Alviso

Yesterday, we took a site visit to one of our future projects in Alviso, a tiny waterfront community of San Jose. The town was annexed in 1968, by a vote of 189 to 180. Now with a population of over 2,000, the neighborhood is still ferociously protective of its history and identity.

It is home to the Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge and the tranquil Alviso Slough Trail, which is part of the San Francisco Bay Trail. I have only hiked small portions of it, a fact I hope to change soon.

Sitting below sea level on the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, Alviso is prone to flooding. It has never really recovered from the major floods of 1982 and 1983. One of the major reasons for our visit was to see how high other structures had been raised to mitigate flood damage. Whatever we build will need to be seven to nine feet above grade, a costly but necessary measure, if it is to survive the next big flood.