Guadalupe River Park — Attraction in San Jose

It's actually a nice-looking and small-child-friendly park, which could be good for neighbors having small children. But compared to other functional parks, I would consider this park a wasted trip and a waste of the city’s money.

However, my review is mostly based on a very negative experience with the staff there. In brief, make sure you read ALL their rules online before you plan on going there, because the controlling staff there will confront you and threaten you with citations if they robotically sense you aren’t complying with all their written rules to the letter.

For example, I took the light rail some distance and rode a push scooter to meet someone there at the park. The person guarding the gate pointed out that I couldn't take the scooter into the park and pointed to a sign of a person riding a scooter, crossed out. Of course, I took this to mean what it means at every other location I've seen that sign: that I should dismount the scooter and not ride it. I dismounted and folded the scooter and walked in. Several minutes later a sour face showed up to accuse me in front of my friends and family of purposely disregarding the attendant and the sign. She told me to take the scooter back to my car. “I didn’t arrive in a car.” “You can’t have it here…” I asked for an explanation describing the purpose of the rule. “To keep it nice here.” “How does a scooter make it not nice?” “When people ride their scooters and skateboards in here…” “I’m not riding a scooter in here and I’m not going to ride a scooter in here. It’s folded right here and lying under my backpack.” (The logic of this had to be explained a few times.) She also appealed to the programming authority of The Sign. She offered to keep the scooter in their office, which I was considering, but while I was asking and trying to figure out how far away their office was, she threatened to bring rangers there to cite me—or worse. Fortunately, there was no need to escalate to her foolish application of THE LAW, when we realized I could just put the scooter in the car of one of the other people with whom I was meeting. After all, I’m not unreasonable, even when provoked by a complete absence of reason.

Naturally, their rule had us all laughing later on as we watched people in the park hazardously pushing baby strollers and walkers through the park. If only Sour-Face had recognized these wheeled horrors!

Apparently Sour-Face is in charge of the park; so there is no one with more sense and diplomacy to whom you can...

This park is a blight on the reputation of city leaders. Since the beginning of COVID19, the homeless encampment here has grown to the point that it has become an obvious safety risk to visit. Civic leaders did not seem to fully grasp the need to expand shelters as needed, thus resulting in this desperate and undesirable blight on a once vibrant park.

If these homeless people didn't have mental problems before the pandemic, the state of their situation today has most certainly driven their desperation and dispare. It is if the Civic Leaders are clueless about what they should do. They do not seem to grasp that the growth of Silicon Valley has priced these people into this situation, and it's only getting worse.

Yet, the only solution the city seems to have is clear it out, making the homeless situation more dire and despairate. 250 people died on the streets of San Jose in 2021 and mostly elderly. As an elderly military veteran, I have felt locked out of my once elustious high-tech career and discarded as someone would a worn-out part unable to survive in dignity.

It's only getting worse here, not better, as was the promise of high-tech. The college opportunities, which I had been promised as a benefit of my service, proved elusive because of the high cost of living and the higher rents than elsewhere in the country.

There exists a huge chasm in Santa Clara County between the high-tech haves and the unemployed have nots. Yet, it is one of the wealthiest places in the nation. This is readily apparent at this park, which is on the approach to the San Jose Airport.

I recommend only visiting this park in daylight. And, I advise that all visitors stick to the paved paths well away from any occupied encampments, as well as to stay in clear view of the local traffic. The worst area I found was under Taylor St., next to the Guadalupe River, where your safety could be at risk.

It's sad, and I've ranted too much. I have a video posted on my YouTube channel of my walk through this park. It visually shows the most dangerous areas...

So I walked the park from the SAP center to Coleman. The park is...It's rather depressing really. I saw:

1 - Numerous homeless/mentally ill people. Someone them ranting, screaming, and urinating in the river.

2 - People doing drugs. Though there were no needles on the ground at least.

3- Completely unkempt landscaping, overgrown all over the place. Trees fallen down everywhere (though it's been a rough winter). Little to no tree cover throughout most of the trail.

4- The trails are poorly connected, especially where they intersect with major roads. Having to trek through the tall grass or walk through questionable lots is not what I'd expect from a city park. Where they do have tunnels they are bleak looking.

Overall, it's an adventurous park to trek through and photograph. It's almost interesting to see everything so overgrown and desolate. But, as a marquee park from a city as prominent as San Jose? It's shocking how neglected it is. And the homeless/mentally ill really add a lot of tension to what should be a nice park (it's...