York: Alviso Park, a half century of broken promises

For more than half a century, the people of Alviso have waited for something so ordinary it should never have become a struggle — a decent neighborhood park.

Generations of children have grown up while San Jose produced plans, commissioned studies, held meetings and made promises. Year after year, the blueprints grew more ambitious, but the grass remained neglected, the fields unfinished and the dreams unrealized. Millions were envisioned on paper while residents watched their park deteriorate. In a city celebrated for innovation and extraordinary wealth, one small community’s quest for a safe place to play is a heartbreaking story of promises deferred.

In 2021, David Cohen became District 4’s councilmember, inheriting decades of unfinished promises. Today, he’s all over Instagram and YouTube, promoting all the work he’s doing for District 4. At first glance you think, “Hey this guy really cares.” That’s what I thought when I met him years ago as he was going door to door in Alviso.

After all these years, I struggle to see the same level of advocacy for Alviso that he proudly displays elsewhere in District 4.

Five years later, his office points to remodeled restrooms and newly planted trees as accomplishments. The restroom facilities and areas around the 4-foot-deep pool are accidents waiting to happen. Just this past Saturday I photographed these issues at the “remodeled” restroom facilities. Both restroom doors have rusty commercial door lock shrouds, benches falling apart, one with a rusty nail sticking out, rusty barbed wire fencing surrounding the pool, a rusty broken sprinkler head and an open utility box with exposed wiring and electrical components — a potential electrical safety hazard.

Councilmember Cohen has a lot of YouTube videos and Instagram posts of himself out there planting trees and picking up trash. I invite you to come check out his YouTube video, Planting Trees At George Mayne Elementary School, and then take a field trip over to Alviso Park and see those very same trees for yourself. I photographed these exact same trees and roughly half of them are dead or dying.

The Alviso Park soccer field is riddled with uneven ground, bare dirt patches and numerous depressions that create serious tripping and ankle twisting hazards for children running at full speed. These dangerous playing conditions increase the risk of falls, sprains and potentially serious knee, ankle and other injuries. Would Councilmember Cohen allow his kids to play on fields in this condition?

In 2022, after waiting more than two decades for San Jose to fulfill its promise of a neighborhood park, frustrated Alviso residents began clearing neglected land and planting flowers and trees themselves, only to have the city respond with threats of enforcement, new fencing and surveillance cameras. In subsequent years, residents watched city workers tear out community planted landscaping, turning what should have been a simple neighborhood beautification effort into an extraordinary confrontation between Alviso residents and their own government.

For Alviso residents, the question is no longer how many plans the city can produce. It is how many more generations must wait before their councilmember makes finishing the park a priority.

Deborah York has lived in Alviso for more than 24 years. She spent more than 10 years with the Santa Clara Rotary Club, helping organize programs that made a difference in the lives of local children and families.