Sam Liccardo

Neighbors for Sam Liccardo San Jose City Council 2010

Sam’s Work

Downtown Revitalization: In the three years since Sam took office in 2007, the downtown has seen five new residential and office towers come to completion, followed by the worst national economic downturn since the Great Depression. Sam has responded by pushing for a package of incentives to waive parking fees and business license fees for businesses moving into or renewing their leases downtown. He also pushed for greater permit flexibility and Redevelopment support to bring Safeway and Ross Dress for Less to spur downtown San José’s nascent retail development. Sam crafted a “Peralta Plan” for the redevelopment of the northwest quadrant of downtown, and led a hard-fought battle for approval of its centerpiece: the San Pedro Urban Market, due to open next summer. Sam drafted policies – all of which were adopted by the Council – to defer fee burdens on high-rise developments, to ease the restrictions in San José’s signage rules for downtown retailers, to push for a more collaborative policing model downtown, and to relax limitations on residential development along the North First Street transit corridor. Sam led an effort to reduce fees on downtown event and festival producers. Sam also spearheaded early efforts to convene community leaders to raise money and assess public support for the construction of a downtown Major League Baseball stadium.

Environmental Stewardship: As the Chair of the City Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee, Sam has been a strong supporter of the Mayor’s Green Vision, including the investment of Redevelopment dollars to spur growth of green technology companies in San José. Sam’s Council office coordinated a successful effort with neighborhood leaders to negotiate a discounted “bulk purchase” of solar arrays on the roofs of dozens of downtown homes. Sam led an initiative to help keep single-use plastic and paper bags out of our landfills that will save residents and businesses millions in clean-up and disposal costs. He authored a policy to halt the purchase of single-use plastic water bottles at City Hall. Finally, as Co-Chair of San José’s Envision 2040 General Plan update, Sam has worked to focus development downtown and along key transit corridors, to preserve our hillsides and open space.

Affordable Housing: In 2007, Sam led an effort to make San José the largest city in the United States with a citywide inclusionary housing policy, to promote the home affordability that is demanded by residents and driving industries. Sam and the City Council intentionally delayed the implementation of these requirements until the economy — and residential development — rebounds, and is currently engaged with developers to ensure that San José uses a sufficiently flexible approach. Sam also led a successful push to revise the City’s investment policy to provide incentives for local banks to increase participation in efforts to reduce mortgage foreclosures in San José.

BART, Transit, and Transportation: In December 2009, Sam was appointed Chairperson of the Valley Transportation Authority’s (VTA) Board of Directors. He will continue to advocate strongly for BART and other transit improvements in our Valley. By fundraising and strongly advocating for Measure B — which garnered the required 2/3 support by a margin of a few hundredths of a percent in 2008 – Sam worked to keep BART-to-Silicon Valley on track. As a result, BART construction has begun in Alameda County to connect the system to Silicon Valley. Sam has also led efforts to boost bicycle commuting with a widely publicized initiative that will bring “bike-share” vendors to key transit stations in 2010, and with new streetscape designs that will enable cyclists and cars to share the road more safely. Sam also rolled out a plan, still pending Council consideration, to provide incentives to high-density developers to offer car-sharing programs and pay for transit passes for residents

Neighborhood Empowerment: Within weeks of taking office in 2007, Sam created a public forum for neighborhood leaders to meet monthly, to engage in dialogue with each other and top City officials, and to advise him on key matters of policy. This partnership with the Neighborhood Advisory Group has produced remarkable results. Together, the Neighborhood Advisory and Sam pushed to open two previously-shuttered neighborhood pools. They extended late-night programs and expanded healthy social options for teens in a gang-frequented neighborhoods. They halted the saturation of bail bonds businesses and liquor stores in downtown neighborhoods. They have begun the long-awaited cleanup of the lead-contaminated Watson Park. The partnership with the Neighborhood Advisory Group and Sam also spearheaded a successful effort to pass a 2008 ballot measure, Measure M, to spur more public-private partnerships with recreational service providers in City parks and community centers. He crafted a proposal—still pending Council approval—that will creatively use developer fees to maintain future parks, thereby enabling park construction to move forward in long-underserved neighborhoods. Sam also worked with the County to coordinate the acquisition the former San José Medical Center site for the development of a long-awaited medical clinic, one targeted to the many underserved low- and moderate- income residents nearby. Finally, Sam has led efforts in each of the last three years to preserve library and community center services in the face of severe proposals to cut those critical services for our at-risk youth and seniors.

The Future: In 2010, you’ll see Sam push to take advantage of new opportunities and to confront looming challenges, such as providing incentives for small businesses to grow and hire in San José, reforming unsustainable cost structures in our pension and benefit system, rebuilding community trust in San José’s Police Department, constructing a world-class downtown transit station for High-Speed Rail and BART, and bringing a privately-financed Major League Baseball stadium to downtown San José.