The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to end free downtown parking in city garages and impose a $5 charge after 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday nights from July 1. This comes in the wake of the widespread use and abuse of the garages for partying and mayhem at night as we have been discussing here on SJI. The projected $400,000 of revenue raised by this fee will be used to pay for city parking garage policing and clean-up.

If you thought the downtown problems I described in last week’s column are bad, wait until you see what the Downtown Association and nightclub lobby have in store for the very near future. They call it “soft closing,” which is really just a euphemism for extending opening hours for nightclubs from 2 a.m. until 3 a.m. The city planning department will hold a hearing on the matter of a proposed pilot program for a large designated area of downtown on June 11 at 6:30 p.m., followed by a city council hearing on June 19 at 1:30 p.m., both at City Hall.

Those of you who aren’t quite sure what the San Jose Downtown Association (SJDA) is talking about when they promote the “24-Hour City” need go no further than the San Pedro Square/Market Street public parking facility. Use it over any weekend and you’ll find out. For the full effect, park on an upper floor and use the stairways to go between your car and the street.

The San Jose City Council voted on Tuesday to hire two consultants for the Mexican Heritage Corporation (MHC) at a cost to the taxpayers of $100,000, compounding the errors in judgment they have already made on this issue. One of the consultants will be hired to “help” the MHC develop a business plan and fundraising capabilities. The other will take the pulse of the community and advise the MHC on how better to serve the public.

Is it Legal and Ethical?

The until-now little-known scheme of refinancing school district bond debts for capital expenditure and refunding the difference to the districts known as “cash out” is being challenged in court by a local group, Citizens for School Bond Accountability, chaired by Jill B. Escher. They have exposed that the San Jose Unified School District is skimming the difference created by lowering interest rates through refinancing the 1997 Measure C bonds in 2005, earmarking the considerable sum of $20.4 million for new projects rather than returning it to the taxpayers.

The 28 percent hike in garbage rates for single-family homes approved by the San Jose City Council by a vote of 8-2 on Tuesday seems to have been a very unpopular move. The increase averages about $5.65 per month, raising the current rate from $20.15 to $25.80 for about 55 percent of the city’s residents. (Putting it into perspective, the increase equals about 20 miles’ worth of gas in one of those jumbo SUVs that can be seen with the naked eye from the moon or an iceberg lettuce side salad at an average overpriced Silicon Valley restaurant.)

This past Sunday, I attended a wonderful concert sponsored by South India Fine Arts (SIFA) at the Center for Employment Training auditorium on Vine Street. Part of a weekend of events celebrating the arts of southern India, the concert presented Chitra Visweswaran, one of the greatest living Indian Bharatanatyam dancers, with a group of master carnatic musicians, led by her husband, R. Visweswaran, on vocals. To sum it up in one word, the performance was sublime.

For those of you who think creating modern art doesn’t require dedication, you should take a look at the exhibition of works by Korean artist Il Lee (“Ballpoint Abstractions”) currently on display at the San Jose Museum of Art. You will be amazed. I did not know that such intense, focused dedication was possible. Why do I say that? Lee’s work is produced by scribbling on paper and canvas with a ballpoint pen—weeks, months and years of scribbling, millions upon millions of scribbles placed just where he wants them to create his intended visual effects.

With a clear mandate from the voters and armed with his popular reform agenda, Mayor Reed dragged the old-guard San Jose City Council Members by their hair to a unanimous vote authorizing the taking of the first baby steps toward ending the excesses of the Gonzales era. That’s more than a full measure of ifs, ands and buts, I know, but could this really be the beginning of the beginning of the end of the eight year free-for-all? Is our council going to go back through the looking glass without some kicking, screaming or scheming? If these reforms are going to work, every single member of the council has to voluntarily follow them to the letter. Excuse me if I think this may be a bit overoptimistic.

Like everyone else in San Jose, I have been following the controversy over the government’s mishandling of the friendly-fire killing of local football hero Pat Tillman with mounting incredulity. If a family with the profile and PR horsepower of the Tillmans can’t get the truth from the government, think what it must be like for the 3,300 other families of dead American soldiers. Will the exposure of the lies told to the Tillman family have any effect on the rest of America, sitting in front of our radio and TV newscasts that endlessly repeat the talking points of the White House and Pentagon snow jobs that pass for information these days?

It comes as no surprise that a recent survey conducted by Menlo Park think tank SRI International found that 89 percent of California’s schools do not meet state standards for arts education. Most of them, including the schools in the San Jose Unified School District, don’t even come close. While the immediate problem is a woeful lack of funding—a pitiful $15 per student annually at present—the underlying problem is that many parents and those who administer the state’s school system lack an understanding of the merits of a comprehensive arts education program.

I usually don’t give more than a passing glance at news about the trials and tribulations of the giant roulette wheel on Wall Street. The hollow ring of their dog-ate-my-homework excuses for dips in market values, like the reasons dreamed up by the PR departments of the oil companies to explain the rise in gas prices while the price of a barrel of oil goes down, just never seem quite credible. However, the excuses given for the recent market falls—turmoil in the mortgage “industry” and the overvalued real estate market—caught my attention because of a local story in the Mercury News on Sunday.

People do not drive nearly as well as they used to in California. That’s a fact. Stand at the intersection of Market and Santa Clara Streets for ten minutes and you will see ten obvious violations at a minimum. In nearly every light cycle, someone will run a red light, another will illegally turn through a crosswalk full of pedestrians and nearly everyone going north on Market is speeding. There is a widespread lack of common courtesy, common sense and common decency among drivers these days.

San Jose’s best annual event began its 17th year last night at the California Theatre with a Bay Area premiere showing of Indian director Mira Nair’s “The Namesake,” from the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. This was quite a coup for our film festival as Nair’s previous film, “Vanity Fair,” starring Reese Witherspoon and former Cinequest honoree Gabriel Byrne, got a big Hollywood-blowout release. The filmmakers were on hand at the opening gala afterward.

Finally, our new mayor and city council have listened to the voices of San Jose’s citizens and neighborhood leaders and set budget priorities for the coming year that are in accordance with the wishes of the vast majority. In a meeting on Tuesday, the mayor, council members and their staffs made a commitment to funding the items most often mentioned on this site and in the neighborhoods. These break down into roughly three areas: public safety, public works infrastructure, and public recreational services.

For those of you who think that nothing of interest or importance ever happens in San Jose, take a wander around the San Jose Museum of Art’s current exhibitions. It’s impossible not to enjoy this fascinating local show of works by M.C. Escher and some of the seminal artists from the Op Art era. Judging by the large crowds I witnessed there over the weekend, these exhibitions are very popular and are bringing locals and visitors here alike, proving once again that our museum is a vital part of life in San Jose and the region.