Let's Start The Conversation: My Summer Book Report on San Leandro's Economic Development Strategy And Work Program

In 1997, I was learning basic economic principles in Miss Meyers’s seventh grade core class at Bancroft Middle School. The United States was in the midst of its greatest economic expansion in history. Consumer spending was on the rise, the housing market began exploding, modern industries were emerging all over the Bay Area, and a group of community members known as the Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) published San Leandro’s first ever Economic Development Strategy and Work Program. 

EDAC, with the assistance of the consulting firm Bay Area Economics, intended for the document to be used to guide the city's economic development decisions.  

Since then, more than 5,000 days have gone by, seven different city councils have been elected, and new taxes have been passed (and are currently being discussed).

The City of San Leandro needs desperately to update its Economic Development Strategy and Work Program. Now that the budget is balanced, maybe it's time to start the conversation. 

I recently got the chance to read the city’s economic development strategy — an 84-page book, including the appendices.

It is a fascinating document full of scintillating details, plot twists, and an ending that will leave you in tears. 

For example, in 1997 the city offered a property tax rebate program to encourage businesses to invest in new capital equipment. The book calls for the continuation of that program, but it no longer exists today. 

At what point did we end this program, and why wasn't that decision submitted as an update to this document?

In fact, I've been told there have been no updates to this document in the last 15 years. But there are some new economic policies in place and some, as I pointed out, that were in place in 1997 that are no longer followed today.

And yet, according to the city’s website, this 1997 book guides economic development efforts in the city today, in 2011. 

I know sometimes you can think of these comprehensive plans as a bridge that provides a lasting framework to move you ahead far into the future. But the economy is not a rigid structure like a bridge. It is fluid and ever changing, and requires real vigilance on the part of our government to keep pace with policy changes that best position our city to take advantage of opportunities during economic expansion, and to insulate ourselves against economic recession. 

The book provides a guiding vision and proposes 46 action steps, rated by priority and cost, to carry out that vision. The strategy uses a 1995 study of our local economy as a baseline.

The action steps are categorized into four areas:

1.             Sustaining Local Economic Growth (20 action steps)

2.            Reinvesting in San Leandro (seven action steps)

3.            Enhancing the Local Tax Base (five action steps)

4.            Improving Community Life (14 action steps)

Nearly one-third of the action steps involve investigating, exploring, studying, auditing, or in some other way analyzing and collecting data. 

Six of the seven actions under "Reinvesting in San Leandro" call for the continuation of existing programs. The one action in this chapter that isn’t an existing program calls for the use of redevelopment dollars to repurpose vacant or obsolete industrial buildings.

This is a great idea, but there are still numerous vacant or obsolete buildings in San Leandro’s industrial section today. So, if this step wasn’t followed, I wonder if we missed a big opportunity to attract new types of business to San Leandro?   

Only one action step in the entire document refers to a specific industry, calling for the creation of a home furnishings/accessories district. Are we considering the aggregate of our furniture stores in town this “district?"  Did we even officially declare any such “district?"

The one good thing about all the action steps is that they call for some sort of measurable result. But what are/were those results?

If you look around at the empty office parks in the city’s industrial zone and the decline of our streets and roads, you might guess that a lot of the actions either didn’t produce the desired results, or were never taken in the first place.  

How many actions have been taken? Were some, a lot, or most thrown out when a new administration came in? Were they updated in some other document other than the Economic Development Strategy and Work Program? 

As if its datedness isn’t enough to raise questions, the book seems to be at battle with itself. The document specifically mentions industries, like engineering and management services, business services, and wholesale trade-durable goods, that are good ones to target for economic growth. But it lacks any specific action steps related to these industries, and then calls for an additional study of industries to target. 

I can understand wanting to study emerging industries, but if the data showed there was going to be continued growth in these other industries, then why was no corresponding action apparently taken? 

In another area, the book states that property tax is our most stable form of revenue, and presents a whopping total of zero action steps to achieve what could arguably be considered true organic growth in a municipality. Is there really no specific measure we can undertake to increase the assessed value of properties in town? 

On the flip side, there are steps outlined in the strategy that the city clearly has taken, and you can see positive results. One example of this is the very last action step, calling for the continuation of the Leadership San Leandro program, of which I am a part.

Another example is the step calling for the continued pursuit of federal Community Development Block Grants, monies that the city has applied for and used over the last 15 years to help with streetscape projects. 

Many of the city's major planning documents, like the General Plan, include some expiration date to prompt review and update. Though there are steps and language in the development strategy calling for continuous monitoring of economic conditions and for updating the document, it is clear we have not made that effort.

I find it interesting that Hayward and Union City, and probably a host of other Bay Area cities, include an economic development strategy in their general plan. We do not. Our General Plan only touches on land use issues for business and industry. We spent an enormous amount of effort on our General Plan. Why didn’t we use that time to include an updated economic development plan? 

Channeling the cliché, “You can’t know where you’re going, unless you know where you have been,” I will be sharing and discussing every action step listed in our Economic Development Strategy and Work Program over the next several weeks through this Patch blog. 

In my next blog entry, I will discuss the first policy initiative, Sustaining Economic Growth, and the actions suggested in the development document to make that happen. 

Let's start the conversation. What are some of your questions about the city's economic development path? You can read the document on the city's website, or by clicking on the image at right.