d4sanjose.com • (408) 535-4904 • district4@sanjoseca.gov

Portions of Alum Rock Park are reopening on Friday April 14 after extensive damage caused by recent storms. The lower parking lot at the entrace to the park will allow for limited parking and people on foot and on bikes will be allowed to use the trails that are safe. Repairs will be ongoing for quite some time in order to restore all of the park amenities, but we are pleased to announce the first phase of reopening.

PRNS has released this map detailing which trails and roadways are now open to the public. Be advised, parking is limited, as access to all but one lot is still restricted due to unsafe road conditions. Please observe all signage as closed trails are not safe at this time.

Alum Rock Park is a nature preserve, which means it's wild and beautiful, but it's also inherently full of potentially dangerous features and creatures. Rattlesnakes and poison oak have definitely been taking advantage of the months without human visitors, so please remain alert to these hazards at all times while hiking and biking in the park.

VIDEO: San Jose Parks And Rec takes Councilmember Cohen and staff on a tour of the damage done to Alum Rock Park during the long string of storms that battered the Bay Area for the first 3 months of 2023. While the park will open to foot and bicycle traffic in spring, longer term fixes are necessary to allow vehicular traffic back into the park.

Berryessa Art Festival Seeking Volunteers!

Berryessa Art Festival Needs You! We're looking for volunteers to help make this 46th annual neighborhood event run smoothly! Click here to get started.

Showcasing local artists, crafters, artisans, musicians, and more, the Berryessa Art Festival is back! The community’s favorite tradition returns with food, drinks, entertainment, and shopping in the beautiful Penitencia Creek Park meadows behind the Berryessa Community Center.

Local artists and merchants can sign up for a vendor booth, volunteers can get on the roster, and businesses looking to sponsor the festival can do it all at BerryessaArtFestival.com

Highlighting Environmental Stewardship throughout the Month of April

This week's spotlighted organization is Climate Smart SJ.

San José Community Leads on Climate Change

Climate Smart San José, adopted by the City Council in 2018, lays out how we are doing our part to address climate change. It’s a community wide initiative to reduce air pollution, save water and improve quality of life.

Climate Smart San José is one of the first detailed city plans for reaching the targets of the international Paris Agreement. To get there, Climate Smart sets ambitious goals for energy, water, transportation and local jobs. In November 2021, City Council set an aspirational goal of communitywide carbon neutrality by 2030, thereby accelerating Climate Smart, and approved the City's Pathway to Carbon Neutrality by 2030 in June 2022. This one-page flyer provides a summary of the Pathway.

April 22, 2023 is Earth Day

There are many ways to join San José in taking climate action this month. View our calendar for a list of Earth Month events. To add an event, please email ClimateSmart@sanjoseca.gov. 

Electrification Rebates and Incentives Are Now Available 

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) provides and incentives for households to electrify their homes, lower their energy costs, and help combat climate change. You can claim up to $1,200 a year or 30% of the total cost of these improvements on your taxes. Heat pump water heaters are also eligible for a separate $2,000 tax credit. These incentives and rebates will lower energy costs for households, combat climate change, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Best of all, they can be layered with existing rebates and incentives to lower your costs even further. 

Rewiring America has put together a tool to find out how much money you can get from each IRA incentive. The tool can combine incentives to calculate your future savings. For more information on how to get rebates and incentives, visit San José Clean Energy's Home Electrification webpage.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

Sign up for the Climate Smart Challenge! It’s a fun and easy way to track your carbon footprint, lower your bills and make a difference in your community.

4/12 City Council Meeting Commendation

Camille Valerio, Program Manager for LEAD Filipino

Pictured: Angela Pedrigal, Councilmember Cohen, Camille Valerio

It was a pleasure to welcome Camille Valerio, Program Manager for LEAD Filipino, a community centered non-profit focused on service and civic engagement. Their work helps to preserve the history and share the culture of the Filipino people while building a foundation of volunteerism and cooperation. LEAD has been instrumental in bringing their community together, creating safe spaces, and providing much needed support and education during the rise in hate crimes. To quote Camille, “if one falls, we all fall. If one rises, we all rise.” Thank you to our amazing Filipino community and, in particular, the young people, for your leadership, initiative and bravery.

Berryessa Farmers Market

This year the Berryessa Farmer's Market will open on May 6; it will operate every Sunday from 9am - 1pm through November 18. The market has moved to the Piedmont Middle School campus.

Volunteers Needed for Tree Planting on Arbor Day

We're planting trees at Cataldi Park on April 29th! Join Our City Forest in recognizing Arbor Day by planting about 30 trees at Cataldi Park in District 4. There will be a small ceremony featuring to kick of the festivities and then dozens of volunteers will get to work sprucing up the park and helping us achieve our goal of planting 1000 trees in the district.

Happening At The Alviso Library

This program will educate students on the fundamentals of computer hardware. In this two-hour workshop, students will learn the basics of computing and how to build a computer system Participants will be working in groups for the building portion. Assistance will be provided by the instructor as needed. Registration is required. Email to register.

Saturday, April 22

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. 

Alviso Branch Library

North First St. San José, (408) 808-3052 

What's New With Animal Care & Services?

Kitten Season is Here: It’s raining kittens! It is officially kitten season and ACS is expecting a lot of new arrivals in the upcoming weeks. The ACS Foster Team needs items to support all the incoming kittens. If you are interested in providing gifts and donations, please shop ACS’s Wish List. 

San José Animal Care Center New Hours of Operation:

Effective April 1, the San José Animal Care Center (ACS) has new hours of operation. 

Lobby and Adoption Hours

• Monday noon to 4 p.m.
• Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• 

Surrender hours for found/stray pets, owner surrenders and owner-requested euthanasia will continue daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please visit ACS’s webpage. 

Which Issue Is Most Important To You?

FREE Eye Care Clinic - April 23rd

• Seeing clients, mostly having no medical insurance
• Provide Spot Vision prescription reading
• Test Vision Acuity (eye charts)
• Test Glaucoma where necessary
• Provide detailed eye examinations by professionals
• Dispense recycled eyeglasses where necessary and when available
• Order new eyeglasses where necessary and recycled unavailable
• Connect client to Lions Eye Foundation for further treatment if required

To Sign Up: Choose a time from 9, 10, 11 AM, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 PM • Send a text containing

First Name, number of patients, hour of the day to (408) 596-33692

For more information, or to volunteer, please email Mara in my office

Let's Be Friends!

Get the latest from me and my staff on Instagram, Nextdoor, Facebook, and Twitter.

We post everything from emergency notifications and district specific updates to council meeting breakdowns and inside looks at life at City Hall. Got recommendations for businesses, schools, or local heroes we might want to highlight? Send us a DM!

We welcome all your feedback as comments on our posts, direct messages in our inbox, phone calls to the office. Click the links above or the icons below to connect with us.

National Rebuilding Day

RTSV is excited to host our National Rebuilding Day on Saturday, April 29th, and volunteer sign-ups are open! Sign up to volunteer with us to help local neighbors in need in your community and meet new friends in the process! 

 All skill levels are welcome and it’s a great opportunity to gather your friends and family who might also be interested. Our next volunteer could be someone you know! Volunteer Sign-Ups are open until April 10th. We have limited volunteer spots available so act fast and sign up to volunteer before it's too late. 

Sign up to volunteer!

Register Your Camera Today

Roughly 70% of US households have some form of security camera on their porch or integrated into their doorbell. What if all those cameras could help the police solve crimes in our neighborhoods? San Jose Police Department has created a new program to do just that. Introducing CAM (Camera Archive & Mapping)

Participating is easy, taking just moments and couple clicks to register your camera. Knowing a camera is in the area where a crime was committed or along a route a suspect may have taken to get away, the Police Department can then contact you and request footage from your camera to see if it captured any useful evidence.

Follow this link to register your camera now.

Who's making a big difference in our community? A great teacher, business owner, a police officer who goes beyond the call of duty. Maybe there's someone spending their free time organizing creek clean-ups or blanket drives for the unhoused... If you've got someone special in your neighborhood, let us know by nominating them to be a District Hero!

Local businesses have a new opportunity to reinvigorate their business, save money, and support community-wide energy conservation efforts through a new program from San José Clean Energy, the local clean electricity provider operated by the City of San José.

The San José Energy Efficient Business Program has unlocked several rebates to San José business owners for qualifying HVAC, refrigeration, or water heating projects. These rebates, totaling up to 80–90% off the project cost, will make renovations to your small business more affordable and kickstarting these upgrades so much easier! All business customers with an active San José Clean Energy account are invited to participate. 

Want to see if your project qualifies for the rebates above? Learn more or find a participating contractor at SanJoseCleanEnergy.org/Business.

Monday - Friday 7:00 am - 4:00 pm at Berryessa Union School District, 1376 Piedmont Road. For more information email support@campusclini.org or call 855-286-2577.

Booster shots are available for everyone who has had the two initial vaccinations. Reservations can be found at sccfreevax.org.