San Jose Inside

Well the consultants and pundits are receding into the background, thankfully. It is now time to check the battlefield for casualties and then look at options for the future.

Paramount to our valley, the path to mass transit is very bumpy in our valley. The excruciating narrowness of the loss of the BART sales tax measure is something that will not soon be forgotten by the losers—Mayor Chuck Reed, Carl Guardino of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and rising star Sam Liccardo laid it, and all, on the line. And in an incredibly close miss, they saw the hopes of a complete BART system dashed—for now.

Usually after elections, there must be the counting (and sometimes recounting), and the obligatory, if not always enlightening, analysis.  With the end of last week’s battles, there are two salient facts beyond debate. First, the fight over “Little Saigon” was traumatic for the city and more so for the hopes of Vietnamese-American candidates.  And second, the attempts of the Democratic establishment to boost and support candidates that would be solidly in their camp failed miserably with the crushing of Craig Mann in the Evergreen district.

On June 3, the San Jose City Council passed the controversial promoter ordinance that will regulate downtown nightlife by imposing fees and mandatory permits on event promoters and organizers. I don’t want to put too much on it, but the day after the ordinance passed, it was like someone had shot live entertainment in the head.

City Hall Diary

Disneyland in Alviso?  Not quite, but the comparisons are definitely there. Several months back, I accompanied Councilmembers Chu and Liccardo on a tour of the San Jose Water Pollution Control Plant.  We rode on electric carts that were linked together like those at an amusement park.  Our tour guide spouted off words like, “sewage back-up, micro-organisms, aeration, methane gas”—much different then “Pirates of the Caribbean.”

It seems that this council, most of it anyway, means what it says; it held the line against the conversion of five acres of industrial land to housing. Nice job, team.  The war will never be won until developers believe that the council will not buckle under the joint pressure of too much money and too little staff backbone. It must be won battle by battle.

In a prior column, I wrote about taking advantage of the great San Jose weather by having events at City Hall Plaza or at the Circle of Palms. At last week’s city council meeting, there was an item that pertained to sidewalk cafes at night. I support outside settings and made a motion at the meeting proposing to extend hours at sidewalk cafes until 2 a.m. A majority of the council supported the motion.

The protestors have left for the time being and quiet has returned to the plaza of the smoking fountains at San Jose City Hall. How long the peace will last is an open question. It is far too early to discern the answer. But one thing is clear: the primary heroes in the enterprise are evident to all. First and foremost is Sam Liccardo, the District 3 council member who seized the reins and achieved a resolution, snatching stalemate from the jaws of defeat. Then there is Mayor Chuck Reed, who dug the cement out from around the feet of many in City Hall and gave his approval to the agreement that ended the hunger strike of the redoubtable Ly Tong. Vice Mayor Dave Cortese is one who clearly knew that ending this protest, for whatever reason, was the correct course.

Just about the only thing that the San Jose City Council assured on Tuesday is that they will have to deal with the Little Saigon issue again. The next time they vote on the matter, though, there will at least be a community consensus. Yeah, right. Dealing with the most thankless, no-win issue ever to come before this city council tested the character and political skills of each elected member, and it was good political theater to boot.

I attended a luncheon at City Hall yesterday honoring one of San Jose’s most notable citizens: playwright and film maker Luis Valdez. It was a wonderful and inspiring time, as all sessions with Luis and his wife Lupe are. However, it had one other element to it. Supervisor Blanca Alvarado asked Valdez a question that focused on the Plumed Serpent—Quetzalcoatl—and the meaning of art.

I understand that being in the public eye makes you a target, but the news that Sam Liccardo’s former intern, Eric Hernandez, was arrested for hacking into the City Hall e-mail system still caught me by surprise. However, as I read the story, it was clear that something just didn’t add up. Why would an 18-year-old be so angry with his former boss—Liccardo Chief of Staff Jessica Garcia-Kohl—that he would intend to hurt her and expose her relationship with Sam Liccardo? Just because she denied him access to a few rooms? Why would that make Hernandez fly off the handle? That doesn’t seem logical.