LosGatosObserver.com

Business Sat, November 07, 2009

• It’s a Café, Not an Internet Café

  Oct 19, 2009, by Staff Business
  

  The internet has become a drain on business at Lulu Carpenter’s. According to cafe owner Manthri Srinath, patrons plug their laptops into wall outlets and then spend hours sitting at the tables, but this prevents other customers from finding a seat. As one customer explained, “If you spend $10 and sit for three hours, you are preventing three customers from each spending $10 and only sitting for one hour.” To avoid this, Srinath covered the outlets on one of the walls and turned off the power on the other walls.

• Habitat for Humanity Starts 33rd Home in Santa Cruz County

  Oct 12, 2009, by Staff Business

  Board members and volunteers with Santa Cruz County Habitat for Humanity converged on Dawn Lane in Soquel yesterday armed with a golden shovel.

• Santa Cruz Credit Unions In Hot Water

  Oct 07, 2009, by Staff Business

  Five of the six credit unions serving Santa Cruz County reported steep losses this past quarter. According to J. Stewart Fulle, President of the Monterey Credit Union, “These are the highest loan losses we’ve ever seen.”

• Santa Cruz Road Contractors Play Market Limbo

  Oct 07, 2009, by Staff Business

  With the economy in a downturn, road contractors are ready to do whatever it takes to find work, even if it means reducing their profits. Throughout Santa Cruz County, the cost of large public projects have dropped far beyond anticipated costs, saving the county money and getting more essential work done.

• Keeley Talks Taxes

  Oct 07, 2009, by Jessica Lussenhop Business

  The Santa Cruz County Treasurer helps demystify a bandied-about phrase: the business net receipts tax.

• Chefs Aim High During Santa Cruz Restaurant Week

  Oct 02, 2009, by Traci Hukill Business
  

  It was just a matter of time before Santa Cruz joined the ranks of cities across the country celebrating local culinary talent with Restaurant Week. In New York, Boston, Los Angeles and San Diego, chefs were joining together for a week each year to entice diners out of their routines and into cosmopolitan restaurants where they might discover exotic new flavors and textures. And those cities are not the cradle of sustainable produce or home to unique viticultural appellations.

• Holiday Inn Proposed for Watsonville

  Oct 02, 2009, by Staff Business

  San Jose-based company moves quickly after Fairfield Inn approval in Santa Cruz.

• Santa Cruz Takes LEED Further

  Oct 02, 2009, by Austin Sardella EnvironmentBusiness
  

  The LEED certification system (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is expanding from single buildings to neighborhoods, and Santa Cruz is in the vanguard. Twenty acres on the western end of Delaware Avenue, dubbed the Delaware Addition, have met approval to become a LEED Neighborhood Development-one of the first 25 in the nation.

• The Guide To Cheap Santa Cruz Wireless

  Sep 26, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

• Local GDP Slips

  Sep 25, 2009, by Staff Business

  Santa Cruz is feeling the recession. Numbers released yesterday by the by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show that the county’s per capita GDP was $32,887, down from $33,674 in 2006.

• Goodbye, Wachovia! Hello, Bank of the West!

  Sep 25, 2009, by Staff Business

  San Francisco-based Bank of the West announced that it has purchased the Pacific Avenue branch of Wachovia Bank for an undisclosed price.

• Propping Up Capitola

  Sep 24, 2009, by Staff Business

  Once, 41st Avenue was the pride of Capitola. In the past 10 years, however, this has all changed, and taxable sales have dropped 24 percent.

• Local Home Prices Begin to Drop

  Sep 18, 2009, by Staff Business

  The median home price in Santa Cruz county has begun to dip, after rising steadily since February.

• City to Reconsider Fairfield Inn on Westside

  Sep 17, 2009, by Staff Business

  This summer, when Santa Cruz planning commissioners rejected plans to build a new Fairfield Inn on the Westside, off Highway 1, they said that the design was “cheap” and “ugly,” hardly the way they wanted to greet tourists about to enter Surf City. But at least one councilmember is considering approval over planning commissioners’ objections.

• Community Foundation Breaks Ground on New Center

  Sep 14, 2009, by Staff Business

  The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County has broken ground on its new $9.3 million center in Aptos. When completed in 2010, the 10,000-square-foot center will be a hub for philanthropic activity throughout the region.

• Santa Cruz Cyclists Light Up The Roads

  Sep 07, 2009, by Staff Business

  It’s a simple idea but it solves a major problem. Even when bicycles have a light for night riding, motorists coming toward them from the side often have a hard time noticing them. Three Santa Cruz cyclists found the perfect solution.

• The Freelance Mystique

  Sep 07, 2009, by Traci Hukill Business
  

  Not every freelancer is bubbling over with entrepreneurial zeal. Some do it because their industry has steadily shaved off staffers and outsourced tasks in order to save money. For others, child care or similar work-life considerations are at the root of the decision to freelance—blurring the line over whether freelancing, with its sporadic pay and other associated brutalities, is a matter of choice or necessity.

• A Clean, Well-Lighted Place for Freelancers

  Sep 03, 2009, by Jessica Lussenhop Business
  

  You’d think the easiest way to find out about the effectiveness of “coworking”—the phenomenon whereby work-at-homers, freelancers and other indie business strangers elect to set up shop in a building and find out what happens—is to ask the coworkers (not to be confused with the tradition-bound drones known as “co-workers”) themselves. Trouble is, they’re all too busy working.

• Self-Employment Gets A Grip in Santa Cruz

  Sep 03, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

  They’ve come from around the country and the world to gather on the bare concrete floor of an empty office building and talk shop. A sea of laptop-clutching writers, photographers, graphic designers, IT specialists, engineers, public relations officials and advertisement representatives with one thing in common: they never want to work for another boss again.

• YouTube + Philanthropy = Santa Cruz Startup

  Aug 26, 2009, by Staff Business

  Laika Grant Mann’s Worldflix offers potential donors an opportunity to watch interviews with the people who would benefit from their largesse.

• The Astroturf Is Always Greener

  Aug 19, 2009, by Staff Business

  Faced with severe water shortages, parks and playing fields in Santa Cruz County have begun to replace their grass with synthetic Astroturf.

• Lockheed to Cut Jobs

  Aug 18, 2009, by Staff Business

  Lockheed’s facilities in Santa Cruz County have been all over the news lately because of the Lockheed Fire. What has barely made the news is the fact that the firm is planning to lay off as many as 800 employees throughout the Bay Area.

• Valero Employees Sue for Overtime

  Aug 11, 2009, by Staff Business

  Three people from Santa Cruz who worked or still work at the Valero convenience store chain are seeking as much as $100 million dollars in lost wages and damages in what they hope will become a class-action lawsuit.

• Summertime Leaves Santa Cruz Starved for Rock & Roll

  Aug 09, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

  At Deer Tick’s sold-out indie rock show at the Crepe Place not long ago, one hipster was heard saying to another, “Man, I’m just glad someone still has shows in the summertime.” The observation, it seems, is rooted in what’s looking like another bone-dry schedule of summer sounds from a few of Santa Cruz’s most famous venues. During the spring and fall, places like the Catalyst, Rio Theatre and Cayuga Vault are well known for bringing huge names in rock, reggae, indie, folk and hip-hop to the local stage. Yet each summer, in a pattern stretching back as far as most care to remember, the hot months mark a cold front in the live music output of all three concert halls.

• Santa Cruz Commission Slams Proposed Marriott

  Aug 07, 2009, by Traci Hukill Business

  The Santa Cruz Planning Commission roundly rejected the prospect of a three-story, 86-room Fairfield Inn to announce the northern entrance to Santa Cruz, citing inappropriate design,  concerns about signage and distance from amenities like restaurants.

• New Hotel for Santa Cruz?

  Aug 05, 2009, by Staff Business

  When the city’s Planning Commission meets this Thursday, it will decide whether to approve construction of a new hotel off Mission Street on the far west side of town, beyond Western Drive.

• City Votes to Host Amgen Tour Stage

  Jul 30, 2009, by Staff Business
  

  It may be the most prestigious bicycle race in the United States. Even Lance Armstrong participated in it this year. But let’s face it. The Amgen Tour is no Tour de France, and despite its high profile thanks to Armstrong, it is not a major spectator sport, especially when races can last for days on end. Nevertheless, Santa Cruz City Council voted to host a stage of the Amgen Tour again this year.

• Santa Cruz County Bank on the Mend

  Jul 23, 2009, by Staff Business

  Santa Cruz County Bank announced that its second quarter net income had improved significantly from Q1, but that it was still only one-third of what it was in Q2 of 2008.

• Downtown Sex Shop Certified Green

  Jul 20, 2009, by Staff Business
  

  Doing the nasty has never been so clean – Pure Pleasure in downtown Santa Cruz has just earned its stripes from the Department of Public Works as the only Green Certified sex toy shop in the entire Monterey Bay area.

• ‘Shop Capitola’ Campaign Taking Shape

  Jul 17, 2009, by Kat Lynch Business

  Following the example of Santa Cruz’s Think Local First campaign, the city of Capitola is now urging citizens to “Shop Capitola” and support local businesses. Shoppers should expect to see the emblem of a red and white life preserver popping up all around the city.

• Raspberries Make up for Strawberries’ Decline

  Jul 17, 2009, by Staff Business
  

  Strawberries are still Santa Cruz County’s biggest crop. Valued at over $160 million, they account for over one-third of the county’s total agricultural production. But with a drop in prices and crop rotation between Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, their value has dropped by $36 million since 2007. Farmers aren’t worried though, because raspberries have picked up the slack, increasing in value by $35 million.

• Tourism Agency’s Fate Lies in the Balance

  Jul 14, 2009, by Staff Business

  With Santa Cruz facing a $9.2 million deficit, Santa Cruz municipal lawmakers are considering cutting funding to the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council.

• NextSpace Lets Local Startups Stay in Santa Cruz

  Jul 06, 2009, by Staff report Business

  It’s well known in Santa Cruz that many firms that were launched here would rather stay local than make the move up north or across the country. Now that’s becoming more common. NextSpace co-founder Ryan Coonerty, who also serves on City Council, says that over 40 businesses have been drawn to downtown Santa Cruz through the co-working center he started with former economic development director Jeremy Neuner.

• Scotts Valley Votes to Foreclose on Target Site

  Jul 02, 2009, by Staff report Business
  

  Plans to bring Target to Scotts Valley hit another snag Wednesday when the town council voted to foreclose the 18-acre property. City Attorney Kirsten Powell informed the council that the development group Title Two still owed $253,000 on the La Madrona Drive property and was not interested in a payment plan. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that no one representing Title Two attended the council.

  Target’s development in Scotts Valley has created concerns over traffic and the size of the store harming the character of Scotts Valley.  The city plans to file the paperwork necessary to sell the land if the court approves the move to foreclose the property.

• Salon to Hold Cut-a-Thon in Memory of Local Stylist

  Jul 02, 2009, by Kat Lynch Business

  On Sunday, July 12, Rumours Salon & Spa will host a cut-a-thon to benefit the family of stylist Raul Heredia, who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on June 23. More than 60 stylists volunteering their time will cut and style hair for $35 donations. Five baskets valued between $200 and $700 will be raffled off for $5 a ticket. Proceeds will go toward supporting Raul’s two children, Julia and Gavin.

• Don Webber’s Crusade to Save La Bahia

  Jun 09, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

  It’s a beautiful view of the Pacific Ocean from Don Webber’s balcony. A clear shot between the bell tower and Court of the Mariners of the La Bahia Apartments over the warm and busy sands of Main Beach, it’s a postcard-worthy scene by anyone’s standards.

• Santa Cruz Eateries Serve Up The Bargains

  Jun 05, 2009, by Christina Waters Business
  

  Welcome to the world of economic downsizing—yours, mine and everybody’s. One strategy for coping is the masochistic response. You know, buy mega-tubs of overly-processed stuff at Costco and sit at home with Netflix and a box of Kleenex. Another style is to get creative and take advantage of expanded happy hours, early bird specials and weekday dining promotions. We looked around and found a few choice examples.

• UCSC Students Vie for Top Biz Plan

  May 26, 2009, by Jessica Lussenhop Business

  Thirty-four teams have already been fired. Now it’s time to find out who gets hired this Friday on the season final-erhm, rather, at the final dinner and judging portion of the first annual UCSC Business Plan Competition.

• Skydiving Over Santa Cruz

  May 26, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

  It’s the most beautiful day I could have picked to jump out of an airplane. Eighty-five degrees at early evening, light breeze out of the west and 13,000 feet between me and the ground.

• City Council Cracks Down on Hookah Parlors

  May 18, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business

  The Santa Cruz City Council is not a fan of hookah parlors. Last Tuesday, city leaders took all of three minutes to discuss and approve a set of tough new restrictions that outlaws hookah parlors from setting up shop near schools and parks, and also caps the number of parlors allowed in city limits at two. The new laws come in addition to previous regulations that keep hookah parlors from serving food or beverages—including water—and from having live music.

• Think Local First Spreads the Money Around

  May 06, 2009, by Curtis Cartier Business
  

  The goal was to turn $500 into $15,000 in local commerce in 30 days. The method was for five local banks to donate $100 apiece to five lucky raffle ticket winners, then for the recipient of each check to spend it at one of TLF’s 150 member businesses, each of which would, in turn, repeat the process. In theory, by keeping the money within the community, each $100 check would be spent dozens of times, thus producing thousands of dollars in revenue for goods and services along the way.

• Watsonville Beauty School Faces Closure

  Apr 29, 2009, by Jessica Lussenhop Business
  

  Teresa Rodriguez brushes an orangey-red polish onto a client’s fingernails and says, “I’ve waited years to go to cosmetology school, and then they opened one in Watsonville. It was a dream come true.

• Santa Cruz Plumbers Do A Little Dance

  Apr 23, 2009, by Traci Hukill Business
  

  Rosenthal Plumbing has struck a blow for legions of plumbers sick of stereotypes. In a video sure to go viral, real plumbers from the Live Oak-based business lip-sync to a pretty decent rap about well-mannered plumbers who wear little booties over their shoes, explain to the customer exactly what they’re doing and how much it will cost and never, ever show even a hint of butt crack.

• Employees Allege Union-Busting

  Apr 22, 2009, by Molly Zapp Business

  Theo Jackson, a former senior case manager who worked at The Camp Recovery Center in Scotts Valley for three years, claims he was fired after leading efforts to unionize workers at the treatment center.