CREATIVE CITY NEWSLETTER: NOVEMBER 2003

ISSUE 9: DESIGN AND PLANNING

ISSUE IN FOCUS
NEWS YOU CAN USE
CREATIVE CORNER
CREATIVE CITY COMMUNITIES
ARTICLES OF INTEREST
UPCOMING EVENTS

CREATIVE CITY COMMUNITIES: What HAVE they been up to?

SAN JOSE

Getting Families Back to Work
"The Haven"
Eco-Friendly and Stylish
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Getting Families Back to Work
In August 2003, the Mayor and City Council launched initiatives aimed at developing strategies that would put families back to work. The City Council conducted five separate one-half to full day workshops inviting participation of business, education, labor, non-profits and neighborhoods. On September 30, the city Council approved a set of recommendations to be put into action by the City Manager, City Attorney and Redevelopment Director.

• The initiatives include:
• Customers First: We need to create a City Hall culture of customer services that is helpful, friendly, and accountable. We need to fulfill our commitment by delivering results.
• We Are Open for Business: We need to be fast, responsible, and accessible in ways that meet the needs of business. We need to see the world through the eyes of businesses that are choosing to be in San José.
• Welcome to San José: We need to put out the welcome mat for businesses both that are here today, and that might come tomorrow. We need to support a community culture of innovation, excitement, and creativity that welcomes and attracts new ideas and enterprises.
• Telling Our Story: Despite the prolonged recession, we have many strengths and unique advantages for doing business in San José. We must use our communications resources strategically, aggressively, efficiently and consistently to tell our story to current and potential decision makers who can affect our local economy.

A series of recommendations fit under each initiative, all of which will have action plans developed and implemented based on impact, practicality, cost and urgency. A performance measurement system will now be put in place to drive the City toward easily defined measurable benchmarks for success. Timelines range from "just do it" to 18 months, when our unemployment benchmark of a 1% reduction in the unemployment rate is to be achieved.

The Haven
The tragedy of fire can strike any of us at any time. For many families, they have no place to go. After a series of major fires that left many families without temporary housing, the City Manager and Redevelopment Director teamed up and developed a proposal that was enthusiastically supported by the Mayor and City Council called "The Haven". It is a rehabilitated formerly dilapidated building that is now a fully furnished home that can hold up to four families. It is rent-free and families can stay up to 30 days. The American Red Cross, Housing Department and Fire Department all teamed up to put the "Haven" into full operation. Now nearing its one-year anniversary, it has provided "home" and hope for many victims of fire and disaster.

Reported by: Jim Holgersson, Deputy City Manager, City of San Jose

Eco-Friendly and Stylish
The new medium-development complex in San Jose incorporates affordable housing and sustainable features. With eco-friendly construction like recyclable chairs, carpet and solar panels on parking garages and amenities like a swimming pool; it’s no wonder these townhouses have been applauded.
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