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16 <br /> <br />engage these existing businesses are described in the Near Term Actions and Longer Term Actions <br />following. <br /> <br />3.1.3. Humanize the place. <br />With the 21st Century transformations in business and industry, workplace districts must now be tools <br />to help attract, nurture and retain talent - they have to be real places that have services and experiences <br />that all workers and entrepreneurs want nearby. This is increasingly so with younger ("Millennial") <br />generation workers who have different attitudes towards work-life balance and locational preferences <br />for activities. In turn, employers are looking for their locations to help them attract talented employees, <br />as well as provide appealing places to bring clients, partners and collaborators. Starting today to <br />strengthen workplace livability and emphasize the maker heritage of the workplace districts will not only <br />make the districts more attractive and convenient for businesses and employees - they will also help <br />make San Leandro a more "complete community" in which residents will have reasons to visit and care <br />about the quarter of the city that comprises the industrial areas. A stronger city and community identity <br />will be the result. <br /> <br />Based on our interviews with businesses, the first frontier to address is the provision of better and more <br />varied eating opportunities, via establishment of a "Food Pod" with multiple food carts (Figs. 31 & 32); <br />the first location and timeframe in which to accomplish this is the Merced Street corridor in between <br />the Marina Boulevard district entrance and the new Kaiser Hospital, in time for the arrival of thousands <br />of new employees and visitors upon its opening in 2014. These first initiatives are linked with identifying <br />and growing a north-south street corridor "spine" of activity, the Merced Street/Westgate Parkway <br />spine as a possible workplace "main street" corridor of businesses and activity clusters (Fig. 28). This <br />spine would be anchored on its north end by the Westgate Center and on the south by the Kaiser <br />Hospital campus. In between would lie the gateway Marina Boulevard/Merced Street intersection, and <br />a recommended redefinition of the "Kaiser North" retail site as a future district business activity center <br />(see description under item 3.3.3.2.2.1.) (Figs. 29 & 30). Also, the "spine" is proposed as a means of <br />recognizing and tying in a series of potential development opportunity parcel sites that have been <br />mapped on a "Vulnerability to Change" map (Fig. 18 and following notes). The larger framework for <br />identifying this corridor and others is what we call a "Boulevards and Back Streets" strategy that <br />recognizes the street and block structure of the district and the potentially different development <br />potentials based on how properties can differently engage the two different types of street environment <br />and ultimately achieve value (Figs. 14, 15, 16, & 17). <br /> <br />The large-scale and longer term planning perspective, however, is the framework inside of which a <br />series of low cost, "do-able" and tactical measure may more readily be undertaken by the City (and <br />possibly in partnership with businesses and groups). Recognizing that funds are highly constrained in <br />the post-redevelopment environment, the scale and pacing of recommendations that follow in the Near <br />Term Actions are conceived more as a series of "infield hits" for greater feasibility and concurrence with <br />maintaining momentum and the marketing window of the Kaiser Hospital opening - rather than <br />emphasis on "home runs." Nonetheless, the upcoming General Plan Update is an important opportunity <br />to restate and redefine the vision and larger framework for the Industrial Districts as 21st Century <br />Workplace Districts.