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The “gift” of a 20-stories tall light pollution generator offered to San Jose by the Light Tower Corporation reeks of saviorism. Light Tower Corporation’s mission is to “provide a major enhancement,” be a “catalyst for Silicon Valley culture,” and bring “prestigious allure” to downtown San Jose. At this post-pandemic time, this mission and the selected...
EGD: Privacy is a human right. San Jose should treat it as such.
In my career as a cyber security professional, I have found that the interests of security and privacy can often collide. But I have also learned that that doesn’t have to be the case. For example, protecting customer data from hackers often includes monitoring employee behavior and activity for potential data theft, a precaution that...
Bramson: The write stuff to say about poverty
Have you noticed how often homelessness and poverty are crowding your news media feeds lately? It’s everywhere from Nextdoor to the nightly news to your local paper. Evictions, encampments, unemployment, affordable housing developments, community responses, failures and new reports. And without question, there is a growing fascination with finding the headline grabbers that scrutinize and...
Vargas: How will the new police chief engage with the LGBTQ+ community?
San Jose officials in March appointed Anthony Mata to be the new chief of police. His selection became controversial almost immediately, as community leaders raised concerns about his involvement in a police shooting and his treatment of a transgender officer. LGBTQ+ people have always had a difficult relationship with the police. The most famous LGBTQ+...
Diridon: Honest, hardworking immigrants needed
“America puts the best of all of the world’s people through a smelter called democracy and the resulting amalgam is stronger than the sum of those individual populations working separately.” That paraphrase of a mid-1800s quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson was simplified to “melting pot,” a prideworthy term that applies to most Americans. The quote...
Philbrick: Moving to rail will create a safer and sustainable planet
The clothes we wear, the devices we use, and the food we consume—or at least the way we get it—is contributing to the global climate crisis. Increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accumulate in the atmosphere and cause global warming, disrupting our lives and negatively impacting our health. Environmental consequences like rising sea levels, drought, and...
Op-ed: We must remove officers who have killed or wounded from schools
San Jose has appointed a new head of the police department, Chief Anthony Mata, at a time our city and communities are having a long needed reimagining of what public safety means. This dialogue is about the safety and wellbeing of Black and brown communities who throughout our history have endured the injustice of systemic...
Breland: Tech giants must play a part in economic recovery
I had the great honor in 2020 to serve on the Silicon Valley Recovery Roundtable, which was formed by San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 59-member Roundtable, which was charged with making policy recommendations to local and regional governing bodies to ensure our region was best positioned...
Ortiz: A call for change in public safety
As a supposed win-win for the community, the San Jose City Council approved a multimillion-dollar training facility for the San Jose Police Department and a law enforcement reform plan that creates a community process entitled “Reimagining Community Safety.” This process establishes the Reimagining Community Safety Advisory Group, which should serve as a forum to engage...
Staedler: Let’s celebrate the iconic public art
San Jose lost an icon last week. Charles W. Davidson passed away at the age of 90. He was a mentor to me and I don’t have the writing skills to give him the reverence he deserves. San José Spotlight has done several stories on him and we recorded a Podlight podcast where I spoke...