English
Spanish
Vietnamese
More than 100 residents stood in front of San Jose City Hall with empty moving boxes and suitcases in hand on Monday to represent the increasing displacement rates in the city, as housing and cost of living prices remain high. About 20 nonprofits, including SOMOS Mayfair and the South Bay Progressive Alliance, organized the rally...
San Jose lags on language translation services
San Jose provides translation services for public meetings for those who ask for it, but those who don’t may find themselves relegated to a separate room. That’s what happened at last week’s San Jose City Council meeting during a budget discussion. Lucila Ortiz, political director at the advocacy nonprofit Working Partnerships USA, criticized the city...
Silicon Valley lawmaker explores legislation after bank collapse
Two weeks after Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse left thousands of businesses reeling, one Silicon Valley lawmaker is exploring legislation to ensure it doesn’t happen again. At a discussion in Santa Clara on Saturday with nonprofit and business leaders, Congressman Ro Khanna announced he’s crafting legislation that would require banks to pay higher premiums to the...
Weather damage keeps San Jose parks closed
San Jose parks are still reeling from the heavy January rains, and the recent onslaught of wet and windy weather isn’t helping. Sixteen parks around the city are closed and it’s unclear when they will reopen. In the last three months, a relentless number of atmospheric river storms have pounded the Bay Area. Rain coupled with strong...
San Jose council meeting starts with drag performance
San Jose is sending a clear message it stands by the LGBTQ community as other parts of the country double down on outlawing drag shows. The San Jose City Council started its Tuesday meeting with a performance by local drag artist WooWoo Monroe—a first in city history. Councilmember Omar Torres invited Monroe to protest anti-drag legislation proposed in Republican-majority states...
San Jose adopts mayor’s budget plan amid calls for more funding
In his first major test as mayor, Matt Mahan won unanimous support for his budget plan — but not before his critics had their say. Mahan and the city council dug into his March budget message on Tuesday — a roadmap that will shape the city’s budget for the next fiscal year. The document is...
How San Jose could save $23 million
The city could save millions of dollars if a decade-long backlog of auditor recommendations is implemented, a recent analysis shows. The city auditor’s biannual report released this month found more than 180 recommendations have not been fully implemented over the past 10 years, which could save the city an estimated $23 million. Some of those...
East San Jose lake restoration loses funding
Things got heated at Tuesday’s San Jose City Council meeting when councilmembers reversed a prior decision to use more than $3 million of Measure T funds for the restoration of Lake Cunningham in East San Jose. This week, councilmembers voted 8-3 to divert the remaining $3.2 million in funds from the environmental protection budget into...
San Jose wants to revive neighborhoods commission
A San Jose citizen commission, which represents a critical voice for neighborhoods, hasn’t convened for more than six months due to a lack of members. One city councilmember has an idea how to revive it. The San Jose Neighborhoods Commission has been in limbo because the 20-member body has only four sitting members. It lacks...
Should San Jose require nonprofits to register as lobbyists?
Like corporate lobbyists, nonprofit leaders meet regularly with San Jose officials to influence policy decisions. But nonprofits, which are often awarded millions in city contracts, don’t have to disclose their meetings like other lobbyists. San Jose prides itself on its “sunshine” laws, a series of policies adopted in 2008 that require lobbyists to register, pay a fee and...