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"content": "\u003cp>Around 4,000 Richmond residents this month received letters from the city’s finance department saying they need to register their businesses and pay the appropriate taxes from last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that came as a surprise to many who were unaware that they were operating a business in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letters — which the city said are part of a new approach to get “everyone to pay their fair share” — direct recipients to City Hall to get their business cleared and inspected by Sept. 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letters say the city received information from the state Franchise Tax Board that shows business activity was conducted at a Richmond residence, most often people’s home address, without the appropriate business tax certificate. That requires paying a $39 application fee and annual taxes of between 0.075% to 1.395% on a business’ gross receipts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For someone making $40,000 a year, that could be between $70 and $600, depending on the type of industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the letters went out late last month, a steady stream of people have trickled into City Hall, letters and tax information in hand, wondering why the city thought they were running a business out of their homes. (Full disclosure: one of those people was this reporter’s spouse.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke to nearly two dozen people who received a letter. The two things most had in common were that they lived in Richmond and that last year, they filed a version of Form 1099, a common document for independent contractors, freelance employees, gig workers or people who received one-time payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many said they felt confused and even fearful when they opened the letters, as they worried they could face penalties if they didn’t get a license. Some said they had tried to call the number on the letter but couldn’t reach anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents who received letters and subsequent business applications from city staff included a full-time Uber driver, a landscaper, a handyman, and a housekeeper, all who said they don’t work in Richmond. One confused recipient was a mother who didn’t work at all in 2023 because she was caring for her newborn child. Another recipient said their only 1099 in 2023 was for $17.07.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond is one of many California cities participating in the state’s opt-in information-sharing program, which uses tax board information to help “identify unlicensed individuals or businesses.” In return, the state uses city and county data to “identify self-employed individuals or businesses who are not filing required state income tax returns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katherine Gorringe, a documentary filmmaker, said receiving that letter “struck fear into my heart.” She has an accountant and has her business pay taxes as an \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed\">S Corporation,\u003c/a> where she’s the only employee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to think I’m really on top of those things. So it was shocking to get in the mail, and it had some wording on it that I would have to be approved or have an inspection, and so that just made me really nervous,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was one thing that really stuck out to Gorringe: she got an extension on her 2023 taxes and her accountant hasn’t even filed them yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"more on Richmond\" tag=\"richmond\"]“In the letter, it indicated that it was for the calendar year 2023 that the Franchise Tax Board had informed them that I had reported business income, so that is just untrue,” Gorringe said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew LePage, a spokesperson for the Franchise Tax Board, said the state doesn’t share 1099 filing information or business expenses or income with cities and counties. Instead, local governments submit \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/misc/909A.pdf\">their business tax licensee data\u003c/a>, which the tax board matches with tax returns. That process reveals “additional businesses or individuals who have indicated on their return that they conduct business in the participating city or county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a FAQ on the back of the letter, the city states that businesses “both large and small” in Richmond are required to have the tax certificate and that “Most activities conducted within the city on a continuing and regular basis are considered engaging in business and subject to business license tax.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Rogers, a handyman who has lived in Richmond for 17 years, was surprised and confused by the letter. “I work all over the place,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His business is based out of El Cerrito, where he has a business license, so he wonders what Richmond wants him to pay taxes on. \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">City rules\u003c/a> say taxes will be calculated based on gross receipts from sales in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no problem getting a business license, but if this is just a way for them to get their hands in my pockets and screw me over, that’s where I have a problem,” Rogers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David James has been in real estate for 20 years. He works for an agency in Berkeley and doesn’t consider his Richmond home his office. Still, he got the letter and left City Hall Friday with a business license application form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t understand what it was or what it was about, and now they’re telling me I have to pay for doing business in Richmond and have a business license, and I don’t have a business in Richmond,” James said after visiting the Finance Department. “If I knew how to fight it, I would be fighting it. I’m trying to figure it out. Right now, it makes no sense at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Antonio Banuelos — the city accounting manager whose signature appears on the letters — briefed the city council on the information-sharing agreement with the Franchise Tax Board at its Sept. 10 meeting. Banuelos told the council that many people who responded to the letters were not aware the city required them to have a business license. Some, he said, should not have received a letter, including people whose businesses are located outside the city or whose employer gave them a 1099 instead of a W-2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12004517\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 928px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12004517 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"928\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg 928w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of Antonio Banuelos, Richmond’s accounting manager, during a City Council meeting on Sept. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the city of Richmond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said the city also mistakenly only included the name of one person on the letter when people were filing jointly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was an error on our part and has caused some confusion,” Banuelos told the council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said the data exchange program with the Franchise Tax Board has been in place since 2009, but the city doesn’t use it every year because “it’s very labor intensive and oftentimes doesn’t lead to a lot of revenue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions from KQED, Banuelos said via email that the Franchise Tax Board information provided a listing of all non-wage earners, both businesses and the self-employed. Of them, “most have 1099s.” The city reviewed what the state sent, matching the tax ID or Social Security number, and then sent out the letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said when people come into City Hall, “we do not know if we are talking with someone that reported $600 or $1,000,000 in non-wage income.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said if people do not meet the Sept. 30 deadline listed on the letter, they’ll receive another notice from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colisa McFadden, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://cmafinancial.com/\">CMA Financial Services\u003c/a> in the Hilltop neighborhood, said the city sending letters en masse was “quite ridiculous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s scary to get that letter,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McFadden said Richmond residents who are not doing business within Richmond’s borders do not need to get a business license. “If you work from home and file a 1099, you’re self-employed and need a business license,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letters are the latest in the city’s efforts to fund city critical services, which began in 2020 with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">Measure U\u003c/a>, which changed the city’s business tax from a per-employee payroll fee to a tax on gross receipts. The change, which \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Richmond,_California,_Measure_U,_Business_Tax_(November_2020)\">voters approved\u003c/a>, was expected to bring $6.2 million into the city’s general fund to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/54678/Agenda-Report-852020---Richmond-Business-Tax-Ordinance-FINAL\">address quality-of-life issues\u003c/a>, like 911 response times and potholes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Measure U took effect, the city sent registered businesses letters about the changes — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">4,000 of them went out in January 2022\u003c/a>. But the people KQED spoke to for this story say this was the first time they’d received letters from the city about alleged business activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shawn Dunning, a candidate for the District 6 city council seat that includes City Hall, has a business license with the city for his consulting job, even though he said he has no clients in Richmond. He said Measure U changed how businesses’ taxes are calculated but not the requirements for those who need a business license.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s confusing to me why there’s an entirely new approach going on right now,” Dunning said. “I would like to give the benefit of the doubt and hope that this is just an administrative error, but if they are literally just casting a wide net and fishing to see who will take the bait, that would be really sad to me.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the letters went out late last month, a steady stream of people have trickled into City Hall, letters and tax information in hand, wondering why the city thought they were running a business out of their homes. (Full disclosure: one of those people was this reporter’s spouse.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED spoke to nearly two dozen people who received a letter. The two things most had in common were that they lived in Richmond and that last year, they filed a version of Form 1099, a common document for independent contractors, freelance employees, gig workers or people who received one-time payments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many said they felt confused and even fearful when they opened the letters, as they worried they could face penalties if they didn’t get a license. Some said they had tried to call the number on the letter but couldn’t reach anyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents who received letters and subsequent business applications from city staff included a full-time Uber driver, a landscaper, a handyman, and a housekeeper, all who said they don’t work in Richmond. One confused recipient was a mother who didn’t work at all in 2023 because she was caring for her newborn child. Another recipient said their only 1099 in 2023 was for $17.07.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Richmond is one of many California cities participating in the state’s opt-in information-sharing program, which uses tax board information to help “identify unlicensed individuals or businesses.” In return, the state uses city and county data to “identify self-employed individuals or businesses who are not filing required state income tax returns.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Katherine Gorringe, a documentary filmmaker, said receiving that letter “struck fear into my heart.” She has an accountant and has her business pay taxes as an \u003ca href=\"https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed\">S Corporation,\u003c/a> where she’s the only employee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I like to think I’m really on top of those things. So it was shocking to get in the mail, and it had some wording on it that I would have to be approved or have an inspection, and so that just made me really nervous,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there was one thing that really stuck out to Gorringe: she got an extension on her 2023 taxes and her accountant hasn’t even filed them yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“In the letter, it indicated that it was for the calendar year 2023 that the Franchise Tax Board had informed them that I had reported business income, so that is just untrue,” Gorringe said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Andrew LePage, a spokesperson for the Franchise Tax Board, said the state doesn’t share 1099 filing information or business expenses or income with cities and counties. Instead, local governments submit \u003ca href=\"https://www.ftb.ca.gov/forms/misc/909A.pdf\">their business tax licensee data\u003c/a>, which the tax board matches with tax returns. That process reveals “additional businesses or individuals who have indicated on their return that they conduct business in the participating city or county.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a FAQ on the back of the letter, the city states that businesses “both large and small” in Richmond are required to have the tax certificate and that “Most activities conducted within the city on a continuing and regular basis are considered engaging in business and subject to business license tax.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jeff Rogers, a handyman who has lived in Richmond for 17 years, was surprised and confused by the letter. “I work all over the place,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His business is based out of El Cerrito, where he has a business license, so he wonders what Richmond wants him to pay taxes on. \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">City rules\u003c/a> say taxes will be calculated based on gross receipts from sales in Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have no problem getting a business license, but if this is just a way for them to get their hands in my pockets and screw me over, that’s where I have a problem,” Rogers said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David James has been in real estate for 20 years. He works for an agency in Berkeley and doesn’t consider his Richmond home his office. Still, he got the letter and left City Hall Friday with a business license application form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I didn’t understand what it was or what it was about, and now they’re telling me I have to pay for doing business in Richmond and have a business license, and I don’t have a business in Richmond,” James said after visiting the Finance Department. “If I knew how to fight it, I would be fighting it. I’m trying to figure it out. Right now, it makes no sense at all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Antonio Banuelos — the city accounting manager whose signature appears on the letters — briefed the city council on the information-sharing agreement with the Franchise Tax Board at its Sept. 10 meeting. Banuelos told the council that many people who responded to the letters were not aware the city required them to have a business license. Some, he said, should not have received a letter, including people whose businesses are located outside the city or whose employer gave them a 1099 instead of a W-2.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12004517\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 928px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12004517 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"928\" height=\"619\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED.jpg 928w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/240910-Antonio-Banuelos-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 928px) 100vw, 928px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A screenshot of Antonio Banuelos, Richmond’s accounting manager, during a City Council meeting on Sept. 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the city of Richmond)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said the city also mistakenly only included the name of one person on the letter when people were filing jointly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That was an error on our part and has caused some confusion,” Banuelos told the council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said the data exchange program with the Franchise Tax Board has been in place since 2009, but the city doesn’t use it every year because “it’s very labor intensive and oftentimes doesn’t lead to a lot of revenue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to questions from KQED, Banuelos said via email that the Franchise Tax Board information provided a listing of all non-wage earners, both businesses and the self-employed. Of them, “most have 1099s.” The city reviewed what the state sent, matching the tax ID or Social Security number, and then sent out the letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said when people come into City Hall, “we do not know if we are talking with someone that reported $600 or $1,000,000 in non-wage income.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Banuelos said if people do not meet the Sept. 30 deadline listed on the letter, they’ll receive another notice from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Colisa McFadden, owner of \u003ca href=\"https://cmafinancial.com/\">CMA Financial Services\u003c/a> in the Hilltop neighborhood, said the city sending letters en masse was “quite ridiculous.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s scary to get that letter,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McFadden said Richmond residents who are not doing business within Richmond’s borders do not need to get a business license. “If you work from home and file a 1099, you’re self-employed and need a business license,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letters are the latest in the city’s efforts to fund city critical services, which began in 2020 with \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">Measure U\u003c/a>, which changed the city’s business tax from a per-employee payroll fee to a tax on gross receipts. The change, which \u003ca href=\"https://ballotpedia.org/Richmond,_California,_Measure_U,_Business_Tax_(November_2020)\">voters approved\u003c/a>, was expected to bring $6.2 million into the city’s general fund to \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/54678/Agenda-Report-852020---Richmond-Business-Tax-Ordinance-FINAL\">address quality-of-life issues\u003c/a>, like 911 response times and potholes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Measure U took effect, the city sent registered businesses letters about the changes — \u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/2913/Measure-U---Gross-Receipts-Ballot-Measur\">4,000 of them went out in January 2022\u003c/a>. But the people KQED spoke to for this story say this was the first time they’d received letters from the city about alleged business activity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shawn Dunning, a candidate for the District 6 city council seat that includes City Hall, has a business license with the city for his consulting job, even though he said he has no clients in Richmond. He said Measure U changed how businesses’ taxes are calculated but not the requirements for those who need a business license.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s confusing to me why there’s an entirely new approach going on right now,” Dunning said. “I would like to give the benefit of the doubt and hope that this is just an administrative error, but if they are literally just casting a wide net and fishing to see who will take the bait, that would be really sad to me.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "some-gig-workers-say-they-are-seeing-little-of-prop-22-promises-and-lack-of-enforcement-from-state",
"title": "Gig Workers Are Seeing Little of Prop. 22 Promises — and Lack of Enforcement From State",
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"headTitle": "Gig Workers Are Seeing Little of Prop. 22 Promises — and Lack of Enforcement From State | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nearly four years after California voters approved better wages and health benefits for ride-hailing drivers and delivery workers, no one is actually ensuring they are provided, according to state agencies, interviews with workers and a review of wage claims filed with the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voters mandated the benefits in November 2020 when they approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/proposition-22/\">Proposition 22\u003c/a>. The ballot initiative was backed by gig-work companies that wanted to keep their workers classified as independent contractors and were resisting a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/ab-5-california-uber/\">2019 state law\u003c/a> that would have considered them employees. Prop. 22 stipulated that gig workers would remain independent contractors but be treated better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Industrial Relations Department, which handles wage claims, now tells CalMatters it does not have jurisdiction to resolve those related to Prop. 22, citing a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/07/prop-22-california-gig-work-law-upheld/\">July 25 California Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> that upheld the law and therefore maintains that gig workers are not employees. That effectively passes enforcement responsibility on to the state attorney general, whose office was noncommittal when asked about its plans, saying that it does not adjudicate individual claims but does prosecute companies that systematically violate the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of enforcement leaves in limbo workers who in many cases have already been waiting for months or years for the state to resolve their complaints. Workers have filed 54 claims related to Prop. 22 since it went into effect in December 2020. At least 32 of them are unresolved, state records obtained by CalMatters show, although at least two of those are due to workers not following through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the unresolved claims, one goes back to 2021, several are from 2022 and 2023, and about half are from this year, through May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails included with the claims show that the Industrial Relations Department told one worker it was severely understaffed, and seven others, starting in 2022, that it did not have jurisdiction to help them since they were independent contractors rather than employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the number of claims filed with the state represent just a fraction of the more than 1 million gig workers in California, they give a glimpse into what happens when workers turn to the state for help instead of the companies that backed Prop. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers say in the claims, and in interviews with CalMatters, that companies such as Uber, Lyft and Instacart failed to provide higher wages and health care stipends under the law, and that the companies’ representatives sometimes act confused or take a long time to handle their requests for Prop. 22 benefits. The gig companies have touted the law as something that has boosted pay and benefits, and have said it has helped gig workers hang on to work they can do whenever they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Robinson is among the workers who have had to aggressively pursue what they believe they’re owed under the law. For the past year, she has filed claims with the state and fought two different gig-work companies for different benefits promised under Prop. 22. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003065\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/052024_Laura-Robinson_ZS_CM_09-1-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1000\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12003065\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laura Robinson in her home in Irvine on May 20, 2024. Robinson, who was in a car accident last year while working for Instacart, was recently informed she will receive occupational accident insurance after months of effort. \u003ccite>(Laura Robinson in her home in Irvine on May 20, 2024. Robinson, who was in a car accident last year while working for Instacart, was recently informed she will receive occupational accident insurance after months of effort. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> She was making a delivery for Instacart a year ago, she said, when a driver making a U-turn hit her, totaling her car. Now, she said, she has lingering back pain, and has only been able to make a total of a few deliveries over the past several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson, who lives in Irvine, tried to get Instacart to retroactively provide her with occupational accident insurance as required under Prop. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she first contacted Instacart about the collision, “four or five different (representatives) told me on chat ‘we don’t provide insurance,’ but I told them this is California,” Robinson said. “Finally someone said ‘oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about.’ ” Robinson had some difficulties documenting the accident, because, she said, the responding Torrance Police Department officer rode away on his motorcycle without writing a report. But after about seven months, she finally heard back from Zurich, Instacart’s insurance provider. She received a lump sum, and monthly payments for the time that she has been largely unable to work, according to bank statements and emails from Zurich to her, which she shared with CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instacart spokesperson Charlotte Healow said all the company’s shopper support agents should know about “shopper injury protection” and that there is information in the app about how to go about filing claims. But Robinson showed CalMatters several screenshots of her chats with support agents who either thought she was asking about health insurance or who told her someone would email her back about her situation — which eventually happened, though it took a few tries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson said she had also struggled to get a smaller gig platform, food delivery app Curri, to comply with the law. Under Prop. 22, ride-hailing and delivery gig companies are supposed to pay her 120% of minimum wage for the time she spends driving, making up for any shortfall in the pay she receives, but Curri had not done so, she said. Not knowing where to turn, she asked a few different state agencies for help, including the attorney general’s office. She even lodged a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s National Consumer Complaint Database. After several months, the Industrial Relations Department scheduled a hearing for her case for Aug. 29. Last week, the department told her the company decided to settle and pay her what it owed, according to emails and a release she signed that she shared with CalMatters. Curri’s marketing director referred CalMatters to the company’s legal department, which did not return three emailed requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson saw the upside of Prop. 22 after it passed. She liked being able to continue setting her own hours and saw a bump in her earnings delivering for Grubhub due to the law. But she is now frustrated about how tough it was to figure out who’s supposed to be upholding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not helpful if it’s not enforced or applied,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson said the deputy labor commissioner she was in touch with throughout the process of pursuing her claim against Curri told her last week that because Prop. 22 was upheld by the state Supreme Court — effectively ensuring gig workers cannot be considered employees — the department would no longer be handling similar cases because it does not have jurisdiction over independent contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What gig workers are complaining about\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Prop. 22-related wage claims reviewed by CalMatters were part of a larger set of nearly 200 claims that gig workers filed with the Industrial Relations Department since the law took effect in December 2020. Citing the California Public Records Act, CalMatters sought all wage claims in that timeframe involving gig companies, but the state did not provide any claims against DoorDash, which is one of the biggest of the app-based gig companies. A department spokesperson could not explain why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the claimants sought delayed or unpaid wages, including adjustments owed under Prop. 22. Others sought health care stipends required under the gig-work law, and one driver said he sought occupational accident insurance but did not receive it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claims also shed light on the mechanics of how app companies are allegedly withholding wages. In them, some gig workers claimed that they were deactivated — kicked off or fired by the app — before receiving all their wages. [aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"proposition-22\"]The records also indicate the state had trouble holding app companies to account in a timely fashion. In emails about the claims, some workers frequently asked for updates about their cases and complained about limited communications from the state. This prompted one supervisor in the Industrial Relations Department’s San Francisco office to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1006930-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">respond by email\u003c/a> on May 30, 2024, seemingly noting that gig workers’ complaints were just a fraction of the array of worker complaints the state fields: “I am working with 40% staff shortage. There are over 3,000 cases, most of which are older than yours, and only seven people (total) to handle them.” The department did not respond to requests for comment on whether this shortfall persists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monetary wage claims ranged from about $2 to nearly $420,000. Most — 54% — were against ride-hailing and delivery giant Uber and 25% were against its rides competitor Lyft. There were 17 claims against grocery-delivery app maker Instacart, seven against food-delivery platform Grubhub, four against Target-owned delivery service Shipt and three against UPS-owned delivery service Roadie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Industrial Relations Department has long tried to resolve gig workers’ wage disputes. The labor commissioner, who heads the department’s Labor Standards Enforcement Division, still has pending \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Lawsuits-Uber-Lyft.html\">wage-theft lawsuits\u003c/a> against Uber and Lyft that it filed in 2020 on behalf of about 5,000 workers with wage claims going back to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those cases predate Prop. 22, originating during a period when gig workers were misclassified and should have been considered employees under California law, the labor commissioner argues in the wage-theft suits. After Prop. 22 passed, opponents challenged it and the case ended up before the California Supreme Court, which upheld the law in July, effectively affirming that drivers are independent contractors, not employees. A department spokesperson, Peter Melton, said the ruling means the department can no longer handle claims about missing wage adjustments under the earnings guarantee, unpaid health care stipends or other aspects of the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department representatives made similar statements to workers even before Prop. 22 was upheld, the claims records show. An email response, dated March 26, 2024, from the department to an Uber driver \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1007106-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">stated\u003c/a>: “The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement enforces employment law. We cannot enforce Prop 22 earnings because they aren’t ‘wages’ earned by ‘employees’.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This echoes the position lawyers for Uber and Lyft took in some of the records when responding to wage claims. They asked the state to dismiss such claims, writing in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1003300-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">one email\u003c/a>: “As of December 16, 2020, drivers using Lyft’s platform are considered independent contractors by statute and, thus, cannot seek relief under the Labor Code.” [aside label=\"More Coverage\" tag=\"gig-economy\"]Now that the department has disavowed responsibility for Prop. 22 claims, the question remains: Who will enforce the law?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Kronland, the attorney for Service Employees International Union California who unsuccessfully argued before the state Supreme Court that it should throw out Prop. 22, told CalMatters: “I’ve also heard from drivers that they’re not getting the things they’re promised by Prop. 22.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kronland said their recourse, after the ruling, is to press local prosecutors or the attorney general, who have the ability to hold companies liable for unlawful business practices under the state’s Unfair Competition Law. Still, he said “enforcement is something the Legislature could clarify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an unsigned email response to CalMatters’ questions after the state Supreme Court decision, including whether it planned to pursue Prop.-22-related cases against gig-work companies, the attorney general’s office said gig workers can submit complaints at \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/report\">oag.ca.gov/report\u003c/a>. The email added: “Although the Attorney General does not represent individual workers or adjudicate individual complaints by holding administrative hearings like (the Department of Industrial Relations), DOJ brings lawsuits to hold accountable companies that systematically break the law, for example through widespread violations of wage and hour standards. Reports or complaints of employer misconduct are an important part of our work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When CalMatters previously asked the attorney general’s office for copies of any wage complaints it had received from gig workers thus far, a spokesperson responded that the office was representing the state in its effort to defend \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/05/prop-22-oral-arguments/\">Prop. 22 before the California Supreme Court\u003c/a> — and referred CalMatters back to the Industrial Relations Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What gig companies share about Prop. 22’s impact\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gig companies have said that, due in part to the initiative’s earnings guarantee, workers now make more than $30 an hour. But a May study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that, for California ride-hailing drivers, average earnings after expenses, not including tips, is about $7.12 an hour, and for delivery workers, $5.93. With tips, drivers’ average hourly earnings are $9.09 an hour, and $13.62 for delivery workers, the study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand the impact of Prop. 22, CalMatters asked each of the four largest gig companies — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart — the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>How much they have spent on delivering on each of Prop. 22’s four main promises:\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>120% of minimum wage earnings guarantee\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Health care stipends\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Occupational accident insurance\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Accidental death insurance\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How many gig workers have received each of the promised benefits.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Whether they have passed on costs to consumers, and if so, where they account for those customer fees in their public financial filings.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How they handle complaints or issues related to their promises.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Lyft said 85% of California Lyft drivers who have driven for the company since Prop. 22 went into effect have received at least one wage “top up” — the additional money drivers receive under the earnings guarantee — through the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, though spokesperson Shadawn Reddick-Smith would not provide specific numbers of Lyft drivers in the state. None of the other companies would give any information on their delivery of the wage guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instacart spokesperson Healow said the company has paid out about $40 million in health care subsidies to its delivery workers, which she said number in the tens of thousands in the state. She also said about 11% of California shoppers have become eligible for a health care stipend since Prop. 22 took effect, and that 28% of those eligible shoppers have redeemed their subsidy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To qualify for the health care stipends, workers must work at least 15 hours a week each quarter, and be enrolled in health insurance that is not provided by an employer or the government. Because the gig companies won’t share how many workers have received the stipends, CalMatters asked the state health insurance exchange, Covered California, if it had data that might help shed some light. Seven percent of the 1.6 million people who used Covered California reported doing gig work in a 2023 survey, said a spokesperson for the exchange, Jagdip Dhillon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DoorDash spokesperson Parker Dorrough said that just 11% of eligible couriers used the health care stipend in the fourth quarter of 2023 but that 80% of DoorDash’s delivery workers had health care coverage through another source, such as their full-time job or spouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the other companies would give any information on their delivery of the stipend. Lyft’s Reddick-Smith said 80% of California Lyft drivers already have health care coverage, including 13% who bought their own coverage (this second group is the set of drivers who qualified for the stipend).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003067\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1721\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1536x1033.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-2048x1377.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1920x1291.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign is posted on a car as gig workers with the California Gig Workers Union stage a rally against Proposition 22 outside of the California First Appellate District Court of Appeal on December 13, 2022 in San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>None of the four companies provided the numbers of workers who have used occupational accident or accidental death insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the companies would disclose how they account for the fees they charge customers for Prop. 22 expenses, nor are the fees included in their publicly available financial filings. Instacart said it does not charge customers for expenses associated with Prop. 22. Lyft said its per-ride service fee includes a 75-cent “California Driver Benefits Fee.” Uber charges customers a “CA Driver Benefits” fee for each ride and delivery in the state and spokesperson Zahid Arab said the company has “invested more than we collected in fees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber published a blog post after CalMatters’ questions, saying it has “invested” more than $1 billion in Prop. 22 benefits. Arab would not break down these benefits further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for complaints related to the promises, each of the companies said workers should contact support agents, whom they can usually get in touch with in the app; an Instacart spokesperson said workers can make some claims directly in the company’s app.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Seeing little from Prop. 22\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ride-hailing driver Sergio Avedian last year helped raise public awareness of the lack of Prop. 22 enforcement. Specifically, he homed in on one narrow issue: Under the law, gig-work companies were supposed to adjust for inflation each year the reimbursement they pay to drivers for mileage. Avedian said no such adjustment had taken place for two consecutive years. And as a podcaster and contributor to the Rideshare Guy, a popular gig-work blog, he had a high profile. Avedian and a fellow eagle-eyed driver started pestering the state’s treasurer’s office, which had not published the adjusted rates as stipulated under Prop 22. The office eventually did so and, the Los Angeles Times reported, put the state’s gig workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-06-01/column-uber-david-and-goliath\">on track to get back pay for the mileage expenses\u003c/a> — pay potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a year later, Avedian is curious about gig-company math again. He has asked Uber some of the same questions CalMatters did — including how the company accounts for the driver-benefits fee it adds on to each ride or delivery. The company’s response to him was similar — it provided few specifics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides his concern about the issue as a driver, Avedian said “as a consumer who is paying into the Prop. 22 fund on every trip or delivery, I would like to know the accounting of where my money is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the gig companies were campaigning for Prop. 22, they implored voters to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7QJLgdQaf4\">help create a better path forward for drivers\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Avedian and other gig workers in California say their paths have not changed much. Many still complain about low wages, little transparency from the companies and lack of worker protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yasha Timenovich said he has worked as a ride-hailing driver for a decade, first with Uber, now with Lyft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I work 12, 13, 14 hours a day,” said Timenovich, who drives in the Los Angeles area. “But the time I sit and wait at LAX is not accounted for.” He said he has to work long hours to try to make sure he has enough earnings. “We’re not completely independent contractors. We’re not employees. We’re sort of a hybrid model of theirs. We’re pretty much nobody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said he must obtain health insurance through Medi-Cal, California’s health care coverage for low-income residents — which in turn means he doesn’t qualify for the health care stipend. He said every driver he knows “is on Medi-Cal because they can’t afford health insurance. I don’t know anyone who has (the stipend).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many drivers voted for Prop. 22, he said. But “what we were told was a lie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles cm-manual-eoa-recirc wpnbha show-image image-alignleft ts-3 is-1 is-landscape cm-manual-eoa-recirc has-text-align-left\">\n\u003cdiv data-posts=\"\" data-current-post-id=\"438437\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Gig companies pushed for Prop. 22, promising improved pay and benefits for California workers. But when companies fail to deliver, the state isn’t doing much to help push back.",
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"title": "Gig Workers Are Seeing Little of Prop. 22 Promises — and Lack of Enforcement From State | KQED",
"description": "Gig companies pushed for Prop. 22, promising improved pay and benefits for California workers. But when companies fail to deliver, the state isn’t doing much to help push back.",
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"headline": "Gig Workers Are Seeing Little of Prop. 22 Promises — and Lack of Enforcement From State",
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"source": "CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nearly four years after California voters approved better wages and health benefits for ride-hailing drivers and delivery workers, no one is actually ensuring they are provided, according to state agencies, interviews with workers and a review of wage claims filed with the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voters mandated the benefits in November 2020 when they approved \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/tag/proposition-22/\">Proposition 22\u003c/a>. The ballot initiative was backed by gig-work companies that wanted to keep their workers classified as independent contractors and were resisting a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/ab-5-california-uber/\">2019 state law\u003c/a> that would have considered them employees. Prop. 22 stipulated that gig workers would remain independent contractors but be treated better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state Industrial Relations Department, which handles wage claims, now tells CalMatters it does not have jurisdiction to resolve those related to Prop. 22, citing a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/07/prop-22-california-gig-work-law-upheld/\">July 25 California Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> that upheld the law and therefore maintains that gig workers are not employees. That effectively passes enforcement responsibility on to the state attorney general, whose office was noncommittal when asked about its plans, saying that it does not adjudicate individual claims but does prosecute companies that systematically violate the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of enforcement leaves in limbo workers who in many cases have already been waiting for months or years for the state to resolve their complaints. Workers have filed 54 claims related to Prop. 22 since it went into effect in December 2020. At least 32 of them are unresolved, state records obtained by CalMatters show, although at least two of those are due to workers not following through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the unresolved claims, one goes back to 2021, several are from 2022 and 2023, and about half are from this year, through May.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emails included with the claims show that the Industrial Relations Department told one worker it was severely understaffed, and seven others, starting in 2022, that it did not have jurisdiction to help them since they were independent contractors rather than employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although the number of claims filed with the state represent just a fraction of the more than 1 million gig workers in California, they give a glimpse into what happens when workers turn to the state for help instead of the companies that backed Prop. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers say in the claims, and in interviews with CalMatters, that companies such as Uber, Lyft and Instacart failed to provide higher wages and health care stipends under the law, and that the companies’ representatives sometimes act confused or take a long time to handle their requests for Prop. 22 benefits. The gig companies have touted the law as something that has boosted pay and benefits, and have said it has helped gig workers hang on to work they can do whenever they want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Laura Robinson is among the workers who have had to aggressively pursue what they believe they’re owed under the law. For the past year, she has filed claims with the state and fought two different gig-work companies for different benefits promised under Prop. 22. \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003065\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/052024_Laura-Robinson_ZS_CM_09-1-800x1200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"1000\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-12003065\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laura Robinson in her home in Irvine on May 20, 2024. Robinson, who was in a car accident last year while working for Instacart, was recently informed she will receive occupational accident insurance after months of effort. \u003ccite>(Laura Robinson in her home in Irvine on May 20, 2024. Robinson, who was in a car accident last year while working for Instacart, was recently informed she will receive occupational accident insurance after months of effort. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp> She was making a delivery for Instacart a year ago, she said, when a driver making a U-turn hit her, totaling her car. Now, she said, she has lingering back pain, and has only been able to make a total of a few deliveries over the past several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson, who lives in Irvine, tried to get Instacart to retroactively provide her with occupational accident insurance as required under Prop. 22.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When she first contacted Instacart about the collision, “four or five different (representatives) told me on chat ‘we don’t provide insurance,’ but I told them this is California,” Robinson said. “Finally someone said ‘oh yeah, I know what you’re talking about.’ ” Robinson had some difficulties documenting the accident, because, she said, the responding Torrance Police Department officer rode away on his motorcycle without writing a report. But after about seven months, she finally heard back from Zurich, Instacart’s insurance provider. She received a lump sum, and monthly payments for the time that she has been largely unable to work, according to bank statements and emails from Zurich to her, which she shared with CalMatters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instacart spokesperson Charlotte Healow said all the company’s shopper support agents should know about “shopper injury protection” and that there is information in the app about how to go about filing claims. But Robinson showed CalMatters several screenshots of her chats with support agents who either thought she was asking about health insurance or who told her someone would email her back about her situation — which eventually happened, though it took a few tries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson said she had also struggled to get a smaller gig platform, food delivery app Curri, to comply with the law. Under Prop. 22, ride-hailing and delivery gig companies are supposed to pay her 120% of minimum wage for the time she spends driving, making up for any shortfall in the pay she receives, but Curri had not done so, she said. Not knowing where to turn, she asked a few different state agencies for help, including the attorney general’s office. She even lodged a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s National Consumer Complaint Database. After several months, the Industrial Relations Department scheduled a hearing for her case for Aug. 29. Last week, the department told her the company decided to settle and pay her what it owed, according to emails and a release she signed that she shared with CalMatters. Curri’s marketing director referred CalMatters to the company’s legal department, which did not return three emailed requests for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson saw the upside of Prop. 22 after it passed. She liked being able to continue setting her own hours and saw a bump in her earnings delivering for Grubhub due to the law. But she is now frustrated about how tough it was to figure out who’s supposed to be upholding it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not helpful if it’s not enforced or applied,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Robinson said the deputy labor commissioner she was in touch with throughout the process of pursuing her claim against Curri told her last week that because Prop. 22 was upheld by the state Supreme Court — effectively ensuring gig workers cannot be considered employees — the department would no longer be handling similar cases because it does not have jurisdiction over independent contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What gig workers are complaining about\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Prop. 22-related wage claims reviewed by CalMatters were part of a larger set of nearly 200 claims that gig workers filed with the Industrial Relations Department since the law took effect in December 2020. Citing the California Public Records Act, CalMatters sought all wage claims in that timeframe involving gig companies, but the state did not provide any claims against DoorDash, which is one of the biggest of the app-based gig companies. A department spokesperson could not explain why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the claimants sought delayed or unpaid wages, including adjustments owed under Prop. 22. Others sought health care stipends required under the gig-work law, and one driver said he sought occupational accident insurance but did not receive it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The claims also shed light on the mechanics of how app companies are allegedly withholding wages. In them, some gig workers claimed that they were deactivated — kicked off or fired by the app — before receiving all their wages. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The records also indicate the state had trouble holding app companies to account in a timely fashion. In emails about the claims, some workers frequently asked for updates about their cases and complained about limited communications from the state. This prompted one supervisor in the Industrial Relations Department’s San Francisco office to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1006930-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">respond by email\u003c/a> on May 30, 2024, seemingly noting that gig workers’ complaints were just a fraction of the array of worker complaints the state fields: “I am working with 40% staff shortage. There are over 3,000 cases, most of which are older than yours, and only seven people (total) to handle them.” The department did not respond to requests for comment on whether this shortfall persists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Monetary wage claims ranged from about $2 to nearly $420,000. Most — 54% — were against ride-hailing and delivery giant Uber and 25% were against its rides competitor Lyft. There were 17 claims against grocery-delivery app maker Instacart, seven against food-delivery platform Grubhub, four against Target-owned delivery service Shipt and three against UPS-owned delivery service Roadie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Industrial Relations Department has long tried to resolve gig workers’ wage disputes. The labor commissioner, who heads the department’s Labor Standards Enforcement Division, still has pending \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Lawsuits-Uber-Lyft.html\">wage-theft lawsuits\u003c/a> against Uber and Lyft that it filed in 2020 on behalf of about 5,000 workers with wage claims going back to 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those cases predate Prop. 22, originating during a period when gig workers were misclassified and should have been considered employees under California law, the labor commissioner argues in the wage-theft suits. After Prop. 22 passed, opponents challenged it and the case ended up before the California Supreme Court, which upheld the law in July, effectively affirming that drivers are independent contractors, not employees. A department spokesperson, Peter Melton, said the ruling means the department can no longer handle claims about missing wage adjustments under the earnings guarantee, unpaid health care stipends or other aspects of the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Department representatives made similar statements to workers even before Prop. 22 was upheld, the claims records show. An email response, dated March 26, 2024, from the department to an Uber driver \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1007106-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">stated\u003c/a>: “The Division of Labor Standards Enforcement enforces employment law. We cannot enforce Prop 22 earnings because they aren’t ‘wages’ earned by ‘employees’.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This echoes the position lawyers for Uber and Lyft took in some of the records when responding to wage claims. They asked the state to dismiss such claims, writing in \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CM-1003300-PRA-HQ-46848.pdf\">one email\u003c/a>: “As of December 16, 2020, drivers using Lyft’s platform are considered independent contractors by statute and, thus, cannot seek relief under the Labor Code.” \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now that the department has disavowed responsibility for Prop. 22 claims, the question remains: Who will enforce the law?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott Kronland, the attorney for Service Employees International Union California who unsuccessfully argued before the state Supreme Court that it should throw out Prop. 22, told CalMatters: “I’ve also heard from drivers that they’re not getting the things they’re promised by Prop. 22.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kronland said their recourse, after the ruling, is to press local prosecutors or the attorney general, who have the ability to hold companies liable for unlawful business practices under the state’s Unfair Competition Law. Still, he said “enforcement is something the Legislature could clarify.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an unsigned email response to CalMatters’ questions after the state Supreme Court decision, including whether it planned to pursue Prop.-22-related cases against gig-work companies, the attorney general’s office said gig workers can submit complaints at \u003ca href=\"http://oag.ca.gov/report\">oag.ca.gov/report\u003c/a>. The email added: “Although the Attorney General does not represent individual workers or adjudicate individual complaints by holding administrative hearings like (the Department of Industrial Relations), DOJ brings lawsuits to hold accountable companies that systematically break the law, for example through widespread violations of wage and hour standards. Reports or complaints of employer misconduct are an important part of our work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When CalMatters previously asked the attorney general’s office for copies of any wage complaints it had received from gig workers thus far, a spokesperson responded that the office was representing the state in its effort to defend \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/05/prop-22-oral-arguments/\">Prop. 22 before the California Supreme Court\u003c/a> — and referred CalMatters back to the Industrial Relations Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What gig companies share about Prop. 22’s impact\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Gig companies have said that, due in part to the initiative’s earnings guarantee, workers now make more than $30 an hour. But a May study by the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that, for California ride-hailing drivers, average earnings after expenses, not including tips, is about $7.12 an hour, and for delivery workers, $5.93. With tips, drivers’ average hourly earnings are $9.09 an hour, and $13.62 for delivery workers, the study found.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To better understand the impact of Prop. 22, CalMatters asked each of the four largest gig companies — Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart — the following:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>How much they have spent on delivering on each of Prop. 22’s four main promises:\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>120% of minimum wage earnings guarantee\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Health care stipends\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Occupational accident insurance\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Accidental death insurance\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How many gig workers have received each of the promised benefits.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Whether they have passed on costs to consumers, and if so, where they account for those customer fees in their public financial filings.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>How they handle complaints or issues related to their promises.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Lyft said 85% of California Lyft drivers who have driven for the company since Prop. 22 went into effect have received at least one wage “top up” — the additional money drivers receive under the earnings guarantee — through the end of the fourth quarter of 2023, though spokesperson Shadawn Reddick-Smith would not provide specific numbers of Lyft drivers in the state. None of the other companies would give any information on their delivery of the wage guarantee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instacart spokesperson Healow said the company has paid out about $40 million in health care subsidies to its delivery workers, which she said number in the tens of thousands in the state. She also said about 11% of California shoppers have become eligible for a health care stipend since Prop. 22 took effect, and that 28% of those eligible shoppers have redeemed their subsidy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To qualify for the health care stipends, workers must work at least 15 hours a week each quarter, and be enrolled in health insurance that is not provided by an employer or the government. Because the gig companies won’t share how many workers have received the stipends, CalMatters asked the state health insurance exchange, Covered California, if it had data that might help shed some light. Seven percent of the 1.6 million people who used Covered California reported doing gig work in a 2023 survey, said a spokesperson for the exchange, Jagdip Dhillon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DoorDash spokesperson Parker Dorrough said that just 11% of eligible couriers used the health care stipend in the fourth quarter of 2023 but that 80% of DoorDash’s delivery workers had health care coverage through another source, such as their full-time job or spouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the other companies would give any information on their delivery of the stipend. Lyft’s Reddick-Smith said 80% of California Lyft drivers already have health care coverage, including 13% who bought their own coverage (this second group is the set of drivers who qualified for the stipend).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12003067\" class=\"wp-caption center\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1721\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12003067\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-800x538.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1020x686.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1536x1033.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-2048x1377.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/09/GettyImages-1448862196-1-1920x1291.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sign is posted on a car as gig workers with the California Gig Workers Union stage a rally against Proposition 22 outside of the California First Appellate District Court of Appeal on December 13, 2022 in San Francisco, California. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>None of the four companies provided the numbers of workers who have used occupational accident or accidental death insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>None of the companies would disclose how they account for the fees they charge customers for Prop. 22 expenses, nor are the fees included in their publicly available financial filings. Instacart said it does not charge customers for expenses associated with Prop. 22. Lyft said its per-ride service fee includes a 75-cent “California Driver Benefits Fee.” Uber charges customers a “CA Driver Benefits” fee for each ride and delivery in the state and spokesperson Zahid Arab said the company has “invested more than we collected in fees.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Uber published a blog post after CalMatters’ questions, saying it has “invested” more than $1 billion in Prop. 22 benefits. Arab would not break down these benefits further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for complaints related to the promises, each of the companies said workers should contact support agents, whom they can usually get in touch with in the app; an Instacart spokesperson said workers can make some claims directly in the company’s app.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Seeing little from Prop. 22\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Ride-hailing driver Sergio Avedian last year helped raise public awareness of the lack of Prop. 22 enforcement. Specifically, he homed in on one narrow issue: Under the law, gig-work companies were supposed to adjust for inflation each year the reimbursement they pay to drivers for mileage. Avedian said no such adjustment had taken place for two consecutive years. And as a podcaster and contributor to the Rideshare Guy, a popular gig-work blog, he had a high profile. Avedian and a fellow eagle-eyed driver started pestering the state’s treasurer’s office, which had not published the adjusted rates as stipulated under Prop 22. The office eventually did so and, the Los Angeles Times reported, put the state’s gig workers \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-06-01/column-uber-david-and-goliath\">on track to get back pay for the mileage expenses\u003c/a> — pay potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a year later, Avedian is curious about gig-company math again. He has asked Uber some of the same questions CalMatters did — including how the company accounts for the driver-benefits fee it adds on to each ride or delivery. The company’s response to him was similar — it provided few specifics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides his concern about the issue as a driver, Avedian said “as a consumer who is paying into the Prop. 22 fund on every trip or delivery, I would like to know the accounting of where my money is going.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the gig companies were campaigning for Prop. 22, they implored voters to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7QJLgdQaf4\">help create a better path forward for drivers\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Avedian and other gig workers in California say their paths have not changed much. Many still complain about low wages, little transparency from the companies and lack of worker protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yasha Timenovich said he has worked as a ride-hailing driver for a decade, first with Uber, now with Lyft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I work 12, 13, 14 hours a day,” said Timenovich, who drives in the Los Angeles area. “But the time I sit and wait at LAX is not accounted for.” He said he has to work long hours to try to make sure he has enough earnings. “We’re not completely independent contractors. We’re not employees. We’re sort of a hybrid model of theirs. We’re pretty much nobody.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said he must obtain health insurance through Medi-Cal, California’s health care coverage for low-income residents — which in turn means he doesn’t qualify for the health care stipend. He said every driver he knows “is on Medi-Cal because they can’t afford health insurance. I don’t know anyone who has (the stipend).”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many drivers voted for Prop. 22, he said. But “what we were told was a lie.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-newspack-blocks-homepage-articles cm-manual-eoa-recirc wpnbha show-image image-alignleft ts-3 is-1 is-landscape cm-manual-eoa-recirc has-text-align-left\">\n\u003cdiv data-posts=\"\" data-current-post-id=\"438437\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Interest Rate Cuts Won’t Necessarily Help Bay Area’s Notorious Housing Market",
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"content": "\u003cp>Prospective homebuyers could soon see interest rates drop thanks to a cut to the Federal Reserve’s key benchmark, but some experts say tight supply and overwhelming demand are still likely to lead to a tough market for those in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell signaled that the central banking system would cut interest rates when it meets next in September, though he did not specify how much they will drop. Nationwide average \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MORTGAGE30US\">interest rates for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage\u003c/a> have hovered around 6%–8% for the past year, slowing demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although some real estate agents expect the rate decrease to be an encouraging sign of a busy fall season, others are hedging their bets on how much of an effect it will have on a tight California housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, has watched mortgage rates slowly go down since July. Despite the steady decline, she hasn’t seen more buyers returning to the market, potentially because they expect rates will drop even lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is that when you wait to buy until rates are lower, everybody is thinking the same thing, and then competition ends up being much fiercer,” Fairweather said. “By the end of next year, we could see prices high [enough] to the point that those gains in affordability are mostly canceled out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11998121 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240403-AARONPESKIN-003-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another potential chilling effect on the market is that existing homeowners might be reluctant to move amid a contentious election season and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/return-to-work-in-office-2025/\">mounting return-to-office requirements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who have bought a home in the last two years with mortgage rates at 7% or higher, they’re all looking to refinance now rather than sell,” said Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors. “That’s another reason why we think the housing supply is going to be tight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, rate cuts could accelerate a trend in the East Bay, where cities like Dublin and Brentwood have seen significant population gains in recent years as more people take on a longer commute for a chance at homeownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Clemons, president of the Bay East Realtors Association, said high interest rates likely led many homeowners to hold off on buying a new home after initially buying when rates dipped in 2021 and 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11999481 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/020_KQED_OneLoveBlackCommunity_11132022_qed-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s sellers are tomorrow’s buyers, so those people who were maybe on the fence and are leery about the high interest rates and not moving — this is an opportunity now,” she said. “And also for buyers who were hoping interest rates would come down, this is an opportunity for them as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s unclear how the expected Fed rate cut will play out in markets across the state, real estate agents all agree on one thing: If California’s housing inventory remains low, the balance between supply and demand will still be lopsided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction firms continue to deal with the fallout from pandemic-era supply chain issues and high borrowing costs. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://blog.bayareametro.gov/posts/report-housing-permits-bay-area-california-dropped-2023#:~:text=California%20issued%20111%2C221%20new%20permits,homeownership%20options%20for%20many%20Californians.\">study from real estate research firm Point 2\u003c/a>, permits for new homes in the Bay Area plunged last year, with the San Francisco-Berkeley-Oakland metro area seeing a 32.2% drop from the previous year — the sharpest decline in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan Levine, senior vice president of the California Association of Realtors, said that although the Fed’s rate cut might help, there’s a limit to how much it can do while the housing supply remains low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of buyers are waiting for lower rates, and they may come in and butt up against our structural supply challenge,” he said. “We’re not building fast enough, causing prices to go up even faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, has watched mortgage rates slowly go down since July. Despite the steady decline, she hasn’t seen more buyers returning to the market, potentially because they expect rates will drop even lower.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is that when you wait to buy until rates are lower, everybody is thinking the same thing, and then competition ends up being much fiercer,” Fairweather said. “By the end of next year, we could see prices high [enough] to the point that those gains in affordability are mostly canceled out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another potential chilling effect on the market is that existing homeowners might be reluctant to move amid a contentious election season and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/return-to-work-in-office-2025/\">mounting return-to-office requirements\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People who have bought a home in the last two years with mortgage rates at 7% or higher, they’re all looking to refinance now rather than sell,” said Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors. “That’s another reason why we think the housing supply is going to be tight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, rate cuts could accelerate a trend in the East Bay, where cities like Dublin and Brentwood have seen significant population gains in recent years as more people take on a longer commute for a chance at homeownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Barbara Clemons, president of the Bay East Realtors Association, said high interest rates likely led many homeowners to hold off on buying a new home after initially buying when rates dipped in 2021 and 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Today’s sellers are tomorrow’s buyers, so those people who were maybe on the fence and are leery about the high interest rates and not moving — this is an opportunity now,” she said. “And also for buyers who were hoping interest rates would come down, this is an opportunity for them as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though it’s unclear how the expected Fed rate cut will play out in markets across the state, real estate agents all agree on one thing: If California’s housing inventory remains low, the balance between supply and demand will still be lopsided.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Construction firms continue to deal with the fallout from pandemic-era supply chain issues and high borrowing costs. According to a \u003ca href=\"https://blog.bayareametro.gov/posts/report-housing-permits-bay-area-california-dropped-2023#:~:text=California%20issued%20111%2C221%20new%20permits,homeownership%20options%20for%20many%20Californians.\">study from real estate research firm Point 2\u003c/a>, permits for new homes in the Bay Area plunged last year, with the San Francisco-Berkeley-Oakland metro area seeing a 32.2% drop from the previous year — the sharpest decline in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan Levine, senior vice president of the California Association of Realtors, said that although the Fed’s rate cut might help, there’s a limit to how much it can do while the housing supply remains low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of buyers are waiting for lower rates, and they may come in and butt up against our structural supply challenge,” he said. “We’re not building fast enough, causing prices to go up even faster.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Homebuyers and sellers are about to experience a seismic change in how they work with realtors. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980019/national-association-realtors-class-action-lawsuit-buy-sell-house-california-is-about-to-change-heres-how\">settlement agreement in a major class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> against the National Association of Realtors goes into effect on Saturday— and it’s already impacting realtors across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a sea change for both the consumer and for real estate professionals,” Tricia Thomas, CEO of Bay East Association of Realtors, said. “Everyone is entering into waters that they are not familiar with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit accused the trade association of artificially inflating the commissions agents can make in home sales, made possible by a lack of transparency in how a home sale’s commission is split between buying and selling agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a home buyer and home seller will have to separately negotiate commission rates with their respective agents. Due to the $418 million settlement, agents can no longer list their commission rate on multiple real estate listing service websites like Zillow or Redfin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said realtors will also have to be more transparent in the kinds of services they will provide clients and will have to justify their commission rates accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You may have two houses that look the same on the outside, but on the inside, one seller improved it radically and the other didn’t,” she said. “That’s going to impact how long the house sits on the market, what kinds of services that realtor is going to provide — it may mean more marketing, different kinds of marketing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previously, if you were selling a home on Zillow, Redfin or another multiple-listing service website, you might have seen an agent’s commission fee listed. While there wasn’t a rule specifying the commission rate, the industry practice was to set it at around 5-6% of the home’s sale price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the seller’s agent and buyer’s agent would negotiate with each other to determine how that commission would be split amongst them. While realtors have long argued that the commission rate is negotiable, many home buyers and sellers would proceed with a home sale based on the rate listed on the listing website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This practice led to buying agents steering their clients towards homes with higher commission rates. \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ES-12.12.19-Barwick-Wong.pdf\">Research has shown\u003c/a> this system inhibited competition in some sales and even caused some home sellers to provide a higher commission, regardless of the work the realtor might have done to sell the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Housing Coverage' tag='housing']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, said these new rules will also force realtors to educate their clients about the complicated home selling and buying process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of times, consumers are not educated from A to Z up front,” he said. “We as real estate agents need to just thoroughly educate the consumer and let them know what our value is and then let the consumer decide what is a fair payment for that service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is just one harbinger of change for the real estate industry. A \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2992/id/2965736\">proposed state bill\u003c/a> currently making its way through the Senate titled “Buyer-Broker Representation Agreements” would, if passed, require a buyer’s agent to enter into a contract detailing compensation rates and services the agent would provide before the agent starts touring homes with their client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This contract will actually have you sit down and go over why you’re being compensated, how you plan to be compensated and what kind of value you are bringing to the table for your client,” Michelle Perry, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, said. “Now we’re going to show our value even more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Federal Reserve is \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/fed-officials-show-more-openness-september-rate-cut-2024-08-15/\">expected to lower interest rates next month\u003c/a> and realtors are seeing a \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ACTLISCOU41860\">rise in homes being actively listed in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, agents are preparing to see how these new rules play out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is happening as the market is moving along and we’re anticipating a pretty busy fall,” said David Stark, a spokesperson for Bay East Realtors Association. “Call us in three months and then six months to see how it’s working out.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Homebuyers and sellers are about to experience a seismic change in how they work with realtors. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11980019/national-association-realtors-class-action-lawsuit-buy-sell-house-california-is-about-to-change-heres-how\">settlement agreement in a major class-action lawsuit\u003c/a> against the National Association of Realtors goes into effect on Saturday— and it’s already impacting realtors across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a sea change for both the consumer and for real estate professionals,” Tricia Thomas, CEO of Bay East Association of Realtors, said. “Everyone is entering into waters that they are not familiar with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit accused the trade association of artificially inflating the commissions agents can make in home sales, made possible by a lack of transparency in how a home sale’s commission is split between buying and selling agents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a home buyer and home seller will have to separately negotiate commission rates with their respective agents. Due to the $418 million settlement, agents can no longer list their commission rate on multiple real estate listing service websites like Zillow or Redfin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thomas said realtors will also have to be more transparent in the kinds of services they will provide clients and will have to justify their commission rates accordingly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You may have two houses that look the same on the outside, but on the inside, one seller improved it radically and the other didn’t,” she said. “That’s going to impact how long the house sits on the market, what kinds of services that realtor is going to provide — it may mean more marketing, different kinds of marketing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Previously, if you were selling a home on Zillow, Redfin or another multiple-listing service website, you might have seen an agent’s commission fee listed. While there wasn’t a rule specifying the commission rate, the industry practice was to set it at around 5-6% of the home’s sale price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, the seller’s agent and buyer’s agent would negotiate with each other to determine how that commission would be split amongst them. While realtors have long argued that the commission rate is negotiable, many home buyers and sellers would proceed with a home sale based on the rate listed on the listing website.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This practice led to buying agents steering their clients towards homes with higher commission rates. \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ES-12.12.19-Barwick-Wong.pdf\">Research has shown\u003c/a> this system inhibited competition in some sales and even caused some home sellers to provide a higher commission, regardless of the work the realtor might have done to sell the home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Huang, president of the San Francisco Association of Realtors, said these new rules will also force realtors to educate their clients about the complicated home selling and buying process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of times, consumers are not educated from A to Z up front,” he said. “We as real estate agents need to just thoroughly educate the consumer and let them know what our value is and then let the consumer decide what is a fair payment for that service.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is just one harbinger of change for the real estate industry. A \u003ca href=\"https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB2992/id/2965736\">proposed state bill\u003c/a> currently making its way through the Senate titled “Buyer-Broker Representation Agreements” would, if passed, require a buyer’s agent to enter into a contract detailing compensation rates and services the agent would provide before the agent starts touring homes with their client.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This contract will actually have you sit down and go over why you’re being compensated, how you plan to be compensated and what kind of value you are bringing to the table for your client,” Michelle Perry, president of the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, said. “Now we’re going to show our value even more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the Federal Reserve is \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/fed-officials-show-more-openness-september-rate-cut-2024-08-15/\">expected to lower interest rates next month\u003c/a> and realtors are seeing a \u003ca href=\"https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/ACTLISCOU41860\">rise in homes being actively listed in the Bay Area\u003c/a>, agents are preparing to see how these new rules play out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is happening as the market is moving along and we’re anticipating a pretty busy fall,” said David Stark, a spokesperson for Bay East Realtors Association. “Call us in three months and then six months to see how it’s working out.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side?",
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"headTitle": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11999014,news_11886628,news_11991314\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "They Were Fired After Leaving Their Jobs in Sweltering Heat. Is the State on Their Side?",
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"nprByline": "\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/author/jeanne-kuang/\">Jeanne Kuang\u003c/a>, CalMatters",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>They worked nearly three triple-digit days before it felt unsafe to go on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maria Paredes said she already had a headache while working in a tomato field near Dixon on June 5, when high temperatures hit between 99 to 107 degrees. The hotter the next day got, the 40-year-old farmworker said, “the more it started to go back to my head, and I started to feel like vomiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing other workers feeling ill, Paredes and five coworkers said they got their forewoman’s permission to go home early on June 6, during one of the first heat waves this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when they showed up again at dawn the next day, they were given their last checks — and told there was no more work for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two state agencies are investigating the incident as a retaliatory firing. Conrad Ruiz, owner of the contractor that employed the workers, denied that’s what happened but declined to explain further.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As California confronts the dangers of extreme heat, labor advocates say some workers are underprotected despite the state’s nearly two-decade-old outdoor workplace heat rules. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/capitol/2024/02/california-farmworkers-safety/\">Enforcement is slow, the Division of Occupational Safety and Health is understaffed\u003c/a> and hesitance to report poor conditions is widespread among low-wage workers. After a sharp decrease in inspections during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cal/OSHA reports show the agency hasn’t returned to its pre-pandemic heat enforcement levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following up on the workers’ complaint, the agency is investigating whether Ruiz had followed the heat rules, which require water, shade, breaks, training for workers and a plan to prevent heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those who were let go say they’re worried the incident will discourage their former coworkers from taking breaks or raising concerns. As they await the results of the state’s investigations, they have embarked on a series of media interviews to warn other farmworkers of the risks of heat illness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you die in the fields, what will happen to your kids?” asks Paredes, who made $16 an hour in the tomato field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999176\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999176\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1548\" height=\"944\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-800x488.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1020x622.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-160x98.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers-LA_CM_15-copy-e1723053362522-1536x937.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Maria Paredes, 40, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. She lost her job at a tomato field the day after she decided to go home early after feeling sick due to the heat. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A 2022 \u003ca href=\"https://clc.ucmerced.edu/sites/clc.ucmerced.edu/files/page/documents/fwhs_report_2.2.2383.pdf\">UC Merced study (PDF)\u003c/a> found that 20% of surveyed farmworkers said their employers never monitored the temperature on hot days, as required by the state rules, and 15% said they were never provided shade. More than a quarter of workers said they were unaware of their right to file safety complaints, and nearly two-thirds said they would not report a violation out of fear of retaliation or concern they’d lose their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers union this year is pushing a bill that they say will prompt employers to make farm work safer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_202320240sb1299?slug=CA_202320240SB1299\">Senate Bill 1299\u003c/a> — authored by Silicon Valley Democratic Sen. \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/dave-cortese-164699\">Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a former farmworker, and co-authored by Assembly Speaker \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/legislators/robert-rivas-165041\">Robert Rivas\u003c/a>, a Salinas Democrat and \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/EytanWallace/status/1590921265019486208\">son of farmworkers\u003c/a> — would make it easier for workers to make a workers’ compensation claim for heat illness. It would specifically apply when employers can’t prove they were taking all the required precautions under the heat rule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers’ compensation claims cover all workplace injuries regardless of whether the employer is at fault. An approved claim can cover costs such as medical care, lost wages and death benefits to family members; it’s paid for by insurance policies that employers purchase. But it’s often difficult to prove heat illness cases were developed at work, said Megan Ruble, president of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, whose members represent injured workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bill proposes tying eligibility for workers’ comp coverage to not following the Cal/OSHA heat rules, despite the two systems being handled by separate state agencies — a novel approach that the union says adds financial pressure for employers to protect workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal/OSHA’s enforcement is limited,” UFW President Teresa Romero said during a June hearing on the bill. “It is nearly impossible, and no amount of money can monitor approximately 40,000 farms in this state. For the basic standards in outdoor heat regulations, this bill encourages employer compliance.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Chamber of Commerce and insurance carriers, however, \u003ca href=\"https://advocacy.calchamber.com/2024/08/05/advertising-tax-ai-regulation-and-other-bills-to-watch-in-final-month-of-legislative-session/\">oppose the bill\u003c/a>, arguing that the workers’ comp system should not be enforcing Cal/OSHA’s rules. They also warn the bill could saddle employers and insurance companies with unrelated injuries. A study \u003ca href=\"https://www.cwci.org/document.php?file=5767.pdf\">conducted by an insurers’ organization (PDF)\u003c/a> found less than 1% of California agricultural workers’ comp claims involved heat injuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bryan Little, director of labor affairs at the California Farm Bureau, an association of growers and labor contractors, is skeptical that more regulation is needed. He said he regularly educates farm employers on heat safety; many have responded to extreme heat by shifting work schedules, using more machinery instead of hired labor or at times even scheduling shifts at night. It’s not uncommon, he said, for supervisors to cut the workday short rather than risk workers’ safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The regulations have been in place a long time, everybody understands it, and it works as a result,” Little said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, the bill has sailed through the Legislature so far with the endorsement of liberal politicians eager to stake a claim on protecting vulnerable groups in the face of climate change. Attorney General Rob Bonta also supports the legislation, which could be heard in the Assembly Appropriations Committee as soon as today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nationally, policymakers are looking at California as they grapple with how to prevent workplace heat illness. The Biden administration last month announced a federal workplace heat rule that mirrors many of the state’s requirements. Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra marked \u003ca href=\"https://x.com/SenToniAtkins/status/1820862594107994180\">Farmworker Appreciation Day\u003c/a> by meeting a group of grape pickers in the Sacramento Delta and touting planned programs to give farmworkers and employers “advance warnings” of extreme heat and wildfire smoke levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers he met said they worry about the heat — but worry about paying their bills more. Sayda Turcios, a Yolo County farmworker and member of the advocacy group Líderes Campesinas, said the hotter it gets, the more she sees her hours cut when supervisors decide it’s unsafe to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It affects us in pay,” she said. “They end work early, three or four hours. At the end of the week, when they pay us, it’s reduced a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999179\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999179\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/072723-Farmworkers-LV_CM_05-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworkers work on a field outside Mendota in Fresno County on July 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Larry Valenzuela/CalMatters/CatchLight Local)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California was the first state in the nation to adopt outdoor heat rules in 2005 after the deaths of four farmworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rules require outdoor employers to provide water, shade, breaks and training to workers on preventing heat illness. On days hotter than 95 degrees, even stricter regulations apply for certain industries, including agriculture and construction. Farm employers must provide 10-minute breaks every two hours of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The United Farm Workers sued twice, in 2009 and 2012, to boost Cal/OSHA’s enforcement of the rule. It’s now \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/statistics/Frequently-cited-standards.html\">one of the most-cited\u003c/a> workplace safety violations. The agency must respond to complaints with an in-person inspection rather than an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2020/10/cal-osha-response-covid-complaints/\">inquiry “by letter.”\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, state reports\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>show that the enforcement of heat rules has declined in recent years, even as heat waves grow longer \u003ca href=\"https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147256/california-heatwave-fits-a-trend\">and more intense\u003c/a>. A Cal/OSHA report, which includes data for almost all of 2023, shows the agency opened 1,000 fewer heat-related inspections than in 2019 and issued nearly 800 fewer citations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11999193\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29%E2%80%AFPM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"840\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-800x313.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1020x399.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-160x63.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1536x600.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-2048x800.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Image-8-7-24-at-2.29 PM-scaled-e1723055678276-1920x750.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two months after being let go, the group of workers at the Dixon tomato farm are still waiting to hear the results of their complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jorge Santana said he called Cal/OSHA to report concerns about heat safety at Ruiz Farm Labor the day the workers were dismissed but said he only spoke with an inspector about three weeks later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the workers said they spoke in June with the Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which confirmed it has opened an investigation into the dismissals. And some, with the help of local advocate and United Farm Workers spokesperson Antonio De Loera-Brust, also filed a retaliation complaint at the state Labor Commissioner’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999180\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999180\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_13-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Jorge Santana, 61, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Reached by phone in July, Ruiz, the labor contractor, said none of the workers had been fired. “They weren’t fired, they were let go,” he said. “Everybody’s got it wrong. You’re going to have to talk to my lawyer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he declined to refer a reporter to the attorney, saying only, “She’s telling me to say no comment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CalMatters spoke with five of the six who were dismissed, including Paredes. Their accounts match hers and the retaliation complaint. Several said they saw other workers who felt ill but finished the workday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana, 61, said he knew the state’s heat rules from previous work in construction. He said there was water and shade for workers at the tomato field, but on forecasted hot days, supervisors didn’t always hold meetings to remind workers of the risks, which he said is common in other fields. When he saw others getting sick on June 6, he didn’t want to risk it and left along with Paredes and four others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they were handed their checks the next day, Santana said he argued with Ruiz over the phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I tried to tell him, there was a lot of people around here feeling sick and getting sick because of the heat,” Santana said. “He said, ‘The checks are made out, I don’t have to explain.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999182\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999182\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"976\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1020x635.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/061024_Heat-Farm-Workers_LA_CM_07-copy-e1723054680594-1536x956.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Farmworker Gerardo Reyes, 69, at City Park in Winters on June 10, 2024. \u003ccite>(Laure Andrillon for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Santana and another worker, Gerardo Reyes, disputed Ruiz’s characterization and said the six workers were fired in retaliation for raising concerns about heat. They said there was still work on June 7 for all the crew members who hadn’t left the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santana said he doesn’t regret raising concerns: “I’d rather lose a couple of hours of work than lose my life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker who felt the most ill, a 32-year-old woman, felt differently. “If I had known they were going to fire me,” the next day, she said, “I would have stayed. I would have held on.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The worker declined to file a complaint out of fear of jeopardizing an immigration case and agreed to an interview only if she was not named.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said she had felt sick on a hot day about two weeks prior, and a relative of the forewoman had taken her home early. Reyes, a longtime farmworker with whom the 32-year-old carpools, corroborated her account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 6, she said, she again felt dizzy and nauseated. At the forewoman’s direction, she took a break under a tree, taking off her hat, gloves and shoes. It helped, she said, but when she returned to work, temperatures had climbed. She was shaking, had stopped sweating and said she thought she might fall over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was Reyes who insisted she couldn’t keep working; he was among those who left — with the forewoman’s permission, he said — so that he could drive her home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have since found a couple of other jobs in the fields, but both times, the work ran out after about a week. In one of them, the woman said she felt ill again and missed a day of work during the early July heat wave. Around her, she said, she saw older workers falling ill with hardly any shade. But she didn’t make a report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With debts to pay and three children to support overseas, she said she’s desperate to find another job. She considers farm work her only prospect, though she said she now knows of the dangers of working outside in extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m the one who has to adapt,” she said. “The weather is something no one can control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>CalMatters’ Carlos Aviles contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may have heard some horror stories about electric vehicle charging — long lines, lengthy waits, broken units. Sometimes even\u003cem> finding \u003c/em>a charging station is a challenge. When your car’s low on charge but no charger is available, it’s stressful. Maybe you’re halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and you’re stuck waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the big things stopping Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg from buying an electric car right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that by 2030, between having some years to save up and the technology getting better and cheaper, maybe that’s around the time [it] could work for our family,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Lindberg has an idea to help alleviate the charging congestion. She’s noticed a lot of empty former gas station sites around her neighborhood in Oakland and wondered, “Would it be a good idea to turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal for the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by the year 2035. So even if you’ve got a gas-powered car, and this isn’t a problem you’re facing currently, it may be soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How to set up a charging station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To find out what goes into installing a new charging station, I met up with Jonah Eidus, who oversees real estate development for electric car charging company EVgo. The company has hundreds of charging stalls across the Bay Area and thousands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes,” Eidus said. “And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since charging your car takes longer than pumping gas, stations are designed with the surroundings in mind. They aim to install stations in the parking lot of a Safeway, for example, or close to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many other considerations too, Eidus said, including the availability of parking stalls. Is there enough space for many cars to park? The goal, after all, is to build as many charging stalls per site as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does the site integrate well into the electrical grid? The product they are ultimately selling is electricity, so they have to make sure that a site \u003cem>has \u003c/em>the electricity to sell at an affordable price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, is the charging station set up near those who need it most, including those who live in apartment complexes and don’t have the option to charge from their own garage? There are also city zoning regulations and safety considerations to take into account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even half of what goes into establishing a charging site. In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through,” Eidus said. “When a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Improving reliability and keeping up with demand\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California — particularly the Bay Area — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/bay-area-electric-vehicles.html\">leads the nation\u003c/a> in electric vehicle adoption. To meet that growing demand, California has to build 1 million new chargers by the end of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24795161/assembly-bill-2127-second-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-second-assessment-revised-staff-report.pdf#page=52\">according to the state’s own projections (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/07/california-electric-car-chargers-unrealistic-goals/\">that’s not feasible\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers,” said Carleen Cullen, co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Gov. Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only are they in short supply, the ones we do have are not always reliable, Cullen said. She helped conduct a study a few years ago to test the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area and found that a quarter of them weren’t functional, meaning the screens were broken, the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullen said while the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, there’s still not enough of it — despite the fact that \u003ca href=\"https://smartasset.com/data-studies/ev-chargers-2023\">California is outpacing other states\u003c/a> in both EV adoption and infrastructure. And in order to reach Newsom’s goal, we need consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, local governments and utility companies to work together, Cullen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to move the adoption of EVs forward, we need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tashinda Richardson of Oakland plugs in her rented electric vehicle at an EVgo Fast Charging station in Oakland on Jan. 29. Richardson said it can be hard to find a charger when she needs one. Sometimes, she said, chargers won’t work or the plug will get stuck in the car. \u003ccite>(Kathryn Styer Martínez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big hold-up right now, according to Cullen, lies with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a huge lag time between when the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to the power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station anywhere. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant, for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system,” said David Almeida, a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almeida said the utility company underestimated electricity demand, and as a result, it doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the rapidly growing EV industry right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the work needed to bolster this transportation system overhaul, Almeida said it’s ultimately worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, California’s transportation system is by far the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/ghg-inventory-data\">largest contributor\u003c/a> to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and EVs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09642\">study\u003c/a> by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been a believer from the very beginning,” Almeida said. “And it’s just very cool to see a lot of this prove out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay curious. And today we’re going on a little road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of a car driving\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Here we go. So we are driving around San Francisco in my Volkswagen E-golf, and it’s an electric vehicle. And we’re looking for a place to charge. And I’m here with Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And how do you normally find a place to charge in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s pretty rare that I have to find a place to charge because I mostly charge at home. But when I do have to find a place, I pull up an app on my phone and …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Safely, of course, pulled over by the side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Exactly. Let’s actually pull over real quick up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of car decelerating)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so I pull up this app on my phone and what it does is it loads all sorts of different chargers that are nearby that are owned by all sorts of different companies. The numbers mean how many charging stations are in each of these locations. Of the one that’s nearby, it looks like one is out of service; four are currently being used … but looks like one is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> 0.2 miles away. That’s not too bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Yeah, let’s give it a shot. Okay, so the charger is somewhere in this enormous parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> You know that there’s a spot open right now because of your app, right? Or is it possible that it’s there but someone’s using it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I would … I would say I don’t feel 100% confident based on the app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> There’s a line of Teslas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, let’s go and see if the non-Tesla chargers are near the Tesla ones, too. Oh, and here we are to the right. … This is also Tesla charging. Just kidding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We drove around the parking lot for a while but then finally found the chargers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> So, it’s full. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There was a little dispute with another customer over who was there first. It was totally us, but we let it go. Eventually, another stall opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Charging port here, plug it in and it looks like this one gives me the option to pay by the EVgo app, or I can pay by credit card, which is actually great. It does not seem … Oh, there we go, there we go. Okay, let’s remove the card … (pause) authorization declined. I will try a different card payment. (pause) Authorized!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Step one: Complete! (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Step 7,962: pay for the charging. (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Generally, I would say this was not super easy, and yet it’s pretty much totally full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: Yeah, I mean, it’s not easy. I feel really lucky most of the time. I charge at home because it is, you know, it’s a pain and it’s a little stressful, especially if you are really low on charge. Like I’ve been in situations where I’m really sweating it out because I go to one charging station and like the screen is broken or the Wi-Fi isn’t working, or sometimes they’ll have these in paid parking garages and they don’t tell you that. And it’s like $30 just to get in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like it feels like you do have to have an at-home charger right now for this to be convenient and conducive to your lifestyle. Like, I can’t imagine, like fully relying on this, you know. I, for one, will probably just stick with my Subaru for now. My gas-powered Subaru, for now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> On today’s episode of Bay Curious, we dive into the world of electric vehicles. I love driving mine, but as you saw, it’s not perfect. California currently dominates the EV market, and the state has a lofty goal of banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. So if you’re not driving an EV yet, you may be soon. Is your community set up for it? Is the Bay area’s current infrastructure matching up with the demand? We’ll get into all that just after a quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>SPONSOR\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>For this episode, I’m tossing to my co-pilot … reporter Dana Cronin … to explain what’s going on with the Bay Area’s EV infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like a lot of Bay Area residents … maybe you included … I want my next car to be electric. But if my 2012 Subaru Outback died tomorrow … I’m not sure I’d be ready to make the switch. Especially after that drive with Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg … feels the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> You hear those stories in the news sometimes about, like, the drive between, like, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. You know, people going in their Teslas and having a super long line at the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Kelly works for a climate startup accelerator, and she’s thought, “There’s gotta be a solution to this problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One came to her… as she was driving through her neighborhood in Oakland. She’s noticed a lot of abandoned gas stations around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> Would it be a good idea to maybe turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I mean … sounds like a good idea to me. I, too, live in Oakland and have noticed quite a few empty lots. Whether they’re former gas stations, convenience stores, or storefronts … it seems like there’s plenty of empty space for charging stations to set up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, to do that, you first need a charging company. So, I met with one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of loud road noise)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah Eidus is wearing a navy-logoed polo and is parked at an EVgo charging station. He oversees EVgo’s real estate department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EVgo has hundreds of charging stalls in the Bay Area … the one we’re meeting at is in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood … right off of 580 on Fruitvale Avenue. It’s set up at a Shell gas station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> So this site is an eight-stall, fast-charging site, capable of delivering up to 350 kW to each car. And it is definitely one of the more popular stations in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>That’s enough to charge most modern EVs in less than 20 minutes. And it is popular! Over the course of our interview … all eight stalls were full almost the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without wasting any time, I posed Kelly’s question. Could empty lots and gas stations near her house get setups like this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes. And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>It takes longer to charge your car’s battery than it does to pump gas. So this charging station, for example, is right next to a Peet’s Coffee and a Farmer Joe’s grocery store. A perfect place to run some errands while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we’re talking, Dave Robinson drives up in his brand new 2023 KIA EV6, backs into a stall, and plugs in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>What do you plan to do while you wait?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dave Robinson:\u003c/strong> Just hang out. You know, if it’s going to be a while, there’s coffee shops and everything else around. So it’s easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Convenience! It’s a big factor in selecting a charging site, Jonah says. But there are lots of other factors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Availability of parking stalls, grid interconnection, forecasted charging demand, electricity rates and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>OK … let’s take those one at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> Availability of parking stalls …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning … is there enough space for cars to park here? The goal is to build as many charging stalls as possible per site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … grid interconnection …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This one is super important. Because after all, the product they are ultimately selling … is electricity. And they need to make sure that a specific site HAS the electricity to sell\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … forecasted charging demand … electricity rates …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>How many customers do they expect, and how much will those customers have to pay to charge? The cost of electricity can \u003cem>literally \u003c/em>vary block to block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And … EVGo is a for-profit company after all … so it needs to pencil out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Is the charging station set up near those who need it the most? Those who live in apartment complexes, for example, don’t have the option to charge from their own garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even \u003cem>half \u003c/em>the considerations that go into establishing a charging site. There’s also things like a city’s zoning regulations … and safety considerations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through. And when a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah couldn’t say exactly whether the specific abandoned gas stations in Kelly’s neighborhood could be converted to charging sites … I guess that’s a question for the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(music)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>So that’s how companies choose specific charging sites … and avoid others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the \u003cem>heart \u003c/em>of Kelly’s question … is a bigger question. Clearly, we need MORE charging stations … whether at abandoned gas stations … or near coffee shops and grocery stores. So … why hasn’t the electric vehicle charging infrastructure kept up with demand?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that question, I met up with Carleen Cullen. She’s the co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Governor Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of a busy parking lot)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>We meet up at another charging station … this one in the parking lot of a Safeway in Mill Valley. We’re chatting next to Carleen’s Chevy Bolt … which is parked in a stall, ready to charge … when, all of a sudden, another EV driver pulls up behind us and asks how long we plan to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I guess that’s part of the challenge is that there’s so few chargers that we have someone waiting on us here waiting for a charge, somewhat impatiently. So we’re going to go ahead and get charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> Let’s get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen swipes her credit card, pulls the charger around to her car, plugs in, and it starts charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of the high-pitched hum from the charger)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>So when you hear that great hum, you know that that’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen is somewhat of an electric vehicle evangelist … an E-V-vangelist … if you will. Half the time we spent together I felt like I was in an EV infomercial. But she’s not naive. She knows the current infrastructure is flawed. In fact, she did a study a few years ago where she tested the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>And we found that about a quarter of the stations in the Bay area weren’t functional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning the screens were broken or the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed. She says the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, but there’s still not enough of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers. Yeah, we’re definitely tight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And that’s in part because … what we’re talking about here … is a MAJOR overhaul of an entire transportation system. In 2020, Governor Newsom set a goal to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in California by the year 2035. And California is outpacing other states in both EV adoption and infrastructure by a long shot. We have more chargers than any other state. But in order to reach that lofty goal … Carleen says we need three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> We need to move the adoption of EVs forward. We need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>These things all have to happen simultaneously. Consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, utility companies, local governments … everyone has to work in concert for this to work. Carleen says, right now, the utility companies aren’t necessarily pulling their weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>There’s a huge lag time between when the station, the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to our power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station ANYWHERE. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant … for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are critical considerations, says David Almeida … a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group. And he says Carleen’s critique is fair. He says, yes, the utility is definitely still playing catch-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida:\u003c/strong> So we have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He also says … they didn’t plan for that increased demand for electricity. In fact, they UNDERestimated it … and, as a result, they don’t have the infrastructure to support it right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he says, they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida: \u003c/strong>We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He says their goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This all sounds like a lot of work. Overhauling our entire state’s transportation system … building thousands and thousands of new charging stations … getting utility companies on board … I’m exhausted just thinking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s important to remember WHY we’re doing this. Right now, California’s transportation system is BY FAR the largest contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Evs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, obviously, to keep up that progress … the system has to work for EVERYONE. And I’m not sure we’re there yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music sneaks in\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> What do you think, Olivia? Any more sympathy for the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> You know, yeah. I didn’t realize there were so many hurdles to getting new charging stations online. I feel really lucky that I am able to charge my car at home and so this isn’t an issue I have to deal with very often. But for folks who can’t charge overnight where they live — that’s a huge hurdle. And I’m sure it’s a non-starter for some people! It’s got to get better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Yeah … 2035 is not THAT far away … and if we’re gonna reach that goal, we’re going to need more charging stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m kind of hoping my Subaru lasts just a couple more years …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Dana Cronin — thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story would not have been possible without our question-asker, Kelly Lindberg. That’s because you, our dear audience, decide what we cover by submitting questions — and then voting on which ones we should answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a new voting round-up at BayCurious.org with three enticing questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 1:\u003c/strong> Why did Oakland International Airport become San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, giving us two very confusingly similar-sounding airports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 2:\u003c/strong> I remember going to the Berkeley dump, now Cesar Chavez Park, with my dad in the 1970s. It was pretty wild. It’d be really interesting to learn more about its evolution from dump to park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 3:\u003c/strong> I was walking my dog on Thornton Beach on the Daly City/SF border and found a really long tunnel coming out of the hillside around some abandoned piers. Any idea what it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Voting is so easy! Just grab your phone, pull up BayCurious.org, scroll to our voting round and click on your favorite question! No registering or emails or phone numbers or anything complicated. We try to make it easy on you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale. Special thanks to Laura Klivans, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may have heard some horror stories about electric vehicle charging — long lines, lengthy waits, broken units. Sometimes even\u003cem> finding \u003c/em>a charging station is a challenge. When your car’s low on charge but no charger is available, it’s stressful. Maybe you’re halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and you’re stuck waiting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s one of the big things stopping Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg from buying an electric car right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m hoping that by 2030, between having some years to save up and the technology getting better and cheaper, maybe that’s around the time [it] could work for our family,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the meantime, Lindberg has an idea to help alleviate the charging congestion. She’s noticed a lot of empty former gas station sites around her neighborhood in Oakland and wondered, “Would it be a good idea to turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom set a goal for the state to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by the year 2035. So even if you’ve got a gas-powered car, and this isn’t a problem you’re facing currently, it may be soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How to set up a charging station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To find out what goes into installing a new charging station, I met up with Jonah Eidus, who oversees real estate development for electric car charging company EVgo. The company has hundreds of charging stalls across the Bay Area and thousands across the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes,” Eidus said. “And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since charging your car takes longer than pumping gas, stations are designed with the surroundings in mind. They aim to install stations in the parking lot of a Safeway, for example, or close to a coffee shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are many other considerations too, Eidus said, including the availability of parking stalls. Is there enough space for many cars to park? The goal, after all, is to build as many charging stalls per site as possible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Does the site integrate well into the electrical grid? The product they are ultimately selling is electricity, so they have to make sure that a site \u003cem>has \u003c/em>the electricity to sell at an affordable price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, is the charging station set up near those who need it most, including those who live in apartment complexes and don’t have the option to charge from their own garage? There are also city zoning regulations and safety considerations to take into account.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even half of what goes into establishing a charging site. In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through,” Eidus said. “When a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Improving reliability and keeping up with demand\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>California — particularly the Bay Area — \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/12/us/bay-area-electric-vehicles.html\">leads the nation\u003c/a> in electric vehicle adoption. To meet that growing demand, California has to build 1 million new chargers by the end of 2030, \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24795161/assembly-bill-2127-second-electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-second-assessment-revised-staff-report.pdf#page=52\">according to the state’s own projections (PDF)\u003c/a>. Some experts say \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/07/california-electric-car-chargers-unrealistic-goals/\">that’s not feasible\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers,” said Carleen Cullen, co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Gov. Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only are they in short supply, the ones we do have are not always reliable, Cullen said. She helped conduct a study a few years ago to test the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area and found that a quarter of them weren’t functional, meaning the screens were broken, the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cullen said while the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, there’s still not enough of it — despite the fact that \u003ca href=\"https://smartasset.com/data-studies/ev-chargers-2023\">California is outpacing other states\u003c/a> in both EV adoption and infrastructure. And in order to reach Newsom’s goal, we need consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, local governments and utility companies to work together, Cullen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to move the adoption of EVs forward, we need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11999354\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11999354\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/240129-EVFILE-KSM-24_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tashinda Richardson of Oakland plugs in her rented electric vehicle at an EVgo Fast Charging station in Oakland on Jan. 29. Richardson said it can be hard to find a charger when she needs one. Sometimes, she said, chargers won’t work or the plug will get stuck in the car. \u003ccite>(Kathryn Styer Martínez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big hold-up right now, according to Cullen, lies with PG&E.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a huge lag time between when the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to the power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station anywhere. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant, for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system,” said David Almeida, a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almeida said the utility company underestimated electricity demand, and as a result, it doesn’t have the infrastructure to support the rapidly growing EV industry right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the work needed to bolster this transportation system overhaul, Almeida said it’s ultimately worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Right now, California’s transportation system is by far the \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/ghg-inventory-data\">largest contributor\u003c/a> to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and EVs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c09642\">study\u003c/a> by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been a believer from the very beginning,” Almeida said. “And it’s just very cool to see a lot of this prove out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay curious. And today we’re going on a little road trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of a car driving\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Here we go. So we are driving around San Francisco in my Volkswagen E-golf, and it’s an electric vehicle. And we’re looking for a place to charge. And I’m here with Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And how do you normally find a place to charge in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s pretty rare that I have to find a place to charge because I mostly charge at home. But when I do have to find a place, I pull up an app on my phone and …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Safely, of course, pulled over by the side of the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Exactly. Let’s actually pull over real quick up here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of car decelerating)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so I pull up this app on my phone and what it does is it loads all sorts of different chargers that are nearby that are owned by all sorts of different companies. The numbers mean how many charging stations are in each of these locations. Of the one that’s nearby, it looks like one is out of service; four are currently being used … but looks like one is available.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> 0.2 miles away. That’s not too bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Yeah, let’s give it a shot. Okay, so the charger is somewhere in this enormous parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> You know that there’s a spot open right now because of your app, right? Or is it possible that it’s there but someone’s using it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I would … I would say I don’t feel 100% confident based on the app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> There’s a line of Teslas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So, let’s go and see if the non-Tesla chargers are near the Tesla ones, too. Oh, and here we are to the right. … This is also Tesla charging. Just kidding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We drove around the parking lot for a while but then finally found the chargers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> So, it’s full. (laughs)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There was a little dispute with another customer over who was there first. It was totally us, but we let it go. Eventually, another stall opened up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Charging port here, plug it in and it looks like this one gives me the option to pay by the EVgo app, or I can pay by credit card, which is actually great. It does not seem … Oh, there we go, there we go. Okay, let’s remove the card … (pause) authorization declined. I will try a different card payment. (pause) Authorized!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Step one: Complete! (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Step 7,962: pay for the charging. (laughing)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Generally, I would say this was not super easy, and yet it’s pretty much totally full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: Yeah, I mean, it’s not easy. I feel really lucky most of the time. I charge at home because it is, you know, it’s a pain and it’s a little stressful, especially if you are really low on charge. Like I’ve been in situations where I’m really sweating it out because I go to one charging station and like the screen is broken or the Wi-Fi isn’t working, or sometimes they’ll have these in paid parking garages and they don’t tell you that. And it’s like $30 just to get in the garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like it feels like you do have to have an at-home charger right now for this to be convenient and conducive to your lifestyle. Like, I can’t imagine, like fully relying on this, you know. I, for one, will probably just stick with my Subaru for now. My gas-powered Subaru, for now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> On today’s episode of Bay Curious, we dive into the world of electric vehicles. I love driving mine, but as you saw, it’s not perfect. California currently dominates the EV market, and the state has a lofty goal of banning the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. So if you’re not driving an EV yet, you may be soon. Is your community set up for it? Is the Bay area’s current infrastructure matching up with the demand? We’ll get into all that just after a quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>SPONSOR\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>For this episode, I’m tossing to my co-pilot … reporter Dana Cronin … to explain what’s going on with the Bay Area’s EV infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Like a lot of Bay Area residents … maybe you included … I want my next car to be electric. But if my 2012 Subaru Outback died tomorrow … I’m not sure I’d be ready to make the switch. Especially after that drive with Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Kelly Lindberg … feels the same way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> You hear those stories in the news sometimes about, like, the drive between, like, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. You know, people going in their Teslas and having a super long line at the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Kelly works for a climate startup accelerator, and she’s thought, “There’s gotta be a solution to this problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One came to her… as she was driving through her neighborhood in Oakland. She’s noticed a lot of abandoned gas stations around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kelly Lindberg:\u003c/strong> Would it be a good idea to maybe turn some of these spaces into electric car charging stations?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I mean … sounds like a good idea to me. I, too, live in Oakland and have noticed quite a few empty lots. Whether they’re former gas stations, convenience stores, or storefronts … it seems like there’s plenty of empty space for charging stations to set up shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, to do that, you first need a charging company. So, I met with one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of loud road noise)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah Eidus is wearing a navy-logoed polo and is parked at an EVgo charging station. He oversees EVgo’s real estate department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>EVgo has hundreds of charging stalls in the Bay Area … the one we’re meeting at is in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood … right off of 580 on Fruitvale Avenue. It’s set up at a Shell gas station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> So this site is an eight-stall, fast-charging site, capable of delivering up to 350 kW to each car. And it is definitely one of the more popular stations in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>That’s enough to charge most modern EVs in less than 20 minutes. And it is popular! Over the course of our interview … all eight stalls were full almost the whole time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without wasting any time, I posed Kelly’s question. Could empty lots and gas stations near her house get setups like this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> In general, when we’re installing new chargers, we’re looking to be in high-traffic areas where the chargers will be used for about 15 to 45 minutes. And that means we also want to have amenities nearby so people have something to do during those 15 to 45 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>It takes longer to charge your car’s battery than it does to pump gas. So this charging station, for example, is right next to a Peet’s Coffee and a Farmer Joe’s grocery store. A perfect place to run some errands while you wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we’re talking, Dave Robinson drives up in his brand new 2023 KIA EV6, backs into a stall, and plugs in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>What do you plan to do while you wait?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dave Robinson:\u003c/strong> Just hang out. You know, if it’s going to be a while, there’s coffee shops and everything else around. So it’s easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Convenience! It’s a big factor in selecting a charging site, Jonah says. But there are lots of other factors, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Availability of parking stalls, grid interconnection, forecasted charging demand, electricity rates and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>OK … let’s take those one at a time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> Availability of parking stalls …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning … is there enough space for cars to park here? The goal is to build as many charging stalls as possible per site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … grid interconnection …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This one is super important. Because after all, the product they are ultimately selling … is electricity. And they need to make sure that a specific site HAS the electricity to sell\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … forecasted charging demand … electricity rates …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>How many customers do they expect, and how much will those customers have to pay to charge? The cost of electricity can \u003cem>literally \u003c/em>vary block to block.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And … EVGo is a for-profit company after all … so it needs to pencil out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus:\u003c/strong> … and importantly, multifamily housing density nearby the charging station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Is the charging station set up near those who need it the most? Those who live in apartment complexes, for example, don’t have the option to charge from their own garage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s not even \u003cem>half \u003c/em>the considerations that go into establishing a charging site. There’s also things like a city’s zoning regulations … and safety considerations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, EVgo has a mapping algorithm that integrates 27 different factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jonah Eidus: \u003c/strong>Suffice to say, it is a fairly sophisticated process that we go through. And when a site goes live, a lot of thought and a lot of data has gone into the decision to build that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Jonah couldn’t say exactly whether the specific abandoned gas stations in Kelly’s neighborhood could be converted to charging sites … I guess that’s a question for the algorithm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(music)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem> \u003c/em>So that’s how companies choose specific charging sites … and avoid others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the \u003cem>heart \u003c/em>of Kelly’s question … is a bigger question. Clearly, we need MORE charging stations … whether at abandoned gas stations … or near coffee shops and grocery stores. So … why hasn’t the electric vehicle charging infrastructure kept up with demand?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To answer that question, I met up with Carleen Cullen. She’s the co-founder of the environmental nonprofit Cool the Earth and a former transportation advisor to Governor Newsom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sounds of a busy parking lot)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>We meet up at another charging station … this one in the parking lot of a Safeway in Mill Valley. We’re chatting next to Carleen’s Chevy Bolt … which is parked in a stall, ready to charge … when, all of a sudden, another EV driver pulls up behind us and asks how long we plan to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>I guess that’s part of the challenge is that there’s so few chargers that we have someone waiting on us here waiting for a charge, somewhat impatiently. So we’re going to go ahead and get charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> Let’s get started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen swipes her credit card, pulls the charger around to her car, plugs in, and it starts charging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(sound of the high-pitched hum from the charger)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>So when you hear that great hum, you know that that’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Carleen is somewhat of an electric vehicle evangelist … an E-V-vangelist … if you will. Half the time we spent together I felt like I was in an EV infomercial. But she’s not naive. She knows the current infrastructure is flawed. In fact, she did a study a few years ago where she tested the reliability of charging stations in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>And we found that about a quarter of the stations in the Bay area weren’t functional.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>Meaning the screens were broken or the payment system didn’t work or the equipment was flawed. She says the infrastructure has improved a lot since then, but there’s still not enough of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>I would say we’re tight on the number of chargers. Yeah, we’re definitely tight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>And that’s in part because … what we’re talking about here … is a MAJOR overhaul of an entire transportation system. In 2020, Governor Newsom set a goal to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles in California by the year 2035. And California is outpacing other states in both EV adoption and infrastructure by a long shot. We have more chargers than any other state. But in order to reach that lofty goal … Carleen says we need three things:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen:\u003c/strong> We need to move the adoption of EVs forward. We need to move the number of charging ports available as well, and we need to move the grid capacity as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>These things all have to happen simultaneously. Consumers, charging companies, EV manufacturers, utility companies, local governments … everyone has to work in concert for this to work. Carleen says, right now, the utility companies aren’t necessarily pulling their weight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carleen Cullen: \u003c/strong>There’s a huge lag time between when the station, the charging station vendor requests the power and when PG&E actually delivers it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>For a charging station to operate, it needs to be hooked up to our power grid. That’s where PG&E comes in. And they won’t just let you set up a charging station ANYWHERE. They have to be able to deliver enough power to that site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is the section of the grid you’re trying to connect to also connected to a big manufacturing plant … for example? Are your neighbors using a lot of electricity during certain times of the day? Then the available power is likely spoken for. Does that portion of the grid rely heavily on solar power? Then the chargers may not work when the sun goes down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These are critical considerations, says David Almeida … a manager within PG&E’s clean energy transportation group. And he says Carleen’s critique is fair. He says, yes, the utility is definitely still playing catch-up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida:\u003c/strong> So we have over 600,000 EVs in our service territory. And we’ve seen EV adoption grow at about 26% of the compound annual growth rate over the last few years. That’s a significant amount of load that we’re seeing on the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He also says … they didn’t plan for that increased demand for electricity. In fact, they UNDERestimated it … and, as a result, they don’t have the infrastructure to support it right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, he says, they’re working on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Almeida: \u003c/strong>We are building out a forecast that doesn’t look at necessarily just historical load, but it looks at where we anticipate load growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>He says their goal is to make electric car charging stations faster to build and more reliable once they’re up and running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin: \u003c/strong>This all sounds like a lot of work. Overhauling our entire state’s transportation system … building thousands and thousands of new charging stations … getting utility companies on board … I’m exhausted just thinking about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s important to remember WHY we’re doing this. Right now, California’s transportation system is BY FAR the largest contributor to our greenhouse gas emissions. Transitioning away from gas-powered cars is critical to mitigating the impacts of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Evs are already helping to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent study by scientists at UC Berkeley showed EV adoption in the Bay Area has already reduced our carbon emissions by almost 2 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, obviously, to keep up that progress … the system has to work for EVERYONE. And I’m not sure we’re there yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music sneaks in\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> What do you think, Olivia? Any more sympathy for the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> You know, yeah. I didn’t realize there were so many hurdles to getting new charging stations online. I feel really lucky that I am able to charge my car at home and so this isn’t an issue I have to deal with very often. But for folks who can’t charge overnight where they live — that’s a huge hurdle. And I’m sure it’s a non-starter for some people! It’s got to get better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Yeah … 2035 is not THAT far away … and if we’re gonna reach that goal, we’re going to need more charging stations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m kind of hoping my Subaru lasts just a couple more years …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Dana Cronin — thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dana Cronin:\u003c/strong> Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was KQED’s Dana Cronin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This story would not have been possible without our question-asker, Kelly Lindberg. That’s because you, our dear audience, decide what we cover by submitting questions — and then voting on which ones we should answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We have a new voting round-up at BayCurious.org with three enticing questions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 1:\u003c/strong> Why did Oakland International Airport become San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport, giving us two very confusingly similar-sounding airports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 2:\u003c/strong> I remember going to the Berkeley dump, now Cesar Chavez Park, with my dad in the 1970s. It was pretty wild. It’d be really interesting to learn more about its evolution from dump to park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice 3:\u003c/strong> I was walking my dog on Thornton Beach on the Daly City/SF border and found a really long tunnel coming out of the hillside around some abandoned piers. Any idea what it is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Voting is so easy! Just grab your phone, pull up BayCurious.org, scroll to our voting round and click on your favorite question! No registering or emails or phone numbers or anything complicated. We try to make it easy on you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Ana De Almeida Amaral, Amanda Font, Olivia Allen-Price, Christopher Beale. Special thanks to Laura Klivans, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"title": "'Affordable Housing for Another Generation': California Trusts Pull Properties Off the Market",
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"headTitle": "‘Affordable Housing for Another Generation’: California Trusts Pull Properties Off the Market | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>Nine years ago, tenants of the Pigeon Palace at 2840–2848 Folsom Street in San Francisco faced a dilemma. Their aging landlord, who had long rented at affordable rates, was unable to continue overseeing the place. Instead, a court-appointed conservator took steps to auction off the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pigeon Palace is in the popular and increasingly expensive Mission neighborhood, the residents feared a new owner might dramatically raise their rents — or kick them out altogether. So they crowdfunded $300,000 and gave it to a nonprofit called the San Francisco Community Land Trust, which combined it with loans from a bank and the city to place the winning bid of more than $3 million. The trust then rented units back to the tenants at affordable rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the political debate about California’s housing crisis has focused on building new units. However, community land trusts, a method of preserving existing affordable housing that dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, have quietly been gaining steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of community land trusts — nonprofits that buy up land and then sell or rent the buildings on top of it to residents with low-income — has tripled in California since 2014, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacltnetwork.org/\">California Community Land Trust Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the housing units that such trusts oversee number only in the low thousands, supporters say the model is cheaper than building new and can help stabilize communities at risk of gentrification and displacement. Indigenous tribes, immigrant neighborhoods and formerly affordable inland cities are among the communities experimenting with community land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, tenants of Pigeon Palace, a six-unit Queen Anne building, pay between $1,400 and $3,000 per month for spacious two-bedroom apartments in one of the pricey city’s most desirable neighborhoods. They share a bike room and garden with outdoor meeting space and make decisions together about building management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shifted from being renters in a market where someone could buy our building any day to where no one’s coming to buy our building,” said Keith Hennessy, an experimental dance performer who’s lived at the Palace for 22 years. With that stability, he said, “it’s easier to build a family. It’s easier to build community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Community Land Trust has grown to oversee 150 units, including two larger buildings in the Tenderloin district that primarily house Spanish- and Mayan-speaking service workers. Last year, philanthropist \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/bezo-s-ex-donates-20m-s-f-affordable-housing-18353981.php\">MacKenzie Scott gave the organization $20 million\u003c/a> to expand its portfolio and help incubate new land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts can oversee single-family homes or multi-unit buildings, and residents can rent or own. When residents own their homes, the trust retains control over the land, leasing it to homeowners long-term and requiring that any home sales be to other lower- or moderate-income buyers or back to the trust. Tenants in multi-unit buildings typically cooperate to manage the property and sit on the trust’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than just creating new affordable housing, community land trusts help stem the bleed of existing affordable housing being converted to units for wealthier residents. While the trusts are not new in California, concern about growing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/institutional-investors-corporate-landlords/\">corporate control of housing\u003c/a> and the rising cost of new construction have driven increased interest in the model, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Community Land Trust Network represents 50 established and emerging trusts across the state, with most of the newest ones springing up in working-class Black and brown communities, according to the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re giving control of buildings to the community. We’re taking it off the speculative market, and we’re ensuring that tenants can become homeowners if they want to,” said Jessica Melendez, director of policy for T.R.U.S.T. South LA, which recently bought two small multi-unit buildings in gentrifying South Los Angeles with the goal of turning them into cooperatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization also owns the Rolland Curtis Gardens, a 140-unit apartment complex with a health clinic and market near the University of Southern California, on a site that was slated for conversion to market-rate housing until the trust purchased and rehabbed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/327SC/6/\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Community land trusts could be a tool to help close the homeownership gap between Black and white individuals,” said Muhammad Alameldin, a policy associate at \u003ca href=\"https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation\u003c/a>. The construction of condominiums has slowed nationwide in the past 15 years, he said, restricting options for entry-level homeowners who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/03/california-home-prices-black-latino-households/\">lack generational wealth\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said community land trusts also have to navigate a financial and legal system that doesn’t tend to favor cooperative ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of raising capital has constrained the growth of community land trusts. They currently house about 3,500 California residents, with most properties consisting of fewer than 10 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movement took a hit this year when California lawmakers seeking to close a budget deficit scrapped a $500 million program that would have given tenants and community land trusts grants to buy properties at risk of foreclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998629\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998629\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Pigeon Palace in San Francisco, on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts are instead turning to local funding streams: A $20 billion affordable \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-housing-bond-bahfa-billion/\">housing bond on the ballot in the San Francisco Bay Area \u003c/a>this November would set aside $3 billion to preserve existing affordable housing, plus $6 billion for local communities to spend flexibly on priorities including preservation. And in Los Angeles, part of the revenue from the city’s “mansion tax” on real estate purchases, over $5 million, will go toward acquiring and rehabilitating affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, community land trusts are spreading to other areas where the cost of living is rising. The Bakersfield City Council voted last year to establish a community land trust; Irvine already has one, and Long Beach is considering it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11979610,news_11992758,news_11997102\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fledgling Sacramento Community Land Trust just bought its first property — a garden used by residents transitioning out of homelessness — where it plans to build tiny homes, executive director Tamika L’Ecluse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County has set up a land trust focused on conservation as well as housing. “As housing prices are pricing our people out of the Tribe’s ancestral lands, this land trust is an attempt to make change in our community,” tribal administrator Michelle Vassel said by email. “Our intention is to take the profit margin out of housing development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not community land trusts can scale to become a significant part of California’s housing landscape, the model cuts across some of the traditional binaries of the state’s housing conversation. Land trust acquisitions can bring together cash-strapped tenants and small landlords who want to sell their properties, two groups often pitted against each other. And the idea goes beyond the debate between NIMBYs and YIMBYs about whether to build; community land trust advocates argue it’s not just about how much housing we have but who controls it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hennessy, the Pigeon Palace tenant, said he loves co-managing his building with a multi-ethnic community of 11 adults, four kids and two regularly visiting grandchildren. The building is undergoing renovations, and he said the tenants made decisions together about everything, down to the paint colors for its facade (lavender in back, greens and blues in front).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affordable housing for another generation,” he said. He doesn’t have children himself, but his unit will go to another lower- to moderate-income tenant after him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m building a house for people I don’t know in the future,” he said. “It’s another kind of legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ben Christopher contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Nine years ago, tenants of the Pigeon Palace at 2840–2848 Folsom Street in San Francisco faced a dilemma. Their aging landlord, who had long rented at affordable rates, was unable to continue overseeing the place. Instead, a court-appointed conservator took steps to auction off the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because Pigeon Palace is in the popular and increasingly expensive Mission neighborhood, the residents feared a new owner might dramatically raise their rents — or kick them out altogether. So they crowdfunded $300,000 and gave it to a nonprofit called the San Francisco Community Land Trust, which combined it with loans from a bank and the city to place the winning bid of more than $3 million. The trust then rented units back to the tenants at affordable rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of the political debate about California’s housing crisis has focused on building new units. However, community land trusts, a method of preserving existing affordable housing that dates back to the Civil Rights Movement, have quietly been gaining steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The number of community land trusts — nonprofits that buy up land and then sell or rent the buildings on top of it to residents with low-income — has tripled in California since 2014, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cacltnetwork.org/\">California Community Land Trust Network\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the housing units that such trusts oversee number only in the low thousands, supporters say the model is cheaper than building new and can help stabilize communities at risk of gentrification and displacement. Indigenous tribes, immigrant neighborhoods and formerly affordable inland cities are among the communities experimenting with community land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, tenants of Pigeon Palace, a six-unit Queen Anne building, pay between $1,400 and $3,000 per month for spacious two-bedroom apartments in one of the pricey city’s most desirable neighborhoods. They share a bike room and garden with outdoor meeting space and make decisions together about building management.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We shifted from being renters in a market where someone could buy our building any day to where no one’s coming to buy our building,” said Keith Hennessy, an experimental dance performer who’s lived at the Palace for 22 years. With that stability, he said, “it’s easier to build a family. It’s easier to build community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the San Francisco Community Land Trust has grown to oversee 150 units, including two larger buildings in the Tenderloin district that primarily house Spanish- and Mayan-speaking service workers. Last year, philanthropist \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/bezo-s-ex-donates-20m-s-f-affordable-housing-18353981.php\">MacKenzie Scott gave the organization $20 million\u003c/a> to expand its portfolio and help incubate new land trusts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts can oversee single-family homes or multi-unit buildings, and residents can rent or own. When residents own their homes, the trust retains control over the land, leasing it to homeowners long-term and requiring that any home sales be to other lower- or moderate-income buyers or back to the trust. Tenants in multi-unit buildings typically cooperate to manage the property and sit on the trust’s board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rather than just creating new affordable housing, community land trusts help stem the bleed of existing affordable housing being converted to units for wealthier residents. While the trusts are not new in California, concern about growing \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/03/institutional-investors-corporate-landlords/\">corporate control of housing\u003c/a> and the rising cost of new construction have driven increased interest in the model, experts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Community Land Trust Network represents 50 established and emerging trusts across the state, with most of the newest ones springing up in working-class Black and brown communities, according to the network.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re giving control of buildings to the community. We’re taking it off the speculative market, and we’re ensuring that tenants can become homeowners if they want to,” said Jessica Melendez, director of policy for T.R.U.S.T. South LA, which recently bought two small multi-unit buildings in gentrifying South Los Angeles with the goal of turning them into cooperatives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The organization also owns the Rolland Curtis Gardens, a 140-unit apartment complex with a health clinic and market near the University of Southern California, on a site that was slated for conversion to market-rate housing until the trust purchased and rehabbed it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/327SC/6/\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Community land trusts could be a tool to help close the homeownership gap between Black and white individuals,” said Muhammad Alameldin, a policy associate at \u003ca href=\"https://ternercenter.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation\u003c/a>. The construction of condominiums has slowed nationwide in the past 15 years, he said, restricting options for entry-level homeowners who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2022/03/california-home-prices-black-latino-households/\">lack generational wealth\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he said community land trusts also have to navigate a financial and legal system that doesn’t tend to favor cooperative ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The challenge of raising capital has constrained the growth of community land trusts. They currently house about 3,500 California residents, with most properties consisting of fewer than 10 units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movement took a hit this year when California lawmakers seeking to close a budget deficit scrapped a $500 million program that would have given tenants and community land trusts grants to buy properties at risk of foreclosure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11998629\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11998629\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1046\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-800x534.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/080124_PigeonPalace_FM_CM-06-copy-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Pigeon Palace in San Francisco, on Aug. 1, 2024. \u003ccite>(Florence Middleton/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Community land trusts are instead turning to local funding streams: A $20 billion affordable \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2024/06/california-housing-bond-bahfa-billion/\">housing bond on the ballot in the San Francisco Bay Area \u003c/a>this November would set aside $3 billion to preserve existing affordable housing, plus $6 billion for local communities to spend flexibly on priorities including preservation. And in Los Angeles, part of the revenue from the city’s “mansion tax” on real estate purchases, over $5 million, will go toward acquiring and rehabilitating affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once concentrated in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, community land trusts are spreading to other areas where the cost of living is rising. The Bakersfield City Council voted last year to establish a community land trust; Irvine already has one, and Long Beach is considering it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fledgling Sacramento Community Land Trust just bought its first property — a garden used by residents transitioning out of homelessness — where it plans to build tiny homes, executive director Tamika L’Ecluse said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the Wiyot Tribe in Humboldt County has set up a land trust focused on conservation as well as housing. “As housing prices are pricing our people out of the Tribe’s ancestral lands, this land trust is an attempt to make change in our community,” tribal administrator Michelle Vassel said by email. “Our intention is to take the profit margin out of housing development.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether or not community land trusts can scale to become a significant part of California’s housing landscape, the model cuts across some of the traditional binaries of the state’s housing conversation. Land trust acquisitions can bring together cash-strapped tenants and small landlords who want to sell their properties, two groups often pitted against each other. And the idea goes beyond the debate between NIMBYs and YIMBYs about whether to build; community land trust advocates argue it’s not just about how much housing we have but who controls it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hennessy, the Pigeon Palace tenant, said he loves co-managing his building with a multi-ethnic community of 11 adults, four kids and two regularly visiting grandchildren. The building is undergoing renovations, and he said the tenants made decisions together about everything, down to the paint colors for its facade (lavender in back, greens and blues in front).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is affordable housing for another generation,” he said. He doesn’t have children himself, but his unit will go to another lower- to moderate-income tenant after him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m building a house for people I don’t know in the future,” he said. “It’s another kind of legacy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ben Christopher contributed reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Chevron will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas, the company announced Friday, finalizing a move that many expected for years as California has sought to crack down on the burning of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy giant, which traces its roots to 1870s San Francisco, sold its headquarters complex in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch two years ago. Now, it reports that more than 7,000 of its workers are in the Houston area, while 2,000 remain in San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s top two executives will be the first to relocate to Texas by the end of the year, and all corporate functions are slated to move there over the next five years, the company said in a press release. It plans to keep employees supporting its California operations — including refineries, oil fields and gas stations — in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and other elected leaders have long blamed Chevron as a major contributor to climate change. It is one of several oil companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961542/it-is-time-they-pay-california-sues-big-oil-over-decades-of-damage-and-deception\">the state sued\u003c/a> last year over climate-related issues, and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981762/major-richmond-refinery-accidents-settled-as-part-of-chevron-deal\">Richmond refinery\u003c/a> is a continuing target of both official and unofficial air pollution complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Republicans blamed the company’s move on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fight against the oil industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an entirely predictable consequence of Gavin Newsom’s constant demonization of the companies California depends on for energy, jobs and tax revenue,” Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. “As Californians continue to struggle with the highest gas prices and unemployment of any state in the nation, they know they are paying the price for Newsom’s political stunts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Council, a regional group of business leaders, issued a statement accusing California elected leaders of driving industry away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chasing jobs and employers out of California is no way to run the economy,” said Jim Wunderman, the council’s president and CEO. “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Chevron will move its headquarters from the Bay Area to Texas, the company announced Friday, finalizing a move that many expected for years as California has sought to crack down on the burning of fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy giant, which traces its roots to 1870s San Francisco, sold its headquarters complex in San Ramon’s Bishop Ranch two years ago. Now, it reports that more than 7,000 of its workers are in the Houston area, while 2,000 remain in San Ramon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chevron’s top two executives will be the first to relocate to Texas by the end of the year, and all corporate functions are slated to move there over the next five years, the company said in a press release. It plans to keep employees supporting its California operations — including refineries, oil fields and gas stations — in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists and other elected leaders have long blamed Chevron as a major contributor to climate change. It is one of several oil companies \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11961542/it-is-time-they-pay-california-sues-big-oil-over-decades-of-damage-and-deception\">the state sued\u003c/a> last year over climate-related issues, and its \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981762/major-richmond-refinery-accidents-settled-as-part-of-chevron-deal\">Richmond refinery\u003c/a> is a continuing target of both official and unofficial air pollution complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>State Republicans blamed the company’s move on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fight against the oil industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an entirely predictable consequence of Gavin Newsom’s constant demonization of the companies California depends on for energy, jobs and tax revenue,” Republican Assembly Leader James Gallagher said in a statement. “As Californians continue to struggle with the highest gas prices and unemployment of any state in the nation, they know they are paying the price for Newsom’s political stunts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area Council, a regional group of business leaders, issued a statement accusing California elected leaders of driving industry away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chasing jobs and employers out of California is no way to run the economy,” said Jim Wunderman, the council’s president and CEO. “It’s an embarrassment for California that we’ve lost so many global companies because of misguided policies that make it incredibly difficult to do business here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Flames curled around a white 1997 Buick as the airbags exploded, sounding like gunshots. The tires popped next, sending metal pieces flying. Four men battled the blaze, shooting water through a firehose while Captain Michael Chapman looked on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the day, he said, this training academy of the Los Angeles County Fire Department will torch 10 cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only is the training free for these firefighters-in-training — they also get paid. They’re in an apprenticeship program, which means \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/college-beat/2023/06/california-apprenticeships/\">they learn on the job\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a model that’s gaining \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-workers-apprenticeships-ideas-festival/\">new attention\u003c/a>. During his 2018 campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would create \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@GavinNewsom/heres-how-we-grow-california-s-economy-for-everyone-b1b06c7b49c9#:~:text=Second%2C%20we%20will%20establish%20500%2C000%20earn%2Dand%2Dlearn%20apprenticeships%20by%202029%2C%20creating%20a%20new%20vocational%20pipeline%20of%20high%2Dskill%20workers.%20In%20an%20increasingly%20global%20world%2C%20apprenticeships%20provide%20the%20education%20and%20training%20necessary%20to%20prepare%20Californians%20for%20the%20jobs%20of%20today%20and%20tomorrow.\">500,000 new apprenticeships\u003c/a> in the decade after taking office. Firefighting is the most popular so far, with nearly 18,000 apprentices joining programs since Newsom’s inauguration in January 2019, according to Adele Burnes, the deputy chief of the state’s Division of Apprenticeship Standards. As of this month, she said the state has registered more than 180,000 apprentices across all industries in the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee helps create these firefighter apprenticeships by bringing together local fire departments and their union leaders, who jointly set the terms for apprentice pay and training. The state subsidizes apprenticeship training just like it subsidizes public colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learning without getting burned\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, the majority of professional firefighters in California are trained through apprenticeship programs, said Yvonne de la Peña, who oversees the joint committee. She said getting to that point took more than 30 years of incremental work, negotiating apprenticeship agreements department by department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 36 Los Angeles County apprentices, all men, each with the same buzz cut. After every lesson in their 18-week training program, they split into small groups and lined up in rows, where their instructors shouted commands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to be militaristic,” Chapman said. “Someone has to take charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pay varies, but in large fire departments, apprentices can make more than $40 an hour, according to de la Peña. Once they finish apprenticeship training, they get a raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2150px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997537\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-800x496.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1536x952.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-2048x1270.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1920x1190.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car burns during firefighter training. Right: An apprentice carries a saw. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices work to extinguish the flames on a burning car. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state reimburses the departments for some training costs, typically about $10 an hour for each hour of training. In the 2022–23 budget year, which ended last June, the state gave fire departments a total of more than $24 million for apprenticeship training, according to Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The money passes through education agencies because it comes from Proposition 98, the same source used to fund K–12 education and community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its hourly reimbursement, which is provided to almost any registered apprenticeship program, California allocated around $130 million for apprenticeships in the last budget year. Most of that money went to programs that help diversify apprenticeships or to industries that are interested in launching an apprenticeship model for the first time. It’s part of an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/08/500000-californians-stand-to-benefit-from-new-apprenticeship-plan/#:~:text=The%20recently%20enacted%20budget%20includes%20an%20unprecedented%20%24480%20million%20over%20the%20next%20three%20years%20to%20support%20this%20expansion.\">unprecedented state investment\u003c/a> in apprenticeships in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles County, the fire department didn’t qualify for many of those grants, but it received over $4 million from the state for training reimbursement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few hours after quenching the car fire, the apprentices rotate to other lessons, including the most dangerous one: a burning building. For that section, instructors outnumber students. “The last thing we want is to burn one of them,” said Chapman, pointing to the apprentices. “Or burn one of the staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To simulate a burning building, the instructors use shipping containers, lining sections of the interior walls with wooden pallets and sound boards, then lighting them on fire. Four apprentices run from a fire truck in the parking lot toward the shipping containers, carrying a firehouse between them, and crawl inside, one by one, escorted by their instructors at the front and the rear of the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, while inside, the firehose snags a corner, but the apprentices struggle to communicate with one another to ask for more slack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997539\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997539\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"834\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-2048x683.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1920x641.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices, in yellow helmets, run a hose over to the entrance of a shipping container during training. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997540\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997540\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several instructors take off their gear and cool off between training sessions. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They lose about 30 seconds but put out the fire nonetheless. They exit the shipping container slowly, too exhausted to run, then they strip off their uniforms and dunk their heads into a trash bin filled with ice water. Both apprentices and instructors are dripping in water and sweat as they sit down to debrief the lesson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did they not hear you, or did you not understand?” said instructor Zack Balderrama, referring to the moment when the firehose got stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both,” said a group of four apprentices in unison.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Parallels’ to education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On-the-job training has long been a part of firefighting, said de la Peña, with the joint apprenticeship committee. “The apprenticeship model hasn’t changed how someone becomes a firefighter.” The difference, she said, is that now fire departments are reimbursed directly by the state for some of their training costs. Their training is more standardized and union leaders play a larger part in determining it, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some industries, such as carpentry, have also created robust apprenticeship programs. Since 2019, the state has registered roughly 14,000 carpenter apprentices, said Burnes, with the state standards division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industries such as firefighting and carpentry will continue to add apprentices, but not at the scale needed to meet the governor’s goal of 500,000. “If we do nothing and maintain the status quo, we will serve approximately 330,000 apprentices by 2029,” wrote state agency leaders in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DAS/e-News/2022/Five-Point-Action-Plan.pdf#page=11\">2022 report (PDF)\u003c/a>. One of the solutions, they wrote, is to “expand new and innovative apprenticeships” in fields such as education, health care, and technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and firefighters have few skills in common, but when it comes to forming apprenticeship programs, Burnes said there are “parallels.” Both industries are primarily composed of unionized, public sector employees who are spread out across hundreds of independently governed districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997535\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices turn to walk to their next lesson. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California — population 39 million — currently has two teacher apprentices, according to the organization, and they’re registered with the federal government, not the state. California has yet to certify an apprenticeship program for K–12 teachers, Burnes said. “There’s a whole system of teacher credentialing in California. That’s a different nut to crack.” The goal, she said, is to create a pathway for students to earn while they learn without diminishing the quality of the state’s teaching credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In health care, Burnes pointed to one promising program, which trains licensed vocational nurses to become registered nurses. She said it has enrolled 84 apprentices since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making room for women in firefighting\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To train in Los Angeles County, the 36 apprentices needed to pass physical agility, medical and written tests, and to be certified Emergency Medical Technicians or paramedics before starting training. Many took over 20 different written exams, in multiple counties and states, waiting years just to get hired with a department. This particular class of apprentices took its written exam in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest challenge is often physical. During training, apprentices must prove they can carry ladders, chainsaws, and hoses while wearing heavy uniforms, helmets, and oxygen tanks — in over 100° heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, the fire department accepted 56 people, but in the first few weeks of class, 20 apprentices either got injured or failed to meet the performance requirements. Among those who failed was the sole woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is held to the same standard,” said Chapman, adding that both men and women struggle with the physical agility exam and apprenticeship training. “Size or gender has nothing to do with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the governor’s goal focuses on the volume of apprentices in California, state agencies and fire departments are also concerned about diversity. Apprenticeships help\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/03/youth-apprenticeships-california/#:~:text=Those%20who%20complete%20apprenticeships%20can%20earn%20starting%20salaries%20of%20%2477%2C000%2C%20and%20their%20average%20lifetime%20earnings%20could%20outpace%20their%20peers%E2%80%99%20by%20more%20than%20%24300%2C000%2C%20according%20to%20research%20by%20Jobs%20for%20the%20Future%2C%20a%20national%20organization%20that%20promotes%20workforce%20development.\"> train people for high-paying jobs,\u003c/a> but historically, the industries that offer apprenticeships have been male-dominated. In firefighting and construction, for example, just 4% of apprentices are women, according to the state’s 2022 report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diversifying those industries and creating new apprenticeship programs in female-dominated industries, such as education, can help close the pay gap between men and women, Burnes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_201720180ab579\">a 2017 bill\u003c/a>, the state Legislature required the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee to create programs that prepare applicants, especially women and people of color, for firefighter jobs. Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called on its fire department to \u003ca href=\"https://hahn.lacounty.gov/supervisors-move-to-improve-diversity-in-la-county-fire-department/#:~:text=To%20ensure%20a%20more%20inclusive,of%20color%2C%20and%20LGBTQ%20individuals.\">do the same\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, de la Peña said the joint committee offers classes in San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, where students can get certified as a paramedic and practice for the other components of the firefighter apprenticeship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997541\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2135px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997541\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2135\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED.jpg 2135w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-800x499.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1020x637.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1536x959.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-2048x1279.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1920x1199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2135px) 100vw, 2135px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices’ gear and a helmet are laid out on a bench. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Michaela Levell, a student in Los Angeles, the greatest benefit is the cost. “It’s free,” she said, referring to her paramedic class, and she’s able to continue working as an EMT since school is only three days a week. The UCLA paramedic program nearby is four days a week and costs \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.mednet.ucla.edu/paramedic-planningforcosts\">about $13,000.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Indiana, Levell said she didn’t see any other women in the fire service, so she decided to go to college and study social work instead. “It’s a daunting thing to know how few females there are in the fire department,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After getting her bachelor’s degree, she has around $50,000 in debt and said she wishes she had pursued a firefighter apprenticeship earlier. Once she moved to Los Angeles, she came across female firefighters through her EMT work. She said they’re some of “the most badass women I’ve ever met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. \u003c/em>\u003cem>Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt and Irvine foundations.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In his 2018 campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would create 500,000 new apprenticeships in the decade after taking office. So far, the state has registered more than 180,000 new apprenticeships, many of them firefighters.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Flames curled around a white 1997 Buick as the airbags exploded, sounding like gunshots. The tires popped next, sending metal pieces flying. Four men battled the blaze, shooting water through a firehose while Captain Michael Chapman looked on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the end of the day, he said, this training academy of the Los Angeles County Fire Department will torch 10 cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not only is the training free for these firefighters-in-training — they also get paid. They’re in an apprenticeship program, which means \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/education/higher-education/college-beat/2023/06/california-apprenticeships/\">they learn on the job\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a model that’s gaining \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-workers-apprenticeships-ideas-festival/\">new attention\u003c/a>. During his 2018 campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would create \u003ca href=\"https://medium.com/@GavinNewsom/heres-how-we-grow-california-s-economy-for-everyone-b1b06c7b49c9#:~:text=Second%2C%20we%20will%20establish%20500%2C000%20earn%2Dand%2Dlearn%20apprenticeships%20by%202029%2C%20creating%20a%20new%20vocational%20pipeline%20of%20high%2Dskill%20workers.%20In%20an%20increasingly%20global%20world%2C%20apprenticeships%20provide%20the%20education%20and%20training%20necessary%20to%20prepare%20Californians%20for%20the%20jobs%20of%20today%20and%20tomorrow.\">500,000 new apprenticeships\u003c/a> in the decade after taking office. Firefighting is the most popular so far, with nearly 18,000 apprentices joining programs since Newsom’s inauguration in January 2019, according to Adele Burnes, the deputy chief of the state’s Division of Apprenticeship Standards. As of this month, she said the state has registered more than 180,000 apprentices across all industries in the last five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee helps create these firefighter apprenticeships by bringing together local fire departments and their union leaders, who jointly set the terms for apprentice pay and training. The state subsidizes apprenticeship training just like it subsidizes public colleges and universities.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learning without getting burned\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today, the majority of professional firefighters in California are trained through apprenticeship programs, said Yvonne de la Peña, who oversees the joint committee. She said getting to that point took more than 30 years of incremental work, negotiating apprenticeship agreements department by department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 36 Los Angeles County apprentices, all men, each with the same buzz cut. After every lesson in their 18-week training program, they split into small groups and lined up in rows, where their instructors shouted commands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have to be militaristic,” Chapman said. “Someone has to take charge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pay varies, but in large fire departments, apprentices can make more than $40 an hour, according to de la Peña. Once they finish apprenticeship training, they get a raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2150px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997537\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2150\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED.jpg 2150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-800x496.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1020x632.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1536x952.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-2048x1270.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-1-KQED-1920x1190.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2150px) 100vw, 2150px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A car burns during firefighter training. Right: An apprentice carries a saw. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997538\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997538\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-10-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices work to extinguish the flames on a burning car. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The state reimburses the departments for some training costs, typically about $10 an hour for each hour of training. In the 2022–23 budget year, which ended last June, the state gave fire departments a total of more than $24 million for apprenticeship training, according to Melissa Villarin, a spokesperson for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. The money passes through education agencies because it comes from Proposition 98, the same source used to fund K–12 education and community colleges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to its hourly reimbursement, which is provided to almost any registered apprenticeship program, California allocated around $130 million for apprenticeships in the last budget year. Most of that money went to programs that help diversify apprenticeships or to industries that are interested in launching an apprenticeship model for the first time. It’s part of an \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/08/500000-californians-stand-to-benefit-from-new-apprenticeship-plan/#:~:text=The%20recently%20enacted%20budget%20includes%20an%20unprecedented%20%24480%20million%20over%20the%20next%20three%20years%20to%20support%20this%20expansion.\">unprecedented state investment\u003c/a> in apprenticeships in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles County, the fire department didn’t qualify for many of those grants, but it received over $4 million from the state for training reimbursement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few hours after quenching the car fire, the apprentices rotate to other lessons, including the most dangerous one: a burning building. For that section, instructors outnumber students. “The last thing we want is to burn one of them,” said Chapman, pointing to the apprentices. “Or burn one of the staff.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To simulate a burning building, the instructors use shipping containers, lining sections of the interior walls with wooden pallets and sound boards, then lighting them on fire. Four apprentices run from a fire truck in the parking lot toward the shipping containers, carrying a firehouse between them, and crawl inside, one by one, escorted by their instructors at the front and the rear of the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one point, while inside, the firehose snags a corner, but the apprentices struggle to communicate with one another to ask for more slack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997539\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2500px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997539\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2500\" height=\"834\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED.jpg 2500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-800x267.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1020x340.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1536x512.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-2048x683.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-2-KQED-1920x641.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2500px) 100vw, 2500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices, in yellow helmets, run a hose over to the entrance of a shipping container during training. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997540\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997540\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-35-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Several instructors take off their gear and cool off between training sessions. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They lose about 30 seconds but put out the fire nonetheless. They exit the shipping container slowly, too exhausted to run, then they strip off their uniforms and dunk their heads into a trash bin filled with ice water. Both apprentices and instructors are dripping in water and sweat as they sit down to debrief the lesson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did they not hear you, or did you not understand?” said instructor Zack Balderrama, referring to the moment when the firehose got stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Both,” said a group of four apprentices in unison.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘Parallels’ to education\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On-the-job training has long been a part of firefighting, said de la Peña, with the joint apprenticeship committee. “The apprenticeship model hasn’t changed how someone becomes a firefighter.” The difference, she said, is that now fire departments are reimbursed directly by the state for some of their training costs. Their training is more standardized and union leaders play a larger part in determining it, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some industries, such as carpentry, have also created robust apprenticeship programs. Since 2019, the state has registered roughly 14,000 carpenter apprentices, said Burnes, with the state standards division.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Industries such as firefighting and carpentry will continue to add apprentices, but not at the scale needed to meet the governor’s goal of 500,000. “If we do nothing and maintain the status quo, we will serve approximately 330,000 apprentices by 2029,” wrote state agency leaders in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.dir.ca.gov/DAS/e-News/2022/Five-Point-Action-Plan.pdf#page=11\">2022 report (PDF)\u003c/a>. One of the solutions, they wrote, is to “expand new and innovative apprenticeships” in fields such as education, health care, and technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Teachers and firefighters have few skills in common, but when it comes to forming apprenticeship programs, Burnes said there are “parallels.” Both industries are primarily composed of unionized, public sector employees who are spread out across hundreds of independently governed districts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997535\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1568px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997535\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1568\" height=\"1045\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy.jpg 1568w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-01-copy-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1568px) 100vw, 1568px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices turn to walk to their next lesson. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>California — population 39 million — currently has two teacher apprentices, according to the organization, and they’re registered with the federal government, not the state. California has yet to certify an apprenticeship program for K–12 teachers, Burnes said. “There’s a whole system of teacher credentialing in California. That’s a different nut to crack.” The goal, she said, is to create a pathway for students to earn while they learn without diminishing the quality of the state’s teaching credentials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In health care, Burnes pointed to one promising program, which trains licensed vocational nurses to become registered nurses. She said it has enrolled 84 apprentices since 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making room for women in firefighting\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To train in Los Angeles County, the 36 apprentices needed to pass physical agility, medical and written tests, and to be certified Emergency Medical Technicians or paramedics before starting training. Many took over 20 different written exams, in multiple counties and states, waiting years just to get hired with a department. This particular class of apprentices took its written exam in 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greatest challenge is often physical. During training, apprentices must prove they can carry ladders, chainsaws, and hoses while wearing heavy uniforms, helmets, and oxygen tanks — in over 100° heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Initially, the fire department accepted 56 people, but in the first few weeks of class, 20 apprentices either got injured or failed to meet the performance requirements. Among those who failed was the sole woman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody is held to the same standard,” said Chapman, adding that both men and women struggle with the physical agility exam and apprenticeship training. “Size or gender has nothing to do with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the governor’s goal focuses on the volume of apprentices in California, state agencies and fire departments are also concerned about diversity. Apprenticeships help\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/03/youth-apprenticeships-california/#:~:text=Those%20who%20complete%20apprenticeships%20can%20earn%20starting%20salaries%20of%20%2477%2C000%2C%20and%20their%20average%20lifetime%20earnings%20could%20outpace%20their%20peers%E2%80%99%20by%20more%20than%20%24300%2C000%2C%20according%20to%20research%20by%20Jobs%20for%20the%20Future%2C%20a%20national%20organization%20that%20promotes%20workforce%20development.\"> train people for high-paying jobs,\u003c/a> but historically, the industries that offer apprenticeships have been male-dominated. In firefighting and construction, for example, just 4% of apprentices are women, according to the state’s 2022 report.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Diversifying those industries and creating new apprenticeship programs in female-dominated industries, such as education, can help close the pay gap between men and women, Burnes said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Through \u003ca href=\"https://digitaldemocracy.calmatters.org/bills/ca_201720180ab579\">a 2017 bill\u003c/a>, the state Legislature required the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee to create programs that prepare applicants, especially women and people of color, for firefighter jobs. Last year, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called on its fire department to \u003ca href=\"https://hahn.lacounty.gov/supervisors-move-to-improve-diversity-in-la-county-fire-department/#:~:text=To%20ensure%20a%20more%20inclusive,of%20color%2C%20and%20LGBTQ%20individuals.\">do the same\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, de la Peña said the joint committee offers classes in San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, where students can get certified as a paramedic and practice for the other components of the firefighter apprenticeship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11997541\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2135px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11997541\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2135\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED.jpg 2135w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-800x499.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1020x637.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1536x959.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-2048x1279.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/070824-FireFight-Training-JAH-CM-29-DIPTYCH-3-KQED-1920x1199.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2135px) 100vw, 2135px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apprentices’ gear and a helmet are laid out on a bench. \u003ccite>(Jules Hotz for CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For Michaela Levell, a student in Los Angeles, the greatest benefit is the cost. “It’s free,” she said, referring to her paramedic class, and she’s able to continue working as an EMT since school is only three days a week. The UCLA paramedic program nearby is four days a week and costs \u003ca href=\"https://www.cpc.mednet.ucla.edu/paramedic-planningforcosts\">about $13,000.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Indiana, Levell said she didn’t see any other women in the fire service, so she decided to go to college and study social work instead. “It’s a daunting thing to know how few females there are in the fire department,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After getting her bachelor’s degree, she has around $50,000 in debt and said she wishes she had pursued a firefighter apprenticeship earlier. Once she moved to Los Angeles, she came across female firefighters through her EMT work. She said they’re some of “the most badass women I’ve ever met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. \u003c/em>\u003cem>Financial support for this story was provided by the Smidt and Irvine foundations.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "california-latinos-call-on-local-national-leaders-to-address-housing-economy",
"title": "California Latinos Call on Local, National Leaders to Address Housing, Economy",
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"content": "\u003cp>Maria Vargas sells sliced jicama, cucumbers, and watermelon, among other fruits, from a sidewalk stand in San Francisco’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The El Salvadoran immigrant has two children and is expecting a third. After losing her previous job, she said she had no other choice but to find some way to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything is more expensive,” Vargas said in Spanish. “Food and rent are increasing by a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of increasing household costs are top of mind for many Latinos in San Francisco and across the country, and are becoming a key campaign issue in this election year. While Latino voters have historically supported Democrats, Latino voter organizations say these concerns — and in particular, skyrocketing rents — are propelling some to shift their political alliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That should worry presidential candidates, along with politicians competing for seats in congressional battleground states, though experts say there isn’t much evidence that trend has taken root yet in California. The Pew Research Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/compare/party-affiliation/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/among/state/california/\">found\u003c/a> that among adults in the state, approximately 50% of Latinos lean Democratic, 21% lean Republican and 29% expressed no party preference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Madrid, a partner at the public relations firm Grassroots Lab, said Democrats’ concern with cultural issues is missing the core political issue for many Latinos: the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really no longer the party of the working class, and it shows in its policy and its priorities,” he said. “The working class is starting to revolt. They’re starting to say, ‘Enough.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that for the past 30 years, Latinos have always focused on growth in the economy, but the current climate is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996023\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996023\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maria Vargas sells fruit on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was always about what opportunities lay before me, for my family, for my children, those were the primary economic concerns,” he said. “Today, it’s basic survival. It’s affordability and the inability to support a family in any reasonable way, with paying rents and trying to buy a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/research/latino-public-opinion-forum/annual-hispanic-public-opinion-survey-2023.pdf\">survey (PDF)\u003c/a> from Florida International University and marketing firm Adsmovil, 1 in 5 Latino voters nationally have considered changing their political affiliation to another party or registering as independents. A majority of those voters — 61% — said that they would be open to leaving the Democratic Party, with a plurality of those — 38% — becoming Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an important group for either party to woo: According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/10/key-facts-about-hispanic-eligible-voters-in-2024/\">Pew Research Center,\u003c/a> Latinos are projected to account for nearly 15% of all eligible voters in November 2024, a new high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://unidosus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/unidosus_national_surveyoflatinovoters.pdf\">national poll conducted last year (PDF) \u003c/a>from the Latino civil rights organization, UnidosUS, and Mi Familia Vota shows that Latinos ranked inflation and the rising cost of living, jobs and the economy, and health care as the three most important issues they would like to see addressed by Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996021\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cesar Avila stands in the shop he runs, Bay Area Revives, on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of those surveyed, 47% of Latino voters approved of President Joe Biden’s job performance, with nearly as many — 44% — disapproving. But, despite that, many were willing to stick with Democrats, as 39% of respondents said Democrats would be better able to address inflation and the rising cost of living, while only 21% said Republicans would be more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People want solutions that they’re going to feel in their pocketbook in the near-term,” said Laura Arce, senior vice president of economic initiatives at UnidosUS. “Not just … promises of policies in the future, but how will I be able to afford my mortgage or my rent?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, President Joe Biden \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11995878/ai-raising-the-rent-san-francisco-could-be-the-first-city-to-ban-the-practice\">announced a plan\u003c/a> to withhold some federal tax breaks for large landlords if they raise rents by more than 5% per year. And former President Donald Trump, who’s made combating rising inflation a central tenet of his campaign, focused \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/how-donald-trump-plans-fix-housing-market-1811663\">his housing plan\u003c/a> on cutting energy costs and interest rates to increase housing construction\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As November rolls around, Arce is glad that housing has garnered mainstream attention and “entered the political debate” in a way she hasn’t seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there is growing recognition by our elected officials and our candidates that a lot of the angst around our economic situation is centered around housing, and something needs to happen,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996580\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996580\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mission District resident Blanca Trujillo stands in front of an empty building on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arce pointed to past \u003ca href=\"https://unidosus.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/unidosus_systemicracism_executivesummary.pdf\">policies of exclusion and discrimination (PDF)\u003c/a> that have led to historically lower homeownership rates among Latinos, adding that because of these policies, Latino homebuyers are at a disadvantage when it comes to purchasing a home. They are less likely to be able to rely on generational wealth, she said, and also less likely to be able to rely on “generational knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compared to white households, Latino households’ median income is 45% lower, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-housing-divide/\">according to the Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>. And, nearly 60% of Latinos pay more than a third of their income on housing. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/snapshot-of-race-and-home-buying-in-america\">51% of Latinos were homeowners\u003c/a>, compared to 72% of white residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a lot of Latino first-time homebuyers, they are also first-generation homebuyers, and so they don’t have the family wealth to lean on to help with a down payment,” Arce said. “They also may not have that expertise within the family of someone they can ask for advice about how to determine what’s a good mortgage product for me [and] what should I be looking for in a house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco — as well as in much of the Bay Area — rising rents make it even harder for Latino residents to save for a down payment, said Julio Vidal, owner of Ceviche 19, a Peruvian restaurant in the Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Affordable housing is out of reach for Latinos because rent costs are too high,” Vidal said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996577\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996577\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julio Vidal sits in Plaza Adelante on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nor does it help, said Blanca Trujillo, a Mexican-American woman living in San Francisco’s Mission District, that many Bay Area Latinos have to sometimes work two or three jobs to be able to afford stable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a family has stable housing, it helps with safety and with mental health,” Trujillo said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message for both Democrats and Republicans nationally, Trujillo said, is simple: “This is a basic need for any family. They should focus more on building more housing in neighborhoods. As politicians, they know what our neighborhoods and families need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Madrid said the question is whether local leaders want a society with “de facto segregation” when it comes to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless San Francisco wants to lose its image as sort of a diverse, multiethnic, multiracial community,” he said, “it’s going to have to address housing for this community as a central part of its governance strategy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "In heavily Democratic California, Latinos are not likely to switch parties, despite high housing costs and the remnants of inflation, which are prompting some Latinos nationally to don red.",
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"title": "California Latinos Call on Local, National Leaders to Address Housing, Economy | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Maria Vargas sells sliced jicama, cucumbers, and watermelon, among other fruits, from a sidewalk stand in San Francisco’s Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The El Salvadoran immigrant has two children and is expecting a third. After losing her previous job, she said she had no other choice but to find some way to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everything is more expensive,” Vargas said in Spanish. “Food and rent are increasing by a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These kinds of increasing household costs are top of mind for many Latinos in San Francisco and across the country, and are becoming a key campaign issue in this election year. While Latino voters have historically supported Democrats, Latino voter organizations say these concerns — and in particular, skyrocketing rents — are propelling some to shift their political alliances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That should worry presidential candidates, along with politicians competing for seats in congressional battleground states, though experts say there isn’t much evidence that trend has taken root yet in California. The Pew Research Center \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/compare/party-affiliation/by/racial-and-ethnic-composition/among/state/california/\">found\u003c/a> that among adults in the state, approximately 50% of Latinos lean Democratic, 21% lean Republican and 29% expressed no party preference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mike Madrid, a partner at the public relations firm Grassroots Lab, said Democrats’ concern with cultural issues is missing the core political issue for many Latinos: the economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really no longer the party of the working class, and it shows in its policy and its priorities,” he said. “The working class is starting to revolt. They’re starting to say, ‘Enough.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that for the past 30 years, Latinos have always focused on growth in the economy, but the current climate is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996023\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996023\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-22-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maria Vargas sells fruit on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was always about what opportunities lay before me, for my family, for my children, those were the primary economic concerns,” he said. “Today, it’s basic survival. It’s affordability and the inability to support a family in any reasonable way, with paying rents and trying to buy a home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to a 2023 \u003ca href=\"https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/research/latino-public-opinion-forum/annual-hispanic-public-opinion-survey-2023.pdf\">survey (PDF)\u003c/a> from Florida International University and marketing firm Adsmovil, 1 in 5 Latino voters nationally have considered changing their political affiliation to another party or registering as independents. A majority of those voters — 61% — said that they would be open to leaving the Democratic Party, with a plurality of those — 38% — becoming Republicans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s an important group for either party to woo: According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/10/key-facts-about-hispanic-eligible-voters-in-2024/\">Pew Research Center,\u003c/a> Latinos are projected to account for nearly 15% of all eligible voters in November 2024, a new high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://unidosus.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/unidosus_national_surveyoflatinovoters.pdf\">national poll conducted last year (PDF) \u003c/a>from the Latino civil rights organization, UnidosUS, and Mi Familia Vota shows that Latinos ranked inflation and the rising cost of living, jobs and the economy, and health care as the three most important issues they would like to see addressed by Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996021\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996021\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LATINOVOTERSENTIMENT-14-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cesar Avila stands in the shop he runs, Bay Area Revives, on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Of those surveyed, 47% of Latino voters approved of President Joe Biden’s job performance, with nearly as many — 44% — disapproving. But, despite that, many were willing to stick with Democrats, as 39% of respondents said Democrats would be better able to address inflation and the rising cost of living, while only 21% said Republicans would be more effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People want solutions that they’re going to feel in their pocketbook in the near-term,” said Laura Arce, senior vice president of economic initiatives at UnidosUS. “Not just … promises of policies in the future, but how will I be able to afford my mortgage or my rent?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, President Joe Biden \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11995878/ai-raising-the-rent-san-francisco-could-be-the-first-city-to-ban-the-practice\">announced a plan\u003c/a> to withhold some federal tax breaks for large landlords if they raise rents by more than 5% per year. And former President Donald Trump, who’s made combating rising inflation a central tenet of his campaign, focused \u003ca href=\"https://www.newsweek.com/how-donald-trump-plans-fix-housing-market-1811663\">his housing plan\u003c/a> on cutting energy costs and interest rates to increase housing construction\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As November rolls around, Arce is glad that housing has garnered mainstream attention and “entered the political debate” in a way she hasn’t seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think there is growing recognition by our elected officials and our candidates that a lot of the angst around our economic situation is centered around housing, and something needs to happen,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996580\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996580\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-06-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mission District resident Blanca Trujillo stands in front of an empty building on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Arce pointed to past \u003ca href=\"https://unidosus.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/unidosus_systemicracism_executivesummary.pdf\">policies of exclusion and discrimination (PDF)\u003c/a> that have led to historically lower homeownership rates among Latinos, adding that because of these policies, Latino homebuyers are at a disadvantage when it comes to purchasing a home. They are less likely to be able to rely on generational wealth, she said, and also less likely to be able to rely on “generational knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Compared to white households, Latino households’ median income is 45% lower, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californias-housing-divide/\">according to the Public Policy Institute of California\u003c/a>. And, nearly 60% of Latinos pay more than a third of their income on housing. In 2022, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nar.realtor/research-and-statistics/research-reports/snapshot-of-race-and-home-buying-in-america\">51% of Latinos were homeowners\u003c/a>, compared to 72% of white residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a lot of Latino first-time homebuyers, they are also first-generation homebuyers, and so they don’t have the family wealth to lean on to help with a down payment,” Arce said. “They also may not have that expertise within the family of someone they can ask for advice about how to determine what’s a good mortgage product for me [and] what should I be looking for in a house.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco — as well as in much of the Bay Area — rising rents make it even harder for Latino residents to save for a down payment, said Julio Vidal, owner of Ceviche 19, a Peruvian restaurant in the Mission District.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Affordable housing is out of reach for Latinos because rent costs are too high,” Vidal said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11996577\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11996577\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/07/240716-LatinoVoterSentiment-17-BL_qed-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Julio Vidal sits in Plaza Adelante on Mission Street in San Francisco on July 16, 2024. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nor does it help, said Blanca Trujillo, a Mexican-American woman living in San Francisco’s Mission District, that many Bay Area Latinos have to sometimes work two or three jobs to be able to afford stable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If a family has stable housing, it helps with safety and with mental health,” Trujillo said in Spanish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The message for both Democrats and Republicans nationally, Trujillo said, is simple: “This is a basic need for any family. They should focus more on building more housing in neighborhoods. As politicians, they know what our neighborhoods and families need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, Madrid said the question is whether local leaders want a society with “de facto segregation” when it comes to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Unless San Francisco wants to lose its image as sort of a diverse, multiethnic, multiracial community,” he said, “it’s going to have to address housing for this community as a central part of its governance strategy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Why Is Delta Air Lines Still Struggling to Recover From Last Week's CrowdStrike Outage?",
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"content": "\u003cp>Delta Air Lines struggled for a fourth straight day to recover from \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/what-is-crowdstrike-worldwide-outage-94b4fc5ac6eed46ddcd565a5f1e4b916\">a worldwide technology outage\u003c/a> caused by a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/crowdstrike-tech-outage-connected-ecosystem-b7b9c47b28ed65a5fbf050086834de4f\">faulty software update\u003c/a>, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and drawing unwanted attention from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The airline’s chief executive said it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” Delta’s chief information officer said Monday that the airline was still trying to fix a vital crew-scheduling program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other carriers were returning to nearly normal levels of service disruptions, intensifying the glare on \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/delta-crowdstrike-waiver-bc470d7ae7c1627b2b590d2cb01b2b4a\">Delta’s relatively weaker\u003c/a> response to the outage that hit airlines, hospitals and businesses around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation Secretary \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/pete-buttigieg\">Pete Buttigieg\u003c/a> spoke to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/delta-air-lines-inc\">Delta\u003c/a> CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday about the airline’s high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg said his agency had received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta, and he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said. He vowed to help Delta passengers by enforcing air travel \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/airline-refunds-congress-faa-cb8ccaa66e25e5af30d852f3411bcc10\">consumer-protection rules\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bastian said in a video for employees that he told Buttigieg, “You do not need to remind me. I know because we do our very best, particularly in tough times, taking care of our customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996430/what-happened-to-crowdstrike-huge-outage-a-wake-up-call-for-tech-reliant-world\">the outage started early Friday morning\u003c/a>, including at least 700 flights canceled on Monday, according to aviation data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancellations worldwide Monday, including nearly all the ones in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Airlines was the next-worst performer since the onset of the outage, canceling nearly 1,500 flights. United canceled only 17 Monday flights by late morning, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other airlines caught up in the first round of groundings also returned mostly to normal operations by Monday. That included American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bastian, the Delta CEO, said in a message to customers Sunday that the airline was continuing to restore operations that were disrupted. One of the tools Delta uses to track crews was affected and could not process the high number of changes triggered by the outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. Loads are the percentage of sold seats on each flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airlines have large, layered technology systems, and crew-tracking programs are often among the oldest systems. When the outage began Friday, it also affected systems used to check in passengers and make pre-flight calculations about aircraft weight and balance, airlines reported. United and American reported intermittent problems communicating with crews in the air, contributing to their decisions to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-crowdstrike-outage-australia-internet-banks-media-0a5f792b6571b37a35181d64028fefc4\">briefly ground all flights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some airlines, including Southwest and Alaska, do not use CrowdStrike, the provider of \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/crowdstrike-microsoft-outage-software-update-ebcba985600530a4689289eae38619bf\">cybersecurity software\u003c/a> whose faulty upgrade to Microsoft Windows triggered the outages. Those carriers saw relatively few cancellations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta, however, said that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based. The airline said the outage forced IT employees to manually repair and reboot each affected system and synchronize applications so they start working together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that … the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully, Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same video, Delta Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant said two applications were particularly difficult to restart on Friday: One that manages traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s biggest hub, and another that assigns pilots and flight attendants to flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technicians had gotten the crew-scheduling program running, “but we have a catch-up to do,” and new issues keep arising, Samant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlanta-based Delta said it \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/outage-airlines-flights-canceled-crowdstrike-microsoft-044954aada0fa4f95c0119233c6316a6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offers\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/outage-airlines-flights-canceled-crowdstrike-microsoft-044954aada0fa4f95c0119233c6316a6\"> waivers\u003c/a> to make it easier for customers to reschedule trips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was of little help to Jason Helmes, a fitness coach trying to get home to Detroit from Denver. His flight on Sunday was delayed three times before it was canceled; by the time the plane finally pushed back from the gate, the pilots were at the end of their legally allowed shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes said. “They said, ‘Go down to the luggage carousel; your luggage should be there.’ There were thousands of bags down there. I found my luggage — I got lucky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helmes said Delta offered to rebook him on Wednesday, but he worried that flight would also be canceled. He booked a Tuesday flight home on Frontier Airlines — one of the carriers that has largely recovered. He is saving his receipts, including a hotel room, hoping Delta will reimburse him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” he said. “This has me double-thinking about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta’s meltdown is reminiscent of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-transportation-us-department-of-0925834b8cfcf1150358f874334d16d7\">December 2022 debacle\u003c/a> that caused Southwest Airlines to cancel nearly 17,000 flights over a 15-day stretch. After a federal investigation of Southwest’s compliance with consumer-protection rules, the airline agreed to pay a $35 million fine as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/southwest-airlines-settlement-canceled-flights-4c2a6bc25b52019a5966f6d5ef702fc6\">$140 million settlement\u003c/a> with the Transportation Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southwest’s breakdown started during a winter storm, but the airline’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-texas-arizona-california-da3b72f2350b0f77498f7f67316facb5\">recovery took unusually long\u003c/a> because of problems with a crew-scheduling system — a striking similarity to Delta’s current mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/airlines-complaints-transportation-department-7c6ddcec4ebadd4d7222350f6513e6be\">airline industry\u003c/a> might be the most visible victim of the worldwide tech problems caused by the faulty software update from Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Microsoft said the glitch affected 8.5 million machines. CrowdStrike says it has deployed a fix, but experts say it could take days or even weeks to repair \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-crowdstrike-small-businesses-ad1e4f964d1560d50d08564cce9513d7\">every affected computer\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Delta Air Lines struggled for a fourth straight day to recover from \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/what-is-crowdstrike-worldwide-outage-94b4fc5ac6eed46ddcd565a5f1e4b916\">a worldwide technology outage\u003c/a> caused by a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/crowdstrike-tech-outage-connected-ecosystem-b7b9c47b28ed65a5fbf050086834de4f\">faulty software update\u003c/a>, stranding tens of thousands of passengers and drawing unwanted attention from the federal government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The airline’s chief executive said it would take “another couple days” before “the worst is clearly behind us.” Delta’s chief information officer said Monday that the airline was still trying to fix a vital crew-scheduling program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other carriers were returning to nearly normal levels of service disruptions, intensifying the glare on \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/delta-crowdstrike-waiver-bc470d7ae7c1627b2b590d2cb01b2b4a\">Delta’s relatively weaker\u003c/a> response to the outage that hit airlines, hospitals and businesses around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Transportation Secretary \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/pete-buttigieg\">Pete Buttigieg\u003c/a> spoke to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/hub/delta-air-lines-inc\">Delta\u003c/a> CEO Ed Bastian on Sunday about the airline’s high number of cancellations since Friday. Buttigieg said his agency had received “hundreds of complaints” about Delta, and he expects the airline to provide hotels and meals for travelers who are delayed and to issue quick refunds to customers who don’t want to be rebooked on a later flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No one should be stranded at an airport overnight or stuck on hold for hours waiting to talk to a customer service agent,” Buttigieg said. He vowed to help Delta passengers by enforcing air travel \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/airline-refunds-congress-faa-cb8ccaa66e25e5af30d852f3411bcc10\">consumer-protection rules\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bastian said in a video for employees that he told Buttigieg, “You do not need to remind me. I know because we do our very best, particularly in tough times, taking care of our customers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta has canceled more than 5,500 flights since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11996430/what-happened-to-crowdstrike-huge-outage-a-wake-up-call-for-tech-reliant-world\">the outage started early Friday morning\u003c/a>, including at least 700 flights canceled on Monday, according to aviation data provider Cirium. Delta and its regional affiliates accounted for about two-thirds of all cancellations worldwide Monday, including nearly all the ones in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>United Airlines was the next-worst performer since the onset of the outage, canceling nearly 1,500 flights. United canceled only 17 Monday flights by late morning, however.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other airlines caught up in the first round of groundings also returned mostly to normal operations by Monday. That included American Airlines, Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Allegiant Air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bastian, the Delta CEO, said in a message to customers Sunday that the airline was continuing to restore operations that were disrupted. One of the tools Delta uses to track crews was affected and could not process the high number of changes triggered by the outage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The technology issue occurred on the busiest travel weekend of the summer, with our booked loads exceeding 90%, limiting our re-accommodation capabilities,” Bastian wrote. Loads are the percentage of sold seats on each flight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Airlines have large, layered technology systems, and crew-tracking programs are often among the oldest systems. When the outage began Friday, it also affected systems used to check in passengers and make pre-flight calculations about aircraft weight and balance, airlines reported. United and American reported intermittent problems communicating with crews in the air, contributing to their decisions to \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-crowdstrike-outage-australia-internet-banks-media-0a5f792b6571b37a35181d64028fefc4\">briefly ground all flights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some airlines, including Southwest and Alaska, do not use CrowdStrike, the provider of \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/crowdstrike-microsoft-outage-software-update-ebcba985600530a4689289eae38619bf\">cybersecurity software\u003c/a> whose faulty upgrade to Microsoft Windows triggered the outages. Those carriers saw relatively few cancellations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta, however, said that “upward of half” its IT systems are Windows-based. The airline said the outage forced IT employees to manually repair and reboot each affected system and synchronize applications so they start working together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is going to take another couple of days before we are in a position to say that … the worst is clearly behind us,” Bastian told employees Monday. “Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully, Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the same video, Delta Chief Information Officer Rahul Samant said two applications were particularly difficult to restart on Friday: One that manages traffic at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Delta’s biggest hub, and another that assigns pilots and flight attendants to flights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Technicians had gotten the crew-scheduling program running, “but we have a catch-up to do,” and new issues keep arising, Samant said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Atlanta-based Delta said it \u003cspan style=\"margin: 0px;padding: 0px\">\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/outage-airlines-flights-canceled-crowdstrike-microsoft-044954aada0fa4f95c0119233c6316a6\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">offers\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/outage-airlines-flights-canceled-crowdstrike-microsoft-044954aada0fa4f95c0119233c6316a6\"> waivers\u003c/a> to make it easier for customers to reschedule trips.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That was of little help to Jason Helmes, a fitness coach trying to get home to Detroit from Denver. His flight on Sunday was delayed three times before it was canceled; by the time the plane finally pushed back from the gate, the pilots were at the end of their legally allowed shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everyone was just stranded. No information on hotels. No information on what to do next,” Helmes said. “They said, ‘Go down to the luggage carousel; your luggage should be there.’ There were thousands of bags down there. I found my luggage — I got lucky.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helmes said Delta offered to rebook him on Wednesday, but he worried that flight would also be canceled. He booked a Tuesday flight home on Frontier Airlines — one of the carriers that has largely recovered. He is saving his receipts, including a hotel room, hoping Delta will reimburse him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For the last 10 years, I’ve been exclusively on Delta,” he said. “This has me double-thinking about that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delta’s meltdown is reminiscent of the \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-transportation-us-department-of-0925834b8cfcf1150358f874334d16d7\">December 2022 debacle\u003c/a> that caused Southwest Airlines to cancel nearly 17,000 flights over a 15-day stretch. After a federal investigation of Southwest’s compliance with consumer-protection rules, the airline agreed to pay a $35 million fine as part of a \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/southwest-airlines-settlement-canceled-flights-4c2a6bc25b52019a5966f6d5ef702fc6\">$140 million settlement\u003c/a> with the Transportation Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Southwest’s breakdown started during a winter storm, but the airline’s \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/business-texas-arizona-california-da3b72f2350b0f77498f7f67316facb5\">recovery took unusually long\u003c/a> because of problems with a crew-scheduling system — a striking similarity to Delta’s current mess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/airlines-complaints-transportation-department-7c6ddcec4ebadd4d7222350f6513e6be\">airline industry\u003c/a> might be the most visible victim of the worldwide tech problems caused by the faulty software update from Texas-based cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. Microsoft said the glitch affected 8.5 million machines. CrowdStrike says it has deployed a fix, but experts say it could take days or even weeks to repair \u003ca href=\"https://apnews.com/article/microsoft-crowdstrike-small-businesses-ad1e4f964d1560d50d08564cce9513d7\">every affected computer\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A blistering California heat wave over the past week and through the Fourth of July holiday could be topped off by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/death-valley-will-hit-130-degrees-break-world-record-blistering-heatwa-rcna160401\">hottest temperature ever recorded\u003c/a> on Earth. That kind of extreme heat has led to more deaths than wildfires and cost billions of dollars over a decade, according to the state insurance department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following through on a mandate from 2022, a new report from the department looked at seven extreme heat events in the state from 2013 to 2022 and found they took the lives of several hundred Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The events also had a total economic impact of $7.7 billion in the form of lost wages and productivity, agricultural and manufacturing disruptions, power outages, infrastructure damage and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s top 20 deadliest wildfires, dating back to 1933, killed a total of 312 people, \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-deadliest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=dddeac543dd84d21a4b01ad6bed5f48c&hash=6A2BD57BB8EC29DB9EC0C94F92B00F52\">according to Cal Fire\u003c/a>. The death toll from the extreme heat events identified by the Insurance Department was higher — estimated at nearly 460 in a first-of-its-kind report the department released last week. And it is likely that the toll was actually greater, at nearly 4,000 in a decade, a 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-extreme-heat-deaths-show-climate-change-risks/#nt=0000017c-3247-d42d-adfd-32ef494d0000-showMedia-title-promoSuperLeadSmall-1col-enhancement\">Los Angeles Times analysis\u003c/a> showed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Mendez, an assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at UC Irvine and author of “Climate Change from the Streets,” agreed that the toll is most likely higher because extreme heat’s effects can be hard to designate and quantify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really important to understand that heat is a silent killer,” Mendez said. Yet extreme heat “requires the same amount of speed in action that large disasters get, such as wildfires,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the main goals of the report is to provide data that can help inform and lead to action by policymakers, governments, businesses and the insurance industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is little to no insurance coverage available for some effects and costs of extreme heat, such as lost wages for workers, power outages for residents and businesses, and damage to railways, according to the report.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" tag=\"heat-wave\"]Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the department are under pressure to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-pushes-insurers-to-cover-more-homes-in-these-areas-is-your-zip-included/\">tackle the insurance availability and affordability issues\u003c/a> that have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">plagued the state\u003c/a> because some insurers have stopped renewing or writing new homeowner policies here, citing wildfire risk as a big factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also follows years of warnings about extreme heat and other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/04/california-climate-change-report-legislature/\">effects of climate change\u003c/a> by other state entities, such as the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4580\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>, and lawmakers’ efforts to address them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/upload/Impacts-of-extreme-heat-to-California-s-people-infrastructure-and-economy-by-California-Department-of-Insurance-June-2024.pdf\">The 92-page report\u003c/a>, which assesses the insured and uninsured costs of heat and recommends quick action and changes, was mandated by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2238\">a bill Lara sponsored that was signed into law\u003c/a> in 2022, whose main goal was to establish an extreme heat ranking system. That system, \u003ca href=\"https://calheatscore.calepa.ca.gov/\">CalHeatScore\u003c/a>, is being developed now by the state Environmental Protection Agency with help from other state agencies and is set to roll out next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of extreme heat are disproportionately borne by low-income communities, older adults and outdoor workers, the report also found. Black, Native American and Hispanic Californians had the highest rates of deaths, respectively, compared with Asian and white California residents, during the events examined by the report. That’s why the report’s authors — the Insurance Department, with input from the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/Climate-Insurance-Working-Group-Members.cfm\">Climate Insurance Working Group\u003c/a> and a consultant it hired to produce the report — call for equity when thinking about extreme heat policies and programs by considering the needs of vulnerable populations, including elderly people living alone, and outdoor and indoor workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the hundreds of deaths, the report showed that extreme heat resulted in more than 5,000 hospitalizations, almost 10,600 emergency department visits, more than 138,000 outpatient visits and nearly 344 adverse birth outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cI95K/4\" width=\"800\" height=\"700\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy Baughman McLeod is chief executive of Climate Resilience for All, a global non-governmental organization dedicated to addressing extreme heat for vulnerable communities. She is part of the working group and said the data from this new report could help with the “normalization of insurance products related to heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could use this data to create forecast-based insurance products that pay out when the forecast for the heat wave comes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baughman McLeod would know — she has worked with insurers on \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/reuters-events/trailblazers/trailblazing-women-climate-2024-kathy-baughman-mcleod-2024-03-07/\">creating new insurance products\u003c/a>, such as insurance that helps replace women’s income in India when they’re unable to work on extremely hot days because the products they sell might spoil or their work hours are reduced. She also helped create insurance for coral reefs in Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the effects of extreme heat on health and life insurance are not known yet. Adrita Bhattacharya-Craven, director of health and demography at global insurance think tank The Geneva Association, said the Insurance Department’s findings align with some of her organization’s findings on health, climate and insurance, especially the disproportionate effects on the elderly and vulnerable populations. She said there is hardly any climate-sensitive data on mortality or morbidity when processing insurance claims, except for deaths from wildfires or possibly extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, a medical professional is likely to report a stroke as just a stroke without specifying that it was induced by prolonged heat exposure,” Bhattacharya-Craven said. “There are no tools to consistently capture such information right now… In the long run, we need to map vulnerability with more granularity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other main recommendations in the report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Expand investment in planning for disasters, as well as use existing state and federal funding to prioritize efforts such as strengthening infrastructure against extreme weather, and restoring access to trees and green spaces.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Encourage strategies to try to reduce heat-related illnesses and injuries for workers across sectors. That includes incentivizing businesses to “meet benchmarks above the minimum indoor and outdoor temperature standards” set by governments.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Improve tracking costs of planning for extreme heat events.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends planting more trees, which could help provide shade, improve health outcomes, reduce energy needs and more. It also calls for cooling systems for dairy cows, which is important because California is the largest dairy producer in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the recommendations are already happening in some fashion. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/06/extreme-heat-california-workplace-rules/\">recently approved a rule\u003c/a> requiring employers to reduce the risk of extreme heat for warehouse, restaurant and other workers. After a long delay, it’s set to take effect in August. Also last week, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/07/02/nx-s1-5026745/extreme-heat-protections-for-workers-osha\">federal OSHA proposed a rule,\u003c/a> years in the making, that tells employers how they should protect indoor and outdoor workers from heat when temperatures reach two thresholds: 80 degrees and 90 degrees.[aside label=\"More Coverage\" tag=\"heat\"]Municipalities such as Los Angeles have programs that help certain residents afford air conditioners or that break up their utility bills so they’re more manageable, so residents don’t avoid using their air conditioners when needed. Cooling and resilience centers in different parts of the state help people who need relief from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gov. Gavin Newsom last week\u003cem> \u003c/em>signed a budget that slashed $107.8 million in funding for programs and projects that address extreme heat and shifted $55.7 million across different programs. The cuts affect funding and other help for tribal, local and regional entities to establish heat action plans, provide shade, expand green spaces, educate the public about heat and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of that funding could be restored through a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/05/california-climate-programs-newsom-budget/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=California%20voters%20likely%20to%20decide%20%2420%20billion%20in%20bonds%20for%20climate%20and%20schools&utm_campaign=WhatMatters\">bond measure\u003c/a> proposed by lawmakers for the November ballot, including raising hundreds of millions of dollars for extreme heat programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As extreme heat events become more common, Baughman McLeod said the report’s findings are just a first step. She said the systems for addressing extreme heat aren’t adequate, but the report’s findings should lead policymakers and others to act urgently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t do this quickly enough,” she said, adding that “the world is watching what California does.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A blistering California heat wave over the past week and through the Fourth of July holiday could be topped off by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/death-valley-will-hit-130-degrees-break-world-record-blistering-heatwa-rcna160401\">hottest temperature ever recorded\u003c/a> on Earth. That kind of extreme heat has led to more deaths than wildfires and cost billions of dollars over a decade, according to the state insurance department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Following through on a mandate from 2022, a new report from the department looked at seven extreme heat events in the state from 2013 to 2022 and found they took the lives of several hundred Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The events also had a total economic impact of $7.7 billion in the form of lost wages and productivity, agricultural and manufacturing disruptions, power outages, infrastructure damage and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state’s top 20 deadliest wildfires, dating back to 1933, killed a total of 312 people, \u003ca href=\"https://34c031f8-c9fd-4018-8c5a-4159cdff6b0d-cdn-endpoint.azureedge.net/-/media/calfire-website/our-impact/fire-statistics/top-20-deadliest-ca-wildfires.pdf?rev=dddeac543dd84d21a4b01ad6bed5f48c&hash=6A2BD57BB8EC29DB9EC0C94F92B00F52\">according to Cal Fire\u003c/a>. The death toll from the extreme heat events identified by the Insurance Department was higher — estimated at nearly 460 in a first-of-its-kind report the department released last week. And it is likely that the toll was actually greater, at nearly 4,000 in a decade, a 2019 \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/projects/california-extreme-heat-deaths-show-climate-change-risks/#nt=0000017c-3247-d42d-adfd-32ef494d0000-showMedia-title-promoSuperLeadSmall-1col-enhancement\">Los Angeles Times analysis\u003c/a> showed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michael Mendez, an assistant professor of environmental planning and policy at UC Irvine and author of “Climate Change from the Streets,” agreed that the toll is most likely higher because extreme heat’s effects can be hard to designate and quantify.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really important to understand that heat is a silent killer,” Mendez said. Yet extreme heat “requires the same amount of speed in action that large disasters get, such as wildfires,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the main goals of the report is to provide data that can help inform and lead to action by policymakers, governments, businesses and the insurance industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is little to no insurance coverage available for some effects and costs of extreme heat, such as lost wages for workers, power outages for residents and businesses, and damage to railways, according to the report.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the department are under pressure to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/06/california-pushes-insurers-to-cover-more-homes-in-these-areas-is-your-zip-included/\">tackle the insurance availability and affordability issues\u003c/a> that have \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/2024/03/california-home-insurance-market/\">plagued the state\u003c/a> because some insurers have stopped renewing or writing new homeowner policies here, citing wildfire risk as a big factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report also follows years of warnings about extreme heat and other \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/04/california-climate-change-report-legislature/\">effects of climate change\u003c/a> by other state entities, such as the \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4580\">Legislative Analyst’s Office\u003c/a>, and lawmakers’ efforts to address them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/upload/Impacts-of-extreme-heat-to-California-s-people-infrastructure-and-economy-by-California-Department-of-Insurance-June-2024.pdf\">The 92-page report\u003c/a>, which assesses the insured and uninsured costs of heat and recommends quick action and changes, was mandated by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB2238\">a bill Lara sponsored that was signed into law\u003c/a> in 2022, whose main goal was to establish an extreme heat ranking system. That system, \u003ca href=\"https://calheatscore.calepa.ca.gov/\">CalHeatScore\u003c/a>, is being developed now by the state Environmental Protection Agency with help from other state agencies and is set to roll out next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The effects of extreme heat are disproportionately borne by low-income communities, older adults and outdoor workers, the report also found. Black, Native American and Hispanic Californians had the highest rates of deaths, respectively, compared with Asian and white California residents, during the events examined by the report. That’s why the report’s authors — the Insurance Department, with input from the state’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/180-climate-change/Climate-Insurance-Working-Group-Members.cfm\">Climate Insurance Working Group\u003c/a> and a consultant it hired to produce the report — call for equity when thinking about extreme heat policies and programs by considering the needs of vulnerable populations, including elderly people living alone, and outdoor and indoor workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides the hundreds of deaths, the report showed that extreme heat resulted in more than 5,000 hospitalizations, almost 10,600 emergency department visits, more than 138,000 outpatient visits and nearly 344 adverse birth outcomes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cI95K/4\" width=\"800\" height=\"700\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kathy Baughman McLeod is chief executive of Climate Resilience for All, a global non-governmental organization dedicated to addressing extreme heat for vulnerable communities. She is part of the working group and said the data from this new report could help with the “normalization of insurance products related to heat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We could use this data to create forecast-based insurance products that pay out when the forecast for the heat wave comes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baughman McLeod would know — she has worked with insurers on \u003ca href=\"https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/reuters-events/trailblazers/trailblazing-women-climate-2024-kathy-baughman-mcleod-2024-03-07/\">creating new insurance products\u003c/a>, such as insurance that helps replace women’s income in India when they’re unable to work on extremely hot days because the products they sell might spoil or their work hours are reduced. She also helped create insurance for coral reefs in Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the effects of extreme heat on health and life insurance are not known yet. Adrita Bhattacharya-Craven, director of health and demography at global insurance think tank The Geneva Association, said the Insurance Department’s findings align with some of her organization’s findings on health, climate and insurance, especially the disproportionate effects on the elderly and vulnerable populations. She said there is hardly any climate-sensitive data on mortality or morbidity when processing insurance claims, except for deaths from wildfires or possibly extreme heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, a medical professional is likely to report a stroke as just a stroke without specifying that it was induced by prolonged heat exposure,” Bhattacharya-Craven said. “There are no tools to consistently capture such information right now… In the long run, we need to map vulnerability with more granularity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other main recommendations in the report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Expand investment in planning for disasters, as well as use existing state and federal funding to prioritize efforts such as strengthening infrastructure against extreme weather, and restoring access to trees and green spaces.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Encourage strategies to try to reduce heat-related illnesses and injuries for workers across sectors. That includes incentivizing businesses to “meet benchmarks above the minimum indoor and outdoor temperature standards” set by governments.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Improve tracking costs of planning for extreme heat events.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>The report also recommends planting more trees, which could help provide shade, improve health outcomes, reduce energy needs and more. It also calls for cooling systems for dairy cows, which is important because California is the largest dairy producer in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few of the recommendations are already happening in some fashion. The state’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2024/06/extreme-heat-california-workplace-rules/\">recently approved a rule\u003c/a> requiring employers to reduce the risk of extreme heat for warehouse, restaurant and other workers. After a long delay, it’s set to take effect in August. Also last week, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2024/07/02/nx-s1-5026745/extreme-heat-protections-for-workers-osha\">federal OSHA proposed a rule,\u003c/a> years in the making, that tells employers how they should protect indoor and outdoor workers from heat when temperatures reach two thresholds: 80 degrees and 90 degrees.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Municipalities such as Los Angeles have programs that help certain residents afford air conditioners or that break up their utility bills so they’re more manageable, so residents don’t avoid using their air conditioners when needed. Cooling and resilience centers in different parts of the state help people who need relief from the heat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Gov. Gavin Newsom last week\u003cem> \u003c/em>signed a budget that slashed $107.8 million in funding for programs and projects that address extreme heat and shifted $55.7 million across different programs. The cuts affect funding and other help for tribal, local and regional entities to establish heat action plans, provide shade, expand green spaces, educate the public about heat and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of that funding could be restored through a \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/climate-change/2024/05/california-climate-programs-newsom-budget/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=California%20voters%20likely%20to%20decide%20%2420%20billion%20in%20bonds%20for%20climate%20and%20schools&utm_campaign=WhatMatters\">bond measure\u003c/a> proposed by lawmakers for the November ballot, including raising hundreds of millions of dollars for extreme heat programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As extreme heat events become more common, Baughman McLeod said the report’s findings are just a first step. She said the systems for addressing extreme heat aren’t adequate, but the report’s findings should lead policymakers and others to act urgently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t do this quickly enough,” she said, adding that “the world is watching what California does.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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