Here is the text of my speech yesterday at the community meeting on transforming our industrial core: On behalf of the City Council, thank you for coming today presentation of the Next Generation Workplace District study. The study is the product of the work of Gregg Tung of Freeman, Tung & Sasaki, leaders in urban design, and Rod Stephens, an economic development consultant. The study raises the fundamental questions of do we wish to transform the industrial core of our city and, if yes, what should we aspire for it to become and what transformation is realistic. These questions are ones we as a community need to consider and today’s meeting is part of this process. Before we envision the future, let’s step back for a moment and reflect on industry in San Leandro when it was at its peak in the 1960’s. In 1966, the Wall Street Journal published a profile on San Leandro entitled “Model Municipality.” The author wrote “While most cities suffer the seemingly unending cycle of bigger budgets, rising taxes and still bigger budgets, San Leandro has somehow managed to get all the benefits of lavish public spending while putting a surprisingly small bite on the local taxpayers. It’s true the effort has included wooing a little more industry to town than some of the local citizenry would like to see - but most cities would envy such success. The planning started way back in 1947, when San Leandro was a semi-agricultural community of 20,000 population. The key step was passage of a bond issue to finance installation of sewer lines. Where? Through acres of otherwise undeveloped cherry orchards and tomato fields on the city’s outskirts. With land still cheap and the sewers already in, industry came flocking from Oakland and San Francisco, where land was already dear. “We moved our plan to San Leandro because we needed some room for expansion, and didn’t’ have it where we were before,” says Russell L. McGinnis plant manager for International Harvester Co. “We’ve found other benefits. Besides lower tax rates than any other city in the area that could provide utilities, San Leandro has a city government that really works with industry. For instance, they’ve been holding off tract development and saving a lot of their available land for industry, to keep the tax base strong and taxes low.” That concludes my quote from the article. In the San Leandro of the 1960’s a graduate of Pacific, Marina or San Leandro High School could walk down the street and find a job in a factory or industrial plant that paid sufficient wages to be part of the American middle class. The City’s finances were based on the property tax. More than 2/3 of city revenues in the 1960’s came from property taxes and the city provided excellent services. Yet the property tax rate was kept a low amount because over a quarter of the city was occupied by industry which paid nearly 50% of the property tax receipts collected by the City. As a consequence, as referenced in the Wall Street Journal article, it was vital to keep the industrial zone industrial, specifically to not allow non-compatible uses into the industrial zone. San Leandro’s post-World Warr II model of economic development and city finance collapsed in the 1970’s due to a multitude of reasons – inflation, globalization, and the decline of heavy industrial manufacturing in California all played roles. As did Proposition 13. The initiative overnight cut property taxes by 60% and gave Sacramento – not cities and school districts – effective control over the distribution of property tax revenues in California. Today, the City would be bankrupt if it relied on property taxes. Less than a quarter of our general fund revenue comes from property tax receipts. Taste of the Himalayas largest contributor to the general fund is sales tax. This is why – without actually enacting a new land use policy for our industrial zone – the wall between the residential and commercial ring of San Leandro and our inner industrial core began to be chipped away. New housing in formerly industrial land was approved. The Chrysler Dodge factory became the Westgate shopping center with a WalMart. The auto mall along Marina Boulevard was created. Tremdous funds were allocated to the Bayfair Mall to keep it operating despite a succession of recessions. Then a decade ago, during Mayor Emeritus Sheila Young’s term, arguably the most significant change occurred. Kaiser Permanente bought the former Alberston’s/Lucky’s distribution center at Marina and 880 and announced plans to build a state of the art hospital and medical center. The City Council rezoned the property to allow the development. Fast forward to the present, the Kaiser complex is nearing completion. The medical offices building will open next April and the hospital itself will open next September. Thousands of employees and patients will come to San Leandro daily. An equally significant development took place in Sacramento two years ago. One of the prime tools the City used for decades to spur economic development – the taxing authority through redevelopment project areas – was eliminated by the Legislature. In light of these and other factors the City Council set as a goal for the City Manager and staff to transform San Leandro into a center of innovation in the Bay Area. The City Council unanimously recognized that for San Leandro to be a prosperous, thriving city we must revitalize our industrial core and ensure that it and our entire city become full partners in today’s innovation economy. For past three years we have been working to position San Leandro to take advantage of the revolutions occurring today in advanced manufacturing, energy and food production, communications, and information technology. A common denominator in all of these revolutions is the need to transmit data in quantities and speeds unimaginable only a decade ago. Changes are being unleashed in how we as a society make things as significant as the agricultural revolution did in how we grow food. The workers at the vanguard of these revolutions will be defined by well educated - whether at the college level or specialized trade schools and training programs – which is why the work at the Net Zero Energy Training Center is so important. San Leandro is making significant progress in becoming a hub for innovation. Our industrial core is now circled by an ultra-high speed fiber optic network, known as Lit San Leandro. This is as important to today’s manufacturers and startup companies as were the sewer lines to heavy industry built in San Leandro after World War II. Over 40 businesses are now connected to Lit San Leandro. We thank Dr. Patrick Kennedy of OSIsoft for partnering with the city to bring the gigabit speed connectivity to San Leandro businesses. I am pleased to announce that the massive 2nd floor of Westgate – which consists of almost 400,000 square feet of office space - was linked to Lit San Leandro in May. This inspired a flood of owners of tech companies, artists and other innovators to tour the facility. Westgate has been rebranded as The Gate: Work Lofts at West Gate Tech Center. With this new name, the owners understand that building an innovation ecosystem requires community and collaboration space. They will build a 10,000 square feet community space complete with industrial kitchen in the center of The Gate. It will be a meet up area that will provide a comfortable, easy community space supported by food, drink and fast fiber -- the necessary ingredients for collaborative innovation! The companies new to San Leandro that have leased space at The Gate, or have leases pending, include a custom motorcycle manufacturer, an eyewear manufacturer, and two 3D printing companies, one of which is a fast-growing graduate of Tech Shop in San Francisco. The Gate offers one model of a new future for San Leandro’s industrial core. Today we learn of additional models from Greg Tung, a Principal at Freedman Tung and Sasaki. Greg is a national leader in creating innovative designs for streets & boulevards, landmarks and custom-designed street furniture, as well as in the development of state-of-the art architectural design standards. Greg has a solid understanding of San Leandro and has assisted with a number of key planning, urban design, and economic development projects and activities for the City. On behalf of the City I thank • The Alameda County Electrical Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee program for hosting us at Zero Net Energy Center, • Kaiser and Drake’s for sponsoring our reception, and • The San Leandro Chamber of Commerce for its partnership in the study. We thank the chamber leaders David Grodin, Dave Johnson, Gaye Quinn and Cece Adams and others for their presence here today. I also wish to acknowledge our City Manager Chris Zapata, Community Development Director Cynthia Battenberg, Chief Innovation Officer Debbie Acosta and staff within the Community Development Department for their efforts in organizing today’s program and spearheading our economic development efforts. Greg, we look forward to your presentation. ------------------ Visit to sanleandro.org/depts/cd/bizdev/current_initiatives/next_gen_study.asp the powerpoint and study.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 20:21:00 +0000
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