FAIRFIELD —Home to Travis Air Force Base, a Budweiser brewery and Jelly Belly, the trio of military and commercial landmarks could overwhelm any other identity for Fairfield.
But as the city’s boosters will note, Fairfield is also West Texas Street, North Texas Street, downtown, the civic center and Solano County Superior Court.
Its residents often speak with pride about how citizens come together: Hundreds attended a town hall meeting in April after a spike in crime.
Some speak nostalgically about a community they recall as safer and better, but civic officials see the city’s best days as now and the near future.
The Intermodal Station Project for train and bus riders, planned about a mile from Travis Air Force Base, is seen as a boon for residents and the economy.
Besides such developments, Fairfield leaders point to the range of viewpoints expressed in the city about politics and the community.
“You have a real marketplace of ideas,” Councilwoman Catherine Moy said.
The Central Solano Citizen-Taxpayer Group is a mainstay at city council and school board meetings. Union voices were heard as well when a project labor agreement for the train station development went before Fairfield council members.
Along with feisty politics, the city likes a good laugh. A recruitment for a new assistant city manager included a sense of humor as among the qualities the municipality sought in an administrator.
Fairfield’s status as the county seat reaches back to 1858 and has helped boost growth, beginning with a doubling of the population between the late 1850s and 1880. A century later, more than 44,000 people lived in the city – a number that more than doubled by 2000.
Its nearly 40 square miles makes Fairfield almost the physical size of San Francisco, if not a match in population or cable cars that climb halfway to the stars.
Fairfield
- City Hall: 1000 Webster St., 428-7400
- Website: www.fairfield.ca.gov
- Mayor: Harry Price. Elected to council in 1997. Current term expires November 2014. Reach at 428-7395 or 422-4455 or [email protected].
- Vice Mayor: Rick Vaccaro. Appointed to council in 2008, elected 2011. Term expires November 2016. Reach at 249-3533 or [email protected].
- City Councilwoman: Pam Bertani. Elected to council in 2011. Term expires November 2016. Reach at 628-6974 or [email protected].
- City Councilwoman: Catherine Moy. Appointed to council in 2008, elected 2009. Term expires November 2014. Reach at 480-8837 or [email protected].
- City Councilman: John Mraz. Elected to council in 2005. Term expires November 2014. Reach at 580-5712 or [email protected].
- City Manager: David White. Reach at 428-7400.
Reach Ryan McCarthy at 427-6935 or [email protected].
