Nextdoor.com site for Belwood, Belgatos, Surmont, Harwood, Gemini, Alerche and more
Update on the Nextdoor.com private intranet for neighbors in the Surmont-Belgatos-Belwood and beyond areas. We’ve been growing since November 17th, and now, 2 months later, we’re up to 39 people (in 32 households).
What is neat is the sharing about issues and concerns that otherwise we wouldn’t know about. On the positive side, neighbors have been asking for and receiving suggestions for gardeners, house cleaners and others.
On the less positive side, we’ve heard about some neighborhood issues: a break in on one street on a weekend afternoon in one case, and some vandalism at another. Who knew? But now that we do, we know to keep our eyes out.
In other words, this is almost like a virtual “neighborhood watch”.
Sometimes we’re all so busy that we don’t necessarily talk to our neighbors about concerns but this is a great way to do it.
I do know that people worry about their information being public. The system requires members to be verified, either by mail (free) or by phone (which requires a one cent charge to a credit card). This is done to insure that everyone in this private site is actually a neighbor – for everyone’s protection. Also, you don’t have to share your email address or phone number, but of course you can if you choose.
The Town of Los Gatos is embracing Nextdoor as a great way to facilitate communication and there’s a meeting later this week with others, like me, who’ve started Nextdoor sites in other parts of the town. The Nextdoor neighborhood sites won’t line up exactly with the town’s groupings but it will be a great way to share information if we get more people onboard.
On the fence? Log in, have a look and see what you think. There’s a lot to like about it!
~~~~~~~ original post below~~~~~~~~
Have you heard of Nextdoor.com? It’s a platform that provides neighborhood websites. If you visit the site, you’ll see that it’s described as “The private social network for your neighborhood“.
In mid-November I started a site for the Surmont, Belgatos, Belwood and adjacent areas to the east and south in this east Los Gatos area: Gemini Court, Sebastian Court, Almond Blossom Court, Harwood Road, Alerche Road, Crider Court, Harwood Lane (private road where Harwood Road forks), and Harwood Court. These areas are all contiguous and use the same exit routes out of the area. Many, but not all, are served by the Belwood Home Owner’s Association. You can sign in at http://belwood-belgatos.nextdoor.com. There are 555 homes in this neighborhood that I set up.
Initially I was concerned about this being redundant since there are multiple neighborhood venues (this blog, the BelwoodHomes.org site, the Facebook pages – but many of them really only include Belwood and not Belgatos, Surmont or the nearby areas.
So what is the point of this “private social network for the area”? First, it IS private: only residents can be involved in the site. They verify one of two ways – either mailing you a postcard, which you must return, or by verifying your address through a credit card (they charge exactly 1 cent to do it). Second, since it is private, it’s an easy and safer way to share relevant neighborhood information, whether it’s a block party, a theft in the area, organizing Christmas trees (as they do on Westhill Drive), the sighting of a mountain lion, traffic concerns, etc. – the whole gamut. It’s a great place to share names of good babysitters, gardeners, pet sitters, carpet cleaners and all kinds of services too.
Please check it out:
https://belwood-belgatos.nextdoor.com
Controlled burn near Morgan Hill creates smokey skies in Silicon Valley
Yesterday Jim and I attended the Los Gatos Creekside Sports Park kickoff celebration (will nearly touch Vasona Lake County Park and is just off of University Avenue) and as we often do, drove east on Blossom Hill Road to get home. Straight ahead of us, hanging over south San Jose and Santa Teresa and extending north, was a huge and darkened cloud. Smoke? Smog? Rainclouds?
We drove up Harwood Road and to the top of Harwood Court to get a better view of it. It did look like it started in south San Jose or further south than that. Some hikers were trekking up the challenging hill and we asked them if they knew if it were a fire. “Can’t smell it,” one replied “so it must be smog – just awful!” Smog, though, tends to dissipate from side to side and not hang together so tightly as what we saw.
View from Harwood Court in Los Gatos of the smokey skies created by the Cal Fire "controlled burn" in south county
We flipped on KLIV, the San Jose based AM radio station (channel 1590) that best covers local news & traffic, and learned right away that it was a controlled burn. This morning I googled the fire and learned that it’s a 2 day burn at part of Henry Coe State Park, overseen by Cal Fire, with more scheduled for today.
The Morgan Hill Times reports that “The prescribed burn is part of the ‘Western Zone Complex’ controlled fire in the remote area of the park. The fire will take place on the Middle Ridge Trail off Hobbs Road, about eight miles northeast of Morgan Hill, according to Calfire fire prevention specialist Chris Morgan. “
Meeting for Belwood Gateway between Harwood and Bacigalupi to further discuss speed hump and its location
Two speed bumps for Belwood Gateway were planned to be installed after the August Los Gatos Town Council Meeting (which followed a May 11th traffic calming meeting at the Belwood Cabaña and a vote of the affected neighbors).
The first speed hump, which was not contested, will be placed fairly close to the community pool in the area between Belblossom and Bacigalupi on Belwood Gateway. It appears that this has the resounding endorsement of the folks who live nearby.
The second speed hump did not seem to enjoy the same unanimous approval (despite the vote). The next one, along the stretch of Belwood Gateway between Bacigalupi Drive and Harwood Road, left some Belwood of Los Gatos homeowners feeling that the process wasn’t done right, that the voting should have been teased out a little differently, and that perhaps a better resolution to the speeding and volume of traffic could be found. That resulted in another meeting, which happened earlier this evening.
Todd Capurso, the Los Gatos Director of Parks and Public Works, is very good about meeting with residents to discuss concerns, ideas, feedback etc. and this was no exception. Residents who live along the block of Belwood Gateway where the second speed bump or hump was to go (about 15 households in all) were notified of a meeting that took place tonight at 7pm in front of one of the homes. (I was notified so that I could keep the rest of the community updated via this and my other blog, LiveInLosGatos.com. Jim and Bella, our aging black lab, walked me over and then after meeting a few neighbors, continued on their walk while I stayed back to see what was decided.)
Only about half of the households had members show up for this informal discussion. One neighbor who was in favor of the traffic calming speed hump asked a couple of times why the meeting was even called since the vote was clearly in favor of this measure.
Los Gatos Pizza has been remodeled
If you haven’t been to our neighborhood pizzeria, Los Gatos Pizza, the new remodel is a great reason to pop by (rather than get it by delivery)!
They’ve added a lot more flat screen TVs, improved the lighting and seating and de-cluttered the walls, making the restaurant more upscale feeling.
Remaining are, of course, the salad bar, the pool table and a few games. The pizza is still the best around!
Here’s a photo I took last night but it doesn’t do it justice. The store’s website has the old look featured in a photo from a different angle (from the entry), if you want to compare it.
Details on location:
Los Gatos Pizza
in the Walgreen’s Shopping Center
Harwood Road and Blossom Hill Road
14080 Blossom Hill Road
Los Gatos, CA 95032
408 358-5545
Oil in Belwood of Los Gatos
Los Gatos is a great place to live, but the early explorers must have been truly thrilled when oil was discovered at Moody Gulch and later in areas that are now part of the Town of Los Gatos. A few years ago, my Live in Los Gatos blog covered the topic of the old oil pump that can be seen in a parking lot on Los Gatos Boulevard. My better half became intrigued by this topic, did some research and is providing a guest blog here, this time on the Belwood connection to oil. (Jim’s previous contribution was April 22nd, when he posted on Harwood Road being a meridian.)
Oil in Belwood? Guest post by Jim Handy, originally published on Live in Los Gatos
It may come as a surprise to most of us that there was oil drilling as far north as Los Gatos. After all, that’s a southern California phenomenon, isn’t it?
Well, the truth is that there were ten oil wells in the Los Gatos area around the turn of the last century, and one of them was right here in the Belwood neighborhood.
Old Los Gatos map showing location of oil well in Belwood neighborhood
A USGS map found in 2000 shows that there was an “old oil well” near the intersection of Harwood and Belridge*. This map was drawn about 100 years ago, and there was oil exploration here as early as the 1860s, so there’s no telling when it was drilled. In those days citizens weren’t as circumspect about telling the state what they were up to as they are today.
I’ve looked around that intersection, and have found no trace of the well, but by the time these homes were built it may have been long gone, along with any traces of its existence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Note on the map: This map shows railroad lines and trolly car lines that don’t now exist, roads with different names then the ones we know today and major thoroughfares like Blossom Hill Road entirely missing. I have taken the liberty to add a few notes to clarify the spot. Many of the numbers on the map (13, 14, 18) indicate townships and some of the straight black lines are the limits of the township and not streets. Also, the squiggly line running through most of the image is the base of Blossom Hill – the hill for which the major road was named.
Connect with Mary
