The Diridon Station Area Plan leaves a lot to be desired. Billions will be spent on bringing BART and HSR into the station — and yet, the San Jose City Council will do little to take advantage of that infrastructure. For the most part, the station area will be a sea of parking.
And you don’t have to take my word for it. Even Rod Diridon says the plan sucks:
Missing from the plan itself is Diridon’s larger vision for Silicon Valley. Diridon, currently the executive director of the congressionally created Mineta Transportation Institute, advocates for a Silicon Valley dominated by high-rise, mixed-use towers built on car-free platforms above train stations.
It’s the only way to escape a future clogged with miserable traffic, he says.
The current plan for Diridon Station, while exciting compared to the area’s current uses, doesn’t propel San Jose — and Silicon Valley — forward as far as it should. The development envisioned for the area can be taller and denser, forming a model for future transit-oriented development. “The current plan is the next generation of the modest evolution of San Jose instead of the paradigm shift that would make San Jose an internationally recognized city,”
As someone who used to live in that area, I have to ask: why do we need a master plan? Why not just sell off the vacant land and parking lots and let people build whatever they want (and whatever they think would sell)? I fear that the result of all those plans would be awesome things like the Poor House Bistro being torn down and replaced with still more parking lots.
[…] healthy national trends favoring transit are bypassing Wisconsin because of backwards policies. Systemic Failure reports that it looks like San Jose is going to blow a big opportunity to become a more urban […]
Perhaps a better question is why we should believe Ron Diridon’s vision about anything at this point.
[…] around the new BART and HSR stations. And you don’t have to take my word for it — even Rod Diridon agrees. So you might expect the Greenbelet Alliance to come out against the plan….or […]