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Sri Muppidi isn’t quite old enough yet to rent a car but the 24-year-old tech investor said the city of Dublin needs the voice of its younger residents “to move forward,” so she recently entered the Dublin City Council race in the Nov. 3 general election.
“The world is in crisis. We need young leaders in local office so we can have the difficult conversations needed to move forward,” Muppidi told the Weekly. “It’s time Dublin has people like me in office, independent and free from the influences of special interest money, to build a more equitable and prosperous future.”
The long-time Tri-Valley resident outlined her council priorities, if elected, including climate change, traffic congestion and infrastructure development.
“We need to think long-term about climate change,” Muppidi said. “I think we can do a lot by committing to a low-carbon economy. The city municipality buys carbon free energy at a higher level as compared to residents, so we can encourage customers to switch to a higher rate of carbon free energy, which can reduce greenhouse gasses.”
“We can also encourage future development of buildings to use electric instead of natural gas. Additionally, we can support the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and implement more bike lanes,” she added.
To support local businesses and help them recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, Muppid wants to make permitting and licensing more streamlined and user-friendly, and also lure “appropriate corporate partners” to Dublin to create more local jobs, reduce commutes and generate more revenue.
“It also provides a ready steady revenue stream for the city so we can invest back in our town,” Muppidi said about increasing local employment. “It would make traffic more predictable, we’d actually have money that’s coming back to our city, and people can actually work in our city versus spending two hours on the roads.”
By drawing more businesses to Dublin, Muppidi said she envisions more residents walking, biking or taking public transit to local employers, and the resulting environmental benefits from decreased traffic and vehicle emissions.
Though she currently works in venture capital as a technology investor, Muppidi’s array of experience includes the political realm. “I got involved with local politics even when I was in high school. That really helped me see how involved you can get in actually making a difference,” Muppidi said.
Ten years ago, Muppidi campaigned for U.S. Rep. Jerry McNerney, then Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016. Muppidi got an even earlier taste of leadership when she represented Girl Up at the United Nations in 2012.
The Dublin resident moved to California as a baby with her family, then to the Tri-Valley when she was eight years old.. Muppidi grew up “in a neighborhood smack down between Dublin and Pleasanton, right by Tassajara and Santa Rita,” and currently resides in west Dublin.
“I grew up in the Tri-Valley, and I have such fond memories of movie premieres at the theatre, soccer practice in local parks, and hours spent in the public library. I am proud to call Dublin my home,” Muppidi said.
A 2013 graduate of Amador Valley High School, where she participated in the award-winning “We The People” civics competition team, Muppidi later earned her bachelor’s in economics and master’s in management science and engineering at Stanford University.
Muppidi also studied abroad in Oman and Turkey, and researched human rights abuses at the Department of State and analyzed security issues for the former U.S. National Security Advisor. She also has worked in policy and economic development for the U.S. Department of State, Federal Reserve, and World Bank. Muppidi also runs The Loop, a nonprofit campaign to grow the number of women launching companies.
Eight other candidates besides Muppidi are also running for Dublin City Council in the Nov. 3 general election: Samir Qureshi, Dawn Plants, Sherry Hu, Shawn Costello, Razi Hasni, Lucrecia Deleon, Michael McCorriston and Kashef Qaadri.
For more information about Muppidi, visit www.srimuppidi.com.
I like that you think outside the box.
More On Brain Storming Fire Fighting Strategically.
Should we consider tasking any existing Department of the Federal Government or modify an existing branch of the Department of Defense with the task of mounting higher numbers of assets, quick response capabilities to CONTROL forest fires? Notice the operating word here being Control forest fire.
It wouldn’t be cheap.
I always check in with Juan Brown https://youtu.be/dLQKc9wzXZc
There are two support strategies being emphasized for the Air Response strategy to our California fires this season (Summer 2020). This covers only air response not ground personnel.
USE HELICOPTERS FOR FAST DEPLOYMENT
(1) Helicopter Attack Bases , Livermore sees temporary Hummingbird base, temporary and highly mobile.
ATTACK LIKE A SWARM FROM EVERYWHERE
(2) 110 out-of-state aircraft much of which require well over 4000 foot runways.
RESPOND LIKE THE HUMAN IMMUNE SYSTEM
The point being fighting fires are fought like our body’s immune system fights infections… all over, all at once, all the time.
Our immune system symbolically appears to need to be beefed up substantially. Too many of us are dying from forest fires. Immense loss of capital assets. We need to find a new balance able to swarm and smother out fires to manage forests on the one hand and protect lives and property on the other.