The real estate pro aims to address citizens’ concerns about crime, traffic problems, housing and schools while maintaining the growing city’s unique identity
Ritu Jha
Chandrakala ‘Chandu’ Siramdas, a city council candidate from the newly established District 1 in Fremont, California, says her priorities are public safety, traffic congestion, transportation and affordable housing.
According to her, much has changed in the past 10 years in Fremont. The population has risen from 214,089 according to the US Census, to 233,000 in recent estimates.
According to worldpopulationreview.com, Fremont is the second-most populous city in the county, with the 127,412 Asians there making up more than half the population.
Siramdas, born and raised in Telangana, India, is a real estate professional living in Fremont for the past 20 years after coming over on an H4 dependent visa.
She will face two contestants in the November 6 general election: business owner Teresa Keng and civil engineer Jose Oropeza.
“In the last few years we are observing rise in crime and robbery has increased,” Siramdas told indica. She said she was not just talking about chain-snatching or smaller crimes but more aggressive forms of theft and robbery.
“Criminals are breaking in and hitting people,” said Siramdas, who believes that more police officers and surveillance cameras could help control the situation. Right now, she said the police take five minutes on average to get the scene of the crime; she wants that to drop to two minutes.
“The city of Fremont has a shortage of police officers and they need at least 24 officers to increase patrolling,” she said.
Siramdas has received endorsements from the fire and the police departments.
“We can come up with more innovative ideas, technology, and we can add that up for public safety,” said Siramdas who has earned a bachelor’s degree in law and economics, and a master’s degree in political science, both in India. She was also was a national kabaddi player.
She has two sons, both of whom graduated from American High School, in Fremont Unified School District, husband, Shravan Siramdas is a senior executive at Innominds,
She said that being in business she understood peoples’ issues, how the economy impacted them, and the challenges local schools are facing.
She said a lot of people are moving to Fremont because it has good schools, is close to Silicon Valley, well connected as it is with two BART stations.
“But there are many challenges – housing, traffic… – and these are the reasons that made me to get into politics and to run for the council seat,” Siramdas said. “I really want to positively influence the residents of Fremont… I can bridge the gap, between the common citizen and the governing body of the city.”
Besides her core issues of public safety, traffic congestion, transportation and affordable housing, she said that more park and ride locations, and more public transportation and company buses could reduce traffic.
Addressing school safety issues, she believed there was a need for metal detectors at school entrances.
Siramdas said that while creating local jobs and ensuring affordable housing she also hoped to maintain the city’s unique identity.
