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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods 100 Days Behind the Dais He doesn't have quite the drama of Oakland mayor and hatchetman Jerry Brown, but San Jose's Ron Gonzales is setting a decidedly new tone at City Hall. Tutors Wanted! Campbell--Is this what happens to people who use calculators too much? The first leg of the $315 million Vasona light rail line, scheduled for completion in five years, is expected to shuttle 9,000 people a day between downtown San Jose and Campbell. The design proposal set forth at last week's public meeting, on the other hand, called for just 25 new parking spaces in downtown Campbell to handle the parked cars. Even if the light rail passengers arrived in 747s they'd run out of spaces at that rate, and guess what? They'll be arriving singly and in cars, not by plane. Law Man Saratoga--Westside substation captain Robert Wilson is taking his toys home--to the retirement community, that is--if he doesn't get the undersheriff job. He's been acting as assistant sheriff in Ruben Diaz's absence while the latter is out on disability, and has 31 years in the department besides, so it wouldn't come as too much of a surprise if Sheriff Laurie Smith selected him to be her second-in-command. Spatial Relations Willow Glen--Mark Rasmussen lives in a 750-square-foot house on Franquette Street. Although life in a walk-in closet has been good so far, Rasmussen would like to split his 14,000-square-foot lot into two and build a two-story four-bedroom home on each one--one to keep, one to sell. But the lots would be narrower than the city normally allows, and the neighbors, who fancy Franquette as something of a rural retreat, object to the notion of two behemoths so close together. Rasmussen is revising his plan in response to a recent meeting. [ Metro | Metroactive Central | Archives ]