Jobs (Click here for details)

By Michael Francisco "Mike" Sarabia

We need more jobs in Bay Point. We could compete with labor intensive work and also with professional support work.

Other BART terminals in the East Bay, are investing $100 Million to extract benefits derived from the access to customers and clients from millions with easy access to BART, which in a few years will reach San Jose. In Bay Point we have only the ruins of a 400 sq. ft. business site, in BART property, that stopped construction in February. No construction plans have been published.

Bay Point should support construction of two seven-story Professional buildings North of the BART terminal with one, horizontal, air-conditioned common people bridge, very similar to the existing bridge over Highway 4 East lanes, for easy access to the BART terminal from their fifth floor.

A Medical building would have a full set of the latest, and costly, medical testing equipment that must be kept busy to be profitable. Wheelchair access will be provided by BART to most of the Bay Area, by the time the buildings open. This would provide more convenient, faster and cheaper medical testing services to millions in the Bay Area, including those using wheelchairs. The medical receptionist would be less than 50 yeards from the BART exit turnstile gate and sheltered from the weather. Customers could receive a free BART ticket for their return visit.

This autonomous medical site, far from big cities, has implications for Bay Area disaster backup support, with access to BART and Highway 4 and close to I680, Buchanan Airport and Travis AFB. BART and Tri-Delta Transit know how to carry survivors. Future expansion of Bay Point's Marina could include provisions for loading/unloading patients and emergency supplies. Expansion of Port Chicago Hwy Road to four lanes, with ample shoulders, ought to be considered for this purpose.

The other Professional Building would have all other professional services including legal, technical and financial consultants. Office space rentals for visiting notables to local business could be available with the best conference communication equipment. The top floor may be reserved for an upscale restaurant First and second floors may be reserved for an upscale merchandise store like Nordstrom, etc.

These buildings would be along Canal Street, next to Bailey Rd. A four-story parking lot next to the building with access from Canal Street would reduce congestion on Bailey Rd.

Labor-intensive Start-Ups

Land along Port Chicago Highway Road, next to the railroad tracks, reserved for these businesses, an extension of a planned project. With the support of the Contra Costa County Redevelopment Agency, a few warehouses may be build and leased to help promote such work to Bay Point.

The dream of eventually annexing parts of Port Chicago Naval Base could be kept alive, together with the name "Port Chicago" and the memory of the many that died there. This may require adjusting the Federal tax funds provided to ameliorate the impact of the blockade by the, abandoned, Naval base. Jobs for Bay Point can generate more funds to the local economy that those tax funds.

It is time for the Department of Defense to lift the blockade and allow access from Bay Point to the adjacent shipping port with two functional ship container cranes already in place. These are brand new, "never used", cranes accepted right at the time the port was shut down! Port reactivation would be quicker and much cheaper than building a new port in Pittsburg with costly dredging issues.