Arvind Kumar and his husband Ashok Jethanandani spend their Saturday mornings pulling weeds and protecting plants native to California, but not in their yard at home. Instead, they’ve spent the last 20 years volunteering at Lake Cunningham Park in their East San Jose neighborhood — working to undo years of neglect and unsafe water.
For the last five years they’ve focused on stinkwort, a sticky, camphor-smelling invasive species native to southern Europe, northern Africa and southwestern Asia that is irritating to the touch. Now, their hard work restoring the park to its former glory is getting a boost thanks to $850,000 in federal funding from Congressmember Jimmy Panetta and the dedication of San Jose Councilmember Domingo Candelas. The money will be used to further the lake’s rehabilitation by funding flood prevention, water filtration and restoration of the water’s nutrients — which advocates said will improve equity in the historically disenfranchised part of the city.
Kumar, a trained software engineer and board member of environmental nonprofit California Native Plant Society’s local chapter, said the help from local legislators to revitalize the park has him feeling “on the moon.”
“It means the world. This park is an environmental gem in San Jose,” he told San José Spotlight. “It’s 200 acres of open space, trees, the lake, the birds, the fish. Where else in San Jose will you find a spot like this, and you’re surrounded by development?”
Lake Cunningham, a man-made body of water near Tully Road, was used by residents to go boating and fishing until it was shut down years ago. It was deemed unsafe due to fecal pollution and fungi after decades of neglect.
The federal funding adds to Candelas’ dedication to the restoring the park. The councilmember, who represents District 8 where the park is located and campaigning to keep his seat, helped secure $1.5 million from the state budget last year for its restoration. The lake’s revitalization is estimated to cost between $3 million and $20 million, according to a city study.
The project is personal to Candelas, who learned to swim in the lake and grew up venturing to the park with his family. He said the extra money is a step in the right direction for equity in East San Jose’s parks.
“It’s progress and this gives us the ability to start that work rather than talking about it,” Candelas told San José Spotlight. “This allows us to actually put some actions in motion.”
The park’s funding hit some bumps along Candelas’ five-year restoration plan. Last year, money from Measure T, a $650 million disaster preparedness bond approved by voters in 2018, was diverted from the lake restoration. A previous iteration of the council in 2021 allocated about $3.2 million in Measure T funds to improve Lake Cunningham’s water quality.
The East San Jose park provides a place for families to gather for free. But Alice Kaufman, policy and advocacy director for preservation group Green Foothills, said it’s much more than that.
“Parks with the green spaces and the trees and everything… they cool the temperatures during heat waves, they absorb storm water during flooding, they clean the air, they provide a habitat for birds and insects,” she said during a news conference. “They’re just oases of green in the middle of a city.”
Lake Cunningham isn’t the sole environmental issue the East Side is contending with. Residents and officials have advocated for a faster cleanup of fuel spill toxins that could cause health problems for people breathing them in along Alum Rock Avenue.
Kumar said he and his husband will continue restoring Lake Cunningham Park to preserve critical nature for the community.
“It’s like breathing… It’s necessary, you can’t live without it,” he said. “Being in nature is like that.”
Contact Annalise Freimarck at annalise@sanjosespotlight.com or follow @annalise_ellen on X, formerly known as Twitter.
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