Santa Clara mayor outlines growth, Measure I spending and data‑center boom in State of the City address

Mayor Lisa M. Gilmore delivered the 2025 State of the City address at Wilcox High School on Oct. 24, outlining priorities for housing, infrastructure, public safety and economic development as Santa Clara prepares to host major global sporting events in 2026.

The mayor said the year’s theme is “shaping tomorrow, celebrating today,” and presented a set of near‑term and longer‑term investments aimed at maintaining Santa Clara’s role as a hub for data centers and AI while preserving community amenities. “Where the mission meets the moment” was introduced as the campaign slogan for the city’s 2026 events activations, Gilmore said.

Gilmore emphasized the economic role of data centers and the local municipal utility. She said Santa Clara hosts more than 55 data centers — the largest cluster on the West Coast — and that data centers and utility revenues contributed “more than $40,000,000 into our general fund” in the last fiscal year, which the mayor said accounts for roughly 13% of the general fund. The mayor credited Silicon Valley Power (SVP) with providing competitive electricity rates and announced a planned doubling of SVP capacity from about 700 megawatts to 1,300 megawatts over the next decade, funded in part by “$455,000,000 in…