San Jose Inside

We lost a great benefactor to our community when Faith Davies died in 1996 at age 91.  Not only was she one of the most generous people, she witnessed and was intimately connected with the growth of the largest and most important business in our pre-Silicon Valley, the Food Machinery Company, or FMC.

Council Unable to Question City Manager in Annual Review

Predicting a haranguing about his role in the Norcal garbage scandal, City Manager Del Borgsdorf was able to fend off any direct questions by filibustering anxious council members during a rare eight-hour, closed-door, annual performance review on Tuesday.

When the National Hockey League ended it’s year long work stoppage this past summer with a new collective bargaining agreement between the players and the owners, I was definitely in the group that believed the league would have a long road ahead of it to win back the fans. I mean it’s one thing to shut down for a few months like the NHL did in 1994, hammer out a deal, and then come back to the ice. But when you wipe out an entire season and fail to hand out the Stanley Cup trophy in June, it’s pretty serious stuff.

It is said that the cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Are we spending too much time on the investigations into the events that have recently happened at City Hall? This is a question that is being posed in the community.  Let’s look at the cost: the Cisco investigation was $150,000, the Norcal scandal, so-called Garbagegate, was at a $100,000 limit, and the Terry Gregory affair was a bargain at $60,000.  The Gregory investigation ended in his resignation after a very late response by the mayor and council. In the Cisco affair, the plug was pulled by the council at what many thought was the penultimate moment.

I recently read where Forbes magazine named San Jose as the “Richest City in the U.S.” We may be the richest when it comes to money, but are we the poorest when it comes to fun?

What happened to the days where you would meet coworkers for happy hour or take clients out to eat?  What I see in the Bay Area now are tech geeks that are more than happy to spend 12-hour days in their cubicles, and less time out on the town.

Did you ever buy a lopsided donut, one with a handle on it, and discover that it was the best donut you ever ate in your life?  If you bought your sinker at Lou’s Living Donut Museum, you are in for a real treat.  Lou’s is one of those hidden gems of old San Jose—not the kind you find in every shopping center, but a place where quality, friendliness and patriotism prevail.  How many donut shops can you name where the employees raise the American flag and sing the Star Spangled Banner every morning?  How many donut emporiums have their own little theatre where touring school children can see a video on donut making?  How many donut shops have displays of World War II aircraft, pictures and displays of American Independence, such as a copy of the Declaration of Independence, pictures of George Washington and memorabilia of the area?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week marked the 42nd anniversary of the assasination of President John F. Kennedy. I just looked at a photo of him at the San Jose Municipal Airport in 1960 and pulled down a copy of “Profiles in Courage” that he autographed to my Dad - another world.  It is incredible to think of the America then - and how we have changed. How this Valley has changed from the small emerging garden city to the center of the high technology information age now.  On today’s thread, let’s comment on the good and the bad of those monumental changes.
   
I’ll begin. We no longer have to drive to San Francisco or Oakland
for great entertainment, U2 and McCartney, Disney Ice shows,
Globetrotters, Sharks (hockey in our city: no way!) and music for
each and every ethnic group and taste in our region - that’s good! 
Traffic: that’s not so good. It was easier to drive in our city when we had more canneries and fewer technology centers. 

The Downtown: light years to the positive side, but it sure was nice to go to OJ’s, and a Santa Clara vs. San Jose State basketball game - and park right on the street for both.

I really wanted to leave this nightclub and crime issue and turn to some other topics this week. Yet, quite easily, they pull me back into the fray.

First there is a thoughtful blog by David Hickey on the bad old days of prostitutes, crime and drugs on every corner in the Sofa area of downtown (before it had that name) in the late seventies. It was a very bad scene.

One of my missions on SanJoseInside is to point out to our readers things that I think are missing in San Jose and provide ideas for ways to fill the gaps.

When Chinese men from Canton arrived during the gold rush as contract laborers, they never intended to stay here.  If a man could manage to save $100, he could return to his village and live out the rest of his days, never having to work again.  But very few accomplished this goal, as gambling and opium took their toll.  In order to enter Chinese heaven their bones had to be buried in China, and shipping the remains of men whom died in California back to their home became big business. 

Repeal of Ban on Alcohol Sales Could Give Rise to Gasclubs

Shortly after a unanimous vote by the San Jose City Council on an urgency ordinance that gives the police chief more discretion in shutting down problem nightclubs in downtown, a committee of nightclub owners met and decided to take their business elsewhere—to the neighborhood gas stations.

Here is your opportunity to lead the discussion. Choose a topic and share your thoughts.

As I walked the streets of New York the past few days, I visited Fr. Duffy Square, the Theatre District, and the many neighborhoods that make up the immediate downtown, a fascinating crossroads of all that this nation is and can be.  I am struck by one simple fact:  the presence of police is one of the most reassuring sights, giving the finest sense of well-being imaginable. In bunches of two, three, and four, on horse, car, motor bike, and practically suspended on high wires across Broadway, they console, advise, direct, and even crack a joke or two.  “Did you hear the one about the ….”  Never mind. They are a presence to enjoy.

I took a trip this weekend to Chicago.  Not only do they have more bars per capita than any other American city, they have key components that make it one of the best cities in the United States.  Though San Jose will never be Chicago, it can try to model itself after the Windy City in a few ways:

Over the years some great artists have lived and painted here. Of particular interest to me are A.D.M. Cooper (1856-1924), Charles Harmon (1859-1936) and Andrew P. Hill (1853-1922).  Cooper was certainly the most prolific and he commanded the highest prices for his paintings. When he was still alive, one of his paintings sold for $60,000, the equivalent of more than $1 million today.  In my opinion Charles Harmon was perhaps the most gifted, but my favorite is Andrew P. Hill and, while not well known today, he painted some wonderful local pieces.  Of course his real fame is that of the “man who saved the redwoods.”  His painting “California Redwood Park” was exhibited during the second year of the San Francisco Panama Pacific Exposition in 1916.