New Jobs Keep Kids At Home

Read any newspaper or magazine today and you will see article after article about young people graduating from high school or college only to stand in an unemployment line. What are the chances that any of Pleasanton's youth will find work here at home?

Currently there are about 9,000 or so jobs in Pleasanton. Most wage earners living in Pleasanton commute outside the Tri-Valley area.

Many cities retain their healthy growth by keeping the energy and talents of the next generation of working adults at home. Studies, and common sense, show that if families could have their children live and work near them, most would.

The growth that's coming to this "City of Planned Progress" is in the form of business parks and commercial centers. These will provide the kinds of jobs the studies indicate most people want for their families.

This growth, however, won't be all at once. The forecasted construction will take over two decades and will allow the local economy and residential areas to grow accordingly. This avoids some of the mistakes made by cities that didn't have the foresight to insure against haphazard development.

Although there are thousands of job types, the Bay Area - and the rest of the country - is gearing up in high technology fields. It is generally accepted that computer, and computer enhanced industry, is becoming the rule rather than the exception. The community that wants to keep its kids at home will need to attract companies that will hire those with a high tech background. More and more college graduates have some background in computer technology, either in programming or application.

Pleasanton's Hacienda Business Park currently in development has planned to allocate approximately two thirds of its available land for research and development uses along with supporting offices.

Recent polls conducted to gauge public opinion in the Tri-Valley area, show that most people want to live close to where they work. Because so many citizens of Pleasanton commute out, the commercial expansion here typified by the master-planned Hacienda Business Park may mean that many of the long range commuters will be able to find local jobs.

To see a reproduction of the original article and edition of Pleasanton Pathways, visit: August 10, 1983 Pathways.

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