State and local housing and finance experts were featured on panel
A panel of state and local experts in
housing, financial and social services
gathered February 14, 2008 at the Wendel
Rosen Black & Dean Conference Center in
Oakland to discuss the many issues facing
local government as a result of the mortgage
and foreclosure crisis.
The panel discussion featured an overview of
the issue from Dr. Cynthia Kroll of the
Fisher Center for Real Estate & Urban
Economics
at UC Berkeley. Her presentation can be
downloaded
here. Preston DuFauchard,
Commissioner of the
California Department of Corporations,
then gave a description of the state and
federal government's role in assisting
families and local governments.
Commissioner
DuFauchard's
presentation
was
followed
by a
description
of the
innovative
programs
in place
in the
City of
Emeryville
from
Janet
Anderson,
Emeryville's
First
Time
Homebuyers
Program
Coordinator.
Nancy
Flores,
with the
Department
of
Housing
and
Urban
Development
(HUD),
provided
detailed
information
about
the
variety
of
programs
in place
to
assist
homeowners.
Finally,
Carole
Watson
of the
United
Way of
the Bay
Area
(and
East Bay
EDA
Executive
Committee
member)
presented
the
United
Way's
Earn it!
Keep it!
Save it!
program
and work
the
United
Way of
the Bay
Area is
doing to
demystify
the
foreclosure
process
for
homeowners,
outlined
in this
very
informative
handout.
The panel discussion was moderated by
Antioch's city manager, Jim Jakel and was
attended by over 50 representatives from
local government, private companies, and
special districts.
Growing number of local businesses
specialize in this clean technology
Somewhat lost in the major news last year
about the funding for two major East Bay
biofuels centers, EBI and JBEI, is the fact
that we also have an emerging solar power
cluster. The following is a list of
companies East Bay EDA has collected from
news stories. If you know of other companies
or additional details about these companies,
please let us know so we can add the
information to our marketing materials.
•
PowerLight, recently acquired by SunPower, is now located in Richmond and has
become SunPower’s operations center.
•
Berkeley’s Borrega Solar has gained attention for its 400% growth over the past
few years.
•
Oakland’s BrightSource Energy is venture backed to build a 400 megawatt
industrial solar site in Nevada.
•
Livermore’s Cool Earth has received venture backing to build power plants using
proprietary inflatable solar collectors and producing power at rates competitive
with conventional plants.
•
Hayward’s rapidly growing OptiSolar announced 130 MW of industrial solar
projects in just the first half of 2007.
•
Fremont’s Senergen Devices and Solyndra have recently received venture backing
for proprietary photovoltaic cell technology.
• In May
of 2007 Fremont’s Solaria was named one of the 100 “Most Promising Companies
Driving the Future” by Red Herring magazine.
Together
with other Bay Area companies, these East Bay companies appear to be part of a
very significant cluster. Companies in other parts of the Bay Area include:
Akeena Solar; Applied Materials; Greenvolts; Heliodyne Inc.; Innovalight;
Miasole; Nanosolar; Sealed Air Corp; Sky Power Systems; Solar City Corp.;
SoloPower; SPG Solar; SolFocus; Stion; and Ultrasil.
Survey results will highlight issues facing
city and county governments
East Bay EDA has partnered with the Contra
Costa Council to administer a survey on the
impacts of the foreclosure crisis on
local governments. The survey, which
is still being conducted, was distributed to
city manangers in each East Bay city and
asks that participants outline the fiscal,
social and other issues they are facing such
as loss of revenue, increased demand for
social services, and neighborhood
deterioration, as well as best practices
they are employing to address these issues.
The survey's findings will be available in
the coming months and will be distributed at
that time. For more information please
contact Stephanie Brown,
stephanie@eastbayeda.org.
Popular calendar program offers free
advertisement opportunities
If you have not already, now is a great time
to take advantage of the promotional
opportunities available to you as an East
Bay EDA member and list your organization's
events on the
Regional Events Calendar at
www.eastbayeda.org. Both member and
non-member visitors to www.eastbayeda.org
from around the region are viewing the
calendar on a daily basis. It can be
accessed through the website's
Business Resources and Incentives section,
or under "Event Information" in the
East Bay Economic Development Alliance
section .
To
utilize the posting feature, East Bay EDA members will first be required to
log-in to the
Members Only section
of the East Bay EDA website. Both members and non-members can also post to
the calendar by logging in directly to the
calendar program
and following the step-by-step instructions outlined in
this PDF.
Board will plan organization's goals for
coming year at retreat
East Bay EDA's leadership will gather at the
Martinelli Center in Livermore on April 11
to discuss and plan the organization's goals
and strategies for the coming year.
The annual Board of Directors' retreat
provides an opportunity for our Directors to
come together to review East Bay EDA's
accomplishments, revise our strategic plan,
and announce the 2008-09 East Bay EDA
Officers.
At last
year's retreat, Board members expressed an interest in expanded member services
and communications, as well as advocacy in the housing, goods movement and water
infrastructure arenas. We look forward to working with all East Bay EDA
members throughout the coming year to meet the updated objectives that will be
generated at the retreat.
East Bay continues to draw more investment
than other U.S. locations
We all know venture capital is a major
factor in the Bay Area economy, but many
people do not think of the East Bay as a
major recipient. Think again. According to
the PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture
Capital Association MoneyTree(tm) Report
based on data from Thomson Financial, 127
East Bay companies attracted $1,197,400,000
in venture capital during 2007. During the
year venture capitalists were attracted to
companies in 16 East Bay cities with over
$50 M going to eight of those cities. That’s
a lot of research and product development.
At the top of the East Bay company list is an
Emeryville company, MobiTV, that attracted $70
million for technology that brings TV to mobile
devices such as your cell phone. However, East
Bay companies in “biotechnology” and “medical
instruments and devices” seemed to be the most
favored by the VCs. Combining those categories
to conform to an economic development
definition, nine of the top eleven companies
were in the ”bio-med” category. And, indicating
an emerging strength in alternative energy, six
of the next eleven were in the
“industrial/energy” category with three being
solar power and one a fuel cell company. Not
surprisingly, Fremont led the way among cities
with 37 companies attracting $316 M to the city.
Led by MobiTV Emeryville was second, followed by
Hayward and Pleasanton at third and fourth.
Berkeley rounded out the top five but was led by
Elephant Pharmacy and three other “consumer
products and services” companies as well as
three “media and entertainment” businesses
rather than the usual mix of “biomed.” Grouped
just below the top five were Oakland, Richmond
and Livermore with Oakland’s BrightSource Energy
receiving $46 M over the first two quarters to
build industrial scale solar energy plants. For
additional details please contact Bob Sakai at
(510) 272-3881.
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