FRY: Keep Cupertino’s future bright with a resident-first city council

A slate of candidates for Cupertino City Council — two San Jose employees and a planning commissioner who proposed rezoning neighborhood corner lots from R-1 (single-family) to R-3 (multifamily) — portrays Cupertino as a city in decline. Whose interests would they put first, those of Cupertino residents or someone else’s?  The facts do not support their claim. Cupertino is not declining, it is on the upswing.

We need leaders who understand our strengths and challenges, not politicians campaigning on negative rhetoric. That’s why voters should support resident-first candidates: Tracy Kosolcharoen, Gopal Kumarappan, and Santosh Rao.

Cupertino’s commercial outlook is strong. Three destination retailers recently chose Cupertino. PGA TOUR Superstore, Hashi Market, and Barnes & Noble. Cushman & Wakefield’s second-quarter 2026 data shows the retail vacancy rate in Sunnyvale/Cupertino was 2% versus 4.9% in Silicon Valley, while Cupertino’s office vacancy rate was 3.2% versus 18.2% .

The Rise is moving forward. The 50-acre Vallco site is planned to include 225,000 square feet of retail space (nearly twice that of Main Street) and 1.475 million square feet of office space. The slate blames City Council for delays, but a project there was fully entitled in 2018. Delays reflect multiple revisions by the owner and the need to mitigate soil contamination above Environmental Screening Levels for residential and construction-worker exposure. The Building Department is now processing permits.

The slate’s claim that delays are costing the city $10 million annually deserves scrutiny. In 2023, the city’s best-case estimate for gross annual revenue by 2030 was $3.1 million. Since then, the planned retail space has been cut roughly in half, reducing projected 2030 gross annual revenue to about $2.3 million. Net revenue would be lower still.

Residents deserve realistic projections, not inflated promises. The Rise’s value extends beyond revenue: it will be a place to live, shop, wor, and play.

Local control matters. As Sacramento increasingly limits local decision-making, the League of California Cities, of which Cupertino is a member, recently voted to pursue a statewide working group to restore and strengthen local authority over housing and land use.

Yet J.R. Fruen, an incumbent and member of the slate, opposed having Cupertino take a position against Senate Bill 79, arguing it would not affect our city. Housing advocates subsequently requested expanding bus service on Stevens Creek Boulevard, potentially exposing single-family neighborhoods within a half-mile of bus stops to massive density increases mandated by the bill.

Fruen also supported eliminating the Legislative Review and Economic Development Committees and curtailing Audit Committee oversight. The current council majority reversed those actions, restoring public oversight of policy, economic development and public spending decisions.

Cupertino’s finances are resilient. The city lost sales-tax revenue from online Apple sales following a California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) audit. But that loss had been anticipated since at least 2006. During the pandemic, Cupertino benefited from an extraordinary surge in online sales. That windfall was never a reliable baseline for long-term fiscal health. Today, CDTFA data show taxable retail and food-service transactions rising steadily, while city data show hotel-tax revenue increasing. Cupertino faces real fiscal challenges, but the city is not in decline.

Our city deserves councilmembers whose priorities are firmly with its residents. Tracy Kosolcharoen, Gopal Kumarappan, and Santosh Rao are the only candidates on the ballot to be chosen by their peers to chair city commissions. Their experience, community involvement and record of public service make them the right choice to guide Cupertino’s future.

Rhoda Fry is a 40-year Cupertino resident and recipient of the city’s CREST Public Safety Award.