“Governor Schwarzenegger gave me that moniker. I wear it proudly. We’re very much intent here in San Jose to be the world center of clean tech innovation; we have our Green Vision with very big bold goals and so I’m happy to be the Green Mayor.”
On his modest beginnings
“I know what it’s like to be poor. I started working when I was in elementary school….I worked in the fields digging trenches -literally – that taught me the value of hard work.”
On his road to San Jose
“I aspired to go to California because of the Beach Boys. All that singing about California beaches and cars and girls and surfing all sounded like great fun. And guess what? It is!”
On his motivations for going green
“I can look back to a conversation I had with a Marine Major in our environmental business cluster. I’m an Air-Force veteran myself… and he said he was tired of paying for both sides of the war, that our energy policy and our consumption of foreign oil was basically funding the Iranians, the Saudis, the Venezuelans, the Russians. He was working on a solar project…and I realized what they were doing in Silicon Valley was actually to give us an opportunity for energy independence and give the world energy independence from oil and fossil fuels.”
I met with San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed at his swanky corner office on the 18th floor of the gleaming City Hall just three days after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States. We discuss what this historic election means for Chuck and his Green Vision for Silicon Valley; and how he got his moniker The Green Mayor. We also explore:
1. Chuck’s own dramatic journey from poverty in Garden City, Kansas (digging trenches) to top public servant in Silicon Valley
2. How the Beach Boys influenced that journey
3. Why his military background helped shape his green motivations today
4. What Mike Honda said to inspire his bold Green Vision
5. Why Silicon Valley companies from Fairchild to startups are getting into clean tech.
6. How a Green Mayor walks the green walk at home and why his lawn has brown spots.
To listen to Part Two of the interview on Tesla, tactics for attracting clean tech etc, click here
