San Jose Inside

Tom McEnery recently returned from a visit to Vietnam. This is the third article in a three-part series.

Perhaps it was never expressed better than by Graham Greene’s fictional journalist Fowler (played by Michael Caine in the recent film, The Quiet American) when he notes of the naïve American: “ I never knew a man who had better motive for all the trouble he caused.” As I visited Hue I thought of Tet, and the victories that broke the American will to continue,  those pyrrhic victories, and the carnage on both ends of that offensive and its aftermath.

When it comes to the workings of the San Jose City Government, the devil is too often in the details. The convention center expansion is a $300 million project, yet it has received little public scrutiny.

My vote for the Best Apocalyptic, Post-Suburban-Wasteland Photo Book of 2008 goes hands down to a glossy hardback aptly titled Frezno from Process Books. Photographer Tony Stamolis grew up in that Central Valley city, and spent six years chronicling the dreadful, doped-out, deranged and disregarded underbelly of the city whose airport code is FAT.

Tom McEnery recently returned from a visit to Vietnam. This is the second in a three-part series.

Beyond the Continental Hotel and the Cathedral of Notre Dame—we just missed a wedding there—is a place I was both anxious and nervous to see. It was once called the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes. But in slight bow to political expediency,  it has a new name: The War Remnants Museum.

By Colleen Watson
Starting at Story Road and King Street at 4:30pm. Wednesday, about 200 marchers protesting US immigration policy worked their way to City Hall, chanting “Yes We Can.” The largely Hispanic group reached a mostly empty City Hall at 6:30pm.

Is San Jose’s nonpolitical mayor in a position to attract federal clean-tech dollars?

Silicon Valley business leaders will be keeping an eye on what happens immediately following inauguration day, when, analysts predict, President Barack Obama may address his plan to shift the nation toward clean technology—an emerging local business sector.

“My father insists that I call it Saigon—you see, he was in the Southern Army,”  was the simple, direct way our guide informed us why he used the city’s old name.  The comment was made in near perfect English. “Sometimes we say Ho Chi Minh City,” he conceded, “but I prefer Saigon.”  This was our introduction to a place so much in American minds for the last forty years, just recently a significant factor in San Jose politics.

San Jose’s Vice Mayor Judy Chirco had to skip this morning’s council session for a doctor’s appointment. Her staff confirmed today that the District 9 councilwoman was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is awaiting surgery.

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” a father tells his son while standing outside the cyclone fences being erected for the inaugural. He was, of course, talking about tickets. And if you know a congressperson, you had a chance of getting the Ticket of the Century.

Last week, Mayor Reed held his State of the City Address. And I think the mayor was forthright by clearing stating that the City of San Jose has a large deficit, and that cuts to services and layoffs are before us. In fact, I believe that the current $60-65 million budget deficit will worsen and grow to $70-75 million.

As Fly operatives head to DC to keep an eye on Silicon Valley’s vain and connected, they are noticing that the Obama presidency is already having a positive effect on the economy.

A San Jose police officer tased a woman and shot her husband following an altercation that occurred as they left a downtown restaurant and nightclub around 1am Sunday morning, according to witness reports. San Jose Police Department spokesman Jermaine Thomas confirmed that a weapon was discharged, that a man was “taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” and that the call came in a few minutes before 1am. He declined to provide other details as of 4am Sunday.

On Tuesday, change comes to America. Here in San Jose, life goes on. Register rants, raves, etc., here.

By Jill Escher

It’s time for SJUSD to right its wrongs.  The District was found guilty of unconstitutional backdoor taxation when, in early 2006, it secretly refinanced 1997 Measure C bonds to artificially raise tax rates to repay $22 million of new bond debt.  This week, Attorney General Jerry Brown handed down his much-anticipated opinion that such double dipping violates the state constitution and is illegal.

Watch Dog Silicon Valley reported yesterday that Tesla Motors faces new competition in the world of cool electric roadsters, and speculates that the company is unlikely to come to turn San Jose into the green Detroit that some have imagined.