Letter from Irene

I've been a resident of D3 downtown San José since 1989. I chose this diverse, charming, and challenging neighborhood to raise my family, to start my businesses, and to be the focus of my community activism.

My core values come from my parents and their parents, Irish and Polish Catholics who immigrated to the United States for a better life. To make a living, my grandfather drove a taxi during the day and played the accordion at a local pub at night. Although my grandparents struggled to make a living, their sacrifices enabled my father to be the first in his family to go to college. Their lessons, their work ethic, and their sense of perseverance shaped me from an early age.

I started volunteering in the second grade, in my sister’s classroom. My sister Shery has Down Syndrome. I learned so much growing up with Shery, especially that persistence gets results, and a smile goes a long way. But more important: as fully-abled members of our society, we have an ongoing, and never-ending duty to give back to those less privileged and less fortunate.

With both my parents’ encouragement, I pursued my own education in accounting, law, and psychology.

• Villanova University, BS, Accounting

• Santa Clara University, JD, Law

• University of San Francisco, MA, Marriage Family Child Counseling

• Northern California Graduate University, PhD, Counseling Psychology.

All my advanced degrees were achieved while working full time and going to school at night.

My job at IBM moved me from New York to California and in 1989 my husband and I decided to settle in and enthusiastically embrace downtown San José. We loved the unique detail and architecture of the old Victorian houses. The cultural diversity is unmatched. The energy, unexpectedness, and walkability of downtown were exhilarating.

But living downtown has its challenges.  At one point we lived across the street from a crack house and on another occasion, a neighbor’s basement exploded.

However, now we are faced with greater problems, such as thousands of people living without housing, mounting trash and dumping, unsanitary public health spaces, frequent trash fires, porch piracy, car break-ins, car side-shows, and worse. These are the reasons we must fight to make it a better place.While at IBM and working on my practicum, I was a mental health counselor at the downtown locked mental health facility for children on Santa Clara Street. As a pro tem judge, I often walked to court from my home and past St. James Park--now it doesn't feel safe to take that walk. As a housing expert I have managed rent controlled units for over 30 years and never had an eviction. As a small business owner, I've personally experienced the stress and strain associated with balancing the books. With my focus on law and housing I started the Mediation Project for the Santa Clara Pro Bono Project to help low income folks participate in their resolution and satisfaction faster than the court system. And with my interest in law and how we can make social structures better I joined the Sentencing Alternative Program, where we take folks who have been given a sentence to serve and offer another option rather than wasting time in prison. And with my interest in the environment and concerns about mental health I started The Defenders of Clean Air E-Quality to stop the encampment fires; Stanford had recently come out with a study indicating that children who are exposed to these fires suffer irrevocable and permanent IQ reduction.

And now I'm running for City Council. We began our grassroots campaign in June of 2021. Everybody told us it was too much of a longshot. That my ideas were too radical. That I didn't have establishment support. That we were speaking too plainly, ruffling too many feathers.

But we walked the streets of D3, heard our neighbors' stories, shared our own, and very quickly our long-shot campaign became a contender. Then a top-tier candidacy. And here we are in the finals.

I have never been a member of an established political party--I'm a lifelong independent. But I am utterly pledged to one thing: D3. All of D3. All the time.

2022 is a Turning Point election for our neighborhoods, and I believe that my unique set of professional skills, commitment to D3, and independent perspective is the right recipe to get D3 back on track.

Thank you for reading, and I welcome your support!

– Irene Smith