We live in an old house (1908) in an old neighborhood (Naglee Park) in an old town (San Jose). Christmas is a good time to be introspective and retrospective, to think about the past and what it means. It is also time to develop perspective, if possible, from what we see around us. What was…
Various international newspapers, including Reuters, recently announced the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of an education company that began in Naglee Park fifty years ago (1976). Dr. John G. Sperling, at one time a faculty member at San Jose State, founded the University of Phoenix (NYSE:PXED) to provide post-secondary education to working adults. It was a radical idea…
I recently returned from a trip to the Galápagos. As part of that trip, we spent a few days in Quito, the capital of Ecuador. That’s when I discovered that Quito has recently opened a brand-new subway system. The Metro de Quito became operational in December 2023, and I was curious enough to ride it….
Back in 2006 the City of San Jose, in conjunction with the 13th Street NAC and others, commissioned a substantial overview study of the many interesting neighborhoods north of Santa Clara Street. That area is known to local historians as the Second Ward, since it neatly covers the geography of San Jose’s early Fire District with the…
Spring is the season of Lent and Passover; these two important holidays always go hand-in-hand. As a practicing Catholic who was born in a Jewish hospital, this season of reflection and renewal is special to me. My neighborhood of Naglee Park had several members of the Jewish community who have made important contributions to my…
Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful, interesting and historic residences in Naglee Park is the Maybeck House at 62 South 13th Street. Fifty years ago it nearly disappeared, a victim of a combination of bad zoning, greed and extreme abuse. In the early 1970s it was marked as condemned by San Jose Code Enforcement,…
A friend who grew up in the neighborhood in the 500 block of South 14th reminisced that he was in awe of a house around the corner from his boyhood home. He said “I always thought the richest man in San Jose lived in that house”. He was talking about 555 South 13th (pictured above),…
This blog post is based on a CCA email exchange between a couple of neighbors who have witnessed decades of neighborhood evolution. April Everything this community has accomplished happened because the neighbors did the work. The ordinances that were proposed were written and researched by volunteer attorneys who lived here, the traffic studies were initiated…
There is District 3 and then there are the suburbs, the other nine Council districts. We seem to have little understanding of who we are or what we do. We are not like any of the other Districts. District 3 is the Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe, a colonial outpost of Spain. We are as old and as…
This is a follow-up to this post on digital safety. A few weeks ago, I received in the mail yet another data breach notification. This time, from Ticketmaster–my name, address and credit card info had been stolen. That was on the tail of a massive AT&T data breach that leaked pretty much everything about me,…
