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Top Stories: June 9, 2010

District Attorney Race Cliffhanger; NextSpace Comes to Silicon Valley; Arizona Boycott Stopped at the Border

by Danny Wool on Jun 09, 2010
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Election Day Is Finally Over
What a relief. The elections are over and the public has decided. It’s Meg Whitman ($81 million spent so far) against Jerry Brown. It's Carly Fiorina ($5.5 million of her own money) against Barbara Boxer. That's the news everywhere in America, where the California race was the showstopper on the nightly punditcasts.

But none of the networks got into those other votes—the ones that will have a more immediate impact on the people of San Jose and Santa Clara County. Take, for example, Measure J, in which Santa Clara County voted 60-40 to support the construction of a new stadium for the 49ers, at a cost of $937 million, more than four times the county's deficit. County officials say most of the funding will come from the team, with the county only covering $79 million, paid for with redevelopment funds and a new hotel tax.

Of course, not everyone is happy about that, least of all Santa Clara Plays Fair member Bill Bailey: "What the stadium is doing is it's using redevelopment money to build a football stadium. And I don't see how you can compare a football stadium with roads, streetlamps and sewers." It remains to be seen whether the stadium will have all the mega-shows it claims it will attract and really be the financial boon that the county so desperately needs. Only time and $79 million will tell.

Then there was the vote for DA between incumbent Dolores Carr and her deputy Jeff Rosen. Carr had the experience; Rosen had the momentum. The fact that the race was so close—just 2,217 votes separated them—shows how important both experience and endorsements are. In the end, Rosen came out ahead, but with thousands of mail-in ballots left to count, the book remains open on this one.

In San Jose, there were some obvious wins and some no-wins. Among the obvious wins were Mayor Chuck Reed and his two City Council buddies Sam Liccardo and Pete Constant. Fortunately for San Jose, they can now go back to focusing all their efforts on tackling the budget deficit.

Less fortunate is Madison Nguyen of District 7, whose rival, Minh Duong, benefited from the implied support of groups that didn't really support him. Though Nguyen beat him, 42 percent to 24 percent, he managed to take enough of a bite out of her campaign to force a second round in November.

An even closer race was fought out between Xavier Campos, brother of retiring Nora Campos in District 5, who got 38 percent of the vote, and Magdalena Carrasco, who got 36 percent. It has yet to be determined whether the smear campaign against Carrasco actually got her more votes or lost her votes.

Over in District 9, Donald Rocha came away with 42 percent against Larry Pegram's 25 percent. In other words, in Districts 5, 7, and 9, election season is only just beginning.

Finally, how can we mention the election without shining a little (electric powered) light on Prop 16. PG&E, which supported the measure requiring local authorities to get a two-thirds majority in order to compete with the PG&E powerhouse, actually came out losing. What this teaches is a valuable lesson. Even if you outspend the opposition 500-1, if the people don't like you, they really don't like you. Could it be that the company has been petitioning the California Public Utilities Commission to allow for a $1.1 billion rate increase, while it was pouring $50 million into the election? It may have been close, but Prop 16 lost, proving what the Beatles said, "Money can't buy you love."

These elections were fun indeed, and they may be relegated to just a memory. In a final vote against partisan politics, the people of California have decided to scrap party-based primaries with Proposition 14. Starting in 2011, there will be just a single primary, bringing all the candidates together. Only the top two candidates will face off in the election, which means that it could be two Republicans or two Democrats competing against each other for your vote. So relish the memory of this primary season. It could be the last one you'll see for a long time.
Read More at the Business Journal.
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San Jose to Non-Boycott Arizona
The debate was raucous at times, with people representing a cross-section of San Jose, shouting back and forth over what to do with Arizona. In the end, the city decided on a non-boycott of the neighboring state for its immigration policies. Mayor Chuck Reed called the Arizona law "unconstitutional," but did not believe it was grounds for a boycott. He received the support of Madison Nguyen, who raised the current economic situation to argue that a boycott would not be "appropriate right now."

When it was over, City Council voted 9-2 (Pete Constant and Pierluigi Oliverio opposing) to denounce the new Arizona law and support the legal challenges filed by other groups. City employees were to be barred from traveling to Arizona on business (which means no more trips to Taser International, headquartered in Scottsdale), but San Jose would continue doing business with the state (and can order its tasers from the company's fall catalogue).
Read More at The Mercury News.

NextSpace Looking at Downtown San Jose
Forget about MySpace. The next big thing is NextSpace. The company, which was founded in Santa Cruz, offers office space and services to a variety of companies on a per month or day-pass basis. Need a conference room for the start-up you started in your garage, and your living room just won't do? You can get that at NextSpace, with all the advantages of a fully operational office. Or else you can move your entire office out of your bedroom and into a more business-like setting where you can mingle with other entrepreneurs.

The idea took off quickly in Santa Cruz, where the NextSpace office grew from just a handful of people to 200 tenants in just two years. It was so successful that the company has just opened a branch in San Francisco last week. So far, there is only one client, a all-digital record label, but it expects to grow quickly as more and more startups pick up on the advantages of having an office-like setting, even if only to meet with investors.

And what better place is there for that than San Jose, the capital of Silicon Valley, where startups grow into international behemoths. Founders Caleb Baskin and Santa Cruz vice mayor Ryan Coonerty are checking out San Jose for their third location, which would be a home for local freelancers. After that, the sky is the limit. Once they get their third location running, they plan to take their model national.

While other cities, including Santa Clara and San Mateo, are competing with San Jose to house the third branch, it is up to the city to do what it can to bring this company here. If they don't it won't be because of a shortage of office space.
Read More at the Business Journal.



by Danny Wool on Jun 09, 2010
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