San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo conceded he is far from being a golf guy, but he still joined the rest of the city council in a vote of confidence for the city\u2019s three public golf courses.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy extensive knowledge of golf comes exclusively from watching the movie, \u2018Caddyshack,\u2019 \u201d Liccardo said during Tuesday\u2019s council meeting, \u201cand my skills have been compared to Gerald Ford on the rare times I have been out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
So that means he probably knows how to \u201cbe the ball,\u201d even if it doesn\u2019t wind up where he meant for it to go. For those too young to remember, Ford \u2014 the 38th president \u2014 was infamous for hitting spectators with errant shots.<\/p>\n
In any event, it was a good turn of events for the courses, two of which had been financial sand traps until they all saw a spike in attendance \u2014 and subsequently dollars brought in \u2014 during the pandemic, mirroring a nationwide trend. Now, the city is looking for a third-party operator to take over all of them with a long-term lease.<\/p>\n
San Jose Municipal Golf Course, which opened in 1968 and is the oldest of the three, was in the black even before COVID-19 forced people to look for new outdoor recreational activities. Both Rancho del Pueblo and Los Lagos, however, had been losing hundreds of thousands of dollars for the city in the five years leading up to 2020-21. But that turned into a net gain of $1.5 million last year, and the remaining debt on the courses was paid off, too.<\/p>\n
So just a few years after considering dumping at least one of them, the city\u2019s reversed course \u2014 at least for now.<\/p>\n
Liccardo reiterated some of his previous reservations about getting into a long-term deal based on a single-year turnaround during a pandemic following years of decline. He doublechecked that the city could terminate any agreement early if the numbers took a nosedive. \u201cThe worst decisions that are made in any organization are made in good times,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And to make sure the community continues to benefit, any deal also will make sure that First Tee Silicon Valley, a nonprofit which has used golf to build character and leadership skills in young people through golf for more than two decades, has continued access (though Council Member Magdalena Carrasco said she\u2019d like more outreach from First Tee to increase its representation of Latino youth.)<\/p>\n
Should Liccardo and the council decide to update their golf knowledge through movies before the next time the issue comes up, may we recommend \u201cTin Cup,\u201d \u201cHappy Gilmore\u201d and \u201cGoldfinger.\u201d<\/p>\n
STILL IN STYLE: After what she considers \u201cthe hardest two years any business should have to endure,\u201d Atelier Studio owner Karie Bennett was filled with gratitude after the Santana Row salon was named to the Salon Today 200, and Bennett herself was one of the owners featured on the cover of the magazine\u2019s spring edition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter eight months of shutdowns, remodeling to accommodate partitions and distancing, trying to cut hair outside in triple-degree heat in the midst of heavy smoke from the nearby fires and finally being able to open, we won an award for doing a great job of staying in business and keeping our team employed,\u201d said Bennett, who opened Atelier 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
Among the things Atelier did during the pandemic was creating home touch-up kits for clients \u2014 which brought in new clients who heard about the DIY service from friends.<\/p>\n
THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT: There\u2019s a great lineup of panelists for The Kids Table, the third annual event hosted by Santa Clara County Supervisor Susan Ellenberg to celebrate champions for children in our community. This year\u2019s event takes place April 7 at 8 a.m. in-person at the Hotel Valencia at Santana Row and will focus on our recovery from COVID-19 and how we\u2019re getting women and caregivers back to work.<\/p>\n
The panel, moderated by Gina Dalma, executive vice president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, will include Sonu Ratra, president of IT consulting company Akraya and founder of Women Back to Work; South Bay Labor Council Executive Officer Jean Cohen; Quency Phillips, executive director of Joint Venture Silicon Valley\u2019s Building Back Better initiative; and Julie Ramirez,\u00a0 the interim director of Santa Clara County\u2019s Office of Women\u2019s Policy.<\/p>\n
Tickets are available for $50 at https:\/\/kidstable-susanellenberg.nationbuilder.com.<\/p>\n
\u2018ANTIQUES ROADSHOW\u2019 COMES TO WOODSIDE: \u201cAntiques Roadshow\u201d is coming to Filoli in Woodside on June 22, but fans have only until March 21 to enter a drawing for free tickets to the hit PBS show. Ticketed guests get a free evaluation of up to two items from experts from some of the country\u2019s big auction houses. The visit to the gorgeous gardens on the Peninsula will wind up in three hourlong episodes that\u2019ll be broadcast in the 27th season in 2023.<\/p>\n
To enter for tickets (and check out restrictions and rules), go to pbs.org\/roadshowtickets. Winners will be notified in mid-April.<\/p>\n
GOING FOR BROKE: Admittedly, we\u2019ll take any reason we can to keep rooting for the Sharks during this lackluster season. How about this? Sharks Prez Jonathan Becher tweeted that for every hockey stick broken by a Sharks player this year, 100 trees will be planted in California thanks to a partnership with the nonprofit One Tree Planted and PG&E. So far, the Men of Teal have busted 65 sticks, translating to 6,500 new trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo conceded he is far from being a golf guy, but he still joined…","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_volume":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[5933,246,165,166,5936,66,250,908,55,5934,237,5935,248,249,121],"class_list":["post-9265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-around-town","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-california-golf","tag-city-politics","tag-golf","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-news-columnists","tag-politics","tag-san-jose","tag-santa-clara-county","tag-south-bay","tag-sports","cs-entry","cs-video-wrap"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@fogolf\/117349480117709342","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fogolf.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}