In a LinkedIn post, Exchange Bank wrote,
“Exchange Bank is honored to receive the Northbay biz Magazine ‘Best Of’ award for Best Consumer Bank. Supporting our community and customers has been at the center of our core values since 1890.”
General contractor Midstate Construction Corporation, and developer McCormack Baron Salazar in coordination with Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency recently completed Mirasol Village Blocks B & E (formerly Twin Rivers), a new 123 unit mixed-income residential complex in Sacramento, CA.
Designed by SVA Architects Inc., Blocks B & E include new construction of 12 two and three story buildings providing 123 units via one, two and three bedroom layouts. Community spaces include a 1.2-acre community park, 2/3-acre community garden, fruit tree orchard, garden learning center, pool, playgrounds, and walking paths.
Mirasol Village Blocks B&E are the first phase of the four phase Mirasol Village redevelopment project, creating 427 units of mixed-income housing on a 22 acre parcel. The remaining phases are projected to complete by Q4 2024.
Congratulations to the NorCal – Public Media TV production team on being nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Public Affairs – “From Homeless to Housed-Labath Landing.” Paul Swensen: Producer/Director. Rick Bacigalupi and Jeremy Jue: Field Producers. William Meese: Editor. The NATAS SF/NorCal awards take place this June.
It’s graduation season, and in celebration of grads and NASCAR’s stop at the famed West Coast road course, Sonoma Raceway is extending an exclusive opportunity to all college students with a valid .edu email address. Students can now purchase tickets for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 11 for the exceptional price of only $25.
Recognizing the importance of engaging and involving the college community, Sonoma Raceway is excited to provide an accessible way for students to experience the thrill of NASCAR from an exclusive college student section in the Turn 3 Terrace, a prime location to watch drivers jockey for position at high speeds. Students simply enter their .edu email address to unlock the offer during the online ticket purchase. College attendees can take advantage of this limited-time offer and secure up to four tickets to see the exhilarating Toyota/Save Mart 350 race.
Sunday’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 offers plenty of heart-pounding action and high-speed competition on one of the few road courses on the NASCAR schedule. Set against the stunning backdrop of Sonoma’s rolling wine country hillsides, this race promises an unforgettable experience for motorsports fans and first-time sporting enthusiasts with a Fan Zone packed with entertainment, activities and vendors. With the $25 college ticket offer, students can indulge in the sights, sounds, and excitement of NASCAR without straining their budgets.
Students wishing to take advantage of this great opportunity to kick off their summer just need to visit SonomaRaceway.com and enter their valid .edu email address to start the discounted ticket purchase process and be a part of the NASCAR Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 on June 11 at Sonoma Raceway.
Tickets and add-ons for the tickets for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 race weekend June 9-11 are available now at SonomaRaceway.com
For more information contact:
Brandy Falconer
Director of Communications
BFalconer@SonomaRaceway.com
O: 707-933-3981 | C: 707-231-6005
SonomaRaceway.com/Media
Social media: @racesonoma
Sonoma Raceway is a 2.52-mile and 12-turn road course and quarter-mile drag strip located at Sears Point in Sonoma County, California. Built in 1968 the track is carved into rolling hills with 160 ft of total elevation change. It is host to one of the few NASCAR Cup Series races each year that are run on road courses. It is one of the world’s busiest racing facilities, with track activity scheduled an average of 340 days a year. A complete and versatile motorsports complex, it is home to one of the nation’s only high-performance automotive industrial parks with approximately 70 tenants.
Santa Rosa Junior College on Wednesday officially began building its long-planned 10,000-square-foot construction training center at its 40-acre Petaluma campus.
The project has been more than three years in the making, but has been delayed for reasons that include the pandemic and increased materials costs.
Formally called the North Bay Regional Construction and Building Trades Employment Training Center, the structure is scheduled to be finished in May 2024, with instruction to begin soon afterwards, according to Benjamin Goldstein, dean of agriculture/natural resources, culinary arts, and industrial and trade technologies. He is overseeing the project with Vanessa Luna Shannon, dean of instruction and enrollment management for the Petaluma campus.
The program will offer short-term training in a variety of specialties for certificates, as well as a program that will take one to four semesters to complete. An associate degree program for students in trade union apprenticeships is under development.
“We’ll be hosting some initial classes in the building in the fall semester of 2024, but it’s going to take us (another) year or so to build out the full suite of academic programs,” Goldstein said. Once the center is operating at full capacity, it should be able to produce up to 500 skilled jobseekers each year, according to the college.
SRJC and the Sonoma County Economic Development Board jointly announced in January 2020 an award of $7.12 million in grant funding to build the construction training center. The grant was funded by the U.S. Economic Development Administration’s disaster relief fund. The county’s economic development board also led efforts to secure a $1 million matching grant from the Tipping Point Community Foundation — bringing the total funding to $8.1 million.
But delays followed, initially because of the pandemic, then compounded by the need for more funding because of escalating costs for construction materials due to supply chain issues, Goldstein said. The economic development board ultimately provided another $4 million in funding, which was awarded in September 2022. Bank of America donated $250,000 for the project a year earlier.
On Wednesday, Ukiah-based The Mendocino Companies, owner of sawmills, 440,000 acres of timber forest and biomass energy plants, announced a donation of $100,000 to the center.
With construction now in full gear, Goldstein detailed three “major” programs that are being developed:
“When we talk about building new housing, and building accessory dwelling units, which now have a much simpler permitting process, the first thing that you need are carpenters,” he said.
The focus on the heating and cooling training aims to fill a long-term need.
“There’s a tremendous amount of money coming from the federal government through the Inflation Reduction Act, and the bipartisan infrastructure law for energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning, and upgrades in residential homes,” Goldstein said.
Fire-resilient landscaping is currently taught through SRJC’s existing construction management program at its main campus in Santa Rosa, but the fully developed program will bring that education to a whole new level.
“The biggest message I think that we want to send to Sonoma County is we are stepping up to help rebuild this county after years of devastating wildfires, floods, and a housing crisis that is pinching everybody’s wallet and making it very hard to live and work in in this county,” Goldstein said. “And as a community college for the county, it’s our job to develop workforce programs that respond to workforce needs. And construction is a huge workforce need.”
Burbank Housing has received $14.72 million for homebuyers that can be used on homes anywhere in Sonoma County, provided the buyers are lower income (or moderate-income disaster victims) first-time homebuyers.
The fund will allow Burbank to provide over 140 down-payment assistance loans of up to 40% down (up to $100,000) to eligible buyers.
This funding was awarded through a competitive notice of funding availability process through California Department of Housing and Community Development’s CalHOME down payment assistance program.
“In today’s real estate financing market, ethnic groups are socially and economically challenged when it comes to qualifying for mortgages based on the way FICO scores for credit worthiness are determined,” said Larry Florin, CEO of Burbank Housing. “If prospective homebuyers have only rented over the years, a record of their regular, on-time payments is not factored into the equation.”
Florin said consistent rental payments are the perfect example of the kind of responsible behavior credit agencies and lenders are wanting to see and yet these payments have not traditionally been considered as part of a person’s credit score.
To address this void, Burbank Housing partnered with ESUSU Rent, a rent reporting service that helps landlords and their renters build credit by sharing their monthly housing payment information with the major credit bureaus, while also providing limited relief for renters experiencing financial hardships.
Florin said Burbank Housing has nearly 8,700 residents living within 72 rental housing communities it has built in Sonoma and Napa counties. San Francisco-based ESUSU’s reporting process now includes residents at nearly all of Burbank’s developments.
“Burbank has a long track record of good stewardship of HCD funding, and plans to deploy this funding to help address the affordability needs across the county. Because we are working with buyers countywide, as opposed to exclusively for our developments, buyers aren’t required to have a specific down payment amount to be eligible for this funding.” Florin said.
The city of Santa Rosa — in partnership with Burbank Housing — is working to launch a down-payment assistance plan that the city will be able to utilize in conjunction with Burbank’s program. CalHFA also offers a variety of programs exclusively for first-time homebuyers to assist with down payment assistance and first mortgage loans.
Additionally, the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco offers a down-payment assistance grant of around $29,000 through a program called Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership, or WISH.
“We also offer prospective homeowners a planning road map that includes reaching a low down payment amount by scheduling partial payments every three months held in reserve leading to the closing, while also hosting individual counseling and seminars to guide them through the process as part of a pathway to homeownership,” Florin added.
Jacqui Salyer, Habitat for Humanity of Sonoma County director of fund development and programs, said homeownership is the way to build generational income for a family and descendants while also creating community stability.
“Anything that makes it more difficult for would-be homeowners to obtain first time funding can have a big impact. Habitat has helped to finance construction of 48 homes and nine cottages since 1984 many of which were built with great pride and sweat equity by future owners,” Salyer said.
The all-electric cottages with air-conditioning, a heat pump, washer/dryer and appliances are now for sale, after serving the temporary housing needs of families displaced by the Tubbs wildfire since 2017.
Cottages include five two-bedroom homes (744 square feet), and four one-bedroom homes (425‒450 square feet). These cottages were originally placed on Medtronic property in Fountaingrove and must be relocated.
“In addition to being ADUs (accessory dwelling units), these cottages would be ideal for workforce housing or permanent housing for Habitat for Humanity families if land with utilities is donated,” Salyer said.
She said throughout these 40 years not a single Habitat home has been foreclosed and only one unit was sold when the owner graduated from college and moved. A four-unit Habitat development is being built in downtown Sebastopol at 333 Main St. within walking distance to stores, libraries and transit. Through Habitat funding sources, the down payments are as low as 3% to 5% for low-income buyers who qualify for their first home.
Habitat for Humanity is a global nonprofit housing organization working in over 1,300 communities in the U.S. and 70 countries around the globe.
Education has always been part of the Buck’s mission; the public has always been included in the Institute’s community seminars and tours. Now the Buck has taken its educational efforts to a whole new level, by making its expertise available to anyone with an internet connection and an interest in life-long learning. The Buck Academy’s free online course is the first-ever to focus on the biology of aging.
“We are very proud to offer this unique resource to the large and growing community of adults who want to be proactive in understanding the basic biology of aging in order to give themselves a leg up when it comes to living better longer,” says Buck President and CEO Eric Verdin, MD. “This is a course for non-scientists to get an inside view of how research on aging can transform our health.”
“This is a course for non-scientists to get an inside view of how research on aging can transform our health.”
Verdin is one of five Buck faculty who appear in video segments in the course.
The course covers the Geroscience Hypothesis (aging as the major risk factor for chronic disease), the biology of aging, information on the molecular underpinnings of common age-related conditions (heart disease, cancer, neurodegeneration and diabetes) along with updates on recent discoveries in our labs and a primer for what people can do to promote healthy aging now.
Buck faculty Judy Campisi, Gordon Lithgow, Julie Andersen and John Newman contributed to the course, providing insights into the hallmarks of aging, neurodegenerative diseases, and efforts to move discoveries into the clinic, among others. The course also features animations and tips on how to evaluate health-related news stories.
The course is made possible by a grant from the Navigage Foundation and we are thrilled that reviews from early users have been terrific: “Just completed your free course for non-scientists on Gero Science. Enjoyed and learned a lot!”; “The course is easy to navigate. I would, and do, recommend the course to friends”; “Thanks so much for making this information available. I loved the course!”
It’s good to see that Assemblyman Damon Connolly hasn’t given up trying to get traffic moving for those relying on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Although the amount of traffic has grown over the past decade, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission decided to turn one of the three eastbound lanes into a $20 million “trial” bike path. The goal was to promote the riding of bicycles as an alternative to driving. In addition, the path was pitched as resolving a missing link in the long-sought bike path around the bay.
It may have fulfilled the latter, but the path’s usage has been limited, at best.
According to a Caltrans count, only 50 to 75 cyclists use the upper-deck path on weekdays.
The count on weekends is higher, 150 to 300 riders.
That’s for both eastbound and westbound traffic.
By comparison, a 2020 count of bicyclists using the Golden Gate Bridge was more than 3,000 on weekdays and nearly 6,000 on weekends.
In addition, even more telling, compare the number of bicyclists using the Richmond Bridge’s “trial” lane to the nearly 80,000 daily motorists that cross the bridge on weekdays.
Thousands of car and truck drivers are stuck in a daily traffic jam, a time-killing backup of motorists on the Richmond side of the bridge.
The result of the “trial” likely seems pretty clear to those motorists.
Connolly, as a Marin County supervisor and MTC commissioner, pushed for a remedy, proposing that the lane used by bikes, protected by a removable “zipper” barrier, be opened to cars and trucks during peak traffic periods.
That made sense, but appeared to be making little progress at MTC.
Connolly was elected to the state Assembly in November and has authored a bill aimed at encouraging MTC to not only open the eastbound lane to peak-hour car and truck traffic, but also turn a westbound lower-deck lane into a “zipper” protected bike lane during non-peak periods.
It is a compromise, albeit a potentially costly one, not only requiring the installation of a second five-mile long “zipper,” but also the ongoing expense of moving them four times a day.
Connolly has argued that opening the eastbound lane will help resolve daily air pollution created by the backup. That pollution, he says, affects air quality of lower-income areas that line that stretch of Interstate 580.
There’s also a concern, raised by a Transportation Authority of Marin study, that freeing up access onto the bridge will cause traffic problems at the west end, putting more pressure on local off ramps and on the already busy interchange between 580 and Highway 101.
Connolly’s bill has already passed its first hurdle – the Assembly Transportation Committee.
It has a long way to go.
It deserves to move forward. It could set the stage for MTC to come to grips with the less-than-impressive use of its bike lane, for which it spent $20 million.
Connolly’s bill already has the support of the Bay Area Council and the North Bay Leadership Council, two leading organizations of the bay’s biggest employers. It’s going to need more and will be a test of Connolly’s legislative mettle in Sacramento.
Midstate Construction Corporation is thrilled to collaborate with the North Coast Builders Exchange (NCBE) and support the North Bay Construction Corps (NBCC) program, aimed at developing the next generation of construction workers. NBCC is an after-school, 3-month basic construction training program designed for high school seniors in their final semester. The program is taught by local contractors and construction managers, exposing participants to various trades and providing certifications in Personal Protective Equipment and CPR/First Aid.
The North Coast Builders Exchange recently highlighted Conner Gillaspie, a recent graduate of the NBCC program, who completed a two-week internship with Midstate and now works for us full time. We are excited to share his inspiring story. Midstate takes tremendous pride in Conner’s success. We are proud to be a contributor to Conner’s continued education in construction, and we are committed to nurturing his growth and development as a construction professional. Thanks to the initial investment made by NCBE and the NBCC program, Conner is now nearing completion of his first year with Midstate, and we are excited to see what the future holds for him.
Redwood Credit Union recently received two Diamond Awards at the annual Credit Union National Association (CUNA) Marketing & Business Development Council conference.
Considered the most prestigious annual credit union industry competition, the Diamond Awards provide national recognition for outstanding marketing and business development achievements. RCU’s Marketing Department was recognized in two categories, including:
“Bringing people together to learn about our money-saving products and services to help them achieve their goals and dreams is what spurred our block parties and the transformation of a branch for Members,” said Bryan Haas, senior vice president of product and member engagement at Redwood Credit Union. “We’re honored to be recognized for just doing the things we know serve our members best—and for being a safe, secure, and stable local resource for our communities.”
Awards were given in each of 36 categories ranging from direct mail to website marketing and beyond. Judges evaluated this year’s 1,246 entries based on strategy, design, production, creative concept, copy, communication, and results.
About Redwood Credit Union
Founded in 1950, Redwood Credit Union is a full-service financial institution providing personal and business banking to consumers and businesses in the North Bay and San Francisco. With a mission to passionately serve the best interests of its Members, team members, and communities, RCU delivers many ways for its Members to save and build money through checking and savings accounts, auto and home loans, credit cards, digital banking, business services, commercial and SBA lending, and more. Wealth management and investment services are available through CUSO Financial Services L.P., and insurance and auto-purchasing services are also offered through RCU Services Group (RCU’s wholly owned subsidiary). RCU has more than $7 billion in assets and serves more than 430,000 members with full-service branches from San Francisco to Ukiah. For more information, call 1 (800) 479-7928, visit redwoodcu.org, or follow RCU on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn for news and updates.
Over thirty years ago, business leaders founded the North Bay Leadership Council on a simple premise: We can accomplish more by working together. Today, the Council includes 54 leading employers in the North Bay. Our members represent a wide variety of businesses, non-profits and educational institutions, with a workforce in excess of 25,000. As business and civic leaders, our goal is to promote sound public policy, innovation and sustainability to make our region a better place to live and work. For more information: Call 707.283.0028 / E-mail info@northbayleadership.org