San Jose Inside

By Diane Solomon

Sylvia Soledades looks like many women you might see waiting at bus stops, serving people at fast-food counters and walking on city streets with children in strollers. Thirtysomething, her long dark hair is pulled back into a bun; she wears a loose gray sweater over jeans and neat white sneakers. She credits the Legal Aid Society of Santa Clara County for helping keep a roof over her head.

Even Mayor Chuck Reed himself seems to believe he might have miscalculated community concerns in San Jose’s most recent controversy—the selection of the newly hired, just-resigned Independent Police Auditor.

Over the weekend, Reed finally confessed that maybe he was wrong about hiring Chris Constantin as the new IPA, knowing full well that his older brother is a San Jose homicide detective. “I didn’t think it was a fatal flaw,” Reed told Fly, adding that he is surprised it turned into such a big deal. “After the public controversy exploded, it was fairly clear that it was [a mistake].”

‘Surge of Charter Schools Coming to Silicon Valley, whether districts like it or not,’ was the title of the April 8, 2009 editorial in the San Jose Mercury News. Are we preparing ourselves for the aftermath of the destruction the surge wave can cause our public school system?

The City Council discussed one of the world’s most precious resources last week; water. The council had its annual meeting with the Santa Clara Valley Water District. In the past, the two organizations have had some turbulent conversations; however, at this meeting we were all on the same page about conservation and the future supply of water.

It’s SJI’s weekly open forum, and thoughts on any topic are welcome for discussion.

Community Members on San Jose’s Public Intoxication Task Force were making a point when they got up and walked out of the door of city hall in the middle of the meeting Wednesday night. Skyler Porras, director of the ACLU, read a statement on behalf of other community groups on the task force, including the NAACP and the La Raza Roundtable, stating that they had nothing further to talk about until the city and police department agreed to release at least half of the 4,000-plus arrest records they have requested

A few days ago, I bumped into five San Jose cops having lunch.  I asked them if I could hear their thoughts about Chief Davis.  (NOTE:  In advance, I indicated to the five officers that our conversation would be “off the record” in that no names would be published, and that I wouldn’t mention the name of the restaurant.).

The five San Jose Police officers didn’t express strong feelings either way towards the Chief.

San Jose and Santa Clara County officials today rolled out a $60,000 campaign to focus attention on the persistent gang problem in this area.

It’s official: the wave of defaults sweeping California and the nation is the result of irresponsible lending practices, which peaked in late 2006, according to a just-released report.

MDA DataQuick, a real estate analyst, reports that three lenders were on the tip of that wave, making a stunning number of bad loans. Between 65 percent and 75 percent of the loans made by the three—ResMAE Mortgage, Master Financial and Ownit Mortgage Solutions—have since gone south, DataQuick reports. They sold almost all of these loans to other banks, which then repackaged them into the now-familiar house-of-cards arrangements that have since collapsed.

The religious right may have won the gay marriage debate, but they just lost the war on porn…in the library. After a long meeting Tuesday night, the San Jose City Council put an end to Councilman Pete Constant’s 19-month-long campaign to install porn filters on library computers throughout the city.

Clearly, Councilman Sam Liccardo is trying to make nice with Police Chief Rob Davis after blasting him for his “inflexible” leadership style in a recent Metro article. Today, the councilman made a point to give the chief a few little kudos at the afternoon City Council meeting.

Schools could never make it without the dedication and generosity of their volunteers. From booster clubs to parent governance organizations like PTA, from tutors in math to builders of a school theater set, from career day speakers to cooks at a spring open-house barbecue, schools are enriched by volunteerism.

San Jose’s newly named police auditor resigned this evening following community reaction to the disclosure that his brother is a San Jose police officer.

Chris Constantin was appointed to the $169,000-a-year post last week in a closed session meeting of the San Jose City Council.

He succeeded Barbara Attard, whose contract was not renewed after she sought expanded powers to review investigations into complaints of police misconduct.

UPDATED at 6pm.
Councilwoman Nora Campos fired off a letter to Mayor Chuck Reed this morning blaming him for furthering the distrust between the community and the San Jose Police Department. Campos points out that the mayor never disclosed the fact that Chris Constantin, the newly appointed Independent Police Auditor, has a brother who is a homicide detective in the police department.

Although I was born and raised in San Jose, my visits to the East Side were not commonplace. As a kid, I was advised of general safety issues about the East Side and was warned not to go “there” at night. My father taught English to adult immigrants on the East Side for about half his teaching career, and I used to accompany him when my school was closed. I would sit in the back and meet his students from all over the world. In high school I would go to East Side high school sporting events, remembering that I needed to be careful—at least that is what I was told.