Unlocking Fremont: Economic Growth and Community Happiness
- jared2766
- Jul 23
- 21 min read
Fremont's Formula for Success: Bridging Economic Growth and Happiness**
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The city of Fremont is on the rise, setting a benchmark for economic development while maintaining one of the happiest communities in the United States. In a recent Capstone conversation, Jared Asch sat down with Councilman Yang Shao to dive into the reasons behind Fremont's success. From economic development strategies to community well-being, Fremont's story is one of intentionality, collaboration, and forward-thinking.
### Fremont: A Hub for Innovation and Business Growth
Fremont is recognized as a hub for manufacturing, particularly due to its strategic fostering of essential business clusters. With industry giants like Tesla leading the charge, Fremont has effectively attracted companies centered on EV battery, clean energy, and new technology. External recognition and investment have poured in as a result, further bolstering its economic landscape.
Councilman Yang Shao attributes this achievement to proactive government involvement and strategic partnerships. He emphasized Fremont's ability to process building permits swiftly, which can take as little as 30 days, compared to neighboring cities that may take up to 36 months. This efficiency stems from Fremont's holistic approach that brings together the planning commission, city council, and economic development staff to facilitate seamless business operations.
### The Human Element: Education and Workforce Development
Beyond infrastructure and permits, Fremont values its residents as pivotal to its success. The city collaborates with local educational institutions like San Francisco Bay University and Ohlone College to ensure a steady pipeline of educated professionals ready to support high-tech industries. Innovative partnerships with vocational training programs also prepare students for careers in sectors like biotechnology and semiconductor manufacturing.
### Governance and Intentionality: The Tools for Success
Intentionality is the cornerstone of Fremont's governance model. The city fosters a united front where government, businesses, and educational institutions work toward common goals. Councilman Shao highlighted intentional collaboration through social events and strategic meetings that nurture organic connections and foster business growth. Cities looking to replicate Fremont's success should focus on establishing clear intentions and maintaining a shared vision among stakeholders.
### Balancing Progress with Happiness
Fremont's ranking as one of the happiest cities in America is not a coincidence but a well-crafted outcome of deliberate planning. The city's robust public safety measures, comprehensive education system, and vibrant community life all contribute to its high quality of life. Initiatives focusing on public safety and homelessness showcase Fremont's commitment to maintaining a safe and welcoming environment for all.
### Selling into the Government and Integrating Technology
Fremont's approach to technological integration in governance is exemplary. By continually updating its policies and fostering relationships with tech innovators, the city remains at the forefront of industry trends. For businesses aiming to sell to the government, forging alliances with local departments, understanding community needs, and demonstrating technological alignment are essential strategies.
### Conclusion
Fremont offers a clear blueprint for other cities seeking to strike a balance between rapid economic growth and community well-being. Councilman Yang Shao's insights illustrate that intentional governance, cohesive community efforts, and embracing technological advancements form the pillars of sustainable success. With these principles, Fremont continues to thrive as a dynamic example of modern city planning.
For the full podcast episode type in Capstone Conversation on your favorite podcast app or go direct to www.capstonegov.com/podcast
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### Hashtags:
11. #UrbanPlanning
13. #Intentionality
14. #TechAdvancement
15. #Collaboration
For a full transcript see below
Welcome to the Capstone conversation where you learn about what's happening in the Greater East Bay. I am your host, Jared Asch.
today we will go to the great city of Fremont with Council member Yang Shao. Fremont in economic development circles and conversations, everybody talks about how Fremont can attract life science and medical tech businesses, that they've done a good job of figuring out how to fast track.
Process and really focus on economic development. And we're gonna talk about many things in Fremont today, but we're gonna get a glimpse into how over the past 10 years and in the next 10 years, Fremont is trying to develop. So Councilman Shao, tell us a little bit more about yourself and your tenure as counsel.
Oh, sure. I was born in China and after finishing college I came to United States for my graduate studies. Eventually I got a PhD degree in chemistry from Harvard University. Then I moved to the Bay Area and I've been working in the biotech biopharmaceutical industry for over two decades.
Starting in 2014, I decided to donate my after hour time to community service and public service. So I first became the I was elected the board trustee for the Fremont Fremont Unified School District. And then in 2018, I decided to run for city council member and got elected.
2022. I got reelected. Still representing District four in Fremont. During the whole period when I was on city council, I was vice Mayor twice by rotation. Therefore it is a very, proud for me to say Fremont is my hometown. And I am very glad that Fremont has been setting a very good example for other cities in the state or in even in United States as a city that not only is leading in manufacturing, but also leading in business development.
Life of quality of residents. We are the happiest city in the US seven times in the last nine years six years in a row. And we're also the best place to raise children in this United States three years in. That's why I feel that today it is not only my pleasure to introduce to the audience how Fremont is, but also more specifically what efforts we've been making in the past in economic development and also the forecast of the future.
I don't know if I've interviewed anybody with a chemistry background before. That that makes you unique probably among most of the elected officials in the state of California.
Yes. Because of my scientific background, I tend to be databased when I'm making decisions rather than just going through my emotions.
That probably sets me apart from most of the politicians. I always ask for more facts and data from the staff before I try to cast my vote. When I try to advocate for our city at the state and federal level, I always use data. I believe data doesn't lie. And when we talk about the economic development, I'm going to give you a lot of data in the next hour hopefully to convince our audience that we are indeed a leader in the manufacturing in the United States, but also we will be the leader in the future.
All right, hit us. Why is Fremont a leader today? Why are they attracting so many businesses? And and why is that such a happy place? I know those are broad questions but let's just start a dialogue on it.
Sure. Fremont is known as the manufacturing hub, by the number of jobs in manufacturing that Fremont creates.
We are the leader in the state. When you mentioned Fremont, people will think about Tesla. Indeed. More than 10 years ago, Tesla moved into Fremont and started producing all the automobiles and right now you can see because.
We actually form a complete ecosystem in ev battery, clean energy new energy technology. Therefore more and more companies in that industry want to move to Fremont including domestic. And for example we have a Chinese battery company called. That moved to Fremont two years ago setting their r and d center and the small manufacturing center here in Southern Fremont.
We also have one of the largest solar panel companies in China called Trina. That also set their headquarters in Fremont. Of course. Not only we are leading in advanced manufacturing AI is probably the most popular theme nowadays and we're very proud to say that even in that field, we have a large companies like Quantum Computer, a Taiwanese international company that already set up their manufacturing.
Facilities here in Southern Fremont, and they are working closely with Nvidia to make AI servers by over $20 billion worth of production every year. In that case you can see that not only we are the manufacturing hub, we're also stack stacking new technology like ai.
And new technology like ev on top of each other so that eventually we are basically going to move with the advancement of the technology and the new trend and always keep at the top. But not only that, we also have excellent educational institutions San Francisco.
Continue to produce a well educated, high quality workforce for those manufacturing jobs. In that case you can see we already have the business in place. We have the education in place. And the last thing is of course the government. We have an excellent economic development department.
And their key to success is, intentionality, which means that they are fully aware of what is going on there. Proactively taking actions to help business to settle down in Fremont. I'm gonna later on give you more the numbers about vacancies and the time it would take for a company to really start operation.
After they settled down. These are all the very quick summary of why we believe that we're the leader and it'll continue to be the leader.
I remember Don Burris from the City of Vacaville. Was on about a year ago, and he talked about the the importance of clustering, that the life science companies wanna cluster. And what I'm hearing, what Fremont is doing is building on top of Tesla to cluster those battery companies, those related energy companies in the EV space.
Then building AI companies that, that are integral to that same ecosystem together. And I think that's that definitely seems like a cluster of success. And we even see with Hollywood just, one studio and on top of another studio and it helps just. Make a cohesive, strong economy locally.
Not only that I think clustering is certainly one key factor for our success. Also don't forget that we are in the Silicon Valley and we are surrounded by high tech giants like Google, apple and now Nvidia. And we continue. To get resources, support from those companies.
They, some of them may even have started in fma. For example, apple and Nvidia, they all started in fma. And then eventually they expanded and then they moved into Southern Clara country. For example, Facebook, now known as a meta. Also opened their campus in Northern Fremont. With also such big companies we always have new job opportunities for local people.
, I'm also going to later on talk about how while we are trying to attract, big companies. With hundreds, billions dollars in annual revenue to settle in Fremont. We always care about small business that is also part of our success in Fremont.
, It's important to find a balance to everything, right? Because the amenities all matter in attracting that economy, you. Talked about like Fremont being rated one of the happiest places, one of the best places to raise a kid. Let's pause on the economic nature of the city and talk about why is Fremont rated so highly in those family and lifestyle places.
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Sure. Over the years the local demo
right now, two thirds of our residents from Asian countries. They're basically first generation immigrants. And even in my district, four 75% of the residents are a API residents Asian American Pacific Islanders because of their culture and their value. For example, they are law binding, and they are hardworking. They care for high quality education. They care for public safety, and they also care for economic development. This forms a big picture for Fremont. One key factor for us being the happiest city is divorce rate. Of course you would argue that, because of the Asian community or largely Asian community here in Fremont the divorce is a stigma in Asian culture.
Therefore our divorce rate is about one third of that of the whole United States. Is one of the reasons, you get married happily and then, and a happy family, raise happy kids. Therefore, overall everyone is happy. That's one thing. Second thing is a high level of education.
If you count everyone, every soul in Fremont from babies even to senior people. Over 51% of the local population receive bachelor's degrees or higher. That also attributes to the large community of immigrated highly educated skilled workers in the high tech industry and in the Silicon Valley.
So we're highly educated. Which means, typically we have the knowledge and wisdom to deal with all the challenges, difficulties in life. That's second thing. Third thing is the median household income in Fremont our is over one 30 year. And if you look at, average household income over the whole country. Now we're at least on the top 10. You have money, you have knowledge, and you don't divorce. Of course in general you are happy, but then of course we also have high quality public schools. Why I am saying that is because I used to be on the school board and in 2018 I was even the president of Fremont Unified School District Board.
And I know that almost all of our schools 41 schools received golden Ribbon from the Department of Education in California. And parents because they benefit from their education. They care about education. They have high expectations for their children. Overall, the performance, academic performance of all the students in Fremont Unified School District are recognized.
Therefore, fUSD is recognized as one of the best school districts not only in the Bay Area, but nationwide. You have a very good public education. And lastly, we have very good public safety. How good, with similar size. We are only second to the city of Irvine in California.
We're the best. In Northern California better than San Jose, Oakland, San Francisco, you name it. In general, because of all those factors the those agencies that were rank all the cities gave was the highest overall score. And we're been taking the lead at least in the last six years as.
That's that's great. So I got money, stay married, be smart. And those are some factors that will lead to success. Do you know how the income number Yes. It's high, but so is the whole Bay Area and most of California compared to the rest of the country, how does Fremont compare to its neighboring cities in, in that income?
Do you know offhand?
From what I know, of course the city of the Sunnyvale, because Google certainly has a slightly higher, and if you talk about small pockets in the Bay Area Etherton, typically that is where all the owners of the high-tech giants, live.
But apart from that I would say we are probably the highest in the Bay Area.
The and you certainly are, you're above the Alameda County average. I was just looking by about 10 or 15,000 a household. And that is, it sounds like a smaller number, but it is significant when you add up the number of households and the different locations that bring it up and down.
Let's dive into more about that economic development side that you've seen. One of the rumors out there is Fremont can approve a building permit for new manufacturing facility in 90 days, which is by far, I some can't even approve it within a year or two. W what have you experienced? Some of that started before you, but what are you seeing and how does that impact attracting new companies here?
First of all, you mentioned the time to take the permit to build up the manufacturing facility. You are saying like 90 days. What I heard was 30 days even shorter. Wow. Comparing with other cities in the Bay Area, which might take 24 to 36 months for that to complete.
That is because we are actively working with the all those companies our economic development department with what I call the intentionality. Proactively try to help those companies. To not only get through the paperwork process to get all the permits done, but also try to really help them get the infrastructure they need.
We all know that in order to set up a manufacturing activities the first thing you need is power supply, and that basically is about pg e. And fortunately in Fremont, we already have existing like seven sub stations where you can easily connect to, to get the power supply or if necessary, even build on the existing substation to get more power supplies to those new man manufacturing sites.
So this is something that we have but other cities don't have it. It's the reflection of the collaboration between the city and the PGA over the years to continue to set up or to expand the capacity of the substations. Therefore when new companies move in and they don't have to wait for a long time for the infrastructure to be in place.
Rather they can easily get, plugged in and play.
I think that's important. And if you have power, that definitely has come up compared to other cities which are having issues. With pg and e and having enough power in the region to turn on housing, to turn on manufacturing capabilities, life sciences. And so it seems you guys are efficient there with those substations and with the amount of power companies can draw from the grid.
Yes. Not only that, we also are proud of our vacancy rate. So overall you. The Silicon Valley, including San Francisco right now. The r and d vacancy r and d facility vacancy is probably around 30%, but in Fremont because all the vector I just mentioned, local government support, shorter permit period established infrastructure.
We have RD Pacific vacancy below 12%. Versus the 30% that's somewhere else in the Bay Area. Also if we include all the vacancies for commercial properties, ours is below 4.5%, quite signifi, significantly lower than the rest of the Bay Area. That is also the reflection that people realize that if they wanna start something, they start in.
That that is the reason why we enjoy such a low vacancy rate. Also there's a gradually, a gradual conversion of Fremont from the secondary market to the primary market. Remember that I told you that companies like Apple and. Their operations in Fremont, then they moved to somewhere else in Silicon Valley.
That is because in the old days, the eight 80 corridor was regarded in the industry of commercial realty as the secondary market. Yeah. Okay. And they treat sunny.
Now it's changing. Fremont now is becoming the primary market. In the old days, there was a saying that in Fremont, the the pro, the commercial property value was first down and last to recover. If there's any like a recession or anything like that, it's no longer that anymore.
That used to be the case. Now everyone realizes that Fremont is the place to start. And for commercial realty investment, they also try to work with the local government to make more investment because we make that investment environment friendly to them.
For example zoning code we are very practical. In the past three years, I have encountered multiple cases where the planning commission will come to the city council and ask us to modify our general plan and then change the zoning code to facilitate more manufacturing. After we approved that change, we see, building not getting up and then factories moving in and start, making manufacturing activities. So this is certainly something that, that we see that in the whole circle, the government plays a very big role.
I think that's important.
The. Getting into what you're saying is 30 days to, to try to get approval for some things, even if it's 90, the fact that the planning commission comes to the city council and say, Hey, we like this idea, we need this, we need a general plan amendment, and that the council's willing to do that.
Some I was talking to one. City right now that I know, they are redoing their general plan as their number one priority for the first time in 40 years, and the city manager estimates it'll take four years. And then somebody pointed out from the Chamber of Commerce that the allies won World War II in three and a half years, and yeah.
And so I think the fact that there's an element there where the planning commissioners staff and the city council are all sort of rowing in the same direction in Fremont and communicating is very helpful because in other places there's just this anti-growth or you can't just amend something in the general plan without it taking three years and, yeah.
Yeah, that's right. That shows the vision that the leadership of the city has. Not only we try to help all the big business to come in and start their manufacturing activities. We actually have very good plan to rebuild the downtown area. If you f he did not have a downtown unlike neighboring cities like Ton or San Jose. Now actually even before I became the city council member in 2018 the city already started this planning for the downtown surrounding or near the existing hub. The whole area a lot of buildings were demolished and then we tried to build up all those mixed use buildings where the first floor are all the shops restaurants, where the second to, the top floor are all like apartments.
The Santana roll style. . In San Jose. By doing that, we were very successful in attracting a lot of small businesses. And we work closely as the city government and the Chamber of Commerce. To try to attract small businesses into the downtown area.
Every time a new business opens, then the city council members and the mayor will show up with the Chamber of Commerce people to congratulate them and have a very well attended high profile opening ceremony. So bit by bit we are rebutting or we're shaping, it's still ongoing and now you come to hang out in downtown area.
You can find places to hang out, places to eat, to shop, and it's family friendly. So with that, I would say this continues to show that we not only make plans, but we make sure the plans are.
One more thing. Yeah. For this small business we know we just came out of a pandemic. During the pandemic the city government tried very hard to get funding from the federal government and then turn around and tried to rescue or help those struggling small businesses during. During the pandemic, of course, five years ago, this time we all remember there was this George Floyd incident where it triggered social unrest in Alameda County, starting from Oakland, and then coming down city by city, looting, shops being set on fire and that kind of social unrest.
The city of Fremont was the first city in the whole country of Alameda to have this curfew. We also set up road barriers and police were on guard. Those looters in vehicles can coming down eight 80. Tried to get into Fremont, but then they saw that we already, police were there, so they had to move on.
During the whole process whole period, we did not have any shops being burned down or looted. So this is also why Fremont business has confidence in the local government 'cause we're there to protect them.
That's important because I live in Walnut Creek and you know the shops here were hit hard by the looters. I'm not talking about the people who had the right to protest. I'm talking about. There was a difference. So that's great that Fremont was able to proactively get on top of that.
I wanna pivot a, a second, but it I look at it through an economic development lens. When you're talking about public safety or just city government, you have a science background. You talked a lot about the tech companies that are there. What is the city doing in its own business to embrace technology?
First of all I feel that the city staff have been continuing educating themselves to realize the importance of the current trend as an example, the future of Fremont Forum that we just held in Fremont this week. Hosted by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
We as a city are a member of the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and we are hosting or helping them host a lot of events like that to keep track of the new technology and then new trend in high tech so that we try to explore our opportunities as a city. In this new trend right now, of course the Trump administration tries to bring back to the United States the manufacturing activities as the leader in, as a, as the manufacturing hub.
We're ordering, doing manufacturing, but we will continue try to take advantage of this new trend and try to further develop. Our business, especially in the manufacturing area. We not only try to get to be updated on the current technology trend, but also the policy trend in order to use our own advantage and our resources to basically catch the bus and then never fall behind.
So this is certainly something that we do also we continue to work with our local educational institutions. I already mentioned two. One is the San Francisco Bay University. And then the second one is Lon College. We work with those two institutions very closely.
Not only to. What's going on in the high tech sector, but also to make sure that Fremont continues to provide high, highly educated workforce to support those new companies. We also work with an institution which is called a semiconductor Skills Bridge Academy. I need to, silicon Valley is known as Silicon Valley because of the semiconductor industry. Fremont basically is on the hardware side of the semiconductor industry. And we realize that not everyone has to go through college to be a worker in this industry. High school students, enough vocational training we'll be able to work in this industry. In our city. We already have like land research as well as other companies that are part of the semiconductor industry in the Silicon Valley. We continue to provide workforce for them every year. We, as a city.
We'll organize a manufacturing week where we send alon college students as well as high school students to different companies including the company I said lamb research the semiconductor company, as well as biotech companies to let them have the firsthand experience.
So that they can start to do summer internship and later don become an employee of the local companies. In Fremont, actually, we have over 350 biotech companies. Also we have Behring Berringer Ingelheim a well known German bio pharmaceutical company in Northern. And, we try to encourage students to not only start their interest in STEM very early in our public schools, but we have mission valley RROP the vocational training schools to help the high school students to be familiar with what's going on, in.
To get familiar with the local companies. Of course, the local companies are very supportive. They're very glad to see if they can get the attention of the arising workforce so that they can come and work. Fremont has been balanced between jobs and housing. So we're no longer a bedroom city.
We try to generate local jobs. For those companies that I mentioned so they can live here and work here.
That's nice. 'cause traffic in the afternoons through there is horrible coming north. I, you know what I'm hearing there on it is a common theme in a couple different areas. It, but it all comes back to.
Everybody again is rowing in the same direction. You're talking about workforce initiatives where the city and the colleges and the community college and the manufacturing all come together to develop that workforce with the school district. You talk about the planning commission and the city council and staff and even staff as they get a permit.
I know the economic development staff in Fremont has talked to me about, hey, we just bring everybody who needs to be involved in, and instead of one person finishing it, putting it on somebody else's desk where it sits for two weeks, we all get in the same room. And if somebody has to go inspect the building, can we all go inspect on the same day?
And I'm hearing just everybody coming together and all these different aspects fairly well.
Oh yes. Not only that, they're trying very hard, even sometimes going out of their ways to help companies really get those permits down. For example, lemme give you an example. One battery manufacturing company.
I won't name names, but they try to set up their manufacturing workshop in Fremont because of the nature of the lithium based battery manufacturing. There are extra safety concerns and regulations. Sure. That company because they were not familiar with setting up their shops in United States more specifically in California.
So they hired some consultants that would completely not familiar with the local codes and regulations. So eventually they failed the first infection. So it was our economic development department that would work with that company and help them find competent consultant and architect to eventually change their I and then help them get approved for their workshop.
So you see here, it's like they're not as passively waiting for everything to be done so that they can show up and do the inspection. They're deeply involved already in the beginning steps to help those companies. So I'm very proud that they've been doing that. And that may be one of the keys to our success is that our government is really.
Going out, walking extra mile to, to help those business.
If you were gonna give advice to other cities who talk about Fremont as a model in economic development, what would be the one or two tips you'd want to give to another city to. Advice,
I think it can really boil down to one word, which I kept bringing up, is intentionality.
You have to have the intention, you have to share the intention. And so that takes a lot of communication persuading that takes a lot of compromises join working together. It all, works towards the same vision, same future because one, a company wants to even show interest to settle down in Fremont.
We try to not only sell that company like our vision, but also really try to pro provide practical help and. I've been to a lot of those industry specific parties held by the economic development department. What they did was they tried to have those afternoon beer parties or cocktail parties to invite leaders of, companies in that specific sector being either biotech or bio pharmaceutical or battery design and manufacturing or ev to come together. And then, through those social events, they can organically make a connection and then try to make the ecosystem even stronger.
That generates a lot of collaborations among themselves and eventually the expansion of those companies and the more job opportunities being created. I see that one tip that I would like to share with other cities is intentionality.
I like that. I know we focused a lot on economic development today and the growth and housing and happiness.
What else are you focused on as a council member in the city of Fremont?
Yes. Actually let me tell you I should have told you at the beginning of this program that every. In January or February, the city council would take a retreat and then set up the top priorities for the city for the next year.
For this year. Needless to say, economic development is one of the priorities. Three other priorities are public safety, homelessness, and environmental sustainability. And I believe that they all are connected with each other. And right now what I'm continuing to work on is public safety and homelessness.
For example this year we passed a new encampment ordinances to restrict the illegal encampment by the homeless people near the businesses or in the residential area. We're actively enforcing that encampment ordinance. That certainly not only won the support of the majority of the residents and the businesses, but also show that as the happiest city we are trying to combine our law enforcement and resources to.
So that the goal is to get them housed, but also meanwhile try to prevent them from creating hazards like Biohazards or public health hazards to the neighborhood. So homelessness is one area that I'm continuing to work on. Public safety, of course. As we're talking, this coming weekend, we know that there are gonna be a lot of events protest all over the Bay Area.
And based on our experience in 2020, the police is working closely with the city council to make sure that there's no riot, no looting happening in Fremont.
That's, that would be great if that can happen. I, I appreciate it. We are outta time for today for council member Yang Shao of the City of Fremont. Thank you for talking with us today. I appreciate your time. Thank you for having me.
Wait, don't leave yet. Hit subscribe. Make sure you get the weekly updates. We have a new episode every Wednesday for stuff happening in the East Bay. In the meantime, follow me on LinkedIn, Jared Asch, or check out our firm where we have a weekly newsletter and blog at Capstone Government Affairs on LinkedIn.
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