San Jose Inside

So all the hubbub lately is about how good ol’ Ronny G is trying to make his mark on San Jose before he goes out of office by sitting on committees he has been expressly told not to sit on and attempting to have an impact AFTER his censure. Wouldn’t we have been better off if the council had just removed the guy from office?  Why leave someone in office with just enough power to hold up every major decision facing the city right now? 

Part II

Last week I told of the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in San Jose. San Francisco was another story—one of the greatest tragedies of California history.  Estimates of the dead numbered more than 700, but the true count will never be known. 

Also Suggests Holocaust was Staged

Just days after suggesting that San Jose’s government was “as open as a French whorehouse on Bastille Day” and that “sunshine law” reforms were ridiculous and a waste of time, Mayor Ron Gonzales continued his stroll through some warm and fuzzy fictional world by attacking Sir Isaac Newton and his Universal Laws of Gravitation.

Right now it looks like the next few months of the campaign will be dominated with talk about the scandals at City Hall.  There’s certainly been a lot to talk about: the growth of City Hall lobbyists, decision-making going on behind closed doors, the garbage scandal with Norcal, City Hall cost over-runs, the Cisco phone contract at City Hall, gift giving, controversy about secret fundraising, and the censure and resignation of ex-councilman Terry Gregory and more.

Although many were surprised when Ron Gonzales struck out at the Mercury News on KGO last week, calling the drive for more open government in San Jose “a bunch of nonsense,” I was neither shocked nor particularly interested. Most people have already formed their opinion of the mayor, as well as our local newspaper, and are not overly concerned with the former’s opinion of the latter.

The single best hidden gem in San Jose has to be Japantown, our cluster of authentic Japanese restaurants and culture located right outside of downtown on Jackson Street.  I know the area well because I grew up downtown, but most residents of San Jose still haven’t discovered all that is great about this area.

Part I

April 18 will be the 100th anniversary of California’s worst earthquake in recorded history. More than 700 people died in that giant temblor when the Pacific and North American tectonic plates slipped past each other, leaving northern California in ruins. Most hard hit was the city of San Francisco, but right here in Santa Clara County, more than 130 met their maker.

$1.2 Billion Deal Creates Media Giant

Just days after the Sacramento-based McClatchy Company announced it would sell the San Jose Mercury News to pay down debt acquired with the $4.5 billion takeover of Knight Ridder, an unlikely “white knight” has stepped in to purchase the local rag vowing to keep it “viable and local.”

The sale of Knight Ridder to McClatchy Newspapers (for $4.5 billion) is well documented this week in all the news media, including the Mercury News, which describes its own fate of being purchased on one day and then sold (by McClatchy) as soon as possible thereafter to the highest bidder. McClatchy is keeping some of the daily papers owned by Knight Ridder—the ones considered “cream of the crop”—and auctioning off the others—the ones that don’t make enough money (real money or the stock market kind).

All those concerned about the future of our community should be concerned about what is happening to our newspaper. Knight Ridder has been sold to the Sacramento-based McClatchy group who says it will sell the Mercury News. While rumors abound about who will be the final owner, our paper and its staff are going through an excruciating period in limbo.

I was on a bike ride with my friend the other day and we decided to take the path through the new Guadalupe River Park.  We rode our bikes to Coleman and got on the path to ride towards the Arena and on to Willow Glen, but were frustrated by what we encountered.  It turns out that we should have brought a compass, night-vision goggles and a periscope, because riding a mere 15 feet without a fork in the road was impossible.  The path is broken up by chain-linked fences that either force you to turn back, return you unwillingly back up to the street, or send you through a confusing maze in another direction.  On one turn, we ended up taking our bikes over a rickety railway crossing, only to be turned back on the other side, forcing us to go back over the tracks and retrace our steps. 

The earliest use of Alviso Slough as a shipping port was recorded by John Henry Dana in his book “Two years before the Mast.” Mission Santa Clara shipped cowhides and wheat during the 1830’s from what was then known as the “Embarcadero” (“landing place”).  In 1846, during the Mexican War, 30 armed American troops under the command of Lt. Robert Pinkney disembarked by the Embarcadero to get bread from Mission Santa Clara and to participate in the one engagement in Northern California against Mexican troops, “The Battle of Santa Clara.”

“Too Much Public Participation” Say Williams and Campos

Calling for more secrecy in government and saying they want to encourage less public participation, San Jose City Council members Forrest Williams and Nora Campos are proposing a series of “sunset” reforms.

Over a period of sixteen years, Cinequest, the San Jose film festival celebrating independent filmmaking, has quietly developed into the premier downtown cultural event. I say quietly because, unlike the current favorite of our evidently lowbrow city council, it doesn’t get a $4 million subsidy (although I am sure they would LOVE to have it), uproot trees and citizens, and disrupt downtown residents and workers for six weeks while they construct, then deconstruct, a racecourse and stands. And, unlike that other event calendar high point, Mardi Gras, it doesn’t attract even one single drunken, underage troublemaker bent on late-night destruction and mayhem.

It is that most pleasant time of year—a season when inveterate lobbyists and flimflam men get a conscience and speak of reform; a season of ethical proposals by those who have exhibited terminal lockjaw on the issue for years; a remarkable era of ideas for a better political process springing full-blown from the heads of consultants, paid hacks and cynics of every type. Move over folks, it’s election time.