In November 2024, the Valley Water board of directors approved the Water Resources Protection Zones Ordinance to address the environmental and safety issues from encampments along Valley Water waterways and facilities. We understood that there wouldn’t be an easy fix, but our progress over the past year shows that a coordinated approach can bring real...

I recently looked seriously at replacing my 2014 natural gas water heater with a heat pump water heater. At first, the decision looked easy. Silicon Valley Clean Energy was offering a large rebate, and with stacked incentives the total could be about $4,000. A contractor estimated that a 65-gallon heat pump water heater could cost...

In May, we celebrated Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to honor the contributions, cultures and resilience of our communities. Now that the month has passed, we find ourselves thinking less about celebration and more about responsibility. The responsibility to protect what belonging truly means for every person in Mountain View, Santa...

Education is often called the great equalizer. But for young people in foster care, education is too often disrupted by instability, interrupted schooling, trauma and a lack of consistent support systems. At the very moment these students need more guidance, more advocacy and more opportunity, proposed budget cuts in Santa Clara County threaten to remove...

It’s budget season in Santa Clara County, and once again the powers that be are ringing the familiar bells of control and fear. San Jose is facing a deficit. Are you surprised? I’m not. Here’s the playbook: Elected officials keep the public locked in a scarcity mindset of “never having enough” to distract from their...

Bay Area civil rights hero Clarence B. Jones died last month at 95 in an assisted living facility in Cupertino. Most coverage rightly focused on how he helped draft Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But reducing Jones to that single moment misses what his life represented. Yes, he was a witness...

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is charging ahead with a natural gas appliance ban that is as impractical as it is punitive. Despite legitimate concerns over implementation, costs and confusing exemptions, the board’s recent meeting on May 13 proved that the voices of 7.7 million residents are falling on deaf ears. This looming...

San Jose residents were promised stronger public safety. Instead, they are being asked to accept fewer firefighters, fewer emergency resources and longer response times during emergencies. Today, San Jose has only about 650 sworn firefighters protecting nearly 1 million residents — far below national standards for a major city. According to the San Jose Fire...

Community health in Santa Clara County is facing its gravest challenge since the depths of the COVID pandemic. The full scale of the devastating cuts in federal health care spending contained in H.R. 1 will be felt this year in Santa Clara County and throughout the nation, and for several years after. That is why...

From the water we drink to the flood protection projects in our neighborhoods, infrastructure quietly supports our daily lives. In Santa Clara County, many of our water systems are nearly 50 to 60 years old, making this a critical time to modernize and strengthen them. As we take time to acknowledge the upcoming National Public...