Our History
San Carlos Sister City Association (SCSCA), authorized by the City of San Carlos under the auspices of the History, Arts and Science Commission, was incorporated by the State of California as a nonprofit in June 1998 with the express purpose of furthering global understanding and goodwill by initiating relationships between San Carlos and cities and citizens in other countries. The goal is to establish meaningful relationships, learn more about other societies, and gain mutual understanding through people-to-people cultural exchanges.
Our initial sister city connection was with the Australian city of Croyden, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne, when the then board president visited Croyden and signed the formal documents creating sisterhood. The relationship quickly blossomed into an active connection featuring a live chess match, played via Skype with people dressed as the chess pieces on a giant board. In the first test, San Carlos was soundly trounced. Plans were laid for student, sports team, and business exchanges as well as an exchange of City Managers. The ultimate goal was to foster citizen-to-citizen contacts, which might result in international home hosting visits or home exchanges as both societies share a common language (sort of) and similar cultures but with sufficient differences to make it interesting. However, early in the second year, Croyden combined with four other contiguous cities to become the city of Maroondah, Victoria, and the relationship ceased.
Our second sister city was Scandicci, Italy, a suburb of Florence when a San Carlos board member who spoke some Italian made a connection with the mayor of Scandicci. Documents were duly signed but within a year of declaring ourselves sisters, a Communist Party candidate was elected mayor, and all communication ground to an abrupt halt, never to be revived. It was during this first year that "A Taste of Italy" was begun as a fundraiser to finance a student exchange scholarship program. "Taste," as it came to be known, was held annually in Laurel Street Park for more than a decade, with local Italian restaurants donating hot dish specialties. The event was sufficiently successful that the San Carlos Chamber of Commerce asked if they could take it over as an outgrowth of "Taste." Other restaurants participated in "A La Carte in the Park" in City Hall Park for obeyer before it was taken over by the dogs.
Our next sister city was San Carlos, Nicaragua, a jungle community of 17,000 on the banks of Lake Cocibolca and the Río San Juan. The sole commonality with our city was that we shared a name, as the connection must be termed "a giving relationship." A delegation of several of our board members visited our Nicaraguan sister to learn how we might best help and returned with a small quantity of very colorful Nicaraguan handicrafts to test their marketability in California. Although the idea of the craft was unsuccessful, our board invited the Nicaraguan mayor to California, funded her travel, and she was hosted in the home of a board member. She did meet both our City Manager and several Councilmen, although the language barrier prevented any meaningful personal exchanges. The mayor did, however, make it known that her city had no Internet connection, so that was an area in which we could help.
Although resources were limited to the wallets of our members, we gathered older but fully functional computers, printers, and supplies, which American Airlines carried free as an extra baggage allowance as far as Managua, the Nicaraguan capital. From there, a puddle jumper to San Carlos split the consignment in half for reasons of weight, but two flights delivered everything to the grass landing strip. Our board then funded an expensive satellite Internet link for one year to allow the system to function as a subsidized pay-per-use community service, and while in San Carlos, our board president gathered information on the many other community needs but was besieged by individuals seeking funding for all manner of personal things such as gas for fishing boats. Coincidentally, a Dutch group from Groningen, Netherlands, was building 400 square-foot cement block houses using local labor by those who would live in the houses, with both materials and some necessary professional labor funded by the Dutch city. Our president inquired if San Carlos, CA, could make a contribution to this meaningful, worthwhile effort but was advised that plans, materials, and funding were all in place and that it was a Dutch-only operation. Unfortunately, at the end of the year, the Nicaraguans did not continue funding the satellite link, and our board decided that our resources were not sufficient to make a meaningful impact in funding housing or civic projects. That being the case, the Nicaraguan city seems no longer interested in a relationship.
We then cast about for another connection, one which was culturally similar to an English-speaking society, and a link was made through a radio talk show host in Okotoks, Alberta, 27 miles south of Calgary. We felt the advantages of Okotoks were that communication was easy, exchange visits did not require an overseas trip, and annual vacation times were very similar. There were plans for student and sports exchanges, exchanges of city department heads, and even direct citizen-to-citizen home hosting and home exchanges as the Bay Area features many attractions and Calgary annually hosts a week-long world-class rodeo - the Calgary Stampede. The Okotoks City Manager did visit San Carlos, but shortly after that, the radio personality who was the driving force in Okotoks took a new position in another province, and the two remaining parties seemed far more interested in coming south in the winter to play golf rather than establishing mutual exchanges.
Number five was Metepec, Mexico, an upscale suburb of Toluca, an hour west of Mexico City, to which two of our board members traveled to meet city leaders, sign documents of sisterhood, and were hosted by a local artist, sculptor, and writer. Their reception was wonderfully warm, the documents full of flowery language and high hopes for a long relationship with a number of exchanges. The first summer high school students from several of Metepec's leading families came to us for two weeks and were hosted, shown around, and entertained by local families. In reciprocity, two university freshmen from San Carlos stayed with Metepec families who had sent their children to us, but the report we received was not what was hoped for. Subsequently, a group of adults, including a Mexican Senator, made a brief visit to San Carlos and San Francisco, but after that, the relationship faded to black.
Next, our board discussed a possible European partnership with the thought that such a relationship might broaden appeal among local adults, so contact was made with five communities along the upper Rhine in Germany (Bingen am Rhein, Oberwesel, Sankt Goarand Ramagen) as well as Sintra, Portugal but received no reciprocal interest.
Finally, we selected Omura as the most likely comparable sister of the three the San Francisco Japanese Consulate recommended as interested in an American sister city. Almost immediately, it was evident that there was viable interest as the Omura mayor and his delegation made a visit to San Carlos and planted a cherry tree in our City Hall Park. After discussions via a translator, our then president agreed on an exchange program in which four Japanese students were hosted by local families for just shy of two weeks, and an equal number of our local students lived with Omura families in early to mid-July each year. This program paused during COVID-19 but will be again activated for July 2024, and the application is on our Sister City website.
Our history makes clear that maintaining a viable sister-city relationship takes work and commitment by both parties and if the idea of such an international relationship interests you, please make contact to become a member.
In 2024, there will be another cooperative project involving a local artist and one from Omura in painting a large mural in Sister City Lane depicting international cooperation, and its dedication will include Omura's mayor and his delegation, in addition to San Carlos dignitaries and sister city members.