San Jose Inside (https://www.sanjoseinside.com)
Thousands of Milpitans Flee to Alviso
The Milpitas Post reported late Thursday that San Jose’s Honor Guard, backed by thousands of City Team peacekeepers and a bevy of Taiko drummers, invaded the small hamlet of Milpitas, resulting in several dangerous clashes with their loyal and brutal band of Minutemen left over from the city’s War of Independence in 1954.
Read More 3Silicon Alleys
FREMONT resident Xavier Nuez specializes in urban blight photography. For 17 years now, he’s slithered into desolated wastelands across America and documented rundown shipyards, busted fire escapes, defunct ballparks and deserted alleyways. He makes photographic monuments out of ruins. “Long after dark, I venture into bleak urban settings, seeking out dramatic stories and elusive splendor,” he asserts on his website (http://www.nuez.com). Since Nuez shoots only in film and only at nighttime, the photos have a surreal, almost sinister look about them. When seen in large format, the details are staggering.
Read More 1Food for Thought
Let me start off by saying that I am against violence of any kind except in extraordinary circumstances where it is imminently necessary in order to protect life or prevent serious injury. I am also against the torture and harmful abuse of animals for medical and scientific experiments and for the development of products to feed our out-of-control consumer society. That being said, the recent firebombings of the homes of two UC Santa Cruz professors, in one case endangering the target’s children, were appalling acts, whether you are against animal testing or not, and it is my hope that those responsible are caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law.
Read More 38Last week was a big one in the history of card clubs and gambling in San Jose. Historically, in restaurants and small entertainment venues, such clubs thrived. In the old Garden City Hofbrau on Market Street, the card tables were an interesting sideline in a very small room, just like the old liquor store on the corner. Food and music were the main items. That changed as the potential for additional revenues grew, and the appetite for more and better venues became paramount at Garden City, whose building was condemned in a strange city building fervor.
Read More 20If all goes well, San Jose could be the headquarters of the world’s coolest car company. The maker of high performance electric cars is interested in a piece of land near San Jose’s Water Pollution Control Plant for its central manufacturing and R&D facility. On Aug. 19, the city council is slated to vote to direct the city manager to pursue a deal with Tesla Motors. The facility, according to insiders, would directly employ more than 1,000 workers and create an ecosystem of more than 10,000 jobs.
Read More 5My friend Gem has bruises on her arm and cuts on her ankles. She’s beaten up, and lovin’ it. She is in training to join a new ground-breaking team and sport in San Jose—the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG), the only all-female, flat track, contact sport played on quad roller skates. And for those of you who think this is just a hip, retro fad, please believe this sport is for real. The team is launching their first San Jose home game at the San Jose Skate, formerly known as the Aloha Skate, on August 30, 2008, called “Hot August Fights.” And from the way they train, looks like it’s going to be a high-speed, high-impact battle.
Read More 11City Hall Diary
After nearly four hours of back and forth, the council emerged with measures for the November 2008 ballot. The first is the reduction and update of the telecommunications user tax. This would allow the city to capture new telephone technology like Voice of Internet Protocol (VOIP). The second is a reduction of the 911 system support fee which would result in stronger legal footing of our 911 fee that pays for the 911 call center. Years ago, the 911 call center moved from the California Highway Patrol and was given to local government to oversee, with no funding, of course. The money collected is to be cost recovery only for 911 call center staff and equipment. It appears that if both do not pass it would hurt the city with a loss of $48 million annually.
Read More 16Says Galvanizing Searches Might Help Find Bin Laden
In a speech on Thursday in Beijing condemning China’s human rights record and it’s restrictions on internet access during the Olympic games (scooped on SanJoseInside.com last week), President Bush took an opportunity to address the “War on Terror” by proposing an Amber Alert system in the Middle East to help catch Osama Bin Laden.
Read More 9Food for Thought
Like our use of gasoline, natural gas, electrical power (Did you know 50 percent of the electricity on the national grid is generated by coal?) and oil-based products like plastic, we Americans use water with reckless abandon. Yet, water is becoming a scarce commodity in the Bay Area these days, made worse by the drought conditions we are experiencing.
Read More 8I have a friend in town this week visiting from Ireland. It’s always interesting to see our town from an outsider’s perspective. He is well traveled, has lived in various American cities before, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco, and so he is aware that there is life outside his little green island. But when we were talking about what he wanted to do when he was here, I thought I had better take him to San Francisco or else he’ll be bored; it won’t be chic enough in the South Bay and there won’t be enough to do.
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