As Bay Area mass transit services struggle to protect public safety, Silicon Valley law enforcement agencies are competing for a chance to police the new Valley Transportation Authority transit centers in Milpitas and San Jose when BART trains start rolling into Santa Clara County for the first time in 2020. An Alameda County Grand Jury...
Year in review: Some of San Jose City Council’s major decisions in 2019
As the 10th largest city in the country and the third largest city in the state, San Jose in 2019 set a precedent in creating policy, especially at a time when the interwoven crises of housing and inequality are intensifying. This year, the San Jose City Council took several momentous actions addressing major challenges the...
San Jose considers new changes to fines for landlords who violate rental laws
After a year of tweaking crucial San Jose tenant protections, the City Council on Tuesday could approve new penalty fees for landlords who flout the law. But once more, the stage is set for the lawmakers to argue on the merits of penalizing landlords who break the rules on laws such as just cause eviction, the Ellis...
Could California’s 3.5M home deficit be solved through rezoning?
When Gavin Newsom became California’s governor, he announced a bold goal of solving the state’s 3.5 million-home shortage by 2025, but there’s one major problem: cities across the state are only planning for about 2.8 million new housing units. What’s more, many of the areas where those 2.8 million new homes are allowed to rise,...
Year in review: The biggest housing projects in 2019
Housing has dominated every big policy decision in San Jose this past year, as the city faces a growing housing and homelessness crisis. Slowly, the city is inching its way closer to meeting Mayor Sam Liccardo’s goal of producing at least 25,000 new housing units — 10,000 of them affordable — by 2022. While city...
Hundreds gather in downtown San Jose for warm Thanksgiving meal
More than a hundred volunteers and people in need packed the African American Community Service Agency (AACSA) in downtown San Jose Wednesday to enjoy an early Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie. The residents were warmly greeted by an army of nonprofit service providers and volunteers, including Mayor Sam Liccardo, as they...
State ruling on San Jose-owned land sales may hit other cities harder
A ruling this week by a state appeals court on how California cities must sell their surplus land to prioritize affordable housing may have been tailored to San Jose, but the decision will likely affect other cities more, according to the city’s mayor. “San Jose has very little city-owned land that is developable, and for...
San Jose: Volunteers build tiny homes for homeless ahead of Thanksgiving
At a Habitat for Humanity worksite in East San Jose Wednesday morning Mayor Sam Liccardo joined volunteers gathered in the driving rain to put the finishing touches on 40 tiny homes that will be placed on a nearby lot and used as transitional housing for homeless residents next year. The typical tiny home is only...
Sam Liccardo endorses Jim Zito over his colleague Sylvia Arenas
Self-described fiscal conservative Jim Zito is eyeing San Jose Councilmember Sylvia Arenas’ seat and a powerful coalition of endorsements — including from Mayor Sam Liccardo — might help him score a spot on the 11-member council. The mayor joined Zito to officially kick off his campaign to unseat Arenas last week at the Curry Pizza...
San Jose mayor’s plan for ratepayer takeover of PG&E won’t be easy
California’s largest utility remains under intense pressure from lawmakers across the state, as the threat of a statewide takeover and transition to a customer-owned utility looms over its head if it doesn’t get its finances back on track. As PG&E struggles to detangle itself from a web of scandals and financial woes, leaders at the...