From official newsletter

Celebrating the holidays in District 3

Mar 01, 2001, 12:00 AM • Anthony Tordillos

Summary

District 3 is celebrating the holiday season with local shopping guides and events like Skate Under the Palms and Christmas in the Park. The office encourages supporting small businesses and highlights a $50 gift card incentive for spending $150 downtown. A recent study session focused on reducing housing costs, particularly by enabling smaller-scale housing developments with single staircases to boost infill projects. Efforts continue to improve homelessness prevention through enhanced data collection to better allocate resources. Upcoming community engagement includes a Mobilehome Rent Ordinance meeting and a youth priorities survey. The newsletter also promotes alternative transit options during the Santa Run and highlights recent community safety and environmental initiatives, including a gun buyback event and urban tree planting.

Key positions and references

Key positions

Support for small business shopping incentives
Advocacy for housing cost reduction reforms
Commitment to data-informed homelessness prevention
Promotion of community engagement on housing policies

Agenda items and issues mentioned

Study session on cost of residential development
Mobilehome Rent Ordinance updates
Homelessness Prevention System funding and data collection
Gun buyback program

Meetings and events mentioned

Mobilehome Rent Ordinance community meeting on December 17
Santa Run on December 14
Youth Commission Youth and Young Adult Priorities Survey
Holiday tree giveaway at Roosevelt Community Center

Full newsletter

Formatted for readability from newsletter text.

Check out local shopping guides, holiday events, and more from your D3 office Dear Neighbors, The holiday season is in full swing here in District 3! Holiday lights are twinkling across the district, families are flocking to Skate Under the Palms, and the snowman hot chocolate from Christmas in the Park is taking over my Instagram feed. If you're looking for the perfect gift for your loved ones, we have no shortage of great small businesses to support here in our district. Check out the shopping guides for Alum Rock , Calle Willow , Downtown , East Village , Luna Park , and Japantown for gift ideas. You can also get rewarded for shopping local! The San Jose Downtown Association is offering a $50 dollar gift card if you spend $150 or more with eligible downtown businesses. Check out their website for more details . However you celebrate this time of year, I hope your holiday season is full of friends, family, and festive cheer. Yours in community, Study Session on the Cost of Residential Development On Monday we brought together City staff and industry experts for a study session on the cost of building homes here in San José, including the economics of housing construction and the financial barriers to new housing production. The better we understand these costs, the more we can do to make housing more affordable for our residents. This is something I've had on my mind since 2023 , when the last study came before the planning commission. In particular, the ability to develop smaller scale housing with a single staircase could unlock infill development on more properties – which is why my office is spearheading efforts to bring this reform to San José after seeing its success in other cities . Homelessness Prevention System Funding Since 2021, the Homelessness Prevention System has kept hundreds of San José families from losing their homes and falling into homelessness. To help as many San José families as possible stay housed, we need robust data to inform how we allocate our limited resources. I co-authored a memo with Mayor Mahan and Councilmembers Campos, Ortiz, and Casey to have City staff collect more information on the outcomes of this program because I'm committed to making data-informed decisions to solve our combined housing and homelessness crises. From 5am to 10pm on Saturday, December 13 , Caltrans crews will perform lane closures on the southbound Interstate 280 (I-280) Bird Avenue off-ramp and the State Route 87 (SR-87) connector ramp in San Jose, Santa Clara County. The closures are needed for Caltrans crews to safely perform construction activities which include pump installations at the Bird Avenue pump station. Traffic will be detoured to 10th/11th Street exit and re-route to northbound I-280. Commuters should follow the detour signs during closures to ensure a safe alternative route. The Santa Run is happening this Sunday, December 14 ! For a detailed list of when streets are expected to be closed, click here . Don't want to worry about parking your car if you're participating in the race? We have so many alternatives to driving downtown! Transit Caltrain and BART and VTA trains and buses serve San José. Plan your transit trip in Google Maps , Apple Maps or TransitApp to see when the next train or bus on any system runs near you. Biking & Scooters Ride your bike to the start and lock it up. Borrow a bike from Lyft Bay Wheels Bike Share , or a shared e-scooter from Veo . Get a Clipper Card to pay the fare when you ride transit and bike/scooter share. Get your Senior or Youth Clipper Card to receive the reduced fares automatically. Mobilehome Rent Ordinance - Community Meeting Join the Housing Department on Wednesday, December 17 at 6pm for a community meeting on the Mobilehome Rent Ordinance. This is an important opportunity for community members, mobilehome residents, and stakeholders to learn more about the proposed updates and share public input. Click here to register. 2025 Youth Commission Youth and Young Adult Priorities Survey The survey is for youth and young adults ages 12-25 who live and/or attend school in San José. It was designed to gather information about the lived experiences of community members. This information will help the City of San José Youth Commission make recommendations to leaders and policymakers about improving services and creating more opportunities for young people in our community. Click here to take the survey. Looking for more ways to volunteer in District 3? We'll send opportunities right to your inbox if you sign up at bit.ly/TordillosVolunteer . We had a blast at our holiday tree giveaway at the Roosevelt Community Center last weekend! Thank you so much to our sponsors and community partners — including Arteaga's Food Center, Bizzy Fit Meals, Garden City Sanitation, Green Team of San José, Kaiser Permanente, Last Round Tavern, Mezcal Restaurant, PRNS, the San José Sharks, San José Firefighters Local 230, UA Local 393, and WAR Fitness — our volunteers, and the amazing staff at the Roosevelt Community Center who worked with my office to spread some holiday cheer for our D3 families. Last week, my office collaborated with the County, SJPD, and several of my Council colleagues to host a gun buyback event. Gun buybacks don’t just take guns off our streets. Paired with outreach and education efforts, they’re an effective policy to make our neighborhoods safer. Through our efforts, we were able to collect 350 guns, including nearly two dozen assault weapons. That’s 350 fewer guns that can be stolen, misused, or accidentally fired. Each gun taken off our streets is one less chance for a moment of temporary conflict to result in permanent loss. Last week. Vice Mayor Foley and I joined Silicon Valley PRIDE and the Billy DeFrank LGBTQ Community Center to commemorate World AIDS Day with a candlelight vigil and flag raising. For the first time in nearly 40 years, the federal government decided not to recognize this day, which made it all the more important to me that San José continues to honor those we’ve lost, stand with those living with HIV/AIDS, and recommit to raising awareness and supporting our community. I spent last Saturday morning planting trees in Orchard Park with Our City Forest ! Expanding our urban canopy doesn’t just provide shade — trees help address the urban heat island effect and can even improve safety by helping to slow down traffic. Thank you to everyone who joined us to help make our city a little greener. Welcomed to downtown, Entre Comales! They've taken over the old Iguanas space I’ve already become a regular customer during their soft opening. While I’m still exploring their full menu, so far my favorites are the bean and calabazas pupusas. Congratulations to Jonathan and Oxiel on this milestone, and thank you for investing in our downtown. I hope you make the time to check out MACLA’s latest exhibit: From Their Hands to Ours . In a time where the federal government is trying to erase or silence many of our cultural histories, this exhibit tells the story of how art — through the mediums of painting, sculpture, and textiles — can preserve our culture while providing hope and connection. We celebrated community pride and the work of our neighbors with the Guadalupe Washington Neighborhood Association at their holiday party this week. Little did I know that I’d be honored during the awards ceremony for my participation at their litter pickups! I hope you join us all next year to help keep the neighborhood clean. If you ever have any questions or need any help, don't hesitate to contact us at: District3@sanjoseca.gov (408) 535 - 4903 All the best, -Anthony District 3 | 200 E SANTA CLARA ST | SAN JOSE, CA 95113 US | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice