Black business owner breaks barriers

Black business is Black history, and Black Americans have been taking control of their lives through entrepreneurship since the 1800s.

There is no shortage of hubs and articles all over the Internet speaking to the importance of supporting Black businesses and listing businesses to patronize for Black History Month in February.

Black history is tied to Black business and wealthbuilding. Black people owning businesses gives their community a home base, from restaurants to beauty salons and barber shops. In Concord, the Aquarian Era New Age shop personifies the Black imperative to create something for the community and to support that community with what has been created.

At Aquarian Era, you can find items for “sound healing,” walls of incense and no shortage of healing crystals. Owner

Council rejects CNWS term sheet; sets Seeno ‘free’

The Concord City Council is looking for their third Concord Naval Weapons Station master developer after rejecting Concord First Partners’ proposed term sheet at a tedious and contentious 13 hour marathon meeting over two Saturdays in January.

At the Jan. 28 meeting continued from Jan. 7, Councilmembers Laura Nakamura, Laura Hoffmeister and Carlyn Obringer voted to reject the term sheet granting Albert Seeno III’s emotional plea for the council to either approve it or “set us free.”

Melvin Thompson believes in offering his customers and friends the healing items that have helped him. But, he notes, in the Black community, it doesn’t do any good to preach. People can be skeptical, so he shares what he knows and lets them decide.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

As a Black man trying to start a business, Thompson faced a variety of barriers. What makes Aquarian Era a piece of Concord’s Black history is that he didn’t care and he didn’t give up.

For him, Black history is a history of stigma. “(People) look at me like I should sell drugs or I’m supposed to sell CDs or something like that. So I always get that negative feedback from people.”

And trying to get a landlord to rent a location or a bank to offer a loan? It was a nonstarter for years.

“Every time I tried to open a shop in my neighborhood or in my area where I was living (at the time) in Pittsburg, they would give me a hard time and give me the run around,” says Thompson, whose rags to riches story is about realizing a dream.

See Aquarian, page 4

“You can trash us, you can trash me, you can embarrass me in front of my partners and my union friends,” Seeno told the Council. “Just let us know our destiny so we can move on and deploy our $20 or $30 million somewhere else…”

Seeno holds a 45% interest in the partnership that includes The Lewis Companies and Oakland businessman Phil Tagami.

Councilmembers Dominic Aliano and Edi Birsan voted to approve the term sheet.

“This is the best term sheet we will ever see,” said Aliano who is strongly pro labor. Birsan defended his vote in an impassioned 45-minute “talk fest” that touted the local Seeno company over the publicly held Brookfield Corporation, also a master developer contender— preferring “Main Street over Wall Street,” he said.

In Feb. 2020, the Council’s previous developer, Lennar Five Point, walked away from the $6 billion, 2,225-acre project after failing to reach a wall-to-wall project labor agreement with the building and trades unions. Lennar could not make the deal “pencil out” at their required

See Seeno, page 3