The city council’s new plan for “soft” closings has stirred up debate about our downtown—what it has become and what it could be. Wrongfully or rightfully, some people are on one side of the fence, saying that downtown is a place of murders and thugs, while others wonder if it is really that bad.
I believe I am swaying toward the latter. Have you ever been in a really bad downtown before? I have walked through downtown Detroit (don’t ask) and Los Angeles, and they aren’t a pretty sight. (You can add the downtown of San Jose ten years ago to that list.) I am not saying that we should take consolation that we are better than the Murder Capital of the World, but I think that maybe things are somewhere in the middle.
I know that the police presence, the low-riders and the drunks are a real problem. Yes, they do irk me and I wish things would change. However, I am not one of those people who have a frantic look on their face running to their cars to get away. I am not one of those people who won’t walk down Santa Clara Street at night because I fear for my safety. The more I talk to others, the more I realize that I am a downtown girl and there are many people that aren’t, never have been and never will be. Is it realistic to make downtown a “place for everyone” when clearly everyone cannot handle it?
My point was cemented for me when I was out this weekend with some people born and raised in Los Gatos. The way they talked about San Jose, I almost mistook it for war-torn Afghanistan. Is this what people really think about San Jose? A ghetto? Unsafe? And with the lasting quote, “Yeah, like anyone would want to stay around here after work on Friday. I would hightail it outta here.”
The San Jose gal in me took offense and wanted to tell them to get out more and stop being so sheltered. Then I realized that I was starting to spend less time in downtown and more time in Los Gatos and Santana Row myself. Was I a downtown girl at heart but being a hypocrite? Or is it a hard fight to win and I just needed to take a break?
I think there are so many great things about downtown that other parts of the city can’t offer. I do recognize that there are real problems downtown. However, could we be wooing people who just don’t have a downtown mind or soul to join us?
I love downtown and living here is in me, but is this party a party of one?
The Murky News said the soft closings are San fernando to Santa Clara Street. That means San Pedro Square is not included. But aren’t those the worst clubs from a violence standpoint?
Who drew the lines?
Some of your posting answers the question about “downtown”. Your own statement indicates that downtown is not for everyone and I quote ” Is it realistic to make downtown a “place for everyone” when clearly everyone cannot handle it?” If downtown were a decent place for everyone, no one would need to “handle it.”
SG, I had a similar situation many years ago when I headed to downtown LA, Olvera Street to be exact, with some Orange County natives. They were in panic mode as after dark we walked over towards city hall to get to our car. I couldn’t believe the misconceptions they had about downtown LA, even the touristy zone.
This is all about where you were raised and whether you spent any time downtown as a kid. I grew up off the Alameda and would bike or bus downtown and kill a day with friends hitting the bargain stores and finding other cheap entertainment during the dark days of the mid and late 60’s, and I have never felt any sense of fear in any corner of downtown.
Your Los Gatos friends have been afflicted with over-suburbanization and you must forgive their lack of worldliness. They can’t help it.
We brought this upon ourselves in November, 2006. We had a choice, Cindy Chavez – thriving, family-oriented, beautiful, clean downtown, filled with well-mannered people behaving themselves. Or, Chuck Reed – crime plagued, chaos filled, litter strewn downtown, bursting with unemployment, homelessnes and poverty, controlled by thugs, gangbangers, drug dealers and organized crime.
We made the wrong choice.
#5 Todd—thanks! Your post gave me a good laugh. You kidder you.
While I do enjoy a visit to Santana Row or Los Gatos once in a while, nothing beats a night out in downtown San Jose (plus it’s closer and I don’t have deep pockets). We got all the bars, the better restaurants, the Convention Center, light rail, the Pavilion, and all the great hotels for those tourists. Unfortunately the mindset of those Los Gatos friends of yours is a condition they will probably never get over.
Todd: Satire is reserved fror Fridays, OK?
But speaking of Cindy…We know Guerra’s a lobbyist, we know Gonzo formed a firm to advise people about things he has no training, background, or experience in doing. So what is Cindy doing, Todd? As her biggest fan right now, you should know. C’mon, Toddster, fill us all in. Enquiring minds want to know!
This is precisely what George Green, Greg Howe, John Michael O’Connor, Novice and Mark T want people to believe of downtown – “Lawlessness”. These individuals say one thing in public and do very different things in private. These people have manipulated and orchestrated this entire scene. They’ve gotten their cronies on the city council, Dave Cortese, Forrest Williams, Judy Chirco, Kansen Chu and Nora Campos. By people believing downtown is crummy and by controlling large properties within downtown, these individuals are poised to profit handsomely. The one thing GG, GH, JMOC, Novice and Mark T weren’t counting on was me exposing their conspiracy to the world. Sorry fellas but the jig is up. Looks like this time I’m going to be manipulating you. You really think no one would catch on to you. With your gold chains, Mercedes, trust funds and penthouse suites. You’re going to be spending a nice long vacation in a 5×8.
Mark T has it right. There are too many sheltered and fragile people in our valley. Most probably aren’t even from here. They see minorities and think “gang.” They see crowds and think “riot.” It’s as if these people are more likely to be mugged and murdered in these crowded places, and that’s just a goofy notion (especially in San Jose). The overkill police presence is a big part of this. So long as we continue to react to downtown as a chaotic mess, people are going to think it is one.
JMOC – I don’t know the exact details of what Cindy is doing, but I can assure you that both our lives will benefit from her tireless, selfless, quiet, behind-the-scene toiling. I hold Cindy Chavez in the same regard as Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Helen Keller and Rosa Parks. She is a great woman, a great American and a great American woman. It would be an honor to have her as a wife, mother, daughter or sister.
By the way, Joe Guerra and Ron Gonzales will have all charges dropped against them. It will be Julius Finkelstein and John Michael O’Connor going to prison, guilty of character assassination in the first degree.
Don’t forget about Oakland, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston. They all stink! You partially learned your lessons. Downtown San Jose is really cool. You still got along way to go to appreciate San Jose. I’ve been all over, and it’s not that great, trust me!
Hey Tod, just a FYI, your meds are supposed to be taken orally, not rectally, OK? You gonna be OK now?
One more minor point: further condo developments should be required to leave the bottom floor open for retail space. This opens the doors for restaurants, shops, small bars, etc but eliminates the possibility of the big clubs everyone hates. Simple planning can go a long way.
Sorry off topic.
SJ is not bad. Mayor did not commit crime.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_6123426?nclick_check=1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/12/BAGMDQE1S88.DTL
Case dismissed is not the same as not guilty
You’re not alone in your statements. Downtown is not as bad as people think. it has issues. Some of the clubs are too big and attract a bad crowd.
Many of the bars / clubs do the best they can to keep the negative element out while working as best they can with the police and city to survive.
What you are witnessing is a “land grab” of sorts. The land is worth more for condo’s and infill development. Its worth more for the developers, the city, the city staff’s careers, and the politician’s careers then it is as an entertainment center.
So it becomes easier to just create fear and force change; which means an end to the current entertainment zone. It’s really that simple.
This is happening in entertainment zones all over this country. Clubs and bars create a “there” in under utilized downtowns; people want to move there; cities zone for condos and realize that clubs and bars don’t fit with the condos. So it clubs and bars have to go.
Other cities that are examples: Buckhead Atlanta and Seattle; just to name two.
A downtown for everyone all the time just isn’t realistic. It’s a nice dream but not as you can see it just may not make sense.
Todd (#5), just don’t let those union dues lapse; being a labor tool has its risks and you’ll need the pension.
Dennis (#9), my gosh, increase the dosage to 500 mg., thrice daily; mononoia is controllable. Oh, “mononoia”… that’s when there’s one person out there to get you and everybody knows just who it is, but no one will tell you.
Todd # 11 said: “It will be Julius Finkelstein and John Michael O’Connor going to prison, guilty of character assassination in the first degree. “
Todd, one must have good character before it can be assassinated. That said, I copy here for your review my post on this issue from another tab on this blog:
Because our political system was designed with checks and balances, and because our legal system puts a premium on protecting the accused from the government, we have a system that fails the public sometimes in individual cases (read OJ) in favor of protecting the public and the accused from government bullying. Thus, our system allows guilty people to go free to prevent as many innocent people as possible from being convicted. The system fails from time to time on both counts; but that is the price we pay for what remains the fairest judicial system in the history of the planet.
Mr. Finkelstein is a very able lawyer; but as I read the opinion, he crossed over the line in an attempt to put a malefactor in jail…and perhaps to end his career on a high note. One must also remember that Judge Herlihy is a former prosecutor himself, a former colleague of Mr. Finkelstein. Thus, we can disabuse ourselves of the notion that some soft-on-crime judge gave Gonzo, Guerra, and Norcal a break.
I disagree with several conclusions Judge Herlihy drew when he opined that because of the prosecution’s misstatements of the law the grand jury MIGHT HAVE ruled differently had they been given correct information, and therefore the charges must be dismissed. I consider some of his conclusions as speculative at best. Judge Herlihy cannot possibly know what the grand jury would have done had Mr. Finkelstein’s presentation been more in line with his view of the law on the subject. Thus, he is purely speculating when he “concludes” that the grand jury would have acted differently had Judge Herlihy’s reading of the law had been presented to it.
That said, in the final analysis what Judge Herlihy had to decide was whether under existing state law (statutes and court precedents) as he understand it, what Gonzo/Guerra did was a crime, as opposed to a moral or ethical lapse.
Courts don’t try morality or ethics, they try violations of law. That is why CH Insider’s comments are naive yet true; why Mad Hatter’s comment expresses what most of us believe (the same as OJ’s guilt); why I disagree with FinFan, because I believe Mr. Finkelstein was shooting for the fence when a base hit would have done just as well, indeed better under the circumstances; and why More Scandals perhaps does not grasp the difference between moral or ethical lapses and criminal conduct.
As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I am no fan of Gonzo/Guerra. I think they are the worst thing to happen to SJ in memory. But that is far different from being guilty of the crimes charged.
As Judge Herlihy stated in his opinion at page 15, what Gonzo did “…is not bribery. This is politics.” That makes More Scandals #8’s & Mad Hatter #3’s and some of CH Insider #4’s comments frightfully valid.
As a result of Gonzo’s shenanigans with Norcal, my garbage/recycling bill has gone up almost 100% in three years. This despite the fact that I couldn’t fill my garbage can more than twice in a year. I recycle almsot everyting, and most of the rest goes down the garbage disposer. We PAY to have the city recycle. Recycling should be at least free. Businesses still pay for bottles, cans, etc; yet we pay someone else to haul away something that they get paid to sell. HHmm.
Judge Herlihy concluded by saying: “ There is no question that Norcal, Defendant Guerra, and Defendant Gonzales were delinquent in their responsibility to be open and to fully disclose their knowledge, actions, and policies.” I would have preferred that statement to have been the OPENING line of his opinion.
Dennis #9—R U drinking the same KoolAid as Todd?
#11,
….John Michael O’Connor going to prison, guilty of character assassination in the first degree.
Him, along with Novice and frustrated finfan, will get off by either insanity, or being grumpy old men.
To #16, a case dismissed does legally mean “not guilty,” it just doesn’t mean “innocent” which is very different.
The dismissal of all charges against Gonzales lends serious weight (a) to the preference for the use of the civil accusation statute that many of us advocated in mid-2005 as well as (b) to the inference that the timing of the Gonzales criminal charges was peculiarly (and accidentally, I am sure) effective in Chavez’s defeat.
To review the civil accusation that was filed in August 2005, go to:
http://www.dalewarner.com/sub/accusation.htm
Gonzales could have been removed from office any time after May 2005, but some powerful people thought it better to wait until after the mayoral primary in June 2006 when criminal charges would (accidentally, I am sure) defeat Chavez.
And now we know the criminal charges were seriously flawed. Municipal historians may find a villain in this sequence of events far different from Gonzales.
It is to be hoped that the State Attorney General will take a look at the timing of the criminal charges against Gonzales to determine whether the timing was politically motivated (I am sure it was not), or was the product of ordinary and regular procedures within the District Attorney’s office between May 2005 (when the Grand Jury report on the recycling scandal came out) and June 2006.
THIS BLOG IS BECOMING LIKE CONGRESS. IT IS BECOMING VERY HATEFUL AND DESRESPECTFUL OF PEOPLES OPINIONS. PROSELYTIZING IS A FAVORITE HERE. GONZO IS A SICKO. HOW IS HE MAKING A LIVING? WILL SOMEONE LET ME KNOW IF HE IS A SAINT LIKE CINDY, AND DO THEY SPEAK TO EACH OTHER?
I love Downtown. I live within easy walking distance. I often walk alone or with friends at day or night.
To Todd (#5) and those who think downtown is full of thugs and organized crime, WHAT town are you talking about? We do not have shootings downtown. We have fewer muggings than any city our size. Unlike San Francisco, you can walk around an area with many clubs without finding the gutters littered with condoms, syringes, and plastic penises. (Happened TWICE when going to SF gallery events) San Jose Downtown smells better and has less graffiti. We have MUCH better parking. I think the clubs are a great addition. AND our downtown has things for everyone. We have wonderful Ballet, Musical theatre, Opera, 3 smaller theatres, galleries, movies, concerts, festivals……..
However, it needs some love. Specifically, it needs fewer vacancies. Maybe we need a stick to go with redevelopments carrot, like a property tax on buildings vacant more than 2 years.
Finally, the problems Downtown pre-date the current Mayor, and even Gonzales. Please consider a new Post for the Gonzales/Chavez/Reed Smack down