San Jose Inside

Well, we are on the cusp of another big decision about the future of our valley and our region. Are we going to commit to the biggest transportation project in our history and vote to approve a one-eighth-cent sales tax to raise billions of dollars in a push for rail transit?

I didn’t know if it could happen, but it turns out it is possible to get people to voluntarily sit through a panel of speakers from the Bureau of Automotive Repair. All you’ve got to do is couch it in a car show featuring some of the cleanest low riders, bombs, hot rods, imports and Harleys in the South Bay. Then surround that with the one place that you know is poppin’ on a Saturday afternoon—the Berryessa Flea Market.

I wanted to keep the discussion going on education—tagging on to last week’s topic—since we all have such differing opinions on what we need to do in this area.  I happened to watch the CNN special Black in America last week, and it had a fascinating piece on an unusual plan to improve student achievement in New York City’s education system.

Some Bay Area school districts are making a stronger effort to identify and remove students who are not eligible to enroll in a particular school.  It seems that a number of parents are trying to enroll their kids into better performing schools despite the fact that they live outside of the district or the designated school boundaries.

City Hall Diary

Vice Mayor Dave Cortese wins the prize for having the most historical knowledge of his district. I had the opportunity to tour District 8 with the vice mayor and get a better understanding of the land we call Evergreen and its agricultural history.

Sound off about anything and everything on the weekly open forum.

Seen as a Move to Make Team “WNBA-Tough”

In a bold first move by new San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan, the former player-coach of the Charlestown Chiefs, Reggie Dunlap, was hired as an assistant for what many in the NHL see as a fortitude-toughening measure to steel the men in teal for a run at the Stanley Cup and hockey legitimacy.

Silicon Alleys

THE San Jose Redevelopment Agency has now released preliminary documents related to the relandscaping of St. James Park in downtown San Jose, a project intended to give the much-maligned park a new face-lift while preserving its historic character. Since this park was San Jose’s original town square in the 1880s, I have a few thoughts on the park’s crazed history.

There has been much discussion on this site about BART coming to San Jose from the very beginning. The latest effort to fund the project, a one-eighth-cent sales tax proposal on the November ballot, has brought the issue back into the news and I thought we might take the opportunity to debate the initiative. (There is a very good article by Erin Sherbert in Metro this week that brings the matter up to date.)

There’s no missing the big red tree that recently sprouted from the grassy corner of St. James Park at St. John and North First streets. A full 15 feet high or so, its straight trunk is crowned with an intricate forking pattern of bare branches ending in carefully pruned nubby ends. And of course, the tree is red. Real red. Bright shiny red.

As the city embarks on a very ambitious plan in North San Jose for jobs and housing, and a mini-debate is had on the wisdom of the city owning land, it will be instructive to look at the past. While we may not always learn from our history, it never hurts to look at it and glean a bit of knowledge and perhaps even some insight.

Every year studies show that we Americans know very little about history.  We fail to identify many famous figures from our past, like Benedict Arnold, Ben Franklin and even George Washington. But what is the root cause of this? Is it our culture and our complete obsession with movies and video games? Or is there something broken in our education system that doesn’t allow students to retain these facts as adults?

Alviso sits at the foot of San Francisco Bay, where Coyote Creek and the Guadalupe River wind through sloughs on their way to the sea. San José annexed Alviso in 1968, all because of the sewage treatment plant that was necessary to support the growth of the future “Capital of Silicon Valley.” While the larger city gained control over its destiny, those in the smaller community it absorbed have never believed that they received the benefits that being part of San José was supposed to provide.

Your City At Work (Sort Of)

QUESTION:  How many San Jose city employees does it take to remove illegal signs?  ANSWER: Zero—they don’t do this sort of thing.