San José approves right-of-way transfer
San José Spotlight, September 2023
Twenty years after East San Jose residents began advocating for more open spaces in their community, city leaders have completed a key step in expanding the neighborhood’s celebrated Five Wounds Trail. The San Jose City Council unanimously voted to acquire the final parcel of land needed to complete the trail from VTA at no cost. This will extend Five Wounds Trail to 2.17 miles of walking and biking paths, with a goal of being completed and open to the public by 2031. Read more…
VTA Awards $4.14 Million to Five Wounds Trail
Press Release, State Senator Jim Beall, June 2020
Through the ongoing support and advocacy of Senator Beall and community leaders, the VTA Board has approved a $4.14 million Measure B grant award to the City of San Jose for the development of the Five Wounds Trail. “For decades, I have envisioned a vibrant transit-oriented community for San José to strengthen our neighborhoods and provide pedestrian-friendly pathways connecting transit to neighborhoods. This $4.14 M grant is a significant step towards breaking ground on this important corridor and it helps with the pursuit of leveraging much-needed Active Transportation Program funding.” Read more…
Grassroots movement cleans up abandoned railroad
Spartan Daily, May 2014
Residents of the Five Wounds and Brookwood Terrace neighborhoods and its allies partnered with students to clean up trash at the abandoned railroad tracks near Five Wounds church on Saturday. Terry Christensen, a retired SJSU political science professor and executive director of Friends of Five Wounds Trail, said the Friends of Five Wounds Trail is a community organization that advocates turning the abandoned railroad line by Five Wounds Portuguese National Church into a hiking and biking trail. Read more…
Community’s vision sparks urban village
Silicon Valley Business Journal, April 2012
The residents of a working-class neighborhood in downtown San Jose wanted to be proactive about developing a plan around a future planned BART station for the area. The community wanted more than mass transit and a parking lot to support it, so neighbors teamed up with urban planning students at San Jose State University to come up with a plan that would turn the neighborhood surrounding Five Wounds Portuguese National Church at 1375 E. Santa Clara St. into an urban village. Read more…
Healing Five Wounds
SJSU Washington Square Magazine, Fall 2011
Mighty Union Pacific trains once pulsed through downtown San José, a land rich with agriculture. But now both the trains and orchards are gone — leaving behind a skeleton of derelict railroad track and city-dwellers with no easy access to fresh fruits and vegetables. A broad coalition sees in these remains the seeds of a community renewal. This community-university-city partnership — called CommUniverCity — seeks to use the fallow land to restore health to the working-class neighborhood surrounding Five Wounds Church. Read more…
Opinion: It takes a village to plan a village: San Jose should respect Five Wounds project
San Jose Mercury News, January 2011
We’re excited that San Jose’s Envision 2040 Task Force has proposed urban villages throughout the city as part of the new general plan. We’d like to advise, however, that it takes a village to plan a village. That’s what we’ve been doing for the past few years in the neighborhoods surrounding Five Wounds Church. Read more…