Speeches

Anaheim, CA We come together in a common purpose, to do our jobs better, to improve the services we offer to our citizens by working together with cities across the state. Unfortunately, our practical concerns about our communities cannot be insulated from the political realities of the election year. This is a political season unlike any I have ever witnessed. The mood of the voter has gone beyond frustration, beyond cynicism, to total disillusionment. The people of California are angry and sickened at their state politicians, and with good reason. Government in Sacramento no longer works, and we in the … Continue reading →

Remarks by the Honorable mayor of San Jose, Tom McEnery at Kilmainham Jail/Museum, October 15, 1990, On the occasion of centenary of Michael Collins’ birth and Tim Pat Coogan’s new biography. In San Jose many years ago, long before it was the eleventh largest City in the United States, before its well-known metamorphosis into Silicon Valley, the fabled land of innovation and entrepreneurship, that fertile valley was a much different place. We stuffed peaches and pears into crates instead of placing Apple computers on children’s desks. The wines of Paul mason, Mirassou and Novitate were the staples. The pace was … Continue reading →

The youth we honor this morning are San Jose tomorrow. Your achieve ments and your aspirations will build on the foundation already laid. You are our City’s future. Just last week I met another young woman who represents not only our future, but our past as well…

What is a City? What does it really consist of? San Jose has 1,400 miles of roads, 250,000 street trees, 1,800 miles of sewer lines and over a million books in our libraries. Our City has 590 traffic lights, two and two-thirds regional shopping centers, 5,400 city employees, 150 parks and one international airport with a brand new terminal. In San Jose you will find a house on Winchester Boulevard with 160 rooms; there are also three interstate highways, 225,000 households, a downtown with five million square feet of office space, and one quite small replica of an electric light … Continue reading →

Introducing the Police Corps According to the FM, a crime is committed every two seconds in the U.S. In the past five years, the number of violent crimes has increased by more than 20%. Nearly one-third of all households were victimized by violence or theft in 1982. Yet while the crime situation has worsened. budgetary pressures have caused most large cities to reduce the numbers of their police officers. Enter the Police Corps. The brainchild of Adam Walinsky, a one time aide to Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the program seeks to combine the strengths of two discordant ideas of the … Continue reading →

San Jose is, indeed, an interesting place. It has had its share of events both famous and infamous. The sum total of a city, like a person, is made of many events good and bad, noteworthy and commonplace. In the book, “San Jose — and Other Famous Places,” longtime chronicler Harry Farrell has recorded many of the significant events of the last few decades; he has also given us some of the events that fail to qualify as earthshaking, but that are damned interesting nevertheless. The chapters of the book dart in and out of local history, touching on architecture, … Continue reading →

By Wes Peyton If ever San Jose boasted a classic Irish politician, John P. McEnery, the father of San Jose City Councilman Tom McEnery, had to be it. John was a native San Josean and he never spoke with an Irish brogue, but you always were waiting for him to. He looked and (except for the accent) sounded like a character from The Last Hurrah— big, bluff, plainspoken. As he aged, his black hair turned a distinguished silver, but you couldn’t say that advancing years mellowed him. John McEnery was born mellow, in the Irish manner, and he stayed that … Continue reading →

For years the citizens of San Jose enjoyed the season Christmas display that stood in joyful splendor on Willow Street and later graced the lawns of City Hall. More recently the City Plaza Park in the heart of downtown has been its home. The display originated in the mind of Don Lima; with $300 in borrowed funds, it burgeoned from a modest beginning in front of mortuary to a spectacular extravaganza that tens of thousands trooped to view. The city and the downtown were part of a very special event each Christmastide; it was one of the more successful municipal … Continue reading →

For years the citizens of San Jose enjoyed the seasonal Christmas Display that stood in the joyful splendor on Willow Street and later graced the lawns of City Hall. More recently the City Plaza Park in the heart of Downtown had been its home. The Display originated in the mind of Don Lima, and with $300 in borrowed funds, it burgeoned from a modest beginning in front of a mortuary to a spectacular extravaganza that tens of thousands stopped to view, and Life magazine considered for a feature spread. The City and the Downtown were part of a very special … Continue reading →

Good Afternoon and welcome again to our kick-off luncheon. We had hoped to have this luncheon on the site of the Peralta, but nevertheless we hope everyone will take advantage of the guided tour of the adobe sometime today. We are gathered here to begin the repayment of a debt long overdue-a debt to history. Sequestered a few hundred feet away, a building of adobe mud has stood for nearly two centuries: a silent observer of our city, it stood when Napoleon ruled over continental Europe and a philosopher-statesman named Thomas Jefferson presided over a fledgling experiment in democracy on … Continue reading →