San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is joining the race to become governor of California, offering himself as a big-city mayor with experience in the trenches who can deliver answers to vexing problems such as homelessness and a lack of housing construction.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan is joining the race to become governor of California, offering himself as a big-city mayor with experience in the trenches who can deliver answers to vexing problems such as homelessness and a lack of housing construction.
Mahan, who was elected mayor of the Bay Area’s largest city in 2022, joins a crowded field that includes a former state Assembly speaker and Los Angeles mayor, the state superintendent of public instruction, an East Bay congressman, a former California attorney general who was also U.S. secretary of health and human services, a former member of the House of Representatives, and a billionaire and climate activist, among others. “I’m running because I know that we can build a better California, and I know it because we're proving it in San Jose on many of the biggest challenges we face,” Mahan said in an interview Wednesday night before making his decision public. “We certainly need someone who will stand up for our values as Californians and will also fix our problems,” he said. “As a mayor of a large city who has worked with city hall and external partners to reduce crime, reduce homelessness and build more homes, I think I can offer a more credible plan for how the state can help all cities and counties address our biggest challenges.” Mahan grew up in Watsonville, where his parents worked as a school teacher and a letter carrier, and went on to graduate from Harvard University, where he was an honors student and student-body president. The founder of a tech company focused on voter engagement, he is married and has two children, ages 6 and 8. He made his comments at the Fairmont San Francisco hotel, where he also delivered similar remarks at an awards banquet of the influential Bay Area Council business group, though he did not announce his candidacy to dinner attendees. Mahan said that San Jose, with a population of about 1 million, reduced homelessness by building “basic, dignified shelter,” improving outreach and — when shelter is available — requiring people to come indoors. “I believe we can actually end unsheltered homelessness statewide, but it will take leadership from Sacramento,” Mahan said, in an implicit criticism of Gov. Gavin Newsom. Asked about Newsom’s performance, Mahan said, “Gov. Newsom has done more on homelessness than any other governor in California history, but making further progress will require us to follow through on” various initiatives. Ex // Top Stories Trump’s leadership saps confidence in the nation’s future Students’ uncertainty about America’s next 25 years hits new low in Marc Sandalow’s most recent survey New SF anti-corruption leader still ‘finding justice, just in a different way’ Former federal prosecutor Alex Shepard, The City’s first-ever inspector general, is charged with preventing and rooting out fraud, waste and abuse in city government How Wiener’s AI safety bill is paving the way for other states Legislators elsewhere are copying and building on SB 53, which the state senator fought to get enacted for more than a year Mahan said more people need to be helped by Newsom’s CARE Court program, a civil-court approach aimed at getting treatment for people suffering from untreated or undertreated schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders. The state also needs to impose a “fair share” requirement on all cities and counties to ensure that they're building adequate shelter and treatment capacity, and it needs to hold people accountable for coming indoors, he said. On crime, Mahan said city investments in technology and community policing, coupled with partnering with the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office to crack down on repeat offenders, coincided with a significant drop in crime, making San Jose “the safest big city in the country.” San Jose is unique among big cities in having solved 100% of its homicides nearly four years in a row, he said. Mahan told the Bay Area Council crowd that San Jose had streamlined its approval process for housing developments after market-rate activity dried up. The city cut fees, embraced ministerial approvals and adjusted its building code to strip out costs, with the result being that thousands of homes are now being built after having been stuck for years, he said. “We can build better cities, a better region, a better state, but we have to demand accountability for results,” Mahan said. “We should not reward performative politics. We should hold ourselves accountable to delivering results.” Mahan called in an interview for capping city fees on developments and said he would like to see more modular housing and an “industrial” approach to development that could help bring down costs. “I believe that we can create greater economic opportunity and address our punishingly high cost of living by building housing at scale,” he said.
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