San Jose Mercury News viết về Madison Nguyễn
[CENTER][B]Madison Nguyen: Seeing an example in the Samsung building[/B][/CENTER]
By Scott Herhold
[email]sherhold@mercurynews.com[/email]
POSTED: 04/07/2014 12:00:00 PM PDT6 COMMENTS
UPDATED: 04/08/2014 06:40:23 AM PDT
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[I]Mayoral candidate Madison Nguyen in front of the construction site of the Samsung headquarters in San Jose, Calif., April 1, 2014. (Gary Reyes, Bay Area News Group)
This is the second of five columns on the five major candidates for San Jose mayor.
[TV xin tạm dịch: Ứng cử viên thị trưởng Madison Nguyễn đứng phía trước của công trường xây dựng trụ sở Samsung tại San Jose, California, ngày 01 tháng tư 2014. (Gary Reyes, Bay Area News Group)
Đây là bài thứ hai trong loạt 5 bài (của San Jose Mercury News) viết về năm ứng cử viên quan trọng nhất cho chức thị trưởng San Jose (2014).][/I]
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Madison Nguyen is the most petite and most polite of the five major candidates for San Jose mayor. She seldom says anything cutting about her rivals. She jokes about accepting the outrageous slings and arrows of political life.
Don't be fooled. Nguyen's charm masks a steely ambition, born from her roots in an immigrant family of strawberry pickers. So it wasn't a total surprise that she took me to the massive new Samsung building to illustrate her ambitions as mayor.
At the northwest corner of First Street and Tasman Drive, the NBBJ-designed American headquarters for Samsung is rising now like a gigantic Stonehenge, with twin 10-story towers, 680,000 square feet and a boast of architectural distinction.
As vice mayor, Nguyen cannot claim special credit for having landed the big fish. The negotiations for the concessions the city gave Samsung were handled by Mayor Chuck Reed and Kim Walesh, the director of economic development.
As a talented evoker of symbolism, however, Nguyen points to the Samsung building as a template of what she seeks as mayor, a vigorous expansion of the city's drive for jobs and tax revenue.
[B]77 DAYS[/B]
"We were able to do everything for them in 77 days," she told me. "I'd like to use this as an example of what the planning department is capable of doing to show that we are a very business-friendly city."
The next question was inevitable: Just why would she -- of the five major candidates -- be the best person to bring in the next Samsung? After all, bringing jobs to town is the first of the municipal Ten Commandments.
"I think the difference is the energy, the drive, the ability to see something magnificent, something bigger in San Jose," she told me. "I find pride in doing this not just for the city, but for myself."
To a greater extent than any of her rivals, the 39-year mother of one makes her personal story the centerpiece of her campaign.
It's a remarkable story: Born in Vietnam less than four months before Saigon toppled to the Communists in 1975, she fled with her family in a boat, landing in a holding camp in the Philippines.
After finally arriving in America, the Nguyens went first to Scottsdale, Ariz., and then to Modesto, where she grew up as one of nine children on the rough side of town, traveling an hour to pick strawberries in the morning, listening to her father lecture the kids about securing a better life.
[B]ELECTED IN 2005[/B]
She went on to graduate in history from UC Santa Cruz and do graduate work at the University of Chicago before returning to California. In 2005, she was elected to the council over a well-funded opponent who was the daughter of a major power broker in the Vietnamese community.
Nguyen is probably best known for the "Little Saigon" controversy of 2007, when she resisted attempts to christen the commercial district near McLaughlin and Story Roads "Little Saigon," a name freighted with the anti-Communism of Vietnamese in America. She proposed the clunkier "Saigon Business District," now mercifully forgotten.
The councilwoman survived a recall election and made peace with some -- though not all -- of her critics. As vice mayor, she has wrapped herself closely in the mantle of incumbent Mayor Chuck Reed, standing vocally for his Measure B pension reform.
If you ask Nguyen why she would be a good mayor, you do not get a 10-point plan or a position statement. Instead, she often invokes the symbolic importance of electing a young Vietnamese woman to the top political job in one of America's most diverse cities.
"I think people want to see someone who understands their struggle, someone who understands their identity," she told me. "When I listen to people's stories, and I tell them my life story, there's a deep connection."
[B]LEEWAY GRANTED[/B]
To some extent, this allows Nguyen, who still speaks with a Vietnamese accent and takes an occasional grammatical shortcut, more leeway than her competitors.
In answer to a question at a recent debate at Gunderson High School, Nguyen said a potential police officer would be attracted to San Jose by the top 90 percent pensions.
Under the pension reforms she helped champion, it's actually 65 percent for the new "tier two" recruits. But none of her rivals challenged her. Nguyen said later that she understood the question to be in the past tense, but it was clearly asked in the present tense.
The emphasis on the personal makes for good politics. Nguyen talks readily about being the mother of a 2-year-old, Olivia. (Nguyen is married to Terry Tran, a stay-at-home husband who has studied pharmacology).
But make no mistake: For all her charm -- when she describes her practical father's chagrin at her history degree, she can make you laugh -- Nguyen has a confidence in her own judgment that is about as unmovable as the Samsung building's foundations.
At a recent debate at Bethel Church in West San Jose, the candidates were asked to describe a vote they regretted. Pierluigi Oliverio talked of his regret at converting a piece of industrial land to housing. Sam Liccardo talked about a Little Saigon vote he would take back.
Nguyen said she had no regrets. She read the agenda carefully.
Contact Scott Herhold at 408-275-0917 or [email]sherhold@mercurynews.com.Twitter.com[/email]/scottherhold.
Nguồn:
[url]http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_25516993/madison-nguyen-seeing-an-example-samsung-building[/url]
Bài đọc có liên quan - Ghi chú của TV:
1. Bài đầu tiên trong loạt 5 bài viết về năm ứng cử viên quan trọng nhất cho chức thị trưởng San Jose: “Pierluigi Oliverio comes from immigrant roots” - Scott Herhold:
[url]http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_25477303/pierluigi-oliverio-comes-from-immigrant-roots[/url]
2. “Phó thị trưởng thành phố San Jose, Madison Nguyễn, được mời qua Nam Hàn bàn chuyện hợp tác kinh tế”- Trương Thị Hàm Yên:
[url]http://www.baocalitoday.com/vn/tin-tuc/cong-dong/pho-thi-truong-thanh-pho-san-jose-madison-nguyen-duoc-moi-qua-nam-han-ban-chuyen-hop-tac-kinh-te.html[/url]
THƯ MỜI THAM DỰ Buổi Hội Thảo giữa các UCV Thị Trưởng và Cộng Đồng Người Mỹ gốc Việt tại San Jose.
Kính thưa quư hội đoàn cùng quư đồng hương,
Trân trọng kính mời quư vị đến tham dự một buổi hội thảo giữa các ứng viên chức Thị Trưởng Thành phố San Jose với cử tri người Mỹ gốc Việt. Buổi hội thảo sẽ được tổ chức bởi một số hội đoàn trong Thung Lũng Hoa Vàng.
Đây là một sinh hoạt với sự tham dự của công chúng, nhằm tạo cơ hội hiểu thêm về các ứng cử viên và các chính sách quan trọng sẽ ảnh hưởng đến cộng đồng Người Mỹ gốc Việt sinh sống trong thành phố San Jose.
Buổi Hội Thảo sẽ diễn ra trong Rạp hát Visual Performing Arts của trường Đại Học Evergreen Valley với sự điều hợp của cô Vicky Nguyễn, một phóng viên từng được giải thưởng hiện làm việc cho NBC Bay Area News.
[COLOR="#FF0000"]Thời gian[/COLOR]: Ngày Chủ Nhật 13 tháng 4 năm 2014, 10:30 mở cửa.
Chương tŕnh bắt đầu từ 11 giờ sáng đến 12 giờ 30 trưa.
[COLOR="#FF0000"]Địa điểm[/COLOR]: Rạp hát trường Đại Học Evergreen VPA, 3095 Yeaba Buena Rd.
San Jose, CA 95135.
Đă có 5 ứng cử viên nhận lời là Giám Sát Viên Dave Cortese và các Nghị Viên Sam Licardo, Rose Herrera, Madison Nguyễn và Pierluigi Oliverio.
Buổi Hội Thảo có sự hợp tác giữa trường Đại Học Evergreen và các hội đoàn có tên sau đây (tính đến ngày 30-3-2014):
Vietnamese American Roundtable (VAR), Vietnamese American Professional Women of Silicon Valley (VAPW), Liên Đoàn Cử Tri Viet Voters, Liên Hội Sinh Viên Việt Nam Bắc Cali (UVSA), Cộng Đồng Người Việt Quốc Gia Bắc Cali (VACCNorCal), Viet Public Broadcast Network (VietPBN), Lực Lượng Sĩ Quan Thủ Đức, Hội Phụ Nữ Việt Mỹ Thiện Nguyện Bắc Cali, Asian Pacific Islander Amercan Public Affairs Association (APAPA) VStar United FC, Hội Phụ Nữ Việt Nam Hải Ngoại Bắc Cali Oversea Vietnames Women Association.
Kính mong quư đồng hương bớt chút th́ giờ đến tham dự buổi hội thảo này.
Trân Trọng,
San Jose ngày 30-3-2014
TM. Ban Tổ Chức
Hội Vietnamese American Roundtable
Hội Thảo Các Ứng Cử Viên Thị Trưởng Và Cộng Đồng Người Mỹ Gốc Việt Tại San Jose
[CENTER][video=youtube;uI2avVmLI98]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI2avVmLI98[/video][/CENTER]
Cuộc hội thảo của đầy đủ 5 ứng cử viên Thị Trưởng thành phố San Jose gồm những vị: Dave Cortese, Sam Liccardo, Madison Nguyễn, Rose Herrera và Pierluigi Oliverio với khoảng 150 quan khách và cử tri người Mỹ gốc Việt đă khai diễn lúc 10g30 sáng Chủ Nhật 13-4-2014 tại hư viện của trường Đại học Evergreen Valley, toạ lạc tại 3095 Yerba Buena Road, thành phố San Jose.
Việt Vùng Vịnh