City park volunteer efforts are inspiring

It was great to see dozens of volunteers — wearing masks and neon yellow shirts and vests — showing lots of love Saturday to the Arena Green area of Guadalupe River Park.

People painted light poles, cleaned tables, benches and walls, trimmed trees, cleared out overgrown plants and covered over graffiti tags. They scrubbed the currently non-functioning carousel across from SAP Center and shined up its riderless animals, and painted the arson-burned ranger station. Crews from the South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition also dragged debris and trash from the banks of the Guadalupe River.

It wasn’t all work. Kids and families played soccer on the fields and climbed around the playground on Autumn Street. People rode bikes through the area, lined up for lunch from a food truck and enjoyed the pre-spring afternoon. There was compassion to go with the cleaning, too, as seven people unhoused and living in the park

were connected with shelters that day.

You wouldn’t be wrong to point out that things shouldn’t have gotten to this point. The passionate but fed-up group of volunteers — led by Jim and Suzanne Salata, Carl and Marianne Salas, Julie Matsushima, Teresa Alvarado and others — shouldn’t have been needed to clean walls and pick up trash in what’s supposed to be San Jose’s central park.

But I’m choosing to be thankful that people in the community still cared enough to make a difference here. And I’m hopeful that “the city” — both the government and its residents, housed and unhoused — continues to care enough to keep Arena Green clean and activated.

CULTURAL SENSITIVITY >> After I wrote last week about the San Jose Downtown Association’s promotions to bring people to bars and restaurants for St. Patrick’s Day, Celia Fabos-Becker — who promotes many Irish cultural events in the Bay Area — wrote to let me know that something about it really bothered her.

In addition to the overemphasis on over-indulgent drinking for St. Patrick’s Day, she said the leprechaun figures on display at downtown merchants and used in social media are culturally offensive, along with the terms “St. Paddy’s Day” or “St. Patty’s Day.” Would people be OK, she wondered, if stereotypical mascots were used for other cultural celebrations like Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth or Obon? The image of an Irish step dancer would be a more culturally sensitive and appropriate mascot for the holiday, she suggested.

“I don’t think the nation as a whole, and San Jose in particular, needs to think long and hard about the image of holidays in general and how to promote fun without a lot of booze or using offensive images once crafted by the enemies of a people to celebrate an ethnicity,” she wrote.

My first thought was that she was overreacting, but the more I thought about it, I realized she had a point. If we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that nobody can tell a group — whether it’s ethnicity, race, religion, gender or sexuality — when they’re allowed to be offended.

LENDING A HAND >> The Shop With a Cop Foundation Silicon Valley, known for its annual Heroes and Helpers shopping event for low-income kids, is responding to an unprecedented demand by vulnerable communities for emergency food during the pandemic. On March 27, the nonprofit organization will be providing books, goodie bags, jump ropes and a $1,000 grocery store gift card to more than 300 families in San Jose’s McKinley/ Bonita neighborhood, delivered by uniformed law enforcement officers and volunteers.

Shop With a Cop Silicon Valley Executive Director Darrell Cortez said the group has raised $7,000 toward its goal of $20,000, and needs to close the gap by the end of the month. If you want to help, go to shopwithacopsv.com/giving.