The government needs a way to track those of us who have burned through our UI benefits and are no longer eligible to draw them, but still haven't been able to find a job. My benefit ran out in January 2011 and I still haven't been able to find a job since our business closed. I want to open another business, but don't have the capital to do it, and with the bankruptcy from having to close our business, can't get a loan to do so. Every job I apply for has 300-400 people applying for the same job.

Something has got to change, but the Democrats do not have the answer. The left has often accused conservatives of being too successful in business. Well, if the right knows how to start and run businesses, why doesn't the Democratic party take advice from the experts on the right to help stimulate the economy in a real and meaningful way which doesn't put a financial strain on the deficit? Too logical?

Good thought Doris - yes we need to work together to develop solutions. Compared to California, Napa is doing quite well. But as you mention the addition of the underemployed adds significant numbers. Also I fear the government sector will continue to tighten with the on-going fed, state and local budget issues - and this will include school districts and non-profits. So - still much work to do. Cheers to those businesses and organizations that are hiring.

What should Napa do? If by "Napa" you mean city government, county government, or local government agencies of any sort -- the question is simple and the answer even more so: 'Napa' should do nothing but get out of the way.

LAFCO in particular would do well to heed this rather-obvious axiom.

Speaking of jobs, Napa Valley Tours and Limousine Service is hiring full and part-time drivers. If you really NEED/WANT a job and are QUALIFIED for the position submit an application. Also, EXPRESS Temps on Jefferson, near the Butter Cream Restaurant, has a person on the corner with a sign saying "jobs, jobs, jobs." It is worth a look. One must apply themselves to find employment--it's out there.

According to an article in the Napa Register last week there are currently 400 jobs available in the City of Napa. It appears that people would rather collect unemployment than work - we need to give the people an incentive!! We could start with electing a President who cares about our Country!!!!

Doris, I'm not as sure as you seem to be that Napa is doing such a great job in the wine and tourism sectors. Napa county has thumbed it's nose at the entire vacation rental industry, essentially telling all the tourists that prefer these accommodations to vacation elsewhere, while at the same time putting severe financial burdens on the owners of those homes (Doesn't putting people out of business pretty much equate to adding to the unemployment rolls?). Our public officials pay lip service to the need to create jobs, while eagerly enacting job-killing and business killing regulations to satisfy special interests (Farm Bureau, et. al.). Wine tourism is our economic engine. We ought to be looking for ways to rev up that engine, rather than throwing sand in the gears.

One of the quickest ways to create jobs in the city of Napa would be to expand the vacation rental program and institute the vacation rental overlay districts. This would immediately bring high quality jobs to downtown Napa increase foot traffic and help support property values. The current licensed vacation rentals and all future vacation rental owners should also have the right to transfer ownership of both their real estate and their license. This is a item the city council should take up and approve immediately.

Awesome comments. My position was to stimulate your thinking and you did exactly that, thank you. I have comments and will post them soon when I am back in my office. Meanwhile, keep thinking and commenting!

As for vacation units I say yeah! We need to help stimulate jobs and vacation units do exactly that. Renting rooms and units is one of the oldest businesses alive. Behind only, well I will not say what the oldest business is . . .

The 8% unemployment rate is totally wrong its more like 15-20%. One of the reasons when Nance P became Speaker of the House she passed the immigration of 125,000 green cards per month that was in 2007-2010 and John B. Speaker of the House has let this go since he has taken over. That is 1.5 million a year and in the last 5 years 7.5 million green cards have been issued, each green card is good for a job.
So without these green cards that would be7.5 million jobs for American citizens and cut umemployment in 1/4 Contact John B. Speaker of the House and tell him what you think about no jobs for american citizens.

Here's the link to get a Vacation Home Rental Permit for Eldorado County (Lake Tahoe). Napa doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, just copy and adapt it for our use.

http://www.edcgov.us/DeptBlock.aspx?menuid=181&titleid=272&id=9227&terms=vacation+rental

Thanks Art great idea!

Napa needs to become more business-friendly. Reduce taxes and give incentives for businesses to locate here. Reduce the red tape and make permitting much simpler and one stop and less than one hour. They can start by allowing food trucks. They should benchmark off of cities like Portland, Oregon where they embrace the food truck culture. We need good food at cheaper prices than what the downtown restaurants are providing. I hate feeling raped every time I want to go get some good food from a good chef.

Yes, open up and encourage more entrepreneurs. They start small, but they could be the next HP, or Gap. Creative people create jobs.

Art - food trucks is a classic example of embracing an emerging market! Love the Portland street scene and their waterfront. Oh how cool to have the Napa Waterfront bustling with water commerce. I spoke to Mayor Jill yesterday and she said we need to do a lot of work in the River to make it deep enough for water craft. And we need to rebuild the dock. Today I met with Jim Krider and he said it is really a huge job to dredge the river to make it deeper.

Jim discussed the problems of where to dump the dredged soil. All the environmental issues that come up as a result of these conversations - drat. Wish we could dredge, build a dock and have a bustling water commerce area!

Ann, agreed, new companies start small then one day, bam, they are a Tulocay Foods or a Tugboat advertising specialties. One day it is one employee, then a few years go by and it may be 20 employees. Small business is the backbone of America. Thanks Ann for that comment!

Jimmy, food trucks can be as small as one person, or as large as probably ten, depending on how many hours and days they want to be open. One owner can have many units and employ people to operate each one. The main purpose behind food trucks is to provide a service to the working stiffs, to provide a inexpensive source of food and snacks to keep the workforce, well, working. Currently downtown Napa primarily caters to the white-collar professionals and tourists, both of whom have more money than the people who are are working the blue-collar jobs to keep Napa on the map.

The food found on today's food trucks are not the traditional "roach coach" fare of decades ago. Many food truck chefs are professionally and classically trained where they can offer gourmet cuisine at Denny's prices. Since they don't have to pay a brick and mortar lease or for waitstaff and fixtures, they can offer good food at cheaper prices. Other trucks provide "grill and grease", ethnic and even healthy alternatives. Food trucks are but one facet of what can be done to help provide jobs and food to Napans, and provide another road for people to own their own business. Not every jobs idea has to involve employing hundreds in a factory setting.

Food trucks have to have health inspections and business licenses. They pay taxes on sales and operate legally. They are an amazing trend of the future, one way or the other we are going to have to face the facts that food trucks are here and most of us have enjoyed their creations one time or another. I personally enjoy them at the Napa Valley College often. And Phat Salads and Wraps (Gia Sempronio) offers awesome bang for the buck!

As do other food trucks - offering great bang for the buck - but I have had the pleasure of Phat's feeds often at the college this past year.

Phat Salads is excellent. I believe she's at the college on Tuesdays this semester. Not only that, but Gia was chosen to be one of the food artisans whose portraits appear in the "Meet the Makers" photography show at Mumm Napa this month. (I cannot recommend this show highly enough and admission to it is free.)

Well, since the topic has turned to food carts, and everyone loves to eat good food at a good price, here's the link to Portland's Food carts/trucks. They run a monthly newsletter about the local food cart community along with menus, prices and a map of where they can be found.

http://www.foodcartsportland.com/

Many cities have large communal areas where food trucks can congregate to serve the citizens, workers and tourists. I personally would like to see the parking lot between the jail and First Presbyterian Church become a food truck/cart "food court" if you will. There are other areas which could be "redeveloped" for food truck courts here in Napa: there are many locations on Soscol which need some help, along with Jefferson and many others. If done right, Napa could become a premiere food truck tourist destination.

Art I have always liked you and have appreciated your wit and ideas. Well I must say, you have outdone yourself in this series of postings. I love, love your thoughts and must say you have made me think, Google, explore, ponder, yeppers - that is what this was all about. Kudos to you!

Our community needs an outlet (business incubator) for citizens who are looking for advise and encouragement to either start a new business, buy a business or learn out other businesses. We could also request the the City & County government post business opportunities that they have through the programs that they run. County of Napa will email you those opportunities if you sign up or you could go to their web site. Just a few thoughts. Mike Murray

Learn about other business that are successful.

Wow Mike love your input - you are an awesome thinker and that is what is amazing about you among other things. Many new and great design and business ideas of the future center around computers and smart-phone apps. Not wine. But this is Napa and a glass of vino makes everything better.

Jump out of Napa County for a minute and think globally and you find this great new idea for cooking fuel. I interviewed Dr Zimmerman a few days ago on my live TV Show, on the Edge with Doris, he travels and does medical plastic surgery work and is leaving for Africa soon. We discussed the many burn survivors there, why? Cooking & lighting with fuels, open flames and kerosene leads to a horrendous amount of burned people. Today I read about this amazing new invention - it could have been developed here, in what we used to call Think Tanks or Incubator Farms - this is awesome - in a minute I will show you another great new innovation - but for now - take a look at what this will do and all the lives saved because of safer cooking & lighting, not to mention the reduction in pollution as millions could stop using brush/wood and other highly toxic environmental pollutant methods!

http://www.springwise.com/non-profit_social_cause/free-clean-burning-cookstoves-rwandan-poor-crowdsourced-biofuel/

Gardening, farming, vegetables, organics and the like - Napa is aware and interested in this - we could have invented this idea right here -

http://www.springwise.com/eco_sustainability/allotinabox/

A Vegetable garden in a box - that is awesome. Ideas are in each of our heads, we need to work hard to pull them out and develop new amazing ways to add jobs to Napa - you brilliant people - sip a glass of wine and develop that next great new innovation for the World. Home Grown and amazing - love Napa!

Gary your comments were spot on - all the comments here were in favor of more vacation rentals - I am sure the Napa position to limit this arena is due to competition with hotel rooms - there must be a win/win for all sides to work together toward solutions - it is easy here on the outside for me to say "Bad Napa" and so forth, but on the inside there are intelligent Napa Electeds who work for the best interest of the whole community - I love vacation rentals and when I travel hubby and I seek out local vacation rentals over hotels. We like to be in the community. We like to meet and talk to neighbors. WE love to be in a home. So this idea is very appealing to me - I promise to look into it more.

It will not save the home you lost Gary but could help others in Napa.

Many of the suggestions seem to reflect part of the problem in how to create jobs in Napa County, or at least for Napa County residents even if they are not within the county. Food trucks, "Mom & Pop" B&B's, vacation home rentals, etc. are charming, and benefit the community, and home owners. But how do they really contribute to significantly increasing jobs? Not much. Actually, not any. There's a need for a forum hosted by the County and cities, and chambers of commerce to become better informed about the real employment needs and issues related to creating jobs. Light industrial? Small businesses? Brand name businesses(e.g. Starbucks)? more hotels? a large conference center? And then for each idea, what skills, knowledge, experience is needed, and are their Napa unemployed citizens who can compete for those jobs? Think education and training that's needed for the unemployed. Don't just get out of the "box" in our thinking, get out of the ruts that have been expressed in this very important and needed discussion.

First, Gary Thompson - you are amazing - I do admire you for owning a Napa Business and doing all that it takes to be a success! If we could attract 25 more just like you this summer the downtown would be hopping more than it is - and right now it is becoming really nice! So Gary I have your back, call me anytime!

Dear JWP - you are filled with great advice. Small and VERY small business contributes very little to the overall economy - TRUE. But the key word here is contributes. Giving back, making a job = not being on public assistance or dependent on society's gifting but instead depending on their savvy to make a go of it.

Forever it has been the small and very small business that has been the back-bone of America. The horse-shoeing company. The feed store. The swimming pool cleaning service that sells Christmas Ornaments in the fall to survive to next years season. These are the people that make us unique and great.

You mentioned light industrial - bring it on. Yes - we need that too. And small boutique businesses. And also some chains. We love to travel and stop at a McDonalds for clean restrooms but go crazy if one wants to locate in our downtown. What we know and love and trust is fine for them but do not come here I do not want you at all. Your same/same taste, feel & look.

For Napa, we have some things we know, love and trust. We love and embrace the wine industry - hello - everyone works in, around, beside and with this industry - it is our backbone - glad that we have it. The side benefit of this industry, the spin-off if you will, is hospitality & tourism. That is bitter-sweet. Good industry but often very light paychecks for the employees.

Beyond these job markets - that is where we need to expand. Open our visionary eyes and embrace new ideas. What's next?

Art well said. Synergy = the sum of all is more than the individual contributions alone.

A group of business leaders in Napa are well along the process of developing a business incubator in South Napa. The group includes Kent Kuhlmann, Pamela Gleeson, Jason Luros, Mary Luros, Michael Holcolmb, Jeri Gill and myself. We are working with Napa County, The City of Napa, and various other stakeholders such as WIB and Napa Valley College. This incubator will be affiliated with the North Bay iHub that includes Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties, and is managed by the Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster which is a successful incubator in Rohnert Park at the old Agilant facility. You can learn more about the SMBC here: http://www.somobc.org/index.html

This is a huge project with a ton of moving parts, but it is moving along nicely. You can call or email me for more info at 707. 307. 6112 or paulh@payrollmasters.com

Paul this is a wonderful bit of information - Louisa you can do an entire story on this! What an asset to Napa and a tribute to our future sustainability. Love it and really appreciate your taking the time to share and name the worker bees. Napa is blessed to have all of you working for our future!

Doris - thank you. We will certainly keep you posted as it moves forward. Right now we need a name for the project, so feel free to submit any ideas.

We also did Chris Templeton's Friday radio show two weeks ago and basically spent the whole hour talking about the incubator project. You can hear the show here and the the good stuff starts at about the 4 minute mark: http://tinyurl.com/7qn5hnn

Perfect Paul - will give that show a listen - you would be an amazing show for my live TV Show - On the Edge with Doris - shot me an email - I emailed you - reply and let me find a few show dates that are open and you can come in and chat - get some callers to call you and answer questions - anytime I can blow trumpets for Napa moving forward I want to do it - you are the exact hope for our vibrant future - thanks Paul!

Talk about typos - you would be an amazing group to showCASE on my live TV Show - smile - shoot me an email - do not shot me an email - good grief. My fingers are all thumbs today!

A great topic Doris! I agree the work that Paul Hicks and friends are doing is a great way to help new business get started. The partnerships of the Napa Valley College, the Sonoma Mountain Business Cluster and the City and County of Napa, all of the Chambers in the county and of course, lead by citizens is essential for success. The College through the Small Biz center helps existing business grow. However, More should be done. You mentioned - what businesses should we be wooing...before we can entice others to come here - we should do a thorough catalog of our assets - this means resources and human resources. Who are our workers? What is their education level? Where are they living? Do we have enough water? Enough land? Where should we focus new business growth? What is the transportation plan? Who do we need to educate? There are so many questions and data to capture. We can't do this without a public/private partnership. The County has started a dialogue with the community by looking at the Airport Industrial area in a new way. I look forward to seeing this develop and encourage all of the interested readers here to log on the the County's website - use the "MY NAPA County" link to subscribe to the Board of Supervisors agenda and minutes. The key to finding solutions is our county is by being informed, voicing your opinions, ideas and serving on committees.

Lisa, you are so very amazing - what a depth of information - thanks for offering your input. Napa is lovely and any way we can move/advance/expand this area into a few new markets will be a success for our future sustainability. Thanks again Lisa, you of all people know what makes Napa tick! Miss you! Hugs!!