All Units Irene I Say Again Irene
Downtown San Jose is pictured in this file photo.
The race is on for the open City Council seat in downtown San Jose.
With District 3 Councilmember Raul Peralez terming out and seeking higher role, 5 candidates with various political backgrounds and experiences are vying for votes.
Commune 3 encompasses neighborhoods from Vendome and Naglee Park to Japantown and Spartan Keyes. It's as well home to San Jose State University and several theaters and music halls. Every bit the city's center, San Jose's woes—homelessness, blight and small business closures—are glaringly visible.
All the candidates point to those concerns—how they plan to solve them differs.
Here are your District three candidates in alphabetical gild.
Elizabeth Chien-Hale
Elizabeth Chien-Hale, 60, is an intellectual property attorney who hopes to use her groundwork and expertise in applied science to solve city problems and bridge the private and public sectors.
Chien-Hale is registered as No Political party Preference. She did not provide names of endorsers, only said she has back up from the Japantown concern community and several Cupertino elected officials. She'south raised $11,950, according to her latest filings.
"I started this whole journeying past being a resident advocate. I want to stay true to my roots of community advancement," said Chien-Unhurt, who is president of the San Jose Downtown Residents Association. "Credo can get in the fashion of that."
Her top priorities are addressing homelessness, increasing code enforcement, small business revitalization and transportation.
She said San Jose is in the perfect position to do so with so many coworking spaces and SJSU in the eye of downtown—who'southward innovation center she hopes to revitalize. She sees the Google Downtown West projection every bit a good template for connected business growth in San Jose.
The former engineer pointed to using democratic buses that meet residents at their homes and have them to transit hubs for free, equally a means of solving the connectivity outcome, and as an example of how technology can aid.
"I understand the relationship between innovation and economic growth," Chien-Hale said. "Technology has a major part to play in all of this. The potential hasn't been fully exploited."
Joanna Rauh
Joanna Rauh, 40, is an chaser for the accounting firm Deloitte, where she leads the legal team'due south pro bono and philanthropic piece of work. She is set to jump into the political scene to focus on solving what she says is District 3 and San Jose's pinnacle result: homelessness.
"The biggest challenge is to create real and lasting change in addressing the homelessness crisis," Rauh told San José Spotlight. "It is a complicated problem that will crave complicated solutions."
To make immediate changes, she calls for more shelter beds, and long-term planning that leads to more than affordable housing, Rauh said. She pointed to utilizing vacant infinite and public city and county-owned country as places to build.
In addition to homelessness, Rauh wants to contain more than public art in downtown, improve public rubber by increasing staffing in the police department and address housing affordability.
She is a Democrat who has received endorsements from Mayor Sam Liccardo, onetime Mayor Tom McEnery and the San Jose Constabulary Officers' Clan. Rauh has donated $20,000 to her campaign, loaned another $20,000 and has non disclosed other campaign contributions.
Rauh said her experience equally a lawyer gives her the negotiation skills to become things done in City Hall. Her experience every bit a mom of 3 young children has highlighted how challenging it tin can be to raise children in San Jose.
"It is not acceptable that our own community members, including essential service providers, cannot afford to live in our metropolis, and that our sons and daughters cannot afford to move back abode," Rauh said. "Nosotros demand to usher in investment in jobs and housing."
Irene Smith
Irene Smith, 61, is another non-politico jumping into the council race to combat problems she said have continued to worsen over the years.
"I am completely laser focused on undoing the legacy of bad decisions that has just really damaged the quality of life for residents and small businesses," Smith said.
She is an independent with the back up of the Silicon Valley Business PAC, small businesses like Casa Vicki and Peanuts, and nonprofit Families & Homes SJ. She's raised $59,538, according to her latest filings.
Smith has had an array of jobs, starting off in finance at IBM and working within a mental health facility in downtown before getting her police degree. She then opened her ain mediation business concern and serves as a volunteer chaser with Santa Clara County'southward Pro Bono Project. Smith also owns and manages several backdrop in San Jose.
Her priorities are homelessness, increasing police officers to ameliorate public safety and modest business revitalization.
To reduce homeless numbers, Smith wants to create sanctioned encampments to humanely triage unhoused residents, provide rental vouchers so people do not fall into homelessness and create metropolis-endemic public housing, or a metropolis-led version of Section 8. She as well wants to bring staffing levels up in the city'due south planning department to streamline development.
"Downtown won't be a gem, it won't thrive until our families and our small businesses thrive," Smith said. "These are my neighbors and I want to aid."
Ivan Torres
Ivan Torres, 38, is a health care worker turned candidate afterward volunteering with Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2022 presidential campaign. Torres unsuccessfully ran for congress in 2022 to replace Rep. Zoe Lofgren.
Torres is a progressive who has gotten endorsements from Berniecrats, a volunteer-run system to support progressive candidates, and anticipates an endorsement from the Progressive Democrats for Social Justice. He has not disclosed entrada contributions.
To him, San Jose's biggest problem is income inequality, which tin crusade homelessness, crime and modest business closures.
"The unfortunate thing is that our response to an influx in crime is automatically more police force instead of looking at the root problems," Torres said. "We have to understand that homelessness, mental health and law-breaking—they're all intertwined with each other."
To combat the stark income inequality in San Jose, Torres wants to fund public housing, make community colleges complimentary and provide grants to pocket-size businesses.
He said it may seem plush, but $5.5 one thousand thousand for free community college is not a big drop in the bucket compared to constabulary spending, which was close to half a billion dollars in 2021. He said $v.5 is how much San Francisco pays for their free customs college programme.
"My policies are new and they're dissimilar; and as a result, they're controversial," Torres said. "But at the aforementioned time, this is a fight for all of united states. Education is one of the biggest and most effective tools on combating income inequality."
Omar Torres
Omar Torres, 40, calls himself a pragmatic progressive and a lifelong Democrat who has gotten support from the Due south Bay Labor Council, mayoral candidate and Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, the Santa Clara Canton Democratic Party and other local progressives. He has not disclosed entrada contributions.
He has been part of the San Jose political scene for years, currently serving as a San Jose-Evergreen Customs College District trustee, regional director in the California Autonomous Party and the business organization resiliency manager of the San Jose Downtown Association. He was too Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco's deputy chief of staff and had served in her office for vii years.
Torres' priorities are homelessness, public safety and the revitalization of downtown.
"I am the only candidate who has created solutions on all these fronts," Torres said. " I take worked with our police department to create safer, stronger neighborhoods. I helped relieve small businesses through my piece of work at the downtown association and have created policies at the urban center level. I know how it all works."
Torres said if elected, he would rent staff focused on each of downtown's problems. He would also push for policy on his first day to establish ten,000 trees in San Jose throughout his term.
As one of ii District 3 candidates living south of Interstate 280, Torres said it'southward important for the district to have a representative who does not come up from an affluent groundwork.
"I am running because it's time for people like me with lived experiences to accept a say in our city's policies," Torres said.
Contact Jana Kadah at [electronic mail protected] or @Jana_Kadah on Twitter.
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Source: https://sanjosespotlight.com/election-2022-the-race-for-san-jose-city-council-district-3-downtown/
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