A Message from Mayor Matt
- Support accountability for shelter use with trespassing charges after refusals
- Tie city leaders' pay raises to measurable progress
- Oppose delaying accountability proposals via extended study
- Advocate for stronger graffiti enforcement and deterrents
- Responsibility to Shelter proposal
- Pay for Performance budget message
- AI incentive grant program
- Caltrans anti-graffiti signage
- San Jose City Council budget message vote
- NVIDIA GTC conference
- City Council meeting this week
- Community advocacy for graffiti reporting
Our council needs to hear from you – needs to be held accountable by you, the people who elected them to make San Jose safer, cleaner and better for everyone. Dear Neighbor, During my first two years in office, we held our city accountable for building out our shelter system to help homeless neighbors come indoors. This year, we’re opening up enough units to double our capacity. Last week, alongside our police and fire unions, I announced a new initiative as part of our budget process to create accountability for using that shelter. If someone is repeatedly unable or unwilling to accept a very low-barrier (e.g. partners, pets, and possessions are allowed; sobriety is not a strict requirement; there is no deadline for leaving) and safe, private space with supportive services, the city has used all of the tools at our disposal. At this stage, after three refusals of shelter, we have a responsibility to get the person into the care of the county and often (and sadly in California) our best tool for doing so is pressing charges for trespassing. The magistrates who oversee our behavioral health courts can then determine a better path forward and attempt to interrupt the cycle that is preventing this person from coming indoors. This isn’t about being punitive; it’s about getting everyone indoors and connected to support. Leaving people to live and — over 200 times each year in our county — die on our streets, often when they are too deep in the throes of addiction or mental health crisis to make a rational decision about their own self-care is neither humane, progressive nor practical. It’s also not fair to the neighborhood. We as a Council have made a promise to you – the people we represent. We’ve promised that when you accept a solution to homelessness in your neighborhood you will see the effects of that solution. We promised to effectively end homelessness in the immediate vicinity of our interim housing sites. This is not only good for the neighborhood at large, it’s also good for the new residents moving indoors to avoid temptations that exist on the streets. But we can’t do that if people repeatedly refuse to come indoors. We should not allow homelessness to be a choice in San Jose. Read more about this proposal here . But it’s not just our homeless neighbors we need to hold accountable. Last Monday, I asked that we hold ourselves – the decision-makers and top city leaders – accountable for results. Results on the issues that matter most to our residents. Because if we aren’t making progress, we shouldn’t be getting pay raises on top of our automatic annual cost-of-living increases. Over the past two years, thanks to you, we’ve achieved focus. We’ve gone from over 40 priorities to your top 4. We’ve established dashboards to track our progress across these 4 priorities so you can see exactly what’s working and what’s not. Now, if the Council approves my March Budget Message, this year will be about execution. It’ll be about accountability. It’ll be about iterating on and improving our strategies to ensure that we're using our limited tax dollars in the most efficient ways possible. And I want to thank our Vice Mayor Pam Foley for standing strong behind this message of accountability. Read more about it here. Unfortunately, we’re already seeing pushback from other members of the council. It may not come as a surprise to you that not all of my colleagues seem to want their pay raises tied to results. They believe we need to “study” what this means and have our understaffed City Manager write reports to come back in 6 months before we can consider this proposal. They want to take our two acts of accountability (“Responsibility to Shelter” and “Pay for Performance”) out of the budget message entirely and instead pursue something that politicians are really good at – death by committee. They want to kill these proposals by making the case for ever more process and bureaucracy. You can read their memo in full right here . These policies are simple – you don’t get a pay raise if you don’t show progress. If you’re offered safe and dignified shelter, you need to come indoors. These policies are part of the reason you elected me to be your Mayor. I ran on both and we already effectively had a citywide referendum on both, so I will not back down on either. But I’ll need your help. Will you join me at City Council this week to speak in support of our budget message? Will you speak out for accountability? I look forward to hearing from you. And I know our council needs to hear from you – needs to be held accountable by you, the people who elected them to make San Jose safer, cleaner and better for everyone. Let’s pass this budget! Sincerely, Mayor Matt This week, Downtown will be looking a little greener than usual! 25,000 people will be visiting our incredible city for the world’s premier AI conference – NVIDIA’s GTC. They’ll be taking over Plaza de Cesar Chavez, closing down a couple of streets and bringing enough business for our entrepreneurs to make their entire month's rent in just a couple days. Some of our best restaurants are fully booked and so are our hotel rooms. That translates to more hours and bigger paychecks for hardworking San José residents. This is about making a real, tangible impact — from restaurants and shops to hotels and our growing retail scene. It’s also about making a lasting impact – we want the best and brightest, the next generation of founders visiting for GTC, to leave here with a plan to come back. To help, we launched an AI incentive program for early-stage startups last week. We have three $50,000 grants available for folks looking to join the tech ecosystem in San Jose that has helped launch some of the biggest names in the industry. Names including NVIDIA, which was dreamed up on the back of a napkin in a San Jose Denny’s. We’re looking forward to welcoming thousands of entrepreneurs next week with the hope that some will choose to stay! To learn more about street closures, click here . If you know a startup founder looking to grow roots in San Jose, they can apply for our AI incentive grants right here . We’re finally taking steps to better combat graffiti along our freeways. After more than a year of advocacy to and coordination with Caltrans, we expect the state agency to install 10 new freeway signs by the end of this month in some of our worst graffiti hotspot areas. These signs will have a new anti-graffiti protective coating that makes cleaning easy, but Caltrans is also removing catwalks on the signs where possible to deter future tagging. While this is a great step forward, we know there’s more to do. We have far more than 10 signs that need cleaning and repairs and we are continuing to advocate for stronger enforcement, better deterrents, and faster response times to combat graffiti and illegal dumping at its source. Help us keep San Jose clean by reporting freeway graffiti here and adding your voice to our advocacy efforts by reaching out to Caltrans directly with your perspective: Caltrans.d4@dot.ca.gov or 510-286-4444. Are you or a loved one looking for a summer internship? Join Team Mahan! As an intern, you'll have the opportunity to do exciting and meaningful work on our Neighborhood Outreach or Communications teams. This is a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience, work with a talented team, and make your community a better place, all while adding an incomparable experience to your resume! Fill out the application right here and become a part of the Mayor's office. San Pedro Saturdays: San Jose Cat Day Saturday, March 22nd at 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM San Pedro Square, 60 N San Pedro Street, San Jose, CA 95113 Spend your Saturday in San Pedro Square! Shop dozens of local small businesses, play with adorable cats at the Kitten Lounge, indulge in cat-themed sweet treats, and more at San Jose Cat Day. If you’re one of the first 1,000 attendees at MOMENT Paseo, you can also win exclusive giveaways! 90 minutes of free parking is available at the Market/San Pedro garage. Learn more here . BayFC vs. Racing Louisville FC Saturday, March 22nd at 7:00 PM PayPal Park, 1123 Coleman Ave, San Jose, CA 95110 To kick off the 2025 season, BayFC is taking on Racing Louisville FC at home! Watch world-class soccer matches right here in the Bay Area. You can buy tickets for the home opener here . Bay Area Panthers vs. San Antonio Gunslingers Sunday, March 30th at 5:05 PM SAP Center, 525 W Santa Clara St, San Jose, 95113 Cheer on the Bay Area Panthers to another Indoor Football League championship! Join us at their 2025 season home opener as the Panthers take on the San Antonio Gunslingers. Learn more here . Meadowfair Park Beautification Day Saturday, April 5th at 9:00 AM Corda Drive & Barberry Lane Every Saturday, Team Mahan is dedicated to cleaning up a different neighborhood in our city — but we can’t do it without your help! On April 5th, we’ll be joined by Councilmember Candelas' office and countless neighbors to beautify Meadowfair Park. You can be part of creating a safer, cleaner San Jose by RSVPing here . We officially broke ground on our All-Inclusive Playground at Almaden Lake Park! Our families and loved ones now have a safe, inclusive space to play and make memories — a place that goes far beyond the minimums of ADA compliance, and a place to share the joy that we know our parks provide without any barriers. This project has been a priority in District 10 long before I became a councilmember or Mayor, and it’s incredibly gratifying to see an outcome that truly serves the wants and needs of our community. Thank you to Councilmember Khamis for getting this project started back in 2018 and to Councilmembers Batra and Casey, the Almaden-Willow Glen Rotarians, and Congressman Panetta for helping carry it to the finish line! Last weekend, we had our largest clean-up yet! Over 300 volunteers joined us to pick up litter, paint community art projects, clear debris from our waterways, cover up graffiti, and plant trees along the Guadalupe River Trail. The transformation we saw last weekend would not have been possible without the help of our community partners! Shout-out to The Trash Punx, South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition, Our City Forest, PRNS and so many more for your work to beautify our city. Missed the fun? Team Mahan is out every Saturday cleaning up a different corner of San Jose! Join us at the next one here . Excite Ballpark has been a home for the San Jose Giants in San José for generations—and thanks to the agreement we passed, it will be for at least 25 more years! This lease extension means exciting renovations that will bring the stadium up to MLB standards while keeping Giants games affordable and accessible for San José families. A huge thank you to the San Jose Giants, Diamond Baseball Holdings, and my colleagues on the City Council for making this happen. This is a home run for our city (and my family who loves the San Jose Giants)! This was truly a transformation — last month, my team got an email from a resident who was excited about the beautification of this corner of Buena Vista and was wondering who was responsible. We were proud to let them know it was thanks to our team and their neighbors coming together to take action. Together, we spread mulch and painted over a wall once covered in gang tags—transforming it into something the community can be proud of. Visit our Website! Copyright © 2025 Office Of San José Mayor Matt Mahan, All rights reserved. | 200 E Santa Clara St # 18 | San José, CA 95113-1903 US | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice