Lately, you can’t open a newspaper without seeing something about how San José Mayor Matt Mahan is preparing San José to celebrate the big games in 2026.

You can’t miss headlines like “San Jose pulls out all the stops for 2026 sports bonanza.” Here’s Mayor Matt tossing footballs. There he is, smiling ear to ear. No question he aims to make a big impression on the world.

Santa Clara coverage? “Santa Clara says Super Bowl LX will cost $6.3 million.”

Next to Mayor Matt, Santa Clara mayor Lisa Gillmor is Invisible Mayor Debbie Downer.

When she’s not invisible, she’s bad-mouthing anyone who doesn’t share her anti-49ers mania. She acts like someone jammed bamboo under her fingernails until she agreed to build the stadium and host the games, and now she’s getting revenge.

Some folks wonder why she acts like this. Well, one answer is, power.

Now, you can wield power by doing good things for people. But that’s hard work and success is never guaranteed.

There’s an easier way to show power: Break things. When you break something, no one can deny it’s broken. Your power over it can’t be denied.

Gillmor has done much to “break” 2026’s events for the city she supposedly serves — starting with 10 years of obnoxious behavior that may have deprived her of Mayor Matt’s role. These days, Santa Clara is just a stadium address across from a 240-acre vacant lot. No glowing news stories there.

She’s already pushing headlines falsely implying that the city is on the hook for $6 million. (Some may remember Gillmor flushed that amount down the toilet, fighting an unwinnable battle against a voting rights lawsuit.)

She’s just warming up, armed with lessons learned.

If anyone gets arrested at a game, she’ll likely call it a crime wave fostered by the usual suspects.  

Her statements at recent council meetings suggest she’ll instigate reimbursement disputes, sucking up staff time and running up legal bills.

It won’t be surprising to see bookkeeping dodges like the one that locked up stadium profits in a legal expense account, allowing her to claim there was no performance rent. Who knows, maybe she’ll call the elapsed time, between printing invoices and checks clearing, delayed payments, and demand 150% interest.

She’ll have snappy soundbites for the press, her social media urchins and 2026 police union campaign flyers.

If all else fails, she’ll reprise her favorite song: insinuating that council and staff are 49er tools and demanding grand jury investigations.

Opportunities like 2026 don’t come twice. Instead of working to make it a banner year for Santa Clara, Gillmor and her cadre of complicit kooks strive to convince us that the road to greatness is paved with the failure she’s orchestrating.

For Santa Clarans looking to enjoy 2026, I hear there’s lots of fun on tap in San José.

Previous Milestones:
Milestones – A Bad Penny – Opinion
Milestones – Santa Clara’s Slime Report – Opinion
Milestones – Your Next Mayor – Opinion