After over three decades of service, Chau’s Auto Repair Center, formerly known as Chau’s Automotive at 1470 West San Carlos Street, has closed permanently. My family’s shop is soon to be demolished for the construction of a new luxury hotel where it stands now. My family came to the U.S. as refugees following the Vietnam...

Reid-Hillview Airport is poisoning the children of East San Jose and Evergreen—the children I represent on the San Jose City Council. It’s imperative that the county Board of Supervisors act now to stop this harm. For generations, the leaded fuel—still used by small planes—has sprayed down lead into the air my community breathes. The particles...

In the past, Santa Clara County faith leaders welcomed the unhoused into their houses of worship through the Winter Faith Collaborative and allowed their parking lots to be used for overnight parking. Once again, our faith community is stepping up to help address some of our most difficult socio-economic issues. Faith leaders have now leaned...

We love San Jose. We also recognize and clearly see that San Jose is one of the many communities connected to America’s struggle with equality and justice. As so much of America seeks to heal and reckon with this, we have a chance to address that here in San Jose. The Reid-Hillview Airport is our...

Housing policy is back on the political agenda this year. After two years of inaction, the state Legislature has taken up a slew of housing bills. Among the best known is Senate Bill 9. This important, though limited and incremental bill has unfortunately been subjected to a coordinated smear campaign. I urge Santa Clara County residents...

Dear middle school principals, high school principals and the superintendent of the San Jose Unified School District: We are writing to you on behalf of the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, the W. Haywood Burns Institute and the San Jose Unified Equity Coalition to invite you to build upon the courageous vote recently taken by the...

Recently, advocates for South Bay YIMBY wrote an op-ed titled, “Correcting Councilmember Matt Mahan” without correcting any errors in his statements. About citywide upzoning of single-family housing, they wrote, “There have been countless arguments levied against the idea: the city’s tree canopy is at risk; local control is under attack; urban villages need to be...

Recently, San Jose Councilmember Matt Mahan posted an article where he stated his opposition to “Opportunity Housing,” a plan to legalize fourplexes throughout the city. We feel that Mahan’s argument against the plan is misguided, and we urge him and other councilmembers to reconsider their opposition. Since summer 2020, when San Jose’s General Plan Task...

While there is an ever-growing need for housing to support low-income residents due to the real lack of affordable housing, there are programs that help lower income families find and rent homes. The Housing Choice Voucher Program, better known as the “Section 8” program, allows private housing providers to rent out their apartments and homes...

Railing against lawyers is pretty much a national pastime, and has been for decades. Why not? Lawyers make easy targets because litigation often results when there is no other option for the parties to assert their rights. However, because blanket insults against lawyers are such easy things to do, this method of communication is used...