THE BAY AREA, ITS PROSPECTS AMD ITS PROBLEMS - 3 - The forecasts indicate that the Bay Area will reach a population of 3,700.000 by 1960 and 4,800,000 by 1970, both reasonable goals based upon the present rate of growth. The growth that has taken place and the growth that is destined to take place is not equally divided among the 9 counties. The older areas like San Francisco and Oakland have increased only 4% in population in the last 6 years, but the Peninsula counties show an increase of 51% the East Bay counties about 17%, and the North Bay counties 26%. This trend will be accentuated in the years to come, for San Francisco and the older established areas have little or no land left to accommodate more people, and the influx of people must flow into those areas where land is available. From a community standpoint, population growth is not necessarily a good thing. For example, the City of Hong Kong has had to cope with the problem of taking care of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Red China who arrived in Hong Kong without financial means in a city unprepared to give them employment, to provide them with housing or to furnish them with the necessary community services. The problem is typified by the fact that it is necessary to ration the use of water in Hong Kng to only a few hours a day. Every new resident places a burden on the community to provide certain facilities such as schools, streets, fire and police protection, water, sewage and garbage disposal, and all the services which the community is expected to provide. Insofar as the resident is concerned, the community provides these services at a loss, for it does not collect the necessary funds in taxes on residential property or indirectly from the residents themselves to pay for the cost of the services provided. To make population growth an asset, it must be accompanied by a corresponding increase in jobs so that the new residents have the ability to earn a living and the communities themselves have an ability to tax business in order