San Jose Mayor To Focus On COVID-19 Recovery In State Of The City Speech

Campbell CA

30 December, 2020

1:02 PM

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By Carly Wipf, San Jose Spotlight December 29, 2020 San José Spotlight is the city's first nonprofit news organization dedicated to independent political and business reporting. Please support our public service journalism by clicking here. In the final moments of 2020, Mayor Sam Liccardo will paint a somber— yet resilient— picture of San Jose battling the COVID-19 pandemic, wildfires and civil unrest in the 2020 State of the City address. His sixth State of the City Address, originally scheduled for Spring, was postponed until an in-person speech was possible. Since that time never came, Liccardo is expected to give the speech Dec. 30, just in time for the new year. "Our city is suffering, as it has never suffered before … We have been bruised and we have been battered. But we remain unbowed," Liccardo wrote in a copy of his speech obtained by San José Spotlight. He is expected to open by recognizing San Jose resident Patricia Dowd, the first person to die of COVID-19 on American soil at age 57. In his speech, the mayor will touch on the "range of emotions" felt by all who are grieving, struggling and trying to survive after months of sickness and disaster. Amid the communal frustration, exhaustion, anxiety, anger and outrage, Liccardo urged residents to remain strong and have faith in one another. "Our faith instructs that while we remain physically apart, we still live in one community, one city, together," Liccardo wrote. "It summons the collective resilience needed to emerge stronger from this pandemic—but only if we're working together." Liccardo expressed gratitude to the thousands of residents who united to distribute food to families, to essential workers including grocery store clerks, senior caregivers, delivery drivers and health care workers "who put themselves in peril daily to serve and support all of us." He acknowledged the work of Neha and Eshan Rachapudi, two high school students and city librarians who printed 3D face shields for a local hospital and thanked Santa Clara Street protestors for picking up trash left on the streets from George Floyd protests the night before. He plans to thank city employees who labored long nights in the Emergency Operations Center and applaud their efforts to help businesses open outdoors, address the digital divide, minimizing food insecurity, housing the homeless and cleaning blight in the city. He also noted that the San Jose Fire Department has taken steps to improve emergency response times. Liccardo pointed to his own recent violation of state COVID-19 health guidelines as a cautionary tale to encourage residents to think about the collective good. "After my own transgression at a Thanksgiving dinner with my wife and six family members, many residents confessed to me that they too have strayed from one health order or another during this pandemic, so let this be a moment for all of us to recommit to do better for each other," Liccardo wrote. The mayor said his main focus in 2021 will be on struggling families and small businesses. Liccardo said he will advocate for extending the statewide eviction moratorium and will urge Congressional leadership to provide a stronger relief package for citizens. A plan to "reimagine policing" and hold police officers accountable after a year of reckoning with police brutality and racial bias is also at the forefront of his plans for 2021. Liccardo believes the discussion surrounding police and racial injustice should not smother investment in more resources for youth — especially youths of color. "Let's make San Jose the first city in America where no child's trajectory is constrained by her ZIP code, immigration status, or race," Liccardo wrote in the speech. "When our days have passed, and history recounts our toils to future generations, a very different narrative will emerge than that which we read in our own time. It will tell our progeny about our common faith — one that inspired us to overcome our physical separation to act collaboratively, to give boldly, and to adapt courageously," Liccard continued. "That narrative will reveal how we've endured fires that forged a stronger alloy — and created a "better normal" — together. This is our moment to write a new chapter for our city, to define our generation's special place in history, and to lead a badly ailing nation on a path of healing." The mayor's speech will be live-streamed on Liccardo's Facebook page Dec. 30 for public viewing tomorrow morning. The time has not yet been specified. This story will be updated. Contact Carly Wipf at [email protected] or follow @CarlyChristineW on Twitter.