On February 28, 2014, Redwood City Mayor Jeffrey Gee and Vice Mayor Rosanne Foust delivered the annual State of the City address at the Oracle Conference Center. This event, organized by the Redwood City-San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce, had council members, former mayors, elected officials, city staff members and business leaders—including Sequoia Realty’s own Vice President, Jeff Badstubner—in attendance.

The event commenced with an informative and entertaining short film, “Where is Deadwood City?” in which many local figures (amongst them Mayor Gee and Vice Mayor Foust) speak to the progression and development of Redwood City in recent years. The main focus of the video was the shedding of the “Deadwood City” image to reveal Redwood City as a thriving center for business and living.

Following the video, Gee and Foust began the address by announcing the City Council’s current strategic plan, outlining the strategic initiatives that are the key priorities for Redwood City. These initiatives include community building and communications, economic development, government operations, public safety, transportation and youth. The remainder of the presentation covered mainly positive news. As Spectrum Magazine’s publisher, Steve Penna, summarizes: “Redwood City’s finances are on stronger footing than in the past, but threats like pension and worker costs and the departure of auto dealerships remain concerns; 60 percent of the general fund is due to property and sales taxes, which are both in stronger positions because of higher assessed values and a 24 percent increase in auto sales tax over fiscal year 2011–12; the tax contributed $23.5 million in general fund revenue; in the next 15 months, 1,635 new housing units will be completed and ready for rental; strong advances to solve the flooding problems in the Friendly Acres/East Bayshore neighborhoods are occurring.”


All in all, the address was well received and attendees were able to leave with a general sense of optimism and excitement for the future of Redwood City and its upward trend. To read the full opinion piece by Penna, click here: http://www.spectrummagazine.net/pdfs/2014_03_SpectrumArchive.pdf

And here is the aforementioned video that was shown at the beginning of the event, Where is Deadwood City?