Deep Dive Into "The 'Dro"

Writing about the changes happening in San Leandro was a fun return to a previous life covering urban events and entertainment. For this project, I produced a whole slate of stories for a San Francisco Business Times special supplement (they start on page 6). San Leandro's economic development team steered me toward lively and relevant topics and sources, including plenty on the science and tech beat.

The dozen-plus articles and sidebars include:

• Craft breweries
• The innovation incubator
• Rachel Rendel / Olgica Bakajin / Melanie Dulbecco - Female business leader profiles
• Downtown development / 'Smart City' features
• Education and training
• A community gathering place

The beautiful part, says Kay, is that the downtown transformation, like the rest of the city’s 21st-century update, is one-hundred percent authentic to San Leandro’s deep roots as part manufacturing town, part residential community, and to its status as one of the most diverse cities in the country. “This is fundamentally who we are. It’s not the latest fad in economic development that we just dropped on top of a community — it’s genuine,” Kay says. Read more of the Downtown development article. Go to the PDF of the print edition.