San Jose Inside

St. Patrick, Ireland’s primary patron saint, died on March 17, 461, in his hideaway at Saul, Downpatrick, near the County Down monastery he founded (now in Northern Ireland).

Born in Wales around 389, a native of Roman Britain, Patrick was abducted and taken to Ireland as a slave at the age of 16 where he worked as a shepherd in County Antrim. He escaped after six years and made his way to continental Europe where he became a pupil of St. Germanus. Made bishop in 431, Patrick was charged with the conversion of the entire island of Ireland to Christianity.

Last week I wrote about exploring furloughs instead of layoffs to balance the budget.  Part of my job is to come up with ideas/solutions to issues/problems. There are lots of departments in a city our size and lots of different opinions. What one department sees as black, another may see as white, and yet another, grey.

When it comes to the question of the December shutdown of City Hall (200 East Santa Clara), the reality is that it is not the same as a private sector shutdown where employees simply do not get paid regardless of accrued vacation hours.

Spitzer’s Significant Contribution to Whoring Recognized

Just one day after his resignation, the United Pimp Union has told all of its members all across the United States and certain areas of Canada to honor soon-to-be-former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer by retiring the number 9, thereby bestowing on him the designation as the first John in world history to have his client number retired.

Last weekend, the Merc’s Internal Affairs blog pretended to call for compromise in the Little Saigon battle, while in fact bashing both sides of the debate. The piece began by reporting that “hunger-striker Ly Tong flashed the crowd to reveal his bare chest as security guards hustled him away from the speaker’s podium”—a word choice that shows a touch of disdain for the former war hero and internationally respected human rights activist.

There must be a better way of dealing with California’s budget crisis and $8 billion deficit than by laying off teachers as part of an across-the-board 10 percent spending cut. Our schools are in a pretty sorry state as it is due to inadequate funding. Many teachers that I know have to supply their students with classroom necessities and pay for them out of their own pockets. Now many of these dedicated educators are going to be getting their pink slips.

San Jose Mercury News employees already know the drill—just stay home and wait by the phone. It took about two hours on Friday for Merc executives to call employees and inform them they no longer had a job. Between buy-outs and layoffs, the Merc lost a total of 50 positions in this round of cuts, half of which came out of the newsroom.

The naming of places and the honoring of icons is an often confusing and sometimes treacherous country to enter. Walking by the empty lot on Jackson between Sixth and Seventh Streets that was once the city corporation yard led me to a number of thoughts about that problem, our government, and local history. For many years this was site of the city-owned garage and maintenance facility. Its acquisition is shrouded in a bit of mystery from the sordid days of the forced internment of Japanese Americans. It is alive in the memories of many members of that community who believed their area and property were seized during that tragic time. But the story goes back even further than the recent focus on the World War Two chapter. As L. A. Chung pointed out in the Mercury News, it goes back to the destruction of our old Chinatown in the area of the Fairmont Hotel.

SJSU teacher and sonic outlaw Allen Strange was a master of electronic music and cooking

THROUGHOUT the nine years I spent at San Jose State University, nobody taught me how to control my voltage more than did Allen Strange, who passed away last week at the age of 64. He was a true sonic outlaw, which is precisely why we got along so well. One of the original pioneers of analog electronic music, Allen wrote the first textbook on that subject way back in the early ‘70s, long before synthesizers were ubiquitous. Even today, that book is a hoot to look through.

With the recent ruling that all California homeschool teachers need to have teaching credentials, the debate that rages on about homeschooling in general will get even more heated than ever before. Many people are happy that this new mandate has come down from the state. It will affect San Jose citizens because there are charter school and homeschooling groups in this area that have had their world turned upside down.

This past Wednesday night I hosted a community budget meeting for my district. Between City Hall and my meeting I stopped at home to pick up my laptop. As I left, I saw my neighbors out in front of their homes. My next door neighbor was tossing a ball with his son. Other neighbors were working on a car, fiddling with sprinklers and carrying groceries into their home.  I thought to myself: no one is going to show up for this meeting

Untapped Pool of Buyers-Using-Offensive-Language Targeted

The San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau, under the direction of city officials, has launched an awareness campaign in expectation of a whole new wave of cussers flooding the downtown housing market in search of a more tolerant and obscenity-laced community.

Today marks a new beginning for San Jose Inside.  We have formed an alliance with Metro Newspapers, Boulevards, NBC11, Topix and the Los Gatos Observer that will create a comprehensive digital-age system to deliver local news, information and opinion, and provide citizen journalists an outlet to bring matters to the attention of the community and discuss issues of importance to residents of San Jose and Silicon Valley.

From “The Fly,” Metro Silicon Valley, March 5, 2008

Accused City Hall hacker Eric Hernandez showed up for his arraignment on Friday before Judge Jerry Nadler, represented by one of the valley’s most expensive criminal attorneys. Attorney Benjamin Williams appeared—and dropped the bombshell that Hernandez had retained his boss, superstar lawyer Steve Manchester, to handle the case.

Just about the only thing that the San Jose City Council assured on Tuesday is that they will have to deal with the Little Saigon issue again. The next time they vote on the matter, though, there will at least be a community consensus. Yeah, right. Dealing with the most thankless, no-win issue ever to come before this city council tested the character and political skills of each elected member, and it was good political theater to boot.

I attended a luncheon at City Hall yesterday honoring one of San Jose’s most notable citizens: playwright and film maker Luis Valdez. It was a wonderful and inspiring time, as all sessions with Luis and his wife Lupe are. However, it had one other element to it. Supervisor Blanca Alvarado asked Valdez a question that focused on the Plumed Serpent—Quetzalcoatl—and the meaning of art.