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When Santa Clara County lifted some COVID-19 restrictions on nail salons and barber shops in late summer of last year, Louie Pham thought she could finally get back to work. Pham, the owner of Orchid Nail Lounge, said she was eager to come back after months of no work. The industry is a cornerstone of the Vietnamese community...
Residents split on Los Gatos’ plan to densify housing
Los Gatos’ goal to densify its housing is too ambitious, residents say, but they can’t agree on how the town should address the issue. Democracy Tent, a group of Los Gatos residents, invited officials to a virtual meeting Monday to talk about the town’s goal to include more housing in its 2040 General Plan. Los...
Will San Jose’s Vietnamese Heritage Garden ever blossom?
When a group of Vietnamese leaders came up with the idea of a heritage garden almost 40 years ago, the vision was grand. The Viet Heritage Garden in San Jose was supposed to be a cultural oasis featuring mini-replicas of different historical Vietnamese landmarks, a reflection pond and a pathway to a community center. Today, the garden...
San Jose mayor uses private email to skirt public records law
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo appears to have skirted public records laws by directing a resident to contact him on his private Gmail and deleting their correspondence from his public government account. The email thread, obtained by San José Spotlight, shows the mayor promising to delete the conversation from his official email. None of the messages in question—which...
Santa Clara County leads in job losses as unemployment rate rises
The unemployment rate in Silicon Valley saw a slight increase in June, signaling that the region still has a way to go before returning to pre-pandemic levels. The regional unemployment rate increased from 4.6% to 5.1% between mid-May and mid-June, according to a study released this month by Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a nonprofit that analyzes...
South Bay workers allege ‘unstable’ workplace, petition to unionize
Retaliation, discriminatory treatment and job loss: those are the working conditions employees say they’ve faced for years at FIRST 5 Santa Clara County. Now some workers are pushing to unionize to improve those conditions. “Our turnover rate says it all—we have lost so much amazing talent due to the maltreatment that has become commonplace,” said Eula Idemoto,...
Which San Jose industries received the most PPP money?
San Jose businesses received more than $2.3 billion in federal funding to keep workers on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Small Business Administration (SBA) approved more than 11.8 million loans through three rounds of Paycheck Protection Program applications, with California having the most loan money approved out of any state, according to federal data....
How San Jose schools fared during COVID-19
New report cards on Santa Clara County’s public schools during COVID -19 show most high school seniors graduated, suspensions disproportionately hurt students of color and some teachers are being priced out of the region. These are the findings of San José Spotlight’s analysis of the latest school accountability report cards, despite those reports omitting data about student test scores and absenteeism...
Masks recommended indoors again in Santa Clara County
Bay Area health officials are now urging all residents to mask up when indoors out of rising concerns of the highly-infectious Delta variant. Santa Clara County, joined by a coalition of six other Bay Area counties and the city of Berkeley, recommends all residents resume wearing masks inside—regardless of vaccination status. “Out of an abundance...
This Silicon Valley town is doubling its housing; residents are crying foul
In a town that has barely grown for the last two decades, Los Gatos is looking to add more housing—almost twice as many units as it needs by 2040. Officials are recommending 3,783 new housing units in the next 20 years. That’s a significant 90% increase over the town’s state-mandated housing production goal of 1,993....