City Hall Diary

Last week, the council voted on two noteworthy items: a citywide fire station policy and pay for airport personnel. The most important item was the new citywide policy for the closure and consolidation of fire stations. Up until now, San Jose did not have a policy of how or when a fire station could be closed or relocated. The lack of a process was not good for the city. Closing a fire station in any neighborhood of our city that diminishes response time and/or reduces the ability to muster an effective force of fire personnel in the instance of a large fire, natural disaster or terrorist action is bad public policy.

Tell it like it is in this weekly open forum.

Approximately 1.25 Will Be Terminated

In a radical and controversial move, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for 25-percent across-the-board reductions in General Fund programming and county supervisor representation in Santa Clara County.

Silicon Alleys

SOMETIMES one has to go outside the usual stomping ground to look for inspiration. In this latest case, the backdrop was Kansas City, Mo., a place you wouldn’t normally expect to see a thriving live/work arts district with dozens of galleries that attract thousands of people every first Friday of the month. The Crossroads Arts District in K.C. is exactly that and last week I infiltrated the scene, found the muse and expunged the usual ornery ennui from my psyche.

Food for Thought

Over the past 60-plus years since World War II, we have become the throwaway society. Our landscape is littered with plastic and paper wrappers, bags, bottles, containers, etc., and our garbage dumps are filled to the brim with the same. Californians use 50 million plastic bags every day, around 18 billion each year, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the state’s litter. Of course, the main reason plastic is used is its low cost as a packaging material for industry and retail stores, and there is no arguing with its convenience factor.  However, plastic waste is responsible for a long list of costly environmental problems, including the clogging of water and waste systems and the death of wildlife. In addition, plastic is manufactured from oil, takes thousands of years to break down and much of it is not recyclable. At every step of the way from manufacture to end-of-use, plastic bags and containers constitute a major source of pollution.

Despite the recent violent crimes, we are still a very safe city. However, I think it is fair to ask if we are safe enough.  Many would say “no.” When three murders happen over one night; when four knifings happen within a couple of blocks downtown; when more and more people are concerned about the use of police resources in central San Jose; when our murders in one weekend approach Oakland’s, then it is time to carefully monitor the crime situation and make the correct assessments.

Two giants of San Jose’s jazz world died in late August within a week of each other. One was tall and always immaculately dressed, a Bellarmine-educated pianist, raised in the Santa Clara Valley and married into one of its wealthiest and most prominent families. The other was round and simply dressed, a working drummer who kept time for musicians like Cab Calloway and Mike Bloomfield in the hardscrabble clubs of New York and New Orleans. Both were passionate about music. Henry Schiro was the well-dressed impresario who booked performers; Sammy Cohen was the drummer who fought for fair compensation as head of the local musician’s union.

Yesterday, I attended a roundtable discussion at Google, hosted by the Knight Commission, which was about “Meeting the Public’s Information Needs.” It was very interesting brainstorming, and was the first time I had seen different parts of the media and community landscape in the same room—from managing editors of the Mercury News to folks who had just started neighborhood news websites.

Over the past weekend, San Jose experienced a crime rate similar to one of the most dangerous cities in California. With three shootings within a few hours, San Jose is starting to become less like the “sleepy city” we talk about. Should we be alarmed, or was this violence just an anomaly?

City Raises Business License Fee

I received my business tax renewal notice from the San Jose City Finance Department the other day. It seems that the San Jose City Council “adopted” a new Business Tax Administrative Fee of $22, effective July 1, 2008. Small business owners and sole proprietors are now charged a minimum $172 for the privilege of doing business in San Jose. What is interesting about the increase is the explanation printed on the renewal notice. It reads:

City Hall Diary

San Jose’s population has grown by leaps and bounds and the city has provided more housing—including both market rate and affordable housing—in Santa Clara County and the Bay Area than any other municipality. Once a city filled with orchards, San Jose is now a sprawling suburb and still growing. Although you may see open space in the city, much of it was zoned for housing 2-20 years ago and just hasn’t been built on yet.

This is the weekly open forum where anything goes. What’s on the slab this week?

Operable Pissing Windows Fitted on Raider Route

Are you ready for some Football?! At the dawn of the start of another NFL season, with the prospect of Raider Nation flocking to and from McAfee Stadium, BART sure is.

Silicon Alleys

WE OFTEN HEAR examples of inferiority hang-ups when people from San Jose visit a more celebrated city. It’s the “Why can’t we have this in San Jose?” complex. You hear this all the time. People usually say or think such things whenever they come back from having a good day on the town in San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Carmel or La Honda. Whenever they visit a distinctive world-renowned place, they come back frustrated and depressed because their hometown will never be as awesome as those other locales.

Food for Thought

A few years ago, I was in China on business and read in the English language newspaper there about a man who had embezzled the equivalent of $50,000 from some government agency. He was found guilty in court and immediately taken out the back of the courthouse and executed by firing squad. The crime of embezzlement of any amount is punishable by death in China and there is no appeal process. It’s no wonder that this crime is rare in that country. Now I am not holding up the Chinese system of justice as an example of anything to emulate and I certainly do not advocate the death penalty for embezzlement. However, it provides a stark contrast to how we treat “misappropriaters” of public funds in the USA.

Two years ago, San Jose’s Sunshine Reform Task Force began their work on restoring our citizens’ trust with more public participation and scrutiny and real reform. The mayor and the council, who have walked the walk and done much to open up meetings, deserve our thanks. The city now gets agendas out ten days in advance. This is a huge improvement and minimizes the chance of big surprises like the Grand Prix debacle.