There’s a mismatch between job openings and seekers, with about 121,000 open jobs and 106,000 unemployed people in Colorado. The new Education to Employment Alliance thinks they might have the solution. 

The group, made up of business and education-oriented organizations such as the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Succeeds and Colorado Thrives, released a report last month with five recommendations to better match workers with open positions, including adjusting the skills taught in school to better match the needs of employers. The idea being: Companies tell educators what skills are lacking, educators teach those skills to students and everyone goes home happy. 

For many businesses and lawmakers, this isn’t new. Federal and state governments have provided funding for vocational programs through the Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act from 2014. The SyncUp Colorado competition in 2021 asked organizations to develop programs for this purpose, with support from the state government, Colorado Succeeds and Colorado Thrives. 

“There have been a ton of them, but they’re very siloed,” said Ed Sealover, vice president of strategic initiatives at the Colorado Chamber of Commerce. He believes these programs are already getting more students interested, and coordinating to scale them up will help meet job demand.

Take construction, one of the industries with a consistently high demand for middle-skills workers — which require certification beyond a high school diploma, but not a four-year degree — according to the Colorado Chamber of Commerce’s 2022 and 2023 surveys. 

The Colorado River Board of Cooperative Educational Services won $350,000 from the SyncUp competition to fund high school classes where students build 200-square-foot houses. That includes framing, windows and doors, flooring, siding, plumbing, electricity, roofing, installing cabinets and more. 

It’s the kind of career-connecting program that the alliance will work to implement more consistently across Colorado, Sealover said. He believes giving students a clear idea of how to pursue those jobs and what their salaries will look like will get them interested.

“I don’t know that there’s one main barrier (to entering middle-skills jobs), but I definitely think social perception is one of them,” Sealover said. “Lack of knowledge as well. We need to remind people that these are good, sustainable careers that the students can get into with far less debt.”

John Fisher agrees. He’s both a general contractor and the teacher for Aspen High School’s tiny homes program, which is a subset of Fisher’s larger woodworking class. 

In his 55 years of teaching, he’s seen a decline in the construction, architecture and engineering classes that show students what career paths are available, Fisher said. To cut costs, schools did away with them altogether or moved them to vocational schools.

Aspen High School sophomore Ryley Benson constructs a tiny home during woodworking class on the school campus. The school’s tiny homes woodworking program is the kind of career-connecting class that the Education to Employment Alliance wants to implement more consistently across the state. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)

“Once the kids get exposed to it, just like the ones that I have that are working, they’re highly motivated, and they’re very much interested,” Fisher said. 

But he may be overestimating that interest. Last year’s project involved just eight students, and of the ones he says are most likely to go into construction, some now say they’ve never considered it — which suggests there are other factors, beyond lack of exposure, that are discouraging them. 

Junior Max Sherman said he’s always wanted to go into real estate. He plans to follow in his dad’s footsteps, going into a real estate internship after graduating high school. Eventually, he wants to open a hotel business in a big city, somewhere like Los Angeles or San Francisco. 

Sherman likes the stability of that path. “I feel like real estate will always be more or less a safe job,” he said. “There’s a lot of industries popping up right now which could either blow up or they could go away. So I’d rather do a safer choice than gamble it all.”

He’s never really considered other career paths and took woodworking not as a career interest, but because he thought being able to make things like desks and chairs would be a useful life skill. He feels like he got what he wanted out of the class, and he enjoyed it. But he pointed to the physical exertion as a reason he wouldn’t go into construction. “I don’t know if it’s something I want to do five days a week for, you know, 20 years consecutively,” he said.

It seems like great preparation for a construction career, and if he was interested, he could get guidance from Fisher on how to pursue that, Sherman said. He’s just not.

Fisher doesn’t see the physical toll or the pay as drawbacks for the right worker. “They’ll start out at, you know, maybe 25, 30 bucks an hour. Right now, most all laborers are getting 25 bucks an hour,” he said. “They see the potential to make more money by working up to that.”

The Colorado Chamber of Commerce represents business interests, and Sealover said he doesn’t track information on the employee side: what jobs currently unemployed people are looking for, and what’s worked for getting current middle-skills workers into their jobs. 

The alliance isn’t concerned with getting a specific number of students into open jobs, and they’re not expecting big changes anytime soon. But classes like Fisher’s will at least show students their options in middle-skills career paths, where the cost of education is much lower, Sealovers said. From there, he expects more and more of them to pursue those jobs.

“You just have to make students aware of the opportunities and figure that some of them are going to choose their own path,” Sealover said.

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HOUSTON (AP) — Houston dominated Texas during the regular season, winning nine of 13 matchups.

Now the Rangers get another chance at the Astros when they meet for the first time in the playoffs in a Texas-sized showdown with a trip to the World Series on the line starting Sunday night in Houston.

The Astros completed the regular season matchup against the Rangers with a three-game sweep at the beginning of September. Houston hit 16 homers to sweep that series by a combined score of 39-10.

But despite the lopsided results this season, both teams say they’ll start with a clean slate for the American League Championship Series.

“Regular season doesn’t mean anything anymore,” Houston Game 1 starter Justin Verlander said. “And I think it’s a different game. Playoffs is a different brand of baseball.”

That series in September was during the worst slump of the season for the Rangers, who were without third baseman Josh Jung and who lost Adolis García during the series.

Texas first baseman Nathaniel Lowe also noted that 21-year-old outfielder Evan Carter wasn’t even in the majors the last time the Rangers met the Astros.

“I think we were missing two or three bats, two or three starting bats. Evan was still in high school,” Lowe joked. “We had a couple pieces that weren’t fully, fully firing on all pistons.”

Houston’s success in the head-to-head matchup allowed the Astros to win the AL West while the Rangers had to play in the Wild Card Series after both teams finished with 90-72 records.

Now both teams are back to full strength and prepared to fight for the Lone Star state crown.

This isn’t the first time Houston manager Dusty Baker has experienced a high stakes, in-state postseason matchup.

As manager of the San Francisco Giants in 2002, he lost the World Series to the Anaheim Angels.

“In California we were in the World Series, two teams, us and the Angels, battling for bragging rights in California,” he said. “But everything is bigger in Texas. I’ve learned that since I’ve been here.”

Outfielder Robbie Grossman is in his first season with the Rangers but is well-acquainted with the rivalry, after going to high school in suburban Houston and spending his first three big league seasons with the Astros.

“It’s huge for baseball, but it’s even bigger for the state of Texas,” he said. “Just being a Texan, I know how much both these teams mean to the state.”

Verlander will face left-hander Jordan Montgomery on Sunday night.

Verlander, who returned to Houston in a July trade from the Mets, will make his 36th playoff start. The three-time Cy Young Award winner pitched six scoreless innings in the Division Series opener against Minnesota to extend his franchise record with his 10th postseason win.

This will be the fourth playoff start for Montgomery and third this season. Montgomery, acquired from St. Louis this summer, has had an up-and-down postseason after throwing seven shutout innings in the Wild Card Series before allowing four earned runs and nine hits in just four innings in Game 2 of the ALDS.

He talked about his struggles against the Orioles.

“Everything was a little un-synced up,” he said. “So just got to find my timing and execute more pitches.”

Houston’s Framber Valdez opposes Nathan Eovaldi in Game 2 on Monday.

MAD MAX BACK?

Texas starter Max Scherzer is expected to return for this series after being out since Sept. 12 because of a muscle strain in his shoulder.

The three-time Cy Young Award winner, also traded from the Mets this summer, said he was “ready to go” after throwing a bullpen session and doing fielding drills Friday.

Texas manager Bruce Bochy was asked if Scherzer would be included on the ALCS roster Saturday.

“Max is doing well,” Bochy said. “He’s done well. After workout today, we get together, we’ll get the staff, of course, (general manager) Chris Young and his staff, and we’ll talk about the roster. But he’s doing really well.”

Scherzer is 7-7 with a 3.58 ERA in 27 postseason games that include 22 starts. If he appears for Rangers, it would be the fifth team he has pitched for in the postseason after Detroit, Washington, the Dodgers and Mets.

ABREU’S STREAK

Houston reliever Bryan Abreu enters the ALCS with a 31-inning scoreless streak in his last 30 appearances. Abreu, who hasn’t allowed a run since July 18, hasn’t been scored on in the postseason in 14 2/3 innings, which spans 14 appearances dating back to last year.

Abreu, who normally pitches the eighth inning before handing things off to closer Ryan Pressly, has allowed two hits in 3 1/3 innings over three appearances this postseason.

“As a pitcher you just have to be calm and be ready to execute every single pitch and keep attacking the strike zone,” he said. “If you let everything outside go through your head … you’ll lose focus.”

FRIENDLY WAGER

Arlington Mayor Jim Ross proposed a wager to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner that the loser of the series would have to wear the winner’s jersey to a city council meeting.

Turner quickly agreed and wrote on X: “Since I’ve been mayor, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the Astros win the World Series… twice, so I accept.”

___

AP Baseball Writer Stephen Hawkins contributed to this report.

___

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

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China’s President Xi Jinping speaks at a dinner with business leaders during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference Wednesday, Nov. 15, in San Francisco.

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President Joe Biden speaks during the APEC CEO Summit Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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President Joe Biden speaks to a group of CEOs Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco, at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

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President Joe Biden speaks to a group of CEOs Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco, at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

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President Joe Biden speaks to a group of CEOs Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco, at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

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Leaders arrive for a family photo at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Japan’s Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pose for a family photo at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Leaders including Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Peru’s President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, President Joe Biden and Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin pose for a family photo at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Leaders pose for a group photo during the APEC Summit Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Leaders pose for a family photo at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco. Front row from left are, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. China’s President Xi Jinping, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Peru’s President Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra, President Joe Biden, Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, Chile’s President Gabriel Boric, Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol.

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President Joe Biden, left, speaks as Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese listens during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, right, talks to moderator Emily Chang, of Bloomberg, during a discussion entitled “Innovation That Empowers” during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau listens to Chile’s President Gabriel Boric during a informal dialogue and working lunch at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Thursday, Nov. 16, in San Francisco.

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President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping opened their first face-to-face meeting in more than a year Wednesday with a solid handshake ahead of talks with far-reaching implications for a world grappling with economic crosscurrents, wars in the Middle East and Europe, tensions in Taiwan and more.

The two leaders, meeting at a bucolic country estate in Woodside, which is south of San Francisco, are looking to get communication back on track after a tumultuous year and to show the world that while they are global economic competitors, they’re not locked in a winner-take-all face-off.

Biden arrived first and awaited Xi, who got out of a black car and took Biden’s hand before the two leaders walked a red carpet through the estate’s grand entrance with a Chinese flag on one side and an American flag on the other. Five Marines stood in formation.

U.S. President Joe Biden greets Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday in Woodside. | Courtesy the White House

Biden told Xi in his opening remarks: “It is paramount that you and I understand each other clearly, leader to leader, with no misconceptions or miscommunications. We have to ensure competition does not veer into conflict, and we also have to manage it responsibility, that competition. That’s what the United States wants, and what we intend to do. I also believe that’s what the world wants from both of us— candid exchange.”

Xi said he believed in the “promising future” of the bilateral relationship. 

Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a meeting with President Joe Biden at the Filoli estate in Woodside on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference. | Source: Doug Mills/The New York Times/AP/Pool

“The U.S.-China relationship has never been smooth sailing over the last 50 years or more, and it always faced problems of one kind or another. Yet it has kept moving forward amid twists and turns. For two large countries like the U.S. and China, turning our backs on each other is not an option.” 

Biden is expected to let Xi know that he would like China to use its sway over Iran to make clear that Tehran or its proxies should not take action that could lead to expansion of the Israel-Hamas war. The Biden administration also sees the Chinese, a big buyer of Iranian oil, as having considerable leverage with Iran, which is a major backer of Hamas.

Ahead of the meeting, senior White House officials said Biden would walk away with better, more concrete outcomes compared with their last meeting, in November 2022 in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit. There will be agreements from China to help stop the flow of chemicals used in the production of illicit fentanyl, and to revive communications between the militaries—increasingly important particularly as unsafe or unprofessional incidents between the two nations’ ships and aircraft have spiked.

President Joe Biden greets China’s President President Xi Jinping at the Filoli Estate in Woodside on Wednesday, Nov, 15, 2023, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference. | Source: Doug Mills/The New York Times/AP/Pool

Biden on Tuesday billed the meeting as a chance to get Washington and Beijing back “on a normal course corresponding” once again. 

Even before their meeting, there were some signs of a thaw: The State Department on Tuesday announced that the U.S. and China—two of the world’s biggest polluters—had agreed to pursue efforts to triple renewable energy capacity globally by 2030, through wind, solar and other renewables. 

They are in California for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, but they met one-on-one at Filoli estate, a country house and museum about 25 miles south of San Francisco. 

U.S. President Joe Biden listens during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Filoli estate in Woodside on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference. | Source: Doug Mills/The New York Times/AP/Pool

The APEC summit events already have attracted considerable demonstrations, and more were expected Wednesday, including protests against Xi and against multinational corporations focused on profits.

In the hours before the meeting, White House officials said Biden was coming into the talks bolstered by signs the U.S. economy is in a stronger position than China’s, and that the U.S. is building stronger alliances throughout the Pacific.

The U.S. president, speaking at a campaign fundraiser on Tuesday evening, pointed to his upcoming meeting as an example of how “reestablished American leadership in the world is taking hold.” As for China, the president told donors, it has ”real problems.”

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FILE – President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands before their meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit meeting, Nov. 14, 2022, in Nusa Dua, in Bali, Indonesia. As President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepare to meet at the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, basic information has remained guarded. That could ratchet up the pressure on how each side negotiates, down to the smallest detail. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, there will be no such thing as a small detail.

How they greet? If they eat? Where they sit? Will there be flowers? Bottled water or in a glass? “Pretty intense,” senior administration officials say of navigating delicate protocols.

Any encounter involving the president and a foreign leader means managing tricky logistics, political and cultural, and every occurrence or utterance can potentially jolt the world order. But few nations are more attuned to etiquette than the Chinese, and the often-conflicting interests between Washington and Beijing might mean the seemingly trivial becomes meaningful.

There’s probably “very detailed planning of the actual choreography of who enters a room where, if there will be pictures taken and all of that,” said Bonny Lin, senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Biden and Xi will meet while both attend next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. So far, even basic information has remained closely guarded. Statements Friday by China’s government didn’t mention the day or location. The White House, citing security concerns, says only that the meeting will be held “in the Bay area.”

That could only increase the pressure as both sides potentially haggle over everything from meeting time and length to who enters the room first. Will they use a table or easy chairs? What about security presence and interpreter access?

Then there is the more obviously substantive: Will there be a joint statement after the meeting and how much of the session will be in public view?

The plan is to set aside enough time for in-depth conversations on issues that will be divided into different sessions, senior administration officials say. That recalls Biden’s nearly three-hour meeting with Xi before the start of last year’s G-20 summit in Bali.

The officials also noted that this will be Xi’s first trip to the United States in six years, and his first to San Francisco since he was a provincial Communist Party secretary.

Victor Cha, former director for Asian Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, said organizing such meetings at APEC is easier than at a formal location. But, he said, hammering out talks on summit sidelines is still “a logistics nightmare.”

“China, normally, if they come to United States, they want everything. They want all the pomp and circumstance. They want the highest possible respect that can be paid to them,” Cha said. “That is politically not possible. And so, having APEC in San Francisco solves that problem in the sense that it’s not the official White House that’s hosting the meeting.”

Even informal settings can bring high stakes.

When President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, aiming to ease decades of animosity, he brought a new pair of shoes with rubber soles to climb the Great Wall.

President Barack Obama and Xi didn’t wear ties during their 2013 meeting at Sunnylands, a modernist mansion in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, California. It was news then that Obama stayed overnight there while the Chinese delegation returned to a nearby hotel.

President Donald Trump and Xi wore dark suits for dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida four years later. The meal featured what Trump called “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake.”

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, said that, for the upcoming meeting, Xi’s team likely pushed for a venue away from the APEC site and talks lasting longer than those in Bali.

“The Chinese want a separate summit,” she said.

The Chinese attach importance to the location, which this time may be more like Sunnylands than Anchorage, Alaska, where top U.S. and Chinese officials held rather tense 2021 talks. Chinese state media might fixate on the weather as a barometer for bilateral relations. Early forecasts are calling for rain with a high in the mid-60s for San Francisco.

Even on-site flowers could be important, as certain choices can symbolize harmony in Chinese culture. Plum blossom is a well-liked flower known in China for persevering amid harshness, while lotuses convey peace in the Chinese language. Chrysanthemums, by contrast, are associated with death.

Xi may expect Biden to greet him upon arrival. Xi’s team could also want the leaders photographed together without staff to convey a personal relationship.

“Chinese officials will want to project to their domestic audience that Xi is received by Biden with dignity and respect,” said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute. He suggested that required “imagery of both leaders interacting on a personal basis, beyond the customary handshake in front of a bank of flags in a hotel conference room.”

That could be as simple as a short walk together, Hass said. The Chinese also tend to emphasize food and might push for a meal.

During Nixon’s 1971 visit, a military honor guard greeted him at the airport, but the much-watched series of toasts from both sides came later, only after a shark fin banquet dish was served. China offered a Texas-style barbecue at a luxury Beijing hotel to fete President George H.W. Bush in 1989, but blocked his invitation of Fang Lizhi, then the country’s best-known dissident.

The APEC setting precludes a formal dinner. But lunch is possible. That’s despite Xi scheduling his trips down to the minute and often packing in so much that there’s no time to eat, according to a documentary on its diplomatic principles China released in 2017.

Both sides also always have security concerns. Obama wrote in his memoir of his 2009 China trip that his team was “instructed to leave any non-governmental electronic devices on the plane” and to operate assuming “that our communications were being monitored” and hotel rooms had hidden cameras.

Hillary Clinton’s 1995 Beijing visit as first lady turned heads for a different reason when she declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” So did then-first lady Laura Bush’s 2008 trip to the Olympics in Beijing after she stopped in Thailand and visited a refugee camp for people fleeing the government of China-backed Myanmar.

But protocols around U.S.-China leader interactions don’t always have to address espionage threats or human rights matters.

Obama’s daughter Sasha was 9 and studying Mandarin in school when she practiced a few phrases during a 2011 White House welcome ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao. When she and her sister Malia visited China with their mother, Michelle, on a goodwill tour three years later, the Chinese press dubbed the then-first lady “Mrs. Diplomatic.”

That trip featured a toboggan ride away from the press after a Great Wall visit, and a game of table tennis where Michelle Obama joked that her husband played the game and “thinks he’s better than he really is.” Yet what unfolded felt stiff to some. The write-up in The New York Times carried the headline: “Even With Ping-Pong, a Formal Meeting in China.”

___

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

The post Biden and Xi are set to satisfy subsequent week on the APEC summit. No element is simply too small to sweat appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, there will be no such thing as a small detail.

How they greet? If they eat? Where they sit? Will there be flowers? Bottled water or in a glass? “Pretty intense,” senior administration officials say of navigating delicate protocols.

Any encounter involving the president and a foreign leader means managing tricky logistics, political and cultural, and every occurrence or utterance can potentially jolt the world order. But few nations are more attuned to etiquette than the Chinese, and the often-conflicting interests between Washington and Beijing might mean the seemingly trivial becomes meaningful.

There’s probably “very detailed planning of the actual choreography of who enters a room where, if there will be pictures taken and all of that,” said Bonny Lin, senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Biden and Xi will meet while both attend next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. So far, even basic information has remained closely guarded. Statements Friday by China’s government didn’t mention the day or location. The White House, citing security concerns, says only that the meeting will be held “in the Bay area.”

That could only increase the pressure as both sides potentially haggle over everything from meeting time and length to who enters the room first. Will they use a table or easy chairs? What about security presence and interpreter access?

Then there is the more obviously substantive: Will there be a joint statement after the meeting and how much of the session will be in public view?

The plan is to set aside enough time for in-depth conversations on issues that will be divided into different sessions, senior administration officials say. That recalls Biden’s nearly three-hour meeting with Xi before the start of last year’s G-20 summit in Bali.

The officials also noted that this will be Xi’s first trip to the United States in six years, and his first to San Francisco since he was a provincial Communist Party secretary.

Victor Cha, former director for Asian Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, said organizing such meetings at APEC is easier than at a formal location. But, he said, hammering out talks on summit sidelines is still “a logistics nightmare.”

“China, normally, if they come to United States, they want everything. They want all the pomp and circumstance. They want the highest possible respect that can be paid to them,” Cha said. “That is politically not possible. And so, having APEC in San Francisco solves that problem in the sense that it’s not the official White House that’s hosting the meeting.”

Even informal settings can bring high stakes.

When President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, aiming to ease decades of animosity, he brought a new pair of shoes with rubber soles to climb the Great Wall.

President Barack Obama and Xi didn’t wear ties during their 2013 meeting at Sunnylands, a modernist mansion in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, California. It was news then that Obama stayed overnight there while the Chinese delegation returned to a nearby hotel.

President Donald Trump and Xi wore dark suits for dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida four years later. The meal featured what Trump called “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake.”

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, said that, for the upcoming meeting, Xi’s team likely pushed for a venue away from the APEC site and talks lasting longer than those in Bali.

“The Chinese want a separate summit,” she said.

The Chinese attach importance to the location, which this time may be more like Sunnylands than Anchorage, Alaska, where top U.S. and Chinese officials held rather tense 2021 talks. Chinese state media might fixate on the weather as a barometer for bilateral relations. Early forecasts are calling for rain with a high in the mid-60s for San Francisco.

Even on-site flowers could be important, as certain choices can symbolize harmony in Chinese culture. Plum blossom is a well-liked flower known in China for persevering amid harshness, while lotuses convey peace in the Chinese language. Chrysanthemums, by contrast, are associated with death.

Xi may expect Biden to greet him upon arrival. Xi’s team could also want the leaders photographed together without staff to convey a personal relationship.

“Chinese officials will want to project to their domestic audience that Xi is received by Biden with dignity and respect,” said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute. He suggested that required “imagery of both leaders interacting on a personal basis, beyond the customary handshake in front of a bank of flags in a hotel conference room.”

That could be as simple as a short walk together, Hass said. The Chinese also tend to emphasize food and might push for a meal.

During Nixon’s 1971 visit, a military honor guard greeted him at the airport, but the much-watched series of toasts from both sides came later, only after a shark fin banquet dish was served. China offered a Texas-style barbecue at a luxury Beijing hotel to fete President George H.W. Bush in 1989, but blocked his invitation of Fang Lizhi, then the country’s best-known dissident.

The APEC setting precludes a formal dinner. But lunch is possible. That’s despite Xi scheduling his trips down to the minute and often packing in so much that there’s no time to eat, according to a documentary on its diplomatic principles China released in 2017.

Both sides also always have security concerns. Obama wrote in his memoir of his 2009 China trip that his team was “instructed to leave any non-governmental electronic devices on the plane” and to operate assuming “that our communications were being monitored” and hotel rooms had hidden cameras.

Hillary Clinton’s 1995 Beijing visit as first lady turned heads for a different reason when she declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” So did then-first lady Laura Bush’s 2008 trip to the Olympics in Beijing after she stopped in Thailand and visited a refugee camp for people fleeing the government of China-backed Myanmar.

But protocols around U.S.-China leader interactions don’t always have to address espionage threats or human rights matters.

Obama’s daughter Sasha was 9 and studying Mandarin in school when she practiced a few phrases during a 2011 White House welcome ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao. When she and her sister Malia visited China with their mother, Michelle, on a goodwill tour three years later, the Chinese press dubbed the then-first lady “Mrs. Diplomatic.”

That trip featured a toboggan ride away from the press after a Great Wall visit, and a game of table tennis where Michelle Obama joked that her husband played the game and “thinks he’s better than he really is.” Yet what unfolded felt stiff to some. The write-up in The New York Times carried the headline: “Even With Ping-Pong, a Formal Meeting in China.”

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden meets Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, there will be no such thing as a small detail.

How they greet? If they eat? Where they sit? Will there be flowers? Bottled water or in a glass? “Pretty intense,” senior administration officials say of navigating delicate protocols.

Any encounter involving the president and a foreign leader means managing tricky logistics, political and cultural, and every occurrence or utterance can potentially jolt the world order. But few nations are more attuned to etiquette than the Chinese, and Washington and Beijing’s often-conflicting interests might mean the seemingly trivial becomes meaningful.

There’s probably “very detailed planning of the actual choreography of who enters a room where, if there will be pictures taken and all of that,” said Bonny Lin, senior fellow for Asian security and director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Biden and Xi will meet while both attend next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco, but even basic information has remained closely guarded. Statements Friday by China’s government didn’t mention the day or location, and the White House says only that the face-to-face will be held “in the Bay area,” citing security concerns.

That could only increase the pressure as both sides potentially haggle over everything from meeting time and length to who enters the room first. Will they use a table or easy chairs? What about security presence and interpreter access?

Then there is the more obviously substantive: whether there will be a post-meeting joint statement and how much of the session will be in public view.

The plan is to set aside enough time for in-depth conversations on issues that will be divided into different sessions, senior administration officials say. That recalls Biden’s nearly three-hour meeting with Xi before the start of last year’s G-20 summit in Bali.

The officials also noted that this will be Xi’s first trip to the U.S. in six years, and his first to San Francisco since he was a provincial Communist Party secretary.

Victor Cha, former Director for Asian Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, said organizing such meetings at APEC is easier than at a formal location. But, he said, hammering out talks on summit sidelines is still “a logistics nightmare.”

“China, normally, if they come to United States, they want everything. They want all the pomp and circumstance. They want the highest possible respect that can be paid to them,” Cha said. “That is politically not possible. And so, having APEC in San Francisco solves that problem in the sense that it’s not the official White House that’s hosting the meeting.”

Even informal settings can bring high stakes.

When President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, aiming to ease decades of animosity, he brought a new pair of shoes with rubber soles to climb the Great Wall.

President Barack Obama and Xi didn’t wear ties during their 2013 meeting at Sunnylands, a sumptuous, modernist mansion in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs, California. It was news then that Obama stayed overnight there while the Chinese delegation returned to a nearby hotel.

Donald Trump and Xi wore dark suits for dinner at Mar-a-Lago four years later, and the meal featured what the then-president called “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake.”

Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, said that, for the upcoming meeting, Xi’s team likely pushed for a venue away from the APEC site and talks lasting longer than Bali’s.

“The Chinese want a separate summit,” she said.

The Chinese attach importance to the location, which this time may be more like Sunnylands than Anchorage, where top U.S. and Chinese officials held rather tense 2021 talks. Chinese state media might fixate on the weather as a barometer for bilateral relations. Early forecasts are calling for rain with a high in the mid-60s for San Francisco.

Even on-site flowers could be important, as certain choices can symbolize harmony in Chinese culture. Plum blossom is a well-liked flower known in China for persevering amid harshness, while lotuses convey peace in the Chinese language. Chrysanthemums, by contrast, are associated with death.

Xi may expect Biden to greet him upon arrival. His team could also want him and Biden photographed together without staff to convey a personal relationship.

“Chinese officials will want to project to their domestic audience that Xi is received by Biden with dignity and respect,” said Ryan Hass, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institute. He suggested that required “imagery of both leaders interacting on a personal basis, beyond the customary handshake in front of a bank of flags in a hotel conference room.”

That could be as simple as a short walk together, Hass said. The Chinese also tend to emphasize food and might push for a meal.

During Nixon’s 1971 visit, a military honor guard greeted him at the airport, but the much-watched series of toasts from both sides came later, only after a shark fin banquet dish was served. China offered a Texas-style barbecue at a luxury Beijing hotel to fete President George H.W. Bush in 1989, but blocked his invitation of Fang Lizhi, then the country’s best-known dissident.

The APEC setting precludes a formal dinner. But lunch is possible. That’s despite Xi scheduling his trips down to the minute and often packing in so much that there’s no time to eat, according to a documentary on its diplomatic principles China released in 2017.

Both sides also always have security concerns. Obama wrote in his memoir of his 2009 China trip that his team was “instructed to leave any non-governmental electronic devices on the plane” and to operate assuming “that our communications were being monitored” and hotel rooms had hidden cameras.

Hillary Clinton’s 1995 Beijing visit turned heads for a different reason when she declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights.” So did Laura Bush’s 2008 trip to the Olympics in Beijing after she stopped in Thailand and visited a refugee camp for people fleeing the government of China-backed Myanmar.

But protocols around U.S.-China leader interactions don’t always have to address espionage threats or human rights matters.

Sasha Obama was 9 and studying Mandarin in grade school when she practiced a few phrases during a 2011 White House welcome ceremony for Chinese President Hu Jintao. When she and her sister, Malia, visited China with their mother, Michelle, on a goodwill tour three years later, the Chinese press dubbed the then-first lady “Mrs. Diplomatic.”

That trip featured a toboggan ride away from the press after a Great Wall visit, and a game of table tennis where Michelle Obama joked that her husband played the game and “thinks he’s better than he really is.” Yet what unfolded felt stiff to some. The write-up in The New York Times carried the headline: “Even With Ping-Pong, a Formal Meeting in China.”

__

Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.

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Kiyo Kobayashi is slight, soft-spoken and self-effacing, with an unruly tousle of black hair.

The silhouette he cuts is a far cry from Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone, but the 41-year-old could conceivably be called San Francisco’s Japanese startup godfather. He helped seed a community of like-minded immigrant founders who moved halfway around the globe to change the world from the Bay Area.

“I’m too old,” Kobayashi joked about the godfather label. “But I’m living the dream. Doing startups is my passion, and so is helping other founders.”

Through group chats, calls, dinners and daily feedback reports from younger founders laying out their activities, challenges and questions, his aim is to build up a stronger pathway for these entrepreneurs.

Kobayashi also serves as an advisor and an early-stage investor for dozens of startups from Japanese founders. “Kiyo’s Family” is a collection of around 25 Japanese immigrant entrepreneurs in San Francisco and 50 in the wider Bay Area he helped foster.

“We are probably the first generation of Japanese immigrant startup founders in the U.S.,” Kobayashi said. “Every time I see traction and good news, I feel like we should accumulate this value to the next generation.”

Around a dozen people met for a dinner party at the apartment of one of the group’s members on a recent balmy evening, sharing stories and advice over Korean short-rib stew and above the din of standing fans. These gatherings are a common occurrence for the family.

Kiyo Kobayashi, second right, has dinner at a friend’s home in San Francisco on Friday. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

When Japanese business leaders swing through the Bay Area, they will often stop by for a meeting or a meal as a way to glean insight into the entrepreneurial community.

Kobayashi himself has started and wound down a number of companies in the decade since he’s been in San Francisco. He’s currently working on a recruiting startup in the Web3 space, but his larger project is working to develop a sustainable pathway for Japanese immigrant founders.

Forging a Path

Kobayashi became a known figure in the Japanese business world when—spotting the coming opportunity enabled via smartphones—he founded Nobot in 2009, one of the country’s first mobile advertising companies. The real sea change came when he ended up selling his startup a couple years later to major telecom corporation KDDI for $19 million.

“It was essentially one of the first successful case studies of [mergers & acquisitions] in Japan,” said Kaz Tamai, founder and CEO of startup design firm Zypsy. “Back then, everyone thought M&A was a betrayal because you were passing along ownership to someone else. It was like selling your family.”

Kaz Tamai, right, speaks with a friend as they have dinner at a friend’s home with other startup founders brought together by Kiyo Kobayashi. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

But Tamai said the sale proved that the startup model could work and helped provide the foundations for what is increasingly becoming a thriving domestic startup ecosystem. According to data from Initial Enterprise, total venture capital funding in Japan has grown more than 16 times between 2009 and 2021, rising from $130 million to $2.2 billion.

Kobayashi tried to take Nobot international but was stymied by the domination of American tech giants like Google. The roadblock helped inspire him to move to San Francisco to create a company that could have global impact.

To hear it from Kobayashi, he arrived in the city in 2013 with no connections, no English skills and, really, no idea. His first stop was at language school to help him learn to communicate.

“In Japan, I was connected with pretty much every startup founder and investor,” Kobayashi said. “But when I moved here, I was treated like an elementary school kid because I couldn’t speak English.”

Kiyo Kobayashi receives a certificate after completing a language course during his early years in San Francisco. | Source: Courtesy Kiyo Kobayashi

Kobayashi notes that a community of Japanese founders at the time was virtually nonexistent, a stark contrast to the strong connections made among immigrant entrepreneurs from Asian countries like India, South Korea and China.

Those early days were filled with plenty of discomfort and shame. Kobayashi said he was scammed a few times by those offering to provide connections or help with the business and visa processes. Through painful trial and error, Kobayashi was able to build up the right set of contacts to help others in his situation with business incorporation and immigration issues.

One of his early protégés was Satoru “Steve” Naito, the CEO of Anyplace, which offers furnished apartments with high-speed internet for remote workers. Naito was writing a blog about his experiences in Silicon Valley after he arrived in 2014, and Kobayashi reached out to connect.

Kobayashi helped inspire Naito and a handful of entrepreneurs like Tamai to root themselves in San Francisco instead of retreating back to Japan and provided meals, advice and some initial seed funding. The group would often tag-team meetings together to help one another communicate with limited English skills.

“When I moved to San Francisco, I didn’t speak English. I didn’t have money. I didn’t have friends,” Naito said. Ordering a cup of coffee at Starbucks was a challenge, Naito said, and often led to cloyingly sweet drinks.

Satoru “Steve” Naito has dinner at a friend’s home with other startup founders brought together by Kiyo Kobayashi. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

To help build a home base for the community, the group started a shared house in Balboa Park that worked as a living space for Japanese founders. Although described lovingly by Naito as a crowded and messy dorm, the home accommodated hundreds of prospective founders and visitors.

“It became a good place for Japanese people to land in San Francisco and be together and exchange information,” Naito said.

The group also continued to write for a Japanese audience, blogging online about their experiences in Silicon Valley and interviewing other founders and members of the local tech industry to spread word of their activities.

Kohei Nagata, founder of blockchain startup Senate, said he was inspired to come to San Francisco five years ago after reading Naito’s own account of moving to the city despite not knowing any English.

He started speaking to Kobayashi after connecting on social media. What started out as occasional conversations during household chores turned into daily feedback sessions.

“There were times when there was no point in using his time to help, when I had no hope literally,” Nagata said. “But he still kept trying to give me advice every single day.”

Nagata didn’t hesitate to say that, without that line of support, he would have already left the city.

Kohei Nagata has dinner at a friend’s home with other startup founders brought together by Kiyo Kobayashi. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

“In order to keep grinding for that startup dream,” he said, “you have to believe in yourself, sure, but you have to have someone who believes in more than you do yourself. That’s the feeling Kiyo gave me.”

Family Time

Kobayashi lives in Mission Bay with his wife and two small children. More than a dozen other entrepreneurs have moved to his apartment building or his neighborhood to be nearby for advice and a stronger network of support.

Kobyashi’s mentorship provides a warm embrace for many folks who move to San Francisco with few connections. He and his wife host regular events like barbecues or weekend trips, and he said he considers the community of founders part of his extended family. He also brings together small groups of founders at the start of each year to set their intentions and share their learnings and mistakes.

Datz Daito is an entrepreneur who was drawn to building a global tech startup in San Francisco, moving to the city as a teenager in 2019. Daito runs DeStore, an apparel shop in Hayes Valley that operates with a collective decision-making model by the company’s members.

Instead of rooting around in the proverbial darkness, these immigrants found that Kiyo’s Family provided a way to plug into investors, mentorship and a place to live. There’s a team spirit that fosters a feeling of camaraderie. A win for one founder is a win for their entire family.

Datz Daito, left, has dinner with other startup founders brought together by Kiyo Kobayashi. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

“If anybody’s successful, they add more value to the overall ecosystem, and the probability for success for everyone is higher,” Daito said.

Sumino Koiso, found her way into the community during her first trip to San Francisco through her mentor, who is a member of Kiyo’s Family. Now, she relies on their connections to find trustworthy accountants and lawyers to guide her through the visa process.

Her working theory on why there’s been only a limited number of Japanese immigrant founders has to do with a discomfort with speaking English in professional settings and a cultural fear of failure, which leads to calculated risks rather than the wide swings in fortune seen in Silicon Valley.

There’s also the relative geographic isolation of Japan, which has a strong domestic economy, as well as an internal business culture difficult to penetrate for outsiders.

She struggled to find the right words to characterize how she and other members feel when returning to Japan, so she used a translation app on her phone.

Sumino Koiso, left, and Misaki Kobayashi, right, chat during a dinner gathering of startup founders brought together by Kiyo Kobayashi. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

“Societally unfit,” the screen read when she turned it around. “We’re different because we can take these risks and tell our thoughts directly which for some Japanese people make them uncomfortable.”

Although there have been a handful of Cinderella stories for Asian immigrant startup founders like Zoom’s Eric Yuan, that level of success has thus far eluded Japanese immigrant entrepreneurs.

Kobayashi believes that the Japanese are great at following role models, but someone needs to act as a trailblazer. He wants to be part of the team proving that having success is possible. For an analogy, he turned to baseball’s Ichiro Suzuki, who was the first Japanese position player to find success in Major League Baseball.

The startup journey is, for the most part, defined by failure. And many entrepreneurs in the network said Kobayashi’s most valuable advice was in dealing with personal and business failures and giving them confidence to move forward.

Kiyo Kobayashi has a discussion during dinner at a friend’s home in San Francisco on Friday. | Source: Philip Pacheco for The Standard

Kobayashi has weathered his own share of failures in his entrepreneurial journey. On particularly rough days, he’ll pop into a neighboring apartment where a number of Japanese founders live and work.

“I’ll have dinner with them, and I’ll ask if they have any problems that I can help them with,” Kobayashi said. “It’s confirming that the reason why I am a founder and an entrepreneur is to help others.”

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Nine years after dancing for fun with middle school friends, Eric Payan is still playing around.

But he’s far beyond busting sick moves at Literacy First Charter School in El Cajon.

Starting Tuesday night, Payan leads his five-member Fuego Dance Crew on NBC’s “World of Dance.” (It later moves to Sundays.)

Fuego Dance Crew (from left) Lewis Torres, Eric Payan, Andretty Lucatero, Paul Lopez and Shawn Jones Nguyen. Photo by Chris Stone

The reality show judged by executive producer Jennifer “J.Lo” Lopez and fellow dancers Derek Hough and Ne-Yo (with host Scott Evans) has a cool top prize: $1 million.

Payan’s San Diego-based hip-hop unit was one of 16 chosen from around the world to compete in the Upper Team division (18-and-older) of Season 3 at Universal Studios in the L.A. suburb of Universal City. (Other crews come from South Korea, India, Norway and France.)

If Fuego wins the division, which also includes groups from Arizona, Florida, San Mateo and L.A., it competes against the best urban dance crews in three other categories.

Fuego — Spanish for “fire” but also meaning “cool” and “sexy” — has competed on the older “World of Dance” circuit for several years. The crew is known for its hundreds of videos, many on YouTube, with original music and themes such as football and video games.

They’ve toured dozens of area high schools and Payan even dances in an upcoming movie: “Simple Twist.”

“Now the main goal is to make the music move us,” Payan said before practice Wednesday at a Rolando apartment gym. “We literally make our own style — dance in ways that you can’t expect us to dance.”

Like recess at Literacy First, “we go in the studio with a mind-set of: Let’s just create and have a good time and see what we can get out of ourselves.”

Fuego’s 3- to 5-minute sets on the World of Dance tour include styles from popping and locking to robotic moves, krump and flips. But on TV, they’ll be limited to 90-second routines.

“There’s always ways to improve,” Payan said. “So even if we’re really, really, really solid to the regular human eye. … till the day of [competition], we’re making stuff better, perfecting everything.”

That means practicing four or five times a week, often after 9 p.m. because of work obligations. Fuego has about 15 dancers overall — including some in Mexico — but its top five will carry the brand on NBC (9 p.m.).

Payan says Fuego tried out for Season 2 of “World of Dance” but “kind of bombed” in the tryout.

But last July — after finding an invitation routed to his junk mail — Fuego went to a Season 3 tryout in the Burbank area, where producers said: “We love you guys — you’re going to the next stage.”

That led to an August and September of “talking and paperwork” and “a lot of phone calls,” and help from some parents on legal matters (since they have no formal manager).

Ranging in age from 18 to 23, the group poised for national fame Tuesday includes Paul Lopez, Andretty Lucatero, Lewis Torres and Shawn Jones Nguyen. (All are single except Lucatero.)

And all are mainly self-taught except Jones Nguyen, trained in ballet, jazz and modern dance at the School of Creative and Performing Arts in San Diego. He earlier attended the Creative, Performing and Media Arts Middle School in Clairemont.

The crew’s name originally had a religious bent: “Fire for God.” But Fuego — coined by Payan pal Richard Mendoza — “kind of stuck and it’s a catchy name — one word.” Fans would say of a routine: “That was fire, that was heat.”

Fuego has performed at more than 40 high schools, where girls started saying: “We have the Fuego fever.” Some began calling the crew a boy band — which even led to a formal offer that they be turned into a musical group.

Fuego turned it down.

“We didn’t come into this crew with any set style. We kind of watched people — and got to the point where we stopped watching everybody and just focused on ourselves,” Payan says.

In 2017, Fuego took third place in World of Dance San Diego, trailing much larger dance groups.

At first, the San Diegans were angered by some judge’s scores.

“Over time, we realized that everyone has their own opinion, and it’s a lot of politics involved, too,” said one member. “Sometimes we actually do screw up on stage. Sometimes we aren’t as clean.”

Fuego once found it a challenge to beat the big groups.

Story continues below

Eric Payan of Fuego Dance Crew says: “It’s all a mental game. If you’re not there 100 percent with your passion, you’re not going to do your best.” Photo by Chris Stone

Andretty Lucatero strikes a push-up pose while practicing on a rainy Wednesday night at a Rolando apartment complex gym. Photo by Chris Stone

Andretty Lucatero says he expects to stay with Fuego Dance Crew at least five or six more years. Photo by Chris Stone

Fuego’s Eric Payan says: “Every second has to be effective, and in the process of creating the routine we had to make it (over) 2, 3, 4, 5 times and create some new stuff.” Photo by Chris Stone

Shawn Nguyen says Fuego gets together with other crews to have a freestyle session. “And we do that so we can all become better as freestylers. … and expand our horizons.” Photo by Chris Stone

Fuego Dance Crew practices four or five times a week at a variety of San Diego locations. Photo by Chris Stone

“But then over the years we figured out how to just do our thing better than what they do. And now we compete with them and take on all of them,” the crew says.

Their advantage: “Pretty much everything you see in a performance is exclusively ours. No one has that exact mix. The moves are created toward the music.”

Payan says Fuego spends most of its time making sure that “every single part of the routine … goes to the music exactly 100 percent. If it’s off, or doesn’t agree with the song, we’ll … go back and fix it.”

Fuego members say they’ve been inspired by dance stars from Michael Jackson to the current crew JabbaWockeeZ. Photo by Chris Stone

They don’t have a coach, so they assure synchronization several ways. They watch tapes of their rehearsals, have one member dancing for the other four, or let one member critique how the other four perform a routine.

Ideas for moves also come from other San Diego dance crews — Payan takes his troupe to locations where freestyle dancers show off.

But Payan is the main choreographer, with others chipping in ideas. It’s “all from our own heads” since middle school, he said. “I’ll literally mix stuff together.”

Even without a dance studio to call its own, Fuego has evolved into a tightknit family, which expects to stay together for years.

Their newest star, Jones Nguyen, “came out of nowhere,” Payan said.

While observing Fuego at the Rolando gym, Jones Nguyen said: “‘Hey, I want to freestyle.’ And we said: ‘Yeah, cool. Do your thing.’ And he was pretty good. He was younger, but he was quicker than some of my other guys,” Payan said.

At the July tryout, “we were all sweating superhard,” he said. “We really killed the tryout. That’s when I realized — yeah, this five can make it work.”

Fuego is forbidden from saying how they did on the show, taping for several months. But Payan says the advantage his crew has over others is its “creativity and cleanliness” — coordination.

“We also want to get to the point where we can expand our horizon and do crazy flips and stuff,” he said. “There are routines we see people just have tricks, tricks, tricks. And it’s really strong. But after a while you kind of [get] lost in that.”

Payan’s longterm dream is turning Fuego into what he calls the first multigenerational dance crew — with spinoff groups such as Fuego Dance Crew Canada and Fuego Dance Crew Peru.

If Fuego keeps the attitude that “what we’re doing is bigger than our problems,” he said, “I think we’ll go further than we ever thought. I think it’ll go for a long time.”

Eric Payan: “We didn’t come into this crew with any set style. We kind of watched people — and got to the point where we stopped watching everybody and just focused on ourselves. That’s when we started developing our own style.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: San Diego
Joined crew in: 2010
Graduated: West Hills High School (Santee) in 2015
Lives in: Santee
Recent jobs: Dance studio teacher, chimney sweep, Uber driver
Nickname: Phaze

Paul Lopez in high school was a pitcher, running back, cornerback and wrestler. Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: *San Diego
Joined crew in: 2012
Graduated: Chula Vista High School in 2016
Lives in: Chula Vista
Recent job: Dance studio teacher

Andretty Lucatero says leader Eric Payan has “been pushing us really hard lately. Taking the crew in a good direction.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: *San Diego
Joined crew in: 2015
Graduated: Grossmont High School (El Cajon) in 2015
Lives in: El Cajon
Recent job: Sushi chef
Nickname: Dreads

Lewis Torres says: “If everyone is of the same mind-set … we’ll stay together a good 5-10 years.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: Chula Vista
Joined crew in: 2017
Graduated: El Capitan High School (Lakeside) in 2013
Lives in: Murrieta, Riverside County
Nickname: Legacy

Shawn Jones Nguyen, who graduates from high school this spring, says: “Dancing uses a lot of your muscles, a lot of brain power.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: San Diego
Joined crew in: 2018
Graduating: School of Creative and Performing Arts (San Diego) in 2019
Lives in: Poway
Nickname: Shong

Updated at 2 p.m. Feb. 23, 2019

*Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported place of birth.

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In September 2022, a major data center operator based in the western suburbs of Chicago was facing a dilemma that has become all too common in today’s climate.

The delivery of the power distribution units, or PDUs, the operator relied on to keep centers running was extremely late, delaying the opening of a new 185K SF facility. This delay was costing time and money and keeping clients from gaining access to the data storage they needed. 

Thankfully for these operators, they were working with Clune Construction, a Chicago-based general contracting firm with offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Over the last few years, Clune has adopted strategies for overcoming the supply chain issues that have been plaguing data center construction. 

After the client decided to select an alternative brand of PDUs in case its preferred choice didn’t arrive, Clune Senior Vice President and Senior MEP Coordinator Joe Zobel and his team devised a plan to prep the location so they could work with either solution. 

“We needed to accommodate multiple choices,” Zobel said. “This way if our client were to change their minds on which equipment to install, there would not be any cost impact. It gave them the freedom to make the right decision for their facility.”  

He added that there were 75 of these units, so it would have been very costly and time-consuming for this data center client if an adjustment to its new facility was needed to accommodate a last-minute decision to go with a different solution. Having freedom like this has become particularly important for data center operators, who have been dealing with significant project delays since the pandemic began, which led to major supply chain disruptions. 

While these disruptions have impacted every asset class, Zobel said that they can be particularly devastating for data centers, which are mission-critical facilities that can cost companies thousands of dollars for every second they aren’t operational. 

“As soon as construction is completed, data centers can net a lot of income for our clients,” he said. “So if there are delays and they can’t receive a month or two of rent from their clients, it can be significant. It can also make those who are renting the space consider other options.” 

The Clune team has decades of combined data center experience, so it is uniquely positioned to understand these challenges and devise strategies to overcome them. In recent years, these strategies have included developing new workflows to minimize the impact of delays. 

When Clune is awarded a project, its team analyzes the specified equipment and materials and is upfront with the client about the lead times it can expect for these items. If necessary, it proposes alternatives that can be purchased immediately to ensure the best price. 

“We adjust the bidding process to reflect what we are seeing in the design and the potential delays that may arise from it,” Zobel said. “We view our clients as partners, and the more we collaborate with them and understand what needs to happen and by what date, the better we can meet their schedule.” 

Zobel’s role as mechanical, electric and plumbing, or MEP, coordinator at Clune has also evolved as the company continues to work to meet its data center clients’ needs. He said that while Clune has always partnered with clients and taken responsibility for the equipment, now, when there appears to be no end in sight for supply chain delays, the team is going above and beyond to ensure clients are getting the materials they need. 

“We have weekly calls with all vendors and we get into every detail of their fabrication schedule. This helps confirm that they have all the necessary parts from their vendors to build the equipment,” Zobel said. “If they are having trouble obtaining a part, we then get on the phone with the engineer of record to decide if we can recommend an alternative  to keep the flow going.” 

His team also includes its trade partners on these calls to discuss installation methods with the vendors. The goal is to make sure that all parties completely understand how everything should be installed so Clune is aware of and can prepare for any changes that must be made at the factory.

Zobel said that in the past, factory witness tests where the Clune team would go and personally test every piece of equipment being manufactured were common practice. These visits can be expensive, and over the years, clients stopped requiring them. Now, however, as supply chain issues persist, Clune has brought this practice back, letting clients know which pieces of equipment are worth the trip to test in person. 

“Sometimes it’s because the information we’re receiving from the factory isn’t clear,” he said. “Other times, there are elements that could potentially pose field-related challenges if we don’t verify it prior to their arrival at our site. Our motto in these scenarios is, ‘Trust, but verify.’” 

As a result, Zobel said Clune and its factory partners have been able to strengthen their relationships. In the past, vendors have occasionally tried to resolve minor issues before sharing the problem with Clune or its clients, he explained. 

“We have created an environment so if they have to, they are able to give us bad news, even if the bad news is only a possibility. This way we can decide if we need to make a change in the field,” Zobel said. “There’s no penalty. We just want the truth. The more we know, the better we can mitigate the problem.” 

He said that to better plan for the future and the likelihood of continued supply delays, Clune is developing a database of lessons learned and things to look for so it has more details to share with its partners and its teams across the country. 

“The more information we have, the more tools we gain to help us make the best decisions for our clients,” he said. 

This article was produced in collaboration between Clune Construction and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com. 

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