Happy Birthday to our blog! One year has passed since the launch of ThinkSiliconValley.Com, and this blog celebrates our 105th post! With the launch of our business website, we started posting blogs twice a week to Takes From Silicon Valley East and tweeting daily on Twitter. The blog has been a depository of observations about driving industries, CEO interviews, insights into the reshoring of manufacturing, and other topics of interests.

Generating blog content twice a week has been a community effort. Our Economic Development team, City staff from Community Development, Public Works, City Manager’s Office as well as guest bloggers from Fremont’s business community, industry leaders, as well as reporters have shared their thoughts with us. In fact one third of our blog posts were contributed by guest bloggers.

We hope you have enjoyed reading the blog content as much as we have enjoyed generating it. Below please find links to our three most popular blog posts from the last 12 months. And, if you haven’t already, now is the time to subscribe to our blog and follow us on Twitter to receive hashtags on innovation, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, clean technology, and innovation. Please use the comment section below to share your ideas for future topics and provide feedback.

1. Got Place? Downtown Fremont Gets Creative (08/14/2013)

Recipe for city place-making: Start with a diverse and innovative population. Add proximity to transit. In a separate bowl, create policies that encourage pedestrian-oriented and mixed-use development styles and buildings. Stir and bake for a vibrant gathering place.

Deputy City Manager Jessica von Borck shares how gathering people in a central location regularly — through events like Street Eats and Fremont’s Underground Social Experiment (FUSE) — is creating the heart for Fremont’s downtown.

2. Why NUMMI’S Closure Could Be the Best Thing to Have Ever Happened to Fremont (10/9/13)

With every setback comes a new opportunity to overcome and thrive — and Fremont did just that. Emerging from the wake of the NUMMI closure, the City got back on its feet, as tenacious and determined as ever.

City Manager Fred Diaz shares how Fremont was able to get back into the game after NUMMI’s closure stronger, faster, and ready for new things.

3. Jobs, Transit, Housing, Oh My! Warm Springs/South Fremont Community Plan is approved (07/23/14)

For some time you’ve likely been hearing about Warm Springs/South Fremont as a significant regional opportunity for employment-focused, transit-oriented development … the Fremont City Council approved the Warm Springs/South Fremont Community Plan, marking a significant milestone for this development.

Community Development Director Jeff Schwob provides an abridged version of the PowerPoint for the Warm Springs Plan. Take a look at some of his favorite components of the plan, and see renderings of our Warm Springs Vision.