![]() The latest census showed that we’ve finally begun to reverse the generational expansion of our unsheltered homeless population. After years of wheel-spinning, we’re finally seeing hopeful signs. We’ll begin with our homes–and our unhoused neighbors. I’d like to talk about several key dimensions of that future: ![]() Together, we are building a San Jose poised to become America’s Next Great City– and better prepared for the future than any other city. In my tenure in serving this City, amid the many painful crises that we’ve experienced together–pandemic, mass shootings, civil unrest, droughts, fires, and a flood– I’m proud of the many ways that our City has heeded the lessons of our immigrant experience: lifting our view from our feet to the horizon. That is the ethos of the generations of immigrants that have shaped San Jose’s character: sacrificing in the present–even in the toughest of times–for a better future for our children. ![]() Yet throughout our history, San Jose has thrived by overcoming temporal myopia, by fixing our focus on the future. It conditions us to react to every text or tweet, to the exclusion of more thoughtful communication. It makes corporate executives obsess over quarterly results to appease Wall Street, and politicians tunnel-eyed until the next election. It has us consuming fossil fuels at unsustainable rates, and underinvesting in public education. Temporal myopia is the short-term thinking that undermines our long-term quality of life. This is an admittedly imperfect example of taking the “long view.” Yet it’s an antidote to a disease that currently grips our world: an ailment I call “temporal myopia.” If you haven’t heard of that disease, it’s because I just invented it. And my ten-year-old Chevy Volt would be the not-so-shining model of water conservation. My penchant for taking the “long view.” You see, I knew that inevitably during my tenure, we’d endure a drought or two.
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