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On the eve of San Jose lawmakers’ vote on the city’s annual budget, hundreds logged into a virtual public hearing Monday, most with a singular message: defund the police. Residents and advocates got 60 seconds each to make a case to councilmembers on what changes should be reflected in the $4.1 billion budget for the...
Liccardo focuses on police, inequality in San Jose’s $4.1B budget
San Jose’s $4.1 billion budget will be finalized this week, a major annual decision that comes this year in the midst of a pandemic that’s caused enormous projected deficits. But Mayor Sam Liccardo’s focus in a recently-released proposed budget was first on police reforms and inequality. Liccardo’s annual June budget proposal addresses head-on community calls...
San Jose got more than $200M in coronavirus aid. Now it’ll have to up its expense tracking
San Jose has led on many of the region’s coronavirus response efforts, but officials are still figuring out how to track the related costs so the city doesn’t foot the entire bill while facing a major budget shortfall. Now San Jose officials are about to hire an outside consultant to monitor and help guide how...
San Jose gets grant to look deeper at local cannabis industry equity
When San Jose opened its doors to the recreational cannabis industry in 2018, officials hoped those most hurt by its criminalization for decades would make up a big portion of the entrepreneurs that would benefit from its legalization. But data shows that though people of color were most likely to be cited, fined and jailed...
Housing Trust Silicon Valley CEO to lead United Way Bay Area
The United Way Bay Area officially has a new CEO, but the group’s new leader will be a familiar face for Silicon Valley housing, philanthropy and business insiders. Kevin Zwick, currently the CEO for the Housing Trust Silicon Valley, will oversee the United Way Bay Area starting July 6. The move will mark the end...
Downtown San Jose restaurants struggle to survive amid pandemic, protests
Adolfo Gomez had driven just five minutes away from his downtown San Jose restaurant, Mezcal, when he got a call from a friend that the doors to the business had been broken and people were looting. His friend’s daughter had recorded and shared the action on her phone after what started as a peaceful protest...
Manufacturing is big business in San Jose, and it’s ready to get back to work
Virag Saksena’s whisky, which he makes at 10th Street Distillery in San Jose, is sitting in barrels ready to bottle, but his hands have been tied for months due to the shelter-in-place order that prohibited nonessential manufacturers from operating starting in mid-March. He set aside whisky making for producing hand sanitizer, but now Saksena is...
Chamber CEO set to lead San Jose councilmember office
Nick Kaspar, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Central Chamber of Commerce, is leaving the world of business and stepping into politics at San Jose City Hall. Kaspar will be Councilmember Maya Esparza’s chief of staff starting June 15, leaving behind a daunting three years at the helm of the Santa Clara-based chamber. “The...
In pricey Silicon Valley, homebuyer perceptions — not prices — have changed
Silicon Valley’s notoriously expensive residential real estate sales may have seen a slump in March and April during the region’s restrictive shelter-in-place orders, but industry insiders say it’s still a seller’s market. The major change in the market during the pandemic has been perception by those hoping the novel coronavirus has helped to plunge sky-high...
Coronavirus LIVE BLOG: May 21 to June 3
Catch up on our current Coronavirus LIVE BLOG here. 10 p.m. June 3: Santa Clara County supervisors approve child care, financial assistance On Tuesday, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a proposal to devote more than $2.5 million for child care programs in the county, drawing from the federal government’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus...