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"title": "The Night That Changed San Francisco Cycling Forever",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3xMsmE9\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look around San Francisco’s streets today, and you’ll see all sorts of infrastructure designed to make bicycling in the city safer. Lime-green bike lanes crisscross the city’s roads, barriers discourage drivers from entering bike lanes, and designated routes and slow streets let riders get away from cars more easily. In 2021, San Franciscans made 4.7 million trips on bicycles, and the city boasts more than 463 miles of bike lanes, paths and trails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just 30 years ago, none of this existed. There were just a few bike lanes, no slow streets and not nearly as many people on bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was literally no place where the bicycle was accepted to be on the road. Every square inch of the width of Market Street was full with motorized vehicles, buses or streetcars,” said Chris Carlsson, author and historian.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Carlsson would commute down Market Street to an office on Rincon Hill, right by the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of abuse hurled at you, verbally mostly. But there would also occasionally be the aggressive motorist who would actually try to cut you off or bump you off the road,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other cyclists who rode during that time remember the situation similarly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You weren’t allowed to bicycle in San Francisco in the early ’90s,” said Hugh D’Andrade, a friend and collaborator of Carlsson’s. “I mean, you certainly could do it, it was legal, but you were taking your life into your own hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One night, on the last Friday of the month in September of 1992, Carlsson and a group of friends decided to take action. They planned to gather at Embarcadero Plaza, right by the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, and ride home together. They called the ride “The Commute Clot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were asserting our right to the streets, essentially. One of the slogans that came out that period was that we’re not blocking traffic, we are traffic. So if you’re sick of being treated like crap on the streets of the city, show up for this thing and ride home in a group. About 50 people showed up,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They ended up riding southwest along Market Street to Zeitgeist, a bar in the mission. Carlsson said the experience was euphoric. The group made plans to do another Commute Clot the next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the beginning of what became known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcriticalmass.org/\">Critical Mass\u003c/a> — a group bicycling event that is often referred to as an “organized coincidence” or a “leaderless phenomenon.” That’s because for the last 30 years the ride has met at Embarcadero Plaza on the last Friday of every month and flooded the city with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of cyclists riding together in one or sometimes multiple dense packs, despite the fact that it has no leadership, no formal organization and no planned route. It’s also spread outside of San Francisco. Chris Carlsson estimates more than 350 cities across the world hold Critical Mass rides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ride also played a pivotal role in the evolution of the city’s robust bicycle network. But Critical Mass didn’t do it alone. In the early ’90s, right when Critical Mass was getting its start, the \u003ca href=\"https://sfbike.org/\">San Francisco Bicycle Coalition\u003c/a> also was forming.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Working together, separately\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today the bicycle coalition is a political organizing powerhouse that advocates for safer cycling and alternative transportation policy in San Francisco. But back then, it was a nascent nonprofit meeting in the back of a Chinese restaurant called The Pot and Pan in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people who made decisions were whoever showed up,” said Dave Snyder, who was elected as the coalition’s first executive director in 1991. “They elected me executive director with a salary of $0 to help get the organization started.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass and the bicycle coalition have similar goals: raising awareness and making the streets safer for people on bicycles. But they couldn’t be more different in how they work toward that. While Critical Mass is simply an event — a raw, unmediated expression of the frustration cyclists feel at being second-class citizens on the city’s streets — the bicycle coalition is a more policy-focused group with its eyes set on changing things from within City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the bicycle coalition has always been a mainstream group representing the average person who would like to ride a bike on the streets but can’t because they’re not safe enough,” said Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Carlsson went to one of the early bicycle coalition meetings in August 1992, and tried to get them to endorse his idea for the Commute Clot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We decided that we would not endorse it, but we would tell people about it. That it wasn’t something that we [could] control, but that it was an important cultural event. So we would make sure everybody knew about it, but that would be the extent of our involvement,” said Snyder. “When you’re a nonprofit that has a legal responsibility, you don’t want to take any responsibility for a ride that you can’t control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941590\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941590\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-800x479.jpg\" alt=\"A group of cyclists happily riding through San Francisco streets together. \" width=\"800\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-800x479.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1020x610.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-160x96.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1536x919.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-2048x1225.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1920x1149.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Critical Mass participants bike from Justin Herman Plaza to Candlestick Park in one of the earliest bicycle rides on the city’s streets, May 27, 1994. \u003ccite>(Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even though the coalition said no, Critical Mass began picking up steam. By the mid-’90s, thousands of people would participate in Critical Mass rides every month. Carlsson says one reason for the growth of the ride was that anyone could make the ride what they wanted it to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you didn’t have to adopt a dogma, either political or religious. You could just come and you really only needed to be interested in riding your bike,” said Carlsson. “Then you have the actual euphoric experience of riding through the streets in a group of bicycles. It changes the auditory environment, it changes the olfactory environment, everything is different. It’s really a surprise the first time you do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tension grows\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But the cold reality of being stopped by those bikes in Friday rush-hour traffic as Critical Mass passed by was not as serene an experience for people in cars and buses. Imagine trying to drive home on a Friday night, and in addition to the normal traffic, thousands of bicyclists are streaming in front of you. You’re stopped at an intersection and watching as the traffic light goes from green to red to green again, and you don’t go anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass rides sometimes involve a practice called “corking,” where a group of riders stand at an intersection and block traffic while the rest of the ride passes. Depending on the size of the ride, drivers can be held up for around 15 or 20 minutes. In the early days of Critical Mass, the San Francisco Police Department would actually assist the ride in blocking traffic while the bicyclists passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Critical Mass grew in size through the years, so did the amount of time drivers were obligated to wait for the mass. People got frustrated. Drivers would try to push through the mass, screaming at cyclists while they attempted to inch their car through the intersections. Cyclists would respond by yelling back, or pounding on a car hood. Sometimes these interactions became physically violent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass soon gained a reputation for being aggressive and antagonistic. Carlsson says he thinks the ride was often portrayed unfairly in the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that we went out attacking cars … that never happens in Critical Mass. People might respond to a car that is trying to run them over by hitting them, or smashing windows on some occasions. That’s happened. But not unprovoked. It’s always been because a motorist loses it and decides they can just ram through the bikes with their car,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cyclists thought of themselves as part of traffic, not causing it. The thinking: When traffic is caused by cars, it’s normal. When it’s caused by bicycles, it’s treated as something to be stopped. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but what about all the other times you’re inconvenienced and you just think that’s normal?” said Carlsson. [baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlsson pushes back against the idea that Critical Mass was about a sort of class war between people on bikes and people in cars. Rather, he says, it was intended to be celebratory and invitational. They wanted people in the cars to join them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People in their cars are just like us. We’re just like them. We’re in a car on another day, we just don’t want to admit it,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cutting a deal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Things took a turn when Willie Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco in 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I became mayor, and I said, ‘That is not subject to acceptance, period. You violate the law by running red lights, disrupting the streets. You are subject to be prosecuted,'” said Brown in an interview with KQED in January 2023. “So I went to war with them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown wanted Critical Mass to leave at a later time and follow a police-approved route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They disrupted the whole goddamn town,” Brown recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He tasked City Supervisor Michael Yaki with trying to bring Critical Mass to heel. The bicycle coalition took notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Snyder, then executive director of the bicycle coalition, got a call from a friend who worked in public relations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said, ‘Hey, Dave, they’re talking about Critical Mass and bicyclists in the paper every day, and they never mentioned the Bicycle Coalition.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, isn’t that great?’ And there was silence on the other end. He goes, ‘No, no, that’s not great. You need help.’ And he worked with us to talk about how we could take advantage of all this attention to promote our agenda,” recalled Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Critical Mass didn’t have any formal leadership, Supervisor Yaki reached out to the next logical choice: the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the coalition had been pressing for bike lanes on some of the city’s biggest thoroughfares, but Snyder said the plan was just gathering dust. All of a sudden, they had leverage, and hearings on those bike lanes were on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for holding hearings on building some of the first bike lanes in the city, Supervisor Yaki asked the bicycle coalition to make sure Critical Mass would leave later and follow a police-approved route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bicycle coalition people said, ‘Well, yeah, we can tell them that, but they’re not gonna listen,’” said Snyder. “And I think they thought we were being coy, that we were telling him that because we wanted to keep an official arm’s-length distance. But we weren’t being coy. They did not listen to us, and we knew that would be the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941591\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-800x514.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-800x514.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-160x103.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM.png 987w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cyclists ride through the streets as part of a Critical Mass event on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city didn’t realize that nobody, not even the bike coalition, had power over the mass. But the coalition did get their meetings, and those bike lanes eventually did get built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snyder was surprised. “One of the aides to Willie Brown was talking with me about the hearings that they were holding, and I asked her, ‘So what’s changed? Two years ago, I couldn’t get a hearing on any of this stuff,’” said Snyder. “And she just laughed and she said, ‘5,000 people in the streets, Dave. That’s what changed.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlsson remembers when Yaki announced that the city had reached a deal with the Bicycle Coalition. “It just meant nothing to us. We knew you’re gonna have no effect on anything other than potentially producing some serious chaos. And there was major chaos that night,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It set the stage for the most chaotic and violent night in San Francisco Critical Mass history.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>July ’97\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On July 25, 1997, it’s estimated that 5,000 cyclists showed up at Embarcadero Plaza for the ride. Besides the unusually large number of riders, something else was different that night: The police had set up a public-address system. Police Capt. Dennis Martel spoke to the crowd, trying to project his voice above a chorus of boos from the cyclists, imploring them to follow the police-approved route, which was published in newspapers days before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Mayor Willie Brown also addressed the crowd. He, too, was met with jeers. Suffice to say, nobody followed the police-approved route that night. The cyclists felt indignant that the police were trying to co-opt their ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941594\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11941594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-800x510.png\" alt=\"An African American man wearing a suit and black fedora makes an announcement into a microphone. \" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-800x510.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-160x102.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM.png 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco’s then-mayor, Willie Brown, addresses a a crowd of thousands of cyclists on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All the bicyclists are booing [Brown] and he is really pissed. You could tell he’s really pissed. And he walks off the little stage they have and apparently he tells the cops, ‘Shut it down.’ And so they tried and they couldn’t because there was just too many cyclists and everybody just went in every direction,” remembered Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Snyder recalls the night as being utterly wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Five thousand people divided into 10 groups of 500 on average. Massive clogs of bicycles were all over downtown. It completely messed with traffic in downtown San Francisco for a couple of hours on that Friday,” recalled Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Footage of the night from the bicycle documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpsdy24xbLY&t=2394s\">We Are Traffic\u003c/a>\u003c/em> shows police mounted on motorcycles declaring the event an unlawful assembly and threatening to ticket and arrest cyclists and impound their bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> article describing the night of July 25, 1997, reads sort of like a war report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cem>At 8:35 p.m. at Sacramento and Montgomery streets, police formed a skirmish line of a dozen officers with a backup of several dozen more. As the first of the cyclists were put into arrest wagons, a crowd of more than 150 bikers chanted, ‘Let them go.’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>At Fifth and Howard, a rider said that a motorist deliberately swerved into him, flattening the rear wheel of his bike. At the same corner, police said a cyclist reached into the driver’s side of a stopped vehicle and socked the man behind the wheel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Near Civic Center, an officer ticketed cyclist John Bruno for running a red light — and then warned him, ‘If I were you, I’d get out of here. It’s out of control.’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11941595 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM.png 983w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A San Francisco police officer kneels on the neck of a cyclist while making an arrest during a Critical Mass event on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One scene from that night includes a police officer kneeling on the neck of a woman, as the crowd shouts for them to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At another intersection, the police encircled about 100 cyclists and conducted a mass arrest. People were booked on charges of failure to disperse, unlawful assembly and blocking traffic, but none of them were convicted. One cyclist who was arrested that night later sued and won against the city for illegally declaring an unlawful assembly and arbitrarily arresting the cyclists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the dust settled, it was clear that San Francisco’s cycling community was demanding change — and they would not be ignored or suppressed any longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reimagining San Francisco’s streets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even though the bicycle coalition worked hard to distance itself from Critical Mass, it ended up being one of the greatest beneficiaries from the chaos of July 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A few months after the July 1997 ride, I was in the elevator with Willie Brown in City Hall and I said, ‘Mr. Mayor, our membership has grown 50% since you cracked down on Critical Mass. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for that! Thank you, Mr. Mayor.’ And he laughed and said, ‘You’re welcome.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The events of July 25, 1997, drew attention to the issues the coalition had been fighting for for years, and showed there was a large, passionate electorate that wanted safer streets in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just drew attention to the issue like nothing else could,” said Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the start of the reimagining of San Francisco’s streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941586\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Bicyclists zoom by in bikes lanes going both directions along San Francisco's Embarcadero at sunset.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco’s Critical Mass, a mass bicycle ride that takes place on the last Friday of each month, celebrates its 30th anniversary on Sept. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Valencia Street was the first example where the city traffic engineers took out a traffic lane to put in a bike lane and traffic wasn’t completely messed up. They called it the ‘Valencia epiphany.’ Truly, within the [San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency], that’s what they called it. With the support of the bicycle coalition and some key members of the Board of Supervisors, they started doing it all over the city,” said Snyder.[aside postID=news_11927460 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/10/RS58902_DSC07979-qut-1020x680.jpg']Paradoxically, the decentralized, brash and confrontational Critical Mass gave rise to the political organizing machine that is the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition we know today, and the maze of bike lanes that snake their way around the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t had a mass seizure in the streets by bicyclists for years and years on end every last Friday of the month. And it started in San Francisco and it’s grown throughout the world,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Critical Mass in San Francisco is far less well-attended, even for the 30th anniversary ride, where hundreds, not thousands, of people showed up. It still has no leaders, and many of the original riders stopped going years ago. Carlsson calls it a zombie ride — it just exists on its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a suit sits astride his custom bicycle constructed of a playground-style spring horse mounted to a BMX bike.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cyclist Slim Buick sits astride his custom bike on the 30th anniversary of Critical Mass on Sept. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Group rides today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since Carlsson and his friends rode home together in 1992, there has been an explosion of group rides in the Bay Area. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ebbikeparty\">East Bay Bike Party\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjbikeparty.org/\">San José Bike Party\u003c/a> are similar to Critical Mass, only with more rules. The bike party stops at red lights, posts their route beforehand, and have designated stopping and regrouping areas so people can meet back up with the ride if they get separated. These regrouping areas are also often sites for dance parties among the thumping sound systems and flashing lights people adorn their bikes with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Richmond, \u003ca href=\"https://www.richcityrides.org/\">Rich City Rides\u003c/a> is focused on promoting healthy and active lifestyles in the city through cycling. They’re also working to bring everyone to an activity that is often seen as being overwhelmingly white and male.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-800x722.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people pose with their bicycles, one person holds theirs aloft. \" width=\"800\" height=\"722\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-800x722.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1020x920.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-160x144.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1536x1386.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-2048x1848.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1920x1732.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riders gather at the Richmond BART Plaza for a ride commemorating the third anniversary of a bike lane pilot on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, organized by Rich City Rides. \u003ccite>(Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We focus intentionally on making sure that minorities are welcome and feel comfortable when they are at our space or at our activities in general,” said Dani Lanis, project manager with Rich City Rides. “There’s no aggression whatsoever. In fact, it’s all about inclusion, inclusivity and making sure that everybody feels comfortable, including kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rich City Rides also hosts a Black wellness hub, which has talking circles for the community, like Black Men Tea Talk Tuesday and Black Women Wellness Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanis says that Rich City Rides will tailor their route according to the needs of the slowest or least experienced person on the ride. “We have little ones with us often, and so we could have a whole plan for where to ride on a day, and five minutes before we take off, if a bunch of 7-year-olds show up, we will totally change the route because all of our routes are dictated on who is the slowest person in the ride.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a recent ride celebrating the third anniversary of a bike-lane pilot program on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, Candace Peters of Oakland said it’s exactly that type of atmosphere that brought her out for her first ride across the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group doing it brought me out and motivated me to do it, so I probably wouldn’t do it by myself. I feel like I won’t get lost, I feel like I won’t get confused, I feel like if anything goes wrong, I can have help. I can kind of see what it’s like, and so when I want to do it by myself, I’m already aware of what I’m getting into and what I need to do and how to get there and how to get back,” said Peters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gesturing toward a bubble machine mounted onto the rack of a nearby bicycle, she added, “Bubbles make bike rides more fun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cycling in the Bay Area today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Recent events thrust the issues Critical Mass originally organized around back into the spotlight. Earlier this month, people in cars intentionally attacked cyclists in a string of incidents over a single weekend. People in cars would open their doors into cyclists while they were riding, causing them to crash. Two people were seriously injured. Many of these people were on their way to or leaving the East Bay Bike Party. The \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/02/22/bay-area-cyclists-attacked-solidarity-ride-roll-out-crew/\">Oaklandside\u003c/a> reported there were 16 incidents of people being attacked that weekend, and that over 800 people turned out for a solidarity ride the following weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This has led people in the Bay Area cycling community to renew calls for more protections for cyclists — like protected bike lanes — continuing the work that Critical Mass and the bicycle coalition started 30 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco wasn't always such a bike-friendly city. At least, not until the '90s, when two groups working without coordination made cyclists hard for the city to ignore. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3xMsmE9\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look around San Francisco’s streets today, and you’ll see all sorts of infrastructure designed to make bicycling in the city safer. Lime-green bike lanes crisscross the city’s roads, barriers discourage drivers from entering bike lanes, and designated routes and slow streets let riders get away from cars more easily. In 2021, San Franciscans made 4.7 million trips on bicycles, and the city boasts more than 463 miles of bike lanes, paths and trails.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But just 30 years ago, none of this existed. There were just a few bike lanes, no slow streets and not nearly as many people on bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was literally no place where the bicycle was accepted to be on the road. Every square inch of the width of Market Street was full with motorized vehicles, buses or streetcars,” said Chris Carlsson, author and historian.\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>In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Carlsson would commute down Market Street to an office on Rincon Hill, right by the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a lot of abuse hurled at you, verbally mostly. But there would also occasionally be the aggressive motorist who would actually try to cut you off or bump you off the road,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other cyclists who rode during that time remember the situation similarly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You weren’t allowed to bicycle in San Francisco in the early ’90s,” said Hugh D’Andrade, a friend and collaborator of Carlsson’s. “I mean, you certainly could do it, it was legal, but you were taking your life into your own hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One night, on the last Friday of the month in September of 1992, Carlsson and a group of friends decided to take action. They planned to gather at Embarcadero Plaza, right by the Ferry Building in downtown San Francisco, and ride home together. They called the ride “The Commute Clot.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were asserting our right to the streets, essentially. One of the slogans that came out that period was that we’re not blocking traffic, we are traffic. So if you’re sick of being treated like crap on the streets of the city, show up for this thing and ride home in a group. About 50 people showed up,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They ended up riding southwest along Market Street to Zeitgeist, a bar in the mission. Carlsson said the experience was euphoric. The group made plans to do another Commute Clot the next month.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was the beginning of what became known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcriticalmass.org/\">Critical Mass\u003c/a> — a group bicycling event that is often referred to as an “organized coincidence” or a “leaderless phenomenon.” That’s because for the last 30 years the ride has met at Embarcadero Plaza on the last Friday of every month and flooded the city with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of cyclists riding together in one or sometimes multiple dense packs, despite the fact that it has no leadership, no formal organization and no planned route. It’s also spread outside of San Francisco. Chris Carlsson estimates more than 350 cities across the world hold Critical Mass rides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The ride also played a pivotal role in the evolution of the city’s robust bicycle network. But Critical Mass didn’t do it alone. In the early ’90s, right when Critical Mass was getting its start, the \u003ca href=\"https://sfbike.org/\">San Francisco Bicycle Coalition\u003c/a> also was forming.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Working together, separately\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Today the bicycle coalition is a political organizing powerhouse that advocates for safer cycling and alternative transportation policy in San Francisco. But back then, it was a nascent nonprofit meeting in the back of a Chinese restaurant called The Pot and Pan in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The people who made decisions were whoever showed up,” said Dave Snyder, who was elected as the coalition’s first executive director in 1991. “They elected me executive director with a salary of $0 to help get the organization started.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass and the bicycle coalition have similar goals: raising awareness and making the streets safer for people on bicycles. But they couldn’t be more different in how they work toward that. While Critical Mass is simply an event — a raw, unmediated expression of the frustration cyclists feel at being second-class citizens on the city’s streets — the bicycle coalition is a more policy-focused group with its eyes set on changing things from within City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think the bicycle coalition has always been a mainstream group representing the average person who would like to ride a bike on the streets but can’t because they’re not safe enough,” said Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chris Carlsson went to one of the early bicycle coalition meetings in August 1992, and tried to get them to endorse his idea for the Commute Clot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We decided that we would not endorse it, but we would tell people about it. That it wasn’t something that we [could] control, but that it was an important cultural event. So we would make sure everybody knew about it, but that would be the extent of our involvement,” said Snyder. “When you’re a nonprofit that has a legal responsibility, you don’t want to take any responsibility for a ride that you can’t control.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941590\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941590\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-800x479.jpg\" alt=\"A group of cyclists happily riding through San Francisco streets together. \" width=\"800\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-800x479.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1020x610.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-160x96.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1536x919.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-2048x1225.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/GettyImages-1321312454-1920x1149.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Critical Mass participants bike from Justin Herman Plaza to Candlestick Park in one of the earliest bicycle rides on the city’s streets, May 27, 1994. \u003ccite>(Photo By Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even though the coalition said no, Critical Mass began picking up steam. By the mid-’90s, thousands of people would participate in Critical Mass rides every month. Carlsson says one reason for the growth of the ride was that anyone could make the ride what they wanted it to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So you didn’t have to adopt a dogma, either political or religious. You could just come and you really only needed to be interested in riding your bike,” said Carlsson. “Then you have the actual euphoric experience of riding through the streets in a group of bicycles. It changes the auditory environment, it changes the olfactory environment, everything is different. It’s really a surprise the first time you do it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Tension grows\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>But the cold reality of being stopped by those bikes in Friday rush-hour traffic as Critical Mass passed by was not as serene an experience for people in cars and buses. Imagine trying to drive home on a Friday night, and in addition to the normal traffic, thousands of bicyclists are streaming in front of you. You’re stopped at an intersection and watching as the traffic light goes from green to red to green again, and you don’t go anywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass rides sometimes involve a practice called “corking,” where a group of riders stand at an intersection and block traffic while the rest of the ride passes. Depending on the size of the ride, drivers can be held up for around 15 or 20 minutes. In the early days of Critical Mass, the San Francisco Police Department would actually assist the ride in blocking traffic while the bicyclists passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Critical Mass grew in size through the years, so did the amount of time drivers were obligated to wait for the mass. People got frustrated. Drivers would try to push through the mass, screaming at cyclists while they attempted to inch their car through the intersections. Cyclists would respond by yelling back, or pounding on a car hood. Sometimes these interactions became physically violent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critical Mass soon gained a reputation for being aggressive and antagonistic. Carlsson says he thinks the ride was often portrayed unfairly in the media.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea that we went out attacking cars … that never happens in Critical Mass. People might respond to a car that is trying to run them over by hitting them, or smashing windows on some occasions. That’s happened. But not unprovoked. It’s always been because a motorist loses it and decides they can just ram through the bikes with their car,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cyclists thought of themselves as part of traffic, not causing it. The thinking: When traffic is caused by cars, it’s normal. When it’s caused by bicycles, it’s treated as something to be stopped. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but what about all the other times you’re inconvenienced and you just think that’s normal?” said Carlsson. \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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlsson pushes back against the idea that Critical Mass was about a sort of class war between people on bikes and people in cars. Rather, he says, it was intended to be celebratory and invitational. They wanted people in the cars to join them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People in their cars are just like us. We’re just like them. We’re in a car on another day, we just don’t want to admit it,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cutting a deal\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Things took a turn when Willie Brown was elected mayor of San Francisco in 1996.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I became mayor, and I said, ‘That is not subject to acceptance, period. You violate the law by running red lights, disrupting the streets. You are subject to be prosecuted,'” said Brown in an interview with KQED in January 2023. “So I went to war with them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brown wanted Critical Mass to leave at a later time and follow a police-approved route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They disrupted the whole goddamn town,” Brown recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He tasked City Supervisor Michael Yaki with trying to bring Critical Mass to heel. The bicycle coalition took notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Snyder, then executive director of the bicycle coalition, got a call from a friend who worked in public relations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He said, ‘Hey, Dave, they’re talking about Critical Mass and bicyclists in the paper every day, and they never mentioned the Bicycle Coalition.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, isn’t that great?’ And there was silence on the other end. He goes, ‘No, no, that’s not great. You need help.’ And he worked with us to talk about how we could take advantage of all this attention to promote our agenda,” recalled Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Critical Mass didn’t have any formal leadership, Supervisor Yaki reached out to the next logical choice: the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For years, the coalition had been pressing for bike lanes on some of the city’s biggest thoroughfares, but Snyder said the plan was just gathering dust. All of a sudden, they had leverage, and hearings on those bike lanes were on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In exchange for holding hearings on building some of the first bike lanes in the city, Supervisor Yaki asked the bicycle coalition to make sure Critical Mass would leave later and follow a police-approved route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bicycle coalition people said, ‘Well, yeah, we can tell them that, but they’re not gonna listen,’” said Snyder. “And I think they thought we were being coy, that we were telling him that because we wanted to keep an official arm’s-length distance. But we weren’t being coy. They did not listen to us, and we knew that would be the case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941591\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-800x514.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-800x514.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM-160x103.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.21.46-PM.png 987w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cyclists ride through the streets as part of a Critical Mass event on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The city didn’t realize that nobody, not even the bike coalition, had power over the mass. But the coalition did get their meetings, and those bike lanes eventually did get built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snyder was surprised. “One of the aides to Willie Brown was talking with me about the hearings that they were holding, and I asked her, ‘So what’s changed? Two years ago, I couldn’t get a hearing on any of this stuff,’” said Snyder. “And she just laughed and she said, ‘5,000 people in the streets, Dave. That’s what changed.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carlsson remembers when Yaki announced that the city had reached a deal with the Bicycle Coalition. “It just meant nothing to us. We knew you’re gonna have no effect on anything other than potentially producing some serious chaos. And there was major chaos that night,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It set the stage for the most chaotic and violent night in San Francisco Critical Mass history.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>July ’97\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On July 25, 1997, it’s estimated that 5,000 cyclists showed up at Embarcadero Plaza for the ride. Besides the unusually large number of riders, something else was different that night: The police had set up a public-address system. Police Capt. Dennis Martel spoke to the crowd, trying to project his voice above a chorus of boos from the cyclists, imploring them to follow the police-approved route, which was published in newspapers days before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then-Mayor Willie Brown also addressed the crowd. He, too, was met with jeers. Suffice to say, nobody followed the police-approved route that night. The cyclists felt indignant that the police were trying to co-opt their ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941594\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11941594 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-800x510.png\" alt=\"An African American man wearing a suit and black fedora makes an announcement into a microphone. \" width=\"800\" height=\"510\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-800x510.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM-160x102.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.20.23-PM.png 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco’s then-mayor, Willie Brown, addresses a a crowd of thousands of cyclists on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“All the bicyclists are booing [Brown] and he is really pissed. You could tell he’s really pissed. And he walks off the little stage they have and apparently he tells the cops, ‘Shut it down.’ And so they tried and they couldn’t because there was just too many cyclists and everybody just went in every direction,” remembered Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dave Snyder recalls the night as being utterly wild.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Five thousand people divided into 10 groups of 500 on average. Massive clogs of bicycles were all over downtown. It completely messed with traffic in downtown San Francisco for a couple of hours on that Friday,” recalled Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Footage of the night from the bicycle documentary \u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpsdy24xbLY&t=2394s\">We Are Traffic\u003c/a>\u003c/em> shows police mounted on motorcycles declaring the event an unlawful assembly and threatening to ticket and arrest cyclists and impound their bikes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> article describing the night of July 25, 1997, reads sort of like a war report:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\u003cem>At 8:35 p.m. at Sacramento and Montgomery streets, police formed a skirmish line of a dozen officers with a backup of several dozen more. As the first of the cyclists were put into arrest wagons, a crowd of more than 150 bikers chanted, ‘Let them go.’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>At Fifth and Howard, a rider said that a motorist deliberately swerved into him, flattening the rear wheel of his bike. At the same corner, police said a cyclist reached into the driver’s side of a stopped vehicle and socked the man behind the wheel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Near Civic Center, an officer ticketed cyclist John Bruno for running a red light — and then warned him, ‘If I were you, I’d get out of here. It’s out of control.’\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941595\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11941595 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-800x533.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-800x533.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM-160x107.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Screen-Shot-2023-02-22-at-1.25.40-PM.png 983w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A San Francisco police officer kneels on the neck of a cyclist while making an arrest during a Critical Mass event on July 25, 1997. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ted White)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One scene from that night includes a police officer kneeling on the neck of a woman, as the crowd shouts for them to stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At another intersection, the police encircled about 100 cyclists and conducted a mass arrest. People were booked on charges of failure to disperse, unlawful assembly and blocking traffic, but none of them were convicted. One cyclist who was arrested that night later sued and won against the city for illegally declaring an unlawful assembly and arbitrarily arresting the cyclists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the dust settled, it was clear that San Francisco’s cycling community was demanding change — and they would not be ignored or suppressed any longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Reimagining San Francisco’s streets\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Even though the bicycle coalition worked hard to distance itself from Critical Mass, it ended up being one of the greatest beneficiaries from the chaos of July 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A few months after the July 1997 ride, I was in the elevator with Willie Brown in City Hall and I said, ‘Mr. Mayor, our membership has grown 50% since you cracked down on Critical Mass. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for that! Thank you, Mr. Mayor.’ And he laughed and said, ‘You’re welcome.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The events of July 25, 1997, drew attention to the issues the coalition had been fighting for for years, and showed there was a large, passionate electorate that wanted safer streets in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just drew attention to the issue like nothing else could,” said Snyder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was the start of the reimagining of San Francisco’s streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941586\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941586\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Bicyclists zoom by in bikes lanes going both directions along San Francisco's Embarcadero at sunset.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58943_R0005712-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco’s Critical Mass, a mass bicycle ride that takes place on the last Friday of each month, celebrates its 30th anniversary on Sept. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Valencia Street was the first example where the city traffic engineers took out a traffic lane to put in a bike lane and traffic wasn’t completely messed up. They called it the ‘Valencia epiphany.’ Truly, within the [San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency], that’s what they called it. With the support of the bicycle coalition and some key members of the Board of Supervisors, they started doing it all over the city,” said Snyder.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Paradoxically, the decentralized, brash and confrontational Critical Mass gave rise to the political organizing machine that is the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition we know today, and the maze of bike lanes that snake their way around the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That wouldn’t have been possible if you hadn’t had a mass seizure in the streets by bicyclists for years and years on end every last Friday of the month. And it started in San Francisco and it’s grown throughout the world,” said Carlsson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Critical Mass in San Francisco is far less well-attended, even for the 30th anniversary ride, where hundreds, not thousands, of people showed up. It still has no leaders, and many of the original riders stopped going years ago. Carlsson calls it a zombie ride — it just exists on its own.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A man with a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a suit sits astride his custom bicycle constructed of a playground-style spring horse mounted to a BMX bike.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS58897_DSC07955-qut-1.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cyclist Slim Buick sits astride his custom bike on the 30th anniversary of Critical Mass on Sept. 30, 2022, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Aryk Copley/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>Group rides today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since Carlsson and his friends rode home together in 1992, there has been an explosion of group rides in the Bay Area. \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ebbikeparty\">East Bay Bike Party\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sjbikeparty.org/\">San José Bike Party\u003c/a> are similar to Critical Mass, only with more rules. The bike party stops at red lights, posts their route beforehand, and have designated stopping and regrouping areas so people can meet back up with the ride if they get separated. These regrouping areas are also often sites for dance parties among the thumping sound systems and flashing lights people adorn their bikes with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Richmond, \u003ca href=\"https://www.richcityrides.org/\">Rich City Rides\u003c/a> is focused on promoting healthy and active lifestyles in the city through cycling. They’re also working to bring everyone to an activity that is often seen as being overwhelmingly white and male.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11941600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11941600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-800x722.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people pose with their bicycles, one person holds theirs aloft. \" width=\"800\" height=\"722\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-800x722.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1020x920.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-160x144.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1536x1386.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-2048x1848.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_2152-1920x1732.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Riders gather at the Richmond BART Plaza for a ride commemorating the third anniversary of a bike lane pilot on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, organized by Rich City Rides. \u003ccite>(Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We focus intentionally on making sure that minorities are welcome and feel comfortable when they are at our space or at our activities in general,” said Dani Lanis, project manager with Rich City Rides. “There’s no aggression whatsoever. In fact, it’s all about inclusion, inclusivity and making sure that everybody feels comfortable, including kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rich City Rides also hosts a Black wellness hub, which has talking circles for the community, like Black Men Tea Talk Tuesday and Black Women Wellness Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lanis says that Rich City Rides will tailor their route according to the needs of the slowest or least experienced person on the ride. “We have little ones with us often, and so we could have a whole plan for where to ride on a day, and five minutes before we take off, if a bunch of 7-year-olds show up, we will totally change the route because all of our routes are dictated on who is the slowest person in the ride.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a recent ride celebrating the third anniversary of a bike-lane pilot program on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, Candace Peters of Oakland said it’s exactly that type of atmosphere that brought her out for her first ride across the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This group doing it brought me out and motivated me to do it, so I probably wouldn’t do it by myself. I feel like I won’t get lost, I feel like I won’t get confused, I feel like if anything goes wrong, I can have help. I can kind of see what it’s like, and so when I want to do it by myself, I’m already aware of what I’m getting into and what I need to do and how to get there and how to get back,” said Peters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gesturing toward a bubble machine mounted onto the rack of a nearby bicycle, she added, “Bubbles make bike rides more fun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cycling in the Bay Area today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Recent events thrust the issues Critical Mass originally organized around back into the spotlight. Earlier this month, people in cars intentionally attacked cyclists in a string of incidents over a single weekend. People in cars would open their doors into cyclists while they were riding, causing them to crash. Two people were seriously injured. Many of these people were on their way to or leaving the East Bay Bike Party. The \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/02/22/bay-area-cyclists-attacked-solidarity-ride-roll-out-crew/\">Oaklandside\u003c/a> reported there were 16 incidents of people being attacked that weekend, and that over 800 people turned out for a solidarity ride the following weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This has led people in the Bay Area cycling community to renew calls for more protections for cyclists — like protected bike lanes — continuing the work that Critical Mass and the bicycle coalition started 30 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Building That Looks Like a Boat Off the Coast of Palo Alto",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CkwPS-Dc8ftWLCpcjDjRoSIIBcv_Tzo3/view\">\u003cem>Read the transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I walk along the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Community-Services/Open-Space-Parks/Neighborhood-Parks/Baylands-Nature-Preserve\">Palo Alto Baylands\u003c/a>, I see what looks like a paddle-driven riverboat that you would typically see on the Mississippi River. What is that boat and why is it there?” asked Agnes Veith of Sunnyvale. She’s a volunteer at \u003ca href=\"https://www.environmentalvolunteers.org/ecocenter/\">Environmental Volunteers\u003c/a>, a nonprofit housed in a building that really does look like a boat, and wanted to know more about its history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a fan of art deco buildings in the Bay Area, you probably know of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/nat2007001468.asp\">Coit Tower\u003c/a>. Or Oakland’s beloved \u003ca href=\"https://www.paramountoakland.org/history_news\">Paramount Theatre\u003c/a>. Or the iconic \u003ca href=\"https://www.destinationhotels.com/hotel-de-anza/hotel-de-anza-blog/spend-the-night-at-legendary-hotel-de-anza\">Hotel de Anza\u003c/a> in downtown San José. There aren’t a lot of these nostalgic throwbacks to the 1930s still standing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But art deco doesn’t really describe the building Veith is thinking of. It’s in a subcategory of art deco called streamline moderne, or nautical moderne. Which is to say: horizontal orientation, rounded edges and porthole-shaped windows. There’s something that looks like a navigation bridge popping out onto a third story. A rainbow flag flies high and proud from a hoist at the top of the building. The paint job is a white that Benjamin Moore might describe as “sand dollar” or “dune,” with French blue accents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whimsy or cheese? I’m going with whimsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building was designed for the \u003ca href=\"https://seascout.org\">Sea Scouts\u003c/a>, a maritime program of the Boy Scouts of America, by architect \u003ca href=\"https://www.paloaltohistory.org/birge-clark.php\">Birge Clark.\u003c/a> He’s the one behind the Palo Alto Post Office, the President Hotel and several Stanford buildings. Clark reportedly took his inspiration for the Sea Scout building from the pilot house of an old paddle wheel steamer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s the story of what hits your eyeballs as you’re walking in the Baylands. The history of the building is just as compelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2139px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940610\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts.jpg\" alt=\"A sepia toned photograph shows rows of young men in maritime uniforms in front of an Art Deco building that looks like a boat. What looks like a military band plays in foreground.\" width=\"2139\" height=\"1714\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts.jpg 2139w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-800x641.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1020x817.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-160x128.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1536x1231.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-2048x1641.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1920x1539.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2139px) 100vw, 2139px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Palo Alto Sea Scout Base was commissioned in May of 1941. That’s the Stanford Band in the foreground. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hyde Forbes)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto philanthropist Lucie Stern commissioned it as a home base for the \u003ca href=\"https://seascout.org\">Sea Scouts\u003c/a>. The building opened in 1941 to great fanfare, especially given the ongoing hostilities of World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a pivotal moment for the local chapter, which taught teenagers from as far north as Redwood City and as far south as San José. Their counterparts in the Girl Scouts were called the Mariners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Murray was a Sea Scout. He joined in 1974, at the age of 14, and rose up through the ranks from apprentice to vice commodore for the western region. Over the years, he also became an amateur historian of the Sea Scouts on the Peninsula. He’s talked to old-timers before they died about \u003ca href=\"https://www.paloaltohistory.org/the-palo-alto-yacht-harbor.php\">the start of the harbor in 1928\u003c/a>, and the decades of fun and education that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That harbor was alive and well. It was teeming with families, with teenagers, a bunch of sailboats. Aww, man, it was a whole other world,” Murray said. “Imagine right in front of that building, an 85-foot PT boat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A PT boat, by the way, was a motorized torpedo boat used by the Navy in World War II: small, fast and cheap to build. They were cheap to give away, too, to programs like the Sea Scouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940611\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940611\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6.jpg\" alt=\"A class photo taken outdoors of young, teenage boys looking jaunty in sailor outfits.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Palo Alto Sea Scouts after a coastal summer cruise from PA to San Diego and return, circa 1969. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Skipper George Moore)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Here I was, a 14-year-old kid, and they put me on a WWII, 64-foot tugboat. I started as a deckhand and then I graduated to become an engineer, working on an engine the size of a train. So the first thing I noticed was we were being treated as men, not little boys anymore,” Murray said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were adventurous trips to San Francisco and even Alaska. There were regattas and dances and lifelong friendships formed. Murray credits his time in the Sea Scouts for turning him into an educator. He was a political science professor for 30 years before he retired. Most of his brothers went into education, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But times change and so do social attitudes toward the environment. The dredging that made Palo Alto’s harbor operational stopped after a contentious citywide vote in 1986, to allow for the area to return to its original state as wetlands. Then in 1994, the Palo Alto and San Mateo County Sea Scout councils merged, and in 2002, they gave up the lease on the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, while sitting empty, the foundation sank three feet into the mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you come inside and you look at the floorboards, you can actually see the original floorboards and see some of the blackening as a result of some of that constant tide flow and flooding,” said Toby Goldberg, director of programs and partnerships at Environmental Volunteers. The local nonprofit where Goldberg works, and where Agnes Veith (our Bay Curious question-asker) volunteers, hosts field trips for some 50 schools in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940613\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11940613 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a.jpeg\" alt=\"A gray goose, with a long black neck, white and black head, and wings outstretched, lifts off from a rippling, brown lake, three splashes from its feet behind it.\" width=\"640\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a.jpeg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a-160x83.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Canada goose takes flight in the Palo Alto Baylands. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Agnes Veith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The organization got hold of the building in the 2000s and lined up grant money to renovate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refurbished Sea Scout building sits 4 feet higher than its forebear, to prevent future flooding due to tidal influx as well as sea level rise. But 4 feet may not be enough. “During particular times of the year, especially king tides, if there’s a storm, the water actually does come up sometimes over the deck. So we have had instances where there was a question of, ‘Did we need our kayaks for getting into work today?'” Goldberg said.[emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]You might think that a building that looks like a boat circa World War II would be an odd choice for an outfit that teaches about wetlands. But somehow, it just feels right when you’re out there. Especially standing on the deck in the back and looking out over a calm expanse of mud and pickleweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940614\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11940614 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-scaled.jpeg\" alt='A big sign by a building that looks like a boat says \"Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter in the Palo Alto Baylands. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hazel Watson, a former science educator now with Environmental Volunteers, can wax more poetic: “A whole vista of cordgrasses and the pickleweeds, with the channels that still remain here. Today, we’ve got lots of Northern shoveler ducks and Ridgeway’s rails. Sunset is beautiful here. It’s certainly the best part of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldberg added that the wetlands act like a nursery for a lot of organisms. “So we see things like bat rays, and we’ll see harbor seals occasionally coming through. Birds galore, [depending on] the season. So every time you come out here, you’re going to be seeing different things, different birds, different insects. You can see that all from the deck of this building that looks like a boat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t wait for the Sea Scout building to sink into the mud again. Make tracks and come see it, across from the duck pond, and bring your camera and a pair of binoculars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CkwPS-Dc8ftWLCpcjDjRoSIIBcv_Tzo3/view\">\u003cem>Read the transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I walk along the \u003ca href=\"https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Community-Services/Open-Space-Parks/Neighborhood-Parks/Baylands-Nature-Preserve\">Palo Alto Baylands\u003c/a>, I see what looks like a paddle-driven riverboat that you would typically see on the Mississippi River. What is that boat and why is it there?” asked Agnes Veith of Sunnyvale. She’s a volunteer at \u003ca href=\"https://www.environmentalvolunteers.org/ecocenter/\">Environmental Volunteers\u003c/a>, a nonprofit housed in a building that really does look like a boat, and wanted to know more about its history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a fan of art deco buildings in the Bay Area, you probably know of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/nat2007001468.asp\">Coit Tower\u003c/a>. Or Oakland’s beloved \u003ca href=\"https://www.paramountoakland.org/history_news\">Paramount Theatre\u003c/a>. Or the iconic \u003ca href=\"https://www.destinationhotels.com/hotel-de-anza/hotel-de-anza-blog/spend-the-night-at-legendary-hotel-de-anza\">Hotel de Anza\u003c/a> in downtown San José. There aren’t a lot of these nostalgic throwbacks to the 1930s still standing.\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>But art deco doesn’t really describe the building Veith is thinking of. It’s in a subcategory of art deco called streamline moderne, or nautical moderne. Which is to say: horizontal orientation, rounded edges and porthole-shaped windows. There’s something that looks like a navigation bridge popping out onto a third story. A rainbow flag flies high and proud from a hoist at the top of the building. The paint job is a white that Benjamin Moore might describe as “sand dollar” or “dune,” with French blue accents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whimsy or cheese? I’m going with whimsy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building was designed for the \u003ca href=\"https://seascout.org\">Sea Scouts\u003c/a>, a maritime program of the Boy Scouts of America, by architect \u003ca href=\"https://www.paloaltohistory.org/birge-clark.php\">Birge Clark.\u003c/a> He’s the one behind the Palo Alto Post Office, the President Hotel and several Stanford buildings. Clark reportedly took his inspiration for the Sea Scout building from the pilot house of an old paddle wheel steamer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s the story of what hits your eyeballs as you’re walking in the Baylands. The history of the building is just as compelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940610\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2139px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940610\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts.jpg\" alt=\"A sepia toned photograph shows rows of young men in maritime uniforms in front of an Art Deco building that looks like a boat. What looks like a military band plays in foreground.\" width=\"2139\" height=\"1714\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts.jpg 2139w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-800x641.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1020x817.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-160x128.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1536x1231.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-2048x1641.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/disk-022-IMG0081-adj-sea-scouts-1920x1539.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2139px) 100vw, 2139px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Palo Alto Sea Scout Base was commissioned in May of 1941. That’s the Stanford Band in the foreground. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Hyde Forbes)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Palo Alto philanthropist Lucie Stern commissioned it as a home base for the \u003ca href=\"https://seascout.org\">Sea Scouts\u003c/a>. The building opened in 1941 to great fanfare, especially given the ongoing hostilities of World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a pivotal moment for the local chapter, which taught teenagers from as far north as Redwood City and as far south as San José. Their counterparts in the Girl Scouts were called the Mariners.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kevin Murray was a Sea Scout. He joined in 1974, at the age of 14, and rose up through the ranks from apprentice to vice commodore for the western region. Over the years, he also became an amateur historian of the Sea Scouts on the Peninsula. He’s talked to old-timers before they died about \u003ca href=\"https://www.paloaltohistory.org/the-palo-alto-yacht-harbor.php\">the start of the harbor in 1928\u003c/a>, and the decades of fun and education that followed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That harbor was alive and well. It was teeming with families, with teenagers, a bunch of sailboats. Aww, man, it was a whole other world,” Murray said. “Imagine right in front of that building, an 85-foot PT boat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A PT boat, by the way, was a motorized torpedo boat used by the Navy in World War II: small, fast and cheap to build. They were cheap to give away, too, to programs like the Sea Scouts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940611\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2048px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11940611\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6.jpg\" alt=\"A class photo taken outdoors of young, teenage boys looking jaunty in sailor outfits.\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1367\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-800x534.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1020x681.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/6-1920x1282.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Palo Alto Sea Scouts after a coastal summer cruise from PA to San Diego and return, circa 1969. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Skipper George Moore)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Here I was, a 14-year-old kid, and they put me on a WWII, 64-foot tugboat. I started as a deckhand and then I graduated to become an engineer, working on an engine the size of a train. So the first thing I noticed was we were being treated as men, not little boys anymore,” Murray said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There were adventurous trips to San Francisco and even Alaska. There were regattas and dances and lifelong friendships formed. Murray credits his time in the Sea Scouts for turning him into an educator. He was a political science professor for 30 years before he retired. Most of his brothers went into education, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But times change and so do social attitudes toward the environment. The dredging that made Palo Alto’s harbor operational stopped after a contentious citywide vote in 1986, to allow for the area to return to its original state as wetlands. Then in 1994, the Palo Alto and San Mateo County Sea Scout councils merged, and in 2002, they gave up the lease on the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, while sitting empty, the foundation sank three feet into the mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you come inside and you look at the floorboards, you can actually see the original floorboards and see some of the blackening as a result of some of that constant tide flow and flooding,” said Toby Goldberg, director of programs and partnerships at Environmental Volunteers. The local nonprofit where Goldberg works, and where Agnes Veith (our Bay Curious question-asker) volunteers, hosts field trips for some 50 schools in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940613\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11940613 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a.jpeg\" alt=\"A gray goose, with a long black neck, white and black head, and wings outstretched, lifts off from a rippling, brown lake, three splashes from its feet behind it.\" width=\"640\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a.jpeg 640w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/AF5A903D-EFC1-4C58-9728-9352E8236814_1_201_a-160x83.jpeg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Canada goose takes flight in the Palo Alto Baylands. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Agnes Veith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The organization got hold of the building in the 2000s and lined up grant money to renovate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The refurbished Sea Scout building sits 4 feet higher than its forebear, to prevent future flooding due to tidal influx as well as sea level rise. But 4 feet may not be enough. “During particular times of the year, especially king tides, if there’s a storm, the water actually does come up sometimes over the deck. So we have had instances where there was a question of, ‘Did we need our kayaks for getting into work today?'” Goldberg said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>You might think that a building that looks like a boat circa World War II would be an odd choice for an outfit that teaches about wetlands. But somehow, it just feels right when you’re out there. Especially standing on the deck in the back and looking out over a calm expanse of mud and pickleweed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940614\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11940614 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-scaled.jpeg\" alt='A big sign by a building that looks like a boat says \"Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter.\"' width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_6014-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Environmental Volunteers EcoCenter in the Palo Alto Baylands. \u003ccite>(Rachael Myrow/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hazel Watson, a former science educator now with Environmental Volunteers, can wax more poetic: “A whole vista of cordgrasses and the pickleweeds, with the channels that still remain here. Today, we’ve got lots of Northern shoveler ducks and Ridgeway’s rails. Sunset is beautiful here. It’s certainly the best part of the day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldberg added that the wetlands act like a nursery for a lot of organisms. “So we see things like bat rays, and we’ll see harbor seals occasionally coming through. Birds galore, [depending on] the season. So every time you come out here, you’re going to be seeing different things, different birds, different insects. You can see that all from the deck of this building that looks like a boat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t wait for the Sea Scout building to sink into the mud again. Make tracks and come see it, across from the duck pond, and bring your camera and a pair of binoculars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Rodents, Rivers and Runoff: Why Parts of the Bay Area Flood, Where the Water Goes and How Animals Adapt",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3YiEvfS\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain — California has seen a lot of it so far this year in the form of multiple atmospheric river storms that have hammered the Bay Area. That got the Bay Curious team wondering about some of the questions we’ve received over the years about water — where it flows and how we’re affected by it. This week we have a three-question lightning round.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. When it rains in the Bay Area, and the water runs to the gutter, does it go directly into the bay?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question came to us from listener Eric Bauer. For most cities in the Bay Area, the answer is yes. Depending on where you live, gutters in your street will take stormwater or other runoff to creeks that lead out to the bay without any kind of treatment. Instead, many cities put signs on the curb urging residents not to put pollutants in the drain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one exception to that is San Francisco. The city has what’s called a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpuc.org/about-us/our-systems/sewer-system/our-combined-sewer\">combined sewer system\u003c/a>, and other than a section of Old Sacramento, it’s the only one in California. This means rainwater and runoff go into the sewer system, along with whatever is coming from the pipes in our homes, and is subject to the same level of water treatment before it is released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of the time, this system works great, and the environment is spared from the chemicals, oil and other unsavory substances that get washed from San Francisco streets. During normal conditions, the system can handle a lot of water — up to 500 million gallons of sewage plus runoff, with an additional 200 million gallons of storage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940547 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Close up image of a storm drain on a street corner. Someone is sweeping debris away from it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stormwater drains are part of San Francisco’s combined sewer system, which treats both sewage and storm runoff. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But every system has its limits. On the most recent New Year’s Eve, a storm dropped 5.46 inches of rain on San Francisco in one day, equivalent to over 4 billion gallons of water. That led to some sewage being discharged without full treatment — not just in San Francisco, but throughout the Bay Area. Collectively, the nine counties \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938273/our-worst-nightmare-as-storms-raged-millions-of-gallons-of-sewage-spilled-into-bay-area-waterways-streets-and-yards\">discharged some 62 million gallons\u003c/a> of raw or partially treated sewage into waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do we keep that from happening again, as storms like these become more common as the climate changes? One idea is creating more “green infrastructure” by capturing or diverting some of that water before it gets into the sewer system. That could be in the form of cisterns to collect water for use in drier times, opening up more green space or creating permeable asphalt to allow water to soak into the soil below.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Are there really underground rivers in San Francisco?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A listener named Norm wrote to us asking about an oft-repeated story about San Francisco’s secret, underground rivers. He mentioned \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/09/29/central-subway-construction-is-98-done-but-you-wont-be-allowed-in-until-next-spring-or-summer/#:~:text=%22We%20did%20not%20know%20that%20we%20would%20hit%20an%20underground%20river%20that%20we%20would%20have%20to%20contend%20with.\">a 2021 quote from the director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency citing an “underground river”\u003c/a> as part of the reason the city’s Central Subway completion was delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By definition, a creek or river is free-flowing water that follows a channel, like a creek bed, either on the surface or in an underground cave. So are rivers really down there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Time to do some myth-busting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have caves underground for creeks to flow through, other than the sewer,” says writer and natural history educator \u003ca href=\"https://www.joelpomerantz.com/\">Joel Pomerantz\u003c/a>. “So really, the misimpression that there’s an old creek here and it’s still down there somewhere is not accurate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940515 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing blue jeans, a sweater and a knitted cap leans forward on a railing, with a colorful mural on the wall behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-1536x1166.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joel Pomerantz stands near Mission Playground. In the early days of the city, this area held a large freshwater marsh and estuary. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there is a connection between areas that are prone to flooding and where creeks \u003cem>used to\u003c/em> flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no secret that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">much of San Francisco is built on fill\u003c/a>, and the most visible of those areas are along the edges of the city. But inland waterways have been covered up over time, too. A few years ago, Pomerantz created the “\u003ca href=\"http://seepcity.org/index.html\">Seep City\u003c/a>” map, which traces waterways that existed when San Francisco first became a city. That includes the bays, but also numerous creeks and large areas of marshland and estuaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one time, much of the Mission District was marshland fed by the Arroyo Dolores, a waterway that ran from Twin Peaks down the center of 18th Street and through the northern corner of modern-day Dolores Park. That led to a larger saltwater marsh and slough that fed into Mission Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those waterways have since been filled, but the topography of the land hasn’t changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, if you think of the shape of the land,” says Pomerantz, “and if you’re a bicyclist, especially, like I am, you notice the shape of the land because you’re avoiding the hills. That’s what the water does.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug] In addition to gravity leading rainwater down to those lower-lying sections of the city in the form of storm runoff, groundwater is also seeping through the soil to pool in those areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when it’s raining really hard, says Pomerantz, the combination causes flooding. San Francisco’s large concentration of groundwater, coupled with increasing atmospheric river storms and the potential for sea level rise, could pose a big problem for the city. A new study finds that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938215/new-study-finds-rising-groundwater-is-a-major-bay-area-flooding-risk\">rising groundwater has huge implications for future flooding events\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. What happens to the ground squirrels when it floods? Do they drown?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Our final question comes from listener Emily Robertson. In light of the massive flooding many cities have dealt with recently, Emily was worried that California ground squirrels might be getting flooded out of their burrows — or worse, drowning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the answer to this question, we turned to \u003ca href=\"https://www.jenniferelainesmith.com/\">Jennifer Smith\u003c/a>, a behavioral ecologist who studies social mammals, and specializes in squirrel behavior. For nearly a decade, Smith has been leading a research team in a long-term study of California ground squirrels in Briones Regional Park in Martinez. The team safely traps and marks the fur of individual animals so they can study their behavior and social patterns over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940549 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A small, fuzzy, and very cute juvenile ground squirrel pops out of a burrow. Another squirrel is partially visible behind it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young California ground squirrel peers out of its burrow in Briones Regional Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jenn Smith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They’ve also been able to map what the ground squirrel’s burrows look like. It turns out they’re well-prepared for the possibility of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may look like that burrow entrance will go directly down, and it might go a foot down or something, but it actually spreads out underground,” says Smith. “And part of the design is to have horizontal rather than vertical burrows. The horizontal nature of the underground structure is quite resistant to rainfall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The burrows branch out into numerous sections that can be extended if they become wet. So when the rains are thundering above, the ground squirrels stay nice and dry in their complex, multilevel burrows. They’re even good at withstanding intentional flooding: People who consider ground squirrels pests may stick a hose in the burrow to attempt to drive the squirrels from their home. But observations show that doesn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The squirrels are very, very faithful to their home,” says Smith. “They’ve invested a lot. They’ve constructed it, and they’ll usually stay. So we know from those types of studies that’s not a very effective method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, because ground squirrels typically live in family groups, a family may stay in the same burrow for many generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: In researching this story, we asked if you had any questions about squirrels in the Bay Area. So many of you did that we’re working on an episode all about squirrels! It’s not too late to get your squirrel questions in. Submit them in the Bay Curious question box below. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3YiEvfS\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rain — California has seen a lot of it so far this year in the form of multiple atmospheric river storms that have hammered the Bay Area. That got the Bay Curious team wondering about some of the questions we’ve received over the years about water — where it flows and how we’re affected by it. This week we have a three-question lightning round.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>1. When it rains in the Bay Area, and the water runs to the gutter, does it go directly into the bay?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This question came to us from listener Eric Bauer. For most cities in the Bay Area, the answer is yes. Depending on where you live, gutters in your street will take stormwater or other runoff to creeks that lead out to the bay without any kind of treatment. Instead, many cities put signs on the curb urging residents not to put pollutants in the drain.\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>The one exception to that is San Francisco. The city has what’s called a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpuc.org/about-us/our-systems/sewer-system/our-combined-sewer\">combined sewer system\u003c/a>, and other than a section of Old Sacramento, it’s the only one in California. This means rainwater and runoff go into the sewer system, along with whatever is coming from the pipes in our homes, and is subject to the same level of water treatment before it is released.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vast majority of the time, this system works great, and the environment is spared from the chemicals, oil and other unsavory substances that get washed from San Francisco streets. During normal conditions, the system can handle a lot of water — up to 500 million gallons of sewage plus runoff, with an additional 200 million gallons of storage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940547 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Close up image of a storm drain on a street corner. Someone is sweeping debris away from it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/RS61878_010_KQED_BombCyloneStorm_01052023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Stormwater drains are part of San Francisco’s combined sewer system, which treats both sewage and storm runoff. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But every system has its limits. On the most recent New Year’s Eve, a storm dropped 5.46 inches of rain on San Francisco in one day, equivalent to over 4 billion gallons of water. That led to some sewage being discharged without full treatment — not just in San Francisco, but throughout the Bay Area. Collectively, the nine counties \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938273/our-worst-nightmare-as-storms-raged-millions-of-gallons-of-sewage-spilled-into-bay-area-waterways-streets-and-yards\">discharged some 62 million gallons\u003c/a> of raw or partially treated sewage into waterways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do we keep that from happening again, as storms like these become more common as the climate changes? One idea is creating more “green infrastructure” by capturing or diverting some of that water before it gets into the sewer system. That could be in the form of cisterns to collect water for use in drier times, opening up more green space or creating permeable asphalt to allow water to soak into the soil below.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>2. Are there really underground rivers in San Francisco?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A listener named Norm wrote to us asking about an oft-repeated story about San Francisco’s secret, underground rivers. He mentioned \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/09/29/central-subway-construction-is-98-done-but-you-wont-be-allowed-in-until-next-spring-or-summer/#:~:text=%22We%20did%20not%20know%20that%20we%20would%20hit%20an%20underground%20river%20that%20we%20would%20have%20to%20contend%20with.\">a 2021 quote from the director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency citing an “underground river”\u003c/a> as part of the reason the city’s Central Subway completion was delayed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By definition, a creek or river is free-flowing water that follows a channel, like a creek bed, either on the surface or in an underground cave. So are rivers really down there?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Time to do some myth-busting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t have caves underground for creeks to flow through, other than the sewer,” says writer and natural history educator \u003ca href=\"https://www.joelpomerantz.com/\">Joel Pomerantz\u003c/a>. “So really, the misimpression that there’s an old creek here and it’s still down there somewhere is not accurate.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940515\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940515 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-800x608.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing blue jeans, a sweater and a knitted cap leans forward on a railing, with a colorful mural on the wall behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"608\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-800x608.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-1020x775.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-160x122.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz-1536x1166.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/Joel-Pomerantz.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Joel Pomerantz stands near Mission Playground. In the early days of the city, this area held a large freshwater marsh and estuary. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But there is a connection between areas that are prone to flooding and where creeks \u003cem>used to\u003c/em> flow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no secret that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11799297/large-parts-of-the-bay-area-are-built-on-fill-why-and-where\">much of San Francisco is built on fill\u003c/a>, and the most visible of those areas are along the edges of the city. But inland waterways have been covered up over time, too. A few years ago, Pomerantz created the “\u003ca href=\"http://seepcity.org/index.html\">Seep City\u003c/a>” map, which traces waterways that existed when San Francisco first became a city. That includes the bays, but also numerous creeks and large areas of marshland and estuaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one time, much of the Mission District was marshland fed by the Arroyo Dolores, a waterway that ran from Twin Peaks down the center of 18th Street and through the northern corner of modern-day Dolores Park. That led to a larger saltwater marsh and slough that fed into Mission Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those waterways have since been filled, but the topography of the land hasn’t changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I mean, if you think of the shape of the land,” says Pomerantz, “and if you’re a bicyclist, especially, like I am, you notice the shape of the land because you’re avoiding the hills. That’s what the water does.”\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp> In addition to gravity leading rainwater down to those lower-lying sections of the city in the form of storm runoff, groundwater is also seeping through the soil to pool in those areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when it’s raining really hard, says Pomerantz, the combination causes flooding. San Francisco’s large concentration of groundwater, coupled with increasing atmospheric river storms and the potential for sea level rise, could pose a big problem for the city. A new study finds that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938215/new-study-finds-rising-groundwater-is-a-major-bay-area-flooding-risk\">rising groundwater has huge implications for future flooding events\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>3. What happens to the ground squirrels when it floods? Do they drown?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Our final question comes from listener Emily Robertson. In light of the massive flooding many cities have dealt with recently, Emily was worried that California ground squirrels might be getting flooded out of their burrows — or worse, drowning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the answer to this question, we turned to \u003ca href=\"https://www.jenniferelainesmith.com/\">Jennifer Smith\u003c/a>, a behavioral ecologist who studies social mammals, and specializes in squirrel behavior. For nearly a decade, Smith has been leading a research team in a long-term study of California ground squirrels in Briones Regional Park in Martinez. The team safely traps and marks the fur of individual animals so they can study their behavior and social patterns over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11940549\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11940549 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A small, fuzzy, and very cute juvenile ground squirrel pops out of a burrow. Another squirrel is partially visible behind it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/IMG_8118-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young California ground squirrel peers out of its burrow in Briones Regional Park. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Jenn Smith)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They’ve also been able to map what the ground squirrel’s burrows look like. It turns out they’re well-prepared for the possibility of flooding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It may look like that burrow entrance will go directly down, and it might go a foot down or something, but it actually spreads out underground,” says Smith. “And part of the design is to have horizontal rather than vertical burrows. The horizontal nature of the underground structure is quite resistant to rainfall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The burrows branch out into numerous sections that can be extended if they become wet. So when the rains are thundering above, the ground squirrels stay nice and dry in their complex, multilevel burrows. They’re even good at withstanding intentional flooding: People who consider ground squirrels pests may stick a hose in the burrow to attempt to drive the squirrels from their home. But observations show that doesn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The squirrels are very, very faithful to their home,” says Smith. “They’ve invested a lot. They’ve constructed it, and they’ll usually stay. So we know from those types of studies that’s not a very effective method.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, because ground squirrels typically live in family groups, a family may stay in the same burrow for many generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Note: In researching this story, we asked if you had any questions about squirrels in the Bay Area. So many of you did that we’re working on an episode all about squirrels! It’s not too late to get your squirrel questions in. Submit them in the Bay Curious question box below. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You probably know the broad strokes of the Donner Party Saga: In 1846, a group of migrants traveling to California got stuck in a surprise October snow storm. After exhausting all their resources, they turn to \u003cem>cannibalism\u003c/em> to survive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a grisly tale … but the way it’s often told is incomplete.\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In this Bay Curious podcast episode, we’ll delve into the details many leave behind, and explore what happened to the Donner Party survivors after they escaped the snowy Sierra. This notorious disaster struck deep at the heart of everything California held dear — and came to represent everything it wanted to forget.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC7257734226&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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It’s a window into another technology, another social structure … another time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping cool and clean\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s when these houses were being built, the Port of San Francisco was teeming. Ships were bringing in all kinds of goods: lumber, coal, boots … also \u003cem>blocks of ice\u003c/em> the size of microwave ovens. This was before houses had refrigerators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so the ice is coming down from the northwest, typically Tahoe and even further north,” said Pamela Larson with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfheritage.org/\">San Francisco Heritage\u003c/a>. “You load it on your wagon, pack it full of sawdust and hay to keep it from melting. And you’re delivering it around the neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, you needed a place to keep this ice. Someplace cool, like a basement. “Milk is being delivered daily, right?” said Larson. “You want to keep your butter, your meat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So cold storage — and storage in general, like for the piles of coal that was burned at the time — was one reason for the ground floors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But also, with streets full of horses and wagons clattering about — making tons of noise and tons of horse manure — people wanted to build their living areas up above the muck and the stench. Thus, the second story entrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another use for the ground floor was partying! Some houses had an entertainment room, or even a ballroom, in the basement — next to the ice, and away from the living quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind that, Larson explained, would have been a laundry room, with big sinks and rug beaters and washboards. And in wealthier households, a laundry man would have lived in the basement, normally a Chinese man. This was the era of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act\">Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>. Racism was a federal policy, and with few employment opportunities, Chinese men often turned to physically demanding laundry work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11939159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop.jpg\" alt=\"A laundry room in a 1880s Victorian house. It includes three wash basins, a wringer and a washboard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1245\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-1536x996.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laundry was a large, painstaking chore before the advent of the washing machine. \u003ccite>(Katherine Monahan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So the ground floors were originally used for the technology of the times and, in the middle- and upper-class households, for the workers who used that technology. But then came a new technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ground floors get a new purpose\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By the 1920s, cars were getting really popular in the Bay Area. Coal heat was turning into gas heat, and iceboxes into refrigerators. New houses were built with garages for those cars. And the old Victorians?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are all just wood-framed houses, right?” said Larson. “They’re not hooked to anything. They’re just sitting on a foundation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People lifted up Victorians using pulleys and levers, and built garages underneath. And then just set the houses back down on top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or, if the ground floor was tall enough, they just cut a driveway down to it and installed a garage door leading to the old storage space. And that’s why you see such steeply slanted driveways sometimes around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who knows, maybe these spaces will take on yet another use in the future, when the next technology comes along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3WCOI4X\">\u003cem>Read the transcript of the podcast episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco has a lot of Victorian houses. But … why do they have garages, if they were built back before cars were popular?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did people used to put horses and buggies in these garages? Would somebody, you know, roll their buggies in?” asks Bay Curious listener Jessica Calefati.\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>Adam Eads has a similar question. He’s been trying to figure out why the ground floor of his house, built in 1910, is just a big open room with a dirt floor. “What would people have been doing with all this space?” he wonders. “Because it couldn’t have been easy to just build your house 12 feet off the ground without a good reason to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The answer, as it turns out, is not just about architecture. It’s a window into another technology, another social structure … another time.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping cool and clean\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s when these houses were being built, the Port of San Francisco was teeming. Ships were bringing in all kinds of goods: lumber, coal, boots … also \u003cem>blocks of ice\u003c/em> the size of microwave ovens. This was before houses had refrigerators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And so the ice is coming down from the northwest, typically Tahoe and even further north,” said Pamela Larson with \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfheritage.org/\">San Francisco Heritage\u003c/a>. “You load it on your wagon, pack it full of sawdust and hay to keep it from melting. And you’re delivering it around the neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, you needed a place to keep this ice. Someplace cool, like a basement. “Milk is being delivered daily, right?” said Larson. “You want to keep your butter, your meat.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So cold storage — and storage in general, like for the piles of coal that was burned at the time — was one reason for the ground floors.\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But also, with streets full of horses and wagons clattering about — making tons of noise and tons of horse manure — people wanted to build their living areas up above the muck and the stench. Thus, the second story entrance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another use for the ground floor was partying! Some houses had an entertainment room, or even a ballroom, in the basement — next to the ice, and away from the living quarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Behind that, Larson explained, would have been a laundry room, with big sinks and rug beaters and washboards. And in wealthier households, a laundry man would have lived in the basement, normally a Chinese man. This was the era of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/chinese-exclusion-act\">Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>. Racism was a federal policy, and with few employment opportunities, Chinese men often turned to physically demanding laundry work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11939159\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11939159\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop.jpg\" alt=\"A laundry room in a 1880s Victorian house. It includes three wash basins, a wringer and a washboard.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1245\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-800x519.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-160x104.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_0666_crop-1536x996.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Laundry was a large, painstaking chore before the advent of the washing machine. \u003ccite>(Katherine Monahan/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>So the ground floors were originally used for the technology of the times and, in the middle- and upper-class households, for the workers who used that technology. But then came a new technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Ground floors get a new purpose\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>By the 1920s, cars were getting really popular in the Bay Area. Coal heat was turning into gas heat, and iceboxes into refrigerators. New houses were built with garages for those cars. And the old Victorians?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are all just wood-framed houses, right?” said Larson. “They’re not hooked to anything. They’re just sitting on a foundation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People lifted up Victorians using pulleys and levers, and built garages underneath. And then just set the houses back down on top.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Or, if the ground floor was tall enough, they just cut a driveway down to it and installed a garage door leading to the old storage space. And that’s why you see such steeply slanted driveways sometimes around the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who knows, maybe these spaces will take on yet another use in the future, when the next technology comes along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3CZKddT\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Daniel Lawlor was walking around San Francisco a couple years ago, admiring its historic churches and the large properties they sometimes stand on. He had the state’s affordable housing crisis on his mind, too. So, putting two and two together, he started wondering: Could religious organizations build affordable housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Daniel sent his question to Bay Curious in January 2021. When we reached out to him late last year, he’d moved to Brooklyn, New York, and switched careers — from working at an after-school literacy program in Oakland to being the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Hudson Valley in New York. His new role changed his perspective on his initial question, and he now also wanted to know what kind of support systems are available to churches interested in building affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A UC Berkeley study estimates there are about 38,000 acres of unused land owned by faith groups in California, an area roughly the size of Stockton. But turning that land into affordable housing takes a lot of time and commitment, as reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi found. And if a house of worship is hoping to make money off the property, they face a slate of challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hit the play button above to hear our Bay Curious episode, or read Adhiti’s web post: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922784/california-churches-want-to-build-affordable-housing-on-their-land-so-why-is-it-so-hard\">California Churches Want to Build Affordable Housing on Their Land, So Why Is It So Hard?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3CZKddT\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Daniel Lawlor was walking around San Francisco a couple years ago, admiring its historic churches and the large properties they sometimes stand on. He had the state’s affordable housing crisis on his mind, too. So, putting two and two together, he started wondering: Could religious organizations build affordable housing?\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>Daniel sent his question to Bay Curious in January 2021. When we reached out to him late last year, he’d moved to Brooklyn, New York, and switched careers — from working at an after-school literacy program in Oakland to being the minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Hudson Valley in New York. His new role changed his perspective on his initial question, and he now also wanted to know what kind of support systems are available to churches interested in building affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A UC Berkeley study estimates there are about 38,000 acres of unused land owned by faith groups in California, an area roughly the size of Stockton. But turning that land into affordable housing takes a lot of time and commitment, as reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi found. And if a house of worship is hoping to make money off the property, they face a slate of challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hit the play button above to hear our Bay Curious episode, or read Adhiti’s web post: \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11922784/california-churches-want-to-build-affordable-housing-on-their-land-so-why-is-it-so-hard\">California Churches Want to Build Affordable Housing on Their Land, So Why Is It So Hard?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Uncovering the Real Story Behind the 'East Bay Mystery Walls'",
"headTitle": "Uncovering the Real Story Behind the ‘East Bay Mystery Walls’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was first published on Aug 31, 2018. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or more than a century, people in the Bay Area — and especially the East Bay — have puzzled over the existence of stone walls scattered on ridges from near San Jose north through the Berkeley Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the walls are built in long straight lines. Sometimes they form angles. Occasionally you’ll find rectangular or circular constructions.\u003cbr>\n[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003cbr>\nWho built these things? How long ago? And why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe voyagers from a lost continent built them. Or visitors from outer space. Or a vanished tribe of “superior” Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People have suggested these walls could have been meant for defense. Or as navigational aids for extraterrestrials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We started getting “mystery walls” questions almost as soon as Bay Curious opened for business, including one from Eric Haven. He’s an artist — he writes and draws graphic novels — and he’s been a producer on “MythBusters” as well as the reboot, “Mythbusters Jr.” So he’s someone who wants to get to the bottom of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His query was pretty straightforward: “Who built the East Bay mystery walls? They appear to be ancient, many hundreds or even thousands of years old.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric came to the Bay Area in 1989. As we hiked up a steep, rocky trail in the Berkeley Hills to visit a wall segment there, he told me that’s when he first heard about a nearby “mystery wall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the way it was relayed to me was very much like urban myth or urban legend,” he said. “There are certain signifiers of that conversation — you know, the vagueness of it — and yet certain things are very specific. ‘No one knows who built it. No one knows why they built it.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11689988\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-800x519.jpg\" alt=\"Segments of stone walls, like these on Monument Peak, in Ed Levin County Park near Milpitas, can be found throughout the hills of the East Bay.\" width=\"800\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-800x519.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-160x104.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1200x778.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1180x765.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-960x623.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-240x156.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-375x243.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-520x337.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Segments of stone walls, like these on Monument Peak, in Ed Levin County Park near Milpitas, can be found throughout the hills of the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]hat “no one knows” refrain is a constant in the story of the walls from the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say precisely when locals might have started gossiping about the walls — or if they ever did — but the oldest published mention of the “mystery” appears to be \u003ca href=\"https://flic.kr/p/2aywx85\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 8, 1896,\u003c/a> in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Half a mile east of Grizzly Peak stand the remnants of stone walls which have long baffled the researches and curiosity of antiquarians,” the unbylined story said. “By whom they were erected, when and why is an unsolved mystery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same little essay goes on to drop a theory or two: that perhaps the walls were the work of what it called “a long forgotten race,” or maybe the Aztecs of Mexico, who might have used the walls for defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For structures that have excited such feverish speculation for so long, most of them look pretty modest. The section Eric Haven and I tramped up to is actually kind of nondescript: about 100 feet long and just 2 or 3 feet high. The rocks used for construction — local limestone — are stacked or piled, not mortared or cut to fit. Most of the stones are small enough that one person could place them easily; some would have required a crew to put in place. Most are covered with lichens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we soaked in the atmosphere of the place — a spot with a sweeping view, but one we promised the property owners we wouldn’t disclose — Eric shared a friend’s idea about the origins of the walls. It’s a variation on the notion that Native Americans built these walls for a mystical purpose.\u003cbr>\n[baycuriousbug]\u003cbr>\n“His theory was that there was an earthquake here, and it opened up fissures in the ground,” Eric said. “And he thought these were purely ceremonial. They were here to appease whatever gods they thought were angered, or spirits, and this was a way to mark those fissures and to show those spirits they’d do whatever it takes so the earthquake doesn’t happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we headed back down the trail from the wall, we observed that the wall runs parallel to a modern barbed-wire fence that pretty clearly marks a property boundary. So this wall, perhaps, was built as part of a property line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690201\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11690201 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-800x504.jpg\" alt=\"A portion of walls with the Diablo Range in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-800x504.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1020x642.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1200x756.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1180x743.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-960x605.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-240x151.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-375x236.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-520x327.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portion of walls with the Diablo Range in the background. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]L[/dropcap]ooking for an answer meant going through old newspaper stories, tracking down amateur sleuths’ accounts of the walls, searching old maps for evidence of the structures and finding out whether real live archaeologists had ever studied the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been many newspaper pieces over the years, starting with the Chronicle’s in 1896. Most have repeated the original article’s conclusion that the walls are an impenetrable enigma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, in August 1904, the Chronicle ran another story on the walls, this time, as a big spread in the Sunday paper. It featured a dramatic illustration of stereotype savage fighting with spear and bow and arrow and hurling big rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was written by a guy named Harold French — a hiker, writer and clerk at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11667314/this-s-f-fortress-is-full-of-money-that-will-never-be-spent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco’s U.S. Mint\u003c/a>. The prose sounds a lot like that in the 1896 piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did a colony from lost Atlantis once populate the Berkeley hills?” the story asked. “Are the ancient rock walls which crown the Contra Costa ridges remnants of a Toltec or a pre-Toltec civilization? Are these remarkable walls really relics of the Stone Age?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, the Chronicle was back with another dramatic Sunday spread, announcing an amazing find unearthed by a University of California chemistry professor named Henry Coffinberry Myers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The headline declared that “stone age relics discovered in the Berkeley Hills … seem to change the accepted history of the Western world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The objects Myers said he’d uncovered during forays into the hills included a “five-faced stone image,” stone axes and pieces of pottery. Myers said that mineral deposits on the carved stone image proved it was 1,000 to 10,000 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myers and other experts the Chronicle contacted said the artifacts and the walls in the hills were evidence that early hill dwellers — perhaps giants who had gained immense strength by lifting big rocks — had migrated from China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myers’ find was almost certainly a hoax. The Chronicle doesn’t appear to have said another word about the professor and his world-shattering discoveries. Myers left Berkeley shortly afterward to manage a sugar refinery in Hawaii. He eventually donated his artifacts — telling \u003ca href=\"http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fclipping&CISOPTR=10799&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=16.35769&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=1&DMROTATE=0&x=42&y=146\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a different story\u003c/a> about where they’d come from — to a \u003ca href=\"http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/536\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bible college\u003c/a> in Spokane, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1908, the Berkeley Hills walls were back in the news. “Professor” Joseph Voyle, president of the Berkeley Society for Psychical Research, identified some of the walls as \u003ca href=\"http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19080622.2.60.11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">remains of a prehistoric civilization\u003c/a>. He was led to the site by a kind of divining rod, and newspapers delighted in telling the tale of Voyle leading a group on an expedition into the wilds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Voyle also claimed to have discovered a radium mine beneath San Francisco and reported he had invented an earthquake detector and figured out how to make non-intoxicating alcohol. He died an indigent in Alameda County’s public hospital in 1915, having succumbed to what one paper called “an infirmity of which he had long been a sufferer.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690204\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690204\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The stone walls wind through the landscape on Monument Peak.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stone walls wind through the landscape on Monument Peak. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hile Myers and Voyle departed the scene, Harold French showed up again and again in print over the years promoting the legend of the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I say “legend” advisedly. In published writings through the early 1920s, French never failed to describe the walls as “prehistoric” or “ancient.” But beyond the walls’ mere presence, the only evidence he ever cited was the testimony of unnamed old-timers who, he said, had told him that the walls had been a puzzle to both Native Americans and early settlers alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear if trained archaeologists ever seriously studied the walls at the time French was writing. At one point, French reported he had spoken to a “certain teacher of anthropology” at the University of California about the walls’ origins. The anthropologist reportedly responded:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From time to time my students have come and told me about these walls … but I never took them seriously enough to climb way up there in that ‘Beanstalk Land’ to see them. I suppose they are either old sheep corrals or ranch boundaries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689477\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-4.16.31-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11689477\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-4.16.31-PM-1020x1172.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"735\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Oakland Tribune feature article on the East Bay Walls by writer and hiker Harold French.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, though, amateur researchers started trying to decipher the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One was Seth Simpson, who spent years documenting the presence of the walls and puzzling over their origins. His conclusion, \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4807539/East-Bay-Walls-Simpson-Pursuit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">summarized\u003c/a> in a 1972 number of Pursuit, the Journal of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, is classic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simpson said there was a possibility some of the walls had been erected by local tribes to trap and kill game. But for the rest, he said, “All I can suggest is that they were built by unknown persons, in an unknown year, for an unknown purpose … and very possibly they will remain a puzzle for the indefinite future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ther wall fanatics were exploring the hills, too. Robert Fisher, a physician from Fremont, and a friend from Berkeley, Russell Swanson, took a lively interest in the walls, especially those in the hills near the south end of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisher and Swanson were inclined to see massive rock formations on the ridges and highlands as the work of unknown ancients they called “the Earliers.” The meaning of the walls, massive standing stones and outcroppings, was baffling. Fisher suggested some of the stone work could have served as navigational aids for extraterrestrials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one real live archaeologist joined Fisher to tour one area of the hills — Monument Peak, above Milpitas in Santa Clara County’s Ed Levin Park. It’s a dramatic site, with wonderful stretches of walls snaking along ridges about 2,000 feet above the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an answer to an email query relayed through the Society for California Archaeology, Breck Parkman, a now-retired state parks archeologist, said that in the late 1980s a friend prevailed upon him to visit Monument Peak with Fisher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisher “wanted me to come and authenticate what he was finding,” Parkman said in an email. “… I said, show me the best you have. He did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parkman said the area featured “lots and lots of stone walls” he believed dated to sometime in the 1800s. Most were built, he felt, in the later years of the century, perhaps by Chinese workers, perhaps by Basque sheep herders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he found a handful of structures — possible hunting blinds and prayer circles — he thought could have been Native American in origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was these features that convinced me that among the many late 19th century rock features in the East Bay Hills, we might find a few older features of importance,” Parkman wrote. “It would be worth checking out, but I don’t know who’d be interested in taking a systematic look at this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason that professionals may have stayed away from the walls, Parkman added, is “not wanting to be associated with the fringe element” responsible for the many wild wall hypotheses over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690202\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A portion of the stone walls found throughout the Berkeley Hills.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-960x540.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-240x135.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-375x211.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portion of the stone walls found throughout the Berkeley Hills. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]A[/dropcap]nother archaeologist, Jeff Fentress, went up into the Berkeley Hills with me to look at the same section of wall I visited with our question asker, Eric Haven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress, now retired from his position as a professor of archaeology at San Francisco State University, was raised nearby and said he’d been hearing stories about the walls since his boyhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was growing up in Berkeley here, we were told the Lemurians built the walls, and the Lemurians were the inhabitants of the lost continent of Mu,” Fentress said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.crystalinks.com/lemuria.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mu\u003c/a> is said to have existed out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere. And Fentress said stories like that are still coming up. The History Channel asked him whether a Chinese admiral might have erected the rock walls, and British TV interviewed him about whether the West African adventurers might have put up the walls during a visit 30,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said the problem with all of those theories — Lemurians, Chinese, West Africans and extraterrestrials — is that there’s simply no evidence any of those real or imagined groups ever landed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I think you have to look at the walls in the context of who was actually here in the Bay Area,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690203\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-800x446.jpg\" alt=\"Archaeologist Jeff Fentress says it would take a lot of time and money to definitively determine when the stone walls were built and by whom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-800x446.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-160x89.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1020x569.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1200x669.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1180x658.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-960x536.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-240x134.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-375x209.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-520x290.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Archaeologist Jeff Fentress says it would take a lot of time and money to definitively determine when the stone walls were built and by whom. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Native American tribes have populated the Bay Area for about 10,000 years, according to the latest estimates. They were here long before the arrival of Spanish and Mexican colonists and the Gold Rush-era invasion of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fentress said “there is no indication that Native American people built rock walls that extended for hundreds or thousands of feet. There are no accounts of them building massive wall structures or corrals or any of the other sort of rock features we see in the East Bay here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress and other archaeologists who have studied and recorded the walls agree that there is an explanation, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rock walls were the work of us — the people who pushed the native tribes off the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said some wall building may have begun in the Mission period, and walls like the ones in the hills followed. Some were likely built to mark property lines. Many others were put up as part of ranching and farming operations, such as those that were known to have existed both in the Berkeley Hills and the Monument Peak area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also points to the many European immigrant groups known to have ranched and farmed in the hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did these people make rock walls in their countries?” Fentress asks. “Look at them all — Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and so on. \u003cem>Of course\u003c/em> they made rock walls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11689494\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-10.05.19-PM-800x487.png\" alt=\"Fentress says the most likely answer is that European immigrants built the walls as functional parts of their lives that didn't rise to the level of recording their purpose.\" width=\"800\" height=\"487\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fentress says the most likely answer is that European immigrants built the walls as functional parts of their lives that didn’t rise to the level of recording their purpose. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fentress and others also point out there was no shortage of labor — provided either willingly or unwillingly. Chinese crews, paid as little as a penny a linear foot, were hired to build ranch walls in Mariposa and Tehama counties, for instance. And many Native Americans, displaced from their lands and denied basic civil rights, were forced into indentured servitude to provide labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fentress concedes his explanations for the walls are speculative and said you’d want to search for more evidence to back up what he and other researchers have observed and been told in the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The main thing to do would be to systematically record and map all the walls,” he said. Once the walls were mapped, researchers could compare their locations to older maps showing historic property lines and other features.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said it could be useful to dig along the base of walls to study their construction and to look for artifacts. It would also help to study the rocks used in the structures to confirm what most people assume — that they come from the same area as the walls themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dating techniques could be useful, too. \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4807533/Proceedings-of-the-Society-for-California.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One experimental study\u003c/a> that used the growth of lichens as a dating technique estimated that the surviving wall segment in the Berkeley Hills may have been built between 1850 and 1880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said you’d want to do a more systematic study — a hundred lichen sites, say — to really come to a firm conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historical records — written accounts — could be important, too. But those are in short supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And really the reason is that, you know, we’re looking at — you could call it the archaeology of the common people, the archeology of the working class,” he said. “Back in 1850, if Mr. McGillicuddy cleared his fields and he built a wall between his property and Mr. Sousa next door, no one’s going to write a newspaper article about that. It’s not going to get in the history books. So all we have is the remains of these people showing their hard work and their ingenuity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690200\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690200\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Downtown San Jose rises in the distance behind a small collection of stones seen from Monument Peak.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown San Jose rises in the distance behind a small collection of stones seen from Monument Peak. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o, at the end of all this, there is still some mystery left in the walls and more work to be done to come to definitive answers. Eric Haven, who prompted our own investigation, said he’s OK with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People love a mystery,” he said. “And since this is an unsolved mystery, it’s naturally evocative and compelling. I still think about it — a lot. And part of me somewhat hopes that we never find the answers, so that the Berkeley walls can always be a mystery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Extraordinary structures of the ancient past? Or completely mundane piles of rock?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was first published on Aug 31, 2018. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">F\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>or more than a century, people in the Bay Area — and especially the East Bay — have puzzled over the existence of stone walls scattered on ridges from near San Jose north through the Berkeley Hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometimes the walls are built in long straight lines. Sometimes they form angles. Occasionally you’ll find rectangular or circular constructions.\u003cbr>\n\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>\u003cbr>\nWho built these things? How long ago? And why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe voyagers from a lost continent built them. Or visitors from outer space. Or a vanished tribe of “superior” Native Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People have suggested these walls could have been meant for defense. Or as navigational aids for extraterrestrials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We started getting “mystery walls” questions almost as soon as Bay Curious opened for business, including one from Eric Haven. He’s an artist — he writes and draws graphic novels — and he’s been a producer on “MythBusters” as well as the reboot, “Mythbusters Jr.” So he’s someone who wants to get to the bottom of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His query was pretty straightforward: “Who built the East Bay mystery walls? They appear to be ancient, many hundreds or even thousands of years old.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric came to the Bay Area in 1989. As we hiked up a steep, rocky trail in the Berkeley Hills to visit a wall segment there, he told me that’s when he first heard about a nearby “mystery wall.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And the way it was relayed to me was very much like urban myth or urban legend,” he said. “There are certain signifiers of that conversation — you know, the vagueness of it — and yet certain things are very specific. ‘No one knows who built it. No one knows why they built it.’ ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11689988\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-800x519.jpg\" alt=\"Segments of stone walls, like these on Monument Peak, in Ed Levin County Park near Milpitas, can be found throughout the hills of the East Bay.\" width=\"800\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-800x519.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-160x104.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1020x661.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1200x778.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-1180x765.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-960x623.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-240x156.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-375x243.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32665_19025042463_9119852fb9_o-qut-520x337.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Segments of stone walls, like these on Monument Peak, in Ed Levin County Park near Milpitas, can be found throughout the hills of the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hat “no one knows” refrain is a constant in the story of the walls from the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say precisely when locals might have started gossiping about the walls — or if they ever did — but the oldest published mention of the “mystery” appears to be \u003ca href=\"https://flic.kr/p/2aywx85\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 8, 1896,\u003c/a> in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Half a mile east of Grizzly Peak stand the remnants of stone walls which have long baffled the researches and curiosity of antiquarians,” the unbylined story said. “By whom they were erected, when and why is an unsolved mystery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same little essay goes on to drop a theory or two: that perhaps the walls were the work of what it called “a long forgotten race,” or maybe the Aztecs of Mexico, who might have used the walls for defense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For structures that have excited such feverish speculation for so long, most of them look pretty modest. The section Eric Haven and I tramped up to is actually kind of nondescript: about 100 feet long and just 2 or 3 feet high. The rocks used for construction — local limestone — are stacked or piled, not mortared or cut to fit. Most of the stones are small enough that one person could place them easily; some would have required a crew to put in place. Most are covered with lichens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As we soaked in the atmosphere of the place — a spot with a sweeping view, but one we promised the property owners we wouldn’t disclose — Eric shared a friend’s idea about the origins of the walls. It’s a variation on the notion that Native Americans built these walls for a mystical purpose.\u003cbr>\n\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n“His theory was that there was an earthquake here, and it opened up fissures in the ground,” Eric said. “And he thought these were purely ceremonial. They were here to appease whatever gods they thought were angered, or spirits, and this was a way to mark those fissures and to show those spirits they’d do whatever it takes so the earthquake doesn’t happen again.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before we headed back down the trail from the wall, we observed that the wall runs parallel to a modern barbed-wire fence that pretty clearly marks a property boundary. So this wall, perhaps, was built as part of a property line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690201\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11690201 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-800x504.jpg\" alt=\"A portion of walls with the Diablo Range in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-800x504.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1020x642.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1200x756.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-1180x743.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-960x605.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-240x151.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-375x236.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32679_19023508794_fb75164909_o-qut-1-520x327.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portion of walls with the Diablo Range in the background. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">L\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ooking for an answer meant going through old newspaper stories, tracking down amateur sleuths’ accounts of the walls, searching old maps for evidence of the structures and finding out whether real live archaeologists had ever studied the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There have been many newspaper pieces over the years, starting with the Chronicle’s in 1896. Most have repeated the original article’s conclusion that the walls are an impenetrable enigma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For instance, in August 1904, the Chronicle ran another story on the walls, this time, as a big spread in the Sunday paper. It featured a dramatic illustration of stereotype savage fighting with spear and bow and arrow and hurling big rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was written by a guy named Harold French — a hiker, writer and clerk at \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11667314/this-s-f-fortress-is-full-of-money-that-will-never-be-spent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Francisco’s U.S. Mint\u003c/a>. The prose sounds a lot like that in the 1896 piece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did a colony from lost Atlantis once populate the Berkeley hills?” the story asked. “Are the ancient rock walls which crown the Contra Costa ridges remnants of a Toltec or a pre-Toltec civilization? Are these remarkable walls really relics of the Stone Age?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few weeks later, the Chronicle was back with another dramatic Sunday spread, announcing an amazing find unearthed by a University of California chemistry professor named Henry Coffinberry Myers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The headline declared that “stone age relics discovered in the Berkeley Hills … seem to change the accepted history of the Western world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The objects Myers said he’d uncovered during forays into the hills included a “five-faced stone image,” stone axes and pieces of pottery. Myers said that mineral deposits on the carved stone image proved it was 1,000 to 10,000 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myers and other experts the Chronicle contacted said the artifacts and the walls in the hills were evidence that early hill dwellers — perhaps giants who had gained immense strength by lifting big rocks — had migrated from China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Myers’ find was almost certainly a hoax. The Chronicle doesn’t appear to have said another word about the professor and his world-shattering discoveries. Myers left Berkeley shortly afterward to manage a sugar refinery in Hawaii. He eventually donated his artifacts — telling \u003ca href=\"http://kaga.wsulibs.wsu.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=%2Fclipping&CISOPTR=10799&DMSCALE=100.00000&DMWIDTH=600&DMHEIGHT=600&DMMODE=viewer&DMFULL=0&DMOLDSCALE=16.35769&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMTHUMB=1&REC=1&DMROTATE=0&x=42&y=146\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a different story\u003c/a> about where they’d come from — to a \u003ca href=\"http://spokanehistorical.org/items/show/536\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bible college\u003c/a> in Spokane, Washington.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1908, the Berkeley Hills walls were back in the news. “Professor” Joseph Voyle, president of the Berkeley Society for Psychical Research, identified some of the walls as \u003ca href=\"http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC19080622.2.60.11\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">remains of a prehistoric civilization\u003c/a>. He was led to the site by a kind of divining rod, and newspapers delighted in telling the tale of Voyle leading a group on an expedition into the wilds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Voyle also claimed to have discovered a radium mine beneath San Francisco and reported he had invented an earthquake detector and figured out how to make non-intoxicating alcohol. He died an indigent in Alameda County’s public hospital in 1915, having succumbed to what one paper called “an infirmity of which he had long been a sufferer.”)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690204\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690204\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"The stone walls wind through the landscape on Monument Peak.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1200x900.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-960x720.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-240x180.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-375x281.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32677_19597532225_92ce855207_o-qut-520x390.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stone walls wind through the landscape on Monument Peak. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hile Myers and Voyle departed the scene, Harold French showed up again and again in print over the years promoting the legend of the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I say “legend” advisedly. In published writings through the early 1920s, French never failed to describe the walls as “prehistoric” or “ancient.” But beyond the walls’ mere presence, the only evidence he ever cited was the testimony of unnamed old-timers who, he said, had told him that the walls had been a puzzle to both Native Americans and early settlers alike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not clear if trained archaeologists ever seriously studied the walls at the time French was writing. At one point, French reported he had spoken to a “certain teacher of anthropology” at the University of California about the walls’ origins. The anthropologist reportedly responded:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From time to time my students have come and told me about these walls … but I never took them seriously enough to climb way up there in that ‘Beanstalk Land’ to see them. I suppose they are either old sheep corrals or ranch boundaries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689477\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-4.16.31-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-11689477\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-4.16.31-PM-1020x1172.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"735\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An Oakland Tribune feature article on the East Bay Walls by writer and hiker Harold French.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Eventually, though, amateur researchers started trying to decipher the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One was Seth Simpson, who spent years documenting the presence of the walls and puzzling over their origins. His conclusion, \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4807539/East-Bay-Walls-Simpson-Pursuit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">summarized\u003c/a> in a 1972 number of Pursuit, the Journal of the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, is classic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simpson said there was a possibility some of the walls had been erected by local tribes to trap and kill game. But for the rest, he said, “All I can suggest is that they were built by unknown persons, in an unknown year, for an unknown purpose … and very possibly they will remain a puzzle for the indefinite future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">O\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ther wall fanatics were exploring the hills, too. Robert Fisher, a physician from Fremont, and a friend from Berkeley, Russell Swanson, took a lively interest in the walls, especially those in the hills near the south end of the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisher and Swanson were inclined to see massive rock formations on the ridges and highlands as the work of unknown ancients they called “the Earliers.” The meaning of the walls, massive standing stones and outcroppings, was baffling. Fisher suggested some of the stone work could have served as navigational aids for extraterrestrials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least one real live archaeologist joined Fisher to tour one area of the hills — Monument Peak, above Milpitas in Santa Clara County’s Ed Levin Park. It’s a dramatic site, with wonderful stretches of walls snaking along ridges about 2,000 feet above the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an answer to an email query relayed through the Society for California Archaeology, Breck Parkman, a now-retired state parks archeologist, said that in the late 1980s a friend prevailed upon him to visit Monument Peak with Fisher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fisher “wanted me to come and authenticate what he was finding,” Parkman said in an email. “… I said, show me the best you have. He did.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Parkman said the area featured “lots and lots of stone walls” he believed dated to sometime in the 1800s. Most were built, he felt, in the later years of the century, perhaps by Chinese workers, perhaps by Basque sheep herders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he found a handful of structures — possible hunting blinds and prayer circles — he thought could have been Native American in origin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was these features that convinced me that among the many late 19th century rock features in the East Bay Hills, we might find a few older features of importance,” Parkman wrote. “It would be worth checking out, but I don’t know who’d be interested in taking a systematic look at this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason that professionals may have stayed away from the walls, Parkman added, is “not wanting to be associated with the fringe element” responsible for the many wild wall hypotheses over the years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690202\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690202\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"A portion of the stone walls found throughout the Berkeley Hills.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-960x540.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-240x135.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-375x211.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32680_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.40.56-PM-qut-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portion of the stone walls found throughout the Berkeley Hills. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">A\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>nother archaeologist, Jeff Fentress, went up into the Berkeley Hills with me to look at the same section of wall I visited with our question asker, Eric Haven.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress, now retired from his position as a professor of archaeology at San Francisco State University, was raised nearby and said he’d been hearing stories about the walls since his boyhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I was growing up in Berkeley here, we were told the Lemurians built the walls, and the Lemurians were the inhabitants of the lost continent of Mu,” Fentress said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.crystalinks.com/lemuria.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mu\u003c/a> is said to have existed out in the Pacific Ocean somewhere. And Fentress said stories like that are still coming up. The History Channel asked him whether a Chinese admiral might have erected the rock walls, and British TV interviewed him about whether the West African adventurers might have put up the walls during a visit 30,000 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said the problem with all of those theories — Lemurians, Chinese, West Africans and extraterrestrials — is that there’s simply no evidence any of those real or imagined groups ever landed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So I think you have to look at the walls in the context of who was actually here in the Bay Area,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690203\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690203\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-800x446.jpg\" alt=\"Archaeologist Jeff Fentress says it would take a lot of time and money to definitively determine when the stone walls were built and by whom.\" width=\"800\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-800x446.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-160x89.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1020x569.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1200x669.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-1180x658.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-960x536.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-240x134.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-375x209.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32682_Screen-Shot-2018-09-02-at-12.41.59-PM-qut-520x290.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Archaeologist Jeff Fentress says it would take a lot of time and money to definitively determine when the stone walls were built and by whom. \u003ccite>(Adam Grossberg/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Native American tribes have populated the Bay Area for about 10,000 years, according to the latest estimates. They were here long before the arrival of Spanish and Mexican colonists and the Gold Rush-era invasion of Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fentress said “there is no indication that Native American people built rock walls that extended for hundreds or thousands of feet. There are no accounts of them building massive wall structures or corrals or any of the other sort of rock features we see in the East Bay here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress and other archaeologists who have studied and recorded the walls agree that there is an explanation, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rock walls were the work of us — the people who pushed the native tribes off the land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said some wall building may have begun in the Mission period, and walls like the ones in the hills followed. Some were likely built to mark property lines. Many others were put up as part of ranching and farming operations, such as those that were known to have existed both in the Berkeley Hills and the Monument Peak area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also points to the many European immigrant groups known to have ranched and farmed in the hills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Did these people make rock walls in their countries?” Fentress asks. “Look at them all — Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland and so on. \u003cem>Of course\u003c/em> they made rock walls.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11689494\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11689494\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/Screen-Shot-2018-08-29-at-10.05.19-PM-800x487.png\" alt=\"Fentress says the most likely answer is that European immigrants built the walls as functional parts of their lives that didn't rise to the level of recording their purpose.\" width=\"800\" height=\"487\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fentress says the most likely answer is that European immigrants built the walls as functional parts of their lives that didn’t rise to the level of recording their purpose. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fentress and others also point out there was no shortage of labor — provided either willingly or unwillingly. Chinese crews, paid as little as a penny a linear foot, were hired to build ranch walls in Mariposa and Tehama counties, for instance. And many Native Americans, displaced from their lands and denied basic civil rights, were forced into indentured servitude to provide labor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Fentress concedes his explanations for the walls are speculative and said you’d want to search for more evidence to back up what he and other researchers have observed and been told in the field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The main thing to do would be to systematically record and map all the walls,” he said. Once the walls were mapped, researchers could compare their locations to older maps showing historic property lines and other features.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also said it could be useful to dig along the base of walls to study their construction and to look for artifacts. It would also help to study the rocks used in the structures to confirm what most people assume — that they come from the same area as the walls themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dating techniques could be useful, too. \u003ca href=\"https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4807533/Proceedings-of-the-Society-for-California.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One experimental study\u003c/a> that used the growth of lichens as a dating technique estimated that the surviving wall segment in the Berkeley Hills may have been built between 1850 and 1880.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fentress said you’d want to do a more systematic study — a hundred lichen sites, say — to really come to a firm conclusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Historical records — written accounts — could be important, too. But those are in short supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“And really the reason is that, you know, we’re looking at — you could call it the archaeology of the common people, the archeology of the working class,” he said. “Back in 1850, if Mr. McGillicuddy cleared his fields and he built a wall between his property and Mr. Sousa next door, no one’s going to write a newspaper article about that. It’s not going to get in the history books. So all we have is the remains of these people showing their hard work and their ingenuity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11690200\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11690200\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Downtown San Jose rises in the distance behind a small collection of stones seen from Monument Peak.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-1180x787.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-960x640.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-240x160.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-375x250.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/08/RS32678_19457917600_a0745537be_o-qut-1-520x347.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Downtown San Jose rises in the distance behind a small collection of stones seen from Monument Peak. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>o, at the end of all this, there is still some mystery left in the walls and more work to be done to come to definitive answers. Eric Haven, who prompted our own investigation, said he’s OK with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People love a mystery,” he said. “And since this is an unsolved mystery, it’s naturally evocative and compelling. I still think about it — a lot. And part of me somewhat hopes that we never find the answers, so that the Berkeley walls can always be a mystery.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "cattle-ranching-is-at-the-center-of-a-battle-brewing-in-point-reyes",
"title": "Cattle Ranching Is at the Center of a Battle Brewing in Point Reyes",
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"headTitle": "Cattle Ranching Is at the Center of a Battle Brewing in Point Reyes | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3QhozaD\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is inspired by a question from Bay Curious listener Beth Touchette. She asked, “How did we end up allowing cattle in Point Reyes National Seashore?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]S[/dropcap]aturday, Aug. 28, 2021, brought a dramatic scene to the normally peaceful, windblown hills of Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore. Dozens of people, from small children to older adults, hauled jugs of water over hills and through valleys only to dump their precious cargo into nearly dry ponds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The volunteers were trying to keep the Tule elk that live on a fenced preserve alive during one of California’s longest droughts. In 2019, nearly a third of the herd died from a shortage of water and malnutrition — in part because they could not roam beyond the tall fence that contained them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Elk/Tule-Elk\">Tule elk\u003c/a> are an endemic species found only in California. They were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s, but have been making a comeback in places like Point Reyes. The elk are big, averaging around 400 pounds, and need room to roam and forage. But this herd is isolated behind the fence to keep them away from another animal grazing in the park — an animal that some environmentalists say is being given priority: cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Point Reyes National Seashore was established in 1962, it’s been a lot of things to a lot of people. To the general public, it’s a beloved park that offers beautiful coastline, lush forests and windswept grassy hills. To environmentalists, it’s a habitat worth preserving. To ranchers, it’s the land their livelihoods depend on. To the area’s Native people, it’s long been a homeland with sacred sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one time, these competing interests could exist in relative harmony on the 70,000 acres that make up the park — but increasing demands on the land have caused things to sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936864\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5101-scaled-e1672874259984.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936864\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5101-800x553.jpg\" alt=\"A group of female Tule elk lounge on a green hillside. The rugged California coastline and ocean are visible in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"553\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Once abundant in Point Reyes, Tule elk were nearly hunted to extinction. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How cattle came to graze on Point Reyes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Point Reyes peninsula is the homeland of the Coast Miwok people, who lived here for generations alongside the Tule elk. When Spanish missionaries colonized the area, they brought cows with them. Although the missionaries were based in San Rafael, their cows would roam as far west as the Point Reyes peninsula. Later, when Spain granted the land to Mexico, rancheros divided up the peninsula and continued to run cattle. After the Mexican-American war, California changed hands once again to become part of the United States. In the chaotic transition period, the boundaries of the Mexican ranches on the peninsula were challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at some of the Spanish land grants, they literally said from the tree to the rock,” said Loretta Farley, a former park ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore. “So that’s really open to interpretation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Squatters moved in and settled on the land. The Mexican rancheros took them to court, but lost because they didn’t have the paperwork to demarcate the boundaries of their land. The legal battles were many and complicated, but when the dust settled in 1857, the law firm of Shafter, Shafter, Park and Heydenfeldt emerged as primary owners of the peninsula we now know as Point Reyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After a series of tremendous fights we have beaten our adversaries at all points and, what is more, have humbled the strongest and the proudest of them,” \u003ca href=\"http://npshistory.com/publications/pore/hrs-ranching.pdf\">wrote Oscar Shafter (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936882\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 637px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11936882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"637\" height=\"881\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg 637w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map-160x221.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A historic map of the alphabet ranch parcels in Point Reyes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Shafter brothers divided their property into more than 30 sections and leased the land to immigrants flooding into the area from places like Ireland, Switzerland and the Azores, in Portugal. The Shafters named the ranches from A to Z, what we now call the historic alphabet ranches, and developed a flourishing dairy business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco was growing rapidly and people were hungry for the butter and cheese produced at the dairy farms. Later, when refrigeration was invented, the farms would also ship milk. At one point, the Point Reyes dairies produced more butter than anywhere else in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1900s, the Shafter families sold some of their land to the farmers who had been leasing it from them. Some of those families are still operating beef and dairy ranches to this day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Home of the Coast Miwok\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many of the laborers on those early dairy ranches were Coast Miwok people who had been enslaved by Spanish missionaries, but returned to their homes along Tomales Bay if they were able. Their way of life had been completely upended, and now white ranchers owned the land and offered some of the only employment around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandmother was a ranch cook,” said Theresa Harlan. “My uncles worked on ranches as ranch hands.” Harlan is now the founder and director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alliance4felixcove.org/\">Alliance for Felix Cove\u003c/a>; the cove is known as Laird’s Landing on maps. Harlan’s mother is Tomalko (Coast Miwok Tomales Bay) and grew up in a small wooden cabin here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My family would row a small skiff across the bay to get mail or supplies that they couldn’t make themselves,” she said. “They say it was a 30-minute row.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan’s family was evicted in the 1950s by the white dairy farmers who owned the land at the time, Sayles Turney and James Lundgren. Harlan’s family tried to fight the eviction, saying they’d been there since the 1800s, and the case went all the way to the state Supreme Court. Her family ultimately lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936854\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_2299-scaled-e1672872337625.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_2299-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A couple stands below the porch of an old wooden cabin\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theresa Harlan and her husband, Ken Tiger, pose in front of the wood cabin her great-grandfather Joe Felix built. \u003ccite>(Katrina Schwartz/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a historic site,” Harlan said. “This needs to be protected. This little house sits neglected. Why? Why? Because it was the home of Tomalko people, California Indian people?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been pushing the National Park Service and the \u003ca href=\"https://gratonrancheria.com/\">Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria\u003c/a>, the federally recognized tribe with whom it partners to preserve Coast Miwok sites, to do more to explain and protect her family’s legacy here. In particular, she wants visitors to know that as recently as the 1950s Tomalko people lived here, but were pushed out, repeating the violent history of Indigenous people throughout California. This is family lore to her, not ancient history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other Coast Miwok archaeological sites in Point Reyes, but many of them are kept confidential because they are sacred. The cabins in Felix Cove represent a more modern side of Native American history here, one that existed alongside the ranching history, which has already been designated as historic. Still, far fewer people know about Theresa Harlan’s family than about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/news/newsreleases_20181113_ranches_national_register_of_historic_places.htm\">historic alphabet ranches\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From private ranch land to national park\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, West Marin remained quite rural, with the ranches dominating local life and culture. But after World War II, when the Bay Area population was booming and demand for housing was high, real estate speculators started eyeing the Point Reyes peninsula for subdivision and development. Conservationists and local residents didn’t want to see that happen. They rallied together to advocate for a national seashore that would preserve the coastline for the public in perpetuity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A local U.S. representative, Clem Miller, was the primary force advocating for the national seashore in Washington, D.C. To achieve the dream, park advocates had to convince the ranchers to sell their land to the federal government. At first, many ranchers were adamantly opposed to the idea, but they also saw that if it wanted to, the government could use eminent domain to take their land, so instead they made a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the government was most interested in preserving the coastline. So, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/getinvolved/upload/planning_gmp_ea_goga_pore_1980_map_management_zoning.pdf\">divided the park into pastoral zones and wilderness areas (PDF)\u003c/a>. The ranchers sold their land to the government, but retained the right to ranch the land in the pastoral zones. It took years for the federal government to acquire the land, but by 1978, most of the ranchers had signed 25-year leases. At the end of the lease, the Park Service could decide whether to renew or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The arrangement made most parties happy. Conservationists were proud to have saved the area for the public. And the ranchers had earned a chunk of cash, while retaining the right to lease their lands from the government. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/historyculture/people_coastmiwok.htm\">The Coast Miwok, however, continued to struggle for recognition.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original 25-year leases have long expired, but for decades the Park Service has renewed them on a five-year basis. This longevity has made the ranches an important part of the economy and culture of West Marin, as well as key players in the local organic food scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Recent controversies challenge the status quo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the National Park Service, which manages Point Reyes National Seashore, started a public process to update its Ranch Comprehensive Management Plan. Environmental groups watching the process believed the Park Service was heading down a road that would give ranchers more of what they wanted, without considering the rest of the park’s needs. So in 2016, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Park Service. They pointed out that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/management/upload/planning_gmp_1980.pdf\">Point Reyes General Management Plan (PDF)\u003c/a>, the document that governs park activities, hadn’t been updated since 1980. Awareness of sensitive habitats, endangered species, climate change and the impacts of cattle on ecosystems had evolved since then, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parties came to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/getinvolved/upload/planning_ranch_cmp_settlement_agreement_final_170714.pdf\">court-approved settlement agreement (PDF)\u003c/a> that required the Park Service to amend its general management plan with an emphasis on the 28,000 acres affected by ranching activities. They had to come up with several scenarios, including one that would eliminate all ranching from the park. They also had to detail the environmental impacts of their preferred option, which involved several rounds of public comment and a presentation before the California Coastal Commission, which safeguards the state’s coastline and is concerned with the health of the waterways that run into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-800x600.jpg\" alt='Protesters hold signs that say \"Save the Elk\" and \"Protect the Herd.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People protest the National Park Service over a plan to cull Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California. \u003ccite>(Peg Hunter/flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the past several years, in public comment and through advocacy, environmentalists have argued that it’s time for cattle ranching to end in Point Reyes National Seashore. They say cattle suppress endemic plant species and endanger protected animals like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/amphibians/California_red-legged_frog/index.html\">California red-legged frog\u003c/a> when their manure gets into waterways. And, they’re concerned that as climate change worsens, drier conditions will be the norm, further upsetting ecosystems. If water and grass are scarce in Point Reyes, they say, it should go to the endemic flora and fauna, not cattle raised by private businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Complicating the matter are the Tule elk, which have no natural predators now that grizzly bears no longer roam the area. Current management practices used throughout the state call for \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=162912&inline\">lethal termination to keep herd sizes in check (PDF)\u003c/a>. But in the 1990s, the Park Service got major pushback from the public when they proposed killing some of the Tule elk behind the fence once their numbers had grown too large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, in 1998, the Park Service moved some of the elk from behind the fence to a wilderness area near Limantour Beach. In the early 2000s, some of those elk migrated to an area near Drakes Beach, creating another herd.* These free-roaming herds have increasingly created problems for the ranchers, knocking down fences and competing for the same grass cattle eat. The Park Service has said it will actively keep these unfenced herds at specific sizes, terminating elk if need be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5237-scaled-e1672877098790.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936879\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5237-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Four male elk walk down a grassy hillside\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the ’70s, the Park Service designated the northern tip of Point Reyes as an elk preserve. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The elk situation has increasingly called attention to the Park Service’s management of the national seashore. Some Bay Area residents, like our question-asker this week, Beth Touchette, are wondering whether ranching is still appropriate there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Cattle ranching] never really bothered me until the drought got really bad,” she said. “There’s just limited resources and it’s like, well, how do we decide who gets this limited water? Should it be cattle ranching or should it be trying to keep the wildlife in the national park?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ranching advocates and the National Park Service say the issue needn’t be so cut-and-dried. While they admit they do need to plan for more extreme dry conditions in the future, they contend there are ways for the agency to balance ecological diversity with the direction from Congress and the Department of the Interior to continue to grant leases to ranchers. They say they are committed to more monitoring and regulation of the ranches in the park to ensure high environmental standards are met. In public comment, the ranchers also have committed to complying with environmental requirements. The Secretary of the interior could decide to end the decades long agreement, but so far each one, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.doi.gov/office-of-the-secretary\">the current Secretary Deb Haaland,\u003c/a> have not chosen to exercise that authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>All eyes on what’s next\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>History is at the heart of the debate about the future of Point Reyes National Seashore. The Coast Miwok were pushed off this land by Spanish colonizers, and again by ranchers decades later. Environmentalists and ranchers once found middle ground to create this 70,000-acre park. That ground has gotten shaky. How and if the Park Service can balance the interests of all parties going forward is yet to be seen. But the economic future of part of the community, the health of the environment and the very spirit of this land are at stake. Everyone will be watching what happens here next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this story said the NPS created the Drakes Bay herd, when in fact the second herd was a product of the original elk migrating to a new area. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Visitors searching for tule elk in Point Reyes are sometimes surprised to find cattle grazing on commercial ranches. This week on we explore the legacy of ranching on this land, and hear from those who want it to end.",
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"title": "Cattle Ranching Is at the Center of a Battle Brewing in Point Reyes | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3QhozaD\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is inspired by a question from Bay Curious listener Beth Touchette. She asked, “How did we end up allowing cattle in Point Reyes National Seashore?”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">S\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>aturday, Aug. 28, 2021, brought a dramatic scene to the normally peaceful, windblown hills of Tomales Point in Point Reyes National Seashore. Dozens of people, from small children to older adults, hauled jugs of water over hills and through valleys only to dump their precious cargo into nearly dry ponds.\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>The volunteers were trying to keep the Tule elk that live on a fenced preserve alive during one of California’s longest droughts. In 2019, nearly a third of the herd died from a shortage of water and malnutrition — in part because they could not roam beyond the tall fence that contained them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Elk/Tule-Elk\">Tule elk\u003c/a> are an endemic species found only in California. They were hunted almost to extinction in the 1800s, but have been making a comeback in places like Point Reyes. The elk are big, averaging around 400 pounds, and need room to roam and forage. But this herd is isolated behind the fence to keep them away from another animal grazing in the park — an animal that some environmentalists say is being given priority: cattle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since Point Reyes National Seashore was established in 1962, it’s been a lot of things to a lot of people. To the general public, it’s a beloved park that offers beautiful coastline, lush forests and windswept grassy hills. To environmentalists, it’s a habitat worth preserving. To ranchers, it’s the land their livelihoods depend on. To the area’s Native people, it’s long been a homeland with sacred sites.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At one time, these competing interests could exist in relative harmony on the 70,000 acres that make up the park — but increasing demands on the land have caused things to sour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936864\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5101-scaled-e1672874259984.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936864\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5101-800x553.jpg\" alt=\"A group of female Tule elk lounge on a green hillside. The rugged California coastline and ocean are visible in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"553\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Once abundant in Point Reyes, Tule elk were nearly hunted to extinction. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>How cattle came to graze on Point Reyes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Point Reyes peninsula is the homeland of the Coast Miwok people, who lived here for generations alongside the Tule elk. When Spanish missionaries colonized the area, they brought cows with them. Although the missionaries were based in San Rafael, their cows would roam as far west as the Point Reyes peninsula. Later, when Spain granted the land to Mexico, rancheros divided up the peninsula and continued to run cattle. After the Mexican-American war, California changed hands once again to become part of the United States. In the chaotic transition period, the boundaries of the Mexican ranches on the peninsula were challenged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at some of the Spanish land grants, they literally said from the tree to the rock,” said Loretta Farley, a former park ranger at Point Reyes National Seashore. “So that’s really open to interpretation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Squatters moved in and settled on the land. The Mexican rancheros took them to court, but lost because they didn’t have the paperwork to demarcate the boundaries of their land. The legal battles were many and complicated, but when the dust settled in 1857, the law firm of Shafter, Shafter, Park and Heydenfeldt emerged as primary owners of the peninsula we now know as Point Reyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After a series of tremendous fights we have beaten our adversaries at all points and, what is more, have humbled the strongest and the proudest of them,” \u003ca href=\"http://npshistory.com/publications/pore/hrs-ranching.pdf\">wrote Oscar Shafter (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936882\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 637px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11936882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"637\" height=\"881\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map.jpg 637w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Alphabet-Ranch-Map-160x221.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 637px) 100vw, 637px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A historic map of the alphabet ranch parcels in Point Reyes.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Shafter brothers divided their property into more than 30 sections and leased the land to immigrants flooding into the area from places like Ireland, Switzerland and the Azores, in Portugal. The Shafters named the ranches from A to Z, what we now call the historic alphabet ranches, and developed a flourishing dairy business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco was growing rapidly and people were hungry for the butter and cheese produced at the dairy farms. Later, when refrigeration was invented, the farms would also ship milk. At one point, the Point Reyes dairies produced more butter than anywhere else in the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1900s, the Shafter families sold some of their land to the farmers who had been leasing it from them. Some of those families are still operating beef and dairy ranches to this day.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Home of the Coast Miwok\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Many of the laborers on those early dairy ranches were Coast Miwok people who had been enslaved by Spanish missionaries, but returned to their homes along Tomales Bay if they were able. Their way of life had been completely upended, and now white ranchers owned the land and offered some of the only employment around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandmother was a ranch cook,” said Theresa Harlan. “My uncles worked on ranches as ranch hands.” Harlan is now the founder and director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alliance4felixcove.org/\">Alliance for Felix Cove\u003c/a>; the cove is known as Laird’s Landing on maps. Harlan’s mother is Tomalko (Coast Miwok Tomales Bay) and grew up in a small wooden cabin here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My family would row a small skiff across the bay to get mail or supplies that they couldn’t make themselves,” she said. “They say it was a 30-minute row.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan’s family was evicted in the 1950s by the white dairy farmers who owned the land at the time, Sayles Turney and James Lundgren. Harlan’s family tried to fight the eviction, saying they’d been there since the 1800s, and the case went all the way to the state Supreme Court. Her family ultimately lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936854\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_2299-scaled-e1672872337625.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936854\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/IMG_2299-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A couple stands below the porch of an old wooden cabin\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Theresa Harlan and her husband, Ken Tiger, pose in front of the wood cabin her great-grandfather Joe Felix built. \u003ccite>(Katrina Schwartz/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This is a historic site,” Harlan said. “This needs to be protected. This little house sits neglected. Why? Why? Because it was the home of Tomalko people, California Indian people?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’s been pushing the National Park Service and the \u003ca href=\"https://gratonrancheria.com/\">Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria\u003c/a>, the federally recognized tribe with whom it partners to preserve Coast Miwok sites, to do more to explain and protect her family’s legacy here. In particular, she wants visitors to know that as recently as the 1950s Tomalko people lived here, but were pushed out, repeating the violent history of Indigenous people throughout California. This is family lore to her, not ancient history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are other Coast Miwok archaeological sites in Point Reyes, but many of them are kept confidential because they are sacred. The cabins in Felix Cove represent a more modern side of Native American history here, one that existed alongside the ranching history, which has already been designated as historic. Still, far fewer people know about Theresa Harlan’s family than about the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/news/newsreleases_20181113_ranches_national_register_of_historic_places.htm\">historic alphabet ranches\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From private ranch land to national park\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For decades, West Marin remained quite rural, with the ranches dominating local life and culture. But after World War II, when the Bay Area population was booming and demand for housing was high, real estate speculators started eyeing the Point Reyes peninsula for subdivision and development. Conservationists and local residents didn’t want to see that happen. They rallied together to advocate for a national seashore that would preserve the coastline for the public in perpetuity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A local U.S. representative, Clem Miller, was the primary force advocating for the national seashore in Washington, D.C. To achieve the dream, park advocates had to convince the ranchers to sell their land to the federal government. At first, many ranchers were adamantly opposed to the idea, but they also saw that if it wanted to, the government could use eminent domain to take their land, so instead they made a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the government was most interested in preserving the coastline. So, they \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/getinvolved/upload/planning_gmp_ea_goga_pore_1980_map_management_zoning.pdf\">divided the park into pastoral zones and wilderness areas (PDF)\u003c/a>. The ranchers sold their land to the government, but retained the right to ranch the land in the pastoral zones. It took years for the federal government to acquire the land, but by 1978, most of the ranchers had signed 25-year leases. At the end of the lease, the Park Service could decide whether to renew or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The arrangement made most parties happy. Conservationists were proud to have saved the area for the public. And the ranchers had earned a chunk of cash, while retaining the right to lease their lands from the government. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/historyculture/people_coastmiwok.htm\">The Coast Miwok, however, continued to struggle for recognition.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The original 25-year leases have long expired, but for decades the Park Service has renewed them on a five-year basis. This longevity has made the ranches an important part of the economy and culture of West Marin, as well as key players in the local organic food scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Recent controversies challenge the status quo\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 2014, the National Park Service, which manages Point Reyes National Seashore, started a public process to update its Ranch Comprehensive Management Plan. Environmental groups watching the process believed the Park Service was heading down a road that would give ranchers more of what they wanted, without considering the rest of the park’s needs. So in 2016, a coalition of environmental groups sued the Park Service. They pointed out that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/learn/management/upload/planning_gmp_1980.pdf\">Point Reyes General Management Plan (PDF)\u003c/a>, the document that governs park activities, hadn’t been updated since 1980. Awareness of sensitive habitats, endangered species, climate change and the impacts of cattle on ecosystems had evolved since then, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The parties came to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/pore/getinvolved/upload/planning_ranch_cmp_settlement_agreement_final_170714.pdf\">court-approved settlement agreement (PDF)\u003c/a> that required the Park Service to amend its general management plan with an emphasis on the 28,000 acres affected by ranching activities. They had to come up with several scenarios, including one that would eliminate all ranching from the park. They also had to detail the environmental impacts of their preferred option, which involved several rounds of public comment and a presentation before the California Coastal Commission, which safeguards the state’s coastline and is concerned with the health of the waterways that run into the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-800x600.jpg\" alt='Protesters hold signs that say \"Save the Elk\" and \"Protect the Herd.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest-1920x1440.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/Point-Reyes-Protest.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People protest the National Park Service over a plan to cull Tule elk at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California. \u003ccite>(Peg Hunter/flickr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over the past several years, in public comment and through advocacy, environmentalists have argued that it’s time for cattle ranching to end in Point Reyes National Seashore. They say cattle suppress endemic plant species and endanger protected animals like the \u003ca href=\"https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/amphibians/California_red-legged_frog/index.html\">California red-legged frog\u003c/a> when their manure gets into waterways. And, they’re concerned that as climate change worsens, drier conditions will be the norm, further upsetting ecosystems. If water and grass are scarce in Point Reyes, they say, it should go to the endemic flora and fauna, not cattle raised by private businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Complicating the matter are the Tule elk, which have no natural predators now that grizzly bears no longer roam the area. Current management practices used throughout the state call for \u003ca href=\"https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=162912&inline\">lethal termination to keep herd sizes in check (PDF)\u003c/a>. But in the 1990s, the Park Service got major pushback from the public when they proposed killing some of the Tule elk behind the fence once their numbers had grown too large.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, in 1998, the Park Service moved some of the elk from behind the fence to a wilderness area near Limantour Beach. In the early 2000s, some of those elk migrated to an area near Drakes Beach, creating another herd.* These free-roaming herds have increasingly created problems for the ranchers, knocking down fences and competing for the same grass cattle eat. The Park Service has said it will actively keep these unfenced herds at specific sizes, terminating elk if need be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11936879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5237-scaled-e1672877098790.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11936879\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/DSC5237-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"Four male elk walk down a grassy hillside\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the ’70s, the Park Service designated the northern tip of Point Reyes as an elk preserve. \u003ccite>(Amanda Font/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The elk situation has increasingly called attention to the Park Service’s management of the national seashore. Some Bay Area residents, like our question-asker this week, Beth Touchette, are wondering whether ranching is still appropriate there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Cattle ranching] never really bothered me until the drought got really bad,” she said. “There’s just limited resources and it’s like, well, how do we decide who gets this limited water? Should it be cattle ranching or should it be trying to keep the wildlife in the national park?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ranching advocates and the National Park Service say the issue needn’t be so cut-and-dried. While they admit they do need to plan for more extreme dry conditions in the future, they contend there are ways for the agency to balance ecological diversity with the direction from Congress and the Department of the Interior to continue to grant leases to ranchers. They say they are committed to more monitoring and regulation of the ranches in the park to ensure high environmental standards are met. In public comment, the ranchers also have committed to complying with environmental requirements. The Secretary of the interior could decide to end the decades long agreement, but so far each one, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.doi.gov/office-of-the-secretary\">the current Secretary Deb Haaland,\u003c/a> have not chosen to exercise that authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>All eyes on what’s next\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>History is at the heart of the debate about the future of Point Reyes National Seashore. The Coast Miwok were pushed off this land by Spanish colonizers, and again by ranchers decades later. Environmentalists and ranchers once found middle ground to create this 70,000-acre park. That ground has gotten shaky. How and if the Park Service can balance the interests of all parties going forward is yet to be seen. But the economic future of part of the community, the health of the environment and the very spirit of this land are at stake. Everyone will be watching what happens here next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this story said the NPS created the Drakes Bay herd, when in fact the second herd was a product of the original elk migrating to a new area. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the final Bay Curious episode of the year, we created an AMA (“ask me anything”) episode to answer some of the questions we get asked most often about how we make the show. Olivia Allen-Price, the show’s senior editor and host, and Katrina Schwartz, the editor and producer, sat down to chew on your questions, and share some big news about something exciting coming in 2023!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a transcript that has been edited for clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How does Bay Curious choose which questions to answer on the show?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> It’s really hard because we get a lot of questions. We have over 5,000 questions in our database and many of them are really good, but we’re only two people that make the show, so we have to pick and choose. When we pick questions, we’re thinking about a couple of things. We try to cover topics that we haven’t covered before. We try to take people around the region and not focus in one place too much. We also look for questions that have a bit of complexity to them, that we can tell a story about for a number of minutes. So if it’s too simple, it might not be one we choose. And then there needs to \u003cem>be\u003c/em> an answer to the question. Sometimes people ask us things that are a little bit subjective, like “What’s the best taco in the Bay Area?” That’s hard to answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> But it would be really fun to report!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> And then, of course, the other thing is that we’re an audio show. So we’re trying to find stories that will have a fun audio element, something we can go to or experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We should note that we are trying to answer more of the questions that don’t have audio elements to them in our newsletter, which goes out once a month. And we’re also trying to do more on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Question from Ben Hilmer: I think [the show has] moved a little bit away from oddities-type questions, and you’ve definitely touched on some more heavy-hitting topics. How much of the story drives that direction, and how much of your direction drives that change?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We have evolved over the six years we’ve been around. The beginning of COVID was a big moment for change for us because it felt like our show was out of place with what was happening in the world at the time. We put out a number of episodes that were what we think of as “news you can use,” “how do you survive this moment?” quite literally. We felt that was where we needed to go at that moment. And then on the heels of that, there were the protests for racial justice after George Floyd was murdered, which jumpstarted this important national conversation about race and equity. That conversation was also happening in our newsroom, and at least for me personally, I questioned what an appropriate response from me was in that moment. Not just as a podcast maker but as a human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am a white woman, and I kept coming back to thinking, “Well, we have this platform, and we tell a lot of stories about history.” Our show is explanatory, and explaining something thoroughly usually means digging into the history. I started to question if we were telling incomplete histories, and leaving out certain voices … voices that tend to be left out of historical documents or the narratives that we read in history books. We pledged that we would try to look at history more holistically, and at all the different people who were impacted by different moments. If there was a racial equity issue that was in the story, we would present it. What has surprised me, and really been a rude awakening, is just how prevalent those issues are in stories, sometimes where we don’t expect to find it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s a long way of saying that I think that we have driven to some degree the direction of the show. But I will also say that we’re getting a lot of bigger, meatier, more cultural questions from our audience and that’s driving our direction too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Do you get stupid questions?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Well, I wouldn’t say \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>. But we definitely get questions where my first reaction is, “Why didn’t you just Google that? You’ll get an answer much faster than putting it into this form on our website.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> OK. I guess I’m like an elementary school teacher on this one. I don’t think there are stupid questions! I think every question is valid. I think a lot of times people ask a question because they want to hear how Bay Curious is going to answer it. We hope the answers we give are a little bit more complete, a little bit more nuanced. Hopefully delightful and interesting. Even when we are covering those tough topics, we hope you still come out of these episodes with a feeling of satisfaction that you have learned something. There’s a joy in understanding something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Yeah, you’re definitely the nicer of the two of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What have we learned over the years of making Bay Curious?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I think one thing that I am always surprised by is even a story that seems like it’s going to be mundane, once you really start digging, it always gets interesting. The world is just like a very interesting place. There’s never a lack of a story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I have learned that there’s a lot of fun, quirky people in the Bay Area, both question askers, and sources, and people that you meet while you’re reporting. There’s just so many interesting people here, and I love that this job allows us to get out and talk to them and see them doing things that they’re passionate about.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What challenges does Bay Curious face in reporting, and how have we tried to solve for those?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I think one big challenge is that a lot of our stories deal with history, and sometimes there’s no record of it in an audio or video form. Those are newer formats where you have to get to the ’70s or ’80s to find archival tape of things. So it’s hard to make some historical stories come alive. Then we have to really focus on the writing or maybe finding a really great historical source that can tell the story in a vivid way. But it makes it much more challenging to build an audio story that’s fun to listen to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I would say another challenge is that historic accounts tend to focus on one perspective. The mainstream media was covering one point of view, and that’s largely what’s been preserved. And so, if we are trying to find the nuance …. “How did different people from different vantage points see this one historical event?” … It can be really difficult just because a lot of those things have not lived on in recorded ways that are easy for journalists to access. A lot of it lives on as oral history. So we have to put in more legwork on our part to go find it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s the most fun thing you’ve gotten to do as part of the show?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I got to play a theremin in the studio. Amanda Font, one of our reporters, did a story about how the water in the bay used to be more blue, and it’s kind of become more green over time. We were playing a lot with watery sounds and decided we wanted to try to make some of our own music that we were going to use in the piece. She happened to have a theremin that she was given years ago, which, if you don’t know, is an electronic instrument where you basically wave your hands in the air to play. I described it as an air harp to a friend. It’s super fun to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I’m actually working on the story about fishing in the Bay Area right now. This morning, I put on a wetsuit and I paddled out into the bay and I dropped my first crab pot. It was a beautiful, clear morning. I saw dolphins. I had a really nice patient teacher. And, you know, I learned how to fish!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> And you got some crabs, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I did!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Question from Julian: How long does it take for a question that won a voting round to be made into an episode?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Sometimes it doesn’t take that long at all if we have a reporter who can answer the question or has done a lot of reporting on that topic already. A great example of that is when we bring Dan Brekke in to talk about BART. He knows everything about BART, so we can usually answer the question more quickly. But there’s a lot of questions that we just need to dive into more, find the right sources, figure out how to tell the story in a fun way. That can take months. And we’re working on a bunch of stories at the same time with a bunch of reporters who also work on other things. So it’s not like we’re just heads down on this one story until it’s done. Usually we have ten stories going at a time or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We’ve had stories that take three weeks. We’ve had stories that take a year. We have a few stories that are especially tough to answer that taken several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is your favorite episode of all time?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I mean, this really is like choosing your favorite child, so I find it extremely difficult. I was able to pick a top three for different categories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the things we like to play a lot with is \u003cem>sound\u003c/em>, and one of the pieces I think we did a really good job with sound [in is] \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11853891/you-used-to-be-able-to-call-pop-corn-and-get-the-time-what-happened-to-that\">this piece about calling POPCORN\u003c/a>. It was just super dynamic, lots of fun archival sound, dial tone. I do want to call out Christopher Beale, who was the reporter and did a lot of the production on that episode. So yeah, super fun episode sonically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite \u003cem>story\u003c/em> is probably our story about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco\">Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s experience in San Francisco\u003c/a>. You see their faces everywhere, you hear their names all the time, but in this episode we tried to step into their shoes and experience what their time in San Francisco was like. Marisol Medina-Cadena was the reporter on that story, and it was a finalist for a NAHJ [National Association of Hispanic Journalists] award.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then a lot of what I do on this on the show is also scoring … so picking the music selections for the episodes. My favorite episode from a \u003cem>scoring\u003c/em> perspective was our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11844011/donner-party-pt-1\">two-part Donner Party series, \u003c/a>reported by Carly Severn. You really get to think about the atmosphere you’re creating as you’re selecting the music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> A lot of my favorite episodes come from questions that kids asked us. Bronwyn asked about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839198/the-bay-area-during-the-ice-age-think-saber-tooth-cats-and-mammoths\">what the Bay Area was like during the Ice Age\u003c/a>. I loved the episode because we had a lot of fun with the sound on it. We imagined ourselves going back in time to the Ice Age, and it was just really fun! I learned a lot. Stuff like the bay didn’t used to be there, it was just a grassy valley. Or that you used to be able to walk out to the Farallon Islands. My mind was blown by the things in that episode. Daniel Potter was the reporter on it, and he’s got a really fun, quirky style, which I loved. Overall, I just thought it was a great episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are you most excited about for the next year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We wrote a Bay Curious book! It’s called “Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area,” and it features a bunch of news stories that I’m just really excited about. It’s also a really beautiful book. It has these gorgeous illustrations by a local illustrator. The book comes out in May, but you can preorder it now at these places: \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Bay-Curious-Olivia-Allen-Price/dp/1797214365/r?tag=linkfire-smarturl-20\">Amazon\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bay-curious-olivia-allen-price/1142727525?ean=9781797214368\">Barnes and Noble\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/bay-curious-exploring-the-hidden-true-stories-of-the-san-francisco-bay-area-olivia-allen-price/17359080?ean=9781797214368\">Bookshop.org\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chroniclebooks.com/collections/upcoming/products/bay-curious?_pos=1&_sid=69ccac809&_ss=r\">Chronicle Books\u003c/a>. International buyers, \u003ca href=\"https://smarturl.it/svu64k\">go here\u003c/a>!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I’m excited to go to parts of the Bay Area that we don’t go to that often. I’m thinking of like Richmond or Vallejo, Fremont, San Mateo. These are parts of the Bay Area that we don’t get a lot of questions from. So if you live in those places and you’ve been wondering about something, please send them in, because that’s really where our story ideas come from!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Thanks for reading and listening to the podcast. We’ll be back with a new episode in January. Happy holidays!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the final Bay Curious episode of the year, we created an AMA (“ask me anything”) episode to answer some of the questions we get asked most often about how we make the show. Olivia Allen-Price, the show’s senior editor and host, and Katrina Schwartz, the editor and producer, sat down to chew on your questions, and share some big news about something exciting coming in 2023!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a transcript that has been edited for clarity.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How does Bay Curious choose which questions to answer on the show?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> It’s really hard because we get a lot of questions. We have over 5,000 questions in our database and many of them are really good, but we’re only two people that make the show, so we have to pick and choose. When we pick questions, we’re thinking about a couple of things. We try to cover topics that we haven’t covered before. We try to take people around the region and not focus in one place too much. We also look for questions that have a bit of complexity to them, that we can tell a story about for a number of minutes. So if it’s too simple, it might not be one we choose. And then there needs to \u003cem>be\u003c/em> an answer to the question. Sometimes people ask us things that are a little bit subjective, like “What’s the best taco in the Bay Area?” That’s hard to answer.\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>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> But it would be really fun to report!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> And then, of course, the other thing is that we’re an audio show. So we’re trying to find stories that will have a fun audio element, something we can go to or experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We should note that we are trying to answer more of the questions that don’t have audio elements to them in our newsletter, which goes out once a month. And we’re also trying to do more on social media.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Question from Ben Hilmer: I think [the show has] moved a little bit away from oddities-type questions, and you’ve definitely touched on some more heavy-hitting topics. How much of the story drives that direction, and how much of your direction drives that change?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We have evolved over the six years we’ve been around. The beginning of COVID was a big moment for change for us because it felt like our show was out of place with what was happening in the world at the time. We put out a number of episodes that were what we think of as “news you can use,” “how do you survive this moment?” quite literally. We felt that was where we needed to go at that moment. And then on the heels of that, there were the protests for racial justice after George Floyd was murdered, which jumpstarted this important national conversation about race and equity. That conversation was also happening in our newsroom, and at least for me personally, I questioned what an appropriate response from me was in that moment. Not just as a podcast maker but as a human.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I am a white woman, and I kept coming back to thinking, “Well, we have this platform, and we tell a lot of stories about history.” Our show is explanatory, and explaining something thoroughly usually means digging into the history. I started to question if we were telling incomplete histories, and leaving out certain voices … voices that tend to be left out of historical documents or the narratives that we read in history books. We pledged that we would try to look at history more holistically, and at all the different people who were impacted by different moments. If there was a racial equity issue that was in the story, we would present it. What has surprised me, and really been a rude awakening, is just how prevalent those issues are in stories, sometimes where we don’t expect to find it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So that’s a long way of saying that I think that we have driven to some degree the direction of the show. But I will also say that we’re getting a lot of bigger, meatier, more cultural questions from our audience and that’s driving our direction too.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Do you get stupid questions?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Well, I wouldn’t say \u003cem>stupid\u003c/em>. But we definitely get questions where my first reaction is, “Why didn’t you just Google that? You’ll get an answer much faster than putting it into this form on our website.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> OK. I guess I’m like an elementary school teacher on this one. I don’t think there are stupid questions! I think every question is valid. I think a lot of times people ask a question because they want to hear how Bay Curious is going to answer it. We hope the answers we give are a little bit more complete, a little bit more nuanced. Hopefully delightful and interesting. Even when we are covering those tough topics, we hope you still come out of these episodes with a feeling of satisfaction that you have learned something. There’s a joy in understanding something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Yeah, you’re definitely the nicer of the two of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What have we learned over the years of making Bay Curious?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I think one thing that I am always surprised by is even a story that seems like it’s going to be mundane, once you really start digging, it always gets interesting. The world is just like a very interesting place. There’s never a lack of a story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I have learned that there’s a lot of fun, quirky people in the Bay Area, both question askers, and sources, and people that you meet while you’re reporting. There’s just so many interesting people here, and I love that this job allows us to get out and talk to them and see them doing things that they’re passionate about.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What challenges does Bay Curious face in reporting, and how have we tried to solve for those?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I think one big challenge is that a lot of our stories deal with history, and sometimes there’s no record of it in an audio or video form. Those are newer formats where you have to get to the ’70s or ’80s to find archival tape of things. So it’s hard to make some historical stories come alive. Then we have to really focus on the writing or maybe finding a really great historical source that can tell the story in a vivid way. But it makes it much more challenging to build an audio story that’s fun to listen to.\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 What do you wonder about the Bay Area, its culture or people that you want KQED to investigate?\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Ask Bay Curious.\u003c/a>\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia: \u003c/strong>I would say another challenge is that historic accounts tend to focus on one perspective. The mainstream media was covering one point of view, and that’s largely what’s been preserved. And so, if we are trying to find the nuance …. “How did different people from different vantage points see this one historical event?” … It can be really difficult just because a lot of those things have not lived on in recorded ways that are easy for journalists to access. A lot of it lives on as oral history. So we have to put in more legwork on our part to go find it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s the most fun thing you’ve gotten to do as part of the show?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I got to play a theremin in the studio. Amanda Font, one of our reporters, did a story about how the water in the bay used to be more blue, and it’s kind of become more green over time. We were playing a lot with watery sounds and decided we wanted to try to make some of our own music that we were going to use in the piece. She happened to have a theremin that she was given years ago, which, if you don’t know, is an electronic instrument where you basically wave your hands in the air to play. I described it as an air harp to a friend. It’s super fun to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I’m actually working on the story about fishing in the Bay Area right now. This morning, I put on a wetsuit and I paddled out into the bay and I dropped my first crab pot. It was a beautiful, clear morning. I saw dolphins. I had a really nice patient teacher. And, you know, I learned how to fish!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> And you got some crabs, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I did!\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Question from Julian: How long does it take for a question that won a voting round to be made into an episode?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> Sometimes it doesn’t take that long at all if we have a reporter who can answer the question or has done a lot of reporting on that topic already. A great example of that is when we bring Dan Brekke in to talk about BART. He knows everything about BART, so we can usually answer the question more quickly. But there’s a lot of questions that we just need to dive into more, find the right sources, figure out how to tell the story in a fun way. That can take months. And we’re working on a bunch of stories at the same time with a bunch of reporters who also work on other things. So it’s not like we’re just heads down on this one story until it’s done. Usually we have ten stories going at a time or so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We’ve had stories that take three weeks. We’ve had stories that take a year. We have a few stories that are especially tough to answer that taken several years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What is your favorite episode of all time?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> I mean, this really is like choosing your favorite child, so I find it extremely difficult. I was able to pick a top three for different categories.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the things we like to play a lot with is \u003cem>sound\u003c/em>, and one of the pieces I think we did a really good job with sound [in is] \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11853891/you-used-to-be-able-to-call-pop-corn-and-get-the-time-what-happened-to-that\">this piece about calling POPCORN\u003c/a>. It was just super dynamic, lots of fun archival sound, dial tone. I do want to call out Christopher Beale, who was the reporter and did a lot of the production on that episode. So yeah, super fun episode sonically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My favorite \u003cem>story\u003c/em> is probably our story about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11848986/inside-frida-kahlo-and-diego-riveras-life-in-san-francisco\">Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s experience in San Francisco\u003c/a>. You see their faces everywhere, you hear their names all the time, but in this episode we tried to step into their shoes and experience what their time in San Francisco was like. Marisol Medina-Cadena was the reporter on that story, and it was a finalist for a NAHJ [National Association of Hispanic Journalists] award.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And then a lot of what I do on this on the show is also scoring … so picking the music selections for the episodes. My favorite episode from a \u003cem>scoring\u003c/em> perspective was our \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11844011/donner-party-pt-1\">two-part Donner Party series, \u003c/a>reported by Carly Severn. You really get to think about the atmosphere you’re creating as you’re selecting the music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> A lot of my favorite episodes come from questions that kids asked us. Bronwyn asked about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839198/the-bay-area-during-the-ice-age-think-saber-tooth-cats-and-mammoths\">what the Bay Area was like during the Ice Age\u003c/a>. I loved the episode because we had a lot of fun with the sound on it. We imagined ourselves going back in time to the Ice Age, and it was just really fun! I learned a lot. Stuff like the bay didn’t used to be there, it was just a grassy valley. Or that you used to be able to walk out to the Farallon Islands. My mind was blown by the things in that episode. Daniel Potter was the reporter on it, and he’s got a really fun, quirky style, which I loved. Overall, I just thought it was a great episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are you most excited about for the next year?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia:\u003c/strong> We wrote a Bay Curious book! It’s called “Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area,” and it features a bunch of news stories that I’m just really excited about. It’s also a really beautiful book. It has these gorgeous illustrations by a local illustrator. The book comes out in May, but you can preorder it now at these places: \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/Bay-Curious-Olivia-Allen-Price/dp/1797214365/r?tag=linkfire-smarturl-20\">Amazon\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bay-curious-olivia-allen-price/1142727525?ean=9781797214368\">Barnes and Noble\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://bookshop.org/p/books/bay-curious-exploring-the-hidden-true-stories-of-the-san-francisco-bay-area-olivia-allen-price/17359080?ean=9781797214368\">Bookshop.org\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.chroniclebooks.com/collections/upcoming/products/bay-curious?_pos=1&_sid=69ccac809&_ss=r\">Chronicle Books\u003c/a>. International buyers, \u003ca href=\"https://smarturl.it/svu64k\">go here\u003c/a>!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina:\u003c/strong> I’m excited to go to parts of the Bay Area that we don’t go to that often. I’m thinking of like Richmond or Vallejo, Fremont, San Mateo. These are parts of the Bay Area that we don’t get a lot of questions from. So if you live in those places and you’ve been wondering about something, please send them in, because that’s really where our story ideas come from!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Thanks for reading and listening to the podcast. We’ll be back with a new episode in January. Happy holidays!\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Homes for All: Richmond's 1950s Attempt at Integrated Housing",
"headTitle": "Homes for All: Richmond’s 1950s Attempt at Integrated Housing | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3GZjPUc\">\u003cem>Read the transcript here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You would be hard-pressed to get lost in Parchester Village, a small neighborhood in North Richmond. There’s a big loop road encircling the neighborhood of some 400 homes — \u003ca href=\"https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/king-flat-tops\">many of which feature the original flat-top roof design\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea [for Parchester Village] was spearheaded by a group of ministers,” said longtime Village resident Maxine Henagan. “And the streets are named after each one of those ministers that participated on the committee that would spearhead getting the land.” \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those ministers also organized to sell the homes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One local minister in particular, Rev. Guthrie Williams, led the charge in brokering a deal with a local politician and a wealthy landowner to create quality housing for Black Americans at a time when racist lending and housing policies, like redlining, barred Black people from buying homes. The result was the first tract home development in Northern California explicitly open to Black residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wartime workers organize to demand rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During World War II, many Black Americans left the South and moved to Richmond for jobs in the shipyards. When the war ended, the wartime housing projects where they lived were scheduled to be torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The postwar period saw a real frenzy of building communities and homes and developments all around in the suburban areas,” said Shirley Ann Moore, professor emerita of history at \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sacramento State University\u003c/span>. “But those developments that were going up were restricted on a racial basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore’s book, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520229204/to-place-our-deeds\">To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963\u003c/a>,” details the Black community’s impact on Richmond before and after World War II. According to Moore, city officials hoped all newcomers who moved for the war industries, Black people especially, would go back to where they came from after the war. Instead, the working-class Black community in Richmond grew, becoming an influential political force in the area — a political force that was not only exercising its power in Richmond, but across the country, paving the road for the modern civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those working-class Black people took the lead,” said Moore. “People who had been presumed not to be aware of the political currents around them were really in the vanguard.” Enter Rev. Guthrie Williams, a carpenter by trade who, in 1949, started organizing to end housing and workplace discrimination in Richmond. A self-described “persistent, cantankerous cuss,” Williams created the small, Richmond-based Universal Non-Partisan League to help bridge the racial divide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing glasses next to a table with family photographs\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1920x1276.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper.jpg 1988w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rev. Guthrie Williams in a photo featured in the Independent and Gazette in December 1980. \u003ccite>(Mike Musielski for the Independent and Gazette/Courtesy of Richmond Museum of History and Culture)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He garnered a lot of support from those people living in the housing projects, and they became very valuable voters. And white politicians began to see that, too,” Moore said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amos Hinkley was one of those white politicians, a City Council member running for reelection in 1949. He approached Williams and the League to support his campaign. Williams agreed in exchange for Hinkley’s commitment to create permanent housing for Black people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinkley was backed by Fred Parr, a wealthy developer who was key in building the Richmond shipping terminal and Kaiser shipyards. Parr brought lots of industry to the Bay Area, like the Ford Motor Company plant in Richmond, and owned 800 acres of industrial land in North Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 246px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-11933530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"317\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1.jpg 386w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1-160x206.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait of Fred Parr in 1952. \u003ccite>(The Henry Ford)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hinkley arranged a meeting among Parr, Williams and another local minister to talk about how some of Parr’s land could be used for housing for the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 2002 documentary “\u003ca href=\"https://richmond.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=312\">An Exploration of Our History: The Story of North Richmond\u003c/a>,” then-Richmond City Manager Isiah Turner, now deceased, recounted the deal: “[Parr] agreed that if the ministers could help them sell the homes for this land out here that he owned, that he would support working with the Black community so we could buy these homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933536\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933536\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Builder Earl W. ‘Flat Top’ Smith (fourth from left) with neighborhood ministers, including Rev. L. Thomas (fourth from right, rear) and other developers at Parchester Village in Richmond. Smith, famous for his modern, affordable home-building — with flat-top roofs — designed and built the homes for Parchester Village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the El Cerrito Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the end of the meeting, Williams had a commitment from Parr to back the housing development that would become Parchester Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Envisioning a community for ‘all Americans’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Parchester Village opened in 1950, it was advertised as “a home community for all Americans.” Early sales reflected that goal, with 30% of homes purchased by white buyers and the remaining 70% by Black and Asian Americans. That’s according to Fred Parr’s nephew, John Parr Cox, who recalled the housing project in a \u003ca href=\"https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb329005h7;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=0&toc.id=0&brand=oac4\">1986 interview with the UC Berkeley Oral History Project\u003c/a>. But “within a couple of years, the community changed completely to all Black,” Parr Cox said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 278px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-11933533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Archival partial photocopy of the original advertisement for the sale of Parchester Village homes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Richmond Public Library Richmond Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“White flight” was common at the time, wherein white families fled neighborhoods where people of color were moving in. Some Black Richmondites held the more cynical view that Fred Parr never intended for an integrated community to work out, said Moore, of \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sacramento State University\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of the intentions of the white community, Rev. Williams told the Independent and Gazette in 1980 that he wanted Parchester to be an “All-American project.” He added, “We hoped to set a standard of perfection in fair play in housing for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Williams’ dream of a racially integrated community didn’t work out, the Black people who moved in still created something special. The political pressure Williams and others placed on city leaders to build Parchester Village was just the beginning of what became an active, organized neighborhood association that supported a vibrant community known for its safety, high-achieving children and regular block-party barbecues.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We never locked our doors’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was a village that everybody’s home was your home,” Charleszetta Pruitt remembered. Pruitt is a former resident whose family was one of the first to settle in Parchester. “You were cared about,” she said. “They provided for you.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11933554 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-800x516.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-160x103.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1536x991.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-2048x1322.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1920x1239.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charleszetta Pruitt’s parents lounging on their lawn on Johnson Drive in Parchester Village while Pruitt, age 7, plays with a friend, circa 1954. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Charleszetta Pruitt)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It felt like family, like a safe place,” recalled KQED announcer Michelle Henagan, who also grew up in Parchester Village. “Like coming home from school, you knew all your friends are going to be going around the neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle’s mother, Maxine Henagan, has lived in the Village since 1974 and takes pride in its history. “I think it’s exciting to be part of that history and knowing that the neighborhood where I live is actually organized and spearheaded by African American people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933527\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11933527 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-800x559.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-800x559.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1020x713.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-160x112.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1536x1073.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-2048x1431.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1920x1342.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parchester Village resident Maxine Henagan at home, holding up the T-shirt she designed for the Village’s 45th anniversary reunion celebration. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The political organizing that Rev. Williams exemplified continued as the community grew. Parchester Village was built on unincorporated land, so residents lobbied the county to get services like streetlights and sewage through nearby San Pablo. They also sued the city of Richmond in 1950 to give their children access to Richmond’s public schools. It was one of many battles residents fought and won over the years. Eventually, they petitioned to be formally incorporated into Richmond, which was approved in 1963.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resident Goretha Johnson, who currently serves as the Parchester Village Neighborhood Council president, reflected on growing up in the Village during those early years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were really self-contained,” she said. “We had our own store, our own gas station, our own nightclub. We were a community of many different professions because at that time they wouldn’t allow Black people to buy in other neighborhoods. So we had plumbers, laborers, teachers, doctors. Just everybody came together into one place. And everybody took pride in their property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933526\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933526\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parchester Village residents Lori Hart (left) and Goretha Johnson at Johnson’s home. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Resident Lori Hart, a friend of Johnson’s, also grew up in Parchester Village and lives there now. She remembered the Village’s political prowess well: “We used to be extremely politically involved. I remember hearing about how they would go down to the City Council and raise some Cain if something was not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hart was a big fan of the neighborhood’s bookmobile, which came by regularly to lend books. “It was anticipated and expected you would be somebody growing up,” Hart said. “We were taught and encouraged to read and we were taught to respect one another.” She added that the Village “was a space of safety. We never locked our doors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Change comes to Parchester\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Changes started creeping into the community in the 1970s. After the Fair Housing Act of 1968, more Bay Area neighborhoods started to integrate. The Village was no longer the only place in Richmond where Black families could buy, so they started branching out into other parts of the city. By the 1980s, many of the local businesses had long since closed. And then the crack epidemic hit the community hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when the landscape really changed,” Johnson said. “It just kind of wiped through everybody’s home. It’s like everybody was touched with somebody who had got involved with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1990s, a neighborhood teenager was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. His death rocked the Parchester community. In response, Marilyn Dillihant, then a county alcohol and drug prevention specialist who grew up in Parchester, reasserted the Village’s values and established a youth association to give young people positive things to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the early 2000s, many original homeowners still called Parchester home, and the block-party barbecues were still in effect. But, like any neighborhood that evolves over time, it was becoming harder to hold onto its founding essence. It was also harder to hold onto homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High housing costs have pushed many Black families out of the Bay Area, putting \u003ca href=\"https://bayareaequityatlas.org/node/65531\">current Black homeownership rates at just 34%\u003c/a>, according to data analysis by Bay Area Equity Atlas. That’s a decline that’s mirrored in Parchester, where it’s now only 20% Black, according to the 2020 census. Twenty years ago, the population was almost 80% Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With fewer residents who have direct ties to the tight-knit, open-door community of Parchester’s heyday, the strong sense of community it once cultivated has waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Parchester spirit lives on\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Eli Moore, program director with \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute\u003c/a> who co-authored \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/haasinstitute_housingandbelongingrichmond_psprint_jan11.pdf\">a 2017 housing study in Richmond (PDF)\u003c/a>, said recent community efforts in Richmond remind him of Parchester Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking about \u003ca href=\"https://www.richmondland.org/potowski-av\">Richmond Land\u003c/a> and the community land trust that they’ve set up and the way that they’re really working with residents to build new models for collectively owning and developing housing,” Moore said. “And in that way, becoming more self-sufficient and creating platforms for the community to take action — with city support or without city support — to meet their needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stories like Parchester’s also fuel conversations Moore and the institute have had around belonging in the Bay Area. “How do folks hold onto the place that they love and live in? It’s belonging to place — and that doesn’t just mean geography,” Moore said. “It means the connections to neighbors, to faith communities, to schools and elders and friends and community. It’s belonging to a collective, to a history, to a set of memories, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the changes, Hart and Johnson are committed to bringing back some of the classic Parchester Village spirit to the community and feeding that sense of belonging Moore described. The Neighborhood Center, one of the last standing original Parchester institutions, was recently renovated and can once again be a hub for meetings and events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933523\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Parchester Village Neighborhood Center. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking forward to that,” Hart said. “Trying to restore some of the glory of the old and just bring back some of the remembrance.” And, if Hart has her way, maybe bring a roller derby, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Richmond's Black community struck a deal with politicians to build integrated housing long before the Fair Housing Act. Instead, a thriving Black community grew.",
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"subhead": "Parchester Village in Richmond, California tried to build integrated housing in the 1950s. Here's what happened.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3GZjPUc\">\u003cem>Read the transcript here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You would be hard-pressed to get lost in Parchester Village, a small neighborhood in North Richmond. There’s a big loop road encircling the neighborhood of some 400 homes — \u003ca href=\"https://www.eichlernetwork.com/article/king-flat-tops\">many of which feature the original flat-top roof design\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea [for Parchester Village] was spearheaded by a group of ministers,” said longtime Village resident Maxine Henagan. “And the streets are named after each one of those ministers that participated on the committee that would spearhead getting the land.” \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Those ministers also organized to sell the homes.\u003c/span>\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>One local minister in particular, Rev. Guthrie Williams, led the charge in brokering a deal with a local politician and a wealthy landowner to create quality housing for Black Americans at a time when racist lending and housing policies, like redlining, barred Black people from buying homes. The result was the first tract home development in Northern California explicitly open to Black residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wartime workers organize to demand rights\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>During World War II, many Black Americans left the South and moved to Richmond for jobs in the shipyards. When the war ended, the wartime housing projects where they lived were scheduled to be torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The postwar period saw a real frenzy of building communities and homes and developments all around in the suburban areas,” said Shirley Ann Moore, professor emerita of history at \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sacramento State University\u003c/span>. “But those developments that were going up were restricted on a racial basis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Moore’s book, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520229204/to-place-our-deeds\">To Place Our Deeds: The African American Community in Richmond, California, 1910–1963\u003c/a>,” details the Black community’s impact on Richmond before and after World War II. According to Moore, city officials hoped all newcomers who moved for the war industries, Black people especially, would go back to where they came from after the war. Instead, the working-class Black community in Richmond grew, becoming an influential political force in the area — a political force that was not only exercising its power in Richmond, but across the country, paving the road for the modern civil rights movement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those working-class Black people took the lead,” said Moore. “People who had been presumed not to be aware of the political currents around them were really in the vanguard.” Enter Rev. Guthrie Williams, a carpenter by trade who, in 1949, started organizing to end housing and workplace discrimination in Richmond. A self-described “persistent, cantankerous cuss,” Williams created the small, Richmond-based Universal Non-Partisan League to help bridge the racial divide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933547\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933547\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-800x532.jpg\" alt=\"A man wearing glasses next to a table with family photographs\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-800x532.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-160x106.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1536x1021.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper-1920x1276.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Guthrie-Williams-in-newspaper.jpg 1988w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rev. Guthrie Williams in a photo featured in the Independent and Gazette in December 1980. \u003ccite>(Mike Musielski for the Independent and Gazette/Courtesy of Richmond Museum of History and Culture)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“He garnered a lot of support from those people living in the housing projects, and they became very valuable voters. And white politicians began to see that, too,” Moore said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Amos Hinkley was one of those white politicians, a City Council member running for reelection in 1949. He approached Williams and the League to support his campaign. Williams agreed in exchange for Hinkley’s commitment to create permanent housing for Black people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinkley was backed by Fred Parr, a wealthy developer who was key in building the Richmond shipping terminal and Kaiser shipyards. Parr brought lots of industry to the Bay Area, like the Ford Motor Company plant in Richmond, and owned 800 acres of industrial land in North Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933530\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 246px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-11933530\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"246\" height=\"317\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1.jpg 386w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Fred-Parr-1-160x206.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Portrait of Fred Parr in 1952. \u003ccite>(The Henry Ford)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hinkley arranged a meeting among Parr, Williams and another local minister to talk about how some of Parr’s land could be used for housing for the Black community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 2002 documentary “\u003ca href=\"https://richmond.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=6&clip_id=312\">An Exploration of Our History: The Story of North Richmond\u003c/a>,” then-Richmond City Manager Isiah Turner, now deceased, recounted the deal: “[Parr] agreed that if the ministers could help them sell the homes for this land out here that he owned, that he would support working with the Black community so we could buy these homes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933536\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933536\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Mackay-John-and-Dick-and-Earl-Smith-1-cropped.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Builder Earl W. ‘Flat Top’ Smith (fourth from left) with neighborhood ministers, including Rev. L. Thomas (fourth from right, rear) and other developers at Parchester Village in Richmond. Smith, famous for his modern, affordable home-building — with flat-top roofs — designed and built the homes for Parchester Village. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the El Cerrito Historical Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the end of the meeting, Williams had a commitment from Parr to back the housing development that would become Parchester Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Envisioning a community for ‘all Americans’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Parchester Village opened in 1950, it was advertised as “a home community for all Americans.” Early sales reflected that goal, with 30% of homes purchased by white buyers and the remaining 70% by Black and Asian Americans. That’s according to Fred Parr’s nephew, John Parr Cox, who recalled the housing project in a \u003ca href=\"https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb329005h7;NAAN=13030&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=0&toc.id=0&brand=oac4\">1986 interview with the UC Berkeley Oral History Project\u003c/a>. But “within a couple of years, the community changed completely to all Black,” Parr Cox said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 278px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-11933533\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-800x1067.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"278\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-800x1067.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1020x1360.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-160x213.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Parchester-Flyer-Yellow-scaled-e1669768391728.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 278px) 100vw, 278px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Archival partial photocopy of the original advertisement for the sale of Parchester Village homes. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Richmond Public Library Richmond Collection)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“White flight” was common at the time, wherein white families fled neighborhoods where people of color were moving in. Some Black Richmondites held the more cynical view that Fred Parr never intended for an integrated community to work out, said Moore, of \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sacramento State University\u003c/span>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Regardless of the intentions of the white community, Rev. Williams told the Independent and Gazette in 1980 that he wanted Parchester to be an “All-American project.” He added, “We hoped to set a standard of perfection in fair play in housing for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Williams’ dream of a racially integrated community didn’t work out, the Black people who moved in still created something special. The political pressure Williams and others placed on city leaders to build Parchester Village was just the beginning of what became an active, organized neighborhood association that supported a vibrant community known for its safety, high-achieving children and regular block-party barbecues.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘We never locked our doors’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“It was a village that everybody’s home was your home,” Charleszetta Pruitt remembered. Pruitt is a former resident whose family was one of the first to settle in Parchester. “You were cared about,” she said. “They provided for you.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933554\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11933554 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-800x516.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"516\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-800x516.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1020x658.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-160x103.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1536x991.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-2048x1322.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Charleszetta-Pruitt-family-1-1920x1239.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charleszetta Pruitt’s parents lounging on their lawn on Johnson Drive in Parchester Village while Pruitt, age 7, plays with a friend, circa 1954. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Charleszetta Pruitt)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It felt like family, like a safe place,” recalled KQED announcer Michelle Henagan, who also grew up in Parchester Village. “Like coming home from school, you knew all your friends are going to be going around the neighborhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Michelle’s mother, Maxine Henagan, has lived in the Village since 1974 and takes pride in its history. “I think it’s exciting to be part of that history and knowing that the neighborhood where I live is actually organized and spearheaded by African American people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933527\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11933527 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-800x559.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-800x559.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1020x713.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-160x112.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1536x1073.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-2048x1431.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Maxine-Henagan-cropped-1920x1342.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parchester Village resident Maxine Henagan at home, holding up the T-shirt she designed for the Village’s 45th anniversary reunion celebration. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The political organizing that Rev. Williams exemplified continued as the community grew. Parchester Village was built on unincorporated land, so residents lobbied the county to get services like streetlights and sewage through nearby San Pablo. They also sued the city of Richmond in 1950 to give their children access to Richmond’s public schools. It was one of many battles residents fought and won over the years. Eventually, they petitioned to be formally incorporated into Richmond, which was approved in 1963.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Resident Goretha Johnson, who currently serves as the Parchester Village Neighborhood Council president, reflected on growing up in the Village during those early years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were really self-contained,” she said. “We had our own store, our own gas station, our own nightclub. We were a community of many different professions because at that time they wouldn’t allow Black people to buy in other neighborhoods. So we had plumbers, laborers, teachers, doctors. Just everybody came together into one place. And everybody took pride in their property.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933526\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933526\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-800x600.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-160x120.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-2048x1536.jpg 2048w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Hart-and-Johnson-edited-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Parchester Village residents Lori Hart (left) and Goretha Johnson at Johnson’s home. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Resident Lori Hart, a friend of Johnson’s, also grew up in Parchester Village and lives there now. She remembered the Village’s political prowess well: “We used to be extremely politically involved. I remember hearing about how they would go down to the City Council and raise some Cain if something was not right.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hart was a big fan of the neighborhood’s bookmobile, which came by regularly to lend books. “It was anticipated and expected you would be somebody growing up,” Hart said. “We were taught and encouraged to read and we were taught to respect one another.” She added that the Village “was a space of safety. We never locked our doors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Change comes to Parchester\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Changes started creeping into the community in the 1970s. After the Fair Housing Act of 1968, more Bay Area neighborhoods started to integrate. The Village was no longer the only place in Richmond where Black families could buy, so they started branching out into other parts of the city. By the 1980s, many of the local businesses had long since closed. And then the crack epidemic hit the community hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s when the landscape really changed,” Johnson said. “It just kind of wiped through everybody’s home. It’s like everybody was touched with somebody who had got involved with that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1990s, a neighborhood teenager was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. His death rocked the Parchester community. In response, Marilyn Dillihant, then a county alcohol and drug prevention specialist who grew up in Parchester, reasserted the Village’s values and established a youth association to give young people positive things to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the early 2000s, many original homeowners still called Parchester home, and the block-party barbecues were still in effect. But, like any neighborhood that evolves over time, it was becoming harder to hold onto its founding essence. It was also harder to hold onto homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>High housing costs have pushed many Black families out of the Bay Area, putting \u003ca href=\"https://bayareaequityatlas.org/node/65531\">current Black homeownership rates at just 34%\u003c/a>, according to data analysis by Bay Area Equity Atlas. That’s a decline that’s mirrored in Parchester, where it’s now only 20% Black, according to the 2020 census. Twenty years ago, the population was almost 80% Black.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With fewer residents who have direct ties to the tight-knit, open-door community of Parchester’s heyday, the strong sense of community it once cultivated has waned.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Parchester spirit lives on\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Eli Moore, program director with \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/\">UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute\u003c/a> who co-authored \u003ca href=\"https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/haasinstitute_housingandbelongingrichmond_psprint_jan11.pdf\">a 2017 housing study in Richmond (PDF)\u003c/a>, said recent community efforts in Richmond remind him of Parchester Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m thinking about \u003ca href=\"https://www.richmondland.org/potowski-av\">Richmond Land\u003c/a> and the community land trust that they’ve set up and the way that they’re really working with residents to build new models for collectively owning and developing housing,” Moore said. “And in that way, becoming more self-sufficient and creating platforms for the community to take action — with city support or without city support — to meet their needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stories like Parchester’s also fuel conversations Moore and the institute have had around belonging in the Bay Area. “How do folks hold onto the place that they love and live in? It’s belonging to place — and that doesn’t just mean geography,” Moore said. “It means the connections to neighbors, to faith communities, to schools and elders and friends and community. It’s belonging to a collective, to a history, to a set of memories, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all the changes, Hart and Johnson are committed to bringing back some of the classic Parchester Village spirit to the community and feeding that sense of belonging Moore described. The Neighborhood Center, one of the last standing original Parchester institutions, was recently renovated and can once again be a hub for meetings and events.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11933523\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11933523\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-800x450.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Neighborhood-Center.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Parchester Village Neighborhood Center. \u003ccite>(Ariana Proehl/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re looking forward to that,” Hart said. “Trying to restore some of the glory of the old and just bring back some of the remembrance.” And, if Hart has her way, maybe bring a roller derby, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Why Doesn't BART Go More Places?",
"headTitle": "Why Doesn’t BART Go More Places? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3AlGTIB\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley doctoral candidate Ziad Shafi has lived in several parts of the U.S. and in Europe. In Washington, D.C., he was impressed with the metro system, which took him most places he wanted to go. Same thing in many European cities. So, when he moved to the Bay Area and started riding BART, he was a little confused. Look at any BART map and you’ll see lines converging from Contra Costa and Alameda counties on a single corridor through the Transbay Tube across San Francisco and down the Peninsula to San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Metros and subways in European cities tend to be spread out, hitting every city corner,” Ziad said. “Why do four of the five BART lines (red, yellow, green, blue) go all the way from West Oakland to Daly City? It seems like a mistake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziad submitted his question to Bay Curious and it won \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious/\">a voting round\u003c/a>, so a lot of people have been wondering why BART was designed this way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, what one person sees as a mistake can be another’s very deliberate strategy. And in this case, BART’s route is the product of what public officials, business interests and planners in the 1950s thought a rapid transit system should be. They planned BART as a system with a single main line on its route down to the Peninsula. (Yes, BART was originally envisioned as a system that would also run west through northern and parts of western San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond, but that plan died in 1962 when Marin County officials opted out of the system.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing dominance of the automobile — and the massive highway construction that went along with it — lay behind the choice of a main line system whose central mission was to get commuters and shoppers from outlying areas to and from downtown San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23314106/redundancy-in-public-transit-1980-adler-chapter-ix.pdf\">1955 status report (PDF)\u003c/a> prepared for the commission overseeing BART planning argued that the only way a regional rapid transit system would persuade drivers to get out of their cars was if service was fast, frequent and comfortable. Patronage would depend on having widely spaced stations, each with a huge parking lot or easy bus access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"More Bay Curious BART Episodes\" link1=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-are-bart-trains-so-loud/id1172473406?i=1000392016987&ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=podcast_box,Why Are BART Trains So Loud?\" link2=\"https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/youre-really-really-curious-about-bart/id1172473406?i=1000464113096&ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=podcast_box,You're Really Really Curious About BART\"]Planners contrasted that with what they termed a “neighborhood system,” one that would be within walking distance of most Bay Area homes, and which would require lots of train lines and lots of stops. While that kind of service might be accessible, the frequency of stops and longer waits between trains would mean it was slower — and thus unlikely to woo drivers who were believed to value speed and personal convenience above all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foregoing considerations compel in our minds a recommendation for a main line, trunk system, even without taking into account its much lower capital and operating costs as compared to a neighborhood system,” the 1955 memo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932714\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932714\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-800x997.jpg\" alt=\"A 1970 aerial view of freeway and rapid transit construction in Oakland, California.\" width=\"800\" height=\"997\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-800x997.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1020x1271.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-160x199.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1233x1536.jpg 1233w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1644x2048.jpg 1644w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1920x2392.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of the Grove-Shafter Freeway and Bay Area Rapid Transit MacArthur Station construction on Aug. 29, 1970, in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Russ Reed, from plane flown by Warren Boggess/MediaNews Group-Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, one shouldn’t forget that there was — and is — transit that ties into BART on both sides of the bay. In San Francisco, we’re talking about Muni, mostly. And in the East Bay, we’re talking about AC Transit. If you add those network maps to the rather skeletal BART system, transit looks much more robust — though yes, you’re required to jump from one operator to another to get to your destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a couple of important historical notes to touch upon regarding Muni and the possibility of more rapid transit in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco rejects new subway lines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>City officials had started touting the possibility of citywide subway service as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Those initiatives were moved to the back burner several times — by “no” votes from the electorate, World War II and, later, by the belief that with BART on the way, such a system might be redundant. The last serious attempt to turn that idea into reality came in 1966.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposition B on the city’s November ballot that year included a $96.5 million bond issue that would help pay for construction of three new rapid transit subways across the city. The new routes — one to the Richmond District, one to the Sunset, one to the San Francisco State neighborhood by way of Twin Peaks — would take advantage of BART’s two-level subway tunnel under Market Street and make it possible to reach downtown in 20 minutes from anywhere along the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure, which would require tax increases, needed a two-thirds vote to pass. It garnered only a 57% “yes” vote. The plan was never revived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932710\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932710\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-800x613.png\" alt=\"A 1966 newspaper map showing proposed routes for San Francisco rapid transit.\" width=\"800\" height=\"613\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-800x613.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-1020x782.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-160x123.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-1536x1177.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM.png 1730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map the San Francisco Examiner printed just before the November 1966 vote on a bond issue to fund a Muni rapid transit network in San Francisco. The caption read: “Here’s a look at the overall transit plan showing the six major high-speed subways and bus lines. Routes 1, 4 and 6 would be financed by Proposition B. Passage of Proposition B at the Nov. 8 elections qualify the Muni for federal aid to build No. 2 and No. 2. BART is building No. 5.” \u003ccite>(San Francisco Examiner via Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jason Henderson, a San Francisco State University professor of geography who has written extensively on the city’s transportation politics, said in his 2013 book “\u003ca href=\"https://geog.sfsu.edu/publication/street-fight-politics-mobility-san-francisco\">Street Fight\u003c/a>” that the measure failed for a variety of reasons: a distaste for higher taxes and fear that the new subways would spur unwanted dense development. Voters were unconvinced the new transit plan, which would scrap the existing J, K, L, M and N streetcar lines, would be an improvement on Muni’s existing network. Henderson wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Some neighborhood groups were opposed to the proposal because the plan included restructuring of the bus routes so that the buses fed into the rapid transit trunk lines. … Passengers’ actual travel times would be higher with the transfer and restructuring of routes. The transit plan of 1966 discontinued almost all electric trolley bus service, replacing it with a diesel bus fleet. Some neighborhood groups opposed the proposal on these grounds because in San Francisco, with its many hills, diesel buses performed especially poorly and were extremely noisy compared to electric buses.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But that’s the past. Is a denser, more efficient transit system — the kind our question-asker Ziad talked about — in our future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with Bay Curious, Henderson said that in order to “decarbonize” rapidly enough to head off the worst effects of climate change, staggering levels of new investment will be necessary to build a regional rail system and interim systems like busways where it might be too expensive or time-consuming to build train lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Northern California, we’re a region that should be tied together by a train system that rivals or exceeds the freeway system we have,” Henderson said. “I think we could spend the next generation building that. And yes, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, but that’s what we’ve got to spend to address the climate issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making current system more efficient\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A regional rail system is coming — eventually. BART and other agencies are working on \u003ca href=\"https://link21program.org/en\">Link21\u003c/a>, an effort to refine a plan for a second transbay rail crossing, and building out improved train service for the “megaregion” stretching to Sacramento and the northern San Joaquin Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932707\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso.jpeg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"A passenger train reflected in a trackside puddle at sunset.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso.jpeg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amtrak California’s Capitol Corridor — seen here at Alviso on the south end of San Francisco Bay — is among the partners in the Link21 program to create improved regional rail service. \u003ccite>(Max Camden/Link21-BART)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But like other big transportation projects in our region — \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/san-franciscos-central-subway-opens-for-limited-se\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco’s Central Subway\u003c/a>, BART’s planned extension through downtown San José to Santa Clara, the planned extension of Caltrain to the Salesforce Transit Center, among others — a second transbay crossing promises to be not only expensive, but very slow in moving from plan to reality. Link21’s estimated date for completion is 2039.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the urgency of climate change and the role that clean transportation can play in providing a solution, Henderson is one of many people impatient to see progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We gotta move fast,” he said. “We’ve got to be scaling up and rolling this stuff out this decade and in the early part of the ’30s if we’re gonna really seriously take on this climate issue. And we need to be inspiring the rest of the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART) was designed from the beginning to be a 'trunk line' that would bring commuters and shoppers into Oakland and San Francisco from the suburbs.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://bit.ly/3AlGTIB\">\u003cem>Read a transcript of this episode here.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley doctoral candidate Ziad Shafi has lived in several parts of the U.S. and in Europe. In Washington, D.C., he was impressed with the metro system, which took him most places he wanted to go. Same thing in many European cities. So, when he moved to the Bay Area and started riding BART, he was a little confused. Look at any BART map and you’ll see lines converging from Contra Costa and Alameda counties on a single corridor through the Transbay Tube across San Francisco and down the Peninsula to San Francisco International Airport and Millbrae.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Metros and subways in European cities tend to be spread out, hitting every city corner,” Ziad said. “Why do four of the five BART lines (red, yellow, green, blue) go all the way from West Oakland to Daly City? It seems like a mistake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ziad submitted his question to Bay Curious and it won \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious/\">a voting round\u003c/a>, so a lot of people have been wondering why BART was designed this way.\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>Of course, what one person sees as a mistake can be another’s very deliberate strategy. And in this case, BART’s route is the product of what public officials, business interests and planners in the 1950s thought a rapid transit system should be. They planned BART as a system with a single main line on its route down to the Peninsula. (Yes, BART was originally envisioned as a system that would also run west through northern and parts of western San Francisco to the Golden Gate Bridge and beyond, but that plan died in 1962 when Marin County officials opted out of the system.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The growing dominance of the automobile — and the massive highway construction that went along with it — lay behind the choice of a main line system whose central mission was to get commuters and shoppers from outlying areas to and from downtown San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23314106/redundancy-in-public-transit-1980-adler-chapter-ix.pdf\">1955 status report (PDF)\u003c/a> prepared for the commission overseeing BART planning argued that the only way a regional rapid transit system would persuade drivers to get out of their cars was if service was fast, frequent and comfortable. Patronage would depend on having widely spaced stations, each with a huge parking lot or easy bus access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"link1": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-are-bart-trains-so-loud/id1172473406?i=1000392016987&ign-itscg=30200S&ign-itsct=podcast_box,Why Are BART Trains So Loud?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Planners contrasted that with what they termed a “neighborhood system,” one that would be within walking distance of most Bay Area homes, and which would require lots of train lines and lots of stops. While that kind of service might be accessible, the frequency of stops and longer waits between trains would mean it was slower — and thus unlikely to woo drivers who were believed to value speed and personal convenience above all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foregoing considerations compel in our minds a recommendation for a main line, trunk system, even without taking into account its much lower capital and operating costs as compared to a neighborhood system,” the 1955 memo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932714\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-scaled.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932714\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-800x997.jpg\" alt=\"A 1970 aerial view of freeway and rapid transit construction in Oakland, California.\" width=\"800\" height=\"997\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-800x997.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1020x1271.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-160x199.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1233x1536.jpg 1233w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1644x2048.jpg 1644w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/GettyImages-1318535223-1920x2392.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of the Grove-Shafter Freeway and Bay Area Rapid Transit MacArthur Station construction on Aug. 29, 1970, in Oakland. \u003ccite>(Russ Reed, from plane flown by Warren Boggess/MediaNews Group-Oakland Tribune via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now, one shouldn’t forget that there was — and is — transit that ties into BART on both sides of the bay. In San Francisco, we’re talking about Muni, mostly. And in the East Bay, we’re talking about AC Transit. If you add those network maps to the rather skeletal BART system, transit looks much more robust — though yes, you’re required to jump from one operator to another to get to your destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There are a couple of important historical notes to touch upon regarding Muni and the possibility of more rapid transit in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>San Francisco rejects new subway lines\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>City officials had started touting the possibility of citywide subway service as far back as the first decade of the 20th century. Those initiatives were moved to the back burner several times — by “no” votes from the electorate, World War II and, later, by the belief that with BART on the way, such a system might be redundant. The last serious attempt to turn that idea into reality came in 1966.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Proposition B on the city’s November ballot that year included a $96.5 million bond issue that would help pay for construction of three new rapid transit subways across the city. The new routes — one to the Richmond District, one to the Sunset, one to the San Francisco State neighborhood by way of Twin Peaks — would take advantage of BART’s two-level subway tunnel under Market Street and make it possible to reach downtown in 20 minutes from anywhere along the line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure, which would require tax increases, needed a two-thirds vote to pass. It garnered only a 57% “yes” vote. The plan was never revived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932710\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM.png\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932710\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-800x613.png\" alt=\"A 1966 newspaper map showing proposed routes for San Francisco rapid transit.\" width=\"800\" height=\"613\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-800x613.png 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-1020x782.png 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-160x123.png 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM-1536x1177.png 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Screen-Shot-2022-11-17-at-3.35.12-PM.png 1730w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A map the San Francisco Examiner printed just before the November 1966 vote on a bond issue to fund a Muni rapid transit network in San Francisco. The caption read: “Here’s a look at the overall transit plan showing the six major high-speed subways and bus lines. Routes 1, 4 and 6 would be financed by Proposition B. Passage of Proposition B at the Nov. 8 elections qualify the Muni for federal aid to build No. 2 and No. 2. BART is building No. 5.” \u003ccite>(San Francisco Examiner via Newspapers.com)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Jason Henderson, a San Francisco State University professor of geography who has written extensively on the city’s transportation politics, said in his 2013 book “\u003ca href=\"https://geog.sfsu.edu/publication/street-fight-politics-mobility-san-francisco\">Street Fight\u003c/a>” that the measure failed for a variety of reasons: a distaste for higher taxes and fear that the new subways would spur unwanted dense development. Voters were unconvinced the new transit plan, which would scrap the existing J, K, L, M and N streetcar lines, would be an improvement on Muni’s existing network. Henderson wrote:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“Some neighborhood groups were opposed to the proposal because the plan included restructuring of the bus routes so that the buses fed into the rapid transit trunk lines. … Passengers’ actual travel times would be higher with the transfer and restructuring of routes. The transit plan of 1966 discontinued almost all electric trolley bus service, replacing it with a diesel bus fleet. Some neighborhood groups opposed the proposal on these grounds because in San Francisco, with its many hills, diesel buses performed especially poorly and were extremely noisy compared to electric buses.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>But that’s the past. Is a denser, more efficient transit system — the kind our question-asker Ziad talked about — in our future?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an interview with Bay Curious, Henderson said that in order to “decarbonize” rapidly enough to head off the worst effects of climate change, staggering levels of new investment will be necessary to build a regional rail system and interim systems like busways where it might be too expensive or time-consuming to build train lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Northern California, we’re a region that should be tied together by a train system that rivals or exceeds the freeway system we have,” Henderson said. “I think we could spend the next generation building that. And yes, it would cost hundreds of billions of dollars, but that’s what we’ve got to spend to address the climate issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Making current system more efficient\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A regional rail system is coming — eventually. BART and other agencies are working on \u003ca href=\"https://link21program.org/en\">Link21\u003c/a>, an effort to refine a plan for a second transbay rail crossing, and building out improved train service for the “megaregion” stretching to Sacramento and the northern San Joaquin Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11932707\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso.jpeg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11932707\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-800x533.jpeg\" alt=\"A passenger train reflected in a trackside puddle at sunset.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-800x533.jpeg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1020x680.jpeg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-160x107.jpeg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso-1920x1280.jpeg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/11/Capitol-Corridor-Alviso.jpeg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amtrak California’s Capitol Corridor — seen here at Alviso on the south end of San Francisco Bay — is among the partners in the Link21 program to create improved regional rail service. \u003ccite>(Max Camden/Link21-BART)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But like other big transportation projects in our region — \u003ca href=\"https://omny.fm/shows/kqed-segmented-audio/san-franciscos-central-subway-opens-for-limited-se\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">San Francisco’s Central Subway\u003c/a>, BART’s planned extension through downtown San José to Santa Clara, the planned extension of Caltrain to the Salesforce Transit Center, among others — a second transbay crossing promises to be not only expensive, but very slow in moving from plan to reality. Link21’s estimated date for completion is 2039.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Given the urgency of climate change and the role that clean transportation can play in providing a solution, Henderson is one of many people impatient to see progress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We gotta move fast,” he said. “We’ve got to be scaling up and rolling this stuff out this decade and in the early part of the ’30s if we’re gonna really seriously take on this climate issue. And we need to be inspiring the rest of the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Intoxicating Beats: Searching For The Bay Area's African Music Scene",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Read the transcript \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3hzxB5v\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area has a vibrant and eclectic music scene, but when Jessica Kariisa moved here last year she couldn’t find many places playing the African dance hits she loves. She’d spent time in big East Coast cities like Washington, D.C. and New York that have large, visible African populations, so she was surprised that she didn’t see many people that looked like her in either San Jose, where she lives, or San Francisco, where she works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But African music is her passion, so Jessica went on a mission to find it. Her first clue that there was something in the Bay Area came from a line in Fireboy DML’s hit song, “Peru,” when he croons, “I’m in San Francisco jamming.” Anyone else might have heard that as a throw away line, but to Jessica it was a clue. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jessica soon found out that while not as visible, Africans have been spinning music they love and hosting dance parties for decades. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13920633/finding-musical-gems-in-the-bay-areas-african-club-scene\">Check out the amazing dance parties, clubs and community Jessica found in from San Jose to Oakland and back to San Francisco\u003c/a>. Through the love of music, DJs and fans paint the picture of a community willing to go to great lengths for that next hot track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion] \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Afropop is having a bit of a moment in the United States right now, but the Bay Area has had a thriving African music scene for a long time. We take you on a journey through the Bay Area's history with African dance music. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Read the transcript \u003ca href=\"http://bit.ly/3hzxB5v\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">here.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area has a vibrant and eclectic music scene, but when Jessica Kariisa moved here last year she couldn’t find many places playing the African dance hits she loves. She’d spent time in big East Coast cities like Washington, D.C. and New York that have large, visible African populations, so she was surprised that she didn’t see many people that looked like her in either San Jose, where she lives, or San Francisco, where she works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But African music is her passion, so Jessica went on a mission to find it. Her first clue that there was something in the Bay Area came from a line in Fireboy DML’s hit song, “Peru,” when he croons, “I’m in San Francisco jamming.” Anyone else might have heard that as a throw away line, but to Jessica it was a clue. \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>Jessica soon found out that while not as visible, Africans have been spinning music they love and hosting dance parties for decades. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/13920633/finding-musical-gems-in-the-bay-areas-african-club-scene\">Check out the amazing dance parties, clubs and community Jessica found in from San Jose to Oakland and back to San Francisco\u003c/a>. Through the love of music, DJs and fans paint the picture of a community willing to go to great lengths for that next hot track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
"airtime": "SUN 9pm-10pm",
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"meta": {
"site": "radio",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.commonwealthclub.org/podcasts",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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}
},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
"title": "Freakonomics Radio",
"info": "Freakonomics Radio is a one-hour award-winning podcast and public-radio project hosted by Stephen Dubner, with co-author Steve Levitt as a regular guest. It is produced in partnership with WNYC.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
"rss": "https://feeds.feedburner.com/freakonomicsradio"
}
},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
"title": "Fresh Air",
"info": "Hosted by Terry Gross, \u003cem>Fresh Air from WHYY\u003c/em> is the Peabody Award-winning weekday magazine of contemporary arts and issues. One of public radio's most popular programs, Fresh Air features intimate conversations with today's biggest luminaries.",
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"link": "/radio/program/fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/381444908/podcast.xml"
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"id": "here-and-now",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/hiddenbrain.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/series/423302056/hidden-brain",
"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
"subscribe": {
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"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Science-Podcasts/Hidden-Brain-p787503/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510308/podcast.xml"
}
},
"how-i-built-this": {
"id": "how-i-built-this",
"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"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. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
"imageAlt": "KQED Hyphenación",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/6c3dd23c-93fb-4aab-97ba-1725fa6315f1/hyphenaci%C3%B3n",
"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/xtTd",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"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.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Masters-of-Scale-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"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>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mindshift-podcast/id1078765985",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/464615685/mind-shift-podcast",
"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/kqed/stories-teachers-share",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"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?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"stitcher": "https://www.stitcher.com/show/on-our-watch",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id73801135",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/432309616/perspectives",
"rss": "https://ww2.kqed.org/perspectives/category/perspectives/feed/",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93dzIua3FlZC5vcmcvcGVyc3BlY3RpdmVzL2NhdGVnb3J5L3BlcnNwZWN0aXZlcy9mZWVkLw"
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},
"planet-money": {
"id": "planet-money",
"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/sections/money/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/M4f5",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/planet-money/id290783428?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business--Economics-Podcasts/Planet-Money-p164680/",
"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510289/podcast.xml"
}
},
"politicalbreakdown": {
"id": "politicalbreakdown",
"title": "Political Breakdown",
"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.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Political-Breakdown-2024-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Political Breakdown",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 5
},
"link": "/podcasts/politicalbreakdown",
"subscribe": {
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"amazon": "https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e0c2d153-ad36-4c8d-901d-f1da6a724824/political-breakdown",
"npr": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/572155894/political-breakdown",
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