I was very disappointed that the Mercury News failed to mention me as a San Jose City Council candidate for District 6 in its Jan. 21 endorsement editorial. By not mentioning the only District 6 candidate who grew up in the lower-income neighborhoods of District 6, in which income disparity, affordable housing, public safety and...

In a San José Spotlight op-ed published on Jan. 16, Pat Waite argued that Measure E — a property transfer tax on properties worth over $2 million which is slated for the March ballot — represented a money-grab by the city that would fail to deliver on its promises of increasing the city’s capability to...

Last year, the city of San Jose’s point-in-time count, a federally mandated count of the area’s homeless population, showed that homelessness spiked 42% in the last two years. Today, for every one person we house, three more become homeless. On any given day, there are more than 5,000 residents living on our city’s streets, however,...

On Jan. 7, an inspired group of homeless working mothers called Moms 4 Housing boldly disrupted a press conference by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and other Democratic Party leaders promoting state Senate Bill 50. The moms spoke out because they saw SB 50 as a ploy by speculators like Wedgewood Properties, which was...

The painful evidence of our current housing crisis is in full view in our neighborhoods, on city streets and along creeks as homeless camps continue to grow out of a desperation caused by the lack of affordable housing and temporary shelter. At government meetings and community gatherings, we often hear, “Why isn’t somebody doing something...

As school districts throughout California return for the second half of the school year, every single school district will be forced to continue dealing with a local crisis created by Sacramento, the issue of full funding for California’s schools. As Sacramento continues utilizing its local control funding formula, the truth of the matter is that...

In Sept. 2019, the San Jose City Council unanimously declared a climate emergency in the face of worsening weather conditions and growing concerns about climate change’s effects on the city. Before this declaration, the city instituted Climate Smart San Jose, a climate plan that made San Jose one of the first U.S. cities to align...

Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility strongly encourages San Jose voters to reject San Jose Measure E, the real property transfer tax measure, projected to raise about $50 million annually, purportedly toward addressing our affordable housing and homelessness problems. Our opposition is based on several concerns. For starters, providing affordable housing is not one of San Jose’s...

In his January newsletter to his San Jose District 10 constituents, Councilmember Johnny Khamis warned that “special interests” were vocal in their effort to divert highway funding in favor of Measure B’s “other transit priorities.” Who are these special interests? What are these other priorities? Our councilmember is referring to high school and college students...

We have an important vote coming up at City Council on Jan. 28 when we will decide whether to discuss a memo I authored, along with my colleagues, Vice Mayor Chappie Jones and Councilmembers Dev Davis and Pam Foley. We are calling on VTA to keep its commitment to the voters who approved 2016’s Measure...