The San José Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony to welcome the renewal of the Guadalupe River Park on Saturday morning, attended by local residents and District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy.
The river park is a key part of San José’s trail network that is planned to span about 20 miles and connect the San Francisco Bay to South San José, according to the City of San José webpage.
The park remodeling included removing old structures, installing a new gathering pavilion, adding new outdoor furniture, installing pickleball courts and landscaping throughout the park, according to a March 11 San José Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Service Facebook post.
Torie O’Reilly, division manager of San José, said the park renewal has been a project in the making since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“ … COVID-19 is when Dorsey and I were able to get American Rescue (Plan) funding, and we created a new program called Resilience Corps, which Dorsey and the Conservation Corps were in charge of,” O’Reilly said.
The park has been closed since December 2025 because of construction, according to All Trails.
Dorsey Moore, CEO of San José Conservation Corps and Charter School, said the Resilience Corps consists of underemployed young adults who were impacted by COVID-19.
“A lot of the hospitality jobs evaporated overnight, like restaurants and jobs all disappeared and the highest rate of unemployment was for transition age youth,” Moore said.
The Parks, Recreation and Neighboring Services (PRNS) offers a wide range of programs for all ages, including people with disabilities that strengthen the community in San José through engaging activities and vibrant public spaces, according to the City of San José webpage.
Moore said San José had a hard time hiring staff for park maintenance jobs.
“Through PRNS and Torie’s work here of creating internships, PRNS has hired 40 people just over the last 18 months to fill some sort of staffing gaps in those city positions,” Moore said.
With a lack of ongoing funding, parks can be left neglected, incur higher costs for restoration and end up with park closures, which can limit community use and undermine initial investments, according to the National Recreation and Park Association.
Andrea Flores Shelton, assistant director of PRNS, attended the park’s reopening on Saturday and described the city’s approach to managing the area.
“There was this strategy starting around Columbus Park and so as we cleared, there was an intentional housing approach attached to that so this is an established no encampment zone,” Shelton said.
San José has 6,503 homeless residents and about 60% unsheltered since 2023, according to a July 14 2025 San José Spotlight article.
The city’s unsheltered residents peaked at 6,650 in 2022, which ranked fourth in the U.S. for homeless population per capita, according to the same source.
San José District 6 Councilmember Michael Mulcahy was in attendance for the park reopening.
“I’m excited that we are here today to show off some of the investments we’ve made, but we’ve got so much opportunity ahead,” Mulcahy said.
Mulcahy said the improvements made to the park were done out of concern.
“It’s cleaner, it’s more lit, trees have been trimmed,” Mulcahy said. “There’s greater visibility, so it’s creating a greater sense of safety for people.”
Residents are using parks in new ways and changing how these spaces function and feel, according to the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association.
This can lead to public parks being challenging to keep safe and welcoming for the community.
Mulcahy said people want to blame the condition of Guadalupe River Park on unhoused neighbors that were trying to survive.
“But the real culprit here was that people took their eyes off this park. The city wasn’t investing in this park,” Mulcahy said. “When I got elected, the process to remove the carousel was already in place and unfortunately, it was a subject of neglect. The city just didn’t pay attention to it.”
Missing from the park was a well-known carousel located in Arena Green West that had been closed and removed in 2025 for the park’s restoration, according to a 2025 Image San José Parks and Recreation Instagram post.
Rather than demolishing all infrastructure, he said the shelter will be used to house what is saved and as an entertainment space.
“We wanted to make sure that we kept the structure to be able to kind of live on and create opportunity for people,” Mulcahy said.
Shelton also emphasized the park’s role and significance as a shared community space where everyone can gather, comparing it to other urban spaces.
“When you think about the uniqueness of SAP and you’ve got all these unique Little Italys downtown, that’s why it’s like the Central Park moniker,” Shelton said. “This should be everybody’s park.”
