San Jose council OKs millions for San Pedro Square

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 12/9/08 | Denis C. Theriault

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday decided overwhelmingly to move ahead with plans to invest $6 million in prime property owned by a former mayor and his family, casting aside charges that cronyism had helped forge the deal.

The 10-1 vote to continue with the project, an urban market in San Pedro Square seen as key to a downtown redevelopment push, came with a large helping of praise for Tom McEnery, a prominent business owner but long a source of controversy over his role in charting downtown's future. "This isn't a political decision today," Vice Mayor Dave Cortese said. "As business people, they have been good neighbors and friends for three generations. We owe them enough trust on this deal to keep it moving forward."

Still, politics loomed heavily over Tuesday's debate. Monday, the city's elections commission received an anonymous complaint accusing McEnery and his partners of ignoring the city's lobbyist rules by failing to report meetings with city officials. And also Monday, Councilwoman Nora Campos — the sole no vote on the project — raised questions about McEnery's ties to Mayor Chuck Reed, whom he sometimes advises.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

This is a local San Jose issue, but it is emblematic of the problems at all levels of government in the U.S. In this terrible and rapidly worsening downturn, medium size cities are still spending like crazy. They don't seem to be the least bit worried that tax revenues may decrease. Malfeasance in the public treasury at all levels is at an absurd level. Where are our good public fiscal stewards?

The idiots in San Jose spent $400 BILLION on a new city hall in the last couple years. Can you imagine a medium size city hall cost almost HALF A BILLION dollars?

I guess we needed such an edifice to house the bureaucratic idiots who now are giving away $6 million in chump change for "urban renewal."

[martin_fierro]

Quetzalcoatl
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[shorty_harris]

They’ve been “redeveloping” the downtown area since before I moved there in 1986 (and upgrading the airport, too)!

[hinckley buzzard]

This is a local San Jose issue, but it is emblematic of the problems at all levels of government in the U.S.

I agree. The wheels have come off, and the doors are hanging open. The dollar will be dead by this time next year; the government will be in open meltdown with devil- take-the-hindmost corruption; and God knows what socialista nightmare to expect-- but it won't be pretty whatever it is.

[tubebender]

They’ve been “redeveloping” the downtown area since before I moved there in 1986 (and upgrading the airport, too)!

The first and last time I was in San Jose I stayed with my late brother in a trailer parked in a cherry orchard...