"Other cities can, why can't Pacifica???????" (Jim Alex)
San Francisco Business Times/Blanca Torres, 5/31/12. "Brentwood completes $60 million downtown revamp."
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| Civic center park structure |
"Brentwood has completed a $60.8 million investment in its downtown core." Project improvements include: $28.2 million city hall, $9.3 million parking garage, $15 million community center, $8.3 million street and landscape, updated 2.7 acre park. Project is seeking LEED gold certification.
"Much of the city’s intensive growth happened outside its historic
center, but the city officials want to bring the focus back to downtown,
said Alex Greenwood, head of economic development." Read Article.
Related - Brentwood Development. First phase 2008 shopping, entertainment area; then from 2009 downtown civic center now completed, click "Brentwood" for more detail. Development design by LPA, Inc., named "California's Design Firm of the Year 2012", by Engineering News-Record. Local article Press Net/Rick Lemyre, 11/16/11, "C'mon down!"
Submitted by Jim Alex
Posted by Kathy Meeh
9 comments:
There aren't many similarities between Brentwood and Pacifica although they were just about broke a few years ago and we of course are chronically broke. They do have an economic development person on the city payroll and that has made a difference. Pacifica won't recover until we have one as well. Relying on amateurs is stupid.
For those of us who still dream, check out premiumoutlets.com to see the possibilities. Take a look at the map and you'll see their SF Bay area sites include Gilroy, Petaluma, Napa, Vacaville. Down the coast little old Pismo Beach and Carlsbad are part of the chain. Be sure to check the tourism tab...they do group tours. Pinch me. Seems to me Pacifica is a natural...close to airports and SF and major tourist and population centers.
BTW I found the site through a full page ad in today's NYTimesMagazine section, page 43. They also advertise in the New Yorker and Vanity Fair. These are not low-end outlets.
Why not Pacifica? Are we even on the radar? Of course not. Do we have anyone at City Hall who can put us on the radar for this and other economic opportunities? Real ones. Very doubtful. That's the problem.
Lots of agriculture in Brentwood helps. Well-defined downtown,strong retail, plus that city reacted early (2008/2009) and decisively to the downturn with deep staff and program cuts. Didn't they almost double their population a decade ago? Big subdivisions and developer fees back then. Smart use of bonds. Held on to their 30% reserve even as home values cratered. Lots of foreclosures.
Wow, 60 M update. Nice.
Meanwhile we have $900K and are one lawsuit away from insolvency.
$900K ?? Is that supposed to be in US Dollars?
Uh oh don't we have a lawsuit in the works? Something has appeared for months as "potential litigation" in the closed session agendas. Going forward, out of court settlement, non-starter?
Never been to Brentwood, but it's probably safe to assume that that city has an actual physical downtown.
Maybe I'm confused, but just where is Downtown Pacifica? Would that be the Manor Shopping Center, the Linda Mar Center, or perhaps it's the 7-11 on Clarendon.
Seriously, Pacifica has been looking for an area to call "downtown" since it's incorporation. Once upon a time, Talk was bandied about that the old quarry land would be bought and developed as Pacifica's downtown. But then that stubborn Bill Bottoms just wouldn't cooperate.
Doubt that most of us willever see a Downtown Pacifica in our lifetimes.
Brentwood has a well-defined downtown. Always has. A town like Pacifica, being made up of a bunch of geographically separate neighborhoods, doesn't lend itself to a natural downtown. Throw all the money you want at that idea, but "I'm going downtown" probably isn't something you're going to hear in Pacifica. And so what. I'd much rather hear visitors saying "Let's spend the day at the Quarry Outlets in Pacifica and have lunch or dinner, too."
Check out the palmetto proposition. It's in the works. Our genius city council is betting on a library to bring in revenue...
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