What if you could step back in time and witness the transformation of a quaint little town into a bustling city? That's exactly what we're doing today with my guest, lifetime Fremont resident and real estate veteran, Bob Tavares. He's sharing his firsthand account of the growth of Mission San Jose, taking us from an era of cauliflower fields and affordable homes to the modern cityscape.
But it's not all frills and fun, we also confront the complexities of homelessness, the surge of high-rise buildings and the pressure of housing provision in the face of an escalating population. We even take a trip down memory lane, reliving the joyful spectacle of the Bicentennial at the Mission and the community parade that ensued.
As we wrap up, we ponder the future of Mission San Jose, the potential for modernization amid the preservation of its historic structures, and the opportunities budding entrepreneurs could tap into. Bob advocates for the significance of community pride and the importance of listening to the voices of long-standing investors in the locale. Our shared passion for nurturing the unique ambiance of Mission San Jose shines through, as we celebrate the small-town charm that gives Fremont its distinct allure. Listen in and experience the power of community stories; they might just inspire you to share yours.
Check out Own It Fitness for your professional fitness solutions. You can find their website here.
If you are interested in supporting the podcast, please reach out to us at thefremontpodcast@gmail.com, or you can contact us here.
Fremont Bank has been partnering with and supporting people and small businesses for over six decades.
Also, Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor for the Fremont Podcast almost from the beginning. If you are looking for help or advice about buying or selling a home, or if you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Niles.
If you are in need of services for design or printing, check out Minutemen Press in Irvington. They have been serving the community for over 20 years, and they stand strong by their work and service.
Intro and Outro voiceovers made by Gary Williams. Check out garywilliams.org.
What if you could step back in time and witness the transformation of a quaint little town into a bustling city? That's exactly what we're doing today with my guest, lifetime Fremont resident and real estate veteran, Bob Tavares. He's sharing his firsthand account of the growth of Mission San Jose, taking us from an era of cauliflower fields and affordable homes to the modern cityscape.
But it's not all frills and fun, we also confront the complexities of homelessness, the surge of high-rise buildings and the pressure of housing provision in the face of an escalating population. We even take a trip down memory lane, reliving the joyful spectacle of the Bicentennial at the Mission and the community parade that ensued.
As we wrap up, we ponder the future of Mission San Jose, the potential for modernization amid the preservation of its historic structures, and the opportunities budding entrepreneurs could tap into. Bob advocates for the significance of community pride and the importance of listening to the voices of long-standing investors in the locale. Our shared passion for nurturing the unique ambiance of Mission San Jose shines through, as we celebrate the small-town charm that gives Fremont its distinct allure. Listen in and experience the power of community stories; they might just inspire you to share yours.
Check out Own It Fitness for your professional fitness solutions. You can find their website here.
If you are interested in supporting the podcast, please reach out to us at thefremontpodcast@gmail.com, or you can contact us here.
Fremont Bank has been partnering with and supporting people and small businesses for over six decades.
Also, Petrocelli Homes has been a key sponsor for the Fremont Podcast almost from the beginning. If you are looking for help or advice about buying or selling a home, or if you are looking for a realtor, get in touch with Petrocelli Homes on Niles Blvd in Niles.
If you are in need of services for design or printing, check out Minutemen Press in Irvington. They have been serving the community for over 20 years, and they stand strong by their work and service.
Intro and Outro voiceovers made by Gary Williams. Check out garywilliams.org.
This episode was edited by Andrew C.
Scheduling and background was done by Sara S.
This is a Muggins Media Podcast.
Speaker 1:
I'm Gary Williams. Your reviews help other people find this podcast. If you would please leave a review on iTunes.
Speaker 2:
When Fremont started, there really wasn't a huge plan, so you had to track here, you had to track there, all over the place. And you look back at this and it was not really planned to any conforming way the way a street should go way, a grid should go, whatever. That's why it's not conducive to public transportation. It's a mess.
Speaker 1:
Coming to you straight from Fremont, california. This is the Fremont Podcast, dedicated to telling the stories of the past and present of the people and places of the city of Fremont, one conversation at a time.
Speaker 3:
Hello, fremont. Ricky told me to balance on a wobbly log and not kill myself. To tell you this is episode 88 of the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 1:
Now here's your host, Ricky B.
Speaker 4:
So today, joining me in a conversation about Mission, san Jose and specifically housing and the growth of the communities, bob Tavares, I was trying to figure out how to say that exactly, tavares. Bob Tavares, how long have you lived in Fremont?
Speaker 2:
I would say been here I think 1960, 1961 when they had cauliflower downtown.
Speaker 4:
So yes, Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, a long time. I was born and raised in Oakland, okay, so I didn't get very far. Okay, so came out here because I could buy a home for in Newark for $12,500. Okay, and eat beans and hot dogs two days out of the week, so we could make the payment of $91. Wow.
Speaker 4:
So that was a start. Okay, what kind of industry were you in at the time?
Speaker 2:
Well, that's a story in itself. At that time I was a team steer, driving truck, working long hours, making very good money, but working long hours Bought a home and then we sold that home, bought another home here in Fremont. About a year and a half later I was sending a lot of my friends to this broker who had sold me the home. And I say he's a good broker, you know you treat your right. And blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:
One day he says you know, bob? He says I think you need to quit driving a truck and I think you need to get a real estate license. And I said what are you talking about? And he says I've made a lot of money off of you and I want to thank you for that. But he says I think you, you got a little bit of a gift there. Why don't you give it a try? And I says no, I don't think I could do anything like that. So he convinced me. I got a, got a license, worked on weekends and I sold the house every weekend for about two months. Wow. And then I said to myself self this is not too bad. So I took a, took a leave of absence because I had, you know I didn't want to lose everything I had in the team series, so I took a leave of absence. Figure in well, this is the work. I like to go back. Well, that was about 1962. So I'm retired now, but 50 some odd years as a real estate broker.
Speaker 4:
Wow, you, you were in the real estate market in in Fremont specifically.
Speaker 2:
Yes, definitely, just right here in town, newark, the Bay, you know the this side of the Bay and that type of thing.
Speaker 3:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
So that's what I did. It was a stated independent broker by myself. In fact, that was a a one man shop, just about for all the years I was in real estate.
Speaker 4:
Wow, what are some of the things that you learned about Fremont in in your time, like just from a real estate agent perspective, like what are some of the things that you started to see develop over the years? And I guess part of the reason I'm asking the question is is actually one of the reasons why I feel like I'm here in this conversation is I feel like there's a around Fremont and specifically like in Niles and in Mission, san Jose, and there might be other areas that I'm unaware of, but there's just a lot of history here, homes that have been around for over a hundred years, and there's a kind of history tied up in a lot of those, in a lot of those homes. We started the Niles podcast and we're talking you know, I was just talking with the pagan sisters who were here and you know their dad bought their land for $1500 and built their house for $5000, you know, and they talk about the. You know what it was like growing up here in Niles, you know, and I think that the I guess what I'm interested in is what seemed to happen a while ago, even, like you said, you remember back when there were cauliflower fields.
Speaker 4:
I think it's. You know, it's nice to think back on those moments and when it was farming and it was more simple as a simpler life. And then you start seeing housing going up. You know people trading hands on houses, people demolishing houses and building new. You know new houses and stuff like that, well, that demolishing houses.
Speaker 2:
That didn't really happen until later on, because this is such a new community that you had a builder coming in and gobbling up 20 acres and building his, his little track, and builder B would come in and gobble up 30 acres and build his track. So to me this is my opinion yeah, I love to hear it. When Fremont started, there really wasn't a huge plan of what what was going to happen. It was, I call this town, reactionary, not actionary. They react to what comes in front of them. So you had a track here, you had a track there all over the place, and you look back at this and it was not really planned to any conforming way the way a street should go, where a grid should go, whatever.
Speaker 2:
That's why it's not conducive to public transportation. It's a mess. I mean, you look at it from that standpoint. So make a long story short. Everybody started doing that and then we got into a phase to where there became a little bit a feeling for nostalgia and history. So when the developer came into town and he was buying what I call infill places and there would be an old home on it, the city at that time staff and the philosophy was you know why don't you try to save this whole place and make it part of your development? So that went on for a while.
Speaker 4:
When do you feel like that, that those conversations?
Speaker 2:
took place. That was more in the nineties. I can tell you how I got involved with what I call the historical part of it and everything of that nature. For many years I was just working, trying to feed the family, just nose to the grindstone. And one day in St Joseph's parish, which is up in Mission San Jose, by the Williams who was the pastor at that time, they had the old Galegas mansion on their property and he did not like old houses, which is fine. There was some people in the parish who wanted to restore it, make it the parish house. He kind of wanted like a new, a new residence. So I don't know why he came to me. But he says I got a deal for you, bob. He says you can, you can have this Galegas mansion for a very nominal sum if you can move it. And here is a three story. You know about 51 out of score if we Victorian. I said, wow, this must be from God or something, that's something like that. So anyway, I found a lot I won't go into that because that's a long story finally found a lot and I moved that Victorian Wow off that property up the hill. And it's still there. It's by a lonely college Wow, it's on Witherly Lane by a lonely college. So I did that kind of put it together and and that was my effort there just about, I would say financially and physically was a Don Coyote stunt and I said I'm not gonna do this again.
Speaker 2:
However, however, a couple of years not too many years later, a builder comes walking into my office. Is Bob? He says I hear you move houses and I said not really I moved one. He says, well, I got a little piece of property here right across the street from which he bought. Incidentally, that had that was Morris Hyman's, who was the was the originator of Bank of Fremont. That was his original house and I had sold that. To make a long story short, I had sold that property. Somebody else had a list. I sold this property to my client who lived there about 10 years, decided to sell in this developer call, bought it.
Speaker 2:
So now we're up to speed. He comes to me, says you know I want to put these seven houses in there. I don't want that house on the property. Do you think you can move it? And I said, well, I don't know. But so my son was working with me as an appraiser at that time he says pop, he says let's do it. And I said, oh, I don't know about this, so fast forward. We found a lot in Niles.
Speaker 2:
I moved Morris Hyman's house to Niles it's on third J, it's right there in the corner, right here in town put that all together and liked it so much was even consider moving into it, which I didn't. We sold that immediately. We actually had when we had the open house is literally we had people around the corner in line waiting to see it. But I did that. So that was, that was number two. So now I'm getting a little bit involved in saying, you know, save these old houses is what was in my brain. So I got involved more with the city of Fremont, got on the harp historical review as a commissioner, thought I did some good there for about 12 years, and after that we moved two more houses and then they are on Ellsworth Street and we put those in the commercial. So historically, you know, I I have a passion, what I would consider. You know, try to say what you got rather than just putting up something that really doesn't have much character in history we'll be right back.
Speaker 5:
You can hear the rest of this conversation in just a moment. Looking for a real estate agent who truly cares about their clients, look no further than Jennifer Petricelli. With her wide-ranging knowledge of the real estate industry and expert negotiation skills, jennifer goes above and beyond for her clients. Don't settle for a second-rate experience. Choose Jennifer Petricelli for a first-class real estate journey what are you so?
Speaker 6:
me. I actually I collect too much stuff at home and so we thought we should cut back on some stuff, get rid of some stuff so we can go back out and buy more stuff. And actually we're doing really well today and so we're very excited. But yeah, we just have a little bit of everything. We have M&M collectibles you know the old, you know talk about glasses. My husband loves his baseball, so we have baseball bobbleheads. A little bit of everything.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, having fun out here the Aloni College flea market is happening every second Saturday of the month from 9 am to 3 pm on Aloni's Fremont campus. We release these podcast episodes on Fridays and that means the next Aloni flea market is tomorrow. You can find a link in the show notes of this episode or you can Google Aloni College flea market.
Speaker 2:
It'll be the first thing that comes up and now back to our conversation as far as changes in Fremont I, I don't know what happened, but there was a huge change, I think about 15 years ago. People started to find out that they can get pretty good money for their home, so maybe their kids were raised and they make an excuse and the big migration started. Education we had a real good school system and I can remember a story one Saturday we used to meet at MacGyver's hardware, which has a mission. We meet up there and solve all the problems of the world with Bob MacGyver and everything. And everybody was saying you know, I don't know what's gonna happen. One of the old timers standing there he says well, you guys, you got nobody to blame but yourself. Silence. You put your house on the market. You got 14 people who want to buy it. You make a lot of money. So the next guy says wow, these prices are going up. Maybe it's time to get out of dodge. He said that probably wouldn't have happened if there wasn't such an appreciation and value all of a sudden. So you got yourself to blame because it's called greed. Everybody wants to, wants the dollar. So with that you have a different people coming in and with that you have a.
Speaker 2:
What I feel this is, by being philosophical, now a whole new way of looking at Fremont. You know Fremont used to be was made up of five districts and those districts are very proud of themselves. Each one was individual and I don't know if it's the thinking of the, the progressives of the world and I'm not saying that derogatorily but you know they feel that let's homogenize Fremont and I think that's a huge mistake. To me it's a huge mistake. And to prove that, niles is kind of holding its own mission, status a is slowly, slowly being homogenized, because there isn't that what I call actionary. There really is.
Speaker 2:
No, there's no policy here. There's no policy from the standpoint of if you go to some towns like Palo Alto, nobody's gonna touch their historic district, no, but he's gonna play with that and the staff knows that, the city knows that and they're proud of it here it's the people living in that little area that make that happen. The city, to me anyway, is not a avid fan of that. Not saying they should be, but always ask the question what really is your policy?
Speaker 2:
what do you? What do they really envision? Yeah, for Fremont, other than putting up high rises, trying to get everybody to move into them and then try to get everybody to move near to Bart, because that's the answer everything. And guess what?
Speaker 5:
I don't think it's working out too well we'll be right back with this conversation in just a moment.
Speaker 4:
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Speaker 5:
And for Fremont podcast listeners, if you make a purchase of $50 or more, you get a complimentary Thai tea or a fruit tea with your purchase.
Speaker 4:
You can find out how to dine in or order at milk and honey Fremontcom for more information and links. Be sure to check out our show notes if you want to hear more of their story.
Speaker 5:
Check out episode 8 on the Fremont podcast. Recently my family was trying to figure out what we were gonna do for dinner. We wanted a place where we were gonna be served good food, we were gonna be treated well and we wanted a good atmosphere. So we decided to go to Billy Roy's burgers. Not only does Billy Roy's have the best burgers in town, but they've also got great salads, they've got great sandwiches and they've got great desserts. The service was efficient and friendly.
Speaker 4:
And to top it all off, it's the beginning of football season and Billy Roy's has more than adequate screens to watch your game.
Speaker 5:
If you're interested in watching football at Billy Roy's, you won't miss a play.
Speaker 4:
If you're looking for a place to enjoy good food and good service, I recommend Billy Roy's burgers on Thornton Avenue, I was being reminded when you stand on the Warm Springs BART platform, so you can see brand new high rise building going on. You can see old historic homes that are still there, that have been around for maybe a hundred years or more, and then you also see homeless encampments. You have these three different categories that are front and center, you know, from just right there at the BART platform, you've got people that can't afford any kind of a housing, and so then they have to do whatever it is that works for them. And then you've got people who have been living here for, you know, decades and they have houses that they've grown up in and now they're retired. And I think that there's so much good and there's a lot to be appreciated about the previous generations or generations of people that have lived here.
Speaker 4:
I think that we do a disservice by dismissing that quickly, you know. But then you've got a lot of the new housing and a lot of the new housing. I feel, you know I'm not saying that, I know this for certain but I feel like it's almost being forced on us both on the from the outside and from the inside. In other words, I hear that there's like the California. The state of California has a plan for housing and an expectation placed on certain cities as to how much housing that they need to provide. We also live within, you know within.
Speaker 4:
A you know, we're kind of considered the entrance way or the gateway to the Silicon Valley, and so you've got a lot of people looking for housing that are working in the new tech industry that is, you know, predominant in this area, and so that kind of puts a pressure on us as well to provide housing for for you know, it's almost like you can't help, but I mean that's going to happen one way or the other. But then you do have, maybe, smaller players that are more interested in, you know, making money off of it and they're really trying to push, you know, moving in and building housing in particular areas so that they can make, you know, extra, the extra buck you know, for themselves.
Speaker 2:
Fremont is not what it was. The given example of what I think Fremont should be like. This is going back quite a few years. I was involved with the bicentennial up at the mission, which was a hundred 200 year anniversary for the mission. So we had a big blowout and we had a parade which I was responsible for and it was very successful. I had MC Hammer coming down in his you know, in his car and everything. It was a great time. We had great, great entries in the parade.
Speaker 2:
Next year, john won't forget a Jan Perkins, right after the 4th of July, comes into my office and she says Bob, I need your help. And I said what's the matter, jan? She says well, you know, we had a. We had a big, big ruckus in the park and we decided to follow a day police department, fire department staff said no more fireworks. And we said what are we going to do to change his thinking? Because we don't want people to think that, you know, all of a sudden, fremont can't control things, which is a good way to think. So she says we want you to have a parade in Mission San Jose, like you had last year. Can you do that? And we'll continue with that every year.
Speaker 2:
And I said I'll do it under one condition that every year you hold that parade in the district. In other words, it goes from here to Centerville, to Niles, to Irvington, to Warm Springs, whatever. And they says you got it. And she said why do you want to do that? I says because it'll. It'll build interest in these people that live in Fremont, knowing that there is a Mission San Jose, knowing guess what, there is a Warm Springs, and I think it'll it'll also breed competition and pride. So that was my idea for everything. So we did that for quite a while and then it it merged and purged into what you have today, which is different because we used to have to raise with people and realize all the money for that parade. You paid for the city closing it down, you paid for the police, you paid for the fire department. It was a lot different. So it looks like it was a city parade, but the districts were paying for it, so they had to get sponsors. So make a long story short, that's what I envisioned Fremont to be.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, kind of a focus on the different districts.
Speaker 2:
Districts because they all have something unique to give. And it's a 90 plus square mile city. It's a big city, so people need to know what's here. That was my thinking.
Speaker 4:
That's how I see it. Well, I appreciate you sharing that. I think there's a number of things that you said that resonates with me. I do very much appreciate the individual districts. I lived in Irvington for the first four and a half years that I lived here. Now I live in the district line puts me in the Niles, which I'm proud of. I love being here in Niles and I'm involved down here in Niles a lot and I love going up to the Mission. San Jose. Some springs have spent some time down there for various things, and I love Centerville. I've spent some decent amount of time there as well. So I do think that there is some. I think it's significant to not erase the, I guess, the individual personalities of those particular districts and to be able to allow them to flourish, develop in what they are and keep the history going.
Speaker 2:
And just to plug, permission to San Jose district. I mean, we have some unique features up there that people don't realize. You got the Mission. You have the Historical Museum up there which is there, you have a small olive hide art gallery and you have the latest edition, which is called the Gardens at Palmdale. See, you're going home. That's a brand new. It's a private garden right there off of Mission Boulevard. All of those places are within walking distance. In other words, somebody parked their car, they could spend a half a day and visit these places. Quite unique, and you would think that there was more marketing for that, even at a city level. But there isn't, you know, and why, I don't know. It's just you have to blow your own horn, but sometimes you you get tired and you have to have somebody to pick it up after your retirement.
Speaker 4:
Yeah, yeah, I hear you Well, bob. I the reason or how I found you was I saw either an email or an article that had gone out about a particular house in the Mission San Jose district.
Speaker 2:
And real quickly on that. I did a letter to the editor talking about this Victorian-era house right on Mission Boulevard about 1890 somewhere in there. The person who bought that, which is an investment group, bought from Mission Boulevard all the way down to the side street, which is say they went from one street to another down to Ellsworth. There was a fire about a year ago on the second second floor of this building.
Speaker 4:
Okay.
Speaker 2:
Did some, did some damage? Can it be repaired? Certainly can. So I'm saying don't tear it down. I don't know if that's going to win, because staff will carry the ball and give really hard. You know, let they'll let the hard make a decision, planning commission make a decision and console, but they're they will steer in their writing, one way or the other, what they feel about what that should be done.
Speaker 4:
I'm curious to know in your mind let's just say that somebody decided that they wanted to champion that cause and, and you know, restore it what do you think the best use of that, that facility or that building, that house is, once it's restored or once it would be in a usable situation?
Speaker 2:
Well, well, here again, it's a it's commercial, it's two story. It's been like that since many, many, many, many years. It would depend on who saw it as being an opportunity to do business there. So that could be anything. The one I envision would be anything that's a small entrepreneur type of thing to try to make it work. But that depends on the individual who sees something there that they can make work.
Speaker 4:
Well, I, I, I appreciate you sharing your heart, sharing your mind on this as well. I, I was, I was a little cautious and not sure you know about this conversation particularly.
Speaker 3:
What.
Speaker 4:
What, Not not? Not a bad, not a bad reason. It's just, I think, from, I think, most of the people that I have interviewed, I have had a general idea as to like where, where the conversation is going, where you know where where you know what kind of can of worms we might be opening up.
Speaker 4:
I I've not really wanted the podcast to become a platform for politics.
Speaker 4:
I did interview a few people who were running for office at one point in time and I realized that that's not what I wanted the podcast to be about.
Speaker 4:
Is it be a some sort of partisanship sort of platform?
Speaker 4:
What I do want what I do want is I want to highlight the good in the community.
Speaker 4:
What I do, what I would like for the podcast to help with, is for people to have a better understanding of all the different act, movements and activity that is happening within our community, because I think sometimes we can get tunnel vision and we can focus on the things we're involved with.
Speaker 4:
We can focus on the things that is now, you know, in front of us and we don't get an opportunity to listen to people who are involved in other things within our community or who have been in the community for a long time. Like, we come to the community and we think about the fact that there's nothing to do at night, and so we start complaining about that, but then we don't realize that there's other things in the community that really are important to a chunk of people that live within the community that we're just ignoring altogether. And so I think for me you know, interviewing you, I think that it's just I didn't know what to expect and I don't know how we're going to navigate through the conversation on this, but I do think that it's important to be able to hear people's voices and people that actually have a long time investment and they have, I think everyone kind of needs to take care of themselves so that they're able to provide for their family or whatever.
Speaker 4:
But at the same time, I do think it's important to hear people who have, you know, their hearts and their lives wrapped up in the community. And so, for you, I love hearing your passion, I love seeing your perspective. I think what I was potentially concerned about was that your thought on this particular matter regarding the house was more of like, just, you know, this is a hill, I'm going to die on, sort of thing. But at the same time, maybe we're closed minded to the bigger perspective. But when I'm talking to you, what I hear from you is that you do have a bigger perspective, or you have a mind on the bigger perspective, and I see both the big perspective as well as the individual features that affect the type of movements that are happening within the community like, for instance, this house.
Speaker 4:
Let me ask you this this thought just came to my mind, and I don't know what I think about it, but the thought just came to my mind what if what has previously existed in Mission San Jose?
Speaker 4:
I'll just use Mission San Jose as an example. What if what has previously existed in Mission San Jose has run its course? Like what if it has done everything that it could do, and part of the reason why we're seeing empty buildings and businesses closing up and stuff is because it's just not able to bring the people into that community, to generate the type of pride that you would want to see in that community. What if the future of Mission San Jose is actually a more modernized version of what once was? In other words, there are certain things that are retained, and maybe that house ought to be something that is retained and memorialized in a sense, but there's going to be a point in time when people are going to take pride in that community. I guess one of the things that made me think about this is that right on the corner there of Washington and Mission, across the Kitty Corner from the Mission Chapel, there's a corner storefront right there.
Speaker 4:
The old Missionville yeah and it's empty now for several months, like there's nobody in there and there's not even a for rent sign on the window.
Speaker 2:
Well, there is a for sale sign. Oh, for sale sign, that's a different story.
Speaker 4:
I guess I'm looking at that, just saying why is it that nobody's moved in there? I think that would be a premium spot for somebody, and why is it that that isn't being championed, in a sense that here's a corner spot, beautiful place. You could put a bookstore in there. You could put different types of shops in there.
Speaker 4:
I was talking because I interviewed the caretakers, not the caretakers, the curators of the Mission Chapel, trying to think of their name, right here, Gary, yeah, so I interviewed them and they were talking about, I think, if I remember correctly in my conversation with them, they were talking about when you go to visit a lot of the other missions around the state, which I've done my sons in fourth grade.
Speaker 4:
so we went and visited a bunch of the missions this year. You have different people really lean into the presence of the mission being there, so they have bookshops and little cafes and all kinds of stuff. I guess I'm wondering is what is it that is keeping some of those already ready to go shops closed or vacant? And maybe what that area actually needs in order to preserve the uniqueness of Mission San Jose is for there to be some modernization or gentrification or whatever happening there.
Speaker 2:
Well, you're talking about physical buildings and being the difference. I think what would make the big difference is whoever owns those pieces of property trying to get people in there that are going to have a business. That goes along with a mission, goes along with an art gallery, goes along with a museum, goes along with the garden, so people have something. It's got to be a destination. Mission San Jose has got to be a destination. It's not. You know, that area is only about two blocks long we analyze it and maybe two blocks deep. So it's got to be a destination and it's got to be promoted, and that's usually done by either merchants or property owners themselves. Changing the facade of anything to me is going to ruin the uniqueness of what it is. It's eclectic, it's interesting, people who go there and I'm not just saying this is what a great little place. Why isn't there more to do? Well, there is, but it's not promoted. People need to do that and that's up to them to try to get that done.
Speaker 4:
That's my opinion. Yeah, no, I appreciate you sharing that. I don't know what the answer is. I want to do what's good for our community and I do think that there's a lot that needs to be done. I think that we can. I think that people can take their own personal interests. I think we do have a lot of people that take the personal interest in the community but I just think that there needs to be some sort of a unity of mind, because I do think that a lot of people's ideas are all over the place, you know, and we don't.
Speaker 2:
That's what I've said. It's a reactionary. You go to the city, go to the staff, go to the politicians. Ask them what do they really see now and in the future? What do they really see Fremont being?
Speaker 4:
What are some of the things apart from housing, apart from real estate, apart from all these other things? What are some of the things that you appreciate about the city of Fremont? What are some of the things that you've enjoyed over the years?
Speaker 2:
Wow, that's a good question. Probably the neighborhoods. Like a neighborhood I live obviously changing, but the ambiance of it hasn't changed. The climate's incredible. There are things to do here. Seriously there are things to do here if people just look into that and get out of their house a little bit.
Speaker 4:
What are some of the things that you enjoy doing around here?
Speaker 2:
Well, I'm 85 years old now, so that's a lot different. I love my walks down what. I call Mission Creek, which is by the high school. I love my walks, Seeing the people on those walks. We've become friends with some of them, talked to them. I like things like that. I basically drive around the different areas in town because I have time to do that, Usually early in the morning, just to see the different feelings and ambiances of it. There's places to go. I got little places to go to. I love the Weeners-Nicholson Centerville.
Speaker 2:
Hot dog, that is great. The bagel shop and the Safeway shopping center. They make great sandwiches. There's El Prasino, which is a good restaurant. There's a lot of things to do Black Bear if you want to get full and head-front get your money's worth. There's all kinds of things to do here. In fact, for the first time in a long time, I went to the movies by myself. I enjoy that. There's a part Like Elizabeth. There's a lot to do if you want to do that.
Speaker 4:
That's great. I love it. I love it. Thank you for joining me for this episode for the podcast. I'm looking forward to hearing more of what you're involved in and maybe getting to know you a little bit better in the future. We'll find out what happens with the efforts that you're making down in Mission, San Jose.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for having me. I have a lot more stories to tell, but we don't have time.
Speaker 4:
I don't want to put you to sleep. No, I love stories, I love stories and people listening love stories as well, so maybe we'll have to revisit some of those stories again.
Speaker 2:
All right.
Speaker 4:
God bless you. Yeah, thanks, all right.
Speaker 1:
This episode was hosted and produced by Ricky B. Scheduling and pre-interviews by Sarah S. Rachel Prey is the print editor in charge of our newsletter. Additional reporting by Mark Emmons. I'm Gary Williams. Music provided by Soundstripecom. Be sure to subscribe wherever it is that you listen so you don't miss an episode. You can find everything we make the podcast, our newsletter and all of our social media links at thefremontpodcastcom. Join us next week on the Fremont Podcast.
Speaker 4:
Music. Well, one thing that we didn't do at the very beginning, and I need to do this- is I need to introduce you.
Speaker 6:
We need to know your name.
Speaker 4:
So I'm going to go ahead and do that now and I'll ask you a few follow-up questions about that.
Speaker 2:
We got carried away here. Huh, that's right.
Speaker 4:
Well, we went to do a sound check to make sure everything was sounding good, and then we just jumped into the conversation. So that's okay.
