I think that we all ought to slow down and take stock of this impending election. There has certainly been a lot of heated debate on this site lately on the relative merits of the candidates for mayor. If I have it correctly, much of it is centered on two candidates, Cindy Chavez and David Pandori. Now, partisans would have you believe that Cindy is a “do-nothing” council member, a pawn of dark forces, while Pandori is portrayed as a loner DA incapable of getting along with even his family. Not surprisingly, the truth is very different.
Cindy Chavez is an effective and likable public official who has delivered some good things for her district and the city. I will mention but two: the return of many neighborhood streets from raceways and the termination of a failed redevelopment chief. Pandori was a leader in many of the things that have improved our city, the Arena and Guadalupe River Park for two. For eight years, he has been putting some very bad people in jail, making our lives better—and safer. Neither of them beats their dog, although we may see photos of just that in the near future.
Yogi Berra said that “ninety percent of this game of half mental.” If he didn’t say that, he should have. The spinners and overheated might take note. I suggest that the partisans of each side cool it a bit and allow some of the legitimate questions and concerns to be addressed.
American politics is full of scoundrels and fools, from George Washington Plunkitt of Tammany Hall (“I seen my opportunities and I took ‘em.”) to the infamous “Brownie” of the Katrina debacle. Until quite recently, San Jose has been free of such scandal and political patronage. It is a legitimate question for Cindy to address, and an important one. Yet all the good she has done, and the correctness of many of her actions, should not be erased. Likewise, Pandori can and should be asked to answer questions about his inability to work closely with others, and how that bodes for his administration if he is elected.
There are three other worthy candidates and much is distinguished about their lives and careers. Two of them, Reed and Cortese, have blogged here frequently and the third, Mulcahy, has been invited. Let’s try and make this race one of ideas and issues, not petty accusations and false posturing. It’s much more the San Jose way in “our game.”
#1—No coincidence your name is David and the only thing you want to do is attack. Look—there was notice of this vote, it was in the paper and it was on TV and it was on the radio. It was on an agenda and there were several who spoke for it and against it. Could it have been done better, yes—but in your world because the issue was not discussed at more length the council should have said no to this economic development project. This was not an easy vote for either those who supported the event and for those that did not.
Let’s be clear about the benefits of the event, filled hotel rooms, thousands of visitiors to our downtown which has had money poured into it to attract people to spend their money on its many restaurants and cultural sites, millions of people in a worldwide audience being exposed to San Jose via television and the print media, and tax dollars captured to support general services in our city. Not a bad deal at all. Major league cities host major league events. Notification could have been better, but sometimes you gotta make the tough decsions and put economic development over process and I hope to enjoy another great event this year.
In the spirit of the Lord Mayor’s post I will refrain from mentioning Lobbyist Campaign Consultants or Managers and hypocrisy.
We have very able and electable leaders. San Jose is not going to hell in a handbasket no matter who is elected.
Given the past eight years, each has the opportunity to shine by comparison.
The problem is the nature of the political system and the simple fact, it is a winner take all proposition.
Hence the heat and light of the debate.
The truth of the matter is that on most issues the candidates agree. The differences are on the margins or in one or two “big” issues, government philosophy and personal characteristics.
But whoever wins must bring this City together.
Losing an election is not the end of the world, likewise, winning one doesn’t automatically make a person “right”.
Profiles in Courage wasn’t written about a bunch of electoral winners.
I do believe Cindy and Pandori are the best of the bunch. They also, apparently, have the largest differences in issues, philosophy and personality—which is interesting given they were both elected from the same area of the City.
But in any case, San Jose needs a new era. Either of them would be a welcome change from what we have today.
Finally, Cindy Chavez is not Ron Gonzalez and Dave Pandori is not Tom McEnery. That race should have taken place four years ago.
Only a shill like Reality Check would try to justify Cindy’s vote on the $4 million. Even most of the Council will acknowledge that there was not only insufficient notice to the public but to the Council themselves. Given the lack of leadership on this Council they went along with another GonzoChavez secret deal. Perhaps, ultimately the money would have been approved, but once again Cindy was right there with Gonzales in keeping information from the public and the council. You say it was not an easy vote—those supporting it seemed to have no problem with the amount (which no other city has paid to host a race) or the method in which it is done.
As long as their are apologists like you to defend bad public policy and poor public process, then we will have to continue to fight for open government in San Jose.
After the last 8 years, Rich …. pershaps we are coming out of hell in a handbasket. TMcE
PS You did a great job heading students for McEnery!
In the sprit of rationally discussing issues, can the campaigns also not annoy the voters with phone calls? Please respect the national Do Not Call registry. I’ve gotten 2 so far, and no you don’t have my vote. I’d prefer to hear from the candidates on this blog in a debate format.
I’m looking for some discussion on the issues which will have lasting impact on the citizens of San Jose, not just the easy targets as the very poor decision of the $4,000,000 car race.
I think Mr. Shannon is pointing out the fact that both Ron Gonzalez and Cindy Chavez knew of the demand of $4,000,000 a month prior to the rest of the public, but did not mention, therefore stifling any meaningful discussion. A very valid example of a person’s true leadership, or lack thereof.
Those are the easy targets, and can be fully understood by the busy public. I’m more interested in the lasting decisions that often get overlooked by the everyday citizen, who does not really have the time to analyze the full impact or why their councilmember may have voted for it.
The proposed developments in Coyote Valley and North San Jose will have lasting impact on the quality of life here in San Jose. I’m still confused as to how the “change in plans” will better us? Certainly we need an increased tax base, but does this housing help? Will it affect traffic? How will it affect city services? What services will we need to provide which are not already there?
It will certainly create labor jobs, building these services, but at what price to the current residents of San Jose?
Is it true that Cindy Chavez is nice?
My neighbor told me this the yesterday. I thought he was crazy but just wanted to doublecheck.
Though I have to agree with some of what Reality Check said – that the event was good for our image, filled hotel rooms, brought business downtown, there were countless small businesses that were essentially shut down for that weekend because their patrons could not access them. So they had lost business, pissed off customers, and no help from the city. Were their voices heard?
I think that it is gross mistatement that “notification could have been better.” Most normal residents do not wait with baited breath to see what the council is going to be discussing at their next meeting and then they are given 2 days to get it together to speak against anything? It is disrespectful to the citizens to not give them fair warning of what is going to be decided upon especially when it is spending millions of dollars of taxpayer money.
This former 6th floorer was around when Pandori was on the Council. Though I think he has a pragmatic approach, unfortunately, his approach also alienates people. The Council needs a mayor who will be collaborative and a consensus-builder, and Cindy is certainly doing that well. It’s nice just because she’s so “nice and charming” but because she has that built into her approach…maybe it’s a woman thing, because Susan Hammer had the same approach.
The pending disaster that is Coyote Valley should be a critical issue in this campaign. It may be the last chance to save the land and our city from the deterioration of the quality of life. If the developer stacked task force has its way, then a whole new city will be created in Coyote. If you like L.A. traffic you will love what will happen in South County. Not only will we lose the last of our agricultural lands, city services will be stretched to the limit. We are already sprawling far south—who do you think will pay for new services, roads, etc.? How will we as city provide services that far south when we are stretched to the limit now.
It is time for the public to hold the mayoral candidates accountable for their votes on Coyote Valley.
There was a post last week where someone stated that all other festivals cost the city only $300K but the car race was $4 million? Is that true? How much business does Cinequest, the Jazz Festival and Christmas in the Park bring to downtown?
A few important issues our next Mayor and current City Council will be making decisions about:
1) How do we increase our local jobs and city tax revenues so that we retaining the 25%% or more of sales taxes we lose to other local cities and that results in less city services and build regional retail or entertainment with private funds that would bring more sales taxes to San Jose from residents of other local cities
2) How do we balance development and retain or improve our neighborhood’s quality of life and mitigate development impacts especially traffic, crowding of parks, community centers and other facilities as we build infill in older neighborhoods that lack or have less than city policies call for of these community facilities
3) How do we build mixed use infill development rather than housing only development since housing only does not pay for required city services. Housing only development especially in green fields areas like Coyote Valley increases our traffic and city budget shortfalls and attempts to spread under funded city services over greater new / old neighborhoods. City will be paying for new development infrastructure when we lack existing neighborhoods infrastructure unless we establish self funded utility and improvement districts for green field development.
4) How can we encourage local jobs and sales taxes revenues in mixed use development or infill areas to pay for city services with out or minimum tax subsidies or excessive development credits when some of our city policies and commercial development fees conflict with these goals. Improving our city’s quality of life is necessary to attract and retain knowledge job workers who require a high quality of life which is not currently available in many city areas without substantial improvements in our under funded city services and facilities
5) How do we balance redevelopment tax increment spending between infrastructure improvements in blighted neighborhoods required by state law and economic development projects? We should only use tax money when absolutely necessary and audit all economic development projects to assure taxpayers are actually getting return on investment of new jobs and sales tax increases at least double tax investment. Many economic development projects were justified using questionable ” multiplier “ justification when we lose 25% or more sales taxes to local cities and many sports / entertainment projects are shown in after project audits to lack the “multiplier” factor and brings into significant question these economic development projects
If we are going to improve San Jose jobs, tax revenues and quality of life it is necessary to retain and attract knowledge and other skilled jobs, which is our city’s jobs future due to our high cost of living, so we can compete with local cities, other states and countries.
We have not done as well as we should have because we have not utilized our most valuable local resource our residents skills, knowledge and innovation ability to developing comprehensive public policy, plans and land use decisions but continue to partially rely on much criticized unacceptable traditional politician and special interest driven city closed government decision process.
We should be careful to not trade one political insider group for another insider group with different goals but elect people who really believe and can produce open city government, sunshine laws and public participation not just talk it during an election.
The fairest and best results are achieved by community task forces composed of all representative groups with a strong local sunshine law and open city government with elected officials who can build community wide consensus on common goals and are able to pass local legislation that supports balanced economic growth and improved quality of life results that we all desire especially as we face new local and global challenges that need to be clearly defined as part of the community process .
It is counter productive to have endless political trivial arguments and special interests pushing policies and decisions not in public interest and waste scarce city and redevelopment revenues now or in future to fix problems created by inappropriate public policies or development.
All groups in our city share some of blame and we can all do better to work together on these complex issues for an improved common future rather than push their own interests rather than the common public interest
Our public policies and city decisions should be balance and fairly benefiting all the residents and businesses that invest either our taxes, their efforts or private funds in our city’s future
It’a also true that other cities with races do not give away public money to have the race. By the way, the race was supposed to raise money for cancer research. Anybody know if any money has gone to that cause?
So Chavez can get things done and gets consensus from the rest of the council, what does that matter if her choices are the wrong ones for the city?
#3, Love your literal “ad hominem” attack on #1, and saying the only thing he wants to do is attack. I’ll use numbers below, and you can judge my logic.
The lack of notice regarding the $4M race subsidy was disturbing. I’m more disturbed by the fact that the city faces a $40 million shortfall and these folks are giving 1/10 that amount away for a one-day car race!
Assuming every penny of the 8.25% sales tax went to the City (and it doesn’t), patrons would have to spend about 50 MILLION DOLLARS downtown THAT DAY/weekend to help the city recoup its outlay, above and beyond whatever is spent there on an average weekend. The economic benefits of these types of events are dubious at best and the costs to impacted small businesses are huge. Further, we don’t have enough hotel rooms in downtown San Jose to house 50,000 guests that could spend $1,000 each in a weekend. Most race patrons start their day in Almaden or East Side or Oakland, and they sleep at home, not at the Fairmont.
San Jose keeps trying to be one of the ‘big boy’ cities when it comes to tourism and events. The best way to make yourself a hub for this stuff is to have a real convention center, NOT a tent, a built-out airport that flies where people want to go (or need to come from), and a solid base of businesses that can host their vendors and ecosystems here on occasion, like eBay, Adobe, and Cisco. Believe me, the people who work for Siemens and Philips and other high tech companies the world over already know where San Jose is. And their next-door neighbors, who don’t know about San Jose, honestly don’t care to travel 10,000 miles to see a couple of our museums, a new ball park, or a car race. And they probably never will, as long as we have San Francisco so close. DUH.
Again, DUH.
At the same time, well attended, proven, low-cost events like the Jazz Festival are considering charging admission because sponsorship dollars are so tight. And the City is figuring out how to shutter or farm out community centers to balance the budget.
New Orleans, before the flood, was the second poorest city in the country, because its planners pursued policies of “culture,” tourism, and event hosting rather than building a solid economy given their location on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Tourism—> low paying jobs—> poverty, high crime, poor city services. Pretty simple.
Bottom line: Major league cities look at taking care of their taxpayers—residents and economic engines—before serving as the world’s playground.
Getting consensus from this Council is nothing to be proud of. This is the Council that let Gonzo run wild for 7 years even though many of them knew exactly what was going on. The Mayor is only one vote and he could not have gotten away with what he did if the majority of the Council did not let him. Cindy excelled in getting a consensus of Council members to let the Mayor operate his campaign of vendetta driven public policy, violate the city charter by not demanding that the former City Manager do his job, and the list goes on.
If you like the past 7 years here then you know who to vote for.
SJ Voter 13,
“How much business does Cinequest, the Jazz Festival and Christmas in the Park bring to downtown?”
Very little in comparison to the Race. Actally the same arguements posted by #10 Downtowner,
“businesses were essentially shut down for that weekend because their patrons could not access them”
could be said for the Jazz Fest, Xmas in the park etc. Both of those events use up our parking inventory with poeple who do not make a very significant financial impact on small businesses / restuarants.
But please note, all of the events are needed; whether the event gives an instant financial impact or mot. Many people get exposure to dowtown because of the events and become regular visitors to downtown.
Downtown Business owner
John,
do your homework – 4 million is 10 not 1 year
blame both chamber and labor worked together to get 4 million for race So get real who could have stopped it – not election of any new mayor since votes were for it
blame both chamber and labor
Joe CH Worker has a tough problem. His report for how the city can bridge it’s revenue / spending gap is due tomorrow.
He toils mightily late into the afternoon inside the half-billion dollar CH to no avail.
Still pondering the problem he gets in his car and drives past the workers pulling up the palm trees for the next car race.
At the traffic light, as he’s waiting for the empty lightrail cars to pass, his brow is deeply furrowed in thought, mulling the city’s financial shortfall.
At 5pm whilst navigating around the tipped over Norcal recycling receptacle in front of his driveway it hits him like a bolt of lightening.
“I’ve got it!” he shouts. “We’ll raise taxes!!”
“And we’ll issue heaps more meaningless politically correct proclamations on illegal immigration and gay marriage so that citizens will be happy to pay to be able to live in such the progressive, inclusive, shangri-la that is SJ.”
Tom,
Thank you for trying to bring us back to focusing on issues and ideas for San Jose’s future. San Jose is a wonderful place, speaking as a native of that other little city up the coast, and one where I’ve happily made my home.
It saddens me to see residents who are so passionate about their city displaying such viciousness towards the candidates they don’t support. It seems we have a field full of nice folks who are passionate about their city running for Mayor – we should consider ourselves quite fortunate.
How history is easily forgotten and rewritten for political attacks –
Ron got the the votes not any one council member even Cindy since he and Joe bullied everyone with help of Del’s control of city government and Rick’s legal help thanks to Tom’s Measure J control of appointments of city manager, committees and budget
The opinions on the race are not going to change. The council will have to live with their votes on this one.
Coyote Valley, North San Jose and the impacts of these decisions are staying under the radar. This discussion needs to be brought to the voters, with the candidates defending their vision of what should be done.
Please post where you think each candidate stands or should stand and how it impacts the everyday citizen.
Oops,
My error.
That’s $4 million spread over TWO years. But *where* did you get “10 years”?
Here’s my source:
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/01/16/story4.html
“On Jan. 10, the council voted 8-3 to fund a sudden request by the Grand Prix organizers for $4 million spread over two years to keep the auto race alive.”
(Note: that’s to keep it alive. That’s no guarantee they won’t ask for more later.)
And to be specific, the budget hole is $35.9M.
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0607/ForecastProjections.asp
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/budget/FY0607/ForecastMessage-JM.pdf (see page 2)
#20:
How about
1) Using your real name?
2) Citing your sources? Seriously, I’d like to know where that “10 year” reference you have is coming from.
#17/25
Looks like there are other direct benefits to local businesses you fail to recognize. See the link below:
http://sanjosegrandprix.com/news/news-sjgp3m.html
The Grand Prix is a week long event and is a regional, national and international draw to our city—Yet I do agree that the process sucked. Good event-bad process. End of the world, hardly.
#20 Novice—just when you start to make a little sense, I did write a LITTLE sense, you go and attack immigrants and gay marriage—too bad. But for the love of God please leave the attempted funny commentary to John and his posts on Friday. As many a budding comic has heard, keep your day job.
Heads up SJI – there’s a reference to God on this board.
Unless you want the ACLU attacking this board like Ted Kennedy versus an unlocked liquor cabinet – I suggest you strike #26 and pronto.
Reality Chimp – the ‘attack’ was against our CH invertabrates wasting tax payer money and oxygen by posing and posturing and issuing weepy, hand wringing, politically correct proclamations to demonstrate how compassionate and sensitive they are instead of spending time on pressing city issues.
If Channel 26 had anyone on the ball, they would market a line of nausea bags for their viewing audience.
Attack immigrants? Nice attempt at a smear.
I think all of us who have no intention of furthering the status quo and therefore will not be voting for Cindy (RC, spare me the condescending diatribe on how Cindy will not further it because she absolutely will) can clearly see that with staunch supporters like the overly caustic RC (maybe that’s too mild, it smacks more of a fatal attraction thing, and who knows who RC really is and whether he/she might end up or already be on Cindy’s staff) the disgusting arrogance of the current mayor’s administration will simply continue if the vice- mayor gets elected. Imagine what an angel Mr. Guerra would look like in comparison if a Mayor Cindy replaced him with the likes of RC.
Dear San Jose:
The thing that frosts me the most about the Grand Prix subsidy is that (to my knowledge) the promoters were not willing to make their books available for public review. If you’re going to get access to the public trust, shouldn’t you at least be required to prove that you are losing money?
Also, have you noticed the awful condition of our streets? Just wait until after the monsoon season ends…you ain’t seen nothing yet! I believe that almost total disregard for street and park maintenance will play a huge role in who’s elected the next mayor. (The past is prologue…all the voters have to do is to look at the candidates voting records to determine where their priorities lie).
Finally, why does the city have to pay the county $36 million to cover the concert hall debacle, when the building of a new venue was a risky prospect at best. There was no guarantee that the project would have been profitable for the county. This is just another painful, costly example of the current regime’s incompetence and corruption!
Pete Campbell
I see a lot of Cindy supporters talking about the great things Cindy has done, but what will she do in the future?
I’ve read Cindy’s accomplishments on the web site, the articles, and seen the endorsements.
How do her accomplishments and endorsements translate to making San Jose better in the future?
In Scott Herhold’s article she leaves us with the quote “San Jose is the 10th-largest city in the country. We can’t focus on one or two or three things. We need to have an organization that is strong enough to really embody the hopes and aspirations of the entire community.”
This is not an attack; I just can’t find her future initiatives. Here’s the only statement I can find “A safer, cleaner, open and growing city that runs on inclusive collaboration. That’s the kind of city I’ll lead”
How will she make our city safer, cleaner, open and how will she grow it? Sorry, I’m looking for details.
Did she explain this in any debate? Please no Smart Growth sound bites.
David’s go-it-alone style is exactly what many people despise in Ron Gonzales. Morever, David is good at identifying problems. However, he doesn’t have the skills necessary to bring people together to solve those problems.
SJ Downtowner #10:
Yeah, last year’s Champ race devastated San Pedro Square, due to the fact that the normally free weekend parking became expensive event parking. So, guys like Luis @ 71 St. Peter had their entire night of reservations cancelled, since people would have to pay a heavy charge to park, when it was normally free. The merchant parking validation program should apply even in race week in order to let those businesses do business. Someone please forward this to Abi—I don’t have his email address.
Re agenda notification—it should be an absolute minimum of four weeks before the council will vote, in order to give time for public comment. And, the meeting at which council will take public comment should be a minimum of two weeks before they vote.
I remember even in those halcyon McEnery years, everyone that had any savvy knew their comments were merely “for the record”, since the council had already decided the issue in The Committee of the Whole before the plebeians got to have their two minutes of comment.
Former #11: alienation is bad, and consensus is good. Unfortunately, what many people call consensus-building is merely “if you want to get along, go along”, or “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” That’s one big reason why there’s so damn much pork in DC (e.g. The Bridge to Nowhere in Alaska)and State Capitals, and even in cities.
Ed#14: If you can answer any 3 of your 5 questions, I’d vote 4 U, and so would lotsa other folks
PT 15: that question has been posed before @ SJI, and no-one has responded. Tom McE, you know lotsa important folks. Can you find out if cancer research got so much as a penny from last years race?
Good point, bedtime #16; except that the things that get done are more often than not little neighborhood bullshit issues that have no effect except for the 3 people that wanted them. The big picture is ignored at all levels. it’s just a low-rent version of the high rent pork that gets dispensed in DC.
This so-called “traffic calming” is the perfect example. Some connected neighborhood folks get pissed off because a few jerks speed through their block. Why do the speeders take the alternate route? Because the arteries are stifled by red lights.
I work out @ SJAC @ 3rd & St. James. I work @ 160 W. Santa Clara, a few blocks away. As I proceed from SJAC to work, every light is red during morning commuter time. You just cannot proceed down St. John, for instance, from 4th to Market, without hitting FOUR RED LIGHTS!!! I can and have walked it faster.
That situation exists all over this city because some little neighborhood group gets their nice friendly councilperson to tell the traffic engineers to control traffic, instead of moving traffic.
They have these barriers all over Willow Glen streets, where I live. BIG CLUE traffic folks—they don’t calm traffic, they infuriate everyone. Mr. Yaeger has raised the collective blood presure of everyone who drives in Willow Glen, and he’s so clueless that he thinks he’s “calmed” traffic. As soon as everyone passes the little barriers he has set up, the punch it harder than they ever did to make up the difference.
More later, I’ve ranted enough.
John,
1st year 2005 year agreement plus Change in term of Agreement Page 7of 16 – Amended to 9 years = 10 years plus 2 – 5 year extensions or potentially to 2024 Yes they could ask for more money in future but doesn’t mean they get it
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/Agenda/01_10_06docs/011006_09.01.pdf
We agree bad notification and too much money to race during budget crisis but again – Both Chamber and Labor wanted it so Council voted it
Who could stop them?
It’s clear that alot of the Grand Prix defenders have never worked in business. The argument that the Grand Prix ‘worked’ because hotel rooms got filled and san jose got on tv (oh my!) doesn’t answer any questions a serious businessperson would ask: If you want to prove it worked, show us the money: how much extra did businesses make, how much extra business will we get in the future because of the ‘exposure’? And how much did it cost, how much money did businesses lose, and most important: what was the opportunity cost of staging such an event in lieu of something else.
Subtract the latter from the former and you have an answer.
But we get nothing even close to that kind of rigor.
The sort of soft, gushy, ‘image-enhancing’ anaysis proffered here would get thrown out of any respectable silicon valley business’ board room. It should get thrown out of City Hall with the same alacrity.
Reality: if you want to prove a business argument, use business facts, please!
#22, Lisa, I would agree with you. Much of the bashing seems very unjustified. But it all starts here when King John IV posts his “hilarious” pig article, striking a brutal low blow to one of the candidates in the third sentence. A lot of people like to hear themselves talk. Luckily, the number of voters that read this site is inconsequential.
What will Cindy do? Glad you asked.
Cindy’s priority is to strengthen our current neighborhoods and schools.
Cindy understands the strength of our city comes from its individual neighborhoods. Our neighborhoods are all unique, but the center in life for most is the neighborhood school.
While the City is not involved in education per se, the City can provide the necessary infrastructure to strengthen schools and, in turn, neighborhoods and families who live in diverse areas of the city.
This will include City-School-Public-Private partnerships.
The City can help make schools safe—through public safety initiatives, children healthy—through the children’s health initiative and provide services and programs for parents—including a bold initiative to provide health care for everyone.
She believes in providing housing opportunities for educators and providing infrastructure that every neighborhood needs.
In order for this to work, San Jose must have a healthy economy and she will ask businesses to help in providing tangible benefits to the community at large.
Contrary to popular rumor, these will not be mandates—most businesses are happy to help within their means and Cindy will work with business leaders to accomodate their needs. Ironically, if elected, the Chamber of Commerce will be among the most satisfied constituencies.
This is just part of her vision. It does not lend itself to a 15 second sound bite, a 2 minute answer in a debate or even a rather lengthy blog response.
Fundamentally, Cindy believes neighborhoods can thrive in San Jose if given the resources to succeed. She believes each neighborhood can become empowered for itself and the City can help provide the leadership to make their needs a reality. That is her priority.
It’s not a sexy as a ballpark, Cisco Campus, Arena, Convention Center or new Hotels. But it is her priority for the City.
Her platform does not include cleaning out all of City Hall—as she does not beleive the entire place is corrupt. She will be selective in moving some people out, but will do so with a scalpel not an axe.
In short, her style and priorities will differ greatly from the current administration. She will govern in a manner similar to Susan Hammer, trying to build consensus before she leaps out in front.
She will share the credit with her Council for positive achievements and take the heat for problems that will certainly arise.
She will not agree with everybody, but everybody is welcome at the table.
It will be a welcome change—if it occurs.
The Grand Prix was supposed to generate $20 million in economic activity—nobody really knows.
There were about 150,000 people over 3 days. Just to be conservative let’s make it 125,000. All hotels were full—let’s say the average patron, with ticket, food, beverages, souveniers averaged $100 per person.
That is $12.5 million a year. Over ten years that amounts to $125 million—so a $4 million investment over ten years generates $125 million (conservatively) of economic activity—even if you halve it—not a bad deal.
The money doesn’t all go back to the City, they get some tax revenue—but somebody else will have to do that calculation.
But $4 million to generate $125 million in economic activity for the City, mostly downtown is terrific.
Sorry I don’t have precise figures, maybe somebody else can provide them. But my assumptions are conservative—lest anyone have a better model.
What I find interesting is one of the biggest critics of the “giveaway” is Michael Mulcahy—the Chambers candidate. Can anybody clarify his position or the Chambers?
#26 “The Process”
Ron says:
“What I want to say is that I’m sorry, and that I apologize for what’s taken place with the Grand Prix contract, and that it is a process that failed. I’m not proud of that,’’ said Gonzales. He said the failure was in not ‘‘communicating to the city council early and in the middle of the process what we communicated to them at the end of the process.’‘
But, he said, ‘‘I do not believe I concealed anything. I believe it was a process issue.’‘
Oh Wait, that was what he said about NORCAL!
The Grand Prix may have brought a weekend of full restaurants and hotels to downtown San Jose, but then what? As I recall everybody went home.
San Joseans who don’t own a downtown bar, restaurant or hotel did not get to milk this short legged cash cow…they just had to help pay for it. Is it any wonder Gonzo had to slip this stinker past everyone without time for public comment? (Sorry Bounced Reality Check, even Very Nice Sunshine Cindy admits more time is needed to study issues that come before the council.)
There was no long term benefit to San Jose, or apparently to cancer research. (Good question Pete, why WON’T the Canary Fund open its books? They are asking for a public subsidy. The council should DEMAND it!)
Ah, but there was all that TV exposure!!! Whoop-de-freakin’-do. Are we famous yet?
My guess is most of the people who watched the race on TV were doing just that, watching a race but not planning their next vacation. (There’s also the minor issue that the race that fans saw was a pretty poor one by most accounts, but let’s not get bogged down in technicalities.)
Here’s the best part: The brain trust that runs this burg is busy planning the next race! Why? Because our disgraced Mayor wants it and there’s not enough collective political will in San Jose to stand up to a handful of downtown interests and say “Nope, not again. This idea didn’t pan out.”
“the return of many neighborhood streets from raceways”…. Or do you mean the handing of $4,000,000 to Champ Car to turn downtown streets into a raceway without providing the public adequate notice?
I’m not sure what you mean by “petty accusations and false posturing”, but let me be clear that I felt that was a defining vote. For Cindy Chavez to ignore the recent history of secrecy and misinformation of this council and vote to give away $4 million dollars when only she and Mayor Gonzales had notice of this was just wrong. Perhaps it’s petty of me, but that vote showed to me Cindy’s true attitude toward citizen involvement and it’s not pretty.
Tom,
You know as well as I that as elections approach, a lot of money has been raised and spent, the polls are close, passions are high and hot blood is getting hotter that the level of rhetoric and rancor gets further and further out of hand.
Unfortunately, no matter how much people protest that negativity does not work, we all know that it does. There will be those pictures of dog beatings coupled with other scurrilous charges.
I only hope that our electorate in San Jose is wise enough to winnow out the wheat from the chafe, the truth from the BS.
Our candidates are good people all, but as we get closer…….
#46 All one has to look at is Horace Mann Elementary School to see the type of school-public-private partnership Cindy is talking about. Here was RDA money well spent and has helped transform a former drug plagued neighbohrood into a shinning example of what can happen with strong neighborhood organization and a city that listens and targets money toward real change, not just rhetoric.
Education is something many feel is not a “City” issue—that is just not the case. Our city rightly invests in homework centers to help youth after school have a safe place to get help with their homework, do research, and interact with caring mentors. The city pays for child care programs, everyone agrees that early childhood education is one key to success in the classroom later in life. And the city provides many school age growth and enrichment activities that expand the minds of youngsters, expose them to the arts and teaches them the dangers of drugs and gangs. The city sponsors a stranger danger program and has a host of anti-gang and drug education programs to reinforce what should be tought in the homes and classrooms. See what can happen when RDA is spent wisely, revitalization and better educated kids, who would have thunk?
http://hme.ca.campusgrid.net/home
She has led and will continue to lead on giving neighborhoods RDA dollars to spend on their priorities. Organized neighborhoods is a great goal, but without some real input and direction at the neighborhood level on where dollars should be spent then it is more of the same. City beauracrats telling the neighborhood what it needs as opposed to the other way around. SNI changes that dynamic, neighbohroods produce their priorities and then go after city dollars to fund those priorities and there has been a host of common sense fixes in neighbohroods directed by neighbohroods because they know their neighborhood best, sort of Republicanish but it has worked.
It is also not odd coincidence that many of the SNI priorities revolve around safe schools and that schools are usually the hub of neighbohrood organizing activity. Schools and improving neighborhoods by funding neighborhood priorities is specific and detailed and for the nuts and bolts try this link:
http://www.strongneighborhoods.org/
You want more, call her—as you know she is know to meet with constituents, even at her house, Who knows, maybe you can secretly plan on how to improve your local school and or strengthen your neighborhood association.
#39 Mal-o-drama,
Rant if you will about the Grand Prix and how it was a bad deal for the City and a failure and whatnot. But you gotta chill on the cancer research and the Canary Fund. Your charges are not factual, again, and you are giving all the true malcontents a bad name. Here is the Canary Fund web site, go to newsroom, funded programs, etc. and relax man or woman, they are doing some good things—
http://www.canaryfoundation.org/
42 – You miss the point, as so many do on this site. The question is not does the Canary Fund do good things or not—it is how much money did the San Jose Grand Prix generate for the Canary Fund. The race was sold as a benefit with proceeds going to the Canary Fund yet we have never heard if they got dime one yet we have given away $4 million + to the race organizers.
The second Noah’s Ark
In the year 2005, the Lord came unto Noah, who was now living in the United State s, and said, “Once again, the earth has become wicked and over-populated and I see the end of all flesh before me. Build another Ark and save two of every living thing along with a few good humans.”
He gave Noah the blueprints, saying, “You have six months to build the Ark before I will start the unending rain for 40 days and 40 nights”.
Six months later, the Lord looked down and saw Noah weeping in his yard …. but no ark.
“Noah”, He roared, “I’m about to start the rain! Where is the Ark?”
“Forgive me, Lord,” begged Noah. “But things have changed. I needed a building permit. I’ve been arguing with the inspector about the need for a sprinkler system. My neighbors claim that I’ve violated the neighborhood zoning laws by building the Ark in my yard and exceeding the height limitations. We had to go to the Development Appeal Board for a decision.
Then the Department of Transportation demanded a bond be posted for the future costs of moving power lines and other overhead obstructions, to clear the passage for the Ark’s move to the sea. I argued that the sea would be coming to us, but they would hear nothing of it.
Getting the wood was another problem. There’s a ban on cutting local trees in order to save the spotted owl. I tried to convince the environmentalists that I needed the wood to save the owls. But no go!
When I started gathering the animals, I got sued by an animal rights group. They insisted that I was confining wild animals against their will. As well, they argued the accommodation was too restrictive and it was cruel and inhumane to put so many animals in a confined space.
Then the EPA ruled that I couldn’t build the Ark until they’d conducted an environmental impact study on your proposed flood.
I’m still trying to resolve a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on how many minorities I’m supposed to hire for my building crew.
Also, the trades unions say I can’t use my sons. They insist I have to hire only Union workers with Ark building experience.
To make matters worse, the IRS seized all my assets, claiming I’m trying to leave the country illegally with a cargo of endangered species.
So, forgive me, Lord, but it would take at least ten years for me to finish this Ark.”
Suddenly the skies cleared, the sun began to shine, and a rainbow stretched across the sky.
Noah looked up in wonder and asked, “You mean, You’re not going to destroy the world?”
“No,” said the Lord. “The government beat me to it.”
I know, I know: bureaucrats and not beauracrats—sorry—
Rich, Reality, et al—You can spin for Cindy all you want but those of us who have consistently negative experiences will not be convinced that she should be our next Mayor.
You also spin that schools and education are somehow a city function, but until the city can deliver the basic city services the schools should be dealt with by the appropriate levels of government which does not include city government.
You also like to ignore her major negatives (I would ignore them too if I was trying to defend her.) They have been raised time and again on this site but her defenders can offer only luke warm response at best.
The fact remains she has been Gonzales’ chief enabler and by doing that has allowed much damage to occur in the city and in city hall. It will take years to undue the damage and I don’t think that electing CIndy—who helped cause the damage—is the answer to repairing our city.
#48 What Mal-o-Yellow posted was:
“There was no long term benefit to San Jose, or apparently to cancer research.”
I disagree and the facts do not support that there was …apparently no long term benefit to cancer research….
Go to the web site and send a question to the Canary Foundation and ask them how much from San Jose’s Grand Prix went to research. You will be surprised by the answer. My problem with Mal-o-Yellow is the shoot from the hip, no facts in evidence, reckless charge he or she makes.
So listen Abe, do the right thing, research the issue and educate yourself on the wonderful things the Canary Fund does—
http://www.canaryfoundation.org/
Hmmmm…
I don’t see schools as a city priority and I don’t understand how the neighborhood priority will happen.
If I parse your answer, she will “provide infrastructure that neighborhood needs” and “neighborhoods can thrive in San Jose if given the resources to succeed”.
What are resources? Does that mean she will split the redevelopment money equally across the city?
Reality Check #47,
Its great that you and Rich are so enthusiastic about Cindy. I would like to share that enthusiasm by knowing what she will do when elected mayor. Yes, she does have a track record of accomplishment like most of the candidates.
I do not understand why Cindy cannot spell out her plans for San Jose on her own, such as on her web site. I would love to read a few white papers on her web site about her vision for San Jose and the details about how she will go about accomplishing that vision.
Yes, I like many other San Jose residents would like to know more. If she is going to lead nearly one million residents, stopping by my house is not the most efficient use of her time when she can reach so many more by making good use of her web site.
If she is unable/unwilling to communicate her vision during the campaign, I question how effective she will be as mayor. Stopping by residents houses just doesn’t scale in a city as large as San Jose.
#44
“what are his/her priorities” is a horrible question in the age of polls. Any sensible politician will have vaguely stated priorities that poll well. They’ll be in favor of neighborhoods, essential services, and working together.
Specific policy proposals with funding are a much better gauge. It takes some spine to propose a tax increase or budget cut. It tells me what I can expect if they get elected.
Megan’s law doesn’t count. Everyone knows it polls well and politicians are tripping over themselves to take credit.
Teacher home buying is halfway there. Include how to pay for it, and it is enough to debate.
Greg
JMO (#49),
Your post was so good that Rick Doyle immediately prepared a comma-fortified policy to protect his city from the building of any unauthorized ark, music hall, or anything else:
“No, structure, of, any, kind, shall, be, built, in, this, county, state, nation, or, planet, without, the, express, permission, of, the, City, of, San, Jose.”
#42-
That’s a really pretty web site, but it does not answer the basic question: Did the Canary Fund make a profit (or lose money) for cancer research in it’s sponsorship of the San Jose Grand Prix?
It’s easy for a nonprofit to claim it is operating in a fiscally responsible manner, quite another thing to open its books and prove it. My point, since you seem to have missed it, is that if The Canary Fund wants a public subsidy for what is supposed to be a fund raising event it should be willing to undergo reasonable financial scrutiny. The city should demand it before forking over $4 million.
By the way…while our city leaders were busy watching race cars go round-and-round downtown it looks like Fremont was quietly making a deal to land the A’s. Oh well, at least we’ll have one weekend of full hotels next summer…
Cindy, Cindy, Cindy—are there not other candidates in this race, what are their concrete proposals, on their web site or not, with funding mechanisms and how will they get their ideas to come to fruition? Remember, most on this blog are insiders or wanna be insiders, the electorate will begin to tune in as the absentee ballots begin to arrive in homes—that is when the real debate begins—being up on tv now or too much before the absentee ballots are out is an act of desperation governed by stagnant poll numbers—web sites are great but I really do encourage you to call her and ask her these questions, I would not advise her to, but she will probably call you back and talk with you, but do it after 9 pm so she can continue to walk precincts and man her phone banks—
#51 Abe—the residents who were polled just do not see it that way—get out a little more and speak to some outsiders about how they feel about their city. In case you missed it here is the link to the poll published in the Mercury News:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/pdf/CommunitySurveyReport.pdf
#49—Too Funny!
Rich,
You are doing a good job of representing Cindy Chavez and the qualifications that she brings to the race. However, what it amounts to is a status-quo or status-quo plus position.
That is understandable as you are part of the consensus group that leads the city. To me as a resident and parent who isn’t part of the in group, things aren’t horrible but we seem to have settled into a consensus of mediocrity. I’m not looking for everybody to be fired but I would like a little shock applied to the system to get people thinking differently.
The two anti status-quo candidates are Michael Mulcahy and David Pandori. In Michael’s case, he promises to bring a pragmatic business developer’s sense to downtown redevelopment. This has been sorely lacking as the RDA seems to hire recycled political types with no private-sector experience. His arts background also promises some out-of-the-box possibilities for development.
Pandori has raised one very important question. That is development of Coyote Valley and how that will pay for itself. It is hardly news that Silicon Valley uses San Jose as it’s housing dump. We have a terrible jobs to housing imbalance and a lousy tax base. We can never become a 1st class city with our lousy tax base. Somebody needs to sit down Carl Guardino and his buddies and let them know that we have a price for supporting the housing needs of industry. Pandori seems like the only candidate with the guts to have that conversation.
Pandori however lacks business experience. His hostility to redevelopment proposals in north San Jose could easily create an anti-business climate. As far as I can see, North San Jose is our cash cow and it is important to work with the businesses and landowners in the area to maintain and increase revenue from that area. Pandori needs to convince me that he understands that. I think that Mulcahy already gets it.
So I’m left leaning to Mulcahy but glad that Pandori is bringing the Coyote issue to the fore. If we screw up Coyote, we could end up with a deficient revenue stream and no amount of good intentions, public-private partnerships and neighborhood concern can fix that. It seems to me that the status-quo candidates are likely to screw that one up.
Your thoughts?
Mr. Perry,
Obviously nothing will satisfy you.
The question is what will she do ie. how will she govern?
Specific policy initiatives have included and will continue, as indicated above, the children’s health iniative, expansion on the teacher home buying program, she is advocating expanding the health initiative to include all of San Jose, she helped initiate Megan’s Law, supported the bond measure for the libraries, spearheaded the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative.
But the more important question is what are her priorities and how will she govern.
If you want a laundry list of new irrelevant policy initiatives—try Chuck Reed—he’s great at coming up with redundant, grandstanding, numerical proposals.
In fact, I think he expanded the 10 commandments to 34.
What we need is not more growth in government, more laws, more policies, but utilizing the government we have more efficiently. Now, that’s a novel approach.
All candidates need to give us an idea of the type of people they will surround themselves with should they be elected. They can start by telling us if they are elected, would they have a place in their administration for Joe Guerra or would they be sure he never walks the halls of City Hall as a city employee again???
#56 A’s to San Jose is a nice dream and a great political sound bite but please check your facts—Unless and until the Giants give up their territorial rights to San Jose there will be no A’s baseball here. San Jose could promise the moon to the A’s or any other team under the sun—does not matter, the Giants control the rights to San Jose—Unless a majority of owners say otherwise, there will be no baseball in SJ anytime soon—
Also, I encourage you to contact the Canary Foundation and ask your questions of them.
60—Shouldn’t the city have already contacted the Canary Fund to know how much they benefited—BEFORE they gave away the $4 million?
RC –
I am with you on the Grand Prix. You can’t buy that kind of international coverage for $4 million. The process has been well discussed topic on this site – I’ll stay out of that one.
In a side note, you have mellowed a bit since your debut on the site. Maybe we will keep you around.
Let’s get back to Ed and his talking points. I think he is onto something.
SW
Rich,
If it is so obvious what Cindy will do if elected mayor, why doesn’t she tell us herself on her web site? I would like to see the details of what you claim she will do such as the magnitude of the resources she will give the neigborhoods. What is she going to ask of businesses? What will be accomplished with city-school-public-private partnerships?
Sounds vaguely nice but without the details I have no idea what it all means.
Reality Check #57,
Yes it is Cindy, Cindy, Cindy because she is vice mayor and the front runner in this election. At this point I do not care much about the other candidates and want to learn more about Cindy’s vision for San Jose.
I do not see it as an act of desperation for Cindy to add some content to her web site about the details of her vision if she is elected mayor. I am not an insider nor a wannbe, just a San Jose resident who is sad about the direction our city has taken under Mayor Gonzales.
The imagine of Cindy sitting around her dining room table with San Jose residents reaching consensus on solving San Jose’s problems is good for a campaign but impractical in a city approaching 1 million residents. She needs to reach out and communicate to the largest number of residents. Adding content to a web site can’t be all that difficult. She could even start with Rich’s comment in #36
Reality Check – you sure know a lot about the city workings, memos, etc. Can you please outline her “concrete” ideas and “funding mechanisms?”
#59 Mulcahy and Pandori said that they would not hire Guerra at all. I think that Cindy, Reed, and Cortese said that they would consider letting him keep a job with the city – so that he can keep his precious health benefits.
#60. I agree Major League baseball in San Jose was a long shot but our city leaders, Cindy included, staked a claim on a downtown ballpark and started the process of buying up land.
I will give them credit for including a fall back position, the old standby of “affordable housing,” to cover their behinds if the A’s don’t come to San Jose.
If there was ever a chance to break through the territorial rights impasse, as the local brain trust insisted there was, the opportunity now seems lost. It looks like Fremont simply has a better offer: fewer strings, more land, and a great deal for Lew Wolf.
Fremont gets the A’s, a stadium and a lot of new housing. San Jose, the former home of the Earthquakes, gets the indelible image of Gonzo and Larry holding misspelled signs. Oh yeah, and the Grand Prix.
It’s 1,2,3 strikes you’re out at the old ball game.
Damnit.
#61 Do you know that the city did not contact the Canary Foundation and ask that question—it is a valid question and one I hope you get answered.
#62 Good idea Steve. You should send it over to her campaign or call and have a secret meeting on how best to improve San Jose:
http://cindychavez4mayor.com/ShowPage.asp?page=default.asp
#63—” I think that Cindy, Reed, and Cortese said that they would consider letting him keep a job with the city – so that he can keep his precious health benefits.” Don’t know where you heard or read this, but hey, I don’t have a subscription to the Enquirer so I may be in the dark. I don’t believe that any of them will keep Joe on but it is a good question that I hope all will answer.
#64 You may be right about the Fremont deal—huge public subsidy, free land, more money for Lew Wolf, like he needs it. They must not be reading the SJI blog about public subsidies and how shameful they are and not worth doing. Oh Well, we need housing for our workforce and to attract more companies to San Jose. But let’s not forget that our major league hockey team is in the playoffs!!!!!
Mal – it coulda been worse, the A’s could’ve chosen Milpitas over San HoseA.
Bedtime – Does CH have a basement? If so then give Guerra a subterranean cube like they did the guy in “OfficeSpace”.
#36-
The first sentence says it will answer “what will Cindy do”
The next twenty sentences dance around the question, without ever mentioning a specific policy proposal. The closest is a vague reference to “city/school/public/private partnerships”
At the end of it all, I know nothing more than I did at the start. Other than that you dodged the question.
I guess I should be satisfied that the Grand Prix crowd fills the hotels, but instead I wonder why the hotels are so empty in the first place? Why can’t our downtown hotels compete with their booked to capacity competitors up the peninsula? Is it true, as I’ve heard so many times, that even those travelers doing business in San Jose prefer to avoid staying in our downtown?
Novice #66-
Dude it IS worse: the Earthquakes are in Houston. San Ho couldn’t even hang onto it’s soccer team.
Let’s just hope when someone yells “Go Sharks” they don’t take it literally.
Rich doesn’t really tell us anything new. Cindy certainly has some accomplishments that deserve accolades. The problem is her lame reasoning for not taking action to stop the reign of this mayor. Human compassion is wonderful, but when it apparently completely dulls your own sense of integrity and leadership, some blame has to fall on Cindy. SImply stated, she waited far too long and did far too little to help right the course of the city. This late-to-the-party “leadership” did as much to hurt San Jose as anything the mayor has done.
No one was asking her to do anything for “political purposes.” Just do the right thing for the right reason—not that tough but she didn’t do it. This alone makes her unworthy to be mayor, but unfortunately, there are other reasons as well that have articulated here including NorCal, Cisco, new City Hall funding, etc. These are major issues and it doesn’t matter how nice she is or what she did for this neighborhood or that neighborhood—she has hurt San Jose, she has damaged the reputation of the Council and City Hall, and she should not be rewarded for that by being elected Mayor.
Please note that I already said she is nice so this is not a personal attack—merely an expression of profound disappointment in someone who could have so much more of a positive difference.
RR Please objectively state Cindy’s 10 worst mistakes and her 10 greatest accomplishments while in office over the past 8 years. After all, these candidates are only human. Then we can get on with a real exchange of ideas with open minds.
>How Long Do We Have? (best viewed full screen)
>
>About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in
>1787,
>Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of
>Edinburgh, had
>this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
>
>“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a
>permanent
>form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time
>that voters
>discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.
>From that
>moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the
>most
>benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy
>will finally
>collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a
>dictatorship.”
>
>“The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of
>history,
>has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always
>progressed
>through the following sequence:
>
>1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
>2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
>3. From courage to liberty;
>4. From liberty to abundance;
>5. From abundance to complacency;
>6. From complacency to apathy;
>7. From apathy to dependence;
>8. From dependence back into bondage.
>
>Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
>Minnesota,
>points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential
>election:
>
>Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million;
>Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000
>States won by: Gore: 19 Bush: 29
>Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2 Bush: 2.1
>
>Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was
>mostly
>the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore’s
>territory
>mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements
>living off
>government welfare…”
>
>Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency
>&
>apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some 40
>percent of
>the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental
>dependency” phase.
>
>Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing
>that
>apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom
Willow Glen Dad and I Love San Jose,
WGD
The single biggest problem in Silicon Valley, according to CEOs is the lack of affordable housing. To maintain our economic base we have to have housing.
Putting large housing developments in current neighborhoods doesn’t seem wise or prudent. To build the type of housing we need would alter tremendously the character of those neighborhoods.
High density housing can go downtown, along transportation corridors (hence the need for BART), but it fails to meet the all the needs expressed by our business leadership.
Hence, Coyote Valley. I agree it must be planned correctly, with the necessary transportation infrastructure to move people to the job site.
The Pandori position seems to be that the City put in triggers for housing development years ago and those triggers should be met before housing goes into the last large land area in the City.
But the economy and world has changed dramatically since that plan was put into place. The Council is seeking to change it to meet todays needs.
Pandori would disagree that the change is needed.
The debate is about the past, present and future of San Jose. CEOs today say they need housing for their employees.
What happens if the housing is or isn’t built? Do the companies go away? Do we become another Detroit?
Certainly, if Silicon Valley businesses cease to exist, housing stock in San Jose will increase for all the wrong reasons.
The question is if we don’t put the housing in Coyote, where does it go, what neighborhoods will it impact?
I don’t know the answer, but the debate is worthwhile.
I love SJ
I can’t give you ten and ten, it’s an arbitrary number and irrelevant to the debate. But I can tell you some of what, in my opinion, she has done right and what she has done wrong—trying to be objective from a political perspective.
Right: Childrens Health Initiative, Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, provided leadership by consensus, she has led the Council during an absent, destracted and besieged Mayor’s tenure—without seeking the limelight.
Wrong: From a political standpoint, she should have thrown the Mayor under the bus long ago.
In her defense, her methodology is not to leap to conclusions, to give the accused the benefit of the doubt, to work within the existing system, and—she has a human empathy that makes her a worthy leader.
She did what she had to do in bringing the Censure motion, but wasn’t pleasant. It wasn’t done with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm and it pained her personally.
It is important to remember that everyone we talk about on this board is still a human being. This sometimes gets lost in the political dialogue.
She also believes, correctly, that a weakened Mayor, weakens San Jose. She did not want to hurt San Jose’s Agenda.
Personally, I think it is a testament to her character. But she is paying a political price for it now—and she knew she would.
(I hope I am not breaching any confidences with her in telling you we had a long conversation on this very point. She would not throw Ron under the bus simply for what she believed at the time was political purposes.)
If she loses, she would be a candidate for Profiles in Courage—but she probably sleeps well at night.
Sorry for the late, long answer—
R.R. I asked for 10 of Cindy’s greatest accomplishments and 10 of her worst mistakes during her last 8 years of service . You only came up with 2 accomplishments and one “political” mistake,followed by an excuse. This is not a debate or a spin zone. I am just looking for the facts and who is best to lead our great city.Please keep your list concise .10 and 10 no excuses! After Cindy I will ask the same of the other 4. I hope you set the bar high for those who follow.
R.r. #71 Are we still just the “Bedroom of the Silicon Valley.No! We need those triggers more than ever before we build in Coyote Valley.Don’t forget about quality of life for those of us here. Who would want to live in S.J. at present cost of living with the traffic of 2000 or worse.City services are already streaced too thin.
Some interesting Q&A with the 5 candidates.
http://www.markisit.com/vepca/406MayoralInsert.pdf
The $4M give away to the race sickens me!
I am a budget analyst for the city. Over the past year, I have seen several budget proposals offered by staff recommending that the city spend money to upgrade/improve the efficiencies of city facilities. In total, there have been about $500k in proposals. These investments would have had a 9 month payback and saved the city $1.4M per year in reduced operating expenses. NONE of the budget proposals were approved!
It truly sickens me to know that the elected officials are squadering the public’s money like this.
R.R. You state Chavez feels it would tremendously alter the character of the existing neighborhoods to build the housing we need.Yet Chavez voted to destroy the character of our neighborhood by voting to demolish and not requiring an adaptive reuse of the most interesting and historic portions ofthe Del Monte Cannery next to O.S.H..Please don’t say it cost too much!All she would have had to do is look to S.F. and Monterey and the great success of Geredelli Square sp.? All she wanted to save is a water tower !Where was her leadership her vision.Now we will have more of the same generic K.B. homes that add nothing to the great character of our city. And we wonder why nobody visits S.J. Unless our city leaders get an apreciation for our unique heritage and a vision for our future we may as well change our name to “The City With No Pride ” P.S. Wasn’t that Chavez who stated that she would throw out the Historic Design Guidlines that the citizens of S.J. and City staff just crafted.What message does this send to the poor developers who respect the guidelines?Our Downtown National Historic District is one more example of Chavez’s lack of respect for our heritage.She voted to approve them ,now she throws them out the window.What a waste of tax payers time and money.If the flip flop fits than she must wear it! Cindy is Ron in a dress.
I agree jobs need to come first.
The new mayor should not be listening Silicon Valley CEOs, he/she should be listening us the voters. We don’t want more traffic.
Adding more housing in south San Jose is not the solution. If we didn’t have the traffic problems and long the commutes, we could work longer hours and be more productive, which also helps Silicon Valley.
I really doubt the new homes in Coyote Valley will be affordable. We need to build affordable infill housing near transient lines and jobs. We need more high paying jobs closer to home.
76 – Thanks for the link. Interesting reading. Cindy used more words (and went over the requested limit) yet never actually answered the questions. Maybe somebody from Cindy’s camp could actually let us know the answers to the questions she was asked. Don’t give us more of her campaign speech as she did on the questionaire—please, just give us some straight answers so we actually know what her positions are. Don’t knock down the other candidates, don’t go spinning, just answer the questions with a response that doesn’t need a team of experts to try and decipher what her answer means.
Simple, understandable, direct responses would be appreciated.
At the Big 5 debate, Cindy said say she was in favor using eminent domain.
Just released, San Jose RDA pledges not to use eminent domain
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/04/10/daily76.html?jst=b_ln_hl
Reality, RR, how is she going to vote?
#76 – A great link! I printed and read the whole thing. It’s odd how some would not answer DIRECT questions.
VERY DIRECT questions.
Anyone care to do an analysis?
I love San Jose,
Why ten? Why not 12 1/2? Or to shorten, why not 6 5/8.
We could do 7 and 7 but that might seem awkward. Doing 4 and 6 would make 10, but that might tilt the scale on one side, likewise 8 and 2.
No—you obviously want balance, rigid balance
If you don’t have 10 and 10 you can’t make up your mind. Poor soul.
With apologies to George Carlin and others who point out the absurdity of rigid lists for no reason.
Hey, Rich—How about just 9? The number of questions on the VEP questionaire that Cindy didn’t answer.
Reality “Fact” Check – This is from Scott Herhold’s column on Guerra on 3/26 in the Mercury News – maybe you have read it sometime. I mixed up who would let him stay on with the city but I don’t make up facts – I will leave that job to you.
“All of the mayoral candidates—David Pandori, Dave Cortese, Chuck Reed, Cindy Chavez and Michael Mulcahy—told me they wouldn’t hire Guerra. Pandori and Cortese said they didn’t want to see him hired in the city, period.
In varying degrees, Mulcahy, Reed and Chavez left the door open for Guerra to work elsewhere in city government. Reed said he might consider it if City Manager Les White found a place for Guerra. Mulcahy said he didn’t want to be punitive. Chavez, while lauding Guerra’s accomplishments, said he should be disciplined and take time away from public service.”
#67 In our form of government the City Council can only hire and fire their staff or their appointees, (City Clerk, City Attorney, City Manager, etc.). To have the City Council or Mayor have hiring authority for city employees other than their appointees is against the City Charter and would be scary to say the least.
You bet you got it mixed up as your recent post admits, “…I mixed up who would let him stay on with the city but I don’t make up facts…”. I guess you kind of made up facts, but hey close enough for SJI.
Ask voters who Guerra is and you will get a bunch of blank stairs but hey you gotta grasp at straws sometimes.
Dear R.R.
If Cindy can’t come up with 10 accomplishments after being in office for 8 years…that is sad. If she hasn’t made 10 mistakes…that is tragic. If one does nothing in office…no mistakes can be made except for accomplishing nothing. Is her evasive response proof of her inaction while in office? First we must own up to our mistakes before we learn from our mistakes and then hopefully not repeat our mistakes. As for the number 10….my intent is to be equal and fair to all 5 candidates. No more no less. I know this might be hardest for you since you are the first to respond….I will give you one more chance before I ask the same of the next candidate. I hope you will assist all those who love San Jose and want to cast an informed vote for San Jose’s next leader. There are many who remain undecided, educate us about Cindy.
Rich,
I think it should be 7, there are that many days in the week, and 7th Heaven was my friends favorite TV show, 7 is a craps winner on the come out roll, and you can always drink a cold 7-Up on a hot day, and of course the movie the 7-Ups was a classic, and there is the kid’s game what’s up 7-Up…I could go further but you get my point—Yes, as Rainman would say, it’s definitely 7, 7.
Have a great Easter, even you campaign consultants who are lobbyists…..
Richard 44, I’m not sure why you don’t like Chuck Reed’s proposals, but his voting record, which frequently takes the opposite [read-sane] position from the Ron-Cindy axis of evil means he’s probably going to get my vote. I really don’t see Cindy as anything more than Ronny in drag. She’s better at the touchy-feely BS, that’s all.
More Cindy Chavez,
Led the effort to provide access to health care insurance for every child in San Jose
Led the fight for Megans Law and safer neighborhoods. Thats why Cindy is endorsed by the San Jose Police Officers Association and the Sheriff.
Established the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative to give San Jose residents a powerful-voice in how the City spends dollars on our neighborhoods.
Chairs the Valley Transportation Authority and champions BART to San Jose, the High Speed Rail, implementation of a bus rapid transit system, and over a dozen major road improvements already underway. She is also a strong proponent of expanding services for seniors and the disabled.
Built a partnership between the City and San Jose schools. An example being the transformation of the Horace Mann Elementary from a depressing collection of portable classrooms into a state of the art academy with one of the most rapidly rising student achievement rates in the City.
Removed barriers to high-rise housing in downtown San Jose, vastly increasing affordable housing.
Led effort to censure Mayor for misconduct.
Proposed Sunshine Reforms for SJ Government, currently in process.
She was instrumental in creating the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative which engages residents in redevelopment efforts and for which San Jose has received national recognition.
She secured funds for rebuilding Japantown, one of the oldest remaining in the country.
Chavez cut red tape for housing projects, recognizing that to attract jobs the city must build housing suitable to diverse family incomes
She is a founder of Safe from the Start, a literacy, nutrition and safety program for children.
She increased the number of homework centers in San Jose neighborhoods, providing after-school support and a safe alternative for kids likely to get into trouble.
She is a member of the Board of Directors of Joint Venture, Silicon Valley Network and the statewide Blue Ribbon Task Force on Nanotechnology.
She also serves on the Boards of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and American Leadership Forum.
Chavez was named by the Business Journal in its 2004 survey of “Influential Women in Business” and serves on the Board of the Silicon Valley Women’s Alliance.
She is a recipient of the California Assembly’s 2004 Housing Leadership Award and the Blue Cross of California’s 2005 Community Service Award.
Cindy Chavez was voted “Legislator of the Year” in 2005 by the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club.
Additional Info:
Has a very cool son at the age of 5, Brennan—her greatest accomplishment .
For the record I did not count them—most can be found at:
http://www.cindychavez4mayor.com
Ah yes, automobile racing at its finest. Re-route downtown traffic, tear up downtown streets, mess up a nice fountain, tear out some palm trees, iritate some businessmen and women to the point that some may leave downtown for a race that gets less exposure in the national and international media than Bond’s potential drug trial.
The hell with auto racing let’s promote our own drug users and salesmen and women. Think what they could do with that 4 Mil. Fill up hotels and eaterys and bars and theaters. Whiz-bang, lotsa money changing hands. Oh, sorry that’s not taxable money. On the other hand how much tax money was generated by the “race fans”?
I spent a great deal of the past month in Florida where I was impressed with one thing; The roadways were in good repair and clean. I also noticed that State prisoners were used to assist in the maintanence process. California could do the same thing but the prisoners would deprive Cal-Trans workers of their union jobs. What crap. I think that there is enough work out there to keep everybody busy.
Might even get them to repair the damage caused by the Grand Prix… Ya think?
she helped me invent the internet…………
#90
Only a fool thinks that Al Gore ever said that he invented the Internet.
Al Gore and the Internet
By Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf
Al Gore was the first political leader to recognize the importance of the Internet and to promote and support its development.
No one person or even small group of persons exclusively “invented” the Internet. It is the result of many years of ongoing collaboration among people in government and the university community. But as the two people
who designed the basic architecture and the core protocols that make the Internet work, we would like to acknowledge VP Gore’s contributions as a Congressman, Senator and as Vice President. No other elected official, to
our knowledge, has made a greater contribution over a longer period of time.
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200009/msg00052.html
CindyGon’s support of BART-to-SJ is reason enough to oppose her. This project is simply too obscenely expensive. I’m with Greg Perry on this one:
http://sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/entries/measure_a_economics/
also see:
http://www.transcoalition.org/reports/tr_inj/tr_inj_home.html
and
http://www.sfcityscape.com/transit/MTC_plan.html#bart_south_bay
Al G.,
Don’t ever misspeak in public when a camera is rolling. Don’t ever make a mistake in public.
You wonder why politicians are so careful and don’t speak their mind—because some moron will take them out of context, and repeat the verbage over and over again.
If they are lucky they can look forward to Jay Leno, David Letterman and SNL making fun of them forever.
And people wonder why politicians never utter a word without having it screened through a consultant or committee.
Richard – add to Cindy’s achievements
San Jose Marketplace – new downtown retail stores located at Coleman Avenue between Autumn and Taylor
Annual Neighborhood Summit – that brings both her district and other neighborhood business, and community groups leaders together with city department heads to discuss city and neighborhood progress and challenges
Public Outreach Policy changes that city departments, Chamber, developers and neighborhoods agreed on for better resident notification with property signs and multiple languages
Counter to Council city policies and procedure changes that city departments, Chamber, developers and neighborhoods agreed on so local businesses can get permits and approvals faster
Cindy is the only Mayor candidate with numerous examples of bringing together city departments, Chamber, developers and neighborhoods to agreed on city policy and procedure changes to improve San Jose while other Mayor candidates talk about what they might do, if elected
SJ Voter: you want more jobs without more traffic. So, are you going to beam these new employees to their jobs?
Cindy’s real acomplishments are so noted—unfortunately, all of her good work is overshadowed by her list of monumentally poor judgement. The list ius well known although her supporters like to ignore it or spin it. The list includes: Her involvement in the NorCal gift of public funds (at best she voted for it, at worst she was involved in the back-room dealings); her vote to end the Cisco investigation before all the facts were known; her refusal to do anything to require the former city manager to actually do his job and inform the council of all the information he had—which in turn led to the council making decisions with incomplete information; doing nothing to stop the Gonzales reign of terror within city hall and the micromanaging that led to unprecedented numbers of senior employees leaving; her support of an overbudget, inaduquate new city hall building; her support of the destruction of historic buildings in SJ; etc., etc.
Oh by the way, I hear she is a nice person.
You have got it nailed #97. The behavior you have described far outweighs the accomplishments that her supporters are touting. This last eight years have been an embarrasment to San Jose politics and based on her alliance to Gonzales we would certainly expect to see more of the same if she gets in
power. Lets start cleaning up the mess now.
Honest, she helped me. She really listened to my ideas… It was a collaborative effort.
Can I also get an explanation where Pandori’s campaigners got my personal email, I recieved an email this weekend regarding his campaign? Isn’t this SPAM?
CHG – I believe that they can be readily purchased. But if you are interested in this blog, why not a bit of political stuff from those that would be mayor? I know “spam” is annoying but it’s not that bad in this context, is it? TMcE