The mayor’s annual State of the City speech just seems to get smaller and smaller. Where will it stop? When I moved from the old Parkside Hall to the new Fairmont in 1989—for what I hoped was a new, new State-of-the-City era—I thought it was going to be a great day; and it was, for a bit. After the Unity Breakfast, as we used to call it, the fire marshal—in a fit of pique—cited the event for overcrowding; not quite the ending I had hoped for. (The citation inspired a few negative articles and cartoons, including one depicting a dog with my head on it urinating on a fire hydrant labeled “FIRE CODE.”) 

The city council has an opportunity to make the right decision and appoint Les White interim city manager. He is a man of integrity and competence, and he has served the city well in the past.  Although their options may be limited, choosing White would be a smart and very popular move by the council. 

I think we have to be concerned when the only major grocery store in the downtown core closes. Albertson’s is now gone.  It comes hot on the heels of the closing of San Jose Hospital. The proper question is: what is going on?

Even though I am in Boston trying to concentrate on watching Joe Thornton (briefly) and the Sharks make a triumphant return to Beantown,  the council’s recent comments on the censure of the mayor were quite incredible and his action to remove “himself” even more bizarre. The council members seem not to understand the gravity of the issue by the tone of their comments, or in some of their cases, non-comments; Mr. Gonzales does.

As many know, the number one spectator sport in America is not a sport at all—it’s politics.  The year ahead should prove most interesting for such aficionados. There has been so much focus on Ron Gonzales that it is time to take a break and comment on the general, instead of any specific problems in this area; the others are now with the grand jury, the DA, and the most important court of all, the court of public opinion.

This is a week-long year-end discussion.
Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher/ emperor, said late in life that
no matter how old he got, the people that he greeted along the Appian
Way always remained the same, about twenty-five and seemly.  Well,
unlike his subjects, we all “do” change, and at Christmas and the dawn
of new year, we all have hopes and dreams for ourselves and our City. 
Let’s share our best Christmas memories and thoughts for San Jose.

It is often said that with people, their true measure is not so much how they deal with success, but how they deal with failure and adversity.  Most of us have had plenty of both in our lives and had to learn to absorb and work through it by trying to make failure, either meaningful or productive.  So it is with our city. 

They just fired “Archibald Cox.”

I thought that headline would never be seen anywhere again, let alone in San Jose.  It happened yesterday when Chris Scott Graham was “fired.” The independent investigator was basically told that it was time to move on from the Norcal scandal and the crises in confidence with the mayor.  Healing was the mantra of a solid majority of the council.

The report of the Special Investigator is now complete for its initial phase.  It is very, very damning in its conclusions regarding Mayor Ron Gonzales and others. The Grand Jury and our own worse fears have been confirmed.  Our Council is now faced with another moment of truth.  I do not know what the majority of this group will do. It is a time for sober reflection and candor; it is a time for courage and leadership.  Silence will not do at such a critical time in our city’s history.  We are providing a link to the editorial in today’s San Jose Mercury News.  Please read and comment…Ultimately, the citizens of San Jose will be heard on this issue.  Their judgment is the most important.

I do like give and take; it’s healthy, it’s in my nature, and I believe that is the tradition of San Jose—a hallowed one. But if our next mayor’s race becomes the traditional American election, one full of personalities but short of vision, replete with attacks, more thunder than light, then we all lose.  Our city needs the next campaign to be about ideas and issues rather than platitudes and endorsements and who is the “nicest.” With that goal in mind, I’d like to speak about issues and an idea or two—those things that we need to be the focal points of the next mayoral election, namely growth, a big park, safety and ethics.

It is said that the cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Are we spending too much time on the investigations into the events that have recently happened at City Hall? This is a question that is being posed in the community.  Let’s look at the cost: the Cisco investigation was $150,000, the Norcal scandal, so-called Garbagegate, was at a $100,000 limit, and the Terry Gregory affair was a bargain at $60,000.  The Gregory investigation ended in his resignation after a very late response by the mayor and council. In the Cisco affair, the plug was pulled by the council at what many thought was the penultimate moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week marked the 42nd anniversary of the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. I just looked at a photo of him at the San Jose Municipal Airport in 1960 and pulled down a copy of “Profiles in Courage” that he autographed to my Dad - another world.  It is incredible to think of the America then - and how we have changed. How this Valley has changed from the small emerging garden city to the center of the high technology information age now.  On today’s thread, let’s comment on the good and the bad of those monumental changes.
   
I’ll begin. We no longer have to drive to San Francisco or Oakland
for great entertainment, U2 and McCartney, Disney Ice shows,
Globetrotters, Sharks (hockey in our city: no way!) and music for
each and every ethnic group and taste in our region - that’s good! 
Traffic: that’s not so good. It was easier to drive in our city when we had more canneries and fewer technology centers. 

The Downtown: light years to the positive side, but it sure was nice to go to OJ’s, and a Santa Clara vs. San Jose State basketball game - and park right on the street for both.

I really wanted to leave this nightclub and crime issue and turn to some other topics this week. Yet, quite easily, they pull me back into the fray.

First there is a thoughtful blog by David Hickey on the bad old days of prostitutes, crime and drugs on every corner in the Sofa area of downtown (before it had that name) in the late seventies. It was a very bad scene.

As I walked the streets of New York the past few days, I visited Fr. Duffy Square, the Theatre District, and the many neighborhoods that make up the immediate downtown, a fascinating crossroads of all that this nation is and can be.  I am struck by one simple fact:  the presence of police is one of the most reassuring sights, giving the finest sense of well-being imaginable. In bunches of two, three, and four, on horse, car, motor bike, and practically suspended on high wires across Broadway, they console, advise, direct, and even crack a joke or two.  “Did you hear the one about the ….”  Never mind. They are a presence to enjoy.

Sometimes you get a moment of clarifying light in a public meeting. It is rare but not impossible. Such was the case in last week’s meeting between Police Chief Rob Davis and many residents and business owners.  There were three council members present: Cindy Chavez, Dave Cortese, and Chuck Reed.

The presence of police downtown is becoming more and more of an issue after the recent shootings.  Most people who live or work in central San Jose consider the presence of police officers in their neighborhoods to be an unmitigated positive. They are disciplined, courteous, respectful, and a deterrent to unpleasant occurrences—all in all, something that law-abiding citizens desire.