San Jose Inside

Is it me, or does it seem that all good, big ideas in this City are here today, gone tomorrow?  I think so many good ideas fizzle in San Jose, and I really want to know why.

A music hall was once on the forefront of the city council agenda and there were debates in both the council and supervisors chambers on whether to build it downtown or at the county fairgrounds, and then: nothing.  It was a great idea but it seemed to vanish into thin air. House of Blues was pumped-up for a time and never materialized. We are all still waiting for another music venue.

City Hall Diary

Last week the San Jose City Council discussed the issue of co-payments for retired city workers and their dependents. The recommendation from the city manager was to defer adding co-payments for one year to allow more time for this issue to be researched. Whatever the outcome, the decision will affect 3,000 retired city employees, including dependents, and the city budget.

Mayor Reed’s State of the City Speech Only Gig Going

Thousands of starving Hollywood writers have arrived in San Jose looking for work on one of the last gigs going: Mayor Reed’s annual State of the City speech at the 2008 San Jose Community Breakfast.

The San Jose Mercury News is beginning to remind me of one of those aging Hollywood stars—male and female—who convince themselves that they are once again youthfully beautiful with their pumped-up lips and reconstructive plastic surgery, but actually resemble the “Phantom of the Opera” or Jack Nicholson’s “Joker” to everyone else. More plastic surgery won’t reverse the disastrous facial consequences to sixties TV stars, and a new editor-in-chief—the third in the past few months—from the corporate bowels of Denver-based MediaNews won’t fix their science experiment gone bad. And just like the old movie stars that do nothing and insist on aging naturally, the San Francisco Chronicle is now winning the Bay Area newspaper beauty contest. Go figure.

Purchasing the Future

The year of 2008 is already shaping up as a fascinating one, but tough decisions are ahead. BART, professional sports and our incredibly increasing deficits—state, local and national—are going to loom very large.

As I am making my own resolutions to lose weight, hit the gym more often and eat less carbs, I think that the San Jose City Council should make a few resolutions of their own in 2008. Here are some ways they could really improve our city this year.

City Hall Diary

As I bid 2007 goodbye and welcome 2008, I think of the many issues that my colleagues and I will be working on in one way or another. Whether balancing the budget, protecting our resources like industrial land or implementing the mayor’s Green Vision, among others, it will take collaboration, perseverance and, above all else, a good sense of humor to keep us all in check.

Thousands Flee San Jose in Panic as Forecasters Predict Winds and Rain

As weather conditions deteriorated late Thursday with hundreds of tiny raindrops and breezy winds, an otherwise calm and subdued holiday season turned into panic and mayhem as thousands frantically took to the roads, trying to get out of the city in search of dry land.

For some people the Christmas and New Year holidays were a little too happy; 792 arrests were made in Santa Clara County for DUI during the seasonal crackdown from December 14 until January 1, up from 716 last year. There were 165 arrests in San Jose and one death in the county related to drunk driving, down from four last year. That may seem like a lot of arrests, but I wonder how many drunk drivers didn’t get caught?

As a New Year dawns (I love using that phrase so full of hope), it is time to take stock of our city and community. There are things that we should hope for in the New Year; and, more than that, we should work fervently for them to occur. It is critical to build in the present if you want a future to be proud of.

Because with every new year we should have renewed optimism, I thought I would talk about a very inspiring movie I just saw about a man who left his native Afghanistan and found a new life in San Jose. Khaled Hosseini, the bestselling author of the book “The Kite Runner,” made his way by receiving political asylum in San Jose, first going to Independence High School and then finishing his college degree at Santa Clara University. He is surely one of the most talented writers and graduates in our area, yet I am sure when he was here as a refugee, he wasn’t always treated as if he would one day be a world-class writer with two movies optioned from his books. Now that I know his beginnings, I wonder about what his experiences here must have been like.

When it comes to the holidays, many of us expect to have them off.  Whether it’s Hanukah, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc., the assumption is that the holidays are automatically a day off of work or that one can request religious days off and the request is granted. However, this is not always the case.

Confusing Rules to be Sorted by Retailer’s Scanning Technology

Despite a high, six-figure settlement relating to allegations that its cash register scanning technology was overcharging customers, the San Jose City Council has decided to move forward with a multi-year contract for the Walgreens drugstore chain to manage its new downtown parking fee structure.

Merry Christmas to all SJI bloggers and readers.

In the abiding spirit of revolution embodied in the Declaration of Independence, our Founders created this country as a nation ruled by secular, Constitutional law, not religion and mythology, though the assault on this principle by theocrats is ongoing and relentless. Those who attempt to wield the Bible and the teachings of Christ as a weapon—from George W. Bush and Pat Robertson to the Catholic Church and the Texas Department of “Education”—for political and social control, to stifle intellectual debate or cover up the facts of science, do so under false pretenses. Jesus would be appalled.

With the state of California poised to release 22,000 convicted felons designated as non-violent, I thought of another former prisoner who rehabilitated himself and made something of his life: the American author known as O. Henry whose real name was William Sydney Porter. He wrote over four hundred short stories, an amazing achievement. Though I have great reservations about this prisoner release as a cost-cutting measure, I truly hope that there is an O. Henry in the mass of those returning to our neighborhoods shortly. Merry Christmas.