124 results for author: sf-admin

Metro Endorsement: Sam Liccardo for San Jose Mayor

First appeared in San Jose Inside on October 15, 2014 By Silicon Valley Newsroom If San Jose voters are to believe the political mail piling up, the recommended candidate will lead the city to a beautiful future while the other will plunge San Jose into a dark, crime-ridden future or a financial abyss. We think the stark contrasts painted by campaign strategists are a bit overblown. The truth is that the economy and the city council’s composition will be much more important than who occupies the mayor’s office. And either candidate will have to cut sensible deals with the public employee unions to improve public safety in a fiscally ...

Minimum Wage

Sam Liccardo is a strong supporter of creating living wage jobs for residents of San José. In fact, he’s the only candidate with a detailed plan on how we can bring those jobs to our city – and help workers get the skills they need to take advantage of new opportunities. Sam also believes that everyone who works hard should be paid fairly and he supports workable plans to increase our minimum wage. Sam publicly expressed concerns about the failure of the 2012 minimum wage proposal to create a "phase-in" period for small businesses, as San Francisco had in its ordinance.  While Sam had no objection to increasing the minimum wage on large ...

Chuck Reed: Crime is decreasing in San Jose, and pension reform will strengthen city

By Chuck Reed Special to the Mercury News Four former San José police chiefs recently invited the media into the police union offices to talk about the police department and the San José mayoral race. You might have expected them to compliment our current chief and the department for the reduction of crime in San Jose. San Jose had the lowest rate of violent crimes of big cities in America in 2011 and again in 2012 and the first half of 2013. The record looks like it will be repeated in 2014. For property crimes, we had the sixth-lowest rate of the more than 30 cities over 500,000 population in the first half of 2013, the last date the ...

San Jose Councilman Suggests Hiring Homeless To Clean Blighted Freeway Ramps

By Don Knapp Posted on 10/05/14 on KPIX SAN JOSE (CBS SF) — San Jose is trying to figure out who will clean up the trash at a freeway off ramp being called an embarrassment, and the answer may be homeless people. “In 40 years in San Jose I’ve never seen the freeway ramps so strewn with trash,” Susan Snydal of the Campus Community Association’s Beautification Committee told KPIX 5. The debate over who the responsibility falls on for the cleanup at the I-280 off ramp to 10th and 11th streets has been a long battle. The concern is that the trash mars a gateway to Silicon Valley, San Jose State, and downtown San Jose. Snydal ...

Roadshow: San Jose may enlist homeless to pick up highway trash

By Gary Richards Originally posted on 10/05/2014 here Q We couldn't be more in agreement with the sentiments expressed on litter in the San Jose area. We have formed a task force of the Campus Community Association's Beautification Committee to improve the condition of the Interstate 280 ramps at 10th and 11th Streets, gateways to our city. We are very interested that Caltrans plans to meet with South Bay leaders to consider remedies. Susan Snydal Freeway Gateway Task Force A Me, too. This week the San Jose Streets Team will be launching a proposed solution to the city's trash and graffiti problem at a portion of the freeways where the ...

Crime Rates in San Jose

Get the facts about crime in San José – the number of violent crimes is actually lower today than it was in 2008, the year Dave Cortese left the City Council. Check it out...

Mercury News Editorial: Sam Liccardo for San Jose Mayor

Originally posted in the Mercury News on 9/27/2014 Has ever a mayoral race in San Jose gotten this dirty this early as the one between Dave Cortese and Sam Liccardo? Mail-in ballots are the reason. They arrive next week, and people can vote immediately. But candidates and their supporters reveal themselves more fully as campaigns unfold. It pays to take a close look. In the mayor's race, we recommended Sam Liccardo in the primary and still believe he's the best choice for many reasons. But today we're going to talk only about public safety because it's supremely important and because of the fear-mongering campaign by Cortese and his support...

Herhold: Sam Liccardo’s roots go back to the beginning of California

Originally appeared in the Mercury News By Scott Herhold 9/28/2014 If you were to write a story about Sam Liccardo's ancestry -- and that's what I'm doing -- you'd have to begin with Jose Francisco Ortega, a Spanish scout on the Gaspar de Portola expedition of 1769-70. Having missed Monterey because of the fog, Portola landed on the San Mateo County coast and sent his scouts inland to explore. Ortega was reportedly the first European to see San Francisco Bay. Ortega's son was given a land grant in what is now south San Jose, and his daughter, Maria -- Jose Francisco's granddaughter -- married a Scot who jumped ship in Monterey and ...

Latin Bay Area: Sam Liccardo Has A Long-Term Vision for San José as Mayor

Published September 17, 2014 Harvard Law School alum Sam Liccardo, 44, announces his goals for San José with his campaign signs: “Safer city, smarter government.” The City Council member from District 3 came in second during the June 2014 primary election, which had a low turnout. Shortly after, during a press conference, current Mayor Chuck Reed announced that he endorsed Liccardo, stating, “Sam is honest, he's got integrity, and will do right by the residents and tax payers of San Jose." Liccardo’s History of Service Serving as a Santa Clara County prosecutor and then as a councilmember, Liccardo is known for playing by the rules. ...

Mercury News: Security Cameras Will Help in San José Even When More Cops Are Hired

Mercury News Editorial (Published September 11, 2014) It was refreshing to see unanimous approval Tuesday of San Jose City Councilman (and mayoral candidate) Sam Liccardo's proposal to let residents with security cameras register them with police in case a crime occurs nearby and the video might help solve it. Liccardo first suggested this in January after security cameras helped nab a serial arsonist who had terrorized a downtown neighborhood. The initial reaction was Big Brother blowback: People thought -- and some may still think -- it meant officers could just tap into the cameras any time. The registry just gives residents a place to ...