Days after San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo questioned the constitutionality of a controversial ballot measure, elections officials announced Friday the initiative fell short of a threshold of signatures needed to qualify for the November ballot. After more than a year of intense public debate on the future of San Jose’s local elections, Liccardo — during...
Black-owned restaurant patronage up in Silicon Valley, but surge fading
The surge of Black Lives Matter support has lifted area minority-owned restaurants despite the drag of stay-at-home orders, but the boost will not last without more equitable and lasting opportunities, some business leaders say. The sudden demand overwhelmed some establishments. When to-go orders spiked for lamb tibs, gomen, doro wot and traditional injera flatbread from...
San Jose lawmakers approve new fee caps for developments
If developers have one nemesis, it’s uncertainty, and San Jose lawmakers this week tried to battle that foe by capping some development fees. The 8-3 vote Tuesday did not raise or lower fees for developers, but it froze infrastructure fees in most parts of the city and set a maximum for fee increases in the...
‘It’s about time’: Ethnic studies coming to Alum Rock school district
An East San Jose public school district is set to explore bringing ethnic studies to its diverse students, a move lauded by some as being a lifeline for struggling students of color. For Adan Perez, seeing himself in the curriculum during ethnic studies courses he took made the difference between dropping out of school and going...
San Jose approves CityView project, says goodbye to former courthouse
Downtown San Jose’s CityView Plaza is set to turn from a 1970s mixed-use campus to a modern glass-lined, three-tower, 3.8 million-square-foot office park after locking in the final vote of approval Tuesday. Councilmembers on Tuesday unanimously voted to approve the project by San Francisco developer Jay Paul Co., which is already working on a 1...
San Jose lawmakers approve a new office to address racial inequities
San Jose lawmakers took a major step Tuesday in addressing systemic racism in the nation’s 10th largest city by approving the creation of a new office to address racial inequities. But now the questions linger: how much will the cash-strapped city devote to the new office and how will it foot the bill? City councilmembers...
San Jose homeless trailer park residents forced out after three weeks
Homeless residents living inside trailers at Happy Hollow Park and Zoo set up for those with COVID-19 or at risk of contracting the deadly virus were evicted after three weeks when the trailer park was suddenly shut down on Monday. The residents were moved into hotels instead. “It was one of the hardest things I’ve...
Hundreds ask San Jose lawmakers to defund police ahead of budget vote
On the eve of San Jose lawmakers’ vote on the city’s annual budget, hundreds logged into a virtual public hearing Monday, most with a singular message: defund the police. Residents and advocates got 60 seconds each to make a case to councilmembers on what changes should be reflected in the $4.1 billion budget for the...
Liccardo focuses on police, inequality in San Jose’s $4.1B budget
San Jose’s $4.1 billion budget will be finalized this week, a major annual decision that comes this year in the midst of a pandemic that’s caused enormous projected deficits. But Mayor Sam Liccardo’s focus in a recently-released proposed budget was first on police reforms and inequality. Liccardo’s annual June budget proposal addresses head-on community calls...
San Jose activists storm Liccardo’s house, call for defunding police
Sandy Sanchez was moved to tears in front of San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo’s house Friday evening. Her son, Anthony Nunez, was fatally shot by two San Jose police officers four years ago. He was 18 years old. “I received his high school diploma a year later. He was working so hard to get it,”...