Your August Newsletter is Here! 💼

Civility Matters

August is National Civility Month—a timely reminder that how we treat one another matters.

Civility doesn't mean avoiding disagreement or giving up our convictions. It means listening, communicating respectfully, and remembering there is a person on the other side of every conversation.

That's especially important as we move through election season. We will encounter opinions and perspectives different from our own. We don't have to think alike to work together. We can hold different views and still treat one another with respect.

Our member EI365 does important work around civility and helps people & organizations build stronger relationships through better communication. Their work reminds us that civility isn't just about being polite—it's about creating space for people to be heard and respected.

As a business community, let's practice civility not only during election season, but every day, for our employees, our customers, our neighbors, and one another.

We don't have to think alike to work together. We can hold different views and still treat one another with respect.

Civility Intelligence

Advocacy: Listening, Responding and Finding Solutions

Advocacy is an important part of the Chamber’s work. Recently, we have been engaged on several issues affecting local businesses, including the delay of San Leandro’s proposed business license tax, the proposed $30 minimum wage in unincorporated Alameda County, concerns surrounding illegal food vendors, and the challenges businesses are experiencing related to unhoused individuals and activity around their properties.

Our August 4 Business Roundtable focused on hotspots where illegal food vendors are operating. This is not only a concern for businesses operating legally—it is also an issue for our city and county.

These vendors operate outside the City’s food-vending regulations and do not contribute the same fees and taxes that legitimate businesses contribute to local budgets. They also operate along busy corridors, creating concerns around traffic, parking, sanitation and public safety.

One example of a practical solution emerged from the discussion: changes to parking signage at one of the identified hot spots may help address some of the ongoing challenges in that area. It is a good reminder that advocacy isn't always about big policy changes. Sometimes, listening to businesses and bringing the right people together can lead to a simple solution that makes a real difference.

The Chamber will continue to monitor these and other issues affecting our business community. We will continue to listen, ask questions, follow up, and advocate for our businesses.

"Made in San Leandro: First Jobs" Pilot Wraps Up

The inaugural "Made in San Leandro: First Jobs" manufacturing pilot has officially concluded, and the results are inspiring. This summer, five recent San Leandro High School graduates successfully completed their work-study internships with our manufacturing partners, Torani and Five Star Fixtures.

The interest in the program was immediate and strong, with 14 students applying for the five available spots, highlighting a demand for these career-track opportunities.

Our participants demonstrated exceptional dedication throughout the summer, consistently meeting the professional demands of the manufacturing environment—including 6:00 AM start times—with reliability and drive.

By combining a week of pre-employment readiness training at the Boys & Girls Club with a seven-week, paid work-study placement, a low-risk, high-impact environment where students could explore career pathways while manufacturers could engage emerging local talent was created.

This community-built initiative, the San Leandro Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the City of San Leandro, San Leandro Unified School District, and the Boys & Girls Club of San Leandro, proved that when we align our educational and industrial resources, we create powerful new pathways for our youth.

We are incredibly proud of our graduates and grateful to our partners for their commitment. We look forward to scaling this model. More to come in year two!

New Members 2026

Checkout New Chamber of Commerce Members!

EMR Registration Launches

San Leandro property owners with qualifying soft-story buildings may be required to complete a seismic evaluation under the City’s Soft-Story Retrofit Ordinance. While the ordinance does not automatically require a building to be retrofitted, owners who choose to make seismic improvements may be eligible for financial assistance and grant funding to help offset the cost of the work.

If you are a property owner with a qualifying building, now is a good time to determine whether your property is subject to the ordinance and explore available retrofit funding opportunities.

Registration for the Earthquake Multi-Unit Retrofit (EMR) grant program opens August 19 and runs through September 30, 2026.

The EMR program is designed specifically for owners of 5-10 multi-unit residential buildings in cities with mandatory soft-story retrofit ordinances. Soft-story buildings are multi-story, wood-frame buildings in which the ground floor may have large exterior openings and/or tuck-under parking spaces, or a commercial storefront on the ground floor, leading to a relatively weak lateral load-resisting system in the lower story. This makes the building potentially vulnerable to collapse in the event of an earthquake.

An EMR full ground floor earthquake retrofit can mean the difference between a building that stands and one that doesn't. The EMR grant helps offset the cost of that work, protecting both residents and building investments for these buildings built before 1991.

EMR Registration