Good afternoon. It’s my honor to report to you today on the state of the city of Salinas.

A little over a year ago, we all took a leap of faith together. At a time when our city was just emerging from a time of great fiscal difficulties, when we were concerned about youth violence, a shrinking local economy and the kind of reputation that goes with them, I asked you to look ahead to the future. And I asked you to imagine a city not with a little less crime, not a city with a few more jobs here and there, but a great city.

Some nerve.

What made me think that a city in our position could talk about greatness? I’ll tell you what made me think it: the fact that that city already exists. It exists here in my heart. And I know it exists in the heart of each one of you. We all love this city.

And when you love something, you will protect it, and you will do everything you can to see it grow, to see it succeed, to see it become everything it can be.

I believe that’s why I was elected, and I believe that’s what we’re all working on together.

So let me give you a progress report.

A year ago I asked you to imagine a city at peace. And during the past year, we’ve begun taking the steps that are going to get us there.

We established the city’s first Community Safety Alliance, under the direction of Commander Trevor Iida. The Alliance is based on the idea that you don’t solve a multi-dimensional problem with a one-dimension solution. Like many other cities, Salinas has tried arresting its way out of the crime problem – reacting to crimes after they’ve occurred.

Doesn’t work. It may contain the problem…for a time…but it doesn’t cure it.

So we’ve decided to do what does work. The Alliance is developing – and already acting on – a plan based on best practices from cities who have succeeded in dealing with violence, along with input from our local community leaders from the business, faith, educational, non-profit and law-enforcement sector.

Our plan will include stepped up enforcement. When someone breaks the law, our police are going after them – as they always have. Chief Dan Ortega is developing a targeted, 10-block plan that brings together law enforcement and other key city departments to develop a footprint for transforming neighborhoods. 74% of the gang violence occurs in one zip code. Strategic enforcement can work in Salinas.

But our plan also includes three critical components focused on prevention: strengthening families, after-school programs, and literacy.

Why do we focus on those areas? It’s because we know the recipe for creating a gang member.

You take one young child, full of all the promise in the world – the hope and dreams you see in any child’s smile. But unlike with most recipes, where you add ingredients, in this recipe, you take them away.

So, from this promising young child, take away the ability to read. If a child doesn’t read well by the time he gets to about third grade, he’s likely to have trouble in school for the rest of his life, and there’s a very good chance he’s going to drop out.

The next ingredient to take away: role models. Make it so too many fathers are absent or in trouble with the law.

Then take away opportunity – because unskilled people can’t get good jobs in our knowledge-based economy.

And finally, take away self-respect. Humiliated young men are a danger in any society, whether they are terrorists in the Middle East or gang members in Salinas. The evil of terrorism and the evil of gang crime are both done by humiliated young men who think violence will give them power.

That’s the recipe we’re going to attempt to change. That’s why the Community Safety Alliance is implementing a plan that will attempt to make sure families get help when they need it, that children learn to read, that gives young people better choices, better futures.

Strengthening families, after-school programs — and literacy.

A few years ago, we almost had to abandon our libraries. Now, we not only have our libraries back, we have one of America’s best librarians, Elizabeth Martinez. And we have a police chief who is committed to literacy. So while the story in the rest of the country is about the decline of reading, we here in Salinas are going to show the true power of a commitment to reading by the whole community. The hometown of John Steinbeck is committed to making sure that every child knows how to read, and read well.

Not because reading is a nice thing to do. But because reading is critical to success in life.

If you don’t read, you don’t succeed.

I think that has a pretty good ring to it, so I’ll say it again:

If you don’t read, you don’t succeed.

But if we commit to it…. we can make sure that our children do read…so that they do succeed.

As I said, we will arrest criminals, and we will put them in jail. But we don’t become a city at peace unless we stop producing criminals in the first place.

Some people tell me I’m dreaming – “Come on, a city at peace?” And some are downright cynical: I have been told there’s a guy on the blogs who calls himself: “Dennis Donohue” and every time someone gets shot, he says “ Imagine a Great City”. And I have asked people, “What if I said…you know what…you’re right, it’s hopeless…the best we can ever do with this problem is contain it.”

And you can see it in their eyes: “You can’t say that!”

And I agree. We can’t say that. Just containing the problem is not a goal that’s worthy of Salinas. It’s not worthy of these children in the audience.

One murder is too many.

Last month I visited these third graders at Sherwood Elementary School. One of their questions has stayed with me since….”Will you keep us safe?” It occurred to me that in their short lives they had seen gangs, and either seen or heard about gang violence, but they haven’t seen peace.

We’re going to show them peace. We’ve got to.

We’ve got to show them the kind of peace that President John F. Kennedy described when he said, “I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living and the kind that enables men and nations to grow, and to hope, and to build a better life for their children”. That’s the peace I’m talking about.

By creating opportunity, we can make that goal more likely. Economic development – the hope of a good job that can support a family – is a key to giving our children better options. It’s a key to the promise of a great city.

In 2007 we hired Jeff Weir to be the City’s Economic Development Director. And he, the City Council, city staff and I have been busy. We’re excited about the proposed Alisal Marketplace development. This is a 52-acre, roughly 125 million dollar project. If it turns out to be right for Salinas, it could provide housing, new business, jobs and tax revenue, all in the kind of development we want here: mixed use, city-centered, in keeping with the quality of life that’s so important to all of us.

We have a chance to virtually rebuild our urban core. I expect progress on the 100 block this year. I note with increasing confidence the strong likelihood of a broader vision of a “New Downtown”, development interest in the Chinatown area and potential progress with Carr Lake. What I know with certainty is this… investors are looking closely at Salinas again and they are excited by what they see. We can build the city we want – if we are guided by the vision of the city we want.

We’ve commissioned a study of Salinas-area retail, and we’re going to use the information we get from that to design our plans for revitalizing our shopping areas, to create jobs, growth and tax revenues for city services.

We have worked together with the south county cities for an enterprise zone designation for the Salinas Valley. We have just submitted a Solar America City application with Santa Cruz and Watsonville. These activities are part of a larger vision: one of regional cooperation.

I’d like to say a little more about that vision.

It is no accident that I am speaking here today in the chambers of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors and that I am joined by Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala.

You see, I believe that the future of Salinas and the future of our region are bound together. Mayor Della Sala believes the same for Monterey. And we believe as do all of the Mayors in the County that that future can be very bright, if we recognize the opportunities that face us… all of us together.

I believe we are a historic turning point, similar to the one that faced the Santa Clara Valley in the 1950’s. Back then, that valley was covered with fruit orchards. But the opportunity presented itself to generate wealth at a rate no region had ever seen before, by working with silicon to make electronics. It was an explosion of prosperity generated by the science of physics.

Unfortunately, pursuing that opportunity meant the fruit orchards had to go. They were paved over, replaced by office buildings, manufacturing facilities, subdivisions and freeways – freeways that in part carry commuters from any miles away, because they can’t afford to live in what is now the Silicon Valley.

I believe we here in the Salinas Valley face an opportunity on a similar scale to the one faced in the 1950’s by the Santa Clara Valley. But while their opportunity was driven by the science of physics, ours is driven by the science of biology.

Physics was the science of the 20th Century. Biology is the science of the 21st Century. Where is the activity among venture capitalists, investment bankers and corporations these days? Biology: alternative fuels, bio-materials, bio-pharmaceuticals, green building designs, medical research, and more – all driven by biology, the science of growing things.

And what do we do here in the Salinas Valley? We grow things. We know about growing things.

Now think about this: Here we are, on the some of the most fertile land in the world, with some of the most beautiful scenery in the world, near a world-renowned marine sanctuary, with world-class research institutions, and 60 miles down the down the road from the greatest wealth-creation engine the world has ever seen.

Do you see an opportunity? I sure do.

And here’s one of the best parts: To pursue this opportunity, we don’t have to pave over our valley. Because this opportunity is based on growing things. We can grow a very bright future here, and it will be green. It will be green in the sense that we will preserve a beautiful, healthy environment for our children. And, not to put too fine a point on it, it will be green in the sense of money.

Just a few data points: In 2005, the clean energy market was 40 billion dollars, according to a market research firm named Clean Edge. By 2015, they forecast the clean energy market was 40 billion dollars; according to a market research firm named Clean Edge. By 2015, they forecast the clean energy market will quadruple, to 167 billion dollars. Wind energy investments are doubling every two and a half years. Solar cell sales are doubling every two years. Steve Case, the founder of AOL, has set up an investment fund called Revolution LLC with 500 million dollars – of his own money. The fund’s target: green investments. John Doerr, the legendary Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has set up a 100 million dollar green technology fund. There are many more examples where these came from.

In the Salinas Valley, we have a problem with the price of land. It’s too expensive: it’s worth too much money for the return you get by growing commodity crops on it. And it’s too expensive for farm laborers to be able to afford to live on it.

Some towns in our region feel forced by this situation into what might look like the only solution: build housing and big box stores, and hope people will come to live and shop. I understand why they feel pressure to grow this way. But I don’t believe there’s much of a future in it. At some point, each town will be trying to poach the other’s shoppers, but nobody will be creating wealth to pay for it all.

But there is a competing economic vision. Here’s an example:

Recently the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce and the City held an Agricultural Technology Summit. One of the speakers was Dr. Henry Daniell, a renowned geneticist at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Daniell described techniques for growing a treatment for diabetes or a vaccine against anthrax poisoning – by using lettuce. We don’t have enough information yet to know if these particular techniques are practical. But imagine what happens to the value of a field of lettuce when it’s used not to make salad, but to make cures for diseases.

Another example: Imagine the economic stimulus and transient occupancy tax revenues generated by ecologically sound tourism in the wine country above the valley, maybe looking down at one of the most picturesque and authentic old western main streets in California, in Soledad. Imagine dude ranch opportunities, miles of mountain bike paths, and a Steinbeck history trail through scenes from “Of Mice and Men” and other novels, leading up the Valley to Salinas and across to Cannery Row.

Imagine the possibilities if we coordinate our resources and brainpower to pursue opportunities in ocean research, wind and solar power, biodegradable packaging, green building and more.

It’s not for me to say that any one such project should get the go-ahead. That kind of decision is for investors, local residents and the relevant city and country governments. But I believe that imagining these kinds of possibilities will lead us to a future that works for all of us: a future with strong economic growth, good jobs, and the quality of life we all want to see preserved.

I have been discussing this kind of regional vision with Mayor Della Sala and with other local leaders, business owners, and members of the community. In every case so far I have found broad agreement that there are big opportunities here, if only we can recognize them and work together to act on them. We have the most beautiful meeting of land and sea in the country…. I believe we can grow the future together.

Mayor Della Sala and I have agreed to hold Town Hall meetings in each of our cities this year to introduce Monterey to Salinas and Salinas to Monterey. Chuck has already hosted a meeting with Julie Packard to discuss how to further involve Salinas schoolchildren at the Aquarium and we intend to do the same with Monterey children at the National Steinbeck Center. Monterey has graciously shared their information on how to become a Preserve America community and will be supportive of our application this spring. Working together, both communities can take better advantage of the fast-growing trend of heritage tourism.

I want to bring the same spirit of collaboration to relations between Salinas and the County of Monterey.

It seems we’ve fallen into a habit of only talking to each other about problems. You know it’s kind of like a marriage that gets into a rut, where the only conversations you have are about money or other troubles. Then one day you realize... “We never go out to dinner any more!”.

Well, I’m here to say to the Supervisors, “ I want to go out to dinner more.”

I propose we go downtown and stare into each other’s eyes and think about a new vision of downtown anchored by a new Government Campus. Or maybe we could go over to Constitution avenue and think about a new regional soccer complex and get carried away and dream about it overlooking Carr Lake and a new hotel where families can stay for weekend tournaments.

We have already seen how collaboration with the County can work. When the Natividad Medical Center faced a financial crisis, two other local hospitals stepped in to help. Now, thanks to a plan developed with Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, Natividad has gone from a 25 million dollar deficit to a projected one million dollar profit in the first quarter. Salinas is now home to what may be a model for the nation in healthcare.

What a great example this is. It reminds us that turnarounds are possible, that what seems hopeless really isn’t, and that in teamwork and collaboration we will find the solutions to our problems. I want to thank Sam Downing, the CEO of Salinas Valley Memorial, and Dr. Steven Packer, the CEO of CHOMP for their great work in this effort. And I also want to acknowledge our friend who we all continue to deeply miss, Jerry Smith, who played such an instrumental role in that effort.

We have many challenges ahead of us. We will not get to the bright future I’m describing just by dreaming it. As with any vision, a city at peace, a city of prosperity, and indeed a thriving region will be achieved through work, carried out day to day, by many people.

This year, we go from Imagining a Great City to Building a Great City.

The building has begun. In Salinas, we have dedicated people working on realistic plans for peace, prosperity and image. Thanks to hard work by Congressman Sam Farr, federal funding was preserved for the Silver Star program and the Joint Gang Anti-Task Force, even while Washington was cutting funding for other public safety programs. The libraries are open and reaching out to the whole community. Trees are being planted, a city flower is being chosen. We’re talking to big investors about the kinds of developments that fit our vision of the city we want… a great city… the kind of city we want to pass on to our children.

A little over a year ago both Chuck and I became the Mayors of our hometowns. I think we both know something about dreams coming true. It is my honor to work on this dream with the people of Salinas – and I hope, with the people of Monterey, Monterey County and all of our neighboring communities.

Thank you.