When I was a boy, my mom took me to a homeless shelter to serve a meal during the holidays. The first time we went I was probably 10 and I remember being pretty scared when we arrived. Everyone was nice, there were decorations and lights up, even some Christmas music playing. But I could...
Staedler: We need action — not plans — to solve Silicon Valley’s housing crisis
The Bay Area has been in the midst of a housing crisis for the last ten years. Regional leaders have spent the last 18 months on a ten-point plan. Basically, it’s a plan to have a plan and it’s being sold as an emergency policy package that could create another government agency along with employer/property...
Roberts: When your rent increases so does homelessness
When I sat in my high school economics class, years ago, I struggled with conflicting numbers, lofty principles, and difficult equations. How would macro or micro economics impact a teenager who was more worried about sports and weekend activities? But one high school economics principle stuck with me to this day — the law of...
Who is behind the anti-Google protests?
The chaos inside a recent San Jose City Council meeting was like nothing seen before: Eight people chained themselves to chairs to protest the city selling public land to Google for a massive tech campus. SWAT officers paced the room. Authorities blanketed the hallways all night, tense and ready for an uprising after monitoring social...
Johnny Khamis jumps into state Senate race
Several prominent politicians are lining up to replace termed-out state Sen. Jim Beall in an election that’s more than a year away. San Jose Councilman Johnny Khamis, a former Republican who fled the party in June over Donald Trump’s immigration policies, confirmed that he’ll run for the seat. Khamis discussed the idea with political consultant...
Attack ads run rampant in local elections
They say politics is a blood sport. Silicon Valley’s 2018 midterm election, featuring a handful of competitive city and county legislative races, was no exception. A slew of opposition ads and smear tactics shadowed several Bay Area candidates running for public office this year — including ads bankrolled by a new committee helmed by the...
Where is he now? San Jose’s former city manager helps Islanders recover from hurricanes
Former San José City Manager Norberto Dueñas is in what he likes to call his “second career.” The veteran civil servant, who got his start as an intern for then-councilmember Jim Beall, was employed by the city of San José for 33 years before he retired last fall. After a tumultuous two years as city...
Introducing San José Spotlight
San José is many things to many people. For me, it’s the cramped apartment in Hoffman-Via Monte that was ripe with graffiti and gang activity, but welcomed my refugee parents who came to this country with one suitcase. It’s the old Thrifty’s (now Whole Foods) where my sister and I snuck out to buy candy....
Work with HomeFirst brings CEO Andrea Urton “full circle”
Andrea Urton has faced many challenges in her life such as losing her mother, living in a violently abusive home and ending up on the streets — all before she graduated high school. Now Urton is the CEO of HomeFirst, one of the South Bay’s leading nonprofits working to end homelessness. And she’s working toward...
Santa Clara County races: Susan Ellenberg and Sheriff Laurie Smith pull ahead
Santa Clara County voters on Tuesday were asked to choose a sheriff for the first time in 20 years, as well as a member of the five-member Board of Supervisors.