The Bay

On Tuesday, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza in an 8-3 vote, making it the largest city in the country to do so. San Francisco trails other cities in the Bay Area like Richmond and Oakland who’ve passed similar resolutions meant to put pressure on Israel and the Biden administration. Episode Transcript This episode was produced by Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Maria Esquinca, and Alan Montecillo and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since its founding in 1969, People’s Park has been a symbol of Berkeley’s radical history of protest, resistance and mutual aid. But after years of efforts by UC Berkeley to build on the land, the university is getting closer and closer to taking back control. KQED's Vanessa Rancaño breaks it down. Transcript Links: A Brief History of the Never-Ending Battle for People’s Park Berkeley Locals Lament the Closure of People’s Park as Shipping Container Barricades Go Up This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca, Ericka Cruz Guevarra, and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Additional reporting by Adhiti Bandlamudi. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A recall effort to remove Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price from office is well underway, but when voters will actually be asked this question is still up in the air. A lot needs to happen before we get to that point, including one consequential decision voters will have to make in March that will have a big impact on how recalls work in Alameda County. This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Ericka Cruz Guevarra, who is also the host. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Foggy days are a fact of life in the Bay Area, but climate change could lead to fewer of them in the coming years. While that might be welcome news to some, the truth is fog is an important weather phenomenon for all kinds of reasons. In this episode of Bay Curious, KQED reporter Dana Cronin demystifies the mist and finds out what we might expect for the future of fog. Episode Transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Time flies, time is money, time waits for no one. We are so conditioned to obsess over time, how we use it, and getting the most out of it – or else, we feel guilty. In this episode of KQED’s Forum, co-hosts Becca Rashid and Ian Bogost of the Atlantic’s ‘How to Keep Time’ talk with Grace Won about optimizing “free” time, and why we struggle to comfortably do nothing. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay team is sharing each of their favorite episodes of 2023. This episode, picked by editor Alan Montecillo, first published on June 28. In it, we hear from Gwenn Craig, a queer elder who reflects on the transformation — and corporatization — of San Francisco Pride, and why it still matters now more than ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay team is sharing each of their favorite episodes of 2023. This episode, picked by producer Maria Esquinca, was first published on Nov. 15. In it, KQED reporter and producer Blanca Torres talks about a nonprofit that organized accordion classes to help farm workers affected by the Half Moon Bay shooting heal from their trauma. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bay team is sharing each of their favorite episodes of 2023. This episode, picked by host Ericka Cruz Guevarra, was first published on June 12. In it, The Bay team visits a pickleball court in Oakland’s Bushrod Park, where the sport has grown in part because of its intergenerational draw. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sandy Stier and Kris Perry were plaintiffs in a landmark case challenging California’s Prop 8, which banned gay marriage in 2008. Their trial went all the way to the Supreme Court, and would eventually restore marriage equality to California. This year, KQED invited Stier and Perry to watch unsealed tapes from the trial of their younger selves taking the stand for marriage equality, and to reflect on what it meant to be part of that fight all these years later. Episode Transcript Links: Inside the Trial That Overturned California's Same-Sex Marriage Ban This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca, Adhiti Bandlamudi, and Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nestled in the Berkeley Hills, Indian and Mortar rocks are popular hangout spots known in part for epic views of the Bay. For climbers like Berkeleyside reporter Ally Markovich, they’re known for their outsized role in the development of bouldering. But for the native Ohlone, the boulders are a symbol of a destroyed cultural landscape, and an urgent call to protect native history. Links: Transcript Part I: The stories Indian and Mortar rocks can tell us Part II: How Berkeley’s famous boulders took rock climbing to new heights This episode was hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra and produced by Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Maria Esquinca, and Adhiti Bandlamudi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two very Bay Area crises – sea level rise and the housing crisis – are colliding in the East Bay city of Newark, where the city will consider plans to build housing on one of the few remnants of the Bay’s vast marshland. It’s a fight for the marshes’ future, which environmentalists say should be maintained as natural flood protection. Links: Bay Area Housing Project Raises Concerns About Sea-Level Rise This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite the many languages spoken in the Bay Area, Alameda and Solano Counties only send out emergency alerts in English, leaving at least one in ten Bay Area residents at risk of missing life-saving information in the face of disaster. El Timpano senior reporter Jasmine Aguilera explains why that is, and which counties are succeeding in disseminating critical information to everyone. Links: ALERT: This is an emergency — but for English speakers only The Tiny Radio Station Relaying Critical Kincade Fire Information in Indigenous Languages Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our beautiful state is in danger. Human-caused climate change has dramatically increased the risk of destructive wildfires — and now we anticipate them every year. So how do we process the grief of what we’re losing? And how can we use that pain as fuel to make change? Links: Grieving California Good Grief Network This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. The interview was conducted by Erin Baldassari. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Patti Poppe started a new job as CEO of PG&E in 2021, after the company emerged from bankruptcy for the second time in two decades. She sat down with KQED’s Marisa Lagos and Scott Shafer of the Political Breakdown podcast to discuss the future of the utility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California State University system is the largest public university system in the nation. This week, faculty at four campuses — Cal Poly Pomona, San Francisco State, Cal State Los Angeles, and Sacramento State — launched a series of 1-day strikes. KQED’s Juan Carlos Lara takes us to Tuesday’s strike at SF State, where faculty and staff say they’re fed up with working conditions, low pay, and looming job cuts. Episode transcript This episode was produced by Ericka Cruz Guevarra and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brooklyn Basin is poised to become Oakland’s largest housing project, promising 3,700 new homes on the site of a former shipping dock. In a state where building just about anything can be a challenge, how did this one finally get off the ground? Links: Episode transcript Oakland's Largest Housing Project Aims to Build 3,700 Homes On-Site This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California Forever, the group of Silicon Valley investors and billionaires who want to build a new city from scratch in Solano County, are on something of a public relations campaign. The group held its first town hall meeting in Vallejo on Wednesday night. And it will be the first of many — because if they really want to build a new city on the county’s outskirts, they’ll need to win over the hearts and minds of voters first. Links: Episode transcript LISTEN: The Silicon Valley Giants Who Want to Build a New City in Solano County This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Francisco has banned street vending on Mission Street for 90 days, citing concerns about crime and sales of stolen goods. It’s the latest in a long saga around public safety in the neighborhood. KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman explains how we got here and what this means for vendors. Links: Episode transcript KQED: SF’s Mission Street Ban Begins KQED: On First Day of Mission Street Vending Ban, Vendors Implore City to Reconsider This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition of The Bay's monthly news roundup (our last one of the year!), Ericka, Maria and Alan talk about how public transit agencies have temporarily averted a fiscal cliff, a proposal to increase the minimum wage for incarcerated workers, and the newly unveiled Tupac Shakur Way in Oakland. Links: Episode transcript In Transit: Bay Area Transportation News on Everything That Moves KQED: California Prison Officials Aim to Raise Hourly Minimum Wage for Incarcerated Workers — to at Least 16 Cents KQED: 'Tupac Shakur Way' Unveiled in Oakland as Rap Icon Gets His Own Street This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca, Alan Montecillo and Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Starting in January, PG&E ratepayers can expect their monthly bills to increase by an average of about $30. The utility says the money will go toward important infrastructure projects, including work on power lines that will reduce the risk of wildfires. But is this the best way to pay for it? Links: PG&E Gets Green Light to Raise Rates for Wildfire Prevention Efforts Episode transcript This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and guest hosted by Alan Montecillo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As an anxious, homeschooled kid, Mychal Threets found a haven in his local public library. Now he’s a librarian in Fairfield, and he’s recently become famous for talking about his passion for books and libraries on TikTok. In this episode we’re re-running from Rightnowish, host Pendarvis Harshaw and producer Marisol Medina-Cadena talk to Threets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, Oakland returned 5 acres of Joaquin Miller Park to the Sogorea Te’ land trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan, marking the first time a Bay Area city has given land back to Native Americans. Despite no significant opposition to this plan, the process took more than 5 years. So what does it actually take to give land back? This episode originally aired on Nov. 28, 2022. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last summer, Ericka told a story live on stage at KQED, at an event hosted by the San Francisco chapter of the Asian American Journalists’ Association called “Hella Asian.” It’s a story about a camping trip she went on with her best friend during the pandemic. It’s also a story about the mental impact of the news, and her sense of safety as attacks on Asians were in the headlines. Today, we’re sharing that story again. This episode originally aired on Aug. 8, 2022. This episode was produced by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With thousands of people taking to the streets on either side of the issue of Israel’s siege of Gaza, how are the Bay Area’s representatives in Congress weighing their position on the issue? Links: Apply to be our intern! This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca, Ericka Cruz Guevarra and Guy Marzorati, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In January, a gunman killed 7 farmworkers at two mushroom farms in Half Moon Bay. Months later, one community group has been trying to use accordion classes as a way to help farmworkers heal from the trauma. Links: Apply to be our intern! Episode transcript This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A quarter of California’s carbon emissions come from homes and buildings -- from the appliances we use to keep ourselves warm and our families fed. In this episode of KQED’s Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, we head to a neighborhood in Oakland that is taking a revolutionary approach to reducing their emissions: by electrifying together, all at once. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Next week, San Francisco is hosting its largest international event since 1945. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference — or APEC — is expected to bring tens of thousands of visitors and foreign dignitaries to the city. With lots to prove to its guests, including President Joe Biden, San Francisco has ramped up preparations that have already affected local residents. Links: Apply to be our intern! APEC 2023 San Francisco City Guide KQED: From Street Closures to Security Checks, What to Know About SF APEC 2023 This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As red states pass laws targeting transgender rights and LGBTQ-inclusive education, conservatives in the South Bay have formed their own strategy: focusing on local, nonpartisan school board races. Episode transcript This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Foster City is home to one of the largest annual gatherings of Palestinians in the Bay Area. It’s also where Councilmember Sam Hindi holds office as the only current elected official of Palestinian heritage in the region. Today, we talk with Hindi about how the war in Gaza has affected him — as an elected official, as a father, and as a Palestinian-American. This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California has lifted a decades-old ban on lowrider cruising. The state, widely understood as the birthplace of lowrider culture, has also historically been unfriendly to it. For decades, lowriding was blamed for traffic and alleged connections to gang violence. KQED’s Paloma Yaritza Abarca explains the years-long fight by community members to let their cars ride freely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mayor London Breed and Gov. Gavin Newsom have announced a plan for San Francisco to charge some drug dealers with murder starting next year. Will it scare suppliers from selling in San Francisco, or deter people from seeking help? Episode transcript Apply to be our intern! This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last week, KQED and the Leo T. McCarthy Center for Public Service and the Common Good at the University of San Francisco convened some of the Bay Area’s youngest elected officials — Assemblymember Alex Lee, Hercules Mayor Alexander Walker-Griffin, and Sunnyvale Councilmember Alysa Cisneros — to share their experiences in conversation with politics correspondent Guy Marzorati and USF student fellow Caitlin Kennedy. Links: Apply to be our intern! Deadline is Nov. 17. Watch the full event on YouTube For more information about KQED Live events, go to kqed.org/live Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition of The Bay’s monthly news roundup, Ericka, Maria and Alan talk about how Richmond became the first city in the country to pass a resolution in support of Palestinians in Gaza, the Department of Motor Vehicles decision to pull Cruise’s permit in San Francisco, and a big labor win for childcare workers in California. Episode Transcript Links: LA Times: California city first in U.S. to officially back Palestinians, accuses Israel of ‘ethnic cleansing’ KQED: How a California Child Care Workers' Union Fought for Living Wages — and Won KQED: California DMV and CPUC Pump the Brakes on Cruise Driverless Taxis in San Francisco Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a new, legally binding reform agreement with the Vallejo Police Department last week. Scott Morris with the Vallejo Sun joins us to talk about what’s in the agreement, and why meeting it will be a tall order. Links: State DOJ announces new reform agreement with Vallejo police under court supervision Episode Transcript Apply to be our intern! This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Israel-Hamas war has put Elon Musk’s transformation of Twitter to the test. Changes to its verification policy, major cuts to the company's Trust and Safety teams, and Musk’s own rhetoric have led to a worsening in the spread of misinformation on the platform — with real life consequences. Episode Transcript Links: Bloomberg: Israel-Hamas Conflict Was a Test for Musk’s X, and It Failed ‘Verified’ OSINT Accounts Are Destroying the Israel-Palestine Information Ecosystem Apply to be our intern! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To understand the Winchester Mystery House – and how it came to be – you have to understand the woman behind it. KQED’s Boo Curious (also known as Bay Curious) takes us inside to do just that. This episode of Boo Curious first published Oct. 5, 2023 Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People across the Bay Area have been watching in horror at the war between Israel and Hamas. Today, we bring you voices from three different rallies and gatherings that took place over the weekend. Links: How to talk to children about the violence in Israel and Gaza Episode transcript This episode was hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra and produced by Alan Montecillo, Maria Esquinca and Ericka Cruz Guevarra Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ecologists, indigenous groups, and forest management agencies agree that burning more ‘prescribed fire’ – where overgrown areas of forests are burned off — is critical to preventing dangerous megafires in the future. KQED’s Dana Cronin explains how this process works, and whether we’ve done enough so far this year. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A full transcript will be available 1–2 workdays after the episode’s publication. A new investigation from the Bay Area News Group, KQED, and the California Reporting Project finds that the vast majority of people seriously injured or killed by San José police are either mentally ill or intoxicated. KQED’s Rachael Vasquez spoke with one of the reporters, Robert Salonga, about how that trend has only continued, if not slightly worsened, with crisis intervention training. Links: Losing control: When San Jose police confront people in mental health crisis, why do they end up hurting them so often? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to Part 1 of this story about the killing of Richard Oakes. The 1972 killing of Richard Oakes, the face of the Red Power movement, still sticks with the people who worked on the case. The detective who was at the scene of the killing remembers feeling suspicious of Michael Morgan, the man who shot Oakes. The prosecutor remembers the holes in Morgan’s story that he shot Oakes in self-defense. And yet, Morgan was acquitted of manslaughter charges. Today, they admit that the trial was botched. In Part 2 of our two-part episode with San Francisco Chronicle reporters Julie Johnson and Jason Fagone, we talk about missteps in the investigation into Oakes’ death, and how the justice system in Sonoma County was stacked against him. Read the full story on Richard Oakes’ death in the San Francisco Chronicle. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Richard Oakes was the face of the burgeoning ‘Red Power’ movement when he led the famous Native occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969. But like other civil rights leaders at the time, he died too soon. In 1972, Oakes was gunned down in in rural Sonoma County. His killer, Michael Oliver Morgan, stood trial for manslaughter and was found not guilty. The official story of Richard Oakes' death, and the circumstances surrounding Morgan's trial, are part of the reason why Oakes' legacy has been largely erased from mainstream history. Oakes' family and friends, meanwhile, never got closure. All this time, they have believed that Oakes’ death, and Morgan’s acquittal, were racially motivated. Now, thanks to new reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle, we know details about this story that have been kept secret for decades. In Part 1 of a two-part episode with reporters Julie Johnson and Jason Fagone, we discuss the events that led Oakes to rural Sonoma County, and the encounters that foreshadowed his killing. This is Part 1 of a two-part episode. Part 2 will publish on Wednesday, Oct. 11. Read the full story on Richard Oakes’ death in the San Francisco Chronicle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From San Jose to Santa Rosa, more than 22,000 Bay Area Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers walked off the job Wednesday for a three-day strike, demanding better wages to help fix what they say is an urgent understaffing crisis. The effort spans 8 states and the District of Columbia, and some are calling it the largest health care strike in US history. This episode was hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra and produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2006 was the height of the hyphy movement — a time of exuberant, goofy, frenetic energy. But there was so much more going on beneath the surface. Rightnowish Host Pendarvis Harshaw would know — he was a budding journalist with a front row seat to the culture. Today, he talks with us about his four-part series ‘Hyphy Kids Got Trauma.’ Links: Hyphy Kids Got Trauma: A Rightnowish Podcast Series This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Thursday night, Sen. Dianne Feinstein passed away at age 90. Before becoming a U.S. Senator in 1992, she was best known for her time as San Francisco mayor. Today, we revisit an episode with KQED’s Scott Shafer about how she got her start in local politics. Links: Senator Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90: Live Updates What Feinstein’s Death Means For Control of the Senate and the Looming Government Shutdown How San Francisco Punk Reacted to Dianne Feinstein in the 1970s Gov. Newsom Names Laphonza Butler to Dianne Feinstein's Senate Seat This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, who also hosted. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this edition of The Bay’s monthly news roundup, Ericka, Maria and Alan talk about continued tensions between Martinez and the local refinery, a bill that would decriminalize certain psychedelics, and an effort to bring a WNBA team to the Bay Area. Links: Residents skeptical after toxicology report finds no ill effects from Martinez refinery incident California Decriminalizing Mushrooms and Other Psychedelics Warriors finalizing agreement to bring WNBA team to Bay Area: Sources This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sonoma County will now allow wine grape harvests in fire evacuation zones for some farmworkers, in a reversal of a contentious 2022 decision. The Press Democrat’s Phil Barber explains how it happened. This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boats are being stolen and stripped of precious metals in the Oakland Estuary, in a crime spree that has divided the community of traditional boat owners and people living in derelict boats out on the water. This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Alan Montecillo, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sea level rise threatens communities along the Bay and some iconic cultural heritage sites along the San Francisco shoreline. So when the water comes for iconic sites like San Francisco's Ferry Building, how do we save it? Links: NPR: Protecting Cultural Heritage in a Warming World This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Episode transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

San Jose city leaders are looking for a new site for the nearly 500 vendors at the Berryessa Flea Market, which will be moved to make way for the new Berryessa BART Urban Village. The Singleton Road landfill has risen to the top. Is an abandoned landfill the right place for a new flea market? Links: Why the Future of San José's Flea Market Could Be an Abandoned Landfill This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Ericka Cruz Guevarra, who also hosted. Episode Transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

California might become the first state in the nation to ban discrimination based on caste, a hierarchical system based on birth that affects South Asians all over the world. Senate Bill 403, which was introduced by State Sen. Aisha Wahab, passed the state legislature and is now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for his signature or veto. In this episode that originally aired in June, reporter Sonia Paul breaks down the complexity of this issue and why it has divided South Asians in the Bay Area. This episode originally aired on June 5, 2023. Guest: Sonia Paul, freelance journalist Links: How a Bill to Ban Caste Discrimination Morphed Into a Fight About Wokism California lawmakers send caste discrimination bill to Newsom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices