By Kimberly K. Fu, kfu@thereporter.com, @ReporterKimFu
on Twitter
Posted: 09/17/15, 6:43 PM PDT | Updated: 2 hrs ago
The future of Solano is unpredictable.
So said two experts Thursday morning brought in to discuss economics and
drought at an Impact Solano event sponsored by the North Bay Business Journal
and Travis Credit Union.
“People ask, ‘What’s going on with the economy?’ I have a dirty little
secret to tell you — I have no idea,” joked Micah Weinberg, Ph.D and president
of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, who spoke on economic trends.
Wade Crowfoot, deputy cabinet secretary and senior advisor to Gov. Jerry
Brown, talked about the drought.
In the Bay Area, the tech industry “is absolutely insane,” Weinberg said,
but not so much in Solano County.
Part of the issue, he said, is a lack of affordable housing for employees
and, well, housing in general.
“Housing permits are well below peaks of the 70s and 80s,” he pointed out.
Job growth has been decent in the past year, he said, with bright spots for
Solano including construction, agriculture, falling unemployment and decent per
capita income growth.
Challenges include competitors in the Mountain West region and
transportation issues.
There’s also the “Megaregion” aspect, that of Solano sandwiched between the
Bay Area and Sacramento. There’s a potential here to be mined, he said.
Crowfoot, meanwhile, discussed the drought.
Droughts are not uncommon, he said, though this one has seen two of the
warmest winters on record and brought no snow melt this year.
The situation is also having a negative impact on firefighting, he said,
and “fires are behaving differently than they ever have in California.”
Solano is well-positioned water-wise while in places like San Joaquin
County, residents are running out of water, he said. Even worse off,
apparently, are people with domestic wells.
“Five to 10,000 people turn on their faucets and nothing comes out,” he
emphasized. “Emergency support is in place but there’s no permanent solution.”
The agriculture industry, meanwhile, is adapting, he said. Producers who
can are moving to areas where water is available and there are strong markets
for products. But, there are still challenges here, as well.
“If it (the drought) continues, 18 species of fish could become
functionally extinct,” he said, indicating well-known species such as Pacific
Salmon.
As a whole, Californians are remarkable when it comes to water
conservation, he said.
As for El Nino, there’s no way to predict what it will bring, Crowfoot
explained.
In other matters, a panel of three — Ron Lanza with Wooden Valley Winery,
Kent Fortner with Mare Island Brewing Company and Brooks Pedder with DEZ spoke
on the county’s winemaking and beer brewing booms.
“This is a growing, growing, growing industry for Solano County,” said
Sandy Person, president of Solano Economic Development Corporation.
“We are poised for accelerating into the blue skies ahead,” she mused.
