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Top Stories: Nov. 20, 2009Overcrowded Classrooms; Reed vs. Washington, DC; San Jose's Pricey Treesby Danny Wool on Nov 20, 2009Leggo San Jose’s Eggo The national waffle shortage is hitting crisis levels. No less a media personality than Stephen Colbert has declared the country to be on Waff-Con Four. He has even called on President Obama to open the nation's strategic waffle reserves. While the problem began in Atlanta, the solution to the crisis, deemed a national emergency by CNN, could come from right here on Eggo Way in San Jose. The Kellog's factory at the end of the street is where the Eggo waffle was invented in the 1930s by local entrepreneur Frank Dorsa. Since the Atlanta factory was flooded—by rain, not maple syrup—San Jose's factory has been working round the clock to keep up with the country's demand for the golden brown commodity, because in times of crisis like this, the people at San Jose's Eggo emporium won't let American breakfasters down. Read More at NBC Bay Area. Classroom Size Grows by 50 Percent It's crowded in the San Jose Unified School District. Though class size used to be 20 students per classroom, the budget deficit has taken its toll on schools, and there are now 30 students on average in each and every classroom. Of course the state provides financial incentives to keep classroom size small, but rather than simply cancelling the incentives because there are untenable, restrictions on schools have been eased instead. In other words, schools are getting money for having smaller classes—$1.8 this year alone—without actually having smaller classes. According to California Watch, this is "eroding the most expensive education reform in the state’s history." And the situation could get worse. Not only is San Jose Unified the most crowded district in the state, but officials warn that classes could get even more crowded, even while the state pours another $1 billion into smaller classroom programs statewide. Hardest hit are grades K-3, but nationally California already ranks 48th in the nation in terms of classroom size. This means that locally, students entering the critical early years of education could be in some of the most crowded school in the entire country. This has parents and teachers up in arms. They launched a preemptive strike yesterday throughout the South Bay area, to protest any future budget cuts to local schools. Donnell Fassler of the California School Employees Association urged "the governor and the Legislature to find ways to protect our students from further budget cuts." Any more cuts, he argued, would lead to further teacher layoffs and even bigger classrooms. Read More at KLIV. Read More at ABC 7. Read More at California Watch: Center for Investigative Reporting. Reed Cracks Down on the Stimulus Package Mayor Chuck Reed is in Washington to tell the Administration what he thinks of the stimulus package. They probably wish he hadn't come at all. When asked at a meeting at the Brookings Institute how $79 million in federal stimulus funding has helped San Jose deal with the recession, Reed answered, ""It's been a very minimal impact." His sentiments were echoed by the other three panelists, the mayors of Philadelphia, PA, Mesa, AZ, and Bowling Green, KY. Their greatest concern was that the funding they've received was used to resolve immediate problems, but had no long-lasting impact on their local economies. "The money you give us to put people to work is not creating long-term jobs," Reed complained. It's creating jobs that last only as long as the federal government is willing to write the check." Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa agreed, comparing the funding to a "sugar high." After the forum Reed headed to the Whitehouse to share his concerns directly with administration officials. San Jose is scheduled to receive $79 million in stimulus funding over the next two years, and has already spent about 10 percent of it. Read More at The Mercury News. The Cost of Trees There are 242,000 street trees in San Jose and room for another 90,000, but no one is in a hurry to plant them. At one time the city had 14 workers, whose job it was to maintain the trees, prune them, and trim their roots. But their jobs were eliminated in 2007 due to budgetary constraints, and those constraints have only gotten worse. Instead the city is now relying on a 1951 ordinance that requires property owners to tend to the trees that abut their land. This comes at a cost, ranging from a few hundred dollars per tree to as much as $2,000 for very large trees. Sometimes the cost is inevitable. Expanding roots can raise sidewalks and cause cracks in paved areas. But even the most environmentally conscious residents are reluctant to spend a few hundred dollars on planting new trees to enhance their neighborhoods. And the city simply can't afford it. Read More at The Mercury News. by Danny Wool on Nov 20, 2009 |
 The Eggo Waffle was invented in San Jose, and the factory on Eggo Way is now responsible for the nation's entire supply of the tasty breakfast treats. |
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