The moment felt a little surreal. After months of planning, saving and talking endlessly about it, we moved back to California and here I was on a hotter-than-usual Saturday afternoon, turning the key to our new apartment. After living in Nevada for more than a year and fielding countless inquiries about when we’re moving back,...
Morales-Ferrand: Setting the record straight on housing accountability
I read Dean Hotop’s op-ed (“Where is the accountability over Silicon Valley’s housing crisis?”) with great interest. There are few issues of more significance in our region than housing. Unfortunately, the piece included factual inaccuracies that may misinform rather inform your readers. Mr. Hotop misinterpreted the City’s budget book. The Housing Department’s FY 2018-19 personnel...
Philbrick: New mega measure for transportation can succeed
Surrounded by cars with only a sea of brake lights in the distance, minutes ticking by as anxiety levels rise and feelings of frustration intensify – a situation Bay Area commuters know all too well. Congestion here is pervasive and worsening, and in 2017 the average Bay Area driver spent 79 hours stuck in traffic....
Hotop: Where is the accountability over Silicon Valley’s housing crisis?
“Rents at all time highs!” “Homeless population growing” “Incomes not keeping up with rents” We’ve all seen these headlines the last few years and understand there’s a problem. However, there’s a bigger underlying problem that hasn’t been adequately addressed. These headlines go all the way back to the 1970’s. In 2003, San Jose’s Housing Department...
Staedler: Retail downtown needs a strong foundation to build upon
One of the greatest challenges to face downtown San Jose is the lack of a stable retail base. The former and now dissolved San Jose Redevelopment Agency worked tirelessly on creating retail in downtown San Jose and beyond. We spent an ungodly amount of money to create retail before it was ready to take hold....
Vargas: A call for mandatory liability insurance on firearms
In the wake of yet another mass shooting, this time in Gilroy, Californians are justifiably outraged. Our children are being murdered, and yet our government in Washington has proven unequal to this challenge, while our neighbor, Nevada, has undermined our gun control policies with their grotesquely lax ones. Evidence from around the globe demonstrates incontrovertibly...
Paz-Cedillos: Ending housing discrimination, a personal perspective
For the community that the School of Arts and Culture at MHP (SOAC) serves, it is no surprise that the 2019 Santa Clara County Homeless Count shows a significant increase in homelessness. Over the years, many of our Arts Education Program families have expressed to us the difficulty of remaining in this community. A year...
Roberts: The next generation of philanthropists
Just recently I flew to Hong Kong. I wasn’t there to enjoy its delicious Cantonese cuisine, to shop in its endless malls of shops, or to visit the outer islands. Rather, I flew to my birth city to join the more than a million Hong Kong people who filled the streets in support of a...
Funk: How San Jose school districts are helping homeless students
Homelessness has become a daily discussion in San Jose and Santa Clara County for good reason; the 2019 homeless count reported in May revealed that from 2017 to 2019, homelessness increased by 42% in San Jose, from 4,350 individuals to 6,172 individuals. In Santa Clara County, the homeless population increased by 31%, from 7,394 people...
Bramson: Voucher discrimination is just another closed door
If you’ve ever found yourself in a housing hunt, you’ve probably noticed online or paper ads stating in the fine print (or upfront nowadays): No Section 8. Not accepting Section 8 vouchers at this time. Not a Section 8 building. Those same listings might as well read “very poor people need not apply.” While to...