This week OED launched the Discovered in Berkeley campaign, which spotlights local businesses enriching our community and building a better world. EnChroma, the first business featured, is one of West Berkeley's “deep tech” companies. Their glasses give the color blind the ability to see a broad spectrum of bright color.
Learn more about Berkeley's businesses -- and the commercial districts in which they reside -- at discoveredinberkeley.com.
Follow #DiscoveredInBerkeley on Instagram.
The Loan Administration Board worked with the Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC), Project Equity and OED staff to approve four amendments to the Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) administrative plan to make the program easier for worker-owned business cooperatives to obtain loans from the City of Berkeley. The City of Berkeley would be one of the first in the country to offer loan funding tailored to the needs of worker-owned cooperatives. Berkeley City Council will vote to adopt these changes at the September 24, 2019 City Council Meeting.
Visit Project Equity for more information about worker-owned cooperative business conversion.
|
OED's Small Business Retention Program helps Smoke Berkeley find a new location
Smoke Berkeley, a seven year old independently owned BBQ restaurant on San Pablo was displaced in June 2019. The owners joined OED's Berkeley Business Retention Program. Within several months of working with with the City’s consultants, Uptima Business Bootcamp and Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB), and staff from OED, the restaurant was able to find a new location at Spats Berkeley at 1974 Shattuck Avenue. OED staff is delighted that Smoke Berkeley has found a new home within a Downtown Berkeley locally owned business.
Click here for more information about Berkeley's Business Retention Program.
|
On August 27, Marketing U's Lisa Cain helped local businesses learn how to configure, launch and monitor successful ad campaigns using Facebook and Instagram.
Learn more about the Berkeley Chamber's Berkeley Business Education Workshop series, sponsored by OED.
|
 |
Earlier this summer, dozens of East Bay women entrepreneurs participated in a Women’s Leadership Exchange at glassbaby Berkeley. Hosted by the Berkeley Chamber's Women Entrepreneurs of Berkeley (WEB), with support from OED, the event kicked off with Brigette Iarrusso from Embrace Change leading Guided Purposeful Networking. Guests enjoyed whiskey mules from Berkeley-based Home Base Spirits and delicious bites from Berkeley’s women-owned food businesses: Farmer & The Fig, KC’s BBQ, and CupCakin’ Bakeshop. Susie Sargent of the Un-Scripted Theatre Company led the group through team improvisation skills to break down barriers, tap into their creativity and build confidence. Throughout the evening, guests had a chance to make their own colored glass art with the support of glassbaby professionals and the evening concluded with a guided 20-minute meditation with Wangmo Dixie of Dharma College.
Subscribe to the WEB newsletter to learn when the Women’s Leadership Exchange will take place in 2020!
OED begins work on the Measure T1 funded Civic Center Vision and Implementation Plan
 The project will create a vision and implementation plan for Berkeley’s Civic Center, including the Veterans Memorial Building, the Maudelle Shirek Building (“Old City Hall”), and Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Center Park. The project team will aim to build civic trust, establish shared and realistic expectations of the programmatic capacities of the two buildings and park and deliver preliminary adaptive re-use design concepts for the space for review by City Council.
The Office of Economic Development along with its partners in Parks, Public Works and Planning, have secured a consultant team (led by Gehl Studio and supported by Siegel & Strain and others). The project kicked off this Monday with a series of meetings and a site tour. The research and field work is scheduled to take place throughout fall 2019, and the team is tentatively set to present design concepts for the building reuse in early 2020.
Find more information on the project here or in Item 2 from July 16 Berkeley City Council Meeting. For questions, email us.
Berkeley City Council approves funding for Civic Arts Grants
On June 25, Berkeley City Council approved the Fiscal Year 2019-20 budget which includes funding for Civic Arts Grants: $448,922 for 54 arts organizations, $44,411 for 12 individual artists, and $156,866 for 24 festivals. Arts Organization Grants provide general operating support for a wide array of nonprofit arts organizations and arts programs of service nonprofits throughout Berkeley. Individual Artist Project Grants support individual artists living and producing art in Berkeley culminating in a local public presentation of their work for the benefit of the community within the grant period. Festival Grants support community festivals and special events throughout the City of Berkeley from small-scale and first-time events to large scale and established festivals.
Grant applications for FY 2020-21 will open in October 2019. For more information, visit the Civic Arts Program homepage.
|
|
