It's been one year since I was sworn in as your councilmember

• Support for Proposition 1 – Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act
• Opposition to illegal smoke shops and nitrous oxide sales
• Support for banning ICE from masks and city facilities
• Co-authorship of permanent Al Fresco outdoor dining legislation

• Smokeshop moratorium and nitrous oxide sales ban
• Increased fines on blighted properties
• Affordable housing projects at Gateway Tower, The Fay, Knox-Goodrich building
• Restoration of remote public comment

• Asset Management Advisory Committee formation and application
• Autumn Litter Harvest on September 12, 2026
• Community town halls and office hours in District 3
• Back-to-school electronic message board campaign

Email from District 3 I’m proud of the work we’ve done in the past year, but I know that so much more lies ahead. Dear neighbors, It’s a time for reflecting while gearing up for the year ahead. Council is back in session, students are back in school, and this week marks my first year as your councilmember. Over the past year, I’m proud to have built an office that’s responsive to our residents’ needs. Since we set up our ticketing system last year, my staff and I have closed over 2,600 cases, including answering routine questions about City resources and upcoming policy items, to tackling major quality of life issues. We’ve shut down illegal smoke shops, protected our tree canopy by planting new street trees and preserving mature specimens, worked to get illegal dumping cameras set up in Spartan Keyes and Educational Park Drive, and partnered with small business owners to improve our business corridors outside the downtown core. We’ve made nearly $1 million in investments in District 3, from big ticket projects like securing $250,000 to fix the AC at the Northside Community Center, to community investments like finding the Spartan Keyes NAC a new home, World Cup watch parties in our neighborhood business districts, supporting community events at the Roosevelt Community Center and in Guadalupe Washington, and giving grants to nonprofits serving residents throughout the District. We’ve also been out in the community making sure that your District 3 office is accessible to you, including 7 Dumpster Days, 6 walk to school events with D3 families, 12 community cleanups, 3 town halls, visits to every neighborhood association across the District, and holding 6 office hours across District 3 – one approximately every other month. Because I consider myself a bit of a policy nerd, I’m especially proud of the policies we’ve passed this year. We’ve made San José safer by passing a smokeshop moratorium and ban on nitrous oxide sales. And I’m proud to have supported legislation to ban ICE from wearing masks and using City facilities here in San José, because all our neighbors deserve to feel safe. I’ve worked to create affordable housing and increase downtown vibrancy with artist housing at Gateway Tower, workforce housing at The Fay, and acquiring new properties for affordable housing development like the Knox-Goodrich building downtown. Speaking of vibrancy, we increased the fines on blighted properties, to hold negligent landowners accountable and send a clear message that being a bad neighbor and causing urban decay doesn’t pay. I’ve co-authored legislation to permanently reestablish our Al Fresco outdoor dining program, to provide businesses with a predictable pathway to invest in long-term outdoor dining. This is an opportunity to streamline our permitting framework in the pursuit of thriving neighborhoods and supporting our local businesses. And we finally restored remote public comment, because an accessible local government is critical to a community’s vibrancy. I’m proud of the work we’ve done in the past year, but I know that so much more lies ahead. I’m looking forward to continuing to be a councilmember you can count on. Yours in community, Proposition 1 – The Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026 This week at Council, we voted for the City to take a support position on Proposition 1. At a time when our City is facing ongoing deficits, every dollar the state can make available to help us bring down housing costs for our residents is vital. It’s also important that we push to ensure we receive funding commensurate not only with our status as the largest city in Northern California, but also with the enormity of the housing crisis we’re dealing with. Slow down for students headed back to school! Back-to-school season is here! We know school drop-offs, especially at the beginning of the year, can be chaotic and filled with traffic. To remind everyone that students are back in school, DOT has set up electronic message boards close to school zones. These boards contain short messages, like “Students back in school” and “Slow down,” in English and Spanish. You can find these message boards at locations near schools throughout the month of August. We also suggest watching this short video on practicing traffic safety in a school zone: bit.ly/bts-safety-reel. To learn more about this electronic message board campaign, visit bit.ly/bts-campaign-26. Help Shape the Future Use of San José Unified Properties During the 2025–2026 school year, San José Unified ran the Schools of Tomorrow process to proactively address declining enrollment in a transparent, student-centered way. Based on recommendations from public committees of parents, teachers, and staff, the Board of Education approved school consolidations, updated attendance boundaries, and program relocations in March 2026 to expand student opportunities, facilitate staff collaboration, and enhance equity districtwide. The Board of Education has formed an Asset Management Advisory Committee to review facility-and-property-related data, gather community input during open public meetings, and recommend uses for the closed school campuses to the Board of Education. San José Unified is actively seeking local residents – including representatives of neighborhood associations, members of the business community, and community members with relevant expertise – to serve on the committee. If you would like to apply for the committee, please do the following by September 4, 2026 at 5:00 PM: review the application process and selection criteria available in English and Spanish; read the committee bylaws available in English and Spanish; register for and attend one of two virtual information sessions; and complete the application. Townsend Park Renovation Complete I’m excited to share that the tennis court upgrades at Townsend Park are complete! The Parks and Recreation Department has added brand-new court posts and nets, resurfaced court surfaces, and repaired surface cracks. The courts are now open to the public, so stop by Townsend Park to enjoy some recreation amenities in District 3! Host an Autumn Litter Harvest BeautifySJ would love to invite you to host a cleanup during our 2026 Autumn Litter Harvest on Saturday, September 12, 2026, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The Autumn Litter Harvest is one of BeautifySJ's largest citywide volunteer events, bringing neighbors together to make San José cleaner, safer, and more beautiful. Whether you hosted a cleanup before or would like to organize one for the first time, we'd love to support you. BeautifySJ will provide litter grabbers, safety vests, gloves, and garbage bags, collect trash after your event, assist with selecting a cleanup location, and even provide promotional support for your cleanup (if you'd like your event listed publicly). Email paloma.massey@sanjoseca.gov to learn more about hosting a Litter Harvest. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this month’s Coffee with a Councilmember! It was a pleasure to check in with everyone who came to share what’s been happening in their neighborhoods after the July recess. National Night Out in District 3 was a success! From Goodyear Mastic to Japantown and all the neighborhoods in between, my team and I spent the evening connecting with our neighbors. NNO wouldn’t be possible without the neighborhood leaders who stepped up to organize events on top of their year round commitments to their neighborhoods. As the former president of my neighborhood association, I know just how critical these often unsung heroes are to making our neighborhoods more welcoming and vibrant. Thank you for all you do! I was proud to join Representative Sam Liccardo alongside local elected officials and community organizers in support of his toolkit proposing legal restrictions on approvals of property for use as detention or processing facilities. With ICE attempting to create a foothold on our doorstep in South County, it’s our responsibility as local leaders to use the tools at our disposal to keep our immigrant neighbors safe. We broke ground on East Santa Clara Senior! So much of the discourse about housing is centered around the challenges that young people face when entering this intimidating housing market. But what sometimes gets lost in these discussions is that our seniors, many of whom are living on fixed incomes, are facing similar challenges as they confront the same unaffordable housing landscape. Seniors are among the fastest growing segments of our unhoused population, which is why I’m excited that this project will also include 20 homes to support seniors transitioning out of homelessness. Do you have an event you'd like to share with our D3 neighbors? Send the details to district3@sanjoseca.gov for consideration in our newsletter! 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