Back in November/December 2007 there was a rash of burglaries that targeted our normally peaceful neighborhood. Most of these incidents happened during the day when folks were at work. All in all, close to 40 burglaries occured during an 8 week period in our part of West San Jose. This is an area where this sort of activity is very rare!
On December 6, 2007 our house was burglarized in broad daylight and we later found out there had been 3 burglaries one street over a few days prior. We had no idea! Having such a lack of communication in the neighborhood motivated me to find others in the area who would be willing to form a community group. It started small with the creation of the HappyValley95129 yahoo group. While on maternity leave from work at the time, I made little business cards with the yahoo group info and with my baby in tow, slowly delivered those cards to as many houses in the area that I could. Slowly word spread about this yahoo group and soon others were helping spread the word by delivering the info cards to homes. Today the HappyValley95129 yahoo group boasts close to 500 members and is still growing by word-of-mouth.
HappyValley95129 is a blanket group that encompasses several neighborhood associations in West San Jose. See this map for a better visual explanation of the boundaries for HappyValley95129. The Strawberry Park "SPNA", Easterbrook "EBNA" and Country Lane "CLNA" Neighborhood Associations altogether make up HappyValley95129. We plan several yearly events that include partnering with our neighboring groups. In the past year and a half, we have successfully partnered with SPNA on National Night Out, with EDS, Primrose and SPNA on an E-Waste Event, and with SPNA on their Emergency Preparedness Fairs and our Halloween Carnival.
In May of 2008, Bob Levy and I got together and officially kicked off the planning of the Easterbrook Neighborhood Association. We found a few other dedicated individuals and formed the EBNA Core Group. This group spent the better part of 2 months meeting weekly and getting prepared for our 1st official meeting in July as well as putting up a website, procuring a logo, setting up a Easterbrookneighborhood yahoo group, lining up the SJPD and Pete Constant as speakers, booking the West San Jose Community Center, creating, printing and distributing flyers to the 800 or so homes within our boundaries, etc.
We also applied for a Community Action & Pride ("CAP") Grant from the City of San Jose in Spring of 2009 and were awarded funds to support our Neighborhood Association activities for the 2009/2010 fiscal year. We are very thankful to Ed and Patty Brooks from SPNA for their tutelage and assistance during this grant project.
Also a hearty thanks to the members of the EBNA Core, EBNA Block Captains, EBNA Board and Pete Constant's office for making all of this possible.
