San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo hasn’t washed his automobile since April 3, 2013 — the day he drove the Chevy Volt off the dealership lot.
It’s the factor he stated he hasn’t achieved since being elected mayor in 2014. And on Thursday evening, beneath the intense stage lights on the California Theatre, he delivered his remaining State of the Metropolis tackle, utilizing the dirtied car as a metaphor for not solely his, however San Jose’s “penchant” for taking the “lengthy view.”
The automobile, Liccardo stated, would turn into a “not-so-shining mannequin of water conservation” because the state has suffered by one more drought. It’s an antidote for a made-up illness he calls “temporal myopia” — “a short-term considering that undermines our long-term high quality of life” that he stated has us burning by fossil fuels and underinvesting in public training, amongst different issues.
“All through our historical past, San Jose has thrived by overcoming temporal myopia, by fixing our give attention to the long run,” Liccardo stated. “Saving for the long run. Investing for the long run. That’s the ethos of generations of immigrants which have formed San Jose’s character: sacrificing within the current, even within the hardest of instances, for a greater future for our youngsters.”
In his speech, the mayor highlighted “key dimensions” of town’s future whereas lauding the accomplishments of his eight 12 months tenure.
Regardless of the 11 p.c leap in homelessness that town noticed all through the pandemic, Liccardo stated he believes they’re “lastly seeing some hopeful indicators” in housing the unsheltered homeless inhabitants.
For the reason that begin of the pandemic, town has doubled down on developing prefabricated communities that always value much less and are faster to construct than flats. Liccardo stated the three initiatives town has constructed have taken 686 residents off the road. Almost 80% of them remaining housed right this moment.
Town is within the technique of erecting lots of extra quick-build items with the purpose of 1,000 beneath improvement by the top of the 12 months.
Liccardo additionally triumphed on the metropolis’s monetary scenario — a drastic change from when he took workplace in 2015 when town was “licking its wounds” from the Nice Recession, rising retirement prices and the pension battles.
Whereas San Jose continues to be working to revive providers — many impacted by pandemic-related funds cuts — the mayor highlighted the latest “promising outcomes” together with opening libraries for the primary time on Sundays in 16 low-income neighborhoods, repaving or resealing 303 miles of streets and launching a free junk pickup program.
Liccardo stated that wouldn’t be doable with out town getting its “monetary home so as.” For the primary time in twenty years, San Jose’s funds workplace is projecting a modest surplus for the following 5 years.
Within the wake of a gun violence epidemic that rocked San Jose final 12 months when a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority employee killed 9 on the mild rail yard earlier than turning the gun on himself, town has marked lowering gun violence a precedence.
On Thursday, he applauded San Jose’s management within the space as town has lately banned the possession of ghost weapons, required shops to video-record transactions and instituted a first-in-the-nation mandate that may require gun house owners to buy legal responsibility insurance coverage.
“We have now impressed different cities, and even the California legislature, to suggest comparable laws,” Liccardo stated. “We’ve additionally impressed just a few teams to sue us. However with the profitable advocacy of Tamara Prevost and Metropolis Lawyer Nora Frimann, we are going to proceed to struggle to guard the lives of our youngsters in court docket, in Metropolis Corridor, and in our neighborhoods.”
The night was hosted by legendary Bay Space radio duo Lissa Kreisler and Sam Van Zandt, who reunited publicly for the primary time since their KBAY-FM morning present went off the air in 2016.
Van Zandt introduced just a few gadgets alongside to assist Liccardo in his future employment after he phrases out this 12 months together with hair spray, self tanner and hair gel, which Kreisler remarked “appears good on Gavin Newsom.”
A number of neighborhood members have been additionally honored Thursday night, together with Reymundo Espinoza, the CEO of Gardner Well being, who acquired the 2022 mayor’s neighborhood champion award.
As for Liccardo’s soiled Chevy Volt, he informed the Mercury Information that he plans on washing his automobile after he leaves workplace — except it rains.