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Redwood City on Monday formally committed to a long-term strategy aimed at reducing financial stress, expanding access to jobs and services and giving residents more power to shape their economic futures.
The City Council voted unanimously on Dec. 22 to adopt an economic mobility action plan that identifies outcomes for greater upward mobility in the community as well as actions the city can take to support its development. With its passage, City staff will begin implementing the Plan in 2026 over the next few years.
The adopted framework identifies three broad desired community outcomes for the area: that households experience less stress about money, that residents use available resources and that community members feel empowered to shape their own future. The plan will measure progress towards these goals using various indicators such as rent stress, food insecurity and the share of youth aged 16 to 24 who are employed. It also details various strategies Redwood City will undertake to achieve the desired outcomes.
Several council members praised the efforts to prioritize equity and inclusion in Redwood City.
“This is awesome,” said council member Isabella Chu. “It’s one thing to talk about really caring about equity, really caring about everybody in the community. It’s another thing to take concrete action.”
While the Council generally had positive feedback on the economic mobility action plan, some council members said the city could not improve economic mobility alone. Council member Jeff Gee called the plan a good starting point, but said the city should be cautious about the outcomes it can be expected to affect. He noted that while the city can lead the efforts, community partners must also do their part. Residents can experience economic stress from factors outside of the city’s control, Gee noted, such as increased costs from tariffs and the disappearance of enhanced health care subsidies.
“I just want to be careful that we don’t send a message that whatever happens at the federal level or the state level, the city is going to backfill,” Gee said. “We don’t have the resources to do that.”
In her presentation to council, Assistant City Manager Michelle Poche Flaherty defined economic mobility as the ability of a family or person to improve their financial circumstances over time. Flaherty’s presentation noted that income alone does not drive upward mobility and referenced an Urban Institute framework, which says that economic mobility requires dignity and belonging, economic success and power and autonomy.
Flaherty noted that the city’s vision is to be a community where people of all backgrounds and income levels can thrive, but this goal has not yet been realized for all residents.
“When we look at local data, we can see we’re not yet embodying the city’s vision,” Flaherty said at the meeting. “Not everyone is thriving here just yet…So we ask ourselves, what might we do about this in terms of local action?”
The city strategies are the short-term actions the Redwood City government will take to affect the community indicators. For example, to help households feel less stress about money, the city will identify opportunities to provide financial education and proactively pursue local apprenticeship and employment opportunities that support both businesses and residents. The graphic below lists the strategies the city will undertake to support all three community outcomes. The City expects that each strategy will take 2-3 years to enact, while the three desired outcomes could take 7-10 years to manifest.
Flaherty acknowledged that the city’s approach to economic mobility is part of an ecosystem that can affect economic outcomes. She said that it supports community partnerships and noted that staff have aligned goals with the work of various community partners, including nonprofits, businesses, foundations and other government agencies.
In 2024, Council directed city staff to create an economic mobility action plan. The city’s economic mobility strategy was borne out of several years of research from city staff, engagement with 40 community partners, survey information from hundreds of residents in English and Spanish and the city’s membership to two national programs that emphasize economic mobility, the National League of Cities and the International City County Managers Association.
Upon Council approval of the mobility framework, staff will begin implementing the strategies in 2026. Answering a question from Gee about what city resources will be devoted to the initiative, Flaherty said there is no budget for its implementation and no person assigned to work on it. Rather, the components would be integrated into work that city staff already conduct.
“The bulk of the city work that is described in the plan is work that the city would be doing in the course of its regular work,” Flaherty. “The plan calls for us to use an equity lens and an economic mobility lens in doing that work.”
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