San Jose City Living

Early this morning in Downtown San Jose a home went up in flames engulfing surrounding homes in smoke.  Included in the flames path was a full carport where 4 cars were burned to the ground.

Here are the photos of the ordeal aftermath:

Twitter made the giant leap from a social networking tool to a suicide prevention method for a local San Jose woman.

Thanks to the popularity of Demi Moore and her 379,446 Twitter followers, along with many other Twitter members, word spread that a San Jose woman known as @sandieguy planned to kill herself by “getting a knife, a big one that is sharp. Going to cut my arm down the whole arm so it doesn’t waste time”. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mercury News has taken a turn for the… well that’s for you to decide.

As popularity for The Mercury News takes a dive and newspapers grasp for any rope that can pull them out of the hole that is a dying trend, articles like the recent one on Puberty become a new twist to keep you interested.

“During 2009, the Mercury News will publish
a story each month about the events that make each life extraordinary.
This month: A group of Silicon Valley tweenagers hit puberty, and puberty hits back.“

Maybe the Merc is working the bugs out or maybe this was a perfect ploy but the two most visible headlines being “Mortgage Rates Plummet” and “Puberty” send quite the an interesting signal.  I’m not 100% sure which to read first!  It’s all just so exciting.

However, newspapers are reaching a point where a change has to be made in content and how it is distributed.  Personally, I happen to read articles from the newspaper when presented via my personal circle of internet media sites I follow or happen upon.  Usually this happens by viewing the Yahoo! newspaper consortium articles I see first on my Internet Explorer homepage or when I read Inside San Jose.

But will these “real” issue articles be what brings people back to reading a physical newspaper?  We’ll see! What are your thoughts?

Silk Road Bistro Recession Special - Photo by Eric Carter @ Dizzy Pixel

If this isn’t a sign of our economic woes, I don’t know how much clearer it can get.

I commend Silk Road Bistro for this sign.  What a great way to leave a lasting Silk Road Bistro impression in each passer-byer that walks down the San Fernando Street block between 3rd and 2nd.  While a constant reminder of the impending doom effecting our economy isn’t a pleasant thought, the fact that you can get discounts on some great Indian food might help alleviate the painful thought of being let go, fired, squadooshed, canned, or “don’t let the screen door hit ya on the ass on the way out”.

I suppose this sign could be categorized as Sweet and Sour – but in the opposite order maybe?  And when you show them your pink slip in in order to redeem your half off discount, will they say, “Penny for your thoughts”?

Can Silk Road Bistro become a kind of Laid Off Anonymous where the no longer employed can share their story and seek friendship and support during such a rough time known as a “Recession”?  Probably not.  And that is most likely not their end game for the discount offer.  Clever thought none the less right?

Even if you haven’t been given that dreadful pink slip, (do they make it pink to try and keep spirits lifted?  Why not red?)  try to get down to Silk Road Bistro for lunch or dinner sometime.  Great prices, calm environment, and fantastic food.  I personally recommend the combo plate, (called something else) which gives you Salmon, Chicken, Shrimp, and one other thing… I want to say, lamb?… along with rice.  And make sure to get an order of Garlic Naan – oh man is it good.

Good job Silk Road Bistro!  SanJoseCityLiving.com is proud to have you in our neighborhood.  Its that kind of witty sense of humor and good food that helps liven up San Jose.

Photo by: Eric Carter @ Dizzy Pixel

Tonight San Jose Police took a drug dealer off the streets at the corner of 2nd and San Fernando.

Did they really need 8 cop cars and 10 police officers for one guy and the lady he was either selling to or selling with?  This is not including the two pairs of police officers I saw just 20 yards away outside of San Jose Bar and Grill and Tres Gringos, though I’m thankful for them being there since I’ve seen some wild riots go down outside those two establishments.

Through asking around, it seemed none of the bystanders saw how the bust happened, but from the storage zip lock bag of pills on the police car, it was obvious the guy in zip-tie handcuffs was heading to jail for possession.  No doubt he’ll be needing Bad Boys Bail Bonds to get him out.  I just hope when he does, the last thing he does is try and sell more drugs.

While I’m happy when a drug dealer is off the street, does it really take as many police as they had?  I would much rather see one of those police officers parked on San Salvador between 3rd and 4th, also known as “Drug Street Alley”.  For those of you that don’t know why it’s called that, “Drug Street Alley” is a common hang out spot for drug dealers, gangs and their affiliates.

Just about every night if you drive by, you’ll notice some sort of deal going down.  If you don’t see a sly handshake or what looks like a deal being made, you can bet there is some large gathering of people that you’d feel uncomfortable even looking at as you walk down the street.  Even I was harassed walking down San Salvador Mardi Gras night, and I’m a pretty big guy!

So thank you to the San Jose Police Department for taking the drug dealer off the street on 2nd and San Fernando.  And thank you to the undercover narcotics officers I’ve known that have risk their lives to perform undercover buys in order to catch those peddling drugs on the street, especially the ones I’ve seen on San Salvador.  It just would have been nice if we could finally drive the dealers and gangs off of the streets knowing full well where they are there every day.

More photos of a San Jose Police arrest:

The bag of pills confiscated by the San Jose PD

Placing the drug dealer into the police van

What do you think about how many cops were at the scene?

Kids Need Options is the title of Joseph Di Salvo’s recent article on the San Jose Inside website.

Mr. Di Salvo wrote about how there is a rising gang-related violence in the suburbs of San Jose.  Basically as he talked about the rise in crime he also talked about how “kids need options” and that the typical intervention programs don’t seem to “do the trick” and are more costly than prevention methods.

Long story short he wanted to hear the readers views on alternatives for kids.  My reaction wasn’t really an alternative for kids, it was an alternative to the parents!  Responsibility has to be put back on the parents.  And here is where I sort of got aggressive with it.  Here was my response in full:

“Is it too much to say there should be some sort of limits to how many babies we can have?

Maybe throw an income factor into the mix?  A credit report maybe?  If you can’t afford them, don’t have them maybe?  Just a thought as I see fellow young adults with no college degree, no jobs but a boyfriend making less than 30k a year and living with parents, popping out kids like its required of them.

And what about teaching these kids some self control?  IT IS OK TO SAY, “hang on babe, I need to put the condom on”.  Why not make that a cool thing to do!

I mean heck, if we can make cigarettes look like a swell idea, we should have the talent and skill to make wrapping it up “cool”.

On another note relating to over population, we are currently taking up WAY too much of the natural habitats of animals in order to make more room for us.  This is also ever more relevant in some parts of Africa.  Maybe the guilt of taking their land and stressing their survivial might encourage us to stop making so many kids that are practically doomed to fail from the get go.” <- I recently watched the animal planet…

So tell me, what do you think about my reaction?  Valid? Too much to ask?  Isn’t there some sort of medium we can reach in concerns to the over growth of the population?

As I visit one of my favorite hiking spots, Castle Rock, up HWY 9, I look down at the city in sheer disgust.  Though I love San Jose, it truly just looks like we’re this destructive fungus that infects an area, kills the foliage, and just takes over without much thought to the effect we have on our surroundings.

Keep in mind, I feel the child limit ban that is in effect in China is a bit much and a weak, unplanned preventative measure, but there has to be a compromise in the middle right?

So tell me your thoughts on my response to Joseph’s solution plea.

You can read Joseph’s article directly at http://www.sanjoseinside.com/sji/blog/entries/kids_need_options/.