A Bay Area Company Challanges Google Ranking

With federal regulators pursuing an antitrust probe over whether Google (GOOG) is abusing its dominance in search to favor its own online products, a company that owns several Bay Area websites promoting local small businesses is taking the rare step of publicly challenging the fairness of the search giant.

ShopCity, the parent company of local sites such as ShopPaloAlto.com, ShopMountainView.com and ShopPleasanton.com, says Google provides it an unfairly low ranking, especially since those sites have the backing of groups such as the city of Menlo Park, the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce and the Palo Alto Weekly newspaper. A search for "Palo Alto restaurants" on Google this week didn't reveal a ShopPaloAlto.com result until the seventh page of results, while the site ranks at the top for identical searches on Yahoo (YHOO) or Microsoft's Bing.

"The most dangerous man is a man with nothing to lose, and that's the position they've put us in," said Colin Pape, the president of ShopCity, who is considering complaining to federal regulators.

Google defends its rankings as serving users. But ShopCity also says Google is taking its content and displaying it in Google Places, which like ShopCity displays business information such as location, operating hours and customer reviews. The practice is called "scraping," and companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor.com also have complained about the practice.

As Google moves heavily into local services in an effort to attract small advertisers, and faces antitrust scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission and other regulators, long-standing complaints about how it ranks millions of websites may take on a more problematic ring for the Mountain View Internet giant, as unhappy websites allege anticompetitive behavior. Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee said Eric Schmidt, Google's executive chairman, would testify Sept. 21 about antitrust issues. The Texas attorney general also has an active antitrust investigation against Google and other state attorneys general may follow.

A quality issue?

Google says its low ranking of ShopCity sites is fair because the vast majority of its more than 8,100 local sites across the U.S. and Canada do not feature original content. ShopCity acknowledges that all but 44 of its sites do not yet have original content, and the company says it has asked the search giant not to crawl and rank those sites. But Google says it must consider the collective authority of the company's Internet properties, just as someone wouldn't judge a supermarket tabloid as superior to a national daily newspaper based on the accuracy of one story.

"We're committed to returning high-quality sites to our users," said Gabriel Stricker, a Google spokesman. "In the case of ShopCity, this is a network of thousands of sites that appear lower in Google's rankings because nearly 100 percent of the sites violate our quality guidelines. For years, these sites have contained little original content, substantial duplicate content, along with cookie-cutter templates. Our users frequently complain to us about these kinds of sites."

But ShopCity does have 44 sites, including seven Bay Area sites from Gilroy to Menlo Park to Pleasanton, that feature extensive original content, including features like restaurant menus, discount offers from local merchants and community event listings.

The low search ranking has also angered local business leaders who say they are trying to create a quality online presence for independent businesses that can compete against local listings by big companies like Google or Yelp. One business linking extensively to ShopPaloAlto.com is the Palo Alto Weekly, but publisher Bill Johnson says the local listing site is hard to find on Google. He finds the site's low ranking suspicious, because Google search results are based in part on links to other websites.

"Clearly Google is monkeying with the settings manually to prevent that from happening. We're out trying to build a community business website that is providing local businesses with some really great tools they can use to enhance their online presence," Johnson said. "With all this antitrust stuff going on, is Google really trying to make it difficult for those entities who are attempting to compete in the local consumer Web area?"

Search industry expert Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land, said such suspicions about a site as small as ShopPaloAlto.com are "ludicrous. If that was what (Google) was worried about, you would never find Yelp," a formidable competitor for Google that offers restaurant reviews and business listings, Sullivan said.

But Sullivan said Google should be able to differentiate between higher-quality ShopCity sites such as the Bay Area sites, and placeholder sites waiting until ShopCity makes partnerships with local groups for listings.

Abrupt changes

"Do I think there is something wrong here? Probably," Sullivan said. "Do I think it's because Google has an antitrust agenda? No."

ShopCity is represented by Palo Alto antitrust attorney Gary Reback, who represented a group of companies, including Microsoft, in opposing Google's plan to scan millions of out of print books.

ShopCity's suspicions were triggered when, two days after the June 24 announcement of the FTC inquiry, ShopPaloAlto.com and other Bay Area sites suddenly began ranking better on Google, providing a temporary 400 percent increase in search-engine driven traffic, only to fall back to near zero in mid-July when Google downgraded its sites again. Pape said ShopCity was unable to get a reply from Google about what happened.

Stricker, the Google spokesman, said an earlier automated penalty imposed against ShopCity sites by coincidence had expired at that time, but Google imposed another penalty when it received outside complaints about ShopCity sites. Local partners say they still have high hopes for their network.

"I absolutely think it's a valuable service," said Paula Sandas, president and CEO of the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. "This is a very simple and economical way to have the Web presence that the rest of the world seems to have."

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Tesoro Fined for Violations at Calif. Refinery

Oil giant Tesoro Corp. has agreed to pay $500,000 in fines for dozens of air pollution violations at its refinery in Martinez.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District announced the settlement with the San Antonio-based company on Monday. District officials say emissions from the Golden Eagle refinery often exceeded air-quality standards for carbon monoxide, soot and other pollutants between 2006 and 2009.

The refinery was also fined for failing to fix leaky equipment and failing to properly sample and monitor pollution during that period. In total, Tesoro received 46 citations.

Company spokesman Mike Marcy tells the Contra Costa Times while the violations were regrettable, most of them were reported by the company itself.

He said 40 percent of them were for paperwork errors.

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Mistakes Over Hazardous Liquid Pipe Locations Pose Threat

While the deadly San Bruno explosion highlighted the potential hazards of PG&E's natural gas lines, another enormous system of pipes -- carrying jet fuel and other hazardous liquids under Bay Area neighborhoods -- poses a danger that could be just as catastrophic.

That's because many people, including emergency responders, aren't sure where the private companies that own those pipes have buried them.

When a Walnut Creek construction crew's backhoe bit into an underground gasoline main in 2004, the fireball that resulted left five people dead and four others badly burned. The workers didn't know the pipe was there. Seven years later, the same thing could happen again, said Luke Ellis, an attorney who represented the family of Tae Chin Im, who was killed in the blast.

"There are a lot of lines where people don't know they are near their schools or homes or hospitals," Ellis said. "You hit one of these things and you can have a catastrophic event."

Even local government officials don't always know the precise whereabouts of hazardous liquid pipelines. The California State Fire Marshal's Office fielded numerous calls from fire departments seeking to learn those locations after the Sept. 9 San Bruno natural gas disaster, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

Vital information dated

"These calls caused some concern" because a 1988 law requires hazardous liquid pipeline owners to give local officials maps of their pipe networks, the fire marshal noted in a report in May. It discovered many fire departments "had outdated maps and old contact lists" or hadn't distributed more recent information to all their employees.

The number of leaks in California involving such hazardous liquids as gasoline, jet fuel, crude oil and diesel fuel has dropped from nearly 50 in 1994 to fewer than five annually in recent years, according to the Fire Marshal's Office, which oversees the lines. State officials say that's largely because companies have improved how they inspect and maintain their lines.

Moreover, many people think moving hazardous liquid by pipes is safer than by trucks, an argument Wickland Pipelines made last year in winning approval to install a jet fuel line through North San Jose to the airport. Wickland said its pipe would eliminate 76 daily trips by trucks on busy city streets.

Nonetheless, many people remain confused about the precise location of such lines.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reported that excavation problems from 2005 to 2009 resulted in 71 "significant" accidents involving hazardous liquid pipelines nationwide, meaning they caused death or major injury, evacuations or highway closures. But critics say that understates the problem.

A federally sponsored study by the industry group Common Ground Alliance counted 320 excavation complications involving hazardous liquid pipelines in 2009 alone, the year for which the most recent data is available.

Accidents involving such pipes are especially worrisome because they can be hard to contain.

"The liquid has the ability to rupture and flow for a long distance before it ignites," said Carl Weimer of the Pipeline Safety Trust, which was formed after a Bellingham, Wash., gasoline pipe, previously damaged by a backhoe, burst in 1999, creating a 1½-mile-long inferno that killed two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old man. When such ruptures occur, it's "much harder to predict how far the danger zone is around them," Weimer said.

The Nov. 9, 2004, Walnut Creek disaster was among the worst ever recorded. While building a water main, a construction crew's backhoe hit a gasoline line that runs between Concord and San Jose. Ignited by nearby welding torches, flaming fuel spewed 60 feet into the air.

Although the contractor and the East Bay Municipal Utility District were fined, Houston-based Kinder Morgan was mostly blamed for not properly marking its fuel pipe's location for the workers. The company -- which has pipes throughout the Bay Area as well as hazardous liquid storage tanks in San Jose, Brisbane and Oakland -- was fined $15 million and paid millions of dollars more in legal claims after pleading no contest to six labor-code felonies.

Canadian authorities leveled similar allegations against Kinder Morgan in 2009. They accused the company of failing to accurately describe the location of its crude-oil pipe, which was ruptured two years earlier by a contractor digging a storm sewer trench in Burnaby, British Columbia. No one was hurt, but the oil contaminated shore birds and prompted 250 residents to flee their homes.

inder Morgan contends others were responsible and a trial on the accident is pending.

Limited resources

Kinder Morgan spokeswoman Emily Mir Thompson said her company is dedicated to doing business safely and described its pipeline operations as among the industry's best, adding that the firm periodically consults with public officials and residents about its pipes.

Hoping to relieve the confusion it recently discovered among fire officials, the state is considering setting up a website with pipeline-location details, said Bob Gorham, a division chief with the fire marshal. But, he said, access will be limited to emergency officials.

For others, Thompson recommends checking the federal National Public Mapping System at www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov or, if planning a dig, calling 811, a number created under a government program to help prevent utility line damage.

Though the national mapping system provides a general idea of pipe locations, its "target accuracy" is plus or minus 500 feet. And counting on 811, which relies on information companies submit about the whereabouts of their pipes, isn't foolproof. That's because, according to Common Ground Alliance President Bob Kipp, "in some cases, the mapping provided by the owner-operator is incorrect."

Despite its limitations, 811 remains a vital way to prevent hazardous liquid accidents, said Weimer of the Pipeline Safety Trust.

But pipeline companies also need to do a better job updating 811 and informing the public about the location of their pipes, he said, "instead of just blaming the excavators all the time."

VENETO Announces New Fabric Patterns

Classification By Pattern

Pinpoint Oxford

Pinpoint is a lighter, smoother, sporty and durable. Pinpoint is a fine cloth known for its subtle texture and a custom dress shirt made with Pinpoint is lighter than a traditional Oxford. We have Pinpoint fabric starting with a 100% Cotton or two ply Poplin all the way up to Egyptian Cotton. The luster and super fine texture of poplin nicely complements the comfort and durability of Oxford.

more fabrics...

Broadcloth

A fine, tightly woven fabric in a plain or twill weaves with a slight horizontal rib. Broadcloth is breathable, comfortable, soft, versatile, finally ribbed and has a very smooth finish and does not have any patterns in the material. The imperial yarns are actually twisted together for durability before the fabric is woven. Suitable for any style and at an incredible price! A tightly woven, lustrous cotton cloth with fine embedded crosswise ribs. Broadcloth is the same quality and has the same weight as Pinpoint, but has a smoother finish. It resembles poplin but has a finer rib and is used extensively in fine shirts. Broadcloth is fabulous looking, comfortable, ultra fine and soft to touch and is an absolute winner for a Custom Dress Shirt.

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Royal Oxford Dress Shirt Fabric

Royal Oxford cloth is a lustrous, textured, regal and soft elevated woven pattern. Oxford cottons have a soft texture and a "basketweave" appearance. It is a heavier cloth which gives it good durability. An Oxford dress shirt can be worn in both formal and casual situations. Royal Oxford originated in England in the late 19th Century and is known for its exceptional texture, softness and luster. This superior subtle basket weave Oxford cloth is woven of ultra-fine 80s and 100s yarns. We offer Oxford shirts in both Cotton/Poly mix and 100% Cotton.

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Twill

Twill fabric is a very lightweight fabric, has diagonal ribs, high color luster, enhanced depth of color and is very smooth to the touch, it is lighter weight than Oxford or Broadcloth. Twill is suitable for casual dress shirts or formal dress shirts. Gabardine, serge, and denim are all examples of twill fabrics.

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Herringbone

It is a broken twill weave created by alternating the diagonal pattern within the cloth. The reverse twill, at intervals, produces a zigzag effect. An arrowhead pattern characterized by a balanced zigzag effect produced by first having the rib run to the right and then to the left for an equal number of threads. It was named after the skeleton of the herring fish, as this is what the fiber pattern resembles. The yarns of herringbone are usually irregular, twisted and uneven. Shirts made with Herringbone Broadcloth fabric are considered fancier than those in the Oxford family of fabric. A Herringbone Broadcloth fabric is heavier than Pinpoint and Oxford. In the photo of the fabric, notice how tight the ribbed effect is. If the ribbed effect is very tight, the heavier the cloth will be.

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End on End

The interesting subtle texture is created by alternating colored threads, usually a dominant color interwoven with white. End on end was first invented by the French (fil-à-fil), a fabric in which white thread is interwoven with a colored thread to produce a subtle textured effect. It retains the coolness and softness of plain two-fold “100s” while the intricacy of the weave gives a lift to any of our fabrics.

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Jacquards (White on White)

Jacquards are woven on a special loom to create a self-design in stripes, checks, geometric patterns and more. The jacquard loom produces elaborate cloth weaves that are very important for decorative fabrics. A weaving method invented by Joseph Marie Jacquard, which involves a machine attached to a loom that can electronically select and control individual warp threads. The Jacquard loom is used to create intricately woven fabrics, including brocade and damask. Silk, polyester and rayon are commonly used in the Jacquard process.

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Stripes

A fine, smooth, closely woven fabric in plain colors or in woven stripes; also known as silk shirting, It has a plain weave, Used for shirts and dresses. Mostly stripes are created with dyed warp yarn.

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Checks

Checks mainly dyed solid colors or printed on a shirting fabric. Squares, windowpanes and plaids are types of checks.

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Gingham

A medium weight, plain weave fabric with a plaid or check pattern. End-uses include dresses, shirts, and curtains.

Plaids

Also referred to as tartan cloth, plaid originated in the Scottish Highlands as a way to differentiate the different clans. Once denoting the garment itself, plaid is now used to refer to the specific crisscross designs and can be applied to a wide array of fabrics and uses.

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Tone on Tone

The term tone on tone refers to a printed fabric that is made by combining different shades and tones of the same color. Tone on tone fabrics often appear to be solid when viewed from a distance, but their printed motifs become recognizable on closer inspection.

Tone on tone fabrics are popular with quilters, because they add subtle, visual texture to a quilt without the busy-ness of a multicolor print.

more fabrics...

 

Classification By Fabric Type

Egyptian Cotton

Egyptian cotton, a luxurious cotton grown along the Nile, is used to make products which are soft, durable and superior. The term Egyptian cotton is usually applied to the extra long staple cotton produced in Egypt and used by luxury and upmarket brands worldwide. Egyptian cottons are used to create bedding of all types from sheets to pillowcases to comforters. The long staple or long fiber of Egyptian-grown cotton means that there is more continuous fiber to use when creating threads or yarns. This yarn is smaller in diameter yet stronger than other cottons. Smaller yarn means that more threads per square inch can be use to create stronger fabric which is light in weight yet breathes well. The hand or feel of the sheets created from Egyptian grown cotton is a bit harder than other cottons when the bedding is new. However, with every single laundering, the cotton sheets from Egyptian fibers become softer and softer. Like a fine wine, age improves the Egyptian fiber cotton bedding and, unlike many products, you will prize your Egyptian fiber sheets of cotton more and more as they age and become soft and cuddly.

Pima Cotton

Named after the Pima Indians who cultivated this plant in the Southwestern United States, Pima cotton is similar to Egyptian cotton, as it has exceptionally strong, long, combed fibers, dyes well and has a silky soft hand.

Cotton

A white vegetable fiber grown in warmer climates in many parts of the world, has been used to produce many types of fabric for hundreds of years. Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile, which is the most widely used natural-fiber cloth in clothing today. Cotton fabric feels good against the skin regardless of the temperature or the humidity and is therefore in great demand by the consumer.

Linen

This fabric is made from the fibers of the flax plant, and when woven, this extremely cool and breathable material is stronger and more lustrous than cotton.

Polyester

A manufactured fiber introduced in the early 1950s, and is second only to cotton in worldwide use. Polyester has high strength (although somewhat lower than nylon), excellent resiliency, and high abrasion resistance. Low absorbency allows the fiber to dry quickly. Condensation polymers combine to develop synthetic fibers that make this strong, quick-drying textile that does not wrinkle and holds its shape well.

Poplin

A fabric made using a rib variation of the plain weave. The construction is characterized by having a slight ridge effect in one direction, usually the filling. Poplin used to be associated with casual clothing, but as the "world of work" has become more relaxed, this fabric has developed into a staple of men's wardrobes, being used frequently in casual trousers. Also called tabinet, this plain-woven fabric has a corded surface that runs selvage to selvage. Usually made from a silk warp with a weft of worsted yarn, but can also be made with wool, cotton, rayon, or any mixture.

Yarn

Also referred to as thread, yarn is the basic component of all fabrics. Yarn can be composed of twisted natural or synthetic fibers, or a longer single fiber.

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UC Berkeley Extension Announces Belmont Center Open House

UC Berkeley Extension invites the Bay Area community to its Belmont Center open house, August 24–25, 2011, for free evening events offering facility tours; information sessions; and lectures on education, health care, biotechnology, and sustainability. Located in the landscaped lobby at 1301 Shoreway Road in Belmont, the open house features Extension academic staff, representatives from the Cal Alumni Association and the San Mateo County Economic Development Association (SAMCEDA), and refreshments from 5:30 to 9 pm each evening.

“We are excited about this opportunity to not only introduce the Peninsula to Extension courses and programs in Belmont but also further our mission of educational outreach to the community,” says UC Berkeley Extension Dean Diana Wu, who gives opening remarks at 6 pm on August 24. Cal Alumni Association Executive Director R. Tucker Coop is also scheduled to speak.

The lecture series begins Wednesday, August 24 with The Business of Biotechnology, featuring Constance McKee, CEO and founder of Manzanita Pharmaceuticals. Also on Wednesday, Eric Corey Freed of organicARCHITECT promotes sustainable alternatives to social problems in Visionary Strategies for Sustainability. On Thursday, August 25, Extension instructor Sedique Popal, Ed.D., presents Teaching to Change the World, a lesson in creating culturally responsive educational environments. And Extension Post-Baccalaureate Health Professions Program Director Patrick Brown, Ph.D., addresses employment opportunities in Workforce Issues Facing the Health Care Professions.

The open house also includes free information sessions for programs in solar energy, green building, energy, transportation, teaching English as a second language, and information systems. Full open house details—including session descriptions and times, registration information, and directions—are available at extension.berkeley.edu/belmont.

The Belmont Center is located off U.S. Highway 101 at 1301 Shoreway Road in Belmont, California. It features 10 classrooms, a student lounge, and free parking. UC Berkeley Extension also operates centers in Berkeley and San Francisco.

UC Berkeley Extension is the continuing education branch of the University of California, Berkeley. Extension offers professional and personal enrichment programs in the classroom and online for adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. 

Contacts
UC Berkeley Extension
Erin Hanson, 510-643-1111
Communications Manager
ehanson@unex.berkeley.edu

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The Largest High-Tech Heist in Bay Area History

The largest high-tech heist in Bay Area history -- with computer chips worth $37 million stolen by 15 people in a takeover armed robbery -- was an inside job, authorities said.

Pierre Ramos, 28, and Leonardo Abriam, 31 -- two of nine Bay Area men arrested in connection with the Feb. 27 robbery at Unigen Corp. -- were employed at the Fremont tech company at the time of the crime, said Simon Ip, a Unigen spokesman.

A day after the heist, the two men were back at the office park on Warm Springs Boulevard, working at the company they had just robbed, the spokesman said.

Ip would not disclose what positions Ramos and Abriam held at Unigen, saying only that they joined the company "not long before the robbery took place."

He added: "Officially, they were employees until they were arrested."

The other seven defendants are Dylan Catayas Lee, 32; Rolando McKay Secreto, 39; Faustino Adona, 39; Roy Jiminez, 34; Alexander Robb Santos, 29; Jimmy Trieu, 28; and Jesus Meraz, 25.

The investigation is being spearheaded by REACT -- the multicounty technology crimes task force led by the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office. The multiagency organization arrested Ramos, Abriam, Lee, Secreto and Meraz in a 10-day period between March 29 and April 7, authorities said.

The other four suspects -- Adona, Jiminez, Santos and Trieu -- were arrested in subsequent weeks.

All are San Jose residents, except for Ramos, who lives in Union City.

An additional six people in the robbery ring still are at large, said Ralph Sivilla, a prosecutor with the California Attorney General's Office in Alameda County.

On Wednesday, several of the defendants are scheduled to appear in a Fremont courtroom where each will face numerous felony counts, he said.

Each man is accused of five counts of robbery, five counts of false imprisonment, one count of grand theft and one count of second-degree commercial burglary, authorities said.

The charges also come with special allegations, accusing the men of committing a crime while being armed with handguns and of stealing property worth more than $3.2 million, according to court documents.

If convicted of the charges, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Sivilla said.

The case started on a quiet winter Sunday morning five months ago.

About 8:40 a.m., the 15 robbers -- armed with rifles and handguns, and wearing masks and matching black clothing -- entered Unigen's gated 95,000-square-foot complex, at 45388 Warm Springs Blvd., by cutting through or going over a fence near the rear loading dock.

Within minutes, they had tied up and blindfolded five employees while others loaded the computer components onto a bobtail truck, authorities said.

"They stole NAND chips, which are high-powered memory chips," Ip said.

The company surveillance tape showed the suspects driving away into a large truck at 9:11 a.m., police said.

The heist, which authorities called "disciplined and sophisticated" was unusually well-organized.

"In the cases done in the past several years, I've not seen one like this come across my desk," Sivilla said. "It's a highly violent case and involves an excessive amount of loss."

Since then, Unigen has increased its security measures, adding more surveillance cameras and security guards to patrol its parking lot at all hours, Ip said.

The Unigen official on Friday praised the special law enforcement team for the arrests.

"We really appreciate all the work of the REACT task force," Ip said. "We're very grateful for how quickly they moved to solve the case."

The East Bay Posted a Gain of 8,100 Jobs During June

The East Bay posted a gain of 8,100 jobs during June, an indication that the region's battered economy is turning the corner after the worst down turn in decades.

The increase marked the best performance of any of the Bay Area's metro centers in June. The region added 19,500 jobs last month, with 7,800 in the South Bay and 4,800 in the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin area, the state's Employment Development Department reported Friday. These numbers were not adjusted for seasonal changes; however, the positive trend was confirmed by a seasonally adjusted EDD estimate.

The nine-county region accounted for more than half of the nearly 29,000 payroll jobs that California added during June, department figures show.

"The Bay Area is leading the way in job growth," said Brad Kemp, director of regional research with Beacon Economics. "And the Bay Area is going to continue that leadership."

The jobs added in the Bay Area during June marked the largest increase since April 2010, according to an analysis of seasonal job trends compiled by the department.

The East Bay economy has been sluggish so far this year, so the robust improvement in the Alameda County-Contra Costa County region during June encouraged Jeffrey Michael, director of the Stockton-based Business Forecasting Center at University of the Pacific.

"I'm still cautious about the East Bay," Michael said. "But I think the worst is probably over."

During 2011, the jobs trend has been consistently stronger in the South Bay than in the rest of the Bay Area.

The tech improvement in the South Bay has unleashed a ripple effect.

"There is a spillover from Silicon Valley that is going into the East Bay," Michael said.

California added 28,800 payroll jobs during June. In contrast, the entire nation added 18,000 jobs in aggregate during June.

The state jobless rate worsened and rose to 11.8 percent in June. That was up from 11.7 percent in May. The unemployment rate is derived from a separate survey of households and doesn't always move in tandem with the payroll jobs data.

An array of industries were the primary leaders in the job gains for the Bay Area's three primary urban centers, the EDD reported:
In the East Bay, professional, scientific and technical services -- a proxy for information technology and research and development work -- gained 2,500 jobs. Leisure and hospitality, construction and health care were also particularly strong.
In the South Bay, construction gained 1,800 jobs and manufacturing was also particularly strong, led by computer and electronics production.
In the San Francisco-San Mateo-Marin region, professional and business services, led by computer systems design work, added 3,900 jobs. Leisure and hospitality was also a strong industry during June.

Although high-tech has become a job generator during 2011, other industries still struggle.

Despite a gain of 7,800 construction jobs in California over the most recent 12 months, that sector isn't out of the woods, warned Steve Levy, director of the Palo Alto-based Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. Levy said construction jobs remain at recession levels.

"The housing market remains mired in foreclosures and fear," Levy said.

And while the state reported robust job gains, notable losses loom, even in the tech sector, warned Michael Bernick, a San Francisco-based research fellow with the Milken Institute.

"The job losses announced this week from two major California employers, Cisco (CSCO) and Borders, are not factored into these figures," Bernick said.

San Jose-based Cisco disclosed plans to slash 6,500 jobs worldwide and Borders said it would close all its stores, which would erase 600 jobs in California.

Some job seekers are struggling to land work, even amid the improvements in June. Jordan Johnson, of Livermore, said he recently lost his job at a Goodwill outlet, but he had been seeking work even before that.

"The job market is tough right now," Johnson said. "You look for a job and nobody responds to you. It's very discouraging."

Word of massive job cuts and the ongoing challenges for job seekers serve as twin reminders that the regional economy won't soon reclaim the sturdy job levels of a few years ago.

"We can look forward to four or five years of frustratingly slow growth," Michael said.

Bay Area Labor Unions Demanded to Stop Auditing Business Payrolls

Bay Area labor unions demanded Wednesday that the Obama administration stop its increased practice of auditing business payrolls to check for illegal immigrant workers.

Using Berkeley-based Pacific Steel and Casting as an example, leaders from several unions said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement is wreaking havoc with immigrant families and local economies by demanding that employers provide it information about its employees.

Known as I-9 audits, investigators check the legal status of employees through the Social Security numbers and green card information the employees supplied to the business when hired. In many cases of illegal immigrants, that documentation is forged and the I-9 audits can determine who at a workplace is living and working in the country illegally.

ICE drastically increased its use of I-9 audits in 2009 when 1,444 businesses were audited, almost tripling the number audited in 2008, the New York Times reported this week. In 2010, the government audited 2,196 businesses.

Although the audits, in many cases, do not lead to the deportation of a worker, they do force an employer to fire the worker, harming the company, the worker and the economy, labor leaders said.

"These are silent raids," said Oakland Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who also is the vice president of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics, and Allied Workers International Union. "We know that this country was built by immigrants. These workers should have some rights."

Even employers are not pleased with the audits; many have said they disrupt production and, in some cases, force out key workers who have become valuable to the organization.

"It's terribly disruptive," said Elisabeth Jewel, a spokeswoman for Pacific Steel and Casting. "We have highly trained employees and to lose them is very damaging."

Pacific Steel and Casting was first notified that it was to be audited in late February when ICE sent a letter seeking information on the steel foundry's 550 employees. The company complied but has yet to hear back from the government.

In the meantime, the Alameda County Labor Council began lobbying local politicians to object to the increase I-9 raids. The group successfully won resolutions from the Berkeley and Oakland city councils that condemn the audits.

De La Fuente said he expects that 100 to 200 employees at Pacific Steel could lose their jobs as a result of the audit.

Bay Area Apartment Rents are on the Rise

Bay Area apartment rents are on the rise, fed by the contrasting economic forces of a booming tech recovery and the steady flow of foreclosures that is turning former homeowners into renters.

The San Jose metro area, which includes Silicon Valley, weighed in with the highest average rent -- $1,759 a month -- among 43 metro regions monitored by RealFacts, a Novato apartment rental research company that released a report on second-quarter rental prices Thursday. The region also saw the biggest year-over-year increase, up 12.6 percent.

The San Francisco metro area -- encompassing the Peninsula, East Bay and Marin County -- had the second-highest rents in the survey, at $1,644, and the third-highest year-over-year increase, at 7.6 percent.

Rents are a barometer of the region's economic vitality and job market, and after several years of stagnation, this year they're pointing to recent job market gains. But they also signal the continued weakness of the housing market, with stiff competition for rentals throughout the region.

Renters are feeling the pinch. Some have decided to leave the Bay Area; others can't afford to move to bigger apartments because of high rents everywhere; and some have moved in with their parents.

School bus driver Beth Ahlquist thought about moving after the rent was raised on her Campbell apartment, but she decided to stay after checking out apartment rents in her neighborhood.

"I'm lucky. They're raising rents all over," she said.

Some cities have seen double-digit increases over the past year.

Sunnyvale was up 17.6 percent from last year to $1,731, back to where it was -- unadjusted for inflation -- at the height of the dot-com bubble. San Mateo was up 14.5 percent to $1,964 a month. Average rents in Mountain View increased 13.2 percent over the year to $1,812.

Cupertino and Palo Alto were among the least affordable Silicon Valley cities, with rents of $2,168 and $2,450 respectively. And both saw increases of about 14 percent.

The resurgent demand has apartment builders starting construction again, said Sarah Bridge, owner of RealFacts. "The developers are back and they are all looking for sites to build, especially in core markets like Santa Clara County," she said.

About 2,000 units are under construction in North San Jose, said Joe Horwedel, director of planning for the city of San Jose. But they won't come online for 12 to 18 months.

"What we're seeing in the rental housing market right now is truly an imbalance of supply and demand," said Joshua Howard, executive director of the California Apartment Association's Tri-County office in Cupertino. "We have lots of individuals and families that either have been affected by foreclosure or who are moving into the area" to take jobs, he said.

The East Bay has been affected more by foreclosure activity than job growth. That helps explain why more people are looking for apartments, said Jill Broadhurst, director of community affairs and advocacy for the East Bay Rental Housing Association.

"It's not because industry is booming or anything like that," she said.

Edie Torres, a 31-year-old construction worker who pays $900 a month for a one-bedroom Newark apartment, and his fiancee have been searching for a larger apartment for about two months. "It's pretty competitive, due to foreclosures. More people are renting now," he said.

After six weeks of searching for an apartment, Airika Audio expected to sign a rental agreement Wednesday for a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland. The 29-year-old concert producer had moved up to the Bay Area from Los Angeles in search of better financial opportunities for her business. "The location is not my first choice," she said of the apartment near Lake Merritt.

"The market was flooded and lots of property owners did not need the money. They were a little pickier, and holding off for that tenant, that dream tenant," she said.

"By choice or necessity, there is a growing trend toward rent over buy," Bridge said in a statement Thursday. RealFacts tracks rents in larger apartment complexes of 50 or more units. Rents in smaller ones tend to be somewhat lower.

Ron Stern, chief executive of Bay Rentals, a rental service in San Jose that covers the entire Bay Area, said he's seen increases of 5 or 6 percent since the beginning of the year for the smaller two- and four-plex type apartments RealFacts does not track.

"Availability is getting a little bit tougher because of foreclosures," he said. "A lot of people who are losing homes are looking for rentals and still have good incomes. Employment is also getting better in this valley. More people seem to be coming in."

Selling Charter Flights from Miami to Cuba

Armando Ramirez has made a successful career for the last 25 years selling charter flights from Miami to Cuba.

But he guarantees his Tampa business will get a boost if the Cuban government signs off on direct flights from Tampa to Havana.

"Many more people are going to fly," said Ramirez, who owns Tampa Envios, 2919 W. Columbus Drive.

"I always thought that the correct thing was to have flights from Tampa to Cuba," said the Spanish-speaking Ramirez. "We've always struggled for this to occur, so it could be a benefit for everyone."

Cuban-Americans in the Tampa Bay area would benefit because it would eliminate the time and money spent on traveling to Miami to board a charter flight to Havana. Travelers would no longer have to spend money on gas, a short plane flight to South Florida or a night at a Miami hotel.

Businesses in Tampa that cater to Cuban-Americans visiting the island-nation also stand to gain because directs flights from TIA would entice more travelers, owners of the specialty travel agencies say.

Ramirez estimates more than 80 percent of his clients would forgo traveling to Cuba from Miami and purchase tickets to travel directly from Tampa instead. In addition, he believes a number of people who refused to travel in the past would now embrace it because of the convenience.

The people in the Bay area who would still take flights to Cuba out of Miami are the ones traveling to cities other than Havana, such as Santiago, Holguin and Cienfuegos, Ramirez said. But those travelers would be the minority once direct flights from Tampa to Havana are established, he said.

There are an estimated 75,000 Cuban-Americans living in the Bay area, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2009 survey.

Owners of local travel agencies that sell flights to Cuba say direct flights from TIA also will entice Cuban-Americans from cities such as Sarasota, Orlando, Ocala, Jacksonville and Tallahassee.

María Padron, who owns Taino of Tampa Pedro Envios, 3243 W. Columbus Drive, is confident that her business selling flights to Cuba would benefit.

It would be more convenient for the traveler and that convenience would translate to more business, she said.

"It would be something wonderful for everyone – for the community, for the agency," Padron said.

But agencies that sell flights won't be the only businesses to benefit. There are a number of stores throughout Tampa that cater to Cuba-bound travelers.

They sell inexpensive shirts, blouses, nightgowns, socks, shoes and clothing accessories that Cuban-Americans load up with to take to family and friends who are in need on the island. The company that charters the plane charges $1 for each pound of merchandise in excess of 44 pounds.

Aurelio Milian, owner of Aurelio Wholesale in Tampa, said he estimates that 60 percent of customers at his store are buying to take items to Cuba.

Direct flights would be a boon, he said. There are many people who live in this area who travel, but there are many who won't because they don't want to deal with the hassle of traveling to Miami or simply don't have the means to get there, he said.

"There will be a complete change for my business and for others as well," said Milian, who opened his store at 3260 W. Hillsborough Ave. four years ago.

Brenda Geoghagan, a spokeswoman for TIA, said new international flights serve as an economic catalyst for the community and the Cuba flights would be no exception.

"There is a potential for many groups," she said.

The Tampa airport currently is waiting for the Cuban government to issue landing rights. It might be in the summer or early fall before TIA gets the OK to begin the flights, she said.

Once it is issued, she anticipates two to three chartered flights from TIA to Havana a week.

"In the beginning, I see it very conservative just to see how the demand is," Geoghagan said.

Travel to Cuba is allowed only for Cuban-Americans who have relatives on the island and for those such as academics, journalists and artists who have approval from the U.S. government. Roundtrip flights from Miami to Havana cost around $400 to $460.

Maria Sánchez travels annually to Cuba to visit her parents and siblings. But the trips can be arduous, she said.

Recently, she had to leave her Tampa home at 6 a.m. to have ample time to arrive at a scheduled check-in at Miami International Airport by noon.

When she returns from visiting her relatives, a family member drives Sánchez's car from Tampa to Miami to pick her up and an exhausted Sánchez drives back more than four hours to her home.

Sánchez, who works as a cashier at Aurelio Wholesale, said she and many Cuban-Americans who live in the Bay area yearn for direct flights from TIA.

"It would be less of a worry," said a Spanish-speaking Sánchez. "From here you can call a taxi and they take you from your front door to the airport."

Tropicana Field Deserves Better

Bless its lopsided heart, Tropicana Field deserves better.

It deserves better than sabotage from inside, and it deserves better than blind faith from outside. It deserves real people having real discussions about what's best for the future.

Yes, the stadium was built on the cheap. And, yes, it is a homely mess.

But catwalks, broken lights and ESPN blowhards have no business in the discussion of whether the Tampa Bay area needs to consider the construction of a new stadium.

When Rays manager Joe Maddon said Tuesday that Tropicana Field was improper for Major League Baseball after 14 seasons, it sounded almost as silly as St. Petersburg Mayor Bill Foster once saying the catwalks were the equivalent of Wrigley Field's ivy.

This isn't about artificial turf or low-hanging speakers or lightning strikes on national television. This is about money. And it is about the future of baseball in Tampa Bay. And it might even be about the city of St. Petersburg's reputation and its ultimate direction.

So can we please cut through the nonsense?

There is a problem here, and it needs to be solved. Attendance and revenue streams at Tropicana Field are not sufficient for Major League Baseball's needs.

That doesn't mean Stu Sternberg is going broke, and it doesn't mean that we are ignoring the reality of Florida's economic crisis. It is simply an acknowledgement that the Rays are making far less money than 90-95 percent of their baseball business partners.

The question, is what do we do about it?

Because I feel confident in saying this problem is not going to solve itself. It is clear, each side is already researching new synonyms for intractable.

Sternberg rescued this franchise from the gutter and created a winning team with a pristine reputation almost overnight. He feels like he has done his part.

And the city built this stadium on the backs of its taxpayers, and handed it over to Major League Baseball at a token cost. St. Petersburg feels it has done its part.

And you know what? Both sides are right.

Yet the problem still remains.

The city has to acknowledge that support for the Rays at Tropicana Field has fallen horribly short of expectations. And the Rays have to acknowledge that they were well aware of the shortcomings and got the team at a bargain price because of that.

So let's stop trashing the stadium and the market. And let's stop acting as if the Tropicana Field lease is the Magna Carta.

Because if the two sides continue at this pace, neither is going to get the outcome it desires. Sternberg, I believe, will eventually sell the team. And St. Petersburg, I am certain, will eventually chase baseball from this market.

So where do we begin?

The Rays need to be honest. They need to say they believe their best chance for survival is in downtown Tampa. And the mayor needs to be realistic. He needs to say he is willing to listen to suggestions that will help St. Petersburg pay off its debts and create something visionary at the Tropicana Field site.

Of course, there are other partners in this dance.

Major League Baseball, for instance. I know the commissioner has had his hands full with an ownership mess in Los Angeles, and a collective bargaining agreement with the union, but he will eventually have to turn his attention this way.

And Bud Selig needs to acknowledge that MLB owes St. Petersburg a debt. We were his street corner tart for more than a decade, helping stadiums get built in other markets. Maybe that doesn't get us a lifetime pass, but MLB is flush with enough cash that it needs to take an active part in any new stadium discussions here.

And then, naturally, there are you and your neighbors.

Ultimately, you need to decide whether Tampa Bay wants to remain a Major League Baseball community. Because the Rays are not going to be at Tropicana Field in 10 years. They will either move to Hillsborough, or they will move elsewhere.

I don't know what the final percentage might be, but any new stadium is going to involve some public funding. That's not ideal. It's probably not even fair. But it is reality.

If you still think Major League Baseball is a way to attract more attention, more exposure and more money to a market, then it might be worth an investment. If you think it adds to the quality of life for you and your children, then that also is a worthy investment.

It is not an easy issue, nor a simple decision.

So let's stop acting like it is. Let's stop shouting. Let's stop whining. Let's stop arguing.

Because we all deserve better.

Home Building Continues to be Sluggish in Tampa Bay Area

Tampa Bay home builders have hammered fewer nails so far this year amid a sluggish economy and a weak housing market.

Local builders started 1,038 homes in the second quarter, and a total of 1,871 in the first six months, an 11 percent drop from the first half of 2010, according to Tampa's Metrostudy, a national company that tracks the construction industry.

Tony Polito, a housing consultant with Metrostudy, cautioned that the 2010 figures were inflated by buyers lured by the $8,000 federal tax credit.

The silver lining could be that second-quarter starts topped those of the prior two quarters, he added. The bay area's low for housing starts — 727 starts — occurred in the first quarter of 2009.

"Compared to the low point, we're up," Polito said. "We're still riding along the bottom."

In order to survive the Great Recession, many builders designed smaller, lower-priced houses to attract a bigger pool of buyers. In the past 12 months in the bay area, builders started 2,141 new homes that were priced under $200,000, a 9.8 percent drop from 2010. Starts priced above $200,000 were up 8.5 percent.

Taylor Morrison Homes builds homes from Tampa to Naples priced from $85,000 to $700,000. The company's 240 starts this year are nearly double its starts in the second half of 2010.

Construction has been triggered by decreasing foreclosures and by having fewer existing homes on the market, said Steve Kempton, the company's west Florida president.

The company is seeing more customers who have sat with cash on the sidelines to wait for the economy to improve. He cautioned that builders still have a bumpy ride ahead.

"Were excited about the market," he said. "It's trending in the right way. Customers still want a quality product."

Paul Thompson, head of the Florida Home Builders Association, said builders across the Sunshine State are selling more homes and should top last year's starts of 31,600 by about 15 percent. The association lost half — about 2,500 — of its builder members in the past three years.

He sees a silver lining in the glut of foreclosed homes on the market. The older, bank-owned houses, he said, cannot compete with the new-market sector.

"Things are improving but slowly," Thompson said. "It's still a tough market."

Financing remains a problem. Many buyers don't qualify for the record low interest rates.

In the wake of the housing bust, lenders tightened standards, and most now require a 20 percent down payment for conventional loans. The alternatives are government-backed loans that require only a 3.5 percent down payment and a credit score of about 620 or better.

Jeff Thorson, Tampa division president for William Ryan Homes, said high unemployment and low consumer confidence are still weighing on the construction industry. The company's starts were about 50 percent lower than projected for the first half.

More people prefer to rent homes and apartments, although interest rates and home prices have fallen, he added.

"Our industry always rebounded on job growth," he said. "The first six months did not meet our expectations."

Bay Area Courts to Be Hit Hard by State Budget Cuts

California's budget crisis has already jacked up college tuition costs, ransacked redevelopment agencies and hammered funding for social services across the state.

Now, at courthouses around California, the fiscal crunch is about to produce longer waits to file that divorce case or resolve those legal feuds between Silicon Valley companies, delays in fixing a broken air conditioner in a sweltering courtroom and trouble paying lawyers appointed to represent the poor. And, on some days in some cash-strapped legal systems, there will be a "closed for business" sign hanging from courthouses from San Francisco to the Central Valley.

California's courts are about to suffer a record budget blow, preparing to absorb $350 million in cuts this fiscal year and an equally harsh reduction projected for next year. The state Judicial Council, the courts' policymaking arm, meets Friday to consider recommendations that have judges throughout California shuddering in their robes.

"This is unprecedented," said Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who heads the council. "There is no other way to say it. It is an amount that is startling to us."

For the state's 58 trial courts, which conduct the bulk of judicial business, from criminal trials to child custody spats, the budget cuts will hit hardest. If the judicial council approves the approach endorsed last week in a closed-door meeting in San Francisco attended by judges and court officials, local courts will lose $135 million in the fiscal year that began July 1 and another $170 million next year from an overall budget of more than $3 billion.

In Santa Clara County, that translates into a loss of $6.8 million this year and perhaps more than double that amount next year. San Mateo County's courts will take at least a $2.7 million hit this year, while Alameda County's court system will be cut by more than $6.7 million. Contra Costa County's courts will absorb more than $3 million in cuts and will likewise be forced to cut even more from next year's budget.

Shifting capital funds

Santa Clara County also must sweat out the prospect that plans to build a new family courthouse in downtown San Jose could be in jeopardy as a result of the latest round of state cuts. As part of the final budget deal, lawmakers ordered the courts to divert about $130 million from a courthouse construction fund to help pay for this year's shortfall -- and Santa Clara's courthouse is among the projects moving forward through that fund.

Richard Loftus, Santa Clara County's presiding judge, said he is "optimistic" the courthouse will not be impacted because it is relatively far along in the process. But the worry will be there until the state's judicial leaders determine which projects get put on hold in the coming year.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Council is leaving it up to local courts to decide if they want to save money by closing courthouses on occasion, unlike two years ago, when the council provoked an outcry by ordering such closures once a month for every court. Santa Clara County has no current plans to close the courts, but other counties, such as San Francisco and Merced, have already warned the cuts will prompt closures, reduced court hours or layoffs.

The budget strife has again sparked division within the California judiciary over the council's approach to dealing with the cuts. The Alliance of California Judges, a group formed in the aftermath of the court closures, is infuriated by the trial courts' share of the cuts, arguing the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, the court bureaucracy, should be "cut to the bone" to salvage more money.

Administration costs

In addition, the group insists a controversial multibillion-dollar, statewide technology upgrade, which would overhaul and unify all of the courts' computer systems, should be scrapped forever. As of now, the council is considering a plan to save close to $100 million by putting the project on hold for one year, according to reports from court officials. The AOC, under fire in recent years for its rapid growth in tight times, is losing about 12 percent of its $116 million budget this year.

Alliance judges insist the proposed cuts to those areas fall far short.

"The AOC is not as important as open courtrooms in the trial courts," said Sacramento Superior Court Judge Maryanne Gilliard, an alliance leader.

But the chief justice and other powerful groups, including the California Judges Association, defend the across-the-board cuts and say the bureaucracy and tech project are being unfairly targeted.

"It is an idea that doesn't have a lot of support along the broad base of the judiciary," said Keith Davis, president of the judges association. "We want to try and make cuts that are fair and appropriate."

Meanwhile, the cuts are already hitting home. In Santa Clara County's courts, the system has shed nearly 100 court workers in recent years, as the judges try to stave off layoffs and deal with tens of millions of dollars in cuts already in place. David Yamasaki, the court's chief executive, said it already takes days for court employees to answer phone calls from the public and weeks to finalize court judgments that once took a matter of days.

Once the next two years of cuts take hold, the public can expect worse, according to California's judicial leaders.

"I think they did this very thoughtfully," Loftus said of the proposed cuts. "But I think it's going to be painful in a lot of ways."

Home Sales in the San Francisco Bay Area Got a Minor Boost in June

Home sales in the San Francisco Bay area got a minor boost in June, but activity was still slower than it was a year earlier, a tracking firm reported Thursday.

A total of 7,998 homes were sold in the nine-county area last month, up 14.5 percent from 6,988 in May, San Diego-based DataQuick said.

"June likely benefited from a combination of factors, such as price reductions, low mortgage rates and perhaps a batch of short sale transactions from spring that took months to close," DataQuick president John Walsh said.

But Walsh cautioned that "last month was not a particularly strong June, historically speaking, and one month's increase in sales from the prior month doesn't constitute a trend."

Indeed, last month's sales were 4.5 percent lower than the 8,373 posted in June 2010.

DataQuick also said the median price for a home in the region was down 7.9 percent to $377,750 from $410,000 in June 2010, but up 1.5 percent from $372,000 in May.

Nearly half of the existing homes sold came from distressed property sales, maintaining the downward pressure on prices.

Foreclosures accounted for 26.2 percent of last month's sales, down slightly from 26.5 percent in May but up from 25.6 percent a year earlier.

Short-sale transactions, in which lenders allow distressed homes to be sold for less than what is owed, accounted for 18.3 percent of existing home sales. That was up a pinch from 18.2 percent in May but down from 18.9 percent a year earlier.

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Free Access to a 15 Million-Song Library

Bay Area technorati flooded the servers Thursday of long-anticipated new digital-music service Spotify, which offers users free access to a 15 million-song library.

The Swedish company’s streaming service is big in Europe, where it boasts 10 million registered users and 1.6 million subscribers who pay monthly fees for ad-free listening.

It launched a United States service Thursday for select, invited users in a beta test period.

And its debut created instant buzz.

Spotify said it has a waiting list that is hundreds of thousands of emails long. Bay Area early adopters report signing up for an invite but not receiving one, or receiving an invite but being unable to log on due to volume.

“Everybody is either on Spotify or wants to be on Spotify. It’s the hottest thing out there,” said Brian Zisk, founder of the San Francisco Music Tech Summit.

Spotify, which can be downloaded onto computers or smartphones, may compete with Bay Area music subscription services Rdio, Mog and Rhapsody, said J Sider, founder of RootMusic, the No. 1 music app on Facebook.

“Certainly there are some overlaps,” he said. “It’s in the same area. At the end of the day, it comes down to the user experience and what the average person thinks.”

There’s less overlap with Pandora, the Oakland-based digital-radio company that recently went public.

Spotify is more like a musical Netflix than Pandora’s personalized radio product. Unlike Pandora, Spotify listeners call up any song they want, create playlists of them and skip forward or backward. Subscribers can kill the ads for $4.99 a month, and go mobile on their smartphones for $9.99. The American version of Spotify doesn’t have an automatic radio-play functionality like Pandora, a key difference that protects the Oakland company.

“It’s not a Pandora killer,” Zisk said.

Potential competitor Drew Larner, CEO of Rdio, said he thinks Spotify might actually help his business by creating more buzz for digital-music services.

“It happened with movies and TV through Netflix,” Larner said. “We’re finally where we’re going to hit that tipping point with music.”

Out in the cubicles and coffee shops, the reviews were initially positive. Spotify tightly restricted free access amid the crush of requests, though new subscribers paying $4.99 could gain access.

Salesforce.com sales engineer LeAnne Templeman, a Bay Area resident, said she was a bit overwhelmed by the options.

“Spotify is exploding my head with coolness; I don’t even know what I want to listen to,” she said. “There are too many options — my music, my friends’ music or anything in the world!”


How to tune into Spotify

Access: New free users need an invite; new paid subscribers don’t
Free features: On-demand access to more than 15 million songs on your computer; Facebook and Twitter integration; desktop media player for local music; syncs local content to your smartphone; downside is ads
Spotify Unlimited: $4.99 a month; all the free features, except no ads
Spotify Premium: $9.99 a month; all the Unlimited features, plus more mobile features, enhanced sound quality, exclusive content, competitions, special contests

A “Solar Groupon” for Small and Mid-sized Businesses

When it comes to solar power, small- and mid-sized business have faced a Goldilocks dilemma. Existing solar financing solutions for homeowners and corporations have been too small and too big, respectively. But now there’s something that fits them just right.

Solar@Work, a new program announced today San Francisco’s Department of the Environment at the Intersolar North America conference held in the city, will offer solar systems to Bay Area business via a group purchase or aggregation model. “We think of it like a Groupon for solar,” said Melanie Nutter, department director.

This overcomes historic barriers for small and mid-sized businesses that aren’t issues for big businesses, said Jenna Goodward, an associate with the World Resources Institute, an adviser to the program. “They’re smaller, so it’s that’s much more important to aggregate demand and negotiate as a buying group,” she said. “And a lot of them don’t have the cash flow to do an up-front purchase.” Nor do they have access to prime credit, she said.

Jason Coughlin, project leader at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), another adviser, explained further. “You’ll talk to bankers, and they’ll say, ‘The work we have to do for a 200 kilowatt installation is similar to the work we have to do on a 2 megawatt system.’ So if we can do twenty 100 kilowatt systems using standardized documents, and use one solar installer and one financial partner, in effect we create a 2 megawatt installation project, which is interesting to the financial partner, to the installer, and to the independent small businesses who are getting the benefits as if they were doing one large system.

Solar@Work aims to install 2 megawatts by the end of the year, which is a modest target of about 20 buildings. However, this is just a pilot project that organizers hope will be expanded in the Bay Area and replicated elsewhere in the United States and throughout the world.

Nutter said she expects the program to be popular in San Francisco because they designed it in response to feedback from small business. “We anticipate there will be huge interest,” she said.

Optony, a global research and consulting services firm focused on solar development, is also an adviser. SolarCity, a distributed generation firm that recently gained star power with a $280 million investment from Google, was selected as the vendor. The company, based in the Bay Area, has more than 15,000 projects completed or underway and expects to hire more than 400 new workers in the second half of 2011, including 100 in the Bay Area.

Solar@Work offers several financing options for businesses and commercial property owners to install solar power: cash purchase, solar lease, capital loan, power purchase agreements, property-assessed financing, and others, said Nutter. The program will help match the buyers with appropriate financing.

“We anticipate that buildings that participate in the program will have energy bills at the current rate or lower,” said Nutter. “The program has performance guarantee to deliver savings.”

The more businesses that sign up, the lower the prices will be for the entire buying group. The largest reductions will be available if the group purchases more than 3 megawatts by the end of 2011.

Aside from the discounted group price and performance guarantee, program participants will get a special pre-negotiated lease for 10 years with a buyout and free technical assistance from the city to evaluate their solar options.

“Sometimes it can be intimidating for folks who haven’t purchased solar to review bids, to know what’s a good price, what’s a proper inverter warranty, and how to choose among these ancillary services that come with a solar installation,” said NREL’s Coughlin. “Providing unbiased technological assistance is really valuable.”

San Francisco’s Department of Environment also offers free energy audits to small businesses, so all participants will get that service as well to help them reduce energy costs and gain access to energy efficiency rebates, said Nutter.

Part of what makes the performance guarantee equation work at this point is American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities program and support from U.S. DOE’s SunShot Initiative,

“The Treasury grant, which offers cash payments for 30 percent of the cost of a solar installation (in lieu of a tax credit) is currently expected to expire at the end 2011,” said Nutter. But “we are confident that by leveraging the Federal Renewable Energy Investment Tax Credit that offers 30 percent in tax credits through 2016, we will be able to provide the needed financial incentive for small and medium-sized commercial buildings to participate in the program in 2012 and beyond.”

Nutter said the federal subsidies and Solar@Work are stepping stones to driving down costs for solar. “We envision a future in which subsidies will no longer be needed as an incentive,” she said. “Until then, we will be utilizing the rebates and credits that are available in our current and future group purchasing programs.”

While San Francisco is leading the way, this type of program is easily scalable and replicable elsewhere, said the partners. “One of the reasons why we’re so excited about participating in this program is that there is replicability,” said Alex Perera, codirector of business engagement for World Resources Institute. We see this is something that could be rolled out to other cities and even other countries. WRI is working in China and other big markets.”