At the last Menlo Park Planning Commission meeting on the topic of Facebook’s expansion in Menlo Park, long time Belle Haven community activist Matt Henry expressed his displeasure at how much of the public and press discussion regarding Facebook of late had focused on to the company’s new campus.
Earlier in the evening, activists had requested the Planning Commission ask the City Council to redo the Traffic Analysis contained within the Draft Environmental Impact Report.
Though Mr. Henry conceded improving bike routes in Belle Haven was a goal that he himself had advocated for over the last decade, he expressed concern that the public dialogue regarding the company’s expansion had been hijacked by the bike path issue, overshadowing the benefits that Facebook will bring to the City and the Belle Haven community. Mr. Henry had already witnessed the comment period on the Draft Environmental Impact Report extended by one week, and he did not want to see the project possibly delayed by any further extensions of time.
Frankly, when examining the economic benefits that Facebook’s expansion will bring to Menlo Park and the region, it’s hard not to empathize with Mr. Henry’s position.
At a time when the State of California ranks second in the Nation in unemployment, outdone only by the real estate ruin of Las Vegas and the State of Nevada, and unemployment in neighboring Santa Clara County is still outpacing the rest of the country clocking in at 9.5%, while U.S. unemployment is at 8.5%, Facebook is proposing to add more than 5,000 new jobs in Menlo Park.
The addition of jobs becomes more significant to the local economy when you consider the following statistics:
Between 2009 and October 2011, manufacturing employment in Menlo Park declined by roughly 35%. Most disturbingly, Menlo Park shed the highest percentage of manufacturing jobs as compared to the neighboring cities of South San Francisco, Burlingame, Palo Alto, Milpitas, Redwood City, San Carlos, Santa Clara, San Jose, and Sunnyvale. (Redwood City and San Carlos actually bucked the trend completely and added manufacturing jobs.)
Some argue Menlo Park is losing manufacturing jobs at a rate faster than our neighbors due to antiquated zoning and permitting processes in our industrial zones. Others will argue it’s just a sign of the times. Personally, I have lobbied the City twice in the past year to restart the Willow Business Area/M2 Zoning Project and examine the issue; each time I have been told there aren’t enough staff resources. But alas that is a topic for a different blog post. Regardless, fortunately for Menlo Park, at a time when manufacturers are leaving town, internet social media is ready to move in.
The short term economic benefits of Facebook’s expansion will include more than $8,500,000 in one time development and construction fees, and the creation of over 2,400 construction related jobs over a 3 to 4 year period.
Long-term economic benefits for Menlo Park are projected to include approximately $4 million dollars in annual retail spending in Menlo Park, as well as the creation of 550 new non-Facebook jobs in Menlo Park, generating $34 million dollars in wages.
For critics who claim that the Facebook expansion will only benefit the top 1%, they should consider that’s an average salary of roughly $61,000 per non-Facebook job created in Menlo Park as a result of the project.
At a county level, projections forecast the creation of 5,400 additional jobs, generating $302 million dollars in wages and salaries.
Again, for those keeping track, that’s cumulatively 10,400 new Facebook and non-Facebook jobs resulting from the project. This certainly seems like something to celebrate, when you consider that as of December 16, 2011, San Mateo County had roughly a 7.5% unemployment rate with 28,400 people unemployed.
Additionally Menlo Park will enjoy all of the monies negotiated to make up for the sales tax revenues the city would have gained had a traditional retail sales or direct sales manufacturer occupied the property, not to mention any monies dedicated to public benefit projects as a result of the city’s ongoing negotiation with the internet giant.
According to the City’s Financial Impact Analysis, when property taxes, retail taxes and various other taxes and fees are added into the equation, if the negotiations go well, the City can expect to see a significant increase in revenue annually.
And for Menlo Park homeowners, whose home values have dropped roughly 15% since July of 2007, one can certainly hope that the laws of supply and demand will hold true, and that adding 10,400 new gainfully employees to the region will help stabilize and improve the Menlo Park housing market.
But not everything is measurable. Beyond the economic benefits discussed above, Facebook expanding in Menlo Park and remaining in the region strengthens the Silicon Valley. As reported by news outlets last year, the Silicon Valley now has roughly 48,000 jobs in internet companies – a number that exceeds how many existed during the height of dot com boom.
Facebook’s expansion in Menlo Park will attract more of the best and the brightest internet “hackers” to the region, enhancing that perfect alchemy of the nexus between entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, and emerging technology, giving rise to innovation.
And with that innovation, will come more economic growth.
Startups that will be searching for new ways to monetize social media, will choose commercial space, and perhaps more traditionally the garages, of Menlo Park as their homes.
Because of Facebook, Menlo Park will have greater opportunity to attract existing companies from outside the region to fill the commercial spaces of the recently voter approved Bohannon project, and attract financing capital for it’s tax revenue producing Hotel.
And all of these businesses will need services, retail, and places to eat and socialize.
So while many will argue about what should be done for Belle Haven, in light of the loss of Menlo Park’s Redevelopment Agency, Facebook offers the very real possibility that prosperity will gain a foothold in Belle Haven organically, reminding one of the adage:
Prosperity is what businesses create, that politicians take credit for.
There is ample evidence that Facebook is already spreading the positive effects of prosperity in Belle Haven.
Facebook is funding a technology program and to Belle Haven Elementary School, where it also has implemented an Adopt a Teacher program, as well as donated laptops and funded programs at local churches and the . Facebook also supported the efforts of , a Menlo Park-based company that has helped more than 160,000 people in the Bay Area find jobs.
Facebook has gone to great lengths to become a good neighbor to the Belle Haven community.
Finally, this blog post isn’t meant to undercut the spirit or the concerns of the biking community who has rallied for safe bike routes to Facebook. It is, and always has been, a very important goal and objective to encourage alternative methods of transportation.
The great thing is that Facebook thinks so too. It has already implemented one of the most aggressive vehicle trip reduction systems in the Silicon Valley, including: a full-time transportation program coordinator, a commute assistance center, on-site amenities to prevent the need for mid-day trips, shuttle service, both long-distance and to/from Caltrain stations, a vanpool program, carpool matching assistance through ZimRide, an online carpooling and ridesharing service that focuses on college communities and corporate campuses, preferential carpool and vanpool parking, a guaranteed ride home program, subsidized public transit passes, subsidies for employees who walk or bike to work, alternative and flexible work schedules to allow commuting at off peak hours.
And for the cyclists: bicycle parking (both short-term racks and long-term lockers or storage facilities), bicycle-share programs, showers and changing rooms. They've alsoagreed to provide funding for Willow Road Bike Lane Improvements and for a Bicycle and Pedestrian Tunnel under Bayfront Expressway.
And did I forget to mention that on January 23, Facebook is meeting with representatives from other peninsula companies to discuss completing the missing East Palo Alto segment of the Bay Trail, the Silicon Valley Bicycle Bayfront Freeway?
I am not certain what the results of the meeting will be, but regardless I can’t help but empathize with .
While the rest of California and the Nation slogs through the jobless recovery from the real estate mortgage crisis and the recession, we in Menlo Park have much to celebrate.
I just hope we don’t lose focus on the big picture.