Open letter to Google: “Our city is not for sale”

 
Editor’s note: the following letter was delivered to Google headquarters in Mountain View, CA at the end of a two-day march from San Jose, CA.
To Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google:
We are Serve the People and we are here to demand that the proposed Google project be halted immediately, and that the 16 parcels of public land be used for public use here in San Jose, CA. We made this trek from East San Jose to Google to deliver our message personally that our city is not for sale.
Almost a year ago, your company entered into exclusive negotiations with the City of San José over 16 parcels of public land. You all applauded each other, agreeing that commercial and tech development are the great answer to the poverty and disinvestment here in San Jose. Yet you purposely excluded the very residents who live in the communities you love to just ‘disrupt’.
That is the term you all use, right? Yes disrupt. Disrupting our lives by displacing our communities across the Bay Area with your inability to pay your service workers a living wage. Disrupting education by displacing children and offering ridiculous Chromebooks as a solution instead of truly affordable housing. Disrupting the safety net of our community through temp employment contracts, wage theft, and privatization of public services. Disrupting our community safety by increased policing due to your racist assumptions about the unhoused, and low-income communities of color.
Whether you feel responsible or not, this is how you are impacting the communities from across the Bay Area to Berlin, Germany. Tech and commercial development is not the answer we need. The proposed Google project will only cause more displacement since it would ONLY allow hotels, retail, and office space once you change the zoning; instead of the affordable housing, emergency shelters, and public schools we desperately need.
From the start, your proposed Google project has undermined democracy in our city. For example, our Mayor and councilmembers signed Non-Disclosure Agreements on Google’s request, before even bringing the item to the public. Almost a year later, you and the Mayor have continued to lie and fail to engage to the community of San José. It is clear to us that you neither care nor intend to respect our City. We have built this city, it is our choice what we do with public land.
So today we come to make it clear that GOOGLE IS NOT WELCOME IN SAN JOSE!
We are stepping up to you and demanding that you:
1. Stop negotiations with the City or San José and all other stakeholders by June 6th, 2018.
2. Make a public announcement of a definite termination of the proposed project and land sale of 16 parcels of public land.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions, but please know there will be no compromise on our behalf.
Hasta La Victoria Siempre, Serve the People San Jose