Fairfield motels were offered the chance to convert their rooms to low income apartments. But Fairfield voters complained this would keep low income people only in "certain parts of town". Was this unintended "economic segregation"?
Though clear figures were not obtainable, we can't recall the last time Fairfield City Council used redevelopment funds for strongly balancing Fairfield's economic prosperity across economic lines. Why aren't Solano hotels getting strong support for converting hotel rooms into condos? Conversions are only for low income Solano motels?
Is the following an example of Solano Economic Segregation? In our tight Solano County economy, Solano hotels might benefit by offering smaller units for sale and make huge profits. Solano hotels might carry the paper and sell units at say "$25,000" and get much more than they could hope to get from the stagnant rental market? Aren't there too many Solano hotels built?
Solano Business News guesses city hall planning departments expect lower income buyers will upset the wealthy who don't want their hotels converted? This might especially apply to planning departments from Benicia, Vallejo and Fairfield, plus Vacaville and Dixon planning and development organizations.
Why is it OK to push for converting San Francisco hotels into condos, but not as much in Solano? Or is economic segregation a nationwide issue as Solano Business News guesses.
For example, the fancy San Francisco Fairmont Hotel plans to convert portion of hotel rooms into condos seems to have fallen flat. It's claimed this is because of "union pressure". But how will millionaire Fairmont Hotel neighbors feel about new neighbors snapping up condos and re-renting them at prices unavailable elsewhere in the prestigious neighborhood?
It appears the Fairfield motel to apartment rental offer was only made to Fairfield motels and not to Fairfield hotels? Fairfield is using other methods to influence Fairfield motel owners to take up the slack for needed low income housing per the Daily Republic.
Is there any connection with Fairfield breaking its promises in not redeveloping its main gateway to Fairfield's business district? Countless businesses (mostly now all gone) were promised that West Texas Street would be revitalized with ground breaking in 2000. Countless millions were invested in buying property along West Texas Street because the smaller time and less politically savvy real estate investors believed Fairfield's city hall. More details from Daily Republic's earlier articles
www.DailyRepublic.com (password or subscription required), plus the Fairfield blog at FixFairfield.Org.
The classic San Francisco Fairmont Hotel has weathered bigger problems before. It opened right after San Francisco's 1906 earthquake. It withstood most of the earthquake force. Fairfield will also find a way to work out a more fair way. After all the term "Fair" in "Fairfield" was not meant as a joke?
Details on how San Francisco Fairmont Hotel claims they can't convert hotel rooms to condos at
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/18/BAT61J1S1M.DTL
Fairfield Economic Planning and Solano Economic Development (Solano EDC) have been asked to clarify any errors in this Solano economic development article and Solano Business News' past and future blogs (not that such can be guaranteed for our readers). Solano Business News has other items it wishes to publish but lacks enough evidence. Remember, Solano Business News is not warranting anything on its blogs and twitters, nor linked sites.
