Over 200 community members came out last night to the Washington United Youth Center gym downtown, asking when Google and City officials will sit at the table with us to define the vision for the company’s proposed mega-campus.
The report back from small group discussions came through loud and clear: residents know that downtown San Jose is a prime location for a company like Google, and we expect Google to work with us so the project benefits both Google and our families. One neighbor of the project reported from her small group the need for affordable housing and good jobs for all those who will be working to support the project.
“If they’re going to come to our community, they’re going to be PART of our community,” she said.
As of today, neither Google nor the City of San Jose have said how they will engage the community. Councilmember Raul Peralez thanked the crowd for getting involved now and called upon us all to get even more people to speak up. “We need to be able to express to them, what is our community – what is it that we’d like to see?” citing combating gentrification as what’s most important to him.
We’re collecting surveys from hundreds of residents and workers and will publish the results. Tech development has become disconnected from the daily realities of our communities. The only way we change this is if we define a new vision.
