Candidate for
Councilmember; City of Fremont

Fremont is a great city. I've called it my home for 49 years. I love our city and have established my business and home here. I will work diligently to maintain Fremont's unique character as the best place in the country to raise a family. My priorities include creating a strong sense of community within our neighborhoods and preserving our precious natural assets, such as our hills.

Cities are organic and must change over time in order to survive. Fremont has developed within a template that emphasizes a single type of suburban growth. Given the demands of our increasing population and the needs of our businesses, we must direct our growth in a way that responds to those needs within the context of local, regional, and global changes. Climate change and the warming of our environment demands local land use planning attention. That means we must act wisely to increasing traffic demands, energy costs, and climate change. If Fremont doesn't adapt its growth policies to meet these challenges in a positive way, we will end up with heavier traffic congestion, longer commutes, a diminished sense of community, greater crime, and a commercial base that is diluted by suburban sprawl.

We must do better. I have championed clean technology and green regulations for the city of Fremont to make our city buildings more energy efficient and environmentally responsible, to encourage clean, responsible businesses to locate here with good paying clean & green jobs, and to promote an ecologically friendly residential lifestyle. I have publicly supported growth policies that would require new construction projects to adopt green building principles.

Additionally, I'm concerned about resource use, especially how we use our water and how we organize our streets. I urged the city to adopt the Ahwahnee Water Principles designed to spearhead conservation and drought resistant landscaping and aggressive actions to improve groundwater runoff and water quality. As your council member I've joined the national Local Government Commission recognized as a leader in formulating plans for smart growth to meet the needs of our society. Transit oriented development is one of its leading elements, and I believe Fremont must implement these policies in the coming years.

I'm dedicated to changing the development style of Fremont so that new residences are affordable, new construction and industries are clean and green, and Fremont remains a safe, livable, and prosperous home for its citizens and its commercial neighborhoods alike.

I have three Priorities for Fremont:

1. Public Safety
2. Economic Development
3. Transportation