This is progress?

June 16, 8:11 PMBay Area Moderate Conservative ExaminerDwight L. Schwab Jr.

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I live outside San Francisco on what is called the mid-peninsula.  It is a suburb of 23,000 people located halfway between San Francisco and San Jose.  There is nothing special about the town I have called home for the last 33 years.  I guess that’s one of the things that make it special.

There is no giant shopping mall or amusement park.  There are really just two major thoroughfares that run through the town and from all indications; the open space of yesteryear do not exist anymore.  While it is comfortable, more homes would be overkill.  After 60 odd years of development, the town has placed just about as much development as is possible without eliminating breathing space to walk the dog, jog or just sit and read.

But this tranquil setting with its great quality-of-life intermixed with everyday realities of traffic, minor crime and other modern incidentals are threatened more now than it has ever been.

Let me digress to a situation that started in an adjoining town of mine several years ago.

This town, like mine, had the same small town “Andy Hardy” livability.  Good schools, churches, plenty of open space, clean industry and low crime.  Within their boundaries was a race track that had been built in the 1930’s for horse racing.  It was located next to the commuter railway that spanned the peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose.  For half a year, racing was the agenda and people from all over the Bay Area came to Bay Meadows for a day of sun, leisure and fun.  It was a big part of the aura in that town and a proud landmark for all.

Several years ago, developers began to eye the prime real estate for more housing and office space intertwined with shops and parks.  They exclaimed that Bay Meadows had outgrown its usefulness and was now a tax burden for the city and county.  Less people coming to the races.  It would be much more useful to the citizens to transform the many acres of real estate into hundreds of “green” homes and businesses which would bring millions more in tax dollars and improve the overall image of the area.

The proposal raced through the courts with relatively little opposition from the dissenters.  The city council’s majority argued that Bay Meadows was a “relic” and a “boat anchor” and on further progress for the community.  The property taxes alone for the huge development would mean better schools, police departments and fire stations.  Everybody would win and the city would be a better place all round.

The last horse race was held in late August of 2008.  Disbelieving horseracing enthusiasts turned out to watch the last races before demolition started the very next Monday.  There was fear on the developer’s part that the Court might issue a temporary injunction to stop the wrecking ball; at least for a few precious months anyway.

With swiftness not seen since the German blitzkrieg of 1939, Bay Meadows was reduced to rubble in a matter of days.

Sadness like I had never felt arose from the demolished track’s dust.  How could this happen?  Was Bay Meadows really gone after 70 years as the City’s landmark and its exclusive partnership with the town? 

It was as much a punch in the gut as one could ever feel.  The beautiful grass and grandstands, the proud tradition and the loyal fans all gone.  Gone also were the jockeys, the trainers, the walkers and everyone else employed by the track in its service and pleasure to the public.  The ugly reality set in.

In its wake was a massive pile of rubble reminiscent of Berlin at the end of WWII.  Nothing was left standing and strangely, nothing left was moved away!

Months went by and no activity at the site was happening.  There were no large trucks to clean up the mess.  No army of men to right a huge wrong and at least make it something more than a ghetto scene from a major American city.

The citizens had been duped, big time.  The explanation for the unwillingness to clean up the mess became the economy.  What had been sold to the public as an economic boom for the community was now a burden to those who sold it simply because it couldn’t make them a quick buck now.

  So as the commuters sit in their trains on their way to work, an almost funeral like silence grips the cars as they roll by the carnage outside.  Where once stood a proud tribute to community pride, nothing was left but concrete and rubble.  Even the birds had gone elsewhere to sing their songs.

The developers claim it is the city’s duty to clean up the destruction.  The city in turn claims the construction company made the mess and they should be held responsible.  In other words, in all of this corruption and greed, nobody ever bothered to think what would happen once the feisty builders got what they wanted.  No contract had been written to make clear who was responsible for the outcome.  Any first-year contract law student could have solved this before the first wrecking ball appeared.

There’s no turning back now.  No one knows how long the rubble will lay there. Once winter of rains has passed and now the still waters are breeding grounds for insects and rodents of all kinds.  What once was a pristine palace of horse racing is now nothing more than a garbage dump.  Someone has put up a crude and vulgar fence to “hide” the shame the city bleeds.

Property taxes for the site have now dipped “slightly”.  The amount now being collected is $0.00 annually and there isn’t ONE appointed or elected official of the town or county that has stepped up to voice outrage the citizenry feels.

But when you think about it, should they?  Where were all these outraged people when the builders came to town and extolled the virtues of a huge new complex of offices and homes?  Where were the outraged to question how the small city streets could possibly handle the massive addition of traffic to an already overcrowded and congested situation?  Where were they indeed?

Like so many of us, they were waiting for somebody else to pick up the slack.  Somebody else to spend the thousand of man hours to battle rich developers and their attorneys.     There was no time between work and sleep to attend council meetings and fight for justice.  But the developers were there with nary one absentee night.  They were paid to be there. 

The ribbon cutting for the new school or firehouse seems a long way away these days.  In all probability, the “anxiety index” for the startup of construction, the years of traffic congestion, dirt, road rage; appointments will be many more years.  Who will even remember why this all started and who is really benefitting from all this turmoil in people’s daily lives?

With the recession as the contractor’s weapon for stagnation, no one knows when the new development will start.  It appears that the contractors have the entire town at their mercy.  What can be done?  The horse track can’t come back, the jobs are gone and those people are now part of the swelling joblessness in the county.

Just eight months ago, the area was vibrant and clean.  The track was paying hefty property taxes and more to the city and county and over 300 workers were feeding their families, living in the community and being a part of society.

Now through sheer greed and stupidity it is all gone.  And will this be the poster child for stopping such actions in the future?  Will people finally realize enough is enough; that building on every last inch of space is not the answer?  Has more tax money (if it ever arrives) made up for all of this?

Would any of these elected or appointed officials have stayed silent if the citizens had spoken up and said they weren’t going to live in unbelievable traffic congestion and conditions incapable of accommodating the huge influx of more cars and people?  

Of course not; and yet time moves on.  Who in all actuality is in charge here?  Is this just something that now sits for years?  The albatross no one will hone up to?  Where are those fine people that promised so much and left so little?

And isn’t it ironic that the first words out of a builders mouth is “planned community”? 

The only thing that is “planned” is to get human beings into buildings as quickly as possible for the least amount in costs!  There is never any thought into the incredible carnage it leaves in people’s lives with its inconveniences that last for years and maybe beyond.  And forget about any road widening for many years.  The City will cry that there isn’t enough tax revenue to afford such a plan.

This is NOT the way to improve our lives anymore.  There is a limit to this insanity and that limit was passed many years ago.  I mentioned that the people would learn from this horrible injustice and rise up against further such ideas on the mid-Peninsula.  You would be wrong.

One such plan makes the Bay Meadows development look sane.  The project I speak of will not only destroy the way of life we all know now, but will provide happiness to none but those who profit.  May that be politicians, stockholders or the companies themselves, this monstrosity is about to unfurl just down the freeway and will change forever a part of the Bay Area for the absolute worse possible.

I will explain this project in detail with my next column. 

It’s important to realize I do not wear a bandana, have wire glasses, drink white wine or fly a green flag from my porch.   Rather, I am a human being who demands the opportunity to live a life that is a life.   We have a very intricate society here in the Bay Area as it is.  Open space is at a precarious shortage.  As long as people keep populating this earth beyond its capacity, this kind of situation will be with us.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.  We must all group together for the common goal of a complete life and forget for the moment the word money.  Everybody needs more money and when there is more money, they want even more.  It’s human nature. 

But unless we as a people reach the point where we prefer some semblance of sanity in our daily lives, the Bay Meadows fiascos of the future must be stopped now or the jobs and riches promised by the few will lead to poverty and desolation on a scale so huge, it’s impossible to conceive of it.

It’s a tough thing to spend an hour or two sometimes going to those boring City Council meetings.  We all get the notices in the mail and few of us go.  We think the other guy will handle it.

Well, in terms of Bay Meadows, the “other guy” were the strangers who rode into town with a tale of wealth and prosperity.  If you don’t stop them now, Bay Meadows will be looked upon as the beginning of the end of a beautiful area we all loved.

Makes a couple of meetings to show the flag a little easier, doesn’t it?