Small businesses have a disproportionately big impact on the local economy, especially when it comes to creating jobs. But public policy has been slow to recognize that. The need for changes was a central theme at Monday's Smart Growth Symposium, presented the Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy.

On the global economic playing field, the ongoing tug-of-war between local business and corporate giants can be distilled into competing views of how capitalism should work, explains Mike Shuman, Director for Research and Economic Development for the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). He likes to think of them as two quite different women.

Many consumers are already aware of and acting on the desirability of directing their spending toward local businesses. But few give much thought to taking the same approach with their retirement accounts and other investments. Shuman explains how some of the long-standing obstacles to doing that are beginning to go away.

What’s the antidote to gangs, unemployment and juvenile crime? In part, it’s the newly rechristened Conservation Corps North Bay.

Marilee Eckert, the organization's Executive Director, explains that their expansion into Sonoma County was begun in early 2009, with the support and encouragement of many local leaders.


Looking ahead, Eckert sees a busy future for the Conservation Corps North Bay, doing more of what they are already working on.

The Conervation Corps was  featured previously on the North Bay Report when they launched their Sonoma County operations in January, 2009.

For school teachers, as in many other professions, there’s no substitute for hands-on experience.  But there are ways that experience can be shared, as new teachers in California are learning.

The North Coast Beginning Teacherprogram has been in place for seven years now, reports regional director Corrine Muelrath, and is now part of California’s teacher credentialing process.

There are 560 new teachers currently in the mentoring program, Muelrath adds, a higher-than-usual number that reflects some of the uncertainties that school districts face in preparing their budgets without a state budget in place.

The area served by the North Coast Beginning Teacher program are shown in color on this map.