“Yes, he knows English,” a paralegal I worked with at a small law firm answered resentfully. At least once a week, a client would ask the paralegal if I knew English once they learned “Richard Nguyen” was their assigned attorney. Unbeknownst to these clients, the paralegal was also Vietnamese American. They assumed he was white....

Recently, several law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County have unveiled specialized units designed to de-escalate interactions with citizens who may be in mental health crisis. San Jose PD launched a one-year pilot program in October 2020 that links specially trained officers with clinicians from the County’s Behavioral Health Services (BHS).  BHS has been active...

This scathing commentary on Valley Transportation Authority’s light rail system comes from the report “Inquiry into Governance of the Valley Transportation Authority,” issued by the Civil Grand Jury of Santa Clara County in June 2019: “The (Eastridge extension) project makes no financial sense and survives only because powerful political forces continue to support it. VTA...

The pandemic has exposed the deep cracks in our society—overcrowded housing, too few good jobs and a lack of quality, affordable childcare—that left our families and neighbors so vulnerable. These cracks are the consequence of decades of policy decisions that put corporate profits before human needs. Now, with San José set to receive $223 million...

A lot has changed over the past several years regarding the vacant 27 acres at Evergreen Valley College. The San Jose Evergreen Community College District (SJECCD) is hosting a Zoom community meeting at 10 a.m. Saturday and it’s an opportunity for residents to discuss a reset of the SJECCD’s educational policies for the future uses...

What if I told you San Jose has the opportunity to preserve and create workforce housing using no new taxes or taxpayer dollars? No, it’s not too good to be true—it’s a relatively new concept that California established to allow for joint powers authorities (JPAs) to raise money from private investors to help finance low...

The Silicon Valley Ethics Roundtable (SVER) issued an op-ed a year ago urging strong public and private leadership to direct resources to the unique needs of the severely mentally ill homeless. A two-year-old county survey estimates 42% of the homeless population of over 9,000 to have a significant degree of mental illness, with 25% of...

May is Affordable Housing Month, which means there are many events taking place to help you learn about everything happening in affordable housing—and I encourage you to visit Silicon Valley at Home’s calendar page and attend some. If you’ve lived in the Bay Area longer than an hour, you know the lack of affordable housing...

A new phrase has entered the public vernacular: Opportunity Housing. This innocuous-sounding phrase refers to allowing, by right, the construction of multi-unit residences on properties zoned as single-family residential. It would allow property owners to skip what is today a rather lengthy process, requiring public hearings and input from concerned neighbors, when desiring to raze...

Libraries, community centers, beautiful parks, traffic lights, safe and clean drinking water… These are some of the public services that make the foundation of a community. It’s many of these essential services that have helped us get through the COVID-19 pandemic, but now they’re at risk. We need a new approach to San Jose’s budget...