Priorities-old
1.
Strengthening Public Safety and Beautifying Our Neighborhoods
A safe and clean downtown is essential for families, residents, and businesses to flourish. We need practical, community-focused measures that promote well-being and economic stability:
- Strengthen public safety: Expand community policing and increase foot patrols to foster trust, deter crime, and ensure quick response times. Utilize technology and data-driven approaches for more effective law enforcement.
- Enhance cleanliness initiatives: Improve street maintenance, graffiti removal, and waste management through public-private partnerships and community engagement programs.
- Protect public spaces: Ensure parks, streets, and transit areas are safe, well-maintained, and welcoming for families and visitors.
- Align Police Resources to meet community needs. San Jose currently has 1,153 police officers on active duty—far below the national average for a city of our size. To address community safety, we must ensure our public safety resources align with neighborhood needs, prioritizing strategies that improve response times and community engagement.
- Invest in community policing and increase foot patrols. Studies show that community policing works. Officers who are from our neighborhoods and understand our community help make us safer. We need to invest more resources in foot patrols, policing in our business corridors to protect our small business and work to get our police force out of their cars and into the streets, getting to know the San Jose residents they serve.
- Prioritize comprehensive & community-centered emergency response. Emergency response systems must be more comprehensive, ensuring the right professionals handle the right situations, whether that’s law enforcement, mental health experts, or crisis intervention teams. Community Liaison Officers and structured alternative response programs can improve safety in high-crime areas, support businesses, and provide better outcomes for those experiencing mental health crises.
- Invest in modern technology and data-driven approaches. Bring our police into the modern era with prioritized investments in technology (such as traffic cameras, drones, data management platforms, dispatching solutions and more) to speed up response times, increase efficiencies, and make our neighborhoods safer.
- Support public cleanliness initiative San Jose deserves clean streets and vibrant public spaces. I will support public cleanliness initiatives and partner with Beautify San Jose to keep our parks and neighborhoods well-maintained. By partnering with local nonprofits and city leadership, we will remove graffiti and blight quickly—because no business, resident, or nonprofit should have to deal with blight.
2.
Housing Density, Streamlined Development, and Homelessness Solutions
San Jose’s downtown core must be a place where families and individuals can live and thrive. As a long-time resident and working mother, I recognize the need for balanced and efficient solutions to our housing and homelessness challenges:
- Streamline housing development: Simplify permitting and reduce bureaucratic delays to encourage responsible, market-driven construction of affordable and mixed-use housing. This will increase supply and keep costs down for families and individuals.
- Support diverse housing options: Promote developments that include affordable units, workforce housing, and market-rate housing, ensuring a balanced approach that meets the needs of all income levels.
- Address homelessness with accountability and compassion: Invest in transitional housing and support services that focus on pathways to self-sufficiency, while ensuring public spaces remain safe and accessible for all residents.
- Prevent displacement: Encourage smart development policies that protect long-time residents and support adaptive reuse of existing structures for housing solutions.
- Increase Access to Temporary and Permanent-Supportive Housing: Prioritize both short-term and long-term affordable housing solutions in San Jose, ensuring people have access to safe places to live along with wraparound services like mental health care, addiction treatment, and job training.
- Enhance Prevention Programs: Strengthen eviction prevention efforts and support for at-risk individuals by providing rental assistance, legal aid, and emergency financial support to prevent homelessness before it starts.
- Improve & Implement Coordinated Crisis Response: Create 24/7 crisis response teams to quickly connect individuals in San Jose to the appropriate resources, including mental health services, addiction treatment, and immediate housing, with a focus on both immediate intervention and long-term recovery.
- Promote Increased Collaboration and Fiscal Responsibility: San Jose needs a real working relationship with the county and state to address homelessness collaboratively, rather than being expected to fund a strategy without input. True cooperation means working together to define problems, create shared solutions, and agree on funding, leading to better outcomes and greater fiscal responsibility.
3.
Small Business Prosperity and Economic Mobility
Small businesses are the economic engine of downtown San Jose. Supporting their success is crucial for a vibrant and resilient local economy:
- Reduce regulatory burdens: Simplify permitting processes and reduce fees to make it easier for small businesses to open and operate.
- Offer targeted incentives: Provide tax incentives and grants for businesses that invest in downtown, hire locally, and contribute to the community’s economic vitality.
- Promote workforce development: Partner with local institutions to offer training and apprenticeship programs, creating pathways for economic mobility and addressing workforce needs.
- Producing Affordable Housing. With Measure A and E funds gone, new funding sources are critical. Corporate interests must contribute their fair share, and state, regional, and local governments must unlock financing for affordable housing. Tenant preference policies should prioritize longtime residents in new developments.
- Protecting Renters. San Jose needs stronger renter protections. The rent cap should be lowered, and the Tenant Protection Ordinance expanded to cover more units. As evictions rise, tenants need access to legal representation through right-to-counsel programs.
- Preserving Affordable Housing. Existing affordable housing must be protected from demolition. More funding is needed for land trusts and community development organizations to acquire and rehabilitate at-risk buildings.
4.
Sustainable and Innovative Transportation
Efficient and environmentally responsible transportation is key to downtown’s growth. We must focus on practical, forward-thinking solutions:
- Improve public transit: Enhance the reliability, safety, and frequency of bus and light rail services, making them more attractive options for commuters and families.
- Expand green infrastructure: Invest in bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly zones, and electric vehicle charging stations to support sustainable transportation choices.
- Innovate for efficiency: Explore cost-effective, smart transportation solutions such as micro-transit and modern traffic management systems to reduce congestion and improve mobility.
- Modernize and Expand Public Transportation. San Jose and the Valley Transportation Authority made a great first step by investing in a new fleet of modern buses, but there is still more to do. I will fight for greater investment in light rail and dedicated bus lanes to improve efficiency - and improve lighting at our transit centers to improve safety for riders.
- Improve Safety and Transit Hubs. We need to work with the San Jose Police Department to have regular community police patrols at high and low traffic stations to increase security, deter crime, and provide a visible presence that helps riders feel safe.
- Free transit passes for our youth. Providing our youth with free access to public transportation will make it easier for them to get to school, work, and activities while reducing traffic congestion and emissions.
- Expand Sustainable Infrastructure: I will prioritize the development of green infrastructure by working with local businesses, community groups, and environmental organizations. This includes expanding pedestrian-friendly zones, increasing protected bike lanes, installing more electric vehicle charging stations, and incorporating green spaces within urban areas.
5.
Creating a Vibrant, Inclusive Downtown Core
A thriving downtown is more than just a business hub—it’s a community. We need to cultivate an environment where everyone feels welcome and engaged:
- Invest in public spaces: Develop parks, cultural centers, and family-friendly venues that enhance quality of life and foster community connection.
- Support arts and culture: Encourage public and private investment in local arts, events, and festivals that celebrate San Jose’s rich diversity and heritage.
- Promote balanced development: Ensure new projects contribute to a vibrant downtown, generating revenue that can be reinvested in essential city services like public safety, education, and infrastructure.
By focusing on streamlined development, public safety, small business support, sustainable transportation, and a vibrant community, we can create a downtown that balances economic growth with quality of life—benefiting all San Jose residents today and for generations to come.
- Making it easier to open and operate a small business. Our permitting process and fee schedule for small businesses is difficult to navigate and prevents business from opening. I’ll introduce a “Downtown For Everyone” ordinance in my first weeks in office that will focus on:
- Reducing costs on small businesses
- Increasing small business assistance programs
- Simplifying our permitting process to make it easier to open and operate small businesses in San Jose.
- Boost downtown businesses development. By leveraging tax incentives, grants, and public/private partnerships we will encourage businesses that invest in our neighborhoods, and employ our local residents.
- Prioritize Arts & Culture for a Vibrant Downtown invest in arts, culture, and creative spaces to make downtown a thriving destination. This means supporting local artists, expanding public art, activating vacant spaces, and making it easier to host cultural events. A strong arts scene boosts our economy, attracts visitors, and builds community—bringing lasting energy and vibrancy to the heart of San Jose.
- Invest in training and apprenticeship programs. I will make sure City Hall is investing in existing programs, and will help deepen relationships with other local institutions to make sure all San Jose residents have available pathways for economic mobility.
1.
Safety and Cleanliness for Families and Businesses
A safe and clean downtown is essential for families, residents, and businesses to flourish. We need practical, community-focused measures that promote well-being and economic stability:
- Strengthen public safety: Expand community policing and increase foot patrols to foster trust, deter crime, and ensure quick response times. Utilize technology and data-driven approaches for more effective law enforcement.
- Enhance cleanliness initiatives: Improve street maintenance, graffiti removal, and waste management through public-private partnerships and community engagement programs.
- Protect public spaces: Ensure parks, streets, and transit areas are safe, well-maintained, and welcoming for families and visitors.
2.
Housing Density, Streamlined Development, and Homelessness Solutions
San Jose’s downtown core must be a place where families and individuals can live and thrive. As a long-time resident and working mother, I recognize the need for balanced and efficient solutions to our housing and homelessness challenges:
- Streamline housing development: Simplify permitting and reduce bureaucratic delays to encourage responsible, market-driven construction of affordable and mixed-use housing. This will increase supply and keep costs down for families and individuals.
- Support diverse housing options: Promote developments that include affordable units, workforce housing, and market-rate housing, ensuring a balanced approach that meets the needs of all income levels.
- Address homelessness with accountability and compassion: Invest in transitional housing and support services that focus on pathways to self-sufficiency, while ensuring public spaces remain safe and accessible for all residents.
- Prevent displacement: Encourage smart development policies that protect long-time residents and support adaptive reuse of existing structures for housing solutions.
3.
Small Business Prosperity and Economic Mobility
Small businesses are the economic engine of downtown San Jose. Supporting their success is crucial for a vibrant and resilient local economy:
- Reduce regulatory burdens: Simplify permitting processes and reduce fees to make it easier for small businesses to open and operate.
- Offer targeted incentives: Provide tax incentives and grants for businesses that invest in downtown, hire locally, and contribute to the community’s economic vitality.
- Promote workforce development: Partner with local institutions to offer training and apprenticeship programs, creating pathways for economic mobility and addressing workforce needs.
4.
Sustainable and Innovative Transportation
Efficient and environmentally responsible transportation is key to downtown’s growth. We must focus on practical, forward-thinking solutions:
- Improve public transit: Enhance the reliability, safety, and frequency of bus and light rail services, making them more attractive options for commuters and families.
- Expand green infrastructure: Invest in bike lanes, pedestrian-friendly zones, and electric vehicle charging stations to support sustainable transportation choices.
- Innovate for efficiency: Explore cost-effective, smart transportation solutions such as micro-transit and modern traffic management systems to reduce congestion and improve mobility.
5.
Creating a Vibrant, Inclusive Downtown Core
A thriving downtown is more than just a business hub—it’s a community. We need to cultivate an environment where everyone feels welcome and engaged:
- Invest in public spaces: Develop parks, cultural centers, and family-friendly venues that enhance quality of life and foster community connection.
- Support arts and culture: Encourage public and private investment in local arts, events, and festivals that celebrate San Jose’s rich diversity and heritage.
- Promote balanced development: Ensure new projects contribute to a vibrant downtown, generating revenue that can be reinvested in essential city services like public safety, education, and infrastructure.
By focusing on streamlined development, public safety, small business support, sustainable transportation, and a vibrant community, we can create a downtown that balances economic growth with quality of life—benefiting all San Jose residents today and for generations to come.
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