Thank you to the A's
I am a new member to FCN. I want to take a moment to thank the A's for trying to locate in our city. Thanks to them, this group has been formed.
I have lived in Fremont since 1984. Twice I have moved to the Bay Area and both times I have chosen Fremont to live in. I remember living in the Lake homes in the Ardenwood area. At the time you could still walk your dog in the parks that ran through the neighborhood. Doing that these days would be taking your life in your hands!
I bought into the theory and paid the price to live in the Mission school area because of my kids. Hopkins Jr. was worth the money. Mission High was not! The kids and their parents are what makes Mission...not the teachers. Our experience with the school was that the majority of teachers had little interest in working with the students that needed the most help. They devoted their time on the highest achievers as those were the ones who made them look best. My oldest son graduated from Mission with a B average in 1998. My youngest son left Mission and went through the Vista program. That was the best decision we ever made for him. He went on to be a systems administrator for a mid-size corporation in Milpitas.
I purchased a home in the South Sundale neighborhood in 2003. Since then we have had to keep our garage door shut during the day while we are home because of the folks who like to see what they could walk off with. The other night we heard four loud gunshots just before 11:00PM! We had a drunken 16-year old in a stolen car take out several cars parked on the road, take out a fence, take out the side of a house, and finally got stopped by a tree...all at 4:00 in the morning.
I have seen Centerville turn into a place you don't even want to walk around in during daylight hours. I always chuckle when I read in the Argus about efforts to bring upscale development to the area. They'll have to root out all the gangs before anyone who knows Fremont would want to spend time there.
I have seen the corner of Blacow and Stevenson lose Fremont Bank, Albertsons, Fiesta Taco, and the 76 gas station. What an eyesore that has become!
This is a community that wants nice things. Fremont is a fairly well-off community. Yet, our retail certainly does not reflect that. We are overrun by chain restaurants that serve, at best, mediocre fare; yet the people of Fremont line up to get it. We are getting overrun by "international" shopping centers, which I understand reflects the demographics of our city...but come on...how many do we need. Did we really need another one in place of Navlet's Nursery?
I remember how long the people of Fremont have wanted a Whole Foods. I also remember how the people of Fremont fought against bringing Wal-Mart to town. What did we wind up with? No Whole Foods and TWO Wal-Marts.
We hear that we cannot pay to have a responsive police department. Fire houses will be on rolling schedules. But we can afford 14 million to pay for a water park that will be open 3 months a year. Before someone dings me on that one...I understand that the water park money was set up just for that. But the bottom line is...if somewhere, somehow that much money can be "found" for something as silly as a water park, why can't we have retail that EVERYONE would enjoy and use, a police department that actually responds to something other than violent crime, and a fire department that is open 24/7 like in the Good Old Days.
The City of Fremont, as others here have mentioned, are an arrogant lot. I remember once reading Rick Diaz commenting that the city needs to be run like a business. This is the same Rick Diaz who refused to respond to an issue we had in our neighborhood when they were putting a huge new cell tower one street over and we had to listen to and smell the diesel generator 24/7 for a week.
This group has a chance to help make change. The A's got you started. Now try to get past the A's. I am glad the A's are looking elsewhere. I won't miss the congestion it would have created. I won't miss all the low-paying jobs that would have come with it. I won't miss having to use my tax dollars to give them a "bail-out" when they mismanage it and aren't generating the revenue they expected. I know that it wouldn't cost anything to the City of Fremont. Sure. As much money as a sports franchise make, they should NEVER be having a hand out to anybody.
Having got that out of my system...I look forward to being a member of this group. Thank you for taking the time to read my long introductory message. I want Fremont to be a better place. I want to address the crime/gang issues in Fremont. I want to address the lack of retail that appeals to more than just certain demographics. I want to see the officials held accountable for their decisions that affect us all.
I have lived in Fremont since 1984. Twice I have moved to the Bay Area and both times I have chosen Fremont to live in. I remember living in the Lake homes in the Ardenwood area. At the time you could still walk your dog in the parks that ran through the neighborhood. Doing that these days would be taking your life in your hands!
I bought into the theory and paid the price to live in the Mission school area because of my kids. Hopkins Jr. was worth the money. Mission High was not! The kids and their parents are what makes Mission...not the teachers. Our experience with the school was that the majority of teachers had little interest in working with the students that needed the most help. They devoted their time on the highest achievers as those were the ones who made them look best. My oldest son graduated from Mission with a B average in 1998. My youngest son left Mission and went through the Vista program. That was the best decision we ever made for him. He went on to be a systems administrator for a mid-size corporation in Milpitas.
I purchased a home in the South Sundale neighborhood in 2003. Since then we have had to keep our garage door shut during the day while we are home because of the folks who like to see what they could walk off with. The other night we heard four loud gunshots just before 11:00PM! We had a drunken 16-year old in a stolen car take out several cars parked on the road, take out a fence, take out the side of a house, and finally got stopped by a tree...all at 4:00 in the morning.
I have seen Centerville turn into a place you don't even want to walk around in during daylight hours. I always chuckle when I read in the Argus about efforts to bring upscale development to the area. They'll have to root out all the gangs before anyone who knows Fremont would want to spend time there.
I have seen the corner of Blacow and Stevenson lose Fremont Bank, Albertsons, Fiesta Taco, and the 76 gas station. What an eyesore that has become!
This is a community that wants nice things. Fremont is a fairly well-off community. Yet, our retail certainly does not reflect that. We are overrun by chain restaurants that serve, at best, mediocre fare; yet the people of Fremont line up to get it. We are getting overrun by "international" shopping centers, which I understand reflects the demographics of our city...but come on...how many do we need. Did we really need another one in place of Navlet's Nursery?
I remember how long the people of Fremont have wanted a Whole Foods. I also remember how the people of Fremont fought against bringing Wal-Mart to town. What did we wind up with? No Whole Foods and TWO Wal-Marts.
We hear that we cannot pay to have a responsive police department. Fire houses will be on rolling schedules. But we can afford 14 million to pay for a water park that will be open 3 months a year. Before someone dings me on that one...I understand that the water park money was set up just for that. But the bottom line is...if somewhere, somehow that much money can be "found" for something as silly as a water park, why can't we have retail that EVERYONE would enjoy and use, a police department that actually responds to something other than violent crime, and a fire department that is open 24/7 like in the Good Old Days.
The City of Fremont, as others here have mentioned, are an arrogant lot. I remember once reading Rick Diaz commenting that the city needs to be run like a business. This is the same Rick Diaz who refused to respond to an issue we had in our neighborhood when they were putting a huge new cell tower one street over and we had to listen to and smell the diesel generator 24/7 for a week.
This group has a chance to help make change. The A's got you started. Now try to get past the A's. I am glad the A's are looking elsewhere. I won't miss the congestion it would have created. I won't miss all the low-paying jobs that would have come with it. I won't miss having to use my tax dollars to give them a "bail-out" when they mismanage it and aren't generating the revenue they expected. I know that it wouldn't cost anything to the City of Fremont. Sure. As much money as a sports franchise make, they should NEVER be having a hand out to anybody.
Having got that out of my system...I look forward to being a member of this group. Thank you for taking the time to read my long introductory message. I want Fremont to be a better place. I want to address the crime/gang issues in Fremont. I want to address the lack of retail that appeals to more than just certain demographics. I want to see the officials held accountable for their decisions that affect us all.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by fremonter on -
Welcome to the group, fellow Sundale-er. Yes, the A's did give us a gift after all - that's what it took to wake us up and get us organized. I just heard someone on TV quote a line from Alice in Wonderland: "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." I guess that's FCN's challenge now; determining which roads we want to follow. We're a lot of smart, ernest, motivated people who don't always agree on everything, but we do all want good things to happen here. Welcome to the effort.
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Permalink Reply by Deepak Alur on -
Welcome! Your participation is what makes a difference.
Regarding Whole Foods in Fremont, you might want to read this as to why we don't have one:
http://www.ibabuzz.com/tricitybeat/2009/06/12/fremont-almost-had-a-...
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Permalink Reply by Kim on -
Whole Foods is going to do what is best for their business, or at least what they think is best. I have done some research on what Whole Foods looks for in choosing a new location. I cannot imagine that central Fremont's demographics for college educated and affluent people are any higher in central Fremont than other places in Fremont. If they truly want to go after the wealthy folks, we all know Mission is where they belong. While Mowy/Fremont Blvd. is centrally located, I have thought a better spot would be where the old Albertson's is on Stevenson and Blacow. It is very close to the freeway and is very easy to get to from many parts of Fremont. That whole eyesore there needs to be developed. Of course, I don't know where the pot smokers from Kennedy would go during lunch!? I'm not kidding about that. I have seen the high schoolers on many occasion smoking pot right in front of Norman's.
I'm just waiting for another "international" food store to be put in there since that seems to be the bulk of the new retail construction taking place here anymore.
As to the comment on the Hooters doing well in Fremont...of course it is. I see restaurants like Pearl's go under. There was once a very good chef in that spot in Irvington that has the ever-changing Mexican restaurants across from the Safeway. His food was simply amazing. It blew La Casita out of the water. But it failed and he has gone back to Mexico. It seems like the people of Fremont have settled for just having mass-produced, mass-marketed food. What a shame! If we want something really good to eat, we have to leave Fremont.
I had thougth that maybe the village that was supposed to adjoin the A's park might have helped bring some new places into town. But probably not. We probably would have wound up with more Hooters, Chilis, and Elephant Bar type places. Whoopee!
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Permalink Reply by Deepak Alur on
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Kim,
Regarding the Stevenson/Blacow and also the Mission Blvd/Warm Springs locations: I asked exactly that question to Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan last week during the FCN Forum public meeting and she said that Wholefoods was adamant about it and does not want to be located in a "strip mall". Other citizens reported at the same meeting that they called Whole Foods management directly to inquire and were told by Whole Foods that "We don't want to deal with 'that city'". Disclaimer: I myself have not called Wholefoods, this is want two other persons said at the meeting.
Kim said:
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Permalink Reply by Michael on -
Sounds like they saw what happened to the A's!
Deepak Alur said:Kim,
Regarding the Stevenson/Blacow and also the Mission Blvd/Warm Springs locations: I asked exactly that question to Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan last week during the FCN Forum public meeting and she said that Wholefoods was adamant about it and does not want to be located in a "strip mall". Other citizens reported at the same meeting that they called Whole Foods management directly to inquire and were told by Whole Foods that "We don't want to deal with 'that city'". Disclaimer: I myself have not called Wholefoods, this is want two other persons said at the meeting.
Kim said:
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Permalink Reply by Kim on
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Yeah, I'm sure that Whole Foods won't move here because of the A's.
You know, michael, we have something in common. You don't get your ball team and I don't get my pricey grocery store. Hey, but we've got two Wal-Marts. How good is that?
As to them not wanting to put their store in a strip mall...the store in San Ramon is in a glorified strip mall. So is the one in Campbell. They're building a new one on Blossom Hill. Guess what? Another glorified strip mall.
They could have put one in Pacific Commons. Of course, then they would have to compete with Costco.
Knowing the arrogance that is our planning and development folks, they probably said something to irritate the Whole Foods people.
Who knows? Just another lost opportunity for Fremont.
Michael said:Sounds like they saw what happened to the A's!
Deepak Alur said:Kim,
Regarding the Stevenson/Blacow and also the Mission Blvd/Warm Springs locations: I asked exactly that question to Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan last week during the FCN Forum public meeting and she said that Wholefoods was adamant about it and does not want to be located in a "strip mall". Other citizens reported at the same meeting that they called Whole Foods management directly to inquire and were told by Whole Foods that "We don't want to deal with 'that city'". Disclaimer: I myself have not called Wholefoods, this is want two other persons said at the meeting.
Kim said:
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Permalink Reply by Deepak Alur on
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From what I heard, Whole Foods discussion is older than that, they refused much earlier, I guess they don't want to deal with the authorities in charge.
Michael said:Sounds like they saw what happened to the A's!
Deepak Alur said:Kim,
Regarding the Stevenson/Blacow and also the Mission Blvd/Warm Springs locations: I asked exactly that question to Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan last week during the FCN Forum public meeting and she said that Wholefoods was adamant about it and does not want to be located in a "strip mall". Other citizens reported at the same meeting that they called Whole Foods management directly to inquire and were told by Whole Foods that "We don't want to deal with 'that city'". Disclaimer: I myself have not called Wholefoods, this is want two other persons said at the meeting.
Kim said:
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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Time to close this discussion as it may not go the way you want it to go.
Deepak Alur said:From what I heard, Whole Foods discussion is older than that, they refused much earlier, I guess they don't want to deal with the authorities in charge.
Michael said:Sounds like they saw what happened to the A's!
Deepak Alur said:Kim,
Regarding the Stevenson/Blacow and also the Mission Blvd/Warm Springs locations: I asked exactly that question to Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan last week during the FCN Forum public meeting and she said that Wholefoods was adamant about it and does not want to be located in a "strip mall". Other citizens reported at the same meeting that they called Whole Foods management directly to inquire and were told by Whole Foods that "We don't want to deal with 'that city'". Disclaimer: I myself have not called Wholefoods, this is want two other persons said at the meeting.
Kim said:
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Permalink Reply by Gus Morrison on
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It was about 2002 when we had a deal with Whole Foods to be the anchor to the Irvington Redevelopment project. We began the process based on that agreement and gave notice to the businesses in the center behind Bay Street Coffee, where Kragan is located. I met with an enthusiastic regional manager at Bay Street, in fact, and he was anxious to come. The direction to pull out came from their corporate hq in Virginia. As a result, coupled with major uncertainties with the state budget (even then) we cancelled the whole project.
I said, at the meeting, that they wanted to be at Mowry and Fremont, representing their thinking, along with the thinking of many businesses. I have heard anecdotally that they have invesgtigatd a couple of sites in that general area, but with no success so far.
I remember that Macaroni Grille wanted to locate in the Hub, on Fremont Blvd between the gas station and Casual Male. We wanted them and I called the VP of the group which owned the Hub at the time. He couldn't have been less interested. He was focused on the Argonaut side of the Hub and nothing we could do would convince him to be open to Macaroni Grille.
Much of the problem in cases like Whole Foods and Macaroni Grille is that the decisions are made at some corporate hq thousands of miles away and their decisions are made based on census data and biased by their own opinions. I think one thing we have learned in the last year is that there often is a lack of brainpower at the top of many corporations.
The best businesses to have are those which are started by local folks. They last thorough lean times by being smarter and more able to react to local conditions. Where Black Angus closes, Country Way florishes. Economic Development is a several step process which starts with protecting what we have first. Then we should help those people to grow and prosper. We should help new businesses to start, especially those with local owners. Only after we have programs to do this should we expend energy on bringing stuff from other states. This is too long a debate to do in writing, but maye at some time a discusion could be held about economic development.
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Permalink Reply by Michael on
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Kim,
You are right and I share some of your disappointment over the direction of Fremont.
Just to be sure, the ballpark DID have plans for unique restaurants in the villiage, several of them that would attract people regardless of whether there was a ball game or not that night. The plan called for establishments across the culinary and price ranges.
This fact and many others seem to be lost in the FCN rhetoric of the ballpark being dangerous because "soneone could get hit on the head with a home run".
Kim said:Whole Foods is going to do what is best for their business, or at least what they think is best. I have done some research on what Whole Foods looks for in choosing a new location. I cannot imagine that central Fremont's demographics for college educated and affluent people are any higher in central Fremont than other places in Fremont. If they truly want to go after the wealthy folks, we all know Mission is where they belong. While Mowy/Fremont Blvd. is centrally located, I have thought a better spot would be where the old Albertson's is on Stevenson and Blacow. It is very close to the freeway and is very easy to get to from many parts of Fremont. That whole eyesore there needs to be developed. Of course, I don't know where the pot smokers from Kennedy would go during lunch!? I'm not kidding about that. I have seen the high schoolers on many occasion smoking pot right in front of Norman's.
I'm just waiting for another "international" food store to be put in there since that seems to be the bulk of the new retail construction taking place here anymore.
As to the comment on the Hooters doing well in Fremont...of course it is. I see restaurants like Pearl's go under. There was once a very good chef in that spot in Irvington that has the ever-changing Mexican restaurants across from the Safeway. His food was simply amazing. It blew La Casita out of the water. But it failed and he has gone back to Mexico. It seems like the people of Fremont have settled for just having mass-produced, mass-marketed food. What a shame! If we want something really good to eat, we have to leave Fremont.
I had thougth that maybe the village that was supposed to adjoin the A's park might have helped bring some new places into town. But probably not. We probably would have wound up with more Hooters, Chilis, and Elephant Bar type places. Whoopee!
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