brief update from the mayor’s office regarding an armed robbery on the Cypress overpass. The meeting’s agenda also included discussions on San Jose's Viva Calle events and an emergency preparedness workshop hosted by San Jose's Office of Emergency Operations.
District 1 - Rosemary Kamei
Covered the ongoing traffic study at the roundabout at Hanson & Spar. There are several departments involved and lots of iterations and issues that are being worked. The city is looking at different designs to help the traffic. More coming soon.
Confirmed that the new Winchester Orchard park is only 50% complete but is expected to complete at the end of the year. Future updates will be provided soon.
Adopt a Storm Drain is a great way in protecting the environment by keeping storm drains clear.
Viva Calle Events - Alfaro Celaya
Viva CalleSJ (pronounced Vee-Va Ka-Ye SJ) is a free recreational program that closes miles of scenic San José streets.
Viva CalleSJ’s route will take participants through some of San José’s most eclectic and historic neighborhoods. The open street events brings people and communities together to walk, bike, skate, play and explore the explore the city like never before! It is not a race, so you can start anywhere and have as much fun as you want, in either direction.
Viva CalleSJ is not just a bicycle event, it is an open streets event! Feel free to walk, bike, skate or just come play in the streets!
There are 3 events this year: April 13, June 8, and September 7
Emergency Preparedness - Laura Maskell
Covered steps to take for personal emergency preparedness. Resources and steps to take can be found on the Office of Emergency Management website. In addition, you can download the Emergency Preparedness Presentation.
Laura talked about the importance of signing up for emergency alerts at alertscc.com. AlertSCC is the County of Santa Clara’s official emergency alert and warning system.
Steps to take include making a plan, developing your emergency contacts list, and setting up meet-up spots.
Your stay box (for when you're confined to your home) should include having 3-7 days of water (1 gallon per person), shelf stable food, and trash bags
Your go bag (for when you need to leave ASAP) should include a bag that you can walk with for a few miles. It should have important documentation in water-safe bags (like insurance policies, car & house deeds, IDs), photos of family & pets, cash, medications & lists, wallet, purse & keys, electronics (including power stations & cords), masks, a Lifestraw & bottled water
For those interested in disaster training, the city offers CERT Training. The program is a 20-hour commitment; it educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that are most likely to occur here in San José and promotes basic disaster response skills development, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.