Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that today I am kicking off my campaign for Fremont Mayor, and I hope you will join me! I am running for Mayor because Fremont is a great city, and I want to lead Fremont into an even brighter future.

What makes a great city great?

The qualities that make Fremont great - a thriving business community, open space, retail and entertainment, and a true sense of community - are also the keys to making our city better and the future brighter for Fremont residents and families. There is so much work we can do together for Fremont's future. Will you join me?

What makes a great city work?

The foundation of a great city is good permanent high-paying jobs. Fremont already is a center of job creation and innovation, and we can make it even better. In the last year, 30 clean tech businesses have opened in Fremont making it a Bay Area hub for clean and green business. Investors have poured nearly $1 billion in venture capital to spur cutting edge start-ups in Fremont. Local entrepreneurs have created 2200 patents, resulting in Fremont being recognized as the 2nd most inventive city in the entire country.

As Mayor, I will ensure that we continue to build on Fremont's greatest economic assets: our highly educated workforce, our fine public schools, and our terrific access to local and regional transit, which will improve even more with the expansion of BART to Warm Springs and San Jose.

What makes a great city fun?

A great city is a city where more and more people can live where they work, and play where they live. Fremont's abundance of open space and parks gives us a unique quality of life and provides families a wonderful outlet for recreation. And our police and fire departments work hard to ensure that they are safe and secure. As a mother of a young daughter, I know how important it is to have safe places for our children to play and for families to have fun together in our recreational areas.

The opening of the new Century Theaters at Pacific Commons will be the centerpiece of an exciting new retail and entertainment complex, making Fremont a more inclusive city that people of all ages and backgrounds can enjoy.

As Mayor, I will continue our city's commitment to bringing more entertainment, restaurant, and retail options to the city and preserving our open space for all of us to enjoy.

What makes a great city thrive?

The life-blood of a great city is its people. Fremont has a long history of citizen engagement that began over a half century ago at the city's inception, and that continues to shape our community today. As your Vice-Mayor and on the city council, I have seen first-hand how passionately involved our community has been during our general planning process over the last few years. Fremont residents came to community meetings and public events around the city to collaboratively work to create a vision for Fremont's future. As a result of this community-driven process, the city council adopted the general plan last year, which will make the community's dreams for an even greater Fremont a reality.

What makes a great city's future even brighter?

Great ideas, community engagement, and a bold vision. My campaign for Mayor is built on Fremont's tradition of community engagement. I want to hear from Fremont residents, community activists, and local businesses about what you think makes Fremont great and what we can do to build the brightest possible future for our city.

In the next several months, I look forward to meeting you and talking to you about your vision for Fremont. I invite you to join me in my campaign for Mayor so that together we can give a great city an even brighter future.

Sincerely,

Anu Natarajan
Fremont Vice-Mayor
P.S. I hope you will join me in this campaign by signing up on our website and joining me on Facebook. See you on the campaign trail!