A common theme among statements made by Fremont City Council and mayoral candidates last week was that the city needs more jobs and new development in order to get back on track.
All five candidates for mayor participated in a forum held by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce Sept. 19 at Fremont Adult School. It was the first candidates forum held for both the mayoral and council seats up for grabs this November.
This year, the mayoral candidates are Aziz Akbari, Steve Cho, Bill Harrison, Anu Natarajan and Linda Susoev.
None were more vocal about job growth and attracting businesses to the city than former Councilman Steve Cho and newcomer Aziz Akbari.
Cho said businesses will only come to Fremont if the mayor promotes the city in a positive light.
"We think we're business friendly, but we're not," he said. "I keep hearing from businesses who want to come here that we're not. We need to create incentives for people to come here."
Cho said the city has the vacant space to accommodate several businesses, and if Fremont could just attract one Fortune 500 company, it could get the ball rolling.
Akbari expressed similar concerns, adding Fremont is a prime location for big companies as it sits between two major freeways. However, he said other markets in the Bay Area primarily San Francisco and San Jose are 30 percent cheaper when it comes to rent.
"We have a lot of companies that want to come here," he said. "But we have a lot of roadblocks within the city
government. We need to market the city as a place to come out and shop in, to stay in, so we can attract more jobs here."But Councilman Harrison said Fremont should also focus on bringing in more small business, as those bring revenue to the city.
"Fremont needs to concentrate not only on bringing big businesses here," he said. "We need to focus on a balance with small businesses. We need to work with these businesses to streamline the process, bring them here and get people back to work."
When it came to listing off incentives that might attract any business to Fremont, all the candidates drew blanks. Cho suggested, however, reducing business taxes, or not charging business the full cost to come to Fremont up front.
Vice Mayor Natarajan noted the city's plan to develop in Warm Springs around the Tesla Motors plant as an innovation that will bring more development and jobs here.
"I'm proud of the work we've done as a community and a city council," she said. "The opportunity we have in Warm Springs will be the center for job growth and development. We even brought in the Urban Land Institute, which reviewed our plans and said there is great potential there."
Mayoral candidate Susoev agreed with the others that more jobs need to be created.
During the council candidates forum later in the evening, Vinnie Bacon expressed the same concerns. He said the city needs to make sure the voices of potential businesses coming to Fremont are heard.
"Fremont has a reputation for not being very friendly towards businesses," Bacon said. "I've been hearing that this is a known issue and the city is looking into fixing the problem. But we need a change in attitude form the highest people in our leadership."
However, incumbent Sue Chan echoed Natarajan's statement that the ball is rolling when it comes to development and creating more jobs. Chan also highlighted the developments underway in Warm Springs, as well as Fremont's future downtown.
She also noted Seagate recently purchased the vacant Solyndra site in the area, and Thermo Fisher recently acquired more land.
"Both areas (downtown and Warm Springs) have potential," she said. "South Fremont clearly has an anchor in Tesla Motors. We're trying to create a 21st Century job center, and Tesla will be the anchor to bringing similar businesses to the area."
Other candidates disagreed with Chan's sentiment though.
John J. Dutra and Mark Wadley, both newcomers to the political arena, said the focus needed to be on bringing new and unique businesses to the city.
Dutra said a high tech anchor will bring similar businesses to Fremont but won't generate much revenue, and that's not what the city needs.
"Look at the past 20 years," he said. "Look at the Hub or Pacific Commons. They were developed with the city supporting them. We need businesses like those that will attract people from other cities."
Wadley agreed, stating a commercial or retail anchor would bring smaller, yet popular and similar businesses around it.
"We need to promote incentives to bringing large businesses in, like tax credits for buying local," Dutra added. "We basically need to work within the city to bring these large businesses in and allow them to bring others in as well."
Rick Jones, a former Fremont police officer who is also running for the first time, said the city should use its diverse population to bring more people in.
He said the city's plan to build a cultural arts center in downtown would bring people to Fremont, and most likely inspire them to stay.
"You get to experience so much of what happens around the world through the eyes of the people who live here," Jones said. "If you can get a cultural arts center here, it would be a model. But it would have to be a venture between corporations, the city and private donations."
Rakesh Sharma, a former planning commissioner, had a completely different take on future development.
Sharma said he was tired of hearing about plans for downtown a proposed destination he said that has been in the works for more than 20 years and felt the city should focus on revamping Centerville before starting any other development center projects.
"Centerville is a $10 million to $15 million project we can get done, and it will bring revenue," he said. "Once we get done with that area and we see that it's working, you can start on a bigger area that will attract people from all over the Bay Area."
Contact Wes Bowers at wbowers@themilpitaspost.com or 510-661-9920. Visit us on our social media sites at facebook.com/milpitas post and twitter.com/milpitaspost.
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