Author: Julia Baum (Julia Baum)

How a seven year fight to save a San Jose trestle ended

A steel bridge stored in Colorado may soon cross over Los Gatos Creek in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, replacing the nearly 100-year-old railroad structure a crew began demolishing this week. “It will be connected by fall – even if it is not paved,” said Councilmember Dev Davis. A band of preservationists fought for seven...

Coyote Creek flood lawsuit continues against San Jose, water district

A judge recently handed flood victims some wins and some losses in the ongoing Coyote Creek flood litigation. More than 150 families of flood victims in 2017 sued San Jose, Santa Clara County, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and California’s Division of Safety of Dams in Santa Clara County Superior Court, citing claims of negligence...

Pedestrian deaths spiked in San Jose last year

A New Year’s Day traffic collision that injured San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo marks an ongoing trend of pedestrian injuries and fatalities throughout San Jose — and has given a high-profile face to a public safety campaign that some say needed a publicity boost. Liccardo collided with a 2002 Toyota Highlander on Jan. 1 while...

Liccardo’s focus in 2019: Housing, housing, housing

Sam Liccardo easily won four more years as San Jose mayor in November, but the high-profile former attorney faces a Gordian Knot of intersecting issues entering his second term — especially the intractable housing crisis. Upon his swearing in four years ago, Liccardo contended with a bitter pension battle that ended in a mass exodus...

San Jose approved Google. What’s next?

It will be years before Google breaks ground near Diridon Station but San Jose residents will soon have a better idea about what the project will look like. The San Jose City Council in December unanimously approved a $110 million sale of roughly 11 acres of public land to the tech behemoth in a plan...

Attack ads run rampant in local elections

They say politics is a blood sport. Silicon Valley’s 2018 midterm election, featuring a handful of competitive city and county legislative races, was no exception. A slew of opposition ads and smear tactics shadowed several Bay Area candidates running for public office this year — including ads bankrolled by a new committee helmed by the...