“Part of being a leader is to figure out how to get those six votes,” Chuck Reed said recently. What he did not say was that being a leader also entails being worthy enough to be followed. Reed is figuring out the leadership issues and he is doing very well getting the votes when he needs them. He is admired—not feared—and respected.
Terry Christensen, the political science professor at San Jose State University that has been a largely uncritical pundit of the disgraceful past, is still like a broken clock: right twice a day. One of them was his observation that “no one has emerged to lead a counter-block to Chuck, either.” Who could? Some are running for higher office, or at least one with increased longevity; some are natural reform allies; others are merely confused or properly worried about their survival. No one has the leadership ability to form a block of votes. They will be dangerous to the Reed agenda on issues where land-use bucks and political expedience align.
The true leaders in waiting are Cortese, Liccardo and Oliverio. Liccardo got off the best recent quip (he has a nice competition going with Oliverio here) with his comment: “Splitting the baby may have worked for King Solomon, but it is an awful way to raise kids.” A facile mind, broad support, and a backbone are the key to this competition, and none of the three councilmen seem anything but reliable and principled on the major issues before the city.
One can only be mystified when labor leader Phaedra Lamkins-Ellis says that “Chuck’s still figuring out how to be the mayor. I think the reality now is that you can go directly to the council and not go to the mayor.” Oh, really. One of the members of the former ruling clique, Bob Brownstein or Steve Preminger, should really tell her the reality of the post-election world of San Jose before the embarrassment intensifies. She was the General Custer of the recent electoral Waterloo (oh, why just mix metaphors when you can juxtapose battles) and ought to wake up before more debacles follow. Labor has a good and solid role to play in our valley, but first they must recognize who they are and what they stand for. Delusional thinking is not useful. Observers are amazed that this realization is so dauntingly difficult for her.
One thing is clear: outside of an occasional event, Reed is setting the agenda. This will be the case for some time and the mayor will only have to worry when powerful special interests—not a new block on the council—challenge him.
Tom:
I’ve been waiting for your insight on the DA’s decision to drop charges against the two former Gonzales aides.
Chuck Reed is George Custer, Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is Crazy Horse, Cindy Chavez is Sitting Bull. In 2010 Crazy Horse will be elected mayor, Sitting Bull will be elected governor and it will be Custer’s Last Stand at Little Bighorn (San Jose). The cavalry (Liccardo and Oliverio) will be massacred.
Christensen should be ashamed of himself, and the Mercury needs to stop quoting him in every article. He is NOT a credible source for them to go to when seeking an opinion.
As to Lamkins-Ellis, I’ve heard that she loves to put people in a tough spot and squeeze until they give in. Abuse of power is familar to her, but Mayor Reed’s respect for his fellow Council Member’s opinions and agenda’s are NOT! You’d think she’d have learned by now that our City wants an honest open government. I guess having to come before Council, and speak publicly about what she wants, must be a bit confusing and frustrating to her…I mean after doing things behind closed doors, being in the sunshine must be a bit blinding to her. I think she’s the one who’s “trying to figure out how to be Mayor!”
Mayor Reed is a GREAT leader. I voted for him, and I support him 100%, even when I don’t agree with his choices or way of doing things, I know he has the City’s well being at heart! GO CHUCK!
Tom: It’s OK with me if Phaedra remains dazed and confused…unless it brings Amy Dean back to give Phaedra some lessons she apparently needs.
New game for the kids—“Where’s Cindy?”
Reginald—another semi-anonymous person on dangerous drugs. Is he allowed to vote???
Any comments about the story concerning the return of the San Jose Earthquakes in the Merc’s sports section? I’m sure Single Gal will have something about this next week since she’s brought it up a few times before. Now all they need is a stadium.
http://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_6402193
#4 JMOC, one has to wonder about people who post using their real names, you, Greg Howe, Tom McEnery, Pete Campbell, Jack Van Zandt, etc. Why use your real name? So when you have a good idea you get the credit? When you have an average idea, it makes you appear more “human”? Go ahead and post, but do so anonymously, use a pseudonym. Unlike you, I would rather live in a world where everyone, everywhere is not who they appear to be all the time.
Use your real name, but then don’t be surprised if you’re investigated by the SEC, FTC, FBI, CIA, DEA, IRS, DoD, Homeland Security and the MHP.
#5,
Congratulations to all Earthquakes and MLS fans! I look forward to the day when those of us who follow football, basketball, and baseball can welcome a BIG THREE team to San Jose.
Dear Tom:
I have some real concerns about the MERC. I don’t mind if the paper bashes Reed everyday, so long as they keep it on the opinion pages. Last Sunday, the paper printed an article that I believe that was unbalanced and poorly written.
The article spoke of “critics” (in the plural) but then only quoted one, Phaedra Lamkins. AND, an alternative quote from someone who thinks that Reed is an able leader was not offered! Why does the paper give Phaedra a “free shot” without a quote from the other side?
Second, the paper questioned Reed’s committment to Sunshine because of the city auditor mess. My understanding was that Reed could not comment on a personnel issue AND there’s a possible harrassment lawsuit pending.
But most of all, why didn’t the paper see fit to solicit quotes and opinions from the San Jose population?
Whether you’re a Reed supporter or not, shouldn’t we insist on fair and objective reporting? Again, the paper can kick the mayor everyday if it wants, but they should keep their opinions on the opinion pages!
pete campbell
#4- Cindy is working on Hillary Clinton’s campaign, with Labor, and might be running for Blanca’s seat, or State Assembly. Cindy would be an awesome Board of Supervisor!
5: People here hate the idea of the Earthquakes coming back because Wolff should spend the profits of his zoning conversion on street repair! We need to repair streets! Forever and ever! Streets are exciting! And BART! We need BART because we want to be like the rest of the Bay Area, using antiquated transit systems instead of expanding our standard-rail Caltrain or VTA light rail!
Go Quakes
#9
I agee that Cindy would be a great county Supervisor for the East Side. While Nora is a good person, and is okay as a couty council rep, she is to meek and quiet.
The East Side needs a county Supervisor who will stand up for them and not let the other supervisors dominate her.
Blanca was great, but now it is time for her to retire and rest.
#9 and 11 speak my mind on this one.
Reginald #6: Unlike you and Oliver Stone, I do not see a government-run conspiracy everywhere to trample on individual rights of random bloggers like myself. If my assessment is erroneous, I guess I’ll suffer the consequences, perhaps I’ll be shipped off to Gitmo.
One of my heroes is David Harris. He, like I, was unalterably opposed to the Vietnam War. He refused induction into the armed services. He was tried and convicted, and served his sentence without whining. Our current world is overpopulated with whiners, who have been led to believe that they are somehow entitled to more than the equal opportunity to succeed.
I am equally opposed to this ridiculous intervention in the Iraqi Civil War. Happily for me, I am beyond the age where I could be inducted, if there were still a draft.
Uh, what’s the MHP?
I don’t post under my real name for any of the reasons you suggest. I do so because I am neither afraid of government backlash nor do I believe in cloaking ideas in anonymity. In my view, most anonymous bloggers are no better than hooded Klansmen. I accept the fact that some posts could result in negative repercussions from employers were the blogger to post under her/his real name. Thus, I can accept those anonymous posts readily. But I doubt that universe is greater than 2%-5% of all bloggers. To me, the remainder of anonymous bloggers do not have the courage of their convictions, and it reduces my respect for them, and sometimes, of the ideas they post. I have less respect for even opinions with which I agree when they are posted anonymously, under some cutesy or not so cutesy pseudonym. Some anonymous blogger here have actually tried to equate themselves with Thomas Paine and other pamphleteers of pre-revolutionary America. That attempt is ridiculous.
Some of my opinions are popular, and some are not. I post them all equally under my given name. You may not agree with me, but you will never have a doubt about where I stand; and I’m willing to put my full name on every opinion I post. The same cannot be said of many who post here.
Nam Turk,
I’m usually on board with most of your posts…BUT BART AN “ANTIQUATED” TRANSIT SYSTEM?!! Antiquated equates to Caltrain: diesel fed, smog belching, loud, slow, pedestrian killing, auto smashing transportation for the Peninsula. Antiquated equates to VTA light rail: very, very, very slow, auto smashing, two people per train transit for the South Bay. BART is state of the art rapid transit that is due for major upgrades/expansion within the next 50 years, INCLUDING the line to SJ. 300,000+ riders per day can’t be wrong. Thank you.
Go San Jose A’s of Fremont!
Tom,
“A facile mind, broad support, and a backbone are the key to this competition, ”
A facile mind has many meanings:
1. Done or achieved with little effort or difficulty; easy.
2. Working, acting, or speaking with effortless ease and fluency.
OR more appropriate to San Jose’s Council
3. Arrived at without due care, effort, or examination; superficial: proposed a facile solution to a complex problem.
4. Readily manifested, together with an aura of insincerity and lack of depth: a facile slogan devised by politicians.
5. Characterized by ready but often insincere or superficial discourse: glib, slick, smooth-tongued.
Facial Synonyms – superficial , simplistic
San Jose’s facile politicians are superficial, insincere leaders in waiting that propose simplistic solutions while only caring about their facile political careers. Delusional thinking and hiding information from public is common and what is lacking is forthright community leaders that San Jose needs to solve our problems
JMOC is like many on San Jose Inside – grumpy old men with too much free time, quick to criticize, lacking humor and always negative
It is unfortunate that he and others who have the opportunity are unwilling to do work to improve San Jose but chose to sit back doing nothing but blogging
Those who can do and those who can’t blog
#13, The MHP is the Mexican Heritage Plaza. In reviewing your post, I have to agree. You make some very good points. I have no other response than to say you’re right.
#16- I disagree. JMO has always presented credible points of view in a matter of fact way. He speaks his truth and stands by it. I admire that, even when I disagree with his positions on issues at hand, I respect his comments.
I use my real name, as I like JMO, have nothing to hide, and nothing to fear~
And so, Grumpy #16, what exactly is at that you have done besides being critical anonymously?
Mr Dominguez, electrification of Caltrain is much easier than building non-standard rail underground with specialized trains. That all adds up to a ton of money. BART was bad technology when it was introduced 40 years ago and it’s worse now. It’s 40% less expensive to produce TGV lines/trains (with bathrooms, etc.) than BART because its components have to be custom-made.
I guess this falls right in line with your desire for acceptance (“Big Three”), though. I guess if we have baseball, football and basketball teams just like Oakland and San Francisco, then we have to keep up with them by having the same crappy transit.
Kathleen who uses her real name. What’s your last name. what’s your email address. give me a break; you use your real name.
there are about 5 million kathleen in the world. which one are you?
#21- Give me a break 18, give ME a break! Move on and adress the topic.
P.S.
I think my fiance would disagree, there’s only one Kathleen, me!
OMG! 18. 19 . Are you man and wife you both are such losers. STOP IT!
19, You are so sad that you’re not even funny! you are wasting space on this blog, can’t you tell that “NO” one cares what you think? why don’t you just go away. As for me I want to wish you good luck with all of your issues and I hope you can over come all of them.
As for you Kathleen (your real name) stay away for this clown your starting to sound just like him. ha ha ha Kathleen ha ha ha
OFF Subject,
I have for the past 2 days been taking Caltrain to SF for the SEMICON Show. At the corner of Bird and San Carlos there is what has to be the ugliest new building in The WORLD. Fix it or tear it down before it blights the neighborhood.
Ray
Ray, not only is that building UGLY but it took forever to build it. After all of that waiting and shrouding, we end up with yet another hunk of architectural trash. These types of projects are approved by our planning commission and city council. Clearly, neither of those two bodies have the slightest clue about aesthetics.
I heartily endorse Nam’s last post (#20). BART a modern rail system?! What kind of modern rail system makes such incredible shrieking noises like BART does? The only area in which BART’s oddball technology excels is vendor lock-in: good for the contractors, bad for riders and taxpayers.
Caltrain has been neglected and underfunded for years, so it’s understandable that it has a less positive image. But it has the potential to be upgraded to a fast, frequent electric rail system incrementally and inexpensively. The Baby Bullet program has offered a glimpse of that potential with sub-1 hour SJ-SF express trains. Transit advocates like Bay Rail Alliance have long understood that potential and deserve praise for their vision when most had written CalTrain off as a relic.
I wonder if Mark T has ever noticed the City Hall, or the Hilton, or any of the other really awful buildings downtown (except Sobrato’s big blue bldg.—but here we go again with what’s good, what’s bad). Big developers don’t have to put up story poles with orange netting for the neighbors to huff and puff at, since it’s a fact in San Jose that neighbors design the small projects, not the Planners and Council. The big developers pay millions for their projects, so they get to choose the architect, unless there’re some sophisticates on the Council, or appointed by them.(And it’s a good thing the neighbors aren’t designing these big structures.) Chuck really does need to do something about a strategy for getting some really nifty buildings in downtown, besides the CPA, Sobrato, Shark Tank. (And the old SJ Water Co. art deco bldg., nicely set, adds a nice touch.) One woman on the Board of Supervisors in Marin County pushed through the wonderful FLW civic center, but later boards have screwed that up.
That aside, I find that the real problem with the anonymous bloggers is that they are often merely insulting, hiding while they call the up front folks nasty names. JMO is a smart, honest, consistent, thoughtful guy. The anonymous nuts refer to him as “old”, never apparent in anything he writes. “Critical” is just another nasty name, when what they really mean to say is “honest” or “truthful”, both of which hurt the mediocre in a mediocre town that he would like to see live up to its potential. (Tom can’t figure out whether he likes it the way it is, or was, or the way it could be, though “was” is his clear favorite. But he does like Chuck and Pierluigi and Sam, and the Shark Tank, all good signs that one foot is free of the past.)
As for the Murky News. Please. Thank goodness it’s about to disappear. Every day it gets thinner, and if Western Appliance and Fry’s and Macy’s can get on craigslist, it will disappear entirely. (Remember the days when a 3 line ad for 10 days, no pix, that the ad agent edited cost $250? Boy, I do. Pay now, you bastard.) A small matter compared to the full size color pik of a spoiled kid jumping on his bed ON THE FRONT PAGE. No
honest reporting of local politics at any time, while the Book of the Month Club at San Jose Country Club, chaired by Duncan O’Neal handed out Expressway contracts to the insiders, etc., etc. Or Shelley Cothran fighting San Jose Water Co for closing public roads while trying to swipe his water. The list of San Jose stupidities (Mineta San Jose International Airport!) has gone on forever, and will continue to go on. Sure be nice to hear some real detail about serious reform news in this century, when they’re already into manufacturing stories about Chuck being a lousy leader, according to Phaedra, any opinion of whose is not worth a speck of ink.
George Green
#24 Ray, #27 Mark T, If you gentlemen are talking about the eight-story, green, hunk of junk at Bird & San Carlos, as time passes you will grow to like it. I’ve seen many ugly buildings get built over the years and you learn to adapt. Give the planning commission and city council the benefit of the doubt. I’m very sure they meant well.
Tom- I know your blogg allows people to make comments on whatever they want, but it’s getting old to see the same blogger from Mayor Watch come on here, under several different names bashing people.
Why do you allow that?
#26- Why don’t you start your own blogg if bashing is all you want to do? If respecting other people’s view points aren’t your cup of tea, then why don’t you go elsewhere?
BTW- I could do way worse than to respect JMO’s comments.
Kathleen or what ever your name is. You are not using your real name. JMOC uses his real name and gives and email address.
JMOC you are not. So you get a life. Whichever kathleen you are.
Pete Campbell – although we all have opinions on the Mercury, they have been a force for good in our city since the turn of the 20th Century – and mostly on the side of reform. Let’s encourage them to push more on the city issues – it will be a good thing for us – and them. And for #15, thanks for the OED review of my column. Isn’t it a great language to have so many meaning for one word,‘facile.’ Your post reminded me of that great, recent book on the writing of the Oxfored English Dictionary – thanks! TMcE
#32- My name IS Kathleen. I don’t care how many Kathleen’s there are in the world. Tom and Jack can verify that I don’t change my name like you do, and post under other names.
Why do you want my email address, so you can harrass me privately? I don’t think so.
Unlike you, I don’t post and repost unidentified, and bash people who put down their name.
Aren’t you the pot calling the kettle black? What’s your name, and your e mail address?
I’m done addressing your ignorant rants. Go back to Mayor Watch and bash them. Oh that’s right, your blogg is…. defunked now…
Tom,
Good column today, you are generally the voice of reason in a confusing environment, our fair City.
I would agree with you on the futures of Cortese, Liccardo and Oliverio – they are the bright spots on our City Council. One more term and most of the deadwood will be gone, making way for others, perhaps better versed in their responsibilities to the citizenry.
#26 We just wish you and all your fake names would go away, and, that you take your meds. JMO’C is funny, right a lot, and insightful. I don’t always agree w/him either. But he has the right to his opinion. Kathleen does as well. So do you but insulting everyone and being random isn’t helping your cause.
Why do I use a nom de plume? Because I work at City Hall on one of the top 3 floors and I would like to stay there!
Did anyone catch Nora at the June 21 special meeting talking about how she had the nicer color skin? OMG!!!
#34- I went to the special Council Meeting for the IPA’s report. I didn’t hear Nora say anything about her skin color. What happened?
As you know, the crowd was pretty rude and noisey, so I could have missed it.
#24 Ray – Yep, that bldg. at Bird and San Carlos is not a favorite of many – but housing comes in many forms and styles so we better get used to it. Have a good day at SEMICON and thanks for “saying” you were off subject – many just write and don’t say or know. It’s alwasys ok though, we appreciate the interest. TMcE