City of San Jose Government News

Kaiser Permanente plans to rebuild its 50-year old hospital in South San Jose and city officials call it a "win-win" for residents.

Lime and Bird brand electric scooters are disappearing from San Jose streets as the city brokers an exclusive deal with another company to launch up to 1,000 e-scooters.

San Jose housing advocates say corporate property owners are taking advantage of the latest artificial intelligence tech to drive up rent prices — and renters are feeling the financial pain.

San Jose officials this week will reckon with a political fight over a park important to the city's Vietnamese community.

Terming out of office hasn't kept San Jose policymakers from sticking around City Hall as paid lobbyists. But the business of swaying former colleagues is becoming a crowded field.

After angry community protests, San Jose officials are scrapping plans to sell Santa Clara County a tiny homes site to house incarcerated people with mental health issues on the south side of the city.

A proposed West San Jose housing project that would have added more than 100 affordable homes has been scrapped.

San Jose officials are hard-pressed to find an alternative site for the Berryessa Flea Market as development is set to displace vendors and threaten their livelihoods.

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan has withdrawn his endorsement of Tam Truong, a City Council candidate and police officer who’s still running for office after county prosecutors charged him with grand theft related to mortgage fraud allegations.

State lawmakers are calling out San Jose officials for changing the locks and community event access to a Vietnamese cultural garden that’s opened a political rift in Little Saigon.

Neighborhoods stretching outside of immediate downtown San Jose will see cleaner streets and more job opportunities for homeless people in that area.

A coalition of elected officials that Gov. Gavin Newsom dismissed as "just a couple mayors," is raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in an effort to reverse lenient rules on retail and drug crimes.

San Jose officials have zeroed in on the city's first location for a sanctioned encampment, where homeless people will be allowed to stay inside tents without fear of being swept.

A legal shield protecting police officers from excessive force lawsuits has taken a major blow in San Jose. 
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied qualified immunity for Michael Panighetti, a San Jose Police Department officer who shot a Black activist, Derrick Sanderlin, in the groin with a foam round while he held a sign in 2020. The incident occurred during local protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. The ruling allows Sanderlin’s excessive force lawsuit to proceed, despite city officials’ efforts to prevent it from going forward.
“We are happy the case is going forward. It’s been a long time coming — over four years at this point — so all my clients are eager to have their case finally heard by a jury," attorney Sarah Marinho, who represents Sanderlin and six others in the lawsuit, told San José Spotlight.
Marinho said she expects the case to move forward in the trial courts soon.
“I’m waiting at any moment to receive the next court date by the trial judge. That could be a month out — there’s no way to know when exactly," Marinho said.

Related Stories

Emotions ran high at a homeless encampment near a San Jose park as the city began sweeping the streets that unhoused residents called home.

East San Jose businesses are partnering with the city to launch a plan to drive more shoppers into the Tully Eastridge neighborhoods and breathe new life into its diverse economy.

Advocates and politicians have worked for years to ban the use of gas-powered leaf blowers in San Jose. A new incentive could be the answer.

Last year, a renovated San Jose hotel on The Alameda reopened with much fanfare to house homeless residents. But problems have cropped up from the start, according to people who live there.

It’s cheaper to rent a home in San Jose than buy one, though renters still pay steep prices in one of the most costly cities in the nation.

Arvind Kumar and his husband Ashok Jethanandani spend their Saturday mornings pulling weeds and protecting plants native to California, but not in their yard at home. Instead, they’ve spent the last 20 years volunteering at Lake Cunningham Park in their East San Jose neighborhood — working to undo years of neglect and unsafe water.

North San Jose will see a transformational change along one of its busiest transit corridors as more affordable housing, walkways and bike and bus lanes are developed — thanks to a multimillion-dollar state grant aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

San Jose leaders have suspended discussions over supporting the federal recognition of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe — pushing it to a vote in mid-September after receiving letters from two congressional leaders critical of the proposal.