What identifies our city of a million people to the world? Calling San Jose the “Capital of Silicon Valley” is nice, but it’s a stretch — and what physical image does it bring to mind? Maybe tilt-ups and a couple of famous logos, but we have no Golden Gate Bridge or Statue of Liberty or great river, much less an Eiffel Tower.

These are iconic features of great cities. Where is ours? We could build one, but in our stubby downtown (beneath the airport flight pattern) it couldn’t be tall. Some boosters have proposed reconstructing the electric light tower built downtown in 1881, but it wouldn’t be in the same league as the great urban icons of the world.

We can do something simpler, however — something that would make us unique among great cities , be good for the environment, encourage transportation by cycling and walking and be truly accessible for free to people of all incomes:

We could complete the network of trails that’s already planned along our river, creeks and abandoned railways.

This network is distinct from hiking trails in places like Alum Rock Park because it can provide point-to-point connections right through our urban neighborhoods. Most of the trails run along creeks or the Guadalupe River, protecting the riparian corridors on land where building is not allowed. The creeks flow to the Bay, so all these trails run north/south, but the proposed Three Creeks and Five Wounds Trails on an old railroad right-of-way (rails-to-trails!) would provide east/west connections.

If we completed this network, users could bike or walk from Alviso to Morgan Hill or from Los Gatos to the Hamilton Range through the heart of San Jose. Commuters could cycle to their jobs or to new BART stations, and kids could safely ride their bikes away from congested streets — at the same time reducing automobile traffic. Business or convention visitors and tourists could rent bikes downtown and go all over the Valley, from the Bay to the mountains.

But completing this network will take time, money and most of all commitment. San Jose’s planners have identified 133 miles on 35 existing or potential trails. Fifty-eight miles of trail have been completed. but the trails aren’t connected and there are big gaps.

The city has set a goal of completing 100 miles of trail by 2022, but to achieve it we’ll have to pick up the pace of acquisition and development significantly. And the ultimate goal should be the full 133 miles.

Check out the City’s “Trail Program Strategic Plan” (linked here in the column online). and you’ll see that the parks department is fully behind building out the trail and making San Jose “the national leader for trail integration in the urban environment.”

The City Council’s Neighborhood Services and Education Committee will consider the strategic plan on Thursday. Let’s hope the members and the full city council get behind it.

A real commitment requires money to buy land and develop and maintain trails. While San Jose’s finances have improved, the prospects for a major investment like this aren’t good — without partners.

They could include the Santa Clara County Parks Department and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, which support expanding urban parks and trails. They’re already partners with the city in the planned acquisition of portions of the Five Wounds Trail. But to complete the network, we’ll also need state, federal and private support. Eventually we may even need a local parcel tax or bond dedicated to the trails.

But the commitment has to come first. That work is happening this fall.

Terry Christensen is Executive Director of Friends of Five Wounds Trail and host of CreaTV’s Valley Politics. He wrote this for The Mercury News. .