A recent city audit suggests that San Jose Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force — a city-wide coalition aimed at addressing gangs and gang-related crime — is failing to meet expectations and could use some improvements. Formed in 1991, the task force is run by the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services and works with...
Mason Fong breaks barriers as a South Bay councilman
At 27 years old, Councilmember Mason Fong is believed to be the youngest person elected to the Sunnyvale City Council. His captivation with politics started at a young age as his parents fostered the importance of civic engagement, taking him to rallies like the ones held against the Iraq War. The grandson of Chinese immigrants, Fong’s political voice...
San Jose lawmakers want to fund nearly 100 new ideas. Here’s a look at some of them.
Nearly 100 ideas are vying for funding in Mayor Sam Liccardo’s new budget, and they include everything from cleaning blight, to installing metal detectors at City Hall and mounting license plate readers on parking enforcement vehicles. Liccardo is scheduled to release his final budget message on May 31, which could include some of the councilmembers’...
Presidential hopeful Julián Castro talks immigration, education during San Jose stop
Julián Castro, a Texas politician gunning to be the country’s next president, stopped Friday morning in East San Jose to share stories of his Mexican American upbringing and political history, and to ask local voters for their support in 2020. “When I think of San Jose, I think of a community that represents the future...
All eyes on San Jose Planning Commission following new vacancy
A month after a San Jose Planning Commission appointment sparked public outcry and proposed reforms, another seat has opened on the powerful panel — raising questions about whether it will lead to more equitable representation. The showdown over the seat began in April when San Jose lawmakers chose ex-Councilman Pierluigi Oliverio for the highly-coveted position...
Los Angeles got a Barack Obama Boulevard. What about San Jose?
Los Angeles just unveiled Barack Obama Boulevard in one of the city’s historic black neighborhoods — nearly two years after San Jose leaders proposed the same idea. Like San Jose, Los Angeles leaders proposed renaming a street after Obama in 2017 and unveiled it a week ago. But San Jose’s petition is stuck — primarily...
Sam Liccardo rejected his raise. What about his San Jose council colleagues?
Less than a year ago, Mayor Sam Liccardo and his council colleagues backed a measure to drop the political hot potato that threatened to burn them every two years — setting their own salaries. They supported Measure U, a Nov. 2018 ballot initiative that took the decision to approve salaries out of the City Council’s...
Following outcry, major changes coming to San Jose Planning Commission
Mayor Sam Liccardo joined with political rivals to propose sweeping changes to the Planning Commision following community outcry, changes that could reshape the size and diversity of the powerful panel. In a new proposal, Liccardo and Vice Mayor Chappie Jones teamed up with progressives Magdalena Carrasco and Maya Esparza to suggest prohibiting more than two...
Initiative to align San Jose mayoral election with the presidential election fails
Despite a push from community advocates to align San Jose’s mayoral election with the presidential election cycle, the votes to make the change just weren’t there on Tuesday. Mayor Sam Liccardo, Vice Mayor Chappie Jones and Councilmembers Lan Diep, Pam Foley, Johnny Khamis and Dev Davis voted against the measure, citing concerns that the presidential...
San Jose City Council to debate moving mayoral elections
San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Vice Mayor Chappie Jones on Tuesday will implore their City Council colleagues to make no changes to the mayoral election cycle and instead explore alternative ideas to increase voter turnout. Liccardo previously told San José Spotlight that he wouldn’t support an initiative to align the mayoral election year with...