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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco is a town that prides itself on its quirkiness, sense of humor and colorful characters. Nothing captures that spirit quite like “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Created by Steve Silver in 1974, the musical revue tour de force featured parodies of celebrities and current events, poking fun at political figures on both sides of the spectrum and sparing no one. Tourists and locals alike loved the campy show that seemed to encapsulate some of San Francisco’s zany energy. Over its 45-year run, it became synonymous with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The locals would come and see it about 10 times and bring people, because it was never the same show twice,” said Jo Schuman Silver, owner and producer of “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Schuman Silver was married to the show’s creator, Steve Silver, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/14/obituaries/steve-silver-51-creator-of-revue-that-captivated-san-francisco.html\">died of AIDS in 1995\u003c/a>. Before he passed, Steve asked Jo to run the show and made her promise to keep it intact and true to his vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schuman Silver said the audience was two-thirds local, one-third tourist, even though most people thought it was the other way around. When the British royal family visited San Francisco, they went to “Beach Blanket Babylon.” And numerous San Francisco figures, like former Mayors Willie Brown and Ed Lee, have made appearances in the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The musical revue’s first home was the \u003ca href=\"https://brokeassstuart.com/sf/2014/09/25/the-city-that-was-the-savoy-tivoli/\">Savoy Tivoli\u003c/a>, a North Beach club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was narrow, but very high,” said Schuman Silver. “And in order to fill the space [Steve] started building hats. Very small at first and they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879015\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879015\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sketch of Beach Blanket Babylon waitress hat next to the character on stage.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1966\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-800x614.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1020x783.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1536x1180.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-2048x1573.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1920x1475.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Silver sketch of ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’ waitress costume next to the character on stage. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Beach Blanket Babylon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the show moved to \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/new-circus-show-to-take-the-stage-in-club-fugazi-former-venue-of-beach-blanket-babylon\">Club Fugazi\u003c/a>, its home for decades, it had already become known for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Behind-the-scenes-14927676.php#photo-18765215\">fabulous costumes\u003c/a>, sense of humor and humongous hats. Steve Silver changed the musical numbers continuously, aided by a 6,000-foot San Francisco warehouse full of costumes that could be repurposed to create fresh-feeling content in record time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very, very current,” Schuman Silver said. “If something happened in the morning that we thought was relevant and our audience would care, we would get in the show by that night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Jo Schuman Silver took over producing the show, she tried to run it the way Silver would have wanted. But she admits, the show became \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10137317/naughty-and-nice-forty-years-of-beach-blanket-babylon\">a bit more political during her time\u003c/a>. One of her most memorable skits was from 2003 when Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his run for governor of California. Schuman Silver happened to see him make the announcement on Jay Leno, “which was really unusual for me. I hardly ever saw that show,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She called a team member and told them to dig up the “Terminator” costume from the warehouse for a skit the next night. When Donald Trump got into politics, the “Beach Blanket Babylon” team already had the wigs and costumes to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11780183/from-schwarzenegger-to-trump-beach-blanket-babylon-has-stayed-on-top-of-headlines-for-45-years\">make him a central character of the show\u003c/a> almost every night, sometimes more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879016\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Silver sketch of the Hollywood hat next to the on stage charcter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1485\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-800x619.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-1020x789.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-1536x1188.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Silver sketch of the Hollywood hat next to the on stage character. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Beach Blanket Babylon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Schuman Silver announced that “Beach Blanket Babylon” would \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/sf-treasure-beach-blanket-babylon-to-close-after-45-years\">close at the end of 2019\u003c/a>, not because it was in financial trouble, but because she felt it was time. Little did she know the coronavirus pandemic would hit just a few months later, completely changing the theater landscape for the next year and a half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How lucky were we that I closed the show a month before COVID came? I cannot believe how fortunate we were,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the show closed, Schuman Silver and her team have been organizing their warehouse and fielding requests to either preserve “Beach Blanket” memorabilia or lend it out. Much of that work stopped when San Francisco shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but now she is picking it back up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking back at all the props, crazy wigs, 300-pound hats and other ridiculous costumes, she says it’s like looking at a history of the later part of the 20th century into the 21st century. Preserving it is her “labor of love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., wants a few pieces. The last time Schuman Silver spoke with them it seemed like they’d get a dancing Christmas tree, a Mr. Peanut dressed as Santa Claus and probably some royals stuff from when the show went on tour to London. They’re still finalizing the list. Other treasures will go to local museums, including the de Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing about ‘Beach Blanket’ that made it so visually beautiful is that Steve Silver is an artist, so everything was drawn so beautifully,” Schuman Silver said. “He sketched everything; how he saw his show; how he saw numbers going in the show; and then we would give it to our makeup or costume designer and they would create what Steve had in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The famous \u003ca href=\"https://illustrationchronicles.com/al-hirschfeld-broadway-s-king-of-caricature\">sketch artist Al Hirschfeld\u003c/a> made several drawings of “Beach Blanket” characters. Those, Schuman Silver said, will go to the de Young Museum among other things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mronRVvdmw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re really careful where everything goes,” Schuman Silver said. She gets requests from all over the country, including local schools and theaters. She’s happy to help out by lending a hat or costume to a local group, but said when it comes to preserving the show’s legacy — and by extension Steve Silver’s legacy — she’s particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has to have a connection to the show, a connection to Steve Silver, a connection to the city. Everything in ‘Beach Blanket’ always had a reason why we did it. It looked like it didn’t have a reason, but everything has a meaning. So we have to decide where everything will go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young actors have approached her about reviving the show in some way, but she said no. She does, however, sometimes take requests for special performances at private events. Part of the reason “Beach Blanket Babylon” became so synonymous with the city was its inclusion of local celebrities and politicians. Steve Silver would often get requests for special musical numbers to commemorate an anniversary or wedding. Schuman Silver said if the cast who still live nearby want to do those types of events, she’s up for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Steve always wanted the show intact. And that’s how we’re keeping it,” she said. “I don’t think the idea of ‘Beach Blanket’ will ever die. It will be in different incarnations. That’s how I figure it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Beach Blanket Babylon fans have been wondering what will happen to the show's signature costumes and hats. Jo Schuman Silver says some will go to the Smithsonian and other local museums.",
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"title": "Preserving the Legacy of 'Beach Blanket Babylon' One Hat at a Time | KQED",
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"subhead": "Pieces From Beach Blanket Babylon Will Be Preserved At The Smithsonian",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco is a town that prides itself on its quirkiness, sense of humor and colorful characters. Nothing captures that spirit quite like “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Created by Steve Silver in 1974, the musical revue tour de force featured parodies of celebrities and current events, poking fun at political figures on both sides of the spectrum and sparing no one. Tourists and locals alike loved the campy show that seemed to encapsulate some of San Francisco’s zany energy. Over its 45-year run, it became synonymous with the city.\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 locals would come and see it about 10 times and bring people, because it was never the same show twice,” said Jo Schuman Silver, owner and producer of “Beach Blanket Babylon.” Schuman Silver was married to the show’s creator, Steve Silver, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/14/obituaries/steve-silver-51-creator-of-revue-that-captivated-san-francisco.html\">died of AIDS in 1995\u003c/a>. Before he passed, Steve asked Jo to run the show and made her promise to keep it intact and true to his vision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Schuman Silver said the audience was two-thirds local, one-third tourist, even though most people thought it was the other way around. When the British royal family visited San Francisco, they went to “Beach Blanket Babylon.” And numerous San Francisco figures, like former Mayors Willie Brown and Ed Lee, have made appearances in the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The musical revue’s first home was the \u003ca href=\"https://brokeassstuart.com/sf/2014/09/25/the-city-that-was-the-savoy-tivoli/\">Savoy Tivoli\u003c/a>, a North Beach club.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was narrow, but very high,” said Schuman Silver. “And in order to fill the space [Steve] started building hats. Very small at first and they kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879015\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879015\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Sketch of Beach Blanket Babylon waitress hat next to the character on stage.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1966\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-800x614.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1020x783.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-160x123.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1536x1180.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-2048x1573.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Waitress-Hat-1920x1475.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Silver sketch of ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’ waitress costume next to the character on stage. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Beach Blanket Babylon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the show moved to \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/new-circus-show-to-take-the-stage-in-club-fugazi-former-venue-of-beach-blanket-babylon\">Club Fugazi\u003c/a>, its home for decades, it had already become known for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/chronicle_vault/article/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Behind-the-scenes-14927676.php#photo-18765215\">fabulous costumes\u003c/a>, sense of humor and humongous hats. Steve Silver changed the musical numbers continuously, aided by a 6,000-foot San Francisco warehouse full of costumes that could be repurposed to create fresh-feeling content in record time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were very, very current,” Schuman Silver said. “If something happened in the morning that we thought was relevant and our audience would care, we would get in the show by that night.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Jo Schuman Silver took over producing the show, she tried to run it the way Silver would have wanted. But she admits, the show became \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/arts/10137317/naughty-and-nice-forty-years-of-beach-blanket-babylon\">a bit more political during her time\u003c/a>. One of her most memorable skits was from 2003 when Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his run for governor of California. Schuman Silver happened to see him make the announcement on Jay Leno, “which was really unusual for me. I hardly ever saw that show,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She called a team member and told them to dig up the “Terminator” costume from the warehouse for a skit the next night. When Donald Trump got into politics, the “Beach Blanket Babylon” team already had the wigs and costumes to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11780183/from-schwarzenegger-to-trump-beach-blanket-babylon-has-stayed-on-top-of-headlines-for-45-years\">make him a central character of the show\u003c/a> almost every night, sometimes more than once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11879016\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11879016\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped.jpg\" alt=\"Steve Silver sketch of the Hollywood hat next to the on stage charcter.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1485\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-800x619.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-1020x789.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Beach-Blanket-Babylon-Hollywood-Hat-cropped-1536x1188.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Silver sketch of the Hollywood hat next to the on stage character. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Beach Blanket Babylon)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Schuman Silver announced that “Beach Blanket Babylon” would \u003ca href=\"https://datebook.sfchronicle.com/theater/sf-treasure-beach-blanket-babylon-to-close-after-45-years\">close at the end of 2019\u003c/a>, not because it was in financial trouble, but because she felt it was time. Little did she know the coronavirus pandemic would hit just a few months later, completely changing the theater landscape for the next year and a half.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How lucky were we that I closed the show a month before COVID came? I cannot believe how fortunate we were,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the show closed, Schuman Silver and her team have been organizing their warehouse and fielding requests to either preserve “Beach Blanket” memorabilia or lend it out. Much of that work stopped when San Francisco shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but now she is picking it back up again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Looking back at all the props, crazy wigs, 300-pound hats and other ridiculous costumes, she says it’s like looking at a history of the later part of the 20th century into the 21st century. Preserving it is her “labor of love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., wants a few pieces. The last time Schuman Silver spoke with them it seemed like they’d get a dancing Christmas tree, a Mr. Peanut dressed as Santa Claus and probably some royals stuff from when the show went on tour to London. They’re still finalizing the list. Other treasures will go to local museums, including the de Young.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The thing about ‘Beach Blanket’ that made it so visually beautiful is that Steve Silver is an artist, so everything was drawn so beautifully,” Schuman Silver said. “He sketched everything; how he saw his show; how he saw numbers going in the show; and then we would give it to our makeup or costume designer and they would create what Steve had in mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The famous \u003ca href=\"https://illustrationchronicles.com/al-hirschfeld-broadway-s-king-of-caricature\">sketch artist Al Hirschfeld\u003c/a> made several drawings of “Beach Blanket” characters. Those, Schuman Silver said, will go to the de Young Museum among other things.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/9mronRVvdmw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/9mronRVvdmw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“We’re really careful where everything goes,” Schuman Silver said. She gets requests from all over the country, including local schools and theaters. She’s happy to help out by lending a hat or costume to a local group, but said when it comes to preserving the show’s legacy — and by extension Steve Silver’s legacy — she’s particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has to have a connection to the show, a connection to Steve Silver, a connection to the city. Everything in ‘Beach Blanket’ always had a reason why we did it. It looked like it didn’t have a reason, but everything has a meaning. So we have to decide where everything will go,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young actors have approached her about reviving the show in some way, but she said no. She does, however, sometimes take requests for special performances at private events. Part of the reason “Beach Blanket Babylon” became so synonymous with the city was its inclusion of local celebrities and politicians. Steve Silver would often get requests for special musical numbers to commemorate an anniversary or wedding. Schuman Silver said if the cast who still live nearby want to do those types of events, she’s up for it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Steve always wanted the show intact. And that’s how we’re keeping it,” she said. “I don’t think the idea of ‘Beach Blanket’ will ever die. It will be in different incarnations. That’s how I figure it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "San Jose Had 5 Chinatowns. What Happened To Them?",
"headTitle": "San Jose Had 5 Chinatowns. What Happened To Them? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>On the West Coast, you can find Chinatowns from Seattle to San Diego. The Bay Area is home to two of the oldest Chinatowns, in San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Jose also has a rich history of Chinatowns — there have been \u003cem>five\u003c/em> Chinatowns in its history. So, why doesn’t San Jose have a Chinatown today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story starts in the 1850s, when the Gold Rush drew thousands of people to California, including Chinese immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many of those Chinese immigrants who came were working class,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.scu.edu/cas/ethnic-studies/faculty--staff/james-s-lai/\">James Lai\u003c/a>, a professor of ethnic studies at Santa Clara University. “They came for the same reason why they still come this very day: for economic opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they arrived in California, the immigrants realized it was far from the dream of “Gold Mountain.” Some attempted mining for gold, but many others found work building the transcontinental railroad. Companies would pay for room, board and transportation, but the contracts for these jobs were short-term. When they ended, many of those men were left to fend for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had to continue on,” Lai said. “They had to find work in different ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some went to San Francisco and \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://immigrationtounitedstates.org/426-chinese-laundries.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500851000&usg=AOvVaw1TmGNgd_eDe4NC3K-7Ep0B\">opened laundromats\u003c/a> and other businesses, while others built levees throughout the\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154414?seq%3D1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500851000&usg=AOvVaw2ewXH_hfMFQjboyWdEBfmJ\"> Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DQ3LT1Exiv2YC%26pg%3DPP43%26lpg%3DPP43%26dq%3DChinese%2Bimmigrants%2Bpicking%2Borchards%2Bsanta%2Bclara%2Bvalley%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DmE1gJBaRRG%26sig%3DACfU3U3QhADwH3bvD5wIkKIatKHM6ueACw%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ved%3D2ahUKEwjmxpHNm6LwAhXMJDQIHWHzD50Q6AEwCXoECA0QAw%23v%3Donepage%26q%3DChinese%2520immigrants%2520picking%2520orchards%2520santa%2520clara%2520valley%26f%3Dfalse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500853000&usg=AOvVaw3GAPGVWoz63O4kmfFhF4lF\"> picked orchards in the Santa Clara Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Chinese immigrants first arrived, they expected to do hard labor, make their earnings and return home to their families. A lot of Chinese men came over, leaving women and children behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ratio was roughly 26-to-1 Chinese American men to women, at this point,” Lai said. “They never achieved the wealth that they hoped they would achieve to be able to return back to their village and retire or help their families. So they stayed and they endured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The First Chinatowns in San Jose\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Alien_land_laws/\">Racist policies\u003c/a> kept Chinese immigrants from owning property and white people didn’t want them in their neighborhoods. So, they built their own communities. In San Jose, it began with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chinese_in_San_Jose_and_the_Santa_Clara/Q1iXsBTZTPYC?hl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26dq%3Dfirst%2Bmarket%2Bstreet%2Bchinatown%2Bsan%2Bjose%26pg%3DPA10%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500849000&usg=AOvVaw2cs3gxlaMLOeoNemjY7cB9\">First Market Street Chinatown\u003c/a>, which was built in 1866, but burned down a few years later in 1870. The community rebuilt a few blocks away and became known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chinese_in_San_Jose_and_the_Santa_Clara/Q1iXsBTZTPYC?hl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26dq%3Dfirst%2Bmarket%2Bstreet%2Bchinatown%2Bsan%2Bjose%26pg%3DPA10%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500850000&usg=AOvVaw08mjb_Uf57Oo197CxGFX73\">Vine Street Chinatown. \u003c/a>It too burned down in 1872.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878185\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878185\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-800x524.jpg\" alt=\"The First Market Street Chinatown in San Jose was built in 1866. In this photo, the towers of McKenzie Iron Foundry, the San Jose Brewery and San Jose waterworks is visible in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-800x524.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-160x105.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The First Market Street Chinatown in San Jose was built in 1866. In this photo, the towers of McKenzie Iron Foundry, the San Jose Brewery and San Jose waterworks are visible in the background. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the moment Chinese immigrants started coming to America, they faced racism and violence. White residents wanted to send a message that they weren’t welcome and used arson to terrorize and destroy Chinese communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chinese immigrants kept rebuilding. Lai explains there wasn’t another option. “It was just simply to continue to try to plant your roots and the only way you could do it was through these kinds of Chinatowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the community was growing fast. In 1872, the Second Market Street Chinatown was built in downtown San Jose, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Bay-Area-San-Jose-Chinatown-history-arson-16194117.php\">Fairmont Hotel is located today\u003c/a>. More than 1,400 people lived there, a far bigger population than the previous Chinatowns. There were shops, three restaurants, a theater and a temple. The people who lived in this Chinatown worked in factories, which manufactured cigars, shoes, clothing and furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Second Market Street Chinatown\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hiddenhistoriesjtown.org/personnel/connie-young-yu/\">Connie Young Yu\u003c/a> is a local South Bay historian whose ancestry traces back to this Chinatown. Her grandfather’s uncle was already living in San Jose and would travel back to China and tell family about the wonders of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878186\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878186\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-800x604.jpg\" alt=\"A rooftop view of San Jose's Second Market Street Chinatown. This Chinatown was much larger than any other Chinatown which came before it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-800x604.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-160x121.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rooftop view of San Jose’s Second Market Street Chinatown. This Chinatown was much larger than any other Chinatown which came before it. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[My grandfather’s] uncle was telling him about this beautiful area where you can work hard and there were good wages in Gum San,” Yu said. “America was called Gum San: Gold Mountain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yu’s grandfather, Young Soong Quong, arrived in 1881 to the Second Market Street Chinatown when he was 11 years old. He stocked shelves and cleaned floors in his uncle’s shop, where many laborers came to eat, play cards and send money back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, a white family hired him as a houseboy, a job which required him to leave Chinatown. It was there where he experienced racial violence for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When he would go back to the Market Street Chinatown, he’d have to run really fast because white kids would be throwing rocks at him,” Yu said. “This was a vivid memory he passed down to us kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Anti-Chinese Movement in San Jose\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://anthropology.stanford.edu/people/barbara-voss\">Barbara Voss\u003c/a>, a historical archeologist at Stanford, is not surprised Young faced racial violence in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The anti-Chinese movement had been building throughout the western United States for about 20 years at this point,” Voss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1880s, an angry mob burned San Jose’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/10/15/san-jose-pastor-helps-first-united-methodist-rise-from-the-ashes/\">First Methodist Episcopal Church\u003c/a> down when they learned the church did missionary work for Chinese immigrants and held a Sunday school service for Chinese children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had already enacted legislation that targeted Chinese immigrants, including the \u003ca href=\"https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1714#:~:text=In%201850%2C%20the%20California%20legislature,not%20forced%20to%20pay%20it.\">Foreign Miner’s License of 1848\u003c/a> which required miners who were not citizens to pay $20 a month for the right to mine in California. Congress passed the \u003ca href=\"https://immigrationhistory.org/item/page-act/\">Page Act of 1875\u003c/a>, which prohibited women, particularly Chinese women from immigrating to the country for “immoral purposes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1882, Congress passed the nation’s most restrictive immigration bill: \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882\">The Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>. It prohibited all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States and prevented those that were here from becoming citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These anti-Chinese laws passed at the federal and state level set the stage for San Jose to host the first statewide \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a%3Dd%26d%3DDAC18860205.2.86%26e%3D-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500843000&usg=AOvVaw0ji7eOUGpKp43IKpKoAD8d\">Anti-Chinese Convention in 1886\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were motivational speakers who were arguing racist slogans; arguing that the Chinese must go; making arguments about why white people are superior to Chinese people; making arguments about what they perceived to be the negative impact of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans on the economy of San Jose,” Voss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voss finds it eerie how similar some of the arguments made back then are to the anti-immigration arguments of today. The rally was well attended and was held just a few blocks away from the Second Market Street Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Anti-Chinese movement in San Jose was as much about local boosterism as it was about racism,” Voss explained. “The leaders of this movement found that they could not promote San Jose as a place for business development and settlement if the Chinatown remained in downtown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Chinatown Must Go”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A year after the convention, the San Jose Mercury News featured \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a%3Dd%26d%3DSJMN18861207.2.22%26srpos%3D53%26e%3D-------en--20-SJMN-41--txt-txIN-chinatown%252c%2BCharles%2BBreyfogle-------1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500844000&usg=AOvVaw3pVhMLKpkDQd7Gm6lhZCS3\">front page testimony\u003c/a> from city leaders including the fire and police chiefs, the street commissioner and the mayor with one message: Chinatown must go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was of their opinion that the general condition of the locality in a sanitary point of view could not be worse and in an aesthetic or moral sense, it was revolting,” the testimony read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Charles Breyfogle and the City Council voted unanimously to get rid of the Second Market Street Chinatown. But before any official action was taken, the Chinatown was burned down. That made it the third Chinatown in San Jose to succumb to arson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878183\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-800x591.jpg\" alt=\"The Second Market Street Chinatown burned down in an arson fire in 1887. There were no recorded casualties, but the entire Chinese community in San Jose was displaced.\" width=\"800\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-800x591.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-1020x754.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Second Market Street Chinatown burned down in an arson fire in 1887. There were no recorded casualties, but the entire Chinese community in San Jose was displaced. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There were no recorded casualties, but homes and businesses were destroyed and the community was displaced again. There was another small Chinatown in San Jose called the Woolen Mills Chinatown around the same time. The property was owned by the San Jose Woolen Manufacturing Company and provided to workers as a living accommodation. But that Chinatown was too small to accommodate the much larger population of the Second Market Street Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the fire, Chinese residents had already started moving out of San Jose. After the fire, even more left. “There are anecdotal accounts from descendants that people started considering whether or not to move back to China,” Voss said. “Some folks moved to more rural areas where they were out of the public eye.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connie Young Yu’s grandfather was among the immigrants who left for San Francisco. He didn’t return for a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Rise of Heinlenville\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The community would rebuild with the help of another immigrant named John Heinlen. He moved with his wife and children from Ohio to farm in California. Yu said \u003ca href=\"https://web.stanford.edu/group/marketstreet/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SJ_Chinatown_Heritagefair.pdf\">Heinlen’s family faced anti-German discrimination in the Midwest\u003c/a> and when he came to California, he saw Chinese immigrants facing discrimination and sympathized with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a friend to the Chinese,” she said. “He had hired Chinese before [and] leased land to the Chinese in his other holdings in Fresno.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months after the fire, news broke that Heinlen had leased some of his land to Chinese residents who lost their homes and land. He was going to build a new Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was such an uproar among the citizens,” Yu said. “They said ‘Down with John Heinlen, he’s a traitor to his people\u003cstrong>.'”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite death threats, Heinlen finished construction of the new Chinatown in 1887, just months after the fire that destroyed the last Chinatown. Angry locals called the new Chinatown “Heinlenville,” and the name stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They couldn’t drive out Chinatown,” Yu said. “Chinatown was there to stay and John Heinlen, to protect the Chinese, he built an eight-foot-high fence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878188\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-800x507.jpg\" alt='A flag bearing the Chinese words \"Ng Shing Gung\" Temple of Five Gods, leads a procession outside the gates of Heinlenville. Residents of the Chinatown celebrated festivals with firecrackers and sparklers.' width=\"800\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-800x507.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-1020x647.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flag bearing the Chinese words “Ng Shing Gung” Temple of Five Gods, leads a procession outside the gates of Heinlenville. Residents of the Chinatown celebrated festivals with firecrackers and sparklers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History of San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The fence had a gate which was locked every night, while foot patrols provided security. Eventually, Young Soong Quong, Connie Young Yu’s grandfather, became a partner at one of the shops in Heinlenville and was able to settle in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heinlen gave him a chance for a new life in San Jose. He was a merchant and he was able to send for his wife in China,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had been separated for 14 years. Yu’s grandmother arrived in California in 1910 and they had their first son, Ming Young. Two years later, Yu’s father, John, was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heinlenville became a thriving community with 2,000 residents. Newspaper accounts said the\u003ca href=\"https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/svhocdm/id/293/\"> Ng Shing Gung Temple\u003c/a>, a two story structure, was the center of the community. The upper floor housed an intricately carved and gilded altar with five deities. The lower floor was used as a town hall and as a Chinese school for the children who grew up in Heinlenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>San Jose’s Last Chinatown\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Heinlenville was San Jose’s longest established Chinatown,\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DQ1iXsBTZTPYC%26pg%3DPA10%26lpg%3DPA10%26dq%3Dheinlenville%2Bsan%2Bjose%2Blongest%2Bestablished%2Bchinatown%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DIsm4WsmPWC%26sig%3DACfU3U15sWrVzpU4f4fX92YJ76wXULY88A%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ved%3D2ahUKEwi5ipuBt6LwAhW2CTQIHUuiAjwQ6AEwDHoECBIQAw%23v%3Donepage%26q%3Dheinlenville%2520san%2520jose%2520longest%2520established%2520chinatown%26f%3Dfalse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500848000&usg=AOvVaw3K2QL4it8fVfFJBq6zxuf1\"> lasting for 44 years\u003c/a>, until 1931.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place for many years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=http://chcp.org/heinlenville-chinatown/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500855000&usg=AOvVaw2g2_VaK7gzwnF7-g8QP3N3\">immigration from China slowly dwindled\u003c/a>. And many men weren’t as fortunate as Young Soong Quong, who could bring his wife to join him in America. Their families were still in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The workers were getting kind of old and there were no new laborers coming in to work in the fields,” Yu said. Soon, there weren’t enough people left in Chinatown \u003ca href=\"https://chcp.org/Heinlenville-Chinatown/\">to keep it alive\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Great Depression took a toll on the Heinlen estate, which owned the land the Chinatown stood on. In 1931, the estate went bankrupt and Heinlenville became city property. All the buildings were eventually demolished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connie Young Yu has been working with the city to build a park where the last Chinatown once stood, not far from San Jose’s Japantown. The park will commemorate John Heinlen’s contributions to the city and highlight the history of San Jose’s Chinese community. It will be called Heinlenville Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "San Jose has been home to five Chinatowns throughout its history, so why doesn't it have a Chinatown today? The answer lies in the city's dark and racist past. ",
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"description": "San Jose has been home to five Chinatowns throughout its history, so why doesn't it have a Chinatown today? The answer lies in the city's dark and racist past. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On the West Coast, you can find Chinatowns from Seattle to San Diego. The Bay Area is home to two of the oldest Chinatowns, in San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Jose also has a rich history of Chinatowns — there have been \u003cem>five\u003c/em> Chinatowns in its history. So, why doesn’t San Jose have a Chinatown today?\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 story starts in the 1850s, when the Gold Rush drew thousands of people to California, including Chinese immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So many of those Chinese immigrants who came were working class,” said \u003ca href=\"https://www.scu.edu/cas/ethnic-studies/faculty--staff/james-s-lai/\">James Lai\u003c/a>, a professor of ethnic studies at Santa Clara University. “They came for the same reason why they still come this very day: for economic opportunity.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When they arrived in California, the immigrants realized it was far from the dream of “Gold Mountain.” Some attempted mining for gold, but many others found work building the transcontinental railroad. Companies would pay for room, board and transportation, but the contracts for these jobs were short-term. When they ended, many of those men were left to fend for themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had to continue on,” Lai said. “They had to find work in different ways.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some went to San Francisco and \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://immigrationtounitedstates.org/426-chinese-laundries.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500851000&usg=AOvVaw1TmGNgd_eDe4NC3K-7Ep0B\">opened laundromats\u003c/a> and other businesses, while others built levees throughout the\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154414?seq%3D1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500851000&usg=AOvVaw2ewXH_hfMFQjboyWdEBfmJ\"> Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta\u003c/a> and\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DQ3LT1Exiv2YC%26pg%3DPP43%26lpg%3DPP43%26dq%3DChinese%2Bimmigrants%2Bpicking%2Borchards%2Bsanta%2Bclara%2Bvalley%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DmE1gJBaRRG%26sig%3DACfU3U3QhADwH3bvD5wIkKIatKHM6ueACw%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ved%3D2ahUKEwjmxpHNm6LwAhXMJDQIHWHzD50Q6AEwCXoECA0QAw%23v%3Donepage%26q%3DChinese%2520immigrants%2520picking%2520orchards%2520santa%2520clara%2520valley%26f%3Dfalse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500853000&usg=AOvVaw3GAPGVWoz63O4kmfFhF4lF\"> picked orchards in the Santa Clara Valley\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Chinese immigrants first arrived, they expected to do hard labor, make their earnings and return home to their families. A lot of Chinese men came over, leaving women and children behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The ratio was roughly 26-to-1 Chinese American men to women, at this point,” Lai said. “They never achieved the wealth that they hoped they would achieve to be able to return back to their village and retire or help their families. So they stayed and they endured.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The First Chinatowns in San Jose\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Alien_land_laws/\">Racist policies\u003c/a> kept Chinese immigrants from owning property and white people didn’t want them in their neighborhoods. So, they built their own communities. In San Jose, it began with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chinese_in_San_Jose_and_the_Santa_Clara/Q1iXsBTZTPYC?hl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26dq%3Dfirst%2Bmarket%2Bstreet%2Bchinatown%2Bsan%2Bjose%26pg%3DPA10%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500849000&usg=AOvVaw2cs3gxlaMLOeoNemjY7cB9\">First Market Street Chinatown\u003c/a>, which was built in 1866, but burned down a few years later in 1870. The community rebuilt a few blocks away and became known as \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Chinese_in_San_Jose_and_the_Santa_Clara/Q1iXsBTZTPYC?hl%3Den%26gbpv%3D1%26dq%3Dfirst%2Bmarket%2Bstreet%2Bchinatown%2Bsan%2Bjose%26pg%3DPA10%26printsec%3Dfrontcover&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500850000&usg=AOvVaw08mjb_Uf57Oo197CxGFX73\">Vine Street Chinatown. \u003c/a>It too burned down in 1872.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878185\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878185\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-800x524.jpg\" alt=\"The First Market Street Chinatown in San Jose was built in 1866. In this photo, the towers of McKenzie Iron Foundry, the San Jose Brewery and San Jose waterworks is visible in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-800x524.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-1020x668.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82-160x105.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-82.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The First Market Street Chinatown in San Jose was built in 1866. In this photo, the towers of McKenzie Iron Foundry, the San Jose Brewery and San Jose waterworks are visible in the background. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>From the moment Chinese immigrants started coming to America, they faced racism and violence. White residents wanted to send a message that they weren’t welcome and used arson to terrorize and destroy Chinese communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Chinese immigrants kept rebuilding. Lai explains there wasn’t another option. “It was just simply to continue to try to plant your roots and the only way you could do it was through these kinds of Chinatowns,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the community was growing fast. In 1872, the Second Market Street Chinatown was built in downtown San Jose, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/Bay-Area-San-Jose-Chinatown-history-arson-16194117.php\">Fairmont Hotel is located today\u003c/a>. More than 1,400 people lived there, a far bigger population than the previous Chinatowns. There were shops, three restaurants, a theater and a temple. The people who lived in this Chinatown worked in factories, which manufactured cigars, shoes, clothing and furniture.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Second Market Street Chinatown\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://hiddenhistoriesjtown.org/personnel/connie-young-yu/\">Connie Young Yu\u003c/a> is a local South Bay historian whose ancestry traces back to this Chinatown. Her grandfather’s uncle was already living in San Jose and would travel back to China and tell family about the wonders of America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878186\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878186\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-800x604.jpg\" alt=\"A rooftop view of San Jose's Second Market Street Chinatown. This Chinatown was much larger than any other Chinatown which came before it.\" width=\"800\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-800x604.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-1020x770.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670-160x121.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-670.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A rooftop view of San Jose’s Second Market Street Chinatown. This Chinatown was much larger than any other Chinatown which came before it. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“[My grandfather’s] uncle was telling him about this beautiful area where you can work hard and there were good wages in Gum San,” Yu said. “America was called Gum San: Gold Mountain.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yu’s grandfather, Young Soong Quong, arrived in 1881 to the Second Market Street Chinatown when he was 11 years old. He stocked shelves and cleaned floors in his uncle’s shop, where many laborers came to eat, play cards and send money back home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eventually, a white family hired him as a houseboy, a job which required him to leave Chinatown. It was there where he experienced racial violence for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When he would go back to the Market Street Chinatown, he’d have to run really fast because white kids would be throwing rocks at him,” Yu said. “This was a vivid memory he passed down to us kids.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Anti-Chinese Movement in San Jose\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://anthropology.stanford.edu/people/barbara-voss\">Barbara Voss\u003c/a>, a historical archeologist at Stanford, is not surprised Young faced racial violence in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The anti-Chinese movement had been building throughout the western United States for about 20 years at this point,” Voss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1880s, an angry mob burned San Jose’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2013/10/15/san-jose-pastor-helps-first-united-methodist-rise-from-the-ashes/\">First Methodist Episcopal Church\u003c/a> down when they learned the church did missionary work for Chinese immigrants and held a Sunday school service for Chinese children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California had already enacted legislation that targeted Chinese immigrants, including the \u003ca href=\"https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/1714#:~:text=In%201850%2C%20the%20California%20legislature,not%20forced%20to%20pay%20it.\">Foreign Miner’s License of 1848\u003c/a> which required miners who were not citizens to pay $20 a month for the right to mine in California. Congress passed the \u003ca href=\"https://immigrationhistory.org/item/page-act/\">Page Act of 1875\u003c/a>, which prohibited women, particularly Chinese women from immigrating to the country for “immoral purposes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1882, Congress passed the nation’s most restrictive immigration bill: \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/chinese-exclusion-act-1882\">The Chinese Exclusion Act\u003c/a>. It prohibited all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States and prevented those that were here from becoming citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These anti-Chinese laws passed at the federal and state level set the stage for San Jose to host the first statewide \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a%3Dd%26d%3DDAC18860205.2.86%26e%3D-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500843000&usg=AOvVaw0ji7eOUGpKp43IKpKoAD8d\">Anti-Chinese Convention in 1886\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were motivational speakers who were arguing racist slogans; arguing that the Chinese must go; making arguments about why white people are superior to Chinese people; making arguments about what they perceived to be the negative impact of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans on the economy of San Jose,” Voss said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voss finds it eerie how similar some of the arguments made back then are to the anti-immigration arguments of today. The rally was well attended and was held just a few blocks away from the Second Market Street Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Anti-Chinese movement in San Jose was as much about local boosterism as it was about racism,” Voss explained. “The leaders of this movement found that they could not promote San Jose as a place for business development and settlement if the Chinatown remained in downtown.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>“Chinatown Must Go”\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>A year after the convention, the San Jose Mercury News featured \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a%3Dd%26d%3DSJMN18861207.2.22%26srpos%3D53%26e%3D-------en--20-SJMN-41--txt-txIN-chinatown%252c%2BCharles%2BBreyfogle-------1&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500844000&usg=AOvVaw3pVhMLKpkDQd7Gm6lhZCS3\">front page testimony\u003c/a> from city leaders including the fire and police chiefs, the street commissioner and the mayor with one message: Chinatown must go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was of their opinion that the general condition of the locality in a sanitary point of view could not be worse and in an aesthetic or moral sense, it was revolting,” the testimony read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Charles Breyfogle and the City Council voted unanimously to get rid of the Second Market Street Chinatown. But before any official action was taken, the Chinatown was burned down. That made it the third Chinatown in San Jose to succumb to arson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878183\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878183\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-800x591.jpg\" alt=\"The Second Market Street Chinatown burned down in an arson fire in 1887. There were no recorded casualties, but the entire Chinese community in San Jose was displaced.\" width=\"800\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-800x591.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-1020x754.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683-160x118.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/1997-300-1683.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Second Market Street Chinatown burned down in an arson fire in 1887. There were no recorded casualties, but the entire Chinese community in San Jose was displaced. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There were no recorded casualties, but homes and businesses were destroyed and the community was displaced again. There was another small Chinatown in San Jose called the Woolen Mills Chinatown around the same time. The property was owned by the San Jose Woolen Manufacturing Company and provided to workers as a living accommodation. But that Chinatown was too small to accommodate the much larger population of the Second Market Street Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before the fire, Chinese residents had already started moving out of San Jose. After the fire, even more left. “There are anecdotal accounts from descendants that people started considering whether or not to move back to China,” Voss said. “Some folks moved to more rural areas where they were out of the public eye.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connie Young Yu’s grandfather was among the immigrants who left for San Francisco. He didn’t return for a decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>The Rise of Heinlenville\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>The community would rebuild with the help of another immigrant named John Heinlen. He moved with his wife and children from Ohio to farm in California. Yu said \u003ca href=\"https://web.stanford.edu/group/marketstreet/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/SJ_Chinatown_Heritagefair.pdf\">Heinlen’s family faced anti-German discrimination in the Midwest\u003c/a> and when he came to California, he saw Chinese immigrants facing discrimination and sympathized with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was a friend to the Chinese,” she said. “He had hired Chinese before [and] leased land to the Chinese in his other holdings in Fresno.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few months after the fire, news broke that Heinlen had leased some of his land to Chinese residents who lost their homes and land. He was going to build a new Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was such an uproar among the citizens,” Yu said. “They said ‘Down with John Heinlen, he’s a traitor to his people\u003cstrong>.'”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite death threats, Heinlen finished construction of the new Chinatown in 1887, just months after the fire that destroyed the last Chinatown. Angry locals called the new Chinatown “Heinlenville,” and the name stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They couldn’t drive out Chinatown,” Yu said. “Chinatown was there to stay and John Heinlen, to protect the Chinese, he built an eight-foot-high fence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11878188\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11878188\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-800x507.jpg\" alt='A flag bearing the Chinese words \"Ng Shing Gung\" Temple of Five Gods, leads a procession outside the gates of Heinlenville. Residents of the Chinatown celebrated festivals with firecrackers and sparklers.' width=\"800\" height=\"507\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-800x507.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-1020x647.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4-160x101.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/2005-32-4.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flag bearing the Chinese words “Ng Shing Gung” Temple of Five Gods, leads a procession outside the gates of Heinlenville. Residents of the Chinatown celebrated festivals with firecrackers and sparklers. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of History of San Jose)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The fence had a gate which was locked every night, while foot patrols provided security. Eventually, Young Soong Quong, Connie Young Yu’s grandfather, became a partner at one of the shops in Heinlenville and was able to settle in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Heinlen gave him a chance for a new life in San Jose. He was a merchant and he was able to send for his wife in China,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They had been separated for 14 years. Yu’s grandmother arrived in California in 1910 and they had their first son, Ming Young. Two years later, Yu’s father, John, was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heinlenville became a thriving community with 2,000 residents. Newspaper accounts said the\u003ca href=\"https://content.scu.edu/digital/collection/svhocdm/id/293/\"> Ng Shing Gung Temple\u003c/a>, a two story structure, was the center of the community. The upper floor housed an intricately carved and gilded altar with five deities. The lower floor was used as a town hall and as a Chinese school for the children who grew up in Heinlenville.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>San Jose’s Last Chinatown\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Heinlenville was San Jose’s longest established Chinatown,\u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=https://books.google.com/books?id%3DQ1iXsBTZTPYC%26pg%3DPA10%26lpg%3DPA10%26dq%3Dheinlenville%2Bsan%2Bjose%2Blongest%2Bestablished%2Bchinatown%26source%3Dbl%26ots%3DIsm4WsmPWC%26sig%3DACfU3U15sWrVzpU4f4fX92YJ76wXULY88A%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ved%3D2ahUKEwi5ipuBt6LwAhW2CTQIHUuiAjwQ6AEwDHoECBIQAw%23v%3Donepage%26q%3Dheinlenville%2520san%2520jose%2520longest%2520established%2520chinatown%26f%3Dfalse&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500848000&usg=AOvVaw3K2QL4it8fVfFJBq6zxuf1\"> lasting for 44 years\u003c/a>, until 1931.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the Chinese Exclusion Act was in place for many years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/url?q=http://chcp.org/heinlenville-chinatown/&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1623801500855000&usg=AOvVaw2g2_VaK7gzwnF7-g8QP3N3\">immigration from China slowly dwindled\u003c/a>. And many men weren’t as fortunate as Young Soong Quong, who could bring his wife to join him in America. Their families were still in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The workers were getting kind of old and there were no new laborers coming in to work in the fields,” Yu said. Soon, there weren’t enough people left in Chinatown \u003ca href=\"https://chcp.org/Heinlenville-Chinatown/\">to keep it alive\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Great Depression took a toll on the Heinlen estate, which owned the land the Chinatown stood on. In 1931, the estate went bankrupt and Heinlenville became city property. All the buildings were eventually demolished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Connie Young Yu has been working with the city to build a park where the last Chinatown once stood, not far from San Jose’s Japantown. The park will commemorate John Heinlen’s contributions to the city and highlight the history of San Jose’s Chinese community. It will be called Heinlenville Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Beautiful Bay Bridge Frank Lloyd Wright Never Got to Build",
"headTitle": "The Beautiful Bay Bridge Frank Lloyd Wright Never Got to Build | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article was first published on Jan. 25, 2018. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did you know the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to build a bridge across the San Francisco Bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious question-asker Duncan Keefe of San Jose did. He studied architecture in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would have been brilliant, and I think it would have been very influential — and possibly changed the course of how other bridges subsequent to it would have been designed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Lloyd Wright loved the San Francisco Bay Area. But you wouldn’t know it, because there just aren’t a lot of his buildings around here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seven or eight, depending on how you count them, including the houses,” says \u003ca href=\"https://art.stanford.edu/people/paul-v-turner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Turner\u003c/a>, a professor emeritus in architectural history at Stanford. He’s the author of “Frank Lloyd Wright and San Francisco,” a book that’s as much about the projects that \u003ci>didn’t\u003c/i> get built as the ones that did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frank Lloyd Wright actually designed close to 30 projects for the Bay Area, and they include some of his most unusual and really amazing buildings,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11642709 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-800x992.jpg\" alt=\"Master architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, looking over his drawing of the Butterfly Bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"992\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-800x992.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-160x198.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-1020x1265.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-1180x1463.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-960x1191.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-240x298.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-375x465.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-520x645.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Master architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, looking over his drawing of the ‘Butterfly Bridge’. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Gordon Peters/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Why did Wright’s proposals fail to get the go-ahead? A lot of times he was just dreaming too big (read: expensive) for the client. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming big.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, his first skyscraper was designed for Market Street in San Francisco,” Turner says. “If there were some project that he found interesting, he would do the design and just hope that it would get built.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright never got the commission for a San Francisco skyscraper. Just as he never got a commission to design another Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was talk of a second span \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/thetake/article/Another-Bay-Bridge-70-years-of-absurd-crazy-and-12420536.php?t=8ed45000dc#photo-14668490\">almost as soon as the Bay Bridge was completed\u003c/a> in the 1930s. That’s right: Traffic was that bad, that early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1940s, Wright was competing for projects all across the country. Jaroslav Joseph Polivka, a San Francisco Bay Area engineer and fan of Wright’s, suggested he throw his hat in the ring for the proposed second Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642654\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11642654 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-800x337.jpg\" alt=\"Frank Lloyd Wright's proposed "Butterfly Bridge." It would have stretched between San Francisco and Oakland, somewhere south of the Bay Bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-800x337.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-160x67.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1020x430.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1920x810.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1180x498.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-960x405.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-240x101.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-375x158.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-520x219.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposed ‘Butterfly Bridge.’ It would have stretched between San Francisco and Oakland, somewhere south of the Bay Bridge. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That was in 1949, and Wright would spend the last decade of his life trying to win over decision-makers in California. Essentially, he fell in love with his own proposal, which he called the “Butterfly Bridge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The structure had the form of a thorax and wings of a butterfly in reinforced concrete. It’s a beautiful sculptural form when you look at the drawings that he did of it,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Butterfly Bridge would have started on the San Francisco end of the bridge, at the terminus of Army Street, now Cesar Chavez. Long, curved, concrete arms stretch across the water toward Oakland, carrying six lanes of traffic and two pedestrian walkways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The literal centerpiece of the bridge: a hanging garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People driving across the bridge could pull off into this landscape park and enjoy the views from high above over the bay. It’s kind of a crazy idea that traffic going across the bay could stop and there would be enough room for parking and everything, but that was the idea,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpPZVKMODqs]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea doesn’t sound too crazy to me. After all, the Golden Gate Bridge is a tourist destination as well as a throughput for traffic. The proposal for the Butterfly Bridge was received enthusiastically by the San Francisco press. But the state Assembly committee rejected the plan, influenced by consulting engineers dubious about the details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The engineers in Sacramento were able to say, ‘Well, it’s just not worked out in enough detail. We don’t think it’s going to work. It’s too radical,’ ” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair to the pencil pushers in the state Capitol, Turner adds we have to imagine how things looked back in the mid-20th century.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousbug]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea was so unusual, was so radical, it was unlike any earlier bridge that had been designed,” he says. “And because Wright had not gotten a commission to do it, wasn’t being paid anything, they weren’t able to design the bridge in the kind of detail that would really be required, with all of the structural analysis and everything. That would have to come later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, they decided it wasn’t necessary, because a few years later people started talking about BART under the bay, and so that became the solution to this traffic problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright called that idea “suicidal,” which turns out to be an overstatement as the Transbay Tube is still going strong after nearly 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Wright died, and with it, serious thoughts of doing something with his plans. Especially after the new, expanded San Mateo Bridge opened in 1967.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642655\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11642655\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-800x448.jpg\" alt=\"The Bazett House in Hillsborough, drawing by Wright, 1939. This was one of the few Wright commissions that got built in the San Francisco Bay Area.\" width=\"800\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-800x448.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1020x571.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1920x1075.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1180x661.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-960x538.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-240x134.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-375x210.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-520x291.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bazett House in Hillsborough, drawing by Wright, 1939. This was one of the few Wright commissions that got built in the San Francisco Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People still talk of building another bridge to span the bay. Just a few years ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/12/18/you-say-you-want-a-new-bridge-or-2nd-bart-tube-heres-how-you-might-pay-for-it/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called for another bay bridge\u003c/a>, a so-called Southern Crossing south of the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every now and then, people talk about an extra possible bridge and there’ll be stories in the newspapers. So it still captivates the imagination of the public because it is so beautiful,” Turner says, sighing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what does Duncan Keefe of San Jose think? Should we resurrect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Butterfly Bridge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as I would have liked to see this bridge have been built, it was for a different time. These days, if we’re going to make any investment, it ought to be in getting trains across the bay, not cars. We have enough cars already, and you know, throwing more cars across the bay is only going to make the traffic situation on the Peninsula and in San Francisco even worse,” Keefe says.\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>\u003cem>This article was first published on Jan. 25, 2018. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Did you know the great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright wanted to build a bridge across the San Francisco Bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious question-asker Duncan Keefe of San Jose did. He studied architecture in school.\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>“It would have been brilliant, and I think it would have been very influential — and possibly changed the course of how other bridges subsequent to it would have been designed,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Frank Lloyd Wright loved the San Francisco Bay Area. But you wouldn’t know it, because there just aren’t a lot of his buildings around here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seven or eight, depending on how you count them, including the houses,” says \u003ca href=\"https://art.stanford.edu/people/paul-v-turner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Turner\u003c/a>, a professor emeritus in architectural history at Stanford. He’s the author of “Frank Lloyd Wright and San Francisco,” a book that’s as much about the projects that \u003ci>didn’t\u003c/i> get built as the ones that did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Frank Lloyd Wright actually designed close to 30 projects for the Bay Area, and they include some of his most unusual and really amazing buildings,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11642709 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-800x992.jpg\" alt=\"Master architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, looking over his drawing of the Butterfly Bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"992\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-800x992.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-160x198.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-1020x1265.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-1180x1463.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-960x1191.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-240x298.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-375x465.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/RS28908_wright-qut-520x645.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Master architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1956, looking over his drawing of the ‘Butterfly Bridge’. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of Gordon Peters/San Francisco Chronicle)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Why did Wright’s proposals fail to get the go-ahead? A lot of times he was just dreaming too big (read: expensive) for the client. But that didn’t stop him from dreaming big.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For example, his first skyscraper was designed for Market Street in San Francisco,” Turner says. “If there were some project that he found interesting, he would do the design and just hope that it would get built.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright never got the commission for a San Francisco skyscraper. Just as he never got a commission to design another Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was talk of a second span \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/thetake/article/Another-Bay-Bridge-70-years-of-absurd-crazy-and-12420536.php?t=8ed45000dc#photo-14668490\">almost as soon as the Bay Bridge was completed\u003c/a> in the 1930s. That’s right: Traffic was that bad, that early.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the late 1940s, Wright was competing for projects all across the country. Jaroslav Joseph Polivka, a San Francisco Bay Area engineer and fan of Wright’s, suggested he throw his hat in the ring for the proposed second Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642654\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-11642654 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-800x337.jpg\" alt=\"Frank Lloyd Wright's proposed "Butterfly Bridge." It would have stretched between San Francisco and Oakland, somewhere south of the Bay Bridge.\" width=\"800\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-800x337.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-160x67.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1020x430.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1920x810.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-1180x498.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-960x405.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-240x101.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-375x158.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Butterfly20Bridge20drawing-520x219.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frank Lloyd Wright’s proposed ‘Butterfly Bridge.’ It would have stretched between San Francisco and Oakland, somewhere south of the Bay Bridge. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That was in 1949, and Wright would spend the last decade of his life trying to win over decision-makers in California. Essentially, he fell in love with his own proposal, which he called the “Butterfly Bridge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The structure had the form of a thorax and wings of a butterfly in reinforced concrete. It’s a beautiful sculptural form when you look at the drawings that he did of it,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Butterfly Bridge would have started on the San Francisco end of the bridge, at the terminus of Army Street, now Cesar Chavez. Long, curved, concrete arms stretch across the water toward Oakland, carrying six lanes of traffic and two pedestrian walkways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The literal centerpiece of the bridge: a hanging garden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People driving across the bridge could pull off into this landscape park and enjoy the views from high above over the bay. It’s kind of a crazy idea that traffic going across the bay could stop and there would be enough room for parking and everything, but that was the idea,” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/ZpPZVKMODqs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/ZpPZVKMODqs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea doesn’t sound too crazy to me. After all, the Golden Gate Bridge is a tourist destination as well as a throughput for traffic. The proposal for the Butterfly Bridge was received enthusiastically by the San Francisco press. But the state Assembly committee rejected the plan, influenced by consulting engineers dubious about the details.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The engineers in Sacramento were able to say, ‘Well, it’s just not worked out in enough detail. We don’t think it’s going to work. It’s too radical,’ ” Turner says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To be fair to the pencil pushers in the state Capitol, Turner adds we have to imagine how things looked back in the mid-20th century.\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>“The idea was so unusual, was so radical, it was unlike any earlier bridge that had been designed,” he says. “And because Wright had not gotten a commission to do it, wasn’t being paid anything, they weren’t able to design the bridge in the kind of detail that would really be required, with all of the structural analysis and everything. That would have to come later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ultimately, they decided it wasn’t necessary, because a few years later people started talking about BART under the bay, and so that became the solution to this traffic problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wright called that idea “suicidal,” which turns out to be an overstatement as the Transbay Tube is still going strong after nearly 50 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Wright died, and with it, serious thoughts of doing something with his plans. Especially after the new, expanded San Mateo Bridge opened in 1967.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11642655\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11642655\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-800x448.jpg\" alt=\"The Bazett House in Hillsborough, drawing by Wright, 1939. This was one of the few Wright commissions that got built in the San Francisco Bay Area.\" width=\"800\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-800x448.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-160x90.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1020x571.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1920x1075.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-1180x661.jpg 1180w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-960x538.jpg 960w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-240x134.jpg 240w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-375x210.jpg 375w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2018/01/Bazett-FLW20drwg2c20red27d-520x291.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Bazett House in Hillsborough, drawing by Wright, 1939. This was one of the few Wright commissions that got built in the San Francisco Bay Area. \u003ccite>(Photo: Courtesy of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>People still talk of building another bridge to span the bay. Just a few years ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and East Bay Rep. Mark DeSaulnier \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/12/18/you-say-you-want-a-new-bridge-or-2nd-bart-tube-heres-how-you-might-pay-for-it/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">called for another bay bridge\u003c/a>, a so-called Southern Crossing south of the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every now and then, people talk about an extra possible bridge and there’ll be stories in the newspapers. So it still captivates the imagination of the public because it is so beautiful,” Turner says, sighing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what does Duncan Keefe of San Jose think? Should we resurrect Frank Lloyd Wright’s Butterfly Bridge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As much as I would have liked to see this bridge have been built, it was for a different time. These days, if we’re going to make any investment, it ought to be in getting trains across the bay, not cars. We have enough cars already, and you know, throwing more cars across the bay is only going to make the traffic situation on the Peninsula and in San Francisco even worse,” Keefe says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Wait, There Was A Volcano in the East Bay Hills?",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bourke MacDonald has spent much of the last year exploring local parks. During the coronavirus pandemic, when outdoor activities were some of the only outlets for fun, Bourke and his fiancée did a lot of hiking. And that’s how Bourke discovered \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley/\">Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘Volcanic!? What do you mean? I gotta check this out. There’s a volcano?'” Bourke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even after investigating the \u003ca href=\"https://ebrpd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=0fb2f053dc1e4dfea896085e798821c6\">self-guided tour\u003c/a> offered by the park, Bourke wanted to know more about how a volcano in the East Bay hills came to be and why it went extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a beautiful, clear day I met up with Bourke and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/activities/naturalists/crabcove.htm\">Michael Charnofsky\u003c/a>, a naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District. We set off on a hike up the mountain to discover the history and geology of this volcanic relic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael.jpg\" alt=\"Bourke MacDonald and Michael Charnofsky at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bourke MacDonald and Michael Charnofsky at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. \u003ccite>(Katrina Schwartz/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After several miles, we reached a spot in the trail with a steep drop off into a crater. I thought we were looking into the pit of the volcano, but Michael told me this is not the volcano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come here and say, ‘there’s a big deep pit, that was a caldera,'” Michael said. “No. That was a mountain that was taken away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained that the pit is actually a quarry, where mining companies removed rock to build Bay Area roads and other infrastructure. Behind us stands Roundtop Mountain, which also looks like a volcano, but isn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Roundtop is being eroded away more slowly than the other mountains and that’s why it looks kind of like it stands on its own,” Michael explained. “And that’s why people think it is the volcano.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876397\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876397\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Panoramic of the quarry pit at Sibley.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-800x141.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1020x180.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-160x28.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1536x271.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-2048x361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1920x339.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Panoramic view lookiing out over the quarry pit at Sibley. From here, you are standing in what have been the middle of the volcano 10 million years ago! \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the volcano we are investigating is so old that the only visible remnants of it are some very cool rocks scattered about the park. In fact, when we’re standing at the overlook of the quarry, with Roundtop at our backs, Michael says we’re standing at what would have been the middle of the volcano 10 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The geology here is fascinating and explains a lot about our Bay Area landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something called the Mendocino Triple Junction,” explained \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/geology/people/faculty/blisniuk/\">Dr. Kimberly Blisniuk\u003c/a>, a geology professor at San Jose State University. Scientists call it that because currently the triple junction is off the coast of Mendocino, but 10 million years ago, that junction used to be down in the area where Sibley is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the name suggests, the \u003ca href=\"https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2008/10/27/where-the-san-andreas-fault-ends.html\">Mendocino Triple Junction\u003c/a> is a place where three tectonic plate boundaries come together. The three plates are colliding, sliding past one another and overlapping. The place where they meet is like a T-junction and there’s a little hole that allows magma under the earth to bubble up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 511px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure.png\" alt=\"Figure showing how the three plates that make upt he Mendocino Triple Junction come together.\" width=\"511\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure.png 511w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure-160x185.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The North American, Pacific, and Gorda-Juan De Fuca Plates come together at the Mendocino Triple Junction. The arrows show which direction the plates are moving. The junction is now near Mendocino, but millions of years ago it was down in the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Kimberly Blisniuk (SJSU) and Katherine Guns (UCSD))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s called a slab window,” Blisniuk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s this slab window where magma burst up through the Earth’s crust and formed a volcano in what are now the East Bay hills, above Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it gets crazier. Over millions of years, after lots of earthquakes, moving tectonic plates and shifting pressure, the land began to fold, turning the volcano onto its side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way to think about it is if you take pages of a book and you squeeze them together,” Blisniuk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11876412 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1020x1165.png\" alt=\"A figure showing the major plate boundaries in the Bay Area.\" width=\"640\" height=\"731\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1020x1165.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-800x914.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-160x183.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1345x1536.png 1345w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1793x2048.png 1793w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1920x2193.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A figure showing the major faults in the Bay Area. The faults divide the crust into blocks. Each block moves at a different rate, something \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/17/new-san-andreas-fault-research-might-change-how-damage-shakes-out/\">geologists study to determine fault risk.\u003c/a> \u003ccite>(Kimberly Blisniuk (SJSU) and Katherine Guns (UCSD))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Imagine a paperback book. Put one hand on the spine of the book and the other hand on the opposite pages. Now squeeze. As your hands apply pressure, one side of the once-flat book will arc up, while the other side will dip down. It looks a little like a sin wave. In this analogy, the book is the land, and the pressure comes from faults under the earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We get something called compressional deformation,” Blisniuk said. “We squeeze the earth because there’s a lot of stress that’s being transferred from, say, the Calaveras to the Hayward Fault as these \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIbbul0eQ0<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIbbul0eQ0\">faults are evolving and producing earthquakes\u003c/a>. When you squeeze the land between these faults, they start to fold and tilt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876398\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation.jpg\" alt=\"Katrina records Michael as he explains specific volcanic features of rocks in the park.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katrina Schwartz records Michael Charnofsky as he explains specific volcanic features of rocks in the park. \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The pressure pushed some portions of land up and others settled down. In the process, the volcano folded over. And to make it even harder to imagine what the volcano would have looked like, millions of years have eroded much of the rock away, altering the landscape from what it would have looked like when the volcano was active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have heard this is the best example of the inside of a volcano anywhere in California,” Michael said, because of the quarrying that was done here. Miners dug into the mountain, which was really the side of the old volcano, allowing scientists an unusually good view of the geological history. “People who love volcanoes love to come study this one,” Michael said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though it’s difficult to conceptualize the volcano and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-03-24/los-angeles-biggest-earthquake-threat-san-andreas-big-one\">changes that earthquakes and time have wrought\u003c/a>, Sibley has a special feel to it. And in addition to the beauty of green hills, bay views, wildflowers, birds and cool rocks, there’s one other unique feature here: A labyrinth at the bottom of the quarry pit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876396\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth.jpg\" alt=\"A labyrinth made of grass and stones sits at the bottom of a quarry in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A labyrinth made of grass and stones sits at the bottom of a quarry in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. \u003ccite>(PunkToad/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/punktoad/6633820003/\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a beautiful round spot already,” said Helena Mazzariello, the woman who built the labyrinth over 30 years ago. “It already felt sacred. It already felt so good there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helena is a \u003ca href=\"http://www.spiritinjoy.com\">shamanic practitioner\u003c/a> and used to live near Sibley. She would often hike there with her pet goat. Together they’d wander down to the bottom of the quarry. One day she decided to build a labyrinth out of mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A labyrinth is one of the oldest contemplative transformational tools that mankind used for centuries,” she explained. It’s not the same as a maze — that’s something you get lost in. A labyrinth is a type of walking meditation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a labyrinth; it is unicursal,” she said, “so there’s one way in and one way out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helena didn’t expect the labyrinth to last. In fact, when the rains came that year, she headed over to Sibley to see what had happened to her creation. When she got there, she found other visitors had laid rocks on the mud lines she’d drawn, keeping the labyrinth’s shape. Over the next three decades, Helena and other \u003ca href=\"http://mazzariellolabyrinth.orgfree.com/\">Friends of the Labyrinth\u003c/a>, have worked to maintain the pattern. It has become one of the most famous labyrinths in the Bay Area, with Helena’s name appearing on some maps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Regional Park District doesn’t condone rogue labyrinth builders, but this one has been there so long, and is tended with such care, that they look the other way. It even brings visitors to the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876400\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876400\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset.jpg\" alt=\"View of the sun setting over the bay from Sibley's hilltops.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of the sun setting over the bay from Sibley’s hilltops. \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the sun started to set, turning the distant bay a glassy blue-gray, Bourke, Michael and I headed down the mountain. It would be easy to hike in this park oblivious to its volcanic history. In many ways its wide trails, rolling green hills, and epic views look like other parks that dot the East Bay hills. But when you hike in Sibley, remember — you’re in the middle of a volcano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Michael likes to say, “It’s all over the place and it’s almost nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Explore a lot more about the geology of various parts of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/17427/web-extra-sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve\">video tour\u003c/a> with Steve Edwards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "Wait, There Was A Volcano in the East Bay Hills?",
"datePublished": "2021-06-03T03:01:29-07:00",
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"subhead": "The history of the Bay Area's very own volcano.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bourke MacDonald has spent much of the last year exploring local parks. During the coronavirus pandemic, when outdoor activities were some of the only outlets for fun, Bourke and his fiancée did a lot of hiking. And that’s how Bourke discovered \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/sibley/\">Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘Volcanic!? What do you mean? I gotta check this out. There’s a volcano?'” Bourke said.\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>Even after investigating the \u003ca href=\"https://ebrpd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=0fb2f053dc1e4dfea896085e798821c6\">self-guided tour\u003c/a> offered by the park, Bourke wanted to know more about how a volcano in the East Bay hills came to be and why it went extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a beautiful, clear day I met up with Bourke and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/activities/naturalists/crabcove.htm\">Michael Charnofsky\u003c/a>, a naturalist with the East Bay Regional Park District. We set off on a hike up the mountain to discover the history and geology of this volcanic relic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876406\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876406\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael.jpg\" alt=\"Bourke MacDonald and Michael Charnofsky at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-Bourke-Michael-1536x1536.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bourke MacDonald and Michael Charnofsky at Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. \u003ccite>(Katrina Schwartz/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After several miles, we reached a spot in the trail with a steep drop off into a crater. I thought we were looking into the pit of the volcano, but Michael told me this is not the volcano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People come here and say, ‘there’s a big deep pit, that was a caldera,'” Michael said. “No. That was a mountain that was taken away.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He explained that the pit is actually a quarry, where mining companies removed rock to build Bay Area roads and other infrastructure. Behind us stands Roundtop Mountain, which also looks like a volcano, but isn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Roundtop is being eroded away more slowly than the other mountains and that’s why it looks kind of like it stands on its own,” Michael explained. “And that’s why people think it is the volcano.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876397\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876397\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Panoramic of the quarry pit at Sibley.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"451\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-800x141.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1020x180.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-160x28.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1536x271.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-2048x361.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-pano-1920x339.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Panoramic view lookiing out over the quarry pit at Sibley. From here, you are standing in what have been the middle of the volcano 10 million years ago! \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that the volcano we are investigating is so old that the only visible remnants of it are some very cool rocks scattered about the park. In fact, when we’re standing at the overlook of the quarry, with Roundtop at our backs, Michael says we’re standing at what would have been the middle of the volcano 10 million years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The geology here is fascinating and explains a lot about our Bay Area landscape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something called the Mendocino Triple Junction,” explained \u003ca href=\"https://www.sjsu.edu/geology/people/faculty/blisniuk/\">Dr. Kimberly Blisniuk\u003c/a>, a geology professor at San Jose State University. Scientists call it that because currently the triple junction is off the coast of Mendocino, but 10 million years ago, that junction used to be down in the area where Sibley is now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the name suggests, the \u003ca href=\"https://seismo.berkeley.edu/blog/2008/10/27/where-the-san-andreas-fault-ends.html\">Mendocino Triple Junction\u003c/a> is a place where three tectonic plate boundaries come together. The three plates are colliding, sliding past one another and overlapping. The place where they meet is like a T-junction and there’s a little hole that allows magma under the earth to bubble up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876409\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 511px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876409\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure.png\" alt=\"Figure showing how the three plates that make upt he Mendocino Triple Junction come together.\" width=\"511\" height=\"591\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure.png 511w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Plateboundary-figure-160x185.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 511px) 100vw, 511px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The North American, Pacific, and Gorda-Juan De Fuca Plates come together at the Mendocino Triple Junction. The arrows show which direction the plates are moving. The junction is now near Mendocino, but millions of years ago it was down in the East Bay. \u003ccite>(Kimberly Blisniuk (SJSU) and Katherine Guns (UCSD))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s called a slab window,” Blisniuk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s this slab window where magma burst up through the Earth’s crust and formed a volcano in what are now the East Bay hills, above Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it gets crazier. Over millions of years, after lots of earthquakes, moving tectonic plates and shifting pressure, the land began to fold, turning the volcano onto its side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The best way to think about it is if you take pages of a book and you squeeze them together,” Blisniuk said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11876412 size-large\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1020x1165.png\" alt=\"A figure showing the major plate boundaries in the Bay Area.\" width=\"640\" height=\"731\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1020x1165.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-800x914.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-160x183.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1345x1536.png 1345w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1793x2048.png 1793w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/NSAFCrustalblocks-1920x2193.png 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A figure showing the major faults in the Bay Area. The faults divide the crust into blocks. Each block moves at a different rate, something \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/17/new-san-andreas-fault-research-might-change-how-damage-shakes-out/\">geologists study to determine fault risk.\u003c/a> \u003ccite>(Kimberly Blisniuk (SJSU) and Katherine Guns (UCSD))\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Imagine a paperback book. Put one hand on the spine of the book and the other hand on the opposite pages. Now squeeze. As your hands apply pressure, one side of the once-flat book will arc up, while the other side will dip down. It looks a little like a sin wave. In this analogy, the book is the land, and the pressure comes from faults under the earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We get something called compressional deformation,” Blisniuk said. “We squeeze the earth because there’s a lot of stress that’s being transferred from, say, the Calaveras to the Hayward Fault as these \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIbbul0eQ0<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIbbul0eQ0\">faults are evolving and producing earthquakes\u003c/a>. When you squeeze the land between these faults, they start to fold and tilt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876398\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876398\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation.jpg\" alt=\"Katrina records Michael as he explains specific volcanic features of rocks in the park.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/sibley-rock-explanation-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Katrina Schwartz records Michael Charnofsky as he explains specific volcanic features of rocks in the park. \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The pressure pushed some portions of land up and others settled down. In the process, the volcano folded over. And to make it even harder to imagine what the volcano would have looked like, millions of years have eroded much of the rock away, altering the landscape from what it would have looked like when the volcano was active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have heard this is the best example of the inside of a volcano anywhere in California,” Michael said, because of the quarrying that was done here. Miners dug into the mountain, which was really the side of the old volcano, allowing scientists an unusually good view of the geological history. “People who love volcanoes love to come study this one,” Michael said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though it’s difficult to conceptualize the volcano and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2021-03-24/los-angeles-biggest-earthquake-threat-san-andreas-big-one\">changes that earthquakes and time have wrought\u003c/a>, Sibley has a special feel to it. And in addition to the beauty of green hills, bay views, wildflowers, birds and cool rocks, there’s one other unique feature here: A labyrinth at the bottom of the quarry pit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876396\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876396\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth.jpg\" alt=\"A labyrinth made of grass and stones sits at the bottom of a quarry in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-labyrinth-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A labyrinth made of grass and stones sits at the bottom of a quarry in Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. \u003ccite>(PunkToad/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/punktoad/6633820003/\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a beautiful round spot already,” said Helena Mazzariello, the woman who built the labyrinth over 30 years ago. “It already felt sacred. It already felt so good there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helena is a \u003ca href=\"http://www.spiritinjoy.com\">shamanic practitioner\u003c/a> and used to live near Sibley. She would often hike there with her pet goat. Together they’d wander down to the bottom of the quarry. One day she decided to build a labyrinth out of mud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A labyrinth is one of the oldest contemplative transformational tools that mankind used for centuries,” she explained. It’s not the same as a maze — that’s something you get lost in. A labyrinth is a type of walking meditation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a labyrinth; it is unicursal,” she said, “so there’s one way in and one way out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Helena didn’t expect the labyrinth to last. In fact, when the rains came that year, she headed over to Sibley to see what had happened to her creation. When she got there, she found other visitors had laid rocks on the mud lines she’d drawn, keeping the labyrinth’s shape. Over the next three decades, Helena and other \u003ca href=\"http://mazzariellolabyrinth.orgfree.com/\">Friends of the Labyrinth\u003c/a>, have worked to maintain the pattern. It has become one of the most famous labyrinths in the Bay Area, with Helena’s name appearing on some maps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The East Bay Regional Park District doesn’t condone rogue labyrinth builders, but this one has been there so long, and is tended with such care, that they look the other way. It even brings visitors to the park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11876400\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11876400\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset.jpg\" alt=\"View of the sun setting over the bay from Sibley's hilltops.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/06/Sibley-sunset-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">View of the sun setting over the bay from Sibley’s hilltops. \u003ccite>(Bourke MacDonald)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the sun started to set, turning the distant bay a glassy blue-gray, Bourke, Michael and I headed down the mountain. It would be easy to hike in this park oblivious to its volcanic history. In many ways its wide trails, rolling green hills, and epic views look like other parks that dot the East Bay hills. But when you hike in Sibley, remember — you’re in the middle of a volcano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Michael likes to say, “It’s all over the place and it’s almost nowhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Explore a lot more about the geology of various parts of Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve in this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/quest/17427/web-extra-sibley-volcanic-regional-preserve\">video tour\u003c/a> with Steve Edwards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "the-real-history-behind-the-myths-and-mystery-of-stanfords-searsville-lake",
"title": "The Real History Behind the Myths and Mystery of Stanford's Searsville Lake",
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"content": "\u003cp>Rohnert Park resident David Mattea remembers fondly when he was a boy in the 1970s, how his family would drive half an hour south to escape foggy Daly City. They would head to a place called Searsville Lake for some fun in the sun. When the weather was good, the man-made playground would regularly draw thousands of people from all over the Bay Area for water sports, summer camps, picnics and more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever became of Searsville Lake on the Peninsula?” Mattea wants to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Great Water Grab of the 19th Century\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the years following the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s growing population was thirsty for drinking water. The Spring Valley Water Company bought up a lot of the farmland on the Peninsula south of the city to take advantage of all the creek water pouring off the Santa Cruz Mountains. They built dams to collect the water in reservoirs like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747125/the-not-so-crystal-clean-history-of-san-franciscos-drinking-water-2\">Crystal Springs \u003c/a>and directed it to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, around this time, the railroad baron Leland Stanford was building a brand new university. He bought a small reservoir from the Spring Valley Water Company for use on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781771/how-stanford-became-the-largest-landowner-in-silicon-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sprawling, 8,200-acre campus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b.jpg\" alt=\"The dam was built in 1892 by the Spring Valley Water Company, but the reservoir never proved to be a reliable source of palatable drinking water and was acquired by Stanford University in 1919. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"612\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-800x478.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-1020x610.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-160x96.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dam was built in 1892 by the Spring Valley Water Company, but the reservoir never proved to be a reliable source of palatable drinking water and was acquired by Stanford University in 1919. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Stanford University Archives)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A handful of creeks feed the little reservoir on the campus, according to Tom Zigterman, director of water resources and civil infrastructure at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s four or five, depends on where you’re doing the counting, but it’s a number of creeks that merge right there at that canyon,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this reservoir proved to be a major disappointment as a drinking water source because one of the creeks that fed into it, Corte Madera Creek, also carried tons of silt and sediment down from the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water smelled awful,” says Julie Cain, a historian for Stanford Heritage Services, which is responsible for the campus archaeology program. Cain is co-writing a book with another local historian, Nancy Lund, about Searsville Dam. “The water tasted awful. All of the porcelain sinks and bathtubs had yellow or brownish stains that could not be removed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cain says Stanford’s early campus manager “figured out relatively quickly that this water was really going to only be good for irrigation and fire protection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the reservoir couldn’t deliver potable water, it was still a pretty sweet place to hang out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were about 200 families living in the area, roughly, and the lake became an immediate unofficial recreational spot with people that lived nearby,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b.jpg\" alt=\"Searsville Dam may be man-made, but it's still pretty and fascinating to natural scientists. The dam is surrounded by grasslands, chaparral, oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and even freshwater wetlands. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Searsville Dam may be man-made, but it’s still pretty to many and fascinating to natural scientists. The dam is surrounded by grasslands, chaparral, oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and even freshwater wetlands. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dan Quinn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1922, a Stanford couple leased the property so they could teach water sports and run a summer camp. Ernst and Greta Brandsten were both Swedish immigrants and Olympic divers. They called it Camp Searsville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Greta was the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal for \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Johansson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high diving in 1912\u003c/a>!” Cain notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts camped on the property. Tons of sand was brought in to create a man-made beach. 1,500 people might show up on a Sunday, 2,500 people on a holiday weekend. It was a scene, “for not just the local community, but really anybody within the Bay Area. I have photos of, I think Memorial Day, and it looks like \u003ca href=\"http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/coney_island.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coney Island\u003c/a>,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Debunking Urban Myths\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Near the lake, there was a tiny town called Searsville that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a myth, however, that the town was flooded by the construction of the reservoir. That was a rumor started by Ernst Brandsten, who loved to scare his diving students by telling them they could hit their heads on an old Searsville rooftop if they weren’t careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also untrue: a legendary concert in 1968 that baby boomers who spent summer days at Searsville Lake as children and teenagers recall. They remember hearing \u003cem>about\u003c/em> \u003cem>it\u003c/em>, but nobody could have \u003cem>attended\u003c/em> \u003cem>it\u003c/em>, because as historian Julie Cain explains, the university got wind of it while it was being organized and shut the concert down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(A legendary concert that DID happen in 1963 featured the famous folk singer Pete Seeger. But Searsville – again, contrary to rumor – did not become a rock concert venue.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871599\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871599\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b.jpg\" alt=\"Searsville Dam is a concrete gravity structure made of interlocking concrete blocks. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Searsville Dam is a concrete gravity structure made of interlocking concrete blocks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Philippe Cohen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They would have had great people, though,” Cain says. “Country Joe and the Fish, Joan Baez, everybody and their dog that was anybody in San Francisco was on that list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happened to the Coney Island of Stanford University, Then?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As decades passed, the university’s biology department grew tired of having to share its 1,200-acre biological preserve with the swimming, boating, picnicking party animals of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford researchers use the land to study everything from Bay \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/news/2002/may15/butterfly-515.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">checkerspot butterflies\u003c/a> to climate change and invasive plants. A lot of this didn’t mean much to Searsville Lake visitors, who unwittingly trampled on a lot of science projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which really, has continued to this day with local kids who got nothing better to do,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, the university bought out the camp’s lease and closed the beloved swimming spot down. You can still take docent-led tours of what’s now called the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, but mostly, the party is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more decades passed, the dam caught the eye of a different group of locals for very different reasons. In 2013, two environmental groups brought a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/7035/environmentalists-sue-stanford-over-dam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> against Stanford, arguing Searsville Dam, particularly its diversion of water from the San Francisquito Creek Watershed, damaged the habitat and threatened local fauna.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 613px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z.jpg\" alt=\"The Searsville Dam is located within the San Francisquito Creek watershed, which encompasses about 50 square miles and more than 20 creeks. Over thousands of years, the creek has carried sediment downstream from the Santa Cruz Mountains to create the alluvial fan upon which Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Stanford were developed.\" width=\"613\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z.jpg 613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z-160x167.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Searsville Dam is located within the San Francisquito Creek Watershed, which encompasses about 50 square miles and more than 20 creeks. Over thousands of years, the creek has carried sediment downstream from the Santa Cruz Mountains to create the alluvial fan upon which Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Stanford were developed. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Oakland Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fish biologist Matt Stoecker grew up in Portola Valley, one of several Peninsula cities that popped up near Stanford. His parents swam in Searsville Lake. He remembers playing in the creeks that fed the reservoir when he was a boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a steelhead run that used to run from the Bay all the way up to Windy Hill and Portola Valley, where I lived,” Stoecker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers one brave little steelhead trout in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was actually a steelhead that had come from the ocean and may have swum from as far away as, you know, off the coast of Japan, all the way back to the stream it was born in and this useless dam that’s not serving a function anymore is preventing it from swimming back to its home,” Stoecker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a grown-up, Stoecker started a group called \u003ca href=\"http://www.beyondsearsvilledam.org/Beyond_Searsville_Dam/Home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beyond Searsville Dam\u003c/a>, which has spent 20 years trying to get Stanford to restore the local watershed to something like its original glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university did budge, kind of. It’s come up with a \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/may/searsville-preferred-plan-050115.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plan\u003c/a> — not to get rid of Searsville Dam altogether, which is what Stoecker wants — but to open a hole in the bottom of the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871593\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871593\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b.jpg\" alt=\"Two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against Stanford University, claiming Searsville Dam harms threatened steelhead trout.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-160x100.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against Stanford University, claiming Searsville Dam harms threatened steelhead trout. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Philippe Cohen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That would let the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/central-california-coast-steelhead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">steelhead trout\u003c/a> returning from the bay go upstream, and it would let the water go downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, you can anticipate Stanford will engage in a lot of meetings in the years to come with the public and various agencies before anything finally happens on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it’s not a total success story, but it’s a partial success story,” writes plaintiff’s attorney Chris Sproul, who notes the lawsuit has been resolved. “The environment organizations I represent are happy with the progress so far and hopeful that the big prize will be attained (steelhead being able to freely utilize the entire Corte Madera Creek watershed — there is some absolutely beautiful habitat up above Searsville) in the not-too-distant future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been meeting with the resource agencies at the state and federal level: (Army) Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries (Service), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, (San Francisco Bay) Regional Water Quality Control Board. They’re all involved,” says Zigterman, director of water resources and civil infrastructure for Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, I gotta give the last word to historian Julie Cain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m probably going to put words in somebody’s mouth,” she says, “but I’m sure somebody at Stanford is shaking his or her head, going, ‘What in the hell did we buy that place for?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Some of the shoreline along Searsville Dam used to be a man-made, beach-like playground open to the public on the Stanford campus. Over the years rumors and myths about the place have taken root.",
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"title": "The Real History Behind the Myths and Mystery of Stanford's Searsville Lake | KQED",
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"subhead": "Did Leland Stanford really flood a town? What about that legendary concert in 1968?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Rohnert Park resident David Mattea remembers fondly when he was a boy in the 1970s, how his family would drive half an hour south to escape foggy Daly City. They would head to a place called Searsville Lake for some fun in the sun. When the weather was good, the man-made playground would regularly draw thousands of people from all over the Bay Area for water sports, summer camps, picnics and more.\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>“Whatever became of Searsville Lake on the Peninsula?” Mattea wants to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Great Water Grab of the 19th Century\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the years following the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s growing population was thirsty for drinking water. The Spring Valley Water Company bought up a lot of the farmland on the Peninsula south of the city to take advantage of all the creek water pouring off the Santa Cruz Mountains. They built dams to collect the water in reservoirs like \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11747125/the-not-so-crystal-clean-history-of-san-franciscos-drinking-water-2\">Crystal Springs \u003c/a>and directed it to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, around this time, the railroad baron Leland Stanford was building a brand new university. He bought a small reservoir from the Spring Valley Water Company for use on his \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11781771/how-stanford-became-the-largest-landowner-in-silicon-valley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">sprawling, 8,200-acre campus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871596\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871596\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b.jpg\" alt=\"The dam was built in 1892 by the Spring Valley Water Company, but the reservoir never proved to be a reliable source of palatable drinking water and was acquired by Stanford University in 1919. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"612\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-800x478.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-1020x610.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16562202803_c583eefd4c_b-160x96.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The dam was built in 1892 by the Spring Valley Water Company, but the reservoir never proved to be a reliable source of palatable drinking water and was acquired by Stanford University in 1919. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Stanford University Archives)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A handful of creeks feed the little reservoir on the campus, according to Tom Zigterman, director of water resources and civil infrastructure at Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s four or five, depends on where you’re doing the counting, but it’s a number of creeks that merge right there at that canyon,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this reservoir proved to be a major disappointment as a drinking water source because one of the creeks that fed into it, Corte Madera Creek, also carried tons of silt and sediment down from the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water smelled awful,” says Julie Cain, a historian for Stanford Heritage Services, which is responsible for the campus archaeology program. Cain is co-writing a book with another local historian, Nancy Lund, about Searsville Dam. “The water tasted awful. All of the porcelain sinks and bathtubs had yellow or brownish stains that could not be removed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cain says Stanford’s early campus manager “figured out relatively quickly that this water was really going to only be good for irrigation and fire protection.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though the reservoir couldn’t deliver potable water, it was still a pretty sweet place to hang out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were about 200 families living in the area, roughly, and the lake became an immediate unofficial recreational spot with people that lived nearby,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871597\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b.jpg\" alt=\"Searsville Dam may be man-made, but it's still pretty and fascinating to natural scientists. The dam is surrounded by grasslands, chaparral, oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and even freshwater wetlands. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"665\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-800x520.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-1020x662.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17180724472_97b8ec665b_b-160x104.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Searsville Dam may be man-made, but it’s still pretty to many and fascinating to natural scientists. The dam is surrounded by grasslands, chaparral, oak woodland, mixed evergreen forest, and even freshwater wetlands. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dan Quinn)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 1922, a Stanford couple leased the property so they could teach water sports and run a summer camp. Ernst and Greta Brandsten were both Swedish immigrants and Olympic divers. They called it Camp Searsville.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Greta was the first woman ever to win an Olympic gold medal for \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Johansson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">high diving in 1912\u003c/a>!” Cain notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts camped on the property. Tons of sand was brought in to create a man-made beach. 1,500 people might show up on a Sunday, 2,500 people on a holiday weekend. It was a scene, “for not just the local community, but really anybody within the Bay Area. I have photos of, I think Memorial Day, and it looks like \u003ca href=\"http://www.pdxhistory.com/html/coney_island.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Coney Island\u003c/a>,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Debunking Urban Myths\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Near the lake, there was a tiny town called Searsville that doesn’t exist anymore. It’s a myth, however, that the town was flooded by the construction of the reservoir. That was a rumor started by Ernst Brandsten, who loved to scare his diving students by telling them they could hit their heads on an old Searsville rooftop if they weren’t careful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also untrue: a legendary concert in 1968 that baby boomers who spent summer days at Searsville Lake as children and teenagers recall. They remember hearing \u003cem>about\u003c/em> \u003cem>it\u003c/em>, but nobody could have \u003cem>attended\u003c/em> \u003cem>it\u003c/em>, because as historian Julie Cain explains, the university got wind of it while it was being organized and shut the concert down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(A legendary concert that DID happen in 1963 featured the famous folk singer Pete Seeger. But Searsville – again, contrary to rumor – did not become a rock concert venue.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871599\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871599\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b.jpg\" alt=\"Searsville Dam is a concrete gravity structure made of interlocking concrete blocks. \" width=\"1024\" height=\"681\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/16559944954_0ba30159ea_b-160x106.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Searsville Dam is a concrete gravity structure made of interlocking concrete blocks. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Philippe Cohen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“They would have had great people, though,” Cain says. “Country Joe and the Fish, Joan Baez, everybody and their dog that was anybody in San Francisco was on that list.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What happened to the Coney Island of Stanford University, Then?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>As decades passed, the university’s biology department grew tired of having to share its 1,200-acre biological preserve with the swimming, boating, picnicking party animals of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stanford researchers use the land to study everything from Bay \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/news/2002/may15/butterfly-515.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">checkerspot butterflies\u003c/a> to climate change and invasive plants. A lot of this didn’t mean much to Searsville Lake visitors, who unwittingly trampled on a lot of science projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Which really, has continued to this day with local kids who got nothing better to do,” Cain says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, the university bought out the camp’s lease and closed the beloved swimming spot down. You can still take docent-led tours of what’s now called the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, but mostly, the party is over.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After more decades passed, the dam caught the eye of a different group of locals for very different reasons. In 2013, two environmental groups brought a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/7035/environmentalists-sue-stanford-over-dam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lawsuit\u003c/a> against Stanford, arguing Searsville Dam, particularly its diversion of water from the San Francisquito Creek Watershed, damaged the habitat and threatened local fauna.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871600\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 613px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871600\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z.jpg\" alt=\"The Searsville Dam is located within the San Francisquito Creek watershed, which encompasses about 50 square miles and more than 20 creeks. Over thousands of years, the creek has carried sediment downstream from the Santa Cruz Mountains to create the alluvial fan upon which Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Stanford were developed.\" width=\"613\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z.jpg 613w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/17156443456_8de7bb384f_z-160x167.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 613px) 100vw, 613px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Searsville Dam is located within the San Francisquito Creek Watershed, which encompasses about 50 square miles and more than 20 creeks. Over thousands of years, the creek has carried sediment downstream from the Santa Cruz Mountains to create the alluvial fan upon which Atherton, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Stanford were developed. \u003ccite>(Courtesy Oakland Museum)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Fish biologist Matt Stoecker grew up in Portola Valley, one of several Peninsula cities that popped up near Stanford. His parents swam in Searsville Lake. He remembers playing in the creeks that fed the reservoir when he was a boy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was a steelhead run that used to run from the Bay all the way up to Windy Hill and Portola Valley, where I lived,” Stoecker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He remembers one brave little steelhead trout in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was actually a steelhead that had come from the ocean and may have swum from as far away as, you know, off the coast of Japan, all the way back to the stream it was born in and this useless dam that’s not serving a function anymore is preventing it from swimming back to its home,” Stoecker says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a grown-up, Stoecker started a group called \u003ca href=\"http://www.beyondsearsvilledam.org/Beyond_Searsville_Dam/Home.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Beyond Searsville Dam\u003c/a>, which has spent 20 years trying to get Stanford to restore the local watershed to something like its original glory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university did budge, kind of. It’s come up with a \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/may/searsville-preferred-plan-050115.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">plan\u003c/a> — not to get rid of Searsville Dam altogether, which is what Stoecker wants — but to open a hole in the bottom of the dam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871593\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1024px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871593\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b.jpg\" alt=\"Two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against Stanford University, claiming Searsville Dam harms threatened steelhead trout.\" width=\"1024\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-800x498.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2013/01/16562202473_dbbd4e6bbd_b-160x100.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit against Stanford University, claiming Searsville Dam harms threatened steelhead trout. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Philippe Cohen)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>That would let the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/west-coast/endangered-species-conservation/central-california-coast-steelhead\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">steelhead trout\u003c/a> returning from the bay go upstream, and it would let the water go downstream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even so, you can anticipate Stanford will engage in a lot of meetings in the years to come with the public and various agencies before anything finally happens on the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So it’s not a total success story, but it’s a partial success story,” writes plaintiff’s attorney Chris Sproul, who notes the lawsuit has been resolved. “The environment organizations I represent are happy with the progress so far and hopeful that the big prize will be attained (steelhead being able to freely utilize the entire Corte Madera Creek watershed — there is some absolutely beautiful habitat up above Searsville) in the not-too-distant future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve been meeting with the resource agencies at the state and federal level: (Army) Corps of Engineers, National Marine Fisheries (Service), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, (San Francisco Bay) Regional Water Quality Control Board. They’re all involved,” says Zigterman, director of water resources and civil infrastructure for Stanford.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, I gotta give the last word to historian Julie Cain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m probably going to put words in somebody’s mouth,” she says, “but I’m sure somebody at Stanford is shaking his or her head, going, ‘What in the hell did we buy that place for?'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Gold Rush Delicacy That Started a War: Eggs",
"headTitle": "The Gold Rush Delicacy That Started a War: Eggs | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>You’ve heard of the California Gold Rush. But that rush spurred another, lesser-known event: the egg rush. The legions of miners who swept into San Francisco in the 1850s hoping to strike gold all had to be fed. And they needed protein to stay strong. But when food shortages hit, wily entrepreneurs looked for eggs in an unlikely source: the Farallon Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Completely isolated and surrounded by great white sharks and sea lions, “the Farallon Islands are the most forbidding piece of real estate to be found within the city limits of San Francisco,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.garykamiya.com/\">Gary Kamiya\u003c/a>, a journalist and author of “Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco.” “The islands are 28 miles outside the Golden Gate in extremely turbulent, dangerous seas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these rocky, skeletal islands did have one attractive quality for gold miners: They harbored the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States, and therefore were rife with plenty of protein-rich eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting these eggs wasn’t easy. The islands “look like a piece of the moon that fell into the sea,” says Mary Jane Schramm of the \u003ca href=\"https://farallones.noaa.gov/\">Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary\u003c/a>. “There are really no shores where you can land a small boat except with great perils.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 1849 and 1854, thousands of fortune hunters flooded into San Francisco from all over the world. Kamiya describes the city as a combination of casinos, campgrounds and brothels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11105699446/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands.jpg\" alt=\"Etching of The South Farallon Island\" width=\"1600\" height=\"998\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-1536x958.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The South Farallon Island \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11105699446/\">The British Library/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Early on, some shrewd forty-niners began to realize that there was more money to be made mining the miners than there was in mining the gold fields,” Kamiya says. Dozens of crude eating joints sprang up around the city, and hundreds of voracious miners would crowd into tents, eating in shifts. “The egg was one of the foodstuffs that was in such short supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eva Chrysanthe, an artist and chronicler of the history of the Farallones, describes San Francisco at this time as a “protein-hungry town.” What few chickens there were had been devoured, she says, and people were foraging. “After you wipe out all the bird nests on shore, then you go out to the Farallones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first egg entrepreneur was Doc Robinson, a pharmacist. He and his brother-in-law, Orin, would sail out to the Farallon Islands and haul back dozens of murre eggs, which they would then sell to restaurants and grocery stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work was “tough, dirty and dangerous,” says Kamiya. “The murres lay their eggs up on these towering, steep cliffs — higher than Nob Hill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though Robinson and his brother-in-law were able to poach $3,000 worth of eggs, they had “no interest in going back. It was a hellish experience,” says Chrysanthe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the idea took hold: Robinson’s egg business kicked off the “egg rush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre.jpg\" alt=\"The common murre (Uria aalge), which was a source of eggs for San Francisco's egg rush. Engraving by John Gould, William Hart, H. C. Richter.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1120\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872766\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-800x560.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-1020x714.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-160x112.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-1536x1075.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The common murre (Uria aalge), which was a source of eggs for San Francisco’s egg rush. Engraving by John Gould, William Hart, H. C. Richter. \u003ccite>(Dea/G. Dagli Orti/Agostini/Getty Images )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The eggs of the common murre — a penguin-like bird — were the most sought-after, most delectable on the Farallones. Strange, beautiful, blue-speckled and pointy-tipped, they are about twice the size of chicken eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When fried, “the white of the murre egg stays clear and gelatinous. The yolk is deep reddish, and very unappetizing to look at,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.keithhansen.com/\">Keith Hansen\u003c/a>, a bird illustrator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1851, six men formed the Pacific Egg Co., which claimed exclusive rights to the islands, says Peter White, author of “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate.” In May, when the birds first began to lay, the company would land 10 to 30 men, mostly Italian and Greek, on the Farallones’ talus-filled shores. They came in little rowboats — in itself a test of stamina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kamiya is amazed at the derring-do of these men: “They’d send the men up to these sheer guano-stinking cliffs, being attacked by swirling gulls. These were rough-necked guys, waterfront types, climbing up and pushing eggs into their special egg pockets in their egg shirts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872767\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger.jpg\" alt='\"Scottie the egger\" wearing a shirt typical of egg hunters. The shirts had built-in pouches to make egg collecting easier. ' width=\"600\" height=\"754\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872767\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger-160x201.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Scottie the egger’ wearing a shirt typical of egg hunters. The shirts had built-in pouches to make egg collecting easier. \u003ccite>(Arthur Bolton/California Academy of Sciences )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the egg pickers went in for the first time, they would smash every egg. “That way they could be assured that the next day, when they returned, every egg gathered would be fresh,” White says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggers starting coming out at about the same time \u003ca href=\"https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=100\">the lighthouse\u003c/a> was being built on the Farallones, says biologist Peter Pyle. “They’ve got hundreds of these ships coming in response to the gold rush, and a lot of them crashed on the Farallones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/education/upload/Lighthouse_intercept.pdf\">Being a lighthouse keeper\u003c/a> on the Farallones was a severe, lonely and harsh duty, says Kamiya. “And then they had to contend with these raucous, aggressive eggers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival eggers would sail out to challenge them. “One man in particular, David Batchelder, just kept showing up with his own bands of roughnecks,” Kamiya says. “The Great Egg Wars of the Farallones took place just a few weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 3, 1863, three boatloads of heavily armed men came to the islands. They even had a cannon with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The guys at the egg company yelled out to them, ‘Land at your peril!’ ” Kamiya says. “Batchelder said, ‘I’ll land! I’ll go through hell!’ Then he and his men spent the night drinking. They got themselves into an aggressive, alcohol-fueled state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the egg company warned them, they opened fire. The first casualty was one of the egg company employees, Edwin Perkins, who died after being shot through the stomach. Five of the boatmen were shot and eventually driven off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, the federal government ruled all commercial eggers off of the islands. Any egging after that was done by the lighthouse keepers. “But it was black-market trading, trying to line their pockets with eggs,” says Kamiya.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plundering of eggs had caused the murre population to decline year after year, dropping from nearly 400,000 down to 6,000. In the early 1850s, about a half-million eggs were gathered per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872768\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs.jpg\" alt=\"Eggs of the common murre collected from the Farallon Islands in the 1880s.\" width=\"1584\" height=\"1178\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872768\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs.jpg 1584w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-800x595.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-1020x759.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-160x119.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-1536x1142.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eggs of the common murre collected from the Farallon Islands in the 1880s. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14728487176/\">Smithsonian Libraries/Flickr\u003c/a> )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For decades, it was said that if you ate any baked goods in San Francisco, you were probably eating murre eggs,” Kamiya says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when chickens finally got established in Petaluma, it ended up doing in the murre egg industry. The Farallones are now used by scientists to observe bird and animal life, and to track the recovery of species on the islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a robust population now, despite the best efforts of the Farallon eggers,” Kamiya says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Gold-Hungry+Forty-Niners+Also+Plundered+Something+Else%3A+Eggs&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>You’ve heard of the California Gold Rush. But that rush spurred another, lesser-known event: the egg rush. The legions of miners who swept into San Francisco in the 1850s hoping to strike gold all had to be fed. And they needed protein to stay strong. But when food shortages hit, wily entrepreneurs looked for eggs in an unlikely source: the Farallon Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Completely isolated and surrounded by great white sharks and sea lions, “the Farallon Islands are the most forbidding piece of real estate to be found within the city limits of San Francisco,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.garykamiya.com/\">Gary Kamiya\u003c/a>, a journalist and author of “Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco.” “The islands are 28 miles outside the Golden Gate in extremely turbulent, dangerous seas.”\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 these rocky, skeletal islands did have one attractive quality for gold miners: They harbored the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States, and therefore were rife with plenty of protein-rich eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Getting these eggs wasn’t easy. The islands “look like a piece of the moon that fell into the sea,” says Mary Jane Schramm of the \u003ca href=\"https://farallones.noaa.gov/\">Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary\u003c/a>. “There are really no shores where you can land a small boat except with great perils.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between 1849 and 1854, thousands of fortune hunters flooded into San Francisco from all over the world. Kamiya describes the city as a combination of casinos, campgrounds and brothels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872770\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11105699446/\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands.jpg\" alt=\"Etching of The South Farallon Island\" width=\"1600\" height=\"998\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872770\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-800x499.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-1020x636.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-160x100.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/SouthFarallonIslands-1536x958.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The South Farallon Island \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11105699446/\">The British Library/Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Early on, some shrewd forty-niners began to realize that there was more money to be made mining the miners than there was in mining the gold fields,” Kamiya says. Dozens of crude eating joints sprang up around the city, and hundreds of voracious miners would crowd into tents, eating in shifts. “The egg was one of the foodstuffs that was in such short supply.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eva Chrysanthe, an artist and chronicler of the history of the Farallones, describes San Francisco at this time as a “protein-hungry town.” What few chickens there were had been devoured, she says, and people were foraging. “After you wipe out all the bird nests on shore, then you go out to the Farallones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first egg entrepreneur was Doc Robinson, a pharmacist. He and his brother-in-law, Orin, would sail out to the Farallon Islands and haul back dozens of murre eggs, which they would then sell to restaurants and grocery stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work was “tough, dirty and dangerous,” says Kamiya. “The murres lay their eggs up on these towering, steep cliffs — higher than Nob Hill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And though Robinson and his brother-in-law were able to poach $3,000 worth of eggs, they had “no interest in going back. It was a hellish experience,” says Chrysanthe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the idea took hold: Robinson’s egg business kicked off the “egg rush.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872766\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre.jpg\" alt=\"The common murre (Uria aalge), which was a source of eggs for San Francisco's egg rush. Engraving by John Gould, William Hart, H. C. Richter.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1120\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872766\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre.jpg 1600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-800x560.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-1020x714.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-160x112.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/CommonMurre-1536x1075.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The common murre (Uria aalge), which was a source of eggs for San Francisco’s egg rush. Engraving by John Gould, William Hart, H. C. Richter. \u003ccite>(Dea/G. Dagli Orti/Agostini/Getty Images )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The eggs of the common murre — a penguin-like bird — were the most sought-after, most delectable on the Farallones. Strange, beautiful, blue-speckled and pointy-tipped, they are about twice the size of chicken eggs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When fried, “the white of the murre egg stays clear and gelatinous. The yolk is deep reddish, and very unappetizing to look at,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.keithhansen.com/\">Keith Hansen\u003c/a>, a bird illustrator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1851, six men formed the Pacific Egg Co., which claimed exclusive rights to the islands, says Peter White, author of “The Farallon Islands: Sentinels of the Golden Gate.” In May, when the birds first began to lay, the company would land 10 to 30 men, mostly Italian and Greek, on the Farallones’ talus-filled shores. They came in little rowboats — in itself a test of stamina.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kamiya is amazed at the derring-do of these men: “They’d send the men up to these sheer guano-stinking cliffs, being attacked by swirling gulls. These were rough-necked guys, waterfront types, climbing up and pushing eggs into their special egg pockets in their egg shirts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872767\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 600px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger.jpg\" alt='\"Scottie the egger\" wearing a shirt typical of egg hunters. The shirts had built-in pouches to make egg collecting easier. ' width=\"600\" height=\"754\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872767\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger.jpg 600w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/egger-160x201.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">‘Scottie the egger’ wearing a shirt typical of egg hunters. The shirts had built-in pouches to make egg collecting easier. \u003ccite>(Arthur Bolton/California Academy of Sciences )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the egg pickers went in for the first time, they would smash every egg. “That way they could be assured that the next day, when they returned, every egg gathered would be fresh,” White says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The eggers starting coming out at about the same time \u003ca href=\"https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=100\">the lighthouse\u003c/a> was being built on the Farallones, says biologist Peter Pyle. “They’ve got hundreds of these ships coming in response to the gold rush, and a lot of them crashed on the Farallones.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/safr/learn/education/upload/Lighthouse_intercept.pdf\">Being a lighthouse keeper\u003c/a> on the Farallones was a severe, lonely and harsh duty, says Kamiya. “And then they had to contend with these raucous, aggressive eggers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rival eggers would sail out to challenge them. “One man in particular, David Batchelder, just kept showing up with his own bands of roughnecks,” Kamiya says. “The Great Egg Wars of the Farallones took place just a few weeks before the Battle of Gettysburg.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On June 3, 1863, three boatloads of heavily armed men came to the islands. They even had a cannon with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The guys at the egg company yelled out to them, ‘Land at your peril!’ ” Kamiya says. “Batchelder said, ‘I’ll land! I’ll go through hell!’ Then he and his men spent the night drinking. They got themselves into an aggressive, alcohol-fueled state.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the egg company warned them, they opened fire. The first casualty was one of the egg company employees, Edwin Perkins, who died after being shot through the stomach. Five of the boatmen were shot and eventually driven off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finally, the federal government ruled all commercial eggers off of the islands. Any egging after that was done by the lighthouse keepers. “But it was black-market trading, trying to line their pockets with eggs,” says Kamiya.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plundering of eggs had caused the murre population to decline year after year, dropping from nearly 400,000 down to 6,000. In the early 1850s, about a half-million eggs were gathered per year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11872768\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1584px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs.jpg\" alt=\"Eggs of the common murre collected from the Farallon Islands in the 1880s.\" width=\"1584\" height=\"1178\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11872768\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs.jpg 1584w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-800x595.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-1020x759.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-160x119.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/Pileofeggs-1536x1142.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1584px) 100vw, 1584px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eggs of the common murre collected from the Farallon Islands in the 1880s. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14728487176/\">Smithsonian Libraries/Flickr\u003c/a> )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“For decades, it was said that if you ate any baked goods in San Francisco, you were probably eating murre eggs,” Kamiya says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But when chickens finally got established in Petaluma, it ended up doing in the murre egg industry. The Farallones are now used by scientists to observe bird and animal life, and to track the recovery of species on the islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a robust population now, despite the best efforts of the Farallon eggers,” Kamiya says. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+Gold-Hungry+Forty-Niners+Also+Plundered+Something+Else%3A+Eggs&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]B[/dropcap]ay Curious listener Jaimie Cohen wants to learn more about the \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/2837756/donut-or-doughnut/\">doughnut\u003c/a> and Chinese food shops she’s seen around the Bay Area:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why are there restaurants that serve Chinese food, doughnuts and burgers all in one location? And why are there so many of them specifically in the Bay Area? What is the history of it happening here?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doughnuts have long been a favorite \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-history-of-the-doughnut-150405177/\">American treat\u003c/a>. But what if you could get some lo mein or fried rice while grabbing a dozen of your favorite crullers? It’s a uniquely Californian combination with an unexpected history.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inside the Mission District’s ‘China Express and Donut’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Those passing through the 24th Street / Mission BART station may have seen the doughnut shop that first piqued Jaimie Cohen’s curiosity. It sits right on the corner: “Chinese Food and Donuts” in bold red lettering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shop’s owner, Jolly Chan, immigrated from Cambodia in 1981. He started off in Los Angeles, where he lived until 1985 when he moved up to San Francisco and started China Express and Donut in 1993. “I continue until now,” Chan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walls of Chan’s shop flash with neon signs spotlighting the two wildly different foods he serves. He points to his daily array of doughnuts: glazed, sugar and sprinkles. A few feet away, he also offers a buffet of Chinese food classics, including chicken fried rice, pot stickers and sweet and sour pork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871927\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11871927 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3.jpg\" alt=\"People wait for the bus across the street from China Express, a restaurant serving chinese food and donuts, on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wait for the bus across the street from China Express, a restaurant serving Chinese food and doughnuts, on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco on March 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A little spicy, a little sweet,” he laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beauty of his operation is that regulars can grab their coffee and a doughnut in the morning and a plate of orange chicken in the afternoon — all for under $10, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan learned the ins and outs of this deep fried duo when he first immigrated to Los Angeles. While working at a Chinese restaurant, he learned to make doughnuts from friends who had also recently immigrated from Cambodia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those friends, he said, learned from one very unlikely entrepreneur: “Ted Ngoy, the king of doughnut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Ted Ngoy, the Donut King, Sweeps California\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Donut King is largely responsible for building a doughnut dynasty across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ted Ngoy fled Cambodia after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia/case-study/background/origins-of-the-khmer-rouge\">Khmer Rouge\u003c/a> rose to power during the country’s civil war. In 1975, he arrived at Camp Pendleton, a refugee camp in San Diego County, without a penny to his name. Ngoy was working at a gas station in Tustin, California to support his wife and three children when he smelled a sweet aroma from a nearby doughnut shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember it was a slow night, about midnight, and there was no traffic,” says Ngoy in \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10214496/\">\u003cem>The Donut King\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a recent documentary about his life by filmmaker Alice Gu (premiering on KQED Channel 9, May 24, 2021 at 10pm). “I ran real fast to come to this window right here. I say, ‘Lady, I would like to buy some doughnut.’ She said, ‘Okay, I’ll sell you a dozen doughnut.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"480\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/sY2jXx0OP88\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was love at first bite. Ngoy set out to learn how to make doughnuts himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He applied and got accepted to a training program with \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchell%27s_Donuts\">Winchell’s Donut House\u003c/a>, then the leading doughnut chain in California. The company gave him a store to manage, and before long, Ngoy scraped together the money to buy his own shop. Then he bought another and another. Within a decade, he owned 70 doughnut shops across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those iconic pink doughnut boxes were his idea. Before Ngoy came along, doughnuts in the U.S were typically sold in a white box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One day I asked the salesman, ‘How about we create some kind of pink box?'” Ngoy says in The Donut King. “The pink box costs a lot less. Even a dime or two dimes. We can save a lot of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngoy was a shrewd businessman who shared his fortune with other immigrants. He sponsored over 100 Cambodian families to immigrate to the United States and even welcomed them to stay in his mansion when they first arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngoy also taught dozens of Cambodian immigrants to make doughnuts. At one point, there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-10-29/review-the-donut-king-documentary\">reportedly over 5,000\u003c/a> independent doughnut shops sprinkled across the state — roughly 90 percent of them owned by Cambodians. Initially, most of these immigrant-owned, mom and pop shops were concentrated in Southern California, but it was only a matter of time before they began migrating up to the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Supporting One Another to Get Ahead\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Decades after Ngoy took California’s doughnut scene by storm, these fried sweet treats still represent the promise of a better life. Dorothy Chow of B & H Bakery Distributors, a Cambodian-American-owned company, supplies doughnut ingredients throughout Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871926\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11871926 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2.jpg\" alt=\"The donut case at China Express and Donuts on Mission Street in San Francisco\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The doughnut case at China Express and Donut on Mission Street in San Francisco on April 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Basically [B&H] started to try and create another option to help our own people,” says Chow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow’s dad started running the business decades ago as an alternative to the giant companies that held a monopoly on doughnut supplies, Chow says. As a survivor of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Civil_War\">Cambodian Civil War\u003c/a> and resulting \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide\">genocide\u003c/a>, his singular motivation was to support refugees like himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My dad is actually one of the first groups that escaped out of Cambodia,” says Chow. “He was caught into the labor camps that were happening at the time. He’s seen really horrific things. And I’m sure a lot of these doughnut shop owners have their own experiences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to her dad’s warehouse and selling doughnuts in the summer, Chow spent a lot of time with people who had just come from Cambodia. They worked hard to get a better life for their kids. And took advantage of the resources and knowledge around them in their community, learning to cook new cuisines and how to run businesses in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’ve gone through war and you’ve been able to escape,” says Chow. “If you’ve lost your family and you’ve seen terrible things, owning a doughnut shop is a piece of cake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Adapting to Survive and Thrive\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ost Cambodian-owned doughnut shops focus on the dessert. However, others have the space, skills and equipment to make high-profit fast foods that cater to American tastes, like hot dogs and hamburgers. Chow says a majority of these doughnut crossover shops are in urban spaces, including San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For China Express and Donut owner Jolly Chan, the combination of the two tasty treats came out of necessity. Everything in the Bay Area is so expensive, he says, “We have to sell more stuff to make up the rent and the expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doughnut shops in less expensive areas can afford to close when they’ve sold out, but that’s not an option for Chan. He decided to incorporate another food option to appeal to the lunch crowd. He says he considered burgers, but that would mean competing with the McDonald’s across the street. He thought Chinese food would help his shop stand out on a crowded corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871932\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871932\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">China Express employee Kyi Sin Hnin Htet helps a customer at the restaurant on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco on March 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chan says the majority of his customers are locals and commuters — 80 percent are Latino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They love it,” he said. However, he has noticed a drop in business since the Mission District started gentrifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan says once Valencia Street started changing, younger people moved to the area. And they have different tastes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t like the food that we sell, the doughnuts that we sell. They eat different food,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s shop specializes in old fashioned treats, like gooey raspberry jelly doughnuts or cake doughnuts with rainbow sprinkles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What doughnuts used to be,” he says. “The traditional doughnut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighboring independent doughnut shops like \u003ca href=\"https://dynamodonut.com/\">Dynamo Donut\u003c/a> that sell artisanal, seasonal and organic doughnuts at a much higher price point than Chan’s doughnuts are the new trend. And Chan says during the coronavirus shutdowns, his sales dropped more than 50 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His business used to be a 50-50 split between customers who would do takeaway and those who would eat inside. During the pandemic, the takeaway orders didn’t make up for the loss of indoor dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a Cambodian entrepreneur, Chan is no stranger to thriving under difficult circumstances. But, he says that if things don’t look up soon he’s not sure he can continue to adapt. He worries his shop won’t survive the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot make it,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Bay Curious, the show that answers listener questions about the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You know how most offices have a “food table?” Some communal spot where you might find extra lemons from someone’s tree … or a bag of leftover Halloween candy … or, on a lucky day, the fresh scones your baking-obsessed colleague whipped together that morning. At KQED, I can’t walk by our food table without taking a glance. You know, just in case something delicious is on offer. Nothing gets me quite as excited as when I spot a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">little pink cardboard box. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the flap await a dozen golden doughnuts – just waiting to become my second breakfast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This particular pink box is from a shop just a few blocks away in San Francisco’s Mission District that’s grabbed the attention of our question asker today, Jaime Cohen. Because they have more than donuts for sale…\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So my question is, why are there restaurants that serve Chinese food, doughnuts, and burgers all in one location?\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a winning combination Jamie has only seen in California and she wants to know why. Today on the show, we’re exploring the fascinating history and the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donut king\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> behind it all. This story first aired in 2021, but its one that still makes my mouth water. Stick around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[[SPONSOR MESSAGE]]\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Asal Ehsanipour called Jamie Cohen to find out more about her obsession with donut places that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serve Chinese food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paint me a picture. Can you remember the first time that you saw a sign that said Chinese food and doughnuts, or doughnuts and hamburgers or whatever the combination is? What were you thinking? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the very first time we ever–I ever noticed it, it was my husband and I. We pointed it out to each other and it said doughnuts and Chinese food and hamburgers. Why are there so many of them? And specifically in the Bay Area– what is the history of it happening here?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’ll see if I can find out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I want to know the history. What’s the history? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OK, you got it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, cool.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[STREET NOISE]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you’ve ever gotten off at the 24th Street / Mission BART station, you’ve probably seen the doughnut shop that first piqued Jaime’s curiosity. It’s right on the corner: “Chinese Food and Donuts” in bold red lettering. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you eat breakfast today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes. Early mornings, sometimes I feel hungry. I just grab a doughnut. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Jolly Chan, the owner of China Express and Donut.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m an immigrant from Cambodia. I came to United States in 1981 and I have my small business started in 1985 in Los Angeles. And I move up to San Francisco and have this corner store in early 1993. And continue until now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly’s shop is understated. On the wall there are neon signs flashing the two wildly different foods he serves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The doughnut that we have every day – have glaze, have sugar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doughnut holes, sprinkles, there’s chocolate. A few feet away — there’s a buffet style array of Chinese food classics. Like chicken fried rice, pot stickers, and sweet and sour pork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most popular item for the Chinese food is the hot chicken wings, the teriyaki chicken and the broccoli beef. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What’s your favorite?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hot wings and the broccoli. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly says the beauty of this operation is that people can buy lunch and dinner for under 10 bucks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah because it’s a local customer. Yeah. it’s not a tourist spot. It’s a local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regulars can grab their coffee and a doughnut in the morning… And a plate of orange chicken in the afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A little spicy, a little sweet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To some, it may seem like an unconventional pairing. But for \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly, this deep fried duo makes perfect sense. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, because I know both. Donut and Chinese food. I used to cook Chinese food in Los Angeles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">…Which is also where he learned how to make doughnuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah I learned it from my friend and the friend learned, yeah, it from each other. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And those friends learned from one very unlikely entrepreneur: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted Ngoy, the king of donut. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted Ngoy. The Donut \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">King\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donut King: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donut time!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Donut King is pretty much single-handedly responsible for building a doughnut dynasty across California. Ted was a refugee who fled Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge rose to power during the country’s civil war. In 1975, he arrived in California without a penny to his name. One day, he was working at a gas station when he smelled a sweet aroma from a nearby doughnut shop. Here he is in a recent documentary made by Alice Gu, aptly called “The Donut King.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ted Ngoy:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I remember it was a slow night, about midnight and there’s no traffic. I ran real fast to come to this window right here. I say, ‘Lady, I would like to buy some doughnut.’ She said, ‘Okay, I’ll sell you a dozen doughnut.’ I fell in love with doughnuts from that moment that I had a bite. Doughnuts remind me of a cake called nom-ko in Cambodia. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was love at first bite. Ted applied and got accepted to a training program with Winchell’s Donut House. Before long he’d scraped together the money to buy his own shop. And then another. And then another. Within a decade, he owned 70 doughnut shops across California. And, get this… Those iconic pink boxes? That was Ted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ted Ngoy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we come to the picture, American people always use a white box. One day I asked the salesman, say ‘How about we create some kind of pink box? The pink box costs a lot less. Even a dime or two dime. We can save a lot of money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted had a knack for business and he shared his fortune with other immigrants. He sponsored over 100 Cambodian families to immigrate to the US and when they arrived he would literally open up his mansion to them. And he taught them how to make donuts. At one point, there were reportedly over 5,000 independent doughnut shops sprinkled around the state. Roughly 90 percent were owned by Cambodians. Most were concentrated in Southern California but pretty soon these immigrant-owned mom and pop shops started opening up in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We distribute currently all throughout Northern California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Dorothy Chow of B and H Bakery Distributors, a Cambodian American-owned company that supplies doughnut ingredients\u003c/span>\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basically the whole purpose is it started to just try and create another option to help our own people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dorothy’s dad started running the business decades ago as an alternative to the giant companies that held a monopoly on doughnut supplies. His singular motivation was to support Cambodian refugees like himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My dad is actually one of the first groups that escaped out of Cambodia. And on top of that he was caught into the labor camps that were happening at the time. He’s seen really, really horrific things and I’m sure a lot of these doughnut shop owners have their own experiences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going to her dad’s warehouse and selling donuts in the summer, Dorothy spent a lot of time with people who had just come from Cambodia. They worked hard to get a better life for their kids. And took advantage of the resources and knowledge around them in their community, learning to cook new cuisines and run businesses. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I mean if you’ve gone through war and you’ve been able to escape. You’ve lost your family and you’ve seen terrible things, you know, owning a doughnuts shop is a piece of cake. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laughs]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, most of these shops deal strictly in doughnuts. But others have the space, skills, and equipment to make high profit fast foods that cater to Americans tastes, like hot dogs and hamburgers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Why not make something that can make more money? You know, doughnuts are fast food that you can get. And they’re trying to do the same thing with that lunch category. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dorothy says there are more donut-Chinese crossover shops in urban areas – like San Francisco and Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason why? It’s back at Jolly Chan’s restaurant near the 24th Street Bart station. Hi, can I get a veggie deluxe please? And I’ll get a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">doughnut\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly Chan says, for him – the combination of doughnuts and Chinese food came out of necessity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The rent, the cost of employee, the cost of everything in Bay Area is higher than other places. We have to sell more stuff to make up the rent and the expense. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doughnut shops in less expensive areas can \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">afford\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to close when they’ve sold out. But closing at noon is impossible in urban areas where the rents are higher. So Jolly had to incorporate another food option to appeal to the lunch crowd. He considered burgers, but that would mean competing with the McDonalds across the street. He already knew how to make Chinese food from his early days in the US, and it helped his shop stand out on a crowded corner. Jolly says his customers are local to the Mission District. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">80 percent Latino. 80 percent Latino. They love it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or, the folks that used to be local. That’s all changing now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 90s a lot of Latino, a lot of live in this Mission District. But now after they develop the Valencia, yeah a lot of younger people. They are coming and they don’t like the way that we sell. The food that we sell. The donuts that we sell. They eat different food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly says he’s struggled to keep up with the changes in the Mission. He specializes in the good old fashioned stuff. Like – those gooey raspberry jelly donuts, or cake donuts with rainbow sprinkles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What donut used to be.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What did donuts used to be?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The traditional donut. Not the one that they make up like a cake like a decoration that cost more than the regular one, yeah.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He’s talking about shops like Dynamo Donuts on 24th Street just a few blocks over. They sell donuts that are local, artisanal, seasonal, organic – you get it. And that competition has been hard for Jolly. Cambodian entrepreneurs like Jolly Chan are survivors. They left their homeland. And through sheer grit, they were able to thrive here in California. But, according to Jolly, everything is changing so fast. And after all this time, he’s not sure he has the energy to keep up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour. We do have an update since this story aired. China Express and Donut DID survive the challenges of the pandemic. Jolly Chan still owns the shop, though he is looking for his next step. Retirement perhaps. The business is for sale. So if you’re interested, give him a call.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’ve got a brand new voting round to kick off the new year – Here’s what’s up for consideration: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who is “Stevens” and why is Stevens Creek in San Jose and Cupertino named after him or her?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why does San Jose have such a high concentration of Vietnamese people?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I see peacocks sometimes in the East Foothills of San Jose. They certainly are not native to California. How did they get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Head to BayCuriuos.org to vote for which question you’d like to hear on the program. It only takes a few seconds! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This episode of Bay Curious was made in 2021 by Katie McMurran, Suzie Racho and Katrina Schwartz. It was updated this week by Christopher Beale, Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font and Ana De Almeida Amaral. Our show is a production of member-supported KQED in San Francisco. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Small businesses that sell doughnuts and Chinese food are a common sight in California. Many of their owners are Cambodian immigrants who escaped the Khamer Rouge.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">B\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ay Curious listener Jaimie Cohen wants to learn more about the \u003ca href=\"https://time.com/2837756/donut-or-doughnut/\">doughnut\u003c/a> and Chinese food shops she’s seen around the Bay Area:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Why are there restaurants that serve Chinese food, doughnuts and burgers all in one location? And why are there so many of them specifically in the Bay Area? What is the history of it happening here?”\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>Doughnuts have long been a favorite \u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-history-of-the-doughnut-150405177/\">American treat\u003c/a>. But what if you could get some lo mein or fried rice while grabbing a dozen of your favorite crullers? It’s a uniquely Californian combination with an unexpected history.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Inside the Mission District’s ‘China Express and Donut’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Those passing through the 24th Street / Mission BART station may have seen the doughnut shop that first piqued Jaimie Cohen’s curiosity. It sits right on the corner: “Chinese Food and Donuts” in bold red lettering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shop’s owner, Jolly Chan, immigrated from Cambodia in 1981. He started off in Los Angeles, where he lived until 1985 when he moved up to San Francisco and started China Express and Donut in 1993. “I continue until now,” Chan says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The walls of Chan’s shop flash with neon signs spotlighting the two wildly different foods he serves. He points to his daily array of doughnuts: glazed, sugar and sprinkles. A few feet away, he also offers a buffet of Chinese food classics, including chicken fried rice, pot stickers and sweet and sour pork.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871927\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11871927 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3.jpg\" alt=\"People wait for the bus across the street from China Express, a restaurant serving chinese food and donuts, on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts3-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People wait for the bus across the street from China Express, a restaurant serving Chinese food and doughnuts, on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco on March 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“A little spicy, a little sweet,” he laughs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The beauty of his operation is that regulars can grab their coffee and a doughnut in the morning and a plate of orange chicken in the afternoon — all for under $10, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan learned the ins and outs of this deep fried duo when he first immigrated to Los Angeles. While working at a Chinese restaurant, he learned to make doughnuts from friends who had also recently immigrated from Cambodia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those friends, he said, learned from one very unlikely entrepreneur: “Ted Ngoy, the king of doughnut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Ted Ngoy, the Donut King, Sweeps California\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>he Donut King is largely responsible for building a doughnut dynasty across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ted Ngoy fled Cambodia after the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/cambodia/case-study/background/origins-of-the-khmer-rouge\">Khmer Rouge\u003c/a> rose to power during the country’s civil war. In 1975, he arrived at Camp Pendleton, a refugee camp in San Diego County, without a penny to his name. Ngoy was working at a gas station in Tustin, California to support his wife and three children when he smelled a sweet aroma from a nearby doughnut shop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember it was a slow night, about midnight, and there was no traffic,” says Ngoy in \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10214496/\">\u003cem>The Donut King\u003c/em>\u003c/a>, a recent documentary about his life by filmmaker Alice Gu (premiering on KQED Channel 9, May 24, 2021 at 10pm). “I ran real fast to come to this window right here. I say, ‘Lady, I would like to buy some doughnut.’ She said, ‘Okay, I’ll sell you a dozen doughnut.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1920\" height=\"480\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/sY2jXx0OP88\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was love at first bite. Ngoy set out to learn how to make doughnuts himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He applied and got accepted to a training program with \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchell%27s_Donuts\">Winchell’s Donut House\u003c/a>, then the leading doughnut chain in California. The company gave him a store to manage, and before long, Ngoy scraped together the money to buy his own shop. Then he bought another and another. Within a decade, he owned 70 doughnut shops across California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those iconic pink doughnut boxes were his idea. Before Ngoy came along, doughnuts in the U.S were typically sold in a white box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One day I asked the salesman, ‘How about we create some kind of pink box?'” Ngoy says in The Donut King. “The pink box costs a lot less. Even a dime or two dimes. We can save a lot of money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngoy was a shrewd businessman who shared his fortune with other immigrants. He sponsored over 100 Cambodian families to immigrate to the United States and even welcomed them to stay in his mansion when they first arrived.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ngoy also taught dozens of Cambodian immigrants to make doughnuts. At one point, there were \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-10-29/review-the-donut-king-documentary\">reportedly over 5,000\u003c/a> independent doughnut shops sprinkled across the state — roughly 90 percent of them owned by Cambodians. Initially, most of these immigrant-owned, mom and pop shops were concentrated in Southern California, but it was only a matter of time before they began migrating up to the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Supporting One Another to Get Ahead\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Decades after Ngoy took California’s doughnut scene by storm, these fried sweet treats still represent the promise of a better life. Dorothy Chow of B & H Bakery Distributors, a Cambodian-American-owned company, supplies doughnut ingredients throughout Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871926\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11871926 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2.jpg\" alt=\"The donut case at China Express and Donuts on Mission Street in San Francisco\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The doughnut case at China Express and Donut on Mission Street in San Francisco on April 16, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Basically [B&H] started to try and create another option to help our own people,” says Chow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chow’s dad started running the business decades ago as an alternative to the giant companies that held a monopoly on doughnut supplies, Chow says. As a survivor of the \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Civil_War\">Cambodian Civil War\u003c/a> and resulting \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_genocide\">genocide\u003c/a>, his singular motivation was to support refugees like himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My dad is actually one of the first groups that escaped out of Cambodia,” says Chow. “He was caught into the labor camps that were happening at the time. He’s seen really horrific things. And I’m sure a lot of these doughnut shop owners have their own experiences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Going to her dad’s warehouse and selling doughnuts in the summer, Chow spent a lot of time with people who had just come from Cambodia. They worked hard to get a better life for their kids. And took advantage of the resources and knowledge around them in their community, learning to cook new cuisines and how to run businesses in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’ve gone through war and you’ve been able to escape,” says Chow. “If you’ve lost your family and you’ve seen terrible things, owning a doughnut shop is a piece of cake.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Adapting to Survive and Thrive\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">M\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>ost Cambodian-owned doughnut shops focus on the dessert. However, others have the space, skills and equipment to make high-profit fast foods that cater to American tastes, like hot dogs and hamburgers. Chow says a majority of these doughnut crossover shops are in urban spaces, including San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For China Express and Donut owner Jolly Chan, the combination of the two tasty treats came out of necessity. Everything in the Bay Area is so expensive, he says, “We have to sell more stuff to make up the rent and the expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doughnut shops in less expensive areas can afford to close when they’ve sold out, but that’s not an option for Chan. He decided to incorporate another food option to appeal to the lunch crowd. He says he considered burgers, but that would mean competing with the McDonald’s across the street. He thought Chinese food would help his shop stand out on a crowded corner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11871932\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11871932\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Chinese-and-donuts5-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">China Express employee Kyi Sin Hnin Htet helps a customer at the restaurant on 24th and Mission Streets in San Francisco on March 19, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chan says the majority of his customers are locals and commuters — 80 percent are Latino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They love it,” he said. However, he has noticed a drop in business since the Mission District started gentrifying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan says once Valencia Street started changing, younger people moved to the area. And they have different tastes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They don’t like the food that we sell, the doughnuts that we sell. They eat different food,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chan’s shop specializes in old fashioned treats, like gooey raspberry jelly doughnuts or cake doughnuts with rainbow sprinkles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What doughnuts used to be,” he says. “The traditional doughnut.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neighboring independent doughnut shops like \u003ca href=\"https://dynamodonut.com/\">Dynamo Donut\u003c/a> that sell artisanal, seasonal and organic doughnuts at a much higher price point than Chan’s doughnuts are the new trend. And Chan says during the coronavirus shutdowns, his sales dropped more than 50 percent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His business used to be a 50-50 split between customers who would do takeaway and those who would eat inside. During the pandemic, the takeaway orders didn’t make up for the loss of indoor dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a Cambodian entrepreneur, Chan is no stranger to thriving under difficult circumstances. But, he says that if things don’t look up soon he’s not sure he can continue to adapt. He worries his shop won’t survive the next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We cannot make it,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Bay Curious, the show that answers listener questions about the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You know how most offices have a “food table?” Some communal spot where you might find extra lemons from someone’s tree … or a bag of leftover Halloween candy … or, on a lucky day, the fresh scones your baking-obsessed colleague whipped together that morning. At KQED, I can’t walk by our food table without taking a glance. You know, just in case something delicious is on offer. Nothing gets me quite as excited as when I spot a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">little pink cardboard box. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the flap await a dozen golden doughnuts – just waiting to become my second breakfast.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This particular pink box is from a shop just a few blocks away in San Francisco’s Mission District that’s grabbed the attention of our question asker today, Jaime Cohen. Because they have more than donuts for sale…\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So my question is, why are there restaurants that serve Chinese food, doughnuts, and burgers all in one location?\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is a winning combination Jamie has only seen in California and she wants to know why. Today on the show, we’re exploring the fascinating history and the \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">donut king\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> behind it all. This story first aired in 2021, but its one that still makes my mouth water. Stick around. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[[SPONSOR MESSAGE]]\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Asal Ehsanipour called Jamie Cohen to find out more about her obsession with donut places that \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">also \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">serve Chinese food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Paint me a picture. Can you remember the first time that you saw a sign that said Chinese food and doughnuts, or doughnuts and hamburgers or whatever the combination is? What were you thinking? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So the very first time we ever–I ever noticed it, it was my husband and I. We pointed it out to each other and it said doughnuts and Chinese food and hamburgers. Why are there so many of them? And specifically in the Bay Area– what is the history of it happening here?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’ll see if I can find out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I want to know the history. What’s the history? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OK, you got it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jamie Cohen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Okay, cool.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[STREET NOISE]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you’ve ever gotten off at the 24th Street / Mission BART station, you’ve probably seen the doughnut shop that first piqued Jaime’s curiosity. It’s right on the corner: “Chinese Food and Donuts” in bold red lettering. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did you eat breakfast today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yes. Early mornings, sometimes I feel hungry. I just grab a doughnut. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Jolly Chan, the owner of China Express and Donut.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m an immigrant from Cambodia. I came to United States in 1981 and I have my small business started in 1985 in Los Angeles. And I move up to San Francisco and have this corner store in early 1993. And continue until now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly’s shop is understated. On the wall there are neon signs flashing the two wildly different foods he serves. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The doughnut that we have every day – have glaze, have sugar.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doughnut holes, sprinkles, there’s chocolate. A few feet away — there’s a buffet style array of Chinese food classics. Like chicken fried rice, pot stickers, and sweet and sour pork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The most popular item for the Chinese food is the hot chicken wings, the teriyaki chicken and the broccoli beef. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What’s your favorite?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hot wings and the broccoli. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly says the beauty of this operation is that people can buy lunch and dinner for under 10 bucks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah because it’s a local customer. Yeah. it’s not a tourist spot. It’s a local. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regulars can grab their coffee and a doughnut in the morning… And a plate of orange chicken in the afternoon. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A little spicy, a little sweet.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To some, it may seem like an unconventional pairing. But for \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly, this deep fried duo makes perfect sense. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah, because I know both. Donut and Chinese food. I used to cook Chinese food in Los Angeles.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">…Which is also where he learned how to make doughnuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yeah I learned it from my friend and the friend learned, yeah, it from each other. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And those friends learned from one very unlikely entrepreneur: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted Ngoy, the king of donut. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laugh]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted Ngoy. The Donut \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">King\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Donut King: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Donut time!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Donut King is pretty much single-handedly responsible for building a doughnut dynasty across California. Ted was a refugee who fled Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge rose to power during the country’s civil war. In 1975, he arrived in California without a penny to his name. One day, he was working at a gas station when he smelled a sweet aroma from a nearby doughnut shop. Here he is in a recent documentary made by Alice Gu, aptly called “The Donut King.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ted Ngoy:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I remember it was a slow night, about midnight and there’s no traffic. I ran real fast to come to this window right here. I say, ‘Lady, I would like to buy some doughnut.’ She said, ‘Okay, I’ll sell you a dozen doughnut.’ I fell in love with doughnuts from that moment that I had a bite. Doughnuts remind me of a cake called nom-ko in Cambodia. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was love at first bite. Ted applied and got accepted to a training program with Winchell’s Donut House. Before long he’d scraped together the money to buy his own shop. And then another. And then another. Within a decade, he owned 70 doughnut shops across California. And, get this… Those iconic pink boxes? That was Ted. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ted Ngoy: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we come to the picture, American people always use a white box. One day I asked the salesman, say ‘How about we create some kind of pink box? The pink box costs a lot less. Even a dime or two dime. We can save a lot of money.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ted had a knack for business and he shared his fortune with other immigrants. He sponsored over 100 Cambodian families to immigrate to the US and when they arrived he would literally open up his mansion to them. And he taught them how to make donuts. At one point, there were reportedly over 5,000 independent doughnut shops sprinkled around the state. Roughly 90 percent were owned by Cambodians. Most were concentrated in Southern California but pretty soon these immigrant-owned mom and pop shops started opening up in the Bay Area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We distribute currently all throughout Northern California. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Dorothy Chow of B and H Bakery Distributors, a Cambodian American-owned company that supplies doughnut ingredients\u003c/span>\u003cb>. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Basically the whole purpose is it started to just try and create another option to help our own people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dorothy’s dad started running the business decades ago as an alternative to the giant companies that held a monopoly on doughnut supplies. His singular motivation was to support Cambodian refugees like himself. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My dad is actually one of the first groups that escaped out of Cambodia. And on top of that he was caught into the labor camps that were happening at the time. He’s seen really, really horrific things and I’m sure a lot of these doughnut shop owners have their own experiences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Going to her dad’s warehouse and selling donuts in the summer, Dorothy spent a lot of time with people who had just come from Cambodia. They worked hard to get a better life for their kids. And took advantage of the resources and knowledge around them in their community, learning to cook new cuisines and run businesses. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I mean if you’ve gone through war and you’ve been able to escape. You’ve lost your family and you’ve seen terrible things, you know, owning a doughnuts shop is a piece of cake. \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">[laughs]\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Of course, most of these shops deal strictly in doughnuts. But others have the space, skills, and equipment to make high profit fast foods that cater to Americans tastes, like hot dogs and hamburgers. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Chow:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Why not make something that can make more money? You know, doughnuts are fast food that you can get. And they’re trying to do the same thing with that lunch category. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dorothy says there are more donut-Chinese crossover shops in urban areas – like San Francisco and Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reason why? It’s back at Jolly Chan’s restaurant near the 24th Street Bart station. Hi, can I get a veggie deluxe please? And I’ll get a \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">doughnut\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly Chan says, for him – the combination of doughnuts and Chinese food came out of necessity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The rent, the cost of employee, the cost of everything in Bay Area is higher than other places. We have to sell more stuff to make up the rent and the expense. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Doughnut shops in less expensive areas can \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">afford\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to close when they’ve sold out. But closing at noon is impossible in urban areas where the rents are higher. So Jolly had to incorporate another food option to appeal to the lunch crowd. He considered burgers, but that would mean competing with the McDonalds across the street. He already knew how to make Chinese food from his early days in the US, and it helped his shop stand out on a crowded corner. Jolly says his customers are local to the Mission District. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">80 percent Latino. 80 percent Latino. They love it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Or, the folks that used to be local. That’s all changing now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 90s a lot of Latino, a lot of live in this Mission District. But now after they develop the Valencia, yeah a lot of younger people. They are coming and they don’t like the way that we sell. The food that we sell. The donuts that we sell. They eat different food.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jolly says he’s struggled to keep up with the changes in the Mission. He specializes in the good old fashioned stuff. Like – those gooey raspberry jelly donuts, or cake donuts with rainbow sprinkles. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What donut used to be.\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What did donuts used to be?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jolly Chan: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The traditional donut. Not the one that they make up like a cake like a decoration that cost more than the regular one, yeah.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He’s talking about shops like Dynamo Donuts on 24th Street just a few blocks over. They sell donuts that are local, artisanal, seasonal, organic – you get it. And that competition has been hard for Jolly. Cambodian entrepreneurs like Jolly Chan are survivors. They left their homeland. And through sheer grit, they were able to thrive here in California. But, according to Jolly, everything is changing so fast. And after all this time, he’s not sure he has the energy to keep up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour. We do have an update since this story aired. China Express and Donut DID survive the challenges of the pandemic. Jolly Chan still owns the shop, though he is looking for his next step. Retirement perhaps. The business is for sale. So if you’re interested, give him a call.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’ve got a brand new voting round to kick off the new year – Here’s what’s up for consideration: \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who is “Stevens” and why is Stevens Creek in San Jose and Cupertino named after him or her?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why does San Jose have such a high concentration of Vietnamese people?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I see peacocks sometimes in the East Foothills of San Jose. They certainly are not native to California. How did they get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Head to BayCuriuos.org to vote for which question you’d like to hear on the program. It only takes a few seconds! \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This episode of Bay Curious was made in 2021 by Katie McMurran, Suzie Racho and Katrina Schwartz. It was updated this week by Christopher Beale, Olivia Allen-Price, Amanda Font and Ana De Almeida Amaral. Our show is a production of member-supported KQED in San Francisco. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This article originally published on June 13, 2019.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout its history, the Bay Area has been a hotbed of military activity, from the original Army prison on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/alca/learn/historyculture/alcatraz-military-timeline.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alcatraz Island\u003c/a>, to the building of nuclear submarines in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(One of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.mareislandmuseum.org/about_x404/lcs-mariano-vallejo/mariano-g-vallejo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">nuclear subs\u003c/a> built there was named after Mariano Vallejo, one of California’s early statesmen. You can see the vertical “sail” of that sub on Mare Island today.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a mere shadow of what it was during World War II or even up until the mid-1990s, when you could still catch sight of subs slinking to and from the Mare Island shipyard or aircraft carriers putting in at Alameda Naval Air Station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But did you know we also had missiles?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Chris Johanson has done a little bit of reading about the old Nike missile base in the Marin Headlands, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">now a museum\u003c/a> run by the National Park Service, and he knew that it had the ability to be equipped with nuclear missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I wasn’t sure if they ever actually had nuclear missiles in the Headlands themselves,” Chris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, yeah there were nuclear missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Last Line of Defense\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s and ’60s, there were Nike Ajax and \u003ca href=\"http://nikemissile.org/IFC/nike_hercules.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hercules missiles\u003c/a> based all over the Bay Area, not just in the Marin Headlands. There were batteries in Pacifica, Fremont, San Rafael and on Angel Island. They were built to be a last line of defense against air attack during the Cold War.\u003cbr>\n[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_tSIlMdZok&w=560&h=315]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They weren’t standing in vertical silos, as we think of land-based missiles today, but rather laid out horizontally in underground magazines, known as “the pit.” Each one was about the length of a school bus but much more sleek, like a set of lawn darts on steroids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The missiles are essentially shells now, but until the 1970s they carried nuclear warheads with a maximum yield of 40 to 60 kilotons. One kiloton is equivalent to the energy force of 1,000 tons of dynamite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think we exaggerate destruction,” said Jerry Feight, a former Air Force missileman who now leads tours of the site, “but it was not an exaggeration.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/w31.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">W31 nuclear warheads\u003c/a> on the Nike were “variable yield;” crews could literally dial up the size of the detonation. At 40 kilotons, the young soldiers stationed at the Marin Headlands battery, designated SF-88, could with a single missile unleash an atomic force greater than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people think that’s kind of a bit of overkill,” Feight recently told a tour group, “but if we had to fire, effectively you’re already at World War III because the target had been identified, the Navy and Air Force hadn’t been able to bring him down, and we’re goin’ to war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘If It Flies, It Dies’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“You had this responsibility at a very young age,” said Dave Kreutzinger. He was stationed at SF-88 from 1967 to 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came here when I was 18,” he remembered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11753257\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1806px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11753257\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo: Dave Kreutzinger in the missile magazine at SF-88\" width=\"1806\" height=\"1263\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg 1806w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-160x112.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-800x559.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-1020x713.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-1200x839.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1806px) 100vw, 1806px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Retired car dealer Dave Kreutzinger was among the young GIs who manned Marin’s Nike missile batteries in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time he was 19, he was the launch officer, though as a specialist 4, he held the rank equivalent of a corporal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The oldest guy out here was 28,” he said matter-of-factly. “Most of us were 19.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their job was to shoot down incoming Soviet bombers — most likely whole squadrons carrying atomic bombs in the 20-megaton range. That was the perceived threat when the Nikes were rolled out in 1954, less than a decade after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan to force surrender and end World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army cohort of 120 or so crewing the Nike battery had one primary mission: to try to save the Bay Area from the same fate by launching a single missile that would vaporize anything in the air for a radius of 30 miles around the intercept — a statistic that gave rise to the unit’s charming motto: “If it flies, it dies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11753261\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1950px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11753261\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo: warhead housing\" width=\"1950\" height=\"1463\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg 1950w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1832x1374.jpeg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1376x1032.jpeg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1044x783.jpeg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-632x474.jpeg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-536x402.jpeg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1950px) 100vw, 1950px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Housing for the W-31 nuclear warhead carried by the Nike Hercules missiles. These were “enhanced fission” devices that could release more than twice the energy of the bomb that devastated Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time Dave Kreutzinger was there, the primary threat had shifted to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But for years after the whole setup was obsolete, radar at SF-88 still swept the skies for 150 miles out, looking for Russian “Bear” bombers carrying nuclear weapons, something that Kreutzinger and his crew kind of took for granted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Actually, you didn’t think about it very much,” he said. “There was so much training, a lot of education went into being here. We knew the responsibility of it, but you practiced and practiced and practiced, and there’s a lot of testing involved to be sure that you have the mental ability to launch this weapon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time that would ever happen, of course, the U.S. would already be facing a nuclear attack from those incoming planes and/or missiles. It was taken for granted that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union would be the end of the world as we know it, a concept \u003ca href=\"http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">known as MAD\u003c/a> for “mutual assured destruction.” So, launching one of these Nike Hercules missiles would essentially mean that the apocalypse was already underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We kind of knew,” Kreutzinger said, “but it wasn’t on the top of our minds that this was pretty much the end. It wasn’t something you thought about all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Nike crews also knew that launching one of their supersonic spears in anger would likely be their last living act. The Army didn’t mince around this fact. They told Kreutzinger and his fellow GIs flat-out what their life expectancy would be after an actual launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thirty minutes,” said Kreutzinger. “That was the thing that every crewman knew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Prepared but Never Put Into Action\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Since Kreutzinger was still around to talk to us, that pretty well answers another question that Bay Curious listener Chris Johanson had: Were any of these missiles ever launched?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully, no — except for training flights in New Mexico — though the crews were called to battle stations with regularity when worrisome “bogeys” appeared on the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site was finally decommissioned in 1974 and the Park Service took it over. Since then, a small cadre of Cold War missile veterans has spent years cobbling parts together, often catching them just before they were scrapped, so that visitors can watch an actual Nike Hercules missile raised ominously on a giant elevator and hoisted into launch position at SF-88. Few visitors leave unimpressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more eerie was the feeling it gave Chris when Jerry Feight handed him the actual launch keys from 50 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you had those in your hand and it was of that era,” Feight calmly explained, “you could be part of sending the world to destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, no pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No pressure,” agreed Chris, laughing nervously, “no pressure whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can see veteran docents walk you through a mock launch sequence and answer all of your nuclear annihilation questions at the SF-88 site in the Marin Headlands on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Saturday afternoons\u003c/a> from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are no tours.\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>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Chris Johanson has done a little bit of reading about the old Nike missile base in the Marin Headlands, which is \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">now a museum\u003c/a> run by the National Park Service, and he knew that it had the ability to be equipped with nuclear missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But I wasn’t sure if they ever actually had nuclear missiles in the Headlands themselves,” Chris said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, yeah there were nuclear missiles.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Last Line of Defense\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s and ’60s, there were Nike Ajax and \u003ca href=\"http://nikemissile.org/IFC/nike_hercules.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hercules missiles\u003c/a> based all over the Bay Area, not just in the Marin Headlands. There were batteries in Pacifica, Fremont, San Rafael and on Angel Island. They were built to be a last line of defense against air attack during the Cold War.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/D_tSIlMdZok'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/D_tSIlMdZok'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They weren’t standing in vertical silos, as we think of land-based missiles today, but rather laid out horizontally in underground magazines, known as “the pit.” Each one was about the length of a school bus but much more sleek, like a set of lawn darts on steroids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The missiles are essentially shells now, but until the 1970s they carried nuclear warheads with a maximum yield of 40 to 60 kilotons. One kiloton is equivalent to the energy force of 1,000 tons of dynamite.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of people think we exaggerate destruction,” said Jerry Feight, a former Air Force missileman who now leads tours of the site, “but it was not an exaggeration.”\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 \u003ca href=\"https://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/systems/w31.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">W31 nuclear warheads\u003c/a> on the Nike were “variable yield;” crews could literally dial up the size of the detonation. At 40 kilotons, the young soldiers stationed at the Marin Headlands battery, designated SF-88, could with a single missile unleash an atomic force greater than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some people think that’s kind of a bit of overkill,” Feight recently told a tour group, “but if we had to fire, effectively you’re already at World War III because the target had been identified, the Navy and Air Force hadn’t been able to bring him down, and we’re goin’ to war.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>‘If It Flies, It Dies’\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>“You had this responsibility at a very young age,” said Dave Kreutzinger. He was stationed at SF-88 from 1967 to 1969.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I came here when I was 18,” he remembered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11753257\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1806px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11753257\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo: Dave Kreutzinger in the missile magazine at SF-88\" width=\"1806\" height=\"1263\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003.jpeg 1806w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-160x112.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-800x559.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-1020x713.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2003-1200x839.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1806px) 100vw, 1806px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Retired car dealer Dave Kreutzinger was among the young GIs who manned Marin’s Nike missile batteries in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time he was 19, he was the launch officer, though as a specialist 4, he held the rank equivalent of a corporal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The oldest guy out here was 28,” he said matter-of-factly. “Most of us were 19.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their job was to shoot down incoming Soviet bombers — most likely whole squadrons carrying atomic bombs in the 20-megaton range. That was the perceived threat when the Nikes were rolled out in 1954, less than a decade after the first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan to force surrender and end World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Army cohort of 120 or so crewing the Nike battery had one primary mission: to try to save the Bay Area from the same fate by launching a single missile that would vaporize anything in the air for a radius of 30 miles around the intercept — a statistic that gave rise to the unit’s charming motto: “If it flies, it dies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11753261\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1950px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11753261\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo: warhead housing\" width=\"1950\" height=\"1463\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011.jpeg 1950w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1200x900.jpeg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1832x1374.jpeg 1832w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1376x1032.jpeg 1376w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-1044x783.jpeg 1044w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-632x474.jpeg 632w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/06/IMG_2011-536x402.jpeg 536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1950px) 100vw, 1950px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Housing for the W-31 nuclear warhead carried by the Nike Hercules missiles. These were “enhanced fission” devices that could release more than twice the energy of the bomb that devastated Nagasaki, Japan, at the end of World War II. \u003ccite>(Craig Miller/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>By the time Dave Kreutzinger was there, the primary threat had shifted to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). But for years after the whole setup was obsolete, radar at SF-88 still swept the skies for 150 miles out, looking for Russian “Bear” bombers carrying nuclear weapons, something that Kreutzinger and his crew kind of took for granted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Actually, you didn’t think about it very much,” he said. “There was so much training, a lot of education went into being here. We knew the responsibility of it, but you practiced and practiced and practiced, and there’s a lot of testing involved to be sure that you have the mental ability to launch this weapon.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time that would ever happen, of course, the U.S. would already be facing a nuclear attack from those incoming planes and/or missiles. It was taken for granted that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union would be the end of the world as we know it, a concept \u003ca href=\"http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/cold-war/strategy/strategy-mutual-assured-destruction.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">known as MAD\u003c/a> for “mutual assured destruction.” So, launching one of these Nike Hercules missiles would essentially mean that the apocalypse was already underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We kind of knew,” Kreutzinger said, “but it wasn’t on the top of our minds that this was pretty much the end. It wasn’t something you thought about all the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Nike crews also knew that launching one of their supersonic spears in anger would likely be their last living act. The Army didn’t mince around this fact. They told Kreutzinger and his fellow GIs flat-out what their life expectancy would be after an actual launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Thirty minutes,” said Kreutzinger. “That was the thing that every crewman knew.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Prepared but Never Put Into Action\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Since Kreutzinger was still around to talk to us, that pretty well answers another question that Bay Curious listener Chris Johanson had: Were any of these missiles ever launched?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thankfully, no — except for training flights in New Mexico — though the crews were called to battle stations with regularity when worrisome “bogeys” appeared on the radar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The site was finally decommissioned in 1974 and the Park Service took it over. Since then, a small cadre of Cold War missile veterans has spent years cobbling parts together, often catching them just before they were scrapped, so that visitors can watch an actual Nike Hercules missile raised ominously on a giant elevator and hoisted into launch position at SF-88. Few visitors leave unimpressed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even more eerie was the feeling it gave Chris when Jerry Feight handed him the actual launch keys from 50 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you had those in your hand and it was of that era,” Feight calmly explained, “you could be part of sending the world to destruction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, no pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No pressure,” agreed Chris, laughing nervously, “no pressure whatsoever.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can see veteran docents walk you through a mock launch sequence and answer all of your nuclear annihilation questions at the SF-88 site in the Marin Headlands on \u003ca href=\"https://www.nps.gov/goga/nike-missile-site.htm\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Saturday afternoons\u003c/a> from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there are no tours.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "from-new-york-to-helsinki-what-the-bay-area-can-learn-in-addressing-homelessness",
"title": "From New York to Helsinki: What the Bay Area Can Learn in Addressing Homelessness",
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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]H[/dropcap]omeless encampments are so ubiquitous in the Bay Area, they’ve become a part of the landscape as people seek shelter in tents and RVs, along residential streets and under highway overpasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Matthew Schmitz lives in San Francisco’s Mission District and was shocked to see this kind of extreme poverty in a region as wealthy as the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t seem to make sense,” he said. “It feels dystopian.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It made him wonder: How does homelessness in San Francisco — and by extension, the Bay Area — compare to other major cities across the globe? Are more people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area, or is it just more visible?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you look at just the numbers, the rate of homelessness in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area is really high. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-surpasses-other-large-California-cities-14271160.php\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> analysis found that Oakland and San Francisco had the highest rates of homelessness per capita, compared to other large cities in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-homeless-populations-and-subpopulations-reports/\">more than 8,000 people\u003c/a> experienced homelessness in San Francisco on any given night, and the vast majority — more than 5,100 — were unsheltered. That is, they spent the night either sleeping on the street or in cars, tents and RVs. And if we count the entire nine-county Bay Area, there were more than 35,000 homeless people in 2020. Nearly three-quarters of them lived outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But comparing San Francisco and the greater Bay Area to other cities around the world is not as simple as comparing numbers on a chart. That’s because there’s no international definition for what it means to be homeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not apples to apples\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to defining who is homeless, countries stick to three broad categories, according to Marissa Plouin, a housing researcher at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international policy group. The first category is for “rough sleepers,” or people who sleep in tents, on sidewalks or park benches. The second category covers people who are living in temporary institutional settings, like emergency shelters, mental health facilities or jails, but don’t have a home to return to when they leave. And finally, the third category includes people who are couch surfing with family or friends, or are otherwise living in crowded, unstable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870665\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Encampments and motor homes in West Oakland\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Encampments and motor homes near 24th and Wood streets in West Oakland on March 25, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some countries — like Australia and New Zealand — use the broadest definition, counting all three categories, Plouin said. Others, like Japan, count only rough sleepers and people in certain types of institutions. Plouin said the United States is somewhere in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not really comparing, in all cases, apples to apples and oranges to oranges,” Plouin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here in the U.S., it is easier to make comparisons between big cities. That’s because the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a more uniform process for getting a snapshot of the number of people who are homeless. It’s called the point-in-time count, and it involves an inventory of who is living in shelters, as well as sending out volunteers to manually count people on the street on a given night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you look at those numbers, there are some startling differences between cities in California and other big cities across the country. Take New York City, where housing costs are as high — or sometimes higher — than in the Bay Area. But unlike in San Francisco, you won’t see sprawling homeless encampments in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-homeless-populations-and-subpopulations-reports/\">latest count\u003c/a>, there were nearly 78,000 people experiencing homelessness in New York City in 2020, but the vast majority — nearly 71,000 — slept in shelters. Giselle Routhier, the policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, said a big reason for that stark contrast is a policy called the “right to shelter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Right to shelter\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n the late 1970s, mass homelessness as we know it today was just beginning to emerge across the country. A young lawyer in New York City, Robert Hayes, befriended a man experiencing homelessness who told him that he would have liked to get into the city’s shelters, but that he kept getting turned away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no beds for him,” Routhier said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID='news_11838323' label='More Reading']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Hayes sued the state and the city, arguing that the state constitution required the city to provide shelter for its residents. And, he won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a huge victory, Routhier said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The point of the shelter system is to provide a basic safety net,” she said, “so that people actually have a roof over their head, have access to food and bathrooms and space to be while they are homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the shelters first opened, they were massive, said Dr. Deborah Padgett, a professor of social work at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would take over a whole armory and then fill it with up to 900 men and beds and a huge open floor,” she said. “And that became sort of intolerable — just the size and the scale of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, Padgett said the shelters evolved and became smaller. The city introduced cluster apartments, where families would share a kitchen and bathrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t solved homelessness in New York City, where \u003ca href=\"https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2020/12/3/22151208/nyc-is-home-to-more-than-111000-homeless-students-new-data-shows\">one in 10 public school children experience homlessness\u003c/a>. Instead, Padgett says it’s created an intensely bureaucratic shelter industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870666\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless.jpg\" alt=\"Families who are homeless wait to get into an emergency shelter in New York City.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Homeless families try to keep their belongings dry while waiting for housing placement outside of the emergency overnight shelter intake center Oct. 11, 2007 in the Bronx borough of New York City. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I call it an industry because there are dozens and dozens of nonprofits that get millions of dollars a year in contracts to run shelters,” she said. “And so you have thousands and thousands of people whose jobs depend on homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New York City spends \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-citys-spending-on-homeless-hits-3-2-billion-this-year-11558562997#:~:text=Spending%20on%20homelessness%20in%20New,Wednesday%20by%20Comptroller%20Scott%20Stringer.\">more than $3 billion a year on homelessness\u003c/a>, but Padgett said moving from the shelter system into permanent, affordable housing is “almost a dream that never comes true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People spend years in shelters,” she said. “There’s this huge bottleneck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem is that New York is legally obligated to spend all of this money on shelters to comply with the right to shelter mandate. That leaves them with fewer resources to spend on housing, and like in the Bay Area, it’s incredibly expensive to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Solving homelessness by giving people a home\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is a place an ocean away that has done the opposite of New York City and is now considered \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness\">a model for reducing homelessness\u003c/a>. In Finland, housing authorities tore down the country’s once vast shelter system and replaced it with affordable apartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could say that we stole the idea from the U.S.,” said Freek Spinnewijn, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.feantsa.org/en\">European Federation of National Organizations Working With the Homeless\u003c/a>, or FEANTSA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1990s, Sam Tsemberis, a homeless services provider in New York City, came up with a radically new concept when it came to addressing homelessness. He called it “Housing First.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was really simple: The solution to homelessness is housing. And in order for people to address the root causes of their homelessness — whether that’s getting sober, accessing mental health treatment, getting medical care or getting a job — they had to have a place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s, Finland looked a lot like New York City: The shelter system was a revolving door for the country’s 20,000 homeless people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in 2008, a four-person working group — a politician, an activist, a sociologist and a bishop — got in a room together and devised a new plan to tackle homelessness. They also called it Housing First, and policymakers adopted it as Finland’s national policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not rocket science at all,” said Juha Kaakinen, CEO of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://ysaatio.fi/en/home\">Y-Foundation\u003c/a> and one of the original architects of Finland’s Housing First approach. “In Finnish society, we have this thinking that housing should be a basic human right, that society has to take care of its members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870667\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd/47846161552/in/photolist-25n1gT4-2fU16iE-2fU164S-2fU16Ys-2eLRS1W-25n1gEi-2ezEbRn-2fU17es-2ezEb4k-2fU15SE-2eLRRHG-25n1gXx-2ezEbsg-2eLRRLh-2ezEbbK-2fU15LN-2fU167N-2fU16MA-2ezEbVv-2fU15TS-2ezEc6a-2ezEcgv-2ezEc8e-2eLRRYw-2fU15Q5\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870667\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen.jpg\" alt=\"Juha Kaakinen\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juha Kaakinen speaking at 2019 OECD Housing Forum: Your Investment, My Home \u003ccite>(Andrew Wheeler / OECD/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd/47846161552/in/photolist-25n1gT4-2fU16iE-2fU164S-2fU16Ys-2eLRS1W-25n1gEi-2ezEbRn-2fU17es-2ezEb4k-2fU15SE-2eLRRHG-25n1gXx-2ezEbsg-2eLRRLh-2ezEbbK-2fU15LN-2fU167N-2fU16MA-2ezEbVv-2fU15TS-2ezEc6a-2ezEcgv-2ezEc8e-2eLRRYw-2fU15Q5\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, Finland has 5,400 homeless people, a 40% reduction in homelessness since the Housing First policy was adopted. Street homelessness is almost nonexistent and only one 50-bed emergency shelter in the country remains. Finnish officials say the country is on track to end homelessness by 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spinnewijn attributed the country’s success to long-term commitment from political leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Finland, there is a consensus that Housing First is the way to go,” Spinnewijn said. “So they’re not afraid of the elections. Whatever political coalition comes into power, Housing First will continue. And so it allowed them to have a longer-term perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finland has invested heavily in supportive housing and permanently affordable apartments, also called social housing. Kaakinen’s Y-Foundation is the fourth-largest landlord in Finland, with 17,300 social housing units meant for low-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very good quality. That’s the special thing with social housing. If you go around in the housing area in Helsinki, you can’t make the difference which one is private housing and which one is social housing,” Kaakinen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But building new, permanently affordable housing isn’t cheap. Finland has spent about 350 million euros on Housing First since the policy began more than a decade ago. The bulk of that money is spent on building new affordable housing and buying rental units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Finnish officials argue the policy saves taxpayers around 15,000 euros a year, from fewer emergency room visits, encounters with police and other social services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/budget/\">proposed budget\u003c/a> for its Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing for the upcoming year is a little more than $567 million. More than half, or about 54%, is dedicated to providing rent subsidies, operating permanent, supportive housing and building new housing. About 12% funds the city’s shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Could San Francisco Follow Finland’s Lead?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is a movement in San Francisco to build more permanently affordable housing as a long-term solution to homelessness. In 2018, voters approved Proposition C, a new tax that has so far \u003ca href=\"https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Our%20City%2C%20Our%20Home/OCOH%20Comm.%20Meeting%20One%20Final%20Presentation.pdf\">raised nearly $600 million, with another $300 million expected to come in this year\u003c/a>, and is primarily dedicated to creating new, affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870668\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Tents are spaced for social distancing at Bay View Park K.C. Jones Playground on May 5, 2020.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents are spaced for social distancing at Bay View Park K.C. Jones Playground on April 5, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proposition C nearly doubles the amount of money available annually to address homelessness, and represents a sea change in the city’s approach to solving homelessness, said Christin Evans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Prop. C funds are a game changer for the city,” said Evans, a local book store owner and one of the proponents of Proposition C. “It’s giving a significant amount of resources to service providers who have a proven track record in helping people exit homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But San Francisco is only one of 101 cities across the Bay Area. And, it won’t be able to solve homelessness on its own. Many of the most impactful financial resources for housing programs come from state and federal governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated over \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/12/29/governor-newsom-announces-major-homekey-milestone-all-94-sites-closing-escrow-ahead-of-deadline/\">$800 million in funding last year\u003c/a> to create some 6,000 new units of permanent housing through a program called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838323/heres-how-california-is-turning-hotels-into-housing-for-formerly-homeless-people\">Project Homekey\u003c/a>. And, he’s proposing doubling down on that program this year, with another $750 million. The 6,000 new units won’t be nearly enough to house everyone experiencing homelessness in California, but even so, it represents one of the largest expansions of affordable housing for formerly homeless residents in the state’s recent history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the federal level, President Biden has \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/biden-administration-will-bring-new-focus-on-housing-and-possibly-new-funding-as-well/\">declared housing a human right\u003c/a> — becoming the first president to do so since\u003cbr>\nFranklin D. Roosevelt. And, he has proposed vastly expanding the federal rental voucher program to prevent more people from becoming homeless, as well as doubling the amount of new funding for affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in order for these policies to be truly effective — and to put a significant dent in the Bay Area’s homeless population — they will need to outlive Newsom’s and Biden’s terms in office. The U.S. will have to learn from Finland’s example and commit to a policy that doesn’t change course with every election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Too many countries try to solve homelessness or radically reduce it within one political mandate,” said FEANSTA’s Freek Spinnewijn. “And that’s not possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Comparing homelessness in the Bay Area to cities across the world isn't as simple as it sounds because there's not a universal definition for homelessness. But, we can learn some things from other places.",
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"title": "From New York to Helsinki: What the Bay Area Can Learn in Addressing Homelessness | KQED",
"description": "Comparing homelessness in the Bay Area to cities across the world isn't as simple as it sounds because there's not a universal definition for homelessness. But, we can learn some things from other places.",
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"headline": "From New York to Helsinki: What the Bay Area Can Learn in Addressing Homelessness",
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"source": "Bay Curious",
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"subhead": "How Does Bay Area Homelessness Compare Globally?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">H\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>omeless encampments are so ubiquitous in the Bay Area, they’ve become a part of the landscape as people seek shelter in tents and RVs, along residential streets and under highway overpasses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Matthew Schmitz lives in San Francisco’s Mission District and was shocked to see this kind of extreme poverty in a region as wealthy as the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t seem to make sense,” he said. “It feels dystopian.”\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>It made him wonder: How does homelessness in San Francisco — and by extension, the Bay Area — compare to other major cities across the globe? Are more people experiencing homelessness in the Bay Area, or is it just more visible?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you look at just the numbers, the rate of homelessness in San Francisco and elsewhere in the Bay Area is really high. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-surpasses-other-large-California-cities-14271160.php\">San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/a> analysis found that Oakland and San Francisco had the highest rates of homelessness per capita, compared to other large cities in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, \u003ca href=\"https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-homeless-populations-and-subpopulations-reports/\">more than 8,000 people\u003c/a> experienced homelessness in San Francisco on any given night, and the vast majority — more than 5,100 — were unsheltered. That is, they spent the night either sleeping on the street or in cars, tents and RVs. And if we count the entire nine-county Bay Area, there were more than 35,000 homeless people in 2020. Nearly three-quarters of them lived outdoors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But comparing San Francisco and the greater Bay Area to other cities around the world is not as simple as comparing numbers on a chart. That’s because there’s no international definition for what it means to be homeless.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Not apples to apples\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">W\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>hen it comes to defining who is homeless, countries stick to three broad categories, according to Marissa Plouin, a housing researcher at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an international policy group. The first category is for “rough sleepers,” or people who sleep in tents, on sidewalks or park benches. The second category covers people who are living in temporary institutional settings, like emergency shelters, mental health facilities or jails, but don’t have a home to return to when they leave. And finally, the third category includes people who are couch surfing with family or friends, or are otherwise living in crowded, unstable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870665\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870665\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Encampments and motor homes in West Oakland\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS42267_001_KQED_Oakland_CoronavirusHomelessRelief_03252020_0007-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Encampments and motor homes near 24th and Wood streets in West Oakland on March 25, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some countries — like Australia and New Zealand — use the broadest definition, counting all three categories, Plouin said. Others, like Japan, count only rough sleepers and people in certain types of institutions. Plouin said the United States is somewhere in between.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not really comparing, in all cases, apples to apples and oranges to oranges,” Plouin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here in the U.S., it is easier to make comparisons between big cities. That’s because the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a more uniform process for getting a snapshot of the number of people who are homeless. It’s called the point-in-time count, and it involves an inventory of who is living in shelters, as well as sending out volunteers to manually count people on the street on a given night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When you look at those numbers, there are some startling differences between cities in California and other big cities across the country. Take New York City, where housing costs are as high — or sometimes higher — than in the Bay Area. But unlike in San Francisco, you won’t see sprawling homeless encampments in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/coc/coc-homeless-populations-and-subpopulations-reports/\">latest count\u003c/a>, there were nearly 78,000 people experiencing homelessness in New York City in 2020, but the vast majority — nearly 71,000 — slept in shelters. Giselle Routhier, the policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless in New York City, said a big reason for that stark contrast is a policy called the “right to shelter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Right to shelter\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">I\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>n the late 1970s, mass homelessness as we know it today was just beginning to emerge across the country. A young lawyer in New York City, Robert Hayes, befriended a man experiencing homelessness who told him that he would have liked to get into the city’s shelters, but that he kept getting turned away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no beds for him,” Routhier said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, Hayes sued the state and the city, arguing that the state constitution required the city to provide shelter for its residents. And, he won.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a huge victory, Routhier said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The point of the shelter system is to provide a basic safety net,” she said, “so that people actually have a roof over their head, have access to food and bathrooms and space to be while they are homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the shelters first opened, they were massive, said Dr. Deborah Padgett, a professor of social work at New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They would take over a whole armory and then fill it with up to 900 men and beds and a huge open floor,” she said. “And that became sort of intolerable — just the size and the scale of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over time, Padgett said the shelters evolved and became smaller. The city introduced cluster apartments, where families would share a kitchen and bathrooms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t solved homelessness in New York City, where \u003ca href=\"https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2020/12/3/22151208/nyc-is-home-to-more-than-111000-homeless-students-new-data-shows\">one in 10 public school children experience homlessness\u003c/a>. Instead, Padgett says it’s created an intensely bureaucratic shelter industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870666\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870666\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless.jpg\" alt=\"Families who are homeless wait to get into an emergency shelter in New York City.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/NYC-homeless-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Homeless families try to keep their belongings dry while waiting for housing placement outside of the emergency overnight shelter intake center Oct. 11, 2007 in the Bronx borough of New York City. \u003ccite>(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I call it an industry because there are dozens and dozens of nonprofits that get millions of dollars a year in contracts to run shelters,” she said. “And so you have thousands and thousands of people whose jobs depend on homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New York City spends \u003ca href=\"https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-citys-spending-on-homeless-hits-3-2-billion-this-year-11558562997#:~:text=Spending%20on%20homelessness%20in%20New,Wednesday%20by%20Comptroller%20Scott%20Stringer.\">more than $3 billion a year on homelessness\u003c/a>, but Padgett said moving from the shelter system into permanent, affordable housing is “almost a dream that never comes true.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People spend years in shelters,” she said. “There’s this huge bottleneck.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the problem is that New York is legally obligated to spend all of this money on shelters to comply with the right to shelter mandate. That leaves them with fewer resources to spend on housing, and like in the Bay Area, it’s incredibly expensive to build.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Solving homelessness by giving people a home\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>here is a place an ocean away that has done the opposite of New York City and is now considered \u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness\">a model for reducing homelessness\u003c/a>. In Finland, housing authorities tore down the country’s once vast shelter system and replaced it with affordable apartments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You could say that we stole the idea from the U.S.,” said Freek Spinnewijn, director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.feantsa.org/en\">European Federation of National Organizations Working With the Homeless\u003c/a>, or FEANTSA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 1990s, Sam Tsemberis, a homeless services provider in New York City, came up with a radically new concept when it came to addressing homelessness. He called it “Housing First.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The idea was really simple: The solution to homelessness is housing. And in order for people to address the root causes of their homelessness — whether that’s getting sober, accessing mental health treatment, getting medical care or getting a job — they had to have a place to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s, Finland looked a lot like New York City: The shelter system was a revolving door for the country’s 20,000 homeless people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So in 2008, a four-person working group — a politician, an activist, a sociologist and a bishop — got in a room together and devised a new plan to tackle homelessness. They also called it Housing First, and policymakers adopted it as Finland’s national policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not rocket science at all,” said Juha Kaakinen, CEO of the nonprofit \u003ca href=\"https://ysaatio.fi/en/home\">Y-Foundation\u003c/a> and one of the original architects of Finland’s Housing First approach. “In Finnish society, we have this thinking that housing should be a basic human right, that society has to take care of its members.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870667\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd/47846161552/in/photolist-25n1gT4-2fU16iE-2fU164S-2fU16Ys-2eLRS1W-25n1gEi-2ezEbRn-2fU17es-2ezEb4k-2fU15SE-2eLRRHG-25n1gXx-2ezEbsg-2eLRRLh-2ezEbbK-2fU15LN-2fU167N-2fU16MA-2ezEbVv-2fU15TS-2ezEc6a-2ezEcgv-2ezEc8e-2eLRRYw-2fU15Q5\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870667\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen.jpg\" alt=\"Juha Kaakinen\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/JuhaKaakinen-1536x864.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Juha Kaakinen speaking at 2019 OECD Housing Forum: Your Investment, My Home \u003ccite>(Andrew Wheeler / OECD/\u003ca href=\"https://www.flickr.com/photos/oecd/47846161552/in/photolist-25n1gT4-2fU16iE-2fU164S-2fU16Ys-2eLRS1W-25n1gEi-2ezEbRn-2fU17es-2ezEb4k-2fU15SE-2eLRRHG-25n1gXx-2ezEbsg-2eLRRLh-2ezEbbK-2fU15LN-2fU167N-2fU16MA-2ezEbVv-2fU15TS-2ezEc6a-2ezEcgv-2ezEc8e-2eLRRYw-2fU15Q5\">Flickr\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Today, Finland has 5,400 homeless people, a 40% reduction in homelessness since the Housing First policy was adopted. Street homelessness is almost nonexistent and only one 50-bed emergency shelter in the country remains. Finnish officials say the country is on track to end homelessness by 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Spinnewijn attributed the country’s success to long-term commitment from political leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In Finland, there is a consensus that Housing First is the way to go,” Spinnewijn said. “So they’re not afraid of the elections. Whatever political coalition comes into power, Housing First will continue. And so it allowed them to have a longer-term perspective.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Finland has invested heavily in supportive housing and permanently affordable apartments, also called social housing. Kaakinen’s Y-Foundation is the fourth-largest landlord in Finland, with 17,300 social housing units meant for low-income families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are very good quality. That’s the special thing with social housing. If you go around in the housing area in Helsinki, you can’t make the difference which one is private housing and which one is social housing,” Kaakinen said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But building new, permanently affordable housing isn’t cheap. Finland has spent about 350 million euros on Housing First since the policy began more than a decade ago. The bulk of that money is spent on building new affordable housing and buying rental units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Finnish officials argue the policy saves taxpayers around 15,000 euros a year, from fewer emergency room visits, encounters with police and other social services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By comparison, San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"https://hsh.sfgov.org/about/budget/\">proposed budget\u003c/a> for its Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing for the upcoming year is a little more than $567 million. More than half, or about 54%, is dedicated to providing rent subsidies, operating permanent, supportive housing and building new housing. About 12% funds the city’s shelters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Could San Francisco Follow Finland’s Lead?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">T\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>here is a movement in San Francisco to build more permanently affordable housing as a long-term solution to homelessness. In 2018, voters approved Proposition C, a new tax that has so far \u003ca href=\"https://sfcontroller.org/sites/default/files/Our%20City%2C%20Our%20Home/OCOH%20Comm.%20Meeting%20One%20Final%20Presentation.pdf\">raised nearly $600 million, with another $300 million expected to come in this year\u003c/a>, and is primarily dedicated to creating new, affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11870668\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11870668\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut.jpg\" alt=\"Tents are spaced for social distancing at Bay View Park K.C. Jones Playground on May 5, 2020.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/RS43035_008_KQED_SanFrancisco_TentEncampments_05052020-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents are spaced for social distancing at Bay View Park K.C. Jones Playground on April 5, 2020. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Proposition C nearly doubles the amount of money available annually to address homelessness, and represents a sea change in the city’s approach to solving homelessness, said Christin Evans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Prop. C funds are a game changer for the city,” said Evans, a local book store owner and one of the proponents of Proposition C. “It’s giving a significant amount of resources to service providers who have a proven track record in helping people exit homelessness.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But San Francisco is only one of 101 cities across the Bay Area. And, it won’t be able to solve homelessness on its own. Many of the most impactful financial resources for housing programs come from state and federal governments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Gov. Gavin Newsom allocated over \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/2020/12/29/governor-newsom-announces-major-homekey-milestone-all-94-sites-closing-escrow-ahead-of-deadline/\">$800 million in funding last year\u003c/a> to create some 6,000 new units of permanent housing through a program called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838323/heres-how-california-is-turning-hotels-into-housing-for-formerly-homeless-people\">Project Homekey\u003c/a>. And, he’s proposing doubling down on that program this year, with another $750 million. The 6,000 new units won’t be nearly enough to house everyone experiencing homelessness in California, but even so, it represents one of the largest expansions of affordable housing for formerly homeless residents in the state’s recent history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the federal level, President Biden has \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/biden-administration-will-bring-new-focus-on-housing-and-possibly-new-funding-as-well/\">declared housing a human right\u003c/a> — becoming the first president to do so since\u003cbr>\nFranklin D. Roosevelt. And, he has proposed vastly expanding the federal rental voucher program to prevent more people from becoming homeless, as well as doubling the amount of new funding for affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in order for these policies to be truly effective — and to put a significant dent in the Bay Area’s homeless population — they will need to outlive Newsom’s and Biden’s terms in office. The U.S. will have to learn from Finland’s example and commit to a policy that doesn’t change course with every election.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Too many countries try to solve homelessness or radically reduce it within one political mandate,” said FEANSTA’s Freek Spinnewijn. “And that’s not possible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>These days, if I want to get to Santa Cruz from my San Francisco apartment, I hop in my hatchback, head south on Interstate 280, then cut over to Highway 17. Ninety minutes later (pandemic aside), I’m watching the Giant Dipper roller coaster dive into free fall, fish tacos in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869428\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11869428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route-160x223.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The South Pacific Coast Railroad Route, which debuted in 1880, could take passengers from Alameda to Santa Cruz in just under four hours. \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But, 150 years ago, that same trip would have meant rattling around in a horse-drawn carriage for four days. The long, expensive journey meant only upper-class people could afford to go. All that changed when a guy named \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Graham_Fair\">James Graham Fair\u003c/a> got the audacious idea to build a railroad through the Santa Cruz Mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fair, or “Slippery Jim” as he was known in business circles, made his fortune mining silver in Nevada. But he saw railroad barons like Leland Stanford getting rich in the railroad business and he wanted a piece of the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there’s only one person you need to know, it’s probably him,” says local historian Derek Whaley, who grew up in Santa Cruz County and \u003ca href=\"https://www.santacruztrains.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote two books\u003c/a> about the railroad. “He had a lot of money, a lot of influence and just a huge vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Railroads were big business in the late 19th century. Everything from shipping to logging, mining, farming and tourism depended on them. Fair’s “vision” was to compete with the big train lines — namely the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads — that had staked claim across the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rich with redwood timber and strategically located between San Francisco Bay and the port of Santa Cruz, Fair identified the Santa Cruz Mountains as the ideal place for his railroad. The problem was, he didn’t know much about trains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But he also had a bit of a henchman who was the on-the-ground person that was overseeing daily operations,” Whaley says. The henchman’s name was \u003ca href=\"http://www.spcrr.org/HistorySPCRR.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alfred Davis\u003c/a>, but everyone called him “Hog.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was an interesting guy, apparently quite friendly most of the time,” Whaley says. “But he also had a bit of an attitude when he wanted to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis also had a ton of railroad savvy. What came to be known as the “Mountain Route” never would have gotten built without the combination of Fair’s deep pockets and Davis’ know-how, says Whaley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869422\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11869422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-800x469.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-800x469.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-1020x598.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights.jpg 1338w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group visits the town of Wrights, a major stop on the South Pacific Coast Railroad, on a push car, circa 1880. \u003ccite>(Rodolph Brandt/The Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.abandonedrails.com/south-pacific-coast-railroad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Pacific Coast Railroad\u003c/a> was an engineering marvel for its day. Laying tracks through 25 miles of rugged mountain terrain was a massive undertaking. While standard train tracks measure about 5-feet wide, the “narrow gauge” tracks of the Mountain Route measured just 3-feet wide, making it easier to curve around the rolling hills. To make it through the steepest grades, laborers dug eight tunnels through the mountains. To cross the region’s winding creek beds, they built just as many trestles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel described the construction in 1879:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“With its great bores … its powerful bridges … its heavy rails, its easy curves … its expensive right of way, its smell of money from one end of the line to the other, we say .. . nobody else would build this road. Few can do it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tragedy in the Tunnels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The South Pacific Coast Railroad featured two tunnels that spanned over a mile. Carved along the San Andreas Fault, the Summit Tunnel near the town of Wrights Station, measured over 6,000 feet and once held the record for the longest railroad tunnel in all of California. But digging it came at considerable human cost: the lives of dozens of Chinese migrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inseparable from the story of California’s railroads is the exploitation of Chinese migrants, who often did the most dangerous jobs for a fraction of what white laborers were paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his book “Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.sandylydon.com/new-page-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">local historian Sandy Lydon\u003c/a> wrote that, “Between 1875 and 1880, the Chinese built three separate railroads, laid 42 miles of track, drilled 2.6 miles of tunnels to stitch Santa Cruz County together. For every mile of railroad, one Chinese died.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11869537\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-800x442.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-800x442.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-1020x563.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-160x88.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-1536x848.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crews haul mud from the Summit Tunnel, circa 1880. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Derek Whaley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Construction of the Summit Tunnel began in 1878 and was plagued from the start. Underground, crews complained of suffocating fumes and oil oozing from the earth. The air got so bad that workers began to pass out. Eventually, methane gas that had been building up inside the cavern ignited into a fireball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6988949/wrights-tunnel-22-nov-1879/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel article\u003c/a> dated Nov. 18, 1879 described its devastation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The explosion was followed by a sheet of lurid flame, which the great mountain belched forth, consuming everything before it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The blast killed 32 Chinese workers. “Most of their bodies were returned to China,” Whaley says. “But there were several years where there was a Chinese cemetery up in the mountains where some of the workers had been buried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the explosion, the gas leak was fixed. But for years the tunnel was said to be haunted by the ghosts of those who died digging it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Railroad Opens for Business\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May of 1880, the South Pacific Coast Railroad opened for business. Despite the ghastly death toll leading up to its debut, the train was an overnight success. Riders lined up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11549263/the-island-ghost-town-in-the-middle-of-san-francisco-bay\">escape city life\u003c/a> for an afternoon taking in Santa Cruz’s sandy beaches and Boardwalk amusements. San Franciscans took a ferry across the bay to Alameda, before hopping on a train that took them south. In the 1920s, the line earned the nickname “The \u003ca href=\"https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/09/curiosities-sun-tan-special.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sun Tan Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially during the summer,” Whaley says, “it would bring tourists from all over the Bay Area, thousands of people on busy days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For others, the pristine wilderness and fresh air of the Santa Cruz Mountains was the main draw. Mountain retreats and picnic areas, like Sunset Park, drew crowds on the weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 714px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11869412\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"714\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill.png 714w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill-160x125.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main yard at the Frederick A. Hihn sawmill at Laurel in 1902. The South Pacific Coast Railroad’s biggest exported was redwood timber processed at mills along the route. \u003ccite>(Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ride is one which rivals anything up the Shasta division or over the Sierras, for tho’ the mountain groups are not so massive, the effects are equally fine,” wrote H.S. Kneedler in his 1895 book “Through Storyland to Sunset Seas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with tourism, industry flourished. Owners of sand quarries, quicksilver mines and a gunpowder factory used the train to ship their goods. Farmers shipped apples and sugar beets. There was even a brief oil boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the railroad’s biggest export was the sturdy lumber harvested from redwood trees. Builders used the timber to construct San Francisco houses, and lumber companies shipped their boards all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had lumber sent over to Hawaii,” Whaley says. “They had it sent down to Mexico.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11869415 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1245\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2.png 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-800x623.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-1020x794.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-160x125.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-1536x1195.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first band saw in California operating at the Hihn sawmill at Laurel in 1902. \u003ccite>(Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Logging, tourism and other industries gave life to towns like Alma, Wrights and Laurel, which was known for its sawmill. Stops along the route become destinations in themselves, including one named Call of the Wild. Its log cabin station invoked a scene from Jack London’s Gold Rush-era novel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1887, with business booming, Fair sold his upstart railroad to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, one of the industry giants he’d set out to challenge. The sale earned Fair a reported $6 million, which is roughly the equivalent of $160 million today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fair’s legacy in the Bay Area outlasted his stake in the railroad. His daughter built the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairmont.com/our-story/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fairmont Hotel\u003c/a> atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill and named it in his honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The End of the Mountain Route\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1940, California built Highway 17, a paved road that ran parallel to much of the train line. As car ownership soared, the railroad’s profits plummeted. To make matters worse, loggers had stripped the mountains of redwood trees, the railroad’s major export. Whaley says the redwoods we see in the mountains today are primarily second growth trees, unlike the 1,000-year-old trees found in places like Muir Woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869545\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11869545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair-160x171.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of James Graham Fair, one of the founders of the South Pacific Coast Railroad. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In February of 1940, with the railroad barely scraping by, a storm hit the Santa Cruz Mountains. Without trees to hold the hillside in place, the earth collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It caused huge chunks of the line to sink,” Whaley says. “There’s a couple of spots where you can actually see the tracks hanging off the ledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the storm, Southern Pacific decided the repairs weren’t worth the cost. Most of the tunnels were sealed with dynamite or left to decay. And the once-booming mountain towns faded off the map. The town of Alma, arguably the most bustling stop on the line, was eventually flooded to create what’s now the Lexington Reservoir south of downtown Los Gatos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final stretch of the track between Felton and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk survived the storm. These days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.roaringcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roaring Camp Railroads\u003c/a> runs trains on the weekends for tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Railroad Revival?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As traffic on Highway 17 has picked up over the years, some locals have discussed reviving the old railroad. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/isnt-train-san-jose/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">debated the idea\u003c/a> in the 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost every feasibility study has said that, yes, the route through the mountains is a good idea,” Whaley says. “And the current existing route is probably the most logical one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these efforts have been opposed by groups arguing that a commuter train would spoil Santa Cruz’ identity as a locals-only beach town. Whaley believes Santa Cruz has already become a satellite community of Silicon Valley, and that an alternative to Highway 17 would make everyone’s life better. He dreams of one day riding a train that traces the same sharp curves as the old Mountain Route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"headline": "The Story Behind Those Old Train Tunnels in the Santa Cruz Mountains",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>These days, if I want to get to Santa Cruz from my San Francisco apartment, I hop in my hatchback, head south on Interstate 280, then cut over to Highway 17. Ninety minutes later (pandemic aside), I’m watching the Giant Dipper roller coaster dive into free fall, fish tacos in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869428\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11869428\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1115\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Route-160x223.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The South Pacific Coast Railroad Route, which debuted in 1880, could take passengers from Alameda to Santa Cruz in just under four hours. \u003ccite>(Wikimedia Commons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But, 150 years ago, that same trip would have meant rattling around in a horse-drawn carriage for four days. The long, expensive journey meant only upper-class people could afford to go. All that changed when a guy named \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Graham_Fair\">James Graham Fair\u003c/a> got the audacious idea to build a railroad through the Santa Cruz Mountains.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fair, or “Slippery Jim” as he was known in business circles, made his fortune mining silver in Nevada. But he saw railroad barons like Leland Stanford getting rich in the railroad business and he wanted a piece of the action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If there’s only one person you need to know, it’s probably him,” says local historian Derek Whaley, who grew up in Santa Cruz County and \u003ca href=\"https://www.santacruztrains.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">wrote two books\u003c/a> about the railroad. “He had a lot of money, a lot of influence and just a huge vision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Railroads were big business in the late 19th century. Everything from shipping to logging, mining, farming and tourism depended on them. Fair’s “vision” was to compete with the big train lines — namely the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads — that had staked claim across the western United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rich with redwood timber and strategically located between San Francisco Bay and the port of Santa Cruz, Fair identified the Santa Cruz Mountains as the ideal place for his railroad. The problem was, he didn’t know much about trains.\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 he also had a bit of a henchman who was the on-the-ground person that was overseeing daily operations,” Whaley says. The henchman’s name was \u003ca href=\"http://www.spcrr.org/HistorySPCRR.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alfred Davis\u003c/a>, but everyone called him “Hog.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He was an interesting guy, apparently quite friendly most of the time,” Whaley says. “But he also had a bit of an attitude when he wanted to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davis also had a ton of railroad savvy. What came to be known as the “Mountain Route” never would have gotten built without the combination of Fair’s deep pockets and Davis’ know-how, says Whaley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869422\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11869422\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-800x469.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"469\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-800x469.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-1020x598.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights-160x94.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Train-Wrights.jpg 1338w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A group visits the town of Wrights, a major stop on the South Pacific Coast Railroad, on a push car, circa 1880. \u003ccite>(Rodolph Brandt/The Bancroft Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.abandonedrails.com/south-pacific-coast-railroad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Pacific Coast Railroad\u003c/a> was an engineering marvel for its day. Laying tracks through 25 miles of rugged mountain terrain was a massive undertaking. While standard train tracks measure about 5-feet wide, the “narrow gauge” tracks of the Mountain Route measured just 3-feet wide, making it easier to curve around the rolling hills. To make it through the steepest grades, laborers dug eight tunnels through the mountains. To cross the region’s winding creek beds, they built just as many trestles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel described the construction in 1879:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“With its great bores … its powerful bridges … its heavy rails, its easy curves … its expensive right of way, its smell of money from one end of the line to the other, we say .. . nobody else would build this road. Few can do it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tragedy in the Tunnels\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The South Pacific Coast Railroad featured two tunnels that spanned over a mile. Carved along the San Andreas Fault, the Summit Tunnel near the town of Wrights Station, measured over 6,000 feet and once held the record for the longest railroad tunnel in all of California. But digging it came at considerable human cost: the lives of dozens of Chinese migrant workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inseparable from the story of California’s railroads is the exploitation of Chinese migrants, who often did the most dangerous jobs for a fraction of what white laborers were paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In his book “Chinese Gold: The Chinese in the Monterey Bay Region,” \u003ca href=\"http://www.sandylydon.com/new-page-18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">local historian Sandy Lydon\u003c/a> wrote that, “Between 1875 and 1880, the Chinese built three separate railroads, laid 42 miles of track, drilled 2.6 miles of tunnels to stitch Santa Cruz County together. For every mile of railroad, one Chinese died.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869537\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11869537\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-800x442.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"442\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-800x442.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-1020x563.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-160x88.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-1536x848.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Tunnel.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crews haul mud from the Summit Tunnel, circa 1880. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Derek Whaley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Construction of the Summit Tunnel began in 1878 and was plagued from the start. Underground, crews complained of suffocating fumes and oil oozing from the earth. The air got so bad that workers began to pass out. Eventually, methane gas that had been building up inside the cavern ignited into a fireball.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/clip/6988949/wrights-tunnel-22-nov-1879/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Santa Cruz Weekly Sentinel article\u003c/a> dated Nov. 18, 1879 described its devastation:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“The explosion was followed by a sheet of lurid flame, which the great mountain belched forth, consuming everything before it.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The blast killed 32 Chinese workers. “Most of their bodies were returned to China,” Whaley says. “But there were several years where there was a Chinese cemetery up in the mountains where some of the workers had been buried.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the explosion, the gas leak was fixed. But for years the tunnel was said to be haunted by the ghosts of those who died digging it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The Railroad Opens for Business\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In May of 1880, the South Pacific Coast Railroad opened for business. Despite the ghastly death toll leading up to its debut, the train was an overnight success. Riders lined up to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11549263/the-island-ghost-town-in-the-middle-of-san-francisco-bay\">escape city life\u003c/a> for an afternoon taking in Santa Cruz’s sandy beaches and Boardwalk amusements. San Franciscans took a ferry across the bay to Alameda, before hopping on a train that took them south. In the 1920s, the line earned the nickname “The \u003ca href=\"https://www.santacruztrains.com/2019/09/curiosities-sun-tan-special.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sun Tan Special\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially during the summer,” Whaley says, “it would bring tourists from all over the Bay Area, thousands of people on busy days.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For others, the pristine wilderness and fresh air of the Santa Cruz Mountains was the main draw. Mountain retreats and picnic areas, like Sunset Park, drew crowds on the weekends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869412\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 714px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11869412\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"714\" height=\"558\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill.png 714w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Hiln-Mill-160x125.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main yard at the Frederick A. Hihn sawmill at Laurel in 1902. The South Pacific Coast Railroad’s biggest exported was redwood timber processed at mills along the route. \u003ccite>(Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The ride is one which rivals anything up the Shasta division or over the Sierras, for tho’ the mountain groups are not so massive, the effects are equally fine,” wrote H.S. Kneedler in his 1895 book “Through Storyland to Sunset Seas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with tourism, industry flourished. Owners of sand quarries, quicksilver mines and a gunpowder factory used the train to ship their goods. Farmers shipped apples and sugar beets. There was even a brief oil boom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the railroad’s biggest export was the sturdy lumber harvested from redwood trees. Builders used the timber to construct San Francisco houses, and lumber companies shipped their boards all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had lumber sent over to Hawaii,” Whaley says. “They had it sent down to Mexico.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869415\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11869415 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1245\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2.png 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-800x623.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-1020x794.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-160x125.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Railroad-Hiln-Mill-2-1536x1195.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first band saw in California operating at the Hihn sawmill at Laurel in 1902. \u003ccite>(Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Logging, tourism and other industries gave life to towns like Alma, Wrights and Laurel, which was known for its sawmill. Stops along the route become destinations in themselves, including one named Call of the Wild. Its log cabin station invoked a scene from Jack London’s Gold Rush-era novel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1887, with business booming, Fair sold his upstart railroad to the Southern Pacific Transportation Company, one of the industry giants he’d set out to challenge. The sale earned Fair a reported $6 million, which is roughly the equivalent of $160 million today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fair’s legacy in the Bay Area outlasted his stake in the railroad. His daughter built the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fairmont.com/our-story/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fairmont Hotel\u003c/a> atop San Francisco’s Nob Hill and named it in his honor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>The End of the Mountain Route\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1940, California built Highway 17, a paved road that ran parallel to much of the train line. As car ownership soared, the railroad’s profits plummeted. To make matters worse, loggers had stripped the mountains of redwood trees, the railroad’s major export. Whaley says the redwoods we see in the mountains today are primarily second growth trees, unlike the 1,000-year-old trees found in places like Muir Woods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11869545\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11869545\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"856\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/Santa-Cruz-Trains-Fair-160x171.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A portrait of James Graham Fair, one of the founders of the South Pacific Coast Railroad. \u003ccite>(Library of Congress)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In February of 1940, with the railroad barely scraping by, a storm hit the Santa Cruz Mountains. Without trees to hold the hillside in place, the earth collapsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It caused huge chunks of the line to sink,” Whaley says. “There’s a couple of spots where you can actually see the tracks hanging off the ledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the storm, Southern Pacific decided the repairs weren’t worth the cost. Most of the tunnels were sealed with dynamite or left to decay. And the once-booming mountain towns faded off the map. The town of Alma, arguably the most bustling stop on the line, was eventually flooded to create what’s now the Lexington Reservoir south of downtown Los Gatos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final stretch of the track between Felton and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk survived the storm. These days, \u003ca href=\"https://www.roaringcamp.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Roaring Camp Railroads\u003c/a> runs trains on the weekends for tourists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Railroad Revival?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As traffic on Highway 17 has picked up over the years, some locals have discussed reviving the old railroad. The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://goodtimes.sc/santa-cruz-news/isnt-train-san-jose/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">debated the idea\u003c/a> in the 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost every feasibility study has said that, yes, the route through the mountains is a good idea,” Whaley says. “And the current existing route is probably the most logical one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these efforts have been opposed by groups arguing that a commuter train would spoil Santa Cruz’ identity as a locals-only beach town. Whaley believes Santa Cruz has already become a satellite community of Silicon Valley, and that an alternative to Highway 17 would make everyone’s life better. He dreams of one day riding a train that traces the same sharp curves as the old Mountain Route.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Many of us have come to appreciate the beauty of the Bay Area even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re outside, we’re walking more, and we’re noticing things we maybe didn’t have time to note before. Of course, all eyes are on the bay itself, which has led to some questions about the vessels floating there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Christian Garvin lives in San Francisco, but works in San Leandro. He crosses the Bay Bridge every day, so he’s got time to take in the sweeping views. Recently, that view has been a little … cluttered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As I sit in traffic, I look over to my left and think: That’s a lot of cargo ships just sitting there,” Christian said. “As a business person, it makes me wonder, how is that efficient? What’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christian is right, there \u003cem>are\u003c/em> more ships in the bay than usual. Under ideal circumstances, says Robert Bernardo, a spokesperson for the Port of Oakland, there would be zero ships anchored in the bay waiting to be unloaded. But in the last several weeks there have been as many as 13 ships. (If you’re curious about what each ship in the bay does, check out this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11730890/san-francisco-bay-is-filled-with-boats-but-what-do-they-do\">Bay Curious breakdown\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Asian factories are shipping goods in record numbers to replenish store shelves and assembly lines,” Bernardo said. “Retailers and manufacturers, consumers, they’re all driving this surge and that’s the phenomena that we’re experiencing right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember at the start of the pandemic when it was nearly impossible to get toilet paper? That was mostly because people were hoarding it, but it \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826945396/why-are-stores-are-running-low-on-toilet-paper-its-not-just-hoarding\">caused a hiccup in a supply chain meant for stable demand\u003c/a>. That’s just one example of a disruption, but it has been happening throughout the manufacturing industry ever since the pandemic started. Now, companies are racing to catch up, but the shipping schedules are off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, shipping is a delicate web of networks that depend on a reliable schedule. If a ship arrives late or can’t dock immediately to unload, it backs up the whole schedule. That’s at least part of why there are more cargo ships in the bay than usual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maEbR4GRJAY\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Port of Oakland has 14 berths that are fully operational. It seems logical that when cargo ships are backed up, all 14 would be in use at the same time. But that’s not how it works, Bernardo says. The port \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandseaport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PoOak_Apr-2019_Seaport-Map.pdf\">leases its berths to different marine terminal operators\u003c/a>, who in turn have their own long-standing contracts with shippers. So, a ship waiting in the bay to be unloaded can’t just go to any berth, it has to go to one at a marine terminal with which it is contracted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays that happen elsewhere in the world, like with \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56567985\">the cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal\u003c/a>, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2021/03/08/dozens-container-ships-waiting-unloaded-port-los-angeles/\">backups at the Long Beach\u003c/a> or Los Angeles ports, eventually affect Oakland as well. In normal times, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11606579/what-gets-shipped-through-the-port-of-oakland\">Oakland exports almost as many goods as it imports\u003c/a> — largely agricultural products. But Bernardo says right now, they’re sending empty containers back to Asia. It’s all a desperate effort to get back on schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not good for the port because any type of logjam hinders trade,” Bernardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maritime community is predicting that the backup will last at least through summer, and could affect what we see on our shelves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many of us have come to appreciate the beauty of the Bay Area even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re outside, we’re walking more, and we’re noticing things we maybe didn’t have time to note before. Of course, all eyes are on the bay itself, which has led to some questions about the vessels floating there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Christian Garvin lives in San Francisco, but works in San Leandro. He crosses the Bay Bridge every day, so he’s got time to take in the sweeping views. Recently, that view has been a little … cluttered.\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>“As I sit in traffic, I look over to my left and think: That’s a lot of cargo ships just sitting there,” Christian said. “As a business person, it makes me wonder, how is that efficient? What’s going on?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christian is right, there \u003cem>are\u003c/em> more ships in the bay than usual. Under ideal circumstances, says Robert Bernardo, a spokesperson for the Port of Oakland, there would be zero ships anchored in the bay waiting to be unloaded. But in the last several weeks there have been as many as 13 ships. (If you’re curious about what each ship in the bay does, check out this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11730890/san-francisco-bay-is-filled-with-boats-but-what-do-they-do\">Bay Curious breakdown\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Asian factories are shipping goods in record numbers to replenish store shelves and assembly lines,” Bernardo said. “Retailers and manufacturers, consumers, they’re all driving this surge and that’s the phenomena that we’re experiencing right now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember at the start of the pandemic when it was nearly impossible to get toilet paper? That was mostly because people were hoarding it, but it \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826945396/why-are-stores-are-running-low-on-toilet-paper-its-not-just-hoarding\">caused a hiccup in a supply chain meant for stable demand\u003c/a>. That’s just one example of a disruption, but it has been happening throughout the manufacturing industry ever since the pandemic started. Now, companies are racing to catch up, but the shipping schedules are off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Turns out, shipping is a delicate web of networks that depend on a reliable schedule. If a ship arrives late or can’t dock immediately to unload, it backs up the whole schedule. That’s at least part of why there are more cargo ships in the bay than usual.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/maEbR4GRJAY'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/maEbR4GRJAY'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The Port of Oakland has 14 berths that are fully operational. It seems logical that when cargo ships are backed up, all 14 would be in use at the same time. But that’s not how it works, Bernardo says. The port \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandseaport.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/PoOak_Apr-2019_Seaport-Map.pdf\">leases its berths to different marine terminal operators\u003c/a>, who in turn have their own long-standing contracts with shippers. So, a ship waiting in the bay to be unloaded can’t just go to any berth, it has to go to one at a marine terminal with which it is contracted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Delays that happen elsewhere in the world, like with \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56567985\">the cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal\u003c/a>, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.marketplace.org/2021/03/08/dozens-container-ships-waiting-unloaded-port-los-angeles/\">backups at the Long Beach\u003c/a> or Los Angeles ports, eventually affect Oakland as well. In normal times, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11606579/what-gets-shipped-through-the-port-of-oakland\">Oakland exports almost as many goods as it imports\u003c/a> — largely agricultural products. But Bernardo says right now, they’re sending empty containers back to Asia. It’s all a desperate effort to get back on schedule.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not good for the port because any type of logjam hinders trade,” Bernardo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The maritime community is predicting that the backup will last at least through summer, and could affect what we see on our shelves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "End of an Era: No More Toll Takers on Bay Area Bridges",
"headTitle": "End of an Era: No More Toll Takers on Bay Area Bridges | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Hoon Kim lives in Alameda and normally commutes by car across the Bay Bridge to his work in San Francisco. He, along with 73% of bridge crossers, uses FasTrak, but he’s familiar with the last-minute lane dance that happens when drivers without the automatic transponder try to get into the correct lane to pay cash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kim isn’t crossing the bridge as much these days, but he’s noticed something has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened to all the toll workers?” he wants to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of lanes with workers diligently collecting bills, now there are signs telling drivers to drive through without stopping and that they will be billed later. That got Kim wondering even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How are they billing people? How are they getting in contact with who is the owner of the car? Is that actually the right person? And are they actually losing a lot of money?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What happened to the toll workers?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To answer Kim’s first question, Gov. Gavin Newsom made the decision to pull toll takers out of their booths when the pandemic hit in March 2020. He saw it as an unnecessary risk to their health. That decision sped up a plan that transit authorities have had in place for years to completely eliminate cash tolls and go to an all-electronic tolling system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Balancing the cash payer with the FasTrak is not an easy thing,” said Randy Rentschler, spokesperson for the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA). “It seems simple, but it’s not. And if we have too many cash lanes, it ties up the traffic really badly. If we have too few, and all the cash payers show up like they do on the weekends, and you have FasTrak, you can’t get out of the cash paying mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11868514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11868514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup.jpg\" alt=\"Commuter traffic backs up at the toll plaza to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commuter traffic backs up at the toll plaza to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, there will be no more toll takers on the bridge. It’s the end of an era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another listener, Eli Streicker-Hirt, wants to know, what will happen to those workers?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The toll takers work for Caltrans. A spokesperson there says the 250 employees who had been working at Bay Area bridges have not been laid off. Instead, the agency is working with them and their union to find them other jobs within the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the long run, going to cashless tolls will make everyone’s drive time faster, Rentschler said. He points to the Benicia-Martinez Bridge as an example of what all Bay Area bridges will eventually be like — no slowing down to go through a toll plaza, just continuing past a sensor at normal speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some folks were able to make the transition to all cashless easier than others,” Rentschler said. “Change is hard. I think the biggest change is for people who don’t use the bridges very often.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How are they billing people?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Cameras take a picture of every car’s license plate as it drives under a sensor at the toll plaza. If the car has a working FasTrak transponder, it will beep and deduct the toll. If for some reason the sensor doesn’t read the transponder — maybe it’s buried deep in the glove compartmnet — then the system will match the license plate to the FasTrak account. If there is no FasTrak associated with the plate, the agency sends a paper bill in the mail to the address listed on the car’s registration. Those bills will come monthly and must be paid, similar to a utility bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rentschler said that because this new system went into effect abruptly, BATA did not charge late fees to people who did not pay their bills in 2020. But as of January 2021, BATA isn’t being so lenient. If toll bills aren’t paid in a timely manner, they’re adding on late fees, like cities do for parking tickets. Rentschler understands that many people do not pay close attention to their mail, but said the law requires it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Are they losing a lot of money?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the Toll Authority was losing about $4 million per month, Rentschler said. That’s a lot of money. But, he called it a “no-interest loan to the public,” because he expects the toll authority will get it back when people go to register their cars and discover they owe fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t register your vehicle in California until you pay your toll bill,” Rentschler said. “So we’re not losing the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new system raises questions about fairness. Public advocates have successfully argued that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcn.org/articles/social-justice-across-california-local-governments-are-abolishing-court-fees\">court and probation fees\u003c/a> act like a regressive tax. They can be a logistical stumbling block that trips a person up, and often compound. If a person doesn’t register their car because they can’t pay their toll bill, for example, they might end up in even more trouble for driving an unregistered car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those customers that have accumulated fees, we encourage them to contact us so we can work out an agreement,” Rentschler said. “We have worked with many people on the level of the fees and on payment plans. Things happen and we are an understanding organization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Toll Authority thought long and hard about those issues, but ultimately decided that the all-electronic transition needed to happen, even if some people never pay. The lien on car registrations is the only way BATA can find people who don’t keep their address updated with the DMV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re probably going to lose a little bit more,” Rentschler said. “But everything in life is a trade off. You know, us keeping in operation two full toll collection systems, a cash system and a FasTrak system, was not cheap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BATA estimates that 8% of bridge crossers will end up in the violation or DMV registration hold category. One thing people often don’t know, Rentschler said, is that it’s possible to get a prepaid FasTrak transponder that doesn’t require a credit card. They sell them at BATA headquarters in downtown San Francisco and by mail with a check.\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>Bay Curious listener Hoon Kim lives in Alameda and normally commutes by car across the Bay Bridge to his work in San Francisco. He, along with 73% of bridge crossers, uses FasTrak, but he’s familiar with the last-minute lane dance that happens when drivers without the automatic transponder try to get into the correct lane to pay cash.\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>Kim isn’t crossing the bridge as much these days, but he’s noticed something has changed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What happened to all the toll workers?” he wants to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of lanes with workers diligently collecting bills, now there are signs telling drivers to drive through without stopping and that they will be billed later. That got Kim wondering even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How are they billing people? How are they getting in contact with who is the owner of the car? Is that actually the right person? And are they actually losing a lot of money?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>What happened to the toll workers?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>To answer Kim’s first question, Gov. Gavin Newsom made the decision to pull toll takers out of their booths when the pandemic hit in March 2020. He saw it as an unnecessary risk to their health. That decision sped up a plan that transit authorities have had in place for years to completely eliminate cash tolls and go to an all-electronic tolling system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Balancing the cash payer with the FasTrak is not an easy thing,” said Randy Rentschler, spokesperson for the Bay Area Toll Authority (BATA). “It seems simple, but it’s not. And if we have too many cash lanes, it ties up the traffic really badly. If we have too few, and all the cash payers show up like they do on the weekends, and you have FasTrak, you can’t get out of the cash paying mess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11868514\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11868514\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup.jpg\" alt=\"Commuter traffic backs up at the toll plaza to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup.jpg 1920w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-800x533.jpg 800w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-160x107.jpg 160w, https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/04/toll-plaza-backup-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commuter traffic backs up at the toll plaza to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even after the COVID-19 pandemic is over, there will be no more toll takers on the bridge. It’s the end of an era.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another listener, Eli Streicker-Hirt, wants to know, what will happen to those workers?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The toll takers work for Caltrans. A spokesperson there says the 250 employees who had been working at Bay Area bridges have not been laid off. Instead, the agency is working with them and their union to find them other jobs within the agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the long run, going to cashless tolls will make everyone’s drive time faster, Rentschler said. He points to the Benicia-Martinez Bridge as an example of what all Bay Area bridges will eventually be like — no slowing down to go through a toll plaza, just continuing past a sensor at normal speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Some folks were able to make the transition to all cashless easier than others,” Rentschler said. “Change is hard. I think the biggest change is for people who don’t use the bridges very often.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>How are they billing people?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Cameras take a picture of every car’s license plate as it drives under a sensor at the toll plaza. If the car has a working FasTrak transponder, it will beep and deduct the toll. If for some reason the sensor doesn’t read the transponder — maybe it’s buried deep in the glove compartmnet — then the system will match the license plate to the FasTrak account. If there is no FasTrak associated with the plate, the agency sends a paper bill in the mail to the address listed on the car’s registration. Those bills will come monthly and must be paid, similar to a utility bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rentschler said that because this new system went into effect abruptly, BATA did not charge late fees to people who did not pay their bills in 2020. But as of January 2021, BATA isn’t being so lenient. If toll bills aren’t paid in a timely manner, they’re adding on late fees, like cities do for parking tickets. Rentschler understands that many people do not pay close attention to their mail, but said the law requires it.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>Are they losing a lot of money?\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In 2020, the Toll Authority was losing about $4 million per month, Rentschler said. That’s a lot of money. But, he called it a “no-interest loan to the public,” because he expects the toll authority will get it back when people go to register their cars and discover they owe fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You can’t register your vehicle in California until you pay your toll bill,” Rentschler said. “So we’re not losing the money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new system raises questions about fairness. Public advocates have successfully argued that \u003ca href=\"https://www.hcn.org/articles/social-justice-across-california-local-governments-are-abolishing-court-fees\">court and probation fees\u003c/a> act like a regressive tax. They can be a logistical stumbling block that trips a person up, and often compound. If a person doesn’t register their car because they can’t pay their toll bill, for example, they might end up in even more trouble for driving an unregistered car.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For those customers that have accumulated fees, we encourage them to contact us so we can work out an agreement,” Rentschler said. “We have worked with many people on the level of the fees and on payment plans. Things happen and we are an understanding organization.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the Toll Authority thought long and hard about those issues, but ultimately decided that the all-electronic transition needed to happen, even if some people never pay. The lien on car registrations is the only way BATA can find people who don’t keep their address updated with the DMV.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We’re probably going to lose a little bit more,” Rentschler said. “But everything in life is a trade off. You know, us keeping in operation two full toll collection systems, a cash system and a FasTrak system, was not cheap.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BATA estimates that 8% of bridge crossers will end up in the violation or DMV registration hold category. One thing people often don’t know, Rentschler said, is that it’s possible to get a prepaid FasTrak transponder that doesn’t require a credit card. They sell them at BATA headquarters in downtown San Francisco and by mail with a check.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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"reveal": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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"snap-judgment": {
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"title": "Snap Judgment",
"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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