Pinole finds itself amidst a financial struggle; this is no surprise. Cutbacks, furloughs and reduced hours are just a few of the things the city has implemented in an effort just to survive. Pinole’s economy is dependent upon sales tax revenue from the shopping plazas and big box stores the town features, and the current financial climate exhibits that such revenue is not necessarily a cure-all for small cities. This reality should constitute a cry of concern in Hercules for any efforts to construct a series of strip malls along Highway 4 on the annexed property solely as a means to fill the sales tax coffers but do not rightfully consider the true cost of reckless, atrophic development, including crime and the need for increased police services, a potential decrease in the number of high-end properties, and the loss of land for community parks and open space.

But things are apparently now looking up for our neighboring town to the south. However, it appears to come at a price to Hercules, as a Hercules business is moving to Old Town Pinole. Tom Lochner reports, “the prospective tenant [for the planned beauty salon in the Fernandez Corner building at San Pablo and Fernandez avenue], Matilde Guadalupe, owns and operates Fantastic’s Beauty Salon in Hercules’ Creekside Shopping Center and intends to move the business to Pinole, according to a City Council staff report.”

One interpretation of these events is that the slow development of the Waterfront (as well as delayed development of Sycamore Downtown and New Town Center) had forced the Hercules business to move, as the tenant was seeking greater exposure in a more attractive space, since Old Town Pinole is considered more desirable than Creekside (and presumably costlier). Another interpretation is that the business was going to move anyway, but it would be interesting to see what types of improvements and incentives were promised by the Pinole Redevelopment Agency in their efforts to obtain a tenant in such a financial climate.