Paso Robles Economic Development
“Stengthening existing businesses… Embracing new ones!”
Position: Economic Development
We must create new opportunities for neighborhood shopping, research facilities, industrial establishments and personal services as well as areas for leisure, recreation and socializing in all areas of the City. City government does not create most of this on its own. We merely enable it to happen. We do entertain and, when it makes good sense, use public/private partnerships to achieve some of those things that taxes alone cannot support nor sustain.
Position: Housing and Developments
A portion of the jobs created by any enterprise are less than high income. Those workers and their families still need to live, work and play in our community. We must enable opportunities to do so in a fiscally responsible manner.
In new neighborhoods, we must create areas of high density on a Paso Robles’ scale not a Los Angles or New York high density scale. Those areas must be created near existing collector travel ways or newly created ones in order to offer public transit options that are sustainable, frequent, convenient and inexpensive. Successful neighborhood shopping and services depend upon a large enough population base to make good economic sense.
The Bigger Picture!
LIMITED GOAL
Government should only do those things for the people collectively that they can’t do for themselves individually, such as provide the infrastructure to integrate local and regional basic resources and transportation systems.This can only be done within the means provided by ourselves to achieve it.
I have provide much more detail for some of these areas in my section on Community Development. Please also see that page.
WATER
Today:
In recent years we have made provision to store and transport sufficient water for today and tomorrow. We have spent millions of dollars to make it safe and readily available for daily living and economic development. We already have in place the process for new commercial, industrial, service and housing growth to pay its own way in this regard. The resources and infrastructure for the next few decades are already there. We have planned ahead responsibly with four different and plentiful sources for water.
The problems in our State are not the same as our situation locally. Unfortunately, the State has failed to see that and has imposed restrictions upon us that have caused us to lose the volume sales we previously had projected to pay for our improvements. That has caused us to have to increase rates to pay off the loans the State gave us to improve the quantity and quality of our water supplies. As we grow those rates can be reduced except for difficulties that might be caused by inflation of lour costs or by our money being devalued.
Tomorrow:
I am currently working on a means to implement additional water saving statewide, for our local benefit as well, by reducing the evaporation of water from open water transport canals by placing a cover above them at no direct expense to the government or the taxpayers by using them to generate additional, low cost energy. This effort has been stalled by the current health concerns.
ENERGY
Today:
We have integrated the means to reduce our dependence upon outside sources for energy in all new projects during my term of office. We have in place a contract for acres of solar panels in an open area on our airport property that will provide a significant source of income for the city while reducing your costs. We have also signed on to a new energy provider for all of our electricity users in the city to further lower your costs unless you take a free, for a time, option to forgo receiving that benefit.
Tomorrow:
I am proposing a program already in use in at least one foreign nation that just makes good sense. I am urging the State of California to lease the air space above our extensive canal system to energy production companies for construction of solar panels that will both reduce water evaporation to conserve our limited water supply and produce much needed cheap energy for economic development. (This is the missing piece in my “tomorrow” comments on water).
As a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Regional Councils (NARC), made possible by my position on your City Council, I am supporting and advocating the safe extraction of our own native energy resources and advocating additional research in methods of shale extraction to minimize any risks to our nation’s water systems. We know that trillions of cubic feet of natural gas are trapped beneath most areas of our continent that are safely and inexpensively available through careful extraction methods. The National Association of Manufacturers has already determined that the availability of this resource at a reasonable profit to the producer should, once again, make us competitive with every other nation on earth in the production of goods. This can restore our balance of trade and create millions of jobs in the total cycle. Another benefit is that natural gas is a cleaner and safer alternative for our air and natural environment. The same companies that provide petroleum based energy have the resources to shift our energy portfolio to include a greater percentage of natural gas. Therefore, there should be no significant economic displacement involved in this paradigm shift.
BRINGING IT TOGETHER
All aspects of life, including government, must work together in a reasonable way. Job creation takes place in producing the infrastructure which makes possible additional job creation to meet people’s needs and demand for goods and services. Transportation of both freight and people is a key element in that process.
Extraction of raw materials and production of goods is useless without a means to get those things to where they can be used in daily life. In this regard we are members of a community, region, state, nation and world. All of these must be part of the equation. Our total transportation system is an integral part of daily life. Please see “Roads and Transportation” for more of the big picture.