NorCalUrban

See the entire article here. Menlo Park's City Council tonight will consider an innovative approach to preventing foreclosure for struggling homeowners - but one that comes with a big up-front price tag for the city. "To me, the most important thing is to keep people in their homes and not disrupt families, not take kids out of school," said Councilman Andy Cohen. "This is the only program on the horizon that does that." The Foreclosure Prevention Program targets owner-occupied homes with mortgages more than 90 days past due. Program administrators would approach the bank that holds the defaulting mortgage and ask it to sell the mortgage at the home's current fair market value - the same amount the bank would receive if the home went through foreclosure, but with fewer expenses and less time and trouble for the bank, said David Shapiro, CEO of the EARN Group, a Los Gatos company that develops real estate financing tools. A local community bank would then ref...

Editorial in the Almanac: "Quick Action Needed." See the article here. If you know one of the Menlo Park city council or government leaders, please reach out and indicate your support for NCUD and other's efforts.

As I mentioned in my post about about my 'blogcation' we've been working diligently on a shared equity or 'third sector' housing solution for our community. This has occupied much of my mental bandwidth, along with the important curriculum development project for our youth program, Future Profits. We're beginning to see some light. On April 24th the city of Menlo Park will vote on a proposal for funding for our housing project. If approved, we will have the funding to save around ten homes and families from foreclosure. This will happen through an investment of public funds as an equity partner and a write down of the current (underwater) mortgage by the lender to a level where, with the public funds, will place the homeowner in a fair mortgage with a payment they can afford. However, the homeowner will give up some of their future appreciation by which the city will be paid back it's funds. We're also looking at a similar project with private funding....

Dear friends, Merry Christmas from all of us here at Northern California Urban Development (NCUD)! As 2008 comes to a close there is much to be thankful for and reflect upon. Lately I've been thinking about an analogy that describes NCUD's work in the community. We are painfully aware of the current economic conditions in our country and world. East Palo Alto and east Menlo Park certainly aren't immune from the problems, which are indicated by the well over 400 distressed properties in our community that are either in or near foreclosure. Truly, a fire is raging and lives are being forever changed. In a fire there is always a short-term and long-term response. The short-term response saves lives and property. The longer term involves two activities: replanting and future fire prevention. As I've meditated on the correlations between a fire and NCUD, I'm thankful that God has placed our organization in the middle of the crisis at the right time. Who would have k...

Left San Jose for Miami yesterday for the  CCDA board meeting and conference. 7:30 AM flight, the sky was beautiful as we took off. After a long delay in Chicago I arrived at the hotel at 9:30 pm. On Wednesday lots of EPA folks arrive. Jenni and Gil from our office at NCUD, Joe, Linda and Phil from Community Trust Credit Union, Heather from FYBY, and Rolando and Amy from BCM. I'm looking forward to hanging with all the EPA folks in Miami. I'll post updates as often as I can throughout the week.  If you're coming to the conference please don't miss the specific 'emerging' CCDA leader's track that I've been organizing. Heather and I are also doing a workshop on leadership transition on Thursday. I'm also leading a panel discussion on Thursday at lunch. Here's some details: - Emerging Leader Panel: CCD and Shalom as Implemented by the Next Generation of CCDA Leadership - Thursday, 11:45am - 12:45pm - When the Sand Shifts: Personal Leadership Tr...

My coworker Jenni Ingram (aka 'Reflections of Reality) recently blogged about her job at Northern California Urban Development (NCUD). See her blog here. We've recently been blessed to bring on two new staffers. Gilbert Chaidez came on as a program developer to work with the development of our youth programs. He was funded through a generous grant from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. As Jenni mentions in her blog, she was doing double duty as admin support and Youth Program Manager. Through her leadership our programs have grown so much we were able to bring Cynthia Ruiz on as admin support. This frees Jenni to focus her attention on the youth programs. Jenni's blog has a great update on what we're doing. Check it out!  I've known Cynthia for many years through my time at  BCM. She's a wonderful young leader who has grown up in East Palo Alto. We're blessed to have both Gil and Cynthia on our team. You can see more about them on our website here...

Two words: GOLF TOURNAMENT at Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, CA. This is NCUD's biggest event for the year. We're only one week away, the tournament is next Friday, the 18th.  We're still looking for some golfers and sponsors. If you're interested, please let me know.  For more information you can check out our website:  here.   This year we have some wonderful major sponsors including Community Trust Credit Union, Woodruff Sawyer, Paul Hastings LLP, DLA Piper LLP, Plant A Seed Foundation and Highway Community.  Our friends at Miner Family Vineyards in Napa Valley has really stepped up to the plate. They will be doing wine tasting on the course along with the wonderful wines from Spring Mountain Vineyards.  Please be sure to recognize and support our sponsors.  That said, my blogging will be somewhat limited until after next Friday. 

Picked this up at (where else) Guy Kawasaki's blog. Oh man - has this been true for us as we've started NCUD . Here Guy quotes Glenn Kellman, the CEO of Redfin . This speaks volumes to me - many of the things he addresses are things I've thought, said or worried about. As someone who has been involved in four start up works and many re-engineering projects in the ministry / non profit world, Glenn's comment ring true. I've edited comments - you can see the full article on Guy's website. Like the souls in Dostoevsky who are admitted to heaven because they never thought themselves worthy of it, successful entrepreneurs can’t be convinced that any other startup has their troubles, because they constantly compare the triumphant launch parties and revisionist histories of successful companies to their own daily struggles. Just so you know you’re not alone, here’s a top-ten list of the ways a startup can feel deeply screwed up without really being that screwed up at ...

So, it's been an exciting couple of weeks. Last Friday was our annual golf tournament supporting NCUD's efforts. We had an amazing event, doubling the revenue from the previous year. If you've not had the chance to play Poppy Ridge Golf Course you really should! Better yet, mark your calendar for July 18th, 2008, the date of next year's tournament! Thanks to all our sponsors, golfers and especially our golf committee this was a fabulous event. Last Wednesday we reached an important milestone. As the press release I posted last week suggested, we had a signing ceremony where the four credit unions who have come together to make Community Trust Credit Union of East Palo Alto a reality. In the picture are the CEO's of Addison Avenue Credit Union, Patelco Credit Union, Stanford Federal Credit Union and Community Trust Credit Union (Modesto). Now once we receive our permits from the city of East Palo Alto we can begin building out the building and push toward opening ...

The New York Times reports: In the 35 years since vines began sprouting out of its sandy soil, the North Fork of Long Island has fought to be recognized as a bona fide wine region, and now more than a million visitors a year visit the tasting rooms at its 30 vineyards to sample award-winning merlots and cabernet francs. But this season, small signs bearing stern messages — “No Buses,” “No Limos,” “Appointment Only” — have sprouted outside many of the wineries. There also are reports of tastings gone wild involving intoxicated visitors who have tossed back full glasses of wine without regard to nose or body until they grabbed the brass spittoon for baser purposes. The latest additions to local lore include a story about members of an inebriated group at the Palmer Vineyards here who hopped off a hayride and began gallivanting naked through the vines. Then there were the drunken customers at the Pugliese Vineyards in Cutchogue who jumped into the shimmering lake next to the elegant out...

Last Monday I went to LA to meet with Amy Sherman. We went down to talk to the California / Nevada Credit Union League about Amy's Econonmis program. Economis is an excellent web based 'token economy' that teaches kids econonic literacy through a very like program. We're looking to impliment the program in a local East Palo Alto school and offer the program to three to five other community partners. We had a great time with the League and then headed back to the Ontario airport for our trip back to San Jose. Amy is a great person. Very engaging and bright. She's written a few books including this one. She's recognized as a national leader in CCDA circles. NCUD is thrilled to be workign with her. In EPA we had a great time meeting with our potential partners. I'm especially excited about working at my son's school East Palo Alto Stanford Academy. Jenni and I have alot or work to do to get ready for the roll out of our financial literacy initiative...