English
Spanish
Vietnamese
A few embers from a fire can become catastrophic in minutes, igniting new blazes that can rip through homes, businesses and acres of land. That’s why Ali Tohidi, mechanical engineering assistant professor at San Jose State University, and his team are studying how embers, also known as firebrand showers, spread. The team at SJSU’s Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research...
East San Jose lake finally receives funding for restoration
After failed attempts to restore the much-neglected Lake Cunningham, San Jose has found a way to kickstart the lake’s revival. The state budget allocated $1.5 million to improving the East San Jose lake last week, which for years has suffered under the weight of faulty infrastructure and poor water quality. San Jose Assemblymember Ash Kalra, who...
East San Jose residents demand environmental justice
Contamination clean-up efforts have been slow going at an abandoned East San Jose building that was the site of a large fuel spill in 2015. Residents and leaders gathered at the site Friday demanding the city expedite the process amid growing air quality threats. Nearly a dozen community members, including Councilmember Peter Ortiz, said the contamination situation...
How do San Jose parks fare against other U.S. cities?
A recent ranking of U.S. city parks places San Jose in the top half, and locals are torn on touting the city’s open spaces as needing a higher ranking—or more improvement. A new study by Trust for Public Land, a park and land conservation nonprofit, has San Jose’s park system in 32nd place, trailing behind...
San Jose housing left out of state environmental reform
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has made a habit of taking big swings on critical policy issues, laid out a proposal earlier this month for reforming the California Environmental Quality Act, aiming to make it easier to build major infrastructure projects. But with California facing a deficit of millions of homes, and officials up and down...
San Jose collects developer fees, but slow to replace trees
San Jose is set to receive a considerable amount of cash to replace several hundred trees that will be ripped up to make way for two industrial developments. Roughly $1.1 million in tree fees will be paid by two developers that will more than double the current amount in the city’s tree removal coffers. As the...
San Jose day care had dangerous lead levels in water
Recent reports ordered by the state reveal children at an East San Jose day care center were drinking lead-infected water. Kidango-Linda Vista Center is one of more than 14,000 licensed child care centers in California being ordered to test its drinking water for lead under Assembly Bill 2370. The law mandates that licensed child care...
Santa Clara County air quality earns failing grade
Santa Clara County is still struggling to clean up its poor air quality, with communities of color among the most affected. The American Lung Association’s newly released 2023 State of the Air report shows Santa Clara County scored an “F” on the report in high ozone days and particle pollution levels—factors that contribute to an array of...
Weather damage keeps San Jose parks closed
San Jose parks are still reeling from the heavy January rains, and the recent onslaught of wet and windy weather isn’t helping. Sixteen parks around the city are closed and it’s unclear when they will reopen. In the last three months, a relentless number of atmospheric river storms have pounded the Bay Area. Rain coupled with strong...
East San Jose lake restoration loses funding
Things got heated at Tuesday’s San Jose City Council meeting when councilmembers reversed a prior decision to use more than $3 million of Measure T funds for the restoration of Lake Cunningham in East San Jose. This week, councilmembers voted 8-3 to divert the remaining $3.2 million in funds from the environmental protection budget into...