Economic Development needs to be a priority. This budget doesn’t reflect that priority. This council pays lip service to economic development but if the money doesn’t back the words, then the words are just wind instilling false hope in our residentswho need jobs. Hiring just one person, even a great person will ensure slow growth at best.
We need a professional economic development team. Right now Riverside has 25 planners, Rialto has 12, and Fontana has 15. We only have 2. And those cities also have other economic development personnel which puts us in a distinct disadvantage.
San Bernardino and its residents will continue to suffer and not develop any competitive advantage if this council doesn’t make economic development a priority by the putting the money behind their words.
In order to grow our way out of this bankruptcy and develop the quality of life we deserve, we need an economic development team. If not, then the 9,400 San Bernardino residents who are currently unemployed will continue to be unemployed with more to follow.
Without a professional economic team in place, then economic development will be rushed, unplanned, and wasteful whichleads to a haphazard form of economic development that stunts growth or severely retards it. There are many examples of this type of unfocused development all over this city.
In addition, we are under constant threat from being poachedand plundered. IEHP administration was moved out of San Bernardino to Rancho Cucamonga, the development of Citrus Plaza threatens Hospitality Lane, Highland Village, and future Rialto developments will ensure that more blighted and empty commercial buildings continue to add blight our city and drain future growth.
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