This is the time of year when satirists rejoice, pundits celebrate and citizens head for their local vomitoriums.  It is the final weeks before election, the “silly season”—that most frightening time of year when the airways crackle with attack ads, mailboxes overflow with disturbing missives, editorial writers pontificate, and parents shield their children’s ears from such trash. On a few rare occasions, it descends into farce.

Well, the news of “Cheapskate Chuck” Reed just keeps getting better, doesn’t it?  But I feel that his cheapness, frugalness, or whatever you want to call it, is getting blown out of proportion a bit.  Are we splitting hairs or do his questionable moves regarding reimbursements really mean as much as people are making them out to be?

Have you ever been to Big Basin Park and stood under a giant redwood, the tallest living trees on earth, and wondered how and why they are still here? This is the story of the man who saved them: artist and photographer Andrew Putnam Hill.

Hill came to California in 1867 at the age of 14, just before the continental railway was built. His father, Elijah, had made the journey just before Andrew was born, but before he reached the golden land, Elijah and a companion were attacked by Indians. Elijah survived the fight, but he died a week later of exposure and exhaustion.

Compliance with Strict Greenhouse Emissions Law Cited

California moved to the front of local government efforts to fight global warming Wednesday when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation calling for a radical reduction of greenhouse gasses by dissolving the Santa Clara County government.

Citing numerous studies that show “unusually high” levels of carbon dioxide emission emanating from the county supervisors’ chambers, the state has ordered a temporary closure pending a comprehensive study and plan.

I decided the day after the primary votes were counted who I would vote for for mayor in November, and it wasn’t either one of the candidates whose name is printed on the ballot. Nothing since that day has made me change my mind about voting for “none of the above.” In fact, this week’s revelations about both candidates (Reed’s expense scam and Chavez’s letter) and their individual responses to related criticism only strengthen my resolve.

Mark Twain once said that when people start talking about religion, he always grabbed a firm hold on his wallet. So, too, it is with some discussions of “constitutionality.” I was very sorry to see that a federal judge threw out San Jose’s law concerning limits on independent expenditures. It can only mean more money and more sleaze in local campaigns. The Chamber of Commerce should feel more than a hint of shame at its disingenuous primary assault on Cindy Chavez and the subsequent censure by the Ethics Board, San Jose Mercury, just about every other politician running for office, and many of the Democratic establishment lemmings who are so fearful of Chuck Reed and any other independent voice that might crack their hold on power. Why didn’t the chamber just fall back on the truth and call it what it was? For the time being, the chamber avoided being indicted by the Hague War Crimes Tribunal. Of such small victories, are our municipal values formed.

When I checked my mail the other day, amidst the Pennysaver and Victoria Secret catalogs I found a personal letter from the one and only Cindy Chavez in my mailbox!  Imagine my surprise and delight when I thought of how important I must be to the Chavez campaign that she would take the time to write me to tell “her side of the story.”

Who was the greatest motivator for education in “The Valley of Heart’s Delight?” For my money, it was a Frenchman who never spent a day in school here, never served on a school board and was not an instructor.

SuperBlogger Demands New Contract

As internet blog sensation SanJoseInside.com (SJI) gears up for the fast approaching mayoral runoff election, a conspicuous, if not gaping, hole has opened up in their writing stable over the past two weeks as marquee blogger and star of the site, John McEnery IV, continues to hold out over a contract dispute.

The denizens of San Jose are already known to be among the wealthiest, on average, in the nation. Now, an article in this month’s Atlantic Monthly identifies us as the most highly educated large city in the country, based on the number of college graduates per capita. This is very good news for all of us. I would expect that such statistics would translate into a population that is the most supportive of arts and culture in America, financially and intellectually. However, I am not so sure when I look at the continuing problems of the Rep Theater.

One of the hallmarks of fair and responsible campaigns in our city has always been the limits on the amount of dollars that could be contributed to a candidate for mayor. Many times, the special interests and mendacious politicians (not always a given) tried to get the limits raised above the five hundred dollars per person cap and were consistently rebuffed. Raising campaign money should be hard. There should be no bundling or bag men in the guise of lobbyists doing the dirty work.  These forces tried it twenty years ago when I was mayor and more recently with little success; the limits held.

I want to take this time to salute a brave soul, the owner of Chic Chateau, one of the only retail clothing stores in all of downtown.  So much has been said about how retail cannot survive downtown—because there aren’t enough people or there isn’t enough money or enough parking—that we need to keep an eye on how Chic Chateau is doing to see if they can prove the naysayers wrong.  Geared toward the 20- to 30-something woman, the boutique will be a barometer of how retail will do in our downtown now and in the future. 

More than 35 years ago, our renowned historian, Clyde Arbuckle, stood at Emigration Canyon, overlooking the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and repeated the words that Mormon leader Brigham Young uttered 130 years before: “This is the place.” But then, Clyde added something that is not listed in Mormon ideology: “This is the place, I cannot go any further.” The faithful were carrying the desperately ill Young on a bed, and it was there that he urged them to stop and build their “Kingdom of God.”

The way the major corporations have been acting the past few years, you would think that they believe themselves to be above the Constitution. Right here in Silicon Valley, the latest corporate scandal—where members of the HP board and Chairwoman Patricia Dunn have apparently been caught red-handed spying on their employees and on journalists—adds a nice new euphemism, “pretexting,” for a couple of common crimes, endemic in American corporate culture, to the list of white-collar conspiratorial activities. Dunn excuses her decision to order the spying by saying she did not know that pretexting (an Orwellian construct if there ever was one) meant any laws would be broken when she hired a firm of investigators to obtain the personal information of the company’s targets. That’s hilarious, given that the defined action of pretexting combines the crimes of fraud and identity theft in a very creative manner. Call it what you want, it’s still a felony and Dunn and anyone else involved should be accorded the prescribed punishment under the law if they are found guilty. As we all know from high school civics, “ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

It is an axiom that some things that sound so very good can sometimes be so horribly bad. So it is with the current vision of our twenty-four–hour downtown; the result of the so-called “wonderful” activity of nightclubs and revelers often comes closer to a nightmare.  Someone attending an event at HP Pavilion and wanting to have a post game drink at the Tied House or a bowl of pasta at Original Joe’s, faces the equivalent of a trip from the UN Green Zone to the Baghdad airport. Few would have the temerity to attempt the short drive to either.  They just go home. The same goes for anyone getting off the freeway at Santa Clara Street on a weekend.  And those who live in our downtown, either in the new housing in the core or in the immediate neighborhoods, are unable to enjoy the peace and tranquility that we all need when we come home after a long day of work or play.  Cruisers, youth in full-party mode, and an annoying array of troublemakers from other cities are filling up our downtown in the late-night and early-morning hours.

What’s the solution?  Blame the police.

Have you ever heard the expression that someone “looks good on paper?”  When it comes to our current, soon-to-be-official lame-duck mayor, Ron Gonzales, he looked quite good on paper when he first started his career as a politician.  He served in the private sector working with schools; he was a smart businessman, a devoted husband, well-educated and the first Hispanic mayor in San Jose since 1850.  But, after years in office, his career and life have taken a turn and he is now one of those politicians that look very bad on paper. Hmmm, let’s see—censured by the city council, arrested and charged with felonies, an affair with his 25-year-old intern and, now, a laughing stock.  Need I kick the guy more while he’s down?