More than 200 South San Jose residents and housing advocates spoke at a virtual town hall Monday night to express concern or applaud a plan to fast-track dozens of new housing units for homeless residents during the region’s shelter-in-place order due to the coronavirus pandemic. “As a city, we really have two emergencies on our...
Views from above: Coronavirus has a dramatic effect on the Bay Area
The shelter-in-place order issued by regional health officials March 17 aimed to decrease the spread of coronavirus, but it has also dramatically affected the look of the Bay Area. The South Bay is no exception. With traffic coming to a halt, air quality and visibility has greatly improved. Nitrogen dioxide, a key pollutant, dropped by...
Unsung heroes of Silicon Valley: Moses Arroyo
Underneath the city of San Jose runs 2,000 miles of sanitary pipe that serve more than 1 million people. Each year, those in the city’s Department of Transportation’s Sanitary Sewer division clean more than 900 miles of pipe and complete more than 500 repairs. The dangerous work is done underground with sharp tools at depths of 40...
Coronavirus: Bay Area’s stay-home order will be extended through May
Bay Area residents will continue to shelter in place through May, the top health officials across the region announced Monday, about one week before the current order to stay-home was set to expire. The official order will come “later this week,” according to a joint statement by the seven Bay Area health officers who have...
South Bay cities brace for budget cuts, layoffs after coronavirus
Governments across the country are bracing for furloughs, layoffs and service cuts in response to revenue shortfalls dealt by the COVID-19 pandemic, and experts and city officials expect the damages will be felt for some time. Findings from a National League of Cities and the United Conference of Mayors survey published this month reveal that...
COVID-19 is intensifying longstanding racial disparities in Silicon Valley
COVID-19 is hitting black and Latinx people hardest, preliminary Santa Clara County data show. Meanwhile, those same groups are the ones most in need of financial relief in the region, community groups say. The pandemic’s racial disparities show officials must center race in discussions to address the public health crisis and Silicon Valley’s economic recovery,...
Exclusive Q&A: Dr. Sara Cody answers San José Spotlight readers
Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody, who led the charge on the nation’s first shelter-in-place order, is a tough person to nail down these days, but on Friday she sat down to answer San José Spotlight readers’ questions. The exclusive Q&A session was streamed online by San José Spotlight on Facebook and moderated...
Construction unions lobby Santa Clara County leaders to loosen restrictions
Statewide and regional stay-home orders have passed the one-month mark, and nearly all businesses are hurting as many employees remain unable to work, upending their finances despite a $2 trillion government stimulus package. Now, a local construction and trades union is asking the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to recommend the county to relax...
San Jose Police Chief talks crime trends during COVID-19 shutdown
Serious crime rates in San Jose have dropped while the city’s nearly 1.1 million residents shelter in place, but concerns still linger, particularly for business owners and domestic violence victims, according to Police Chief Eddie Garcia. Garcia addressed some of those concerns Thursday in an hour-long webinar, moderated by the Silicon Valley Organization’s President and CEO Matt Mahood and incoming...
Unsung heroes of Silicon Valley: Michael Catalana
From coaching high school sports to serving as a community service officer in the San Jose Police Department, Michael Catalana is a team player through and through. Since the coronavirus hit the South Bay, Catalana and his fellow CSOs have been out in the neighborhoods handling non-emergency calls, collecting crime scene evidence and interviewing witnesses....