December 30, 2005

From the Editor: An editor bids farewell

I hate saying goodbye. Yet at every crossroad, there’s an ending to face before a new beginning can be embraced.

I am at one of those precarious crossroads today, where fond memories of the community connections, milestones and amazing people I’ve met through the Evergreen Times intermingle with the excitement and possibility of the future, beckoning me forward with an incredible force.

This is my final issue as editor of the Evergreen Times, so I am wrestling with an ending, reflecting back as one year closes and a new year, with new adventures, begins.

From the Editor

I first took over the Evergreen Times in March of 2003, when the newspaper was still a monthly publication of 68 pages. That year I saw the newspaper steadily growing every few months—to 72 pages, then 76 pages. By January 2004, it was 80 pages, by March—84 pages—much larger than a typical community newspaper in the 40- to 52-page range.

By August 2004, the Evergreen Times dropped its page count and increased its frequency to every other week. Again, the number of pages continued to increase—sometimes to 64 pages, close to its size as a monthly publication when I arrived in 2003.

The Evergreen Times also went online in 2004, enabling people from all over the world to tap into our community. The number of hits on the site now exceeds 170,000 and the number of page requests exceeds 40,000 each month.

The growth of this community newspaper reflected the steady growth of the area and the desire for advertisers to reach this remarkable place we call Evergreen. As a community expands, the number of activities and people to cover grows too. And in a city as diverse as San Jose, that also means covering a rich international tapestry of races, cultures and religions.

Thus in the past three years, I’ve written stories on almost every topic imaginable—from elementary school plays to Evergreen Visioning Project battles, tumultuous school board meetings to awe-inspiring peace presentations, heart wrenching memorials to a miraculous one-in-a-five-million-chance of finding a donor match for a child battling leukemia.

Evergreen has been my life: Grand openings, ground breakings, ribbon cuttings, demolitions of orchards and continuous construction, beginnings and endings of every type, with a gamut of personalities tied to each story.

I still live in Evergreen. I still love Evergreen.

Yet I now have an opportunity to take that dedication and commitment I feel for the community to the citywide level. District 8 Councilmember Dave Cortese recently asked me to join his mayoral campaign as media liaison/press secretary. Without hesitation, I knew that this was the next step for me.

I first met Councilmember Cortese in 1997 when he was serving as the president of the East Side Union High School District school board. I had just moved into a brand new home in Evergreen where the developer had displayed an intricate model of what the neighboring community would look like upon its completion.

The model included a new high school, but when I called the school district to find out when the high school would open, a district representative clarified that although they owned the land, there was no funding available to actually build a school.

Thus began a three-year collaboration with the school board and its stakeholders to ensure that Evergreen Valley High School would be built by the time my son entered high school in 2005. Under Cortese’s school board leadership, we successfully passed a bond measure, secured matching state funds and got the school built after decades of talking about it.

Two key traits struck me about Cortese in those early years of working with him. First, he was sincere about involving all stakeholders in the planning process of the new school. Second, he possessed an incredible skill for hearing all sides of an issue and helping opposing views come together in a way that balanced the needs of all parties involved.
As editor of the Evergreen Times, I’ve seen these skills applied to our district. I’ve also had the opportunity to more closely and frequently witness his tireless dedication to including and empowering all the people he represents.

I’m excited and honored to support his desire to reform City Hall and restore the founding principles of good government as our next mayor. His open, honest and collaborative approach would be a breath of fresh air at City Hall.

As a new journey begins for me, Diego Abeloos, an award-winning young journalist takes over as the new editor of the Evergreen Times. He has been writing for all of the Times newspapers in the past year and a half and he’s also been the editor of our monthly Blossom Valley/Santa Teresa Times for the past six months.

With that, I will say goodbye as your editor and thank you for making the past three years a very rewarding and satisfying experience, despite the hard work and deadlines that are the newspaper biz. If we don’t meet on the campaign trail, I’m sure we’ll reconnect somewhere between the grocery store and the soccer fields.

In deep gratitude,

Bea Baechle
Your neighbor and
Evergreen Times editor, 2003-05