Bay Meadows should be saved

Emblematic of our city government's enthusiasm for the potential profits of the Swiss investment bank that owns the 83-acre property, our city government is supporting Caltrain's plans to have the Baby Bullet train stop just north of the present Hillsdale Station, bypassing San Mateo's new, attractive downtown train station at the expense of our downtown merchants.

Should San Mateo lose the effort to keep a vital downtown business area and independent business pockets such as wonderful 25th Avenue, our city will have lost those older business locations where small merchants are most likely to find affordable space. And besides the ecological and economic benefits of being able to get a vacuum cleaner repaired, it should be kept in mind that small businesses still provide most of the job opportunities in California.

Losing Bay Meadows race track may well signal the end for downtown San Mateo as well as 25th Avenue. Should Bay Meadows ever be redeveloped, 25th Avenue is likely to be redeveloped within the city's planned "Transportation Corridor." Downtown San Mateo merchants will be competing with 100,000 square feet of additional retail space. In addition, visitors who have been drawn to racing at Bay Meadows for years will be lost to San Mateo commerce. The city will suffer the loss of a number of recession-proof jobs at the track, and forever lost will be the potential of more aggressively promoting Bay Meadows to draw even greater numbers of visitors to our city.

An equally serious problem, given our rapidly changing international economy, is the mega-size of the 2.1-million-square-foot office project. The project's size may make it an obsolete, white elephant even before construction begins. For the past 20 years major corporations in San Mateo County have been relocating parts of their operations to less expensive regions. Some corporations, in cost-cutting efforts, are sending entire accounting departments to India. The days of the huge office campus complex are winding down in San Mateo County. The office project proposed for Bay Meadows appears to have been conceived at the height of the dot-com boom and is not a relevant design for the future of San Mateo.

Seventy-year-old Bay Meadows is the living legacy of those who have gone before us. Disney could recreate its charming art deco design, but could not recreate the track's history and mystique. Thanks to our country having rediscovered its most famous depression-era hero, our local equine boy who made good is again associated with glorious days at Bay Meadows.

In Laura Hillenbrand's widely read book, it is at Bay Meadows where half-blind Red Pollard sat astride Seabiscuit bantering with reporters that during their next race he and Seabiscuit were "heading to downtown San Mateo to do a little Christmas shopping, stop by the post office to collect fan mail and return to Bay Meadows to win the race." And judging from annual revenues in the neighborhood of $60 million, even with the track's future in limbo, during a recession and under-promoted - all of this track's glory days are not in the past.

Several councilmembers have suggested that Bay Meadows should be redeveloped to prevent slot machines at the facility. These are curious comments from a City Council that has control over if a sports bar at Bridgepointe Shopping Center is allowed to add a video game arcade. Should California ever legalize slots at thoroughbred tracks, our City Council would still have the final say regarding slots at Bay Meadows.

Our City Council should step up to the plate and nominate Bay Meadows to its rightful place on the State Historical Registry, encourage UBS Paine Webber to appreciate the treasure they own and work with this corporation to promote the track and perhaps secure the Breeders Cup races. This televised Super Bowl horse racing event would fill San Mateo's hotels, restaurants and shops. San Mateo's future is intricately tied to its most significant historical landmark - let's not demolish it.

Linda Schinkel is a resident of San Mateo. She is the founder of Citizens for Responsible Growth.