A Cupertino assisted living facility is one step closer to being built after years of delays — but not as originally planned. The Cupertino Planning Commission unanimously recommended changes Tuesday to an older adult assisted living facility as part of the Westport development along Stevens Creek Boulevard. Modifications to the multistory building, requested by developer...
Anthony Tordillos poised for runoff in San Jose special election
San Jose Planning Commission Chair Anthony Tordillos says he’s won second place in the District 3 City Council special election and will head to the June 24 runoff. A one-day recount Thursday appears to have affirmed Tordillos’ six-vote lead for second place over Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff for Mayor Matt Mahan. Official election...
Beloved San Jose Chinese restaurant forced to close after 28 years
Eric Diec calls every customer who walks through the doors of Chef Li a friend. He bustles around the small Chinese restaurant in West San Jose carrying pots of colorful orchids and steaming plates of garlicky string beans, stopping to chat with customers. Diec owns one of the few remaining small, family-owned restaurants in Camden...
Report: San Jose festival was behind-the-scenes nightmare
San Jose’s Vietnamese Catholic Lunar New Year festival appeared to be all smiles this year. But a recently-obtained report alleges verbal abuse, property damage, safety concerns and political weight-throwing caused misery behind the scenes. The report — submitted by History San Jose to multiple City Hall officials in February — was kept hush for months...
San Jose fire chief in hot seat over drug oversight failures
To save money, San Jose leaders cut a critical fire department program last year that tracked the storage of addictive painkillers for cross-trained firefighter paramedics. Nine months later, the theft of opioids from nearly two dozen fire stations has raised concerns that patients in serious pain received tampered drugs. San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230, the...
Sunnyvale workers must go 40 miles to drop off animals
Sunnyvale’s new partnership with Santa Clara County Animal Services has some major glitches. The county doesn’t accept healthy stray cats. Its spay and neutering services are limited and it’s more than 40 miles away to the animal services facility in San Martin. Peter Hoang, senior management analyst with the city’s Department of Public Safety, presented...
Santa Clara County expands hotel program for homeless residents
Santa Clara County is expanding its hotel shelter program for North County homeless residents following the delayed opening of a modular housing site in Palo Alto. The county has selected WeHope, a nonprofit homeless service provider, to work with up to 40 unhoused adults who will be temporarily housed at a hotel in Sunnyvale or...
San Jose public library fights to maintain funding amid budget woes
Library advocates say they expect to ride out the upcoming San Jose budget cycle without any major cuts. But trouble could be on the horizon, with the city projecting an ongoing shortfall over the next few years. San Jose’s Library and Education Commission learned April 16 of three anticipated public library budget cuts, which include...
San Jose’s first tiny home village on private land already half full
San Jose’s newest temporary housing site will be a litmus test as to whether using private land to build shelter will be a good model for reducing homelessness. The Via Del Oro tiny home site, which can house up to 150 people and allows pets, opened Thursday. San Francisco-based nonprofit DignityMoves built the homes on...
Santa Clara County housing gets approved, but not built
Cities in Santa Clara County have approved hundreds of new homes, but construction hasn’t kept up, a data analysis by San José Spotlight shows. There’s about 37% more housing being permitted than built, and even less affordable housing, based on a countywide six-year average. Experts say rising costs and scarce resources are delaying construction, and...