he citizens of San Jose should be the ones to decide whether or not the city’s redevelopment agency should be permitted to lift its tax increment ceiling. The members of the San Jose City Council, who double as RDA Board Members, are looking at lifting the current $7.6 billion tax increment cap to $15 billion. (Will it be double your pleasure, or double your pain?) This important decision should not be made by a handful of politicians, it should be made by the people.

By Jessica Lussenhop

Families all over Santa Clara County are reportedly laying off their children in an effort to trim household expenses. An estimated 220 local kids have been laid off from their families just within the last three months, according to county reports, and more layoffs are likely on the way.

Last week Michael Phelps taught me about championship perseverance, Rudy Giuliani schooled me down on never letting terrorists win, Colin Powell explained how American might can defeat all, and Steve Forbes showed me that despite what all the losers say, “there is nothing wrong with the fundamentals of our economy.”

Billed as the “Super Bowl of Success,” the day-long seminar held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose was named simply “Get Motivated,” and drew more than 10,000 people. Sitting in the penthouse suite my friends and I snuck into, I couldn’t help but feel that in spite of the pyrotechnics, the famous people, and the massive energy, which (I assume) can only be matched by a mega-church revival, this was a funeral for an old American way of thinking. It was a celebration of the rock-solid institutions of an American identity that once was—unbridled capitalism, Jesus, and winning—in the face of a new, changing, and confusing America. Phelps, Giuliani, Powell, Forbes and the rest of us came together for once last hoorah.

On Friday, March 20, I participated in a fun event called San Jose Bike Party. The “bike party” is organized by people who promote bicycling in San Jose. They pass out flyers at bike shops and use the internet to get the message out. There have been 18 “Bike Parties” so far and the 19th is coming up on April 17 at 8:45pm at the old Zorba the Greek Restaurant parking lot located at South Bascom Avenue and Stokes Avenue in District 6. The bike parties are themed events, around themes like mustaches, mardi gras, robots etc… The event has some of the flair of the Burning Man scene, plus some rockabilly style, but it also includes just regular bicycle enthusiasts.

It’s San Jose Inside’s open forum. All opinions on any topic of local interest are welcome.

The legendary Herb Caen invented what was once called three-dot, or dot-dot-dot, journalism; that is, using the ellipsis to separate sections of his commentary. In my case, I’ll call it splat-splat-splat journalism, which suits this week’s musings—in honor of some local heroes.

Should San Jose City service levels be cut, and fees for services raised, so that city employees can enjoy more pay?

The Mercury News recently reported that automatic “step increases” will cost the city $10 million in FY 09-10 (almost $8 million to be paid from the city’s general fund). “It’s going to come from layoffs or reducing services…” Councilman Oliverio said…“Or, we can recognize the severity of the situation, bargaining units come together…and come up with a way to save jobs and save the city money.” (Mercury News 3/22).

President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama have had an enormous amount of face time on television since the Inaugural on Jan. 20.  Just in the last few days we have seen the president ESPN, Jay Leno, and 60 Minutes and Michelle in the White House garden.

Let me softly suggest that the First Couple use their popularity to squelch the insidious and growing problem with schoolyard bullying

Last Friday night I went to something that seems almost counterintuitive these days given the decline of their industry—a celebration for journalists. The Northern California Ethnic Media Awards, held in San Francisco, honored the various faces and forms of ethnic media outlets—the Sing Toa Daily’s investigation on SRO’s, Allianza’s photo essay on Oaxacan migrants, the Nichi Bei Times full issue on the concept of “mixed race.”

Last week I responded to many of your questions with a term, “Meet-and-Confer.” This terminology is used in reference to discussions that city management has with unions about almost anything.

Once a labor contract is agreed upon, any thought of a change requires a meet-and-confer meeting. It could be a compensation freeze, sick time, vacation time, grievance, health care, retirement, education reimbursement, uniform allowance, time off with pay to conduct union activities, examining the possibility of using a non- union person to provide a city service, or even discussions about future employees who have not been hired yet, etc… So with the current budget deficit, if we want to have a discussion about city staff taking one day off without pay ($2.88M) to avoid layoffs, then there needs to be a closed-door meeting.

San Jose news, San Jose politics, City Hall, “the 18th Floor,” Santa Clara County, SIlicon Valley, newsmakers, issues, thoughts, opinions; here at San Jose Inside, the keywords are: rants and raves.

The San Jose Earthquakes kick off the 2009 campaign this Saturday against the four–time MLS Cup finalists, the New England Revolution. In building this year’s squad, coach Frank Yallop added several new pieces to the puzzle, the most notable of which is U.S. National Team midfielder Bobby Convey.

The night she was arrested, Maria Castillo fit the description. A petite, 49-year-old grandmother and home healthcare worker, Castillo is Latina in San Jose – and that ethnicity, in that city, makes her the most likely person statistically to be charged with resisting arrest.

Last week saw the Silicon Valley return of ETech, the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, where programmers and philosophers pool resources with fringe technologists, CEOs, hackers, artists, marketers, urban planners, statisticians, garage software engineers and geeks from every part of the spectrum—all with the future in mind. It took place at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, and here are just a few of the things this tech nomad experienced during his traversal of the landscape.

There’s been a lot more chatter about the A’s moving (or not) to San Jose, but you would have to look in the San Francisco Chronicle to find it. Here are some highlights (and lowlights).

Commissioner Bud Selig visited Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday and met for an hour with Giants managing general partner Bill Neukom and President Larry Baer. Baer would not discuss the meeting but hinted Selig affirmed his public stance that he will not allow the A’s to breach the Giants’ territorial rights to San Jose. “From what we could tell, there is no change in his position,” Baer said. Henry Schulman, SF Chronicle, March 16

Once again an educational tsunami has wreaked havoc on the California Public School system.  All the small, incremental, yet significant gains that have been made in student achievement growth during the last few years will be summarily erased due to the state’s budget crisis and resultant reduction of revenue flowing to school districts.

What a very sad commentary for a state that enrolls 11 percent of all K-12 public school students in the United States, and was known to be the model for excellence in public education in the 1950s and 1960s.