Grassroots organizers and South Bay political leaders drew together for a rally in San Jose’s Japantown Wednesday in a show of unified opposition against a planned ICE facility taking shape in South County. The rally held in front of the historic Issei Memorial Building took place as state and local leaders wage a legal battle...
Foreign student visa restrictions to hit Silicon Valley
New federal regulations will restrict how long international students can attend U.S. colleges, and schools are scrambling to work through the problem as the fall semester begins. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has finalized a rule that limits most international students on F-1 visas and J-1 exchange visitor visas to a four-year education...
Mountain View bike lane project draws mixed reviews
Mountain View’s redesign of California Street is garnering mixed reviews, with residents split over the move to reduce driving lanes and parking to make way for new protected bike lanes. Work on the roughly $6 million pilot project began in March 2025. The city removed one driving lane in each direction on California Street from...
Former Cupertino mayor inspires Asian Americans to get involved
Michael Chang, a former Cupertino mayor, has spent almost 30 years building a huge network of Asian American political and community leaders — and he still isn’t satisfied. The Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI), which he founded, has trained hundreds of teens and adults who’ve moved into elected office, civil service, nonprofits and more....
Mountain View to close parking lot to build police headquarters
Most of a downtown Mountain View parking lot is set to close for more than five years as the city begins construction on its new police and fire headquarters — a more than $200 million project that has been in the works for years. Last month, the City Council unanimously approved the closure of Lot...
San Jose homeless residents without stable housing, one year later
When San Jose dismantled its largest homeless encampment last summer, Mayor Matt Mahan praised moving hundreds of people out of Columbus Park into housing. However, residents said their experience in temporary housing has pulled them backward, not forward. One year after the city swept the 370 RVs that had congregated in Columbus Park, many people...
The Biz Beat: Backyard Café is a brunch oasis in Sunnyvale
The Treehouse Hotel Silicon Valley in Sunnyvale has an oasis-like otherworldliness that belies its location, nestled beside State Route 237 and neighbored by a cluster of Google office buildings. The hotel’s lobby might be your first clue that you are somewhere else entirely, with an artificial-moss-and-flower-covered Volkswagen Beetle parked perfectly in the middle of the...
Mountain View ditched bond plans after lack of support, records show
Mountain View’s decision to scrap plans to place a bond measure on the November ballot came after polls showed plummeting support for the potential revenue measure, according to public records obtained by the Mountain View Voice. The city hired polling firm EMC Research and political strategist Clifford Moss to gauge whether voters would back a...
Has mass timber’s housing moment arrived in the South Bay?
South Bay housing advocates have long touted the benefits of mass timber, a wood-based class of construction materials said to save builders time and money. After years of false starts, it appears their long wait to see mass timber housing projects get off the ground may finally be coming to an end. An affordable housing...
Final housing projects round out Palo Alto’s SB 79 window
As the deadline approached, two additional housing proposals in Palo Alto applied under a new state housing law that affords greater height and density to projects near public transit. As of July 16, Palo Alto’s local restrictions took effect, blunting the most significant impacts of Senate Bill 79 by exempting historic properties from the law and...