There has been a lot of buzz among downtown San Jose insiders over the past week, following the sudden resignation of San Jose Downtown Association CEO Alex Stettinski last Friday. Why he left and who should replace him were the most popular — and still unanswered — questions people were asking. But two other questions may be just as important if not more so: What role should the Downtown Association play going forward and what kind of leader would that organization need? It’s not exactly a good thing for the Downtown Association to lose its CEO after just over two years, especially when downtown will potentially host thousands of visitors for major events next year. But it also offers an opportunity for interim CEO Alan “Gumby” Marques and the organization’s board of directors to take a deep breath, step back and redefine what the mission of the San Jose Downtown Association should be in its next chapter. It was founded nearly 40 years ago to give small businesses downtown an amplified voice at City Hall, and in the decades since has been an event producer, a marketing organization, a business advocate and even an arts organization through the Downtown Doors project and various murals it’s sponsored. Two SJDA-related projects, Groundwerx and the Social Impact Team, have helped improve downtown’s cleanliness and provided outreach to homeless residents. But there are a lot more institutional players on the downtown scene compared to the 1980s, like Local Color, the Urban Vibrancy Institute, and social media juggernaut San Jose Foos. The San Jose Chamber of Commerce has taken a renewed interest in downtown, and the city’s office of economic development is paying more attention to the city’s core, too. The Downtown Association should assess its strengths and lean into those. It’s worth noting that both the city council seat covering downtown and the city’s office of economic development are also under temporary leadership. The clock, however, is ticking toward 2026 when the Super Bowl and FIFA World Cup games are at Levi’s Stadium. San Jose also hopes to bring back GTC, Nvidia’s big tech conference, and other annual events. And if San Jose wants to succeed, it’s going to need everyone playing the right position. GAME ON: The San Jose Earthquakes are reaching out beyond PayPal Park to give San Jose kids a safe place for activity this spring. The team’s leading up a large partnership for Saturday Night Lights, a 10-week pilot program that launched last weekend to open up futsal soccer courts in underserved communities on Friday and Saturday nights. The locations are LeyVa Middle School on Friday nights and the Washington Youth Center, operated by Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, on Saturday nights. The Earthquakes partnered with the state’s CalHOPE program on the effort, along with the Evergreen School District, Catholic Charities, the City Peace Project, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, the San Jose Police Department, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and Councilmember Domingo Candelas. “It’s truly powerful when a community comes together like this, particularly when public and private partners step up like they have here. That’s when real change happens,” Earthquakes Vice President of Community Relations Robert Davis said. POLITICAL MOVE: There are few people with as good a handle on Santa Clara County politics as Larry Gerston, a San Jose State political science professor emeritus and longtime analyst for NBC Bay Area. But we’re going to have one less going forward as Gerston and his wife, Elisa, have pulled up stakes in the South Bay and moved to the San Diego area. Gerston actually retired from San Jose State in 2016 after a 40-year career but has continued to teach classes there, including a class on Fridays this semester. He says he’ll commute to SJSU through the end of the school year, surely giving him the longest faculty commute.