A small ceremony was held on Saturday with little fanfare, but it was big on Americana style. An eagle scout was honored for his project that constructed a new sign at the Willow Glen Community Center. A new sign had been planned for awhile, but it was put on the back burner to instead paint over the prior decade-old paint job. The scout and Leigh High school student, Daniel Swanson, chose the project, did the fundraising and built the sign with assistance from other volunteers. There is now a new, large and elegant sign to mark this public facility. The scene on Saturday seemed like a truly American event.
This particular facility is the former Lincoln Glen Elementary School. As the school age population ebbed, many schools in San Jose were closed and the land was put on the market. However, state law allows other government entities to have the first opportunity to buy the property. Fortunately for us, in the 80s, San Jose had put money aside and was able to purchase this property as well as the former Kirk Elementary School on Foxworthy Avenue.
If this same situation happened today, the city of San Jose would be unable to buy a former public school site. Instead, we would have some other type of private development.
This consolidation of schools has meant that the remaining open schools take in a larger number of students. Elementary schools that were built for a few hundred students now are approaching 1,000 students, which creates a larger impact to residential neighborhoods. This is just one reason why lowering speed limits around schools in residential areas is a good idea. It would provide some calm to the residents who live adjacent to schools and have witnessed student population growth.
But back to my main point, which is a big thank you to the many volunteers that produce tangible results. For example: Terry Reilly, Beverly Hopper and Myles Tobin, from the Friends of the San Jose Rose Garden; Mike Cimoli, who organizes the annual Rompacoglioni car show held yesterday to benefit Second Harvest Food Bank; or the many other projects that have been done by service clubs and PTAs. Volunteerism and philanthropy augment a community. They do not replace the basic infrastructure that government provides like sewers and streets, but augments.
And on a final note, the sign donated by the scout, Daniel Swanson, came in under budget, so he donated the balance of $980 to the teen program at the community center.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA
On Tuesday, the council is poised to get past the first chapter (23 months) of medical cannabis. Inevitably, whatever is passed will be subject to change based on new law or lawsuits. There are many underlying issues and topics in regulating medical cannabis. I hope whatever passes on Tuesday has two minor but significant regulations:
First, each collective should have a licensed physician or registered nurse on their board, as this is medical cannabis and not recreational cannabis. It doesn’t matter that many San Jose council districts, including my own, voted yes to legalizing cannabis for recreational use (Prop 19) in November 2010.
Second, each collective should give the city of San Jose finance department view-only access to their accounting system—not the personal/confidential medical records but the general ledger. The easiest way to do this is for collectives to adopt a cloud-computing accounting system. There are many providers of this service locally, such as Intuit, Intacct and NetSuite.
This would be similar to the suggestion that I made from the dais for Team San Jose, which was implemented last year and is still in place. This method keeps all things honest and does not require time consuming audits.
More than Just a Sign
Oh the irony.
Mr. Cortese:
That was my first thought too. When the words “Pierluigi” and “Sign(s)” come together I get a ill feeling in my gut. Then again just the word “Reed” “RDA” “McEnery” do the same.
What a joke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iotM96vjEuw
Yes and PLO probably had the City Attorney and the President of AARP on speed dial just in case he encountered any harassment.
Such a good memory – apparently not dulled by the product our collectives sell.
> Also, some suggestions on what the council should do this week when it takes its first decisive actions on how to regulate medical marijuana.
Go back to your homes, boys and girls.
There is nothing for the city decide. Marijuana is already regulated by the feds.
Or, is this just a backdoor way for rabble rousers to start talking about sesession?
SAVE YOUR CONFEDRATE MONEY! THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!
Getting tired of your weekly manifestos. Its all about the tax dollars, save all your other BS how we need to regulate the pot stores or what ever you want to call them. Got a hang nail, go to your doctor and get a prescription to smoke your pain away. Maybe the council should go the the city doctor or did you close those doors as well.
Whatever the outcome – be sure that enough funds are set aside for a life size bronze statue of you (Pier) standing next to an 8 foot tall joint to be located outside city hall.
That way citizens will always know which moron to thank for flooding the city with marijuana outlets and their lowlife “customers”.
President Obama flooded the nation by allowing them.
Before you Pier, I used to have drive all the way to a club in Oakland or Berkeley to get my weed. But thanks to you taking advantage of every public and media opportunity to let people know that San Jose had an unregulated, untapped medical marijuana industry, clubs are popping up all over the city. They now estimate there are 140 clubs in San Jose, whereas there were zero when you started this crusade to regulate an industry that didn’t exist yet. For that, I thank you, Pier. Smoke on, brother.
I hope that Scout Daniel Swanson fully complied with the absurd rules that the City has in place for “volunteers” performing work on City property.
Did he have the required permits? Did a Code Enforcement official check to see that the work was up to code?
Were any of the “assistant” volunteers donating skills that they normally earn a living performing? If not then they would have been “illegally volunteering.” The functions they “volunteered” should have gone out to bid and the qualified bidders would have had to prove that they were paying whateveer the current “living wage” arbitrarily decided by the City was. Preference of course would be to “majority owned businesses” (please understand that “white” is not a Majority in this area)or woman owned busnesses.
I also hope that all painting was done with paint that is certified lead free and most importantly in color(s) that are from the approved City color pallet.
Further – it is imperative that future maintenance be covered by Daniel so the the donation to the team program of left over funds might have been premature. Th City does not allow use of money from the General Fund to cover maintenance. Capital Fund dollars maybe?
Other than those concerns I have raised and any others that readers might like to raise GREAT JOB DANIEL SWANSON! AMERICA needs more concerned citizens like your self and fewer pin-headed bureaucrats that run San Jose and Councilmembers who wring their hands over what to do about ILLEGAL Drug distibution store fronts.
Dear Oliverio, You refer to it as medical Marijuana, but have you consulted your experts in the field that work for the City of San Jose. The Crime Prevention Unit does not recognize it as such and would tell you of all the harmful affects, it does to the individual and families. Most recently reported the 17 year getting a medical card for not sleeping, without parent consent. City of San Jose should stay out of it.
Glad the sign survived,
William R Smoke
The nation has spent billions of dollars attempting to regulate the smoking industry. Warnings on packs, billboards, TV, student handouts etc. Now it’s okay to smoke marijuana? Am I missing something here? P.O. do you really want your name on a product that kills people?
P.O.:
First and foremost, good job young Mr. Daniel Swanson, you should be very proud of this accomplishment.
I have yet to see the sign, however, the two articles that I have read (including this one) leave out the word “Senior”. I thought it was “Willow Glen Community and Senior Center”. Does this have anything to do with the City demanding more rent from the senior citizen boutique that was housed there? Just wondering.
http://www.mercurynews.com/san-jose-neighborhoods/ci_18620356
Per, weren’t you bragging about how much money your pot club taxes were bringing in to the city? What’s the latest on that? Sure haven’t heard much recently… You made it sound like you had solved the city’s problems.
I do like your priority for medical marijuana … Anything goes as long as the city gets a cut of the revenue and gets a copy of all their bookkeeping.
I never really realized that you we so into big government… Government decides what we can do, controls it, then charges huge fees for the privilege. I’m sure there will be a San Jose Ministry of Marijuana responsible for overseeing all this, putting those tax dollars to hard work.
Pier, I was expecting a article about September 11th today and how our first responders got out every day and do a thankless job, but I’m not surprised. Illegal contraband is more important.
Today’s lesson is by Lt.Col. Grossman. It is a good read.
http://www.killology.com/sheep_dog.htm
By the way, good job Daniel.
Pierluigi,
Stick and stones will break bones but words will not hurt you. Ignore the negative comments, they could not handle the job and are envious. It is obvious since they take the time to comment. I do not always agree with you however I also do not always agree with any other elected official.
San Jose needs a federal investigation …
Heck, I like PLO’ idea on volunteerism. Let’s fire all the City of San Jose workforce and just use volunteers! How does the the “City of San Jose Volunteer Fire Department” sound?
With the entire City run by volunteers, the City’s budget problems go away instantly overnight. Heck, then the Pot Club taxes could go into a “new” Redevelopment Agency, staffed by Council Cronies. This, in turn, would “reinvigorate” the slush funds of the City Council and garner them even greater political campaign donations from the Developers and other mega-rich!
Knock yourself out. I would love to sit back and watch what the city turns into with volunteers at the helm. How much of themselves do you think they will give to this city, FOR NOTHING? Think they will take ownership in ANYTHING when they can just walk away when they feel like it? What an idiotic statement.
OK Pier, some serious side here.
Why is the council telling the pot clubs to grow indoors? My grandmother owns some commercial real estate right next to a few clubs, and my concern are these.
We’ve already been hammered by the economy. One property we’ve had a string of bad tenants, and the other property she had to cut the rent in 1/2 to keep it occupied.
Considering she’s having a hard enough time leasing the properties (they’re really nice btw, well maintained) do I think she’s going to have an easier time leasing them if the neighborhood stinks like a stoners van?
I have other concerns too. Not so much for her (I don’t think she’d ever lease to a pot club) but for the other building owners.
I don’t think any commercial (office type) real estate is proper for manufacturing marijuana. You have water, electricity, humidity, and chemistry that could turn an ordinary office type building into a moldy frat house shower.
Not to mention electricity + water doesn’t mix well. I could easily see fires in the future of some of these buildings.
Also, let’s look more into some of the components used in farming.
The big one is nitrate based fertilizers. This was a major component in the bombs that blew up the Oaklahoma city federal building.
Finally I read up that various volatile solvents used (acetone to butane) to process concentrates.
So the two main issues I have is this.
1. damage/fire to surrounding buildings
2. smell
So logically looking at this, the one conclusion I come to is these portions need to be moved out of the area. Industrial or agriculture. Would be nice to get that stinkfest moved into the hills. Thanks for your consideration.
Pier,
Why don’t you respond to questions or concerns readers submit to you on SJI?
PO: I sat at the last Council meeting on Thursday and YOU asked the Fire Chief, “How do you justify having companies staffed in low call volume areas?” The Fire Chief replied, “It’s justified by a 8 minute response time 80% of the calls received (which was said SJ is NOT making!). I have posted many many statistics for your review and YOU keep ignoring them!You are happy to post but not happy to reply!It is time to replace your ignorance with someone who is open to input. You need to have a Police or Fire Emergency and wait for help and then find out because of YOUR cuts your family member suffered! You lost my vote on the next voting for your replacement!
Yawn…