NAMED NATIONAL FOUR-YEAR DAILY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR FOR 2020-21 IN THE COLLEGE MEDIA ASSOCIATION’S PINNACLE AWARDS
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023
Volume 160 No. 4 SERVING SAN JOSE STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1934
WWW.SJSUNEWS.COM/SPARTAN_DAILY
Mahan outlines mayoral plans
ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY
San Jose city mayor Matt Mahan speaks to members of the media before his inauguration, Wednesday afternoon at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts.
By Jillian Darnell STAFF WRITER
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan had his official inauguration on Wednesday at the San Jose Center for Performing Arts, where he discussed his goals for his term in office. In the press conference, Mahan said he wanted to focus on bringing back the basics of managing the city, working to address issues such as houselessness, crime, public safety, community clean-ups and to promote residence engagement. During the heavy rainfall that happened in early January, Mahan took action to support the houseless community by evacuating the streets and supplying them with emergency shelter. Mahan also said he wants to extend
new programs and projects to continue supporting the houseless community through providing quick-build shelters that will offer the “basics.” “We can’t wait for the next crisis,” he said. “We need basic safe spaces and services.” Mahan discussed allocating funds for individuals who are houseless, including families. “It’s common sense to spend a few thousand dollars to keep someone stably housed, they look for a job or support from a family member,” Mahan said. During the press conference, he said taxpayers pay an estimated $65,000 per unhoused person every year. Mahan said many residents of San Jose have complained about the unhealthy environment the city lives in. To solve this problem, he wants to promote more residence engagement with clean-up
programs that would uplift community beautification. “We plan to get hundreds of residents out to directly play a role in cleaning up and beautifying their neighborhoods,” Mahan said. “We’ll be working to expand programs like San Jose Bridge and Cash for Trash which employs homeless residents and citywide cleanup efforts, giving them dignity of work and income and the opportunity to gain better skills and employment and housing along the way.” San Jose resident Carl McRorie said the mayor made a lot of good points in his speech but that there’s nothing concrete about the houselessness situation. “The homeless problem is going to get worse, the trash is going to get worse unless there’s some kind of hard resolution to solve it, it won’t be solved,” said McRorie.
In discussing the housing problem in San Jose, Mahan preferred to talk about residents who may potentially leave the city because of complaints given on the campaign trail. When the mayor was pressed regarding what he meant about residents potentially leaving San Jose, Mahan said he was worried about the perception of the city and what the city can do to keep residents. “You know, what I was referring to was really more about the sentiment of our community,” Mahan said. “We have not seen a mass exodus of people or businesses. We’ve seen some folks leave some businesses but that’s been at the margins.” Mahan did not answer on plans to mitigate the cost of living in San Jose. MAYOR | Page 2
Coach Brennan talks new signees By Oscar Frias-Rivera STAFF WRITER
ALESSIO CAVALCA | SPARTAN DAILY
In honor of National Signing day, San Jose State head football coach Brent Brennan held a press conference on Wednesday morning to talk about the Spartans’ new signees. With the new National Collegiate Athletic Association rules regarding name, image and likeness and the transfer portal, the Spartans looked to get ahead by signing a mix of high school players and college transfers. The new transfer rules state that a student-athlete can transfer to another school and not have to sit out a whole academic year. The rules also state that student-athletes can profit off of their name, image and likeness, something that was outlawed just two years ago. For the longest time, athletes in college were not able to be sponsored by anyone or anything due to the rule. “I think people are paying attention to our process of improvement here,” Brennan said. I think people are aware [of our success] which is exciting to give us a chance to widen that scope a little bit.” The players who are coming to SJSU are from all around California, from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. Of the top signees, sophomore transfer quarterback Jay Butterfield was one of the key commits for SJSU.
SJSU head football coach Brent Brennan holds a news conference to discuss the seven new football signees in the Gold Room at SJSU South Campus on Wednesday morning. Of the seven signees, five are incoming freshmen.
FOOTBALL | Page 4