The tumult and the shouting have ceased, the fools and conmen have departed (well, at least some of them), and now it is time to do the people’s work.  A new General Plan Committee has been established, consisting of 37 good and true citizens. Unlike the Coyote Planning group which had all the independent thought of the shills at Bay 101, this one has hope. Although there are very many development interests on it, and few genuine neighborhood advocates in the tradition of former Councilmember Nancy Ianni, I have high hopes for it. The development advocates will not have the mayor’s thumb on the scale; they will not have the unbridled arrogance of the past regime. This will be a fair, “let the facts determine the outcome” group.

Two men who left a mighty imprint have died within a short period of time. I knew them both and admired them greatly. Perhaps you would not think of Emo Biagini and Bill Walsh in the same context, but I do. Each man came from modest beginnings and achieved a great deal. The biggest thing that they had in common was the simple fact that they never forgot where they came from. Both came to San Jose to build a future. They both stayed and neither forgot their debt.

When Silicon Valley real estate baron Carl Berg was asked last week why he’s selling his multi-million-square-foot portfolio of buildings, he was quick to be precise on the reason.  He reportedly said it’s “because I can’t stand the mayor of San Jose. I believe this city has the worst development environment in the United States.” This is very interesting.

“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.

If, as the old strategist suggested, politics is war by other means, then we are seeing something new in the epic battle between the reformers and the fixers in San Jose; namely, the introduction of legal assaults to buttress the crumbing coalition of lobbyists, developers and labor that has ruled and nearly ruined our city in the past decade. You wonder how gullible, or actually, how dumb these people feel the rest of us are.

Happy Fourth of July to all of our readers and partners. We are all in this together and we appreciate your support and participation.

It is a good time to take stock of where we are as a city as the birthday of our country is celebrated. There is a new mayor, a new city manager, four new and interesting council members, and a very new spirit in the management of our city. Reform is now the watchword of all and good planning is the hallmark of this regime. While we are not swimming in the greatest competence in some areas of the administration (when has that been true), there is much to be positive about. It is up to the council and city manager to get the most out of the employees and put the best and most ethical of managers in the correct positions of power. There is every reason to believe that this is occurring.

The Freddy Krueger of land use issues is again the talk of the town as the Coyote Valley über-city of Xanadu is once more before the city council. Growth has alternately made, destroyed, bedeviled, bewitched and dazzled councils for forty years. It has made a few people mayor and destroyed the candidacies of others.  It has been the Holy Grail to some and the third rail for the careless. It never seems to leave us. It is the constant specter that haunts our sleep in this city. It is the stuff that dreams are made of.

It’s all over, apparently, without a bang or a whimper. Nary a shot was heard. The Sopranos has concluded and the charges against the former mayor have been dropped. The penultimate episodes of both have been seen. The stories of Ron Gonzales and Tony Soprano are both inconclusive. Many, thinking they are over, are dissatisfied.

It is very heartening to read of Jim Fox’s plan to renovate and restore the Sainte Claire Building to its pre-implosion splendor.  Although many know it as the Original Joe’s Building, whatever you call it, the building was a vital part of San Jose’s past and can become an important part of the city’s future. Shuttered for 35 years, it is reminiscent of the fiasco when our new Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1972 and, a few months later as workmen were performing some minor repairs, the interior retractable ceiling collapsed. The city’s answer, inexplicably, was to leave it there and litigate. (As one wag suggested, it was like leaving two cars in an intersection for two years while the guilt was assigned.) 

It’s all over in the District 4 race and it has proven to be a resounding victory for Kansen Chu. The candidacy of Hon Lien was stillborn. How and why that occurred is a rather simple matter: namely, a well-equipped and prepared candidate bested an ill-prepared one.  Hon Lien was clearly not ready for prime time, or even late night reruns. Usually in small elections, the best candidate wins.

There have been a number of recent articles in national publications about the brave new city of the west, San Jose. The Wall Street Journal stated its view of our city as the center of innovation and entrepreneurship. There is a strong effort to reap the benefits of locating the new and exciting clean-tech areas of the new economy here to join eBay, Cisco Systems and Adobe. We are trying very hard and the ability to try hard is a virtue in a person and an asset in the development of the city.

It was in the spring of 1989 when San Jose’s population passed San Francisco. I remember it well because I was with San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos when it happened. We were in Beijing, Tiananmen Square to be exact, and the reporters were apoplectic while the Chinese were frenetic. 

The departure of Susan Goldberg from the executive editor position at the Mercury News is a loss for the community.  She helped chart the way through some of the most difficult days in American media history, and the times they were indeed changing.  I guess Cleveland needs her much more that San Jose did.  Goldberg’s exit is the third major loss to the community from the ranks of the Mercury, following the much lamented departures of Tony Ridder, CEO of the media conglomerate, and David Yarnold, who single-handedly made the editorial pages relevant again, elevating the outcry over corruption at City Hall to a much needed fever pitch. I hope we see Goldberg again soon.

In the wake of some of the worst land use decisions in the history of our valley, we are faced with a real dilemma: do we use our General Plan as a guide to budgetary decisions and building a better city or do we take the expedient route of rationalization and profit?  As they elect a new leader in France, I am reminded of the legendary, but never-spoken line of a doomed queen, “Let them eat cake.”  Well, for too long we have been given such cavalier and foolish judgment in our land use decisions.  The demands of the few—the privileged class of political insiders—has predominated over the needs of our citizens.

After a long Monday, we could discuss the Sharks’ win over Detroit (third game winners go on to win the series 70 percent of the time) or the strange vote at the San Jose City Council on the Evergreen development—where six members gave the okay to “study” the conversion of over 200 acres of job-creating land to housing—or even the boom in downtown high-rise housing with the optimism that springs from it.  No, I will resist all these issues, although it is tempting to ask why six council members wished to give away 200 acres of tax base for more traffic. Old habits—selling out the future—apparently die hard even in the new City Hall.

Close to the hearts of every government watcher from Tom Paine to Howard Jarvis is the inability of government to treat our money as if it were their money. Santa Clara County contracts with the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), which invests county contributions and makes pension payments to retirees. To be fully funded, CalPERS needs a rate of return of 7.75 percent. When they do not get that, the county—we, the taxpayers—are responsible; and there, my friends, is the rub.