Doing Business in Contra Costa

The City of Oakley is in East Contra Costa County. The County is comprised of the following cities:

Antioch, Brentwood, Clayton, Concord, Danville, El Cerrito, Hercules, Lafayette, Martinez, Moraga, Oakley, Orinda, Pinole, Pittsburg, Pleasant Hill, Richmond, San Pablo, San Ramon and Walnut Creek.

The City of Oakley has a lot to offer with an abundance of available land at an affordable value, a business friendly city with expedited processes and a progressive staff, a variety of home types and prices and a good, competitive educational system. Once you locate in Oakley, you should also check out other Contra Costa cities to see where you could branch out. Here's why:

DEMOGRAPHIC SNAPSHOT

 Category Contra Costa County   California

 Population 2008 estimate

1,029,703 

36,756,666

 Living in same home since 1995

53.2%

50.2% 

 High School Graduate 25+

86.9% 

76.8% 
 Bachelors Degree or Higher 25 +

35% 

 26.6%
Median Household Income 2007

 $76,436

$59,928 

TRANSPORTATION
COMMUTING LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY


The East Bay is easily accessbile by workers throughout the Bay because of its extensive freeway system, accessibility by BART, the Bay Area's heavy rail commuter system, and by Amtrak and the ACE commuter train connecting easter Alameda County with teh Central Valley and San Jose. Oakland Metropolitan International Airport is one of the nation's leading business commuter airports, and may have been the only major airport in the US to see passenger traffic actually increase after the events of 9/11. Oakland's flight offerings are complemented by a wide range of additional international flight options at San Francisco International Airport just across the Bay.

EDUCATION

Many students find the California Community College System to be the best educational value in the country. Not only are the courses extermely affordable, for those wishing to transfer to a four-year college, the credits are recognized by both the University of California and California State University systems. In addition local commnity colleges, such as Los Medanos Community College, have done an excellent job working closely with industry to develop specialized curricula to train workers in fields such as auto mechanics, machine tool operators, laser technicians, process and electrical technology, and biotechnology workers.

The East Bay also offers some of the nation's best opportunities for higher education. In the East Bay, the University of California, Berkeley, is the nation's top graduate research institution and California State University, East Bay, is known for several innovative programs in multimedia and biotechnology. Nearby Stanford University is one of the top private universities in the country and a major influence on the development of Silicon Valley. The University of California, San Francisco is one of the nation's leading medical reserach institutions and together with Standford has played a major role int eh growth of the biotechnology industry. Highly regarded East Bay private institutions include Mills College and the California College of Arts, the largest regionally accredited independent school of art and design in the western United States.

In the East Bay, the K-12 schools are among the best in the state and taken as a whole, East Bay schools consistently score above the state's average.

In addition, the East Bay is fortunate to have a number of excellent educational institutions and award-winning business services infrastructure that can assist businesses no only in finding qualified workers but also in finding training grants to upgrade the skills of their existing workforce. Local East Bay officials working together with CalBIS and the State's Employment Training Panel have been extremely successful in obtaining generous training grants to assist a number of companies with obtaining a labor force.

LABOR FORCE

The East Bay's labor force of approximately 1,250,000 is the largest in teh Bay Area and is one of the nation's most highly educated and trained. Strategically located, the East Bay has access to 2 million workers living elsewhere in teh Bay Area as well as the labor pool in the Central Valley just to the east.

Over the years several companies have located here to more easily help with the retention and recruitment of East Bay and Central Valley workers such as:

1) East Bay Works
This is a regional consortium of the Workforce Investment and Workforce Development Boards in the East Bay created to assist in assigning federal training grants and funding. Services provided through the WIBs and WDBs include:

  • Talent Acquisition - recruiting and screening highly skilled applicants for manufacturing, engineering, business and administration positions utilizing one-stop career centers throughout the area
  • On the job Training - providing training funds to meet company's training needs
  • Training Brokerage - locate and arrange training provided by Community Colleges, California State University, East Bay and UC Berkeley extensions.  
  • Coordination and Oversight- coordination of local workforce services to ensure a successful business partnership
  • Access to Talent - engage the Rapid Response Unit along with its network of one-stop centers to give your company access to the region's pool of experienced highly skilled talent

Any company establishing operations in the East Bay and desiring workforce assistance can work directly with an assigned member of the WIB/WDB Business Services staff to tailor a customized workforce development program including; business recruitment; company-wide incentives for retaining and new hires; and any appropriate additional funding to underwrite these activities. In developing these programs staff will work closely with your company to ehlp select the appropriate training partners from among the many training providers in the East Bay.

2) State of California Employment Development Department (EDD) Job Services
www.caljobs.ca.gov

The State's Job Services, the Employment Development Department, the Workforce Development Branch and the Workforce investment Division are available to assist companies desiring to expand operations and retain employees in Calfornia. Upon request, EDD's Job Service wil recruit and assess candidates and coordinate the activities ofa ny service agency or training institution to meet your workforce needs. Job Service has access to a statewide database of nearly one million active resumes to provide the greatest possiblity of filing all workforce needs.

3) Emplolyment Training Panel (ETP)
ETP provides funds to train California's workforce in the skills necessary for local busiensses to successfully compete in the global economy, and specifically targets manufacturers and their suppliers. Employers can contract directly with ETP or may enter into a multiple employer contract that handles much fo the administration of the contract.

QUALITY OF LIFE

CLIMATE

East Bay weather is described as "Mediterranean" with the City of Berkeley, the area directly across from the Golden Gate, being the coolest. Traveling further north, south and east, average temperatures tend to be warmer in teh summer and cooler in the winter. Residents along the Bay enjoy temperatures in the fifties and sixties curing the winter and seventies to eighties in the summer. Inland areas exhibit a more continental pattern with greater temperature extremes, but hardly any snow except at the highest elevations.

AMENITIES

Recreation and Sports.
East Bay residents enjoy extensive open space and one of the largest urban park systems in the nation. There are many parks (32 in Oakley alone) and 29 regional hiking trails covering 92,000 acres in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The Delta is a natural habitat as well as a water recreational paradise, plus a hunting ground and fishery. The waterfronts along other parts of the Bay offer access to sialing, windsurfing, rowing and much more.

Sports fans can root for home teams in all three major professional sports - the Oakland Raiders, Oakland A's and Golden State Warriors - as well as major collge sports at UC Berkeley. Across the bridge you can watch the San Francisco 49ers as well as Stanford sports. Hockey fans are within commuting distance for the San Jose Sharks.

The Arts
The East Bay is home to a large community of artisans. Hundreds of them can be visited during a two week "open studios" period when graphic arts, ceramics, textiles, sculptures and other artwork can be purchased by the public. Besides seminars and persenations from some of the top thinkers in the nation, UC Berkeley also hosts a number of world-class artists and performers on campus each year. Many of the East Bay communities offer professional and local theatre organizations as well as performing arts companies. San Francisco is just is just a short ride away by BART and offers nationally recognized theatres, museums, symphony, opera and ballet.

Getaways
One of the greatest amenities for those living in the East Bay is the number and quality of weekend trips that are possible. Within approximately four hours drive are Monterey, Carmel, Big Sur, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Gold Country, and Mendocino - not to mention the Wine Country and the many opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area.

GOODS MOVEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE

Receiving materials and shipping products is a concern for all manufacturers, particularly those that employ just-in-time inventory management systems. In this respect, geography has favored the East Bay and it has become a regional logistics and goods movement center. East Bay companies have the advantage of being at the hub of a freeway system that not only connects the Bay Area, but also includes the West Coast's major north-south and east-west interstate routes. Alameda and Contra Costa counties have voted additional taxes to fund improvements for their major transportation corridors and federal stimulus fundign promises to hasten the development of infrastructure.

The East Bay is served by the nation's fourth largest container port, the Port of Oakland, which has recently installed additional pier side cranes, secured property for a major multimodal facility for better access to the Port, and dredged to 50' enabling newer cargo ships to access the Port. The East Bay is also served by the smaller ports in Richmond, Pittsburg and Antioch. As for air freight, FedEx, UPS, Airborne Express and several other companies, all use Oakland Metropolitan International Airport as a major West Coast distribution center making it the 14th busiest air cargo operation in the nation.

ADDITIONAL LOCAL RESOURCES

East Bay Economic Development Alliance (East Bay EDA)
www.eastbayeda.org

The East Bay Economic Development Alliance is a "network of networks" that can serve as a liaison to connect your company to city, county, state and regional programs as requested. The EDA is also a representative and problem solver for East Bay companies and cities facing issues requiring coordination or matters of regional scale. To contact EBEDA or get assistance, please contact a staff member:

  • Bruce Kern, Executive Director 510-272-3874
  • Stephanie Brown, Economic Development Analyst 510-272-6843
  • Robert Sakai, Technology and Trade Director 510-272-3881
  • Keith Sutton, Business Development Director 510-272-3885

Interesting facts:

Top 10's (2007) not in order

 Manufacturing Sectors

Fastest Growing Industries by Employment

Competitive Edge Industries 

Petroleum & Coal

 Finance & Insurance

Petroleum & Coal 

Computer & Electronics

 Accommodations & Food Services

 Telecommunications

Chemical 

 Private Educational Services

 Private Households

 Food

 Real Estate, Rentals, Leasing

 Heavy & Civil Engineering Construction

 Primary Metal

 Health Care & Assistance

 Credit & Related Activities

 Fabricated Metal

 Management Co.

 Waste Management

 Furniture & Related Products

 Retail Trade

 ISP, Portals, Data Processing

Nonmetalic Mineral Products 

 Other Services

 Amusement, Gambling, Recreation

 Machinery

  

 Real Estate

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