Council member Chris Sturken is seeking a second term representing Redwood City’s District 2 without an opponent on the Nov. 3 ballot, with housing affordability among the issues he said he wants to continue addressing.
Sturken is one of three Redwood City Council candidates running unopposed this year. In an interview with the Pulse, he discussed the council actions he is proudest of, work he considers unfinished and the priorities he would pursue during a second term.
Born at Sequoia Hospital, the 32-year-old council member grew up in Belmont, but spent a lot of time “hanging around” Redwood City, he said. Hailing from a union family of rail workers, Sturken said he’s always been interested in supporting working people and small business owners.
Sturken first ran for city council in 2022, he said, because of the housing crisis and his personal connection to it as a renter and “someone who has moved nearly every year in pursuit of more affordable rent.”
The council member added that his family members, cousins and sister, have moved away because “they couldn’t envision starting a life and building a life” in Redwood City. He himself has moved three times within his own district alone, he said.
After attending San Francisco State University, Sturken began his career as an AmeriCorps fellow serving Hayward in the city’s Environmental Services Division. He said his work on a greenhouse gas emissions inventory informed his approach to “fighting climate change,” with a special focus on targeting transportation, a major emitter of greenhouse gases.
Today, when he’s not busy with council responsibilities, Sturken works for the Stanford University School of Medicine in providing administrative support to faculty who do research and work to improve patient care.
Asked what he is most proud of from his term, Sturken pointed to the Broadway Pedestrian Mall, which the council voted to approve in May 2024 and codified the following month. The decision permanently closed the portion of Broadway that had been closed to vehicle traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic for outdoor dining.
Sturken also cited the council’s October 2025 approval of the tenant protection ordinance, which restored and expanded relocation benefits, updated leasing terms and introduced a “right to return” for tenants displaced by apartment or building renovations.
The council’s “creative” incentives to help housing projects “across the finish line” and bring forth more affordable units were also among the council actions Sturken noted. He pointed to a development agreement allowing the 1900 Broadway office project developer to fulfill its affordable housing obligation through a separate development.
The council approved shifting that obligation in July from a planned project at 847 Woodside Road to a proposed 76-unit affordable senior housing development at 705 Veterans Blvd. Neither development has been completed.
While the council member feels there’s much to celebrate, he has plenty of unfinished business.
At a recent council meeting during a discussion of the city’s El Niño readiness plan, he noted that Redwood City still doesn’t have a comprehensive solution to managing flooding at Cordilleras Creek. Sturken said he is interested in pivoting to a community-led approach because top-down change can be bureaucratic. He also noted the city is limited to working within the bounds of public property, when private lands offer more potential.
Sturken said he remains committed to achieving Vision Zero, Redwood City’s goal to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries for all modes of transportation by 2030. He also wants to create more homeownership opportunities for young families.
To help with homebuying, Sturken wants Redwood City to follow San Jose’s lead by adopting a local ordinance that would allow property owners with accessory dwelling units to subdivide their properties to help with townhome development, he said.
Despite running unopposed, Sturken said he has continued campaigning because he wants people to turn out to vote. He supports Prop 1, which would authorize $11.25 billion in state bonds for housing programs, and opposes Prop 43, which would require a two-thirds vote to enact special local taxes. Sturken said the measure would “make it more difficult for cities and school districts to raise critical revenue.”
Sturken is also a supporter of the city’s rent control measure, which would expand the city’s Tenant Protection Ordinance by adding rent stabilization, anti-harassment and “just cause eviction safeguards.” The council voted to place the measure on the ballot, instead of adopting it as an ordinance, and some council members later formally opposed the measure.
