This will be my final column for San José Spotlight. I am grateful to have been given a platform here. Excuse my indulgence in this final column, I’d like to tell a more personal story. During the early days of the pandemic the transit situation in the Bay Area felt dire. Trains, buses and even...
San Jose airport closure could poison another neighborhood
County officials are working to shut down Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose, citing lead exposure for surrounding residents. But shutting it down could shift the lead burden onto another low-income neighborhood: Washington-Guadalupe. Should Reid-Hillview close, some Washington-Guadalupe residents fear planes en route to Mineta San Jose International Airport will bring leaded fuel pollution to...
Santa Clara County workers catch COVID after return to office
COVID-19 infections are rising across multiple Santa Clara County departments about a month after management ordered workers back to the office, and some employees are frustrated and bewildered that they have to return. A county spokesperson told San José Spotlight that 221 positive infections occurred among approximately 22,000 employees between between July 3 and Aug....
Study: Privatizing San Jose airport could solve debt problem
San Jose could cash in upward of $2.47 billion by leasing its airport to a private investor or company, a new study suggests. The study, conducted by Los Angeles-based think tank Reason Foundation and published last week, projects that 31 cities with medium to large airports could generate as much as $131 billion through leasing. Cities could...
San Jose-Google payment goes to affordable housing, rent relief
San Jose is investing $3 million from Google in various fixes for the city’s housing crisis, including pandemic-related rent relief. The City Council unanimously approved the allocation of funds on Tuesday, with $1.25 million going to tenant and landlord outreach on the eviction moratorium and rental relief programs, $1 million for affordable housing nonprofit organizations,...
San Jose shops fined for COVID violations can’t get grants
Over the last year, Santa Clara County has cited hundreds of businesses—big and small—with fines that now add up to more than $5 million for violating COVID-19 restrictions. The county put that money into a grant program to help struggling businesses—but those with violations say they’re not getting financial help. Dung “Calvin” To has cut...
Breland: Community colleges face challenges, opportunities as COVID recovery continues
Historically, community college enrollment is highly correlated with the strength of the job market: enrollment generally increases during challenging times for workers and declines when jobs are plentiful and the opportunity cost of going to school is high. Community college enrollment in the U.S. peaked at the end of the last recession in 2010, then...
San Jose schools report COVID cases as students return
Weeks after students returned to campus, San Jose’s three largest districts have reported nearly 120 COVID-19 cases. Officials say the low count is a sign that masks are working to fend off the virus. At the San Jose Unified School District, the largest district in the region with more than 30,000 students and 4,000 employees,...
UPDATE: San Jose approves plan to spread out multi-unit affordable housing
San Jose residents could soon see affordable housing crop up in unexpected neighborhoods, thanks to a new policy that will spread out multi-unit developments in the city. The San Jose City Council voted unanimously Tuesday in favor of a plan that distributes affordable housing development in places near public transit and with upward mobility. City...
Lack of census data hurts San Jose’s LGBTQ+ community
A Gallup poll found in 2015 that San Jose had one of the lowest LGBTQ+ populations of any large metropolitan area. Six years later, it’s tough to know if that’s changed—such basic information on the local LGBTQ+ population is missing because the U.S. census didn’t ask for it. In a major first, the 2020 census allowed U.S. residents to...