Claire Mack of San Mateo, has dedicated her life to making her community a better place, from advocacy for a renewed downtown to helping lead a drive for a new library and tireless promotion of the arts. Claire first served on San Mateo’s Parks and Recreation Commission, then as a 12-year member of the City Council and the city’s first African American mayor. She worked to establish building height and density limits and requirements for affordable housing and helped lead the effort to revitalize her city’s core with new businesses and a movie theatre. Claire also helped lead the drive for a new library, inspiring ethnic and cultural constituencies to get involved and help raise funds to make this new resource a model for other communities. She is a tireless promoter of the arts, and used her position as on-air talent for a local college radio station to give airtime to divergent news. And for 12 years, Claire got up at 4:30 a.m. every Saturday and led a downtown street cleaning crew comprised of homeless people. All these things she did with good humor, making lasting friends everywhere she went. Claire is a truly remarkable woman, a role model whose dedication, energy and heart have embraced an entire community and made it a better place.
