Transportation officials in San Jose are asking residents to help craft the future of the city’s public transportation to increase accessibility, reduce greenhouse emissions and improve quality of life. A survey on the city’s website is encouraging the public to share what transportation changes would improve the city and increase options for getting around San...
San Jose’s fire department is short staffed, leading to a backlog in fire inspections for new buildings, a recent audit found. Vacancies in engineering and inspection positions, which are key to getting buildings up to fire code, have increased since 2015. According to the report, the city at one point had 20 vacant engineering positions...
After pressure from the San Jose City Council, the city’s police department late Friday, released body-worn camera footage of recent protests over the police killing of George Floyd. “Body-worn camera video is an essential component in investigations and in maintaining the public trust,” Police Chief Eddie Garcia said in a statement. “Coming up with a...
Quoting Steve Jobs, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said he’s not out to please everybody. “If you want to make everyone happy, don’t be a leader — go sell ice cream,” said Garcia, 49, who announced last month he is retiring at the end of the year. Having worked in the city’s roughly 1,400-member...
Parks have assumed a heftier role during the pandemic, becoming food distribution sites, gathering spots and operating spaces for local businesses. But according to city staff, the quality of many San Jose parks is on the decline and has been for the past few years. A recent report released by the city auditor found 72%...
After police violence in San Jose erupted during protests over Minneapolis cops killing George Floyd, hundreds of speakers poured into online government meetings to air their grievances. In the era of Zoom and COVID-19, Mary Jessie Celestin, a 21-year-old activist, is building a connective digital platform for budding activists she says is just as important...
As San Jose and cities around the country study how to reform police departments, the role union contracts play in obscuring information about officers under investigation is facing scrutiny. “I am concerned that over the years a number of issues have been put into (police union) contracts that limit the management decisions of the police...
As thousands of people lost power in San Jose during a scorching August heat wave, Mayor Sam Liccardo condemned PG&E for having aging infrastructure and accused them of lying. “You are hearing messages from PG&E suggesting over the last several days we have been suffering from rolling blackouts prompted by decisions from the California Independent...
The proposed Cambrian Park village, featuring a walkable Main Street connecting a central park to shops, restaurants and homes, could be one of the first developments to pay San Jose’s recently adopted commercial linkage fee designed to support future affordable housing projects. The project from Weingarten Realty plans to bring an additional 25 townhomes, 48...
San Jose dropped the idea of prosecuting people who violated a curfew during the George Floyd protests. The decision was announced the same day San José Spotlight reported one of those violators was Mayor Sam Liccardo. The four-day, 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew enacted by City Manager Dave Sykes May 31 sought to quell...
