San Jose could cash in upward of $2.47 billion by leasing its airport to a private investor or company, a new study suggests. The study, conducted by Los Angeles-based think tank Reason Foundation and published last week, projects that 31 cities with medium to large airports could generate as much as $131 billion through leasing. Cities could...
VTA workers return to site of San Jose mass shooting
As VTA cautiously moves forward with limited light rail service, some workers are still grappling with trauma from the May mass shooting as they return to the rail yard. Last week, VTA trains embarking on test runs left the Guadalupe rail yard for the first time in almost three months. On Sunday, the transit agency...
How San Jose wants you to ditch your car
San Jose has relied on a decades-old parking space policy that has contributed to gridlock and a car-centric culture: Three out of four commuter trips in San Jose are made by one person occupying a single car. City officials are looking for ways around that. The San Jose City Council held a meeting Friday to discuss cutting...
San Jose fare inspectors faced hostile work environment, VTA records show
Fare inspectors at VTA complained numerous times about management who contributed to a toxic work culture, including an alleged physical assault on one employee, according to new records obtained by San José Spotlight. In 2017, a VTA fare inspector filed a workplace violence report that accused a supervisor named Ronald Freeman of intentionally bumping into him...
VTA: Silicon Valley light rail could reopen this weekend
VTA has finally set a target date for a partial reopening of its light rail that could happen as soon as this weekend. Officials confirmed Tuesday the transit agency is beginning test runs of its light rail service, marking the first time the trains have left the Guadalupe rail yard in almost three months. VTA hopes to...
RV search highlights problems with San Jose towing practices
In December 2015, a tow truck took away the RV Scott Largent lived in. Six years later, he’s still not sure what happened to it. Largent, a longtime homeless activist in San Jose, said he started living in his RV after difficult financial times. On Dec. 29, 2015, San Jose police officers arrested Largent for allegedly...
San Jose union blames VTA after worker suicide
In the wake of the suicide of a worker who survived the mass shooting in May, VTA’s biggest employee union is laying blame at the feet of the agency. The transit agency confirmed Tuesday that Henry Gonzales, a veteran paint and body worker at VTA’s Guadalupe Light Rail Yard, died in an apparent suicide. He served...
Silicon Valley transit agency workers demand hazard pay
VTA’s largest union is demanding back hazard pay for bus drivers, light rail operators and other essential transit workers who have worked throughout the pandemic. “If it wasn’t a dangerous situation… then you have to ask yourself, why was the majority of VTA management working from the comforts of their home?” asked John Courtney, president...
San Jose VTA records show IT supervisor had prior complaints
Complaints about the behavior of a supervisor in VTA’s information technology department started appearing just months after he began working there, according to internal records. Records obtained by San José Spotlight show that in 2019, three employees complained about a supervisor, Kenneth Blackwell, shortly after he joined the department. The complaints alleged his behavior was...
Lack of light rail affects San Jose State University students
Classes start next week at San Jose State University, but with VTA’s light rail still out of service, some students and workers could face daunting commutes. Before the pandemic, Suzie Bahmanyar, an academic librarian at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, said she took the light rail from her Camden home to downtown San...