San Jose Inside

Downtown San Jose will be celebrating 22 years of the San Jose Jazz Festival over three days beginning this Friday. Music festivals are held all over the world and provide the unique experience of bringing musicians from across the globe to perform in one city. The San Jose Jazz Festival is one of the best outdoor events showcasing the Downtown.

Tuesday’s city council session, the second of the new fiscal year, will feature a hearing regarding the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFRA) and a separate item giving City Manager Debra Figone the ability to accept a federal grant for public safety.

The planning commission is advising the City Council to take a less rigid approach in capping medical marijuana collectives. Included in recommendations voted on in July, the planning commission suggests a cap of 25 instead of the council’s preferred number of 10. As of this spring, there were more than 100 medical marijuana collectives operating in San Jose.

Polling done in July indicates voters aren’t especially interested in raising taxes until the city negotiates true pension reform, which is why the City Council decided on Tuesday to delay any action on revenue ballot measures.

Practically everyone in the San Jose political community recently received an email asking for financial assistance from a faraway land—but it didn’t come from a Nigerian prince. Instead, it came from a scammer posing as local political consultant and aspiring lawyer Rolando Bonilla, whose email account was hacked. “It’s me Rolando—I really don’t mean to inconvenience you right now, I made a trip to Scotland and I misplaced my passport and credit cards,” the imposter wrote.

America has resolved the raising of the national debt ceiling through bipartisan legislation and averted catastrophic economic consequences, or so we are told.  However, like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, is it once again government smoke and mirrors?

After months of political wrangling that has left the public weary, a compromise to raise the debt ceiling appears to have been reached. On Monday, the House of Representatives voted to prevent the nation from defaulting on its loans and having its credit rating downgraded. Everyone seems less than thrilled with the compromise, and some Bay Area politicians have different opinions on whether the right decision was made.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom made an appearance Friday at an event hosted here in San Jose by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. At the event, he proposed several plans to boost the state’s economy while also eliminating agencies that he says are redundant.

About twice a month, I get an inquiry from someone who is considering purchasing a home in my council district. I think it is good idea as it shows they are doing their due diligence.

Councilmembers are often the conduit in which information flows about neighborhoods. We are on the receiving end of emails, phone calls and conversations at the grocery store where residents share information and perspectives that they often do not want to vent in a public forum amongst their neighbors. Thus councilmembers are able to have both a top-level and detail-oriented perspective of the neighborhoods in their districts.

While it might not signal a real truce in the endless, tedious factional conflict that is San Jose politics, the business community extended an olive branch to local unions last week. The setting was a soiree introducing Matt Mahood, the new CEO of the San Jose/Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.

A stranger attempting to lure a three year old away from the child’s older sister with candy is odd, not to mention, bold. For the stranger to then follow the two children into their home and try to pry the younger child from her mother’s arms is unbelievable.  Although this might sound like a nightmare, this scenario actually took place last week in San Jose. The stranger is a woman whom suffers from mental illness and was subsequently arrested.

The first City Council session of the new fiscal year won’t be nearly as significant as expected. The council is planning to defer any action on declaring a fiscal emergency from Aug. 2 to Sept. 20. This is the second time the matter will be deferred.

A study released this week by The Daily Beast revealed that San Jose has the longest life expectancy of any major American city. The study examined lifespan data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention going back ten years, and found that local men live to be 79.2, on average, while women live to be 82.9.

In 1996, The Compassionate Use Act, Proposition 215, passed with 66 percent of the vote,allowing for the launch of medical marijuana clubs in the state. The Act itself dictates that “governments implement a plan to provide the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need.” Oakland, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco were the first local cities to provide safe access to medical marijuana for those in need.

Until a few days ago, the city of San Jose and its employee unions appeared to be a lot friendlier than they were at the beginning of the month—when City Manager Debra Figone and police union president George Beattie were squabbling about why the city punted on a federal grant. But this week, as the pension-reform plan inches forward, the unions are back to voicing outrage.