Salinas makes his case for Mayor

Salinas+makes+his+case+for+Mayor

Courtesy | Mark Salinas

Mark Salinas,
Hayward Councilmember

Today Hayward stands straight looking forward at the most exciting times in our city’s history.  Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics industries are shaping the world we live in today and they are no doubt shaping Hayward too.

Hayward schools, colleges, and university are raising and preparing kids and students to be leaders in Hayward and in communities and economies that stretch way beyond Hayward.  We’re also building a city that exists in harmony with the environment and simultaneously we’re working to become more economically competitive.

Today Hayward needs a mayor who represents what Hayward is today and who represents what Hayward can be in the future.

I am the only mayoral candidate who has lived the whole Hayward experience.  From cradle to career. I was born at St. Rose Hospital and I grew up in the Schafer Park Neighborhood in South Hayward.

I attended Hayward schools and I participated in the Puente Project at Chabot College.  I transferred to San Francisco State University and I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Latino/Latina Studies and a Master’s Degree in Educational Administration and Public Policy Studies.

Today I teach Ethnic Studies, History, and Sociology at Chabot College and I am a lecturer in the departments of Communication, Ethnic Studies, and Political Science at CSU East Bay.  I am the Executive Director of The Kids’ Breakfast Club, a nutrition and education program for kids and families in Hayward and the Hayward Area.

In 2010 I was elected to the Hayward City Council and from day one I worked everyday and applied my office to its fullest extent to deliver for Hayward kids and their families, students, as well as for people who look to Hayward to invest, open businesses, and strengthen our economy.

Forty one percent of Hayward’s population is a student from preschool to graduate school and my top priority is making students and their families safe. My goal is to fully staff our fire and police departments and make neighborhoods and school campuses safer for kids and students.

I have supported and voted for every strategy to put more patrol officers in Hayward neighborhoods and I supported our Police Chief’s strategies using city-university partnerships to strengthen patrols in surrounding neighborhoods. Today crime is down for the third year in a row.

Hayward is a city of schools, colleges, and a university and when Hayward students graduate I would like for them to have substantive career choices from entry level to professional level.

I intend to create good and quality jobs in Hayward so students will have good job choices when they graduate. I intend to reform our city’s permitting department to make it easier for entrepreneurs to open and expand their businesses.

I am also focused on filling empty buildings, especially in Downtown Hayward.  Retail shopping habits have changed over the years and Hayward’s economic development team needs the Mayor’s support and good tools and a relevant strategic plan to go out and recruit industry and retail that will create jobs and bring people back to Hayward to shop.

Good and quality jobs will no doubt give graduates choices and simultaneously encourage people to raise their families here.

The single most important factor families consider when deciding where to live is the quality of schools. I intend to restore Hayward’s reputation in education and I intend to make Hayward an “Education City.”

I am committed to our city’s new General Plan and I will make sure we invest in our students from cradle to career. I intend to work with all of our academic institutions to design activities and curriculum that focuses on STEM and the arts that kids can participate year-round and when school isn’t in session. The infrastructure to keep students in school and learning exists, we just need to be creative and keep programs open after school and year-round.

I want to work with CSUEB and Chabot College to plan summer activities for middle and high school students who want to go to college and take college courses to prepare.  I plan to meet and ask the leaders of all of our academic institutions and what they need from the city to do this.

I want college graduates to make Hayward their home because its safe, the city’s is committed to their children’s future, and because a good and quality job exists after graduation.  Hayward companies ought to hire Hayward students first and I would like to give companies that choice. Hundreds of students graduate from Hayward every year and our city’s comeback is contingent on the opportunities that exist for them after graduation.

Never has Hayward had an Education Mayor, this is the vision I am committed to because all of our futures depend on the quality of our schools from preschool to graduate school.

The Pioneer discloses the Spanish Editor, Beatriz Orozco, is currently a Teacher’s Assistant for Mark Salinas’s Public Opinion course.