MEF recently kicked-off its Workforce Connect project by hosting a focus group for its first industry cluster, hospitality, to engage a spectrum of employers to discuss Marin County’s workforce, understand the industry’s workforce needs and identify opportunities to address education, skill gaps and pathways. Nearly 30 local employers representing lodging, food and beverage, recreation, events and tourism shared information and explored new ideas to meet workforce demands.
The group discussed the current labor market for hospitality jobs, gaps in skill sets and difficulty in retaining good employees. The need for a branded campaign to let more people know about what local jobs are available within the hospitality industry is a priority, as is the need for a customer-service education program or academy.
Congratulations to Napa and Salt Lake City for coming up with solutions to build affordable housing in their respective communities.
At the Housing Shortage and Inequality event that MEF hosted May 4 at the Embassy Suites in San Rafael, MEF offered a few creative solutions to addressing these challenges, including preparing an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in a specific market area so communities and developers can have plans and pre-approvals in place to create new neighborhoods.
A recent Marin IJ story reported that Marin grew more in 2017 (population) than its county neighbors of Sonoma and Napa, attributing much of that growth to last October’s wine country wildfires. The population estimates were provided by the state Department of Finance and showed that Marin County had a net people gain of 624, or 0.2%, compared with net population losses of 0.3% in both Napa and Sonoma counties. Throughout the state, more than 13,200 housing units were lost last year, mostly to fires in northern and southern California, the IJ reported.
You can feel the winds of change shifting in the community as the City’s Economic Development Department rises up to meet an exciting new market reality.
“The economy has done very well in recent years,” notes Novato’s Assistant City Manager, Peggy Flynn. “People are ready to embrace change, and Novato is well positioned for the coming transformation.” Flynn points to a steady increase in the demand for local housing, as well as a renewed smart-growth mindset, in creating a momentum for positive innovation.
Marin’s median home price reached $1.144 million last month, up 23 percent over the $930,000 median price a year earlier, a real estate data tracking firm reported Tuesday.
The number of new and resale homes and condos sold in Marin dropped 9.9 percent, from 263 homes sold in March 2017 to 237 last month, according to Irvine-based CoreLogic.
Across the Bay Area, prices rose 14.7 percent over the same period. CoreLogic analyst Andrew LePage said the increase “reflects a change in market mix, where a higher share of transactions is occurring in mid- to high-priced markets.”
Marin Economic Forum (MEF) is celebrating a significant transportation improvement. Last Friday, April 20, Caltrans opened the long-awaited third eastbound lane on the San-Rafael-Richmond Bridge. The third-lane is providing much-needed, instant relief to thousands of working commuters leaving work in the afternoons and evenings and is open from 2 pm to 7 pm weekdays. Highly functioning infrastructure is essential to talent attraction and worker productivity some of the issues we have been concerned about at MEF.
Our new members and sponsors, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc, receiving the Large Business of the Year award at San Rafael’s “State of the City” event.
By Keri Brenner
A homegrown San Rafael grocer took his 15 minutes of fame to steal the show at the “State of the City” dinner and awards ceremony this week at Peacock Gap Clubhouse in San Rafael.
Andy Bachich, earlier named “Citizen of the Year” in San Rafael, on Thursday delivered a passionate call for action to support local businesses before about 420 attendees at the annual San Rafael Chamber of Commerce event.
San Rafael, CA(April 5, 2018) – The Board of Supervisors met for three days last week to hear recommendations by county departments that must pitch in to help close a projected budgetary gap of $5.6 million over the next two years.
The purpose of the hearings, County Administrator Matthew Hymel said, was for the board to review the recommendations—meant to achieve a 5 percent across-the-board spending reduction—before approving a balanced 2018-2019 budget in June. This is the first time in five years that the county has asked for reductions from its departments.
San Rafael, CA (April 5, 2018) – Marin Economic Forum Chief Executive Officer Robin Sternberg announced that it is hosting an event in San Rafael on May 4 to address Marin’s Housing Shortage – The Cost and Potential Solutions.
In nine months on the job, Marin Economic Forum CEO Robin Sternberg is already zeroing on areas key if Marin is to continue to prosper.
“Marin has a workforce shortage, economic inequity, a housing shortage and other factors that influence our ability to grow and prosper,” she said. “Demographic changes are also impacting the region. MEF — with county of Marin’s support — can play a role in developing a plan that focuses on a vision and how we should direct investment to ensure future economic success while maintaining our unique and special assets.”
Sternberg served previously served as the senior economic development adviser on the American Jobs Project at University of California, Berkeley.
