New Saratoga mayor to prioritize traffic safety, community vitality

Saratoga’s new mayor is looking to focus on traffic safety, community vitality and preparing for the impact of new housing in the city.

Belal Aftab was appointed mayor for 2025 after having served as Saratoga’s vice mayor in 2024, and before that as a traffic safety commissioner for several years. The only member of the city council who hasn’t served on the Saratoga Planning Commission, Aftab said his background in traffic safety is what has guided his priorities for the year.

“I’m a believer that sometimes if you just really focus on a thing and just pay attention to it, things get done,” he said.

Aftab said being selected to serve as mayor of Saratoga is “the honor of a lifetime,” but he still sees himself as one of five city council members.

“It’s an honor and a privilege that my fellow council members have selected me, for which I am deeply grateful and I want to do justice to,” he said. “But I think a more important question is, what do we do as a council?”

Aftab said he hopes to focus on building up Safes Routes to School in Saratoga, encouraging students to take alternate modes of transportation to school other than cars, and making it safe for them to do so. He said he also hopes to make progress toward improving traffic safety in key areas including Prospect Road and Lawrence Expressway – soon to be the site of a new Costco – and Big Basin Way.

He also wants to help raise awareness about community events in Saratoga, and continue the work that started in 2024 to revitalize the city’s commercial areas – all under the umbrella of improving community vitality.

Aftab also serves on the ad hoc committee formed last year to help improve Saratoga’s economic vitality . After receiving council support on a handful of policies it proposed to support a revitalized commercial scene in Saratoga, the committee is set to return to the council this month with a more detailed plan for a pilot outdoor dining program on Big Basin Way.

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“I think the committee was a useful means of doing the research and getting feedback from the community, and that feedback should keep on coming,” Aftab said. “But now I think we need to work on this as a council and as a team.”

Aftab takes over as mayor as the city contends with a forecasted budget deficit despite managing to balance the budget in recent years, and he said the city’s finances are likely to be one of the biggest issues that staff and the council will have to contend with in 2025.

“We’ve been fortunate that the numbers have worked out the way they have every year, but at a certain point that’s going to start to change,” he said.

More than anything, Aftab said he wants “to do good in the community.”

“Say what you will about national politics and international conflicts, there’s the things that we control and the things we don’t. And I think one thing we can control is how kind we are to each other and how well we work together, even if we disagree.”

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