The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: What areas of the city would you like to see the City of Concord focus on in regards to economic development?
Talk about it.
It’s a lost cause, stores are closing and going belly up so fast that I’m losing count. Concord’s heyday is long gone, just look at how many half dead strip malls are in Concord. And why would a business want to open up shop only to have a bunch of homeless, and illegals loitering around? One way Concord can be salvaged is to make the town business friendly, and they can start by prosecuting thieves, and sentence them to prison. Then they can clean up the homeless mess, and lighten up on the stringent regulations, and requirements in order to establish a business in Concord, then cut business taxes.
Park n Shop is a run down dump and could use economic development.
I still won’t go there.
Shopping center where Staples is at Treat & Clayton Rd, re-do Park n’ Shop (R99 is ok, the rest is a mish-mash), K-Mart of course, shopping center where TJ Maxx is on Clayton Rd, shopping center where Subway is on Clayton Rd at Bailey, and the shopping center where Big 5 is on Clayton Rd closer to downtown.
What Dawg said!!
Fix the roads!! Clean up encampments. Increase Police presence on the roads. Vote out all incumbents, including the DA. Making Concord safe again might bring in new businesses.
MH,
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I believe organizers are moving forward with their effort to recall Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton.
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This November, Concord Mayor Edi Birsan is running for reelection to a 4th term in City Council District 4 and Vice Mayor Carlyn Obringer is running for a 3rd term in Concord City Council District 2. Hopefully, they’ll have competitors in this years election and won’t be running unopposed.
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Mayor Birsan had originally made a campaign promise to only serve 2-terms on the Concord City Council, but on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, the day after winning a second term, he scrubbed his 2-term limit campaign promise from his campaign website. If you ever call Mayor Birsan on not following thru on a campaign promise, his answer is always the same, he says, “things changed.” He’s even made attempts to acquire the names and contact information of individuals who’ve made comments about him that he doesn’t like on websites where he has paid for campaign advertisements. The time there was an effort underway to recall Councilmember Birsan, he then went to the homes of the voters who signed the initial recall form and demanded to know why they signed and wanted him recalled. Mayor Birsan always loves to complain about President Trump, but he acts just like him when he calls people names. The difference is that President Trump tends to call other politicians and celebrities names, while Mayor Birsan likes to call Concord residents names.
Taking care of existing before expansion….. just a thought
The Monument Bl. corridor needs architectural & design standards.
It m looks dirty and is a visual cacophony.
No fixing that. You would have to fix the people first.
The working tax paying middle class. They pay for it, so they should get it.
City hall,,,
City Hall
Monument Blvd – from the skate park to city limits.
– Medians need a major beautification project. Lots of trash and tons of missing trees.
– Roads, Roads and Roads. Monument has the worst roads in Concord
– Empty / outdated shopping malls, apartments and businesses.
– Lots of homeless and day laborers hanging around, especially on the city’s new expensive walking trail.
This stretch of Concord really needs to be worked on and figured out.
They should focus on Concord’s numerous rundown and vacant strip malls. The focus should be on retail establishments, not more restaurants, banks, and other “service” related businesses.
Black Knight
Have you been to Market & Main in Martinez? Something like that. Someplace nice and unique not only for the people of Concord but also entice visitors. Just think, the residents of Concord wouldn’t have to leave town for a fun evening out if they had some thing like that in Concord. At this point I only come down about 3 times a year. Only place I go in Concord is Diaso as there are none in my area. But I always go over to Martinez to Market and Main and the other little shops an restaurants on Main St in Martinez. The evenings are also great as there is music at a couple of places for people to enjoy. The Main St success is due the fact that 30-somethings and 40-somethings had a vision and ran with it. Perhaps Concord needs a “youth movement” in local planning
Heck my friend want to open a senior cat rescue/lounge and there was no place in Concord that was viable but she found a place in Martinez and so far things are going extremely well.
Probably a lot of bulldozing if the “Big Plan” of population reduction succeeds. 😎
I cannot think of how Concord could develop economically. Retail is not the solution, as the cost of goods, either due to government activity (spending money we don’t have, and over-regulation), or government inactivity (letting lawlessness prevail) is beyond the average citizen’s budget. If we could bring back some manufacturing, that could bolster economic development, but I think regulation again leads companies to open outside of California (or even the US). @Dawg provided a comprehensive summary of our current status here.
All the industry, manufacturing, research, etc. isn’t worth a dime if you tax those activities to death.
Staff – Guy Bjerke is a terrible choice for Economic Development Director. He lost this same job in Antioch because he couldn’t generate enough revenue to pay his own salary. Start with hiring someone with real experience in the area and with a broad range of connections stemming from that experience that new ideas can be drawn from.
He has been a leech on the city’s payroll for years and provides nothing.
Wealth must be created before it can be distributed.
Service industries (nails, hair, landscaping, restaurants) are great for spreading the wealth around a community, but there must be a way of creating the wealth in the first place. After all, we cannot get rich by us all cutting each others’ hair.
Wealth can come from extraction (fishing, farming, mining, etc.). It can come from manufacturing (a dollar’s worth each of raw materials, labour, overhead and marketing can result in a twenty-dollar sale). It can come from importing stuff that is hard to find here (that’s how Birkenstocks started). Then the wealth can be distributed around the community by the service industries.
We need to create the wealth – maybe bring in industry (bring it back from overseas). Maybe import stuff that’s hard to find here. Maybe rebuild car engines (recreating value that has worn away). Maybe making Claycord a business or insurance Mecca like Delaware or Connecticut. Maybe build fish-farms. who has some good suggestions?
Wealth is being created but mostly gets laundered to politicians, government staff, and friends of politicians and government staff. As long as voters keep voting in the same people even though economic conditions stay the same or get worse, nothing will change no matter how much wealth is created. The same people will funnel new and old funds to their same few friends. For example, during the covid lockdowns, big donor corporations and related owners were allowed to stay in business but small businesses had to close. All that money was a huge wealth shift from small businesses to the connected friends of government.
You are forgetting the other constant – the City Manager – who, by the way refuses to live in the city that pays her very nice salary. Council people come and go, but she has been constant – Change doesn’t happen when it can’t.
Yeah…look at our self-serving Governor whose winery was one of the VERY few open during the pandemic because of the exceptions he carved out that would apply to the winery he part owns (Odette).
Only the area between Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, NAVAL Weapons Station, Martinez, Pacheco, Bay Point, Clayton, and Clyde.
How ’bout lowering taxes, reducing the size of government (and I am NOT referring to the police in this case), and cancelling handouts for illegal immigrants for a start?