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Local News Matters • 11th November 2022

Valley Water praises 'dramatic increase' in conservation, but warns more work needed

Amid rainy weather this week, a South Bay water agency cautioned that the state is still in a severe drought and residents should continue to restrict water usage to meet conservation goals.

According to the most recent drought report from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, Santa Clara County’s water management agency, countywide water usage dropped by 13 percent in September compared to the same time in 2019.

That number was short of the 15 percent three-year conservation goal set out by

Local News Matters • 9th November 2022

Get 'real': Mountain View partnership helps restaurants switch to reusable service ware

Mountain View restaurants that would ditch disposable service ware for alternatives could save money and the environment, and an organization has partnered with the city to help get them started.

ReThink Disposable has partnered with the city of Mountain View to provide technical assistance to restaurants that participate and is offering up to $300 per restaurant to switch to reusable utensils, cups, plates and bowls.

Those restaurants would also receive technical assistance from the organizat

Local News Matters • 4th November 2022

Rough road ahead: Bay Area street condition still a mixed bag, despite some improvement

Although roads in some Bay Area communities have shown vast improvement, the region’s roads remain in rough shape, according to a recent pavement quality report.

The Bay Area’s 44,000 lane miles of streets and roads received a pavement condition index (PCI) score of 67 out of 100 for the sixth consecutive year from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

PCI scores are calculated on a three-year moving average and scaled on levels from excellent to failed.

Roads that are newly built or re

Local News Matters • 30th October 2022

Giant rodents find their way to San Jose; capybara siblings debut at Happy Hollow

They are known as the largest living rodents in the world and now two 1-year-old capybara sisters call Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose home.

The capybara sisters were born at Abeline Zoo in Abeline, Texas, early in October and were transferred to Happy Hollow at the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Capybara Species Survival Plan.

Capybaras are not endangered, but their native habitat in the Amazon rainforest is. The Species Survival Plan coordinates the placement o

Local News Matters • 14th October 2022

South Bay leaders celebrate new state law helping businesses comply with ADA

Local leaders and disability rights groups on Thursday celebrated the signing of a new law that will expand funding to small businesses to improve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act on the 32nd anniversary of the federal law that made discrimination against people with disabilities illegal.


That included access to public accommodations. All new construction after 1992 had to be fully compliant with ADA accessibility guidelines, including ramps for wheelchairs, handrails on st

Local News Matters • 12th October 2022

‘Evictorbook’ unmasks corporate landlords in Oakland and SF, logs their eviction histories

Watchdog groups in Oakland and San Francisco have a new tool to hold corporate entities accountable for alleged unfair housing practices.

Evictorbook is the culmination of thousands of volunteer hours that compiled data from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and the San Francisco Rent Board on evictions, building complaints and building permits with state records of corporate ownership to untangle the web of corporate landlords and the shell companies through which they operate.

Tenants and

Local News Matters • 5th August 2022

From gang member to community leader: How the San Jose Black Berets changed one man's life

One of the first things you might notice about Manny Ortega is that he has a lot of tattoos. He got his first right out of elementary school. It said “Eastside,” and it brought him a lot of trouble.

That tattoo got him in a gang-related fight that awarded him his first jail time: a week or a day at the Youth Authority Center — the details are lost in the fog of memory. It wouldn’t be his last time behind bars.

Today, though, many of Ortega’s tattoos are monuments to a person who no longer exis

Local News Matters • 15th May 2022

Turning over a new leaf: SJ works to restore its tree canopy through better management

DOZENS OF YOUNG trees reach skyward along bustling Capitol Expressway in East San Jose, their skinny branches casting small shadows on the sidewalk below. The hope is that these trees, once mature, will mitigate pollution, provide shade and beautify an otherwise stark concrete hardscape.

But it will be a generation or two before the neighborhood’s residents will reap the benefits of these saplings.

And meanwhile, San Jose’s overall canopy is shrinking faster than it can be replenished.

The ci

La Voz News • 24th November 2020

San Jose City Council recommends Diridon Station expansion, hears public concerns

Google’s Downtown-West mixed-use project would bring significant changes to the 250 acre Diridon Station area, including electrified Caltrain, BART and the California high-speed rail.

The San Jose City Council met with the Diridon Station Advisory Group to assess progress and changes that have been made to the Diridon Station Area Plan for Google’s Downtown-West mixed use project.

DSAP and Google’s Downtown-West mixed-use project would bring significant changes to the 250 acre Diridon Station

La Voz News • 11th October 2020

Downtown soul: new café builds community during lockdown

This is the interior of the store as soon as customers walk in.

The line stretches for half a block down South First Street in downtown San Jose where sisters Be’anka Ashaolu and Jeronica Macey opened Nirvana Soul Coffee on Sept. 26.

Nirvana Soul has been about two years in the making from dream to reality but the sisters closed escrow on their location around the same time shelter in place orders were enacted, said Ashaolu.

Rather than dwell on the uncertainty that opening a café during a pa