Scott Knies, executive director of the San Jose Downtown Association, has quite a few initiatives—none bigger than his quest to stop Diridonification. What’s that? Well, ever since the city’s train station was named after former Saratoga Councilman and county Supervisor Rod Diridon (who is still alive), the neighboring neighborhood and buildout plans for Google and transit hub have been getting slapped with the “Diridon” tag. “Nothing against Rod,” said Knies, who believes the addition of BART and high-speed rail should lead to a simple, civic-oriented title: San Jose Central Station. As for the surrounding district, Knies has been pushing “GoJo District,” because “go” is active and some people (bad people) apparently pronounce San Jose like idiots. Fly asked Knies if GoJo has gained any traction. “Not really,” he said with a chuckle.
The Fly
San Jose Downtown Association Executive Director Scott Knies Pushes Back on Diridonification
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Diridon Station might not be the best name fit as the transit hub expands, says Scott Knies. (Photo by Greg Ramar)
“Central Station” isn’t bad…but I still like “The Rail Yard”, that Scott Herhold, formerly of the Mercury News, championed for the surrounding area…
GoJo, The name is already in use. It’s a hand cleaner. It removes caked grease on grease and other putrid slime.
Just the type of stuff we need to clean up government in these parts.
Maybe they would like to be a sponsor!
Since Scott pimps for downtown, GoJo (pronounced as Go Hoe) seems appropriate.
A Monday walk along E. Santa Clara St from City Hall to Market was incredibly depressing. Odors of urine & MJ, abundant homeless – some sleeping in empty building entryways (many to choose from), and assorted sketchy types. Walgreens had security guard. If Little Shop of Horrors is redone, the opening scene could be filmed there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOdqriSeY7k
> If Little Shop of Horrors is redone, the opening scene could be filmed there . . . .
An excellent cultural reference point, Taxpayer.
An extra spoonful of gruel in your supperdish.
I loved Bill Murray as the masochistic patient and Steve Martin as the sadistic dentist: “Get out of here! You’re a nut!”.
Hey, so SJ is following in SF’s footsteps with the pee smell and stepping over sleeping bodies. We should be congratulating ourselves!
GoJo, no matter how it’s pronounced, is dumb, IMO. Further, I’m saddened when huge public works projects, like highway 85 and SJC airport, are named after living people (nothing against you, Norm!), including Diridon Station. I like what the Caltrain conductors say, _San Jose Downtown Station_.
From the article:
ever since the city’s train station was named after former Saratoga Councilman and county Supervisor Rod Diridon (who is still alive)…
In less polarized times it was customary to wait until someone had been deceased for at least ten years before naming a public, taxpayer-financed monument after them. But now, from the San Jose/Mineta Airport, to dams, roads, and numerous public buildings, connivers like Diridon get their egos petted by having their names affixed:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/09.25.97/cover/naming1-9739.html
Mr. Diridon is responsible for a spectacular, enormous, and ongoing waste of taxpayer assets—money that could help much more deserving recipients (or keep our local sales taxes from being so preposterously high). His light rail monstrosity alone is subsidized by more than $5 for every rider, every day. By itself, light rail eats up more than 5% of the county’s entire sales tax receipts.
Diridon, the consummate Social Engineer, always viewed the folks who pay the freight as sheep to be sheared—while he collected public paychecks his whole adult life. (Diridon is the guy behind the destruction of our city streets, as more and more of them are reduced and congested to make way for his almost unused ‘bicycle lanes’).
And apparently Diridon can’t wait until we can view his entire life, before something else is named after him. Especially something that will suck up our tax money forever, and in increasing amounts.
Diridon’s White Elephant ideas might be acceptable, if social engineering ever worked. But it doesn’t. Anyone can see the total failure of that concept by simply looking at evcery Communist economy. Yet connivers like Diridon refuse to admit that every big idea they have has ended in abject failure. It is only more and more money—our tax money—that keeps those failed ideas alive.
Yes, Diridon should have a monument showing him—but with bars in front of it.
Diridons White Elephant projects and abject failure, got it . Renaming it Diridung!
It come from a Latin word meaning dung from Diridinosaur.
As much as I agree with Smokey I think removing the Diridon name from the train station would deprive us the opportunity to make the station name both unique and meaningful. By the simple addition of an apostrophe and the letter “t” we can add a bit of mystery and uniqueness to the station’s name and declare the name DIRIDON’T a euphemism for brainless social engineering (marked, perhaps, by a fitting statue of a contorted man with his head buried up his caboose).
Light Rail is indeed a huge piece of s**t, sucking up taxpayer dollars like ten million Hoover vacuum cleaners. As for High Speed Rail, I seriously doubt it will happen in this century. It’s a multi-billion dollar overrun waiting to happen.
This is a silly article.
I like the Rail yard, but I also like the original name before Diridon – Cahill Station – after the person whose land they took to build the station.
Diridon is also responsible for the back-door setup that is now removing entire traffic lanes from streets like Hedding—for the purpose of providing more UNUSED bicycle lanes!
See, most people simply don’t want to ride bicycles once they’re old enough to drive. And the ones that want to ride bikes aren’t stopped from pedaling anywhere they want. But most folks have grown up, and realize their time is far more important than spending it on bicycles.
Diridon saw that p[eople don’t want to ride bikes. But being a Social Engineer, he decided that if he couldn’t persuade folks to give up their cars for bicycles, he’d force them to.
It’s all in these long term ‘plans’ that were surreptitiously slipped into state and local laws when no one was looking. Check out these long term ‘social engineering’ do-gooder proposals:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=4421
Details:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/index.aspx?NID=2955
And:
http://www3.sanjoseca.gov/clerk/Agenda/20091117/20091117_0602att.pdf
If they had provided for an Up/Down vote of the affected citizens, these proposals would have been decisively rejected.
So Diridon & Pals snuck ’em in…