By Robert Haugh
The Good — The Leg Drop Award:
Hunter Storm got their Gateway Crossings development approved unanimously. They overcame major objections from Old Quad residents. They were smart to give office space to the Police Athletics League (PAL) for 34 years for almost nothing. It’s a good move for the community, too.
The Bad — The Jabroni Award:
City Attorney Brian Doyle gave Councilman Raj Chahal some bad advice. Chahal shared that with us in an email. Chahal thought he had to recuse himself from the Gateway Crossings development discussion because he supported it on the Planning Commission. We thought that was strange when he did it. Then, he got the complete opposite advice from Doyle a few days before the final vote. It was a unanimous vote. But Chahal looked bad because of Doyle.
The Good should be Commissioner Suds Jain being appointed to the Charter Review, he is the only person of color appointed to this commission. Congrats to him !
It would be nice as a community if we could get away from the concept of color, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, religion and remember we are all HUMAN BEINGS and as such all have the same basic desire to be happy, fed, clothed and housed. This world that continues to make reference to what ‘group’ you belong to is causing more hate and pain. Santa Clara has always been a city of diversity unfortunately it has not always been proven to be one that had that representation. With demise of some trouble makers, one who wrote hateful blogs, who controlled political action groups through business organizations, and people who control ‘the message’ we may start to see some changes. It is correct to say that some ‘old families’ run this town but in respect to that one could Argue that one Family in particular has definitely had more interest in demising the other family and has aligned themselves with the Chamber and the Local Rag we call Newspaper. Kevin Park (a person of one of the unrepresented residence aka Asia / Korean community. has always stated that there is a need in Santa Clara to have people of quality on council vs a particular ‘race, religion or gender’. I would agree with Mr Becker that the appointment of Jain was a good thing only because I’m sick of the city thinking the answer to our prayers and debt relief is BUILD more!! Perhaps SC could do a study session with Vancouver – do you know that they provide low income housing on vacant owned by developers – these units are basically containers but they are smart modern and managed. One would not know they are low income. In some cases they remain on a property for a short number of years while the developer is going through the process of planning. Further more in Vancouver the city managers to find space for Parks – they acquire building sites and just turn them into PARKS – what a concept. They also encourage developers to have roof top gardens with Trees growing. I think we as a city could lead the way in a lot of areas we just have to stop focusing on the in fighting of who is on what base. How about thinking about the residents and the tax payer first. Rather than fight who belong to which group / faction / class go back to the basics: happiness, food, housing and basic amenities. Lets face it the whole ‘bike’ thing isn’t working, the developers have been running this town and the staff need to find a way to ‘communicate’ projects – using bloggers and haters to report what the city isn’t doing right is BORING and DESTRUCTIVE.