San Jose will no longer wait for citizen complaints to remove graffiti, junk cars and trash from city streets in downtown and other selected areas.

Since the pandemic mandated working from home as much as possible, code enforcement has responded to only urgent service requests.

With the rental market heating up, more people are asking for the city’s help to mediate lease rate hikes. The City Council on Tuesday will decide whether to pay more for a program to mediate and arbitrate cases between landlords trying to keep up with the market and tenants getting priced out of their homes. Other items on the agenda include a code enforcement audit, a historical landmark designation for a fruit stand and a trash-reduction plan.

The grand reopening of WET on June 26 turned into a wash after owner Mike Hamod had to shut the party down little more than 24 hours before the fete for the club’s remodeling was to begin. According to Hamod, fixtures being sent from Florida and Chicago did not arrive until Friday afternoon and were unable to get proper city inspection.

Thanks to the miracle of social networking, the 3,000-plus people expected to swarm the corner of South First Street and East San Salvador were alerted that the party was off before a bottle-service-starved riot broke out