Dear Neighbor,

It’s been a busy week here in San José. 

For starters, we closed out my statewide campaign at San Pedro Square that put our city’s progress and Sacramento’s policy shortcomings at the center of the Governor’s race and the conversation about the future of California. While I couldn’t comment on the race via my newsletter while being a candidate, I will share a few reflections now. 

Truth is, I didn’t hear candidates talking about the things we need from Sacramento to achieve our goals in San José, which is why I felt an obligation to force those issues and solutions to the forefront. Solutions like interim housing, sober-living environments, and mandated treatment for severe addiction, reforms to regulations like CEQA that make the housing and infrastructure we need slower and more expensive to build, limits on junk lawsuits that are killing our small businesses, evidence-based curriculum and robust teacher training to help us get every child on grade level for reading and math, state spending audits and accountability for adopting audit recommendations, and much more. 

I have the best job in the world as Mayor of San José, and it was a privilege to share the progress we're making together here: how we’ve reduced unsheltered homelessness by one-third in three years, increased resident satisfaction with citywide cleanliness by 21%, helped drive a more than 70% reduction in gun violence, solved every homicide nearly four years running, and jumpstarted construction of more than 2,200 new homes. And we have a lot more work to do.

We accomplished this progress by staying relentlessly focused on what matters most to our residents. You’ve told us you want City Hall focused on reducing unsheltered homelessness, cleaning up our neighborhoods, improving community safety, building more housing, and creating more economic opportunity and affordability — and that’s exactly what we’re going to do. 

This week, I released my June Budget Message that fine tunes our City Manager’s Proposed Operating Budget. We need to hear your voice on Monday to make sure we maintain the focus that’s increased our residents’ trust in City Hall by nearly 40%.

You can RSVP to join us at Council Chambers on Monday here. 

I’m grateful to our City Manager for bringing back a proposed budget that is balanced while minimizing layoffs — this budget reduces the city’s workforce by 85 roles (out of nearly 7,000), the majority of which are currently vacant, and we will ensure any displaced workers have an opportunity to be reassigned. 

Thanks to the passage of Measure A, which brings our hotel tax in line with other big cities, we face a less daunting budget challenge. San Joséans clearly share our vision for a city that hosts world-class conferences, sporting events and cultural experiences — and where visitors help pay for the services residents rely upon every day. 

I want to thank our City staff for their hard work, my colleagues on the City Council for their partnership and fiscal responsibility, and every San Joséan who participated in this budget process. Your input matters and helps us make decisions that best reflect the priorities of the one million people who call our city home. 

Sincerely,

Mayor Matt

High housing costs prevent many San José workers from living near where they work and hope to raise their children. At the same time, we’ve seen that the high cost of building new affordable housing in our region, often upwards of $1 million per unit, prevents us from tackling this problem at scale. Last week, we announced an innovative affordable housing pilot that we believe can bring down costs, help more people, and require fewer public dollars. 

Specifically, the City invested in an existing downtown high-rise, The Fay, that has significant vacancies. Through its investment, the City is “buying down” affordability in vacant units that can be leased by residents who earn lower to middle incomes (with a preference for public sector workers, like police officers and teachers, thanks to an initiative spearheaded by Councilmember Casey in District 10). 

Over time, as the building fills up, stabilizes financially, and incomes increase, the City can slowly reduce its subsidization of rents and eventually sell its equity stake in the building, thereby returning capital to the General Fund. The City is made whole in the long run, or at least close to it, new residents secure housing at a rent they can afford and downtown is more vibrant without a massive outlay of public funds. 

We will see how this pilot plays out, but we have reason to be optimistic that buying affordability in existing vacant units built by the private market is a more scalable and efficient approach than using public dollars to build new units more slowly and expensively. 

We will be tracking this program carefully: how quickly units lease up, who is served, how the rents perform, how the asset stabilizes, and how the public employee preference works in practice. If it works, we will have a model we can refine and potentially use again to preserve and activate housing across the city. We’ll keep you posted!

It’s been a decade since the selection process began for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and we’re now just days away from welcoming hundreds of thousands of fans to San José for the world’s biggest sporting event. 

We’ve worked hard to make San José a destination to visit, invest in and host world-class events, and that began with getting buy-in from our local employers. We raised over $5 million by pitching 2026 as a point of pride for our community, used that money to put on an unparalleled fan experience, and brought in an estimated $195 million in economic impact across our county. That’s 4.2 times larger than the roughly $47 million attributed to San José and Santa Clara from Superbowl 50 in 2016. 

We’re learning how to put on major events and bring home the benefits, and we’re going even bigger and better this summer hosting six FIFA World Cup matches, with the South Bay expected to receive the lion’s share of the $480-$630M in projected economic impact. 

That’s because the region’s largest World Cup fan experience will be right here in San José. We’ll have a 34-day Entertainment Zone active at San Pedro Square with fun for all ages, weeks of watch parties Downtown and across our city, and so much more that you can find at SJ26.org.

Consistent state funding (through a program called HHAP) has helped San José to build and operate an interim housing system that in turn has enabled a one-third reduction in unsheltered homelessness in recent years. Last year, I was deeply disappointed that the Governor and State Legislature zeroed out this funding stream and effectively shifted the entire burden of funding this work to city budgets.

This March, I joined fellow big city mayors to ask Sacramento to listen to the leaders on the ground making change and restore HHAP funding to historical levels so we can continue to move people off our streets and onto the path to something better. 

  

While the Governor’s budget restores 50% of past funding levels, the Assembly has recommended $800 million, and the Senate has now recommended restoring the full $1 billion in funding. You can help ensure they stay strong in demanding the resources we need to continue making progress by looking up and then contacting your State-level representatives: https://findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov/

Official World Cup Fan Zone at San Pedro Square 

June 11th through July 19th from 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM

San Pedro Square, 87 N San Pedro St, San José, CA 95110

San Pedro Square will kick off its FIFA World Cup Festival with a celebration of soccer, featuring one of the largest World Cup watch parties in the Bay Area! From June 11th to July 19th, join SJ26, BAHC, and the Quakes, where they will host watch parties for all 104 matches — featuring exclusive interactive fan zones, meet-and-greets, diverse culinary vendors, and more! Grab your free tickets here.

The Rose at San José Civic

Wednesday, June 10th at 8 pm

San José Civic, 135 West San Carlos Street, San José, CA 95113

Acclaimed South Korean indie-rock band, The Rose, is coming to San José! Their 2026 ROSETOPIA world tour will celebrate the release of their new album. Catch them live at the San José Civic, buy tickets here.

The Row Cup at Santana Row 

From June 11th through July 19th

Santana Row, 377 Santana Row, San José, CA 95128

Celebrate and watch the FIFA World Cup at Santana Row! Join for watch parties at over 15 restaurants, enjoy game day happy hours, live music, and an exclusive FIFA pop-up! Learn more here.

Juneteenth Celebration

Friday, June 19th from 7:00 PM to 11:00 PM

Main Lodge Area, 444 West Alma Ave, San José, CA 95110

Join us in celebrating Juneteenth with an evening filled with music, culture, and connection. Enjoy live performances, community activations, and catering from Jackie’s Place as we honor freedom and resilience. Purchase your tickets here. 

Levitt Pavilion 2026 Concert Series

June Weekends from 4:30 pm- 8:00 pm

St. James Park, N 2nd St &, E St James St, San José, CA 95112

Bringing the community together, Levitt Pavilion will be hosting free concerts showcasing local artists and national artists in their 2026 concert series. Enjoy the summer weather by spending time with friends, family, and loved ones with live music performances. Learn more here.

Rose, White & Blue Parade

July 4th, 2026

1100 Shasta Ave, San José, CA 96126

Mark your calendars — the Rose, White and Blue parade will return for its 19th year this Independence Day! Committed to uplifting San José's cultural communities, this parade rethinks how the Fourth of July is celebrated. Don’t miss out, find more information here. 

Celebrating Saturday Night Lights

Yesterday morning, we closed out this year’s Saturday Night Lights program — and tried to set a record for the most people keeping a soccer ball in the air at once!

I used to coach middle school soccer, and while I may not dribble like I used to, I know firsthand that youth sports and mentorship are just as valuable today as they were then.

Thank you to the Earthquakes, Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office, SJPD, PRNS and District 8 Councilmember Candelas for supporting this program and helping keep local youth active and on the right track.

Getting Around for World Cup

Whether you’re heading to San Pedro Square for the region’s biggest watch party or to Levi's Stadium for the matches themselves, VTA has you covered. Our team partnered with VTA, City of Santa Clara, and the Austrian, Jordanian and Swiss Consulates this week to promote our local transit system as a great option for the tens of thousands of visitors who are coming to town for the World Cup. 

San José Greek Festival

Glad to be Greek with the San José Greek Festival last weekend! Connecting with the community, enjoying live music, and spending time with neighbors is always my favorite part of the weekend — the sausage and lamb were a close second, though. Be sure to check out the festival when it returns next spring!

New Firefighters!

We have a high bar for public service in San José, and on Friday, 18 newly graduated firefighters — including four women, the most in a single graduating class in the last five years — joined the hardest-working fire department in the nation. Congratulations to our graduates, and thank you for your service!