Objectivity is a gift used seldom and applied sparingly. By nature, our mind forms opinions quickly, and immediately it creates a moat of defenses around our opinion to support our position. Human nature has an innate desire to be right. When the mind takes a position, it is important to our ego that the position … Read more
No one really likes to be duped. Being fooled by a magician with an illusion is a trick and different from being duped. Being duped falls in the category of being led to believe that something is, when it’s not. Now if you don’t believe this is the case, we have a great ocean front … Read more
Per the Association of Bay Area Governments, every city in the Bay Area needs more housing. Santa Clara has had several dozen residential projects on the drawing board that would meet our City’s need for more housing. However, as Councils change, the complicated process of approval for new projects and ones in process have a … Read more
After fifty years with just two City Managers, Santa Clara will begin to search for their third City Manager in one year. Former Managers, Don Von Raesfeld and Jennifer Sparacino, each served our City for over 25 years. This reflected a rather calm, conservative and effective administrative approach to City business. Julio Fuentes was hired … Read more
Big in the news the past month is the use of the term “fake news.” Certainly, this is not limited to mass media and all their outlets. We are deluged in Santa Clara by rumor mongers of the web. This leads us to look at the social media “news” being spewed out on blogs in … Read more
Our residents’ war on developers and new housing projects is not a local skirmish. What we have is a worldwide population issue that is changing our world and our City. Consider for a moment that during the lifetime of our average Santa Clara senior, the population of both have exploded. In 1950, our great little … Read more
On any given day, you are exposed to news stories about our community’s housing shortage. The complications of building adequate housing is like solving a Rubik’s Cube puzzle. At every corner of the development process there is another twist and turn that boggles the mind. In Santa Clara, even remodeling a single-family home can be … Read more
In our quasi-democracy form of government there are always a few issues that don’t represent a majority rule. The most recent issue on the National scene was the election of Donald Trump as President with millions less votes than Hillary Clinton. Many are still arguing, though pointless, that Clinton should be President. This is not … Read more
Like petals from a rose blossom, the talent at Santa Clara City Hall continues to drop. The latest casualty is Gary Ameling, our Chief Financial officer who resigned Tuesday morning. This followed shortly after Ren Nosky, our City Attorney, resigned earlier this month. Ameling has a financial pedigree that would fill a book the size … Read more
Abraham Lincoln had a lot of fun in his tenure as an attorney on his way to the White House. In one of his trials he asked a witness “How many legs does a cow have?” The witness replied “Four.” Lincoln then asked the witness “So, if we called the cow’s tail a leg, how … Read more