Evergreen

I have been a resident of San Jose's Evergreen neighborhood for more than 20 years. I have witnessed its greatest growth period, late '90s through early 2000s. Firstly, it's important to note that most of Evergreen's growth is guided by the 1980 Evergreen Specific Plan which provided its development ever since. The producers of the plan were careful to provide for a proportional expansion of commercial, manufacturing, retail, and residential development. The plan also called for fairly novel (for the day) suburban features including the proliferation of pocket parks and landscaped linear pedestrian through-ways that would supplement but not replace traditional monolithic city parks. The plan also called for the mostly unheard of traffic circles as to serve as gathering spaces and for traffic calming. Today the picturesque Evergreen Village Square retail center is situated around one such circle (actually, it's a square but serves the same purpose) and a circle, Strada Circolare, to its east is a welcome and scenic bit of roadway feature matched, perhaps, by only one or two other intersections in the entire city. With its cosmopolitan architectural influence, public library, green space, fountain, retailers, independent coffee shop, expanding casual dining options, and twice weekly farmer's market, the Evergreen Village Square is the not-so-secret gem of the area and bills itself with little debate, "San Jose's most beautiful shopping venue."

The very late 1990s developers, as are their habits, began attempts to chip away at specific plan guidelines, but first petitioning to sub-divide the acre-sized, commercially zoned empty parcels east of Yerba Buena Road north of the then Syva facility. (The latest tenant was HGST who moved out more than a year ago and the building stands empyt.) Community activism and a rightfully stubborn planning and city council resisted that notion until the recession of the late '90s discouraged development at its source. In the meantime, businesses were abandoning the Edanvale business park to the south. Why build and develop so far from Highway 101 when you can't fill available spaces right next to the highway? Today in 2018, another plan to rezone the area into residential has been defeated. The neighborhood has been able to enjoy a relatively undeveloped open space for nearly 20 years after others thought it would be business offices.

As for the housing, Evergreen as a whole remains mostly middle to upper-middle class (relative to Silicon Valley as a whole). Most of the residences built in the last two decades house college-educated, high-tech workers who expect their children to aspire as such or even moreso and they motivate their kids to perform well in school. The mostly outdated STAR and API rankings have fallen into disfavor because, some say, the scores don't fully rate school performance as a whole but rather only tell how kids perform on standard tests. Regardless, Evergreen elementary and middle schools have produced scores rivaling not just the coveted Cupertino school district but matching or even surpassing some of Palo Alto's public schools. On the other hand, while there is a market, no major private schools have emerged in the area. To put a dull point on this, Evergreen's local junior college, seems to be more concerned about selling or leasing property than it is about serving the local community. Most Evergreen students enrolled in a junior college actually leave the area to attend JCs out of the area. Still, with its relatively secluded and peaceful setting, great schools, and newer homes, Evergreen housing prices continue to rise at a good pace (or bad pace if you plan on moving here.)

A great but unheralded aspect about Evergreen is its access to local and regional parks and preserves. Right in its midst is Joseph Montgomery Park named after the aviation pioneer who developed the controllable wing surface and, in fact, coined the term "aeroplane" or airplane. His advances made powered flight possible. Just to the east is Grant Ranch with its miles of wilderness hiking trails and the closest camping area to San Jose. Beyond and up Mt. Hamilton and the world's oldest manned mountain-top observatory, Lick Observatory. Within 20 to 30 minutes drive is access to a number of parks and preserves. And while it isn't touted, local bicyclists love riding through the neighborhood because of its relative good roadways and little traffic. And not just local bicyclists. Two Amgen Tours of California, arguably the most important bicycle race outside of Europe, has been routed right through San Jose's Evergreen neighborhood, because of its terrain, low level of traffic, and scenery.