With the election happening in the next two and a half weeks, the District 3 candidates begin to make their final push on their campaigns.
The election has seven candidates: Matthew Quevedo, Gabby Chavez-Lopez, Irene Smith, Anthony Tordillos, Adam Duran, Phil Dolan and Tyrone Wade.
Candidates came out to San José State’s Student Union Theater last Wednesday and spoke about issues that currently affect District 3 residents.
The forum last week was moderated by Mary Currin-Percival, an SJSU associate political science professor.
“I know a lot of people found the forum really helpful and I heard some people say it helped them make their vote choice,” Currin-Percival said.
Topics covered in the meeting were public safety, housing and public spaces in the community.
Safety
In a previous forum, candidates including Duran and Quevedo mentioned that public safety was one of their top priorities. Duran who served as a lieutenant in the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, feels that the police department is essential to the community and should be treated as such.
“Police, law enforcement (and) public safety is my DNA,” Duran said. “I understand the police (and) the sentiment both from the community and also from the officer standpoint.”
Phil Dolan, a knife sharpener salesman, affirmed his stance on public safety to the audience.
“I believe in public safety and I want more police officers on the road and on the streets,” Dolan said. “I will pick public safety over homelessness any day. I will always give money to the police and safety and your safety before we give money to the homeless.”
The city allocated $23 million to emergency shelters and navigation centers, according to a Nov. 6, 2024 article from San José Spotlight.
Chima Nwokolo, vice president of Associated Students and campaign associate for Chavez-Lopez, expressed disagreement towards Dolan’s statement.
“I disagree with that (because) the two issues connect with each other,” Nwokolo said. “Public safety mostly wouldn’t be an issue because of homelessness due to the fact that those who are charged have been unjustly imprisoned by the city and county and that includes homeless people.”
The San José Police Department has a history of police brutality, which was displayed on March 10 when several officers used excessive force on an unhoused person resulting in a use-of-force investigation, according to a March 14 article from NBC Bay Area.
San José Mayor Matt Mahan proposed to arrest houseless people who refuse to accept shelter from the city after the third request, according to a March 6 article from NBC Bay Area.
Shaunn Cartwright, an advocate for the unhoused community, doesn’t see the proposal as a solution but rather as problematic.
“He wants to create this belief that we have a vibrant town (and) that people from out of town should come,” Cartwright said. “The only way he can keep going with that illusion is to get rid of people.”
Housing
Housing has been a point of contention in the special election.
Candidates including Quevedo, Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos have talked about their desire to alleviate houselessness in past forums.
The Housing Trust Fund program sanctioned by the San José Housing Department will support nonprofit agencies that provide aid to houseless people or people at risk of houselessness according to a City of San José webpage.
Other states have utilized Housing Trust Fund programs to provide support to the elderly, people with disabilities and people with special needs, according to a webpage from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.
“This is our tax dollars. Why are we paying for homeless people?” Dolan said. “We pay for our safety first; when we have money, then we can take care of the homeless.”
Contradictory to this statement, Khangerel Ganzorig, a fourth-year political science student at SJSU, feels that the next District 3 candidate should make houselessness a top priority.
“We need a councilmember who actually has humane solutions to this homelessness problem we have,” Ganzorig said.
Anthony Tordillos, San José planning commission chair and Google software engineer, relayed the interconnectivity of housing affordability, environmental sustainability and housing construction.
“I think it’s important that we recognize we’re not talking about competing priorities. We’re talking about things that are complementary,” Tordillos said. “We have a housing affordability crisis because we have a housing shortage.”
The average house in San José costs a little over $1.4 million which is an 11.9% increase from last year, according to a webpage from Redfin, a real estate agency.
In addition to housing talks, the floor opened for candidates to talk about the improvement of public spaces after the alleviation of houselessness.
Public Spaces
Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, addressed the investment of public spaces.
“As a councilmember, I’ll push the city to make sure that we are finalizing that land transfer from VTA (Valley Transportation Authority), a step that should have been quite frankly completed years ago,” Chavez-Lopez said.
The Valley Transportation Authority system will not move forward with the Five Wounds Trail until the construction of its project, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) phase two extension, is complete, according to a report from the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA).
Construction for the BART phase two extension is projected to be completed in 2036, according to a webpage from the VTA.
The VTA is currently in its second week of striking which ultimately led to the suspension of all
VTA services, according to the agency’s webpage.
A few of the candidates are hosting events over the weekend which can be found on their respective Instagram campaign pages or campaign websites.
