Collaboration on trail closures with SVBC

[Mikhail Haurylau]

Park&Rec staff, 

Mikhail here with the SVBC SJ local team. I believe Diana Crumedy already talked to Liz about this issue, but I would like to do a separate follow up.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the great job and events which you are organizing. My kids just were in a summer camp organized by Park&Rec, and loved it. And we definitely have a good thing going with Viva Calle, and we are always happy to help. 

Having said that, I think we have more room for collaboration. The members of our team are constantly "on the ground", using trails and being in contact with social media groups. We would be happy to help you with better signage and organization of trail closures. We can advise on better detours, make signs and spread the word on social media. But we do need prior notification and contact with your team in order for that to happen. 

One example is the current trail closure of the Guadalupe River Trail. It has a significant impact on a large number of trail users (myself included). Earlier this week I ran into this sign on the Guadalupe River Trail. No contact information, no explanation why this needs to close for so long, no heads up notifications. After consulting the team, I did find a tweet from "San Jose Trails" on July 28, but that is the only notification which I have seen. There are also multiple follow up questions to that tweet which were left unanswered (i.e. is the River Oaks bridge open or not). 

A brief glance at the social media shows a lot of confusion, frustration and unanswered questions. This surely does a lot of damage to the reputation of Valley Water, Park&Rec Dept and biking/walking in general. 

Can we help you with the future trail closures to mitigate all this unhappiness?

Thank you

Mikhail

P.S. 

To get around the closed segment, I ended up taking Montague Expressway to get to the detour, where I encountered several bicyclists going against the traffic on a stretch of expressway with no bike lane or sidewalk (the shoulder pictured below disappears into a turning lane after 200ft). 

And this is the kind of intersections which the "detour" is taking you through.