* The Morgan Autism Center, located in San Jose, is a non-profit special education program for children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities. Founded in 1969 the center provides a very positive highly structured environment with a high staff to student ratio.

* Morgan Autism Center 40th Anniversary Celebration Starry Starry Night

A Cocktail & Hors d’oeuvre Reception with a special performance by the dynamic band SAGE – (< music will play)
A fun-filled evening of fine wines, champagnes and culinary delicacies.

Event Co-Chairs: Helen Marchese Owen & Angela McConnell
Honorary Co-Chairs:
Mayor Chuck Reed, City of San Jose
Supervisor Elizabeth Kniss, Santa Clara County

$100 per person – Tickets can be purchased at the door.
Cocktail Attire preferred.
Raffle Tickets Available: 1 for $10, 3 for $20, 8 for $50

* Tap To Talk
Cupertino based Assistyx has developed a communication device:

Regardless of cause–autism, developmental disability, mental retardation, down syndrome, apraxia, and many diseases–TapToTalk can help those who are non-verbal or have other speech or learning challenges communicate and learn.

TapToTalk

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It looks like the days of disposable plastic shopping bags are numbered, at least in San Jose.
District 3 councilmember Sam Liccardo gave a good explanation why in his latest email newsletter:

We pay for those “free” bags in numerous subtle—but substantial—ways. Since grocery stores spend billions of dollars for single-use bags in the U.S., a share of those costs undoubtedly find their way to consumers in the form of higher food prices. Waste haulers and recyclers in San José suffer repeated breakdowns when the plastic bags become lodged in their digesters, requiring manual removal that forces them to shut down machinery several times a day. As rate payers, we pay for those additional labor costs on the order of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. In a myriad of ways, we also pay for the litter resulting from the thoughtless disposal of these bags, the most obviously through the cost to taxpayers to dislodge and clean the bags from clogged outfalls, sewers, and streams. In addition to these costs, we face the challenge of reducing the bags that are filling our landfills as we try to move toward “zero waste” strategies to address our lack of landfill space.

…

Plastic bag recycling has several limitations. It’s not easy for consumers to know which kinds of plastic can be recycled, and any food debris or other contaminants will make the plastic undesirable for recyclers. Market realities also make it challenging; as reported in the Christian Science Monitor (March 29, 2007, “Seldom Recycled”), it costs $4,000 to process and recycle one ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32. Where recycling often requires heavy taxpayer subsidies, it’s better to keep the product out of the waste stream rather than spinning our wheels in quixotic recycling efforts.

And not only are the costs of keeping the disposable bags high, the inconvenience of doing away with them is really minimal.

Travelling in Europe last year, I got to see how a bag ban could work in practice. In Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic I never saw a grocery store give away a bag, but it was no problem. The key is one thing that doesn’t seem to have caught on here yet: re-usable plastic bags. Much heavier-duty than the current disposable bags, they could still be folded up and kept in your pocket. They cost only about 25 cents each, and lasted through dozens of grocery trips.

There’s still a few hurdles before San Jose truly goes disposable-bag-free, but the city council deserves kudos for setting this in motion.

Plastic bags -- should they be banned?

This week, the City Council’s Community and Economic Development Committee met to discuss a ban on plastic and paper bags. According to a Mercury News article on the issue, the only large city that has implemented a ban like this is San Francisco, as most cities which have implemented bans have banned only the plastic bags. The effort in San Jose is being spearheaded by Vice Mayor Judy Chirco and Councilmembers Sam Liccardo, Kansen Chu, and Nora Campos.

According to a presentation given at the committee meeting, fifteen other Santa Clara County cities are considering banning bags because of encouragement from the County Board of Supervisors and environmental agencies.

The City of San José’s proposed ban also includes paper bags because of the environmental impact involved in manufacturing them. “Green” paper bags, with at least 50% recycled content, would be excluded from the ban.  Restaurants would also not be required to discontinue usage of plastic bags.

Not surprisingly, the plastic industry lobby has already been urging the Council not to be hasty in making their decision. Nevertheless, the matter is heading for vote and discussion by the Council as soon as November, thanks to a unanimous recommendation by the committee.

As part of the Envision 2040 general plan update, the city of San Jose is introducing “Wikiplanning“. This new web project allows residents to participate in the general plan update project without having to attend a (possibly inconvenient) public meeting. There is a loosely guided set of “activities” that gather users’ inputs, and inform us about the general plan update. There’s also a message board and a photo gallery where we can comment on photos that show things we might want to bring in or keep out of the city over the next 30 years.

Looking at the website, I think it might best be considered an promising experiment. It’s certainly not a wiki, which is a highly hyperlinked web site that encourages users to add and edit content freely (the city of Davis has a good example of a civic wiki). There is no way for users to add new content, except for uploading photos. Even on the message board users can’t create new discussion topics.

Also, there’s still a few bugs to work out in the site (I think of these bugs as the price of admission to a relatively advanced-technology city). Trying to go back from an individual photo to the main photo page I got a database error message, and the photos are shown in a way that’s inefficient in bandwidth and distorted to look at. Prominent tabs at the top of each page (”About Us”, “Thinking Green”, “Help”) don’t lead to information about San Jose, but to the Wikiplanning software company’s sales site, with no way to get back to the San Jose-specific website.

On the other hand, the site shows promise. A true wiki, with the kind technical learning curve and geeky culture you see on Wikipedia, for example, would not be the best way to get more people (except wiki geeks) involved in civic discussions, and the bugs I found in the site could easily be fixed for the next project. Most importantly, even with a few warts, the web site should be able to bring more residents to the table in the planning process. That includes people with limitted free time to go to meetings and people with disabilities.

To use San Jose Wikiplanning, visit wikiplanning.org and log in with your email address and zip code or just use the password “2040″.

San Jose Inside, a blog associated with Metro Newspapers and former mayor Tom McEnery, dropped a bomb on the local political blog scene with a post that claims to reveal the identity, or at least the team directing, combative political blogger “San Jose Revealed.”

Recently, the only somewhat Santa Clara-centric blog Mission City Lantern had been posting speculations about possible identities behind Revealed, but little conclusive evidence. In their latest post, Inside are effectively claiming that several of the people named by the Lantern are working together to direct Revealed’s blog, though admitting that a not-yet-identified third party may actually be writing Revealed’s words.

The people named by the Lantern and Inside are a fairly close group of advisers around former city councilmember Cindy Chavez, who ran for mayor in 2006. The Lantern specifically identified Revealed to be Philip Bump, formerly political director of the South Bay Labor Council, of which Chavez is currently CEO. In return, Revealed has posted a denial that the other blogs have him correctly identified.

I’ve always read Revealed as the kind of blogger who likes to poke a stick into a hornet’s nest, just to create some excitement. He has a certain group of local political figures who he regularly jabs at, and reading his stuff has been like watching over-the-top political rhetoric brought to the local stage. He strikes me as the “Rowdy” Roddy Piper of local politics. I always figured the people he took issue with were all grown-ups and could certainly stand up to Revealed’s somewhat clownish jeering.

On the other hand, I haven’t been reading Revealed long enough to see some of the more mean-spirited things Inside and the Lantern have pointed out, such as posting a map to the home of political aspirant (and gang prosecuting attorney) David Pandori’s. This, at least, clearly crosses the line from entertaining political bloviation to dangerous invasion of privacy.

Mayor Reed and vigil organizer Kathleen Flynn

A group of 100 or so citizens and civic leaders convened this afternoon at City Hall Plaza for a vigil to honor San Jose police, fire fighters, and crime victims. Speakers included Chuck Reed, Councilmembers Ash Kalra and Nora Campos, District Attorney Delores Carr, Police Union President Bobby Lopez, and Fire Fighters union president Randy Sekany. All of the speakers expressed thanks to the city’s police and fire fighters for their dedication to the city and the risks they take on our behalf. They also showed support for the families of crime victims, with particular attention to the family of Vahid Hosseini, a shopkeeper who was robbed and murdered almost exactly one year ago while making a deposit at a near-downtown Bank of the West branch.

It’s a shame that at the same moment, rhetorically speaking, as they joined together to honor and respect those deserving public servants and crime victims, so many of these same people are engaged in a game of “who can get their foot deeper in their mouth?” First, community organizer Raj Jayadev made a speech at the City Council that seemed to threaten a radical “street response” to perceived police bias against certain groups. Then, Police Officers Association president Lopez posted a video of the speech on the POA’s new blog in which he added titles that might be called snide (or maybe just childish) commentary on Jayadev’s speech. Somebody returned fire anonymously with an equally snide (and childish) response video.

Finally, councilmembers Kalra and Sam Liccardo got into the game by issuing a letter that seems to be meant to return this debate to a civil basis. Unfortunately Kalra and Liccardo’s letter has been interpreted as (and reported as) scolding the POA for the video, and infringing their first amendment right to keep their foot solidly in their mouth. In the end everybody seems to come out a loser in this debacle.

I.O.U.S.A. Poster

On Monday evening, District 6 councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio is presenting a movie screening in the San Jose City Council chambers. The film, I.O.U.S.A., is a documentary meant to explain the US national debt, and what it means to future generations. The film has received favorable reviews from, for example, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

I.O.U.S.A. was produced by a nonpartisan organization called the Concord Coalition, which advocates fiscal discipline in government. It was founded by a democratic and a republican senator in 1992, and its board of directors includes former Secretary of Treasury Robert Rubin, and former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker.

When: Monday, May 4, 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

Where: City council chambers, 200 E. Santa Clara St.

Cost: Free, R.S.V.P. requested to pierluigi.oliverio@sanjoseca.gov

Photo: San Jose Library

If you haven’t been trapped in a dark cave for the last 19 months, you probably know that one of the issues creating the most heat (but little light) in San Jose city government has been a proposal by Councilmember Pete Constant to install internet filters on San Jose Public Library computers. The goal of these filters would be to prevent children from being exposed to pornography at the library, and prevent library computers from being used to view obscene or harmful materials, such as child pornography.

Today San Jose Public Library director Jane Light and the library’s digital futures manager Sarah Houghton-Jan spoke this afternoon on “The filtering challenge at San Jose Public Library”. They presented their view on the debate as library professionals who will ultimately need to implement whatever the City Council decides to do.

Central to the librarians’ view is their ethics of their profession, which direct them to “preserve and enhance information access for all users.” Responding to Constant’s original 2007 proposal, Houghton-Jan and her staff studied five filtering software packages, and compared their ability to block pornographic content while admitting legitimate materials. They attempted 135 different queries, including web searches, direct URL connections, email attachments, and “new media” content such as Facebook. They found the filtering software was, on average, about 75% accurate in its blocking, with both over-blocking and under-blocking errors being common. They also found the filters could be easily circumvented by use of proxy servers or by simply choosing different search terms such as “pron” instead of “porn”. Legitimate websites with controversial words in their names, such as lesbian.org, a political awareness site, and Victims of Pornography, a victims’ assistance site, were most likely to be over-blocked.

Recently, Constant and Mayor Chuck Reed on one side, and Vicemayor Judy Chirco with two other councilmembers on the other have come out with competing proposals. The Reed-Constant proposal would put mandatory filters on computers in youth and teen areas of the library, and make filters optional in the adult areas of the library.

The competing proposal would do much the same thing, but would defer funding any implementation defer deciding on adding filters until the SJPD sexual assault and internet crimes against children units and the city crossing guards program are returned to full funding, and the recent reduction in library branch operating hours are reversed.

Director Light said that either plan is now workable within the Library’s mission, but that funding for any changes has become much more difficult since the original filtering proposal was made in 2007.

The talk was part of the Library and Information Sciences Colloquium Series. A video of the talk should appear shortly on the colloquium series website.

I just discovered another useful resource at the San Jose Planning Department website. Last time I wrote about the Historical Overview and Context maintained by Planning. Last week I found Planning in San Jose, a basic guide to what every San Josean should know about the planning department.

Some of the useful information in the booklet includes: a description of the planning and permitting process; the role of the Planning Commission, Historic Landmarks Commission, and City Council in Planning; the role of other agencies like Public Works and Code Enforcement; descriptions of the various kinds of permits available from the city; and a guide to participating effectively at public meetings.

There are a couple of public meetings coming up where you could show off your newfound knowledge after reading this booklet:

Envision San Jose 2040 Task Force

I wrote about Envision San Jose 2040 once before.

• Will select the growth scenarios to be studied in the environmental impact report.
• Informational web site
• Mon., March 23, 6:30 pm, at San Jose City Hall Wing Rooms

Community Meetings on the Sign Code Update

• Informational flyer (pdf)
• Wed., March 25, 7 pm, at Roosevelt Community Center, 901 E. Santa Clara St.
• Thurs., March 26, 7 pm, at Pearl Library Community Room, 4270 Pearl Ave.
• Contact: Carol Hamilton

Community Meeting on the Draft Housing Element

• To discuss San Jose’s plans to provide its fair share of the Bay Areas housing needs, as part of the 2020 General Plan
• Mon., March 30, 6:30 – 8:00 pm
• City Council Wing, Room W-119
• RSVP by email to Allen Tai.

I just learned about an interesting resource on San Jose history, found at the city planning department website. The Historical Overview and Context, written in 1992, is meant to guide the planning department in historical preservation, but its also a basic introduction to San Jose history for anyone who’s interested.

The document begins with a summary of San Jose history, beginning with Native American times, and covering Spanish, Mexican, and American colonization periods, followed by development of the area from a supply point for California mining, to a fruitgrowing area, into the high technology center we know today. Important San Jose “firsts” are also mentioned such as the first automotive repair garage in the western U.S., and California’s first radio transmission.

Following the historical summary is a review of the geographical development of the city, including notes on the history of several smaller communities, such as Willow Glen and Evergreen, that were later annexed to San Jose.

Finally, the document terminates abruptly after discussing some California state guidelines for assessing historical land use patterns, and presenting the historical context of brick buildings in San Jose. Presumably the city had hoped to follow up this document with additional surveys covering other building types or city regions. I’m not sure if these follow-up surveys were completed or if they’re available on-line.

The PDF file also contains the “City of San Jose Historic Resource Inventory Survey Phase II”. This survey is more focussed on city planning concerns, and has a section on the historical development of transportation and communication in San Jose, followed by a section on industry and manufacturing. This part of the document covers some important historical developments, but emphasizes the locations and buildings where they occurred for the benefit of city planners responsible for preserving these historically significant sites.

If you’re interested in San Jose history you should have a look at this document. If you’re interested in how we can preserve the city’s memories and maintain a city landscape with links to the past, you should have not only read this document, but consider getting involved with planning decisions that can either preserve or obliterate our history.