Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

A First Look at Fresno State’s Quarterback Battle

18 hours ago

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

18 hours ago

Tesla to Roll out Bay Area Robotaxis With Safety Drivers, Report Says

19 hours ago

Thailand and Cambodia Exchange Heavy Artillery Fire as Border Battle Expands

20 hours ago

California Cannot Require Background Checks to Buy Ammunition, US Appeals Court Rules

2 days ago

TikTok Will Go Dark in US Without Chinese Approval of Sale Deal, Lutnick Says

2 days ago

Fresno County Authorities Still Searching for Missing Mother and Infant

2 days ago
Helping Define What It Means to Be ‘Made in California’
gvw_calmatters
By CalMatters
Published 6 years ago on
June 16, 2019

Share

Let me start with an admission: government officials — at all levels — don’t do a good job of engaging the public as we grapple with big, complex challenges.


Lenny Mendonca
Special to CALmatters

Hearings only go so far. Videos and social posts get into only so much detail and nuance. And, most importantly, most of what we do is based on how we want to communicate to you, not on how you want to engage with us.
My team at the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development is launching a new podcast called “Made in California” to change that dynamic.
The podcast will be hosted by Aneesh Raman, our head of strategy and external affairs, who knows a bit about storytelling. He’s a former CNN reporter and Obama speechwriter.
He and our team will speak not just to members of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s team but also to civic leaders across the state who are working toward more inclusive, sustainable, resilient, and equitable growth in California.

The California Dream Is Not Well

Make no mistake: That is the defining challenge of our time.
I am the grandson of immigrants and grew up on a farm in Turlock. My life embodies the California Dream.
Today, that dream is not well. California is the fifth-largest economy in the world. We are leaders in almost every area you can imagine, from technology to agriculture to arts. We are the place where new ideas most often turn into new industries, thanks to venture capital funding, innovative startups, world-class universities, state-of-the art labs, and our diverse talent pool.
But we also are the state where too many Californians are working hard and still falling behind.  We’re the richest and poorest state in the nation, with 8 million of our fellow Californians living below the poverty line.
One in five kids lives in poverty in this state. We’ve got a cost crisis when it comes to housing, health care, and education. Economic growth is mostly happening in our coastal communities and not enough inland.
Left unmanaged, the changes that technology and climate change are bringing to the nature of life and work will only exacerbate those challenges.

Join Us in This Adventure

We’ve got some work to do to make sure our economy is working for everyone so that we have an economy that is built to last, for this generation and the next. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about on “Made in California.”

We’ve got some work to do to make sure our economy is working for everyone so that we have an economy that is built to last, for this generation and the next. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about on “Made in California.”
We hope you’ll listen.
We hope you’ll engage in the efforts. And we hope you’ll bring your stories to the podcast, just like Heather Evans, the artist who created the original theme song for our podcast – also called “Made in California.”
Heather moved to California from Ohio hoping to land her California Dream. And, like her song says, it was a challenge fighting for her dream – even believing it was possible – but you can’t be afraid to leap.
Because when you do leap, when you do fight for your California Dream, you will learn that you were made to win because, through grit and courage, you were made in California.
We are excited to fight for that dream right alongside you. Join us in this adventure.
About the Author
Lenny Mendonca is chief economic and business adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom and director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz). He can be reached at lenny.mendonca@gobiz.ca.gov. He wrote this commentary for CALmatters.

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Tulare Officer Injured in Crash While Trying to Save Unresponsive Infant. Child Dies at Hospital

DON'T MISS

PBS Has a Future by Leaving the Past Behind: Opinion

DON'T MISS

Fresno Council Candidate Rassamni Says City Is Investigating Him Amid Allegations by Arias

DON'T MISS

Fresno First Responders Talk Person Down off Parking Garage Ledge

DON'T MISS

Oregon Schools Face Federal Probe Over Transgender Athletes

DON'T MISS

US Judge Reaffirms Nationwide Injunction Blocking Trump Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

DON'T MISS

White House Will Release $5.5 Billion for Schools, After Surprise Delay

DON'T MISS

Kern County Fire Issues Evacuation Warnings for Pearl Fire Near Lake Isabella

DON'T MISS

Gaza Running out of Specialized Food to Save Malnourished Children

DON'T MISS

New Madera Bypass Project Aims to Ease Traffic on Highway 41 Near Tesoro Viejo

UP NEXT

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

UP NEXT

No One Controls MAGA, not Even Trump. The Epstein Files Prove It

UP NEXT

A Pro-Trump Community Reckons With Losing a Beloved Immigrant Neighbor

UP NEXT

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

UP NEXT

Masked Raids and Impersonators Driving Force Behind Terror Campaign Across Nation

UP NEXT

I’m Not Leaving Measure C and COG Can’t Make Me: Brooke Ashjian

UP NEXT

I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

UP NEXT

California Is Finally Adopting Phonics, Fulfilling a Grandmother’s Dream

UP NEXT

New CA Budget Papers Over $20 Billion Deficit, Ignores Day of Reckoning

UP NEXT

Trump Is Winning the Race to the Bottom

Fresno First Responders Talk Person Down off Parking Garage Ledge

13 hours ago

Oregon Schools Face Federal Probe Over Transgender Athletes

14 hours ago

US Judge Reaffirms Nationwide Injunction Blocking Trump Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

15 hours ago

White House Will Release $5.5 Billion for Schools, After Surprise Delay

15 hours ago

Kern County Fire Issues Evacuation Warnings for Pearl Fire Near Lake Isabella

16 hours ago

Gaza Running out of Specialized Food to Save Malnourished Children

16 hours ago

New Madera Bypass Project Aims to Ease Traffic on Highway 41 Near Tesoro Viejo

17 hours ago

Key Player in California’s Water Wars Embraces Controversial Newsom Plan

17 hours ago

A First Look at Fresno State’s Quarterback Battle

18 hours ago

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

18 hours ago

Tulare Officer Injured in Crash While Trying to Save Unresponsive Infant. Child Dies at Hospital

A Tulare police officer was injured in a traffic collision Friday while responding to a medical emergency involving an unresponsive infant, ...

12 hours ago

12 hours ago

Tulare Officer Injured in Crash While Trying to Save Unresponsive Infant. Child Dies at Hospital

Signs supporting NPR outside its headquarters in Washington on March 26, 2025. The Trump administration has accused NPR and PBS of using public funds to produce biased coverage and “left-wing propaganda.” (Eric Lee/The New York Times)
13 hours ago

PBS Has a Future by Leaving the Past Behind: Opinion

AJ Rassamni and Miguel Arias blackstone
13 hours ago

Fresno Council Candidate Rassamni Says City Is Investigating Him Amid Allegations by Arias

Fresno first responders spent over two hours safely rescuing a person in crisis from the edge of a downtown parking garage Friday, July 25, 2025,morning. (Fresno FD)
13 hours ago

Fresno First Responders Talk Person Down off Parking Garage Ledge

United States Department of Education logo and U.S. flag are seen in this illustration taken April 23, 2025. (Reuters File)
14 hours ago

Oregon Schools Face Federal Probe Over Transgender Athletes

President Donald Trump speaks to the media, after the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the power of federal judges by restricting their ability to grant broad legal relief in cases as the justices acted in a legal fight over President Donald Trump's bid to limit birthright citizenship, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. (Reuters File)
15 hours ago

US Judge Reaffirms Nationwide Injunction Blocking Trump Executive Order on Birthright Citizenship

Students head to the buses at the end of the day at a high school in Cedar Hill, Mo., on Sept. 14, 2022. The White House will release $5.5 billion in frozen education funds, administration officials announced on Friday, July 25, bringing an end to a chaotic saga of the administration’s making, which had sent school districts scrambling with weeks to go before the school year. (Whitney Curtis/The New York Times)
15 hours ago

White House Will Release $5.5 Billion for Schools, After Surprise Delay

Kern County fire officials have issued evacuation warnings for two zones near Lake Isabella as the Pearl Fire threatens the area. (Kern County FD)
16 hours ago

Kern County Fire Issues Evacuation Warnings for Pearl Fire Near Lake Isabella

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend