On Dec. 2, the VTA Board of Directors will decide how to distribute $150-200 million dollars of Measure B highway funding in the next few years. When the process started in the summer of this year, there was hope VTA would manage this process professionally and with an eye not just on congestion management, but...

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to support a new behavioral health building in October 2018, on the grounds of Valley Medical Center. In addition to 77 beds, a new emergency psychiatric services center will replace the current site, which is among the busiest in the nation and provides the only secure...

Coyote Valley, at the southern end of San Jose, is an open space area marked for development since the 1960s. Only in recent years have we as a city come to realize, not only that sprawling into our open space is a bad idea both from a business and an environmental perspective, but also that...

On Oct. 27, the San Jose Planning Commission struck down recommendations from city staff and the San Jose General Plan Task Force to protect Coyote Valley from future development. I cannot express how disappointing this vote was for me. I have long advocated for the conservation of Coyote Valley, before my time in the State...

The Silicon Valley Faith Leaders Collaborative, a collective of clergy representing multiple faith communities, urges the administration of San Jose State University to keep the promises they have made to address the collegiate homelessness problem. An education is one of the best ways to end the cycle of poverty, for an individual with a college...

“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s sense of values and his objectivity.” These words by one of our nation’s most iconic and impactful crusaders against hate and injustice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have never been truer than in this moment of gross...

Having watched the volleying between San Jose mayoral candidate Matt Mahan and the taxpayer-funded Santa Clara County CEO and his union allies on ‘hero’ pay, I felt it was time for somebody old and objective to step in and make a few observations. County Executive Jeff Smith embarrassed himself in his Mercury News op-ed that...

Last month, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors announced to the public that they would distribute a “hero pay” bonus for all 22,000 Santa Clara County employees for $2,500. After the bonus was criticized, County Executive Jeff Smith wrote an op-ed statement which said, “Maybe the critics don’t realize that a $2,500 one-time payment...

Over the last 19 months our community has actively responded and adapted to the myriad challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. County and community came together to work to minimize the health and economic impacts of the pandemic—from massive testing, tracing and vaccination efforts, to expanded food and housing supports, even to neighbors and faith communities...

Our democracy works best when it reflects all our voices, no matter who we are, what we look like or how much money we have. Yet across the country we continue to see efforts to disenfranchise Black, Brown and Asian voters, and weaken the political voice of working people and tenants. Nearly 400 voter suppression...