February 11, 2005

State of the City

Gonzales envisions education foundation, major league baseball

By Carol Rosen
Staff Writer

The past year has been full of challenges for those governing San Jose, reported Mayor Ron Gonzales at his State of the City address on Wednesday, Feb. 9, at the historic California Theatre.

Faced with declining revenues and budget deficits, 2005 will mean painful budget choices about how to meet the needs of the community. Yet Gonzales assured that, “We have a track record of overcoming adversity, of turning loss into triumph, of being a city of solutions.”

New visions
Moving forward, he dared San Jose’s citizens to dream, to create an Education Foundation, to build a better transportation system and to fill up the Bioscience Center in Edenvale with small businesses and stem cell research.

“When California voters approved $3 billion to invest in stem-cell research, they approved a vision for life-saving discoveries. We’re the natural home for this amazing new venture. We have the best record of innovation and the best scientific and business brainpower that will help this research discover medical breakthroughs,” Gonzales said.

His biggest dream, however, is to bring a major league baseball team to San Jose. This summer the U.S. Census Bureau may name San Jose the tenth largest city in America. Yet 15 cities smaller than San Jose have a major league baseball team. San Jose will submit a proposal to Major League Baseball to bring a team here.

“With the support of the City Council and the grassroots enthusiasm of Baseball San Jose, this proposal will put us in contention for a team of our own, right here in our downtown,” Gonzales said. “If the Boston Red Sox can end ‘the curse of the Bambino,’ then we can win a team for San Jose.”

Looking back
Citing 2004 as his most challenging year since he took office, the mayor said the “persistent local recession” has created agonizing choices in ensuring a balanced budget while taking into account community needs.

Those were exacerbated by problems with the new City Hall and “the ethical failures by people we trusted, [which] have embarrassed and damaged us.”

It would be easy to look at the dark side, he added, and relegate plans to better times. But his goal is to leave the city in better shape than he found it. “Mayor Susan Hammer left us a city better than the one she found. I will do the same for our next mayor,” he said.

Great place to live
Calling the state of the city strong, Gonzales noted that challenges aside, San Jose is a great place to live. Looking back six years, he discussed the city’s triumphs and losses. While the economy was more than strong, “parks, libraries and fire stations were crumbling from old age.” Voters approved $600 million in bonds to improve these problems, and there now are more than 500 new neighborhood construction projects in the works, he said.

Six years ago, the city was neglecting its neighborhoods. Then the City Council directed redevelopment funds to local neighborhoods. In 2005, the city will spend $34 million on projects residents said were “their priorities,” Gonzales said, “and we’ve committed another $80 million.”

Traffic six years ago was horrendous, he added. To improve the situation, city government and voters approved Measure A to improve Caltrain, expand the light rail system and bus fleet and bring BART to San Jose.

Gonzales took an idea from Vice Mayor Cindy Chavez, and vowed to “crack down on the ‘red light’ runners who put the safety of our residents in jeopardy. Just because you’re late, you can’t put a life at risk,” he said.

New equipment
“We’ll install new equipment at 50 high-risk intersections to help catch red-light violators. Because, in San Jose, ‘stop’ means stop. In addition, we’ll put in countdown signals at 50 busy intersections to let pedestrians know how much time they have to cross, and flashing lights and lighted crosswalks at critical locations that will slow down drivers and show walkers where to cross safely,” Gonzales said.

To ensure a strong economy, cities need to attract and keep businesses, which creates jobs. After the dot.com bubble burst, San Jose remained the home of major employers, “like Adobe, eBay and BEA Systems…” The city also has made it a practice to help small neighborhood businesses, support entrepreneurs and attract new business. “Now national retailers are knocking at our door,” Gonzales said.

To allow all citizens to find homes, “we launched the most aggressive affordable housing program of any city in California.” In 2004, Gonzales said, the city exceeded its goal of building 6,000 affordable homes in five years…
“Tonight I’m announcing that in the next two years we’ll reach the remarkable milestone of having 10,000 affordable homes built or under construction. Let me tell you what that really means; It means 10,000 homes for 25,000 people, who can afford to live in San Jose,” he said.

Schools
What good is affordable housing if the schools aren’t any good? In the past six years, the city has expanded its after-school homework centers to every public school in San Jose, Gonzales said. It’s also allowed almost 500 teachers to buy their first homes in the city. The city has expanded its network of Smart Start early childhood education enters, helping more than “3,000 young children enter kindergarten ready to learn.”

Mayor Ron Gonzales speaks at the State of the City address on Feb. 9 at the historic California Theatre with the city council joining him on stage.

However, there are at least 4,000 children in the city that still need quality preschools. “My dream is that some day soon, there will be high quality, accessible preschools for every child in San Jose,” Gonzales said.

Asking city partners, such as First Five, United Way, Head Start, the County Office of Education, school districts and child care providers to help, he said, “Tonight, I want us to commit as a community to cutting this gap in half. We should create 2000 new high quality preschool spaces over the next five years!”

In addition, he proposes an independent Education Foundation, “that will speak up for our schools and our students, both locally and in Sacramento and Washington. This is an experiment based on successful models, and I believe it’s worth trying here,” Gonzales said.

“I will engage our education, community and business leaders to support the foundation to ensure that San Jose can speak with one voice when it comes to the future of our children. We will raise private funds and work to become a catalyst for improving student achievement. We will be a resource and a partner for families, teachers and school boards. We will accept nothing less than the best for San Jose students,” he said.

Gonzales concluded his speech by asking citizens to dream. “Despite the challenges and the roadblocks, what guides me every day is a vision for our future. I see the faces of our children with their families, growing up in a city that creates a future of possibilities for them. I see them thriving in a city that offers a better future, for every resident, for every neighborhood.”

He told the audience he would use his remaining 690 days in office to accomplish these dreams and pledged to “ leave this city better than I found it….Our oath is to work at making the city we love better. Tonight I ask you to join me. Dream big. Work hard. And, together, believe in what we can be.”

If you’d like to read Mayor Gonzales’ full speech, go to the mayor’s home page: http://www.sjmayor.org/.