West San Jose Resident

News

Mayor to take on crime, environment in state of the city address

By Stephen Baxter

Building on his themes of fiscal and environmental responsibility, Mayor Chuck Reed says his Jan. 16 State of the City speech will focus on sustainable growth and solving the city's budget problems.

Reed will speak at the 2008 community breakfast at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center following breakfast at 7:45 a.m. Ticket requests for the event closed on Jan. 4, but the speech will be broadcast on CivicCenter Television Channel 26 and on the city's website at www.sanjoseca.gov.

The attendance cost of the breakfast increased $5 to $25 this year; 350 free seats will be available for ticket holders.

Reed is expected to tout the city council's progress on his Green Vision, which set 10 broad goals to make the city more environmentally sustainable. The goals ranged from planting 100,000 new trees to connecting 100 miles in trails to creating 25,000 "clean tech" jobs. The mayor, who took office in January 2007, also will discuss strategies to combat a recent rise in murders and gang activity.

"We do need to hire some additional police officers," Reed said in a phone interview, "but we cannot arrest ourselves out of a gang problem. We know that from working with our community organizations. Working with them is critical for bringing [gangs] down."

The Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force, which meets about six times a year, has been trying to stem youth violence since 1991 by gathering police and city officials with school and community leaders. Fifteen new police officers were hired in 2007, and Reed said the city will hire 15 more who began police academy training in the first week of January.

In his first State of the City speech, Reed called the city's budget deficit "public enemy No. 1" and pledged to fix it in part by attracting new companies and trimming administrative costs. The Mayor's Budget Shortfall Advisory Group was launched, and it has met several times to gather input from residents on how to cut city expenses and raise more money.

Reed added that he is looking forward to improving the city in the new year.

"Lots of things have happened. We've made a lot of progress on a lot of issues," Reed said. "You can't ignore the problems."