As I drive around San Jose, it’s obvious that each of the five major candidates (not including Stanley the Modified Pig) has a chokehold on their neighborhoods; if you look around downtown near San Pedro, the place is littered with Pandori signs, over off First and Second Streets you see Chavez signs, and you cannot walk in Willow Glen without tripping over a Mulcahy sign.  The same can be said for Berryessa with Chuck Reed and Evergreen with David Cortese.  Each neighborhood resident either knows their current or former council member, or is going with the “familiarity” factor, almost saying, “____ is from my neighborhood, so I am supporting them.”  But who is going to bridge the gap to gain crossover appeal in neighborhoods they are not from?

Newly Formed “Big 6” Agree to Debate at Stephen’s Meats

Directly on the hooves of a report published in the journal “Nature Biotechnology”—stating that a cloned pig may have bacon that benefits the heart—a confident, modified Landrace pig named Stanley Pink has announced his candidacy for San Jose’s top job.

The big debate is over; the big question remains.  I think most will agree that the mayoral debate last week was one of the best political forums in recent San Jose history and a resounding success.  The venue was spectacular, the format informative and—aside from the moderator’s too active participation—the five candidates were impressive. 

I was present at the first mayoral debate at the California Theatre last Thursday because I was interested to see how each of the five candidates would cope with the pressure of having to stand up to one another while answering some potentially difficult questions. 

Copycat Reality Show in Alum Rock Park to Decide Mayoral Contest

The five lesser-known mayoral candidates have upped the ante in this year’s mayoral contest by “calling out” the Big 5, as they have been labeled, to a winner-take-all Survivor contest in Alum Rock Park.

Tomorrow evening (Thursday, March 30, 5 p.m.) at the California Theatre, there will be a first of sorts—the first big debate on who should be the next mayor.  It will be sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Association, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the Business Journal.  Although a late attempt to make it a straw poll is apparently off now, it might yet occur; so much the better.  It is the unknown quantities and unscripted moments of these debates that really tend to enliven and inform.

So all the hubbub lately is about how good ol’ Ronny G is trying to make his mark on San Jose before he goes out of office by sitting on committees he has been expressly told not to sit on and attempting to have an impact AFTER his censure. Wouldn’t we have been better off if the council had just removed the guy from office?  Why leave someone in office with just enough power to hold up every major decision facing the city right now? 

Also Suggests Holocaust was Staged

Just days after suggesting that San Jose’s government was “as open as a French whorehouse on Bastille Day” and that “sunshine law” reforms were ridiculous and a waste of time, Mayor Ron Gonzales continued his stroll through some warm and fuzzy fictional world by attacking Sir Isaac Newton and his Universal Laws of Gravitation.

Although many were surprised when Ron Gonzales struck out at the Mercury News on KGO last week, calling the drive for more open government in San Jose “a bunch of nonsense,” I was neither shocked nor particularly interested. Most people have already formed their opinion of the mayor, as well as our local newspaper, and are not overly concerned with the former’s opinion of the latter.

The single best hidden gem in San Jose has to be Japantown, our cluster of authentic Japanese restaurants and culture located right outside of downtown on Jackson Street.  I know the area well because I grew up downtown, but most residents of San Jose still haven’t discovered all that is great about this area.

$1.2 Billion Deal Creates Media Giant

Just days after the Sacramento-based McClatchy Company announced it would sell the San Jose Mercury News to pay down debt acquired with the $4.5 billion takeover of Knight Ridder, an unlikely “white knight” has stepped in to purchase the local rag vowing to keep it “viable and local.”

All those concerned about the future of our community should be concerned about what is happening to our newspaper. Knight Ridder has been sold to the Sacramento-based McClatchy group who says it will sell the Mercury News. While rumors abound about who will be the final owner, our paper and its staff are going through an excruciating period in limbo.

I was on a bike ride with my friend the other day and we decided to take the path through the new Guadalupe River Park.  We rode our bikes to Coleman and got on the path to ride towards the Arena and on to Willow Glen, but were frustrated by what we encountered.  It turns out that we should have brought a compass, night-vision goggles and a periscope, because riding a mere 15 feet without a fork in the road was impossible.  The path is broken up by chain-linked fences that either force you to turn back, return you unwillingly back up to the street, or send you through a confusing maze in another direction.  On one turn, we ended up taking our bikes over a rickety railway crossing, only to be turned back on the other side, forcing us to go back over the tracks and retrace our steps. 

“Too Much Public Participation” Say Williams and Campos

Calling for more secrecy in government and saying they want to encourage less public participation, San Jose City Council members Forrest Williams and Nora Campos are proposing a series of “sunset” reforms.

Over a period of sixteen years, Cinequest, the San Jose film festival celebrating independent filmmaking, has quietly developed into the premier downtown cultural event. I say quietly because, unlike the current favorite of our evidently lowbrow city council, it doesn’t get a $4 million subsidy (although I am sure they would LOVE to have it), uproot trees and citizens, and disrupt downtown residents and workers for six weeks while they construct, then deconstruct, a racecourse and stands. And, unlike that other event calendar high point, Mardi Gras, it doesn’t attract even one single drunken, underage troublemaker bent on late-night destruction and mayhem.

It is that most pleasant time of year—a season when inveterate lobbyists and flimflam men get a conscience and speak of reform; a season of ethical proposals by those who have exhibited terminal lockjaw on the issue for years; a remarkable era of ideas for a better political process springing full-blown from the heads of consultants, paid hacks and cynics of every type. Move over folks, it’s election time.