So many things made me glad when our city’s election results started rolling in last Tuesday. I am glad that I don’t have to pack up my things in disgust and move out of the country. I am glad that honesty and independent thinking won out over sleaze and dishonesty. I am glad that people rose to the occasion and voted for change in City Hall. I am glad the people didn’t listen to Bill Clinton’s phone message (even those who were called in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno). I am glad that people saw through the endorsements of the Democratic Party and voted based on who was best for the city, not the special interest labor unions.
I didn’t have faith in anyone at City Hall before last Tuesday; now, I am actually starting to think that things might get done and the problems of our city might start to be solved. I am so interested to see what Chuck does as his first order of business and the climate that he creates within those walls. Let’s hope that Chuck Reed makes a name for himself and sticks his neck out for things that our city needs. Let’s hope he unites the council to work together. And, let’s hope he maintains his honesty and values (something that was lost with the last mayor). I think when someone new is elected there is always a sense of fresh new ideas and optimism. Let’s hope the optimism I feel now sustains itself.
Or else—much to the excitement of many—I might need to get that travel bag packed once again.
If the results of a city council election would make you pack your bag and leave….well then one wonders what’s keeping you………? I’m thinking that life must be more than waiting for the various decisions from City Hall.
Dream on Single Gal. Expect more of the same.
Try today’s RDA agenda:
Item 7a – Living Tomorrow
http://www.sjredevelopment.org/Agendas2006/11-14-06/7-3-LivingTomorowENA.pdf
then look around the web for info about these two guys who call themselves Living Tomorrow, or try:
http://2006.confex.com/uicc/wctoh/techprogram/P807.HTM
then ask you favorite politician why San Jose is planning to fund this group to the tune of a gift of an 8 million piece of prime real estate in downtown San Jose to teach us about using technology to live better with cigarette smoke.
Don’t worry about the new mayor and councilman liccardo getting tainted by city hall. They bring their upbringing and values learned from their families and how they were raised to their offices. I don’t think you will have to pack and leave. I know these two men bring great character to their offices with them.
I can tell you why Cindy and the machine lost: somewhere along the lines, they corrupted their dataset, like so many other things.
I had been getting emails for months from her campaign even though I don’t live in incorporated San Jose. (Hence my high precinct number in the 6400s, though comparable city precincts around here are in the 1400s and 1500s. That should have been a huge clue.)
The day before election day and on election day I received emails that said, if you still live on “5038 Hyland Drive,” then your polling place is… [a local church.] That’s nice…. but I do not nor have I EVER lived there though it is nearby.
I should note that I volunteered for Chuck, and his volunteers were fired up with passion for the right guy, and that passion, plus lots of city wide Ron-and-Cindy-fatigue, carried the day. Paid “volunteers” do not.
There is still a lot of work to do in our communities. One person or a few persons on the City Council cannot do everything that several dozen of us can do out in our neighborhoods, schools, parks, and on various city commissions. Now that there’s a bit of sunshine at City Hall (despite the rain), it’s time to carry the day with action citywide so all voters realize a simple truth: San Jose is better off with good people at the helm and not some shifty machine whose ends always justify its means.
Many, many of us share your optimism. Mr Reed and the newcomers to the council (Mssrs Liccardo and Constant) will do us proud.
So San Jose (RDA) wants to build a new smoking pavillion downtown with state of the art ventilation to minimize second hand smoke?
Someone mentioned that tobacco money found it’s way into campaign… could this be why?
Smoking… is that why the residential development interest bailed?
I know nothing about the background here; but just reading the two links posted by #2, it does have a familiar odor about it.
Is this a done deal? Or can it be changed or tweaked to not seem like a ‘smoke free’ ash tray?
The statement below was taken from the FINE PRINT of the ‘Living Tomorrow’ site…….
Results: Phillip Morris (now Altria) is one of the main financers of Living Tomorrow II, a tourist complex that aims to demonstrate how we will be living and working in the future. The company is using this high profile project to showcase ventilation technology as a means of accommodating smoking in indoor environments. However, ventilation does not deal with the health effects of second hand smoke. PM recruited companies to design and fit ventilation systems in the complex, and ensured that the bar within the complex allowed smoking. Involvement offers several opportunities to spread the “accommodation through ventilation” message – the complex is used by multinational corporations to host events, has been visited by national leaders, is open to the public and also runs school visits. Athough PM’s involvement in this project is acknowledged, the rationale for its involvement is not. More Living Tomorrow complexes are planned. Although PM’s role in future projects is not known, the public (who visit these sites) and governments (who may contribute to funding) should be made aware of the tobacco industry’s rationale for involvement in projects like Living Tomorrow. The findings highlight the need for carefully defined regulation of indirect tobacco advertising and sponsorship.
Obviously SG wasn’t paying attention during Reed’s campaign. If he goes according to plan, his first acts will not be what the city needs, but what he thinks City Hall needs. I expect the momentum of the city to come to a grinding halt while Reed slaps some wrists and makes some rules at City Hall.
By just having a Mayor that “truly loves San Jose” and is not using the office as a springboard, is a good start.
Reed cannot stop the momentum of the city. There has been no momentum for years, and certainly not since the indictments came down. Gonzo is on life-support on the 18th floor, Guerra is in hiding, and the mutes just keep wandering around the halls muttering to themselves.
The city can only move forward under Reed. There needs to be much more than wrist slapping. Wrist slapping is what has gotten us into the mess we are in.
SG and the rest of us who supported Reed, were very much paying attention during the campaign. We knew our only chance to get our city back was to elect Reed and reject the stench of the GonzoChavez years. If Reed did nothing at all it would be better than the past 7 years, but don’t worry about that. He will do a lot and it will be for the benefit of the city—not for the benefit of himself and few of his buddies.
#6. Reed’s 20% mandate suggests voters agreed “what the city needs” includes a little wrist-slapping and rule-making at City Hall!
#6 No doubt that Reed will concentrate first on ground rules. That only makes sense. I have my doubts about how much he’ll actually accomplish for the city and its taxpayers, but one thing is for sure. The fiscal hemorrhaging that would have resulted if Cindy were charge is no longer a concern.
Now to get Gonzo lap dogs/mutes Campos, Chirco, Pyle and (to a lesser degree) Williams out of there next and we’ll see where things go. How did these jokers manage to get elected in the first place?
#2. Thanks for the information, it seems that Redevelopment doesn’t have money to invest in our neighborhoods but for the tobacco industry that can come up with the money or in this case prime real estate to accomodate them. This is just one agency, but if you look deep enough you will find that we have many more agency’s out of control. Code Enforcemnt for one, basically does what it wants. Enforcing the code’s is not their top priority. DOT, another useless agency. You file a complaint and nothing gets accomplished. The Mercury news writes stories about the new programs that these two agency’s are doing but do they ever actually come out to the neighborhoods and ask the residents how they feel about these agency’s? I invite the Mercury News to attend the West Evergreen NAC and listen to the stories the members bring up about the lack of enforcement by either of these agency’s. I hope Chuck looks at some of these agency’s and holds them accountable for their failed efforts.
Illegal and legal criminal Aliens are estimated to cost taxpayers $ 5 – 6 billion per year – 264,000 criminals in 2002 in federal, state , county and local jail costs or more if the cost of prison constrution is added in
Incarceration. The cost of incarcerating illegal aliens in California’s prisons and jails amounts
to about $1.4 billion a year (not including related law enforcement and judicial expenditures or
the monetary costs of the crimes that led to their incarceration).
Cost of Illegal immigration to Californian’s
Executive Summary | Analysis of the latest Census data indicates that California’s illegal
immigrant population is costing the state’s taxpayers more than $10.5 billion per year for education, medical care and incarceration. Even if the estimated tax contributions of illegal immigrant workers are subtracted, net outlays still amount to nearly $9 billion per year. The annual fiscal burden from those three areas of state expenditures amounts to about $1,183 per
household headed by a native-born resident.
http://www.fairus.org/site/DocServer/ca_costs.pdf?docID=141
Sound like a great opportunity for both California and US taxpayers and Mexico to ship them to Mexican jails rather tham hold in US jails at $20-25,000 per inmate per year vs lower costs per prisoner in Mexico
Unfortunately, the Federal government has consistently failed to respond to the needs of
state and local communities struggling to stay afloat on account of the growing costs of
illegal immigration. And all too frequently, local communities are forced to shoulder this
burden alone.
—Senator Dianne Feinstein on the Local Emergency Health Services Reimbursement Act of 2003 – March 4, 2003
“You and FAIR are to be congratulated for your twenty years of effective work, not only informing and calling immigration problems to the attention of the American people, but also moving them to effective action.”
-Former U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy (D-Minn.)
Anybody heard that Council is considering a Gonzo proposal to expand the convention center? It’s on today’s agenda and certainly seems to be hiding under the radar. Nothing in Merc, nothing on this board.
Gonzo wants to etablish a Mello-Roos district to finance the expansion. No word on what the council will do and no word on any public input in this proposal—kind of like the “good old days.”
Who can forget Gonzo’s last great convention center related proposal, the giant blue hefty bag multi-million dollar temporary structure. Can’t wait to hear what secret weapon he will unleash on us this time.
Dear Single Gal:
I think that you will be very happy with your new mayor. Reed will manage the needs of the city rather than trying to promote himself and fund the needs of his political supporters. You see, in the case of Reed, his political supporters were/are US! Chuck is a very smart guy, by this time next year, I believe that you will be impressed with changes and progress made for San Jose.
——————
Quick reply to Randi (#25) from the other day. Randi wrote that the new city hall was built to house “administrative groups” and was “never intended to hold everyone.” Yes, of course, the firefighters can stay in their stations and the community center employees can stay in their centers. Measure I called for the “consolidation” of civic offices. The language of the ballot measure is not satisfied when you have 250 or so city employees housed in another location. Instead of a thin 18 story signature building, they could have built a more practical structure that had the capacity to provide for all of the employees, and more. But Ronnie wanted his rotunda.
I wouldn’t object so vehemently if not for the fact that the Taj Mahal is being financed with money that could have gone to fund programs that help people! Building an opulent city hall was a decadent and elitist decision.
pete campbell
The funny thing about Ronnie’s Rotunda is, like much of the rest of the building, it was poorly thought out in terms of public interaction. The dome, which serves no civic purpose, and is primarily an events venue for rent, has inadequate loading and unloading access, questionable lighting, acoustical problems, and parking issues.
Add to that, there is no pick-up or drop-off locations. The only way to do that is to stop illegally and risk harassment from the parking police. So much for the people’s building.
#12 Here we go again. Spouting unsubstantiated numbers. I went to your link and quote from their report:
“Because data on illegal immigration generally are not collected, even quantifiable costs must be educated estimates. The absence of recorded data on illegal alien enrollment in school, use of taxpayer supported medical care and other public services is not accidental. It is due to the efforts of civil libertarians, business interests and immigrant support groups that have thwarted data collection efforts hidden from the taxpayers who are expected to pay for them.”
You quote numbers that are simply estimates put together by an anti-immigration group. Using what parameters, I don’t know and they don’t tell you. I am sure you can find a few other anti-immigrant web sites that can give you some more good quotes.
#14 Pete; Am not saying I love the new city hall, what it cost or that it’s the best building we could have had…I’m simply saying, it’s done and pointing backwards at previous mistakes is just a waste of time unless you are (a) figuring out how to reduce the debt from the building (b) making better use of it (c) intending to somehow do something about it. The PRNS staff at the old library are within walking distance of city hall; a step in the right direction considering I talked to staffers who totalled up the time they spent driving to and from the old site and it came out to weeks per year per person. I’ve been to events there and have been impressed with what it is able to do…bring people of the community together. Is it perfect? Not by a long shot. There were no hordes of people protesting the design or cost of the building through an incredibly lengthy public process, yet after the fact it’s become a rallying call to arms. Sorry, it’s like voting..if you don’t show up and complain (or vote) you don’t get to complain about the outcome. Pete, show me what you’re going to do with what you’ve got going into the system, don’t keep telling me how much better things would be if we resources not at hand. You’re going to be sitting in one of those seats next year; start thinking about what you want to change in the budget to ensure services to our neighborhoods is raised. Complaining about city hall doesn’t help…and you’ll now be part of the people who are being pointed at when the complaints continue to roll in…so find the solution. I’m with you on this one, believe it or not..my SNI area could use a lot more than it’s getting from city hall, but I’m not going to waste my time on things I can’t do anything about.
#15, you’re right about the drop off situation which could be immensely improved at street level by simply re-striping some spots into loading zones. Won’t fix the acoustics or lighting, but one of your four problems could be fixed that way. As for parking…there is more parking underground(6th st entrance validated parking) and at 4th street garage than usually needed at any event I’ve attened on site.
Single, I hope you are right..but Chuck is going to have to make the transition from “odd man out” to being a unifying force.
Seriously, let’s bring back history Mondays..I miss them.
17 – It is my understanding that the underground parking is not available for evening events? Is that incorrect?
Why is that when workers join together to try to prevent being shafted by their employers, it is considered a “special interest”, but the employers are not considered to be a special interest?
In the 1950s, which everyone now seems to think was a veritable paradise on earth, about 1/3 of all working Americans belonged to a labor union.
Sorry, Pete..wrong Pete (as opposed to Pete Constant) I’ll blame it on my cold..but my basic statement is still..what are the options.
Randi #17, I think you have our poster (Pete CAMPBELL #14) mixed up with Pete CONSTANT, our soon to be councilmember.
#12: from Wikipedia. Too politically incorrect to be implemented today.
“Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about 80,000 undocumented people from the southwestern United States, with a focus on Mexican nationals. Mexican citizens residing in the U.S. were called wetbacks; this term is now used as a derogatory term for any Mexican or Central American immigrant.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Operation
3 Result
4 See also
5 External links
[edit] History
Burgeoning numbers of illegal immigrants prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friend General Joseph Swing as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration immediately when he took office. In a letter to Sen. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said: “The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican ‘wetbacks’ to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government.”
Eisenhower became increasingly concerned that profits from illegal labor led to corruption. An on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, farmers and ranchers in the Southwest were becoming dependent on an additional low-cost labor. The operation was modeled after the deportation program which invited American citizens of Mexican ancestry to go back to Mexico during the Great Depression because of the bad economy north of the border.[citation needed]
[edit] Operation
The operation began in California and Arizona and coordinated 1,075 Border Patrol agents along with state and local police agencies to mount an aggressive crackdown, going as far as police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods and random stops and ID checks of “Mexican-looking” people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics[citation needed]. Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1,000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. 488,000 people fled the country for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, INS estimates that 500,000 to 700,000 illegals had left Texas voluntarily. To discourage reentry, buses and trains took many illegals deep within Mexico before being set free. Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 800 kilometers (500 miles) south.
[edit] Result
Operation Wetback deported approximately 80,000 Mexican nationals in the space of almost a year, although local INS officials claimed that an additional 500,000 to 700,000 had fled to Mexico before the campaign began. The INS estimates rested on the claim that most aliens, fearing apprehension by the government, had voluntarily repatriated themselves before and during the operation.
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article.
Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See Wikipedia’s guide to writing better articles for suggestions.
Perceived heavy-handed methods led to accusation of police-state tactics. Some argue that this public reaction helped force the operation to end. The alternate hypothesis is that as the economy to the north expanded the demand to deport decreased.
#13: I heard today on KLIV that the hotels would agree to a 4% tax to fund the expansion, which might even raze the old MLK library. If KLIV had it, it must have been in print, since they just “rip and read” their local news.
#15: how apt that we have a squat round object to remind us of it’s chief backer.
Unfortunately for those of us who will be paying for it for the next 40 years, and for those of us who use it, it is an inconvenient salute to an overactive ego.
Gone are the days when city halls of large cities are ceremonial white elephants. A city hall is to do business in, so parking, loading/unloading, access to freeways are far more important than R2D2 and misters. The Sobrato building could have housed everyone that needed to be in city hall, and Measure I would not have to have been ignored. It also has better parking and freeway access.
Too late now. So think of Ronny every time you pass the Rotunda of The Taj Gonzal; and try not to do business with any company that may hire him.
Pete, I think there are countless civic buildings across the globe that were probably deemed decadent and elitist at one time, and are now cherished landmarks. I have no doubt that the exact same CH project would have cost much less if it was a private one as opposed to a public one, but I am absolutely SICK of the concept of practicality (read that bland, boring, ‘burbish) when it comes to architecture in this town. We are the 10th largest city and it’s time we grew up and started LOOKING LIKE ONE.
But JMO, I do agree with your statement about KLIV. Do they have George Samson stationed over on Ridder Park Drive at like 4AM every morning to pick up the Merc before heading into the studio or what?
25 – Do you really think that this City Hall and it’s standalone Ronnie Rotunda will EVER be considered a cherished landmark? I doubt it. Future generations will look at this thing and wonder, “what were they thinking?”
I agree with you about bland and boring architecture, but this building does little to erase that problem. But, given the Gonzales imprint on this building, perhaps his next job will be as an architect of civic buildings. Let’s hope he takes his skillset to another city, far away from him. One Gonzales inspired building in this town is more than enough!
MarkT #25: I presume they get an early edition somehow, perhaps on-line. I doubt George drives over there. He’s too busy dreaming up the ridiculous banter he and McLoed engage in (that only they laugh at), trying to be like aging Lamonts and Tenellis.
JMO, yeah, those two hardly qualify as radio “personalities” and McLeod has turned the practice of making listeners cringe into a fine art. Even cohort George remarks about that. What’s a person who needs local traffic conditions to do?
Wondering, I’m not exactly thrilled with the new CH, it smacks of budget cuts when you look at the back side even though it was apparently designed that way, but there is no contest between the architectural attributes of the old CH and the new one. The Eiffel tower was considered by many to be an atrocity when built too. OK, OK, apples & oranges, I know, but I’m willing to let our CH grow on me. The rotunda has already become something of an identifying structure people associate with SJ. Show me any part of the old CH that could do that.
Johnmichael O’Conner and Mark T,
I would like to extend a personal invitation to both of you to visit us at KLIV, tour our news department, meet some of our reporters and see for yourself the extent to which we cover local news with stories of our own enterprise. I will even refrain from attempts at humor.
Best Regards,
George Sampson – KLIV
I had a chance to visit KLIV, I recommend it to everyone on this board… of course there’s overlap in what the Merc and KLIV cover, their reporters are often at the same council meetings and news conferences. Geez, can’t we leave our local radio station (who has the BEST traffic reports for the South Bay) out of this. If anything support them and their advertisers so they can hire more reporters…
Between the Merc laying off everyone and you guys dissing KLIV, pretty soon people on this site will be moaning about the lack of local news coverage—oh wait, you’re already doing that.
Mark T – Actually, the old City Hall was much more of a distinctive architectural statement than the new one. Besides, the only thing semi-distinctive about the new one is the dome and for all the wrong reasons—it is a standalone structure that has no connection to the main building, it serves no civic function, etc., etc.
Mr. Sampson:
As i voicemailed you in response to your voicemail to me: much of what I hear you read in the a.m. is ripped verbatim from the Murky News. Yes, you add actualities now and then; but little has changed in the rip and read format that dominates (I didn’t mean to imply it was exclusive) since my son ripped and read the news on KLIV in the early 90’s.
So I guess on the one hand that means some people like the format, though I’m confident most if not all of the profit Empire makes is from KRTY.
I stand by my characterization of your banter back and forth with John McLeod—it is just silly most of the time, an age-inappropriate and audience-inappropriate Lamont and Tonelli (sorry I misspelled the latter’s name yesterday) format.
Keep up the good work on traffic—it’s clearly the best for the South Bay.