April 15, 2008

Going Green:

By Councilmember Forrest Williams
Special to the Times

With spring just around the corner, the sun is shining and the flowers are blooming. Although the plants are in bloom and the weather is nice, this beautiful time of year does not come without expressing how important it is to keep the earth from being harmed. I hope that each of you have begun to take part in events that will help keep our environment a beautiful and healthy place to live. Many members of the community have taken part in maintaining a clean and healthy environment by “going green”.

“Going green” does not just mean recycling our bottles, cans, and plastics after use, but also being aware of how much water we use, turning off lights when we are not in rooms and many more small but important steps. We must not look at making these changes as an inconvenience in our lives, but rather an opportunity to help make a difference and protect our earth from current and future environmental harms.  

The city of San Jose has already begun to take its part in making an eco-friendly environment with the City’s “Green Vision” which is not only a plan to try and power the entire city with renewable and efficient energy technologies, but it will also create 25,000 new jobs. By trying to reduce energy consumption by 50%, the city is requiring public utilities to generate 20% of their power from renewable energy sources.

San Jose was recently ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 cleanest cities, which was based on water cleanliness and air pollution. With the City’s “Green Vision”, as a community, we will be able to keep this reputation going strong, by being active participants in this endeavor to promote environmental wellness and change.

Aside from being ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 cleanest cities, San Jose was also selected as a Solar America City. This is another great accomplishment for the San Jose, which again should encourage all of our community members to be participants in keeping this reputation alive.   

I have also started to do my part in getting involved with “Green Vision”. The tax increments placed on the citizens of San Jose are being used wisely to help District 2 become a more environmentally-friendly community. With already 4 solar companies calling Edenvale Technology Park home, the City of San Jose is well on its way to becoming the leader of renewable energy usage in the country and our district is as well, with the encouragement of energy-efficient companies.

If you have something that you would like brought to my attention, or something that you would like to discuss with me, we can meet together in several ways:

Office Hours/Mobile Office Hours: The Office Hours for the month of April are as follows: Saturday, April 19th, 2007 from 10am-12 noon at the Edenvale Branch Library and Thursday, April 24th, 2008 from 3:00- 5:00 pm at the Southside Community and Senior Center.

My Mobile Office Hours will begin at 1pm on Saturday, April 26th, 2008 at Anderson School and will continue throughout the surrounding neighborhood.

If you would like to know where I will be walking in future months, please refer to the District Two Web site at www.sanjoseca.gov/district2 and click on the “Mobile Office Hours Schedule” link.

Contact Information: As always, you can reach me by calling my office at (408) 535-4902 or by e-mailing me at forrest.williams@sanjoseca.gov. You can also visit the District Two Web site for more information: http://www.sanjoseca.gov/district2.