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3 <br /> <br />Preface <br /> <br />This study was commissioned by the City of San Leandro in June of 2013. Just months before, the <br />LitSanLeandro fiber optic loop began delivering ultra high speed data to its first set of customers. Now <br />the new billion dollar Kaiser Permanente Hospital complex is rising west of I -880. The question <br />becomes: How can the city capitalize on these developments and put its industrial acreage, comprising <br />a quarter of the total acreage in the city, to greater use and benefit? This strategy provides that <br />direction. <br /> <br />Titled the "Next Generation Workplace Districts," this strategy is based on interviews with area <br />businesses that are already leading on innovation and value creation, extensive on-site fieldwork and <br />research, incorporation of the authors' combined 40+ years of experience in actual place and business <br />revitalizations, and collaborations with City Staff and Chamber of Commerce professionals, whose <br />contributions we gratefully acknowledge. <br /> <br /> <br />1. The Context of Change <br /> <br />1.1. Work and the Innovation Economy <br /> <br />The Digital Revolution has transformed all sectors of work. Just as fossil fuels and internal combustion <br />engines in the early 20th Century enabled humans to vault past the limits of muscle power1, the 21st <br />Century “energy source” - computing power coupled with the internet - has fundamentally changed <br />human activity, especially in the workplace2. In combination with cultural, political and regulatory <br />changes, digital information has led to unprecedented connectivity across the world, enabling <br />multitudes of highly motivated people and companies in both established and emerging economies to <br />work, collaborate, and compete in the global marketplace. <br /> <br />Manufacturing has been as profoundly affected as office work. Repetitive tasks on the factory floor and <br />in office cubicles alike are now automated or now take place in lower-cost countries. For both the <br />overall prosperity of the population and city reputation, the importance of higher "value-added" work <br />that prioritizes knowledge, skills and innovation has increased3. This is especially true for built-out <br />communities that previously had substantial employment and community identity bound up in <br />manufacturing. As the digital revolution has reorganized how work is conducted, spatial organization <br />inside the walls of workplaces has often shifted dramatically. In response to changing workforce size <br />and type, increasingly "horizontal" organizations and collaborative teaming on- and off-site, and digital <br /> <br />1 Bernstein, William, The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created. New York: <br />McGraw-Hill, 2004. <br />2 Gratton, Lynda, The Shift: The Future of Work is Already Here. London: Collins, 2011. <br />3 Karoly, Lynn A and Panis, Constantijn W.A., The 21st Century at Work: Forces Shaping the Future Workforce and <br />Workplace in the United States. Santa Monica: The RAND Corporation, 2004.