Spartan Daily Vol. 160 No. 30

City council talks SJ developments

By Alina Ta STAFF WRITER

San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and councilmembers held a council meeting on Tuesday at City Hall, discussing and reviewing the annual report on the city’s urban development.

“Once a year, we actually do sort of a report card and a general plan in terms of how we are achieving the general plans, goals and strategies to ultimately achieve the vision that the community that council has included in this general plan,” said Michael Brilliot, deputy director for citywide planning for San Jose.

Brilliot said some of the major aspects of the report is the city’s population decreasing below one million residents and an increase in residential and commercial development.

Housing

Brilliot said San Jose’s population is decreasing because of reduced birth rate and the high cost of living resulting in fewer people immigrating to the city.

He said in more recent years San Jose’s housing numbers are decreasing because of high costs of rent.

Brilliot said overall construction for housing is still occurring less in comparison to before the pandemic. This includes single-family homes, accessory dwelling units and multifamily units.

Overall construction for new residential developments decreased by 23%, according to the memorandum from the San Jose’s Planning Commission.

“Housing is not a major strategy in [our] plan, but it is woven in many of the general strategies,” he said.

Kathryn Hedges, a concerned community member who spoke

during the meeting, said she doesn’t understand why the city is not prioritizing housing in its general plan.

Hedges said everyone knows affordable housing is the city’s biggest issue.

“We are pushing out people who don’t meet the profile of Santana Row residents basically,” she said.

Jobs and Commercial Spaces

Brilliot said the city is aiming to achieve a one-to-one ratio of jobs for every employee that lives in San Jose by 2025.

“The goal here is to become not just the bedroom for Silicon Valley, but a regional job center in a Bay Area job center where we actually have more jobs than we have workers that live in this city,” he said.

To become a regional employment center, San Jose needs to generate and attract around 13,000 new jobs per year, according to the same memorandum.

To achieve the goal, San Jose needs to develop 11,100 more jobs to recover from the job loss that occurred between 2019 and 2021, according to the same memorandum.

Brilliot said the city had a decrease in jobs after the coronavirus pandemic started, but the city’s employment rate is slowly increasing.

He said the city has been building more commercial and industrial developments to increase economic activity and job opportunities.

Despite this, the amount of square feet for commercial developments has decreased by 66.5%, while the number of square feet for industrial developments has decreased by 72% since the previous year, according to the same memorandum.

Brilliot said the city’s response is to create urban spaces with a

combination of more mixed developments, high quality transit and walkable community spaces.

“So major strategy number six is really about creating streetscapes for people moving away from an auto-centric city to a city where streetscapes are places where all people have opportunities for all people to get around by different modes,” he said.

Brilliot said 14 urban village plans have been approved since 2011.

Urban villages are areas that provide active, walkable, bicycle-

Adobe opens new office downtown

By Dylan Newman STAFF WRITER

In the midst of mass tech companies layoffs, Adobe has funded construction for a new-18-story building that accommodates 4,000 employees.

Adobe’s new building, Founders Tower, is located at 345 Park ave. in Downtown San Jose, according to a March 8 blog post by the company.

Ahmed Banafa, San Jose State engineering professor and tech expert, said tech companies hired more staff as they shifted to a remote workforce because of the coronavirus pandemic.

He said, because more people moved back to working in person, sizable corporations, including Microsoft and Meta, now have excess staff with less demand for online services and have to make large cuts to their workforces.

Banafa said he calls the mass layoff event “the great reset” as these companies are returning to a pre-pandemic workforce.

“During the pandemic, companies like Facebook, they doubled the headcount, and Google added 50% at the top of it . . . they kept hiring people in 2020, 2021, 2022,” Banafa said. “It’s all based on the perception and the anticipation of the fact that the demand for the online services and advertisements will continue.

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

Mayor Matt Mahan presents a commendation to members of members of the SJSU Kappa Alpha Psi Alumni Chapter and Delta Rho Chapter for their work in local communities during the city council meeting at San Jose City Hall on Tuesday afternoon.

CITY COUNCIL | Page 2

ALINA TA | SPARTAN DAILY

Adobe’s new 18-story building, Founders Tower, is located at 345 Park ave. in Downtown San Jose accomodates 4,000 employees.

ADOBE | Page 2

ABOUT

The Spartan Daily serves as San Jose State’s top news source and was named the best student newspaper in the state. New issues are published Tuesday through Thursday during the academic year with the website updated daily.

The Spartan Daily is written and published by San Jose State students as an expression of their First Amendment rights. Reader feedback may be submitted as letters to the editor or online comments.

EDITORIAL STAFF

EXECUTIVE EDITOR

NATHAN CANILAO

MANAGING EDITOR ALESSIO CAVALCA

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

BOJANA CVIJIC

PRODUCTION EDITOR

CAROLYN BROWN

CITY COUNCIL

Continued from page 1

NEWS EDITOR RAINIER DE FORT-MENARES

A&E EDITOR VANESSA TRAN

OPINION EDITOR

JILLIAN DARNELL

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR

BRYANNA BARTLETT

STAFF EDITOR

ALEXIA FREDERICKSON

COPY EDITORS

CHRISTOPHER NGUYEN

HAILEY FARGO

GRAPHICS EDITORS

HANNAH GREGORIC

JANANI JAGANNATHAN

MYENN RAHNOMA

SENIOR STAFF WRITERS

ADRIAN PEREDA

JEREMY MARTIN

OSCAR FRIAS-RIVERA

STAFF WRITERS

ALINA TA BRANDON NICOLAS

CHRISTINE TRAN

DYLAN NEWMAN

DOMINIQUE HUBER ENRIQUE GUTIERREZ-SEVILLA

MAT BEJARANO

MATTHEW GONZALEZ

PRODUCTION CHIEF MIKE CORPOS

NEWS ADVISER RICHARD CRAIG

friendly, transit oriented, mixed urban areas including new housing and promote job growth, according to the same memorandum.

Brilliot said one of their signature projects that the city has completed since is SJSU’s Sparta Student Housing Project located on

ADVERTISING STAFF

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR MIA WICKS

CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIANNE BADIOLA CONTACT US

EDITORIAL –

MAIN TELEPHONE: (408) 924-3281

EMAIL: spartandaily@gmail.com

ADVERTISING –

TELEPHONE: 408-924-3240

EMAIL: spartandailyadvertising @gmail.com

CORRECTIONS POLICY

The Spartan Daily corrects all significant errors that are brought to our attention. If you suspect we have made such an error, please send an email to spartandaily@gmail.com.

EDITORIAL POLICY Columns are the opinion of individual writers and not that of the Spartan Daily. Editorials reflect the majority opinion of the Editorial Board, which is made up of student editors.

Santa Clara Street.

Councilmember Peter Ortiz who represents District 5 said while the city has advanced in completing its goals, San Jose is still recovering from COVID-19.

“We need to work hard towards advancing our city’s economic growth,” Ortiz said.

Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @SpartanDaily

ADOBE

Continued from page 1

He said Adobe and Apple were two companies that didn’t need to lay off as many employees as other tech giants.

“[Adobe and Apple] look at it in perspective,” Banafa said. “[They] are not going to hire based on what’s possibly going to happen after the pandemic.”

Apple recently laid off a small number of corporate retail positions, according to an April 3 Bloomberg article.

Adobe has had no mass layoffs, and the company stated it won’t be performing them this year, according to a March 8 Bloomberg article.

Adobe also has had a direct impact on SJSU’s campus, as students have access to the company’s Creative Cloud, a set of different Adobe applications.

All currently enrolled students, faculty members and staff and administration have access to the cloud, according to the university’s website.

Provost Vincent Del Casino Jr. said the company has had an amazing impact on SJSU as nearly 20,000 Adobe licenses have been distributed to train faculty and engage students.

“These programs help students develop their digital and creative literacy skills in any program on campus,” Del Casino said. “This is incredibly valuable as we continue to see the importance of student knowledge of multimedia strategies as they enter almost every sector of the economy or continue their education.”

He said the California State University system and Adobe have an agreement to provide the Creative Cloud as a resource

for students across California.

“SJSU has had a long-standing relationship with Adobe, as has the California State University, which signed a system-wide agreement to provide Adobe Creative Cloud to faculty, staff and students on all the campuses,” Del Casino said. “SJSU has a unique relationship with Adobe as one of their first creative campuses in the system and as a recipient of funding through their Adobe For All program.

Adobe For All In Action is a program led by the company to support HispanicServing Institutions and historically Black colleges and universities, according to its website.

Carlos Velazquez, the public information manager for the City of San Jose’s office of Economic Development and Cultural Affairs, said Adobe paid $5,702,271 for the full cost of construction and planning for Founders Tower.

He said Adobe has been contributing to the community, as the company announced a “hometown commitment” by providing $2 million to eight San Jose nonprofits, according to a March 8 SiliconValley.com article.

“Adobe is a key partner and employer in Downtown San Jose with 2,500 employees,” Velazquez said. “They also support the community, recently announcing $2 million total by the Adobe Foundation to support several community organizations.”

Follow Dylan Newman on Twitter @th3dylanproject

Student artwork decorates SJSU halls

#6: McBride’s Afro-futuristic art depicts Black women “resting as a form of passive activism,” according to a flier. It is on display in the Herbert Sanders Gallery.

Corrections

On Tuesday, April 10, the Spartan Daily published a story titled, “ ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is a hit,” where we misidentified Seth Rogen.

On Tuesday, April 10, the Spartan Daily published a photo package titled, “Robots steel the show at SJSU,” where we misidentified the location of the competition. It was at the Event Center at SJSU.

#1: Art by MFA student Natalie McBride is on display in San Jose State’s Industrial Studies Building.

#2: Art by MFA student Heidi Alonzo hangs on the wall in SJSU’s Art Building. #3: RESTORATION: A Revolutionary Act by Natalie McBride is on display until April 21.

#4: Heidi Alonzo’s sculpture will be showcased until April 20 in the Art Building.

#5: Documenting Life is an art exhibit in Gale Antokal gallery by Karlie Andersen currently present in SJSU’s Art Building.

PHOTOS BY DOMINIQUE HUBER | SPARTAN DAILY

Netflix series ‘Beef’ beats my meat

By Vanessa Tran A&E EDITOR

A24 and Netflix’s original series, “Beef,” was released on Thursday and I couldn’t help but finish all 10 episodes in less than a day.

I knew I had to watch it when my sister told me comedian and actress Ali Wong was one of the main characters.

Wong plays Amy Lau, a self-made entrepreneur who struggles with being happy, despite having a shit ton of money and a family.

Steven Yeun plays Danny Cho, a small-time construction company owner who lives paycheck to paycheck in hopes of bringing his parents from Korea to Los Angeles.

A24 also produced the 2022 movie, “Everything Everywhere

All at Once,” and the two both exemplify traditional Asian families teaching their children the unhealthy behavior of not being vocal about their feelings.

The main concept of the show derives from the very first episode: Lau and Cho getting into a road rage incident.

I absolutely hate slowburning shows and I appreciate that “Beef” goes straight into the drama.

I love how the show starts off with a funny car chase, but slowly starts getting personal when including Lau and Cho’s obstacles in life.

At first, I thought Lau was a loaded woman who was hungry to get richer, but the show includes a lot of background information on how lonely she feels.

As for Cho, I felt terrible because he has trouble launching his business and making enough

ALBUM REVIEW

money for him and his brother.

The two bump heads a lot because Cho believes Lau is a spoiled woman who’s only out to get him because he’s not financially stable.

You would think that dragging on an encounter would bore you, but “Beef” does an amazing job adding onto the plot without it being random.

The conflict gets worse when the revenge starts involving people from each of the character’s lives, which creates a bigger mess toward the end of the show.

The show keeps viewers interested because of how funny the pranks are between the two.

Lau and Cho try to one up each other and mess with each other’s lives, but it slowly gets more dangerous, as it goes on for weeks.

While they both know the situation should be dropped, they can’t help but resent each other because they both have a lot of self-hate and trauma.

It’s hard to hate either character because despite their malicious actions toward each other, they try to clear their conscience by going to great lengths for their families.

At the end of the show, it’s evident that Lau and Cho have one thing in common: they both believe they’re terrible people

who can’t achieve happiness no matter what they do.

I was definitely moved when both characters opened up about their fear of feeling alone even when they hit big milestones.

It’s demonstrated that they’ve done shitty things in their past and are trying to move on, but can’t if they don’t come clean.

The lesson in the show is very relatable because it shows no matter how happy someone seems, there’s always going to be obstacles they are silently battling.

Follow the Spartan Daily on Twitter @Spartandaily

Daniel Caesar disappoints with new album

By Christine Tran STAFF WRITER

All of the emotional healing

I thought I’d done completely backfired when Canadian singer and songwriter Daniel Caesar released “NEVER ENOUGH” on Friday.

In high school, Caesar’s falsetto voice impressed me in his popular songs “Best Part” and “Get You,” both tracks on his first studio album “Freudian” in 2017. I still listen to these songs six years later.

He established a solid reputation for himself as an R&B and soul male artist, even among newcomers like Giveon and Brent Faiyaz, whose vocal ranges and sounds resemble Caesar’s.

The second track, “Valentina,” is a neo-soul track about wanting a woman who is already spoken for.

Caesar said he wrote the verse, but credits his younger brother, Zachary, in writing the chorus and producing the beat for his love interest, according to a Friday Variety article.

The keyboard washes gave “Valentina” a funky feel and while I enjoyed listening to it the first time, I can’t see myself adding it to my own playlist.

It’s evident that Caesar is experimenting with different styles of music in this album and perhaps is trying to be a versatile artist, especially in the fifth track, “Do You Like Me?” where his falsetto is remarkable.

Caesar is evidently a romantic in his streaming hits, but comes across as toxic in the first verse, “Do you like the way I talk to you?/ Do I titillate your mind?/ Gotta say I like your attitude.”

Although it’s an R&B song, the

guitar in Caesar’s instrumental reminded me of the song “Through and Through” by alternative and pop artist khai dreams.

In “Always,” Caesar yearns for a past lover he hopes to rekindle with, despite their scorned history and present lives.

He’s insistent on letting her know that their relationship can be the same again in the lyrics, “And I’ll be here/ ‘Cause we both know how it goes/ I don’t want things to change/ I pray they stay the same, always.”

The instrumental accompanies his conflicting emotions by switching from breathtaking background vocals to sharp moments with drums and bass.

Overall, the song is a soft but powerful ballad with a blend of instruments to drive Caesar’s point further.

“Always” is undoubtedly the star of Caesar’s newest album and yet, he does it a huge disservice by placing it as sixth out of 15 songs on the tracklist.

Caesar said he stepped into a producer role for “NEVER ENOUGH,” according to the same Variety article.

It seems like he’s navigating an ever-changing music industry and was unsure where to take his music style from his second studio album,

Rating:

“CASE STUDY 01,” in 2019.

“Always” makes me want to lay on the floor and stare

Artist: Daniel Caesar Release Date: April 7, 2023

Genre: R&B/soul

aimlessly at the ceiling while it plays on a three-hour loop. The other 14 songs? I couldn’t bother to listen to them a second time.

I wished Caesar would have established himself as a household name in the style he’s familiar with, such as Frank Ocean, before trying new things in what I thought was supposed to be the comeback album of the century.

A majority of the tracklist sounded like studio practice

recordings with titles and were unfortunately not convincing enough to show off his beautiful range and lyrical genius. He is a phenomenal artist but “NEVER ENOUGH” was a scrambled mess that will repeat itself into future works if he keeps experimenting aimlessly.

ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH GREGORIC

GRAPHIC BY VANESSA TRAN “Beef” Rating

Please don’t make me use Instagram Reels.

I begrudgingly downloaded

TikTok in the summer of 2019 after months of internal debate over whether or not it would be a waste of time. It definitely was, but after years of watching videos that were dumb, there are some genuinely hilarious ones that have become cult classics in my head.

Beyond my personal scope of using TikTok, the app has acted as a vessel for public outreach for many creators and small businesses. Businesses and creators that never existed before now can have booming personal brands built around their namesake.

When lawmakers talk about banning the app, they are forgetting about the new

now congregate together to make and enjoy videos. Within the nonsense, it fills a Vine-shaped-hole in some of our hearts.

Instagram Reels is a scrollable, short-form media source that was definitely built off of TikTok’s successes, and that doesn’t mean it’s not its own viable avenue for a similar experience. I’ve just never been a fan of the design layout of these videos compared to TikTok. A lot of the content is recycled and reposted TikTok videos I’ve already seen a while ago.

But the problem doesn’t really lie there. There’s a much more sinister idea at play by actors in the political arena when the conversation shifts to banning it.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress on March 23 to defend his company’s ability to keep American content and user data safe and confidential, according to a March 24 Reuters article. Given the current tension about diplomatic relations between China and the United States, some lawmakers saw this as an opportunity to paint xenophobic blue and white paint onto China’s red canvas.

Chew responded telling him he was Singaporean, according to a March 26 article by Salon. This vast generalization made by Crenshaw, and people like him who don’t show respect

soulless political ammunition.

A ban on the app would weaken the millions of Gen Z TikTok users who have the conscious ability to organize and grow intellectually, outside

I’m confident that consuming so many hours of public internet content was good for valuable entertainment and laughs. It has become a subconscious daily routine of mine that quickly fills the gaps when I’m bored without anything to do.

businesses and people that would have their efforts completely erased. TikTok has changed their lives, according to a March 31 article published by NBC San Diego.

It’s become a community building tool, as young people

The app is one of the first prominent social media platforms, in my eyes, to have public ties to China, as its parent company is a Chinese internet company named ByteDance. This was weaponized as a point of contention by conservatives who wish to make China out as the United States’ twenty-first century threat.

Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, insinuated Chew was working with Chinese intelligence, which is when

to finding out where an Asian person is from, fuel a farright, hate-mongering machine against Asian people in general.

This is the same party whose top member used the coronavirus pandemic against Asians. President Trump was boasting at his rallies about the “kung flu” and tweeting about the “chinese virus.”

Research conducted by University of California San Francisco showed that Trump’s rhetoric in naming it the “chinese virus” online was linked to a rise in the usage of anti-Asian hashtags on Twitter, according to a March 18, 2021 article.

Hateful words used by politicians are dog whistles that call out to masses of people who now feel empowered to see others sharing in their ill thinking. The disrespect shown by Republican members of Congress only reinforce their thoughts.

Republicans seemingly want an enemy, and some of them want it to be China. Xenophobia and racism is used as common ground for their supporters, so pinning a needle into a country and its people works great as

of the hateful rhetoric slung around in politics. Any young adult can use the app to view thousands of videos with anti-capitalist or anti-racist sentiments, which is exactly what a political opponent would not want you to see.

TikTok creates community for both sides of the political spectrum, so regardless of who you vote for, it’s a net loss for everyone’s conversation and free speech. Everyone needs to take everything they view on TikTok with a grain of salt because of misinformation. It is the internet after all. As long as you fact check claims made by creators with Google and view what someone is calling news without naivety, any user is pretty safe.

TikTok is not perfect, and the privacy of its users’ data should always be talked about and improved upon. A ban of the app in its entirety however, for all of its 150 million American users, is nothing short of illwilled lawmakers playing political games that use people as pawns.

Within the nonsense, it fills a Vine-shaped-hole in some of our hearts.

Follow Dylan Newman on Twitter @th3dylanproject

GRAPHIC BY VANESSA TRAN