Editorial: Big banks commit to local communities
Rabobank announced an investment of $1 million into a small-business loan fund run by the Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura County and Union Bank unveiled a multimillion-dollar investment that allowed the Channel Islands YMCA to return the nonprofit’s regional headquarters to downtown Santa Barbara.
Year of awards and new hires positions PCBT for growth in 2014
Pacific Coast Business Times has undergone a substantial expansion during 2013, so I thought I would exercise my editor’s prerogative and talk a little about what we’ve accomplished this year and where we are headed in the New Year.
A speed bump on the way to creating a chamber-led vitality group
The most concentrated effort to date to create a Santa Barbara County economic vitality organization has hit a roadblock. And that roadblock appears to be the Board of Supervisors’ bitterly divided vote on the Santa Maria Energy project, where South County supervisors banded together to impose severe carbon emissions limits on an innovative onshore oil and gas development that had broad support in North County.
Editorial: Gorell-Brownley fight could top $10M if race tightens
The implications of the Gorell vs. Brownley race for California’s 26th Congressional District will be felt up and down the ticket on the November 2014 ballot in Ventura County, according to California Lutheran University’s veteran political watcher Herb Gooch.
Op/ed: Your holiday gift to your community should be supporting local businesses
Studies show that in cities where small businesses account for a relatively large share of the economy, communities thrive because citizens are more connected to each other, more engaged and more likely to work together to solve problems.
Editorial: 26th District race raises Naval Base’s profile
The race could turn on a single issue: The future of the district’s largest employer, Naval Base Ventura County. In remarks to the Ventura County Economic Development Association on Dec. 3, State Assemblyman Jeff Gorell said that the area faces “no greater challenge” than retaining the roughly 20,000 civilian and military jobs at the base, which sprawls across two complexes along the county shoreline.
