SBC needs to grow
The old newspaper adage is,
”
if it bleeds, it leads.
”
That seems to be true when it comes to San Benito County and
Santa Clara’s largest newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News. We were
the front-page story and it was disappointing news, the shelving of
the proposed El Rancho San Benito development. The last time we
made the
”
Merc
”
it was a hatchet job characterizing us as a political Peyton
Place. This time the story seemed to be a mini-celebration, current
economic conditions had killed development plans for the
foreseeable future. As a supporter of El Rancho, I’m extremely
disappointed, but aside from that, the more I read of Santa Clara’s
take on it the angrier I got. I have some bones to pick – here
goes.
SBC needs to grow
The old newspaper adage is, “if it bleeds, it leads.” That seems to be true when it comes to San Benito County and Santa Clara’s largest newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News. We were the front-page story and it was disappointing news, the shelving of the proposed El Rancho San Benito development. The last time we made the “Merc” it was a hatchet job characterizing us as a political Peyton Place. This time the story seemed to be a mini-celebration, current economic conditions had killed development plans for the foreseeable future. As a supporter of El Rancho, I’m extremely disappointed, but aside from that, the more I read of Santa Clara’s take on it the angrier I got. I have some bones to pick – here goes.
I supported El Rancho because San Benito County will grow, as it must, to have economic viability in a world where economic viability is critical. Planned communities are the way to grow and still preserve the environment and this one had all the right attributes – a wide range of housing and commercial options and, critically, the opportunity to bring in the private industry jobs that can sustain a local economy through good times and bad. In other words, we want to be economically prosperous like Santa Clara, but without their patchwork sprawl. However, Santa Clara does not want the competition; economically, they want to keep us barefoot and pregnant.
What right does Santa Clara have to try to keep San Benito County an economic backwater? Santa Clara could not survive without places like us – they import massive amounts of labor because they are an economic giant, but they cannot or will not supply adequate or affordable housing for that labor force. Naturally, the workers look to places like San Benito to live and commute.
The problem is that San Benito ends up with the economic burden of supplying housing and services without the benefits of the economic stimulus. The businesses of Santa Clara County not only pay their workers well, but they have also developed a sophisticated commercial environment designed to make sure as much money as possible stays on their side of the county line. They have the shops, malls and entertainment that a rural county without critical population mass cannot possibly match. The benefit to Santa Clara is enormous spending and tax revenue from the residents of surrounding counties.
Meanwhile, Santa Clara and the coastal counties drive up the costs of our public services by paying high salaries and offering platinum-plated benefits to their public employees. We have to pay more to keep everyone from fleeing the jurisdiction every morning, but we are doing it on a tiny piece of their budget because given the opportunity, they intend to keep it that way.
One thing Santa Clara does send us is air pollution. Due to the prevailing winds and topography, a Santa Clara smog cloud settles into the Pinnacles National Monument and lingers there. Since that is the location of the air quality monitoring station, the county’s air, some of the state’s best, looks terrible on the charts. Thanks for that.
Development in San Benito County will not rival Santa Clara in ten lifetimes and no one here wants that, but the current inequities are unsustainable. If they want us to house, transport and care for their workers they are going to either have to stop opposing competitive development or kick in a piece of the economic pie. Santa Clara should send us back a share of our spending and sales taxes, then we’ll be more than happy to remain a place where they can come and see some real farm animals and breathe some clean air – provided they also take back their pollution.
