Chambers and local businesses

I was excited to see some of my favorite local businesses celebrated. 

David Paulley, founder of The Clay Life Art Studio, took home his third consecutive Best of San Mateo Area award. I first met David at the studio’s first “Parent & Kid” throwing classes when my sister and I took our kids — we still use the plates and bowls made on that day. A self-taught potter who learned the ins and outs of managing a ceramics studio on the coastside, Paulley opened his own studio in 2022 with a dream that was less about commerce and more about community. He envisioned a place where people could find their calm and work with their hands. Three years of consecutive winning community votes suggest he has delivered on exactly that. 

Then there is Maggie de Vera, a licensed marriage and family therapist and director of addiction studies at College of San Mateo, opened Chill Spot Rendezvous in downtown San Mateo in late 2024 with a vision rooted in creating a space for anyone to gather and feel at home. Her first year of business included a car crashing through the storefront, forcing a temporary closure, which is devastating for a new brick-and-mortar small business, and a burglary the following week. 

Chill Spot eventually reopened, kept building and, on Thursday, won the Mayor’s Award for best new local business. I had the pleasure of tasting many of Maggie’s delicious ice creams one afternoon a few months ago — she takes great care in offering dairy free and other diet-friendly alternatives so everyone can walk through their doors and enjoy a treat. 

Candace Dombkowski, a longtime local favorite who is frequently recommended to others on online mom groups, took the award for Best Hair Salons/Stylists. This local mom has for several years split her time between volunteering and then working at her kids’ elementary school and helping people of all ages feel more confident in their own skin. 

Events like these are an important reminder of how important local businesses are to a thriving region.

“The economic vitality of our community comes from small businesses, major corporations, nonprofits, and volunteers working in partnership,” incoming San Mateo Area Chamber CEO Sonja Tappan said. “When we collaborate with shared purpose, our local economy thrives.”

Stories like these don’t happen without infrastructure to support. San Mateo County has spent decades building a layered ecosystem of organizations whose collective purpose is to make local business survivable and worth investing in. The San Mateo Area Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown San Mateo Association, Chamber San Mateo County and SAMCEDA, the county’s oldest business organization founded in 1953, each operate at different scales and with different mandates, but they coordinate across an increasingly connected region, sharing a belief that thriving local businesses are not a byproduct of a healthy community but the precondition for one.

One thing I wasn’t aware of until becoming active with our chambers is how involved they are with supporting professional development. The San Mateo Area Chamber’s LeadForward program brings together a cohort of leaders for a three-day immersive retreat focused on local issues, service and civic connection. Chamber San Mateo County runs a 10-month leadership program that sends participants through monthly deep dives with decision-makers across business, government, education and the nonprofit sector, culminating each year in a Civic Engagement Day held this year in Redwood City. I had the opportunity last week to join as a panelist, discussing the evolving civic landscape, the role technology and social media play in shaping (and sometimes distorting) the community discourse and how this past election differed from prior cycles. 

San Mateo County houses some of the most consequential technology companies in the world while also being made up of hundreds of neighborhoods where the local businesses and passing conversations are what define daily life. The chambers and economic development organizations working here understand that both things are true simultaneously, and that the health of one doesn’t automatically protect the other. Small businesses need advocacy, visibility and a community that shows up for them. Thirty-four-thousand votes is one way a community does that. Supporting the organizations that provide year-round scaffolding is another. And most importantly, our community’s residents absolutely must put forth the effort to support the shop down the street from home.