Friday, April 11, 2014

Emeryville History 2004-2014: City Hall in the Tank for Pixar



OOOPS!  Ten years later, the hyperbole is revealed to be.....hyperbole.

Here's City Manager John Flores, in 2004 in the tank for Pixar as that company sought voter approval for a major campus expansion.  The Tattler has shown how the pitch from Pixar (and City Hall) for Measures T & U were vastly overstated including how Pixar was going to benefit the schools and the community. But what we got for our permission to vastly increase their campus instead is a giant corporate tax cheat and no money for the schools coming forth from the fenced off and secretive private Pixar compound.

In addition to giving credence to the absurd claim that Pixar would flee Emeryville unless it got everything it wanted (and write off its billion dollar initial investment), Mr Flores, supposedly representing our interests, tells us that Pixar would be a "major benefactor to the Emeryville community including the schools".
Pixar for its part, told voters in 2004 that they (Pixar) would tremendously benefit the Emeryville community but instead of putting that in writing as the T&U opposition wanted, they should simply be taken at their word.
And the rest is history as they say.

Video from the Emeryville Property Owners Association

2 comments:

  1. Ten years later; I'm glad we have Pixar.

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    1. It's good to be glad. And I'm happy you're glad because you're sure paying a lot for them to be here. You've obviously made your peace with this trade off. If you thought they should pay their fair share then I presume you wouldn't be as glad

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