I have written several articles discussing the downside of the commute that employs about half our working population, but there are upsides too, and they should not be ignored.
The personal downside includes the time, risk, and cost spent on the road and the use of scarce resources just getting to work and back. The economic downside is that the commute promotes San Benito County as a bedroom community with a budget that too often lacks the ability to fund essential services.
Finally there is what I call the “visitor feeling.” Those who live here but spend so much of their time away sometimes see their home as merely a place to sleep and many do not have a sense of community; they leave in the dark and return under the same conditions. The commute knocks the stuffing out of them on a tough day.
Now it’s time to also discuss the upsides. The most obvious are employment, compensation, and relatively affordable housing.
A recent New York Times article, (“Where Men Aren’t Working” Dec 11, 2014) dealt with the national problem of a high proportion of non-workers among the male population in their prime working age, 25-54 years old.
According to the Times, “Across the country, 16 percent of such men are not working, be they officially unemployed or outside of the labor force — disabled, discouraged, retired, in school or taking care of family. That number has more than tripled since 1968.”
Like so many economic impacts, this percentage varies greatly by geographic location. San Benito County enjoys a relatively low male prime not-employed rate of 17 percent due to the job availability in Santa Clara County, which has a rate of 15 percent. Other area counties have much higher male prime not-employed rates; Monterey 26 percent, Fresno 27 percent, and Merced 28 percent. This would indicate that many of our county resident male prime age workers have taken the first step is economic security – employment.
The second upside is compensation. In general, the Silicon Valley jobs pay much better than local employment and recent significant drops in fuel prices, thanks to America’s energy boom, has the effect of lifting a commuter’s take-home pay. In 2012 San Benito County commuters had earnings exceeding $800 million, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Finally, the county offers an opportunity for affordable housing – if anything in the region can be called affordable – a short distance from the superheated Silicon Valley market. Several years ago a developer told me a new Hollister home placed in Gilroy on a similar lot would sell for $100,000 more; by now that gap may be even larger.
Obviously, there are significant upsides to the commute or so many people would not participate. Under the heading of count your blessings, getting some personal economic stability in these times is a big plus.