Over
170 members gathered to recognize East
Bay Leaders
The annual East Bay Legislative Reception
and Vision Awards event was held January 10,
2008 at the Oakland Museum and was a great
success. Over 170 East Bay EDA members
gathered to recognize East Bay leaders and
to honor the 2008 East Bay Vision Award
winners, State Senate President pro Tem, Don
Perata and Lawrence Berkeley Lab Director,
Steve Chu.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Senator Tom
Torlakson, Assemblymember Loni Hancock and
Assemblymember Mary Hayashi were all in
attendance at the event and shared their
priorities for the coming year with the
audience.
View highlights of
the Legislative Reception, including a video
message from Senator Perata, who was not
able to attend the event..
Executive Committee met with regional
economist to discuss issue
Dr. Cynthia Kroll, Senior Regional Economist for the Fischer Center for Real Estate & Urban Economics with the University of California
at Berkeley, met with the Executive Committee in December to discuss the housing
and subprime mortgage crises. Dr. Kroll provided a preliminary analysis of housing foreclosure activity in the East Bay and potential impact on local government through revenue loss or delayed infrastructure improvements
(view Dr. Kroll's presentation). Members authorized staff to work with State and Federal officials to seek reforms to protect homeowners, assist laid off workers and support local government efforts to revitalize the East Bay’s housing and financial services sectors.
Plan will increase investment in key rail and highway projects
East Bay EDA is working with the staff of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) to finalize the Bay Areas’ plan - scheduled to be submitted to the California Transportation Commission (CTC) for funding under the State’s “Trade Corridors Improvement Fund “program. The plan would increase goods movement throughput by investing in key rail and highway projects.
The
plan, which has been in development over the past year, represents a major step forward to improve goods movement within the East Bay and Northern California. East Bay EDA members have worked to promote community consensus on key goods movement investments and convened working groups around rail corridors to minimize community impacts Last month East Bay EDA provided input to the California Transportation Commission on the “Trade Corridors Improvement Fund” project guidelines and in December the Executive Committee met with Jim Bourgart, Deputy Director for the State Business, Transportation & Housing Agency to promote Northern California’s Trade Corridor Plan.
Contra Costa County WDB
and City of Pleasant Hill organized meeting
Economic development professionals from
Central Costa County cities met last week in
Pleasant Hill to discuss regional economic
development, share best practices, and plan
future collaborative training and
informational sessions for area businesses.
The
meeting was organized by Kelly Calhoun, Economic Development Director for the
city of Pleasant Hill, and George Carter, Business Services Representative with
the Workforce Development Board of Contra Costa County, who plan to hold these
meetings quarterly. George is also working to organize similar meetings
for cities in West Contra Costa County. For more information please
contact George Carter at (925) 646-5559.
Forecast will be released in early February
The first East Bay Economic Forecast for
2008 will focus on the effects of the
housing slump and subprime mortgage crisis
on consumer spending in our region. As
always, the forecast will also include
sections on East Bay employment and real
estate.
To read previous forecasts, please visit the
Research, Facts & Figures section of eastbayeda.org.
Members are encouraged to submit stories, event listings
In an effort to make East Bay EDA News
more valuable to our readers, we'd like to ask you to submit stories and event listings from your city, organization or business.
Stories should be between 1 and 4 short paragraphs in length, include at least one contact name and/or website link for more information, and should be submitted by the first Friday of the month in which
you would like the story to run. Stories can be submitted to stephanie@eastbayeda.org.
Finally, don’t forget to place your organization’s events on the East Bay Regional Events Calendar.
Just login to the "Members Only" section and select Post to the Regional Events Calendar.
Visit the East Bay Economic Development Alliance section of our website to find the member login and calendar links.
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