They just fired “Archibald Cox.”

I thought that headline would never be seen anywhere again, let alone in San Jose.  It happened yesterday when Chris Scott Graham was “fired.” The independent investigator was basically told that it was time to move on from the Norcal scandal and the crises in confidence with the mayor.  Healing was the mantra of a solid majority of the council.

As the news keeps rolling in about Ron Gonzales, his censure and moves to possibly oust him from office, I am struck by the lack of knowledge most young people in San Jose have about their own city’s politics.  As I have been talking to friends, there are few of them who follow what is happening in the news, or even have a vague knowledge of Ron Gonzales and his scandal-plagued term as mayor. Is it apathy at its finest?  Or has our city government been so appalling and crooked that it causes people to lose interest?

With the mayor fighting for his political life, three candidates separating themselves over what the next steps should be for the City, and the Mercury News releasing a poll that shows 85% of the participants favor the mayor stepping down, we thought we would take our own, primitive poll…

Says Mercury News Editorial Board Next

Mayor Gonzales took time out of his busy schedule in Charlotte, North Carolina this week, where he delivered the keynote address on “good government” at the annual National League of Cities (NLC) conference, to respond to the latest round of Scud missiles launched at him with intent to inflict bodily harm.

The report of the Special Investigator is now complete for its initial phase.  It is very, very damning in its conclusions regarding Mayor Ron Gonzales and others. The Grand Jury and our own worse fears have been confirmed.  Our Council is now faced with another moment of truth.  I do not know what the majority of this group will do. It is a time for sober reflection and candor; it is a time for courage and leadership.  Silence will not do at such a critical time in our city’s history.  We are providing a link to the editorial in today’s San Jose Mercury News.  Please read and comment…Ultimately, the citizens of San Jose will be heard on this issue.  Their judgment is the most important.

I do like give and take; it’s healthy, it’s in my nature, and I believe that is the tradition of San Jose—a hallowed one. But if our next mayor’s race becomes the traditional American election, one full of personalities but short of vision, replete with attacks, more thunder than light, then we all lose.  Our city needs the next campaign to be about ideas and issues rather than platitudes and endorsements and who is the “nicest.” With that goal in mind, I’d like to speak about issues and an idea or two—those things that we need to be the focal points of the next mayoral election, namely growth, a big park, safety and ethics.

So what comes first, the chicken or the egg?  Would more people want to live downtown if there were more to do?  Or will people wait to see what happens downtown before they invest their money into apartments and lofts? I believe that if there were masses of families, young people and baby-boomers living downtown, that the retail and entertainment would have to come to feed the demand. 

Council Unable to Question City Manager in Annual Review

Predicting a haranguing about his role in the Norcal garbage scandal, City Manager Del Borgsdorf was able to fend off any direct questions by filibustering anxious council members during a rare eight-hour, closed-door, annual performance review on Tuesday.

It is said that the cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Are we spending too much time on the investigations into the events that have recently happened at City Hall? This is a question that is being posed in the community.  Let’s look at the cost: the Cisco investigation was $150,000, the Norcal scandal, so-called Garbagegate, was at a $100,000 limit, and the Terry Gregory affair was a bargain at $60,000.  The Gregory investigation ended in his resignation after a very late response by the mayor and council. In the Cisco affair, the plug was pulled by the council at what many thought was the penultimate moment.

I recently read where Forbes magazine named San Jose as the “Richest City in the U.S.” We may be the richest when it comes to money, but are we the poorest when it comes to fun?

What happened to the days where you would meet coworkers for happy hour or take clients out to eat?  What I see in the Bay Area now are tech geeks that are more than happy to spend 12-hour days in their cubicles, and less time out on the town.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week marked the 42nd anniversary of the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. I just looked at a photo of him at the San Jose Municipal Airport in 1960 and pulled down a copy of “Profiles in Courage” that he autographed to my Dad - another world.  It is incredible to think of the America then - and how we have changed. How this Valley has changed from the small emerging garden city to the center of the high technology information age now.  On today’s thread, let’s comment on the good and the bad of those monumental changes.
   
I’ll begin. We no longer have to drive to San Francisco or Oakland
for great entertainment, U2 and McCartney, Disney Ice shows,
Globetrotters, Sharks (hockey in our city: no way!) and music for
each and every ethnic group and taste in our region - that’s good! 
Traffic: that’s not so good. It was easier to drive in our city when we had more canneries and fewer technology centers. 

The Downtown: light years to the positive side, but it sure was nice to go to OJ’s, and a Santa Clara vs. San Jose State basketball game - and park right on the street for both.

I really wanted to leave this nightclub and crime issue and turn to some other topics this week. Yet, quite easily, they pull me back into the fray.

First there is a thoughtful blog by David Hickey on the bad old days of prostitutes, crime and drugs on every corner in the Sofa area of downtown (before it had that name) in the late seventies. It was a very bad scene.

One of my missions on SanJoseInside is to point out to our readers things that I think are missing in San Jose and provide ideas for ways to fill the gaps.

Repeal of Ban on Alcohol Sales Could Give Rise to Gasclubs

Shortly after a unanimous vote by the San Jose City Council on an urgency ordinance that gives the police chief more discretion in shutting down problem nightclubs in downtown, a committee of nightclub owners met and decided to take their business elsewhere—to the neighborhood gas stations.

As I walked the streets of New York the past few days, I visited Fr. Duffy Square, the Theatre District, and the many neighborhoods that make up the immediate downtown, a fascinating crossroads of all that this nation is and can be.  I am struck by one simple fact:  the presence of police is one of the most reassuring sights, giving the finest sense of well-being imaginable. In bunches of two, three, and four, on horse, car, motor bike, and practically suspended on high wires across Broadway, they console, advise, direct, and even crack a joke or two.  “Did you hear the one about the ….”  Never mind. They are a presence to enjoy.

I took a trip this weekend to Chicago.  Not only do they have more bars per capita than any other American city, they have key components that make it one of the best cities in the United States.  Though San Jose will never be Chicago, it can try to model itself after the Windy City in a few ways: