San Jose Inside

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.

Why is it that during every Mardi Gras this city is overrun with troublemakers who scare anyone decent away? 

I wish to tell the true story of a real incident from a century ago when a local fire captain suffered the same fate as John Wayne Bobbitt, and it happened right here in San Jose. As a matter of fact, it happened on what is now San Pedro Square.

Businessess to Relocate at Fairgrounds

Just days after the Mardi Gras melee, and in anticipation of St. Patrick’s day celebrations, several city department heads called a community wide meeting with downtown business owners, property owners, and nightclub operators to announce downtown was being converted into one big nightclub.

The current issue of The Wave speaks of the impending doom of 16 palm trees on Park Avenue to provide a wider passing lane for the upcoming San Jose Grand Prix.  The relocation of the trees is not a done deal, but those opposed are being enslaved and relocated to Alviso to work on crawdad farms.

There is an interesting battle brewing in Santa Clara County that will decide the future of transit, transportation and, perhaps, a politician or two.  It revolves around the recent county effort to place a half-cent sales tax increase on the June ballot. It is intended to bail out the BART project; maybe “bail out” is incorrect—more appropriately we might say “save.”  But it is being strangely combined with other county projects as a tax to fund several items other than BART, like hospitals and housing for low-income people. You see, put in this form the measure needs only a bare majority vote to pass, while as a transit measure, it would take an unlikely two-thirds vote.

I was driving in my car last night and an advertisement came on the radio supporting Michael Mulcahy’s campaign for mayor.  It wasn’t his platform that struck me but his opening statement that he is “not a politician.”  Has politics gone so wrong that someone who is running for public office would state such a claim? Isn’t it a little like interviewing doctors to help with what ails you and one doctor saying, “And best of all, I am not even a doctor!”