Economics

By Nadja Adolf

Fremont encircles Newark so Newark cannot expand. The city government does not appear to understand this, and the rezoning plans include replacing the businesses along the I-880 corridor with housing. Perhaps the "ugly steel buildings" are not beautiful; but those buildings do provide a place for people to work. The city government insists that these businesses can relocate to vacant newer facilities but do not consider the impact of higher rents, lower visibility, and access problems on these businesses. Another ill-conceived notion in the housing element update plan is removing and replacing the lively and busy shopping center at the corner of Mayhews Landing and Newark Blvd. These small businesses depend on local traffic and they are unlikely to survive relocation to existing vacant storefronts in other areas.

The city needs to embrace its most desirable features; instead of tearing out the Thornton Avenue area and replacing it with buildings over three stories tall, the city should consider smaller commercial structures with no more than one or two floors of housing above them and placing pocket parks throughout the area. Mountain View and Niles turned around deteriorated core business districts by calming traffic, providing trees, seating, and pedestrian friendly amenities that encourage lingering and shopping.

The current plan includes building high density apartments on the site of City Hall and moving the police station and City Hall to another site - although the city's own study found moving the police department would reduce the effectiveness of police service. The city claims the City Hall is inadequate, although it houses both the city government and the private Newark Chamber of Commerce.

REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES

The city needs to consider taxes and expenditures in light of demographics and the recession. The proposed Measure L would tax the gas, electricity, telephone, internet, and television use of all residents except those low-income elderly who are on the PGE Cares program. The city couches this in terms of an average of twelve dollars a month per family; but the reality is that the California minimum wage is eight dollars an hour; many residents are unemployed, or underemployed because of the recession; the poor tend to live in older less energy efficient housing; and the recovery has been a "jobless recovery."

There needs to be more emphasis on grant writing and obtaining both private grants and federal stimulus dollars for local programs.

Newark has a severe deficit and cannot afford to take on more debt to build and maintain a golf course. According to an Economics Research Associates study done for the City of Palo Alto there is an oversupply of golf courses in the Bay Area; although the number of rounds played decreased, the fixed costs remain high - Palo Alto golf course expenses were $1,860,000 in fiscal year 2006/2007. Development of the golf course would also destroy the irreplaceable wetlands.

The real recreational need in the city is for playgrounds and soccer fields. Local soccer teams currently use the football field at the middle school + but the proposed housing element update would turn this into a 192-unit housing development. Many existing parks are almost unusable because they lack restrooms; the city has been unwilling to provide restrooms for children while expressing great eagerness to add to the oversupply of golf courses.

TRANSPARENCY

Finally, the city government needs transparency. The city has a website but does not post council or commission meetings in the calendar of events section on the front page. There also needs to be more economic transparency; for example, in June of 2000 the City Council approved a Community Organization Plan that applied to businesses in the Stevenson Point Tech Park. Each business was required to contribute volunteer time or cash equal to $0.142 per square foot of space to the Newark Betterment Corporation, a 501(c)3 directed by the Newark City Manager + since then around $179,000 has been collected and distributed without the scrutiny of the taxpayers.

Another example of the lack of transparency in city economics is the contrast between the actual wording of Measure L, the Utility Tax measure, and the ballot description provided for Measure L. The ballot description suggests that the tax revenues are to prevent severe cuts to vital city services while the actual measure puts the money into the general fund where the council may use it for any purpose. While the actual legislation only exempts those low-income seniors who are participants in the PGE Cares program + a maximum income of $30,500 + the ballot description implies that there is an exemption for all low-income seniors.