I didn’t know if it could happen, but it turns out it is possible to get people to voluntarily sit through a panel of speakers from the Bureau of Automotive Repair. All you’ve got to do is couch it in a car show featuring some of the cleanest low riders, bombs, hot rods, imports and Harleys in the South Bay. Then surround that with the one place that you know is poppin’ on a Saturday afternoon—the Berryessa Flea Market.

I wanted to keep the discussion going on education—tagging on to last week’s topic—since we all have such differing opinions on what we need to do in this area.  I happened to watch the CNN special Black in America last week, and it had a fascinating piece on an unusual plan to improve student achievement in New York City’s education system.

Some Bay Area school districts are making a stronger effort to identify and remove students who are not eligible to enroll in a particular school.  It seems that a number of parents are trying to enroll their kids into better performing schools despite the fact that they live outside of the district or the designated school boundaries.

City Hall Diary

Vice Mayor Dave Cortese wins the prize for having the most historical knowledge of his district. I had the opportunity to tour District 8 with the vice mayor and get a better understanding of the land we call Evergreen and its agricultural history.

Sound off about anything and everything on the weekly open forum.

Seen as a Move to Make Team “WNBA-Tough”

In a bold first move by new San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan, the former player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, Reggie Dunlap, was hired as an assistant for what many in the NHL see as a fortitude-toughening measure to steel the men in teal for a run at the Stanley Cup and hockey legitimacy.

Silicon Alleys

THE San Jose Redevelopment Agency has now released preliminary documents related to the relandscaping of St. James Park in downtown San Jose, a project intended to give the much-maligned park a new face-lift while preserving its historic character. Since this park was San Jose’s original town square in the 1880s, I have a few thoughts on the park’s crazed history.

There has been much discussion on this site about BART coming to San Jose from the very beginning. The latest effort to fund the project, a one-eighth-cent sales tax proposal on the November ballot, has brought the issue back into the news and I thought we might take the opportunity to debate the initiative. (There is a very good article by Erin Sherbert in Metro this week that brings the matter up to date.)

As the city embarks on a very ambitious plan in North San Jose for jobs and housing, and a mini-debate is had on the wisdom of the city owning land, it will be instructive to look at the past. While we may not always learn from our history, it never hurts to look at it and glean a bit of knowledge and perhaps even some insight.

Every year studies show that we Americans know very little about history.  We fail to identify many famous figures from our past, like Benedict Arnold, Ben Franklin and even George Washington. But what is the root cause of this? Is it our culture and our complete obsession with movies and video games? Or is there something broken in our education system that doesn’t allow students to retain these facts as adults?

Your City At Work (Sort Of)

QUESTION:  How many San Jose city employees does it take to remove illegal signs?  ANSWER: Zero—they don’t do this sort of thing.

City Hall Diary

After finishing lunch at Pollo Loco on Winchester Blvd., Councilmember Pete Constant took me on a District 1 tour.  District 6 and District 1 share a long border along Winchester. Recently, both of our council offices have been working with the RDA and small businesses to help build a larger business district for Winchester.

This is an open forum so tell us what’s on your mind this week.

Extra-nest Affairs and Eagle Envy Cited as Grounds

The wife of star falcon Carlos the Peregrine has filed for divorce in a Santa Clara County court on Thursday, citing alleged “extra-nest affairs” and “eagle envy” by her husband.

Silicon Alleys

SAN JOSE’S own Joey Chestnut once again won the world-renowned Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest this last July Fourth, and his “bib sheet” on the International Federation of Competitive Eating’s website rattles off an impressive list of his gluttonous conquests—records like 8.8 pounds of deep-fried asparagus spears in 10 minutes or 56 sausage-and-cheese kolaches in eight minutes. Advocates of clogged arteries from coast to coast are hailing the dude as a true hero and a national treasure. He’s as American as apple pie.

Food for Thought

Over the past few years I have taken to driving the speed limit or less, especially on my long distance trips, mainly to LA and Sacramento. Let me tell you, it’s a lonely place to be, over on the right doing 60-65. You get passed by everybody as if you are standing still. I have found it’s often better to do “blue highway” driving whenever I can, avoiding the freeways and taking the two-lane blacktop scenic routes where the speed limit is 55, traffic is minimal (except for nuts on hopped-up motorcycles) and you get to see a bit of the countryside that most people miss.