San Jose prides itself on its diversity — a myriad of different cultures represented by an equally diverse City Council. But behind the scenes, many lawmakers in the heart of Silicon Valley are bombarded with aggressive and threatening hate mail, often mirroring stereotypically racist rhetoric. Though some councilmembers didn’t report receiving much hate mail during...
Some Alviso residents are shaking their heads over a proposed fencing structure on the Alviso County Marina Park, raising concerns that they were not notified about the project after the framework for the structure went up earlier this week. And now county officials have put that work on hold to solicit community input — something...
A historic Catholic Church in the heart of downtown San Jose was vandalized Sunday morning, hours before congregants gathered to participate in Sunday mass. Satanic and anti-semitic graffiti spray were sprawled against the church’s outside walls, alongside taunting drawings of a ghoulishly painted smile below two windows and a two-toned colored pentagram. Church officials from...
More than two years after catastrophic floods ravaged the Japanese Friendship Garden, the beloved garden has yet to be fully rebuilt. “We’ve been working as hard as we can and working through the process to do what needs to be done,” said Shannon Heimer, general manager for Happy Hollow and Kelley Park — which houses the...
The fate of Coyote Valley has been looming over San Jose residents’ heads for more than 40 years, dividing the city on whether to preserve or develop the 7,000 acre plot of mostly undeveloped land out on the fringes of south San Jose. Thursday night, that debate sparked to life as experts and policymakers gathered...
Amid a wave of scrutiny over awarding a six-figure public contract to a private Catholic school, Mayor Sam Liccardo suggested reopening the contract to other schools — but his council colleagues didn’t agree. On Wednesday, City Manager Dave Sykes recommended keeping the current contract with Cristo Rey intact and instead, perform better outreach to schools...
Nearly four years after San Jose prioritized combating illegal massage parlors, statistics paint an unclear picture of compliance despite the controversial measure’s success in closing a vast number of businesses. According to Lt. Paul Messier, of the San Jose Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit, there are currently 80 massage businesses remaining in San Jose. That’s...
A task force to review San Jose’s general plan is gearing up to come back together again to assess the land-use bible, which will guide how and where the South Bay city will grow in the coming years. Mayor Sam Liccardo announced last week a group of 42 community, business, city and nonprofit leaders that will...
San Jose lawmakers on Tuesday dropped a proposal to boot executive employees working in the city’s Office of Retirement Services from the retirement plan that they directly work on. City Manager Dave Sykes said some questions about the proposal need to be revisited and asked lawmakers to drop the item until a later date. It’s...
San Jose leaders on Monday paid homage to the suffragette movement, and more importantly, white women’s right to vote in a rally on National Women’s Equality Day. The event served as a kickoff for a year’s worth of activities celebrating women’s history and activism, to be led by the Women’s Equality 2020 Leadership Council. Nearly...
