Tracy, California

industrial parks in the nation, now probably a third built out, and another eight million square feet in the planning process over the next couple of years.” Many of those companies coming from the Bay Area are either getting squeezed out or are looking for where a lot of the population is moving, according to Malik. “We have that driver of population, people coming and saying, ‘I can’t afford the Bay Area or Silicon Valley,’ but move out this way for the affordability, the safety, the hometown feeling. We have a project, our Gateway Project, to have some office component, and to have colleges, as we are looking to improve skill sets as we grow our existing workforce. You can’t add as many jobs as we have over the last several years without impacting future business growth, because the labor pool starts to get short. So this Council said, ‘What about having a university that can help us grow the skill sets of our high school students as they come out, and how can we grow our own to help this economy continue to flourish?’ Cal State Stanislaus did their first MBA course in downtown Tracy a number of years ago, recognizing our commitment to higher education. We have recruited two universities that are having programming that, hopefully, will culminate in a brick-and-mortar campus.” “In the meantime,” says Vargas, “we are now partnering with Delta College on a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program. The Mountain House campus has successfully seen the first graduates from the STEM program graduating from high school with an Associate Degree this last year. About 60 percent of our residents commute over the East Bay and Bay Area, so we’re currently looking into making sure that we continue to educate our region. We have Stockton College, University of the Pacific, but we need more for a growing population of millennials who recognize the value of higher education.” Vanessa Carrera, Economic Development Analyst, states, “We have two public school districts, but we also have charter schools, private schools, and also a large homeschooling base. There’s a strong commitment to education in our community, as TRACY , CAL I FORNI A