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7 <br /> <br />number of better-paid workers and entrepreneurs employed in value-adding businesses is essential to <br />enhancing the “multiplier effect” on local household income15. But making this change will require <br />active intervention - not just regulation, but active investment and promotion by the community itself. <br /> <br /> <br />2. A Competitive Analysis <br /> <br />Determining potential advantageous change directions requires an understanding of the industrial <br />districts’ competitive position relative to other areas’ workplace districts. Our approach to this was to <br />analyze a “S.W.O.T.” inventory, consisting of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. <br /> <br />2.1. Competitive Strengths of the districts include: <br /> <br />2.1.1. Proximity to Oakland Airport, I-880 and the Bay Bridge, and the Port of Oakland. <br />Proximity to major transportation hubs and links is of high importance for clients, partners, employees, <br />suppliers, and shippers of district businesses. In addition, there are also Caltrans upgrades under way to <br />both the Davis Street and Marina Boulevard I-880 freeway interchanges as well as adjacent HOV lanes <br />along I-880, ensuring that those key pieces of roadway infrastructure will be built to the latest safety <br />standards and of fresh and new appearance. From a warehousing and distribution perspective, freight <br />proximity to the airport and port facilities is also excellent, as well as existing freight rail lines. It should <br />be noted, however, that air freight volume has dropped 28.5% the last 12 years16 and that there appears <br />to be little value added to much of the air cargo passing through local warehousing and distribution <br />properties. <br /> <br />2.1.2. Ease of business. <br />When it comes to permitting, San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley all have a reputation for <br />bureaucratic delay. The City of San Leandro has a longstanding reputation and reality of being highly <br />responsive and friendly to business, as well as having an equally consistent history of low tax rates. <br />However, it should be noted that once firms’ have completed their permitting and development, their <br />on-going contact with regulators is relatively limited, so for established firms this regulatory advantage <br />is of little importance in their day-to-day operations. <br /> <br />2.1.3. The LitSanLeandro fiber optic loop. <br />The City and its LitSanLeandro partnership have received awards and national press attention (including <br />the Wall Street Journal17) for the 2012 inauguration of the city’s gigabit ultra-high speed fiber optic loop. <br /> <br />15 See Moretti, Enrico, The New Geography of Jobs. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. <br />16 "Air Cargo Volume Chart," Port of Oakland Air Cargo Marketing Department, <br />http://www.flyoakland.com/cargo_volume_chart.shtml <br />17 Smith, Rebecca, “In San Leandro, a Drive to Get Wired,” The Wall Street Journal. <br />http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450004577277461512790488.html New York: Dow Jones & <br />Co., Inc., March 14, 2012.