Food for Thought

What number is 10,217,023,029,529? No, it’s not the largest known prime number recently discovered by mathematicians using powerful computers. It was the amount of the gross national debt at the moment I wrote the number and in the meantime it has grown by almost $10 million. If you are like me and have been trying to make sense of all the big numbers being thrown around these days, it’s nearly impossible. Thanks to my good friend Gray Maxwell, a senior US Senate staffer on Capitol Hill, I have a way to bring the enormity of the situation home by casting the numbers in terms of our city and as individual citizens and thinking about what we could buy with that money.

At its recent September meeting, a healthy majority the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce board voted to support Measure B, despite the fact that some members had reservations about the BART tax. A fair question would be: Could they possibly come out against it, when one of their power players has so much at stake? Not only would the employees of Applied Materials benefit greatly from BART, but the company’s CEO, Mike Splinter, even signed on to the measure.

The buzz was that Applied Materials had even threatened to pull out of the Chamber unless the organization supported the BART tax.

There is little doubt that if measures J and K, our local telephone taxes, do not pass on the current ballot, then the quality of life in San Jose is going to change a great deal—for the worse.

As in most elections recently, real estate interests and developers have put up a large amount of the money. That is not unusual. Yet it seems that some of those interests have not been heard from for some time, the casinos at the top of the list, and they are back in the fray. Along with the Irvine Company, Equity Residential and other big-name donors are two names that we have not heard lately except in court rooms,  legal briefs and city accusations: Garden City Casino and Bay 101.

Everywhere you look, everything you read, spells out impending doom. Every picture of Wall Street traders shows them beaten down, frustrated and worn. Companies are going under like an old man slipping into a bathtub. Layoffs. Bankruptcy. Takeovers. And then there are the banks.

We were always taught that having a bank account is the single most reliable and safe way to keep your money.  But now, with banks failing and on the verge of failing, does having money in your mattress and overflowing out of piggy banks make more sense?

To no one’s surprise, the Mercury News Editorial Board recently voiced their support for Measure B, the 1/8 cent sales tax designed to help bring BART to San Jose. Among their arguments for the measure was the statement that BART is “a strategy to connect the region’s major cities, universities, airports and other institutions…”

In terms of connecting the universities, I vaguely remembered that the proposed station for San Jose State had been scrapped in an effort to cut costs.

Last week I went on my first City to City trip organized by the Chamber of Commerce. The delegation was comprised of 80 “San Jose Cheerleaders,” including Mayor Reed, four councilmembers (besides myself), City Manager, Police Chief, high-tech representatives, affordable housing developers, attorneys,etc. Interestingly enough, about 20 percent of the group lives in District 6.

It was a big week in San Jose and the rest of the world, right? Tell us what you think in SJI’s weekly freewheeling forum of random ideas and opinion.

Al Davis, Gov. Schwarzenegger Top Offenders

Citing the need for more oversight in California, the state Legislature is tackling the issue of more vigorous and stringent rules that would govern the state’s Safe Haven laws making it a crime to surrender adults.

Last week saw the opening of “Leonardo: 500 Years Into the Future,” a comprehensive awe-inspiring glimpse into the mind of the ultimate Renaissance man, showing at the Tech Museum for the next three months. San Jose is the only place in the United States where this exhibit is being shown and you will need at least two hours to fully take in all the life-size models, artifacts, drawings, displays, interactive machines, explanations, video and scrupulous documentation of Da Vinci’s ideas and inventions.

By any measure, this year’s San Jose Mariachi and Latin Music Festival was a triumph. As a cultural event, it was world class, one of the best ever in our city or anywhere else in the world I have been. People attended from far and wide, including New York, Las Vegas, Tucson and Florida. The workshop students came from San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Bakersfield, Gilroy, Oxnard and, of course, San Jose. It was expertly programmed, well organized, drew large crowds of people of all ages (35,000 in total), colors and backgrounds, and it was entirely peaceful. The festival’s producer, Marcela Davison Aviles, and artistic director, Linda Ronstadt, deserve the high praise they are getting from everyone I talk to.

San Jose City Councilman Pete Constant isn’t happy with the Police Officers Association for trying to ruin his weekend barbecue. According to Constant, the POA, frustrated by the lack of a union contract, attempted to “pressure” the San Jose Police and Firefighters Retirees Association to back out of their commitment to barbecue at his District 1 event this past weekend.

Well, the crisis is here and swirling all around us.  You can tell by the pained and pinched looks on the faces of the members of Congress, Cabinet officials, and in particular Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men—you know the rest of that one. 

You can’t tell a crisis is with us, here in this valley, by the throngs of people downtown last weekend, lining up for the Leonardo exhibit at the Tech and the Sharks game at HP Pavilion, those carrying shopping bags in Valley Fair, and thousands lining up at Farmers Markets from Santana Row to Campbell.

I think that after years of writing about San Jose on this site, I have come to a realization about the crux of the problem with things in our city.

Week after week, I have become a broken record talking about what’s wrong, what’s right and how to make San Jose the place we want it to be. Many of you agree and more disagree. Many of you think that I am downtown-centric—you’re right. And many of you think things are never going to be better, no matter what.  But I was thinking about why they never will be different. And the reason is that those in power don’t think things are that bad.

Let me get this straight…San Jose voters are being asked to support Measures J and K under the guise of lowering San Jose’s tax rates?

Please.

Last week I visited the Rules and Open Government Committee which sets the agenda for upcoming Council meetings. The Rules Committee includes Mayor Reed, three councilmembers, the City Attorney, City Manager and the Redevelopment Agency (RDA). The purpose of my visit was that two memos that I wrote were going to be heard.

The first memo was to request that the city update it’s travel policy by using technology. I asked that the “travel request” form include a question asking if the proposed trip could be done via a “web meeting.” And if not, why not?