Guest View

Parents want to shield their children from the dangers of the world—but fire is one thing they can’t sweep under the rug. Especially now, as our communities begin to realize fire season no longer has a beginning or end; it is a constant where...

Around spring 1970, I took my first cross country road trip with my college friend, Cliff, who later became a doctor and then the surgeon general of New Jersey. We began our journey at our college, Rutgers University. We sang Bob Dylan songs and...

It’s time, once again, for a humorous column, dear reader. In that vein, I welcome Mark Twain to the conversation. Ron Chernow’s recently published biography of the famous author serves as the backdrop. According to Chernow, before he was America’s most celebrated humorist, Mark Twain...

I’m still reading the biography of Mark Twain by Ron Chernow. The book is more than 1,000 pages long, so cut me some slack. My last column channeled Twain’s propensity to write fake news stories when he was a journalist. Prior to picking up Chernow’s...

Four Town officials—Town Manager Laurel Prevetti and former mayors Maria Ristow and Rob Rennie, along with Councilmember Rob Moore—have been responsible for the failure to get the Housing Element passed, despite five attempts. Ristow recently said the three of them should be recognized for...

The familiar hum of a well-oiled machine is a comforting sound. It suggests efficiency, precision, and a harmonious system. This is an analogy I provided to Town Council at a council meeting on Aug. 6, as I, along with Chair Eleanor Yick, presented the...

Julius Caesar, a name synonymous with power, ambition and—ultimately—betrayal, met his fate on the Ides of March. While we remember this date for the fall of a Roman emperor, the Ides of March also offers us a chance to rise to a different kind...

One of the things I love most about Los Gatos is how easy it is to get around on two wheels. Whether it’s families riding along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, students biking to school, or neighbors choosing a bike instead of a car for...

A week before the 2022 New Year, I received a text from a friend expressing his dismay at the great number of dead newts he saw on Alma Bridge Road while he was biking. This was right after one of the December winter storms....

Every family deserves the peace of mind that comes with clean, lead-free drinking water. At San Jose Water, we are committed to developing a comprehensive inventory of service line materials in our system. Since 2017, we’ve worked alongside industry experts to inspect thousands of lines...