A MESSAGE TO MY NEIGHBORS As a child, Fremont oered great promise to my parents in their search for a place to sele down: it was aordable, safe, and had great schools. Having grown up here, aending Parkmont Elementary, Centerville Junior High, and Washington High School, I can say the city delivered on every front. When it came time to start my own family, I knew where my heart called home. My wife and I decided that Fremont was the place to set down roots, and it has been the best decision we’ve ever made. That promise of Fremont - an aordable, safe city where anyone can make a life for themselves - is becoming harder to fulfill. Our neighbors are being priced out of the city they built their lives in. Too many families are one paycheck away from having to leave. Too many of our public spaces are underutilized, our streets and sidewalks are crumbling, our parks are in need of greater investment, and our city government feels more like an obstacle than a partner. We can do beer. Not just beer in happiness rankings, but in the most important metric of all: how people feel in their daily lives, on their walks to school, in the park on a Saturday afternoon, and at the dinner table after a long week. I am running for Fremont City Council because I love this city, I know what it is capable of, and I am ready to fight for it! THE FREMONT I AM FIGHTING FOR Fremont has historically been a city where a working family could aord to rent a home without being one bad month away from losing it. Where a first-time homebuyer didn’t have to compete against a hedge fund. Where seniors who spent forty years building this community could aord to stay in it. We can make this a reality again, but only with your help and with the right leadership that reflects the needs of our neighbors. Picture a Fremont where every child goes to school well-fed and ready to learn, where each and every neighbour has a place to sleep and call home, where a city-run community kitchen and a network of community gardens and edible streetscapes work together in a cost-eective program to make sure that the people who need food the most can find it close to home. We live in one of the wealthiest regions in the world. Hunger and homelessness here are not inevitable. This is a problem that can be solved, and I intend on fighting for these solutions. Picture a Fremont where our Central Park is so beautiful and alive that you'll want to host birthdays, meet up for free classes, and have coee with your neighbors. Where the streets are lined with edible fruit trees and native plants that feed both people and pollinators. Where Lake Elizabeth is clean enough to go on a peddleboat with your kids without a second thought. I want Fremont to feel 1 like a city built inside a park, where green space is not a luxury for some neighborhoods but is woven through each community. Picture a Fremont that runs well. Where you can get a permit without spending months navigating a bureaucratic maze. Where city services actually respond. Where your tax dollars are managed with care and accountability. Where every neighborhood has a voice in what gets built on the corner, what gets planted on the median, and what gets fixed in the park. A city that is not just a place you live in, but a place you feel genuinely part of. That is the Fremont I am running to build. And I believe, without any hesitation, that it is within reach. A TRACK RECORD OF GETTING THINGS DONE I have been serving the residents of Fremont, Newark, and Union City on the Alameda County Water District Board of Directors since 2016, and today I serve as its President. In that time, our Board earned a AAA bond rating, the highest possible, making ACWD only the second water district in California to receive that distinction from Moody's. We launched and grew Help On Tap, our low-income water assistance program, from 300 enrolled households to nearly 1,800. We secured $12 million in grants for seismic infrastructure improvements. We built fish ladders on Alameda Creek that brought steelhead back to the watershed for the first time in over fifty years, leveraging $32 million in grant funding to do so. And we did it all while keeping rates as aordable as possible for working families. I know how to deliver in government. I know how to build coalitions, manage public finances, invest in infrastructure, and keep the people I serve at the center of every decision. I will show up, listen, and follow through. That is how I have operated on the ACWD Board since day one, and it is how I will serve on the City Council. I have never accepted a contribution from a special interest group, a lobbyist, or any other moneyed interest, and I never will. I answer to my community and nobody else. WHAT I WILL FIGHT FOR A More Aordable and Livable Fremont The single most important thing Fremont can do for its residents is make sure they can aord to stay here. That means puing real teeth into renter protections, capping rent increases so that families are not blindsided by huge rent increases from corporate landlords, and creating a Rental Complaints Board where tenants have somewhere to turn when a landlord ignores a broken heater or pushes through an unjust increase. It means building more aordable housing through every funding stream available. And it means building housing in the right places, close to BART and bus lines, so that the people who live there can actually get around without a car. It also means being honest about who is driving up the cost of housing and having the courage to do something about it. When private equity firms buy up single-family homes and when empty houses 2 sit idle while families struggle to find a place to live, that is a policy failure. I will fight to ban corporate investors from buying residential property in Fremont and to put fines on owners who leave homes vacant, so that Fremont's housing stock serves Fremont families, not financial portfolios. And when residents do rent, they deserve to know exactly what they are paying, with no hidden fees buried in the fine print. Aordability is about more than just rent. It is about whether a young person finishing high school in Fremont can see a future here. I want to build pathways for our youth through paid summer employment, internships, and real opportunities to contribute to the city they grew up in. It is about whether a family that is struggling can put food on the table. I want to end hunger in Fremont through a city-run community kitchen, community gardens, and a network of partners working together so that no one in our city goes without. A Cleaner and Greener Fremont I want Fremont to be a city that feels alive. Not just maintained, but genuinely beautiful and welcoming in a way that makes you proud to call it home. That starts with our parks. Central Park and Lake Elizabeth should be crown jewels, the kind of places that draw people in from every corner of the city for a Saturday morning stroll, a soccer game, or just a quiet walk around the water at the end of a long day. I will go to each park in this district, document what is broken or missing, and hold myself publicly accountable for fixing it. That is not complicated. It just takes someone willing to show up and follow through. But I want to go further than good stewardship of public spaces. I want Fremont to feel like a city built inside a park. I want to see fruit trees and native plants lining our streets, edible gardens in our medians, and a large community garden at Central Park along Stevenson Boulevard where any resident can grow food, make friends, and connect with their neighbors. I want more benches along our walkways, more water fountains in our parks, and more trash bins on our streets, because the basics maer and it tells residents that the city cares about their daily experience. I want our potholes filled and our bike lanes protected, so that geing around Fremont without a car feels safe and natural. I also want Fremont to lead by example on the environment. That means puing solar panels on our city buildings and parking lots, transitioning our public landscaping to native plants that support pollinators and need far less water, and using recycled water to irrigate the golf course at Central Park. It means standing firm against proposals that would strain our electrical grid and water supply to power massive AI data centers that don’t benefit our community. It means creating a real citywide beautification program where residents drive the vision for their own neighborhoods, because nobody knows a block beer than the people who live on it. And it is about making sure that as our city grows, the hills and open spaces that define Fremont stay protected, because the character of this place is part of what makes it so worth staying here. A Well-Run and Safer Fremont A city can have the best intentions and still fail its residents if it doesn’t run well. I want to make Fremont the kind of city where government actually works. That means streamlining the permits and 3 approvals that small business owners and homeowners have to navigate, cuing the unnecessary steps and delays that cost people time and money and make Fremont feel hostile to investment. It means modernizing how the city communicates and delivers services, so that a resident who needs help can find it quickly, in their language, without having to fight through a bureaucratic maze. And it means managing our finances with discipline, paying down our unfunded pension liabilities, protecting our reserves from market volatility, and making the kind of long-term investments that keep Fremont financially strong for the next generation. Being well-run also means being prepared. I will work to develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that tells every resident exactly what will happen when a major earthquake, wildfire, or other emergency hits, how services will be restored, and how the most vulnerable members of our community will be protected. I want every fire hydrant in this city inventoried and functioning. I want our digital infrastructure secured against cyber threats. These are not glamorous priorities, but they are the foundation that everything else depends on, and geing them right is one of the most important things a city council member can do. And being well-run means being a city that every resident feels safe in and welcomed by. That means giving our law enforcement professionals the training, tools, and mental health support they need to do their jobs well and build genuine trust with the communities they serve. It means making clear that Fremont will not be an instrument of fear for immigrant families and will not work with ICE, and that every resident can call 911 or walk into city hall without wondering what will happen to them. And it means taking a hard look at what the city owns, what it is doing with that land, and whether it could be put to beer use for the people it belongs to. LET'S BUILD THIS TOGETHER My parents chose Fremont because it was a city that kept its promises. Aordable homes, safe streets, great schools, and a real shot at a good life. That promise is worth renewing for the next generation of families who want to call this place home. Every idea I’m advocating for has come from conversations with people in my community: renters who are worried about their next lease renewal, parents who want a clean park their kids can be safe in, small business owners who are tired of fighting with the city, and seniors who built this city and deserve to stay in it. This campaign belongs to all of them. I have spent nearly a decade proving that I know how to get things done in public service, and I am ready to bring that same energy and accountability to the City Council. If you believe in this vision for Fremont, I would be honored to earn your vote, your trust, and your support. Let's build something worth being proud of, together! Join our movement at www.azizakbari.com.
The single most important thing Fremont can do for its residents is make sure they can aord to stay here. That means puing real teeth into renter protections, capping rent increases so that families are not blindsided by huge rent increases from corporate landlords, and creating a Rental Complaints Board where tenants have somewhere to turn when a landlord ignores a broken heater or pushes through an unjust increase. It means building more aordable housing through every funding stream available. And it means building housing in the right places, close to BART and bus lines, so that the people who live there can actually get around without a car. It also means being honest about who is driving up the cost of housing and having the courage to do something about it. When private equity firms buy up single-family homes and when empty houses 2 sit idle while families struggle to find a place to live, that is a policy failure. I will fight to ban corporate investors from buying residential property in Fremont and to put fines on owners who leave homes vacant, so that Fremont's housing stock serves Fremont families, not financial portfolios. And when residents do rent, they deserve to know exactly what they are paying, with no hidden fees buried in the fine print. Aordability is about more than just rent. It is about whether a young person finishing high school in Fremont can see a future here. I want to build pathways for our youth through paid summer employment, internships, and real opportunities to contribute to the city they grew up in. It is about whether a family that is struggling can put food on the table. I want to end hunger in Fremont through a city-run community kitchen, community gardens, and a network of partners working together so that no one in our city goes without.
I want Fremont to be a city that feels alive. Not just maintained, but genuinely beautiful and welcoming in a way that makes you proud to call it home. That starts with our parks. Central Park and Lake Elizabeth should be crown jewels, the kind of places that draw people in from every corner of the city for a Saturday morning stroll, a soccer game, or just a quiet walk around the water at the end of a long day. I will go to each park in this district, document what is broken or missing, and hold myself publicly accountable for fixing it. That is not complicated. It just takes someone willing to show up and follow through. But I want to go further than good stewardship of public spaces. I want Fremont to feel like a city built inside a park. I want to see fruit trees and native plants lining our streets, edible gardens in our medians, and a large community garden at Central Park along Stevenson Boulevard where any resident can grow food, make friends, and connect with their neighbors. I want more benches along our walkways, more water fountains in our parks, and more trash bins on our streets, because the basics maer and it tells residents that the city cares about their daily experience. I want our potholes filled and our bike lanes protected, so that geing around Fremont without a car feels safe and natural. I also want Fremont to lead by example on the environment. That means puing solar panels on our city buildings and parking lots, transitioning our public landscaping to native plants that support pollinators and need far less water, and using recycled water to irrigate the golf course at Central Park. It means standing firm against proposals that would strain our electrical grid and water supply to power massive AI data centers that don’t benefit our community. It means creating a real citywide beautification program where residents drive the vision for their own neighborhoods, because nobody knows a block beer than the people who live on it. And it is about making sure that as our city grows, the hills and open spaces that define Fremont stay protected, because the character of this place is part of what makes it so worth staying here.
A city can have the best intentions and still fail its residents if it doesn’t run well. I want to make Fremont the kind of city where government actually works. That means streamlining the permits and 3 approvals that small business owners and homeowners have to navigate, cuing the unnecessary steps and delays that cost people time and money and make Fremont feel hostile to investment. It means modernizing how the city communicates and delivers services, so that a resident who needs help can find it quickly, in their language, without having to fight through a bureaucratic maze. And it means managing our finances with discipline, paying down our unfunded pension liabilities, protecting our reserves from market volatility, and making the kind of long-term investments that keep Fremont financially strong for the next generation. Being well-run also means being prepared. I will work to develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan that tells every resident exactly what will happen when a major earthquake, wildfire, or other emergency hits, how services will be restored, and how the most vulnerable members of our community will be protected. I want every fire hydrant in this city inventoried and functioning. I want our digital infrastructure secured against cyber threats. These are not glamorous priorities, but they are the foundation that everything else depends on, and geing them right is one of the most important things a city council member can do. And being well-run means being a city that every resident feels safe in and welcomed by. That means giving our law enforcement professionals the training, tools, and mental health support they need to do their jobs well and build genuine trust with the communities they serve. It means making clear that Fremont will not be an instrument of fear for immigrant families and will not work with ICE, and that every resident can call 911 or walk into city hall without wondering what will happen to them. And it means taking a hard look at what the city owns, what it is doing with that land, and whether it could be put to beer use for the people it belongs to.
Have questions or suggestions? I would love to hear from you!
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