San Jose Inside

I turned 40 in December. I spent my birthday with family and long-time friends. Many of my friends I have known since age five, from kindergarten in San Jose Unified School District, which equates to knowing most of my friends for more than 30 years. The majority of my friends are not political in their occupations and nearly all of them have never been to a San Jose Council meeting. Instead, they are teachers, nurses, Realtors, attorneys, tech folks, blue-collar skilled tradesmen, stay-at-home parents and—as my Mom likes to point out— most are married with children.

Many of my native San Jose friends have a very positive outlook towards San Jose. Their views are somewhat different than what I hear in my council office, where, typically, I hear alot about what is wrong with our city or questions as to why things aren’t done differently.

This is a special New Year’s weekend edition of San Jose Inside’s weekly open forum. We would like to invite SJI visitors to answer the following question: What would you like to see happen in 2010 to make San Jose a better place?

Unemployment may still be above 10 percent, but San Jose still leads the nation as the second best place to find a job, just behind Washington, DC.

The City of San Jose is facing a whopping $100 million deficit for fiscal year 2010-11. Something’s got to give. Actually, a lot more than “something” has got to give, be cut, and/or taxed.

The Wall Street Journal recently ran a front page story that questioned the way in which American cities will be run and defined in the future.  In his piece, reporter Conor Dougherty raised a number of issues that need to be addressed here in San Jose.  Dougherty highlighted the troubles and travails of Mesa, Arizona.  He cited Mesa Mayor Scott Smith’s belief that city service levels for his city will not return to prerecession levels for a long time, “if ever.”  In an effort to cut costs, the City of Mesa has gone as far as to hire civilian investigators to do some after-crime reports and investigations, tasks previously done exclusively by police officers.  “‘We are redefining what cities are going to be,’ says Mayor Smith.”

No one questions whether Peter Friess did a great job turning San Jose’s Tech Museum of Innovation around. He might claim that much of that is thanks to the work of Birgit Binner, a graphic designer he hired as a consultant, whose job was “to establish The Tech Museum as an immediately recognizable brand.” The problem is that Birgit Binner, who receives a $400,000 salary for her two-year contract, is also Friess’s wife.

On Nov. 3 at the city council meeting, I removed an item from the consent calendar. The agenda item was asking for council approval to spend $286,700 for software. This particular software would help the housing department manage its loan program. Several years ago the Housing Department purchased software to manage this data, however, it never worked and we ended up going through litigation for eight years.

Needy families lined up long before sunrise yesterday outside the Sacred Heart Community Services to find Christmas gifts for their children. Each of the 5,000 families that pre-registered for the event could pick out up to two toys for each of their child, from among the 15,000 that were donated this year. Especially popular were bicycles—over 1,000 were donated—and books so that parents could read to their children.

Last week, Metro’s Fly reported that Sarah Palin might be coming to San Jose to speak before the Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.  One San Jose Inside blogger promised to bring a “box of tomatoes” if she does. If Sarah Palin really does come to San Jose, should we bar our doors and hide the children?

Dear Santa,

I know this is an unusual request from someone far too old to believe, but I truly want to think that you can help. The situation is dire and no one else seems to have the answers. See, Santa, our public school system is vulnerable to collapse if we do nothing to make it brighter. The children you do so much to make cheery this time of year continue to wallow in a school organization stuck in mediocrity. And that is not good enough, especially today.

The Council punted the Redevelopment Agency (RDA) budget last week to February 2010. As has already been highlighted in the news, the state is taking $75 million away from San Jose’s RDA. We need to pay the State off in May and identify where the money is coming from in March (no negotiation or payment plans on this matter are allowed by the State). The legislature, recognizing that this payment would be difficult for all RDA agencies, allowed for borrowing from affordable housing money which is 100-percent funded from RDA. Twenty percent of all RDA money goes off the top to the Housing Department in San Jose.

It’s SJI’s weekly open forum, where comments on any topic are welcome. What’s on your mind?

Ever get the feeling that there are way too many potholes in San Jose? Despite all the stimulus money pouring into Silicon Valley for shovel-ready projects, the region still has the second-worst roads in the country, topped only by Los Angeles—though it is tied with San Francisco and Honolulu. A report just released by the National Transportation Research Group claims that 61 percent of Silicon Valley’s roads and highways are in a state of disrepair.

Fly has heard that the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce is pushing to nail down none other then Caribou Barbie herself, Sarah Palin, as the main speaker at their 2010 Annual Legends and Leaders gala. The event is the Chamber’s premier fundraising shindig, attracting hundreds of the valley’s key leaders to the Fairmont each year.

San Jose isn’t notorious for teens killing teens. But recently there have been two such slayings: one on Halloween night, and the Nov. 10 homicide of a Santa Teresa High School student. The accused could face life imprisonment without the possibility of parole because the U.S. Supreme Court is currently deciding if that is legal. 

These two events were of interest to state Sen. John Vasconcellos, who represented Silicon Valley in the California Legislature for 38 years. While chairing virtually every important Assembly committee, and then for five years in the state Senate, Vasconcellos focused on youth in crisis. He championed higher education, mental health initiatives, community-based conflict resolution projects and funding for California’s poorest performing public schools.

Last week, KLIV Radio reported that NBC Sports has learned that the National Football League is encouraging both the 49ers and the Raiders to play in the proposed Santa Clara Stadium.  Will the Raiders and 49ers both call Santa Clara home?

The possibility of the Raiders (or another team) making partial or full use of the Santa Clara Stadium is not really “news.”  The E.I.R. and Stadium Term Sheet both allowed for the possibility.  The Stadium Term Sheet reads, “49ers Stadium Company will have the right to enter into a sublease with a second NFL team, on terms and conditions consistent with and subject to the stadium lease.  Conditions of repayment to the city, forgiveness of advances, and additional revenues to the City of Santa Clara are defined in the term sheet’s outline of conditions.