Despite the city’s stated commitment to sunshine and open government, city officials and proponents of a proposal to permanently close a block of South First Street concealed critical documents from affected parties for a year—until the eve of a council vote. Promoters of the “pavement to plaza” conversion say a $500,000 grant from ArtPlace requires the street’s full closure. San Jose will contribute $98,000 in park and economic development funds, under the plan, which goes to the City Council at today’s 1:30pm meeting.

Mayor Chuck Reed and Councilmember Sam Liccardo authored a memo last week that would give high-rise builders in downtown San Jose new incentives to start constructing towers before the end of next year. At its meeting Tuesday, the City Council will discuss the incentives as well as last week’s budget hearings, restricting payday lending offices, targeting parents who let their teenagers throw parties with alcohol, and a potential park expansion that could alter the view from San Jose Inside’s office.

Internal polling numbers show Measure B passing in next month’s election with more than 60 percent of the vote, according to sources at City Hall. For that reason, it seems that unions and labor-oriented Political Action Committees (PAC) plan to fight the “pension modification” measure after it passes in court. But on the flip side, the committee “San Jose Fiscal Reforms, Mayor Reed, Chamber PAC and IMPAC Proponents” shot out of the fundraising gates in the first three months of the year, hauling in more than $200,000 in contributions—$202,275 to be exact.

The Santa Clara County chapter of Move to Amend will hold a rally at noon Thursday in St. James Park, near the Historic Courthouse. Move to Amend is a nonpartisan organization arguing for a 28th amendment that would overturn corporate personhood and rule that money is not equivalent to free speech. 

A new phone poll in San Jose wants to know exactly how you feel about card rooms. More specifically, the poll, paid for by Bay 101, wants to know how receptive you are to the city’s two casinos increasing card tables to 98 apiece and potentially incorporating Indian casinos’ modern-day 40 acres and a mule: slot machines.

Eric Swallow currently owns the city’s oldest card room, Garden City Casino, with partners Peter and Jeanine Lunardi, and they want nothing more than to shut down the aging facility and replace it with a 21st-century gambling establishment. Casino M8trix is a $50-million, 16-story highrise alongside Highway 101 near San Jose’s airport. The casino’s owners are in a standoff with San Jose Police Chief Chris Moore and some members of city staff.

Are San Jose’s graffiti clean up crews padding the stats to make more money? That’s the question our favorite investigative crew over at NBC is asking. Last June, the city laid off employees and outsourced its graffiti abatement program in an attempt to cut down on expenses to the General Fund. Graffiti Protective Coatings (GPC), a Los Angeles-based private contractor, signed a five-year contract with the city worth $3.1 million. But only nine months into that contract, GPC told the city that it has already exceeded its yearly quota.

SOS (…- - -…) is the commonly known Morse code distress symbol, not an acronym. That said, many think of “save our ship” or “save our souls when the term is used. During my tenure as a principal, school board member and SJI columnist, I have a different distress signal. If I could, I would tap out the code “Save Our Schools” every single hour of every day in all cities across Silicon Valley.

Payday lending offices offer immediate financial relief to many of San Jose’s most cash-strapped citizens, but the high interest rates can leads to crippling debt when more loans are required to pay off the first. It’s a vicious cycle that brings interest rates to as high as 460 percent in some cases. This week the city’s planning commission made new recommendations on how to curb the proliferation of offices that many view as predatory lenders.

Lupe Nunez, a vice principal for two years at one of two charter schools formerly operated by the Mexican American Community Service Agency (MACSA)  school, says she’s not sure if Xavier Campos was involved in the disappearance of funds from the teachers’ retirement accounts, “but you kind of wonder.” The question weighs on the minds of many teachers who worked for below-market wages at charter schools in Gilroy and San Jose, operated by MACSA, as executives raided $1 million from their pension accounts to pay other expenses, according to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office.

The San Francisco 49ers broke ground Thursday on their new stadium in Santa Clara and threw a tremendous party replete with football royalty, current players, politicians and, most importantly, volunteers from the Measure J campaign that made the day possible. The model used by Santa Clara and the Niners should be replicated in San Jose for the new A’s stadium.

We all have an impact on the sewer system and our waste must go somewhere to be treated. Miles upon miles of pipe transport and maintain our civilization and virtually eliminates outbreaks of typhoid and cholera. As some have said, “No pipes, no civilization.” if you would like to learn more about the challenges San Jose has with over 2,000 miles of sewer lines—and some portions being approximately 100 years old—attend a presentation at 6:30pm tonight at City Hall. And on another rnote, local residents now have the chance to submit business plans in a contest that has no better home than Silicon Valley: the Santa Clara County Start Up Cup.

I was a little bummed out Tuesday afternoon. I had my popcorn ready. I had my browser pointed to the City of San Jose website. I was keyed up to watch the council discussion of an update on progress with the city’s economic development priorities. Essentially, the city’s current economic strategy has been condensed to a five-point plan—as if we don’t have enough of those. To be frank, it should really be a one-point plan.

Recently, I was asked to take part in a community stakeholder interview for Cristo Rey High School in San Jose, which is currently going through a feasibility study. The landscape of public and private schools in Silicon Valley looks the same to many as it did in 1980. However, in reality, the new scene is vastly different and rapid change is occurring. One of these changes is a focus on corporate work-study programs.

In a sign that the city of San Jose has no immediate plans to aggressively add to its workforce, an item on Tuesday’s City Council agenda suggests permanently eliminating 12 positions and adding a new job: Risk manager. Also on Tuesday, the city plans to accept an audit of the police department that says urgent reform is needed regarding the secondary employment of officers. Discussion on the city’s top five priorities in its Economic Strategy Workplan has been deferred to next week.

The long-awaited work to extend BART from Fremont to Berryessa begins today with a groundbreaking ceremony featuring many of Silicon Valley’s most prominent political officials. The event has been a long time coming, and shovels should enter the ground this afternoon.