Candidate for
Council Member; City of San Jose; Council District 3

My Priorities as Your Councilman

My passion is to create a thriving downtown + both for neighborhoods and for businesses. I believe San Jose is a place where problems can be solved by creativity and collaboration through empowering ordinary people to recognize that by working together they can do extraordinary things. I have carried that credo over the years in my community activism and I would like to bring it into City Hall.

Law Enforcement Resources for a Safer San Jose

If we are going to revitalize San Jose's downtown for residents and merchants alike, we must put public safety first. The San Jose Mercury News has reported that San Jose has a higher crime rate than the state and national rate. Response times for calls for police service are lagging significantly. This must be addressed by devoting additional resources and deploying new technologies to local law enforcement.

• New patrol officers. San Jose needs many more patrol officers, as well as more burglary and auto theft detectives. I support increasing the percentage of the City's budget allocated to police services to immediately address this very serious problem. It is the top priority and needs to be addressed immediately.
• New technology. I will work to see that SJPD get the latest technological tools to be most effective in their jobs, such as computer-aided dispatch, mobile finger-print readers, and license-plate readers.

A stronger San Jose means a strong downtown core attracting jobs and revenues we can allocate to increase and improve city services. It also means a strong fiscal footing for San Jose, including responsible pension reforms and fiscal accountability for taxpayers.

• Attract business and jobs to downtown San Jose: My jobs and economic plan streamlines regulations and duplicative red tape so that we can attract new businesses and thereby provide additional jobs.
• Fiscal reform: I supported Measure B pension reform to put San Jose back on a fiscally sound path. If Measure B is modified by the courts either in whole or in part, we will need a "Plan B." I vow to use my experience bringing people together to unite our city around reforms that protect the City from bankruptcy while ensuring that the City negotiates in good faith with public employees, and our police and firefighters.

I support strong neighborhoods, with devoted, passionate neighborhood advocates+ those willing to volunteer their time and energy to better their communities. City Hall should empower these advocates, and this means revitalizing the Strong Neighborhoods Initiative. I have a plan to do just that:

• Attract philanthropic funding: I will work as councilperson to create a non-profit organization to attract tax-deductible corporate and private charitable grants and donations for neighborhoods. Our City of San Jose parks and library departments have similar non-profit foundations which have successfully facilitated private fundraising. San Jose neighborhoods deserve their own foundation to enable private philanthropy in support of their local neighborhoods.
• After establishing the nonprofit foundation, I will empower neighborhood leaders to tap into private funding sources by having the City of San Jose hire a professional grant writer to work with neighborhood leaders to seek out appropriate grants and assist them in writing the grant applications.

I believe the councilmember representing District 3 must have a strong platform supporting a vibrant and vital arts, culture and recreation scene in our downtown core and throughout the neighborhoods.

I have long been involved in the San Jose Arts scene. I strongly support members of the arts and creative community in San Jose, not only because they make our city more lively, lovely and engaging but because they are the essential ingredient to increasing downtown San Jose's economic vitality.

My program for enhancing the arts scene downtown is simple. Empower local artists to create in an organic way, thereby attracting other artists and the new businesses and economic activity that inevitably follow. Here are just a few of my ideas. I welcome input for artists and aficionados alike who want to make the arts a major component of San Jose's economic character and development.

• Promote an "affordable housing" component for new residential developments specifically targeted for the creative community, such as studio and loft spaces, and street level retail frontage. This will keep artists from migrating to places like Oakland, looking for cheaper rent.
• Waive or reduce fees for cultural events in the downtown core. The cost of holding a cultural event downtown is often prohibitive, with city service expenses a decisive factor.
• Find a permanent home for the Kaleid Gallery showcasing local artists.
• Establish a program partnering local artists and small businesses to create more interesting and lively signage in the downtown core.

I am a longtime and heartfelt advocate of libraries. I believe that every San Jose child, regardless of circumstances, should have the ability to access books and information both in hardbound and electronic form. For too many children, their local public library is their only lifeline to information beyond their school curriculum.

I have translated my love of libraries to action over the years. I support a further extension of the parcel tax, which is set to expire at the end of June 2015. I support returning library hours to their previous levels before the recession and as your councilperson I will work to ensure that every neighborhood library is open on Saturday. I will also work to ensure that the Partnership in Reading adult literacy program is expanded. This service to its clientele is also an investment in our region's economic competitiveness.

Address Homelessness

Homelessness has become, for a number of reasons (including the high cost of housing and low residential vacancy rates here), a serious problem in San Jose, particularly in the downtown. There are several hundred homeless persons in District 3 according to the city's own surveys. As your councilperson, I will work together with City and County officials and non-profit agencies to ensure that the homelessness issue is addressed for the quality of life in our downtown area neighborhoods. Being homeless is an unfortunate condition, not a criminal act. Our homeless neighbors + and they are our neighbors + deserve our compassion and assistance, as neighbors. Homelessness as a condition is life threatening, especially when it involves sleeping outside in freezing temperatures. I will work as your councilperson with community groups, including neighborhood associations, on an immediate hands-on community-based solution to solving our local homelessness problem, including championing, as an immediate alternative to creek-side encampments, the creation of micro housing together with sanitary and supportive services (jobs, mental health, etc.) at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds while we implement a long-term solution of more affordable housing for Silicon Valley.