A brand-new, spacious $90 million police substation sits empty and unused in south San Jose. It’s one of five publicly funded buildings—built at a cost of more than $130 million—which were set to open in the last 15 months yet remain vacant due to budget woes.
Articles by Josh Koehn
In its nearly 100 years of existence, the Gaslighter Theater in Campbell has gone from holding sharecropper’s cash as a bank in the 1920s and showing movies during World War II to being a small-stage theater for vaudeville acts and an all-ages rock venue as recently as 2006. At that time, the white marble landmark, with thick columns bracketing the entrance, was closed temporarily so it could be refashioned as a lounge. Five and a half years later, the Gaslighter remains dark. But there’s hope the theater could be resurrected in coming months if it can overcome the kind of obstacles that frequently crop up in small town development battles.
As proof that the Grinch is not just some imaginary Dr. Seuss character, see Exhibit A: Sandra Lizbeth Contreras-Velazquez. Just a week before Christmas, San Jose police announced that in the lead-up to the holiday season, Contreras-Velazquez was allegedly stealing the jewelry of others. But not just anyone with a gold chain. Contreras-Velazquez is suspected of tricking children into giving away their jewelry so she could sell it for profit.
The science world is buzzing about the new Earth-like planet discovered Monday. The planet, Kepler 22b, is more than twice the size of Earth and circles a star that is supposedly similar in size and warmth to our solar system’s sun. What has NASA nerds so interested in the planet, however, is the 72-degree average temperature.
As the sun sets outside the gothic Tower Hall on San Jose State University’s campus, Mohammad Qayoumi sits at a board table in his office, looking every bit the politician with his crisp shirt and tie, gray hair parted neatly to the right. He doesn’t spend much time talking about himself, even when the questions pertain to the uncomfortable political role Qayoumi is currently being forced to play. The president of SJSU—who was born in Afghanistan and previously presided over Cal-State East Bay—is being pulled in two different directions.
A report released Monday by the High-Speed Rail Authority reiterates the authority’s consistent argument: A tunnel and underground station will not work in San Jose. Business and neighborhood groups worry that the proposed elevated structure will be a huge and unsightly addition to the cityscape.
Whether it was fatigue from sleeping on the sidewalk, a lack of company in the cold night or anonymous death threats, which at least one outspoken female member received, the occupation in San Jose was noticeably dwindling in bodies and enthusiasm as the arrests started. And then Shaun O’Kelly, known to his friends as Cracker, went climbing.
This weekend, Lily Zhang and Ariel Hsing will be joined by many of the best young table tennis players in the world for the International Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships.
The 2007 Golden State Warriors and members the current team will participate in a charity game to raise money for the fight against cancer. The fundraiser, called the “We Believe vs. Dubs,” will benefit the Kaiser Permanente Breast Cancer Research foundation as well as Matt Barnes’ Athletes vs. Cancer foundation.
Five storefronts and a parking lot along South First Street, from San Carlos to San Salvador, stand in dark contrast to their neighbors. The white lights and customers in occupied areas only accentuate what urban planners call “missing teeth” on this city block. Downtown San Jose, like many cities trying to recover from the recession, has seen companies come and go, and restaurants and bars launch and leave. But one entity the city could always rely on to plow money into recruiting and subsidizing new businesses has all but turned out the lights as well.
