Cybersecurity experts are urging public officials to beef up their online security in the wake of San Jose mayor’s Twitter account getting hacked. An unknown person or group briefly hijacked Mayor Sam Liccardo’s Twitter account last week and used the account to promote non-fungible tokens or NFTs—a digital product similar to cryptocurrency. Liccardo’s office referred...
UPDATE: San Jose kills plan for ranked-choice voting
Ranked-choice voting in San Jose is dead and a proposal to expand the number of council districts is delayed. The two ideas were the most substantial recommendations made by the citizen-led Charter Review Commission that spent about a year studying how to make San Jose’s governing system more equitable, accessible and effective. The City Council...
San Jose wants equity in new transportation services
Scooters. Drones. Shuttles. A fleet of transportation ideas is spreading in San Jose, and the city wants to make sure everyone benefits. The City Council approved an action plan last week for emerging mobility services—shorthand for new transportation technologies and programs proliferating in San Jose. The services range from bike share programs to autonomous delivery vehicles....
State law offers little help to struggling San Jose renters
California has extended eviction protections for millions of residents, but advocates fear it’s too little and too late to help thousands of San Jose tenants on the brink of losing their homes. Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, acting in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s absence, recently signed legislation to temporarily protect Californians from eviction for past due rent if...
San Jose officials grasp for fixes to rising traffic deaths
San Jose officials are scrambling to reduce traffic fatalities following a massive spike in deaths at the beginning of the year. Stakeholders in the city’s Vision Zero Task Force met Wednesday to discuss infrastructure fixes and communication campaigns to make the roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Hanging over the meeting was the fact that 24...
San Jose council review: Police shooting concerns, CityView Plaza
The San Jose City Council approved land sales to developers, an emerging mobility plan and lifting the city’s COVID-19 mask mandate on Tuesday. During public comment, dozens of residents called to voice their displeasure over a police shooting inside a local taqueria about two weeks ago. Here’s what went down April 4: Police shooting More than 40...
Election 2022: The race for San Jose City Council District 7
In central San Jose, a heated battle for the District 7 City Council seat is brewing as incumbent Maya Esparza faces two challengers. Esparza, who edged out former Councilmember Tam Nguyen in 2018, is seeking a second term—with two Vietnamese candidates also eyeing the seat. District 7 encompasses some of the most diverse neighborhoods on Tully, Story and...
Cannabis union efforts stop short in San Jose
The legalization of cannabis in California has touched off a wave of unionization efforts across the state, but the movement has been slow in San Jose—a city that has been iffy about growing its small weed industry. According to Jim Araby, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 5 strategic campaign director, only one of...
UPDATE: San Jose council ends COVID mask mandate
San Jose’s COVID-19 mask mandate is coming to an end almost two years after it was adopted. The city’s masking guidelines now align with the county and state, which lifted mask mandates earlier this year in almost all public indoor settings. The City Council unanimously approved ending local restrictions Tuesday with no discussion. Residents, regardless...
Silicon Valley residents left in droves during pandemic
Tens of thousands of people left Silicon Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic, but local housing and economics experts aren’t too worried about the mass exodus. The metro area encompassing San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale lost nearly 43,000 people between April 2020 and July 2021, according to recently released census data. That’s almost eight times more than the year before...