Jessica Kariisa [00:01:17] Yeah, Youth Takeover was a super fun project that we did with high school students who are part of the Youth Advisory Board at KQED. And basically what happened was they sent us some audio diaries over the past few months, and we listened to them and we cut them down into an episode basically about what it’s like to be a high schooler in the Bay Area. We had two juniors and two seniors who live all across the Bay Area, sharing their stories about everything from dreams of designing a web comic to picking colleges, to what it’s gonna mean to not have their parents around or their teachers around when they go off to school. It’s just crazy to see some of the same concerns, even though so much has changed in the over decade that I’ve been in high school, but I could definitely relate to a lot of the things that they were going through.
Alan Montecillo [00:02:16] I think one thing I appreciated about this process was how open-ended it was compared to the ways that high school students, college students, younger people are often in the news, or even in our stories, you know, usually they are talked about or quoted directly in reference to some news story, maybe it’s about education policy, maybe its about, you know student protests. But I think that one thing that was both really cool and honestly a big contrast from how we usually do things is that this played out over a long period of time. And we didn’t say, hey, we really want to hear your opinion on this thing that is happening. It really was about just tell us what’s going on in your life. So I mean, it was really impressed with the four students, Abby, Oumou, Olivia, and Riya. I’m glad that we made the time to do it, and we’ll do it again. Can I ask a question? As you listened back to the episode, which, I guess, teenage anxiety or emotion did you resonate with the most?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:03:17] Definitely Oumou’s angst and the way that she uses music to process her feelings was very, very relatable to me.
Jessica Kariisa [00:03:32] I think for me, there’s a moment where Abby talks about having some FOMO around missing school events because of sports and those particular commitments in her life and I definitely felt that. It just sort of took me back to like school dances and things that other kids were doing that I wasn’t able to attend sometimes and just like the angst and just the worry of like, no, I’m gonna regress socially.
Alan Montecillo [00:04:01] Still relatable, unfortunately.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:04] Maybe even more so relatable now. Oh gosh. What about you, Alan?
Alan Montecillo [00:04:09] If I had to pick one, I mean, it was present for everybody, but particularly for Riya, is just the anxiety around college admissions. I remember being so excited, so ready to get out of high school and experience college. And it felt like that, at that point, that was the most important decision I’d ever made in my entire life. And in some respects, you could say that it was, but knowing intellectually that like, it’s probably bad that I’m comparing myself to my peers and where I get in is not a measure of how smart I am, how valuable I am but you almost can’t help it and so just that anxiety and around the waiting, waiting too, what’s challenging then is still challenging now.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:04:48] Well, if you haven’t listened to this episode already, make sure to go back and listen to it. It’s a really fun listen. When we come back, we’ll dig into some of the other stories from around the Bay Area that we have been watching this month. Stay with us.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:05:15] And welcome back to The Bay’s Monthly News Roundup, where we discuss some of the other stories that we have been following this month. Jessica, let’s have you kick us off.
Jessica Kariisa [00:05:24] So for listeners of The Bay, we have talked a few times about the special election in San Jose D3, which encompasses downtown and Japantown and is actually where I live. So just a quick little recap. The former council member for D3 Omar Torres resigned after he was charged with sexual abuse and an interim council member was appointed. And there was a special election held earlier this month, and we just got the results. You know, this city council race for District 3 was really important, and we did an episode on this, actually, with politics reporter, Guy Marzorati, because it really makes a difference as to whether or not Mayor Matt Mahan is able to really pushed through a lot of things on his agenda faster, specifically around permanently moving funds towards short-term interim housing, as opposed to permanent affordable housing, and also around homelessness. You know, there have been some controversial proposals around arresting people who refuse shelter three times within 18 months. And so this race and who ends up in this seat is a really big deal as to how far Mayor Mahan can go.
Jessica Kariisa [00:06:46] Gabby Chavez Lopez, the executive director of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley, ended up getting about 30% of the vote. That was not enough to declare an outright victory, and so it’s going to be a runoff. But what was really interesting was second place was up for grabs because it was really, really close between Anthony Tordillos, who is the head of San Jose’s planning commission and also works at YouTube. Matthew Quevedo, who is Matt Mahan’s deputy chief of staff. Earlier this week, Santa Clara County election officials have officially said that Anthony Tordillos got second place with a six vote lead over Matthew Quevedo. And so he is gonna be going into the runoff with Gabby Chavez Lopez on June 24th.
Alan Montecillo [00:07:36] What does it mean that Tordillos has made it to the runoff and not Matthew Quevedo?
Jessica Kariisa [00:07:43] So, Matthew Quevedo being Mayhan’s deputy chief of staff, if he ended up in this seat, it was expected to be validation of the mayor’s agenda. You know, Quevedo talked about being the sixth vote on the council to help push Mayhan’s plan specifically around short-term interim housing and shifting funds from permanent affordable housing to short- term interim housing. But with Tordillos and Chavez-Lopez advancing, they’re more on the progressive side. They’ve also pushed more for permanent affordable housing. So it’s not a total rejection of Mahan, but it does signal that it might be a bit harder for him moving forward to streamline his agenda.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:08:30] I’m still not over the six vote difference.
Jessica Kariisa [00:08:33] I know, it’s crazy.
Jessica Kariisa [00:08:36] Vote people, it matters. So this is going to a runoff. Jessica, what happens next?
Jessica Kariisa [00:08:43] So starting end of May, ballots are gonna be sent out for the runoff, which is officially on June 24th between Chavez-Lopez and Tordillos. We’ll see who comes out on top. Is Tordillos going to collect the more conservative votes that were distributed between Quevedo and the rest of the people who were running? Or will something else happen? It’s unclear, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:13] Jessica, thank you.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:14] Thank you so much.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:09:22] And next, we’re going to talk about the story that I’ve been following this month. I’ve be thinking a lot about the impact of Trump’s tariffs on certain communities here in the Bay Area. I’ve thinking about Little Saigon in San Jose and Chinatown in San Francisco, where right now many businesses have sort of entered survival mode. Our colleague Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman has been talking with business owners in San Francisco Chinatown specifically, who are really, really struggling right now. They’re dealing with declining sales and really an uncertain future as the U.S.-China trade war drags on.
Jessica Kariisa [00:10:08] Yeah, I mean, tariffs have dominated the news cycle, and it’s definitely made me wonder about local businesses here as well. Do you know, like, what exactly business owners are experiencing at their shops? Like, have prices already gone up? Like, what’s going on?
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:10:24] Yeah, our colleague Azul talked with business owners in Chinatown, including the owner of Mei’s Groceries on Stockton Street, Mei Zhu. She’s been the owner there for the past 11 years. And 90% of her goods at the store are imported. We’re talking about like dry noodles, candies, cookies. And now these items are subject to tariffs as high as 245%, she told Azul, which has meant that she’s had to raise her prices for some of her items by 50%. Some items cost 145% more, so she just stopped stocking them entirely. And for the remaining stock, she says that higher prices are really just driving customers away. I mean, if you can imagine, we’ve been talking about the high cost of groceries. For a long time now, this as sort of an added bonus has really affected her business. She told Azul that sales are down 30%. And I mean, when Azul talked with other business owners, in Chinatown that’s really kind of reflected across the board, a lot of these businesses are just really having a hard time right now.
Alan Montecillo [00:11:45] It’s hard for me not to think about specifically what San Francisco’s Chinatown has been through in the last five years or so, particularly with COVID, you know, anti-Asian hate. This is a neighborhood that’s just been through a lot, even before the tariffs. I wonder how much of that, if at all, was present in some of the conversations that Azul was having with people.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:12:05] Yeah, totally. Azul talked with Malcolm Young, who’s the executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. And, you know, he says Chinatown is really built around trade. Many business owners have basically been able to create an opportunity for upward mobility using their relationships home back in China. And these are the same businesses who’ve really gone through hard times before. And he does see this as just kind of another hump that the community has to go through and that Chinatown has overcome a lot, but it also really needs our help right now. Zhu from Mei’s Groceries said that if things continue like this for another month or two, the only option for her is to close her business and to stop operating. And other owners really echoed this. And customers who Azul also talked with say that they’re not really encouraged to shop at these stores with these prices. So the end result is kind of obvious, but there’s sort of this feeling of like wanting to remain hopeful and that the community’s already been through so much and we can get to go through this again, but really it needs our help right now. Well, that is it for my story and I want to pivot to our last story here from senior editor Alan Montecillo. What have you been following this month?
Alan Montecillo [00:13:40] Well, this story takes place in Berkeley, specifically around the Berkeley Hills. There’s a story on KQED’s website that was reported by Matthew Green and Samantha Kennedy. Earlier this month, the city approved rules that would require about 900 homes around Tilden Park to essentially remove vegetation and flammable materials around their homes to reduce fire risk. They are among some of the most stringent in the state. They are amongst some of, the first of their kind in the state as well.
Jessica Kariisa [00:14:10] So how exactly would this work? Is the total responsibility on the homeowners, is the city gonna offer any resources or guides to help people figure out even what exactly they need to get rid of?
Alan Montecillo [00:14:24] So the proposal is pretty clear that what we’re talking about is any vegetation or flammable material within a five feet perimeter of one’s home, and that needs to be removed by January. So there is time. The reason that it’s these 900 homes specifically around Tilden Park is that these are homes that are sort of deemed to have the highest wildfire risk. There is funding to help. The city said that they have about a million dollar grant from CAL FIRE, and they’re trying to get other funds from the state, like Prop 4, which last November, it has to do with climate funds. So the city is saying that there will be resources, but obviously a lot of the responsibility and time will be on the homeowners to actually clear out all this vegetation. I think anyone who’s been in the Berkeley Hills knows that a lot these homes are very beautiful and Berkeley residents love their vegetation and foliage and growing things, etc. So it is going to be some amount of work. But the folks who were really pushing this, I mean this proposal was drafted by the department. Are saying that this is really, really important to try and prevent tragedies like what we saw in Southern California.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:15:32] 900 homes, it’s a lot of people, I imagine, who are gonna be affected, who are going to have to do some work on their homes. Was this a controversial idea or proposal, or yeah, what were the vibes, I guess, at the city council meeting?
Alan Montecillo [00:15:48] Well, I think one might expect the city council meeting to be pretty contentious, pretty controversial. But while there was some opposition, I think overall, most residents who spoke were in favor of these rules, who said that these were really necessary to protect the safety of the neighborhood, of the community. This actually passed the council unanimously early this month. There’s a second reading in early May, and it’s essentially a sure thing at this point.
Ericka Cruz Guevarra [00:16:15] What happens if you don’t clear the vegetation around your home?
Alan Montecillo [00:16:20] There could be fines if you don’t comply with this. I think that the hope from city officials is that it doesn’t get to that point. Council member Brent Blackaby who sort of lives in this area, and I should say also voted for this, I think really sums up the feeling among a lot of people, which is this can be frustrating for a lot of homeowners, but most people understand the risk, people understand the threat of climate change and that doing this kind of proactive work really matters.
