For Safe and Clean neighborhoods - Vote Bainiwal!!
Election Date: March 5th, 2024
Running for City Council District 8
Sukhdev Bainiwal, a 57-year-old engineer and former city airport commissioner, is a hopeful for the San Jose City Council, aiming to represent District 8. Bainiwal, who has witnessed his Evergreen neighborhood's decline over four decades, is determined to change its course. Bainiwal's priorities include addressing public safety through Neighborhood Watches and increasing the police force, homelessness through interim housing construction, increasing affordable housing stock by streamlining the city's permitting process, and revitalizing commercial centers to support small businesses. He also plans to invest in local parks, particularly the polluted Lake Cunningham. Bainiwal, who immigrated to the Evergreen area at age 11 and has strong ties to the local Sikh community, is recognized as a community leader who listens, is well-liked, and is solutions-oriented due to his engineering background.
Sukhdev Singh Bainiwal is a resident of San Jose City Council District 8 for 46 years. Paper boy for 5 years serving 400 residents while he grew up in Evergreen, Attended Quimby Oak Middle School and Silver Creek High School. Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering and Masters in Telecommunications Management. He currently works as a Software Engineer Manger and has been in High Tech for last 30 years.
Local Parks
Together we plan to make our parks and streets safe and clean.
Promote local Businesses
Together we will promote small businesses in our neighborhoods.
Homeless & Crime Control
Together we will protect our neighborhoods from crime and build solutions to house homeless individuals and keep our neighborhoods safe and clean.
The below is my perspective on issues preventing Affordable Housing
Issues :
Permitting process is taking incredibly long time due to back logs
Fees are high
Property taxes increase significantly
Low supply, which causes higher prices
Solutions :
Tax break for 5 year period post development of ADU or fees reduce
Incentivize developers to build
Speed up permitting process
Encourage residents to build ADUs
Implementation Plan
Urban Greening:
This basically means plating trees, creating community gardens, developing parks, and other ideas to expand greenery in city environments. This provides shade, reduces urban heat islands, improves air quality, improves aesthetics, and overall improves the quality of life for the neighborhood.
Upgrading parks;
Adding new amenities, improving landscaping, promoting community events to encourage more people to use the space, increasing security/safety measures. Painting sidewalks can improve safety for pedestrians
Public Transportation;
Making transportation to the business locations efficient is helpful to drive foot traffic. To do this, introduce new routes, improve conditions of buses or trains, increase frequency, make stations/stops more accessible and safe.
Invest in "Third places":
Create spaces for informal contact between neighbors such as parks, cafes, community centers, and restaurants to promote cohesion, safety and the "friendly neighborhood" vibe.
Invest in Business Districts;
Providing grants, low-interest loans, improving local infrastructure (roads, utilities), tax incentives for new businesses, launching marketing campaigns to attract customers/tourists to the area. Beautify and maintain public areas like nearby parks,sidewalks, and plazas to make the business district more attractive to customers.
Vacancy Remediation:
Renovate housing, vacant buildings, land, and lots in disinvested communities. For instance, transforming and cleaning vacant lots in high-poverty neighborhoods led to a 29% reduction in violent crime in Philadelphia.
Reduce Adolescent Gun VIolence:
This statement is due to a study on a correlation between increasing green spaces and a reduction in gun violence among adolescents. Tree canopy programs focus on planting and maintaining trees in Urban areas. The idea is that green spaces provide recreational opportunities effectively diverting negative influencers away as the area becomes occupied by youth/parents. Community interactions will develop further supporting neighborhood watch surveillance, community pride, and making illicit activities more noticeable and less likely to occur.
Increase Street lighting;
Improving street lighting deters criminal activity, especially at late night. Well lit areas have proven to be safer with less criminal activity.
Implement Youth workforce development and summer job programs
Reduces youth involvement in violence while promoting economic growth and stability in a community. This is obtained by helping create more youth employment opportunities.
Workforce programs may include skills training, mentorships, internships, summer/winter job programs & other vocational training.
Engagement in constructive activities provide youth with a sense of purpose, reduce idle time, offer financial stability, and deter them from negative influences or activities that might lead to violence
Invest in "grassroot organizations"
These are community based organizations that have a deep understanding of local issues and can lead anti-violence programs via community-led safety initiatives. The mere presence of these organizations can lead to reductions in violent crimes. These organizations have a better understanding of local context.
Educational Initiatives:
Programs that focus on improving educational outcomes, such as after-school tutoring, adult education, and scholarship programs, can pave the way for better future prospects for residents.
