Pittsburg / Bay Point Bright Future Together Unified as a City

By A. J. Fardella

In the long and short term Both Bay point and Pittsburg would grow much stronger together.

I need to start out by saying that most BayPoint and Pittsburg residents know me to be a person who works for and is concerned with my community. That community includes BayPoint. I am advocating for a High School to return to us visa vi Riverview being re-tasked to it's original purpose back to being a neighborhood High School. In 2002 I campaigned for the $250,000,000 Measure C Bond issue for MDUSD schools which provided much needed repairs and upgrades to our schools. I am now in my second term as the Chairperson of the Oversight Committee for that Bond. BayPoint Schools were in Phase 1 and 2 of the Measure C Bond work and the work is completed.

I could drone on with more but I am about to voice an opinion that will evoke an emotional negative reaction from some my friends and neighbors in BayPoint. So I wanted to start by reminding you of who is saying this.

Not only should Pittsburg "annex" the portion of Baypoint it has plans for but Pittsburg and BayPoint need to come together as one City. I am also thinking we would maybe need a 7 person council maybe

Hey now I have seen the bitterness rise when ever this is brought up, but please hear me out. Why would I say that? What benefits for BayPoint residents would there be??? I really have never heard of a good reason other than "The name of our area was "West Pittsburg" we changed it to disassoiciate ourselves...." Those days are gone, both Pittsburg and BayPoint have changed and I believe will be better off Unified. Let me list all of the benefits for BayPoint. Municipal Services + There are quite a number of things that BayPoint needs that it has no source of funding for that would automatically be handled by City of Pittsburg such as Police, Crossing Guards for kids and much more....

Continuity of Planning - Take a look at the area of BayPoint right across the street from Safeway on Bailey. It is going on 8 years I have lived here now and that area looks worse than the day I moved in the new house. If the county has a plan for that blighted area they are implementing it using a timetable that is going backwards.

Be part of a political structure which is much more in control than a MAC- If Baypoint was a part of the City of Pittsburg it would Instantly create a whole new sphere of influence on the personality of Pittsburg City Council. Oak Hills Community (all of Pittsburg west of bailey and South of Highway 4 and Baypoint would have the numbers to assure representation on the Council from this area. As I am sure you are aware a MAC is at the mercy of it's County Board of Supervisors.

BayPoint has lots of HUB zone which leads to scads of re-development dollars and big business opportunities which the City of Pittsburg has the machine to turn that into lots of new and exciting projects for BayPoint also big breaks for businesses located in these hub-zones.

ECONOMIES OF SCALE

Even if BayPoint were to incorporate, you would need all of the base-level infrastructure that you don't have now

BayPoint would not loose it's identity.

Old Town, OakHills, Highlands Ranch, the Marina, and BayPoint are unique, distinctive neighborhoods in a diverse Pittsburg There is no reason why anyone would even stop saying "I live in BayPoint"

C'mon this is like the war between the States, time to bury the hatchet and in the process grow together beautifully for everyone's better quality of life..