Mendocino Crossing not needed

DDR is trying to BS the community with those mailers with the intent of creating favorable public opinion - I got yet another on Saturday. They are not my partners, they are corporate vampires who wish to suck money and vitality out of our community, with the active complicity of Supervisors Wattenburger, Delbar and Pinches.

i've already received 2 different Mendocino Crossings mailers and i'm STILL not convinced; maybe they should send me another one!

i'm certainly not against the influx of big business (w/ intelligent moderation), i just don't agree with the plans for the Masonite site

I tried to email the Mendocino Crossings office, based on the info in the mailings and got a window asking for my pop server number. I am not an computer genius, so I don't know what that's all about, but I feel it showed they don't want to hear from anyone who is opposed to their development plans...kinda like the Bush Administration.
This is OUR community. So sad, and such a miscarriage of the democratic process, that MC reps were successful at buying our elected officials. I wonder what the price was.

I would much rather see a facility that manufactures electric vehicles on that site.

This really is NOT a pie-in-the-sky idea. It is happening all over Europe, why not here? They are now producing trucks and vans with lithium-ion batteries (no more Lead!) that can go 75mph and travel 150 miles on a single charge.

Think about it: good paying jobs, clean/green product, everyone in Ukiah working there would get a discount = many Ukiah citizens driving zero-emmission vehicles. Lower cost to operate,cleaner air as a by-product.

People traveling up from the Bay area to see how their new vehicle is made, driving home after dropping 15K - 50K for their new rig.

Now that's some real sales tax revenue! AND it would give Ukiah something it could be proud of.

Thinga Boutit wrote:

I would much rather see a facility that manufactures electric vehicles on that site.
This really is NOT a pie-in-the-sky idea. It is happening all over Europe, why not here? They are now producing trucks and vans with lithium-ion batteries (no more Lead!) that can go 75mph and travel 150 miles on a single charge.
Think about it: good paying jobs, clean/green product, everyone in Ukiah working there would get a discount = many Ukiah citizens driving zero-emmission vehicles. Lower cost to operate,cleaner air as a by-product.
People traveling up from the Bay area to see how their new vehicle is made, driving home after dropping 15K - 50K for their new rig.
Now that's some real sales tax revenue! AND it would give Ukiah something it could be proud of.

Now yer thinkin! Zap, located in Santa Rosa, has grown considerably over the past decade. Maybe they need a manufacturing site??

We got those flyers in Fort Bragg as well. Love how they say they will be creating 700 new jobs....how many will they be destroying? Not just in Ukiah but in Willits, Fort Bragg, etc.....

700 new jobs, 700 new applications for public assistance, 700 jobs taken from local businesses, 700 people suckered into working for these leaches. The moment the numbers no longer pencil, these corporate bloodsuckers will pull out, leaving 700 unemployed in their wake.

I agree, it will destroy more jobs tha it creates.

Why stop with Zap! Think Tesla ;-)

Sure would be easier to attract some industry if we had a functioning railroad…

Light industry can get by with trucking, but I agree... the rails are the way to go.

If the City of Ukiah truly wanted to attract some real industry their way, they could always offer some deeply discounted electricity. They still generate their own, don't they?

Vowel Movement wrote:

700 new jobs, 700 new applications for public assistance, 700 jobs taken from local businesses, 700 people suckered into working for these leaches. The moment the numbers no longer pencil, these corporate bloodsuckers will pull out, leaving 700 unemployed in their wake.

Well, you have this one pegged. I believe the reason for these flyers is to soften up the voters. The developers know they have lost their majority on the Board of Supervisors. Their next ploy will be a countywide initiative to change the zoning.

fbmom wrote:

We got those flyers in Fort Bragg as well. Love how they say they will be creating 700 new jobs....how many will they be destroying? Not just in Ukiah but in Willits, Fort Bragg, etc.....

Right on, fbmom. The reason you are getting this flyer on the coast is the developer is laying the groundwork for a countywide initiative. And you are right, the new development will suck jobs and money out of Fort Bragg, Willits, etc., just as much as Ukiah.

just asking wrote:

<quoted text>
Well, you have this one pegged. I believe the reason for these flyers is to soften up the voters. The developers know they have lost their majority on the Board of Supervisors. Their next ploy will be a countywide initiative to change the zoning.

LMFAO, that's one that would definitely a cost a couple bucks per vote.

What happened to recall of Wantaburger? Wasn't the Guardian of Truth, Justice and the American Way (Richard Johnson) trying to do that?

MendocinoNotMendo wrote:

i've already received 2 different Mendocino Crossings mailers and i'm STILL not convinced; maybe they should send me another one!
i'm certainly not against the influx of big business (w/ intelligent moderation), i just don't agree with the plans for the Masonite site

oops, make that 3; just received another one last night.

it mentions that "many" of the jobs will be "living wage"; anyone know what the living wage is nowadays, because i have a sneaking suspicion its far below what one needs to actually live.

AHHH....Tesla. Looks like a Ferrarri, can travel 200 miles on a charge, and go FAST ... up to 160mph ... that is one trick car! And, ONLY $105,000. The other beauty is the Phoenix electric truck (looks like a Honda Ridgeline, but classier,) and ATV (looks and drives like a Lexus.) Beautiful, and start at $47K.

Sterling Motorcar Co. in the UK makes a greate series of service trucks and vans. Check out the Sterling "Ampere" online!

Zap, Phoenix and Tesla are all California-based companies. ALL have major product releases (Zap XL Truck (only 15K) this fall, Tesla roadster in 2009, and Phoenix Truck and SUV in 2010,) that are gonna rock our world.

IF I WERE THE CEO of Mendocino County, I certainly would be getting together with the owners of these three companies, and offering the Masonite Site as the perfect base of operations for Northern California. Or the entire Pacific Northwest, for that matter!

Ukiah has everything a company like that needs...good schools, lovely historic downtown, theater, symphony, parks and wineries... fresh fruit and vegetables, and that great small-town feel with a state-of-the-art hospital and dialysis facilities, etc. AND A VERY MECHANICALLY-MINDED POPULATION OF KIDS OF FORMER RANCHERS, FARMERS AND MASONITE WORKERS WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK IF THEY CAN MAKE DECENT WAGES. Factory/Assembly work like this starts at $20/hr+... and is for 40 hours a week, EVERY week. Wow! Local kids would be able to start families and afford to buy their own homes.

This alone would change the face of our county radically -- for the better! Could someone get Al Beltrami out of retirement again and set him to the task? The Mendocino Private Industry Council, WestCompany, and Mendocino Economic Development Corp are a joke. Just grant-fed wannabes whose primary interest is the color of the carpet in their ever-expanding offices that have produced absolutely nothing but many files filled with many forms and paperwork documenting the "need" for their services -- and a few mediocre-paying jobs administrating these projects that would not support a local mortgage in today's economy over the past two decades.

Materials could easily be shipped to the site by rail. And as fuel gets more expensive, our days of having things made cheaply in China and shipped over here are soon to be over. Even if Ukiah just built the batteries or the motors for these puppies, and shipped them south to an assembly plant, we'd be WAAAAY ahead!

Its the economy, stupid. After we send all the good jobs overseas, so that CEO's can pull down 12 Million dollar salaries, how do we expect our ever-expanding unemployed population to be able to afford anothing other than the cheap, expendable pap that WalMart and Costco offer? That's stuff made for minimum-wage consumers, for the most part. Opium for the masses.

UKIAH: Take a stand. Produce rather than just consume. Isn't that the standard that great nations are built upon?

I think I may just love ya'.

Thinga Boutit wrote:

AHHH....Tesla. Looks like a Ferrarri, can travel 200 miles on a charge, and go FAST ... up to 160mph ... that is one trick car! And, ONLY $105,000. The other beauty is the Phoenix electric truck (looks like a Honda Ridgeline, but classier,) and ATV (looks and drives like a Lexus.) Beautiful, and start at $47K.
Sterling Motorcar Co. in the UK makes a greate series of service trucks and vans. Check out the Sterling "Ampere" online!
Zap, Phoenix and Tesla are all California-based companies. ALL have major product releases (Zap XL Truck (only 15K) this fall, Tesla roadster in 2009, and Phoenix Truck and SUV in 2010,) that are gonna rock our world.
IF I WERE THE CEO of Mendocino County, I certainly would be getting together with the owners of these three companies, and offering the Masonite Site as the perfect base of operations for Northern California. Or the entire Pacific Northwest, for that matter!
Ukiah has everything a company like that needs...good schools, lovely historic downtown, theater, symphony, parks and wineries... fresh fruit and vegetables, and that great small-town feel with a state-of-the-art hospital and dialysis facilities, etc. AND A VERY MECHANICALLY-MINDED POPULATION OF KIDS OF FORMER RANCHERS, FARMERS AND MASONITE WORKERS WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK IF THEY CAN MAKE DECENT WAGES. Factory/Assembly work like this starts at $20/hr+... and is for 40 hours a week, EVERY week. Wow! Local kids would be able to start families and afford to buy their own homes.
This alone would change the face of our county radically -- for the better! Could someone get Al Beltrami out of retirement again and set him to the task? The Mendocino Private Industry Council, WestCompany, and Mendocino Economic Development Corp are a joke. Just grant-fed wannabes whose primary interest is the color of the carpet in their ever-expanding offices that have produced absolutely nothing but many files filled with many forms and paperwork documenting the "need" for their services -- and a few mediocre-paying jobs administrating these projects that would not support a local mortgage in today's economy over the past two decades.
Materials could easily be shipped to the site by rail. And as fuel gets more expensive, our days of having things made cheaply in China and shipped over here are soon to be over. Even if Ukiah just built the batteries or the motors for these puppies, and shipped them south to an assembly plant, we'd be WAAAAY ahead!
Its the economy, stupid. After we send all the good jobs overseas, so that CEO's can pull down 12 Million dollar salaries, how do we expect our ever-expanding unemployed population to be able to afford anothing other than the cheap, expendable pap that WalMart and Costco offer? That's stuff made for minimum-wage consumers, for the most part. Opium for the masses.
UKIAH: Take a stand. Produce rather than just consume. Isn't that the standard that great nations are built upon?

Great vision. Really good. Unfortunately, given the state of things... it likely won't happen. It is almost impossible for almost ANY progressive venture to move into the County. What is worse, few want to, due to the available employment pool. As in the inner city, why work when one can make loads of money not working (we all know how)? I think it will likely take big changes and generations before this County is ready for something progressive like that. If I still owned and/or managed businesses, I would not move them here. Rather, I would put them in a progressive city. Where people want to work. Really good vision though.

Mongo Lloyd wrote:

<quoted text>
Great vision. Really good. Unfortunately, given the state of things... it likely won't happen. It is almost impossible for almost ANY progressive venture to move into the County. What is worse, few want to, due to the available employment pool. As in the inner city, why work when one can make loads of money not working (we all know how)? I think it will likely take big changes and generations before this County is ready for something progressive like that. If I still owned and/or managed businesses, I would not move them here. Rather, I would put them in a progressive city. Where people want to work. Really good vision though.

Real industrial-level jobs with good salaries and benefits in an emerging market is hardly "progressive". It's as traditional as life gets. But no one can afford to work for minimum wage. Or even the $8.10/hr that Ross Liberty offers. Unless we all want to go migrant-style and live 10 people to a room, sleeping in shifts and working 80 hours a week. All so that the boss can have a sea plane that lands at his own private dock on Lake Mendocino?

But I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with young people who currently work in the underground economy who would hang up their trimming scissors in a heartbeat for a REAL job. There just aren't any to speak of in Mendocino County.

It doesn't take too many seasons for them to figure out that if they divided their profits over a 40 hr work week x 52 weeks a year, they're barely making mimimum wage, if that -- and never getting ahead. Add the stresses of illegality, variations in weather, and the growing concern they have for the future of their own children ... many have concluded that it isn't the answer that they'd hoped it would be.

Duh. The only place where you can get a "free lunch" is in jail. Anyone who has "made it" has, like any other entrepeneur, worked long and hard, as hard as any grape grower or rancher. Often at the expense of their friends, their family, and their lower back -- just like any other workaholic who worships money and places it above all else.

Thinga Boutit wrote:

<quoted text>
Real industrial-level jobs with good salaries and benefits in an emerging market is hardly "progressive". It's as traditional as life gets. But no one can afford to work for minimum wage. Or even the $8.10/hr that Ross Liberty offers. Unless we all want to go migrant-style and live 10 people to a room, sleeping in shifts and working 80 hours a week. All so that the boss can have a sea plane that lands at his own private dock on Lake Mendocino?
But I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with young people who currently work in the underground economy who would hang up their trimming scissors in a heartbeat for a REAL job. There just aren't any to speak of in Mendocino County.
It doesn't take too many seasons for them to figure out that if they divided their profits over a 40 hr work week x 52 weeks a year, they're barely making mimimum wage, if that -- and never getting ahead. Add the stresses of illegality, variations in weather, and the growing concern they have for the future of their own children ... many have concluded that it isn't the answer that they'd hoped it would be.
Duh. The only place where you can get a "free lunch" is in jail. Anyone who has "made it" has, like any other entrepeneur, worked long and hard, as hard as any grape grower or rancher. Often at the expense of their friends, their family, and their lower back -- just like any other workaholic who worships money and places it above all else.

In this county, real industry level jobs IS a progressive idea. There are few,if any, currently... unless one counts the marijuana industry. Speaking from a hiring standpoint, there are few qualified in this County to work in ANY industry capacity, beyond janitor. HS graduates don't make BIG money, in any job. Neither do grads from the local college, which would look about as good on a resume', as a stint at Jack-in-the-Box. An employer moving into this county would have to import ALL senior level and mid-level management, and the majority of their workforce. Trimming pot is hardly experience for a job, as most of these misplaced youth will find out eventually.

Add to all that, industry would research demographics and all other factors. In doing so, they would find out how crime-ridden the County is, and likely decide to look elsewhere.

The Supervisors and County are too busy trying to maintain the status quo, allowing everyone to grow pot, versus making any SIGNIFICANT effort to attract industry. Why? The pot lobby has chewed up their time for years. I do not see that changing soon. Additionally, by entertaining the drug dealers, the County has pretty much turned it's back on all the cash and benefits which would come with industry, further leaving its residents to wallow in misery of their own creation.

The bottom line: Mendocino County will not be progressive... going forward into the future. It will stay in the past, growing dope...#1 cash crop, that provides no taxes, and no benefits.

You obviously have not lived here for very long.
Remco, Masonite, and the mills all provided good paying jobs that paid, yes, even high school graduates (and non-grads) salaries that rivaled what an RN with a four-year degree makes. Mom stayed at home, took care of the kids, and everyone took vacations.
BUT. The air in Ukiah and Willits used to be unbreathable with the toxins these plants were spewing forth. Water tables were poisoned with runoff from Remco and Masonite, many of their workers died of cancer or emphysema before their time. The forests were all clearcut rather than selectively managed by their out-of-state owners.
This county, and this country, for that matter took a turn for the worse when Management made the decision to export their operations rather that adopt appropriate management practices. Oh, yeah, the all-important "bottom line". Management must have their perks, above all.
This country took a turn for the worse when, during the Reagan and Bush years, corporations chose to continue their exploitive ways on foreign soil with a fresh population of naive victims, rather than adopt practices that would have protected their workers and their (our) resource base, and created jobs for future generations.
Instead, the next generation was informed that if they did not go to college and get a degree they could look forward to a life in the "service industry." Then, "service industry" and "hospitality" jobs were touted to the locals as what was going to save them. The area around the airport that had been zoned for light-industry was handed off to WalMart, Friedman Bros, etc with glorious promises that this would turn our economy around... yeah, right. What mom and dad, now BOTH working, brought home was far less than what dad alone was earning only a few years earlier. And health care and pensions? Suddenly nonexistent.
Don't worry, the planners said, the wine and tourism industry will save us. That is, if dad doesn't mind scraping and bowing to rich fat cats all day, and mom doesn't mind cleaning up after their parties and serving their food. Health care? Benefits? Vacations? Pensions? Forget about it.
ELSEWHERE, other first-world countries were working with different models. They made quality and keeping their surroundings pristine two of their highest community values. These values trickled down to industry as well, where higher standards were enforced to avoid destroying the forests, the air, the watertable, and the community. Look at Scotland, Wales, France, Germany,... their economies are based on local production of goods for local needs. Not too hard a concept to grasp. Especially considering most participants in these economies have little more than an eighth-grade education.
Why can't we identify a local need: say, transportation with less reliance on fossil fuels, and develop a local economy around developing and building a product that can fill that need? Not only for ourselves, but for others. Too much crime here? It's nothing compared to towns as close as Santa Rosa. Trimming pot hardly experience for a job? Hey .... any trimmer who actually makes any money will tell you it takes, focus, concentration, hand-eye coordination, AND the ability to sit still for LONG HOURS to be successful in that game. For the same 20+ bucks an hour they'd happily wind armatures, pour molds, or assemble components. Get real!
Frankly, I don't blame the residents as in "further leaving its residents to wallow in misery of their own creation." I blame the politicians, who enjoyed a few too many perks and BBQs to notice they were being used to lead their constituents down the primrose path of manipulation for others' gain.
Ukiah is, indeed, at a crossroads. Once again. How ironic that most of the population does not even notice the double entendre. I blame too many big screen TVs and junk food from WalMart and CostCo filling their heads with dreams of shopping at Banana Republic and Crate and Barrel.

Why can't we identify a local need: say, transportation with less reliance on fossil fuels, and develop a local economy around developing and building a product that can fill that need? Not only for ourselves, but for others.

Too much crime here? It's nothing compared to towns as close as Santa Rosa. Trimming pot hardly experience for a job? Hey .... any trimmer who actually makes any money will tell you it takes, focus, concentration, hand-eye coordination, AND the ability to sit still for LONG HOURS to be successful in that game. For the same 20+ bucks an hour they'd happily wind armatures, pour molds, or assemble components. Get real!

Frankly, I don't blame the residents as in "further leaving its residents to wallow in misery of their own creation." I blame the politicians, who enjoyed a few too many perks and BBQs to notice they were being used to lead their constituents down the primrose path of manipulation for others' gain.

Ukiah is, indeed, at a crossroads. Once again. How ironic that most of the population does not even notice the double entendre. I blame too many big screen TVs and junk food from WalMart and CostCo filling their heads with dreams of shopping at Banana Republic and Crate and Barrel.