The Left Hook will take a break over the holidays, but we wanted to give you a brief look back at our inaugural year. From the launch of this now “go-to” source for local progressive news, to the wins for working families, 2014 was a fascinating and hopeful year.
January, 2014: TLH kicks off and the Rise of Citizen Journalists in Silicon Valley is off and running. Now, political insiders who need to know what’s going on check sources like The Left Hook daily.
Regular features like Policy Watch keep you in touch with what your city or county government is doing every week, and The Whopper of the Week makes sure you know who’s trying to snow you with B-S-.
As the year progressed we brought you the news of the good guys and the bad guys, and then more bad guys. And yet more bad guys.
This was a long, difficult year for immigrant struggles on so many levels. And yet the year brought some victories, and local organizations rose to the challenge of advocacy and assistance.
As we moved closer to summer, minimum wage increases began to spread across the region in Mountain View and Sunnyvale. And as we lost a long time champion for human, civil and economic rights, the fights continued for working families. And the local victories had statewide help, like gaining paid sick leave for workers (thanks California Labor Federation and Lorena Gonzales.)
And while the world set its lens on the dubious distinction that was “The Jungle,” we continued to sound the alarm on the disastrous state of income inequality.
As the election season ramped up, Mike Honda took on an unnecessary and expensive challenge from a DINO (Democrat in Name Only) with lots of Republican money, and still came out on top.
The race for San Jose Mayor got ugly as “someone” (political strategist Vic Ajlouny?) tried to bribe a cop to lie about what the San Jose Police Officers Association was telling new recruits. And San Jose’s Measure B took a few hard ones to the gut from judges that ruled it was illegal and just plain wrong.
But the Measure B rulings weren’t enough to keep San Jose’s Police ranks from falling to its lowest in 30 years.
San Jose and Mountain View also took steps to establish or increase housing impact fees so more affordable housing can be built in the most expensive region in America.
While we mourn the razor thin defeat of the better candidate for San Jose Mayor, we keep in mind the many victories for working families in more than 50 races throughout the South Bay including the San Jose City Council, County Board of Education, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, to name just a few of them.
And even though the San Jose City Council managed to end the year on a farcical, unethical note, skirting sunshine laws and democracy, some government bodies managed to do good, as Santa Clara County Supervisors boldly passed the most comprehensive living wage law in the land.
We look forward to 2015 with enthusiasm and the expectation that there will never be a loss for topics to write about that other local publications just aren’t paying enough attention to. Don’t forget to email us with your story ideas, opinions or your own clever posts. Happy New Year, from The Left Hook!
Do you have a news tip you would like to share? Would you like to contribute to The Left Hook? Email us at LeftHookBlog@gmail.com
No Comments