Lots of Willow Glen neighbors will be encouraging their friends to vote ‘No on Prop 8‘ during an organized “Visibility Event” scheduled for Saturday in WG.

An informational table is planned for the WG Farmers Market, followed by a rousing party on all four corners of Minnesota & Lincoln, with folks holding signs and encouraging honks and waves. Expect lots of families, dogs, children, and neighbors, with everyone having a good time.

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Speaking of California’s representative districts, the County of Santa Clara splits Willow Glen in two, also. Everyone west of Meridian (generally) got to vote in Ken Yeager’s landslide victory last year, and the rest of us on the eastern side get our chance this time, although the choice in this race is substantially less clear.
How else could you describe a race where the SJ Mercury News changes its endorsement to the guy who is also supported by perennial candidate Andy Diaz?

In District 2, we recommended Shirakawa in the primary, because we were convinced Hobbs’ difficulties in working with others in the county would make him a prickly, unyielding board member. But Shirakawa’s liabilities have become more glaring, and he’s running a terrible campaign. So we recommend voting for Hobbs and hope he will rise to the challenge.

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Starting Arts, Willow Glen Middle & High School and the Willow Glen Foundation Performing Arts Boosters proudly presents:

Julien Thaddeus Springer (J.T. for short) tries to make it as an athlete and even more importantly, he tries to make it as a person who might interest some girl – any girl!! When J.T’s problems begin to upset his home life and his parents exile him to his room, the only thing he can turn to is the TV: He begins watching “nostalgia” programs, set in what seems to him a much happier time. He becomes convinced that he’s a 1950s personality trapped in the body of a modern teenager.

To escape the unhappiness of his real world, he creates a make-believe world in the 1950s –- and in this world he is not a wierdo! Come see how J.T. fights through his problems and comes back prepared to cope with the real world of today.

Starring Willow Glen Middle & High school students

November 13 & 14 … 7:00pm
November 15 … 3:30 pm and 7:00pm

Little Theater (2105 Cottle Ave.)
Reserved VIP Seating - $15.00 (pre-sale only)
General Seating: Adults - $10.00
Students (under 18 years) & Seniors (60 and up) - $5.00
Purchase tickets online at www.seatyourself.biz/wghs

The terrible lost dog saga from last Spring is still evolving, even after months of sightings and close calls with Bella’s volunteer search team and other random good samaritans.

Bella has migrated considerably south of WG now, with sightings over the last few weeks in the Coyote Valley area along Bailey Road. Owners Terri & Steve are hopeful that the change of weather will also change Bella’s attitude about people making her more willing to approach someone or start showing herself more.

You may recall that Bella was originally lost during an attack by an un-leashed pit bull in a park in the Branham Fair Oaks area back in April.

The legal battle to hold the owner of the attacking dog accountable continues to drag on as well. The defendant has appeared in court several times, with another appearance scheduled for today:

He pleaded not guilty, which was not a surprise to the DA, as this buys him more time and insures all evidence and discovery is turned over to his attorney. The next court date is Tues., 10/28. These continuances will likely go on for a bit and eventually DA and defendant’s attorney will reach an agreement, which likely includes a change in his plea,. By pleading not guilty, all he does is drag things out and basically force the DA to present their entire case to them in advance to going before a judge.

Like the elusive Shiba Inu, justice appears to be plodding along

After a smashing success in 2007, Booksin students are at it again, collecting unwanted — or unneeded — Halloween candy, which they plan to donate to US Troops stationed overseas, via the Red Cross’ Operation Care and Comfort.

Between now and November 7, kids are collecting candy in orange boxes located near the school’s library. You can also drop-off candy at the front office. Even if you plan on actually eating all of the candy you collect, there are some other ideas provided by students organizing the drive:

• Take an extra bag out when you Trick-or-Treat, and ask folks to donate candy for the troops.
• Ask your dentist to donate any candy that they “buy back” from patients.
• Ask Halloween party guests guests to donate an extra bag of candy for Troops.
• Purchase candy when it is on sale after Halloween!

You can also help bag the candy at the school, beginning at 9:00 am on Saturday, November 8. Volunteers can load bags and add personalized greetings of support for the men and women fighting in our armed forces.

Cash Donations are especially welcome this year, to help offset the cost of shipping the candy overseas. … and the school is accepting donations of sandwich-sized ziploc bags!

The school is also hosting a special Veteran’s Day Celebration on November 10, during which they’ll weigh the donations and present the candy.

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If you are not into candy — or plan to eat it all yourself — you can also help with one of Operation Care & Comfort’s regular donation and shipping programs. The next collection day is scheduled for Sunday, November 2, coincidentally in Willow Glen.

It’s Sunday, so it might be a good day to reflect on the impact that churches and local centers of religious faith will have on the statewide ballot measures, specifically Proposition 8.

Although some churches mistakenly fear that Prop 8 will jeopardize their tax exempt status (it won’t), many other local churches — including several from WG — are urging their parishioners to Vote No On Prop 8.

In contrast to the Utah-based Church of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church, but fortunately not all Mormons), many local churches have been willing to speak out against the measure.

The most visible effort has been coordinated by Santa Clara County Council of Churches, which openly opposes Prop 8:

As people of faith,
We believe all people are made in the image of God.
We believe in loving, faithful and committed relationships.
We affirm everyone’s right to the freedom to marry.
We urge you to…
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 8!
Don’t eliminate marriage for anyone.

Here’s a list of local churches that have lent their support to the No On Prop 8 campaign:

• WG’s Stone Church: “Stone Church supports the right of same–sex couples to marry. The Session at its regular September meeting passed a motion taking a public stand opposing Proposition 8.”
• Center for Spiritual Living, Willow Glen, San Jose
• Holy Redeemer Lutheran Church Rosegarden, San Jose
• Celebration Of Faith Church, with worship services at the Billy DeFrank Center, San Jose
• Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, San Jose’s Rosegarden neighborhood, whose Rev. Elena Frtichle participated in a video produced by local churches.
• Campbell United Methodist Church (CUMC)

In addition the No on Prop 8 campaign website includes a lengthy list of Churches and other Faith Based Organizations that oppose Prop 8.

Quick! What’s your definition of Willow Glen?! Wait … Don’t answer that! Because it’s irrelevant to the State Senate, State Assembly, and US House races that will be decided on November 4. As far as political districts are concerned, WG doesn’t really exist.

But for the curious, WGx has compiled a map that shows how the three major representative districts overlay on top of Willow Glen:

View Larger Map

Accuracy Disclaimer: These maps are so complex, that there are undoubtedly errors on them, and they should not be considered official.

So once you figure out where you live, here are your candidates for representative legislative offices:

State Senate District 13 vs. District 11

No, it’s not a race between districts, but Willow Glen is solidly split in half in this vote. If you live south of Pine Avenue, you are definitely in State Senate District 11 . Same if you live north of Pine but between Meridian and Lincoln (actually even as far east as Hill and Settle). Live west of Meridian and north of Hamilton, and you vote in District 13, unless you’re a bootmaker (the whole shopping district is in D11. probably.). If you live north of Willow between Meridian and Camino Ramon, well …. your guess is as good as WGx’s. Ask SmartVoter!

State Assembly District 23 vs. District 24

This is the one representative body that seems to keep WG together. Almost. Approximately 97% of Willow Glen falls into Assembly District 24, currently represented by Jim Beall, Jr. His opponent is republican Doug McNea. Up in the northeast corner of North WG, most voters north of Fuller Avenue are in Assembly Disrict 23, and get to choose between Joe Coto and Mark Parosso.

U.S. House of Representatives

Most of WG is inside U.S. House District 16, where incumbent Zoe Lofgren faces challengers Charel Winston and Steve Wells. If you live northwest of Minnesota & Lincoln (or west of Booksin Avenue between Curtner and Hillsdale) you are looking at Mike Honda vs. Joyce Cordi vs. Peter Myers for District 15.

Confused? Go to the map!

Gotta love district gerrymandering, eh? … which leads us to State Proposition 11. Vote for it, and maybe WG gets to vote in one district. Or maybe not. Who knows. It’s complicated, and WGx certainly wouldn’t want to promise anything.

And if you think WG has it bad, you should check out the Berryessa neighborhood in east San Jose, which is split up into four different Assembly districts.

For voters looking for actual details, this week’s Metro includes a thorough rundown of redistricting history and politics:

The tool of change: state Proposition 11, the Voters First Act, which sets up an entirely new way of drawing district lines. Unlike Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposal of 2005, which turned redistricting over to three retired judges, Prop. 11 employs a far more transparent system. Any voter can apply to serve, winners are picked by lottery, legislators get to toss out a few members they spot as partisan, and the surviving commissioners, likely to be fairly mild personalities, pick the rest of the team. Then the 14 members go to work with the latest census data and start, in meetings open to the public, redrawing the maps. And this repeats every 10 years. …

Democratic and GOP party leaders, of course, are not at all happy about this proposition. Both parties are already losing members (in 1991, 54 percent of registered voters identified with one or the other; that’s down to the low 40s). Pile on term limits and now redistricting, and state officeholders—now re-elected at a rate of over 90 percent—might actually begin to lose.

And you might actually begin to know which district you’re in.

The Army Corps of Engineers wants a retaining wall on a stretch of Los Gatos Greek along Glen Eyrie Avenue. And they’ll get it … but first they need to destroy some backyards.

The eventual construction of the retaining wall was originally reported by Willow Glen Extra in August. Since then, the project has gotten a little more complicated … and will impact neighbors on the opposite side of the creek. The WG Resident is reporting this week that Glen Eyrie Towers owner Paul ten Doesschate has a huge project and considerable expense ahead of him:

Ten Doesschate recently learned that he must foot the bill for creek repairs that will involve cutting through about 10 of his neighbors’ back yards along Avis Drive from Cherry to Fruitdale avenues. The Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Services is requiring ten Doesschate to obtain a special-use permit to fix the concrete creek bank wall that was damaged last October when large pieces of concrete made their way downstream and settled on his property.

According the permit requirements, ten Doesschate must build two 28-foot retaining walls and install two steel beams in the creek bed to reinforce the embankment wall.

While making the repairs, a construction crew must use an existing access road following the creek from Cherry Avenue along Avis Dive to Fruitdale Avenue that cuts through the back yards of property owners on the opposite side of the bank, said Lee Butler, senior planner for the city’s planning department.

Let’s go to the map!

View Larger Map

The blue line shows the neighbors that will be impacted by the required construction access route. If it happens at all. Stay tuned.

A quick restaurant round-up, of sorts …

The reincarnated Vin Santo has been getting more press recently, most prominently including the “A Vegan in Vin Santo” report published in the Metro earlier this month. Not exactly in the “Best of Silicon Valley” segment, but reasonably close to it:

“Silicon Veggie” Elisa Camahort (aka SFBayStyle contributor) reports positively on her recent visit:

I can tell you that it doesn’t happen very often that the chef of a restaurant comes out to talk to you because you’re a vegan asking for something off-menu, but every time that it has happened in my past, the resulting meal has been perfect.

This time was no exception. After spending a few minutes asking what I liked, the chef finally asked if I’d just like him to whip something up to surprise me. Well, of course, who wouldn’t?

My trust in the chef’s surprise was rewarded with an absolutely lovely meal.

Congrats to Vin Santo!

In other WG Foodie News … Opa is Open! The “French Bakery” coming to Maykadeh was apparently of the slow rising type.

And rumors of the pending demise of La Villa have been horribly exaggerated .. or even completely fabricated. An email to the WGNA eList earlier this week begged the neighborhood to refute the rumors. None other than Michael Mulcahey spoke to the owner and responded to the list in no uncertain terms:

… I have been asked numerous times about the “La Villa leaving WG rumor.” I spoke with La Villa owner Dave Bertucelli today and La Villa has no intention of moving anytime soon. He and his family intend to have Willow Glen be La Villa’s long term home.

And then his email got added to Willow Glen 2.0 for extra measure.

And in even more restaurant news … Tomato Thyme’s ongoing effort to add a back patio to its Hamilton Avenue location was the source of an online petition effort which resulted in significant brick-and-mortar support at last night’s Planning Commission meeting. The battle continues …

OK, so how are you going to vote on Measure L?

It’s not getting the major attention of the other citywide measures that actually have citywide impact, but here’s the official question:

To improve fire suppression, emergency medical services and increase essential emergency facilities available for disaster response within the Willow Glen area, shall the City be authorized to construct a single-company fire station on up to ¾ of an acre on a portion of the Lincoln Glen Park parking lot?

The official statements for against — and their rebuttals — are fun to read … mostly because they are now confusing and outdated. Although the question of eliminating designated “parkland” (taking away 34 of the current 204 paved parking spots) to make way for the station may prevent people from supporting the measure, most of the official opposition has faded away now that Station 37 is no longer a threat to Station 6.

But because the deadline for ballot arguments was in early August, Pierluigi Oliverio is one of the the official opponents of the measure. In an email to WGx, he’s since retracted his opposition, but isn’t loudly supporting it either:

My primary goal is to make sure all of Willow Glen has great public safety. Now that the council has passed a new policy on the closure and consolidation of Fire Stations I can support Measure L knowing that station 6 will not be closed and sold to build station 37.

The location is not the best as it is not located in the primary service area it is to serve. A much better location would have been at the undeveloped corner of Foxworthy and Almaden that was for sale.

So since you’re in Willow Glen, feel free to review all of the arguments, and vote accordingly. Lord knows no one in District 8 is going to read about it.