January 13, 2006

Towers Lane paved after 50 years of neighborhood effort

By Bea Baechle
Special to the Times

Jonna Mae Baker, a 90-year-old San Jose resident, ushered in 2006 in a way that she never could before on her street.

Towers Lane residents Jerry and Jonna Mae Baker (center) cut the ribbon for a renovated street they can be proud of. (From left) Councilmembers Forrest Williams, Cindy Chavez and Madison Nguyen (far right) join the festivities.

It was the first time in the 58 years that she’s lived on Towers Lane when she could actually look out her window on New Year’s Day and see a paved street instead of a dirt road.

Towers Lane, which intersects Aborn Road near King Road in this West Evergreen neighborhood, was one of the last unpaved sections of a residential street within the San Jose city limits.

For more than 50 years, nine homes and the Los Hechos Church relied on a dirt road for access. Although most property owners have been asking for street improvements since the area was annexed into the city in the1960s, difficulties in securing neighborhood consensus and project funding blocked progress until 2005.

Property owners like Jonna Mae and her son, Jerry Baker, led neighborhood efforts that finally helped bring the project to completion.

“The only sad part is that my sweetie couldn’t be here,” said Jonna Mae of her late husband at a ribbon cutting ceremony in December. “Her sweetie” was among the first marching to city hall decades ago to get Towers Lane paved.

Towers Lane before (above) and after the recent $1.5 million renovation project transformed a dirt road into a two-lane residential street with sidewalks, storm and sanitary sewers, trees, street lighting and wheelchair ramps.

Jerry remembers going to city hall with his dad on at least one of those occasions. On his death bed in 2001, Jerry’s father gathered the family together and said, “Don’t let your mom down—get her that street.”

“I made an alliance with my mom and told her to put on a smile and her best shoes—we’re going to a community meeting,” said Jerry. “Every single city official who heard of this project took ownership and made it happen.”

He also acknowledged assistance from the Strong Neighborhood Initiative and the San Jose Public Works department, which led the property acquisition, design and construction efforts.

The neighborhood asked the City of San Jose to convert the private street to a publicly maintained street, and the city council responded with a “hip-hip-hooray” in an animated “yes” vote.

The city completed the right-of-way acquisition process and the groundbreaking finally took place on June 4, 2005. The $1.5 million Towers Lane Improvement Project transformed the private dirt road to a standard two-lane residential street with sidewalks, storm and sanitary sewers, trees, street lighting and wheelchair ramps.

The project, funded by the City of San Jose and the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, was completed on Oct. 31, 2005.

District 7 Councilmember Madison P. Nguyen joined the community at the December 2005 ribbon cutting to celebrate the completion of the long-awaited neighborhood street and utility improvements on Towers Lane.

“This is a good example of how you can partner with a community,” said Nguyen, who won the open District 7 council seat vacated by Councilmember Terry Gregory in a September 2005 special election.

“It’s a dream come true,” added Jerry, who donated a shovel once used to retrieve gravel from the nearby creek to fill in the “axle-busting potholes” that used to plague the street. “My dad’s hands were on this when the first promises were made here.”