Fred Buzo
San José Director
Local Impact, San José
As the San José Director for SPUR, Fred brings diverse stakeholders together to develop solutions to the problems big cities like San José face. Prior to joining SPUR, Fred served as Associate State Director for AARP California in their San Jose office. In this role, he spearheaded efforts to embed AARP’s age-friendly land use policies within the City of San Jose’s urban planning agenda – managing a week-long design charrette focused on transforming two underutilized sites into vibrant communities for people of all ages. However, he is most proud that he was tapped to lead AARP California’s work around the distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, as their representative on the Governor’s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee.
Fred has also served as a policy advisor for the Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo and during his previous tenure as councilmember. In Mayor (and Councilmember) Liccardo’s office, he researched, analyzed and advised on policy issues of housing, transportation, land use, economics, sustainability and resilience. During his time with the City of San Jose, Fred gained a reputation as a trusted problem solver who was able to work with diverse individuals and organizations with sometimes very differing perspectives on divisive issues.