ARTICLE
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s annual Economic Summit. The primary focus of the summit was the premise that high quality jobs are the backbone of our economy, enabling residents to afford the high cost of living in the Monterey Bay region, and providing a tax base for much needed infrastructure investment. (The Chamber’s core policy issues: education, workforce development, housing, transportation and water are shared by every organization and yes, a responsibility of every individual in our region.) Creating and maintaining a jobs base is a different conversation. The panelists from the four core business sectors of our region — agriculture, hospitality & tourism, heath and technology explored the things that they are doing to recruit the talent, maintain a highly productive work place and share the economic value for our region. You can read the story here: MBEP Summit 2017 I am an economic geek and like to look at data, trends, economic analysis and the policies that affect the quality of life in our region, state and nation. Understanding the fundamental economics of our area sometimes defies logic of what Santa Cruz is all about. We like to see ourselves as a laid back beach town with a cosmic and artistic vibe which labels us and makes us a diverse community. Maybe it was my upbringing. I was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs and long hours to put a roof over our heads, food on the table and make sure we could got an education. She emphasized the importance to understand the political and policy conversations around our hometown. One of her comments that stayed with me throughout my career: “If you don’t actively engage in your community affairs, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself if the end result is not to your liking.” In my youth I fell in love with our national pastime — baseball. When I was not outside playing the sport in my neighborhood park, I was watching Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron and other baseball stars of the 1960s. Before the Bill James and Nate Silvers of the sports statistical world, I would spend hours analyzing the number of hits in a games, how many pitches were balls or strikes, how many runs, the home runs, strikeouts, walks, steals and the various stats that make baseball come alive to the pure baseball fan (geek in today’s terminology). Understanding the game at the micro level made it that much more amazing for me to watch the athletic talents of those players. The 1960s stand still in my memory with the smell of popcorn, hotdogs and the sounds of the crack of the bat as the baseball soars out of the ball park. What does that have to do with our economy today? Today, the world moves at an even faster pace as technology and the advancement of science takes us places never imagined back in the ‘60s. The speed of businesses is in nanoseconds, the efforts to put product to market happens in days not months. Yet, on the fundamental needs of our region, what are we doing to plan for the future of our region so it retains the vitality we all enjoy? In my opinion, it boils down to the economy and the three pillars of life that apply to everyone regardless of your economic place: A job, a roof over your head and food on the table. We are in jeopardy of missing the opportunity to keep pace because of potential loss of one main pillar — housing. Chris Thornberg, the keynote speaker at MBEP’s Economic Summit made a clear distinction that economic fundamentals of our nation are strong, that our region’s job market and salary adjustments are headed in the right direction, that the balance of our economy is much brighter than it was a year ago. He described the Trump Factor as “the oblique” with policy uncertainties — calling the Election results - The Miser-abilities 101 where “Make America Great Again” v. the Bernie Sanders theme are fundamentally wrong. Thornberg clearly believes, and the economic statistics he cited back his premise that both sides of the conversation are wrong on the fundamentals. He noted that California tops the nation where one in six jobs are created. Thornberg did caution the audience on two concerns — that local governments are facing financial crisis relative to public pensions. He cited that in 1999 - private sector median salaries were at $40,000 and public sector salaries where at $50,000. In 2015 the salary gap has climbed from private sector median jobs around $60,000 and the public sector salaries just under $100,000 where a growing portion of that is pensions. This is not sustainable. Finally, while the Summit's focus was on jobs the issue of housing came up over and over again. Thornberg noted that California is not having an affordable housing crisis. He stated it is a housing supply and demand crisis. Not enough housing is being built. “If you don’t have housing, you’re not going to be able to grow the economy,” Thornberg said, warning against nimbyism. “You can build more and grow the economy. The answer is densification. I live in L.A. There is plenty of space here.” To the community leaders in the room and others around our region, we are making some progress. The real solution to these problems is a willingness to work at the speed of business to invest in the future. That takes collaborative engagement now.
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending the Monterey Bay Economic Partnership’s annual Economic Summit. The primary focus of the summit was the premise that high quality jobs are the backbone of our economy, enabling residents to afford the high cost of living in the Monterey Bay region, and providing a tax base for much needed infrastructure investment. (The Chamber’s core policy issues: education, workforce development, housing, transportation and water are shared by every organization and yes, a responsibility of every individual in our region.)
Creating and maintaining a jobs base is a different conversation. The panelists from the four core business sectors of our region — agriculture, hospitality & tourism, heath and technology explored the things that they are doing to recruit the talent, maintain a highly productive work place and share the economic value for our region. You can read the story here: MBEP Summit 2017
I am an economic geek and like to look at data, trends, economic analysis and the policies that affect the quality of life in our region, state and nation. Understanding the fundamental economics of our area sometimes defies logic of what Santa Cruz is all about. We like to see ourselves as a laid back beach town with a cosmic and artistic vibe which labels us and makes us a diverse community.
Maybe it was my upbringing. I was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs and long hours to put a roof over our heads, food on the table and make sure we could got an education. She emphasized the importance to understand the political and policy conversations around our hometown. One of her comments that stayed with me throughout my career: “If you don’t actively engage in your community affairs, you’ll have no one to blame but yourself if the end result is not to your liking.”
In my youth I fell in love with our national pastime — baseball. When I was not outside playing the sport in my neighborhood park, I was watching Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax, Hank Aaron and other baseball stars of the 1960s. Before the Bill James and Nate Silvers of the sports statistical world, I would spend hours analyzing the number of hits in a games, how many pitches were balls or strikes, how many runs, the home runs, strikeouts, walks, steals and the various stats that make baseball come alive to the pure baseball fan (geek in today’s terminology). Understanding the game at the micro level made it that much more amazing for me to watch the athletic talents of those players. The 1960s stand still in my memory with the smell of popcorn, hotdogs and the sounds of the crack of the bat as the baseball soars out of the ball park. What does that have to do with our economy today?
Today, the world moves at an even faster pace as technology and the advancement of science takes us places never imagined back in the ‘60s. The speed of businesses is in nanoseconds, the efforts to put product to market happens in days not months. Yet, on the fundamental needs of our region, what are we doing to plan for the future of our region so it retains the vitality we all enjoy? In my opinion, it boils down to the economy and the three pillars of life that apply to everyone regardless of your economic place: A job, a roof over your head and food on the table. We are in jeopardy of missing the opportunity to keep pace because of potential loss of one main pillar — housing. Chris Thornberg, the keynote speaker at MBEP’s Economic Summit made a clear distinction that economic fundamentals of our nation are strong, that our region’s job market and salary adjustments are headed in the right direction, that the balance of our economy is much brighter than it was a year ago. He described the Trump Factor as “the oblique” with policy uncertainties — calling the Election results - The Miser-abilities 101 where “Make America Great Again” v. the Bernie Sanders theme are fundamentally wrong. Thornberg clearly believes, and the economic statistics he cited back his premise that both sides of the conversation are wrong on the fundamentals. He noted that California tops the nation where one in six jobs are created. Thornberg did caution the audience on two concerns — that local governments are facing financial crisis relative to public pensions. He cited that in 1999 - private sector median salaries were at $40,000 and public sector salaries where at $50,000. In 2015 the salary gap has climbed from private sector median jobs around $60,000 and the public sector salaries just under $100,000 where a growing portion of that is pensions. This is not sustainable.
Finally, while the Summit's focus was on jobs the issue of housing came up over and over again. Thornberg noted that California is not having an affordable housing crisis. He stated it is a housing supply and demand crisis. Not enough housing is being built. “If you don’t have housing, you’re not going to be able to grow the economy,” Thornberg said, warning against nimbyism. “You can build more and grow the economy. The answer is densification. I live in L.A. There is plenty of space here.”
To the community leaders in the room and others around our region, we are making some progress. The real solution to these problems is a willingness to work at the speed of business to invest in the future. That takes collaborative engagement now.