The assumption here, in schools, is that parents can afford the supplies required for classes. Many can, some cannot.
The Tri-Valley Anti-Poverty Collaborative, operating under the umbrella of the Tri-Valley Non-Profit Alliance, released an update on its deep dive into poverty here last week. There were some surprising findings.
The poor people in the Tri-Valley suffered mightily and their numbers grew significantly because of the pandemic and the shutdown. The number of people on public assistance grew from 21,500 to 42,720 from 2017-2021. That’s one in five here in the Tri-Valley.
The majority of those are in Livermore at 26,824, while there are 21,082 in Pleasanton and 16,455 in Dublin.
The number of people who are rent burdened—spending more than 30% of gross pay on rent—hit 56%. The rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Alameda County is $2,460. The income in the county needed to meet basic needs for a family of four is $123,615, according to the United States Census Bureau. That’s a stunning commentary on the under-supply of housing and its impact on the cost of living. A six-figure income in most of the United States means a comfortable middle class standard of living.
The valley’s shift to a multi-ethnic community continued to accelerate over the last few years. Now 39% of households speak at language other than English at home—that’s 54% in Dublin.
The Livermore Valley traditional has had a small Latino population (around 10%) with the vast majority white. No longer. Pleasanton is almost equally split between Asians and Whites, Livermore still is majority White, while the valley, thanks to Dublin, has 190,000 Asians and 149,000 whites.
Dublin has the highest household income, a surprise, but it reflects the people moving into the new housing on the east side.
Two important findings about education: the number of students saying they felt depressed ranged from 24% in Pleasanton to a high of 29% in Dublin. That reflects the negative impact of the pandemic lockdown plus the terrible impact of social media on students.
Blacks make up a tiny percentage of the population, less than 2% in two cities and 4% in the other, but the students’ rate of chronic absenteeism is around 30%. For Hispanic students, it’s at 30% in one community and 22-23% in the other two. Major red flag—that’s an accurate predictor of future incarceration rates.
To read the full report, please see https://tvnpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TVAPC-Data-Profile-Final-2023.pdf
The Innovation Tri-Valley Leadership Group followed its pattern of promoting a leader from its staff ranks when it announced its new CEO. When founder Dale Kaye was walking up on retirement, she recruited Lynn Naylor to join her team as No. 2. When Dale stepped aside, Lynn took over to run the organization for six years.
Now as Lynn has moved on to her exciting new assignment, Katie Marcel has been named the CEO. Katie was recruited from her successful role as managing director of Shakespeare’s Associates that produced the Bard’s plays in Livermore. The press release noted that the search team conducted a wide search before concluding they had the best person in house.
It was a good season for the innovation group because its newly seated chair, Stephanie Beasly of Sandia National Laboratory, was named one of the San Francisco Business Times influential women. Lawrence Livermore National Lab Director Kim Budil also was recognized.
