In 2007, I helped found Santa Clara Plays Fair, the grassroots group that organized against a public subsidy for a 49ers stadium, a fight that became Measure J in 2010. We were outspent roughly 160 to 1: more than $4 million from the team against our roughly $25,000. We lost. I have no illusions about...

I have known Kathy Watanabe for more than 16 years. She hosted a campaign event at her home during my second run for the Santa Clara Unified School District Board in 2012 and was among the first people I told when I decided to run for the District 1 Santa Clara City Council seat. In...

On Sept. 30, San José Spotlight published an op-ed by Arteaga Food Center owner Lupe Lopez.  In it she complained that a political action committee (PAC) controlled by the owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team is attempting to buy a Santa Clara City Council seat by making a campaign contribution of more than $418,000 to...

When we read a development proposal, we look beyond the property line. What will neighbors hear at night? What will children breathe? Where will the water come from? What happens to the birds and wildlife already living there? One of us teaches environmental studies at San Jose State University, grew up in San Jose, raised...

Workers in America have been under attack for decades, with billionaires transferring ever larger portions of the nation’s wealth from our pockets into theirs. After H.R.1 or the “Big Beautiful Bill” slashed healthcare funding last year to give tax cuts to the wealthy, voters in Santa Clara County stepped up with Measure A to save our local hospitals. The working class...

Santa Clara County voters have been generous to VTA. Today’s sales tax rate includes four ballot measures — from 1976, 2000, 2008 and 2016 — totaling 1.625%, providing VTA nearly $900 million per year. Now, supporters of Connect Bay Area, a 14-year regional transit measure for the Bay Area, propose adding another 0.5%, giving VTA...

San Jose Unified School District families have spent the past year watching the district make consequential decisions regarding school closures and consolidations that reshaped entire neighborhoods with limited input from the people most affected. For many parents, teachers and community members, that experience has made one thing clear — this Board of Education needs new...

“I am concerned.” “A breach of trust.” This is what we heard from San Jose councilmembers at the recent Rules Committee hearing on the misuse of the city’s Flock license plate reader system. These are appropriate words. But concern is not enough. A San Jose police officer used the department’s Flock system to share a...

I run a grocery store in Santa Clara, and I can tell you exactly what’s happening to families here. Carts are smaller. Shoppers are putting items back at the register. People are choosing between filling the gas tank and filling the fridge. At Arteaga’s, we’ve built our business around this community, serving many Latino and...

Before raising downtown parking rates, San Jose should know whether the additional parking revenue will exceed any resulting loss in downtown economic activity. In crafting the 2026-27 fiscal year budget, City Manager Jennifer Maguire asked each department to provide recommendations on savings to close the $50 million budget deficit. The Department of Transportation (DOT) did...