ALJAE's Guide to Sustainable San Jose - Empowering a Greener Future by: Anna Lee, Armani Pallais, Easton Abram, Jhony De Oliveira, and Lan Nguyen

Our mission is to cultivate awareness, promote education, and inspire action to build a sustainable and resilient San José with community togetherness.

We envision a greener, healthier and better future for all residents. Bringing people together to not only educate people about sustainability, but economical, and structural redevelopment of our inner cities.

SDG: 11 Sustainable Cities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Guadalupe River Trail Review

1. The degree of homelessness. One of the biggest issues our city faces today. Many of those unhoused residents finds refuge along the riverway.

2. Lack of balance between the natural and urban environment. Hazardous habit for wild life due to pollution.

3. Lack of maintenance and safety precautions. No visible measures taken in order to maintain park's aesthetic as well as no lighting throughout riverway.

Solutions to these Issues

1. Community engagement: Volunteering, raising awareness by creating events and opportunities for community members who utilize the riverway to help maintain a clean environment.

2. Re-Wilding the river park, Improving Safety, and Improving Water Quality- Planting trees, grass, flowers, and other botanical life throughout the riverway to make it a more pleasing place for the community/wild life. Installing blue light emergency phones and call boxes. Lastly working with local people to get garbage out of waterways.

3. Bringing art to downtown San Jose: Painting Murals and collaborating with local artists to fill entire concrete areas with their artwork. Also bringing music to the park by adding sound systems throughout the riverway and creating events to bring life to the area.

Media and Outreach

1. Volunteer opportunities: River clean-up, planting trees/flower events, interviewing/collecting data from the unhoused to receive input on how to support riverway.

2. Video series: Create a series of short, informative videos on sustainable practices, including interviews with community members to discuss issues they want to be addressed. Interviewing local experts and demonstrations of community-funded initiatives. Start a podcast discussing the challenges of organic living, innovative solutions, and interviews with community leaders working to improve San Jose.

3. Social media campaign, website sources and blog with sustainability success stories and tips for residents. Drive content to Instagram, Twitter and Facebook to reach more people. We work with community leaders and environmental groups to raise awareness.

How we envision Guadalupe river after implemented changes