Santa Clara takes great pride in the quality of its streets. And rightly so. The City is consistently “Good” or “Very Good” in the Metropolitan Transportation Commission’s Pavement Condition Index.
But this wasn’t always the case. A century ago, there was significant opposition to paving city streets — some for the perennial objection to civic projects that it would bankrupt the city.
“Monday, the 14th day of the June, was the time fixed for the hearing of protests,” reported the May 15, 1915 San Jose Mercury Herald. “A large number of the property owners on the streets to be paved are meeting against the improvement, and …it was decided to distribute protests in the parts of town to be paved to be signed by the property owners against the contemplated improvement.”
The daughter of city father Frederick Franck, Caroline Franck, was one of those who took a dim view of street paving, reportedly saying that, “if God had wanted the sidewalks paved, he would have done it himself.”
The effort to pave Santa Clara’s city streets began in 1912.
“The next three years will be the most important in Santa CIara’s history, and a successful foundation for the city’s future cannot be too long delayed,” wrote the Santa Clara News’* Henry Roth.
”The next three years” Roth wrote, “will be the most important in Santa Clara’s history, and a successful foundation for the city’s future cannot be too long delayed. For this reason the Town Trustees have earnestly discussed the advisability of paving the streets of the town. In preparation for the Panama-Pacific Exhibition in 1915 when millions of visitors will inspect every foot of Santa Clara’s beautiful valley.”
Ultimately, as we know the streets got paved — apparently without the city being imperiled by socialism, government tyranny or bankruptcy.
*The Santa Clara News was one of Santa Clara’s first newspapers, founded in 1876 and published until 1966. It was an ancestor of today’s Santa Clara Weekly, and has no relationship to a current website of that title.