SHEsaysWITHaSMILE.blogspot.com

I'm BLOCKED at San Jose City Council Chambers for Open Forum (me!) ~topps

   -remember now,  

when you attend a city council meeting for the purpose of speaking at the open forum,  -if there are several of you, they can and will, chop at will, your 2 minutes into 1 minute.

so you've only got 60 seconds to share some very crucial information

this requires a very serious editing skill set

and what i was light~heartedly sharing with my husband is this:

i can't do it.   i just can't do it..   if i only have 60 seconds to speak, i canNOT waste one half of one second on anything not productive, like, first formally addressing who it is i am obviously talking to

        mayor, council members..    NO!  i am too aware i just gave them some of my very limited and restricted time to communicate the already obvious   -we do not have one second to spare!

 i'm like internally blocked from doing that..

and definitely internally blocked from using the word honorable..

i cannot look into the faces of people who voted behind the communities back to place 100 bed homeless tiny home site on a park! on a water supply facility! across from an elementary school, library, daycare...

that word will not cross my lips!   plus, saying a 4 syllable word! i'm not giving up that time...

so, i've been to open forum 3 times now, i believe.   and all 3 times.. i just cut to the chase.

and i listen to my fellow protestors, and respect they have their own way, and style, and their own words, but when i hear them start by addressing the council in a formal way

when i hear them use the word honorable..

when i hear them apologize in word or tone or attitude

i re-realize;  i can't do that.  i'm blocked.

****

my criteria for open forum..  the proposition i'm going to learn about proposing; it keeps evolving.

so,  -open forum should, legally, permanently, have a predictable, scheduled, accessible, set time

   -no more of these hard working parents having to guess when/if they'll be able to speak for a few seconds; placing babysitters, family members, meals on perpetual unknown hold..  could be 2 hours, could be 4 hours, could be more..

no.  open forum is every week at 6:30pm until 8pm; first come, first serve.  if no one is present for open forum, the council meeting just continues as is..   if a few people are present for open forum, they get a few minutes, if lots of people are present for open forum,  yes, of course, cut time per person so the most amount of people can be heard.    -every other week, evening open forum/day time open forum rotating. 

my next criteria..   during open forums,

   realize:  city council members are being paid to be there; it is their profession; their job.

   citizens:  are not being paid; they are sacrificing/volunteering their very valuable, irretrievable time.

because this is true.  i further propose that it is mandatory for city council members to be present in their seats at the chambers when citizens who have sacrificed their valuable, irretrievable time, are speaking to them at these open forums.

what a disgrace! for any of them to leave into a different room..  

if we've given up our time; and you are being paid..  you had better be sitting front and center, and respectfully pretending to listen.

****

and, i'm new to all of this, as you know,  -a protestor friend was explaining to me, what i aim to do, requires a measure; not a proposition..     some distinction between local/city vs. state..

and that's been a whole 'nother education for us..    oh my goodness!   this is city, vs. this is county, vs. this is state..   this happens at the council level, this at the district level, -this is only with lawyers/judges and a lot of money..

what i wouldn't give for a very simplified flow chart! 

**************************************

The first time I showed up to the San Jose City Council Chambers, to protest having 100 bed tiny home homeless site built on Noble Ave in our Berryessa Neighborhood:  A tiny home site which would place a very dense population of people on top of a beloved neighborhood park, which also serves as a water supply facility and which also sits directly across the street from Noble Elementary School, The Berryessa Branch Library and a day care; and which also is very near Toyon Elementary, and just down the street from Piedmont Middle School..

The first time I showed up, I essentially said, during my 60 seconds   -I am not opposed to the idea of tiny homes, but I am vehemently opposed to Noble as a location for tiny homes.

And I’d like to share that since that time, I have indeed had a change of heart and mind.  After hours and hours of personal research, both online, and in person; having visited the current tiny home sites in San Jose, having talked with people who live and/or work near our currently built tiny home sites

Learning and knowing that a percentage of people who live in these tiny home sites will pander for food and money; and then realizing how quickly a school campus might find panderers in their cafeterias, restrooms, on campus in general..

Having also researched the status of tiny home locations in other cities and states where there has been an increase in violence, fires, crimes and the attraction of even more homeless; and homeless encampments; not to mention garbage, blight.

I am now entirely opposed to the idea too; opposed to the building of tiny home sites at any location.

The results are already in; anyone can do their own research and I would encourage you to see the tiny home sites for yourself, but please don’t stop there.  Interview people who live and work in the neighborhoods.    The San Jose Government website offers overwhelming amounts of propaganda; and the photography and slide shows of tiny homes are much like glossy travel brochures which promise paradise but deliver a joke.  There are a few success stories, which speak about someone transitioning from a tiny home to subsidized housing, yes; but without any mention of the cost.  If you spend 15 million to build.. 3 million to maintain annually, if you destroy a neighborhood, a park, if you put children, teachers at risk, and overwhelm parents with chronic worry and concern  -Even those few success stories are deceiving; that is not a real success.

The counter argument, is that the people who are placed in tiny homes near schools, are ‘safe.’  Mothers, children, elderly.  This leaves me with a number of questions:  If they are safe and able; why can’t we fast track them into the subsidized housing for which they are destined? How much subsidize housing do we have available now? What is going on today with the enormous amount of services already available to our homeless?  Please research homeless services in San Jose, California.  Of our population of homeless; how many fall in the ‘safe’ homeless category vs. the population of drug addicted; mentally ill; premature released inmates? Free loaders? -Because, in order to restore San Jose to its former glory; it is the ‘unsafe’ homeless population we’d all like to see relocated away from our parks, schools, restaurants, small and large businesses & neighborhoods,  and tiny homes do NOTHING to address the ‘unsafe’ population of homeless.

The ’ambitious’ goal per San Jose City Council is to create tiny homes for 1000 ‘safe’ currently homeless.  I think a better investment of time, energy, financial and human resources, would be to locate 1000 opportunities for permanent housing.  Many people in San Jose, and there are some one million+ of us, have a room to rent, many people could use help with their rent or mortgage by having a roommate(s).  But who wants to invite in a total stranger from an online matching service.  What if San Jose provided a list of ‘safe’  -fully vetted candidates and matched them with people who have a room to rent.

The tiny home sites, currently identified as ‘temporary’   -a bridge into subsidized housing; these densely populated caged sites look potentially like the creation of a new class:  A tiny class.  Spreading more and more, but with less and less people transiting out, while more and more land, and more and more neighborhoods and parks are encroached upon. And with no plan for when the tiny home plan attracts even more homeless.  I do love what one woman had to say at a City Council Open Forum “do you want Silicon Valley to become Tiny Valley?   Do you want the Golden State to become the Tiny State?”

I ache with the knowledge that San Jose is in a rare and fantastic position to LEAD! and NOT FOLLOW the tiny home trend which is researchably failing here and in other cities and states.  We are in a unique but finite window of time, which, if acknowledged and used wisely can provide a NEW comprehensive solution for homelessness; addressing both the ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ populations.  

I ache with the desire to see a new panel of problem solvers; a larger panel, with much more diversity of voices and disciplines, who will start with an improved vocabulary, [ STOP using the vague, umbrella term ‘unhoused’ to describe several different categories of populations which each need different solutions] and end with a comprehensive solution where the most amount of people possible thrive.   We need to crowd source for intelligent problem solvers.  There are great ideas being discussed now, on college campuses, in coffee houses, over dinners with friends, in pubs, in passing..   people with a heart and mind for addressing the homelessness crisis.  Those ideas need to be shared publicly; they need a platform where we can discuss and identify the pros and cons..

We cannot let the problem be solved exclusively by people/entities who stand to gain financially or who gain power and position.  We need more seats; more voices; at the problem solving table.   

LEAD San Jose! Do not follow a failing trend.  DO NOT remain on the tiny valley, tiny state path just because you are there now.  Quality Assurance check here and now; slow it all down; cut your losses; change paths and direction: create a new, larger, problem solving panel and solve for homelessness where the absolute most amount of people thrive.  Create a template for other cities and states to emulate for true success.  

 

Sandra Harrison Kay, literary and mixed media artist

WriteousMom.com   Published author, poet & playwright

NOTonNOBLE.blogspot.com

posted by SANDRA HARRISON KAY @ 11:00 AM