Liccardo touts ‘collaborative ethos’ of flood response
SAN JOSE » San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo kicked off his fourth annual State of the City address Thursday by thanking volunteers and local officials for their efforts to help victims of last year’s disastrous Coyote Creek flood and outlining steps the city has taken to improve disaster response.
“Our response to the floods speaks to somethingmuch greater,” he told a packed audience at San Jose City College. “It reveals a collective resilience, one that enables us to overcome adversity — when we work together — to accomplish great results.”
The prepared remarks came on the same daymore than 100 victims of the flood filed a claim accusing city and county leaders of a lack of leadership in dealing with the run-up to and aftermath of the disaster.
During his speech, Liccardo was interrupted several times by protesters shouting “Sam Liccardo, not my mayor,” and “Serve the people, not your pockets.”
But since the flood, Liccardo said, the city has improved the way it warns residents of flooding and worked with county andwater district officials to prepare better for future natural disasters.
“By embracing the same collaborative ethos that animated our response to the flood,” he said, “we will go much farther, together.”
Among the list of accomplishments touted by Liccardo — who was introduced by his wife Jessica GarciaKohl — were an increase in the number of police officers, a push to reduce the amount of trash and graffiti in the city, and a rising minimum wage — $15 by 2019.
But the mayor of the nation’s 10th most-populous city also acknowledged some growing pains, calling out Silicon Valley’s lack of affordable housing as the area’s most pressing concern.
“The state of our city is strong, and getting stronger; experiencing economic vitality as it never has before,” Liccardo said. “Yet the great paradox of our prosperity lies in our thousands of neighbors who struggle weekly to pay rent in an economy that increasingly marginalizes many.”
The city, he noted, has long suffered from theworst balance of jobs and housing of any major city, with tech companies regularly taking their tax dollars and jobs to nearby suburbs. But, he said, “in the last three years, we have started to shift Silicon Valley’s center of gravity to the south, luring major investments” from companies like Google.
Like the city’s response to the Coyote Creek flood, Liccardo’s efforts to bring a major Google development to the area around Diridon Station are not without controversy. Dozens of residents, many concerned about spiraling housing costs, spent hours at a recent City Council meeting accusing city officials of failing to seek enough input fromresidents and other communitymembers.
But Liccardo insisted during his speech that his plan to build 25,000 homes, including 10,000 affordable homes, in the next five years will revitalize parts of town and bring more innovation to the city.
Without ever actually naming the commanderin- chief, Liccardo accused “the current occupant of the White House” of withdrawing from “his global environmental responsibilities.” He also praised San Jose for showing “global leadership” by announcing a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the goals of the Paris climate agreement Trump abandoned.
He also took a jab at an initiative to build senior homes slowly inching itsway toward the June ballot — a plan he has opposed as an expensive gated community masquerading as a feel-good measure.
“We have to halt decades of sprawling development that has left our residents without commute options beyond enduring clogged conga lines masquerading as freeways,” Liccardo said. “That’s why we must stand together… against developers seeking to cover our Evergreen foothills with a gated community.”
Likemany politicians, Liccardo took a moment to fo- cus on the city’s youth, citing a recent conversation with students at Cristo Rey High School on the city’s east side.
“These students articulated what so many young people feel — not just here, but in cities throughout the nation— about the great urban challenges of our day: rising housing costs, diminishing opportunity, scarce municipal resources, and climate change,” he said. “By expanding the opportunities for our youth, and by confronting our housing crisis, we can build a San Jose where we all can thrive.”