My Conversation with San Jose Mayoral Candidate and the Future of Technology in San Jose
- majorkeycreative
- Aug 7, 2016
- 3 min read
I had the pleasure of speaking with San Jose Council member and Mayoral Candidate, Sam Liccardo at a recent event I attended in San Jose. We discussed affordable housing, homelessness, and the infrastructure of technology in San Jose.
Affordable Housing and Homelessness
I mentioned to him that affordable housing is a problem, not just for the elderly and impoverished, but also for young people such as recent college grads working towards establishing stability. He agreed and said they are trying to find ways to not only improve affordable housing, but overall city affordability. He mentioned a plan to increase the city’s density by retrofitting it with housing units that are smaller and cheaper, and have most of the city perks within walking distance. This would make housing more affordable while also making the city more accessible to more people.Some other plans include gateways programs to relieve homeless and joblessness, and sponsoring general beautification of the city. Sam also mentioned his intention to form key partnerships between the city and local corporations in which the companies will help to fund some of these city initiatives in exchange for recognition at key locations.
Self-driving Cars
These topics led into a discussion about ZipCar (a car-sharing company that provides automobile reservations to subscribers), which he's been fighting to bring to San Jose for the past 4 years.This service would reduce residents' need to own a car and further increase the affordability and access of the city. I asked Sam if his current support of ZipCar translated to support for ZipCar once they incorporate self driving cars. He laughed and said "I guess so, but there's still some way to go before people are comfortable with them driving around, and the legislation. Maybe about 4 years from now." I responded by saying we may be closer than you think with Google's recent announcement of their self driving car program.
This led Sam to explain BMW's advancement of their 'connected cars' that attempt to better integrate with the city's infrastructure. Conversations between the city and BMW are in line with the current movement around ‘the internet of everything' and inter-connection of different technologies. He gave an example of a safety mechanism in the car which would stop the car when a street light is about to turn red. I was a bit taken back, then laughed a bit before mentioning that people’s first instinct at a yellow light is to speed up. I asked what the car would do in this situation and he responded by saying the engineers would figure it out. We both laughed.
The Future of Technology
When speaking about the future, technology always seems to be at the forefront of such conversations. With San Jose being in the heart of the Silicon Valley, the tech central of Earth, I was pleasantly delighted being able to have such a conversation with one of it’s Mayoral candidates. One of the ways technology will find itself more integrated into our society is through deeper integration within the infrastructure, and the internet of everything is doing a great job at facilitating this process; along with collaboration between government and technology companies. Most of the World’s technology is fueled by organizations right here in the Silicon Valley, and we are right at the cusp with it. We're moving closer into a reality filled with technological innovations that resemble a life that at one point was only seen in science fiction films, and it's all happening now, right in our midst.
On one hand, the rapid advancement of technology is a bit scary. On the other hand, I can’t help but be excited.
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