Last week, National Geographic named San José the country's 6th happiest city!
Mayor Liccardo Unveils Comprehensive 15-Point Housing Plan

On October 2, Mayor Liccardo unveiled his comprehensive housing plan, which aims to create 25,000 homes for residents - 10,000 of them affordable - in five years. The plan concentrates on transit-centered, high density, and mixed use development, half of which will be developed in the downtown core and frame areas. It also emphasizes exploring private-public partnerships and raising private capital to fund housing relief for the "missing middle," our teachers, nurses, and police officers who struggle to make rent. 

You can see the 15-point summary, or read the housing proposal in its entirety.
A Win for Californians: Governor Brown Vetoes SB 649

This month, Governor Jerry Brown announced his veto of SB 649, a telecom bill that was strongly opposed by Mayor Liccardo, hundreds of local elected officials, and consumer advocates across the state. In particular, the bill would have allowed private telecom companies to install their equipment on public infrastructure at below market rate costs, with little local input and - most importantly - without any guarantee that the benefits of such expansion would be brought to low-income and rural communities. 

Unleash Your Geek Contest Winner Builds Graffiti-Cleaning Drone

Mayor Liccardo announced the winners of the City's Unleash Your Geek contest, a competition designed to harness our residents' innovative energy to creatively address community issues. The problem of choice: graffiti abatement in hard-to-reach areas. The winning team, San José residents Candace Marbury and Chris Farmer, demonstrated their prototype graffiti-removing drone, and explained how easily and inexpensively their drone could cover graffiti on freeway overpasses. 

Now the duo is working with CalTrans on developing a 2.0 model .  In a statement, CalTrans explains that once fully functional, the device will facilitate the opportunity to redirect graffiti-abatement resources towards maintaining and upgrading infrastructure, like filling potholes and repaving roads .

Read the press release about the winning entry, or watch the video. 
Mayor Sam Liccardo: "Why I'm Not Offering Subsidies to Bid on Amazon HQ2"

In a Wall Street Journal OpEd published earlier this month, Mayor Liccardo shared that he won't be offering taxpayer dollars to attract Amazon's HQ2 to San Jos é. 

While noting that cities like San Jos é would love to see a company like Amazon locate and grow in their community, offering big corporations tax subsidies remains a poor use of public funds. Instead, he argues that a city should focus on enacting policies that create a healthy economic ecosystem by investing in infrastructure and human capital. By having done so, San Jos é continues to attract innovative companies like  Google, Adobe, Apple, and Microsoft -- all of which have introduced proposals to settle or expand in San Jose, without a public subsidy. 

Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot

If you're interested in a pre-turkey, turkey trot - you're in luck. This Thanksgiving, join Mayor Liccardo as he runs in the country's largest Thanksgiving Day race, while raising money for families in need. To date, the run's proceeds has funded 60,000 vision screenings and 4,000+ pairs of glasses for children, offered 2.9 million pounds of food to hungry families, and placed 3,738 individuals into affordable housing. 


Events Around San José  
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