A popular private school owned by a Chinese investment firm is expanding in northeast San Jose. Merryhill School, which runs an elementary program on 750 N. Capitol Ave., gained city approval last week for a new school to serve up to 252 students just a mile up the road at 1207 N. Capitol Ave. Plans call...
San Jose official’s stay in homeless shelter exposes reality
When San Jose Councilmember Omar Torres was challenged to sleep in a homeless shelter, he responded by staying at two different sites. Former homeless resident Sketch Oppie invited the entire city council to experience staying in a shelter to help them understand why allocating dollars to affordable housing is the better long-term solution to homelessness. While other councilmembers...
Affordable housing to be built by San Jose transit center
VTA is beginning work on a new housing development to boost the Santa Clara County transit agency’s revenue. This time it will be 100% affordable housing. The agency will use an empty lot next to the Berryessa Transit Center in San Jose to build 195 affordable apartments after signing a contract with Affirmed Housing Group last...
Hundreds of apartments planned near downtown San Jose
More than 200 apartments could be coming to San Jose’s Buena Vista neighborhood as city planning officials consider a proposal that would require demolition of several buildings. Cupertino-based Urban Villas LLC is pitching a slightly bigger version of a previously approved project just outside of downtown San Jose that includes 237 apartments and nearly 17,000 square feet of...
San Jose wants to help renters fight evictions
Following a tsunami of evictions, San Jose is looking at ways to help residents from losing their homes, and heading off the problem before it reaches the courts. The eviction issue has skyrocketed in San Jose, especially after the expiration of COVID-19 pandemic-era tenant protections. Toward the end of 2022, hundreds of San Jose residents...
What’s next for empty Safeway in downtown San Jose
A prominent commercial space in downtown San Jose is being taken over by a new business, following more than four years of vacancy. OneMedAll, an oral wellness and health consulting company based in San Jose, is planning to open its first customer-facing location at 100 S. Second St., the same space where a Safeway shuttered...
Dilapidated San Jose church repairs put on hold
A plan by San Jose officials to protect a historic former church that has been all but ignored by its owner is now in limbo. The roughly 120-year-old former First Church of Christ Scientist near St. James Park in downtown may continue to be allowed to wither, as a proposal to spend $200,000 of city money...
San Jose realtors say housing advocates ‘terrorized’ their office
Tensions between local housing advocates and realtors have boiled into threats and ugly confrontations. A coalition of homeless and housing advocates protested at the office of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors on June 7, six days before the San Jose City Council approved the annual budget. They yelled chants like, “Realtors you can’t hide,...
South San Jose motel may become a Marriott
Plans to build a five-story hotel to replace the Casa Linda Motel in San Jose are moving forward, following a favorable decision from the San Jose Planning Commission. Planning commissioners voted Wednesday to recommend the demolition of the small budget motel, located at 1669 Monterey Road on the city’s south side. The move will clear...
San Jose’s Berryessa neighborhood to see hundreds more homes
A San Jose developer’s plan to build up to 850 homes and a large commercial space near Berryessa BART received the green light from city officials. The San Jose City Council unanimously approved the project on Tuesday, though not before it touched off a debate about whether the city should be stricter with density and affordable...