As he gazes at the statue on San Jose State’s campus memorializing Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ iconic Black Power salute at the 1968 Olympic games, Tyrone Wade finds himself inspired to push for the type of progress that he says has been recently missing from San Jose and society as a whole.
Despite more than 50 years since that symbolic gesture, Wade — a follower of Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and now a hopeful for the San Jose District 3 City Council seat — sees parallels between that historic moment — while initially viewed as controversial, served as a catalyst for change — and the current political and socioeconomic landscape.
“I see that as a time when we were really active, and what it signifies to me now is that we really do now have to coalesce as a people and as a community to protect our undocumented people and to get changes done with the police department and with the county to change social services,” Wade said. “All those things require us as a people, as a citizenry, to unite and push our agenda forward because our elected officials are not giving us what we ask for.”
Wade, who sports a grizzled beard but declines to provide his age, is one of seven candidates that will appear on the April 8 special election ballot as the city looks to move past the child molestation scandal that forced former Councilman Omar Torres from public office.
Joining him in the race are:
Retired law enforcement officer Adam Duran
Irene Smith, pro tem judge and the most recent political challenger to Torres
Matthew Quevedo, deputy chief of staff to San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan
Anthony Tordillos, an engineer at Google and chair of the city’s planning commission
Philip Dolan, knife sharpener salesman
Gabby Chavez-Lopez, executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley
Wade’s run for the District 3 seat is not his first foray into politics. He previously ran as the only challenger to current Mayor Matt Mahan in the 2024 election that even he admitted was doomed from the start.
Before entering politics, Wade was a former family counselor, homeless shelter manager, and local government employee, which he said gives him a real-life perspective on how to solve San Jose’s most pressing challenges around homelessness, public safety, and economic development.
San Jose District 3 City Council candidate Tyrone Wade stands next to the Victory Salute statute at San Jose State on March 3, 2025. (Devan Patel/Bay Area News Group)
Just as Smith and Carlos’ actions shook up the sporting world, Wade has a more radical view of the homelessness crisis and how he believes the city can progress, differentiating him from the other candidates.
Wade’s vision for District 3 that he has coined H.O.P.E., or health, opportunity, progress and education, takes inspiration from the Delancey Street Foundation’s model in San Francisco, which provided a one-stop shop for rehabilitating former substance abusers, ex-convicts and those in poverty and giving them the tools to run a variety of businesses tied to the organization.
He has proposed adding more medical resources for homeless residents and converting a handful of vacant commercial buildings in District 3 into shelter space while providing skills to homeless residents to become more self-sufficient and contribute to San Jose’s economy.
“I’d have that housing unit converted into a mixed unit where it’s a business, and that business will be an economic hub for the city of San Jose,” Wade said. “Those kinds of things have been done and those kinds of things have been proven successful.”
For the homeless residents who cannot be immediately served in the district, Wade said that the city should look at 3-D printing in construction for faster, more cost-effective alternatives as opposed to the hundreds of millions of dollars the city has allocated to building other interim housing solutions.
While adding shelter space is one side of the equation, he said the city’s own policies have contributed to the failure to adequately build up enough housing stock and affordable housing options.
He has proposed modifying the city’s inclusionary housing ordinance — which requires new developments to set at least 15% of units for affordable housing — by no longer allowing developers to pay in-lieu fees to sidestep the requirement.
“The intent of the law was to provide housing, not to put it into some future funds,” he said. “It’s an immediate need and should be taken care of.”
Wade’s own life experiences also have led him to believe that the police department is in need of a redesign because he said it is “overloaded.”
He recalled his recent dissatisfaction with law enforcement’s response after suffering a stroke and then being assaulted while waiting for a bus during one of the hottest days of the year.
Wade said the city needed to invest more in co-response and nonpolice alternatives “to improve response times for real emergencies and efficient, proper care for non-emergencies.”
Although Wade’s policies may be outside the box and lack the backing of large business and labor factions like his rivals, he is comfortable in his own skin because he does not see himself as a politician spewing empty promises. Instead, he refers to himself as a statesman – someone who listens, communicates, and pursues the right recommendations — at a time when residents are clamoring for it the most.
Related Articles
Letters: As San Jose schools close, convert them to homeless shelters
San Jose: Ex-councilmember Omar Torres formally pleads not guilty in child sex abuse case
Quevedo says his neighborhood, city hall experiences will deliver results faster for San Jose
Chavez-Lopez says District 3, San Jose need “implementers” to drive results
After decades of controversy, San Jose approves digital billboards at four downtown sites
“As it was when I ran for mayor, my belief is that money doesn’t vote,” Wade said. “People vote, so my goal is to reach as many people as possible and introduce my platform to them. I have a vision and a plan to get there. Everybody else has a dream.”
