FROM A HISTORIC election recount to a San Jose councilmember’s arrest: 2024 was one for the books. Because the South Bay turns a web page into 2025, San José Highlight is trying again on the pivotal moments that made this yr memorable — from scandals and protests, to historic votes and people we misplaced.
Santa Clara County buys Regional Medical Middle in East San Jose, which was owned by HCA Healthcare, a for-profit firm. File photograph.
Psychological well being and well being care
Santa Clara County’s staggering $250 million funds deficit meant county leaders stated “No” to some wage calls for from one in all California’s largest public hospital workforces.
The outcome: Greater than 3,000 Santa Clara County nurses headed to the picket traces in April over pay and dealing circumstances. A month later the county and nurses labored out an settlement.
Quickly after, the native well being care system confronted its best menace of the yr. Non-public company HCA Healthcare reduce lifesaving companies at Regional Medical Middle, East San Jose’s solely hospital, whereas seeking to develop Good Samaritan Hospital within the wealthier West Valley. In response, county officers introduced their plan to buy Regional in August and develop California’s second largest public hospital system.
In the meantime, county leaders made massive adjustments to psychological well being care in Silicon Valley. After a few snags, they made it simpler to entry a non-police response to psychological well being disaster calls, often known as TRUST, by including a direct line in November. Behavioral well being officers additionally carried out the CARE Act on Dec. 2., a brand new behavioral well being courtroom that permits members of the family, clinicians and first responders to petition the courtroom to assist an grownup with psychotic issues obtain therapy.
Tons of of Berryessa Union Faculty District neighborhood members turned out to induce the college board to not shut their colleges in December. 9 colleges had been closed between Berryessa and Alum Rock college districts. (San Jose Highlight file photograph)Schooling
In October, the Santa Clara County Board of Schooling created a firestorm when it voted to fireplace Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan with out trigger.
The choice roused an uproar amongst Dewan’s supporters. The college board later defined its determination by requesting audits into misuse of public funds below Dewan’s tenure. County supervisors at the moment are exploring methods of increasing their management over the college board.
Considerations over monetary mismanagement, program cuts and college closures additionally fueled the resignations — and firings — of superintendents helming college districts in East San Jose, Mountain View and Los Gatos.
Declining enrollment and the tip of federal funding compelled cash-strapped districts to shut colleges. Mother and father within the Berryessa and Alum Rock union college districts fought for colleges to remain open, however ultimately officers authorised closing three colleges in Berryessa and 6 in Alum Rock in coming years.
A 3-story, $70 million modular housing undertaking that San Jose is setting up at Branham Lane had mildew, plumbing and drainage points. (San Jose Highlight file photograph)Housing and growth
San José Highlight additionally broke the story a couple of county inspection report discovering that for years, homeless veterans housed at 10 Kirk Ave. have lived in squalor with mattress bugs, black mildew, fireplace hazards and an absence of heat water.
Officers at Valley Water plan to clear homeless encampments alongside the company’s waterways and high quality people caught tenting there.
San Jose officers additionally pumped extra funding into police patrols to implement “no return zones” for homeless camps alongside the Guadalupe River and people surrounding non permanent shelter websites citywide — geared toward pushing folks into secure parking and sleeping websites. The town’s first secure sleeping website is ready to open in March.
In the meantime, proposals for a jail diversion housing website in South San Jose met fierce backlash, and the town scrapped its settlement with the county to buy and repurpose the tiny house facility.
County leaders additionally tackled growth points impacting their choices of open house and parkland. In November, some county supervisors laughed off the San Jose Earthquakes’ proposal to show a part of the county fairgrounds into a personal soccer complicated. In January, county leaders bought Richmond Ranch for preservation as a public park after an extended historical past of it being eyed for tech and industrial makes use of. Discussions about ending artificial turf in leisure areas additionally gained traction throughout the county.
Diridon Station in San Jose is a serious transit hub for Caltrain and Amtrak, and sooner or later BART. (San Jose Highlight file photograph)Transportation
It was a great yr to be a public transit chief. The South Bay scored a large infusion of federal money in August to see by a highly-expensive plan to increase BART by Santa Clara County.
San Jose officers are nearer than ever to turning Diridon Station into one of many West Coast’s largest mass transit hubs. They simply must juggle the continuing results of main building over the subsequent few many years.
And ridership at San Jose Mineta Worldwide Airport is climbing again up after COVID-19 despatched site visitors plummeting — because the battle for airway dominance is intensifying throughout the Bay Space.
Joanne Segovia walks away from the federal courthouse in San Jose on March 31, 2023. (San Jose Highlight file photograph)Police and public security
The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Workplace is rolling out Tasers within the jails for the primary time. The choice sparked scrutiny over the sheriff’s oversight workplace and met protests from a coalition of civil rights teams. A kind of, the NAACP of San Jose/Silicon Valley, had a serious management change in November. Sean Allen, a former correctional officer turned whistleblower, succeeded the longtime former president, the Rev. Jethroe Moore, who returned to Georgia.
This yr additionally noticed the exit of 1 San Jose police chief and the appointment of one other, together with a new police auditor. Talking of police — Joanne Segovia, former workplace supervisor of the town’s police union, pleaded responsible to her high-profile drug smuggling case in October.
Politics
San Jose residents had their religion examined this yr over little one intercourse abuse scandals involving a youth pastor and the San Jose Sharks. However the final shocker got here in October, when then-Councilmember Omar Torres was named in a little one intercourse abuse probe that led to his arrest and resignation on Election Day. The scandal has prompted scrutiny over the metropolis constitution and a particular election, which is sure to arrange a showdown between labor and enterprise pursuits.
Nevertheless it was an attention-grabbing political yr in different methods. Silicon Valley’s hottest congressional race took a beautiful flip in an unprecedented three-way runoff within the March main between former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, State Assemblyman Evan Low and former county Supervisor Joe Simitian. A shadowy recount effort — which Liccardo allegedly coordinated however denies doing so — knocked Simitian out of the November election, which Liccardo received towards Low.
This yr noticed the autumn of a Santa Clara official. A jury in December discovered Vice Mayor Anthony Becker responsible of perjury and failing to uphold his duties as a public official, associated to him leaking a 2022 Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury report in regards to the San Francisco 49ers’ stranglehold over metropolis politics. The decision ended Becker’s month-long trial protecting accusations that he leaked the report to a 49ers govt and lied to the grand jury about it throughout their investigation. Jurors reached their determination after simply three hours of deliberating. Becker resigned from his Santa Clara Metropolis Council seat after the responsible verdict. He plans to attraction.
Group
The previous yr was filled with neighborhood milestones — and losses. East San Jose noticed the passing of two native Latino icons: La Raza RoundTable founder Victor Garza and neighborhood growth champion Chris Esparza. However an excellent imaginative and prescient for the Mexican Heritage Plaza and the financial way forward for Alum Rock Enterprise District seeks to make sure their legacy lives on.
A $100,000 grant to native enterprise advocates received’t simply go to neighborhood beautification. Group leaders say it’ll solidify the realm’s cultural identification by public murals and artwork installations, together with a gateway construction for the town’s first cultural district, “La Avenida” at Mexican Heritage Plaza.
