Can we have hot meals, smooth traffic, a baseball team, living wage for car rental workers at the airport, a brand-spanking new city hall that opens on time and an ethical city government?  Well, judging by the news of the week, the answers appears to be yes, no, maybe, probably, there’s a good chance and, as the magic eight ball would say, ask again later.  Which answer goes to which question?  Let’s take a look…

First, let’s start with the big ticket items.

In the Merc, Barry Witt gives a good recap of the history behind the push to get a baseball team to San Jose and how recent events may help matters.  He goes all the way back to the Kansas City A’s, and further, to catch us all up on how we got to the situation we’re in now, which I like to think of as being in the middle innings, with our starting pitcher settling down and plenty of at-bats left.

On the other hand, possibly going the way of the cancelled hockey season, the new city hall’s June “soft opening” may have to be put on ice.  In Metro The Fly reports that, contrary to reports, the new building is not coming together as quickly as it should to meet the ambitious deadline.

Hey, has anyone else noticed that Metro replaced “Eye” with “The Fly”?  Let’s see, E… F… G… So I guess the next column will be called “The Guy”?

Of course, if traffic is hopelessly gridlocked, it’s not going to matter when the new building opens.  In the Willow Glen Resident Alicia Upano writes about the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association’s concerns about a new city transportation policy that would change the acceptable wait time at some traffic lights throughout the city.  The proposed change was unveiled at a study session with city staff and neighborhood leaders.  One side effect of increased traffic: better excuses for not making it to a study session on traffic.

I think that no matter how bad the traffic gets, people like Frank Shallenberger will still find some way to deliver hot meals and good conversation to those who need it as part of the Meals On Wheels program.  Giving us a taste of what makes this community great, the Willow Glen Resident‘s Meghan O’Hare writes about the organization’s mission, needs and impact on the people that get the people as well as those that deliver them.

Fianlly this week, the Merc‘s editorial board may not have been doing charity, but they reacted quite favorably to the proposed ethics ordinance requiring the Mayor and Council Members to disclose all donations that they request.  The new rules cover cash, in-kind services and other donations.  I guess that means we can go ahead and order the San Jose Inside t-shirts without worrying that we would be deluged with requests from city hall.