What Brings Us Together

August 28, 2019

Approaching a year as a Councilmember, remaining extremely focused on the most critical City issues and continuing the process of expedited learning & engaging with the community and the regional leaders, I find myself at a stage, where I feel like having been through many City issues and situations and facing and tackling them, has resulted in a rich experience that I feel fortunate to have gained. This has evolved and shaped me as a Councilwoman and my decisions, and most importantly, has refined my thought process on deciding what’s best for Foster City. 

While I started off looking at issues and topics with a sharp lens of a professional, with the analytics, the data and numbers that go with it, the pros and cons, the tradeoffs etc., and although I still consider that lens very critical, which will continue to be a strong pillar of my decision making process, I come full circle with a realization and reinforcement on my belief on what makes up a great community and what brings us together as a community and the sheer simplicity of it. No deep analysis and numbers and math is needed for that. It lies in simple things like hanging out with your neighbors and having a good time at Summer Concerts or at Foster City Summer Days, as I witnessed this past weekend. For me, a simple ride on the new SamTrans service FCX to San Francisco recently, was a great reminder of the small community feel that we all love so much. The reminder that we are indeed together and connected as a City and as a community. We all value the quality of life here and we all face the same challenges & the problems that we want to strive to find solutions for.

Great people do amazing things when they focus on the WHY. One man had a vision to create a place that 35 thousand people would call home. His WHY was community. His WHY was family. His WHY was planned and not random. And I believe every action we take should be an extension of that WHY – family & community. 

What mattered to the generations 40-50 years ago is not exactly the same as what matters today, and may not be the same tomorrow. The past has taught us that there are many important lessons to be learned. We must respect our past and we must understand our present. However, we must face forward and create the future we need and want for ourselves, and what we believe may be best for future generations. However, we must also keep in mind that our community tomorrow may want a different Quality of Life, more travel, more free time, more amenities locally than what we currently have. Technology will play a far more important and intrusive role in shaping how our City will look in the future. 

However, there are some things that will never change. Having a safe place to live, a place that is protected by Police & Fire, and a place that is unique that we can call home. We must ensure that we continue to keep the community focused on protecting property values, family values and social values. A community can be judged by the how it nurtures its children and the future, but also by how it takes care of its seniors, and respects and learns from the past. 

There is much more common ground than we realize, and there is a lot more that unifies us than there is that could divide us. It’s a great feeling to be together in that quest as a community. Each of us helping each other, sharing information and doing our part in ensuring Foster City remains a wonderful place to live, work and play.

Please continue to reach out to me at rawasthi@fostercity.org if you have questions or ideas or just want to have a conversation on any City topic.