San Jose Inside

The city of San Jose recently completed a scientific poll of 902 residents. This poll cost $50,000. As I mentioned in a prior blog, I took many of the poll questions and posted them on the District 6 website (the district I represent) and here, on San Jose Inside. I entered the questions and three of my own into a web-based survey solution which costs $20 a year. The survey closed yesterday with 839 completing the 15 page survey (973 respondents completed part of the survey). Unlike past surveys where District 6 residents were 90 percent of the respondents, only 43.9 percent of the respondents were from District 6 this time

On San Jose Inside’s weekly open forum, thoughts and opinions on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?

The East Bay Express is reporting that a Major League Baseball task force will present its findings on the A’s proposed move to San Jose to Commissioner Bud Selig on Monday. The Express reported this afternoon that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums made the statement during a speech to the Oakland Chambers of Commerce at the Oakland Airport Hilton on Thursday.

Dellums also reportedly said he sent a message to Selig stating that a ballpark in San Jose or Fremont would result in more long-distance trips to games, creating more greenhouse gas emissions.

Have Americans lost their ability to exchange ideas and discuss politics without the equivalent of a high-school cafeteria food fight breaking out? Over the past few weeks, from San Jose to Washington, some of the language and rhetoric that’s been on display has been quite amazing.

You gotta hand it to Carly Fiorina. Love her or hate her, you can’t help watching her Internet-only ad, and that’s what campaign ads are all about—getting eyeballs. Described as everything from an SNL skit to what would happen if the kid from The Omen directed Teletubbies, it’s already gotten 375,000 hits in Youtube, and the number keeps going up and up.

The last time Dr. Patrick Phu Le showed up in the news, it was for being arrested after attacking a press photographer he accused of being a communist spy. Now, the longtime Vietnamese community activist and current candidate for the District 7 seat on the San Jose City Council has exactly one week to move to San Jose if he still wants to run.

This week’s Metro Silicon Valley cover story, excerpted here, discusses a stimulus plan authored by Councilmember Sam Liccardo and three colleagues, and the reaction of downtown businesses to the city’s efforts to reawaken a downtown economy that went off-track.

Last July, an audit by the Santa Clara County Office of Education found a series of financial irregularities in the East Side School District. A series of articles in the Mercury News cast a cloud of suspicion over superintendent Bob Nuñez and other district officials. Nuñez went on administrative leave three months ago, as the investigation into what really went on in the district continued.

Peyton Manning vs. Drew Brees: Will one of these two quarterbacks end up as MVP of Super Bowl XLIV? Entirely possible. So is eliminating the achievement gap while increasing graduation rates for students in Santa Clara County. And the odds just got significantly better for all children in our public schools.

Photo radar helps augment traffic safety, as well as that of pedestrians and neighborhoods. A tweaking of the current policy to improve safety will not cost the state any money, and in fact will raise money while at the same time lowering emergency room health care costs. Speeding cars in our neighborhoods continue to remain an issue. The City of San Jose does what it can to manage speeding on our streets with the dollars we are able to allocate.

This is the Jan. 30-31 edition of San Jose Inside’s open forum, where comments on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?

Assemblyman Joe Coto (D-San Jose) isn’t happy with what he’s been reading about the SJPD in the news recently. Joined by Paul Fong (D-Cupertino), he is calling on State Auditor Elaine Howle to investigate San Jose’s police force

High-speed rail may be coming to California faster than expected. The federal government’s stimulus program approved $2.2 billion for environmental planning and the design and construction of four corridors, including the San Francisco-to-San Jose segment of the route.

The parent company for the Mercury News is filing for bankruptcy/reorganization and the Sunday edition of the San Francisco Chronicle now costs $3 at news stands. These two pieces of information speak volumes about the current plight of the newspaper business. Isn’t it only a matter of time before they stop the presses completely and put everything up online? If this happens, will people be more or less informed?

The downtown nightclub Wet is back in the news today. Wet sued the city last autumn after SJPD Chief Rob Davis closed it down following a much-publicized Sept. 7 brawl, but its lawsuit was rejected by the judge. Still, because the lawsuit was thrown out on technical grounds, the city worried that the police chief’s ability to yank a club’s license could yet be considered unconstitutional if challenged in court.