FREMONT — Mayor Raj Salwan said Fremont’s future is “filled with hope,” during his first State of the City address this week.

Before a packed audience in the Fremont Downtown Event Center on Wednesday night, Salwan said the city’s priorities are economic development and financial stability, public safety, ending homelessness and environmental sustainability. He called for retail growth in the downtown area, as well as investment in new parks.

“We are ambitious, diverse and unified by a shared belief that our best days are still ahead,” Salwan said. “Let me be clear — we are just getting started.”

Salwan expressed excitement about a flourishing tech manufacturing sector, with several companies planning expansions or transfers into the city, such as Pebble, Penguin Solutions, Sony Honda Mobility’s Afeela electric-car company and Wisk Aero, an electric flying passenger vehicle company based in Mountain View.

The mayor, who is a veterinarian by trade, received applause when he mentioned the city’s efforts to hire a new full-time veterinarian for the Tri-City Animal Shelter.

Salwan, who championed a controversial citywide camping ban, said leaders need to attack homelessness “at its root cause,” which is a lack of affordable housing in the region. The opening of the Fremont Family Apartments, a new 54-unit affordable housing development, was one of the city’s efforts toward addressing homelessness, he said.

Four other developments with a total of 514 affordable units — Bell Street Gardens, Osgood North, Osgood South and Serra Apartments — are expected to open this spring or summer.

“When we talk about homelessness, we must acknowledge the complexity of the topic,” Salwan said. “Homelessness does not look the same for everyone.”

The city’s camping ban, which is among the strictest in the region, has infuriated housing advocates who sued the city over an “aiding and abetting” clause that would have criminalized anyone caught helping homeless residents. Providing bedding or tents were included in the clause that was later removed from the ordinance. The litigation is still pending.

A ban on camping came after the Fremont City Council put restrictions on how long RV dwellers could park, before moving their vehicles.

“I like the idea because it makes the community more safe,” Fremont resident Tao Xu said of the bans in an interview after Wednesday’s event.

However, the 59-year-old who raised two children in Fremont said he is most interested in the city’s efforts to open new parks, build more housing and improve business districts like the popular Pacific Commons.

“I see a lot of progress,” he said.

Nirva Kadakia, a Fremont mother who has lived in the city for over 20 years, said the city has “changed in a good way” and has “established itself as one of the really nice places to raise a family.”

As the owner of a small software company in Sunnyvale, she said she would like to see city officials invest more money and resources to bring more businesses like hers to the area.

She said the city’s camping and RV bans are “essential,” but called the previous “aiding and abetting” clause a “misstep.” Kadakia said homelessness is something “that needs to be managed,” and said “some of these steps are important.”

“I think we need to continue to deal with these problems with empathy, but with pragmatism as well,” she said.

Her teenage son, Neel Jani, said in an interview that he sees the city “on an upwards trend.”

Jani said he wants officials to continue investments into its business districts, but noted he doesn’t feel there is a “real downtown in Fremont,” compared with other major cities in the region.

“We just feel like a residential city,” Jani said. “But we have to be more of a social city.”