I think it’s time to retire the word “choice” from public policy discussions – at least the one concerning medical insurance. To see why, let’s take another public policy issue that isn’t as freighted with political inference: Roads. Imagine putting the notion of “choice” to work on paving the public thoroughfares. We could give property … Read more
History buffs may have noted that 2012 is the 100-year anniversary of the first paving of the California State Highway System, which began with paving the first strip of the El Camino Real on the Peninsula. A century later the El Camino still confronts us with challenges to public policy and aspirations – shorthand for … Read more
Members of the Santa Clara RDA successor agency oversight board weren’t just disinterested executors of state law when they voted on June 22 to nullify $30 million worth of contracts between Santa Clara’s RDA and the 49ers stadium company. Emails obtained by Santa Clara resident James Rowen under the Freedom of Information Act seem to … Read more
Santa Clara has many traditions – its citywide July 4th picnic, the city Christmas tree lighting the first Friday in December, and the SES’ annual Portuguese Espírito Santo (Holy Ghost) festival. After more than 10 years as an annual event, it’s fair to say the annual Ramadan Open House held at the Santa Clara-based Muslim … Read more
As with so many issues in California state finance, following the trail of RDA history leads back to Proposition 13. The 1979 referendum freezing property taxes is central to the complexity of unwinding the state’s RDA program. That’s because Prop 13 had the secondary effect of making redevelopment a popular way for municipalities to take … Read more
In a change of pace from today’s hyper-polarized politics, the Santa Clara County Democratic Club is honoring retired State Senator John Vasconcellos, a Santa Clara native and a master at finding consensus with people of widely disparate views. Another legendary California politician, former state assemblyman and San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, will be on hand … Read more
The next catastrophe to wallop municipal budgets will be a shortfall in CalPERS returns, adding to the already-escalating payments levied by the California public employees retirement fund on participating agencies. Or so we’re told by the 109,000 news sources that have noted CalPERS’ report that the fund had returned 1.1 percent in 2011-12 on its … Read more
How important is the data center business to the city of Santa Clara? Consider this: In 2011 Santa Clara was the U.S.’s number one market for wholesale data center leasing activity, according to Grubb &Ellis’ National Data Center Practice (datacenterpractice.com). Another way to think of that is that for Santa Clarans, the “cloud” that’s keeping … Read more
In the South Bay, no one should be surprised that Bill Wilson Center CEO Sparky Harlan was honored on July 11 as a White House Champion of Change. Ever since she took the reins at the iconic Santa Clara-based youth social services agency nearly 30 years ago, Harlan has a consistent track record of changing … Read more
Last week members of the Santa Clara Woman’s Club took a step back into the history of the club’s landmark adobe. At the invitation of Santa Clara University Anthropology Professor Lee M. Panich, the club toured an archeological dig Panich is conducting, adjacent to the club’s 1790 adobe, with the help of 12 undergraduate students … Read more