After nine months of conversations with San Jose communities, today a delegation of local children delivered our community plan to Google.
These are the protections that we expect to be built in to any deal with Google over the development of their new mega-campus in San Jose. We say that if Google wants to come to town, it can’t just bring yet more tech-fuelled gentrification.
Instead it must work with our communities and create affordable housing to ease our housing crisis, protect existing residents from evictions and homelessness, provide access to good jobs for local workers and ensure that San Jose traffic does not grind to a halt.
While the City and Google tried to conduct their backroom deal behind closed doors and shady non-disclosure agreements, more than 1,500 people of San Jose said loudly and clearly that if Google wants to come to town, it has to be a good neighbor.
We’ve come together, discussed each others’ views and presented a positive and fair vision for the future of our city that we want Google and the City Council to adopt.
We will not sit back and let the Mayor and City Council sell valuable public land – our land – for a huge corporate development that will hurt the people of San Jose. We must not let this deal hike already unaffordable rents, create a spike in evictions, force communities of color out of the area, fail to provide good jobs for local workers, and lead to gridlocked roads and overcrowded schools.
We know we can win these demands. Other nearby cities have won victories for residents when dealing with major developments. They won because community members like you stood up.
Together, we can shape a better future for San Jose. It’s time to set a new direction for inclusive tech growth.
