San Jose voters face several difficult and contentious decisions tomorrow—this is not one of them. Measure B will create a $10-per-vehicle annual fee to repair San Jose’s neighborhood streets and thoroughfares. The countywide initiative would provide $14 million per year, every year, to transportation Authority—more than $5 million to San Jose. It’s necessary because San Jose has the worst roads of any big city in the nation.
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Worst Roads, but Great Pensions
Last week, Council dove into a study session about street paving. As you may have heard, San Jose came in last on a national survey on road conditions. This survey was done prior to the $12 million in federal stimulus money that was allocated to San Jose for road paving this summer.
San Jose’s cost to maintain roads is high due to our suburban sprawl. Total lane miles in San Jose is double that of San Francisco, which came in second for worst roads.
Neighborhoods Send Message to High Speed Rail Authority: Put the Trains Underground
The following is the text of a letter that was hand delivered to California High Speed Rail Authority CEO Roelof van Ark following his Sept. 29, 2010 speech to the San Jose Rotary Club by San Jose Downtown Association Executive Director Scott Knies. In an unprecedented show of unity, the letter was signed by leaders of 10 central San Jose neighborhood associations and the heads of the city’s two leading business associations.
Neighborhood and business groups in central San Jose urge the California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) to include an underground option for San Jose in the project’s Environment Impact Report.
High Speed Revenue
For the most part, I do not think people want things to change. However, could you see living without highway 280, 85, 87 or 237? When building large transportation projects there always seems to be opposition of some sort. Government at all levels—local, state and federal—deems that certain projects have a higher value in the long term.
Blakeslee and Laird Finally Meet
The 15th California State Senate District stretches over strategic portions of Santa Clara County, Monterey County, Santa Cruz County, San Benito County and Santa Barbara County. And for many, including the Democratic former Assemblymember running to represent the district, it’s also a perfect illustration of everything that’s wrong with California politics.
California’s Students Need Assembly Democrats’ Budget Plan
Last week in SJI I wrote about the criticality of strong leadership from our candidates running for governor to fix California’s public schools. It will not be the leaders that make the difference, but each of us who are willing to speak out and put our money where our mouth is. The assembly Democrats have a proposal that supports our children and schools, but it will not pass unless we become engaged in the debate right now.
Metro Endorses Carrasco
UPDATE—Friday 6pm: Mayor Chuck Reed endorses Carrasco.
Survey: Budget Deficit Tradeoffs
This year, the San Jose City Council is forced to make drastic cuts. Unfortunately, the city of San Jose has had a deficit for the last decade even before the Great Recession. In fact, even without the recession, San Jose’s financial obligations are significantly higher then revenues coming into the city.
As a result current elected officials are left with trade offs often having to pit necessary services against each other. This year the deficit is $118 million. This is more then the entire library, transportation, planning, code enforcement, information technology, city attorney and public works departments combined.
Newcomer Heats Up District 5 Race
Elsie Aranda has not decided which San Jose City Council candidate she will endorse. Stopwatch in hand, she sits in the front row of the second District 5 candidates forum at the Mayfair Community Center, acting as moderator.
Aranda makes sure that the four people currently battling to represent San Jose’s East Side don’t go beyond their allotted speech times. It is her job to holler at candidates Xavier Campos, Aaron Resendez, J. Manuel Herrera and Magdalena Carrasco if they take too long to make their points.
Here Come the Cuts
The City Manager will release the list of proposed cuts to balance the city budget today (March 29). These cuts are based on no concessions from any of the labor unions nor savings gained through outsourcing of janitorial services (among others) to save money.
Money saved from outsourcing could help pay for library hours or the aquatics program, for example. The question of concessions has been out there for months and could be included in the budget. Agreement would need to be reached in early April since layoff notices would start going out April 19. If concessions are made then some of these cuts could be avoided but in lieu of an agreement in hand here are some of the proposed/likely cuts.
San Jose 2010 State of the City Address
Full text of San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed’s 2010 State of the City Address, delivered February 18, 2010 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California.
Oakland Mayor: A’s Move to San Jose Would Add to Global Warming
The East Bay Express is reporting that a Major League Baseball task force will present its findings on the A’s proposed move to San Jose to Commissioner Bud Selig on Monday. The Express reported this afternoon that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums made the statement during a speech to the Oakland Chambers of Commerce at the Oakland Airport Hilton on Thursday.
Dellums also reportedly said he sent a message to Selig stating that a ballpark in San Jose or Fremont would result in more long-distance trips to games, creating more greenhouse gas emissions.
Candid Camera
Photo radar helps augment traffic safety, as well as that of pedestrians and neighborhoods. A tweaking of the current policy to improve safety will not cost the state any money, and in fact will raise money while at the same time lowering emergency room health care costs. Speeding cars in our neighborhoods continue to remain an issue. The City of San Jose does what it can to manage speeding on our streets with the dollars we are able to allocate.
Yeager Delivers Emotional Address
An emotional District 4 Supervisor Ken Yeager delivered the State of the County address earlier this morning as the first openly gay President of the Santa Clara Board of Supervisors.
Before a crowded hall of high-profile local officials—including District Attorney Dolores Carr, Sheriff Laurie Smith, District 1 candidates Teresa Alvarado and Forrest Williams, and the mayors of San Jose, Santa Clara and Campbell—Yeager recalled being a 26–year–old staffer for former county supervisor Susanne Wilson on Aug. 6, 1979, the day the board heard fiery arguments against a ban on discrimination against gays for housing or employment.
Planting the Seeds of San Jose’s Economic Resurgence
As this week brings news of our local unemployment rate just beginning to taper downward, local businesses are peering out from their frozen dens for the first signs of Spring. That’s of little solace to thousands of our families still losing their homes and jobs, but it does raise a crucial question as we try to get people back to work: how can we best communicate to businesses that they should make San José the place to grow?
Are Schools Ready for the Big One?
As a current County Office of Education Trustee and former school principal I am very concerned about our Silicon Valley school preparedness for an earthquake disaster. It’s like the Bay Area is sitting on an explosive device equal to the size of a huge bunker- busting bomb and we do not know when it will detonate. Doesn’t it seem our schools should be ready for the inevitable detonation?
