With the March elections on the horizon, City Council candidates are working hard to solicit votes by appealing to the chronic issues facing the residents of San Jose. Appropriately, a key talking point across the various districts is homelessness, which intensifies with each passing year. However, candidates continue to whitewash the root causes of homelessness....
Hogan: We need to ‘step up’ to support our foster youth
It is time we step up for our young people in foster care. We can no longer stand for small ideas and hope for incremental progress. It isn’t working, and our youth is falling farther and farther behind their non-foster peers. In true Silicon Valley fashion, we need to set big goals and shoot for...
Ramsey: Homelessness and voting
My husband and I lived on the sidewalks of Downtown San Jose for years. I can spot the different places where we made beds and memories as I walk around these streets today. Strangely, I feel nostalgic, as if I was visiting my old high school and seeing my freshman year homeroom. It’s almost like...
Philbrick: Closing busy San Jose streets would provide major benefits
Envision a city street, each day traversed by more than 21,000 vehicles, suddenly devoid of traffic. The incessant honking of horns and revving of engines quieted. The danger of cars rushing past you instead replaced with a safe space for walking, bicycling and public transit. Just last year, New York City closed off one of...
Funk: Our broken public education state funding model
All the reports I have read since the release of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget point to his education budget as being good for public education. There is some truth to that statement. His proposed budget is great for early learning education and for increasing funding in special education in grades K-3. He also proposes...
Bonilla: We need better public transit for students like me
Santa Clara County is home to 1.94 million residents, in which 412,000 are kids and teenagers ranging from the ages of 5-24. This group of residents makes up 21% of our county’s population and are heavily dependent on public transportation for many reasons. One of the most obvious reasons for teen dependency on public transportation...
Khamis: Homelessness: If it’s a crisis, let’s act like it!
Despite my five-year effort to educate the public and lobby the county Board of Supervisors to implement Laura’s Law, with the support of my colleagues on the San Jose City Council, county leaders failed to move this law forward on Jan. 28. Laura’s Law is a temporary, court-supervised, involuntary conservatorship law that would help some...
Vargas: Let’s end the ‘gay candidate’ test
In the wake of Pete Buttigieg’s surprise and historic win in the Iowa caucuses, the prospect of American’s electing their first LGBTQ President suddenly feels like a real possibility. Buttigieg’s victory in Iowa also virtually guarantees that he will stay in the race long into the primary and Democrats around the country will have the...
Smith: SJ construction workers continue to wait on wage theft protection
Tick tock. Tick tock. Tick tock. What’s that sound? The sound of time being wasted by Mayor Sam Liccardo and five of his colleagues in cracking down on human trafficking and wage theft in the construction industry. The fact that San Jose construction workers are exploited and victimized by wage theft perpetrated by unscrupulous low-road...
Percival and Currin-Percival: Moving San Jose’s mayoral elections to presidential years will strengthen democracy
In April 2019, in a 6-5 vote, the San Jose City Council defeated a proposal to move the timing of the city’s mayoral elections from their current gubernatorial cycle to presidential years, which have historically generated higher levels of voter participation. Indeed, political science research demonstrates clear evidence that the simplest and most effective solution...