On the housing front, legislation the Bay Area Council either sponsored or supported ended the grip of local single-family zoning restrictions that have artificially constrained supply, significantly increased the number of new homes cities must approve and sharpened the teeth of enforcement tools for ensuring communities actually meet their housing obligations. On the homelessness front, partially at our urging, Gov. Newsom and the legislature dedicated billions of dollars to getting thousands of people off the streets and into former hotels and motels converted to temporary housing in line with past recommendations the Council has made and advocated for.

That’s why the Bay Area Council Executive Committee under the leadership of Chair Kausik Rajgopal, Chief Human Resources Officer for PayPal, this week approved a 2022 Policy Workplan that rededicates housing and homelessness among our top priorities. The Council also elevated climate change and climate resilience to its top tier of policy work to focus on the growing threats of drought, wildfires, rising seas and extreme weather.

Improving the Bay Area’s transportation system and improving overall business climate round out our “focus” 2022 policy priorities, though many other important areas will still see significant staff and member work. Over-arching all of them is a focus on ensuring solutions reflect the need for addressing historic and profound social and economic inequities that have created significant disadvantages for underserved communities, people of color and other marginalized groups.

The Executive Committee also took a deep dive on the homelessness issue with Homelessness Committee Co-Chairs Tomiquia Moss of All Home and Robert Schiff of McKinsey. And the Board of Directors later in the meeting took part in an in-depth discussion with housing champion Assemblymember Buffy Wicks focused on next steps for winning more housing reforms.

The post Housing, Homelessness Top Bay Area Council Priorities for 2022 appeared first on Bay Area Council.

The data, from a monthly survey the Bay Area Council has been conducting in partnership with the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and EMC Research since April 2021, found that approximately 40% of employers expect employees to return to their places of work three days a week after the pandemic passes. In addition to eight months of data consistently finding the three day a week new norm, employers are also growing more confident that this frequency will be the new norm, with 92% of employers in November indicating they are somewhat confident, confident or very confident in this frequency.

Extrapolating from the region’s overall pre-pandemic workforce, the survey findings suggest possibly an average of 1.1 million fewer commute trips to primary places of employment per day after COVID recedes into our rearview mirror. But the potential drop in commute trips doesn’t mean that traffic is going to be any less of a nightmare than before the pandemic. Traffic on Bay Area bridges has largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, with current rush hour volumes on the Bay Bridge even higher, and transit ridership continues to badly lag, with BART ridership at just 26% of pre-pandemic levels. The findings highlight the importance of getting commuters back on transit.

The post Survey: Fewer Days at the Office, More Traffic appeared first on Bay Area Council.

To further build on the program’s success and provide support to even more small businesses, Comcast also announced a major expansion to eligibility, enabling all women-owned small businesses nationwide to apply. This expansion recognizes and seeks to help address the persistent inequities women continue to face in accessing the resources and funding that are critical to success.

Comcast RISE (Representation, Investment, Strength, and Empowerment) and the Comcast RISE Investment Fund, initially launched as a response to help small businesses owners of color hardest hit by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to focus on uplifting small businesses, ensuring they continue to prosper in an ever-shifting post-pandemic economy.

“As we continue to rebuild and emerge from the effects of the pandemic, small businesses will continue to be the backbone of our economy – and we must take every opportunity to help them thrive,” said Kristee Cominiello, Vice President, Comcast Business, Comcast California. “Looking forward, this expansion will enable Comcast RISE to further empower and strengthen even more small businesses that are the heart of our local communities across the country.” In the year since its inception, Comcast RISE has awarded more than $11 million in grants and $50 million in in-kind support for marketing and technology services, impacting more than 6,700 entrepreneurs of color in 432 cities across 34 states.

The post Member Spotlight: Comcast appeared first on Bay Area Council.

Under the leadership of Business Hall of Fame Committee Chair Alex Merhan, the Council was honored to induct three incredible and ground-breaking leaders into the 26^th Hall of Fame class, including Nobel Prize-winning UC Berkeley biochemist Dr. Jennifer Doudna, First Republic Bank Founder, Chair and Co-CEO Jim Herbert and tech industry trailblazer John Thompson.

Watch the Doudna tribute video>>

Watch the Herbert tribute video>>

Watch the Thompson tribute video>>

The evening featured our traditional gavel-passing ceremony, with outgoing Chair Mary Huss turning over the reins to incoming Chair Kausik Rajgopal. Both Wunderman and Rajgopal praised Mary, Publisher of the San Francisco Business Times and Silicon Valley Business Journal, for her steady and inspired leadership over the past two years as the Council navigated the challenges of the pandemic shutdown. We can’t thank Mary enough for everything she has done to lead our organization forward. And we are extremely excited to welcome Chair Rajgopal, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for PayPal, as he looks to expand and deepen the Council’s leadership and influence as the economy reopens. Rajgopal highlighted the importance of viewing the Council’s public policy work through the lens of racial, gender and economic equity and diversity.

Among the many highlights of the night was a timely conversation Alex Merhan led with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, a former Bay Area Council Executive Committee member. Recorded just the day before, the conversation featured Yellen’s insights from her participation in the recent COP26 climate conference, what we can expect from the recently passed infrastructure bill, how the Biden Administration is addressing rising inflation and the outlook for a resolution on raising the debt ceiling ahead of early December deadline.

See a selection of event photos>>

The post Celebrating 76 Years of Business, Philanthropic Leadership appeared first on Bay Area Council.

According to the report—The True Economic Cost of California Wildfires–the acreage burned per wildfire has been increasing drastically in recent years, resulting in more destructive wildfire events and larger economic losses. The state’s eighth largest recorded wildfires by acreage have all occurred since 2017, with 2021’s Dixie Fire recently added to the list. When counting insured losses, the 2020 wildfire season is estimated to have produced between $5 billion and $9 billion in destruction, and this comes after wildfire seasons in 2017 and 2018 that each produced more than $10 billion in insured losses.

Top wildfire experts joined the Bay Area Council on Wednesday as part of continuing Bay Area Impact webinar series to discuss the report, its findings and what California and the region must do to address the challenges posed by wildfires.

Watch the Nov. 10 webinar>>

The post New Report Examines Growing Economic Losses from Wildfires appeared first on Bay Area Council.

A Contra Costa County Superior Court judge this week may have removed the final obstacle to the project, issuing a tentative ruling against a local opposition group that had sued to reverse the city’s approval arguing it violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The ease with which CEQA can be abused in lawsuits to block or delay all types of projects makes it one of the chief tools in the toolbox of housing opponents. The judge is expected to make the ruling final today, hopefully allowing this much-needed project to finally begin construction.

The post Ten Years On, an East Bay Housing Project Poised to Move Forward appeared first on Bay Area Council.

But it wasn’t enough to overcome the invective of opponents who groundlessly claimed the project would generate everything from murders and assaults to rapes, and that a residential neighborhood was not the right place to house residents. The Bay Area Council is unbowed by this misguided decision and will continue to advocate to create the housing that is so badly needed to shelter our homeless and strengthen state laws to ensure housing and shelter projects move forward.

The post Santa Clara Knuckles Under to Opponents of Homeless Housing appeared first on Bay Area Council.

For the first time in 18 years, award winners were chosen by a public voting campaign that garnered more than 3,000 unique voters and represented categories in leadership, education, partnership, product innovation, and other achievements. Company of the Year honors went to Bay Area Council member company Gilead.

This year’s slate of finalists was selected by the Pantheon advisory committee, who collaboratively reviewed the record breaking nominations, and were instrumental in helping CLS champion the transformative work these individuals and organizations are doing, despite a difficult year.

See all the winners>>

The post Member Spotlight: California Life Sciences appeared first on Bay Area Council.

The Council is now working to convene a meeting with the Newsom Administration to discuss the plan’s drastic implications for our region. The conflict also highlights an effort the Council is undertaking to promote massive investment in desalination and wastewater recycling as a critical tool for increasing our water supply and avoiding these kinds of conflicts. Council CEO Jim Wunderman recently penned a commentary in Calmatters outlining how desalination and wastewater recycling can drought proof the region. To engage in our water policy work, please contact Senior Vice President Adrian Covert.

The post Steep Water Restrictions Loom as Talks Collapse appeared first on Bay Area Council.

The Committee also welcomed Jason Elliott, Senior Counselor to Governor Gavin Newsom, who stated that the Governor’s primary housing focus is on production and accountability. With an appropriation from the state budget, the newly created Housing Accountability Unit will work with cities and counties to ensure they are complying with state housing law and will partner with the Attorney General’s Housing Task Force to refer any potential enforcement actions. In response to a question regarding a 1,200 unit housing development facing opposition in Daly City, Elliott stated that the exact goal of the Housing Accountability Unit will be to give all housing projects facing undue opposition the attention they need from the state. To submit a complaint to the Housing Accountability Unit, please email compliancereview@hcd.ca.gov. The meeting wrapped with a presentation from the California Renters Legal Advocacy and Education Fund (CaRLA), which has been doing important work pursuing legal actions to uphold and strengthen state housing law. To learn more and support their work, please visit their website here. For questions or to engage in the Council’s housing work, please contact Senior Policy Manager Kelli Fallon.

The post Big Housing Wins, But Much More to Do appeared first on Bay Area Council.