Community Leaders Seek Mayor’s Commitment to Create Solutions

May 21, 2009

MEDIA ALERT                                                  Contacts:  Margie Marquez, 408-705-3487
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                  Steve Rodriguez, 408-568-3982 (Spanish/English)                                    

May 21, 2009                                                              Jenne Wood-Taylor, 408-835-6708  (Spanish/English)                               

SAN JOSE, CA                                                            Karen Belote, 408-910-7944 (Spanish/English)       
                      

                               Call for on-camera interviews with affected community members                                                                                                                             

                                                MEDIA ALERT

Quality of Life in San Jose is Slipping Dramatically:

54% report little or no trust in police

Rising Crime – Growing Foreclosures and Blight

Failing Schools – Skyrocketing Unemployment

Community Leaders Seek Mayor’s Commitment to Create Solutions

See video message to the Mayor at http://www.youtube.com/pactsj

WHAT & WHO:  PACT grassroots community leaders will hold a Community Action Meeting with Mayor Chuck Reed to inform him about the growing problems affecting youth, families and neighborhoods across San Jose. 

PACT will urge Mayor Reed to use his leadership to:

Ø  improve neighborhood safety

Ø  stop preventable foreclosures

Ø  create excellent schools to close the achievement gap and reduce the dropout rate

Ø  create green collar jobs and career paths for youth

WHEN:    Thursday, May 21, 7:00-8:30 pm                                                                         WHERE:  Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church, 2040 Nassau Dr, San Jose 95122

WHY:  Working class families are being hit especially hard by the economic crisis.  Many San Jose neighborhoods and communities are suffering from chronic problems such as failing schools and lack of jobs as well as the more recent crises of foreclosures and increased crime.  The whole city is affected when people feel unsafe and many don’t trust the police.

In a recent survey of San Jose residents conducted by PACT, 54% reported little or no trust in the police.  Forty-four percent stated that they had been a victim of a crime in the past 2 years and did not call the police.  Thirty-one percent stated that they know someone else who had been a crime victim and did not call the police.

 PACT is asking Mayor Reed to use his leadership and to partner with the community to create solutions to these serious and growing problems.

PUBLIC SAFETY - San Jose has a major problem of lack of trust between law enforcement and immigrant communities and communities of color which is impacting the safety of the whole City.  PACT seeks the Mayor’s commitment to work with our community members and other key stakeholders to develop a plan to address this problem, and deliver it back to our community in the Fall.  PACT also seeks the Mayor’s support for extending police officer assignments from 6 months to 2 years in a geographic area in order to improve police knowledge of the community and relationships between officers and residents.

 FORECLOSURES - The City has a powerful tool to stop preventable foreclosures - the authority to fine banks that foreclose on families, refuse to work to keep people in their homes, and then leave those properties empty and blighted.  PACT is asking the Mayor to commit to having the City impose the maximum penalty under San José policy - $1,750/day - for not maintaining abandoned foreclosed properties.  This aggressive stance will begin to raise money that should be dedicated to a new City program to keep people in their homes.   

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=27AE597C5D578914

Testimony and news coverage of PACT’s work on the foreclosure crisis

GREEN JOBS - San Jose youth need jobs and the federal funds for the new green economy create new opportunities.  Job growth should not just focus on highly-skilled jobs.  The “trickle down” theory won’t work for our community.  Some cities are being innovative in using Federal Stimulus Package funding to create green jobs for youth.  The city of Denver is partnering with a local non-profit to use Stimulus money to train and hire young people to do energy audits on buildings.  The City of San Jose could do even better than that, by using only 20% of the $8.8 million the city will receive from the “Energy Efficiency Block Grant” we can ensure many of our at-risk youth get into internships and apprenticeships that put them on track to high skilled, sustainable wage, union jobs.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7340EB8094E36AC7

Video of the Mayor's commitments to include working class people in his Green Vision and testimony about the need for green jobs for youth

EDUCATION - 60,000 students are below grade level across San Jose.  Santa Clara County has a 15% dropout rate, and that number jumps to 22% in East San Jose.  The Mayor and City of San Jose can support the creation of excellent new schools by providing facilities for charter schools.  PACT is also asking the Mayor to commit to providing leadership for a plan to close the achievement gap to support student success key to the strength of our economy and health and well-being of our community.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=06BDB101D222FC37 

Testimony about the dropout crisis by PACT grassroots leaders and public officials

Events Organized by:  People Acting in Community Together (PACT) is a multi-ethnic, interfaith organization that empowers people to create a more just community.  PACT represents 21 congregations and 50,000 people in Santa Clara County.