Santa Clara elected leaders Tuesday unanimously approved delaying plans for a massive hotel and requiring more affordable housing on the Gateway Crossings project, a plan approved nearly a year ago. Located along Coleman Avenue near the city’s Caltrain station and an anticipated South Bay BART extension, construction of a 225-room hotel within the 24.4-acre mixed-use...
Santa Clara: State of the City highlighted COVID-19 deficits, accomplishments
Santa Clara faces rough waters as it contends with budgetary shortfalls, continued development and policing reforms, the mayor said in a recent State of the City speech. As the Mission City adapts to the growing economic toll of COVID-19 during shutdowns and rising number of cases nationally, Mayor Lisa Gillmor and city staffers spent nearly...
Santa Clara: Retired CHP lieutenant Bob O’Keefe running for City Council
Retired lieutenant Robert “Bob” O’Keefe hopes he can continue to serve and protect the people of Santa Clara — this time from a seat on the City Council. Born and raised in the Mission City, the 60-year-old retired California Highway Patrol lieutenant has joined the race for the District 5 seat, which was vacated by...
Santa Clara policy denies gay commissioner a role in Pride flag raising
As members of the Santa Clara City Council raise the LGBTQ Pride flag at City Hall Friday morning, a 25-year-old city policy denied a gay commissioner from standing in as a last-minute replacement. When Vice Mayor Karen Hardy, a math and computer science teacher at Wilcox High School, recently learned that she had the opportunity...
Community leader Harbir Kaur Bhatia running for Santa Clara City Council
Longtime civic entrepreneur and organizer Harbir Kaur Bhatia threw her name into the ring for Santa Clara City Council Tuesday. Running for the District 1 seat held by Councilmember Kathy Watanabe, she said her background in grassroots organizing would be an asset at City Hall. Bhatia said she’d push for a better quality of life, more diverse voices...
San Jose imposes a curfew, hundreds protest George Floyd death for third day
As protests erupted for the third day in downtown San Jose on Sunday over the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Minneapolis man, city leaders imposed an 8:30 p.m. curfew beginning Sunday. “This police department wants peace, wants to continue to have dialogue with this community (and) doesn’t want any community member harmed,” said...
Santa Clara: Suds Jain begins campaign for District 5 City Council seat
Suds Jain is a familiar face at Santa Clara City Hall, but now the retired engineer, high school robotics coach and city Planning Commissioner has filed paperwork to run for the City Council, with hopes of filling the District 5 seat vacated by Patricia Mahan in February. Mahan resigned in February due to medical reasons. Jain unsuccessfully...
Santa Clara’s second top cop leaving for a job in tech
An 18-year-old Dan Winter picked up his badge and gun right out of high school in 1988. Now 32 years later, he’s decided to retire from the Santa Clara Police Department as soon as he reached retirement age, turning 50 Tuesday. “I’ve been at it a long time, so it was time to try something...
UPDATE: Santa Clara prepares for financial deficits, signs new Singer contract
Santa Clara isn’t immune to the negative financial impacts from canceled events and shelter-in-place orders that are affecting cities across the nation, and City Hall heard a 90-minute presentation detailing some of the devastating changes to come. Finance director Kenn Lee said Tuesday the city faces a bleak $10 million deficit the remainder of the...
From Levi’s Stadium to drones: A conversation with Santa Clara’s new police chief
After an unexpected September vacancy, uncontested election and unprecedented global pandemic, Police Chief Pat Nikolai has settled into his new role as head of the Santa Clara Police Department. Growing up in South San Jose, the 51-year-old Santa Clara resident has spent his entire 28-year law enforcement career serving the Mission City, now overseeing 139...