San Jose Inside

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.

News that Saratoga developer Ante Bilic is moving forward with plans to convert a Gilroy restaurant into a topless bar has set South County tongues wagging. Some locals are worrying aloud that the proposed Showgirls nightclub would be a crime magnet. Others seem to find some humor in the situation.

Last month, for the seventh year in a row, the folks at NVIDIA—the Santa Clara–based visual computing giant—decided to do forego their annual company holiday party and commit themselves to a knock-down, drag-out community service effort called Project Inspire. One thousand employees, along with students, friends and family, volunteered and made their way out to Overfelt High School in East San Jose for the shindig last month.

Schwarzenegger skips State of the State address.

Citing a “state of emergency” resulting from the state’s dire economic situation and the legislature’s failure to produce a solution, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger delivered a truncated State of the State address this morning. While he clearly put responsibility for the crisis on the legislators he was addressing—even suggesting that pay should be withheld from Assembly members, state Senators and the himself until a solution is found—his tone was mostly upbeat and conciliatory. He congratulated lawmakers for working toward a compromise, and said he is optimistic that they will succeed.

This past week, the San Jose City Council gave its preliminary approval for a $300 million expansion of the San Jose Convention Center. The cost-benefit analysis upon which the council leaned to make its decision raises more questions than answers about the utility of the project. Is the convention center expansion designed to meet the needs of the people of San Jose, or the needs of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency?

Steve Jobs announced this afternoon that he will be taking a medical leave, due to a mysterious ailment that has left him rail-thin and frail. And so It turns out that Gizmodo was right after all. Or at least partly right.

Mayor Chuck Reed latched onto President-elect Barack Obama’s mantra of Hope as he delivered his State of the City Speech this morning. His Obama-esque message of optimism may have been an effort to cushion the blow of new austerity measures as he outlined the city’s $60 million shortfall and plans for imminent layoffs.

Silicon Valley citizens will now be able to crawl out of wrecked train cars in a calm, organized fashion with the recent installment of large safety signs inside all of VTA’s Light Rail cars and buses. Posted in the last few weeks, the new signs give detailed instructions on what passengers should do in case of an emergency, including how to press a button to talk to the vehicle operator, and how to exit a train in a tunnel (Fly’s head’s hurting already).

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Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s brand-new CEO, is promising to bring some passion to the job. On a conference call with analysts and reporters this morning, Bartz said she planned to help Yahoo get “some friggin’ breathing room” so the company can “kick some butt.”

Can we reduce the drop-out rate, and increase character while reducing the risky behaviors of teens, one service learning project at a time? I think we can.

After months of anticipated debate on the politics of airing a reality show documenting the adventures of the Department of Homeland Security on primetime on ABC, the Jan. 6 premiere may have ended the argument before it even could get started. I would like to say that viewers found the notion of celebrating a branch of the government that raids homes and tears apart communities an abhorrent brand of entertainment. But really, Homeland Security USA just sucked.

Last week, I attended in the Santa Clara County Cities Association. This association has a representative from every city in Santa Clara County. In my view, a good portion of the time is spent uniting all the cities to advocate state and federal policy- makers on policies or bills that help Santa Clara county cities. At this meeting, the Recycling and Waste Reduction Commission (RWRC) of Santa Clara County presented the concept of banning plastic bags.

Every week San Jose Inside offers this open forum for discussion of any topic. This is the place to rant and/or rave about the news of the week and/or anything else.