By 8am, Madison Nguyen had already gotten back into City Councilwoman mode after a long night of celebrating her victory in the historic recall election. She said she was “overwhelmed with joy” last night as the election results came pouring in showing that she had successfully retained her seat as the District 7 council rep.
“I was more ecstatic last night when the results came in than I was in 2005, and that was pretty historic,” Nguyen said, talking on her cell phone on her way to a meeting at City Hall.
Nguyen says she is crossing her fingers that this victory will finally close the book on the Little Saigon controversy that got her into this mess more than a year ago. “The banners are up for three years so we don’t need to focus on this issue right now,” Nguyen says.
My hearty congratulations go out to Madison for her victory over the mindless whiners concerned about nothing more than a name. Feeling as strongly as they do, perhaps they should now focus upon cooperation rather than contention and aggression.
One thing that Madison has done to increase her popularity, and it was a smart move, and I admit I was wrong to blast her and the Giants for it, was to work to get San Jose funds to help Municipal Stadium. There are significant groups of people in the South Bay that support professional stadiums and public involvement, and Madison both believed in the rightness of supporting it, and the fact that it was smart politically as well. Even the silly Tesserec, who frequently attacks minority politicians and activists on the Mercury News blog, had to back down and support Madison in this effort.
Though Madison should avoid Art and Wine festivals with Tessie on the March.
By the way, Steve Hazel, the guy that has talked about nuclear destruction and how wonderful the machine gunners in Missouri were, volunteered on the Recall Campaign. That must have gotten Madison a 1000 votes right there, imagine this wacko knocking on your door. Hazel looks like Freddy Krueger!
Before more madison nguyen supporters dump on the pro recall people, check out the article by scott herhold to hear the other side of the story.
http://www.mercurynews.com/politics/ci_11830942
Really, what was her real reason for not going along with the Little Saigon name since that was the only name that mattered to a group of constituents. Nobody else really cared what the name was. Are there any supporters for the name Saigon Business District? Just swallow your pride and name it Little Saigon and be done with it.
I still place most of the blame for this fiasco on madison nguyen and her arrogance and being unable to swallow her stubborn pride. And the difference in the no recall vote was the support from Labor. So now we have another council member who is indebted to the Labor Union. We’ll have to see how this plays out in the budget votes to come before the city.
And we’ll have to see what her political future will be in 2010 if she runs for reelection. I, for one, will be happy to see this incompetent and arrogant person go away.
2010 is when this issue should have been decided in the first place—not in a recall election.
If you don’t like what your representative is doing then vote them out of office at election time. Don’t abuse the recall process and cost taxpayers a 1/2 million dollars.
It would be nice if now we can all focus on the real problems of SJ and try to solve them but I have am not optimistic that will happen.
#3
Scott Herold is one of the most useless writers on the Mercury News. While I would hate to see the Mercury go out of business, if it means no more Scott Herold, and Mark Purdy with his “beloved Los Tiberones”, then it will be worth it.
#4-Voter said, “It would be nice if now we can all focus on the real problems of SJ and try to solve them but I have am not optimistic that will happen.”
It is easy for Madison Nguyen and everyone on the No on Recall side to feel vindicated and self righteous right now, but if Madison really does want healing in the community, she better develop a bigger throat and swallow some of her pride, and give that community a heart felt and sincere apology for her bad behavior in this. Then and only then can the healing begin.
As Master Jin Kwon says,” In the process of trial an error, our attempts are meant to destroy arrogance and provoke humility.”
“Scott Herold is one of the most useless writers on the Mercury News”.
Of course. He was the only one at that wretched, bought-and-paid-for (hello Mr Roadkill!) fishwrap who—CORRECTLY!, and repeatedly—reported that VTA was lying through its teeth about BART and about its finances.
So of course he’s “useless”. Got to serve the real masters.
Ken (#3),
Nobody gives a crap what the “Murky News” prints.
Your statment, “… name it Little Saigon and be done with it” sounds like a three-year old, throwing a temper tantrum.
By the way, thanks for being so damned loose with taxpayer funds… you and your gang wasted a cool half million.
Perhaps capital improvement and maintenance funds for the Saigon Biz District should be diverted to pay for your wastefulness.
I’m delighted to hear the good news. I went to photo graph the guy that camped out in front of city hall and starved him self. After a month my close up photos showed a healthy happy full wealthy skin guy, non the worst for starving him self and clear eyed. It’s not the recall, it’s who allowed this to happen in front of our city hall. I swear some was was feeding him Wendy’s after dark.
I’m wondering why he was allowed to hold us hostage, when no one is allowed to stay in the down town after the bars close.
I wish some one could answer that one for me.
The Village Black Smith
#3: Who cares what Scott Herhold thinks? The Merc has been on the wrong side of this issue from the get-go, as demonstrated yesterday by D7 voters.
Sounds like a real Nguyen-Win situation.
Scott Herhold stated in his opinion piece linked in #3:“In the end, when all the shouting and wailing were done, Nguyen courted trouble because she ignored her first duty. She did not perform well as a politician.”
I would suggest to Scott that her first duty is not to be a politician, it is to perform well as an elected leader. If Scott thinks an elected person’s first duty is to be a politician, he is part of the problem. We have too many elected “representattives” who spend all their time being politicians.
Based on the audio in the link Herhold provided, it seems Ms. Nguyen still doesn’t get it. She thinks it’s all over, and that she won big time.
She seems to believe that her well-funded, labor, heavily-supported campaign that won by a mere 55/45 against a poorly funded rag-tag opposition populated by a quite a few kooks has vindicated her stubborn position, which position was both ignorant and arrogant at the same time.
Although she uses the word “humble”, she certainly isn’t. Of course, many people who use it to describe themselves fail to see the irony in its inapplicability to themselves.
A little true humility six months ago, and a simple apology, may have saved the San Jose taxpayers half a million bucks.
Why does JMC think he knows anything about how an elected official should act?
Let Madison get back to work.
JMC, you forgot my peppers again.
#13-JMO,
Well said, and BRAVO! A win by 1,200 votes is nothing to be proud of, and it certainly isn’t a land slide victory.
And now we see which political camps are the first to reach their 10-foot-poles out to the powerful and influential ‘Recall Madison’ campaign and ‘San Jose Voters for Democracy’ movement.
Greg Howe
just to clarify,
I don’t live in district 7 and I am not part of the “gang”
I believe the recall was a waste of money and time.
My statement about naming it Little Saigon and be done with it was meant to apply months ago to Madison Nguyen, who seems to me, out of spite, was not going to go along with the name Little Saigon even though noone supported any other name, and frankly, nobody really cared. Why make it a contentious issue when you already have feedback about the name Little Saigon.
I place the most of the blame on this fiasco on her immaturity and arrogance.
maybe noone cares about the murky news, but a point of view was presented in that article and if you choose to dismiss it out of hand just because of the name then that’s fine.
Greg is just a very angry person. His posts demonstrate how little he knows, and we think we are getting his dosage correct sometime soon.
The Village Black Smith,
“I’m wondering why he was allowed to hold us hostage, when no one is allowed to stay in the down town after the bars close.”
I’m not sure if this is true or not, but I was told that City Hall belongs to tax payers, so he had a right to be there as he was not destroying property, or breaking the law in any way.
Secondly, he wasn’t holding any one hostage, he was protesting. There is a big legal difference in those two terms.
Maybe now we can get back on track and name it “Saigon Business District”, which was my preferance from the start.
Mr. Rowen (#18),
Good God, ever since Vic A. had that RFID chip implanted in the back of your neck, you’ve been most disagreeable.
#20-Ho Chi Minh Jr.,
Your innate sensitivity is underwhelming. No worries, Vietnam Town is in the works. That should make you happy.
#20 & 22: Most people I know still call it Story Road.
In fact, despite all of the media coverage I have yet to hear ANYBODY refer to that neighborhood as Little Saigon in casual conversation, as in “Let’s go down to Little Saigon for a bowl of pho’.” Or “I got my TV at the Little Saigon Walmart.”
So what, exactly, has been accomplished with all of this hue and cry? Not much, IMHO. I can, however, point to a quite lot that’s gone wrong!
BTW, Kathleen is right. The Vietnam Town shopping center is now under construction and going up pretty fast over the past few weeks. It’s good to see that project, and it’s resulting economic impact, back on track.
Greg, never use aliases.
Guess someone else thinks you are a pontificating putz.
Rowen, you really are one sick puppy.
#13 A simple apology months ago would have prevented this? U-gtbk. The “other side” is more stubborn than our Councilmember and definitely more irrational; I wouldn’t even characterize her as being stubborn.
LS is an international statement against the current govt of VN…I even see that. I was not in support of this moniker for this area, since it was purely a politically-motivated statement, that which our local govt did not need to participate.
Besides, this is not what I would envision as being a “Little Saigon”, run of the mill retail centers found anywhere. Even Saigon BD was better, and less controversial internationally.
As Metro reported, the owner of Little Saigon plaza, who happens to be Linda Nguyen’s father, certainly stood to personally benefit if the City offically sanctioned LS.
#19 Kathleen
Your stretching it Kathleen. You know what they say about stretch marks.
Picture several tent campers in front of City Hall next week (legally protesting)the sweeps of the campers down on the Guadalupe River.
Can you reveal to us the name of the brillant lawyer that gave you that advise, the homeless could use him?
Did the “Little Saigon” protester have a camping permit I did a search on Camping on San Jose City Hall Property. Try it.
The word used by the TV reporter was “Bizarre”!
It sure was interesting and intertaining.
Let it Go!
The Village Black Smith
#27-Gil,
You asked a question, I answered it. Now you’re telling me to move on because you don’t like the answer you got. Make up your mind! Don’t ask the question if you aren’t willing to respect the answer, or move on yourself.
28 – I doubt you can support your answer with facts. City Hall belongs to the taxpayers?? Why are permits necessary for gatherings in the plaza if your statement is factual? You also say he wasn’t holding anyone hostage—maybe not physically, but his intimidating tactics certainly paralyzed an inept group of city officials. That’s as much their fault as his. Nonetheless, his actions bullied the Council to take an ill-advised action and set a dangerous precedent for any group that doesn’t get their way. If we raised our children that way we would pretty much have a lawless society.
But you’re right—you were asked a question and you sort of answered it. Peace out.
Watcher:
” I doubt you can support your answer with facts. City Hall belongs to the taxpayers??”
http://www.ehow.com/how_2121025_defend-right-protest.html
30 – And this makes your point, how? Seems like you are reinforcing the point I made. Thanks anyway.
Watcher,
You must not have read everything on the subject matter, on the link I gave you. I have not only held, but attended many protests at City Hall, and we did not have to have a permit. I even called SJPD to be sure. The law is very clear that we have the right to gather in any public place to protest, as long as we are lawful about it.
Watcher,
I re-read your posts, and I think you and are on the same page, we are just saying it differently. I wanted to see if I could get something from the City on permits and protests but I couldn’t find General Services! Hum. They are the department that guided me through setting up my protests. If I get the time, I’ll send an email to the City Clerk’s Office to see where to go to get info on the guidelines of protests and permits.
Just so you know, I have protested animal experimentation at the Tech Center, and circuses at HP. We NEVER had to have a permit. We just had to notify the Police that we were going to protest there. We had to be respectful, and not impede their ability to do business, and we could not block doorways etc.
I also put together a peace march, in March of last year, for a friend of mine who was shot in the head and killed during a robbery at the Bank of the West in Willow Glen. We marched from his store to City Hall and had a rally there. We did NOT have to have a permit.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/vahid-hosseinis-family-speaks-out-at-peace-march/3822621372
http://willowglenextra.com/2008/06/sunday-peace-march-leaves-from-willow-st/
I’m not sure but I believe permits are required if you are holding a protest that would require blocking off streets, marching down streets and that would need Police involvement to keep the peace.
As to your comment that Ly Tong was holding our City hostage, I’m pretty sure the Little Saigon felt the opposite was true.