I definitely don’t want Fremont to be Palo Alto, but I think we should be able to learn from the decisions that they and other successful cities have made and make them work in our situation. Sure, we’ll never have a word-famous university, but certainly we can do better than freeways, Safeways and high-delsity dwelling units. I don’t have a degree in city planning, but with the economy the way it is, the woods must be pretty thick with unemployed grads. We’re lucky to have one who appears to have more than a passing interest in running for City office.

I know what you mean, B – I’d pay good money to be able to go to a good old fashioned butcher shop again – one that’s not attached to a mega-super store. All of the “mom and pop” groceries have gone away. I guess the farmer’s market is the only place to get produce that isn’t corporate.

Whoever keeps grinding the “we’re not Palo Alto” theme is spot on is also. And we dont want to be. At the same time, somebody please let me know why we can’t attract something a notch better than Safeway ?

Is there any place in Fremont where one can go and acquire produce, meats and other groceries that are anything other than in direct price competition with Safeway ? (Andy – I’m not asking for one on every street corner – THAT would be Palo Alto).

Developers are going to try to get the best deal they can. Residents should be able to count on City staff to be just as aggressive on our behalf.

Some homes in Detroit can be picked up for under $10,000. No, I didn’t forget a zero. But, I like our climate just fine.

It seems to me that, while I’m sure your comments are true, they illustrate to me the disconnect between common sense and how things are done in the City. I realize that “The new guy wants a clean slate and wants to be ready to start as soon as he has paid for the site.” but, call me a cockeyed optimist, I thought it was the City’s job to look out for the interests of existing residents and businesses first. The “new guy” doesn’t have any skin in the game if he hasn’t even paid for the site yet.

It sounds to me as if the City is absorbing demolition costs in order to sweeten the deal for new businesses coming to town. Is this correct and, if so, why? Seems to me that, if a business really had a fire in the belly to be here, they would do the demo after the deal was closed. If I buy an old broken-down house and want to raze it and build new on the lot, I don’t expect the seller to do the job for me.

Don’t have the time to go into this further just now but I do enjoy your posts and, again, thanks for them. Don’t even get me started on Whole Foods. I can’t help wondering, though, how come our accommodating City staff wasn’t working diligently to get Tesla in the bag. Because they were too upscale or because the City felt that their business plan wouldn’t pan out? If we learned nothing else from the stadium fiasco, I thought it showed us that the City isn’t exactly the best judge of which businesses will benefit the City.

But that was my point. Centerville has been around for 150 years and will be around for another 150 years. Whatever is built on that site is going be there until at least the middle of this century. It’s a real shame the economy tanked to the point that very attractive plans have to be shelved. But the economy will swing back up again and there will a demand for such a development. In the meantime, there’s no need to rush to fill the space with a slap-dash building frenzy. I mean, if you want a copy of Union Landing, that’s the way to go about it. Just open the doors and let businesses build whatever and wherever they like.

Personally, I would much rather see the city planning for the long haul. How long does it take to see a quality development go in there? It takes as long as it takes.

Unless, of course, you know an easier way to convince a developer to build a quality site?

However AM, your point on the age of Centerville is exactly the point; Centerville is a very important historic area for Fremont, the Bay Area, as well as for California history. If I remember correctly, it has the second oldest school district in California!