TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND FROM: Councilmember Carrasco
CITY COUNCIL
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: June 14, 2022
Approved Date: 6/14/2022
SUBJECT: MAYOR’S JUNE BUDGET MESSAGE
RECOMMENDATION
1. Accept the memos from Councilmember Peralez, Carrasco, Davis and Arenas and Councilmember Arenas and Carrasco.
2. Accept the Mayor’s Budget Message and include the following a. BD# 68 Alum Rock Cultural District
b. BD# 73 Senior Strategic Plan
BACKGROUND
I want to thank City Staff and Mayor Liccardo for their incredible hard work in balancing and producing the City’s FY 22-23 Budget, keeping with the competing needs of our communities.
As we continue to recover from the Pandemic it is important that we approve the budget through an equity lens and ensure the residents who have been hit the hardest by the pandemic are front and center in these decisions.
BD #68 Alum Rock Cultural District
Anchored by MHP and supported by the School of Arts and Culture, a Cultural District on Alum Rock Avenue would serve to memorialize the history and contributions of East Side so that no pandemic, no disaster, no threat of displacement will erase the contributions the East Side has made to the city of San José.
By documenting the rich historical content and culture present on the Alum Rock Corridor the Cultural District would tell East Side’s story through distinct architecture, wayfinding, murals, documentaries, and cultural events. The district would also create space for local artists and entrepreneurs so that they can flourish near and around the already established School of Arts and Culture at Mexican Heritage Plaza. The district will allow a community that has often been misrepresented to finally write their own narrative and invite others into the East Side dialect.
COUNCIL AGENDA: 6/14/22
ITEM: 3.3
We’ve seen how Downtown’s SOFA District, Post Street’s Qmunity District and Japantown capture both culture, Pride and economic vibrancy weaved together harmoniously, serving as economic engines for family owned, POC, local businesses. These districts are organic expressions of community, creating a platform and raising visibility for the people who find a home in them. Successful events like the SubZero Market, and Nikkei Matsuri Festival draw in crowds from every corner of our city and region with the intention of getting a taste of the culture and authenticity of these spaces.
And finally, after years of redlining, it’s all coming together! We have investments that are beginning to materialize and make their impact. We have incredibly hardworking organizations that are models for the community such as the Si Se Puede collective become leaders in serving the community, filling roles such as healthcare providers. We’re excited about the possible expansion of the School of Arts and Culture. And we are seeing stunning murals and banners that highlight our pride of culture pop up and start to cement this idea. What we need now is our city to recognize East Side’s contributions and give us the opportunity to create this District.
The Cultural District would strengthen the included initiative by Amigos de Guadalupe to purchase and preserve the Cesar Chávez family home, scaling that work to include those streets and spaces like our Lady of Guadalupe Church and Mc Donnell Hall, as well as the hallowed ground at MHP where the first bells of social justice were rung. Our thoughts are in alignment, all that is left is our actions and allocations.
BD#73 Senior Strategic Plan
The pandemic caused untold fear and suffering in our senior community. Our Seniors have been isolated from family, friends and community, forced to tackle the devasting effect of the pandemic on their own. I’ve heard their testimonies as they gathered around me during Senior Zumba, making sure they communicated that they need greater services and opportunities afforded to them.
The city has no plan for our seniors, and our PRNS department does not have the bandwidth to develop comprehensive strategies, embedded with measurables, to address their needs. The pandemic has revealed that we are failing a major subset of our community, a class of people who deserve respect and dignity. These are the folks who’ve built our city through their labor, through their love. We owe them this much so they may live out their Golden years.
To address the detrimental effects isolation has had, we must strengthen social inclusion and solidarity with our senior community, so that they feel seen, respected, and cared for. Guided by our seniors, we need to develop a comprehensive Senior Services Strategic Plan for San José.
Such a plan would identify strengths and deficits in our Senior serving facilities and Community Centers, producing a path forward that maximizes outreach strategies, focuses on intergenerational connections, gets our seniors active and socializing, all anchored by measurables.