The next election results update is expected at 8:45 p.m. Early election night results show San Jose Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos leading in the race to represent Downtown San Jose and replace disgraced former District 3 Councilmember Omar Torres. As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Tordillos held 64.6% of the vote, while Latina Coalition of...
Tordillos grows fundraising lead ahead of San Jose special election
The special election for the District 3 San Jose City Council seat is Tuesday, with stakeholders spending their final dollars to help elect the next downtown representative. In campaign finance filings posted Monday, Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos grew his lead to almost $100,000 ahead of Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley Executive Director Gabby Chavez-Lopez....
East San Jose cultural district nets $50K grant
The School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza is gearing up to launch San Jose’s first distinct cultural district. Housing Trust Silicon Valley, a nonprofit community development group, announced on June 11 it will award a $50,000 grant to the School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza. As the plaza celebrated...
San Jose landmark project dropped
Silicon Valley nonprofit leaders are going back to the drawing board after recently announcing the cancellation of a long-anticipated San Jose landmark project. San José Spotlight reported in May that nonprofit Urban Confluence raised more than $3.3 million over several years to build a towering art installation dubbed “The Breeze of Innovation” within Plaza de Cesar...
East San Jose youth center garners support for remodel
Community efforts to save the Mexican American Community Services Agency youth center in East San Jose are paying off. The Alum Rock Union School District board of trustees on Thursday voted unanimously 4-0, with Trustee Minh Nguyen absent, to extend the deadline for deciding the youth center’s fate. This will allow time for forging a...
No favorites for Democratic Party in San Jose special election
The Santa Clara County Democratic Party doesn’t plan to narrow its dual endorsement of both candidates running to represent downtown San Jose in the June 24 runoff election. The party endorsed Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, and Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos over five other candidates in the April 8 special...
Sharks Way celebrates San Jose hockey team
San Jose is showing love to the Sharks by permanently naming part of a downtown neighborhood after the national hockey league team. City leaders earlier this month renamed the corner of West St. John Street and North Almaden Boulevard to “Sharks Way” in an effort to connect the team’s hundreds of thousands of fans with...
East San Jose leaders burned out on smoke shops
San Jose leaders say stores selling tobacco, liquor and other illicit products are over concentrated on the east side of the city — and they are looking to temporarily ban new ones. Councilmembers Peter Ortiz, Domingo Candelas, Pamela Campos, George Casey and David Cohen introduced a proposal Wednesday to pause new smoke shops from opening in...
San Jose candidate forum focused on downtown business community
Candidates running for the District 3 seat on the San Jose City Council shared their thoughts on downtown politics with the city’s business community as the election approaches next month. Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, and Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos appeared at the Rotary Club Summit Center for...
San Jose officials push for South Vietnam flag emoji
As emojis become a widespread form of global messaging, San Jose leaders are calling on the world’s leading text encoders to add a symbol for the Flag of South Vietnam. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge the Unicode Consortium — the Mountain View-based organization overseeing the digitized use of text in all of the...