Santa Clara County Local News

UC Santa Cruz recently acquired and established the Strathearn Ranch Natural Reserve, a 2,400-acre oak-studded grassland property in San Benito County that will be used for field research and outdoor education for the university’s students, staff and researchers.

UC Santa Cruz recently acquired and established the Strathearn Ranch Natural Reserve, a 2,400-acre oak-studded grassland property in San Benito County that will be used for field research and outdoor education for the university’s students, staff and researchers.

San Jose is inching toward its housing and homelessness goals, but still has a ways to go before it can shelter thousands of unhoused residents.
The city released its latest annual homelessness report in early November detailing its progress in cleaning up the streets and waterways, sweeping encampments and building temporary housing. It met some goals, such as expanding weekly trash pickups and sanitary services to RV residents. But a number of goals missed the mark, like providing 300 people with short-term rental assistance through its rapid rehousing program and hiring people with lived experience to do street outreach for those in need of  mental health services.
Mayor Matt Mahan said he's asked for more frequent progress reports, not just yearly updates, to ensure funding is properly spent on reducing the number of unsheltered people. There are roughly 6,340 homeless residents in the city — with about 4,400 being unsheltered — and nearly 10,000 countywide.
“We can and will do more to get people off our streets and out of our creeks. This report highlights the progress we've made since shifting to an all-of-the-above approach and shows us how much more we still need to do to end the era of encampments in San Jose," Mahan said. "We need to be able to see what's working and what's not on a regular basis so we aren't wasting taxpayer dollars on programs that aren't moving the needle."
This fiscal year, the city converted two hotels to temporary housing through state funding from the Project Homekey program. The 72-room Pacific Motor Inn had its grand opening last month, operated by nonprofit People Assisting the Homeless (PATH), and will provide temporary housing, meals and supportive services as individuals transition into permanent homes. The former 61-room Pavilion Inn, renamed Sunrise Pavilion, was converted into 43 studio and one-bedroom affordable apartments to house youth emerging from foster care.
The expansion of the Rue Ferrari tiny home site in South San Jose also broke ground last month, with 107 homes being added by next year with the capacity to house up to 146 homeless people. By the time the city’s four other tiny home projects come online, San Jose will have a total of nearly 1,300 beds.

Related Stories

Civic-minded residents of Santa Clara County are invited to apply for service on the 2025-26 Civil Grand Jury, a component of the judicial branch that is dedicated to upholding transparency and accountability in local governance.

Live Oak HS Football (3-8 overall)

Christopher HS Football (9-2 overall, 6-0 BVAL Mt. Hamilton Division)

Santa arrived prematurely at many large retailers, and despite the economy being cited as the reason for voting preferences, consumer spending is at an all-time high. Oscar Wilde said “living well is the best revenge,” but perhaps in today’s parlance it’s more like shopping well. And lucky us, as Los Gatos is truly a mom-and-pop commerce mecca. Were parking less of a hassle, this town’s businesses might see even more foot traffic during the holiday season.

The allegations were hard to believe.
Initial reports of a child sex abuse investigation into San Jose Councilmember Omar Torres reeked of a political smear to his supporters, who had yet to see key details, in early October. For more than a year, the District 3 official faced incessant online vitriol for being an openly gay elected leader, which often pushed myths about queer people grooming children. Homophobic emails flooded his office for inviting a drag queen to perform at a council meeting last year — a historic gesture for the LGBTQ+ movement at a time when conservative states outlawed public drag shows.
But Torres’ reassurances — that the investigation was baseless and he was the victim — later spelled a shocking betrayal for people who found not only inspiration, but hope, in his success as a gay Latino political figure. Police filings made public in the subsequent weeks revealed Torres not only asked for sex with minors in 2022, but admitted to molesting an underage relative in the 1990s. Authorities are now trying to uncover more potential victims.
“We’ve already seen the resurgence of anti-LGBTQ forces,” Shane Patrick Connolly, the openly gay chair of the Santa Clara County Republican Party, told San José Spotlight. “Then something like this happens.”

Related Stories

As we prepare to gather with loved ones this holiday season, it’s important to remember that many of our neighbors are struggling to meet even their most basic needs.

Interfaith Thanksgiving service this Sunday

In a landmark antitrust case, the Justice Department asked a federal judge to force the company to sell its popular Chrome browser. The Department of Justice and a group of states had until the end of Wednesday to propose remedies in an antitrust lawsuit they won in August.

Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often as possible.

Gilroy Life goes online only for rest of year

A recent California law allows Native American tribes to sue local cardrooms, potentially threatening their survival and the tax revenue they bring to communities.

Sobrato volleyball in 2024 dealt with graduations of last year’s seniors, a challenging non-conference schedule and loaded league competition. The Bulldogs nonetheless extended their playoff streak to five consecutive non-Covid years, and notched a postseason victory for only the second time in that span, matching last year’s team.

This year's election cycle brought 10 propositions to California voters. Some will either usher in statewide changes or no changes at all.
Some residents were shocked by the rejection of Proposition 6, which would have ended forced labor in prisons. Others are celebrating the passage of Proposition 3, which codified the right to same-sex marriage in the state’s constitution. Proposition 32, which aimed to raise the minimum wage, failed by a slim margin. As of Wednesday afternoon it's been called with about 96% of the votes statewide counted.
Here’s what people in Santa Clara County have to say about the major propositions that passed or failed.
Proposition 3
Proposition 3 enshrined the right to same-sex marriage in the state constitution. Its passage repealed Proposition 8, a measure passed by voters in 2008 that defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. Proposition 3 got 62.6% of the vote statewide. In Santa Clara County, nearly 70% voted yes.
“We’re very happy. This was a huge win for us, because it was a sweeping win,” Gabrielle Antolovich, board president of the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ+ Community Center, told San José Spotlight. “A lot of our people didn't even realize that the California Constitution still defined marriage as a man and a woman."
While the U.S. Supreme Court allowed California to resume same-sex marriages in 2013 and legalized it across all states in 2015, the language was never changed in the state constitution.
“It's always good to have good state constitutional policies, because you never know what's going to happen nationally,”Antolovich said. “It’s also a sweeping wake-up call that maybe we need to be more involved in local and state politics.”
Proposition 5
Proposition 5 failed, with 55.2% voting no.  Housing advocates had banked on it passing because it would’ve lowered the voting threshold for future affordable housing bond measures from 66.7% to 55%. In Santa Clara County, only 46.2% voted for it.
“(Proposition 5) really was an effort to create safe and sustainable neighborhoods throughout the state of California and allow local people to determine what their cities needed,” SV@Home Executive Director Regina Williams told San José Spotlight. “I think we're going to see something like that come back, because we as Californians can't allow for minority groups to prevent the majority of us from being able to improve our neighborhoods.”
Earlier this year, a regional housing measure which would’ve infused $20 billion in affordable housing funds across nine Bay Area counties was pulled from the ballot.
Proposition 6
The anti-slavery measure, Proposition 6, would have ended forced labor in prisons and jails and repealed a part of the state constitution allowing involuntary servitude as a form of criminal punishment. It failed, with 53.4% voting no. In the county, 49.1% voted for it.
Nearly 40,000 incarcerated people are employed by the state for essential work, ranging from fighting wildfires to making hand sanitizer, cooking, construction and cleaning for as little as 74 cents an hour. Proposition 6 would have allowed them to choose what they do and made work voluntary. It would’ve also allowed cities or counties to determine their pay scale in local jails.

Related Stories

The first phase of construction for Gavilan College’s new Hollister campus—which includes a 34,000-square-foot building with classrooms, labs, a cafe, resource center and more—is completed.

The first phase of construction for Gavilan College’s new Hollister campus—which includes a 34,000-square-foot building with classrooms, labs, a cafe, resource center and more—is completed.

The Morgan Hill Police Department received a traffic safety grant to support enforcement and education efforts, which in turn aim to reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths on local roads.

Civic-minded residents of Santa Clara County are invited to apply for service on the 2025-26 Civil Grand Jury, a component of the judicial branch that is dedicated to upholding transparency and accountability in local governance.