San Jose Inside

After radically downsizing the editorial department of the Mercury News and its once high-flying digital media empire, MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton now wants to charge for online access to its content. A May 8 memo from Singleton and MediaNews exec Jody Lodovic outlined the company’s interactive strategy, noting “not only does [free online news distribution] erode our print circulation, it devalues the core of our business — the great local journalism we (and only we) produce on a daily basis.”

It’s San Jose Inside’s weekly open forum. Any opinion on any topic of local interest is welcome.

As you read this, downtown San Jose is in the throngs of a new enterprise called Left Coast Live. This is, perhaps, the purest example of what happens when a bunch of people, instead of sitting around and complaining, actually stand up and do something.

I walked into the press conference announcing the lineup of this year’s San Jose Mariachi and Mexican Heritage Festival wondering how it would be possible to match last year’s excellent presentations. I needn’t have worried about it. Festival director and Mexican Heritage CEO Marcela Davison Aviles and the festival’s artistic director, Linda Ronstadt, have managed to exceed even the highest of expectations created by the 2008 festival.

A large circle of Greg Gray’s family members and friends will be participating in the 7th Annual Walk Through The Vineyards next month to honor Greg Gray’s memory and to raise funds for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

City leaders enthusiastically signed off on a resolution supporting the relocation of the A’s baseball team to San Jose at today’s council meeting. “Let’s play ball,” said Councilwoman Rose Herrera. Mayor Chuck Reed pointed out the chances of the A’s moving here are still pretty slim, but that the city is working hard to market itself as the right place for the major league baseball team.

“Art Empowers” is the title of an inspiring new student exhibition at the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University. I participated in handing out achievement certificates to more than 75 students enrolled in the ArtsConnect program of the Arts Council Silicon Valley (ACSV). The work was created in conjunction with local artists, and includes video, music, sculptures, poems and paintings. This is the 11th year of the student exhibition.

The downsizing continues at Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, as the company confirms it is laying off four people this week. Executive Editor Dale Bryant chalked the move up to the economy, saying SVCN is cutting back for the same reason everyone in the industry is laying off people.

Last week I attended two more community budget meetings to hear feedback from residents in District 9 and District 2. The District 9 meeting was a bit different from previous sessions, as there was no slide presentation. Instead, it included an overview and discussion to go over paper handouts on the Proposed Operating Budget with City Management.

Not much was shared on the cost of providing services to residents but rather, attendees were told: “Here are the proposed cuts.”

This week’s installment of San Jose Inside’s weekly open forum is open. Local issues are our main interest, but any comment on any topic is welcome.

Just because the majority of the Public Intoxication Task Force quit the group last night doesn’t mean they are giving up on their mission to revamp police practices in San Jose.

Mayor Chuck Reed today called on all City workers to accept a wage and salary freeze this year to avoid 150 layoffs in the face of the City’s $77.5 million budget shortfall.  “I’m calling for all our bargaining units to agree to true zeroes this year,” Reed said in a statement released this morning. He specified that this would mean “no wage increases, no step increases, no merit increases.”

The controversy-plagued Santa Clara Valley Water District board has finally selected a CEO—naming Beau Goldie, a longtime district employee, to the long-vacant post.

Some members of the San Jose Elections Commission are implying that Councilmember Nora Campos had something to do with the anonymous complaint field against Tom McEnery, which was brushed aside Friday after months of huffing and puffing by Campos and her allies. And staffers in Campos’s office are shocked. (Shocked!)

My family and I, along with 750 others, celebrated the life of Dan Lairon III on Saturday, May 2 at St. Martin’s Church.  The mass presided over by Father Bob Shinney S.J. was a commemoration of the good work and deeds of a distinguished former Marine and life-long educator.