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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A few years ago, a friend sent me the link for a job listing that seemed like an absolute dream. The opening was for a resident innkeeper at a bed and breakfast on an island in the middle of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-bay\">San Francisco Bay\u003c/a>. Even better, the B&B was housed in a 152-year-old working Victorian lighthouse! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From my cramped desk, I fantasized about a simpler life, spent outside in one of the most gorgeous settings I could imagine. And living rent-free while earning a salary! But reality came crashing down when I read the job required a boat operator’s license and high-quality culinary experience — both of which I lacked. Alas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the fantasy of East Brother Light Station stayed with me. So I was delighted when a Bay Curious listener named Kathleen Taylor wrote in, looking to learn more about the place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066562\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“We were taking the ferry from Vallejo to a Giants game and passed by what looked like a small island with an East Coast-style lighthouse on it,” she recalled. It captured her imagination, too, and she got to wondering: “What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of what went on on that island?”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>So we headed to the island together to get some answers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#history-east-brother\">History of East Brother Light Station \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#early-lightkeepers\">What life was like for early lighthouse keepers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#bed-and-breakfast\">How it was converted to a bed and breakfast\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#visiting-today\">Visiting East Brother Light Station today\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"history-east-brother\">History of East Brother Light Station\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. To get there, boats had to skirt around Point San Pablo, the thumb sticking out from Richmond, California. This part of the bay can be especially tough for mariners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The topography under the water is pretty interesting,” said Rae Colvin, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. “There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the [water] off to the side averages about 15 feet deep.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog, and it’s pretty precarious. So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and fog horn were needed. Initially, the Lighthouse Board hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but landowners fought back. They delayed things so profoundly that eventually an alternative site was chosen — East Brother Island. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Inn keeper Danielle La Vigne pilots a boat from Point San Pablo Harbor to East Brother Light Station in Richmond, California, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>It was small, less than an acre in size, but it was land the U.S. government already owned. Construction began in 1873.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The exterior of the light station features gingerbread trim, scrollwork and a generous second-floor porch. Not the standard-issue government building we’ve come to expect today. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The six-room Victorian light station was intended to house three lightkeepers, and two of them could have families. Downstairs was a bedroom and parlor for the principal keeper. Upstairs was a smaller bedroom and parlor for the assistant keeper. There was also a third bedroom for the most junior keeper. Things were cozy, to say the least.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stacked on top of the living quarters was also the tower that housed the light. When the light station began operating on March 1, 1874, the light’s flame was powered by lard oil and featured a fourth-order \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens\">Fresnel lens\u003c/a>. The lens rotated on a clockwork mechanism. On a clear night, this beam, which appeared to flash every 30 seconds because of the design of the lens, could be seen from about 15 miles away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"early-lightkeepers\">What life was like for early lightkeepers\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring,” Frank Perry wrote in his book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/East-Brother-History-Island-Station/dp/0578211750\">\u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Much of what we know about life on the island comes from Perry’s book, which was compiled using primary sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1874, the primary keeper earned $800 a year — the equivalent to about a $24,000 salary today. The assistants earned even less. Their primary responsibility was keeping the light running from sunset to sunrise every night and keeping the fog signal sounding during inclement weather.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Lightkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and slowly bring the flame up to the optimal size of about 1 and 13/16 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to the needs of the light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066570\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Historic photos hang on the wall at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. One lighthouse keeper, John Stenmark, brought his wife and children to live on the island. They had many friends in the community and would host large gatherings on the island. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“Because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour,” said Danielle La Vigne, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The innkeepers also had to wipe the glass panes of the lantern room with dry towels to keep moisture away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On foggy nights, the keepers’ jobs were doubly hard. They had to run the fog signal, too, which sits in another building on the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light,” wrote Perry. “In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell every 15 seconds until the whistle could be sounded. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Beyond the core responsibilities, keepers kept up with a long list of chores: cooking, cleaning, maintenance and repairs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The 19th-century lighthouse complex includes a restored fog signal that once warned ships navigating San Pablo Bay. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066563\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When they needed food to supplement the dry rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town. At the time, that was San Quentin, about 2 1/2 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor,” said La Vigne. “They had to row.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A daily log was kept by the primary keeper, accounting for the day’s weather and work. Most entries are not more than a sentence, but they do give us a glimpse at the day-to-day life on East Brother. A string of entries in 1882 mention an assistant keeper named Mr. Page, who was a bit of a screw-up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cblockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\u003cp>\u003cem>July 14, 1882 – Wind S.W., strong. Mr. Page left for San Quentin A.M., capsized off the buoy near the West Brother at 12:15 p.m. Capt. Windsor hailed the Steamer Reform passing up at the time and sent her to his relief. The Reform picked him up ¼ of a mile N.N.E. of the Light House and landed him and the boat at the dock at 1:15 p.m. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, etc., etc., lost, also milk and can.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>\u003cbr>Dec. 14, 1882 – Wind N.E. Foggy from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Feb. 8 1883 – Wind N.E. Light, clear. Mr. Page went for mail and stores, drunk, no mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Feb. 10, 1883, a new assistant, Mr. Tippett, is mentioned, and Mr. Page is never spoken of again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Stenmark era\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though some keepers were men living on their own, passing through East Brother for only a few years, families lived here, too. John Stenmark moved here in 1894 with his wife and 3-month-old daughter, Annie, and they stayed for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They set up a vegetable garden and raised pigs, goats, rabbits and chickens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prior to the birth of each of his two sons [Mr. Stenmark] rowed all the way to San Quentin and back to fetch the doctor,” wrote Perry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When the kids grew older, the government paid for a teacher to live on the island for a time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On April 18, 1906, Stenmark wrote about one of the most infamous days in local history in the logbook.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cblockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A heavy earthquake this morning at 5:15 a.m. Lenses of the light broken and glassware broke, and everything of glass broke. \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Doors open of themselves and the whole island rocking. All the lenses broke.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next two days, the Stenmarks watched from their quiet island as the fire that followed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068602/san-franciscos-historic-relief-cottages-built-after-the-1906-earthquake-are-hidden-in-plain-sight\">earthquake consumed San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The end of lighthouse keepers\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station, most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“The original used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene,” Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066565\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view from the inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One big change came in 1934 when electricity arrived on the island via an underwater cable that connected it to shore. A lightkeeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night — greatly reducing their daily chore load. The steam-powered fog signal was replaced with a diaphonic horn that can still be operated today and is one of only eight like it in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident personnel from the island in 1969. They planned to demolish all the buildings and put the light on a steel tower. But residents living in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse off their shoreline and were ready to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"bed-and-breakfast\">How it was converted to a bed and breakfast\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of the first things [local residents] did was write a National Register nomination for it, which was successful,” said Tom Butt, founder and president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond and a longtime city council member. “That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down because it invoked the Historic Preservation Act of 1966.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The group then tried to find a local organization to take on rehabilitating the site, because by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on organizations like the National Park Service and East Bay Regional Park District, but no one was interested.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think everybody looked at it and [thought] it was just too much,” said Butt. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went to the island in 1978. “Looking back now,” he said, “I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, ‘you know, we can do this.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Marin Room, which faces Mount Tamalpais, at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066567\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066567\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A lighthouse shower curtain hangs in a bathroom at the inn on East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066571\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A room at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat. The inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabilitating everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All the buildings at that point were covered with asbestos shingles,” Butt said. “All of the ornamental railings had long since been taken off. We were lucky we had original plans from the National Archives, so we were able to replicate all that trim and put that back on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Volunteers did electrical work, plumbing, plastering and painting. It was a ton of work, but they managed to get it all done in about a year. The nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast in 1980 to provide a stream of revenue to keep up with the maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though most of the operational costs and maintenance for the B&B are now covered by the nightly fee guests pay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-east-brother-lighthouse-replace-the-pier?cp_src=d\">a major fundraising effort\u003c/a> is underway to replace the dock and gangway on the east side of the island. It must be replaced, or access to the island could be threatened. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"visiting-today\">Visiting East Brother Light Station today\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The nonprofit B&B is open four nights a week for overnight guests, and it’s recommended you \u003ca href=\"https://ebls.org/?_gl=1%2A1oq51ai%2A_ga%2AMjkzMDI3NzY5LjE3ODYxMzI2MjI.%2A_ga_J5B5MW125P%2AczE3ODc4NzI0MjUkbzckZzEkdDE3ODc4NzI0NDMkajQyJGwwJGgw\">book one of the five rooms well in advance\u003c/a>. Rates range from $525 to $575 per night. During summer months, there is once-monthly day-use access for $45, which includes the boat ride to and from the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the overnight stays, guests are taken by boat from Point San Pablo Marina by innkeepers Colvin and La Vigne. Once on the island, hors d’oeuvre and champagne are served, Colvin gives a history talk, and then comes a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We try to focus as much as we can on keeping things local,” La Vigne said. “We collaborate with the little goat farm that’s in the harbor, and we tend to plan the meals around what is being harvested now, what’s in season.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Innkeepers Rachel (Rae) Colvin (left) and Danielle La Vigne at East Brother Light Station in Richmond on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>They also try to make meals part of the historical experience, using ingredients the keepers would have received as part of their rations — like potatoes, rice and salted pork.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have recipes from the Lighthouse Keeper’s Manual from 1891 that had recipes for how to stretch your rations. Last night we served for the first course a corn chowder that is from that original Lighthouse Keeper’s handbook,” La Vigne said. “Although their recipe was incredibly bland, and I spruced it up a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, historically inspired … but for a modern palate. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Guests sleep in rooms neatly decorated with antiques. Most rooms are named after the view you see from the room, so there’s West Brother (the neighboring island), Marin Room, San Francisco Room. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A more modest room is out in the fog signal building — a popular choice for returning guests looking for a different experience, Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the clientele are couples looking for a romantic getaway, but the house is also regularly rented out entirely by groups for birthdays, anniversaries or themed experiences.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had two murder mystery dinner parties in the past month,” La Vigne said. “Both parties dressed up. They were in character the whole time. It was 1920 the whole time they were here.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the morning, before guests depart, they offer a demonstration of the fog signal — I can attest, it’s loud!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay Curious.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>sound design of the sea: waves, gulls\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There’s something dreamy about lighthouses.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their striking architecture, rising high above our human scale.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their symbolism. A literal light in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In me, lighthouses stir something nostalgic. A time before GPS and radar — when navigation was done with charts and stars.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, many lighthouses across the United States have become tourism attractions, like Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But there’s a lighthouse near San Francisco that offers an experience like none other. Not just a quick trip to the top, but an opportunity to live like a lighthouse keeper of yore!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station looks like it could have been plucked from a child’s storybook. It’s a charming three-story wooden house, painted a creamy yellow with white gingerbread trim. At the top, stands a tower, where the brilliant light beckons through the fog.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kathleen got to wondering a lot of things about this lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of, you know, what went on on that Island?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So today we’re on a mission for answers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Step one! We have to get to the lighthouse. At a marina north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Kathleen and I make our way toward a small boat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There we meet Danielle La Vigne and Rae Colvin — the two keepers currently living on the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Oh, you guys can hop on board. Our insurance company does ask that you wear those.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Life vests are on, and we are off. Danielle and Rae have been living at the East Brother Light Station for about a year and half. But the helm of a boat is a familiar place for them.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> Did you know how to drive a boat, or is this a recent skill you’ve had to acquire? ‘Cause you’ve, you guys have been on the job for…\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>I’ve been a commercial captain for almost 20 years. This is the smallest boat that I’ve ever operated professionally. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As we’re making our way out of the marina, Rae spots a seal.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>A lot of seals live out by the island. … we have a bunch of birds and the harbor seals and sometimes a sea lion.\u003cem>\u003cs>\u003cbr>\u003c/s>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Danielle and Rae are the only two full-time \u003cem>human\u003c/em> residents of East Brother Light Station. But they’re far from alone out there. Because keeping the light running is not their main focus. Instead it’s catering to the weekly overnight guests who join them at the Light Station. Because these days East Brother is a one-of-a-kind bed and breakfast. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, we just snuck around the bend, and I am seeing the light station probably 400 feet away or so.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I can’t see it from up on the water, but down beneath our boat lies the answer to one of Kathleen’s questions. Why is this lighthouse \u003cem>here\u003c/em>, some 15 miles from the open ocean?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra really ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant taking a boat — floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ships had to skirt around Point San Pablo — where our little boat just departed from. Rae Colvin explains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And they put a lighthouse out here because the topography under the water is pretty interesting. There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the open ocean off to the side that you can see averages out to about 15 feet deep. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog and it’s pretty precarious.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and foghorn were needed. Initially, they hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but quickly ran into issues…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The people who owned the land on the East Bay there didn’t want to sell to the government to let them build a lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After years of trying and failing to get the landowners to relent, the government changed course. Just offshore was \u003cem>East Brother Island\u003c/em> — a speck of land really, smaller than an acre — but it was enough. And better yet, it was land the U.S. government already owned. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Workers blasted sandstone from the top of the island to create a level plot. A foundation went in, walls went up, and in less than a year the six-room Victorian light station was complete. The design is quite striking…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of ornamental woodwork on it, and it’s three stories.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s not exactly unique. Lighthouses with a similar design were built all over the West Coast. This is the oldest one still standing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade up on sound of boat slowing down and approaching dock. Ambi of arriving sounds.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The wind picks up as our little boat approaches the island and sidles up to the dock. Once we’re off, Danielle and Rae work to get the boat lifted out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>If we left it in the water, it would just get thrashed against the dock all day long, and this dock already needs help so.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>This one’s been here since I think the 1960s, and, you know, it’s seen better days.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The dock may need work, but as we make our way up some stairs and onto the property, a tidy semicircle of three buildings emerges. The main light station to the west, a small cottage to the north, and a fog signal building to the east. All fit on about three-quarters of an acre. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The buildings surround a low white dome covering something beneath the pavement. Danielle explains…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We need to collect rainwater to survive out here, this whole courtyard is set up to direct all of the rain flow down into the cistern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Across the courtyard we head into the main house, where today most of the overnight bed-and-breakfast guests stay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So of course we have to do the shameless product placement. As you enter the house, the first room you see is the gift shop.\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so, the gift shop is not original to the light station, but the mugs they sell are popular with B&B guests. Couples often come out for romantic getaways. Kathleen and I learn learn groups stay here for birding weekends or murder-mystery parties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> How often do you get groups that rent the whole island? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two, yeah, two to three times a month. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The house has seen some changes over its 152-year life, but it’s not hard to imagine what it once was. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most often three lighthouse keepers, and sometimes their families, shared the home. There’d be a primary keeper, aka the boss, living downstairs. And then the first assistant upstairs, along with a junior keeper, someone just learning the ropes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They all lived, ate and slept beneath the tower that housed the light. Staying close because it needed constant attention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> This is the parlor, which is the comfy hangout spot for the guests. Originally this would have been the junior keeper’s parlor. And the bedroom right over here, the Marin room, would have been the junior keeper’s bedroom. So it was kind of like a little apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, B&B guests stay in bedrooms with cozy beds, decorated with beautiful antiques. Historical maps and pictures of boats hang on the walls. And each room gets a name, based on what is visible outside the window.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So this is the San Francisco room, and it’s my personal favorite room. \u003cs>I\u003c/s>t has an arched ceiling, and it looks out to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We make our way to the main attraction: the tower … which is made up of three tiny rooms stacked on top of each other. We start at the base.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So this is kind of the prep room where they’d get everything ready, but every half hour they had to go up there and trim the wick and refill the oil.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Next we head up to the Watch room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> It’s a tightly winding staircase like you would expect in a Victorian mansion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We’re now 40 feet up. So you’ve got a pretty good view. If it’s stormy out, if it seems like it’s there’s a danger of a ship not seeing the light or whatever, that’s where you’re watching from so that you can signal those people if you need to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Finally, we head to the pinnacle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> Up here is more winding stairs up into the actual lighthouse. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I will say, the view from this room is spectacular. The light itself, a little bit of a letdown. Today a 4 inch LED sits in the space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So the original light, it was a Fresnel lens with a little lantern torch in the middle. And originally that torch on this station was powered by lard oil.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fourth-order Fresnel lens! Imagine a magnificent orb of glass, made up of neat rows of prisms, standing several feet tall. They were designed to concentrate the light of a single flame so intensely it could be seen for about 15 miles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On March 1, 1874, as sunset approached, three lighthouse keepers climbed up into this very tower, and lit the oil lamp for the very first time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lighthouse has been operating, in some fashion or another, ever since.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>[Music moment]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When we return, we explore what life was like living and working at East Brother. And it might not be like you expect! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>If you enjoy stories like this one, consider becoming a financial supporter of KQED. Learn more at donate.kqed.org/podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It’s easy to get enamored by the apparent simplicity of life on an island in the middle of the Bay. I know I imagine myself reading in a hammock. Our question asker, Kathleen, loves that cell reception out on East Brother is limited.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> It is great to decompress and turn your phone off, and we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And sure, that is the experience you will get here today as a guest at the B&B. But working here is hard, as Danielle can attest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>The work is never-ending. Because it’s just the two of us … So we’re the phones and the emails and the booking. There’s some degree of maintenance work that is pretty much always happening. The house needs to be deep cleaned every week between guests.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Working here has always been hard. Historian Frank Perry makes clear that his book, \u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station.\u003c/em> Here’s an excerpt…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>BOOK VO: \u003c/strong>Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Innkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and bring the flame slowly up to the optimal size, just shy of 2 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to its various needs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle \u003cstrong>La Vigne\u003c/strong>: \u003c/strong>And because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>On a clear night, the tiny flame, refracted through that powerful lens, could be seen from parts of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a foggy night, things got more complicated. Keepers had to run the fog signal across the courtyard too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light. In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell until the whistle could be sounded. Danielle gave us a demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Danielle whacking the bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What a job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bell ambi\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>Since the whistle might be put in operation night or day, off-duty keepers had to learn to sleep in spite of the noise. Some keepers apparently got quite good at this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Keepers were also quite busy with chores. Cooking, cleaning, maintenance, repairs. When they needed food to supplement the rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town, which at the time was San Quentin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> So in order to get anything, they had to go to San Quentin. And I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor. They had to row.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> So how far would the trip have been from here to San Quentin? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two and a half miles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Light Keepers also kept daily logbooks with short entries about the day’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Feb. 14 1883 – Wind S.W. Squally, strong. Employed all day cleaning engine room and lens in lantern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>…but sometimes you get a glimpse of more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music start\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There was an assistant keeper who got put down in the logbook as a drunken screw-up. He’s one of my favorites.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Joseph Page was his name. And let’s just say the head keeper at the time was not a fan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Dec. 14, 1882 – Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>July 14, 1882 – Mr. Page left for San Quentin. Capsized off the buoy at 12:15 p.m. … \u003cem>The Reform\u003c/em> picked him up ¼ mile NNE of light house. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, lost. Also milk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station … most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The originals used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>One big change came in 1934 when the lens was electrified – via an underwater cable that connected the island to shore. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A light keeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night – greatly reducing their daily chore load – and probably greatly improving their quality of life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it was also the first step toward automation – and eliminating the need for lighthouse keepers altogether.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually that came, of course, in 1969. To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident keeper from the island. They planned to demolish the light station, and all the buildings on the island, and put the light on a steel tower.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But locals living nearby in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse out in the bay, and vowed to save it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>One of the first things they did was write a national register nomination for it, which was successful.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom Butt is the president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station made it onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The local group then tried to find a local organization to take on restoring the site — by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on groups like the National Parks Service and East Bay Regional Park District. But no one bit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> I think everybody looked at it, and they just it was it it it was just too much.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom went out to the island in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Looking back now, I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, you know, we can do this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabbing everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>New concrete around the cistern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> We had to do electrical work, we had to do plumbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All the ornamental railings had been taken off, so they made new ones using the original plans they found in the National Archives.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Repainted everything on the inside. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There was asbestos to remove.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>It was a lot of work. And you know … it took a year, but we got it done. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When the work was complete around 1980, the nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast to provide a stream of revenue to keep up on the maintenance. And … well … because it’s fun!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the stay, guests get a boat ride out with innkeepers Danielle and Rae, just like we did at the beginning of the story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>We do charcuterie and champagne…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A history tour with Rae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then dinner is a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fantastic sunset, if the weather cooperates…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then in the morning it’s a full breakfast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Just before heading back to shore, guests get a special demonstration that we also get to see on our tour…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>So the gasoline starter engine here is what actually starts the diesel … And this one starts with a ripped cord. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the fog signal building, Rae shows us the multistep process it takes to blow the foghorn like they did in the 1930s. The small room is packed with old mechanical equipment, some more than 100 years old. It smells like… old military? Is that a smell?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a couple diesel engines, a few air compressors … and they’re all kept running today as a museum piece … because the diaphonic horn is one of only eight like it still functioning in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The horn sounds cool in here, but it’s really cool out there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After 12 minutes of warming up, we head outside for the grand finale of our tour.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Foghorn blows loudly\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>You jumped.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/strong>Well I didn’t know it was coming. I know you’re kinda counting 15, but you’re like…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Despite being ready, it still startled us all. Absolutely thrilling. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I checked in with our question asker Kathleen, to see what she made of our tour today…\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>I think that a lot of times we see us in something we see something that interests us and we do a quick Google search and we think that we’ve kind of learned all we there is to know, but it isn’t until you actually take that boat ride, get out on the island to realize that it is just such a unique experience and really such a hidden secret in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>East Brother Light Station is such a special place. An improbable compromise carved into stone. A beacon of safety. The sound of warning. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For decades, keepers traded modern comfort for cold, salt air. They measured their lives in lonely night shifts spent tending a 2-inch flame.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Today this light station offers something softer – a chance to step off the boat, leave the modern world behind and sleep inside a piece of living history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We hinted at it in this story, but the pier platform where boats dock at East Brother is in need of repair. The nonprofit is working to raise $750,000 to replace it, along with the gangway. Access to the island could be threatened if it’s not repaired. We’ll link to their fundraising page in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Big thanks to historian and author Frank Perry, whose book about East Brother Light Station provided much of the historical information in this episode. And to Kathleen Taylor, our question asker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We just launched a new voting round at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>, so that means we need your help picking a question to answer in an upcoming episode. Here are your options!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 1:\u003c/strong> Why does this area have so many community colleges and won’t demographics result in fewer students and some needing to eventually close? How does the ratio of colleges to population compare with other states?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 2:\u003c/strong> Why did rogue botanists plant Venus flytraps in the Albion Pygmy Forest in Mendocino in the 1960s?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 3: \u003c/strong>I would love to hear about Sally Stanford, the renowned madam turned mayor. I recall my parents having many colorful conversations about her and her “Damn Bird” when we were living in Sausalito.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Vote anytime this month at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A few years ago, a friend sent me the link for a job listing that seemed like an absolute dream. The opening was for a resident innkeeper at a bed and breakfast on an island in the middle of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-bay\">San Francisco Bay\u003c/a>. Even better, the B&B was housed in a 152-year-old working Victorian lighthouse! \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>From my cramped desk, I fantasized about a simpler life, spent outside in one of the most gorgeous settings I could imagine. And living rent-free while earning a salary! But reality came crashing down when I read the job required a boat operator’s license and high-quality culinary experience — both of which I lacked. Alas. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>From my cramped desk, I fantasized about a simpler life, spent outside in one of the most gorgeous settings I could imagine. And living rent-free while earning a salary! But reality came crashing down when I read the job required a boat operator’s license and high-quality culinary experience — both of which I lacked. Alas. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the fantasy of East Brother Light Station stayed with me. So I was delighted when a Bay Curious listener named Kathleen Taylor wrote in, looking to learn more about the place. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066562\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066562\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We were taking the ferry from Vallejo to a Giants game and passed by what looked like a small island with an East Coast-style lighthouse on it,” she recalled. It captured her imagination, too, and she got to wondering: “What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of what went on on that island?”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>So we headed to the island together to get some answers.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We were taking the ferry from Vallejo to a Giants game and passed by what looked like a small island with an East Coast-style lighthouse on it,” she recalled. It captured her imagination, too, and she got to wondering: “What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of what went on on that island?”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>So we headed to the island together to get some answers.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#history-east-brother\">History of East Brother Light Station \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#early-lightkeepers\">What life was like for early lighthouse keepers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. To get there, boats had to skirt around Point San Pablo, the thumb sticking out from Richmond, California. This part of the bay can be especially tough for mariners.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. To get there, boats had to skirt around Point San Pablo, the thumb sticking out from Richmond, California. This part of the bay can be especially tough for mariners.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The topography under the water is pretty interesting,” said Rae Colvin, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. “There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the [water] off to the side averages about 15 feet deep.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The topography under the water is pretty interesting,” said Rae Colvin, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. “There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the [water] off to the side averages about 15 feet deep.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog, and it’s pretty precarious. So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and fog horn were needed. Initially, the Lighthouse Board hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but landowners fought back. They delayed things so profoundly that eventually an alternative site was chosen — East Brother Island. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog, and it’s pretty precarious. So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and fog horn were needed. Initially, the Lighthouse Board hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but landowners fought back. They delayed things so profoundly that eventually an alternative site was chosen — East Brother Island. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Inn keeper Danielle La Vigne pilots a boat from Point San Pablo Harbor to East Brother Light Station in Richmond, California, on Dec. 8, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066561\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Inn keeper Danielle La Vigne pilots a boat from Point San Pablo Harbor to East Brother Light Station in Richmond, California, on Dec. 8, 2025.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It was small, less than an acre in size, but it was land the U.S. government already owned. Construction began in 1873.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The exterior of the light station features gingerbread trim, scrollwork and a generous second-floor porch. Not the standard-issue government building we’ve come to expect today. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The six-room Victorian light station was intended to house three lightkeepers, and two of them could have families. Downstairs was a bedroom and parlor for the principal keeper. Upstairs was a smaller bedroom and parlor for the assistant keeper. There was also a third bedroom for the most junior keeper. Things were cozy, to say the least.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The six-room Victorian light station was intended to house three lightkeepers, and two of them could have families. Downstairs was a bedroom and parlor for the principal keeper. Upstairs was a smaller bedroom and parlor for the assistant keeper. There was also a third bedroom for the most junior keeper. Things were cozy, to say the least.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Stacked on top of the living quarters was also the tower that housed the light. When the light station began operating on March 1, 1874, the light’s flame was powered by lard oil and featured a fourth-order \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens\">Fresnel lens\u003c/a>. The lens rotated on a clockwork mechanism. On a clear night, this beam, which appeared to flash every 30 seconds because of the design of the lens, could be seen from about 15 miles away. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Stacked on top of the living quarters was also the tower that housed the light. When the light station began operating on March 1, 1874, the light’s flame was powered by lard oil and featured a fourth-order \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens\">Fresnel lens\u003c/a>. The lens rotated on a clockwork mechanism. On a clear night, this beam, which appeared to flash every 30 seconds because of the design of the lens, could be seen from about 15 miles away. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring,” Frank Perry wrote in his book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/East-Brother-History-Island-Station/dp/0578211750\">\u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Much of what we know about life on the island comes from Perry’s book, which was compiled using primary sources.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring,” Frank Perry wrote in his book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/East-Brother-History-Island-Station/dp/0578211750\">\u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Much of what we know about life on the island comes from Perry’s book, which was compiled using primary sources.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In 1874, the primary keeper earned $800 a year — the equivalent to about a $24,000 salary today. The assistants earned even less. Their primary responsibility was keeping the light running from sunset to sunrise every night and keeping the fog signal sounding during inclement weather.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In 1874, the primary keeper earned $800 a year — the equivalent to about a $24,000 salary today. The assistants earned even less. Their primary responsibility was keeping the light running from sunset to sunrise every night and keeping the fog signal sounding during inclement weather.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Lightkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and slowly bring the flame up to the optimal size of about 1 and 13/16 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to the needs of the light.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066570\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Historic photos hang on the wall at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. One lighthouse keeper, John Stenmark, brought his wife and children to live on the island. They had many friends in the community and would host large gatherings on the island.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour,” said Danielle La Vigne, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The innkeepers also had to wipe the glass panes of the lantern room with dry towels to keep moisture away.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On foggy nights, the keepers’ jobs were doubly hard. They had to run the fog signal, too, which sits in another building on the island.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light,” wrote Perry. “In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light,” wrote Perry. “In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell every 15 seconds until the whistle could be sounded. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell every 15 seconds until the whistle could be sounded. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Beyond the core responsibilities, keepers kept up with a long list of chores: cooking, cleaning, maintenance and repairs. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066564\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The 19th-century lighthouse complex includes a restored fog signal that once warned ships navigating San Pablo Bay.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066564\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The 19th-century lighthouse complex includes a restored fog signal that once warned ships navigating San Pablo Bay.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066563\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066563\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When they needed food to supplement the dry rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town. At the time, that was San Quentin, about 2 1/2 miles away.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When they needed food to supplement the dry rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town. At the time, that was San Quentin, about 2 1/2 miles away.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor,” said La Vigne. “They had to row.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A daily log was kept by the primary keeper, accounting for the day’s weather and work. Most entries are not more than a sentence, but they do give us a glimpse at the day-to-day life on East Brother. A string of entries in 1882 mention an assistant keeper named Mr. Page, who was a bit of a screw-up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A daily log was kept by the primary keeper, accounting for the day’s weather and work. Most entries are not more than a sentence, but they do give us a glimpse at the day-to-day life on East Brother. A string of entries in 1882 mention an assistant keeper named Mr. Page, who was a bit of a screw-up.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>July 14, 1882 – Wind S.W., strong. Mr. Page left for San Quentin A.M., capsized off the buoy near the West Brother at 12:15 p.m. Capt. Windsor hailed the Steamer Reform passing up at the time and sent her to his relief. The Reform picked him up ¼ of a mile N.N.E. of the Light House and landed him and the boat at the dock at 1:15 p.m. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, etc., etc., lost, also milk and can.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>\u003cbr>Dec. 14, 1882 – Wind N.E. Foggy from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Feb. 8 1883 – Wind N.E. Light, clear. Mr. Page went for mail and stores, drunk, no mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>July 14, 1882 – Wind S.W., strong. Mr. Page left for San Quentin A.M., capsized off the buoy near the West Brother at 12:15 p.m. Capt. Windsor hailed the Steamer Reform passing up at the time and sent her to his relief. The Reform picked him up ¼ of a mile N.N.E. of the Light House and landed him and the boat at the dock at 1:15 p.m. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, etc., etc., lost, also milk and can.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>\u003cbr>Dec. 14, 1882 – Wind N.E. Foggy from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Feb. 8 1883 – Wind N.E. Light, clear. Mr. Page went for mail and stores, drunk, no mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On Feb. 10, 1883, a new assistant, Mr. Tippett, is mentioned, and Mr. Page is never spoken of again. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On Feb. 10, 1883, a new assistant, Mr. Tippett, is mentioned, and Mr. Page is never spoken of again. \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The Stenmark era",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Though some keepers were men living on their own, passing through East Brother for only a few years, families lived here, too. John Stenmark moved here in 1894 with his wife and 3-month-old daughter, Annie, and they stayed for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Though some keepers were men living on their own, passing through East Brother for only a few years, families lived here, too. John Stenmark moved here in 1894 with his wife and 3-month-old daughter, Annie, and they stayed for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They set up a vegetable garden and raised pigs, goats, rabbits and chickens.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They set up a vegetable garden and raised pigs, goats, rabbits and chickens.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Prior to the birth of each of his two sons [Mr. Stenmark] rowed all the way to San Quentin and back to fetch the doctor,” wrote Perry.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Prior to the birth of each of his two sons [Mr. Stenmark] rowed all the way to San Quentin and back to fetch the doctor,” wrote Perry.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When the kids grew older, the government paid for a teacher to live on the island for a time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On April 18, 1906, Stenmark wrote about one of the most infamous days in local history in the logbook.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On April 18, 1906, Stenmark wrote about one of the most infamous days in local history in the logbook.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A heavy earthquake this morning at 5:15 a.m. Lenses of the light broken and glassware broke, and everything of glass broke. \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Doors open of themselves and the whole island rocking. All the lenses broke.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A heavy earthquake this morning at 5:15 a.m. Lenses of the light broken and glassware broke, and everything of glass broke. \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Doors open of themselves and the whole island rocking. All the lenses broke.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Over the next two days, the Stenmarks watched from their quiet island as the fire that followed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068602/san-franciscos-historic-relief-cottages-built-after-the-1906-earthquake-are-hidden-in-plain-sight\">earthquake consumed San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Over the next two days, the Stenmarks watched from their quiet island as the fire that followed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068602/san-franciscos-historic-relief-cottages-built-after-the-1906-earthquake-are-hidden-in-plain-sight\">earthquake consumed San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The end of lighthouse keepers",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station, most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“The original used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene,” Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station, most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“The original used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene,” Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066565\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view from the inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066565\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view from the inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. \u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>One big change came in 1934 when electricity arrived on the island via an underwater cable that connected it to shore. A lightkeeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night — greatly reducing their daily chore load. The steam-powered fog signal was replaced with a diaphonic horn that can still be operated today and is one of only eight like it in the world. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>One big change came in 1934 when electricity arrived on the island via an underwater cable that connected it to shore. A lightkeeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night — greatly reducing their daily chore load. The steam-powered fog signal was replaced with a diaphonic horn that can still be operated today and is one of only eight like it in the world. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident personnel from the island in 1969. They planned to demolish all the buildings and put the light on a steel tower. But residents living in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse off their shoreline and were ready to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident personnel from the island in 1969. They planned to demolish all the buildings and put the light on a steel tower. But residents living in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse off their shoreline and were ready to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“One of the first things [local residents] did was write a National Register nomination for it, which was successful,” said Tom Butt, founder and president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond and a longtime city council member. “That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down because it invoked the Historic Preservation Act of 1966.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“One of the first things [local residents] did was write a National Register nomination for it, which was successful,” said Tom Butt, founder and president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond and a longtime city council member. “That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down because it invoked the Historic Preservation Act of 1966.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The group then tried to find a local organization to take on rehabilitating the site, because by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on organizations like the National Park Service and East Bay Regional Park District, but no one was interested.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The group then tried to find a local organization to take on rehabilitating the site, because by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on organizations like the National Park Service and East Bay Regional Park District, but no one was interested.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think everybody looked at it and [thought] it was just too much,” said Butt. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He went to the island in 1978. “Looking back now,” he said, “I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, ‘you know, we can do this.’”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He went to the island in 1978. “Looking back now,” he said, “I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, ‘you know, we can do this.’”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Marin Room, which faces Mount Tamalpais, at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066569\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Marin Room, which faces Mount Tamalpais, at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066567\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A lighthouse shower curtain hangs in a bathroom at the inn on East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. \u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066571\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A room at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat. The inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066571\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A room at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat. The inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabilitating everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“All the buildings at that point were covered with asbestos shingles,” Butt said. “All of the ornamental railings had long since been taken off. We were lucky we had original plans from the National Archives, so we were able to replicate all that trim and put that back on.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“All the buildings at that point were covered with asbestos shingles,” Butt said. “All of the ornamental railings had long since been taken off. We were lucky we had original plans from the National Archives, so we were able to replicate all that trim and put that back on.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Volunteers did electrical work, plumbing, plastering and painting. It was a ton of work, but they managed to get it all done in about a year. The nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast in 1980 to provide a stream of revenue to keep up with the maintenance.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Volunteers did electrical work, plumbing, plastering and painting. It was a ton of work, but they managed to get it all done in about a year. The nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast in 1980 to provide a stream of revenue to keep up with the maintenance.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Though most of the operational costs and maintenance for the B&B are now covered by the nightly fee guests pay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-east-brother-lighthouse-replace-the-pier?cp_src=d\">a major fundraising effort\u003c/a> is underway to replace the dock and gangway on the east side of the island. It must be replaced, or access to the island could be threatened. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Though most of the operational costs and maintenance for the B&B are now covered by the nightly fee guests pay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-east-brother-lighthouse-replace-the-pier?cp_src=d\">a major fundraising effort\u003c/a> is underway to replace the dock and gangway on the east side of the island. It must be replaced, or access to the island could be threatened. \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "Visiting East Brother Light Station today",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The nonprofit B&B is open four nights a week for overnight guests, and it’s recommended you \u003ca href=\"https://ebls.org/?_gl=1%2A1oq51ai%2A_ga%2AMjkzMDI3NzY5LjE3ODYxMzI2MjI.%2A_ga_J5B5MW125P%2AczE3ODc4NzI0MjUkbzckZzEkdDE3ODc4NzI0NDMkajQyJGwwJGgw\">book one of the five rooms well in advance\u003c/a>. Rates range from $525 to $575 per night. During summer months, there is once-monthly day-use access for $45, which includes the boat ride to and from the island.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The nonprofit B&B is open four nights a week for overnight guests, and it’s recommended you \u003ca href=\"https://ebls.org/?_gl=1%2A1oq51ai%2A_ga%2AMjkzMDI3NzY5LjE3ODYxMzI2MjI.%2A_ga_J5B5MW125P%2AczE3ODc4NzI0MjUkbzckZzEkdDE3ODc4NzI0NDMkajQyJGwwJGgw\">book one of the five rooms well in advance\u003c/a>. Rates range from $525 to $575 per night. During summer months, there is once-monthly day-use access for $45, which includes the boat ride to and from the island.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the overnight stays, guests are taken by boat from Point San Pablo Marina by innkeepers Colvin and La Vigne. Once on the island, hors d’oeuvre and champagne are served, Colvin gives a history talk, and then comes a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the overnight stays, guests are taken by boat from Point San Pablo Marina by innkeepers Colvin and La Vigne. Once on the island, hors d’oeuvre and champagne are served, Colvin gives a history talk, and then comes a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We try to focus as much as we can on keeping things local,” La Vigne said. “We collaborate with the little goat farm that’s in the harbor, and we tend to plan the meals around what is being harvested now, what’s in season.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We try to focus as much as we can on keeping things local,” La Vigne said. “We collaborate with the little goat farm that’s in the harbor, and we tend to plan the meals around what is being harvested now, what’s in season.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Innkeepers Rachel (Rae) Colvin (left) and Danielle La Vigne at East Brother Light Station in Richmond on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They also try to make meals part of the historical experience, using ingredients the keepers would have received as part of their rations — like potatoes, rice and salted pork.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We have recipes from the Lighthouse Keeper’s Manual from 1891 that had recipes for how to stretch your rations. Last night we served for the first course a corn chowder that is from that original Lighthouse Keeper’s handbook,” La Vigne said. “Although their recipe was incredibly bland, and I spruced it up a lot.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So, historically inspired … but for a modern palate. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Guests sleep in rooms neatly decorated with antiques. Most rooms are named after the view you see from the room, so there’s West Brother (the neighboring island), Marin Room, San Francisco Room. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Guests sleep in rooms neatly decorated with antiques. Most rooms are named after the view you see from the room, so there’s West Brother (the neighboring island), Marin Room, San Francisco Room. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A more modest room is out in the fog signal building — a popular choice for returning guests looking for a different experience, Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most of the clientele are couples looking for a romantic getaway, but the house is also regularly rented out entirely by groups for birthdays, anniversaries or themed experiences.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We had two murder mystery dinner parties in the past month,” La Vigne said. “Both parties dressed up. They were in character the whole time. It was 1920 the whole time they were here.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the morning, before guests depart, they offer a demonstration of the fog signal — I can attest, it’s loud!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay Curious.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>sound design of the sea: waves, gulls\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay Curious.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>sound design of the sea: waves, gulls\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There’s something dreamy about lighthouses.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There’s something dreamy about lighthouses.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their striking architecture, rising high above our human scale.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their striking architecture, rising high above our human scale.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Their symbolism. A literal light in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Their symbolism. A literal light in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In me, lighthouses stir something nostalgic. A time before GPS and radar — when navigation was done with charts and stars.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In me, lighthouses stir something nostalgic. A time before GPS and radar — when navigation was done with charts and stars.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Today, many lighthouses across the United States have become tourism attractions, like Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But there’s a lighthouse near San Francisco that offers an experience like none other. Not just a quick trip to the top, but an opportunity to live like a lighthouse keeper of yore!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station looks like it could have been plucked from a child’s storybook. It’s a charming three-story wooden house, painted a creamy yellow with white gingerbread trim. At the top, stands a tower, where the brilliant light beckons through the fog.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station looks like it could have been plucked from a child’s storybook. It’s a charming three-story wooden house, painted a creamy yellow with white gingerbread trim. At the top, stands a tower, where the brilliant light beckons through the fog.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Kathleen got to wondering a lot of things about this lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Kathleen got to wondering a lot of things about this lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of, you know, what went on on that Island?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of, you know, what went on on that Island?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So today we’re on a mission for answers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So today we’re on a mission for answers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Step one! We have to get to the lighthouse. At a marina north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Kathleen and I make our way toward a small boat.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Step one! We have to get to the lighthouse. At a marina north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Kathleen and I make our way toward a small boat.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There we meet Danielle La Vigne and Rae Colvin — the two keepers currently living on the island.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There we meet Danielle La Vigne and Rae Colvin — the two keepers currently living on the island.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Oh, you guys can hop on board. Our insurance company does ask that you wear those.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Oh, you guys can hop on board. Our insurance company does ask that you wear those.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Life vests are on, and we are off. Danielle and Rae have been living at the East Brother Light Station for about a year and half. But the helm of a boat is a familiar place for them.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> Did you know how to drive a boat, or is this a recent skill you’ve had to acquire? ‘Cause you’ve, you guys have been on the job for…\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>I’ve been a commercial captain for almost 20 years. This is the smallest boat that I’ve ever operated professionally. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Life vests are on, and we are off. Danielle and Rae have been living at the East Brother Light Station for about a year and half. But the helm of a boat is a familiar place for them.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> Did you know how to drive a boat, or is this a recent skill you’ve had to acquire? ‘Cause you’ve, you guys have been on the job for…\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>I’ve been a commercial captain for almost 20 years. This is the smallest boat that I’ve ever operated professionally. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As we’re making our way out of the marina, Rae spots a seal.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>A lot of seals live out by the island. … we have a bunch of birds and the harbor seals and sometimes a sea lion.\u003cem>\u003cs>\u003cbr>\u003c/s>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Danielle and Rae are the only two full-time \u003cem>human\u003c/em> residents of East Brother Light Station. But they’re far from alone out there. Because keeping the light running is not their main focus. Instead it’s catering to the weekly overnight guests who join them at the Light Station. Because these days East Brother is a one-of-a-kind bed and breakfast. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As we’re making our way out of the marina, Rae spots a seal.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>A lot of seals live out by the island. … we have a bunch of birds and the harbor seals and sometimes a sea lion.\u003cem>\u003cs>\u003cbr>\u003c/s>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Danielle and Rae are the only two full-time \u003cem>human\u003c/em> residents of East Brother Light Station. But they’re far from alone out there. Because keeping the light running is not their main focus. Instead it’s catering to the weekly overnight guests who join them at the Light Station. Because these days East Brother is a one-of-a-kind bed and breakfast. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, we just snuck around the bend, and I am seeing the light station probably 400 feet away or so.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I can’t see it from up on the water, but down beneath our boat lies the answer to one of Kathleen’s questions. Why is this lighthouse \u003cem>here\u003c/em>, some 15 miles from the open ocean?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, we just snuck around the bend, and I am seeing the light station probably 400 feet away or so.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I can’t see it from up on the water, but down beneath our boat lies the answer to one of Kathleen’s questions. Why is this lighthouse \u003cem>here\u003c/em>, some 15 miles from the open ocean?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra really ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant taking a boat — floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra really ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant taking a boat — floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Ships had to skirt around Point San Pablo — where our little boat just departed from. Rae Colvin explains.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Ships had to skirt around Point San Pablo — where our little boat just departed from. Rae Colvin explains.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And they put a lighthouse out here because the topography under the water is pretty interesting. There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the open ocean off to the side that you can see averages out to about 15 feet deep. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And they put a lighthouse out here because the topography under the water is pretty interesting. There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the open ocean off to the side that you can see averages out to about 15 feet deep. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog and it’s pretty precarious.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog and it’s pretty precarious.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and foghorn were needed. Initially, they hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but quickly ran into issues…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and foghorn were needed. Initially, they hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but quickly ran into issues…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The people who owned the land on the East Bay there didn’t want to sell to the government to let them build a lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The people who owned the land on the East Bay there didn’t want to sell to the government to let them build a lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After years of trying and failing to get the landowners to relent, the government changed course. Just offshore was \u003cem>East Brother Island\u003c/em> — a speck of land really, smaller than an acre — but it was enough. And better yet, it was land the U.S. government already owned. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After years of trying and failing to get the landowners to relent, the government changed course. Just offshore was \u003cem>East Brother Island\u003c/em> — a speck of land really, smaller than an acre — but it was enough. And better yet, it was land the U.S. government already owned. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Workers blasted sandstone from the top of the island to create a level plot. A foundation went in, walls went up, and in less than a year the six-room Victorian light station was complete. The design is quite striking…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Workers blasted sandstone from the top of the island to create a level plot. A foundation went in, walls went up, and in less than a year the six-room Victorian light station was complete. The design is quite striking…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of ornamental woodwork on it, and it’s three stories.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of ornamental woodwork on it, and it’s three stories.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s not exactly unique. Lighthouses with a similar design were built all over the West Coast. This is the oldest one still standing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s not exactly unique. Lighthouses with a similar design were built all over the West Coast. This is the oldest one still standing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade up on sound of boat slowing down and approaching dock. Ambi of arriving sounds.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade up on sound of boat slowing down and approaching dock. Ambi of arriving sounds.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The wind picks up as our little boat approaches the island and sidles up to the dock. Once we’re off, Danielle and Rae work to get the boat lifted out of the water.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The wind picks up as our little boat approaches the island and sidles up to the dock. Once we’re off, Danielle and Rae work to get the boat lifted out of the water.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>If we left it in the water, it would just get thrashed against the dock all day long, and this dock already needs help so.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>If we left it in the water, it would just get thrashed against the dock all day long, and this dock already needs help so.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>This one’s been here since I think the 1960s, and, you know, it’s seen better days.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>This one’s been here since I think the 1960s, and, you know, it’s seen better days.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The dock may need work, but as we make our way up some stairs and onto the property, a tidy semicircle of three buildings emerges. The main light station to the west, a small cottage to the north, and a fog signal building to the east. All fit on about three-quarters of an acre. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The dock may need work, but as we make our way up some stairs and onto the property, a tidy semicircle of three buildings emerges. The main light station to the west, a small cottage to the north, and a fog signal building to the east. All fit on about three-quarters of an acre. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The buildings surround a low white dome covering something beneath the pavement. Danielle explains…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The buildings surround a low white dome covering something beneath the pavement. Danielle explains…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We need to collect rainwater to survive out here, this whole courtyard is set up to direct all of the rain flow down into the cistern.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We need to collect rainwater to survive out here, this whole courtyard is set up to direct all of the rain flow down into the cistern.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Across the courtyard we head into the main house, where today most of the overnight bed-and-breakfast guests stay.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Across the courtyard we head into the main house, where today most of the overnight bed-and-breakfast guests stay.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So of course we have to do the shameless product placement. As you enter the house, the first room you see is the gift shop.\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so, the gift shop is not original to the light station, but the mugs they sell are popular with B&B guests. Couples often come out for romantic getaways. Kathleen and I learn learn groups stay here for birding weekends or murder-mystery parties.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So of course we have to do the shameless product placement. As you enter the house, the first room you see is the gift shop.\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so, the gift shop is not original to the light station, but the mugs they sell are popular with B&B guests. Couples often come out for romantic getaways. Kathleen and I learn learn groups stay here for birding weekends or murder-mystery parties.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> How often do you get groups that rent the whole island? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> How often do you get groups that rent the whole island? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two, yeah, two to three times a month. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two, yeah, two to three times a month. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The house has seen some changes over its 152-year life, but it’s not hard to imagine what it once was. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The house has seen some changes over its 152-year life, but it’s not hard to imagine what it once was. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Most often three lighthouse keepers, and sometimes their families, shared the home. There’d be a primary keeper, aka the boss, living downstairs. And then the first assistant upstairs, along with a junior keeper, someone just learning the ropes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Most often three lighthouse keepers, and sometimes their families, shared the home. There’d be a primary keeper, aka the boss, living downstairs. And then the first assistant upstairs, along with a junior keeper, someone just learning the ropes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They all lived, ate and slept beneath the tower that housed the light. Staying close because it needed constant attention. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They all lived, ate and slept beneath the tower that housed the light. Staying close because it needed constant attention. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> This is the parlor, which is the comfy hangout spot for the guests. Originally this would have been the junior keeper’s parlor. And the bedroom right over here, the Marin room, would have been the junior keeper’s bedroom. So it was kind of like a little apartment.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> This is the parlor, which is the comfy hangout spot for the guests. Originally this would have been the junior keeper’s parlor. And the bedroom right over here, the Marin room, would have been the junior keeper’s bedroom. So it was kind of like a little apartment.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, B&B guests stay in bedrooms with cozy beds, decorated with beautiful antiques. Historical maps and pictures of boats hang on the walls. And each room gets a name, based on what is visible outside the window.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, B&B guests stay in bedrooms with cozy beds, decorated with beautiful antiques. Historical maps and pictures of boats hang on the walls. And each room gets a name, based on what is visible outside the window.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So this is the San Francisco room, and it’s my personal favorite room. \u003cs>I\u003c/s>t has an arched ceiling, and it looks out to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So this is the San Francisco room, and it’s my personal favorite room. \u003cs>I\u003c/s>t has an arched ceiling, and it looks out to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We make our way to the main attraction: the tower … which is made up of three tiny rooms stacked on top of each other. We start at the base.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We make our way to the main attraction: the tower … which is made up of three tiny rooms stacked on top of each other. We start at the base.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So this is kind of the prep room where they’d get everything ready, but every half hour they had to go up there and trim the wick and refill the oil.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Next we head up to the Watch room.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So this is kind of the prep room where they’d get everything ready, but every half hour they had to go up there and trim the wick and refill the oil.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Next we head up to the Watch room.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> It’s a tightly winding staircase like you would expect in a Victorian mansion.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> It’s a tightly winding staircase like you would expect in a Victorian mansion.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We’re now 40 feet up. So you’ve got a pretty good view. If it’s stormy out, if it seems like it’s there’s a danger of a ship not seeing the light or whatever, that’s where you’re watching from so that you can signal those people if you need to.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We’re now 40 feet up. So you’ve got a pretty good view. If it’s stormy out, if it seems like it’s there’s a danger of a ship not seeing the light or whatever, that’s where you’re watching from so that you can signal those people if you need to.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Finally, we head to the pinnacle. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Finally, we head to the pinnacle. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> Up here is more winding stairs up into the actual lighthouse. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> Up here is more winding stairs up into the actual lighthouse. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I will say, the view from this room is spectacular. The light itself, a little bit of a letdown. Today a 4 inch LED sits in the space.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I will say, the view from this room is spectacular. The light itself, a little bit of a letdown. Today a 4 inch LED sits in the space.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So the original light, it was a Fresnel lens with a little lantern torch in the middle. And originally that torch on this station was powered by lard oil.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So the original light, it was a Fresnel lens with a little lantern torch in the middle. And originally that torch on this station was powered by lard oil.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fourth-order Fresnel lens! Imagine a magnificent orb of glass, made up of neat rows of prisms, standing several feet tall. They were designed to concentrate the light of a single flame so intensely it could be seen for about 15 miles.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fourth-order Fresnel lens! Imagine a magnificent orb of glass, made up of neat rows of prisms, standing several feet tall. They were designed to concentrate the light of a single flame so intensely it could be seen for about 15 miles.\u003c/p>\n"
],
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On March 1, 1874, as sunset approached, three lighthouse keepers climbed up into this very tower, and lit the oil lamp for the very first time. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On March 1, 1874, as sunset approached, three lighthouse keepers climbed up into this very tower, and lit the oil lamp for the very first time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The lighthouse has been operating, in some fashion or another, ever since.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>[Music moment]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The lighthouse has been operating, in some fashion or another, ever since.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>[Music moment]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When we return, we explore what life was like living and working at East Brother. And it might not be like you expect! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When we return, we explore what life was like living and working at East Brother. And it might not be like you expect! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>If you enjoy stories like this one, consider becoming a financial supporter of KQED. Learn more at donate.kqed.org/podcasts.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>If you enjoy stories like this one, consider becoming a financial supporter of KQED. Learn more at donate.kqed.org/podcasts.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It’s easy to get enamored by the apparent simplicity of life on an island in the middle of the Bay. I know I imagine myself reading in a hammock. Our question asker, Kathleen, loves that cell reception out on East Brother is limited.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It’s easy to get enamored by the apparent simplicity of life on an island in the middle of the Bay. I know I imagine myself reading in a hammock. Our question asker, Kathleen, loves that cell reception out on East Brother is limited.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> It is great to decompress and turn your phone off, and we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> It is great to decompress and turn your phone off, and we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And sure, that is the experience you will get here today as a guest at the B&B. But working here is hard, as Danielle can attest.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And sure, that is the experience you will get here today as a guest at the B&B. But working here is hard, as Danielle can attest.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>The work is never-ending. Because it’s just the two of us … So we’re the phones and the emails and the booking. There’s some degree of maintenance work that is pretty much always happening. The house needs to be deep cleaned every week between guests.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>The work is never-ending. Because it’s just the two of us … So we’re the phones and the emails and the booking. There’s some degree of maintenance work that is pretty much always happening. The house needs to be deep cleaned every week between guests.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Working here has always been hard. Historian Frank Perry makes clear that his book, \u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station.\u003c/em> Here’s an excerpt…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Working here has always been hard. Historian Frank Perry makes clear that his book, \u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station.\u003c/em> Here’s an excerpt…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>BOOK VO: \u003c/strong>Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>BOOK VO: \u003c/strong>Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Innkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and bring the flame slowly up to the optimal size, just shy of 2 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to its various needs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Innkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and bring the flame slowly up to the optimal size, just shy of 2 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to its various needs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle \u003cstrong>La Vigne\u003c/strong>: \u003c/strong>And because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle \u003cstrong>La Vigne\u003c/strong>: \u003c/strong>And because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>On a clear night, the tiny flame, refracted through that powerful lens, could be seen from parts of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>On a clear night, the tiny flame, refracted through that powerful lens, could be seen from parts of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>On a foggy night, things got more complicated. Keepers had to run the fog signal across the courtyard too. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>On a foggy night, things got more complicated. Keepers had to run the fog signal across the courtyard too. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light. In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light. In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell until the whistle could be sounded. Danielle gave us a demonstration.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell until the whistle could be sounded. Danielle gave us a demonstration.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Danielle whacking the bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Danielle whacking the bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What a job.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What a job.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bell ambi\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bell ambi\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>Since the whistle might be put in operation night or day, off-duty keepers had to learn to sleep in spite of the noise. Some keepers apparently got quite good at this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>Since the whistle might be put in operation night or day, off-duty keepers had to learn to sleep in spite of the noise. Some keepers apparently got quite good at this.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Keepers were also quite busy with chores. Cooking, cleaning, maintenance, repairs. When they needed food to supplement the rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town, which at the time was San Quentin.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Keepers were also quite busy with chores. Cooking, cleaning, maintenance, repairs. When they needed food to supplement the rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town, which at the time was San Quentin.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> So in order to get anything, they had to go to San Quentin. And I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor. They had to row.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> So in order to get anything, they had to go to San Quentin. And I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor. They had to row.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> So how far would the trip have been from here to San Quentin? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> So how far would the trip have been from here to San Quentin? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two and a half miles.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two and a half miles.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Light Keepers also kept daily logbooks with short entries about the day’s work.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Light Keepers also kept daily logbooks with short entries about the day’s work.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Feb. 14 1883 – Wind S.W. Squally, strong. Employed all day cleaning engine room and lens in lantern.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Feb. 14 1883 – Wind S.W. Squally, strong. Employed all day cleaning engine room and lens in lantern.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>…but sometimes you get a glimpse of more. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>…but sometimes you get a glimpse of more. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music start\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music start\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There was an assistant keeper who got put down in the logbook as a drunken screw-up. He’s one of my favorites.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There was an assistant keeper who got put down in the logbook as a drunken screw-up. He’s one of my favorites.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Joseph Page was his name. And let’s just say the head keeper at the time was not a fan.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Joseph Page was his name. And let’s just say the head keeper at the time was not a fan.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Dec. 14, 1882 – Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Dec. 14, 1882 – Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>July 14, 1882 – Mr. Page left for San Quentin. Capsized off the buoy at 12:15 p.m. … \u003cem>The Reform\u003c/em> picked him up ¼ mile NNE of light house. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, lost. Also milk.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>July 14, 1882 – Mr. Page left for San Quentin. Capsized off the buoy at 12:15 p.m. … \u003cem>The Reform\u003c/em> picked him up ¼ mile NNE of light house. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, lost. Also milk.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station … most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station … most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The originals used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>One big change came in 1934 when the lens was electrified – via an underwater cable that connected the island to shore. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A light keeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night – greatly reducing their daily chore load – and probably greatly improving their quality of life. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A light keeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night – greatly reducing their daily chore load – and probably greatly improving their quality of life. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But it was also the first step toward automation – and eliminating the need for lighthouse keepers altogether.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Eventually that came, of course, in 1969. To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident keeper from the island. They planned to demolish the light station, and all the buildings on the island, and put the light on a steel tower.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Eventually that came, of course, in 1969. To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident keeper from the island. They planned to demolish the light station, and all the buildings on the island, and put the light on a steel tower.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But locals living nearby in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse out in the bay, and vowed to save it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>One of the first things they did was write a national register nomination for it, which was successful.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom Butt is the president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>One of the first things they did was write a national register nomination for it, which was successful.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom Butt is the president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station made it onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The local group then tried to find a local organization to take on restoring the site — by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on groups like the National Parks Service and East Bay Regional Park District. But no one bit.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> I think everybody looked at it, and they just it was it it it was just too much.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> I think everybody looked at it, and they just it was it it it was just too much.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom went out to the island in 1978.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Looking back now, I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, you know, we can do this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabbing everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>New concrete around the cistern.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> We had to do electrical work, we had to do plumbing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All the ornamental railings had been taken off, so they made new ones using the original plans they found in the National Archives.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Repainted everything on the inside. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There was asbestos to remove.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>It was a lot of work. And you know … it took a year, but we got it done. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When the work was complete around 1980, the nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast to provide a stream of revenue to keep up on the maintenance. And … well … because it’s fun!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the stay, guests get a boat ride out with innkeepers Danielle and Rae, just like we did at the beginning of the story. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the stay, guests get a boat ride out with innkeepers Danielle and Rae, just like we did at the beginning of the story. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>We do charcuterie and champagne…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A history tour with Rae.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then dinner is a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then dinner is a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fantastic sunset, if the weather cooperates…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then in the morning it’s a full breakfast.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then in the morning it’s a full breakfast.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Just before heading back to shore, guests get a special demonstration that we also get to see on our tour…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Just before heading back to shore, guests get a special demonstration that we also get to see on our tour…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>So the gasoline starter engine here is what actually starts the diesel … And this one starts with a ripped cord. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>So the gasoline starter engine here is what actually starts the diesel … And this one starts with a ripped cord. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the fog signal building, Rae shows us the multistep process it takes to blow the foghorn like they did in the 1930s. The small room is packed with old mechanical equipment, some more than 100 years old. It smells like… old military? Is that a smell?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the fog signal building, Rae shows us the multistep process it takes to blow the foghorn like they did in the 1930s. The small room is packed with old mechanical equipment, some more than 100 years old. It smells like… old military? Is that a smell?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s a couple diesel engines, a few air compressors … and they’re all kept running today as a museum piece … because the diaphonic horn is one of only eight like it still functioning in the world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s a couple diesel engines, a few air compressors … and they’re all kept running today as a museum piece … because the diaphonic horn is one of only eight like it still functioning in the world.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The horn sounds cool in here, but it’s really cool out there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The horn sounds cool in here, but it’s really cool out there.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After 12 minutes of warming up, we head outside for the grand finale of our tour.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After 12 minutes of warming up, we head outside for the grand finale of our tour.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Foghorn blows loudly\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Foghorn blows loudly\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>You jumped.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>You jumped.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/strong>Well I didn’t know it was coming. I know you’re kinda counting 15, but you’re like…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/strong>Well I didn’t know it was coming. I know you’re kinda counting 15, but you’re like…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Despite being ready, it still startled us all. Absolutely thrilling. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Despite being ready, it still startled us all. Absolutely thrilling. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I checked in with our question asker Kathleen, to see what she made of our tour today…\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>I think that a lot of times we see us in something we see something that interests us and we do a quick Google search and we think that we’ve kind of learned all we there is to know, but it isn’t until you actually take that boat ride, get out on the island to realize that it is just such a unique experience and really such a hidden secret in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I checked in with our question asker Kathleen, to see what she made of our tour today…\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>I think that a lot of times we see us in something we see something that interests us and we do a quick Google search and we think that we’ve kind of learned all we there is to know, but it isn’t until you actually take that boat ride, get out on the island to realize that it is just such a unique experience and really such a hidden secret in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>East Brother Light Station is such a special place. An improbable compromise carved into stone. A beacon of safety. The sound of warning. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>East Brother Light Station is such a special place. An improbable compromise carved into stone. A beacon of safety. The sound of warning. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>For decades, keepers traded modern comfort for cold, salt air. They measured their lives in lonely night shifts spent tending a 2-inch flame.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Today this light station offers something softer – a chance to step off the boat, leave the modern world behind and sleep inside a piece of living history.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>For decades, keepers traded modern comfort for cold, salt air. They measured their lives in lonely night shifts spent tending a 2-inch flame.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Today this light station offers something softer – a chance to step off the boat, leave the modern world behind and sleep inside a piece of living history.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We hinted at it in this story, but the pier platform where boats dock at East Brother is in need of repair. The nonprofit is working to raise $750,000 to replace it, along with the gangway. Access to the island could be threatened if it’s not repaired. We’ll link to their fundraising page in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We hinted at it in this story, but the pier platform where boats dock at East Brother is in need of repair. The nonprofit is working to raise $750,000 to replace it, along with the gangway. Access to the island could be threatened if it’s not repaired. We’ll link to their fundraising page in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Big thanks to historian and author Frank Perry, whose book about East Brother Light Station provided much of the historical information in this episode. And to Kathleen Taylor, our question asker.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Big thanks to historian and author Frank Perry, whose book about East Brother Light Station provided much of the historical information in this episode. And to Kathleen Taylor, our question asker.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We just launched a new voting round at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>, so that means we need your help picking a question to answer in an upcoming episode. Here are your options!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>We just launched a new voting round at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>, so that means we need your help picking a question to answer in an upcoming episode. Here are your options!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 1:\u003c/strong> Why does this area have so many community colleges and won’t demographics result in fewer students and some needing to eventually close? How does the ratio of colleges to population compare with other states?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 1:\u003c/strong> Why does this area have so many community colleges and won’t demographics result in fewer students and some needing to eventually close? How does the ratio of colleges to population compare with other states?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 2:\u003c/strong> Why did rogue botanists plant Venus flytraps in the Albion Pygmy Forest in Mendocino in the 1960s?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 2:\u003c/strong> Why did rogue botanists plant Venus flytraps in the Albion Pygmy Forest in Mendocino in the 1960s?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 3: \u003c/strong>I would love to hear about Sally Stanford, the renowned madam turned mayor. I recall my parents having many colorful conversations about her and her “Damn Bird” when we were living in Sausalito.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 3: \u003c/strong>I would love to hear about Sally Stanford, the renowned madam turned mayor. I recall my parents having many colorful conversations about her and her “Damn Bird” when we were living in Sausalito.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Vote anytime this month at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Vote anytime this month at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week!\u003c/p>\n"
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"excerpt": "East Brother Light Station is a gold-rush era relic that was almost torn down. Spending the night there can feel like time traveling.",
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"title": "A Trip to the Remote Island Lighthouse in the Middle of San Francisco Bay | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A few years ago, a friend sent me the link for a job listing that seemed like an absolute dream. The opening was for a resident innkeeper at a bed and breakfast on an island in the middle of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-bay\">San Francisco Bay\u003c/a>. Even better, the B&B was housed in a 152-year-old working Victorian lighthouse! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>From my cramped desk, I fantasized about a simpler life, spent outside in one of the most gorgeous settings I could imagine. And living rent-free while earning a salary! But reality came crashing down when I read the job required a boat operator’s license and high-quality culinary experience — both of which I lacked. Alas. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the fantasy of East Brother Light Station stayed with me. So I was delighted when a Bay Curious listener named Kathleen Taylor wrote in, looking to learn more about the place. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066562\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-15-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“We were taking the ferry from Vallejo to a Giants game and passed by what looked like a small island with an East Coast-style lighthouse on it,” she recalled. It captured her imagination, too, and she got to wondering: “What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of what went on on that island?”\u003cbr>\u003cbr>So we headed to the island together to get some answers.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#history-east-brother\">History of East Brother Light Station \u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#early-lightkeepers\">What life was like for early lighthouse keepers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#bed-and-breakfast\">How it was converted to a bed and breakfast\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#visiting-today\">Visiting East Brother Light Station today\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"history-east-brother\">History of East Brother Light Station\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. To get there, boats had to skirt around Point San Pablo, the thumb sticking out from Richmond, California. This part of the bay can be especially tough for mariners.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The topography under the water is pretty interesting,” said Rae Colvin, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. “There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the [water] off to the side averages about 15 feet deep.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog, and it’s pretty precarious. So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and fog horn were needed. Initially, the Lighthouse Board hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but landowners fought back. They delayed things so profoundly that eventually an alternative site was chosen — East Brother Island. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066561\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-05-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Inn keeper Danielle La Vigne pilots a boat from Point San Pablo Harbor to East Brother Light Station in Richmond, California, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>It was small, less than an acre in size, but it was land the U.S. government already owned. Construction began in 1873.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The exterior of the light station features gingerbread trim, scrollwork and a generous second-floor porch. Not the standard-issue government building we’ve come to expect today. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The six-room Victorian light station was intended to house three lightkeepers, and two of them could have families. Downstairs was a bedroom and parlor for the principal keeper. Upstairs was a smaller bedroom and parlor for the assistant keeper. There was also a third bedroom for the most junior keeper. Things were cozy, to say the least.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Stacked on top of the living quarters was also the tower that housed the light. When the light station began operating on March 1, 1874, the light’s flame was powered by lard oil and featured a fourth-order \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresnel_lens\">Fresnel lens\u003c/a>. The lens rotated on a clockwork mechanism. On a clear night, this beam, which appeared to flash every 30 seconds because of the design of the lens, could be seen from about 15 miles away. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"early-lightkeepers\">What life was like for early lightkeepers\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring,” Frank Perry wrote in his book, \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/East-Brother-History-Island-Station/dp/0578211750\">\u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. Much of what we know about life on the island comes from Perry’s book, which was compiled using primary sources.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In 1874, the primary keeper earned $800 a year — the equivalent to about a $24,000 salary today. The assistants earned even less. Their primary responsibility was keeping the light running from sunset to sunrise every night and keeping the fog signal sounding during inclement weather.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Lightkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and slowly bring the flame up to the optimal size of about 1 and 13/16 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to the needs of the light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066570\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-69-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Historic photos hang on the wall at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. One lighthouse keeper, John Stenmark, brought his wife and children to live on the island. They had many friends in the community and would host large gatherings on the island. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“Because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour,” said Danielle La Vigne, one of the resident innkeepers at East Brother Light Station. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The innkeepers also had to wipe the glass panes of the lantern room with dry towels to keep moisture away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On foggy nights, the keepers’ jobs were doubly hard. They had to run the fog signal, too, which sits in another building on the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light,” wrote Perry. “In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell every 15 seconds until the whistle could be sounded. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Beyond the core responsibilities, keepers kept up with a long list of chores: cooking, cleaning, maintenance and repairs. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-5 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066564\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066564\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-22-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The 19th-century lighthouse complex includes a restored fog signal that once warned ships navigating San Pablo Bay. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066563\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066563\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-17-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The foghorn machinery at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When they needed food to supplement the dry rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town. At the time, that was San Quentin, about 2 1/2 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor,” said La Vigne. “They had to row.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A daily log was kept by the primary keeper, accounting for the day’s weather and work. Most entries are not more than a sentence, but they do give us a glimpse at the day-to-day life on East Brother. A string of entries in 1882 mention an assistant keeper named Mr. Page, who was a bit of a screw-up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cblockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\u003cp>\u003cem>July 14, 1882 – Wind S.W., strong. Mr. Page left for San Quentin A.M., capsized off the buoy near the West Brother at 12:15 p.m. Capt. Windsor hailed the Steamer Reform passing up at the time and sent her to his relief. The Reform picked him up ¼ of a mile N.N.E. of the Light House and landed him and the boat at the dock at 1:15 p.m. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, etc., etc., lost, also milk and can.\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>\u003cbr>Dec. 14, 1882 – Wind N.E. Foggy from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Feb. 8 1883 – Wind N.E. Light, clear. Mr. Page went for mail and stores, drunk, no mail.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On Feb. 10, 1883, a new assistant, Mr. Tippett, is mentioned, and Mr. Page is never spoken of again. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Stenmark era\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though some keepers were men living on their own, passing through East Brother for only a few years, families lived here, too. John Stenmark moved here in 1894 with his wife and 3-month-old daughter, Annie, and they stayed for 20 years.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They set up a vegetable garden and raised pigs, goats, rabbits and chickens.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Prior to the birth of each of his two sons [Mr. Stenmark] rowed all the way to San Quentin and back to fetch the doctor,” wrote Perry.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When the kids grew older, the government paid for a teacher to live on the island for a time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On April 18, 1906, Stenmark wrote about one of the most infamous days in local history in the logbook.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cblockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A heavy earthquake this morning at 5:15 a.m. Lenses of the light broken and glassware broke, and everything of glass broke. \u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Doors open of themselves and the whole island rocking. All the lenses broke.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the next two days, the Stenmarks watched from their quiet island as the fire that followed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12068602/san-franciscos-historic-relief-cottages-built-after-the-1906-earthquake-are-hidden-in-plain-sight\">earthquake consumed San Francisco\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The end of lighthouse keepers\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station, most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>“The original used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene,” Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066565\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-40-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view from the inn at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>One big change came in 1934 when electricity arrived on the island via an underwater cable that connected it to shore. A lightkeeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night — greatly reducing their daily chore load. The steam-powered fog signal was replaced with a diaphonic horn that can still be operated today and is one of only eight like it in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident personnel from the island in 1969. They planned to demolish all the buildings and put the light on a steel tower. But residents living in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse off their shoreline and were ready to fight for it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"bed-and-breakfast\">How it was converted to a bed and breakfast\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“One of the first things [local residents] did was write a National Register nomination for it, which was successful,” said Tom Butt, founder and president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond and a longtime city council member. “That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down because it invoked the Historic Preservation Act of 1966.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The group then tried to find a local organization to take on rehabilitating the site, because by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on organizations like the National Park Service and East Bay Regional Park District, but no one was interested.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think everybody looked at it and [thought] it was just too much,” said Butt. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He went to the island in 1978. “Looking back now,” he said, “I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, ‘you know, we can do this.’”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-68-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Marin Room, which faces Mount Tamalpais, at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-6 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066567\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066567\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-54-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A lighthouse shower curtain hangs in a bathroom at the inn on East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12066571\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-76-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A room at East Brother Light Station, an island just off the Richmond shoreline, on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat. The inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabilitating everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“All the buildings at that point were covered with asbestos shingles,” Butt said. “All of the ornamental railings had long since been taken off. We were lucky we had original plans from the National Archives, so we were able to replicate all that trim and put that back on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Volunteers did electrical work, plumbing, plastering and painting. It was a ton of work, but they managed to get it all done in about a year. The nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast in 1980 to provide a stream of revenue to keep up with the maintenance.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Though most of the operational costs and maintenance for the B&B are now covered by the nightly fee guests pay, \u003ca href=\"https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-east-brother-lighthouse-replace-the-pier?cp_src=d\">a major fundraising effort\u003c/a> is underway to replace the dock and gangway on the east side of the island. It must be replaced, or access to the island could be threatened. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"visiting-today\">Visiting East Brother Light Station today\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The nonprofit B&B is open four nights a week for overnight guests, and it’s recommended you \u003ca href=\"https://ebls.org/?_gl=1%2A1oq51ai%2A_ga%2AMjkzMDI3NzY5LjE3ODYxMzI2MjI.%2A_ga_J5B5MW125P%2AczE3ODc4NzI0MjUkbzckZzEkdDE3ODc4NzI0NDMkajQyJGwwJGgw\">book one of the five rooms well in advance\u003c/a>. Rates range from $525 to $575 per night. During summer months, there is once-monthly day-use access for $45, which includes the boat ride to and from the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the overnight stays, guests are taken by boat from Point San Pablo Marina by innkeepers Colvin and La Vigne. Once on the island, hors d’oeuvre and champagne are served, Colvin gives a history talk, and then comes a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We try to focus as much as we can on keeping things local,” La Vigne said. “We collaborate with the little goat farm that’s in the harbor, and we tend to plan the meals around what is being harvested now, what’s in season.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12066568\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251208-EASTBROTHER-64-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Innkeepers Rachel (Rae) Colvin (left) and Danielle La Vigne at East Brother Light Station in Richmond on Dec. 8, 2025. The historic lighthouse sits on a small, rocky outcrop in San Pablo Bay and is accessible only by boat, and the inn provides overnight stays in the restored 19th-century keeper’s quarters. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>They also try to make meals part of the historical experience, using ingredients the keepers would have received as part of their rations — like potatoes, rice and salted pork.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We have recipes from the Lighthouse Keeper’s Manual from 1891 that had recipes for how to stretch your rations. Last night we served for the first course a corn chowder that is from that original Lighthouse Keeper’s handbook,” La Vigne said. “Although their recipe was incredibly bland, and I spruced it up a lot.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, historically inspired … but for a modern palate. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Guests sleep in rooms neatly decorated with antiques. Most rooms are named after the view you see from the room, so there’s West Brother (the neighboring island), Marin Room, San Francisco Room. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A more modest room is out in the fog signal building — a popular choice for returning guests looking for a different experience, Colvin said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most of the clientele are couples looking for a romantic getaway, but the house is also regularly rented out entirely by groups for birthdays, anniversaries or themed experiences.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had two murder mystery dinner parties in the past month,” La Vigne said. “Both parties dressed up. They were in character the whole time. It was 1920 the whole time they were here.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the morning, before guests depart, they offer a demonstration of the fog signal — I can attest, it’s loud!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is Bay Curious.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>sound design of the sea: waves, gulls\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There’s something dreamy about lighthouses.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their striking architecture, rising high above our human scale.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Their symbolism. A literal light in the darkness.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In me, lighthouses stir something nostalgic. A time before GPS and radar — when navigation was done with charts and stars.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Today, many lighthouses across the United States have become tourism attractions, like Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But there’s a lighthouse near San Francisco that offers an experience like none other. Not just a quick trip to the top, but an opportunity to live like a lighthouse keeper of yore!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station looks like it could have been plucked from a child’s storybook. It’s a charming three-story wooden house, painted a creamy yellow with white gingerbread trim. At the top, stands a tower, where the brilliant light beckons through the fog.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Kathleen got to wondering a lot of things about this lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>What’s the history? Did somebody live on that island previously? Just how far back do we have documentation of, you know, what went on on that Island?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So today we’re on a mission for answers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Step one! We have to get to the lighthouse. At a marina north of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, Kathleen and I make our way toward a small boat.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There we meet Danielle La Vigne and Rae Colvin — the two keepers currently living on the island.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Oh, you guys can hop on board. Our insurance company does ask that you wear those.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Life vests are on, and we are off. Danielle and Rae have been living at the East Brother Light Station for about a year and half. But the helm of a boat is a familiar place for them.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> Did you know how to drive a boat, or is this a recent skill you’ve had to acquire? ‘Cause you’ve, you guys have been on the job for…\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>I’ve been a commercial captain for almost 20 years. This is the smallest boat that I’ve ever operated professionally. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>As we’re making our way out of the marina, Rae spots a seal.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>A lot of seals live out by the island. … we have a bunch of birds and the harbor seals and sometimes a sea lion.\u003cem>\u003cs>\u003cbr>\u003c/s>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Danielle and Rae are the only two full-time \u003cem>human\u003c/em> residents of East Brother Light Station. But they’re far from alone out there. Because keeping the light running is not their main focus. Instead it’s catering to the weekly overnight guests who join them at the Light Station. Because these days East Brother is a one-of-a-kind bed and breakfast. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, we just snuck around the bend, and I am seeing the light station probably 400 feet away or so.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>I can’t see it from up on the water, but down beneath our boat lies the answer to one of Kathleen’s questions. Why is this lighthouse \u003cem>here\u003c/em>, some 15 miles from the open ocean?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the decades after gold was first found in California in 1848, mining activity in the Sierra really ramped up. Getting supplies from San Francisco up into the mountains often meant taking a boat — floating things up the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Ships had to skirt around Point San Pablo — where our little boat just departed from. Rae Colvin explains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And they put a lighthouse out here because the topography under the water is pretty interesting. There’s a 160-foot-deep chasm right off the island. But most of the open ocean off to the side that you can see averages out to about 15 feet deep. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Ships passing through this channel were constantly at risk of running aground even in good weather. Add in some dense fog and it’s pretty precarious.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So in the early 1870s, it was decided a lighthouse and foghorn were needed. Initially, they hoped to put the light station on the mainland, but quickly ran into issues…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The people who owned the land on the East Bay there didn’t want to sell to the government to let them build a lighthouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After years of trying and failing to get the landowners to relent, the government changed course. Just offshore was \u003cem>East Brother Island\u003c/em> — a speck of land really, smaller than an acre — but it was enough. And better yet, it was land the U.S. government already owned. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Workers blasted sandstone from the top of the island to create a level plot. A foundation went in, walls went up, and in less than a year the six-room Victorian light station was complete. The design is quite striking…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There’s a lot of ornamental woodwork on it, and it’s three stories.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But it’s not exactly unique. Lighthouses with a similar design were built all over the West Coast. This is the oldest one still standing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade up on sound of boat slowing down and approaching dock. Ambi of arriving sounds.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The wind picks up as our little boat approaches the island and sidles up to the dock. Once we’re off, Danielle and Rae work to get the boat lifted out of the water.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>If we left it in the water, it would just get thrashed against the dock all day long, and this dock already needs help so.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>This one’s been here since I think the 1960s, and, you know, it’s seen better days.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The dock may need work, but as we make our way up some stairs and onto the property, a tidy semicircle of three buildings emerges. The main light station to the west, a small cottage to the north, and a fog signal building to the east. All fit on about three-quarters of an acre. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The buildings surround a low white dome covering something beneath the pavement. Danielle explains…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We need to collect rainwater to survive out here, this whole courtyard is set up to direct all of the rain flow down into the cistern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Across the courtyard we head into the main house, where today most of the overnight bed-and-breakfast guests stay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So of course we have to do the shameless product placement. As you enter the house, the first room you see is the gift shop.\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>OK, so, the gift shop is not original to the light station, but the mugs they sell are popular with B&B guests. Couples often come out for romantic getaways. Kathleen and I learn learn groups stay here for birding weekends or murder-mystery parties.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> How often do you get groups that rent the whole island? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two, yeah, two to three times a month. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The house has seen some changes over its 152-year life, but it’s not hard to imagine what it once was. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Most often three lighthouse keepers, and sometimes their families, shared the home. There’d be a primary keeper, aka the boss, living downstairs. And then the first assistant upstairs, along with a junior keeper, someone just learning the ropes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They all lived, ate and slept beneath the tower that housed the light. Staying close because it needed constant attention. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> This is the parlor, which is the comfy hangout spot for the guests. Originally this would have been the junior keeper’s parlor. And the bedroom right over here, the Marin room, would have been the junior keeper’s bedroom. So it was kind of like a little apartment.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today, B&B guests stay in bedrooms with cozy beds, decorated with beautiful antiques. Historical maps and pictures of boats hang on the walls. And each room gets a name, based on what is visible outside the window.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So this is the San Francisco room, and it’s my personal favorite room. \u003cs>I\u003c/s>t has an arched ceiling, and it looks out to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We make our way to the main attraction: the tower … which is made up of three tiny rooms stacked on top of each other. We start at the base.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>So this is kind of the prep room where they’d get everything ready, but every half hour they had to go up there and trim the wick and refill the oil.\u003cem>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Next we head up to the Watch room.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> It’s a tightly winding staircase like you would expect in a Victorian mansion.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>We’re now 40 feet up. So you’ve got a pretty good view. If it’s stormy out, if it seems like it’s there’s a danger of a ship not seeing the light or whatever, that’s where you’re watching from so that you can signal those people if you need to.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Finally, we head to the pinnacle. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> Up here is more winding stairs up into the actual lighthouse. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I will say, the view from this room is spectacular. The light itself, a little bit of a letdown. Today a 4 inch LED sits in the space.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin:\u003c/strong> So the original light, it was a Fresnel lens with a little lantern torch in the middle. And originally that torch on this station was powered by lard oil.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fourth-order Fresnel lens! Imagine a magnificent orb of glass, made up of neat rows of prisms, standing several feet tall. They were designed to concentrate the light of a single flame so intensely it could be seen for about 15 miles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On March 1, 1874, as sunset approached, three lighthouse keepers climbed up into this very tower, and lit the oil lamp for the very first time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The lighthouse has been operating, in some fashion or another, ever since.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>[Music moment]\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When we return, we explore what life was like living and working at East Brother. And it might not be like you expect! Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>If you enjoy stories like this one, consider becoming a financial supporter of KQED. Learn more at donate.kqed.org/podcasts.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It’s easy to get enamored by the apparent simplicity of life on an island in the middle of the Bay. I know I imagine myself reading in a hammock. Our question asker, Kathleen, loves that cell reception out on East Brother is limited.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> It is great to decompress and turn your phone off, and we don’t have a lot of opportunities to do that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And sure, that is the experience you will get here today as a guest at the B&B. But working here is hard, as Danielle can attest.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne: \u003c/strong>The work is never-ending. Because it’s just the two of us … So we’re the phones and the emails and the booking. There’s some degree of maintenance work that is pretty much always happening. The house needs to be deep cleaned every week between guests.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Working here has always been hard. Historian Frank Perry makes clear that his book, \u003cem>East Brother: History of an Island Light Station.\u003c/em> Here’s an excerpt…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>BOOK VO: \u003c/strong>Despite the romantic portrayal of lighthouse keeping in novels, poems and art, the job was monotonous, and the Lighthouse Board knew it. Pay was modest and much of the work boring. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The nightly routine would begin at sunset. Innkeepers would fill the lamp with lard oil, light the wick, and bring the flame slowly up to the optimal size, just shy of 2 inches. If they did this too quickly, the glass chimney inside the rotating Fresnel lens could crack from the change in temperature. That alone was a 30-minute job. Then the keepers had to sit in the watch room all night, tending to its various needs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle \u003cstrong>La Vigne\u003c/strong>: \u003c/strong>And because of the timing on that clockwork mechanism and how quickly the wicks would burn down, you gotta check it every half hour.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>On a clear night, the tiny flame, refracted through that powerful lens, could be seen from parts of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>On a foggy night, things got more complicated. Keepers had to run the fog signal across the courtyard too. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>The whistle was sometimes more important in aiding mariners than the light. In dense fog or heavy rain, East Brother’s powerful light was virtually useless. The 10-inch whistle, on the other hand, could often be heard from 10 or 12 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>It took about 45 minutes to build up enough steam in the boiler for the fog whistle to work. So in the meantime, one of the keepers went outside and struck a large bell until the whistle could be sounded. Danielle gave us a demonstration.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Danielle whacking the bell\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>What a job.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Bell ambi\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Book VO: \u003c/strong>Since the whistle might be put in operation night or day, off-duty keepers had to learn to sleep in spite of the noise. Some keepers apparently got quite good at this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Keepers were also quite busy with chores. Cooking, cleaning, maintenance, repairs. When they needed food to supplement the rations that got delivered once a year or so, they had to leave the island for the nearest town, which at the time was San Quentin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> So in order to get anything, they had to go to San Quentin. And I have a 200 horsepower motorboat to get back and forth to our little harbor. They had to row.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor:\u003c/strong> So how far would the trip have been from here to San Quentin? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Danielle La Vigne:\u003c/strong> Two and a half miles.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Light Keepers also kept daily logbooks with short entries about the day’s work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Feb. 14 1883 – Wind S.W. Squally, strong. Employed all day cleaning engine room and lens in lantern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>…but sometimes you get a glimpse of more. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music start\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>There was an assistant keeper who got put down in the logbook as a drunken screw-up. He’s one of my favorites.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Joseph Page was his name. And let’s just say the head keeper at the time was not a fan.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Dec. 14, 1882 – Mr. Page went to San Quentin for mail, returned as usual, drunk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>July 14, 1882 – Mr. Page left for San Quentin. Capsized off the buoy at 12:15 p.m. … \u003cem>The Reform\u003c/em> picked him up ¼ mile NNE of light house. Oars, rudder, mail and all the marketing – consisting of mutton, cabbages, peas, lost. Also milk.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003cbr>\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Over the decades, technological improvements came regularly to East Brother Light Station … most often to the fuel source used to power the light.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The originals used lard oil lamps, and then they switched to mineral oil, and then they used kerosene.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>One big change came in 1934 when the lens was electrified – via an underwater cable that connected the island to shore. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A light keeper was no longer needed to keep a flame burning all night – greatly reducing their daily chore load – and probably greatly improving their quality of life. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But it was also the first step toward automation – and eliminating the need for lighthouse keepers altogether.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Eventually that came, of course, in 1969. To save on salaries, the U.S. Coast Guard automated everything and pulled the last resident keeper from the island. They planned to demolish the light station, and all the buildings on the island, and put the light on a steel tower.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music end\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But locals living nearby in Point Richmond had other plans. They had grown attached to the charming lighthouse out in the bay, and vowed to save it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>One of the first things they did was write a national register nomination for it, which was successful.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom Butt is the president of East Brother Light Station Inc., the nonprofit that operates the bed and breakfast. He’s also the former mayor of Richmond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>East Brother Light Station made it onto the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> That didn’t save it, but it made it harder for the Coast Guard to tear it down.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The local group then tried to find a local organization to take on restoring the site — by that point it was more than a decade behind on maintenance and needed serious work. They focused on groups like the National Parks Service and East Bay Regional Park District. But no one bit.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> I think everybody looked at it, and they just it was it it it was just too much.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Tom went out to the island in 1978.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Looking back now, I was a lot younger and not near as smart as I am now, and I was intrigued by it and said, you know, we can do this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>He and others formed a nonprofit and started leasing the site from the Coast Guard. They spent a year rehabbing everything, mostly with volunteer work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>New concrete around the cistern.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt:\u003c/strong> We had to do electrical work, we had to do plumbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>All the ornamental railings had been taken off, so they made new ones using the original plans they found in the National Archives.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>Repainted everything on the inside. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>There was asbestos to remove.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Butt: \u003c/strong>It was a lot of work. And you know … it took a year, but we got it done. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>When the work was complete around 1980, the nonprofit began running the site as a bed and breakfast to provide a stream of revenue to keep up on the maintenance. And … well … because it’s fun!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At the beginning of the stay, guests get a boat ride out with innkeepers Danielle and Rae, just like we did at the beginning of the story. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>We do charcuterie and champagne…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A history tour with Rae.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then dinner is a four-course dinner with wine.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>A fantastic sunset, if the weather cooperates…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>And then in the morning it’s a full breakfast.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Just before heading back to shore, guests get a special demonstration that we also get to see on our tour…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>So the gasoline starter engine here is what actually starts the diesel … And this one starts with a ripped cord. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>In the fog signal building, Rae shows us the multistep process it takes to blow the foghorn like they did in the 1930s. The small room is packed with old mechanical equipment, some more than 100 years old. It smells like… old military? Is that a smell?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a couple diesel engines, a few air compressors … and they’re all kept running today as a museum piece … because the diaphonic horn is one of only eight like it still functioning in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rae Colvin: \u003c/strong>The horn sounds cool in here, but it’s really cool out there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>After 12 minutes of warming up, we head outside for the grand finale of our tour.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Foghorn blows loudly\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene: \u003c/strong>You jumped.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz in scene: \u003c/strong>Well I didn’t know it was coming. I know you’re kinda counting 15, but you’re like…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Despite being ready, it still startled us all. Absolutely thrilling. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I checked in with our question asker Kathleen, to see what she made of our tour today…\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>I think that a lot of times we see us in something we see something that interests us and we do a quick Google search and we think that we’ve kind of learned all we there is to know, but it isn’t until you actually take that boat ride, get out on the island to realize that it is just such a unique experience and really such a hidden secret in the Bay Area. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>East Brother Light Station is such a special place. An improbable compromise carved into stone. A beacon of safety. The sound of warning. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>For decades, keepers traded modern comfort for cold, salt air. They measured their lives in lonely night shifts spent tending a 2-inch flame.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Today this light station offers something softer – a chance to step off the boat, leave the modern world behind and sleep inside a piece of living history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We hinted at it in this story, but the pier platform where boats dock at East Brother is in need of repair. The nonprofit is working to raise $750,000 to replace it, along with the gangway. Access to the island could be threatened if it’s not repaired. We’ll link to their fundraising page in the show notes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Big thanks to historian and author Frank Perry, whose book about East Brother Light Station provided much of the historical information in this episode. And to Kathleen Taylor, our question asker.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We just launched a new voting round at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>, so that means we need your help picking a question to answer in an upcoming episode. Here are your options!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 1:\u003c/strong> Why does this area have so many community colleges and won’t demographics result in fewer students and some needing to eventually close? How does the ratio of colleges to population compare with other states?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 2:\u003c/strong> Why did rogue botanists plant Venus flytraps in the Albion Pygmy Forest in Mendocino in the 1960s?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Question 3: \u003c/strong>I would love to hear about Sally Stanford, the renowned madam turned mayor. I recall my parents having many colorful conversations about her and her “Damn Bird” when we were living in Sausalito.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Vote anytime this month at \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kathleen Taylor: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week!\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "why-are-there-so-many-public-golf-courses-in-the-bay-area",
"title": "Why Are There So Many Public Golf Courses in the Bay Area?",
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"headTitle": "Why Are There So Many Public Golf Courses in the Bay Area? | KQED",
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"content": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakland resident Mary Newson would hike regularly in the parks up in the Oakland and Berkeley hills. It was a pleasant way to get outside, and there was no one around — even on a usually busy golf course near \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/anthony-chabot\">Anthony Chabot Regional Park.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There were deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and all these animals that had just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it,” she said. “That was really a beautiful thing to see.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But then, the restrictions started to let up, things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks. It made her wonder: Why are there so many golf courses in public parks around the Bay Area? Can and should she visit as a non-golfer? And what is their financial relationship to the park?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083077\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers practice at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t sure how they worked, and if there was any sort of financial relationship, administrative relationship between the larger park and the golf course that sort of made them work together,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it turns out, golf — and public golf, in particular — has a storied history in the Bay Area. And apart from a few conversions, mostly of private golf courses, these public greens are unlikely to be going anywhere soon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#private\">The difference between public and private golf courses\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#make-money\">How public courses do or don’t make money for local parks\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#converting-golf-courses\">Golf course conversions underway in the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#visit-a-golf-course\">What to know if you’re visiting a public golf course for the first time\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is the history of golf courses in the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The sport of golf made its way to the Bay Area with the arrival of Scottish immigrants in the 1890s and early 20th century, explained Richard Harris, who advocates for accessible golf with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/\">San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That included influential city leaders like John McLaren, the “father of Golden Gate Park,” who was a Scot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Richard Harris, president of the SF Public Golf Alliance, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>McLaren, Harris said, was influential in creating Lincoln Park and Harding Park in San Francisco, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/index.php/save/alister-mackenzies-sharp-park\">Pacifica’s Sharp Park\u003c/a>, designed by famous golf architect Alister MacKenzie. These are all public, not private golf courses, and are considered to be world-class, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time,” Harris said. “It’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and, for that matter, in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"private\">What makes a public golf course different from a private one?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Public golf courses are those owned by local governments or parks districts. In the Bay Area, they tend to be inside or next to public parks you may know or frequent.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses help lower barriers to the sport by being accessible and relatively cheap, said Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club and a member of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083084\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lily Achatz, president of Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s stunning and what makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here,” Achatz said. “The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"make-money\">Do golf courses make money for public parks?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Depending on the city or parks district, public golf courses can be real money-makers. Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District, said Tilden Golf Course made the district $800,000 last year. It was the most profitable concession in the entire parks district last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/sites/default/files/fy26-adopted-operating-capital-projects-budgets-w-bookmarks.pdf\">according to district documents.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s not the case with every city or district. In San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-golfers-grumble-over-course-privatization-plan-20184922.php\">the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit\u003c/a> and has \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2025/07/22/sf-parks-fees/\">begun raising rates\u003c/a> at some public courses to help close the gap. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, course fees are limited by a public board to keep fees low-cost for residents, Korten said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"converting-golf-courses\">Have there been any talks of converting golf courses to other uses?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s no widespread movement to convert golf courses in the Bay Area into other uses. But there are two notable examples of private golf courses undergoing their own transformations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The most controversial right now is Pleasant Hills in San José. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12074738/housing-advocates-call-this-big-plot-of-san-jose-land-the-most-important-in-a-century\">a former private 115-acre golf course\u003c/a> that may become 2,000 new homes with some commercial and open space. It’s currently in environmental review as the community goes back and forth on what to do with it. What to do has become a fight, said Manira Sandhir, deputy director of planning for the city of San José. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12083082\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083082\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers play a game at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12083078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golf balls line the ground at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“On one hand we have the community who’s directly affected by this project and has expressed concerns about the traffic that it would generate,” she said. It’s located in a highly car-dependent area, and there’s not a lot of transit or freeway access there either. “But then on the other hand, we have housing advocates who want to see more housing at the site, and they feel that putting 2,000 units at the site would be underutilization of this really large acreage that’s available for development.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The course, Sandhir said, was established in the 1960s but closed in 2004, likely for financial reasons — so not explicitly for this conversion. Sandhir said it’s likely to be years before the dust settles and a coherent plan for the site emerges.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Farther to the north, in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley, another golf course has seen the end of its days. The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization, converted what was once a private 18-hole golf course into \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/our-work/san-geronimo-commons\">San Geronimo Commons\u003c/a>, a public park that fills a missing connection to surrounding open spaces, restores water rights to the Larson Creek and returns the land to its former function as a wetland. A county firehouse has even taken over the old golf clubhouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I do think cities, park systems across the country, certainly in California, are rethinking their inventory and what can happen,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The car paths became walking paths, the sand traps became sandboxes for the kids,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, Trust for Public Land’s California director. He said this is one of four golf course conversions they have helped lead in the state, part of what he sees as a growing trend in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Geronimo conversion wasn’t without its own controversy. After purchasing the property in 2018, Trust for Public Land launched a two-year process to narrow down what the community wanted from the property – and not everyone agreed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had a lot of passionate golfers who had lots of memories tied to that facility,” he said. “And while, yes, there were other facilities they could go play golf in, they had history there, and so we had to work through that.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Senior manager on the project Erica Williams said in some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for the transition of the property — opening people’s imaginations to how their community spaces could look. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“With the pandemic, I think that really allowed people to connect with the landscape, to reconnect with the land and to imagine a future,” she said. “It became a sanctuary.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"visit-a-golf-course\">Can I visit a golf course as a non-golfer?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses are open to everyone, whether you want to reserve a tee time to try your hand at playing, practice your swing at the driving range, or just hang out at the cafes and restaurants onsite. Unlike private courses, there is no dress code at public golf courses. Dogs are not allowed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While walking along the course if you’re not playing generally isn’t allowed (getting hit by a ball is a real risk), many courses like Tilden have walking trails nearby that are open to anyone. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you want to play a round of golf, you should plan to book a tee time in advance. Public courses also offer golf club rentals if you don’t have any of your own.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything is shut down – even the gym. So Bay Curious listener Mary Newsom decided to go for a walk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I live in Oakland. And so I would usually sort of go up to the ridgeline and start hiking and all the regional parks that are up on the ridgeline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Eventually, Mary made her way up to Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Given the pandemic, there was no one around.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>And so one of the golf courses that’s right alongside Chabot was completely empty. There were, like, deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and like all these animals. That it just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But then, the restrictions started to let up, and things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>It sort of made me wonder about the relationship between the park and the golf course that’s right up against it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Mary looked into what other municipal golf courses are located inside public parks, and the list is really quite long…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Lincoln Park, Gleneagles, Tilden Park, Lake Chabot, Redwood Canyon, Sequoia…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And that’s just a partial list. This all got Mary wondering about the relationship between public parks and the golf courses within them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Why are there so many golf courses in the Bay Area right next to, or inside public parks? Do they subsidize the parks? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We sent KQED’s outdoors reporter, Sarah Wright, to take a swing at finding some answers. She started, as you might expect, at Hole 1.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds chirping, golf balls getting whacked\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> The Golden Gate Park Golf Course is set up on a hill, right by San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. The breeze is strong, and a hawk has been circling overhead as a new set of golfers sets up at the first hole every 15 minutes. Here, I run into Lizzie Yurchak. She lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and she came out to play the course today with a coworker who is from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>He lives in Texas, so we were like, what’s something fun we can do while he’s visiting the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> It’s her first time out to this course — actually, her first time golfing in the Bay Area since she moved here from Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak:\u003c/strong> I don’t have my clubs out here, so maybe I’ll feel inspired today. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And what are your goals for today on the golf course?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>Um, don’t shank it. And don’t lose foul balls. I think that’s about it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She does not, in fact, shank it. I watch as she lines up for a stroke.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lizzie hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Man:\u003c/strong> There we go!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Besides meeting golfers like Lizzie, I’m actually here to meet Richard Harris and Lily Achatz. They’re with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, which advocates for affordable golf in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Hi, Sarah.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Lily, great to meet you. Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Of course!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I am here to ask them Mary’s question. Why are there so many golf courses in public parks in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To answer that, Richard says, we have to dig into history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time. And it’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and for that matter, in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Golf traces its origins to Scotland — Richard explains.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scottish music plays\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Originated in what they called the Links Land, which is the land between the cities and the coast, which was not much use for anything. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Richard says that in the 1890s and early 20th century, immigrants, including Scots, came here and brought golf with them. Among them was a man who had a huge impact on recreation in our region. The father of Golden Gate Park – John McLaren. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>John McLaren was a Scot. John McLaren liked golf. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>He first built Lincoln Park, a golf course by the Legion of Honor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> And then quickly, he found another Scot to design Harding Park…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… A legendary course near Lake Merced.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>And then another Scot to design Sharp Park…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… Just steps from the ocean in Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>That Scot being Alistair McKenzie. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>McKenzie is most famous for having designed Augusta, in Georgia, where the Masters is played.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those iconic early courses built in the Bay Area were — and still are — all public, not private, golf courses. And today they’re known as some of the most premium municipal courses in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In California, Richard said, publicly owned courses make up about a third of all courses statewide. And they’re at the forefront of welcoming new players into the sport and combating golf’s reputation for being overly white, male and exclusive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, knows that firsthand. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> I didn’t grow up playing golf. I got into golf much later, about like six years ago. I don’t know how many sports there are that you can get into, you know, get into it so late. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She says municipal golf courses, with their relatively cheap fees and open access, are critical to help lower barriers to the sport.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from about $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> What makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here. There’s friends, all different backgrounds. The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>In fact, golf wasn’t even racially integrated until the 1950s. And Bay Area municipal courses had a role in that, too. Richard shows me a photo of a plaque that hangs at Pacifica’s Sharp Park course. At the time, the course was known for denying tee times to Black players. But in 1955, that changed when Sharp Park became the site of the inaugural championship tournament of the Western States Golf Association, one of the country’s oldest and largest African American golfing organizations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> It was swimming pools in the south. In San Francisco, it was golf courses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Still, even today, municipal courses can feel exclusive. When Mary asked her question originally, she actually pointed out this bias she feels. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>If I’m walking through a city park and I pass by tennis courts, I don’t really blink an eye, or basketball courts. But it’s funny that to me, like a golf course strikes me differently, you know that I sort of wonder, oh, wait, why is this here? And who actually uses this? You know? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we return, we explore who these golf courses are for. And get into the finances. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>KQED’s Outdoors reporter Sarah Wright is very familiar with the condemnation golf courses sometimes face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Any type of golf course will inevitably draw criticism from those worried about its environmental impact. They are, after all, enormous, frequently watered, heavily manicured lawns. Many golf courses are\u003cem> \u003c/em>working to become more sustainable, but that could be its own story for another day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To keep things focused on Mary’s question, I spoke with Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He says the public has just as much a right to nice turf on a golf course as any other park amenity. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten: \u003c/strong>I think it’s one of the really cool things about some of our parks is like, in Tilden, there’s like the merry-go-round, the steam trains, the golf course, like some of these things that… You kind of feel like you’re visiting another era.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>East Bay Regional Parks has two golf courses, Tilden and Redwood Canyon, and Max says they take up just a combined 240 acres of the 120,000 the district manages. And the golf courses aren’t just for golfers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> The driving range is something that like anybody could do. I’ve taken my son there, my dad and step-mom, like who haven’t really ever played golf, and go just try to hit balls. And it’s really fun and fairly inexpensive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Max explained that golf courses in East Bay parks are operated as concessions. So a private company, in this case, called Touchstone, operates the courses and then a percentage of their profits, around 10 percent, goes to the parks district. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They can also be a major money maker for the parks. Last year, Max said, Tilden brought in over $800,000 in revenue — it’s the most profitable concession in the entire parks district. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, fees are limited by the public parks district board to keep things affordable for the golfers themselves, Max said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> Keeping these public courses around to provide low-cost ways for community members to access golf is really important because I think they’re sort of an equity opportunity to make sure that this sport is available to everyone. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Now, not every city can say public golf is a money maker. In San Francisco, for example, the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the city has begun raising rates at some public courses to help close the gap.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, to answer Mary’s question, there often is a symbiotic relationship between the parks departments and the courses – but not always. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I went and told Mary what I found — about how the golf courses she was walking by during the pandemic — do help fund the park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary: \u003c/strong>I’m glad to hear that they’re actually making money for East Bay Regional Parks. I feel like, you know, parks are always underfunded, you know, they’re always sort of like the first to be cut. So, to hear that they’re actually supporting the park, I think, is great.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>I admit — I was surprised to learn that too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it’s definitely sort of changed my mind and sort of given me more of a positive perspective on them than I had before.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>So much so that she was even willing to give it a try herself. Olivia and I asked Mary and Lily Achatz, from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, to join us at Corica Park in Alameda. It’s hot and sunny, and for a Thursday afternoon, the golf course is bustling.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>You guys brought the good weather. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Corica Park actually has several golf courses, and even a foot golf course where you can kick soccer balls into giant holes in the green. We convened at the smaller Par 3 course, which is a great option for kids, beginners or anyone looking for a lower-key experience — which was perfect for our group of just one expert and three complete amateurs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I have never played golf before ever in my life. Not even miniature golf, actually, neither one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So how do you predict this is going to go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>I honestly don’t know, but I do see some water over here and I imagine one of my balls would go in there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Well, as it turns out, Mary is an athlete – she grew up playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, rowing — you name it. So she got the hang of it quick.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Here, I’m just going to do a gentle putt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Mary hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Nice, woohoo!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>My first ever!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Olivia and I, we did our best… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Okay, it only took three swings to make contact.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> And you did it. And you were lined up perfectly. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And, no surprise, Lily crushed us all. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lily hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>That was incredible, I don’t even know where it went! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>It sliced to the right.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>After around an hour, we called it quits. I asked Mary how she thought it went.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> It felt a little funny, but I think if I did it more, I would definitely get used to it, you know, and it would be something, like, I would be at home, right? You know before bed or something like that, practicing my swing, like, okay, you know.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> So, Olivia, what do you think? Is there more golfing in our future?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I think I’m going to stick to podcasting, for now. But I don’t know, Mary seemed to be getting into it. Maybe we’ll have to check in with her in a year and see how things are coming along.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I know that I’ll be practicing my swing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Sarah Wright, outdoors reporter for KQED. Thank you!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“There were deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and all these animals that had just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it,” she said. “That was really a beautiful thing to see.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But then, the restrictions started to let up, things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks. It made her wonder: Why are there so many golf courses in public parks around the Bay Area? Can and should she visit as a non-golfer? And what is their financial relationship to the park?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>But then, the restrictions started to let up, things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks. It made her wonder: Why are there so many golf courses in public parks around the Bay Area? Can and should she visit as a non-golfer? And what is their financial relationship to the park?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083077\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers practice at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083077\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers practice at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t sure how they worked, and if there was any sort of financial relationship, administrative relationship between the larger park and the golf course that sort of made them work together,” she said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As it turns out, golf — and public golf, in particular — has a storied history in the Bay Area. And apart from a few conversions, mostly of private golf courses, these public greens are unlikely to be going anywhere soon.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As it turns out, golf — and public golf, in particular — has a storied history in the Bay Area. And apart from a few conversions, mostly of private golf courses, these public greens are unlikely to be going anywhere soon.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#make-money\">How public courses do or don’t make money for local parks\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The sport of golf made its way to the Bay Area with the arrival of Scottish immigrants in the 1890s and early 20th century, explained Richard Harris, who advocates for accessible golf with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/\">San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The sport of golf made its way to the Bay Area with the arrival of Scottish immigrants in the 1890s and early 20th century, explained Richard Harris, who advocates for accessible golf with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/\">San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That included influential city leaders like John McLaren, the “father of Golden Gate Park,” who was a Scot. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Richard Harris, president of the SF Public Golf Alliance, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>McLaren, Harris said, was influential in creating Lincoln Park and Harding Park in San Francisco, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/index.php/save/alister-mackenzies-sharp-park\">Pacifica’s Sharp Park\u003c/a>, designed by famous golf architect Alister MacKenzie. These are all public, not private golf courses, and are considered to be world-class, he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time,” Harris said. “It’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and, for that matter, in the world.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"private\">What makes a public golf course different from a private one?\u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Public golf courses are those owned by local governments or parks districts. In the Bay Area, they tend to be inside or next to public parks you may know or frequent.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses help lower barriers to the sport by being accessible and relatively cheap, said Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club and a member of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses help lower barriers to the sport by being accessible and relatively cheap, said Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club and a member of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083084\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lily Achatz, president of Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083084\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lily Achatz, president of Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026.\u003ccite class=\"wp-inline-image-credit\"> (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It’s stunning and what makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here,” Achatz said. “The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It’s stunning and what makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here,” Achatz said. “The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "Do golf courses make money for public parks?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Depending on the city or parks district, public golf courses can be real money-makers. Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District, said Tilden Golf Course made the district $800,000 last year. It was the most profitable concession in the entire parks district last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/sites/default/files/fy26-adopted-operating-capital-projects-budgets-w-bookmarks.pdf\">according to district documents.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Depending on the city or parks district, public golf courses can be real money-makers. Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District, said Tilden Golf Course made the district $800,000 last year. It was the most profitable concession in the entire parks district last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/sites/default/files/fy26-adopted-operating-capital-projects-budgets-w-bookmarks.pdf\">according to district documents.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That’s not the case with every city or district. In San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-golfers-grumble-over-course-privatization-plan-20184922.php\">the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit\u003c/a> and has \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2025/07/22/sf-parks-fees/\">begun raising rates\u003c/a> at some public courses to help close the gap. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That’s not the case with every city or district. In San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-golfers-grumble-over-course-privatization-plan-20184922.php\">the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit\u003c/a> and has \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2025/07/22/sf-parks-fees/\">begun raising rates\u003c/a> at some public courses to help close the gap. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, course fees are limited by a public board to keep fees low-cost for residents, Korten said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, course fees are limited by a public board to keep fees low-cost for residents, Korten said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "Have there been any talks of converting golf courses to other uses?",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s no widespread movement to convert golf courses in the Bay Area into other uses. But there are two notable examples of private golf courses undergoing their own transformations. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The most controversial right now is Pleasant Hills in San José. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12074738/housing-advocates-call-this-big-plot-of-san-jose-land-the-most-important-in-a-century\">a former private 115-acre golf course\u003c/a> that may become 2,000 new homes with some commercial and open space. It’s currently in environmental review as the community goes back and forth on what to do with it. What to do has become a fight, said Manira Sandhir, deputy director of planning for the city of San José. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The most controversial right now is Pleasant Hills in San José. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12074738/housing-advocates-call-this-big-plot-of-san-jose-land-the-most-important-in-a-century\">a former private 115-acre golf course\u003c/a> that may become 2,000 new homes with some commercial and open space. It’s currently in environmental review as the community goes back and forth on what to do with it. What to do has become a fight, said Manira Sandhir, deputy director of planning for the city of San José. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“On one hand we have the community who’s directly affected by this project and has expressed concerns about the traffic that it would generate,” she said. It’s located in a highly car-dependent area, and there’s not a lot of transit or freeway access there either. “But then on the other hand, we have housing advocates who want to see more housing at the site, and they feel that putting 2,000 units at the site would be underutilization of this really large acreage that’s available for development.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“On one hand we have the community who’s directly affected by this project and has expressed concerns about the traffic that it would generate,” she said. It’s located in a highly car-dependent area, and there’s not a lot of transit or freeway access there either. “But then on the other hand, we have housing advocates who want to see more housing at the site, and they feel that putting 2,000 units at the site would be underutilization of this really large acreage that’s available for development.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The course, Sandhir said, was established in the 1960s but closed in 2004, likely for financial reasons — so not explicitly for this conversion. Sandhir said it’s likely to be years before the dust settles and a coherent plan for the site emerges.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The course, Sandhir said, was established in the 1960s but closed in 2004, likely for financial reasons — so not explicitly for this conversion. Sandhir said it’s likely to be years before the dust settles and a coherent plan for the site emerges.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Farther to the north, in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley, another golf course has seen the end of its days. The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization, converted what was once a private 18-hole golf course into \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/our-work/san-geronimo-commons\">San Geronimo Commons\u003c/a>, a public park that fills a missing connection to surrounding open spaces, restores water rights to the Larson Creek and returns the land to its former function as a wetland. A county firehouse has even taken over the old golf clubhouse.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Farther to the north, in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley, another golf course has seen the end of its days. The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization, converted what was once a private 18-hole golf course into \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/our-work/san-geronimo-commons\">San Geronimo Commons\u003c/a>, a public park that fills a missing connection to surrounding open spaces, restores water rights to the Larson Creek and returns the land to its former function as a wetland. A county firehouse has even taken over the old golf clubhouse.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I do think cities, park systems across the country, certainly in California, are rethinking their inventory and what can happen,” he said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I do think cities, park systems across the country, certainly in California, are rethinking their inventory and what can happen,” he said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The car paths became walking paths, the sand traps became sandboxes for the kids,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, Trust for Public Land’s California director. He said this is one of four golf course conversions they have helped lead in the state, part of what he sees as a growing trend in California.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“The car paths became walking paths, the sand traps became sandboxes for the kids,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, Trust for Public Land’s California director. He said this is one of four golf course conversions they have helped lead in the state, part of what he sees as a growing trend in California.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The San Geronimo conversion wasn’t without its own controversy. After purchasing the property in 2018, Trust for Public Land launched a two-year process to narrow down what the community wanted from the property – and not everyone agreed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The San Geronimo conversion wasn’t without its own controversy. After purchasing the property in 2018, Trust for Public Land launched a two-year process to narrow down what the community wanted from the property – and not everyone agreed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We had a lot of passionate golfers who had lots of memories tied to that facility,” he said. “And while, yes, there were other facilities they could go play golf in, they had history there, and so we had to work through that.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We had a lot of passionate golfers who had lots of memories tied to that facility,” he said. “And while, yes, there were other facilities they could go play golf in, they had history there, and so we had to work through that.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Senior manager on the project Erica Williams said in some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for the transition of the property — opening people’s imaginations to how their community spaces could look. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Senior manager on the project Erica Williams said in some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for the transition of the property — opening people’s imaginations to how their community spaces could look. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“With the pandemic, I think that really allowed people to connect with the landscape, to reconnect with the land and to imagine a future,” she said. “It became a sanctuary.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses are open to everyone, whether you want to reserve a tee time to try your hand at playing, practice your swing at the driving range, or just hang out at the cafes and restaurants onsite. Unlike private courses, there is no dress code at public golf courses. Dogs are not allowed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses are open to everyone, whether you want to reserve a tee time to try your hand at playing, practice your swing at the driving range, or just hang out at the cafes and restaurants onsite. Unlike private courses, there is no dress code at public golf courses. Dogs are not allowed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>While walking along the course if you’re not playing generally isn’t allowed (getting hit by a ball is a real risk), many courses like Tilden have walking trails nearby that are open to anyone. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>While walking along the course if you’re not playing generally isn’t allowed (getting hit by a ball is a real risk), many courses like Tilden have walking trails nearby that are open to anyone. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>If you want to play a round of golf, you should plan to book a tee time in advance. Public courses also offer golf club rentals if you don’t have any of your own.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>If you want to play a round of golf, you should plan to book a tee time in advance. Public courses also offer golf club rentals if you don’t have any of your own.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n[baycuriousquestion]\n",
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"\n[baycuriousquestion]\n"
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"text": "Episode transcript",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything is shut down – even the gym. So Bay Curious listener Mary Newsom decided to go for a walk. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything is shut down – even the gym. So Bay Curious listener Mary Newsom decided to go for a walk. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I live in Oakland. And so I would usually sort of go up to the ridgeline and start hiking and all the regional parks that are up on the ridgeline.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I live in Oakland. And so I would usually sort of go up to the ridgeline and start hiking and all the regional parks that are up on the ridgeline.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Eventually, Mary made her way up to Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Given the pandemic, there was no one around.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Eventually, Mary made her way up to Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Given the pandemic, there was no one around.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>And so one of the golf courses that’s right alongside Chabot was completely empty. There were, like, deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and like all these animals. That it just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>And so one of the golf courses that’s right alongside Chabot was completely empty. There were, like, deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and like all these animals. That it just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But then, the restrictions started to let up, and things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But then, the restrictions started to let up, and things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>It sort of made me wonder about the relationship between the park and the golf course that’s right up against it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>It sort of made me wonder about the relationship between the park and the golf course that’s right up against it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Mary looked into what other municipal golf courses are located inside public parks, and the list is really quite long…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Mary looked into what other municipal golf courses are located inside public parks, and the list is really quite long…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Lincoln Park, Gleneagles, Tilden Park, Lake Chabot, Redwood Canyon, Sequoia…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Lincoln Park, Gleneagles, Tilden Park, Lake Chabot, Redwood Canyon, Sequoia…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And that’s just a partial list. This all got Mary wondering about the relationship between public parks and the golf courses within them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And that’s just a partial list. This all got Mary wondering about the relationship between public parks and the golf courses within them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Why are there so many golf courses in the Bay Area right next to, or inside public parks? Do they subsidize the parks? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Why are there so many golf courses in the Bay Area right next to, or inside public parks? Do they subsidize the parks? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We sent KQED’s outdoors reporter, Sarah Wright, to take a swing at finding some answers. She started, as you might expect, at Hole 1.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We sent KQED’s outdoors reporter, Sarah Wright, to take a swing at finding some answers. She started, as you might expect, at Hole 1.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds chirping, golf balls getting whacked\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds chirping, golf balls getting whacked\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> The Golden Gate Park Golf Course is set up on a hill, right by San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. The breeze is strong, and a hawk has been circling overhead as a new set of golfers sets up at the first hole every 15 minutes. Here, I run into Lizzie Yurchak. She lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and she came out to play the course today with a coworker who is from out of town.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> The Golden Gate Park Golf Course is set up on a hill, right by San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. The breeze is strong, and a hawk has been circling overhead as a new set of golfers sets up at the first hole every 15 minutes. Here, I run into Lizzie Yurchak. She lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and she came out to play the course today with a coworker who is from out of town.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>He lives in Texas, so we were like, what’s something fun we can do while he’s visiting the Bay.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>He lives in Texas, so we were like, what’s something fun we can do while he’s visiting the Bay.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> It’s her first time out to this course — actually, her first time golfing in the Bay Area since she moved here from Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> It’s her first time out to this course — actually, her first time golfing in the Bay Area since she moved here from Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak:\u003c/strong> I don’t have my clubs out here, so maybe I’ll feel inspired today. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak:\u003c/strong> I don’t have my clubs out here, so maybe I’ll feel inspired today. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And what are your goals for today on the golf course?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>Um, don’t shank it. And don’t lose foul balls. I think that’s about it. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>Um, don’t shank it. And don’t lose foul balls. I think that’s about it. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She does not, in fact, shank it. I watch as she lines up for a stroke.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She does not, in fact, shank it. I watch as she lines up for a stroke.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lizzie hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lizzie hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Man:\u003c/strong> There we go!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Man:\u003c/strong> There we go!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Besides meeting golfers like Lizzie, I’m actually here to meet Richard Harris and Lily Achatz. They’re with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, which advocates for affordable golf in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Besides meeting golfers like Lizzie, I’m actually here to meet Richard Harris and Lily Achatz. They’re with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, which advocates for affordable golf in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Hi, Sarah.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Hi, Sarah.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Lily, great to meet you. Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Lily, great to meet you. Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Of course!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Of course!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I am here to ask them Mary’s question. Why are there so many golf courses in public parks in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I am here to ask them Mary’s question. Why are there so many golf courses in public parks in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To answer that, Richard says, we have to dig into history.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To answer that, Richard says, we have to dig into history.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time. And it’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and for that matter, in the world.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time. And it’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and for that matter, in the world.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Golf traces its origins to Scotland — Richard explains.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scottish music plays\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Originated in what they called the Links Land, which is the land between the cities and the coast, which was not much use for anything. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Golf traces its origins to Scotland — Richard explains.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scottish music plays\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Originated in what they called the Links Land, which is the land between the cities and the coast, which was not much use for anything. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Richard says that in the 1890s and early 20th century, immigrants, including Scots, came here and brought golf with them. Among them was a man who had a huge impact on recreation in our region. The father of Golden Gate Park – John McLaren. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Richard says that in the 1890s and early 20th century, immigrants, including Scots, came here and brought golf with them. Among them was a man who had a huge impact on recreation in our region. The father of Golden Gate Park – John McLaren. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>John McLaren was a Scot. John McLaren liked golf. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>John McLaren was a Scot. John McLaren liked golf. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>He first built Lincoln Park, a golf course by the Legion of Honor.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>He first built Lincoln Park, a golf course by the Legion of Honor.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> And then quickly, he found another Scot to design Harding Park…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> And then quickly, he found another Scot to design Harding Park…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… A legendary course near Lake Merced.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… A legendary course near Lake Merced.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>And then another Scot to design Sharp Park…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… Just steps from the ocean in Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… Just steps from the ocean in Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>That Scot being Alistair McKenzie. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>That Scot being Alistair McKenzie. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>McKenzie is most famous for having designed Augusta, in Georgia, where the Masters is played.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>McKenzie is most famous for having designed Augusta, in Georgia, where the Masters is played.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Those iconic early courses built in the Bay Area were — and still are — all public, not private, golf courses. And today they’re known as some of the most premium municipal courses in the nation.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Those iconic early courses built in the Bay Area were — and still are — all public, not private, golf courses. And today they’re known as some of the most premium municipal courses in the nation.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In California, Richard said, publicly owned courses make up about a third of all courses statewide. And they’re at the forefront of welcoming new players into the sport and combating golf’s reputation for being overly white, male and exclusive.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In California, Richard said, publicly owned courses make up about a third of all courses statewide. And they’re at the forefront of welcoming new players into the sport and combating golf’s reputation for being overly white, male and exclusive.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, knows that firsthand. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, knows that firsthand. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> I didn’t grow up playing golf. I got into golf much later, about like six years ago. I don’t know how many sports there are that you can get into, you know, get into it so late. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> I didn’t grow up playing golf. I got into golf much later, about like six years ago. I don’t know how many sports there are that you can get into, you know, get into it so late. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She says municipal golf courses, with their relatively cheap fees and open access, are critical to help lower barriers to the sport.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from about $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She says municipal golf courses, with their relatively cheap fees and open access, are critical to help lower barriers to the sport.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from about $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> What makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here. There’s friends, all different backgrounds. The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> What makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here. There’s friends, all different backgrounds. The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>In fact, golf wasn’t even racially integrated until the 1950s. And Bay Area municipal courses had a role in that, too. Richard shows me a photo of a plaque that hangs at Pacifica’s Sharp Park course. At the time, the course was known for denying tee times to Black players. But in 1955, that changed when Sharp Park became the site of the inaugural championship tournament of the Western States Golf Association, one of the country’s oldest and largest African American golfing organizations.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>In fact, golf wasn’t even racially integrated until the 1950s. And Bay Area municipal courses had a role in that, too. Richard shows me a photo of a plaque that hangs at Pacifica’s Sharp Park course. At the time, the course was known for denying tee times to Black players. But in 1955, that changed when Sharp Park became the site of the inaugural championship tournament of the Western States Golf Association, one of the country’s oldest and largest African American golfing organizations.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> It was swimming pools in the south. In San Francisco, it was golf courses. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> It was swimming pools in the south. In San Francisco, it was golf courses. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Still, even today, municipal courses can feel exclusive. When Mary asked her question originally, she actually pointed out this bias she feels. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Still, even today, municipal courses can feel exclusive. When Mary asked her question originally, she actually pointed out this bias she feels. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>If I’m walking through a city park and I pass by tennis courts, I don’t really blink an eye, or basketball courts. But it’s funny that to me, like a golf course strikes me differently, you know that I sort of wonder, oh, wait, why is this here? And who actually uses this? You know? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>If I’m walking through a city park and I pass by tennis courts, I don’t really blink an eye, or basketball courts. But it’s funny that to me, like a golf course strikes me differently, you know that I sort of wonder, oh, wait, why is this here? And who actually uses this? You know? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we return, we explore who these golf courses are for. And get into the finances. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we return, we explore who these golf courses are for. And get into the finances. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>KQED’s Outdoors reporter Sarah Wright is very familiar with the condemnation golf courses sometimes face.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Any type of golf course will inevitably draw criticism from those worried about its environmental impact. They are, after all, enormous, frequently watered, heavily manicured lawns. Many golf courses are\u003cem> \u003c/em>working to become more sustainable, but that could be its own story for another day.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Any type of golf course will inevitably draw criticism from those worried about its environmental impact. They are, after all, enormous, frequently watered, heavily manicured lawns. Many golf courses are\u003cem> \u003c/em>working to become more sustainable, but that could be its own story for another day.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To keep things focused on Mary’s question, I spoke with Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To keep things focused on Mary’s question, I spoke with Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He says the public has just as much a right to nice turf on a golf course as any other park amenity. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>He says the public has just as much a right to nice turf on a golf course as any other park amenity. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten: \u003c/strong>I think it’s one of the really cool things about some of our parks is like, in Tilden, there’s like the merry-go-round, the steam trains, the golf course, like some of these things that… You kind of feel like you’re visiting another era.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>East Bay Regional Parks has two golf courses, Tilden and Redwood Canyon, and Max says they take up just a combined 240 acres of the 120,000 the district manages. And the golf courses aren’t just for golfers. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten: \u003c/strong>I think it’s one of the really cool things about some of our parks is like, in Tilden, there’s like the merry-go-round, the steam trains, the golf course, like some of these things that… You kind of feel like you’re visiting another era.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>East Bay Regional Parks has two golf courses, Tilden and Redwood Canyon, and Max says they take up just a combined 240 acres of the 120,000 the district manages. And the golf courses aren’t just for golfers. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> The driving range is something that like anybody could do. I’ve taken my son there, my dad and step-mom, like who haven’t really ever played golf, and go just try to hit balls. And it’s really fun and fairly inexpensive. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> The driving range is something that like anybody could do. I’ve taken my son there, my dad and step-mom, like who haven’t really ever played golf, and go just try to hit balls. And it’s really fun and fairly inexpensive. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Max explained that golf courses in East Bay parks are operated as concessions. So a private company, in this case, called Touchstone, operates the courses and then a percentage of their profits, around 10 percent, goes to the parks district. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Max explained that golf courses in East Bay parks are operated as concessions. So a private company, in this case, called Touchstone, operates the courses and then a percentage of their profits, around 10 percent, goes to the parks district. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>They can also be a major money maker for the parks. Last year, Max said, Tilden brought in over $800,000 in revenue — it’s the most profitable concession in the entire parks district. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>They can also be a major money maker for the parks. Last year, Max said, Tilden brought in over $800,000 in revenue — it’s the most profitable concession in the entire parks district. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, fees are limited by the public parks district board to keep things affordable for the golfers themselves, Max said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, fees are limited by the public parks district board to keep things affordable for the golfers themselves, Max said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> Keeping these public courses around to provide low-cost ways for community members to access golf is really important because I think they’re sort of an equity opportunity to make sure that this sport is available to everyone. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Now, not every city can say public golf is a money maker. In San Francisco, for example, the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the city has begun raising rates at some public courses to help close the gap.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> Keeping these public courses around to provide low-cost ways for community members to access golf is really important because I think they’re sort of an equity opportunity to make sure that this sport is available to everyone. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Now, not every city can say public golf is a money maker. In San Francisco, for example, the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the city has begun raising rates at some public courses to help close the gap.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So, to answer Mary’s question, there often is a symbiotic relationship between the parks departments and the courses – but not always. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So, to answer Mary’s question, there often is a symbiotic relationship between the parks departments and the courses – but not always. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I went and told Mary what I found — about how the golf courses she was walking by during the pandemic — do help fund the park.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>I went and told Mary what I found — about how the golf courses she was walking by during the pandemic — do help fund the park.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary: \u003c/strong>I’m glad to hear that they’re actually making money for East Bay Regional Parks. I feel like, you know, parks are always underfunded, you know, they’re always sort of like the first to be cut. So, to hear that they’re actually supporting the park, I think, is great.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary: \u003c/strong>I’m glad to hear that they’re actually making money for East Bay Regional Parks. I feel like, you know, parks are always underfunded, you know, they’re always sort of like the first to be cut. So, to hear that they’re actually supporting the park, I think, is great.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>I admit — I was surprised to learn that too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>I admit — I was surprised to learn that too.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it’s definitely sort of changed my mind and sort of given me more of a positive perspective on them than I had before.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it’s definitely sort of changed my mind and sort of given me more of a positive perspective on them than I had before.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>So much so that she was even willing to give it a try herself. Olivia and I asked Mary and Lily Achatz, from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, to join us at Corica Park in Alameda. It’s hot and sunny, and for a Thursday afternoon, the golf course is bustling.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>So much so that she was even willing to give it a try herself. Olivia and I asked Mary and Lily Achatz, from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, to join us at Corica Park in Alameda. It’s hot and sunny, and for a Thursday afternoon, the golf course is bustling.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>You guys brought the good weather. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>You guys brought the good weather. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Corica Park actually has several golf courses, and even a foot golf course where you can kick soccer balls into giant holes in the green. We convened at the smaller Par 3 course, which is a great option for kids, beginners or anyone looking for a lower-key experience — which was perfect for our group of just one expert and three complete amateurs.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Corica Park actually has several golf courses, and even a foot golf course where you can kick soccer balls into giant holes in the green. We convened at the smaller Par 3 course, which is a great option for kids, beginners or anyone looking for a lower-key experience — which was perfect for our group of just one expert and three complete amateurs.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I have never played golf before ever in my life. Not even miniature golf, actually, neither one. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I have never played golf before ever in my life. Not even miniature golf, actually, neither one. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So how do you predict this is going to go?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So how do you predict this is going to go?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>I honestly don’t know, but I do see some water over here and I imagine one of my balls would go in there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>I honestly don’t know, but I do see some water over here and I imagine one of my balls would go in there.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Well, as it turns out, Mary is an athlete – she grew up playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, rowing — you name it. So she got the hang of it quick.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Well, as it turns out, Mary is an athlete – she grew up playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, rowing — you name it. So she got the hang of it quick.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Here, I’m just going to do a gentle putt.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Here, I’m just going to do a gentle putt.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Mary hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Mary hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Nice, woohoo!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Nice, woohoo!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>My first ever!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>My first ever!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Olivia and I, we did our best… \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Olivia and I, we did our best… \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Okay, it only took three swings to make contact.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Okay, it only took three swings to make contact.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> And you did it. And you were lined up perfectly. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> And you did it. And you were lined up perfectly. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And, no surprise, Lily crushed us all. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And, no surprise, Lily crushed us all. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lily hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lily hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>That was incredible, I don’t even know where it went! \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>That was incredible, I don’t even know where it went! \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>It sliced to the right.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>It sliced to the right.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>After around an hour, we called it quits. I asked Mary how she thought it went.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>After around an hour, we called it quits. I asked Mary how she thought it went.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> It felt a little funny, but I think if I did it more, I would definitely get used to it, you know, and it would be something, like, I would be at home, right? You know before bed or something like that, practicing my swing, like, okay, you know.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> It felt a little funny, but I think if I did it more, I would definitely get used to it, you know, and it would be something, like, I would be at home, right? You know before bed or something like that, practicing my swing, like, okay, you know.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> So, Olivia, what do you think? Is there more golfing in our future?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> So, Olivia, what do you think? Is there more golfing in our future?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I think I’m going to stick to podcasting, for now. But I don’t know, Mary seemed to be getting into it. Maybe we’ll have to check in with her in a year and see how things are coming along.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I think I’m going to stick to podcasting, for now. But I don’t know, Mary seemed to be getting into it. Maybe we’ll have to check in with her in a year and see how things are coming along.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I know that I’ll be practicing my swing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Sarah Wright, outdoors reporter for KQED. Thank you!\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oakland resident Mary Newson would hike regularly in the parks up in the Oakland and Berkeley hills. It was a pleasant way to get outside, and there was no one around — even on a usually busy golf course near \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/anthony-chabot\">Anthony Chabot Regional Park.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“There were deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and all these animals that had just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it,” she said. “That was really a beautiful thing to see.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But then, the restrictions started to let up, things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks. It made her wonder: Why are there so many golf courses in public parks around the Bay Area? Can and should she visit as a non-golfer? And what is their financial relationship to the park?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083077\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03134-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers practice at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>“I wasn’t sure how they worked, and if there was any sort of financial relationship, administrative relationship between the larger park and the golf course that sort of made them work together,” she said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As it turns out, golf — and public golf, in particular — has a storied history in the Bay Area. And apart from a few conversions, mostly of private golf courses, these public greens are unlikely to be going anywhere soon.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jump straight to:\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#private\">The difference between public and private golf courses\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#make-money\">How public courses do or don’t make money for local parks\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#converting-golf-courses\">Golf course conversions underway in the Bay Area\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\n\n\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#visit-a-golf-course\">What to know if you’re visiting a public golf course for the first time\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is the history of golf courses in the Bay Area?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The sport of golf made its way to the Bay Area with the arrival of Scottish immigrants in the 1890s and early 20th century, explained Richard Harris, who advocates for accessible golf with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/\">San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.\u003c/a> \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That included influential city leaders like John McLaren, the “father of Golden Gate Park,” who was a Scot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083083\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04079-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Richard Harris, president of the SF Public Golf Alliance, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>McLaren, Harris said, was influential in creating Lincoln Park and Harding Park in San Francisco, as well as \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/index.php/save/alister-mackenzies-sharp-park\">Pacifica’s Sharp Park\u003c/a>, designed by famous golf architect Alister MacKenzie. These are all public, not private golf courses, and are considered to be world-class, he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time,” Harris said. “It’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and, for that matter, in the world.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"private\">What makes a public golf course different from a private one?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Public golf courses are those owned by local governments or parks districts. In the Bay Area, they tend to be inside or next to public parks you may know or frequent.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses help lower barriers to the sport by being accessible and relatively cheap, said Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club and a member of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083084\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04136-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Lily Achatz, president of Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, poses for a portrait at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It’s stunning and what makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here,” Achatz said. “The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"make-money\">Do golf courses make money for public parks?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Depending on the city or parks district, public golf courses can be real money-makers. Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District, said Tilden Golf Course made the district $800,000 last year. It was the most profitable concession in the entire parks district last year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/sites/default/files/fy26-adopted-operating-capital-projects-budgets-w-bookmarks.pdf\">according to district documents.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That’s not the case with every city or district. In San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sf-golfers-grumble-over-course-privatization-plan-20184922.php\">the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit\u003c/a> and has \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2025/07/22/sf-parks-fees/\">begun raising rates\u003c/a> at some public courses to help close the gap. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, course fees are limited by a public board to keep fees low-cost for residents, Korten said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"converting-golf-courses\">Have there been any talks of converting golf courses to other uses?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s no widespread movement to convert golf courses in the Bay Area into other uses. But there are two notable examples of private golf courses undergoing their own transformations. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The most controversial right now is Pleasant Hills in San José. It’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12074738/housing-advocates-call-this-big-plot-of-san-jose-land-the-most-important-in-a-century\">a former private 115-acre golf course\u003c/a> that may become 2,000 new homes with some commercial and open space. It’s currently in environmental review as the community goes back and forth on what to do with it. What to do has become a fight, said Manira Sandhir, deputy director of planning for the city of San José. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"aligncenter size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03581-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-3 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12083082\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083082\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-04043-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golfers play a game at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" data-id=\"12083078\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12083078\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260506-GOLFINGBAYCURIOUS-TV-03155-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Golf balls line the ground at Golden Gate Park Golf Course Clubhouse in San Francisco on May 6, 2026. (Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“On one hand we have the community who’s directly affected by this project and has expressed concerns about the traffic that it would generate,” she said. It’s located in a highly car-dependent area, and there’s not a lot of transit or freeway access there either. “But then on the other hand, we have housing advocates who want to see more housing at the site, and they feel that putting 2,000 units at the site would be underutilization of this really large acreage that’s available for development.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The course, Sandhir said, was established in the 1960s but closed in 2004, likely for financial reasons — so not explicitly for this conversion. Sandhir said it’s likely to be years before the dust settles and a coherent plan for the site emerges.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Farther to the north, in Marin County’s San Geronimo Valley, another golf course has seen the end of its days. The Trust for Public Land, a land conservation organization, converted what was once a private 18-hole golf course into \u003ca href=\"https://www.tpl.org/our-work/san-geronimo-commons\">San Geronimo Commons\u003c/a>, a public park that fills a missing connection to surrounding open spaces, restores water rights to the Larson Creek and returns the land to its former function as a wetland. A county firehouse has even taken over the old golf clubhouse.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I do think cities, park systems across the country, certainly in California, are rethinking their inventory and what can happen,” he said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The car paths became walking paths, the sand traps became sandboxes for the kids,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, Trust for Public Land’s California director. He said this is one of four golf course conversions they have helped lead in the state, part of what he sees as a growing trend in California.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The San Geronimo conversion wasn’t without its own controversy. After purchasing the property in 2018, Trust for Public Land launched a two-year process to narrow down what the community wanted from the property – and not everyone agreed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We had a lot of passionate golfers who had lots of memories tied to that facility,” he said. “And while, yes, there were other facilities they could go play golf in, they had history there, and so we had to work through that.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Senior manager on the project Erica Williams said in some ways, the COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for the transition of the property — opening people’s imaginations to how their community spaces could look. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“With the pandemic, I think that really allowed people to connect with the landscape, to reconnect with the land and to imagine a future,” she said. “It became a sanctuary.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"visit-a-golf-course\">Can I visit a golf course as a non-golfer?\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Municipal golf courses are open to everyone, whether you want to reserve a tee time to try your hand at playing, practice your swing at the driving range, or just hang out at the cafes and restaurants onsite. Unlike private courses, there is no dress code at public golf courses. Dogs are not allowed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>While walking along the course if you’re not playing generally isn’t allowed (getting hit by a ball is a real risk), many courses like Tilden have walking trails nearby that are open to anyone. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>If you want to play a round of golf, you should plan to book a tee time in advance. Public courses also offer golf club rentals if you don’t have any of your own.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything is shut down – even the gym. So Bay Curious listener Mary Newsom decided to go for a walk. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I live in Oakland. And so I would usually sort of go up to the ridgeline and start hiking and all the regional parks that are up on the ridgeline.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Eventually, Mary made her way up to Anthony Chabot Regional Park. Given the pandemic, there was no one around.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>And so one of the golf courses that’s right alongside Chabot was completely empty. There were, like, deer and bunnies and geese and ducks and turkeys and like all these animals. That it just converged onto the golf course because nobody was using it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> But then, the restrictions started to let up, and things started to reopen, and Mary would start to find dozens of golf balls on her walks.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>It sort of made me wonder about the relationship between the park and the golf course that’s right up against it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Mary looked into what other municipal golf courses are located inside public parks, and the list is really quite long…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Golden Gate Park, Presidio, Lincoln Park, Gleneagles, Tilden Park, Lake Chabot, Redwood Canyon, Sequoia…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And that’s just a partial list. This all got Mary wondering about the relationship between public parks and the golf courses within them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Why are there so many golf courses in the Bay Area right next to, or inside public parks? Do they subsidize the parks? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We sent KQED’s outdoors reporter, Sarah Wright, to take a swing at finding some answers. She started, as you might expect, at Hole 1.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds chirping, golf balls getting whacked\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> The Golden Gate Park Golf Course is set up on a hill, right by San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. The breeze is strong, and a hawk has been circling overhead as a new set of golfers sets up at the first hole every 15 minutes. Here, I run into Lizzie Yurchak. She lives in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, and she came out to play the course today with a coworker who is from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>He lives in Texas, so we were like, what’s something fun we can do while he’s visiting the Bay.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> It’s her first time out to this course — actually, her first time golfing in the Bay Area since she moved here from Philadelphia.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak:\u003c/strong> I don’t have my clubs out here, so maybe I’ll feel inspired today. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And what are your goals for today on the golf course?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Yurchak: \u003c/strong>Um, don’t shank it. And don’t lose foul balls. I think that’s about it. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She does not, in fact, shank it. I watch as she lines up for a stroke.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lizzie hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Man:\u003c/strong> There we go!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Besides meeting golfers like Lizzie, I’m actually here to meet Richard Harris and Lily Achatz. They’re with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, which advocates for affordable golf in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Hi, Sarah.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Lily, great to meet you. Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>Of course!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I am here to ask them Mary’s question. Why are there so many golf courses in public parks in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To answer that, Richard says, we have to dig into history.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Golf has been an important part of the Bay Area for a long time. And it’s one of the major golf areas in the country, and for that matter, in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Golf traces its origins to Scotland — Richard explains.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scottish music plays\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>Originated in what they called the Links Land, which is the land between the cities and the coast, which was not much use for anything. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Richard says that in the 1890s and early 20th century, immigrants, including Scots, came here and brought golf with them. Among them was a man who had a huge impact on recreation in our region. The father of Golden Gate Park – John McLaren. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>John McLaren was a Scot. John McLaren liked golf. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>He first built Lincoln Park, a golf course by the Legion of Honor.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> And then quickly, he found another Scot to design Harding Park…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… A legendary course near Lake Merced.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>And then another Scot to design Sharp Park…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>… Just steps from the ocean in Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris: \u003c/strong>That Scot being Alistair McKenzie. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>McKenzie is most famous for having designed Augusta, in Georgia, where the Masters is played.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Those iconic early courses built in the Bay Area were — and still are — all public, not private, golf courses. And today they’re known as some of the most premium municipal courses in the nation.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In California, Richard said, publicly owned courses make up about a third of all courses statewide. And they’re at the forefront of welcoming new players into the sport and combating golf’s reputation for being overly white, male and exclusive.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Lily Achatz, president of the Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, knows that firsthand. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> I didn’t grow up playing golf. I got into golf much later, about like six years ago. I don’t know how many sports there are that you can get into, you know, get into it so late. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>She says municipal golf courses, with their relatively cheap fees and open access, are critical to help lower barriers to the sport.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>A private golf club could run you thousands of dollars in initiation fees, monthly dues and food and beverage minimums. A round at a public golf course, meanwhile, ranges from about $30 to $100, with discounts for residents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz:\u003c/strong> What makes it so wonderful is that there’s all different generations here. There’s friends, all different backgrounds. The municipal courses are so important because it’s hard to get access to a country club or even be accepted.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>In fact, golf wasn’t even racially integrated until the 1950s. And Bay Area municipal courses had a role in that, too. Richard shows me a photo of a plaque that hangs at Pacifica’s Sharp Park course. At the time, the course was known for denying tee times to Black players. But in 1955, that changed when Sharp Park became the site of the inaugural championship tournament of the Western States Golf Association, one of the country’s oldest and largest African American golfing organizations.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Richard Harris:\u003c/strong> It was swimming pools in the south. In San Francisco, it was golf courses. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Still, even today, municipal courses can feel exclusive. When Mary asked her question originally, she actually pointed out this bias she feels. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>If I’m walking through a city park and I pass by tennis courts, I don’t really blink an eye, or basketball courts. But it’s funny that to me, like a golf course strikes me differently, you know that I sort of wonder, oh, wait, why is this here? And who actually uses this? You know? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> When we return, we explore who these golf courses are for. And get into the finances. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>KQED’s Outdoors reporter Sarah Wright is very familiar with the condemnation golf courses sometimes face.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Any type of golf course will inevitably draw criticism from those worried about its environmental impact. They are, after all, enormous, frequently watered, heavily manicured lawns. Many golf courses are\u003cem> \u003c/em>working to become more sustainable, but that could be its own story for another day.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To keep things focused on Mary’s question, I spoke with Max Korten, acting general manager of the East Bay Regional Parks District.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He says the public has just as much a right to nice turf on a golf course as any other park amenity. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten: \u003c/strong>I think it’s one of the really cool things about some of our parks is like, in Tilden, there’s like the merry-go-round, the steam trains, the golf course, like some of these things that… You kind of feel like you’re visiting another era.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003cbr>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>East Bay Regional Parks has two golf courses, Tilden and Redwood Canyon, and Max says they take up just a combined 240 acres of the 120,000 the district manages. And the golf courses aren’t just for golfers. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> The driving range is something that like anybody could do. I’ve taken my son there, my dad and step-mom, like who haven’t really ever played golf, and go just try to hit balls. And it’s really fun and fairly inexpensive. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Max explained that golf courses in East Bay parks are operated as concessions. So a private company, in this case, called Touchstone, operates the courses and then a percentage of their profits, around 10 percent, goes to the parks district. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>They can also be a major money maker for the parks. Last year, Max said, Tilden brought in over $800,000 in revenue — it’s the most profitable concession in the entire parks district. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, fees are limited by the public parks district board to keep things affordable for the golfers themselves, Max said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Korten:\u003c/strong> Keeping these public courses around to provide low-cost ways for community members to access golf is really important because I think they’re sort of an equity opportunity to make sure that this sport is available to everyone. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Now, not every city can say public golf is a money maker. In San Francisco, for example, the city is subsidizing the courses’ expected $6 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the city has begun raising rates at some public courses to help close the gap.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So, to answer Mary’s question, there often is a symbiotic relationship between the parks departments and the courses – but not always. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I went and told Mary what I found — about how the golf courses she was walking by during the pandemic — do help fund the park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary: \u003c/strong>I’m glad to hear that they’re actually making money for East Bay Regional Parks. I feel like, you know, parks are always underfunded, you know, they’re always sort of like the first to be cut. So, to hear that they’re actually supporting the park, I think, is great.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>I admit — I was surprised to learn that too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it’s definitely sort of changed my mind and sort of given me more of a positive perspective on them than I had before.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>So much so that she was even willing to give it a try herself. Olivia and I asked Mary and Lily Achatz, from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, to join us at Corica Park in Alameda. It’s hot and sunny, and for a Thursday afternoon, the golf course is bustling.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>You guys brought the good weather. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Corica Park actually has several golf courses, and even a foot golf course where you can kick soccer balls into giant holes in the green. We convened at the smaller Par 3 course, which is a great option for kids, beginners or anyone looking for a lower-key experience — which was perfect for our group of just one expert and three complete amateurs.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> I have never played golf before ever in my life. Not even miniature golf, actually, neither one. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>So how do you predict this is going to go?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>I honestly don’t know, but I do see some water over here and I imagine one of my balls would go in there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Well, as it turns out, Mary is an athlete – she grew up playing basketball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, rowing — you name it. So she got the hang of it quick.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>Here, I’m just going to do a gentle putt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Mary hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Nice, woohoo!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom: \u003c/strong>My first ever!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>Olivia and I, we did our best… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Okay, it only took three swings to make contact.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> And you did it. And you were lined up perfectly. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>And, no surprise, Lily crushed us all. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of Lily hitting the golf ball\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>That was incredible, I don’t even know where it went! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lily Achatz: \u003c/strong>It sliced to the right.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright: \u003c/strong>After around an hour, we called it quits. I asked Mary how she thought it went.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mary Newsom:\u003c/strong> It felt a little funny, but I think if I did it more, I would definitely get used to it, you know, and it would be something, like, I would be at home, right? You know before bed or something like that, practicing my swing, like, okay, you know.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> So, Olivia, what do you think? Is there more golfing in our future?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I think I’m going to stick to podcasting, for now. But I don’t know, Mary seemed to be getting into it. Maybe we’ll have to check in with her in a year and see how things are coming along.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> I know that I’ll be practicing my swing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Sarah Wright, outdoors reporter for KQED. Thank you!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Sarah Wright:\u003c/strong> Thank you so much.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, Anna Casalme, and me, Olivia Allen-Price. We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "the-san-francisco-rock-climbing-spot-known-for-its-shiny-surface",
"title": "The San Francisco Rock Climbing Spot Known For Its Shiny Surface",
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"headTitle": "The San Francisco Rock Climbing Spot Known For Its Shiny Surface | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#transcript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Beaver Street is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill toward Corona Heights, a few blocks from the Castro Theater.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tucked into the curve of this tiny street is a narrow park, and inside it, a 60-foot slab of rock that towers over a public playground. The rock is streaked with diagonal bands of red and tan that make it look almost like a slice of bacon — with a surface unlike any rock Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar had seen.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar first stumbled across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105733887/beaver-street-wall\">Beaver Street rock wall\u003c/a> during a weekend outing with his daughters, to the Randall Museum of Science in Corona Heights Park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Max Stewart belays Ravi Bhoraskar as he climbs the Beaver Street wall in San Francisco’s Corona Heights Park. (Francesca Fenzi/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He described it as a “shiny, almost slippery-looking surface” with a few sparse holes “that you can potentially use to climb on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secluded crag felt like a revelation. He recently started rock climbing, and climbs weekly at his neighborhood gym in the Mission.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was excited to learn that there is at least one [outdoor] climbing spot within the city, easily reachable by bus,” Bhoraskar said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A visible record of Bay Area geology\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar’s first clue to the origins of the Beaver Street rock came from a sign posted at its base. Known as a “slickenside,” the sign explained: “This smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slickenside is a type of rock that forms along fault lines, like the San Andreas Fault that slashes diagonally across San Francisco. When two rocks on either side of the fault rub against each other, the friction between them can generate heat and super-fine particles of dust. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That dust acts like a lubricant, polishing the rock surface until it becomes glassy and smooth, just like the rock on Beaver Street. The colorful stripes on a slickenside formation even record the direction the rocks were moving, allowing geologists to track the movement of different faults across time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094715\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the City of San Francisco’s posted signage, the rock wall on Beaver Street is thought to be one of the largest exposed slickenside formations in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This sign also serves as a reminder of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/savebsw/\">small municipal battle over access to the rock\u003c/a>. In 2014, the city instituted a permitting process for climbers hoping to scale the slick stone wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco climbers protested and eventually persuaded the city to drop the permits — on the condition that local climbing groups and the signage at Beaver Street emphasized a “leave no trace” policy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How a Berkeley park changed climbing history\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The rock on Beaver Street is one of a handful of outdoor climbing areas in San Francisco proper, but across the bay in the Berkeley Hills sits another city park where climbers have pushed the sport forward for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/indian-rock-park\">Indian Rock Park\u003c/a> encompasses a collection of volcanic boulders in the hills overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. Long a \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/slt_resources/indian-rock/\">place of significance to Ohlone people\u003c/a>, these boulders have also played an outsized role in the Bay Area’s climbing history. John Sherman remembers getting introduced to the sport here in the 1970s, when he was a student at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Well, it’s kind of a funny story,” Sherman said. “Some friends and I scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in orange shirt and grey pants wearing a helmet and rock climbing shoes climbs a rock wall.\" class=\"wp-image-12093866\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ravi Bhoraskar climbs the Beaver Street wall, his first outdoor climbing experience. (Francesca Fenzi/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A friend suggested that they take their contraband to Indian Rock Park. While they were sitting on the steps enjoying these illicit beverages, Sherman noticed people scrambling on the rocks nearby, practicing gymnastic moves just a few feet off the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself,” he said. He came back a few days later, blundering his way through the first of many bouldering climbs in what would become his 50-year love affair with rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since,” Sherman said. Bay Area climbers might recognize Sherman by his nickname: Verm, short for Vermin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Verm would go on to become one of the pioneers of a relatively new style of climbing, called bouldering, where climbers perform ambitious, gymnastic moves with no ropes — all while staying relatively close to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just because bouldering involves less consequential falls than those taken by climbers on California’s soaring cliff faces, doesn’t mean falling off a boulder didn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We took a real beating back in those days,” Sherman explained of his early bouldering experiments at Indian Rock. “There weren’t that many people, like myself, who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climbinggold.com/voices/john-sherman\">Sherman is now a climbing legend\u003c/a> within the Bay Area and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was the first person to scale and document hundreds of new routes in a now-esteemed bouldering area in Texas, called \u003ca href=\"https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/hueco-tanks/activities/#rock-climbing\">Hueco Tanks\u003c/a>, and he \u003ca href=\"https://www.climbing.com/gear/crash-pads-safety-changed-bouldering-forever/\">helped to invent the “crash pads” that boulderers use to cushion their falls\u003c/a> today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his most recognizable contribution to the Bay Area’s climbing culture is one that Sherman doesn’t like to talk about. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094719\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of the skyline from the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He invented a system to grade the difficulty of bouldering climbs, dubbed the \u003ca href=\"https://rockclimbingrealms.com/bouldering-grades-explained/\">“V grading system” \u003c/a>— as in, the Vermin grading system. This is a system now widely used by climbing gyms, which rates the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up numerically (V1, V2, V3 and so on) as the difficulty increases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherman said he dislikes how fixated other climbers have become with his grading system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience,” he said. He described the “nutrition” of the climbing experience as being all the things that make climbing worthwhile: the camaraderie, the “kinesthetic flow of the movement” and a communion with nature.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then what happens afterwards?” he said. “Out pops a V grade.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A safer way to fall\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherman prefers to think of himself as part of a long lineage of Bay Area climbers who have sharpened their skills on the urban rock faces available to them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At Indian Rock, for example, a group of Berkeley law students and mountaineers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/12/07/rock-climbing-indian-rock-mortar-rock\">preparing for ascents in Yosemite Valley as early as the 1930s\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mountain climbing at the time was extraordinarily dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward, and the safety equipment didn’t really work. Climbers used ropes made of hemp — stiff, dry, and prone to snapping if pulled too quickly. Most people assumed a fall on a climbing route was fatal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The rope’s gonna break, and that’s it, you know?” Sherman said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An anchor chain at the top of the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the Berkeley students climbing at Indian Rock developed a counterintuitive idea to change that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The solution was all in how climbers handled the rope. If a belayer let the rope run through their hands and slowly absorbed the force of a fall, the rope was far less likely to snap — and could actually catch a falling climber without killing them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers began practicing these controlled, “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock, and they carried the life-saving technique with them to Yosemite. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles/\">By the 1940s, nylon was commercially accessible\u003c/a>, and climbers began making stronger, more shock-absorbent ropes from it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer,” Sherman said. “The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Falling was no longer a death sentence, and the sport became more popular as a result. As new tools and techniques made climbing safer, the goals of the sport shifted too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Style was more important than difficulty, and you were more respected if you could walk up to a climb and climb it without falling … just figuring it out,” Sherman said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, climbing was no longer just about the summit — it was about finding a creative way up each rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The secret climbs on University of California, Berkeley campus\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers still wanted to test themselves on big routes in Yosemite and Joshua Tree, but the Bay Area’s natural geology was limited, and climbing gyms weren’t yet common. So climbers had to look for training grounds in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jordan Schultz is the kind of climber who sees potential everywhere — even across the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s cataloged hundreds of “buildering” routes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think I listed, like, 300-plus routes just on campus,” Schultz said. “Pretty much every building is climbable, is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right, climbers Ace Landauer, Jordan Schultz, Tilly Holtz and Colin Wills hang from cracks in the “penny wall,” a spot on the UC Berkeley campus where rock climbers practice crack climbing techniques required for climbs in Yosemite Valley. ((Courtesy Jordan Schultz))\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Schultz documented these routes — and the history behind them — in his guidebook, \u003ca href=\"https://campusingbook.com\">\u003cem>Campusing: A Secret History and Buildering Guide to UC Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the university’s most famous unofficial routes is a crack running up the side of a brick building that houses the chemistry department.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it,” Schultz said. “I think that’s the beautiful part about it. You need to open your eyes to it, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers have used this crack to practice technique since at least the 1960s, Schultz said, because it mirrors the kind of crack climbing common in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The spot has another name, too: the Penny Wall. According to Schultz, back in the 1960s, climbers practicing at the crack would stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach — a marker and quiet challenge to whoever climbed the crack next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Sherman honed his own crack-climbing technique on the Penny Wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And as much as the Bay Area’s outdoor climbing sites have been the home of real breakthroughs in the sport of climbing, he said their true value is in the community of climbers that are drawn to them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbing something like the rock on Beaver Street, tucked into the corner of a busy city, can still feel like being let in on a local secret — passed down by generations of climbers who have left something behind for the next adventurous climber: a penny, a piece of gear, or simply a tip to help newcomers navigate a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you do go to these little areas, and make the effort to meet the locals [climbing there], the experience is so much richer,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t have to be Yosemite to give you a climbing experience and a community to hang out with.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price and you’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When I was about six months pregnant with my first child, a friend of a friend passed along a maternity climbing harness … a full body nylon contraption that allows pregnant people to keep rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, I was not a rock climber at the time, but thought — “hey, why not? A lot of other activities I love, like running, have gotten really hard, but my legs are stronger than ever. Let’s climb!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Soon I found myself halfway up a wall in Pinnacles National Park … having a blast, but also hearing the voice of my mother inside my head: \u003cem>“Oh, Olivia. You would.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To be honest, my stint with rock climbing was relatively short, but I was into it long enough to hit up most of the bigger climbing areas in the Bay Area. And I learned you don’t have to drive all the way to Yosemite to feel the thrill of scaling a cliff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are a handful of urban climbing areas you might have walked past without a second look.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar [[boh-RAHS-car]] stumbled across one of those hidden rock walls … tucked into the hills of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It looked to me like a residential street. A bunch of cute houses, \u003cs>uh,\u003c/s> and, like, a little narrow path in the middle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Beaver Street itself is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill towards Corona Heights. The Castro Theater is just a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And tucked into the curve of Beaver Street is a narrow park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>And as you come in, you get this giant piece of shiny rock, which is the Beaver Street Wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This big slab of rock towers 60 feet above a kids’ playground. It’s got these diagonal streaks of red and tan rock that honestly make it look almost like a slice of bacon. And it has an unusual texture…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s kind of like a shiny, almost slippery-looking surface, with some holes that you can potentially use to climb on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This interested Ravi because he recently got into rock climbing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Mostly indoors at the climbing gym. I was excited to learn that there is, like, at least one climbing spot right within the city, like, easily reachable by bus.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And he wants to know … what is that slippery, striped bacon rock?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>How did it end up there, and why does it look so cool?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And most importantly…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Like, can I climb it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today we’re going to get answers for Ravi, of course. But we’ll also explore how Bay Area climbers have used city parks to practice their skills for decades — and ultimately push the sport forward. Turns out there’s a lot of rock climbing history anchored right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED producer Francesca Fenzi headed to Beaver Street with Ravi … to check out this unusual rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds singing, slight traffic sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> Ravi and I arrive at Corona Heights Park on a sunny weekend afternoon. We can hear birds singing … and the faint sound of traffic from Market Street carrying up the hill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a playground, a dense pocket of trees, and then … this glistening rock wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s not wet, but it \u003cem>looks\u003c/em> wet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The shiny surface is interrupted by a single jagged crack, which runs about six stories high. And at the base of the rock is a sign … which gives us a clue about how it got here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Known as a slickenslide, this smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It’s Slicken SIDE actually. Try saying that three times fast! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slickenside forms when two rocks inside a fault rub against each other. Imagine pressing your hands together as hard as you can and then sliding them back and forth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That friction creates heat — and tiny dust particles which act like a fluid — to polish the rock until it looks glassy and smooth. Just like the wall at Beaver Street. The colorful stripes even show the direction the fault was moving when a Slickenside was formed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the sign, this rock is thought to be one of the largest exposed Slickenside formations in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Capitals, “Please do not chip holes in the rock face or alter the rock in any way.” And then it’s taped over Um, climbing on these rocks is by permit only. To obtain a permit, call some number.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I looked into getting a permit and it turns out you no longer need one to climb at Beaver Street. So Ravi is going to try to climb it today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And to make sure we don’t damage the rock, we’ve enlisted some help.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Hey, how you doing? I’m Max. Hey, Ravi. Ravi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max Stewart owns a guiding company, called SAANO Adventures. And he’s offered to help us set up an anchor and climbing rope on the Beaver Street wall… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> I’d be happy to. Did you bring some shoes? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I brought some shoes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Yeah? Okay. Cool.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Outdoor rocks don’t come with built-in safety equipment like the climbs in a gym, so we’ll need to secure our rope to something sturdy at the top of the rock wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>There’s a little staircase here. Yep, there it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max leads us up and around the back side of the rock, to the top of a windy hill. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I can pick out landmarks like the diagonal slash of Market Street below, the Salesforce tower and the Bay Bridge in the distance. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Directly in front of us is a steep drop off. It looks a lot more intimidating from up here! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Isn’t that wild? So the playground. we met just right down there. There’s the sign that you were reading.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Separating us from the edge of the cliff is a chain link fence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> And then a bunch of heavy duty chains that we’re gonna use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>These heavy duty chains bolted into the top of the wall are perfect for setting up what’s called a “top rope” climb, where a rope runs from the ground, up to an anchor, and back down to the climber, catching them if they fall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Always a little weird!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max explains that this is the same setup used by climbing gyms … even if it looks a bit different outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, man. That was impressive. [to Ravi] Is this what you were expecting? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> No, not at all. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>A little different than the climbing gym, huh? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I’ve climbed outside a bit myself and part of what I love is the sense of possibility. There aren’t any predetermined holds, you can find your own route up to the top. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Every single person is gonna have their own method for solving this. the gyms I think are a really good place to get started, to kinda just learn the ropes, but I really encourage people as soon as, you feel like you can do it, to get outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Is this gonna be your first time climbing outside? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Uh, yes. Yes, this will be. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>No way, really? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Oh, it’s so fun.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of climbing over chain link fence\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> When was the last time you were hopping [00:07:00] fences to go climbing. Hey. It feels kinda like you’re doing stuff you’re not supposed to do, hopping fences and … It’s like good clean fun, but still kind of a throwback, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>No laws were broken in the making of this podcast! But Max is right. Setting up the rope above Beaver Street really does feel like getting away with something.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A lot of urban climbs FEEL illicit because it seems kind of unnatural to be doing something we associate with mountains right in our backyards. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But, there’s actually a long history of Bay Area climbers using whatever they can find to ready themselves for those more ambitious, wild ascents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Beaver Street is one of the only rocks you can climb outdoors in San Francisco, but just across the bay, in the Berkeley Hills, is another city park where climbers have been pushing the limits of the sport for almost a century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Sherman grew up in Berkeley. And he remembers getting introduced to climbing there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman:\u003c/strong> Well, it’s kind of a funny story. Some friends and I in high school, we scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where \u003cs>we, you know, \u003c/s>we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>So they made their way to Indian Rock park, a collection of volcanic boulders that was once an Ohlone meeting spot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And we were sitting on the steps there drinking this beer we had gotten, and I saw people climbing there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The climbers were just a few feet off the ground … practicing gravity-defying moves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Pretty soon, he was taking the bus to Indian Rock every day after school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And I would always have my climbing shoes in my book bag along with my textbooks and stuff, and I would stop there on the way home every day, go to Indian Rock and boulder till it got dark and then walk home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He was at the rock so often that his brother started describing himself as an only child.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since. And, you know, it’s been over 50 years now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The type of climbing John was doing is called bouldering. There aren’t any ropes, but people climb closer to the ground, using pads to cushion a fall. At least, they do now. But in the early days…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>We took a real beating and there weren’t that many people like myself who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up like that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John is a bit of a legend. He was the first person to climb a bunch of famous bouldering routes, he helped invent those cushioned pads, AND he created a system for ranking the difficulty of climbs — called the V grading system — that’s widely used today. It starts with the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up from there as the climbing gets harder — V1, V2 and so on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The V comes from John’s lifelong nickname, given to him by a biology teacher at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>So he called me Sherman the Vermin. Got shortened to Verm and just kind of stuck.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John actually hates how fixated other climbers get on his V grading system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience. After you do a wonderful, you know, boulder problem, and you enjoy the setting that you’re in, the camaraderie of your climbing partners, the kinesthetic flow of the moves and everything, and then what happens afterwards? Out pops a V grade.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Instead, John likes to think of himself as part of a long line of climbers honing their skills at Indian Rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The early history that I know of that’s documented goes back to like the 1930s\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>At that time, a group of Berkeley law students — and mountaineers — had their sights on Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And here is a collection of rocks where they could train.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The training part was important. Because at the time mountain climbing was super dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward. The safety equipment didn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers were using these flimsy ropes made out of hemp that were stiff and dry and tended to break if they got pulled apart too quickly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John says most people assumed that falling on a climbing route was a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The rope’s gonna break and that’s it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>But these Berkeley students, climbing at Indian Rock. They came up with a counterintuitive idea.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on their idea and how it revolutionized climbing after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley Students climbing at Indian Rock wanted to make climbing safer, and they discovered a technique that would really change the game. Francesca Fenzi takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> It was all in how you handled the rope… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>If you let it run through your hands and slowly break the fall, that rope might not snap, and you can actually catch the leader if they fall, and they’re not gonna die.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>This was huge. Climbers started practicing these “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock. And they brought these life-saving skills to Yosemite with them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A decade later, in the 1940s, nylon was widely available. And climbers started using the stretchy fiber to make stronger, more shock-absorbant ropes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer. The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Falling on a rock climb was no longer a death sentence and that made the sport a lot more popular.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As new tools and techniques made climbs safer, the goals of climbing changed, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>Style was more important than difficulty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John says by the time he got hooked, rock climbing was no longer just about getting to the top. It was about finding creative ways up a rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers were \u003cem>still \u003c/em>eager to test themselves on the big climbs in places like Yosemite and Joshua Tree. But the Bay Area’s natural geology was limiting. And climbing gyms — with their variety of simulated rock types — weren’t as common as they are today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So for Bay Area climbers to take their skills to the next level … they had to look in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Pretty much every building is climbable is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan Schulz is the kind of climber who looks at it “the right way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s 23 and sees climbing opportunities everywhere. Even the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s showing me one of the university’s most famous climbing “routes.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a crack in the side of a brick building that houses the Chemistry department. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>This is the crack we’re looking at right here. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It takes me a moment to “see” it the way Jordan does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>To me, I’m looking at a brick wall with a parking sign on it. Yeah. And there’s a gap in the wall that’s maybe about an inch and a half thick. And it runs from the base of the wall to the the next story up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Yeah. That’s the climb. It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it. And then I think that’s the beautiful part about it, is that you need to open your eyes to it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says climbers have been using the crack in this building to practice their technique since at least the 1960s\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A lot of the style of climbing in Yosemite and the Sierras features a lot of cracks in the rock. And so, it offers a good training ground to learn some crack climbing technique that would help people climb better in the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says this spot has another name: the Penny Wall. Back in the 60s, when a climber was practicing at the crack, they’d stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>And so people would see, like, how high was the penny, and every so often it would get higher.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A challenge to the next climber…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A subtle way of communicating you know, who climbed a little higher and moved the penny up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Back at Beaver Street, our question asker Ravi is getting ready to place his own metaphorical penny on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: All right, Ravi, let’s get your shoes on- Yep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s about to climb outside for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene:\u003c/strong> How are you feeling about climbing it? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I’m excited. I’m also, yeah, a li- little nervous. Like, I don’t want to slip, but, no, mostly excited. Mostly feeling excited about climbing this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Your belay is on. And climbing. Okay. Climb on, sir.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area’s outdoor rock walls have been home to major breakthroughs in the sport. But as Max would say, they’re also good clean fun.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What do you think of outdoor climbing versus, uh, in the gym? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> This is great. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Isn’t it so nice?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>And urban climbs like this one — tucked into corners of busy cities — feel like secrets, passed along by other members of this special club. People who’ve contributed a penny, or a pair of chains, or advice about how to get around a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Try and utilize that crack as much as possible. This guy’s got some bragging rights having this be his first outdoor climb, and he’s just absolutely sending it. Okay, I’m gonna lower you nice and slow. Just walk those feet down. Hey, nice work, man. That was amazing. Good job, man. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Thank you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>First outdoor climb. Yeah. What a classic too, man. This is a, uh- That was amazing … that’s no slouch of a climb, man. That was, uh, you worked hard for that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Whether you’re a seasoned mountaineer, or a new climber, like Ravi, a neighborhood rock can feel just as magical as Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What’d you think of that glass section in the middle there? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> The glass section was definitely interesting. That was wild. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Well, what do you think? Should we, uh, pull these ropes?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds or rope falling from a great height\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Boom. That’s it. That’s the sound of the end of it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Classical music plays\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>That song is the perfect soundtrack. Was that your cellphone?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, it was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That story was brought to us by KQED reporter Francesca Fenzi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’ve got two requests for you on our way out. First, Head to \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a> and VOTE in our public voting round to help us decide what story we should tackle next. All it takes is a few seconds and one click.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, consider becoming a member of KQED and supporting Bay Curious. We are relying more on listener donations than we have in the past and every dollar helps us to keep bringing you stories like this one. Head to \u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> to get started.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Beaver Street is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill toward Corona Heights, a few blocks from the Castro Theater.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Beaver Street is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill toward Corona Heights, a few blocks from the Castro Theater.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Tucked into the curve of this tiny street is a narrow park, and inside it, a 60-foot slab of rock that towers over a public playground. The rock is streaked with diagonal bands of red and tan that make it look almost like a slice of bacon — with a surface unlike any rock Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar had seen.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Tucked into the curve of this tiny street is a narrow park, and inside it, a 60-foot slab of rock that towers over a public playground. The rock is streaked with diagonal bands of red and tan that make it look almost like a slice of bacon — with a surface unlike any rock Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar had seen.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar first stumbled across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105733887/beaver-street-wall\">Beaver Street rock wall\u003c/a> during a weekend outing with his daughters, to the Randall Museum of Science in Corona Heights Park.\u003c/p>\n",
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The secluded crag felt like a revelation. He recently started rock climbing, and climbs weekly at his neighborhood gym in the Mission.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The secluded crag felt like a revelation. He recently started rock climbing, and climbs weekly at his neighborhood gym in the Mission.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I was excited to learn that there is at least one [outdoor] climbing spot within the city, easily reachable by bus,” Bhoraskar said.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“I was excited to learn that there is at least one [outdoor] climbing spot within the city, easily reachable by bus,” Bhoraskar said.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "A visible record of Bay Area geology",
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},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A visible record of Bay Area geology\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A visible record of Bay Area geology\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar’s first clue to the origins of the Beaver Street rock came from a sign posted at its base. Known as a “slickenside,” the sign explained: “This smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.”\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar’s first clue to the origins of the Beaver Street rock came from a sign posted at its base. Known as a “slickenside,” the sign explained: “This smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.”\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Slickenside is a type of rock that forms along fault lines, like the San Andreas Fault that slashes diagonally across San Francisco. When two rocks on either side of the fault rub against each other, the friction between them can generate heat and super-fine particles of dust. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Slickenside is a type of rock that forms along fault lines, like the San Andreas Fault that slashes diagonally across San Francisco. When two rocks on either side of the fault rub against each other, the friction between them can generate heat and super-fine particles of dust. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That dust acts like a lubricant, polishing the rock surface until it becomes glassy and smooth, just like the rock on Beaver Street. The colorful stripes on a slickenside formation even record the direction the rocks were moving, allowing geologists to track the movement of different faults across time. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>That dust acts like a lubricant, polishing the rock surface until it becomes glassy and smooth, just like the rock on Beaver Street. The colorful stripes on a slickenside formation even record the direction the rocks were moving, allowing geologists to track the movement of different faults across time. \u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094715\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094715\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the City of San Francisco’s posted signage, the rock wall on Beaver Street is thought to be one of the largest exposed slickenside formations in the world.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>According to the City of San Francisco’s posted signage, the rock wall on Beaver Street is thought to be one of the largest exposed slickenside formations in the world.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>This sign also serves as a reminder of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/savebsw/\">small municipal battle over access to the rock\u003c/a>. In 2014, the city instituted a permitting process for climbers hoping to scale the slick stone wall. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>This sign also serves as a reminder of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/savebsw/\">small municipal battle over access to the rock\u003c/a>. In 2014, the city instituted a permitting process for climbers hoping to scale the slick stone wall. \u003c/p>\n"
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{
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>San Francisco climbers protested and eventually persuaded the city to drop the permits — on the condition that local climbing groups and the signage at Beaver Street emphasized a “leave no trace” policy.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>San Francisco climbers protested and eventually persuaded the city to drop the permits — on the condition that local climbing groups and the signage at Beaver Street emphasized a “leave no trace” policy.\u003c/p>\n"
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{
"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "How a Berkeley park changed climbing history",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How a Berkeley park changed climbing history\u003c/h2>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How a Berkeley park changed climbing history\u003c/h2>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The rock on Beaver Street is one of a handful of outdoor climbing areas in San Francisco proper, but across the bay in the Berkeley Hills sits another city park where climbers have pushed the sport forward for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>The rock on Beaver Street is one of a handful of outdoor climbing areas in San Francisco proper, but across the bay in the Berkeley Hills sits another city park where climbers have pushed the sport forward for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/indian-rock-park\">Indian Rock Park\u003c/a> encompasses a collection of volcanic boulders in the hills overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. Long a \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/slt_resources/indian-rock/\">place of significance to Ohlone people\u003c/a>, these boulders have also played an outsized role in the Bay Area’s climbing history. John Sherman remembers getting introduced to the sport here in the 1970s, when he was a student at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/indian-rock-park\">Indian Rock Park\u003c/a> encompasses a collection of volcanic boulders in the hills overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. Long a \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/slt_resources/indian-rock/\">place of significance to Ohlone people\u003c/a>, these boulders have also played an outsized role in the Bay Area’s climbing history. John Sherman remembers getting introduced to the sport here in the 1970s, when he was a student at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Well, it’s kind of a funny story,” Sherman said. “Some friends and I scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Well, it’s kind of a funny story,” Sherman said. “Some friends and I scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in orange shirt and grey pants wearing a helmet and rock climbing shoes climbs a rock wall.\" class=\"wp-image-12093866\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ravi Bhoraskar climbs the Beaver Street wall, his first outdoor climbing experience.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in orange shirt and grey pants wearing a helmet and rock climbing shoes climbs a rock wall.\" class=\"wp-image-12093866\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ravi Bhoraskar climbs the Beaver Street wall, his first outdoor climbing experience.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A friend suggested that they take their contraband to Indian Rock Park. While they were sitting on the steps enjoying these illicit beverages, Sherman noticed people scrambling on the rocks nearby, practicing gymnastic moves just a few feet off the ground.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A friend suggested that they take their contraband to Indian Rock Park. While they were sitting on the steps enjoying these illicit beverages, Sherman noticed people scrambling on the rocks nearby, practicing gymnastic moves just a few feet off the ground.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself,” he said. He came back a few days later, blundering his way through the first of many bouldering climbs in what would become his 50-year love affair with rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself,” he said. He came back a few days later, blundering his way through the first of many bouldering climbs in what would become his 50-year love affair with rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since,” Sherman said. Bay Area climbers might recognize Sherman by his nickname: Verm, short for Vermin.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since,” Sherman said. Bay Area climbers might recognize Sherman by his nickname: Verm, short for Vermin.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Verm would go on to become one of the pioneers of a relatively new style of climbing, called bouldering, where climbers perform ambitious, gymnastic moves with no ropes — all while staying relatively close to the ground.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Verm would go on to become one of the pioneers of a relatively new style of climbing, called bouldering, where climbers perform ambitious, gymnastic moves with no ropes — all while staying relatively close to the ground.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Just because bouldering involves less consequential falls than those taken by climbers on California’s soaring cliff faces, doesn’t mean falling off a boulder didn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Just because bouldering involves less consequential falls than those taken by climbers on California’s soaring cliff faces, doesn’t mean falling off a boulder didn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“We took a real beating back in those days,” Sherman explained of his early bouldering experiments at Indian Rock. “There weren’t that many people, like myself, who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“We took a real beating back in those days,” Sherman explained of his early bouldering experiments at Indian Rock. “There weren’t that many people, like myself, who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climbinggold.com/voices/john-sherman\">Sherman is now a climbing legend\u003c/a> within the Bay Area and beyond.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climbinggold.com/voices/john-sherman\">Sherman is now a climbing legend\u003c/a> within the Bay Area and beyond.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He was the first person to scale and document hundreds of new routes in a now-esteemed bouldering area in Texas, called \u003ca href=\"https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/hueco-tanks/activities/#rock-climbing\">Hueco Tanks\u003c/a>, and he \u003ca href=\"https://www.climbing.com/gear/crash-pads-safety-changed-bouldering-forever/\">helped to invent the “crash pads” that boulderers use to cushion their falls\u003c/a> today.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>He was the first person to scale and document hundreds of new routes in a now-esteemed bouldering area in Texas, called \u003ca href=\"https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/hueco-tanks/activities/#rock-climbing\">Hueco Tanks\u003c/a>, and he \u003ca href=\"https://www.climbing.com/gear/crash-pads-safety-changed-bouldering-forever/\">helped to invent the “crash pads” that boulderers use to cushion their falls\u003c/a> today.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But his most recognizable contribution to the Bay Area’s climbing culture is one that Sherman doesn’t like to talk about. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>But his most recognizable contribution to the Bay Area’s climbing culture is one that Sherman doesn’t like to talk about. \u003c/p>\n"
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"attrs": {
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"srcset": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w",
"sizes": "(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094719\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of the skyline from the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094719\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of the skyline from the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>He invented a system to grade the difficulty of bouldering climbs, dubbed the \u003ca href=\"https://rockclimbingrealms.com/bouldering-grades-explained/\">“V grading system” \u003c/a>— as in, the Vermin grading system. This is a system now widely used by climbing gyms, which rates the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up numerically (V1, V2, V3 and so on) as the difficulty increases.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>He invented a system to grade the difficulty of bouldering climbs, dubbed the \u003ca href=\"https://rockclimbingrealms.com/bouldering-grades-explained/\">“V grading system” \u003c/a>— as in, the Vermin grading system. This is a system now widely used by climbing gyms, which rates the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up numerically (V1, V2, V3 and so on) as the difficulty increases.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sherman said he dislikes how fixated other climbers have become with his grading system.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Sherman said he dislikes how fixated other climbers have become with his grading system.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience,” he said. He described the “nutrition” of the climbing experience as being all the things that make climbing worthwhile: the camaraderie, the “kinesthetic flow of the movement” and a communion with nature.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience,” he said. He described the “nutrition” of the climbing experience as being all the things that make climbing worthwhile: the camaraderie, the “kinesthetic flow of the movement” and a communion with nature.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And then what happens afterwards?” he said. “Out pops a V grade.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“And then what happens afterwards?” he said. “Out pops a V grade.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/heading",
"attrs": {
"text": "A safer way to fall",
"level": 2
},
"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A safer way to fall\u003c/h2>\n",
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"\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A safer way to fall\u003c/h2>\n"
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"attrs": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Sherman prefers to think of himself as part of a long lineage of Bay Area climbers who have sharpened their skills on the urban rock faces available to them.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Sherman prefers to think of himself as part of a long lineage of Bay Area climbers who have sharpened their skills on the urban rock faces available to them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>At Indian Rock, for example, a group of Berkeley law students and mountaineers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/12/07/rock-climbing-indian-rock-mortar-rock\">preparing for ascents in Yosemite Valley as early as the 1930s\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>At Indian Rock, for example, a group of Berkeley law students and mountaineers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/12/07/rock-climbing-indian-rock-mortar-rock\">preparing for ascents in Yosemite Valley as early as the 1930s\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Mountain climbing at the time was extraordinarily dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward, and the safety equipment didn’t really work. Climbers used ropes made of hemp — stiff, dry, and prone to snapping if pulled too quickly. Most people assumed a fall on a climbing route was fatal.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Mountain climbing at the time was extraordinarily dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward, and the safety equipment didn’t really work. Climbers used ropes made of hemp — stiff, dry, and prone to snapping if pulled too quickly. Most people assumed a fall on a climbing route was fatal.\u003c/p>\n"
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"blockName": "core/paragraph",
"attrs": [],
"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“The rope’s gonna break, and that’s it, you know?” Sherman said.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>“The rope’s gonna break, and that’s it, you know?” Sherman said.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An anchor chain at the top of the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094716\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An anchor chain at the top of the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But the Berkeley students climbing at Indian Rock developed a counterintuitive idea to change that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The solution was all in how climbers handled the rope. If a belayer let the rope run through their hands and slowly absorbed the force of a fall, the rope was far less likely to snap — and could actually catch a falling climber without killing them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The solution was all in how climbers handled the rope. If a belayer let the rope run through their hands and slowly absorbed the force of a fall, the rope was far less likely to snap — and could actually catch a falling climber without killing them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbers began practicing these controlled, “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock, and they carried the life-saving technique with them to Yosemite. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles/\">By the 1940s, nylon was commercially accessible\u003c/a>, and climbers began making stronger, more shock-absorbent ropes from it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbers began practicing these controlled, “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock, and they carried the life-saving technique with them to Yosemite. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles/\">By the 1940s, nylon was commercially accessible\u003c/a>, and climbers began making stronger, more shock-absorbent ropes from it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer,” Sherman said. “The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer,” Sherman said. “The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Falling was no longer a death sentence, and the sport became more popular as a result. As new tools and techniques made climbing safer, the goals of the sport shifted too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Falling was no longer a death sentence, and the sport became more popular as a result. As new tools and techniques made climbing safer, the goals of the sport shifted too.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“Style was more important than difficulty, and you were more respected if you could walk up to a climb and climb it without falling … just figuring it out,” Sherman said. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“Style was more important than difficulty, and you were more respected if you could walk up to a climb and climb it without falling … just figuring it out,” Sherman said. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, climbing was no longer just about the summit — it was about finding a creative way up each rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, climbing was no longer just about the summit — it was about finding a creative way up each rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful. \u003c/p>\n"
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"text": "The secret climbs on University of California, Berkeley campus",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbers still wanted to test themselves on big routes in Yosemite and Joshua Tree, but the Bay Area’s natural geology was limited, and climbing gyms weren’t yet common. So climbers had to look for training grounds in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbers still wanted to test themselves on big routes in Yosemite and Joshua Tree, but the Bay Area’s natural geology was limited, and climbing gyms weren’t yet common. So climbers had to look for training grounds in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Jordan Schultz is the kind of climber who sees potential everywhere — even across the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s cataloged hundreds of “buildering” routes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Jordan Schultz is the kind of climber who sees potential everywhere — even across the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s cataloged hundreds of “buildering” routes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“I think I listed, like, 300-plus routes just on campus,” Schultz said. “Pretty much every building is climbable, is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“I think I listed, like, 300-plus routes just on campus,” Schultz said. “Pretty much every building is climbable, is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 992px) min(100vw, 1536px), (min-width: 768px) min(100vw, 1280px), min(100vw, 1020px)\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right, climbers Ace Landauer, Jordan Schultz, Tilly Holtz and Colin Wills hang from cracks in the “penny wall,” a spot on the UC Berkeley campus where rock climbers practice crack climbing techniques required for climbs in Yosemite Valley.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n",
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"\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094710\" />\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right, climbers Ace Landauer, Jordan Schultz, Tilly Holtz and Colin Wills hang from cracks in the “penny wall,” a spot on the UC Berkeley campus where rock climbers practice crack climbing techniques required for climbs in Yosemite Valley.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Schultz documented these routes — and the history behind them — in his guidebook, \u003ca href=\"https://campusingbook.com\">\u003cem>Campusing: A Secret History and Buildering Guide to UC Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the university’s most famous unofficial routes is a crack running up the side of a brick building that houses the chemistry department.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Schultz documented these routes — and the history behind them — in his guidebook, \u003ca href=\"https://campusingbook.com\">\u003cem>Campusing: A Secret History and Buildering Guide to UC Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the university’s most famous unofficial routes is a crack running up the side of a brick building that houses the chemistry department.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it,” Schultz said. “I think that’s the beautiful part about it. You need to open your eyes to it, you know?”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it,” Schultz said. “I think that’s the beautiful part about it. You need to open your eyes to it, you know?”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbers have used this crack to practice technique since at least the 1960s, Schultz said, because it mirrors the kind of crack climbing common in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbers have used this crack to practice technique since at least the 1960s, Schultz said, because it mirrors the kind of crack climbing common in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The spot has another name, too: the Penny Wall. According to Schultz, back in the 1960s, climbers practicing at the crack would stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach — a marker and quiet challenge to whoever climbed the crack next.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The spot has another name, too: the Penny Wall. According to Schultz, back in the 1960s, climbers practicing at the crack would stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach — a marker and quiet challenge to whoever climbed the crack next.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Sherman honed his own crack-climbing technique on the Penny Wall. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John Sherman honed his own crack-climbing technique on the Penny Wall. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And as much as the Bay Area’s outdoor climbing sites have been the home of real breakthroughs in the sport of climbing, he said their true value is in the community of climbers that are drawn to them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And as much as the Bay Area’s outdoor climbing sites have been the home of real breakthroughs in the sport of climbing, he said their true value is in the community of climbers that are drawn to them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbing something like the rock on Beaver Street, tucked into the corner of a busy city, can still feel like being let in on a local secret — passed down by generations of climbers who have left something behind for the next adventurous climber: a penny, a piece of gear, or simply a tip to help newcomers navigate a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbing something like the rock on Beaver Street, tucked into the corner of a busy city, can still feel like being let in on a local secret — passed down by generations of climbers who have left something behind for the next adventurous climber: a penny, a piece of gear, or simply a tip to help newcomers navigate a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>“When you do go to these little areas, and make the effort to meet the locals [climbing there], the experience is so much richer,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t have to be Yosemite to give you a climbing experience and a community to hang out with.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>“When you do go to these little areas, and make the effort to meet the locals [climbing there], the experience is so much richer,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t have to be Yosemite to give you a climbing experience and a community to hang out with.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"\n[baycuriousquestion]\n"
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"text": "Episode transcript",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price and you’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price and you’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>When I was about six months pregnant with my first child, a friend of a friend passed along a maternity climbing harness … a full body nylon contraption that allows pregnant people to keep rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>When I was about six months pregnant with my first child, a friend of a friend passed along a maternity climbing harness … a full body nylon contraption that allows pregnant people to keep rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Now, I was not a rock climber at the time, but thought — “hey, why not? A lot of other activities I love, like running, have gotten really hard, but my legs are stronger than ever. Let’s climb!”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Now, I was not a rock climber at the time, but thought — “hey, why not? A lot of other activities I love, like running, have gotten really hard, but my legs are stronger than ever. Let’s climb!”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Soon I found myself halfway up a wall in Pinnacles National Park … having a blast, but also hearing the voice of my mother inside my head: \u003cem>“Oh, Olivia. You would.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Soon I found myself halfway up a wall in Pinnacles National Park … having a blast, but also hearing the voice of my mother inside my head: \u003cem>“Oh, Olivia. You would.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>To be honest, my stint with rock climbing was relatively short, but I was into it long enough to hit up most of the bigger climbing areas in the Bay Area. And I learned you don’t have to drive all the way to Yosemite to feel the thrill of scaling a cliff. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>To be honest, my stint with rock climbing was relatively short, but I was into it long enough to hit up most of the bigger climbing areas in the Bay Area. And I learned you don’t have to drive all the way to Yosemite to feel the thrill of scaling a cliff. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There are a handful of urban climbing areas you might have walked past without a second look.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There are a handful of urban climbing areas you might have walked past without a second look.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar [[boh-RAHS-car]] stumbled across one of those hidden rock walls … tucked into the hills of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar [[boh-RAHS-car]] stumbled across one of those hidden rock walls … tucked into the hills of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It looked to me like a residential street. A bunch of cute houses, \u003cs>uh,\u003c/s> and, like, a little narrow path in the middle.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It looked to me like a residential street. A bunch of cute houses, \u003cs>uh,\u003c/s> and, like, a little narrow path in the middle.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Beaver Street itself is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill towards Corona Heights. The Castro Theater is just a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Beaver Street itself is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill towards Corona Heights. The Castro Theater is just a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And tucked into the curve of Beaver Street is a narrow park.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And tucked into the curve of Beaver Street is a narrow park.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>And as you come in, you get this giant piece of shiny rock, which is the Beaver Street Wall. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>And as you come in, you get this giant piece of shiny rock, which is the Beaver Street Wall. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This big slab of rock towers 60 feet above a kids’ playground. It’s got these diagonal streaks of red and tan rock that honestly make it look almost like a slice of bacon. And it has an unusual texture…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This big slab of rock towers 60 feet above a kids’ playground. It’s got these diagonal streaks of red and tan rock that honestly make it look almost like a slice of bacon. And it has an unusual texture…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s kind of like a shiny, almost slippery-looking surface, with some holes that you can potentially use to climb on.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s kind of like a shiny, almost slippery-looking surface, with some holes that you can potentially use to climb on.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This interested Ravi because he recently got into rock climbing. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This interested Ravi because he recently got into rock climbing. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Mostly indoors at the climbing gym. I was excited to learn that there is, like, at least one climbing spot right within the city, like, easily reachable by bus.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Mostly indoors at the climbing gym. I was excited to learn that there is, like, at least one climbing spot right within the city, like, easily reachable by bus.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And he wants to know … what is that slippery, striped bacon rock?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And he wants to know … what is that slippery, striped bacon rock?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>How did it end up there, and why does it look so cool?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>How did it end up there, and why does it look so cool?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And most importantly…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And most importantly…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Like, can I climb it?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Like, can I climb it?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today we’re going to get answers for Ravi, of course. But we’ll also explore how Bay Area climbers have used city parks to practice their skills for decades — and ultimately push the sport forward. Turns out there’s a lot of rock climbing history anchored right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today we’re going to get answers for Ravi, of course. But we’ll also explore how Bay Area climbers have used city parks to practice their skills for decades — and ultimately push the sport forward. Turns out there’s a lot of rock climbing history anchored right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>KQED producer Francesca Fenzi headed to Beaver Street with Ravi … to check out this unusual rock.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>KQED producer Francesca Fenzi headed to Beaver Street with Ravi … to check out this unusual rock.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds singing, slight traffic sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds singing, slight traffic sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> Ravi and I arrive at Corona Heights Park on a sunny weekend afternoon. We can hear birds singing … and the faint sound of traffic from Market Street carrying up the hill.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> Ravi and I arrive at Corona Heights Park on a sunny weekend afternoon. We can hear birds singing … and the faint sound of traffic from Market Street carrying up the hill.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>There’s a playground, a dense pocket of trees, and then … this glistening rock wall.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>There’s a playground, a dense pocket of trees, and then … this glistening rock wall.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s not wet, but it \u003cem>looks\u003c/em> wet. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s not wet, but it \u003cem>looks\u003c/em> wet. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The shiny surface is interrupted by a single jagged crack, which runs about six stories high. And at the base of the rock is a sign … which gives us a clue about how it got here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The shiny surface is interrupted by a single jagged crack, which runs about six stories high. And at the base of the rock is a sign … which gives us a clue about how it got here.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Known as a slickenslide, this smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Known as a slickenslide, this smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It’s Slicken SIDE actually. Try saying that three times fast! \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It’s Slicken SIDE actually. Try saying that three times fast! \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Slickenside forms when two rocks inside a fault rub against each other. Imagine pressing your hands together as hard as you can and then sliding them back and forth. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>Slickenside forms when two rocks inside a fault rub against each other. Imagine pressing your hands together as hard as you can and then sliding them back and forth. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>That friction creates heat — and tiny dust particles which act like a fluid — to polish the rock until it looks glassy and smooth. Just like the wall at Beaver Street. The colorful stripes even show the direction the fault was moving when a Slickenside was formed.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>That friction creates heat — and tiny dust particles which act like a fluid — to polish the rock until it looks glassy and smooth. Just like the wall at Beaver Street. The colorful stripes even show the direction the fault was moving when a Slickenside was formed.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>According to the sign, this rock is thought to be one of the largest exposed Slickenside formations in the world. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>According to the sign, this rock is thought to be one of the largest exposed Slickenside formations in the world. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Capitals, “Please do not chip holes in the rock face or alter the rock in any way.” And then it’s taped over Um, climbing on these rocks is by permit only. To obtain a permit, call some number.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Capitals, “Please do not chip holes in the rock face or alter the rock in any way.” And then it’s taped over Um, climbing on these rocks is by permit only. To obtain a permit, call some number.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I looked into getting a permit and it turns out you no longer need one to climb at Beaver Street. So Ravi is going to try to climb it today.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I looked into getting a permit and it turns out you no longer need one to climb at Beaver Street. So Ravi is going to try to climb it today.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>And to make sure we don’t damage the rock, we’ve enlisted some help.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>And to make sure we don’t damage the rock, we’ve enlisted some help.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Hey, how you doing? I’m Max. Hey, Ravi. Ravi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Hey, how you doing? I’m Max. Hey, Ravi. Ravi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max Stewart owns a guiding company, called SAANO Adventures. And he’s offered to help us set up an anchor and climbing rope on the Beaver Street wall… \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max Stewart owns a guiding company, called SAANO Adventures. And he’s offered to help us set up an anchor and climbing rope on the Beaver Street wall… \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> I’d be happy to. Did you bring some shoes? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> I’d be happy to. Did you bring some shoes? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I brought some shoes. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I brought some shoes. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Yeah? Okay. Cool.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Yeah? Okay. Cool.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Outdoor rocks don’t come with built-in safety equipment like the climbs in a gym, so we’ll need to secure our rope to something sturdy at the top of the rock wall.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Outdoor rocks don’t come with built-in safety equipment like the climbs in a gym, so we’ll need to secure our rope to something sturdy at the top of the rock wall.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>There’s a little staircase here. Yep, there it is.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>There’s a little staircase here. Yep, there it is.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max leads us up and around the back side of the rock, to the top of a windy hill. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max leads us up and around the back side of the rock, to the top of a windy hill. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I can pick out landmarks like the diagonal slash of Market Street below, the Salesforce tower and the Bay Bridge in the distance. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>I can pick out landmarks like the diagonal slash of Market Street below, the Salesforce tower and the Bay Bridge in the distance. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Directly in front of us is a steep drop off. It looks a lot more intimidating from up here! \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Directly in front of us is a steep drop off. It looks a lot more intimidating from up here! \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Isn’t that wild? So the playground. we met just right down there. There’s the sign that you were reading.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Isn’t that wild? So the playground. we met just right down there. There’s the sign that you were reading.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Separating us from the edge of the cliff is a chain link fence. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Separating us from the edge of the cliff is a chain link fence. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> And then a bunch of heavy duty chains that we’re gonna use.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> And then a bunch of heavy duty chains that we’re gonna use.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>These heavy duty chains bolted into the top of the wall are perfect for setting up what’s called a “top rope” climb, where a rope runs from the ground, up to an anchor, and back down to the climber, catching them if they fall.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>These heavy duty chains bolted into the top of the wall are perfect for setting up what’s called a “top rope” climb, where a rope runs from the ground, up to an anchor, and back down to the climber, catching them if they fall.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Always a little weird!\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Always a little weird!\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max explains that this is the same setup used by climbing gyms … even if it looks a bit different outside.\u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max explains that this is the same setup used by climbing gyms … even if it looks a bit different outside.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, man. That was impressive. [to Ravi] Is this what you were expecting? \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, man. That was impressive. [to Ravi] Is this what you were expecting? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> No, not at all. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> No, not at all. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>A little different than the climbing gym, huh? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>A little different than the climbing gym, huh? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I’ve climbed outside a bit myself and part of what I love is the sense of possibility. There aren’t any predetermined holds, you can find your own route up to the top. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I’ve climbed outside a bit myself and part of what I love is the sense of possibility. There aren’t any predetermined holds, you can find your own route up to the top. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Every single person is gonna have their own method for solving this. the gyms I think are a really good place to get started, to kinda just learn the ropes, but I really encourage people as soon as, you feel like you can do it, to get outside.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Every single person is gonna have their own method for solving this. the gyms I think are a really good place to get started, to kinda just learn the ropes, but I really encourage people as soon as, you feel like you can do it, to get outside.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Is this gonna be your first time climbing outside? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Is this gonna be your first time climbing outside? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Uh, yes. Yes, this will be. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Uh, yes. Yes, this will be. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>No way, really? \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>No way, really? \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Oh, it’s so fun.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Oh, it’s so fun.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of climbing over chain link fence\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of climbing over chain link fence\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> When was the last time you were hopping [00:07:00] fences to go climbing. Hey. It feels kinda like you’re doing stuff you’re not supposed to do, hopping fences and … It’s like good clean fun, but still kind of a throwback, you know?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> When was the last time you were hopping [00:07:00] fences to go climbing. Hey. It feels kinda like you’re doing stuff you’re not supposed to do, hopping fences and … It’s like good clean fun, but still kind of a throwback, you know?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>No laws were broken in the making of this podcast! But Max is right. Setting up the rope above Beaver Street really does feel like getting away with something.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>No laws were broken in the making of this podcast! But Max is right. Setting up the rope above Beaver Street really does feel like getting away with something.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A lot of urban climbs FEEL illicit because it seems kind of unnatural to be doing something we associate with mountains right in our backyards. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A lot of urban climbs FEEL illicit because it seems kind of unnatural to be doing something we associate with mountains right in our backyards. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>But, there’s actually a long history of Bay Area climbers using whatever they can find to ready themselves for those more ambitious, wild ascents. \u003c/p>\n",
"innerContent": [
"\n\u003cp>But, there’s actually a long history of Bay Area climbers using whatever they can find to ready themselves for those more ambitious, wild ascents. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Beaver Street is one of the only rocks you can climb outdoors in San Francisco, but just across the bay, in the Berkeley Hills, is another city park where climbers have been pushing the limits of the sport for almost a century.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Beaver Street is one of the only rocks you can climb outdoors in San Francisco, but just across the bay, in the Berkeley Hills, is another city park where climbers have been pushing the limits of the sport for almost a century.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John Sherman grew up in Berkeley. And he remembers getting introduced to climbing there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John Sherman grew up in Berkeley. And he remembers getting introduced to climbing there.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman:\u003c/strong> Well, it’s kind of a funny story. Some friends and I in high school, we scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where \u003cs>we, you know, \u003c/s>we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman:\u003c/strong> Well, it’s kind of a funny story. Some friends and I in high school, we scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where \u003cs>we, you know, \u003c/s>we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>So they made their way to Indian Rock park, a collection of volcanic boulders that was once an Ohlone meeting spot. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>So they made their way to Indian Rock park, a collection of volcanic boulders that was once an Ohlone meeting spot. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And we were sitting on the steps there drinking this beer we had gotten, and I saw people climbing there.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And we were sitting on the steps there drinking this beer we had gotten, and I saw people climbing there.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The climbers were just a few feet off the ground … practicing gravity-defying moves.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The climbers were just a few feet off the ground … practicing gravity-defying moves.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Pretty soon, he was taking the bus to Indian Rock every day after school.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Pretty soon, he was taking the bus to Indian Rock every day after school.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And I would always have my climbing shoes in my book bag along with my textbooks and stuff, and I would stop there on the way home every day, go to Indian Rock and boulder till it got dark and then walk home.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And I would always have my climbing shoes in my book bag along with my textbooks and stuff, and I would stop there on the way home every day, go to Indian Rock and boulder till it got dark and then walk home.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He was at the rock so often that his brother started describing himself as an only child.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He was at the rock so often that his brother started describing himself as an only child.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since. And, you know, it’s been over 50 years now.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since. And, you know, it’s been over 50 years now.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The type of climbing John was doing is called bouldering. There aren’t any ropes, but people climb closer to the ground, using pads to cushion a fall. At least, they do now. But in the early days…\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The type of climbing John was doing is called bouldering. There aren’t any ropes, but people climb closer to the ground, using pads to cushion a fall. At least, they do now. But in the early days…\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>We took a real beating and there weren’t that many people like myself who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up like that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>We took a real beating and there weren’t that many people like myself who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up like that.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John is a bit of a legend. He was the first person to climb a bunch of famous bouldering routes, he helped invent those cushioned pads, AND he created a system for ranking the difficulty of climbs — called the V grading system — that’s widely used today. It starts with the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up from there as the climbing gets harder — V1, V2 and so on. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John is a bit of a legend. He was the first person to climb a bunch of famous bouldering routes, he helped invent those cushioned pads, AND he created a system for ranking the difficulty of climbs — called the V grading system — that’s widely used today. It starts with the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up from there as the climbing gets harder — V1, V2 and so on. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>The V comes from John’s lifelong nickname, given to him by a biology teacher at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>The V comes from John’s lifelong nickname, given to him by a biology teacher at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>So he called me Sherman the Vermin. Got shortened to Verm and just kind of stuck.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>So he called me Sherman the Vermin. Got shortened to Verm and just kind of stuck.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John actually hates how fixated other climbers get on his V grading system.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John actually hates how fixated other climbers get on his V grading system.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience. After you do a wonderful, you know, boulder problem, and you enjoy the setting that you’re in, the camaraderie of your climbing partners, the kinesthetic flow of the moves and everything, and then what happens afterwards? Out pops a V grade.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience. After you do a wonderful, you know, boulder problem, and you enjoy the setting that you’re in, the camaraderie of your climbing partners, the kinesthetic flow of the moves and everything, and then what happens afterwards? Out pops a V grade.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Instead, John likes to think of himself as part of a long line of climbers honing their skills at Indian Rock.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Instead, John likes to think of himself as part of a long line of climbers honing their skills at Indian Rock.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The early history that I know of that’s documented goes back to like the 1930s\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The early history that I know of that’s documented goes back to like the 1930s\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>At that time, a group of Berkeley law students — and mountaineers — had their sights on Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>At that time, a group of Berkeley law students — and mountaineers — had their sights on Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And here is a collection of rocks where they could train.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And here is a collection of rocks where they could train.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The training part was important. Because at the time mountain climbing was super dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward. The safety equipment didn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The training part was important. Because at the time mountain climbing was super dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward. The safety equipment didn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbers were using these flimsy ropes made out of hemp that were stiff and dry and tended to break if they got pulled apart too quickly.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbers were using these flimsy ropes made out of hemp that were stiff and dry and tended to break if they got pulled apart too quickly.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>John says most people assumed that falling on a climbing route was a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>John says most people assumed that falling on a climbing route was a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The rope’s gonna break and that’s it, you know?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The rope’s gonna break and that’s it, you know?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>But these Berkeley students, climbing at Indian Rock. They came up with a counterintuitive idea.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on their idea and how it revolutionized climbing after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>But these Berkeley students, climbing at Indian Rock. They came up with a counterintuitive idea.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on their idea and how it revolutionized climbing after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley Students climbing at Indian Rock wanted to make climbing safer, and they discovered a technique that would really change the game. Francesca Fenzi takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley Students climbing at Indian Rock wanted to make climbing safer, and they discovered a technique that would really change the game. Francesca Fenzi takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> It was all in how you handled the rope… \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> It was all in how you handled the rope… \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>If you let it run through your hands and slowly break the fall, that rope might not snap, and you can actually catch the leader if they fall, and they’re not gonna die.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>If you let it run through your hands and slowly break the fall, that rope might not snap, and you can actually catch the leader if they fall, and they’re not gonna die.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>This was huge. Climbers started practicing these “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock. And they brought these life-saving skills to Yosemite with them.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>This was huge. Climbers started practicing these “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock. And they brought these life-saving skills to Yosemite with them.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>A decade later, in the 1940s, nylon was widely available. And climbers started using the stretchy fiber to make stronger, more shock-absorbant ropes.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>A decade later, in the 1940s, nylon was widely available. And climbers started using the stretchy fiber to make stronger, more shock-absorbant ropes.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer. The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer. The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Falling on a rock climb was no longer a death sentence and that made the sport a lot more popular.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Falling on a rock climb was no longer a death sentence and that made the sport a lot more popular.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>As new tools and techniques made climbs safer, the goals of climbing changed, too.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>As new tools and techniques made climbs safer, the goals of climbing changed, too.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>Style was more important than difficulty.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>Style was more important than difficulty.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John says by the time he got hooked, rock climbing was no longer just about getting to the top. It was about finding creative ways up a rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John says by the time he got hooked, rock climbing was no longer just about getting to the top. It was about finding creative ways up a rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Climbers were \u003cem>still \u003c/em>eager to test themselves on the big climbs in places like Yosemite and Joshua Tree. But the Bay Area’s natural geology was limiting. And climbing gyms — with their variety of simulated rock types — weren’t as common as they are today.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>Climbers were \u003cem>still \u003c/em>eager to test themselves on the big climbs in places like Yosemite and Joshua Tree. But the Bay Area’s natural geology was limiting. And climbing gyms — with their variety of simulated rock types — weren’t as common as they are today.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>So for Bay Area climbers to take their skills to the next level … they had to look in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>So for Bay Area climbers to take their skills to the next level … they had to look in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Pretty much every building is climbable is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Pretty much every building is climbable is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan Schulz is the kind of climber who looks at it “the right way.”\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan Schulz is the kind of climber who looks at it “the right way.”\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s 23 and sees climbing opportunities everywhere. Even the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s showing me one of the university’s most famous climbing “routes.” \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s 23 and sees climbing opportunities everywhere. Even the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s showing me one of the university’s most famous climbing “routes.” \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>It’s a crack in the side of a brick building that houses the Chemistry department. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>It’s a crack in the side of a brick building that houses the Chemistry department. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>This is the crack we’re looking at right here. \u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>This is the crack we’re looking at right here. \u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It takes me a moment to “see” it the way Jordan does.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It takes me a moment to “see” it the way Jordan does.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>To me, I’m looking at a brick wall with a parking sign on it. Yeah. And there’s a gap in the wall that’s maybe about an inch and a half thick. And it runs from the base of the wall to the the next story up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>To me, I’m looking at a brick wall with a parking sign on it. Yeah. And there’s a gap in the wall that’s maybe about an inch and a half thick. And it runs from the base of the wall to the the next story up.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Yeah. That’s the climb. It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it. And then I think that’s the beautiful part about it, is that you need to open your eyes to it, you know?\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Yeah. That’s the climb. It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it. And then I think that’s the beautiful part about it, is that you need to open your eyes to it, you know?\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says climbers have been using the crack in this building to practice their technique since at least the 1960s\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says climbers have been using the crack in this building to practice their technique since at least the 1960s\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A lot of the style of climbing in Yosemite and the Sierras features a lot of cracks in the rock. And so, it offers a good training ground to learn some crack climbing technique that would help people climb better in the mountains.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A lot of the style of climbing in Yosemite and the Sierras features a lot of cracks in the rock. And so, it offers a good training ground to learn some crack climbing technique that would help people climb better in the mountains.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says this spot has another name: the Penny Wall. Back in the 60s, when a climber was practicing at the crack, they’d stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach.\u003c/p>\n",
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"\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says this spot has another name: the Penny Wall. Back in the 60s, when a climber was practicing at the crack, they’d stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach.\u003c/p>\n"
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>And so people would see, like, how high was the penny, and every so often it would get higher.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A challenge to the next climber…\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A subtle way of communicating you know, who climbed a little higher and moved the penny up.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Back at Beaver Street, our question asker Ravi is getting ready to place his own metaphorical penny on the wall.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: All right, Ravi, let’s get your shoes on- Yep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s about to climb outside for the first time.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene:\u003c/strong> How are you feeling about climbing it? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I’m excited. I’m also, yeah, a li- little nervous. Like, I don’t want to slip, but, no, mostly excited. Mostly feeling excited about climbing this.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Your belay is on. And climbing. Okay. Climb on, sir.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area’s outdoor rock walls have been home to major breakthroughs in the sport. But as Max would say, they’re also good clean fun.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What do you think of outdoor climbing versus, uh, in the gym? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> This is great. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Isn’t it so nice?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>And urban climbs like this one — tucked into corners of busy cities — feel like secrets, passed along by other members of this special club. People who’ve contributed a penny, or a pair of chains, or advice about how to get around a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Try and utilize that crack as much as possible. This guy’s got some bragging rights having this be his first outdoor climb, and he’s just absolutely sending it. Okay, I’m gonna lower you nice and slow. Just walk those feet down. Hey, nice work, man. That was amazing. Good job, man. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Thank you. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>First outdoor climb. Yeah. What a classic too, man. This is a, uh- That was amazing … that’s no slouch of a climb, man. That was, uh, you worked hard for that.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Whether you’re a seasoned mountaineer, or a new climber, like Ravi, a neighborhood rock can feel just as magical as Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What’d you think of that glass section in the middle there? \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> The glass section was definitely interesting. That was wild. \u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Well, what do you think? Should we, uh, pull these ropes?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds or rope falling from a great height\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Boom. That’s it. That’s the sound of the end of it.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Classical music plays\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>That song is the perfect soundtrack. Was that your cellphone?\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, it was.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That story was brought to us by KQED reporter Francesca Fenzi.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>I’ve got two requests for you on our way out. First, Head to \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a> and VOTE in our public voting round to help us decide what story we should tackle next. All it takes is a few seconds and one click.\u003c/p>\n",
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"innerHTML": "\n\u003cp>Second, consider becoming a member of KQED and supporting Bay Curious. We are relying more on listener donations than we have in the past and every dollar helps us to keep bringing you stories like this one. Head to \u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> to get started.\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Beaver Street’s shiny slab isn’t just a geologic curiosity — it’s part of a long legacy for Bay Area climbers who have used city rocks and buildings to train for the heights of Yosemite Valley.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#transcript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco’s\u003c/a> Beaver Street is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill toward Corona Heights, a few blocks from the Castro Theater.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Tucked into the curve of this tiny street is a narrow park, and inside it, a 60-foot slab of rock that towers over a public playground. The rock is streaked with diagonal bands of red and tan that make it look almost like a slice of bacon — with a surface unlike any rock Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar had seen.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar first stumbled across the \u003ca href=\"https://www.mountainproject.com/area/105733887/beaver-street-wall\">Beaver Street rock wall\u003c/a> during a weekend outing with his daughters, to the Randall Museum of Science in Corona Heights Park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12093864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-3-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Max Stewart belays Ravi Bhoraskar as he climbs the Beaver Street wall in San Francisco’s Corona Heights Park. (Francesca Fenzi/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He described it as a “shiny, almost slippery-looking surface” with a few sparse holes “that you can potentially use to climb on.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The secluded crag felt like a revelation. He recently started rock climbing, and climbs weekly at his neighborhood gym in the Mission.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I was excited to learn that there is at least one [outdoor] climbing spot within the city, easily reachable by bus,” Bhoraskar said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A visible record of Bay Area geology\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bhoraskar’s first clue to the origins of the Beaver Street rock came from a sign posted at its base. Known as a “slickenside,” the sign explained: “This smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slickenside is a type of rock that forms along fault lines, like the San Andreas Fault that slashes diagonally across San Francisco. When two rocks on either side of the fault rub against each other, the friction between them can generate heat and super-fine particles of dust. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That dust acts like a lubricant, polishing the rock surface until it becomes glassy and smooth, just like the rock on Beaver Street. The colorful stripes on a slickenside formation even record the direction the rocks were moving, allowing geologists to track the movement of different faults across time. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094715\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-06-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the City of San Francisco’s posted signage, the rock wall on Beaver Street is thought to be one of the largest exposed slickenside formations in the world.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>This sign also serves as a reminder of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/savebsw/\">small municipal battle over access to the rock\u003c/a>. In 2014, the city instituted a permitting process for climbers hoping to scale the slick stone wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>San Francisco climbers protested and eventually persuaded the city to drop the permits — on the condition that local climbing groups and the signage at Beaver Street emphasized a “leave no trace” policy.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How a Berkeley park changed climbing history\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The rock on Beaver Street is one of a handful of outdoor climbing areas in San Francisco proper, but across the bay in the Berkeley Hills sits another city park where climbers have pushed the sport forward for nearly a century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/community-recreation/parks-recreation/parks/indian-rock-park\">Indian Rock Park\u003c/a> encompasses a collection of volcanic boulders in the hills overlooking the UC Berkeley campus. Long a \u003ca href=\"https://sogoreate-landtrust.org/slt_resources/indian-rock/\">place of significance to Ohlone people\u003c/a>, these boulders have also played an outsized role in the Bay Area’s climbing history. John Sherman remembers getting introduced to the sport here in the 1970s, when he was a student at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Well, it’s kind of a funny story,” Sherman said. “Some friends and I scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cdiv class=\"wp-block-image\">\n\u003cfigure class=\"alignleft size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A man in orange shirt and grey pants wearing a helmet and rock climbing shoes climbs a rock wall.\" class=\"wp-image-12093866\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED.jpg 1500w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-160x213.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/BeaverStreetClimbing_FF-5-KQED-1152x1536.jpg 1152w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ravi Bhoraskar climbs the Beaver Street wall, his first outdoor climbing experience. (Francesca Fenzi/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\n\u003cp>A friend suggested that they take their contraband to Indian Rock Park. While they were sitting on the steps enjoying these illicit beverages, Sherman noticed people scrambling on the rocks nearby, practicing gymnastic moves just a few feet off the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself,” he said. He came back a few days later, blundering his way through the first of many bouldering climbs in what would become his 50-year love affair with rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since,” Sherman said. Bay Area climbers might recognize Sherman by his nickname: Verm, short for Vermin.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Verm would go on to become one of the pioneers of a relatively new style of climbing, called bouldering, where climbers perform ambitious, gymnastic moves with no ropes — all while staying relatively close to the ground.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Just because bouldering involves less consequential falls than those taken by climbers on California’s soaring cliff faces, doesn’t mean falling off a boulder didn’t hurt.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“We took a real beating back in those days,” Sherman explained of his early bouldering experiments at Indian Rock. “There weren’t that many people, like myself, who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.climbinggold.com/voices/john-sherman\">Sherman is now a climbing legend\u003c/a> within the Bay Area and beyond.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He was the first person to scale and document hundreds of new routes in a now-esteemed bouldering area in Texas, called \u003ca href=\"https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/hueco-tanks/activities/#rock-climbing\">Hueco Tanks\u003c/a>, and he \u003ca href=\"https://www.climbing.com/gear/crash-pads-safety-changed-bouldering-forever/\">helped to invent the “crash pads” that boulderers use to cushion their falls\u003c/a> today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But his most recognizable contribution to the Bay Area’s climbing culture is one that Sherman doesn’t like to talk about. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094719\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-14-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of the skyline from the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>He invented a system to grade the difficulty of bouldering climbs, dubbed the \u003ca href=\"https://rockclimbingrealms.com/bouldering-grades-explained/\">“V grading system” \u003c/a>— as in, the Vermin grading system. This is a system now widely used by climbing gyms, which rates the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up numerically (V1, V2, V3 and so on) as the difficulty increases.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherman said he dislikes how fixated other climbers have become with his grading system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience,” he said. He described the “nutrition” of the climbing experience as being all the things that make climbing worthwhile: the camaraderie, the “kinesthetic flow of the movement” and a communion with nature.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then what happens afterwards?” he said. “Out pops a V grade.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A safer way to fall\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Sherman prefers to think of himself as part of a long lineage of Bay Area climbers who have sharpened their skills on the urban rock faces available to them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>At Indian Rock, for example, a group of Berkeley law students and mountaineers were \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2023/12/07/rock-climbing-indian-rock-mortar-rock\">preparing for ascents in Yosemite Valley as early as the 1930s\u003c/a>. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Mountain climbing at the time was extraordinarily dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward, and the safety equipment didn’t really work. Climbers used ropes made of hemp — stiff, dry, and prone to snapping if pulled too quickly. Most people assumed a fall on a climbing route was fatal.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“The rope’s gonna break, and that’s it, you know?” Sherman said.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094716\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260810-BeaverStreetPortraits-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">An anchor chain at the top of the Beaver Street Wall in Corona Heights Park in San Francisco on Aug. 10, 2026. The rock wall is open to climbing and is primarily used for top-rope climbing. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But the Berkeley students climbing at Indian Rock developed a counterintuitive idea to change that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The solution was all in how climbers handled the rope. If a belayer let the rope run through their hands and slowly absorbed the force of a fall, the rope was far less likely to snap — and could actually catch a falling climber without killing them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers began practicing these controlled, “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock, and they carried the life-saving technique with them to Yosemite. \u003ca href=\"https://www.sciencehistory.org/stories/magazine/nylon-a-revolution-in-textiles/\">By the 1940s, nylon was commercially accessible\u003c/a>, and climbers began making stronger, more shock-absorbent ropes from it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer,” Sherman said. “The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Falling was no longer a death sentence, and the sport became more popular as a result. As new tools and techniques made climbing safer, the goals of the sport shifted too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“Style was more important than difficulty, and you were more respected if you could walk up to a climb and climb it without falling … just figuring it out,” Sherman said. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>By the 1960s, climbing was no longer just about the summit — it was about finding a creative way up each rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The secret climbs on University of California, Berkeley campus\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers still wanted to test themselves on big routes in Yosemite and Joshua Tree, but the Bay Area’s natural geology was limited, and climbing gyms weren’t yet common. So climbers had to look for training grounds in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Jordan Schultz is the kind of climber who sees potential everywhere — even across the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s cataloged hundreds of “buildering” routes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“I think I listed, like, 300-plus routes just on campus,” Schultz said. “Pretty much every building is climbable, is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cfigure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12094710\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/08/260811-BEAVER-STREET-CLIMBING-01-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">From left to right, climbers Ace Landauer, Jordan Schultz, Tilly Holtz and Colin Wills hang from cracks in the “penny wall,” a spot on the UC Berkeley campus where rock climbers practice crack climbing techniques required for climbs in Yosemite Valley. ((Courtesy Jordan Schultz))\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Schultz documented these routes — and the history behind them — in his guidebook, \u003ca href=\"https://campusingbook.com\">\u003cem>Campusing: A Secret History and Buildering Guide to UC Berkeley\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>. \u003c/em>One of the university’s most famous unofficial routes is a crack running up the side of a brick building that houses the chemistry department.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it,” Schultz said. “I think that’s the beautiful part about it. You need to open your eyes to it, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers have used this crack to practice technique since at least the 1960s, Schultz said, because it mirrors the kind of crack climbing common in Yosemite and other parts of the Sierra.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The spot has another name, too: the Penny Wall. According to Schultz, back in the 1960s, climbers practicing at the crack would stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach — a marker and quiet challenge to whoever climbed the crack next.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Sherman honed his own crack-climbing technique on the Penny Wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And as much as the Bay Area’s outdoor climbing sites have been the home of real breakthroughs in the sport of climbing, he said their true value is in the community of climbers that are drawn to them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbing something like the rock on Beaver Street, tucked into the corner of a busy city, can still feel like being let in on a local secret — passed down by generations of climbers who have left something behind for the next adventurous climber: a penny, a piece of gear, or simply a tip to help newcomers navigate a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>“When you do go to these little areas, and make the effort to meet the locals [climbing there], the experience is so much richer,” Sherman said. “It doesn’t have to be Yosemite to give you a climbing experience and a community to hang out with.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003ch2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"transcript\">Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I’m Olivia Allen-Price and you’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>When I was about six months pregnant with my first child, a friend of a friend passed along a maternity climbing harness … a full body nylon contraption that allows pregnant people to keep rock climbing.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Now, I was not a rock climber at the time, but thought — “hey, why not? A lot of other activities I love, like running, have gotten really hard, but my legs are stronger than ever. Let’s climb!”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Soon I found myself halfway up a wall in Pinnacles National Park … having a blast, but also hearing the voice of my mother inside my head: \u003cem>“Oh, Olivia. You would.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>To be honest, my stint with rock climbing was relatively short, but I was into it long enough to hit up most of the bigger climbing areas in the Bay Area. And I learned you don’t have to drive all the way to Yosemite to feel the thrill of scaling a cliff. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There are a handful of urban climbing areas you might have walked past without a second look.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Ravi Bhoraskar [[boh-RAHS-car]] stumbled across one of those hidden rock walls … tucked into the hills of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It looked to me like a residential street. A bunch of cute houses, \u003cs>uh,\u003c/s> and, like, a little narrow path in the middle.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Beaver Street itself is just two blocks long. It climbs from Castro Street up a steep hill towards Corona Heights. The Castro Theater is just a few blocks away.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And tucked into the curve of Beaver Street is a narrow park.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>And as you come in, you get this giant piece of shiny rock, which is the Beaver Street Wall. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This big slab of rock towers 60 feet above a kids’ playground. It’s got these diagonal streaks of red and tan rock that honestly make it look almost like a slice of bacon. And it has an unusual texture…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s kind of like a shiny, almost slippery-looking surface, with some holes that you can potentially use to climb on.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>This interested Ravi because he recently got into rock climbing. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Mostly indoors at the climbing gym. I was excited to learn that there is, like, at least one climbing spot right within the city, like, easily reachable by bus.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And he wants to know … what is that slippery, striped bacon rock?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>How did it end up there, and why does it look so cool?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>And most importantly…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>Like, can I climb it?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Today we’re going to get answers for Ravi, of course. But we’ll also explore how Bay Area climbers have used city parks to practice their skills for decades — and ultimately push the sport forward. Turns out there’s a lot of rock climbing history anchored right here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>KQED producer Francesca Fenzi headed to Beaver Street with Ravi … to check out this unusual rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Birds singing, slight traffic sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> Ravi and I arrive at Corona Heights Park on a sunny weekend afternoon. We can hear birds singing … and the faint sound of traffic from Market Street carrying up the hill.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>There’s a playground, a dense pocket of trees, and then … this glistening rock wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar: \u003c/strong>It’s not wet, but it \u003cem>looks\u003c/em> wet. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The shiny surface is interrupted by a single jagged crack, which runs about six stories high. And at the base of the rock is a sign … which gives us a clue about how it got here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Known as a slickenslide, this smooth rock face was once inside a fault. Its surface was polished by millions of years of geological activity.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It’s Slicken SIDE actually. Try saying that three times fast! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Slickenside forms when two rocks inside a fault rub against each other. Imagine pressing your hands together as hard as you can and then sliding them back and forth. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>That friction creates heat — and tiny dust particles which act like a fluid — to polish the rock until it looks glassy and smooth. Just like the wall at Beaver Street. The colorful stripes even show the direction the fault was moving when a Slickenside was formed.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>According to the sign, this rock is thought to be one of the largest exposed Slickenside formations in the world. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Capitals, “Please do not chip holes in the rock face or alter the rock in any way.” And then it’s taped over Um, climbing on these rocks is by permit only. To obtain a permit, call some number.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I looked into getting a permit and it turns out you no longer need one to climb at Beaver Street. So Ravi is going to try to climb it today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>And to make sure we don’t damage the rock, we’ve enlisted some help.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Hey, how you doing? I’m Max. Hey, Ravi. Ravi, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max Stewart owns a guiding company, called SAANO Adventures. And he’s offered to help us set up an anchor and climbing rope on the Beaver Street wall… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> I’d be happy to. Did you bring some shoes? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I brought some shoes. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Yeah? Okay. Cool.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Outdoor rocks don’t come with built-in safety equipment like the climbs in a gym, so we’ll need to secure our rope to something sturdy at the top of the rock wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>There’s a little staircase here. Yep, there it is.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max leads us up and around the back side of the rock, to the top of a windy hill. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I can pick out landmarks like the diagonal slash of Market Street below, the Salesforce tower and the Bay Bridge in the distance. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Directly in front of us is a steep drop off. It looks a lot more intimidating from up here! \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Isn’t that wild? So the playground. we met just right down there. There’s the sign that you were reading.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Separating us from the edge of the cliff is a chain link fence. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> And then a bunch of heavy duty chains that we’re gonna use.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>These heavy duty chains bolted into the top of the wall are perfect for setting up what’s called a “top rope” climb, where a rope runs from the ground, up to an anchor, and back down to the climber, catching them if they fall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> Always a little weird!\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Max explains that this is the same setup used by climbing gyms … even if it looks a bit different outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, man. That was impressive. [to Ravi] Is this what you were expecting? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> No, not at all. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>A little different than the climbing gym, huh? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>I’ve climbed outside a bit myself and part of what I love is the sense of possibility. There aren’t any predetermined holds, you can find your own route up to the top. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Every single person is gonna have their own method for solving this. the gyms I think are a really good place to get started, to kinda just learn the ropes, but I really encourage people as soon as, you feel like you can do it, to get outside.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>Is this gonna be your first time climbing outside? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Uh, yes. Yes, this will be. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>No way, really? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Oh, it’s so fun.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of climbing over chain link fence\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart:\u003c/strong> When was the last time you were hopping [00:07:00] fences to go climbing. Hey. It feels kinda like you’re doing stuff you’re not supposed to do, hopping fences and … It’s like good clean fun, but still kind of a throwback, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>No laws were broken in the making of this podcast! But Max is right. Setting up the rope above Beaver Street really does feel like getting away with something.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A lot of urban climbs FEEL illicit because it seems kind of unnatural to be doing something we associate with mountains right in our backyards. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>But, there’s actually a long history of Bay Area climbers using whatever they can find to ready themselves for those more ambitious, wild ascents. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Beaver Street is one of the only rocks you can climb outdoors in San Francisco, but just across the bay, in the Berkeley Hills, is another city park where climbers have been pushing the limits of the sport for almost a century.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John Sherman grew up in Berkeley. And he remembers getting introduced to climbing there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman:\u003c/strong> Well, it’s kind of a funny story. Some friends and I in high school, we scored some beer. Of course, we weren’t of legal drinking age, so we were really excited, and we wanted to find some place where \u003cs>we, you know, \u003c/s>we’d be semi-hidden to drink it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>So they made their way to Indian Rock park, a collection of volcanic boulders that was once an Ohlone meeting spot. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And we were sitting on the steps there drinking this beer we had gotten, and I saw people climbing there.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The climbers were just a few feet off the ground … practicing gravity-defying moves.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>That day I got fascinated with it, and I wanted to try it myself.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Pretty soon, he was taking the bus to Indian Rock every day after school.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And I would always have my climbing shoes in my book bag along with my textbooks and stuff, and I would stop there on the way home every day, go to Indian Rock and boulder till it got dark and then walk home.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He was at the rock so often that his brother started describing himself as an only child.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I got hooked, and I’ve been doing it every day since. And, you know, it’s been over 50 years now.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The type of climbing John was doing is called bouldering. There aren’t any ropes, but people climb closer to the ground, using pads to cushion a fall. At least, they do now. But in the early days…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>We took a real beating and there weren’t that many people like myself who were daft enough to go through that and keep beating themselves up like that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John is a bit of a legend. He was the first person to climb a bunch of famous bouldering routes, he helped invent those cushioned pads, AND he created a system for ranking the difficulty of climbs — called the V grading system — that’s widely used today. It starts with the easiest climbs at V0 and goes up from there as the climbing gets harder — V1, V2 and so on. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>The V comes from John’s lifelong nickname, given to him by a biology teacher at El Cerrito High.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>So he called me Sherman the Vermin. Got shortened to Verm and just kind of stuck.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John actually hates how fixated other climbers get on his V grading system.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>I just think of climbing grades as the excrement of the climbing experience. After you do a wonderful, you know, boulder problem, and you enjoy the setting that you’re in, the camaraderie of your climbing partners, the kinesthetic flow of the moves and everything, and then what happens afterwards? Out pops a V grade.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Instead, John likes to think of himself as part of a long line of climbers honing their skills at Indian Rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The early history that I know of that’s documented goes back to like the 1930s\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>At that time, a group of Berkeley law students — and mountaineers — had their sights on Yosemite Valley.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And here is a collection of rocks where they could train.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The training part was important. Because at the time mountain climbing was super dangerous. The gear was heavy and awkward. The safety equipment didn’t really work.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers were using these flimsy ropes made out of hemp that were stiff and dry and tended to break if they got pulled apart too quickly.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>John says most people assumed that falling on a climbing route was a death sentence.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>The rope’s gonna break and that’s it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>But these Berkeley students, climbing at Indian Rock. They came up with a counterintuitive idea.\u003cbr>\u003cbr>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on their idea and how it revolutionized climbing after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> UC Berkeley Students climbing at Indian Rock wanted to make climbing safer, and they discovered a technique that would really change the game. Francesca Fenzi takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi:\u003c/strong> It was all in how you handled the rope… \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>If you let it run through your hands and slowly break the fall, that rope might not snap, and you can actually catch the leader if they fall, and they’re not gonna die.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>This was huge. Climbers started practicing these “slow” rope falls by jumping off the boulders at Indian Rock. And they brought these life-saving skills to Yosemite with them.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>A decade later, in the 1940s, nylon was widely available. And climbers started using the stretchy fiber to make stronger, more shock-absorbant ropes.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>And then all of a sudden things got a lot safer. The nylon ropes were less prone to breaking than hemp ropes were.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Falling on a rock climb was no longer a death sentence and that made the sport a lot more popular.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>As new tools and techniques made climbs safer, the goals of climbing changed, too.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Sherman: \u003c/strong>Style was more important than difficulty.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>John says by the time he got hooked, rock climbing was no longer just about getting to the top. It was about finding creative ways up a rock, and making the act of climbing itself beautiful.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>Climbers were \u003cem>still \u003c/em>eager to test themselves on the big climbs in places like Yosemite and Joshua Tree. But the Bay Area’s natural geology was limiting. And climbing gyms — with their variety of simulated rock types — weren’t as common as they are today.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>So for Bay Area climbers to take their skills to the next level … they had to look in some unexpected places.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Pretty much every building is climbable is what I found out, if you look at it in the right way.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan Schulz is the kind of climber who looks at it “the right way.”\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s 23 and sees climbing opportunities everywhere. Even the UC Berkeley campus, where he’s showing me one of the university’s most famous climbing “routes.” \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>It’s a crack in the side of a brick building that houses the Chemistry department. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>This is the crack we’re looking at right here. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>It takes me a moment to “see” it the way Jordan does.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>To me, I’m looking at a brick wall with a parking sign on it. Yeah. And there’s a gap in the wall that’s maybe about an inch and a half thick. And it runs from the base of the wall to the the next story up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>Yeah. That’s the climb. It doesn’t really look like much when you look at it. And then I think that’s the beautiful part about it, is that you need to open your eyes to it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says climbers have been using the crack in this building to practice their technique since at least the 1960s\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A lot of the style of climbing in Yosemite and the Sierras features a lot of cracks in the rock. And so, it offers a good training ground to learn some crack climbing technique that would help people climb better in the mountains.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Jordan says this spot has another name: the Penny Wall. Back in the 60s, when a climber was practicing at the crack, they’d stick a penny onto the highest brick they could reach.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>And so people would see, like, how high was the penny, and every so often it would get higher.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>A challenge to the next climber…\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jordan Schulz: \u003c/strong>A subtle way of communicating you know, who climbed a little higher and moved the penny up.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Back at Beaver Street, our question asker Ravi is getting ready to place his own metaphorical penny on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: All right, Ravi, let’s get your shoes on- Yep\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>He’s about to climb outside for the first time.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene:\u003c/strong> How are you feeling about climbing it? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> I’m excited. I’m also, yeah, a li- little nervous. Like, I don’t want to slip, but, no, mostly excited. Mostly feeling excited about climbing this.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Your belay is on. And climbing. Okay. Climb on, sir.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area’s outdoor rock walls have been home to major breakthroughs in the sport. But as Max would say, they’re also good clean fun.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What do you think of outdoor climbing versus, uh, in the gym? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> This is great. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Isn’t it so nice?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>And urban climbs like this one — tucked into corners of busy cities — feel like secrets, passed along by other members of this special club. People who’ve contributed a penny, or a pair of chains, or advice about how to get around a tricky stretch of rock.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Try and utilize that crack as much as possible. This guy’s got some bragging rights having this be his first outdoor climb, and he’s just absolutely sending it. Okay, I’m gonna lower you nice and slow. Just walk those feet down. Hey, nice work, man. That was amazing. Good job, man. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Thank you. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>First outdoor climb. Yeah. What a classic too, man. This is a, uh- That was amazing … that’s no slouch of a climb, man. That was, uh, you worked hard for that.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi: \u003c/strong>Whether you’re a seasoned mountaineer, or a new climber, like Ravi, a neighborhood rock can feel just as magical as Yosemite.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>What’d you think of that glass section in the middle there? \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> The glass section was definitely interesting. That was wild. \u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Well, what do you think? Should we, uh, pull these ropes?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds or rope falling from a great height\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Max Stewart: \u003c/strong>Boom. That’s it. That’s the sound of the end of it.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Classical music plays\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Francesca Fenzi in scene: \u003c/strong>That song is the perfect soundtrack. Was that your cellphone?\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ravi Bhoraskar:\u003c/strong> Yeah, it was.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That story was brought to us by KQED reporter Francesca Fenzi.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>I’ve got two requests for you on our way out. First, Head to \u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">BayCurious.org\u003c/a> and VOTE in our public voting round to help us decide what story we should tackle next. All it takes is a few seconds and one click.\u003c/p>\n\n\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, consider becoming a member of KQED and supporting Bay Curious. We are relying more on listener donations than we have in the past and every dollar helps us to keep bringing you stories like this one. Head to \u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> to get started.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "why-is-piedmont-a-separate-city-from-oakland-2",
"title": "Why Is Piedmont a Separate City From Oakland? Bay Curious Explains",
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"headTitle": "Why Is Piedmont a Separate City From Oakland? Bay Curious Explains | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story was first published on April 4, 2019, and was updated on Feb. 1, 2024, to reflect updated census data.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Piedmont in the East Bay is a bit of a geographical oddity. It’s not even 2 square miles in size and is surrounded on all sides by Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you look closely, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/maps/place/Piedmont,+CA/@37.8249429,-122.2441171,5564m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80857d7f7f19c5f5:0xb8deddc8c24bd3f!8m2!3d37.8243715!4d-122.231635\">town’s borders\u003c/a> seem to make no sense. Instead of following streets or physical landmarks — like the borders of most towns do — in Piedmont, the borders snake around, sometimes through the middle of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> listener David Levine has long wondered what’s up with this doughnut hole in the middle of Oakland. He asked, “Why is Piedmont a separate city from Oakland?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s worth understanding the history, and then we can ask questions as a community, ‘Is that still relevant today?'” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, this is a story about Piedmont, of course, but as soon as we started digging around, we quickly found that the story of Piedmont starts in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Little City That Could\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, Oakland incorporated, going from ranch land and small settlement clusters to becoming an official city. Almost immediately, it started to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland leaders were under a very ambitious program to enlarge the city’s boundaries and increase the population,” said Oakland librarian Steve Lavoie, who curated an exhibit on Piedmont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This program to expand Oakland’s boundaries was called the Greater Oakland Movement. City leaders wanted to add more land and more residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737640\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737640 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/oyy29ensdzi7cg2d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration in the Oakland Tribune on Nov. 17, 1909. \u003ccite>(Oakland Tribune/Oakland History Room)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This movement was not so much motivated by economic interests, but it was motivated by the anti-monopoly group, who felt that small cities were rife for corruption,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These leaders thought that the smaller the city, the greater the chance that greedy folks would do something — like raid the treasury or discourage business competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The original plan would have created the largest city on the Pacific Coast at the time,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This large city could come together only if they could convince all of the neighboring towns or communities without their own governments to join Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding the Boundaries\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland started at about 170 city blocks in size. It grew from there by absorbing surrounding towns, whose names you might recognize as neighborhoods today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1872, it annexed the town of Brooklyn. Twenty-five years later came Temescal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It tried to get Berkeley, but Berkeley turned Oakland down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each annexation required a vote by the people in the town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard said, “It wasn’t like an aggressive kinda corporate takeover. It was more negotiation with various town councils.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737625 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard points out Oakland’s various annexations. \u003ccite>(Chris Hambrick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A Wrinkle in the Plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland city leaders kept eyeing new territory, and soon, Piedmont was squarely in its crosshairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The City Council took a measure to vote an annexation of all the land in what is now Piedmont and a whole bunch of other East Oakland hamlets,” Steve Lavoie said. Oakland’s City Council set the vote on annexing Piedmont for January 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then something went wrong. In their paperwork, they failed to name one of the districts they wanted to annex, and the vote was postponed until March. This left a really big opening for mayhem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the meantime, a group in Piedmont who opposed annexation jumped on the opportunity to try and incorporate Piedmont as a way of preventing annexation into Oakland,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081625\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland City Hall in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the delay in Oakland’s vote, some Piedmont residents, a mix of bohemian artists and business people, filed a petition to hold their \u003cem>own \u003c/em>election to become a city. They hoped Piedmont would remain rural and undeveloped if they could beat Oakland to the punch. They saw how densely populated Oakland was, and they didn’t want any part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Piedmont historian Ann Swift said convincing other Piedmonters to incorporate was no easy feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hugh Craig and James Ballentine were the two leaders of the incorporation effort, and they are having meetings every other night, practically trying to rally the troops and get everybody excited about creating this new city,” she said. “But there was also opposition. It was not a slam dunk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Tragic Loss\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Something that happened back in 1892 weighed heavily on the minds of voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The \u003ca href=\"http://piedmonthistorical.org/banner1.html\">Piedmont Springs Hotel\u003c/a>, which was a great, huge, three-story white clapboard edifice that sat in the center of the city, caught fire early one morning in November,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That grand hotel was Piedmont’s biggest tourist attraction — a place where wealthy San Franciscans came to relax. Piedmont didn’t have city services, so Oakland’s Fire Department was summoned to come put out the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737636\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737636 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-800x2150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"2150\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-800x2150.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-160x430.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-446x1200.jpg 446w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping.jpg 762w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The top story in the Oakland Tribune on Nov. 17, 1892, told the news of the devastating fire. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/location/oakland/\">Oakland Tribune/\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/\">Newspapers.com\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In those days, there were no fire hydrants. You had to bring the water with you,” Swift said. “Well, imagine a team of horses dragging a big tanker full of water up Oakland Avenue, for instance. Very, very difficult and slow going. So by the time the fire wagon’s got to the hotel, they were just sitting with everybody else watching the embers burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took Oakland’s Fire Department two hours to get to the hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was completely gone. And that was what happened if your house in the Piedmont hills caught fire,” Swift said. “So Piedmonters were adamant about wanting their own fire service, wanting someone right there in the center of this 1.8 square miles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>To Join or Not To Join\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>All the Piedmont residents agreed that they needed a better solution for fire response, but they differed on whether better meant being a part of Oakland or figuring it out as their own city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Piedmont had no experience with levying taxes and evaluating property and providing all these city services like street sprinkling. Back in the day, the streets were mostly unpaved, and especially in the summer, you had water trucks that went through the city and watered down the streets so that it wasn’t so dusty,” Swift said. “Well, Piedmont had no water street-dusting things, and so all of that was going to have to be created. And there was a sizable part of the city who thought there was no need to go through that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The big vote on whether Piedmont should incorporate happened in January 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eighteen more men voted to become a city than voted to not become a city,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Piedmont was officially a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s where it gets tricky. Oakland’s vote to annex Piedmont still went forward. And in March, a majority of Piedmont residents voted to join Oakland. The vote was 63–43. But this was impossible now that Piedmont was its own city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only thing that the opponents in the Piedmont hills can do is to hold an election to disincorporate [Piedmont]. So they hold another election in September, and more people voted to become part of the city of Oakland, to disincorporate Piedmont than voted to stay a city,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So then, why is Piedmont separate today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of those little nuggets of law that people don’t know much about or care much about until they have to. It requires two-thirds vote of the people to disincorporate a city, and they failed to get two-thirds,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12094662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12094662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128-1536x988.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Piedmont Springs Park Club House, Oakland, California, Postcard from 1898 – 1931 \u003ccite>(Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Piedmont stayed a separate city, but its edges weave in and out of Oakland. This is because, in their haste to file paperwork to incorporate Piedmont, proponents grabbed the only map they had on hand to define the boundaries — a map of the sewer lines that snaked underneath the houses in Piedmont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does that mean for the borders of Piedmont today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means that there are 136 parcels … a portion of which are in Piedmont and a portion of which are in Oakland, and/or, where one side of the street is in Piedmont and the other side of the street is in Oakland, like Rose Avenue,” Swift said. “Sewer boundaries wouldn’t ever be what you would want to use in defining city boundaries. You’d want to use streets or major roads. But they didn’t have that choice, so we’re stuck with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Piedmont/Oakland Relations Today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The question-asker wondered about the class and racial divide many see separating Piedmont from Oakland. Host Olivia Allen-Price and reporter Chris Hambrick spoke about it at the end of the episode. Here is the transcript.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Now, I know our question-asker had a few concerns about how Oakland and Piedmont interact. Did any of those issues sort of come to light for you as you were reporting the story? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I learned that both Oakland and Piedmont have an agreement to back each other up when it comes to fire and police services and that Piedmont pays the city of Oakland to use their library since they don’t have any of their own. But when it comes to resident-to-resident interaction, that relationship was a little bit more strained than people would admit on tape. In general, Piedmont residents enjoy having this small-town feel within their city. They know their public officials by name. They know their neighbors. But it seems like some Piedmont residents feel judged for being able to live that way. And on the Oakland side, there’s this feeling that Piedmont residents have been more deliberate and separating themselves and they did that along race and class lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And why do you think there’s this perception? Where does that come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think it kind of stems from back in the 1920s. Piedmont had a police chief by the name of Burton Becker, and Burton was an active member of the Klu Klux Klan. He held Klan meetings inside of his house, and at a time when Oakland had banned the Klan because the jurisdiction was different, he was shielded a little bit from persecution, being in Piedmont. He could not be banned because Piedmont is its own city. And then, after World War II, when many African Americans were migrating to the Bay Area from the American South, Oakland’s housing stock was more affordable than Piedmont, so people ended up settling in Oakland. And Piedmont residents are 68% white and 21% Asian, according to the 2020 Census. Compare that with Oakland, which has much larger Black and Latino populations. Some people view this as evidence that Piedmont created a community that excludes based on race and class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I understand there hasn’t been any like super serious effort to, you know, merge Piedmont and Oakland. But there was a social media campaign a few years back. Can you tell me about the Liberate Piedmont movement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So a high schooler named Noah Goldstein wanted to explore the possibility of merging Piedmont and Oakland because he felt like Piedmont residents enjoy the benefits of Oakland without having to pay for them. And Piedmont residents pay hefty taxes to support their schools and their city services but they pay that money to the city of Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But it sounds like Piedmont residents weren’t super keen on this idea of becoming a part of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b> Yeah, that’s what I gather. They have a degree of comfort with the way that their life is now. And even though the city founders weren’t able to keep that development from happening, you know, the area’s just 1.7 square miles. And so they did succeed in creating that small-town feel inside their city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All right. Well, Chris, thanks so much for looking into this one for us.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Liam O’Donoghue, host of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayyesterday.com/\">East Bay Yesterday podcast\u003c/a>, contributed to the research on this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The city of Piedmont in the East Bay is a bit of geographical oddity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Levine:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I looked at a map and I saw that Piedmont was almost like a doughnut hole in the center of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is David Levine, our question-asker today. On the map, he saw this tiny city, not even two square miles in size, surrounded on all sides by the city of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if you take a close look, the borders of Piedmont seem to make no sense. Instead of following streets or physical landmarks — like the borders of most towns do — in Piedmont, the borders snake around — sometimes through the middle of homes. All this got David wondering ….\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Levine:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Why is Piedmont a separate city from Oakland? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Bay Curious, the podcast that explores the Bay Area one \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">question at a time. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This week we’re bringing you the wild, unexpected origin story of the city of Piedmont. This story first aired in 2019, but it’s a topic we still get questions about on the regular. So, Piedmont fans, Piedmont detractors, and all you generally curious people — stick around for some answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, this is a story about Piedmont, of course. But as soon as we started digging, we found out…. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … The story of Piedmont starts in Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … Reporter Chris Hambrick brings us the tale. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the late 1800s, Oakland incorporated, going from ranch land and small settlement clusters to becoming an official city. Almost immediately, it started to grow. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music begins)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland leaders were under a very ambitious program to enlarge the city’s boundaries and increase the population. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Steve Lavoie. He’s an Oakland librarian who curated an exhibit on Piedmont history. This program to expand Oakland’s boundaries was called the Greater Oakland Movement. City leaders wanted to add more land and more residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This movement was not so much motivated by economic interests, but it was motivated by the anti-monopoly group who felt that small cities were ripe for corruption. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They thought the smaller the city, the greater the chance that greedy folks would do something like raid the treasury or discourage competition among businesses. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music fades)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The original plan would have created the largest city on the Pacific coast at the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This large city could only come together if they could convince all of the neighboring towns and communities without their own government to join Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music begin)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland started at about 170 city blocks in size. It grew from there by absorbing surrounding towns whose names you might recognize as neighborhoods today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voices:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Temescal. Brooklyn. Fruitvale. Elmhurst. Melrose. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Chris Hambrick: \u003c/b>They tried to get Berkeley, but Berkeley said, “No, thanks.”\u003c/span> Each annexation required a vote by people in the town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Lazard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You know, it wasn’t like an aggressive kind of corporate takeover or anything. It was more negotiation with various town councils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard. Oakland city leaders kept eyeing new territory, and soon Piedmont was squarely in its crosshairs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The city council took a measure to vote, an annexation of all the land in what is now Piedmont, and a whole bunch of other East Oakland hamlets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland City Council set the vote on annexing Piedmont for January 1907. But then something went wrong. In their paperwork, they failed to name one of the districts that they wanted to annex, and the vote was postponed until March. This left a really big opening for mayhem. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(dramatic music starts)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the meantime, a group in Piedmont who opposes annexation jumped on the opportunity to try and incorporate Piedmont as a way of preventing annexation into Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> During the delay in Oakland’s vote, some Piedmont residents, a mix of bohemian artists and businesspeople, filed a petition to hold their own election to become a city. If they could beat Oakland to the punch, they hoped Piedmont would remain rural and undeveloped. Piedmont historian Ann Swift says convincing other Piedmont to incorporate was no easy feat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re having meetings every other night, practically trying to rally the troops and get everybody excited about creating this new city. But there was also opposition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Something that happened back in 1892 weighed heavily on the minds of voters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Piedmont Springs Hotel, which was a great huge three-story white clapboard edifice that sat in the center of the city, caught fire early one morning in November. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That Grand Hotel was Piedmont’s biggest tourist attraction, a place where wealthy San Franciscans came to relax. Piedmont didn’t have city services, so Oakland’s fire department was summoned to come out the fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because in those days, there were no fire hydrants. You had to bring the water with you. Well, imagine a team of horses dragging a big tanker full of water up Oakland Avenue, for instance. Very, very difficult and slow going. So by the time the fire wagons got to the hotel, they were just sitting with everybody else, watching the embers burn. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It took Oakland’s fire department a whopping two hours to get to the hotel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was completely gone. And that was what happened if your house in the Piedmont hills caught fire. So Pidemonters were adamant about wanting their own fire service. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All the Piedmont residents agreed that they needed a better solution for fire response, but they differed on whether better meant being a part of Oakland or figuring it out as their own city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Piedmont had no experience with levying taxes and evaluating property and providing all the city services, and so all of that was going to have to be created. And there was a sizable part of the city who thought there was no need to go through that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The big vote on whether Piedmont should incorporate happened in January 1907. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Eighteen more men voted to become a city, than voted to not become a city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But here’s where it gets tricky. Oakland’s vote to annex Piedmont still went forward, and in March, a majority of Piedmont residents voted to join Oakland. But this was impossible, now that Piedmont was its own city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So the only thing that the opponents in the Piedmont hills can do is to hold an election to disincorporate a city. So they hold another election in September, and more people vote to become part of the city of Oakland, to disincorporate Piedmont than vote to stay a city. So I always ask the school kids, well, so how come I’m not talking to you in Oakland City Hall? It’s one of those little nuggets of lore that people don’t know much about or care much about until they have to. It requires two-thirds vote of the people to disincorporate a city, and they failed to get two-thirds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Piedmont stayed a separate city, with its edges within and out of Oakland. This is because, in their haste to file paperwork to incorporate Piedmont, proponents grabbed the only map they had on hand to define the boundaries. It was a map of the sewer lines that snaked underneath the houses in Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick (in tape):\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what does that mean for the borders of Piedmont today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Lazard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It means that there are 136 parcels, a portion of which are in Piedmont and a portion of which are in Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So, Chris, it sounds like Piedmont will continue to be sort of this city within a city, you know, the Vatican of the East Bay, if you will. Now, I know our question-asker had a few concerns about how Oakland and Piedmont interact. Did any of those issues sort of come to light for you as you were reporting the story? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I learned that both Oakland and Piedmont have an agreement to back each other up when it comes to fire and police services and that Piedmont pays the city of Oakland to use their library since they don’t have any of their own. But when it comes to resident-to-resident interaction, that relationship was a little bit more strained than people would admit on tape. In general, Piedmont residents enjoy having this small-town feel within their city. They know their public officials by name. They know their neighbors. But it seems like some Piedmont residents feel judged for being able to live that way. And on the Oakland side, there’s this feeling that Piedmont residents have been more deliberate and separating themselves and they did that along race and class lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And why do you think there’s this perception? Where does that come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think it kind of stems from back in the 1920s. Piedmont had a police chief by the name of Burton Becker, and Burton was an active member of the Klu Klux Klan. He held Klan meetings inside of his house, and at a time when Oakland had banned the Klan because the jurisdiction was different, he was shielded a little bit from persecution, being in Piedmont. He could not be banned because Piedmont is its own city. And then, after World War II, when many African Americans were migrating to the Bay Area from the American South, Oakland’s housing stock was more affordable than Piedmont, so people ended up settling in Oakland. And Piedmont residents are 68% white and 21% Asian, according to the 2020 Census. Compare that with Oakland, which has much larger Black and Latino populations. Some people view this as evidence that Piedmont created a community that excludes based on race and class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I understand there hasn’t been any like super serious effort to, you know, merge Piedmont and Oakland. But there was a social media campaign a few years back. Can you tell me about the Liberate Piedmont movement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So a high schooler named Noah Goldstein wanted to explore the possibility of merging Piedmont and Oakland because he felt like Piedmont residents enjoy the benefits of Oakland without having to pay for them. And Piedmont residents pay hefty taxes to support their schools and their city services but they pay that money to the city of Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But it sounds like Piedmont residents weren’t super keen on this idea of becoming a part of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah, that’s what I gather. They have a degree of comfort with the way that their life is now. And even though the city founders weren’t able to keep that development from happening, you know, the area’s just 1.7 square miles. And so they did succeed in creating that small-town feel inside their city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All right. Well, Chris, thanks so much for looking into this one for us. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A big thanks to Bay Curious listener David Levine for asking this week’s question. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> Liam O’Donohue, the host and creator of the East Bay Yesterday podcast, was a big help with the research on this story. If you haven’t checked out Liam’s podcast yet, I highly suggest you give it a try. Just search East Bay yesterday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia-Allen Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Thanks so much for listening.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>This story was first published on April 4, 2019, and was updated on Feb. 1, 2024, to reflect updated census data.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Piedmont in the East Bay is a bit of a geographical oddity. It’s not even 2 square miles in size and is surrounded on all sides by Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you look closely, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.google.com/maps/place/Piedmont,+CA/@37.8249429,-122.2441171,5564m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80857d7f7f19c5f5:0xb8deddc8c24bd3f!8m2!3d37.8243715!4d-122.231635\">town’s borders\u003c/a> seem to make no sense. Instead of following streets or physical landmarks — like the borders of most towns do — in Piedmont, the borders snake around, sometimes through the middle of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> listener David Levine has long wondered what’s up with this doughnut hole in the middle of Oakland. He asked, “Why is Piedmont a separate city from Oakland?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s worth understanding the history, and then we can ask questions as a community, ‘Is that still relevant today?'” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, this is a story about Piedmont, of course, but as soon as we started digging around, we quickly found that the story of Piedmont starts in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The Little City That Could\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In the late 1800s, Oakland incorporated, going from ranch land and small settlement clusters to becoming an official city. Almost immediately, it started to grow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland leaders were under a very ambitious program to enlarge the city’s boundaries and increase the population,” said Oakland librarian Steve Lavoie, who curated an exhibit on Piedmont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This program to expand Oakland’s boundaries was called the Greater Oakland Movement. City leaders wanted to add more land and more residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737640\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737640 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/oyy29ensdzi7cg2d-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An illustration in the Oakland Tribune on Nov. 17, 1909. \u003ccite>(Oakland Tribune/Oakland History Room)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This movement was not so much motivated by economic interests, but it was motivated by the anti-monopoly group, who felt that small cities were rife for corruption,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These leaders thought that the smaller the city, the greater the chance that greedy folks would do something — like raid the treasury or discourage business competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The original plan would have created the largest city on the Pacific Coast at the time,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This large city could come together only if they could convince all of the neighboring towns or communities without their own governments to join Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Expanding the Boundaries\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland started at about 170 city blocks in size. It grew from there by absorbing surrounding towns, whose names you might recognize as neighborhoods today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1872, it annexed the town of Brooklyn. Twenty-five years later came Temescal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It tried to get Berkeley, but Berkeley turned Oakland down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each annexation required a vote by the people in the town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard said, “It wasn’t like an aggressive kinda corporate takeover. It was more negotiation with various town councils.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737625 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR-1920x1080.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/1110181710a_HDR.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard points out Oakland’s various annexations. \u003ccite>(Chris Hambrick/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A Wrinkle in the Plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oakland city leaders kept eyeing new territory, and soon, Piedmont was squarely in its crosshairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The City Council took a measure to vote an annexation of all the land in what is now Piedmont and a whole bunch of other East Oakland hamlets,” Steve Lavoie said. Oakland’s City Council set the vote on annexing Piedmont for January 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then something went wrong. In their paperwork, they failed to name one of the districts they wanted to annex, and the vote was postponed until March. This left a really big opening for mayhem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the meantime, a group in Piedmont who opposed annexation jumped on the opportunity to try and incorporate Piedmont as a way of preventing annexation into Oakland,” Lavoie said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081625\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081625\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland City Hall in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>During the delay in Oakland’s vote, some Piedmont residents, a mix of bohemian artists and business people, filed a petition to hold their \u003cem>own \u003c/em>election to become a city. They hoped Piedmont would remain rural and undeveloped if they could beat Oakland to the punch. They saw how densely populated Oakland was, and they didn’t want any part of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Piedmont historian Ann Swift said convincing other Piedmonters to incorporate was no easy feat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hugh Craig and James Ballentine were the two leaders of the incorporation effort, and they are having meetings every other night, practically trying to rally the troops and get everybody excited about creating this new city,” she said. “But there was also opposition. It was not a slam dunk.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A Tragic Loss\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Something that happened back in 1892 weighed heavily on the minds of voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The \u003ca href=\"http://piedmonthistorical.org/banner1.html\">Piedmont Springs Hotel\u003c/a>, which was a great, huge, three-story white clapboard edifice that sat in the center of the city, caught fire early one morning in November,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That grand hotel was Piedmont’s biggest tourist attraction — a place where wealthy San Franciscans came to relax. Piedmont didn’t have city services, so Oakland’s Fire Department was summoned to come put out the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11737636\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11737636 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-800x2150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"2150\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-800x2150.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-160x430.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping-446x1200.jpg 446w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/newspaperclipping.jpg 762w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The top story in the Oakland Tribune on Nov. 17, 1892, told the news of the devastating fire. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://www.eastbaytimes.com/location/oakland/\">Oakland Tribune/\u003c/a>\u003ca href=\"https://www.newspapers.com/\">Newspapers.com\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In those days, there were no fire hydrants. You had to bring the water with you,” Swift said. “Well, imagine a team of horses dragging a big tanker full of water up Oakland Avenue, for instance. Very, very difficult and slow going. So by the time the fire wagon’s got to the hotel, they were just sitting with everybody else watching the embers burn.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It took Oakland’s Fire Department two hours to get to the hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was completely gone. And that was what happened if your house in the Piedmont hills caught fire,” Swift said. “So Piedmonters were adamant about wanting their own fire service, wanting someone right there in the center of this 1.8 square miles.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>To Join or Not To Join\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>All the Piedmont residents agreed that they needed a better solution for fire response, but they differed on whether better meant being a part of Oakland or figuring it out as their own city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Piedmont had no experience with levying taxes and evaluating property and providing all these city services like street sprinkling. Back in the day, the streets were mostly unpaved, and especially in the summer, you had water trucks that went through the city and watered down the streets so that it wasn’t so dusty,” Swift said. “Well, Piedmont had no water street-dusting things, and so all of that was going to have to be created. And there was a sizable part of the city who thought there was no need to go through that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The big vote on whether Piedmont should incorporate happened in January 1907.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Eighteen more men voted to become a city than voted to not become a city,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Piedmont was officially a city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But here’s where it gets tricky. Oakland’s vote to annex Piedmont still went forward. And in March, a majority of Piedmont residents voted to join Oakland. The vote was 63–43. But this was impossible now that Piedmont was its own city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The only thing that the opponents in the Piedmont hills can do is to hold an election to disincorporate [Piedmont]. So they hold another election in September, and more people voted to become part of the city of Oakland, to disincorporate Piedmont than voted to stay a city,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So then, why is Piedmont separate today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of those little nuggets of law that people don’t know much about or care much about until they have to. It requires two-thirds vote of the people to disincorporate a city, and they failed to get two-thirds,” Swift said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12094662\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1980px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12094662\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1980\" height=\"1273\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128.jpg 1980w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128-160x103.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/GettyImages-1487195128-1536x988.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1980px) 100vw, 1980px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Piedmont Springs Park Club House, Oakland, California, Postcard from 1898 – 1931 \u003ccite>(Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Piedmont stayed a separate city, but its edges weave in and out of Oakland. This is because, in their haste to file paperwork to incorporate Piedmont, proponents grabbed the only map they had on hand to define the boundaries — a map of the sewer lines that snaked underneath the houses in Piedmont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What does that mean for the borders of Piedmont today?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means that there are 136 parcels … a portion of which are in Piedmont and a portion of which are in Oakland, and/or, where one side of the street is in Piedmont and the other side of the street is in Oakland, like Rose Avenue,” Swift said. “Sewer boundaries wouldn’t ever be what you would want to use in defining city boundaries. You’d want to use streets or major roads. But they didn’t have that choice, so we’re stuck with it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Piedmont/Oakland Relations Today\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The question-asker wondered about the class and racial divide many see separating Piedmont from Oakland. Host Olivia Allen-Price and reporter Chris Hambrick spoke about it at the end of the episode. Here is the transcript.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Now, I know our question-asker had a few concerns about how Oakland and Piedmont interact. Did any of those issues sort of come to light for you as you were reporting the story? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I learned that both Oakland and Piedmont have an agreement to back each other up when it comes to fire and police services and that Piedmont pays the city of Oakland to use their library since they don’t have any of their own. But when it comes to resident-to-resident interaction, that relationship was a little bit more strained than people would admit on tape. In general, Piedmont residents enjoy having this small-town feel within their city. They know their public officials by name. They know their neighbors. But it seems like some Piedmont residents feel judged for being able to live that way. And on the Oakland side, there’s this feeling that Piedmont residents have been more deliberate and separating themselves and they did that along race and class lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And why do you think there’s this perception? Where does that come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think it kind of stems from back in the 1920s. Piedmont had a police chief by the name of Burton Becker, and Burton was an active member of the Klu Klux Klan. He held Klan meetings inside of his house, and at a time when Oakland had banned the Klan because the jurisdiction was different, he was shielded a little bit from persecution, being in Piedmont. He could not be banned because Piedmont is its own city. And then, after World War II, when many African Americans were migrating to the Bay Area from the American South, Oakland’s housing stock was more affordable than Piedmont, so people ended up settling in Oakland. And Piedmont residents are 68% white and 21% Asian, according to the 2020 Census. Compare that with Oakland, which has much larger Black and Latino populations. Some people view this as evidence that Piedmont created a community that excludes based on race and class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I understand there hasn’t been any like super serious effort to, you know, merge Piedmont and Oakland. But there was a social media campaign a few years back. Can you tell me about the Liberate Piedmont movement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So a high schooler named Noah Goldstein wanted to explore the possibility of merging Piedmont and Oakland because he felt like Piedmont residents enjoy the benefits of Oakland without having to pay for them. And Piedmont residents pay hefty taxes to support their schools and their city services but they pay that money to the city of Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But it sounds like Piedmont residents weren’t super keen on this idea of becoming a part of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b> Yeah, that’s what I gather. They have a degree of comfort with the way that their life is now. And even though the city founders weren’t able to keep that development from happening, you know, the area’s just 1.7 square miles. And so they did succeed in creating that small-town feel inside their city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All right. Well, Chris, thanks so much for looking into this one for us.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Liam O’Donoghue, host of the \u003ca href=\"https://eastbayyesterday.com/\">East Bay Yesterday podcast\u003c/a>, contributed to the research on this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The city of Piedmont in the East Bay is a bit of geographical oddity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Levine:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I looked at a map and I saw that Piedmont was almost like a doughnut hole in the center of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This is David Levine, our question-asker today. On the map, he saw this tiny city, not even two square miles in size, surrounded on all sides by the city of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And if you take a close look, the borders of Piedmont seem to make no sense. Instead of following streets or physical landmarks — like the borders of most towns do — in Piedmont, the borders snake around — sometimes through the middle of homes. All this got David wondering ….\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>David Levine:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Why is Piedmont a separate city from Oakland? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Bay Curious, the podcast that explores the Bay Area one \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">question at a time. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This week we’re bringing you the wild, unexpected origin story of the city of Piedmont. This story first aired in 2019, but it’s a topic we still get questions about on the regular. So, Piedmont fans, Piedmont detractors, and all you generally curious people — stick around for some answers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now, this is a story about Piedmont, of course. But as soon as we started digging, we found out…. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … The story of Piedmont starts in Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> … Reporter Chris Hambrick brings us the tale. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the late 1800s, Oakland incorporated, going from ranch land and small settlement clusters to becoming an official city. Almost immediately, it started to grow. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music begins)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland leaders were under a very ambitious program to enlarge the city’s boundaries and increase the population. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Steve Lavoie. He’s an Oakland librarian who curated an exhibit on Piedmont history. This program to expand Oakland’s boundaries was called the Greater Oakland Movement. City leaders wanted to add more land and more residents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This movement was not so much motivated by economic interests, but it was motivated by the anti-monopoly group who felt that small cities were ripe for corruption. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They thought the smaller the city, the greater the chance that greedy folks would do something like raid the treasury or discourage competition among businesses. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music fades)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The original plan would have created the largest city on the Pacific coast at the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This large city could only come together if they could convince all of the neighboring towns and communities without their own government to join Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music begin)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland started at about 170 city blocks in size. It grew from there by absorbing surrounding towns whose names you might recognize as neighborhoods today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voices:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Temescal. Brooklyn. Fruitvale. Elmhurst. Melrose. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Chris Hambrick: \u003c/b>They tried to get Berkeley, but Berkeley said, “No, thanks.”\u003c/span> Each annexation required a vote by people in the town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Lazard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You know, it wasn’t like an aggressive kind of corporate takeover or anything. It was more negotiation with various town councils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That’s Oakland librarian Dorothy Lazard. Oakland city leaders kept eyeing new territory, and soon Piedmont was squarely in its crosshairs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The city council took a measure to vote, an annexation of all the land in what is now Piedmont, and a whole bunch of other East Oakland hamlets. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland City Council set the vote on annexing Piedmont for January 1907. But then something went wrong. In their paperwork, they failed to name one of the districts that they wanted to annex, and the vote was postponed until March. This left a really big opening for mayhem. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(dramatic music starts)\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Steve Lavoie:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In the meantime, a group in Piedmont who opposes annexation jumped on the opportunity to try and incorporate Piedmont as a way of preventing annexation into Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> During the delay in Oakland’s vote, some Piedmont residents, a mix of bohemian artists and businesspeople, filed a petition to hold their own election to become a city. If they could beat Oakland to the punch, they hoped Piedmont would remain rural and undeveloped. Piedmont historian Ann Swift says convincing other Piedmont to incorporate was no easy feat. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re having meetings every other night, practically trying to rally the troops and get everybody excited about creating this new city. But there was also opposition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Something that happened back in 1892 weighed heavily on the minds of voters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The Piedmont Springs Hotel, which was a great huge three-story white clapboard edifice that sat in the center of the city, caught fire early one morning in November. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That Grand Hotel was Piedmont’s biggest tourist attraction, a place where wealthy San Franciscans came to relax. Piedmont didn’t have city services, so Oakland’s fire department was summoned to come out the fire.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Because in those days, there were no fire hydrants. You had to bring the water with you. Well, imagine a team of horses dragging a big tanker full of water up Oakland Avenue, for instance. Very, very difficult and slow going. So by the time the fire wagons got to the hotel, they were just sitting with everybody else, watching the embers burn. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It took Oakland’s fire department a whopping two hours to get to the hotel. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was completely gone. And that was what happened if your house in the Piedmont hills caught fire. So Pidemonters were adamant about wanting their own fire service. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All the Piedmont residents agreed that they needed a better solution for fire response, but they differed on whether better meant being a part of Oakland or figuring it out as their own city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Piedmont had no experience with levying taxes and evaluating property and providing all the city services, and so all of that was going to have to be created. And there was a sizable part of the city who thought there was no need to go through that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> The big vote on whether Piedmont should incorporate happened in January 1907. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Eighteen more men voted to become a city, than voted to not become a city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But here’s where it gets tricky. Oakland’s vote to annex Piedmont still went forward, and in March, a majority of Piedmont residents voted to join Oakland. But this was impossible, now that Piedmont was its own city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ann Swift:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So the only thing that the opponents in the Piedmont hills can do is to hold an election to disincorporate a city. So they hold another election in September, and more people vote to become part of the city of Oakland, to disincorporate Piedmont than vote to stay a city. So I always ask the school kids, well, so how come I’m not talking to you in Oakland City Hall? It’s one of those little nuggets of lore that people don’t know much about or care much about until they have to. It requires two-thirds vote of the people to disincorporate a city, and they failed to get two-thirds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Piedmont stayed a separate city, with its edges within and out of Oakland. This is because, in their haste to file paperwork to incorporate Piedmont, proponents grabbed the only map they had on hand to define the boundaries. It was a map of the sewer lines that snaked underneath the houses in Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick (in tape):\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So what does that mean for the borders of Piedmont today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dorothy Lazard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It means that there are 136 parcels, a portion of which are in Piedmont and a portion of which are in Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So, Chris, it sounds like Piedmont will continue to be sort of this city within a city, you know, the Vatican of the East Bay, if you will. Now, I know our question-asker had a few concerns about how Oakland and Piedmont interact. Did any of those issues sort of come to light for you as you were reporting the story? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I learned that both Oakland and Piedmont have an agreement to back each other up when it comes to fire and police services and that Piedmont pays the city of Oakland to use their library since they don’t have any of their own. But when it comes to resident-to-resident interaction, that relationship was a little bit more strained than people would admit on tape. In general, Piedmont residents enjoy having this small-town feel within their city. They know their public officials by name. They know their neighbors. But it seems like some Piedmont residents feel judged for being able to live that way. And on the Oakland side, there’s this feeling that Piedmont residents have been more deliberate and separating themselves and they did that along race and class lines. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And why do you think there’s this perception? Where does that come from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I think it kind of stems from back in the 1920s. Piedmont had a police chief by the name of Burton Becker, and Burton was an active member of the Klu Klux Klan. He held Klan meetings inside of his house, and at a time when Oakland had banned the Klan because the jurisdiction was different, he was shielded a little bit from persecution, being in Piedmont. He could not be banned because Piedmont is its own city. And then, after World War II, when many African Americans were migrating to the Bay Area from the American South, Oakland’s housing stock was more affordable than Piedmont, so people ended up settling in Oakland. And Piedmont residents are 68% white and 21% Asian, according to the 2020 Census. Compare that with Oakland, which has much larger Black and Latino populations. Some people view this as evidence that Piedmont created a community that excludes based on race and class.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I understand there hasn’t been any like super serious effort to, you know, merge Piedmont and Oakland. But there was a social media campaign a few years back. Can you tell me about the Liberate Piedmont movement? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So a high schooler named Noah Goldstein wanted to explore the possibility of merging Piedmont and Oakland because he felt like Piedmont residents enjoy the benefits of Oakland without having to pay for them. And Piedmont residents pay hefty taxes to support their schools and their city services but they pay that money to the city of Piedmont. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> But it sounds like Piedmont residents weren’t super keen on this idea of becoming a part of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah, that’s what I gather. They have a degree of comfort with the way that their life is now. And even though the city founders weren’t able to keep that development from happening, you know, the area’s just 1.7 square miles. And so they did succeed in creating that small-town feel inside their city. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> All right. Well, Chris, thanks so much for looking into this one for us. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Chris Hambrick:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> You’re welcome. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> A big thanks to Bay Curious listener David Levine for asking this week’s question. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> Liam O’Donohue, the host and creator of the East Bay Yesterday podcast, was a big help with the research on this story. If you haven’t checked out Liam’s podcast yet, I highly suggest you give it a try. Just search East Bay yesterday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> Bay Curious is produced in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia-Allen Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED Family.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Thanks so much for listening.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "why-specialized-mariners-are-required-on-every-ship-sailing-into-san-francisco-bay",
"title": "Why Specialized Mariners Are Required on Every Ship Sailing Into San Francisco Bay",
"publishDate": 1783591252,
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"headTitle": "Why Specialized Mariners Are Required on Every Ship Sailing Into San Francisco Bay | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day, the beauty of San Francisco Bay rivals almost any place in the world. The stately bridges boldly cross its watery expanse, dreamy islands call out for exploration, green or golden hills rise up on all sides and the twinkling lights of the city sparkle in the distance. But on a foggy, windy day, that same paradise can be treacherous for ships coming in and out of the Golden Gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why all ships over 750 gross tons — about 150 feet or longer — are required to use a special mariner who knows the local conditions when they enter or exit the bay. Known as bar pilots, these local guides board vessels about 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, take charge of the ship and guide it safely under the bridges and through the bay to its anchorage spot or port berth. They also help move vessels within the bay, like from anchorage to port, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Udd often sees the bar pilot speedboat depart from Pier 9, where the bar pilots are headquartered, as he cycles his pedicab along the Embarcadero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen the boats, and I’ve seen them heading out towards the Golden Gate, but I never thought about the process,” Udd said. So he asked Bay Curious: “What do they do? How does it work? Do they get hazard pay when they’re out there in a storm?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the bar pilots came to be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are a lot of reasons San Francisco Bay is a tricky port to enter. First, there’s a large sandbar outside the mouth of the Golden Gate with only a narrow channel through it that’s deep enough for ships to navigate. Then there’s the weather — dense fog, strong winds and winter storms. Lastly, the currents can be deadly and pull ships off course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all these reasons, many Gold Rush-era ships foundered and sank on their way into the bay. And sunken ships are bad for the flow of commerce. They create additional maritime hazards and gum up the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12089870 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A pilot boat operator navigates a pilot boat in the San Francisco Bay. The pilots guide large ships along California’s coast to ports in San Francisco Bay and beyond. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ships sit at anchor in the San Francisco Bay in areas known as ‘anchor buckets,’ where commercial vessels can remain for extended periods. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The San Francisco Bar Pilots have been around a long time,” said Anne McIntyre, business director for the San Francisco Bar Pilots. “We were founded in 1850. The first thing the California legislature did was pass the Pilotage Act, and that’s what founded the San Francisco Bar Pilots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence of this long history lines the walls of bar pilot headquarters at Pier 9. The first ships they served were sailing ships, but soon steam-powered vessels came on the scene, and eventually, diesel engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capt. Cevan LeSieur points to historic photos of early bar pilot boats at the San Francisco Bar Pilots headquarters in San Francisco. The San Francisco Bar Pilot Association was founded in 1850 and is one of the oldest maritime organizations on the Pacific Coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early days, “the pilot would get on a little dinghy, and they’d row to the side of the ship, and then climb up the ladder,” said Captain Cevan Lesieur, a bar pilot with more than 10 years of experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has piloted hundreds of ships through the bay’s waters and shook his head at the idea of one man braving the fog and wind alone in a boat powered only by his own strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know when I look at the type of weather and conditions we deal with, these people were just tougher than we are nowadays,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s it like being a bar pilot today?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That’s not to say being a bar pilot today is easy. They have to navigate many types of waterways – including through the open ocean, up and down the Stockton and Sacramento rivers, under several bridges and through a congested central bay. They also pilot all kinds of vessels from massive cargo ships to cruise ships, tankers to bulkers, yachts to car ships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most harrowing part of a bar pilot’s job is open water boarding. Here’s how it works: when a ship approaches San Francisco from the open ocean, it meets up with a station boat that’s always waiting 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The crew on that boat rotates weekly, but the bar pilots work 365 days a year in all weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089866\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089866\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capt. Cevan LeSieur (left) prepares to board the Pasha Hawaii ship George III at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-2000x662.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-2048x678.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A bar pilot boat pulls up next to the Pasha Hawaii ship George III at the Port of Oakland. Right: Capt. Cevan LeSieur boards the Pasha Hawaii ship George III. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the ship approaches, it slows down to 9 knots — about 12 miles per hour — and the pilot boat comes alongside at the same speed. Then, timing the jump carefully, the bar pilot leaps across and grabs onto a ladder hanging on the side of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are not tied into anything when they make this jump. When a ship leaves for sea, this process is reversed, with the bar pilot jumping from the ladder to the moving deck of the pilot boat.[aside postID=news_12088210 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-11-BL-KQED.jpg']“Getting on can be tricky, and people have gone in the water,” said John Carlier, the president of the bar pilots association and a man with more than 30 years on the job. “But getting off and trying to get that small landing area on that deck while that boat’s surfing past you can be a bit sketchy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a pilot does go in the water, he’s wearing a “float coat,” which turns into a lifejacket when it hits the water, complete with lights and a safety whistle. Pilots make the jump in all kinds of weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s not safe, you don’t do it, but a lot of people would look at the conditions and not think it’s safe, but we have our own definition of it,” Lesieur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He estimated that it’s only about once a year that the weather is so bad that the pilot can’t make the jump. If that happens, the pilot has to stay on the ship until the next port of call and then fly home, and no one wants that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our question asker, Erik Udd, was interested in knowing if bar pilots receive hazard pay during bad weather, and the answer is no. But they are paid well — in the mid-six figures on average. They are paid by the shipping companies that use their services. There’s a \u003ca href=\"https://sfbarpilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pilotage-Rates.pdf\">rate structure\u003c/a> based on the tonnage of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Becoming a bar pilot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To become a bar pilot, a person must be a mid-career captain with decades of experience already. There’s a written test and a simulator test. Based on those scores, candidates are ranked on a list from which the bar pilots pull when apprenticeships open up. Once in the training program, most people spend close to two years shadowing more experienced pilots and learning all the different routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The area starts with the Gulf of the Farallones, works its way through the main bay, down the Redwood City, and all the way up to Stockton and Sacramento,” Carlier said. “There’s eight different sections. You’re going to do in the neighborhood of at least 600 jobs under the tutelage of existing pilots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089872\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bar pilot Capt. Cevan LeSieur stands on the bridge of the Pasha Hawaii ship George III while docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They also have to learn by heart over 670 aids to navigation — the lights and buoys — as well as the depth charts for the entire 5,000-square-mile area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the expertise and local knowledge of the bar pilots, there have been instances when they made mistakes with devastating consequences. In 2007, a ship with a bar pilot in charge \u003ca href=\"https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/remembering-cosco-busan-overview-2007-oil-spill\">clipped one of the Bay Bridge towers\u003c/a> and 58,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were some communication problems between the pilot and the crew as to where the center of the bridge was on their electronic [navigation] equipment, which definitely added to the sideswiping of the Delta Tower of the Bay Bridge,” Carlier said. “We actually bring our own electronic navigation equipment with us on board now. We also bring our GPS antennas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bar pilots at work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The container ships that dock at the Port of Oakland to load and unload cargo are massive. The largest ones are as long as the Salesforce Tower is tall, but even more modestly sized ones are huge. The bar pilots have had to adapt as the ships have gotten bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pashahawaii.com/services/vessels/george-iii\">George III is a container ship\u003c/a> operated by Pasha Hawaii that brings supplies to the Hawaiian Islands. It runs the same route every two weeks, leaving Honolulu mostly empty save for a few commodities like macadamia nuts and rum, stops in Oakland to take on cargo and then heads down to Long Beach for more, before returning to Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089946\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089946\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1079\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many of the ships operating in the bay are as long as a skyscraper is tall. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco Bar Pilots)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The state of Hawaii has about three to five days of food availability if shipping stopped,” said Ed Washburn, senior vice president of fleet operations. “So it’s very sensitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew of the ship signs on for long stints, 10 to 14 weeks, but then gets just as much time off on land. When they’re on board, they work as a team to keep ship operations running smoothly, the loads balanced, and the engines purring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George III is a unique vessel because it runs on both diesel fuel and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pashahawaii.com/news-media/news/571/pasha-hawaii-marks-historic-milestone-mv-george-iii-first-lng-powered\">natural gas\u003c/a>, making it a cleaner vessel, but also one with more specific engineering needs. The crew eats, sleeps and works in shifts, building a strong sense of camaraderie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew member on the Pasha Hawaii ship George III works on the bridge while docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089878\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"846\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-2000x661.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-2048x676.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Mark Bancroft, a second assistant engineer, works in the engine room of the Pasha Hawaii ship George III while docked at the Port of Oakland. Right: Crew members eat dinner on the George III before departing the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to push off for sea, the bar pilot boards the ship and heads towards the ship’s bridge, at the top of the vessel. From there, he checks in with the captain, makes sure the equipment has all been tested and communicates with tugboats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kinda anticlimactic when you have 90-ton boats and no wind,” said Christian Barron, the bar pilot on duty as George III slowly inched away from the dock. “We’ll start casting off tugs once we get about half a mile from here and start bringing her up to speed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco bar pilot Christian Barron works on the Pasha Hawaii ship George III before departing the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089874\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089874\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bar pilot boat is docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089876\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Views of the San Francisco skyline from a bar pilot boat. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once the ship was safely out of San Francisco Bay, Christian climbed down the ladder and jumped onto the station boat, where he waited for the next ship needing his services to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bar pilots are doing their jobs well, we landlubbers might not even know they exist. We only see the stocked grocery shelves, fuel at the gas pump and cruise ships awaiting passengers at the pier. But to make all of that happen, a bar pilot is working day or night, rain or shine, fog or no, to bring ships safely to port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> If you ask mariners, they’ll tell you, navigating a boat from the open ocean into the San Francisco Bay is notoriously treacherous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the dense fog that can make it hard to see. Strong currents constantly rearrange the sea floor, and can quickly throw a vessel off course. And finally – our bridges! If a boat were to strike a pillar it could be\u003cem> catastrophic. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why captains of big ships aren’t allowed to navigate into port on their own. A specially trained mariner called a \u003cem>bar pilot\u003c/em> – hops aboard every ship that comes into San Francisco Bay, and takes over command.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We got a question about those bar pilots, so we sent Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz to the Embarcadero to meet the man who asked it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Erik Udd said he’d meet me at the Embarcadero BART station. When I emerged on the escalator he was waiting for me, sitting at the helm of a pedicab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>It’s a great retirement job, I get exercise, it is perfect for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>While we talk, he’s giving me a ride in his pedicab over to Pier 9…near the Exploratorium…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Oh, there goes a boat right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>While Erik pedals along the Embarcadero, he often notices the orange and white boats with the word “PILOT” painted on the side in giant, all caps letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>I’ve seen the boats and I’ve seen them heading out towards the golden gate, but I never thought about the process. What do they do? How does it work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Erik wants to know everything about the bar pilots. Like, how does the pilot get onto one of those big container ships?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>How big of a boat needs a pilot to come into the bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>What kind of training do the pilots go through?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Has anyone ever gone in the water? I’m sure someone has gone in the water. Maybe a better question is how many times?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>What happens when there’s a storm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Do they get hazard pay when they’re out there in a storm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>After all, some of the ships coming into the bay are truly massive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>It’s like a building is moving along across the water. Those things are huge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It’s quite a lot of questions, but I’m up to the task. Erik drops me off at Pier 9, where the Bar Pilots are headquartered. It’s the last office out at the end of the pier and sits behind a chain link fence. But once I’m inside, it looks like a fairly typical office building except the views of the bay are stunning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Anne’s office has the best views in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Captains Cevan Lesieur and Anne McIntyre are showing me around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cevan has been a pilot here for 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>This is the best and most interesting waterway to work on from my experience and most challenging. So I always said if I was gonna become a pilot, it’d be in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Challenging because of the currents, the weather, the varied types of waterways and a congested central bay. Bar pilots can be called upon to move cruise ships, oil tankers, cargo ships, even really big yachts. And they have to be able to skillfully maneuver each type of vessel through narrowly dredged channels up the Sacramento and Stockton rivers and around smaller vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We service all nine Bay Area ports. So we take ships all the way up to West Sacramento, to Stockton, down to Redwood City, even down to Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Here’s how it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every ship over about 150 feet is required by law to use a bar pilot to enter and exit the bay, as well as to move from anchor to port within the bay. The pilots serve about 75-hundred vessels a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most dramatic moment for a bar pilot happens out in the open ocean beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>We have what we call our station boat or ocean boats. And one is off shore at all times, about 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. And so we have crews out there that rotate every week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>When a large vessel is heading into San Francisco Bay, it meets up with the bar pilot boat out on the ocean and the bar pilot leaps from one to the other — you heard that right — and they are not tied into anything when they do it. Then they climb up a ladder on the outside of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Timing is critical, and especially the worse the weather, the more important timing is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The ships are side-by-side going about 12-miles per hour when the pilot makes his jump. Cevan says there are some weather conditions that make the transfer too dangerous, but it doesn’t happen often…maybe once a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>If it’s not safe you don’t do it, but a lot of people would look at the conditions and not think it’s safe, but we have our own definition of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Once the pilot is on board, he or she communicates with the captain and crew to bring the vessel safely under the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Bay and to its anchorage spot or port berth. The same happens in reverse, except the pilot has to jump off the ladder and onto the pilot boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every bar pilot I talked to had a harrowing story about open water boarding, but Cevan’s is the funniest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>I was boarding a car ship and the conditions were really bad and the ship and the pilot boat were going up and down and up and down. The wind was so bad, I took like 3 attempts. Finally we came alongside and I was on the platform and I jumped and landed on the deck and was laying there. And the mate looked down, and said you’re f**ing crazy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Over their long history, pilots \u003cem>have\u003c/em> died and many have gone in the water, but it’s not common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>In the modern era, we have not lost a pilot here. And the last time a pilot went into the water has been several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>If a pilot does miss the jump, he’s wearing a “float coat” that becomes a life jacket when he hits the water, complete with lights and whistles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to answer our question asker, no, they don’t get hazard pay. But they are paid well… on average about 500,000 a year — all of that paid by the companies operating the boats they serve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back we’ll learn how the bar pilots came to be and Katrina gets to shadow a pilot on a real job. Will she make the jump? All that coming up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sponsor message\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We were on a tour of bar pilot headquarters at Pier 9. Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz found the halls are lined with evidence of the organization’s very \u003cstrong>long\u003c/strong> history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Captains Cevan Lesieur and Anne McIntyre are showing me cool photos and artifacts from bar pilot history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We have to stop at this one here. This is the original charter from the first California legislative session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Anne points to an old looking document on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>The San Francisco Bar Pilots have been around a long time. We were founded in 1850. We’re the second oldest business in San Francisco behind Boudin Bread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The bar pilots are as old as the state of California. Even back in 1850, state legislators understood the future of San Francisco — California even — depended on the safe flow of ships in and out of the Bay. We couldn’t have all these shipwrecks gumming up the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We were the first act of the first California Legislature. So the first thing the California legislature did was pass the pilotage act happened and that’s what founded the San Francisco Bar Pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Back then, the ships coming to San Francisco were mostly sailing vessels. By the end of the century coal-fired steam engines would come on the scene and later diesel engines. Each era required something different from the bar pilots, Cevan tells me. Boarding sailing ships might have been the most physically demanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>The pilot would get on a little dinghy, and they’d row to the side of the ship, and then you’d climb up the ladder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>He shakes his head at the idea of rowing a dingy through dense fog and huge wake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>You know when I look at the type of weather and conditions we deal with…These people were just tougher than we are nowadays. \u003cem>(Laughs, fade under)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>To become a bar pilot, you have to be a mid-career captain with many years of experience. There’s a written test and a simulator test. Candidates are ranked based on their scores and are then eligible for an apprenticeship with the bar pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>You’re going to probably do in the neighborhood of at least 600 jobs under the tutelage of existing pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>John Carlier is the President of the Bar Pilots Association. He says there are eight sections in the Bay, each with their own challenges, and the pilots have to learn all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>And the area starts with the Gulf of the Farallones, works its way through the main bay, down the Redwood City, and all the way up to Stockton and Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Piloting up the rivers here can be especially challenging. The ships are within two feet of the bottom in narrow channels with little room for error. And it takes a long time, about 9 hours from the open ocean to Stockton or Sacramento, so they usually change bar pilots half way to avoid fatigue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all this training, there have been incidents when ships captained by bar pilots have run into trouble in the Bay. Like in 2007 when an oil tanker clipped one of the Bay Bridge towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>Yes, that was a bar pilot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>A 900 foot container ship hit the Bay Bridge tower east of the main anchorage. 58,000 gallons of fuel oil. Countless fragile ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>There was some communication problems between the pilot and the crew as to where the center of the bridge was on their electronic nav equipment which definitely added to you know the the sideswiping of the Delta Tower of the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Because of that incident, the bar pilots now bring their own GPS navigational equipment on board with them so they don’t have to rely on the vessel’s equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m going to get to see that in action soon, so we start heading towards a boat with the word “pilot” boldly written on its side tied up out back. We clamor aboard. It looks like a fancy speedboat, and head towards Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pilot: \u003c/strong>Where do you want to head to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Port of Oakland, George III\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It takes about 20 minutes to cross the bay and soon our small boat is pulling up alongside a massive containership. This boat is considered “small” by shipping standards and it’s still as tall as a 15 story building from the water up to the top. I now have to step from the bobbing deck of the pilot boat onto a rope ladder dangling from the first deck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of ladder clanking against the ship\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>I had hoped to do the open ocean leap I’d heard so much about. Climbing about 15 feet up this ladder felt pretty tame by comparison. The water in the Oakland estuary was very calm, kinda the training wheels version of this climb. No heroics for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ship, George the III, brings supplies to the Hawaiian Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>Everything from medicine to groceries to fertilizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Ed Washburn is senior vice president of fleet operations with Pasha, Hawaii, the company that owns this vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ship runs the same two-week route on repeat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>The state of Hawaii has about three to five days of food availability, of shipping stopped. So it’s very sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It leaves Honolulu mostly empty, carrying a few commodities like rum and macadamia nuts to the mainland. Then it stops in Oakland to pick up cargo, down to Long Beach for more and back to Honolulu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>The value of that is about $50 million in cargo each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ok, should we go up to the bridge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The bridge is at the top of the ship and it’s where the bar pilot does their work. We walk up A LOT of steps to get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(sounds of steps under this)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>From up here we have incredible views of the sun setting over the bay and the internal workings of the port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>This is Christian Barron. He’s also a Cal Maritime graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Today, Christian Barron is the bar pilot in charge. But Cevan is hanging out with me, explaining what’s happening so I don’t bug Christian at crucial moments, like when he’s checking in with the captain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Once the tugs have been made fast and the engine’s been tested we can get rolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>The engine has been tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>These massive ships are hard to maneuver, so pilots use tugboats to pull the ship off the dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Radio sounds: \u003c/strong>Captain, this is the chief engineer. Show of power. Cables secured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>Roger, Dave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Christian checks in with Vessel Traffic Services, basically air traffic control for boats, to let them know his plan and find out if there are other vessels in the shipping lanes he needs to be aware of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Traffic, good evening, 4-5. Preparing to depart Oakland 55 starboard side two bound for sea. Deep draft 32 feet two inches. Tend to Delta-Echo span and deep water traffic lane Working my tugs on 20 Alpha.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>VTS Operator:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Roger, copy that, 4-5. George the third preparing to get underway from Oakland…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Nothing to worry about. There’s a fair amount of waiting as the crew gets in position and the port workers untie the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>All clear forward\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>And then we get going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron:\u003c/strong> All clear fore and aft, stand clear of your tuglines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Artemis and Apollo are the names of the tugboats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>Ok, ready to go. Artemis stop and stretch. Apollo stop and stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>As Christian gives orders, the massive container ship starts to slowly move away from the dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>It’s kinda anticlimactic when you have 90 ton boats and no wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Once the tugboats are secured and ready to go, the whole procedure only takes about ten minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>It is a little anticlimactic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>We love boring when it comes to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene):\u003c/strong> I didn’t even realize we were moving at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Port sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>You pushed off, what’s the next thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>I’ll give a command for dead slow ahead. We’ll confirm the engines come up to rpm and then we’ll put the tugs in position so they can follow along so they’re not impeding us, but can still affect the boat if we have an engine or steering failure they can still maneuver the vessel if need be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Then he’ll check in with traffic again to let them know he’s underway and get any updates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>And then we’ll start casting off tugs once we get about half a mile from here and start bringing her up to speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>Anything you’re particularly concerned about tonight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>Tonight, no. We have a little bit of current at the bar, so I just need to make sure I time my turns correctly, use enough rudder, engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Unfortunately, the bar pilots were not keen on me following Christian all the way out into the open ocean to disembark at 9 knots onto the pilot boat. Instead, we’ll be going back down the ladder in the Oakland estuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Thanks, nice to meet you all. Safe voyage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>Be safe on the ladder!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>We tramp down many flights of stairs, back to the lowest deck and our ladder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It should be easier going down, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of clanking\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pilot boat crew: \u003c/strong>You’re two from the bottom…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>As we head back towards the Ferry Building, the sun’s last glow seeping from the sky, I’m struck by the vastness of the Bay as the darkness encroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m heading home to my warm bed. But a crew of bar pilots is waiting 11 miles offshore rain or shine. At their best, their work is invisible to us. We only notice the stocked shelves, cruise ships at their berths and fuel at the gas station. Our entire city works because they do. Guiding ship after ship through the fog and to safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of the pilot boat motoring back to the Embarcadero\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious editor and producer, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to the KQED Members whose support made this episode possible! If you’d like to become a member, visit donate.kqed.org/podcasts to get started. It only takes a minute and comes with some nice perks. We’ll drop the link in our show notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San Francisco Bay is notorious in the shipping world for its tricky waters. That’s why bar pilots — specially trained mariners — board every ship entering or exiting the bay and guide it to safety.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a sunny day, the beauty of San Francisco Bay rivals almost any place in the world. The stately bridges boldly cross its watery expanse, dreamy islands call out for exploration, green or golden hills rise up on all sides and the twinkling lights of the city sparkle in the distance. But on a foggy, windy day, that same paradise can be treacherous for ships coming in and out of the Golden Gate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why all ships over 750 gross tons — about 150 feet or longer — are required to use a special mariner who knows the local conditions when they enter or exit the bay. Known as bar pilots, these local guides board vessels about 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge, take charge of the ship and guide it safely under the bridges and through the bay to its anchorage spot or port berth. They also help move vessels within the bay, like from anchorage to port, for example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erik Udd often sees the bar pilot speedboat depart from Pier 9, where the bar pilots are headquartered, as he cycles his pedicab along the Embarcadero.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen the boats, and I’ve seen them heading out towards the Golden Gate, but I never thought about the process,” Udd said. So he asked Bay Curious: “What do they do? How does it work? Do they get hazard pay when they’re out there in a storm?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the bar pilots came to be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There are a lot of reasons San Francisco Bay is a tricky port to enter. First, there’s a large sandbar outside the mouth of the Golden Gate with only a narrow channel through it that’s deep enough for ships to navigate. Then there’s the weather — dense fog, strong winds and winter storms. Lastly, the currents can be deadly and pull ships off course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all these reasons, many Gold Rush-era ships foundered and sank on their way into the bay. And sunken ships are bad for the flow of commerce. They create additional maritime hazards and gum up the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12089870 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-22-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A pilot boat operator navigates a pilot boat in the San Francisco Bay. The pilots guide large ships along California’s coast to ports in San Francisco Bay and beyond. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089871\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089871\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-28-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ships sit at anchor in the San Francisco Bay in areas known as ‘anchor buckets,’ where commercial vessels can remain for extended periods. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The San Francisco Bar Pilots have been around a long time,” said Anne McIntyre, business director for the San Francisco Bar Pilots. “We were founded in 1850. The first thing the California legislature did was pass the Pilotage Act, and that’s what founded the San Francisco Bar Pilots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Evidence of this long history lines the walls of bar pilot headquarters at Pier 9. The first ships they served were sailing ships, but soon steam-powered vessels came on the scene, and eventually, diesel engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-01-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capt. Cevan LeSieur points to historic photos of early bar pilot boats at the San Francisco Bar Pilots headquarters in San Francisco. The San Francisco Bar Pilot Association was founded in 1850 and is one of the oldest maritime organizations on the Pacific Coast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the early days, “the pilot would get on a little dinghy, and they’d row to the side of the ship, and then climb up the ladder,” said Captain Cevan Lesieur, a bar pilot with more than 10 years of experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He has piloted hundreds of ships through the bay’s waters and shook his head at the idea of one man braving the fog and wind alone in a boat powered only by his own strength.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know when I look at the type of weather and conditions we deal with, these people were just tougher than we are nowadays,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s it like being a bar pilot today?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That’s not to say being a bar pilot today is easy. They have to navigate many types of waterways – including through the open ocean, up and down the Stockton and Sacramento rivers, under several bridges and through a congested central bay. They also pilot all kinds of vessels from massive cargo ships to cruise ships, tankers to bulkers, yachts to car ships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most harrowing part of a bar pilot’s job is open water boarding. Here’s how it works: when a ship approaches San Francisco from the open ocean, it meets up with a station boat that’s always waiting 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. The crew on that boat rotates weekly, but the bar pilots work 365 days a year in all weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089866\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089866\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-34-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Capt. Cevan LeSieur (left) prepares to board the Pasha Hawaii ship George III at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-2000x662.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych4-2048x678.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: A bar pilot boat pulls up next to the Pasha Hawaii ship George III at the Port of Oakland. Right: Capt. Cevan LeSieur boards the Pasha Hawaii ship George III. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the ship approaches, it slows down to 9 knots — about 12 miles per hour — and the pilot boat comes alongside at the same speed. Then, timing the jump carefully, the bar pilot leaps across and grabs onto a ladder hanging on the side of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They are not tied into anything when they make this jump. When a ship leaves for sea, this process is reversed, with the bar pilot jumping from the ladder to the moving deck of the pilot boat.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Getting on can be tricky, and people have gone in the water,” said John Carlier, the president of the bar pilots association and a man with more than 30 years on the job. “But getting off and trying to get that small landing area on that deck while that boat’s surfing past you can be a bit sketchy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If a pilot does go in the water, he’s wearing a “float coat,” which turns into a lifejacket when it hits the water, complete with lights and a safety whistle. Pilots make the jump in all kinds of weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it’s not safe, you don’t do it, but a lot of people would look at the conditions and not think it’s safe, but we have our own definition of it,” Lesieur said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He estimated that it’s only about once a year that the weather is so bad that the pilot can’t make the jump. If that happens, the pilot has to stay on the ship until the next port of call and then fly home, and no one wants that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Our question asker, Erik Udd, was interested in knowing if bar pilots receive hazard pay during bad weather, and the answer is no. But they are paid well — in the mid-six figures on average. They are paid by the shipping companies that use their services. There’s a \u003ca href=\"https://sfbarpilots.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Pilotage-Rates.pdf\">rate structure\u003c/a> based on the tonnage of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Becoming a bar pilot\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To become a bar pilot, a person must be a mid-career captain with decades of experience already. There’s a written test and a simulator test. Based on those scores, candidates are ranked on a list from which the bar pilots pull when apprenticeships open up. Once in the training program, most people spend close to two years shadowing more experienced pilots and learning all the different routes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The area starts with the Gulf of the Farallones, works its way through the main bay, down the Redwood City, and all the way up to Stockton and Sacramento,” Carlier said. “There’s eight different sections. You’re going to do in the neighborhood of at least 600 jobs under the tutelage of existing pilots.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089872\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-57-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bar pilot Capt. Cevan LeSieur stands on the bridge of the Pasha Hawaii ship George III while docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They also have to learn by heart over 670 aids to navigation — the lights and buoys — as well as the depth charts for the entire 5,000-square-mile area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite the expertise and local knowledge of the bar pilots, there have been instances when they made mistakes with devastating consequences. In 2007, a ship with a bar pilot in charge \u003ca href=\"https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/remembering-cosco-busan-overview-2007-oil-spill\">clipped one of the Bay Bridge towers\u003c/a> and 58,000 gallons of fuel oil spilled into the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were some communication problems between the pilot and the crew as to where the center of the bridge was on their electronic [navigation] equipment, which definitely added to the sideswiping of the Delta Tower of the Bay Bridge,” Carlier said. “We actually bring our own electronic navigation equipment with us on board now. We also bring our GPS antennas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Bar pilots at work\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The container ships that dock at the Port of Oakland to load and unload cargo are massive. The largest ones are as long as the Salesforce Tower is tall, but even more modestly sized ones are huge. The bar pilots have had to adapt as the ships have gotten bigger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pashahawaii.com/services/vessels/george-iii\">George III is a container ship\u003c/a> operated by Pasha Hawaii that brings supplies to the Hawaiian Islands. It runs the same route every two weeks, leaving Honolulu mostly empty save for a few commodities like macadamia nuts and rum, stops in Oakland to take on cargo and then heads down to Long Beach for more, before returning to Hawaii.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089946\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089946\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1079\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots.jpg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/GraphBarPilots-1536x1036.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Many of the ships operating in the bay are as long as a skyscraper is tall. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of the San Francisco Bar Pilots)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The state of Hawaii has about three to five days of food availability if shipping stopped,” said Ed Washburn, senior vice president of fleet operations. “So it’s very sensitive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crew of the ship signs on for long stints, 10 to 14 weeks, but then gets just as much time off on land. When they’re on board, they work as a team to keep ship operations running smoothly, the loads balanced, and the engines purring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>George III is a unique vessel because it runs on both diesel fuel and \u003ca href=\"https://www.pashahawaii.com/news-media/news/571/pasha-hawaii-marks-historic-milestone-mv-george-iii-first-lng-powered\">natural gas\u003c/a>, making it a cleaner vessel, but also one with more specific engineering needs. The crew eats, sleeps and works in shifts, building a strong sense of camaraderie.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-60-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A crew member on the Pasha Hawaii ship George III works on the bridge while docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089878\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089878\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"846\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-2000x661.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-1536x507.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-Diptych03-BL-2048x676.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Mark Bancroft, a second assistant engineer, works in the engine room of the Pasha Hawaii ship George III while docked at the Port of Oakland. Right: Crew members eat dinner on the George III before departing the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When it’s time to push off for sea, the bar pilot boards the ship and heads towards the ship’s bridge, at the top of the vessel. From there, he checks in with the captain, makes sure the equipment has all been tested and communicates with tugboats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kinda anticlimactic when you have 90-ton boats and no wind,” said Christian Barron, the bar pilot on duty as George III slowly inched away from the dock. “We’ll start casting off tugs once we get about half a mile from here and start bringing her up to speed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089875\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089875\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-83-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco bar pilot Christian Barron works on the Pasha Hawaii ship George III before departing the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089874\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089874\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-72-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A bar pilot boat is docked at the Port of Oakland. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12089876\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12089876\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/07/260114-BarPilots-101-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Views of the San Francisco skyline from a bar pilot boat. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Once the ship was safely out of San Francisco Bay, Christian climbed down the ladder and jumped onto the station boat, where he waited for the next ship needing his services to arrive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When the bar pilots are doing their jobs well, we landlubbers might not even know they exist. We only see the stocked grocery shelves, fuel at the gas pump and cruise ships awaiting passengers at the pier. But to make all of that happen, a bar pilot is working day or night, rain or shine, fog or no, to bring ships safely to port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> If you ask mariners, they’ll tell you, navigating a boat from the open ocean into the San Francisco Bay is notoriously treacherous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s the dense fog that can make it hard to see. Strong currents constantly rearrange the sea floor, and can quickly throw a vessel off course. And finally – our bridges! If a boat were to strike a pillar it could be\u003cem> catastrophic. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why captains of big ships aren’t allowed to navigate into port on their own. A specially trained mariner called a \u003cem>bar pilot\u003c/em> – hops aboard every ship that comes into San Francisco Bay, and takes over command.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We got a question about those bar pilots, so we sent Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz to the Embarcadero to meet the man who asked it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Erik Udd said he’d meet me at the Embarcadero BART station. When I emerged on the escalator he was waiting for me, sitting at the helm of a pedicab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>It’s a great retirement job, I get exercise, it is perfect for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>While we talk, he’s giving me a ride in his pedicab over to Pier 9…near the Exploratorium…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Oh, there goes a boat right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>While Erik pedals along the Embarcadero, he often notices the orange and white boats with the word “PILOT” painted on the side in giant, all caps letters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>I’ve seen the boats and I’ve seen them heading out towards the golden gate, but I never thought about the process. What do they do? How does it work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Erik wants to know everything about the bar pilots. Like, how does the pilot get onto one of those big container ships?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>How big of a boat needs a pilot to come into the bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>What kind of training do the pilots go through?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Has anyone ever gone in the water? I’m sure someone has gone in the water. Maybe a better question is how many times?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>What happens when there’s a storm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>Do they get hazard pay when they’re out there in a storm?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>After all, some of the ships coming into the bay are truly massive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Erik Udd: \u003c/strong>It’s like a building is moving along across the water. Those things are huge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It’s quite a lot of questions, but I’m up to the task. Erik drops me off at Pier 9, where the Bar Pilots are headquartered. It’s the last office out at the end of the pier and sits behind a chain link fence. But once I’m inside, it looks like a fairly typical office building except the views of the bay are stunning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Anne’s office has the best views in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Captains Cevan Lesieur and Anne McIntyre are showing me around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cevan has been a pilot here for 12 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>This is the best and most interesting waterway to work on from my experience and most challenging. So I always said if I was gonna become a pilot, it’d be in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Challenging because of the currents, the weather, the varied types of waterways and a congested central bay. Bar pilots can be called upon to move cruise ships, oil tankers, cargo ships, even really big yachts. And they have to be able to skillfully maneuver each type of vessel through narrowly dredged channels up the Sacramento and Stockton rivers and around smaller vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We service all nine Bay Area ports. So we take ships all the way up to West Sacramento, to Stockton, down to Redwood City, even down to Monterey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Here’s how it works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every ship over about 150 feet is required by law to use a bar pilot to enter and exit the bay, as well as to move from anchor to port within the bay. The pilots serve about 75-hundred vessels a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The most dramatic moment for a bar pilot happens out in the open ocean beyond the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>We have what we call our station boat or ocean boats. And one is off shore at all times, about 11 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. And so we have crews out there that rotate every week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>When a large vessel is heading into San Francisco Bay, it meets up with the bar pilot boat out on the ocean and the bar pilot leaps from one to the other — you heard that right — and they are not tied into anything when they do it. Then they climb up a ladder on the outside of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Timing is critical, and especially the worse the weather, the more important timing is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The ships are side-by-side going about 12-miles per hour when the pilot makes his jump. Cevan says there are some weather conditions that make the transfer too dangerous, but it doesn’t happen often…maybe once a year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>If it’s not safe you don’t do it, but a lot of people would look at the conditions and not think it’s safe, but we have our own definition of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Once the pilot is on board, he or she communicates with the captain and crew to bring the vessel safely under the Golden Gate Bridge, through the Bay and to its anchorage spot or port berth. The same happens in reverse, except the pilot has to jump off the ladder and onto the pilot boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every bar pilot I talked to had a harrowing story about open water boarding, but Cevan’s is the funniest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>I was boarding a car ship and the conditions were really bad and the ship and the pilot boat were going up and down and up and down. The wind was so bad, I took like 3 attempts. Finally we came alongside and I was on the platform and I jumped and landed on the deck and was laying there. And the mate looked down, and said you’re f**ing crazy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Over their long history, pilots \u003cem>have\u003c/em> died and many have gone in the water, but it’s not common.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>In the modern era, we have not lost a pilot here. And the last time a pilot went into the water has been several years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>If a pilot does miss the jump, he’s wearing a “float coat” that becomes a life jacket when he hits the water, complete with lights and whistles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And to answer our question asker, no, they don’t get hazard pay. But they are paid well… on average about 500,000 a year — all of that paid by the companies operating the boats they serve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back we’ll learn how the bar pilots came to be and Katrina gets to shadow a pilot on a real job. Will she make the jump? All that coming up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sponsor message\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We were on a tour of bar pilot headquarters at Pier 9. Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz found the halls are lined with evidence of the organization’s very \u003cstrong>long\u003c/strong> history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Captains Cevan Lesieur and Anne McIntyre are showing me cool photos and artifacts from bar pilot history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We have to stop at this one here. This is the original charter from the first California legislative session.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Anne points to an old looking document on the wall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>The San Francisco Bar Pilots have been around a long time. We were founded in 1850. We’re the second oldest business in San Francisco behind Boudin Bread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The bar pilots are as old as the state of California. Even back in 1850, state legislators understood the future of San Francisco — California even — depended on the safe flow of ships in and out of the Bay. We couldn’t have all these shipwrecks gumming up the works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anne McIntyre: \u003c/strong>We were the first act of the first California Legislature. So the first thing the California legislature did was pass the pilotage act happened and that’s what founded the San Francisco Bar Pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Back then, the ships coming to San Francisco were mostly sailing vessels. By the end of the century coal-fired steam engines would come on the scene and later diesel engines. Each era required something different from the bar pilots, Cevan tells me. Boarding sailing ships might have been the most physically demanding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>The pilot would get on a little dinghy, and they’d row to the side of the ship, and then you’d climb up the ladder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>He shakes his head at the idea of rowing a dingy through dense fog and huge wake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>You know when I look at the type of weather and conditions we deal with…These people were just tougher than we are nowadays. \u003cem>(Laughs, fade under)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>To become a bar pilot, you have to be a mid-career captain with many years of experience. There’s a written test and a simulator test. Candidates are ranked based on their scores and are then eligible for an apprenticeship with the bar pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>You’re going to probably do in the neighborhood of at least 600 jobs under the tutelage of existing pilots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>John Carlier is the President of the Bar Pilots Association. He says there are eight sections in the Bay, each with their own challenges, and the pilots have to learn all of them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>And the area starts with the Gulf of the Farallones, works its way through the main bay, down the Redwood City, and all the way up to Stockton and Sacramento.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Piloting up the rivers here can be especially challenging. The ships are within two feet of the bottom in narrow channels with little room for error. And it takes a long time, about 9 hours from the open ocean to Stockton or Sacramento, so they usually change bar pilots half way to avoid fatigue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite all this training, there have been incidents when ships captained by bar pilots have run into trouble in the Bay. Like in 2007 when an oil tanker clipped one of the Bay Bridge towers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>Yes, that was a bar pilot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>News clip: \u003c/strong>A 900 foot container ship hit the Bay Bridge tower east of the main anchorage. 58,000 gallons of fuel oil. Countless fragile ecosystems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>John Carlier: \u003c/strong>There was some communication problems between the pilot and the crew as to where the center of the bridge was on their electronic nav equipment which definitely added to you know the the sideswiping of the Delta Tower of the Bay Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Because of that incident, the bar pilots now bring their own GPS navigational equipment on board with them so they don’t have to rely on the vessel’s equipment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m going to get to see that in action soon, so we start heading towards a boat with the word “pilot” boldly written on its side tied up out back. We clamor aboard. It looks like a fancy speedboat, and head towards Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pilot: \u003c/strong>Where do you want to head to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Port of Oakland, George III\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It takes about 20 minutes to cross the bay and soon our small boat is pulling up alongside a massive containership. This boat is considered “small” by shipping standards and it’s still as tall as a 15 story building from the water up to the top. I now have to step from the bobbing deck of the pilot boat onto a rope ladder dangling from the first deck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of ladder clanking against the ship\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>I had hoped to do the open ocean leap I’d heard so much about. Climbing about 15 feet up this ladder felt pretty tame by comparison. The water in the Oakland estuary was very calm, kinda the training wheels version of this climb. No heroics for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ship, George the III, brings supplies to the Hawaiian Islands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>Everything from medicine to groceries to fertilizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Ed Washburn is senior vice president of fleet operations with Pasha, Hawaii, the company that owns this vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This ship runs the same two-week route on repeat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>The state of Hawaii has about three to five days of food availability, of shipping stopped. So it’s very sensitive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It leaves Honolulu mostly empty, carrying a few commodities like rum and macadamia nuts to the mainland. Then it stops in Oakland to pick up cargo, down to Long Beach for more and back to Honolulu.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ed Washburn: \u003c/strong>The value of that is about $50 million in cargo each time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ok, should we go up to the bridge?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>The bridge is at the top of the ship and it’s where the bar pilot does their work. We walk up A LOT of steps to get there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(sounds of steps under this)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>From up here we have incredible views of the sun setting over the bay and the internal workings of the port.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>This is Christian Barron. He’s also a Cal Maritime graduate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Today, Christian Barron is the bar pilot in charge. But Cevan is hanging out with me, explaining what’s happening so I don’t bug Christian at crucial moments, like when he’s checking in with the captain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cevan Lesieur: \u003c/strong>Once the tugs have been made fast and the engine’s been tested we can get rolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>The engine has been tested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>These massive ships are hard to maneuver, so pilots use tugboats to pull the ship off the dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Radio sounds: \u003c/strong>Captain, this is the chief engineer. Show of power. Cables secured.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>Roger, Dave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Christian checks in with Vessel Traffic Services, basically air traffic control for boats, to let them know his plan and find out if there are other vessels in the shipping lanes he needs to be aware of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Traffic, good evening, 4-5. Preparing to depart Oakland 55 starboard side two bound for sea. Deep draft 32 feet two inches. Tend to Delta-Echo span and deep water traffic lane Working my tugs on 20 Alpha.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>VTS Operator:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Roger, copy that, 4-5. George the third preparing to get underway from Oakland…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Nothing to worry about. There’s a fair amount of waiting as the crew gets in position and the port workers untie the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>All clear forward\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>And then we get going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron:\u003c/strong> All clear fore and aft, stand clear of your tuglines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Artemis and Apollo are the names of the tugboats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>Ok, ready to go. Artemis stop and stretch. Apollo stop and stretch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>As Christian gives orders, the massive container ship starts to slowly move away from the dock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>It’s kinda anticlimactic when you have 90 ton boats and no wind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Once the tugboats are secured and ready to go, the whole procedure only takes about ten minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>It is a little anticlimactic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>We love boring when it comes to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene):\u003c/strong> I didn’t even realize we were moving at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Port sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>You pushed off, what’s the next thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>I’ll give a command for dead slow ahead. We’ll confirm the engines come up to rpm and then we’ll put the tugs in position so they can follow along so they’re not impeding us, but can still affect the boat if we have an engine or steering failure they can still maneuver the vessel if need be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Then he’ll check in with traffic again to let them know he’s underway and get any updates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>And then we’ll start casting off tugs once we get about half a mile from here and start bringing her up to speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz (in scene): \u003c/strong>Anything you’re particularly concerned about tonight?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Christian Barron: \u003c/strong>Tonight, no. We have a little bit of current at the bar, so I just need to make sure I time my turns correctly, use enough rudder, engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Unfortunately, the bar pilots were not keen on me following Christian all the way out into the open ocean to disembark at 9 knots onto the pilot boat. Instead, we’ll be going back down the ladder in the Oakland estuary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>Thanks, nice to meet you all. Safe voyage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Captain Eric Veloni: \u003c/strong>Be safe on the ladder!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>We tramp down many flights of stairs, back to the lowest deck and our ladder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>It should be easier going down, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of clanking\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Pilot boat crew: \u003c/strong>You’re two from the bottom…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/strong>As we head back towards the Ferry Building, the sun’s last glow seeping from the sky, I’m struck by the vastness of the Bay as the darkness encroaches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m heading home to my warm bed. But a crew of bar pilots is waiting 11 miles offshore rain or shine. At their best, their work is invisible to us. We only notice the stocked shelves, cruise ships at their berths and fuel at the gas station. Our entire city works because they do. Guiding ship after ship through the fog and to safety.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of the pilot boat motoring back to the Embarcadero\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious editor and producer, Katrina Schwartz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thanks to the KQED Members whose support made this episode possible! If you’d like to become a member, visit donate.kqed.org/podcasts to get started. It only takes a minute and comes with some nice perks. We’ll drop the link in our show notes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. With extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Yemeni Coffee Boom: How a Niche Trend Became a Bay Area Cultural Phenomenon",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice when you walk into Mohka House in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is the smell — cardamom, cinnamon, and fresh coffee. Glistening in a display case near the register, sit decadent slices of honeycomb bread and sabaya, traditional Yemeni sweets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place is often bustling with all types of people: students working on laptops, families drifting in and out, and friends catching up. Along one wall, customers lounge on floor cushions in \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majlis#/media/File:House_Interior,_Sanaa_(10720986825).jpg\">a traditional Yemeni maglis-style seating area\u003c/a>. It’s not a rare occurrence for every seat in the cafe to be occupied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few years ago, a scene like this would have been hard to find in the Bay Area. The first Yemeni coffee shop — \u003ca href=\"https://delahcoffee.com/\">Delah Coffee\u003c/a> — opened in San Francisco in 2022. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mohkahouse/?hl=en\">Mohka House\u003c/a>, in Oakland, was the second in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, more than 20 Yemeni coffee shops can be found across the region, from Oakland to San Jose, San Francisco to Fremont, and beyond. Their rise has transformed the local coffee landscape and created new gathering spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may be new, but the story behind them stretches back decades in time and thousands of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The story starts with Yemeni migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The growth of Yemeni coffee shops is closely tied to the growth of the Yemeni-American community itself in the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Yemen’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/event/Yemeni-Civil-War\">ongoing civil war\u003c/a> has driven recent migration, Yemeni immigration to the United States stretches back to the 1970s. Many of the first Yemeni immigrants settled in places like Dearborn, Michigan, where factory jobs were abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084985\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084985\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of Khaliat al Nahl, or honeycomb bread, made of soft, cheese-filled rolls, sits at Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland, on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My father first migrated to Michigan back in the ’70s,” said Hamza Ghalib, co-owner of Mohka House. “He worked at Ford, but he did not like it there, so he moved to Southern California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California attracted many Yemenis for a different reason than Michigan. Beginning in the 1960s and ’70s, thousands of Yemeni immigrants arrived to work in the state’s agricultural industry, particularly in the Central Valley’s vineyards and fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of those early Yemeni farmworkers \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/post/from-the-middle-east-to-the-bay-area-a-history-of-arab-immigration-to-san-francisco-and-oakland/\">worked alongside Cesar Chavez and those active in the United Farm Workers movement \u003c/a>in California’s Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084987\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop, in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over time, family and community networks helped establish Yemeni communities in places like Oakland and the Bay Area. Ghalib eventually joined his father in the United States as a teenager and moved to the Bay Area for college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just kind of feels like home,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Bay Area is home to one of the largest populations of Yemeni communities in the country, third only to Michigan and New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Yemen’s rich coffee history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The popularity of Yemeni coffee shops isn’t just about migration; it’s also about history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a longstanding debate over the origin of coffee. While coffee plants are native to Ethiopia, Yemen was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/how-the-world-came-to-run-on-coffee/#:~:text=The%20Oromo%20people%20from%20this,believers%20in%20its%20medicinal%20properties.\">first place\u003c/a> where coffee was cultivated, traded and consumed as a beverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaser Ghalib strains a stovetop coffee drink at Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland, on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For centuries, the Port of Mokha served as one of the world’s most important coffee-trading centers. The word “mocha” traces its roots to the Yemeni port, which became synonymous with high-quality coffee exported throughout the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside Mohka House, photographs of the Port of Mokha hang on the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What distinguishes Yemeni coffee is the aromatic aftertaste,” Ghalib said. “The chocolatey flavor, earthy, and it’s all natural.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084984\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084984\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hamza Ghalib (left), owner of Mohka House, and his brother Yaser Ghalib work at the Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some customers said they found Yemeni cafes while looking for local alternatives to corporate chains. And Ghalib believes the cafes’ staying power comes from something bigger than just the drinks and unique atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People want a change,” Ghalib said. “Everybody knows what a Starbucks is, but they don’t know what a good quality cup of coffee can be, waiting for them right around the corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghalib said many customers arrived out of curiosity or while looking for an alternative, and stayed because the cafes offered something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People started exploring,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More than coffee shops\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of what makes Yemeni cafes distinctive is that they’re designed for lingering. In Yemen and across much of the Arab world, cafes serve as social spaces as much as businesses. They’re where people gather after dinner to drink coffee and tea, and spend hours catching up with friends. Many Bay Area Yemeni cafes have carried the spirit of that tradition with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.qamariacoffee.com/\">Qamaria\u003c/a> in Fremont on a recent Friday night, groups of friends filled nearly every table. Customers describe the cafes as welcoming, diverse and one of the few places open late, other than bars and clubs, where people can simply spend time together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of the only places to do that,” Shivanka Sharma said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084989\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084989\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mohka House, a Yemeni coffeehouse, in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others described it as a place where they could feel at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really nice to see there’s a place where we can go, and people aren’t looking at us in our cultural clothes in a weird way,” Mahum Fatima said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these cafes have become the go-to gathering places, they’ve naturally taken on another role too. In some Bay Area Arab, Desi, and Muslim circles, there’s a running joke that Yemeni coffee shops have become the unofficial matchmaking hotspots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it turns out, there’s some truth to the running joke. While reporting this story at Qamaria in Fremont, I met a customer who told me he met his wife at a Yemeni coffee shop. Stories like this one speak to how deeply these cafes have become woven into community life in the Bay Area. They’re not just places to grab coffee, but places where real friendships, relationships and connections are formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A culture that’s very much alive\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Ghalib, the success of Yemeni cafes represents something larger than coffee. For years, Yemen has often appeared in American news coverage, mainly in the context of war and humanitarian crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cafes tell a different story. They’re places where culture is shared, traditions are preserved and new communities are built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People showcasing their talents in so many different ways,” Ghalib said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And judging by the crowds filling Yemeni cafes across the Bay Area, the movement is only getting started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Move over third-wave coffee shops. … the Bay Area has a new coffee trend – Yemeni coffee shops. They’re popping up all over from Marin…to San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and Redwood City. Today I’m visiting one of them with KQED’s podcast engagement producer, Maha Sanad, to see what I’ve been missing …\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> All right. Show us the way in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Yes. Let’s go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, man, right away the scent in here is so, like, cinnamon. I know, right? We definitely want the Mocha House latte. Definitely. With cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Oh, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Cardamom and nutmeg is, that’s like a reoccurring theme in a lot of Yemeni drinks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Maybe just see if the waiter recommends one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Okay, cool. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Hey. Hey. Mubarak. Mubarak. This is Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. Yes. Are you one of the owners? Yes. So nice to meet you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> What do you recommend? We think we’re gonna do the Mocha House latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Is there another favorite that you’re like, “Definitely get this”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yasser:\u003c/strong> Chai is really good. In Arabic it’s…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of coffee making\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> 10 out of 10 latte art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yasser:\u003c/strong> Oh, I’m trying, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Should we sit at a table, or do you wanna try to get a spot on the couch?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Yeah, we could sit over there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so first off, where have you brought me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Well, right now we’re in Mocha House. It is a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> I brought you here because Mocha House is one of the very many Yemeni coffee shops that I’m sure you’ve been seeing popping up across the Bay. It’s one of my favorite spots. I, I love coming here and doing work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> What’s special about Yemeni cafes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Just being around my people, my culture, hearing the Arabic music playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> It really does transport me. It makes me feel like I have a little piece of home in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And this place has a sort of unique soundtrack today. What are we hearing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Right now, they are playing the Quran, which is the holy book in Islam. Usually, they do have some pretty good Arabic music playing, but since we are here during Ramadan, which is the month that Muslims [00:02:00] fast, it’s more traditional to abstain from music if you can, and then usually people are listening to the Quran for the month, or trying to at least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>If you wanna see a very bustling space with a bunch of, you know, young Muslim people, hit up the Yemeni coffee spots after nightly prayers during Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That’s a hot tip, ’cause I feel like the Bay Area is often maligned because we don’t have as much of, like, a late-night bar culture as other big cities. Yeah. So I love that as a hot tip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Is this the only Yemeni coffee house in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Oh, definitely not. In San Francisco, Oakland, even San Jose, they are literally [00:03:00] popping up everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> All right, well, today on Bay Curious, we are looking into why here with all these Yemeni cafes, and why now. But while you go tell us that story, I’m gonna take a sip of this delicious latte and just sit and let you teach me some stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music beings\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>To understand why so many Yemeni coffee shops have come on the scene, we have to go back to Yemen. The war there has been in the news recently, but Yemeni migration to the U.S actually started long before. Going back to the 1970s, there was a lot of political instability and not a lot of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So, many men left their families in Yemen to find work abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Cities like Dearborn, Michigan offered steady factory jobs, especially in the auto industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Those first Yemeni migrants formed \u003cem>networks. \u003c/em>Relatives helped relatives. Friends followed friends. And Michigan soon became home to the largest concentration of Yemeni Americans in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib:\u003c/strong> My father first migrated to Michigan back in the 70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>This is Hamza Ghalib, one of the brothers who owns Mohka House. His father was part of that first wave of migration, leaving Hamza and the rest of the family in Yemen while he searched for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>He worked at Ford, but he did not like it there, so he moved to Southern California. As for me and my brothers, most of us were born in Yemen. I came here when I was 17 and a half.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Hamza joined his father in the States, but went north to the Bay Area for college, where he found a vibrant Yemeni community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>… it just kind of feels like it’s home …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area now has the 3rd largest Yemeni community in the U.S., and it’s been steadily growing, especially since the most recent civil war started in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib:\u003c/strong> The increasing presence of the Yemeni community here is helping and attracting more Yemeni immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The civil war in Yemen, which is still ongoing, pushed many families to leave in search of safety. But leaving didn’t mean letting go of home. Hamza says coffee transports him back to the cafes of his childhood and the flocks of pigeons that would hover nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>… every sip kind of takes me back to Yemen … drinking it in the middle of the day or early in the morning … watching my pigeons humming around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>There’s a long-running debate about the true origins of coffee: Yemen or Ethiopia. Coffee plants \u003cem>are\u003c/em> native to the western highlands of Ethiopia, but \u003cem>Yemen\u003c/em> was the first to cultivate, trade, and brew coffee as a drink hundreds of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>For centuries, the Port of Mokha in Yemen was the center of the global coffee trade. And yes, THAT Mokha, as in where the word for the chocolatey coffee drink comes from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So when Hamza serves a cup of coffee here, it’s not just caffeine, it’s a piece of that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>“What distinguishes the Yemeni coffees, especially the coffee that we sell, is the aromatic aftertaste flavor and the chocolatey flavor, earthy, and it’s all natural.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Before opening a cafe, Hamza’s original plan was to import coffee directly from Yemen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>“One of my friends is from Haraz, that’s the origin place of coffee, debatably in the entire world. I was talking to him about importing coffee from Yemen, but with the ports shut down. And we kind of just settled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So instead of trying to pull coffee out of a country at war, Hamza decided to bring the Yemeni coffee experience \u003cem>here\u003c/em>. Delah Coffee in San Francisco was the \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2022/12/29/sfs-first-yemeni-style-coffee-house-expands-to-the-east-bay/\">first\u003c/a> Yemeni coffee shop to open in the Bay Area in 2022. Mohka House was the second, just a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>“Mohka House is family …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Taj James is a regular at Mohka House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>We’ve got these two brothers who are here every day. And when you come in here, they make everyone here feel like family …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>You’ll see things behind the counter that you don’t really find at your typical corner cafe. Honeycomb bread and other traditional sweets. Spices like cardamom and cloves. Drinks built around those unique flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>And there’s events that happen, and book nights, and music, and so it’s just a real vibrant community space…I think Mohka House reflects the best of what Oakland is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade in scene sound\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: Okay let’s try the Mohka …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad in scene: \u003c/strong>The Mohka House Latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: The Mohka House Latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Olivia drinking sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: Oh yum. That is really like cardamom, hello, we are present. Very just like, comforting. A little spicy. It’s like a warm hug, just like rich and creamy. I’m definitely going to order this again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Scene fades out\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We need to take a quick break, but when we come back we’ll learn how these cafes evolved into hotspots for young muslim people in the Bay Area. And hey, while you have a moment, why not give to KQED. Just visithttp://\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> . It takes just a few minutes. And we really need you to help us with our $8 million budget gap now that federal funding has been cut. Again, that’s \u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music and sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Before 2022, the Bay Area didn’t have a single Yemeni cafe. Today, they’re hard to miss. And these cafes are offering more than just coffee. They’re ushering in a whole new way of gathering … Maha Sanad tells us more.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>In Yemen and across much of the Arab world, cafes are places to linger, socialize, and unwind. They often stay open late into the night. That’s true here in the Bay Area, too. And not just in Oakland. There are Yemeni cafes opening across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad in scene:\u003c/strong> I’m at Qamaria in Fremont right now. It’s about 9:30 PM on a Friday night. A lot of groups of friends hanging out, a lot of young people. It’s a really good vibe in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The lighting is warm and inviting. Friends pull chairs together up to crowded tables. And the sound of chatter and laughter is ringing in the air. It’s a little like a bar, but there’s no alcohol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>To understand the appeal, I asked customers why they keep coming back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 1:\u003c/strong> This is, like, the only thing that’s open kind of late. Everything else closes pretty early, so, like, after work we’ll just chill here. It’s, like, very diverse when you come here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 2:\u003c/strong> I’m Pakistani, and so we see a lot of Pakistani and Indian people. And it’s just really nice to see there’s a place where we can go and people aren’t looking at us in our cultural clothes in, like, a weird [00:06:00] way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 3:\u003c/strong> I’d say it’s a more homey feel, I would say. I feel more at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 4: \u003c/strong>It offers cultured chai and coffee spot that allows people to gather together, and that’s something that’s kind of lacking in the United States, especially late at night. This is one of the only places to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> That was Amara Ahmed, Mahum Fatima, Shivanka Sharma, and Rumzi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Some customers also told me it’s political. They said consumer boycotts related to Gaza led them to be more \u003cem>intentional\u003c/em> about where they spend their money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rumzi: \u003c/strong>That’s what started it. That’s what ignited it, and then the vibes here is what kept people around, I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>And because these cafes are late-night hangouts, they’ve taken on another role too…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nasser: “It’s a great place to meet other folks that are your age as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> In the Bay’s Arab, Desi, and Muslim communities, there’s kind of a running joke that if you’re single, this is where you go. Not just for coffee, but to see and be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser:\u003c/strong> “Yeah, I think that’s what kind of makes it attractive for young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>And it didn’t take long before I found someone with firsthand experience. Rumzi introduced me to his friend Nasser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rumzi: \u003c/strong>This guy literally met his wife at Qamaria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser: \u003c/strong>Yeah I did meet my wife\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>You met your wife at a Yemeni coffee shop? No way!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser: \u003c/strong>Yup!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Back at Mohka House, Hamza says cafes are just the beginning of what Yemeni people have to offer the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>A complete takeover in a good way. People showcasing their talents in so many different ways. I just hope that we can all co-exist with one another, live in peace…That’s how we coexist and that’s what Oakland, specifically, and the Bay Area generally, is well known for, coexistence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>For Hamza and for many others, these cafes are more than just business. They are proof that Yemen is not just a place in crisis, but a \u003cem>culture\u003c/em> that is very much alive in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CREDITS:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: That was KQED podcast engagement producer Maha Sanad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member supported KQED. Our show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price, have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing you notice when you walk into Mohka House in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland\">Oakland\u003c/a> is the smell — cardamom, cinnamon, and fresh coffee. Glistening in a display case near the register, sit decadent slices of honeycomb bread and sabaya, traditional Yemeni sweets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The place is often bustling with all types of people: students working on laptops, families drifting in and out, and friends catching up. Along one wall, customers lounge on floor cushions in \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majlis#/media/File:House_Interior,_Sanaa_(10720986825).jpg\">a traditional Yemeni maglis-style seating area\u003c/a>. It’s not a rare occurrence for every seat in the cafe to be occupied.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just a few years ago, a scene like this would have been hard to find in the Bay Area. The first Yemeni coffee shop — \u003ca href=\"https://delahcoffee.com/\">Delah Coffee\u003c/a> — opened in San Francisco in 2022. \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/mohkahouse/?hl=en\">Mohka House\u003c/a>, in Oakland, was the second in 2023.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, more than 20 Yemeni coffee shops can be found across the region, from Oakland to San Jose, San Francisco to Fremont, and beyond. Their rise has transformed the local coffee landscape and created new gathering spaces.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They may be new, but the story behind them stretches back decades in time and thousands of miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The story starts with Yemeni migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The growth of Yemeni coffee shops is closely tied to the growth of the Yemeni-American community itself in the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Yemen’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/event/Yemeni-Civil-War\">ongoing civil war\u003c/a> has driven recent migration, Yemeni immigration to the United States stretches back to the 1970s. Many of the first Yemeni immigrants settled in places like Dearborn, Michigan, where factory jobs were abundant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084985\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084985\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-04-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A piece of Khaliat al Nahl, or honeycomb bread, made of soft, cheese-filled rolls, sits at Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland, on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“My father first migrated to Michigan back in the ’70s,” said Hamza Ghalib, co-owner of Mohka House. “He worked at Ford, but he did not like it there, so he moved to Southern California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California attracted many Yemenis for a different reason than Michigan. Beginning in the 1960s and ’70s, thousands of Yemeni immigrants arrived to work in the state’s agricultural industry, particularly in the Central Valley’s vineyards and fields.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of those early Yemeni farmworkers \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandlibrary.org/blogs/post/from-the-middle-east-to-the-bay-area-a-history-of-arab-immigration-to-san-francisco-and-oakland/\">worked alongside Cesar Chavez and those active in the United Farm Workers movement \u003c/a>in California’s Central Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084987\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-10-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop, in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over time, family and community networks helped establish Yemeni communities in places like Oakland and the Bay Area. Ghalib eventually joined his father in the United States as a teenager and moved to the Bay Area for college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just kind of feels like home,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the Bay Area is home to one of the largest populations of Yemeni communities in the country, third only to Michigan and New York.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Yemen’s rich coffee history\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The popularity of Yemeni coffee shops isn’t just about migration; it’s also about history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s a longstanding debate over the origin of coffee. While coffee plants are native to Ethiopia, Yemen was the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/made-on-earth/how-the-world-came-to-run-on-coffee/#:~:text=The%20Oromo%20people%20from%20this,believers%20in%20its%20medicinal%20properties.\">first place\u003c/a> where coffee was cultivated, traded and consumed as a beverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084986\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084986\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-07-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Yaser Ghalib strains a stovetop coffee drink at Mohka House, a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland, on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For centuries, the Port of Mokha served as one of the world’s most important coffee-trading centers. The word “mocha” traces its roots to the Yemeni port, which became synonymous with high-quality coffee exported throughout the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inside Mohka House, photographs of the Port of Mokha hang on the walls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What distinguishes Yemeni coffee is the aromatic aftertaste,” Ghalib said. “The chocolatey flavor, earthy, and it’s all natural.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084984\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084984\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-01-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hamza Ghalib (left), owner of Mohka House, and his brother Yaser Ghalib work at the Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some customers said they found Yemeni cafes while looking for local alternatives to corporate chains. And Ghalib believes the cafes’ staying power comes from something bigger than just the drinks and unique atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People want a change,” Ghalib said. “Everybody knows what a Starbucks is, but they don’t know what a good quality cup of coffee can be, waiting for them right around the corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ghalib said many customers arrived out of curiosity or while looking for an alternative, and stayed because the cafes offered something different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People started exploring,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More than coffee shops\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of what makes Yemeni cafes distinctive is that they’re designed for lingering. In Yemen and across much of the Arab world, cafes serve as social spaces as much as businesses. They’re where people gather after dinner to drink coffee and tea, and spend hours catching up with friends. Many Bay Area Yemeni cafes have carried the spirit of that tradition with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At \u003ca href=\"https://www.qamariacoffee.com/\">Qamaria\u003c/a> in Fremont on a recent Friday night, groups of friends filled nearly every table. Customers describe the cafes as welcoming, diverse and one of the few places open late, other than bars and clubs, where people can simply spend time together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s one of the only places to do that,” Shivanka Sharma said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084989\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084989\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260521-YEMENICOFFEE-18-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mohka House, a Yemeni coffeehouse, in Oakland on May 21, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Others described it as a place where they could feel at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really nice to see there’s a place where we can go, and people aren’t looking at us in our cultural clothes in a weird way,” Mahum Fatima said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As these cafes have become the go-to gathering places, they’ve naturally taken on another role too. In some Bay Area Arab, Desi, and Muslim circles, there’s a running joke that Yemeni coffee shops have become the unofficial matchmaking hotspots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it turns out, there’s some truth to the running joke. While reporting this story at Qamaria in Fremont, I met a customer who told me he met his wife at a Yemeni coffee shop. Stories like this one speak to how deeply these cafes have become woven into community life in the Bay Area. They’re not just places to grab coffee, but places where real friendships, relationships and connections are formed.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A culture that’s very much alive\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Ghalib, the success of Yemeni cafes represents something larger than coffee. For years, Yemen has often appeared in American news coverage, mainly in the context of war and humanitarian crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These cafes tell a different story. They’re places where culture is shared, traditions are preserved and new communities are built.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People showcasing their talents in so many different ways,” Ghalib said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And judging by the crowds filling Yemeni cafes across the Bay Area, the movement is only getting started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Move over third-wave coffee shops. … the Bay Area has a new coffee trend – Yemeni coffee shops. They’re popping up all over from Marin…to San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont and Redwood City. Today I’m visiting one of them with KQED’s podcast engagement producer, Maha Sanad, to see what I’ve been missing …\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene:\u003c/strong> All right. Show us the way in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Yes. Let’s go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, man, right away the scent in here is so, like, cinnamon. I know, right? We definitely want the Mocha House latte. Definitely. With cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom. Oh, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Cardamom and nutmeg is, that’s like a reoccurring theme in a lot of Yemeni drinks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Maybe just see if the waiter recommends one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Okay, cool. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Hey. Hey. Mubarak. Mubarak. This is Olivia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Hi. How are you? Nice to meet you. Yes. Are you one of the owners? Yes. So nice to meet you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> What do you recommend? We think we’re gonna do the Mocha House latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Is there another favorite that you’re like, “Definitely get this”?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yasser:\u003c/strong> Chai is really good. In Arabic it’s…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds of coffee making\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> 10 out of 10 latte art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yasser:\u003c/strong> Oh, I’m trying, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Should we sit at a table, or do you wanna try to get a spot on the couch?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Yeah, we could sit over there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Okay, so first off, where have you brought me?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Well, right now we’re in Mocha House. It is a Yemeni coffee shop in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> I brought you here because Mocha House is one of the very many Yemeni coffee shops that I’m sure you’ve been seeing popping up across the Bay. It’s one of my favorite spots. I, I love coming here and doing work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> What’s special about Yemeni cafes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Just being around my people, my culture, hearing the Arabic music playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> It really does transport me. It makes me feel like I have a little piece of home in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And this place has a sort of unique soundtrack today. What are we hearing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Right now, they are playing the Quran, which is the holy book in Islam. Usually, they do have some pretty good Arabic music playing, but since we are here during Ramadan, which is the month that Muslims [00:02:00] fast, it’s more traditional to abstain from music if you can, and then usually people are listening to the Quran for the month, or trying to at least.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>If you wanna see a very bustling space with a bunch of, you know, young Muslim people, hit up the Yemeni coffee spots after nightly prayers during Ramadan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That’s a hot tip, ’cause I feel like the Bay Area is often maligned because we don’t have as much of, like, a late-night bar culture as other big cities. Yeah. So I love that as a hot tip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Is this the only Yemeni coffee house in the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> Oh, definitely not. In San Francisco, Oakland, even San Jose, they are literally [00:03:00] popping up everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> All right, well, today on Bay Curious, we are looking into why here with all these Yemeni cafes, and why now. But while you go tell us that story, I’m gonna take a sip of this delicious latte and just sit and let you teach me some stuff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music beings\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>To understand why so many Yemeni coffee shops have come on the scene, we have to go back to Yemen. The war there has been in the news recently, but Yemeni migration to the U.S actually started long before. Going back to the 1970s, there was a lot of political instability and not a lot of work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So, many men left their families in Yemen to find work abroad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Cities like Dearborn, Michigan offered steady factory jobs, especially in the auto industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Those first Yemeni migrants formed \u003cem>networks. \u003c/em>Relatives helped relatives. Friends followed friends. And Michigan soon became home to the largest concentration of Yemeni Americans in the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib:\u003c/strong> My father first migrated to Michigan back in the 70s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>This is Hamza Ghalib, one of the brothers who owns Mohka House. His father was part of that first wave of migration, leaving Hamza and the rest of the family in Yemen while he searched for work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>He worked at Ford, but he did not like it there, so he moved to Southern California. As for me and my brothers, most of us were born in Yemen. I came here when I was 17 and a half.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Hamza joined his father in the States, but went north to the Bay Area for college, where he found a vibrant Yemeni community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>… it just kind of feels like it’s home …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The Bay Area now has the 3rd largest Yemeni community in the U.S., and it’s been steadily growing, especially since the most recent civil war started in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib:\u003c/strong> The increasing presence of the Yemeni community here is helping and attracting more Yemeni immigrants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The civil war in Yemen, which is still ongoing, pushed many families to leave in search of safety. But leaving didn’t mean letting go of home. Hamza says coffee transports him back to the cafes of his childhood and the flocks of pigeons that would hover nearby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>… every sip kind of takes me back to Yemen … drinking it in the middle of the day or early in the morning … watching my pigeons humming around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>There’s a long-running debate about the true origins of coffee: Yemen or Ethiopia. Coffee plants \u003cem>are\u003c/em> native to the western highlands of Ethiopia, but \u003cem>Yemen\u003c/em> was the first to cultivate, trade, and brew coffee as a drink hundreds of years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>For centuries, the Port of Mokha in Yemen was the center of the global coffee trade. And yes, THAT Mokha, as in where the word for the chocolatey coffee drink comes from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So when Hamza serves a cup of coffee here, it’s not just caffeine, it’s a piece of that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>“What distinguishes the Yemeni coffees, especially the coffee that we sell, is the aromatic aftertaste flavor and the chocolatey flavor, earthy, and it’s all natural.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Before opening a cafe, Hamza’s original plan was to import coffee directly from Yemen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>“One of my friends is from Haraz, that’s the origin place of coffee, debatably in the entire world. I was talking to him about importing coffee from Yemen, but with the ports shut down. And we kind of just settled.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>So instead of trying to pull coffee out of a country at war, Hamza decided to bring the Yemeni coffee experience \u003cem>here\u003c/em>. Delah Coffee in San Francisco was the \u003ca href=\"https://sfstandard.com/2022/12/29/sfs-first-yemeni-style-coffee-house-expands-to-the-east-bay/\">first\u003c/a> Yemeni coffee shop to open in the Bay Area in 2022. Mohka House was the second, just a year later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>“Mohka House is family …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Taj James is a regular at Mohka House.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>We’ve got these two brothers who are here every day. And when you come in here, they make everyone here feel like family …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>You’ll see things behind the counter that you don’t really find at your typical corner cafe. Honeycomb bread and other traditional sweets. Spices like cardamom and cloves. Drinks built around those unique flavors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taj James: \u003c/strong>And there’s events that happen, and book nights, and music, and so it’s just a real vibrant community space…I think Mohka House reflects the best of what Oakland is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Fade in scene sound\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: Okay let’s try the Mohka …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad in scene: \u003c/strong>The Mohka House Latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: The Mohka House Latte.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Olivia drinking sounds\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price in scene\u003c/strong>: Oh yum. That is really like cardamom, hello, we are present. Very just like, comforting. A little spicy. It’s like a warm hug, just like rich and creamy. I’m definitely going to order this again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Scene fades out\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We need to take a quick break, but when we come back we’ll learn how these cafes evolved into hotspots for young muslim people in the Bay Area. And hey, while you have a moment, why not give to KQED. Just visithttp://\u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> . It takes just a few minutes. And we really need you to help us with our $8 million budget gap now that federal funding has been cut. Again, that’s \u003ca href=\"http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\">http://donate.kqed.org/podcasts\u003c/a> .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music and sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Before 2022, the Bay Area didn’t have a single Yemeni cafe. Today, they’re hard to miss. And these cafes are offering more than just coffee. They’re ushering in a whole new way of gathering … Maha Sanad tells us more.\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>In Yemen and across much of the Arab world, cafes are places to linger, socialize, and unwind. They often stay open late into the night. That’s true here in the Bay Area, too. And not just in Oakland. There are Yemeni cafes opening across the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad in scene:\u003c/strong> I’m at Qamaria in Fremont right now. It’s about 9:30 PM on a Friday night. A lot of groups of friends hanging out, a lot of young people. It’s a really good vibe in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>The lighting is warm and inviting. Friends pull chairs together up to crowded tables. And the sound of chatter and laughter is ringing in the air. It’s a little like a bar, but there’s no alcohol.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>To understand the appeal, I asked customers why they keep coming back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 1:\u003c/strong> This is, like, the only thing that’s open kind of late. Everything else closes pretty early, so, like, after work we’ll just chill here. It’s, like, very diverse when you come here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 2:\u003c/strong> I’m Pakistani, and so we see a lot of Pakistani and Indian people. And it’s just really nice to see there’s a place where we can go and people aren’t looking at us in our cultural clothes in, like, a weird [00:06:00] way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 3:\u003c/strong> I’d say it’s a more homey feel, I would say. I feel more at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Patron 4: \u003c/strong>It offers cultured chai and coffee spot that allows people to gather together, and that’s something that’s kind of lacking in the United States, especially late at night. This is one of the only places to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> That was Amara Ahmed, Mahum Fatima, Shivanka Sharma, and Rumzi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Some customers also told me it’s political. They said consumer boycotts related to Gaza led them to be more \u003cem>intentional\u003c/em> about where they spend their money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rumzi: \u003c/strong>That’s what started it. That’s what ignited it, and then the vibes here is what kept people around, I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>And because these cafes are late-night hangouts, they’ve taken on another role too…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nasser: “It’s a great place to meet other folks that are your age as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad:\u003c/strong> In the Bay’s Arab, Desi, and Muslim communities, there’s kind of a running joke that if you’re single, this is where you go. Not just for coffee, but to see and be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser:\u003c/strong> “Yeah, I think that’s what kind of makes it attractive for young people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>And it didn’t take long before I found someone with firsthand experience. Rumzi introduced me to his friend Nasser.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Rumzi: \u003c/strong>This guy literally met his wife at Qamaria.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser: \u003c/strong>Yeah I did meet my wife\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>You met your wife at a Yemeni coffee shop? No way!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Nasser: \u003c/strong>Yup!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>Back at Mohka House, Hamza says cafes are just the beginning of what Yemeni people have to offer the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hamza Ghalib: \u003c/strong>A complete takeover in a good way. People showcasing their talents in so many different ways. I just hope that we can all co-exist with one another, live in peace…That’s how we coexist and that’s what Oakland, specifically, and the Bay Area generally, is well known for, coexistence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Maha Sanad: \u003c/strong>For Hamza and for many others, these cafes are more than just business. They are proof that Yemen is not just a place in crisis, but a \u003cem>culture\u003c/em> that is very much alive in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>CREDITS:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price\u003c/strong>: That was KQED podcast engagement producer Maha Sanad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member supported KQED. Our show is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With extra support from Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price, have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published in 2022 and has been lightly updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any group that feels obligated to include “Are you a sex cult?” on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> probably has something of a public relations problem, even when the answer is, “No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seriously, we are in many ways fairly traditional, suburban families and individuals but we’re also a group exploring pleasurable living, which qualifies us as an alternative lifestyle,” writes the intentional community Lafayette Morehouse on its website. According to a 2020 webcast from Morehouse, “dozens and dozens” of people are still living communally in a group that has been active since the late 1960s. It’s one of a small fraction of surviving communes from that heyday of experimentation in group living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County locals like Sabrina McQueen used to see group members — who live on a secluded parcel of some 20-plus acres, including a swimming pool, tennis court and, at one time, a boxing ring — driving around town in purple limos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d drop people off at the grocery store,” McQueen said. “So it’s like, ‘Well, what’s that?’ And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the Purple People.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Purple is a big theme with Morehouse, whose members also live in purple-painted houses. In high school, McQueen and her friends were so curious about the group they’d make a night of spying on the property from the one lookout point where you could see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Purple People” themselves \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html#purple-people\">do not answer to that name\u003c/a>. “Do I look purple to you?” one Morehouse member \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/purple-haze/Content?oid=2132347\">told an SF Weekly reporter in 1995\u003c/a>. And their penchant for privacy is well-known in the area; McQueen’s father was a mail carrier, but Morehouse wouldn’t let him get past the gate of their property to make his deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQueen herself had never heard the name Lafayette Morehouse. She has, however, heard the sex cult rumor, and media organizations also have referred to the group that way. So she wants to know the truth about Morehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just wondering, are the Purple People still there and what are they about?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marco Beneteau took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 2000s and has lived in several communes. He said the idea that the group is a cult is “complete nonsense,” and that the group has displayed none of the characteristics associated with cults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives. None of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academics who study intentional communities like Morehouse eschew the very word “cult,” said \u003ca href=\"https://religiousstudies.ku.edu/timothy-miller\">Tim Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas\u003c/a> who has written extensively about 1960s-era communes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way people in common parlance use the word is to say [this is] something I don’t like, and that may have a good basis and it may not,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why has Lafayette Morehouse acquired this reputation? I very much wanted to talk to the group, but despite numerous emails and phone calls, they mostly ignored me. However, some of their history is available in newspaper stories, magazine articles and books, on websites and via former members. What has come through is that Lafayette Morehouse is one of the few surviving links to an increasingly forgotten part of Bay Area history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgR5YkWAekM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>This promotional video produced by Lafayette Morehouse is the only one on their YouTube channel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Communes, gurus and human potential\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To really understand Lafayette Morehouse, you have to grasp a few things about the 1960s and early 1970s other than Bob Dylan, Vietnam and hippies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the era, the younger generation — believe it or not, the baby boomers now so readily derided as out of touch — formed the bulk of a counterculture looking to overthrow norms and conventions in just about everything: religion, politics, music, art — you name it. Hundreds of thousands — even up to a million — young people took to living together in groups organized around political, religious or environmental ideals, said Miller, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/60s-Communes-Syracuse-Conflict-Resolution/dp/081560601X?asin=081560601X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2\">authored a survey of the era’s communes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 1965, he said, “there was just an explosion” of new communities. These groups sought to build a better society based on values other than those enshrined in what Miller calls “this sort of me-first” American culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While communitarian ideas were inspiring people to live together in collectivist ways, a parallel, more individualistic philosophy also was gaining ground. The human potential movement was based on the notion that people could tap into their unused abilities to attain “self-actualization.” The Bay Area became a hub for both these ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12081386 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-08-KQED-3.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This also was the age when high-profile evangelists pushed for expanding human consciousness. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2013/10/timothy-leary-archives/\">The former Harvard professor Timothy Leary\u003c/a> urged young people to take psychedelic drugs and “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Meanwhile, self-educated former car salesman Werner Erhard promoted \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training\">a program of intense seminars called EST\u003c/a>, designed to bring about personal transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, at the intersection of communes, the human potential movement and the rise of these charismatic gurus, appeared the founder of Morehouse: Victor Baranco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victor Baranco was one of the teachers who had come up with a philosophy that helped people to self-actualize or reach their human potential,” said Laurie Rivlin-Heller, who knew Baranco in the 1970s when she lived in Morehouse residences in Oakland and Rohnert Park. \u003ca href=\"https://communalstudies.org/product/communal-societies-vol-25-2005/\">She later wrote her master’s thesis on the group\u003c/a>, which was initially called the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandmorehouse.com/\">Institute of Human Abilities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco was a former appliance salesman now selling a new philosophy, in which the goal, broadly speaking, was to remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was good at reeling people into his orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would participate in a course in which he was the teacher,” Rivlin-Heller said. “And he would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing. Not only did he listen, but he looked and he could assess on the basis of your question and maybe a couple of follow-up questions where you were coming from. It was a unique gift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco’s group made money by selling courses and renovating dilapidated houses he’d purchased. The Morehouse concept was so successful that at one point it had dozens of affiliates around the country, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sgt-bilko-meets-the-new-culture-182617/\">Rolling Stone reported\u003c/a> that people in Berkeley were calling the founder “the Colonel Sanders of the commune scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 1971 article was less than complimentary, portraying Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo surrounded by obsequious devotees who paid money to hear him deliver homespun homilies. Baranco was also quoted as acknowledging he’d been a “hustler” who’d made “big money in shady ways. Not necessarily illegal, but shady,” including selling phony diamond rings and watches. The article later appeared in a book called “Mindfuckers” alongside a chapter on Charles Manson — not a good look for any leader of a commune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivlin-Heller said the article missed the point of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He put everything up front,” she said. “The introductory course to Morehouse is called the ‘Mark Group,’ where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were volunteering, entering into the hustle and participating in it. Those that I know, [they] had a good experience there … and if they didn’t feel they were getting value, they would leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former Morehouse adherent, Rebekah Beneteau, said she took a lot of courses at the Lafayette property in the 1990s and also lived with her then-husband, Marco, in a Yonkers, New York, Morehouse. She described her time there as “a really life-changing experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12084476 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HistoryofWetsuit.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them the silver-lining people,” Beneteau said, “because their philosophy and approach to life was to always view everything as if it was a gift and their own creation. And how could they use it? How could they view it as already perfect, including the potential for change?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the primary components of the Morehouse philosophy, both Beneateaus said, is that a community runs better when its women are happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau said that while the Morehouses clearly had a money-making component, she never felt they took advantage of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve actually been affiliated with way more organizations that are way more pushy and suck your money out,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So what’s with the sex?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lafayette Morehouse bills its philosophy as “responsible hedonism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hedonism is an ethical point of view that has the pursuit of pleasure as the highest goal,” the group writes on its website. “People often think that living pleasurably means that you don’t care about anybody else. Our experience has proven that if you are going to have a pleasurable life, then you have to see to it that others around you live pleasurably too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Morehouse’s hedonistic doctrine appears to involve having better sex. The group currently has nine sensuality-related \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">courses advertised on its website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11913695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11913695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the nine course titles offered by Lafayette Morehouse related to sensuality.\" width=\"1296\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-160x51.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current sensuality-related courses offered by Lafayette Morehouse. \u003ccite>(Lafayette Morehouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The focus on sex is a reflection of the culture at the time of Morehouse’s founding, said Rivlin-Heller. Baranco, who was in his 30s at the time, saw a way for people his age and older to participate in the sexual revolution happening around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these different gurus had different hooks,” Rivlin-Heller said. “Ram Dass did meditation and chanting and Buddhism. Esalen had humanistic psychology. So the sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notorious Morehouse event was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/first-demo.html\">public demonstration\u003c/a> in 1976 of what the group claimed was a woman having a three-hour orgasm. (No, I couldn’t find any video.) And Baranco took advantage of California’s loose postsecondary education standards to turn the Lafayette commune into “More University,” which offered Ph.D.s in the humanities and sensuality, and conducted what the organization said was sexual research. In 1992, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that courses cost as much as $16,800. A 1994 profile of the university in \u003ca href=\"https://docplayer.net/45093155-Volume-2-no-7-march-1994-2-50.html\">the conservative magazine Heterodoxy\u003c/a> described a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/us/california-trying-to-close-worthless-diploma-schools.html\">less than rigorous academic program\u003c/a>, to put it mildly, as well as some alleged troubling sexual incidents, though no arrests or charges were ever made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s and ’90s, Baranco unsuccessfully sued The Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times for libel. One court decision is not-safe-for-work reading: According to the court, More University’s Advanced Sensuality class included research in “engorgement, lubrication, seminal secretion.” It said one of the goals of the course was to “make friends with another crotch.” The university was forced to shut down in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau, at least, believes Morehouse did legitimate sexual research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many people now who are teaching [the one-hour orgasm] who either attribute it to them or not,” she said. “They have a technique that allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a whole hour?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flafayette.morehouse%2Fvideos%2F2506462923003338%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>A Facebook Live video from Lafayette Morehouse discussing their approach to communal living and COVID-19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fear of what’s different\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1970s into the early 1990s, Lafayette Morehouse engaged in an ongoing battle with the county and neighbors over zoning issues and code violations, including allowing unhoused people to live on the property in tents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Miller, the historian of intentional communities, said it’s not uncommon for communes to be unpopular among local residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very typical thing that’s happened throughout history,” he said. “There seems to be an instinctive fear among a lot of people of anything that’s new or different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said the remaining ’60s-era communes are “often quite quiet. They don’t want to call attention to themselves, even though … they get along with their neighbors and all of that. [But] the big problem they have over and over are zoning laws [that] often forbid communal living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Surviving the decades\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Baranco died in Hawaii in 2002, and since then Lafayette Morehouse has been mostly free of controversy. The great swell of ’60s-era communes eventually dissipated, leaving only a small fraction of surviving groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A friend of mine, who still lives on one of the ’60s-era communes, said when their community had a great out-migration in the ’80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all,” said Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say why Morehouse has outlasted its peers, but Rebekah Beneteau said \u003ca href=\"https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/how-to-free-love-commune-neil-strauss-2018-6/\">Morehouse has figured out how to make group living work\u003c/a>. During the coronavirus pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://fb.watch/cNfpmcgSuM/\">the group held a webcast\u003c/a> where they described the difficulty of living in a close community with so many people during a pandemic. But true to their “silver lining” philosophy, they were looking for ways the experience could actually enhance their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a bad goal, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. You’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today we’re going to venture back to the 1960s and 70s, when the Bay Area was a center for many social movements.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sound pop of protest\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Black Panther Party formed in response to police brutality against Black people …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speech: We are talking about the survival of Black people, nothing else…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women were frustrated by the gender inequality they faced daily … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chanting: Free our sisters, free ourselves\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a lot of people started to think differently about how they wanted to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As many as a million Americans decided to join communes, group living situations, often with shared chores and finances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now the vast majority of those intentional communities that formed in the 60s and 70s have disappeared. But not all of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Jon Brooks went looking for one that survived in the suburbs of Contra Costa County, a group that has been steeped in mystery and sometimes controversy.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One note for listeners: we do talk about sex in this episode. It first aired in 2022. Here’s Jon… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you were a high school kid growing up in the Walnut Creek area back in the 1990s, there wasn’t a lot to do. That’s one reason why Sabrina McQueen has never forgotten the big purple car she saw driving around town. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They’d drop people off at the grocery store. So it’s like, well, what’s that? And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the purple people.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purple people. That is fun to say. Say it once, you’re probably gonna want to say it again. Purple people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who could they possibly be? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what Sabrina wants to know. She remembers in the seventh grade she went with a friend to pick someone up who lived on the purple people’s property…a com pound on some 20-plus acres. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was so excited that I thought I was going to go inside and be able to see it. And then we got just to the gate, and that was it. You can’t get past the gate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What exactly was going on in there? It’s one of those lingering mysteries to people who live in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, here we should tell you, the Purple People aren’t really called the Purple People. (I know, rats.) That is just what locals call them. Why? Because they’re known to drive around in purple vehicles and live in purple-painted houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you know the official name of the group?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don’t. That’s why I asked this question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their real name is Lafayette Morehouse. And they are one of a very small fraction of 1960s-era communes that survive to this day. Lafayette Morehouse was so mysterious to locals like Sabrina, she and her friends on weekends would drive to this one lookout point to see if they could catch a glimpse of the property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be kind of like, Hey, what do you guys want to go do tonight? It’s like, Oh, you guys want to go like, check out the purple people? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s driving me to that spot now. But she’s having a hard time finding it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So, here’s where we’re going to turn. But it has been 30 years\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Excuse me, we’re looking for the Purple People campus … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Purple people campus? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sorry, no idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You never heard that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you think they don’t know for real?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music post\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lafayette Morehouse has a colorful history, which we’re going to get into in a moment, but in recent decades it’s been quiet. Three years ago, the group was briefly in the news after someone left racist graffiti on their buildings. Morehouse’s reaction to the media at the time: No comment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, I wanted very much to talk to the group, but they declined multiple interview requests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I did find three former Morehouse members who did want to talk. Like Rebekah Beneteau. She took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 1990s. The group was so successful at attracting members, Morehouse branches sprang up around the country. Beneteau says she lived for six years in one of the sister Morehouse communes in New York. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Really the core of Morehouse’s philosophy is that life is better lived together and that we disrupted that in the 50s by shuttling every woman, every couple, off into their own houses. And then we invented Valium because there were all these women alone at home going nuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1960s and 70s a lot of people were looking for new ways to live more fulfilling lives, at least more fulfilling than their parents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to escape the prescribed path laid out by society – school, job, marriage, kids, death – was to live together in groups organized around political, religious, or environmental ideals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of thousands, up to a million, people tried their hand at communal living, says professor Tim Miller, an expert on intentional communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tim Miller:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting in 1965, I think you can date it that precisely. there was a whole new wave of communities came along… (4:00) I would say by and large these new young people’s communities were not very popular with mainstream society, and I would say that’s a very typical thing. I think it’s just that fear of what’s different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1970s ..and all the way through the 90s, Morehouse and Contra Costa County also battled over zoning issues and code violations … skirmishes that were frequently reported in the news. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psychedelic music starts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1960s and 70s were also the age of … the guru. Like Timothy Leary – who urged people to take psychedelic drugs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Leary: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turn on, tune in, and drop out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Werner Erhard, creator of something called E-S-T, or EST. This was a program of intense seminars supposedly leading to personal transformation. What Erhard was prescribing was… um, I don’t know…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Werner Erhard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People are…that love is attention. People are…that love is attention. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of these different gurus had different hooks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Laurie Rivlin Heller. In the early ‘70s she dropped out of college and moved to the Bay Area. Here, she got interested in the human potential movement – the idea that people could tap into their unused abilities to reach their full potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when she discovered someone named \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We’ve got to pause for a quick break. When we return … we get to know Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laurie Rivlin Heller met Victor Baranco in the early 70s, and found herself drawn to him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Berkeley-born Baranco was the founder of Morehouse, which had branches in a few Bay Area cities. Baranco had a successful career as an appliance salesman. But with Morehouse, he was offering something more than consumer goods. He was selling a new philosophy. The goal…remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that he could so clearly understand who I was and where I was coming from. And he did that to everybody. It was a unique gift. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco called his program for living “responsible hedonism.” That means creating a pleasurable life for not only yourself, but for others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The responsible part\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was that you take responsibility for your life and your action. Things could change, but it was up to you to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hedonism part? That’s where the “more” in Mor ehouse comes in. And a lot of it has to do with … you guessed it … or you didn’t, because this is public media: sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco. There were young people in this time period who were experiencing sexuality in a way that hadn’t been done previously. And there were older people who wanted a piece of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to former members, one of the tenets of Baranco’s teaching was that a community functioned better when the women were happy, sexually and otherwise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The group is famous for a 1976 demonstration of a woman reportedly having a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-hour\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> orgasm. Yes I said what I said. I spent a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of time looking for that tape. Didn’t find it. But I did find some current Morehouse YouTube videos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the fundamentals of sensuality course, we discuss the nature of orgasm. And in the afternoon, there’s a live demonstration of a woman in orgasm for an hour that will really blow your mind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rebekah Beneteau…the woman who lived in a Morehouse commune in New York… was at first put off by the emphasis on sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They had a class where a woman was demonstrating being in orgasm for an hour. I thought that was extremely freaky. I didn’t want anything to do with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But she did like the group’s positive outlook and focus on people’s ability to change. Now, she offers sex and intimacy coaching. And, she changed her mind about the one-hour orgasm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They have a technique that also allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 30:05 Can you really have a one-hour orgasm?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mm, 27 minutes. Pretty, pretty good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this focus on sex has led to a certain reputation for Morehouse among its neighbors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s a couple of rumors, one that it was a sex cult. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, the group has definitely at times been labeled a sex cult. So much so they even have a question on their F-A-Q page … “Are you a sex cult?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I mean, that’s complete nonsense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Marco Beneteau. He and Rebekah used to be married. He also took a lot of Morehouse courses. Then the two of them started their own commune in Philadelphia. Now he lives on a commune in Wyoming. So the man knows his communes. He says Morehouse didn’t have any of the characteristics people associate with cults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion. You know, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives, that, you know, none of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Morehouse isn’t a cult, it has been controversial. In 1971, Rolling Stone published a pretty unflattering portrait of the group – complete with Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo. The article implied Baranco was making a lot of money off group members. But Laurie Rivlin Heller says there was nothing devious going on. Self-interest was an open part of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I would say that he put everything up front. The introductory course to Morehouse is called the Mark Group, where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were voluntarily entering into the hustle and participating in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, that Rolling Stone article later appeared in a book alongside a chapter on Charles Manson. Not a good look for any leader of a commune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using classical educational modes, More university is dedicated to the full realization of human potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco later turned Lafayette Morehouse into More University. More University, more controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university offered PhDs in the humanities and of course, sensuality, including sexual research. In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at least one course cost almost 17-thousand dollars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 80s and 90s Baranco sued the Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times for libel. (Hashtag please don’t sue \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) The court threw those lawsuits out. One of the decisions is not-safe-for-work reading. According to the court, a goal of More University’s Advanced Sensuality class was to “make friends with another crotch.” Which, if you’re listening Morehouse, would be an awesome bumper sticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university shut down in the mid-90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco died in 2002 at the age of 68. And, eventually, the great majority of ‘60s communes faded away. Professor Timothy Miller:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Miller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friend of mine, who still lives on one of the 60s era communes, said when their community had a great outmigration in the 80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Morehouse has survived. The decades come, the decades go, and they’re still doing their thing – whatever it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in the car with Sabrina, we wandered around trying to find that one view of the campus she remembers. We kept taking wrong turns, going back over the same streets. And then… …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a purple house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s excited. She’s a Purple People fan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wonder if that belongs to… Oh, yeah, I mean, that is, does that look like it’s purple?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> property, with tennis courts and everything. But really, there’s not much to see and the group does have a right to its privacy. Sabrina, I think, is viewing it through the eyes of her high school years, when there was this mysterious aura around this counterculture group … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in her own suburban home town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wanted to know what she thinks of the Purple People now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is kind of interesting that this has survived so long, which I think is so amazing. I mean, hey, if that’s what they want to do and they’re peaceful and they are able to be part of our community, it sounds like they’re having fun. So good for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m a reporter. It’s my job to be skeptical. But I will say one thing. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Lafayette Morehouse went live over Facebook. They were definitely taking safety seriously. But, their aim wasn’t just to survive COVID, they said that wasn’t a high enough goal. They wanted to use the experience as a way to make their lives even better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If life hands you really sour lemons, make even sweeter lemonade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to admit, I’m still thinking about that one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Jon Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you like Bay Curious, I’ve got a request. Please tell your podcast listening friends about the show. We all like a good recommendation…help us grow!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as always, consider donating to help sustain the work we do on Bay Curious. More info at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Brendan Willard and Sebastian Miño-Bucheli also helped on this episode. We get extra support from: Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript.\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This article first published in 2022 and has been lightly updated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Any group that feels obligated to include “Are you a sex cult?” on its \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html\">frequently asked questions page\u003c/a> probably has something of a public relations problem, even when the answer is, “No.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seriously, we are in many ways fairly traditional, suburban families and individuals but we’re also a group exploring pleasurable living, which qualifies us as an alternative lifestyle,” writes the intentional community Lafayette Morehouse on its website. According to a 2020 webcast from Morehouse, “dozens and dozens” of people are still living communally in a group that has been active since the late 1960s. It’s one of a small fraction of surviving communes from that heyday of experimentation in group living.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Contra Costa County locals like Sabrina McQueen used to see group members — who live on a secluded parcel of some 20-plus acres, including a swimming pool, tennis court and, at one time, a boxing ring — driving around town in purple limos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d drop people off at the grocery store,” McQueen said. “So it’s like, ‘Well, what’s that?’ And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the Purple People.'”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Purple is a big theme with Morehouse, whose members also live in purple-painted houses. In high school, McQueen and her friends were so curious about the group they’d make a night of spying on the property from the one lookout point where you could see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The “Purple People” themselves \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/faq.html#purple-people\">do not answer to that name\u003c/a>. “Do I look purple to you?” one Morehouse member \u003ca href=\"https://archives.sfweekly.com/sanfrancisco/purple-haze/Content?oid=2132347\">told an SF Weekly reporter in 1995\u003c/a>. And their penchant for privacy is well-known in the area; McQueen’s father was a mail carrier, but Morehouse wouldn’t let him get past the gate of their property to make his deliveries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>McQueen herself had never heard the name Lafayette Morehouse. She has, however, heard the sex cult rumor, and media organizations also have referred to the group that way. So she wants to know the truth about Morehouse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m just wondering, are the Purple People still there and what are they about?” she asked.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marco Beneteau took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 2000s and has lived in several communes. He said the idea that the group is a cult is “complete nonsense,” and that the group has displayed none of the characteristics associated with cults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives. None of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Academics who study intentional communities like Morehouse eschew the very word “cult,” said \u003ca href=\"https://religiousstudies.ku.edu/timothy-miller\">Tim Miller, a professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas\u003c/a> who has written extensively about 1960s-era communes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The way people in common parlance use the word is to say [this is] something I don’t like, and that may have a good basis and it may not,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So why has Lafayette Morehouse acquired this reputation? I very much wanted to talk to the group, but despite numerous emails and phone calls, they mostly ignored me. However, some of their history is available in newspaper stories, magazine articles and books, on websites and via former members. What has come through is that Lafayette Morehouse is one of the few surviving links to an increasingly forgotten part of Bay Area history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/TgR5YkWAekM\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>This promotional video produced by Lafayette Morehouse is the only one on their YouTube channel.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Communes, gurus and human potential\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To really understand Lafayette Morehouse, you have to grasp a few things about the 1960s and early 1970s other than Bob Dylan, Vietnam and hippies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the era, the younger generation — believe it or not, the baby boomers now so readily derided as out of touch — formed the bulk of a counterculture looking to overthrow norms and conventions in just about everything: religion, politics, music, art — you name it. Hundreds of thousands — even up to a million — young people took to living together in groups organized around political, religious or environmental ideals, said Miller, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.amazon.com/60s-Communes-Syracuse-Conflict-Resolution/dp/081560601X?asin=081560601X&revisionId=&format=4&depth=2\">authored a survey of the era’s communes\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting in 1965, he said, “there was just an explosion” of new communities. These groups sought to build a better society based on values other than those enshrined in what Miller calls “this sort of me-first” American culture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While communitarian ideas were inspiring people to live together in collectivist ways, a parallel, more individualistic philosophy also was gaining ground. The human potential movement was based on the notion that people could tap into their unused abilities to attain “self-actualization.” The Bay Area became a hub for both these ideas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This also was the age when high-profile evangelists pushed for expanding human consciousness. \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/2013/10/timothy-leary-archives/\">The former Harvard professor Timothy Leary\u003c/a> urged young people to take psychedelic drugs and “turn on, tune in and drop out.” Meanwhile, self-educated former car salesman Werner Erhard promoted \u003ca href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training\">a program of intense seminars called EST\u003c/a>, designed to bring about personal transformation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1967, at the intersection of communes, the human potential movement and the rise of these charismatic gurus, appeared the founder of Morehouse: Victor Baranco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Victor Baranco was one of the teachers who had come up with a philosophy that helped people to self-actualize or reach their human potential,” said Laurie Rivlin-Heller, who knew Baranco in the 1970s when she lived in Morehouse residences in Oakland and Rohnert Park. \u003ca href=\"https://communalstudies.org/product/communal-societies-vol-25-2005/\">She later wrote her master’s thesis on the group\u003c/a>, which was initially called the \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandmorehouse.com/\">Institute of Human Abilities\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco was a former appliance salesman now selling a new philosophy, in which the goal, broadly speaking, was to remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was good at reeling people into his orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You would participate in a course in which he was the teacher,” Rivlin-Heller said. “And he would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing. Not only did he listen, but he looked and he could assess on the basis of your question and maybe a couple of follow-up questions where you were coming from. It was a unique gift.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Baranco’s group made money by selling courses and renovating dilapidated houses he’d purchased. The Morehouse concept was so successful that at one point it had dozens of affiliates around the country, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/sgt-bilko-meets-the-new-culture-182617/\">Rolling Stone reported\u003c/a> that people in Berkeley were calling the founder “the Colonel Sanders of the commune scene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That 1971 article was less than complimentary, portraying Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo surrounded by obsequious devotees who paid money to hear him deliver homespun homilies. Baranco was also quoted as acknowledging he’d been a “hustler” who’d made “big money in shady ways. Not necessarily illegal, but shady,” including selling phony diamond rings and watches. The article later appeared in a book called “Mindfuckers” alongside a chapter on Charles Manson — not a good look for any leader of a commune.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rivlin-Heller said the article missed the point of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He put everything up front,” she said. “The introductory course to Morehouse is called the ‘Mark Group,’ where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were volunteering, entering into the hustle and participating in it. Those that I know, [they] had a good experience there … and if they didn’t feel they were getting value, they would leave.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another former Morehouse adherent, Rebekah Beneteau, said she took a lot of courses at the Lafayette property in the 1990s and also lived with her then-husband, Marco, in a Yonkers, New York, Morehouse. She described her time there as “a really life-changing experience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I call them the silver-lining people,” Beneteau said, “because their philosophy and approach to life was to always view everything as if it was a gift and their own creation. And how could they use it? How could they view it as already perfect, including the potential for change?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the primary components of the Morehouse philosophy, both Beneateaus said, is that a community runs better when its women are happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau said that while the Morehouses clearly had a money-making component, she never felt they took advantage of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve actually been affiliated with way more organizations that are way more pushy and suck your money out,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>So what’s with the sex?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Lafayette Morehouse bills its philosophy as “responsible hedonism.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Hedonism is an ethical point of view that has the pursuit of pleasure as the highest goal,” the group writes on its website. “People often think that living pleasurably means that you don’t care about anybody else. Our experience has proven that if you are going to have a pleasurable life, then you have to see to it that others around you live pleasurably too.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A big part of Morehouse’s hedonistic doctrine appears to involve having better sex. The group currently has nine sensuality-related \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">courses advertised on its website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11913695\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1296px\">\u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/course.html\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11913695\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png\" alt=\"A screenshot of the nine course titles offered by Lafayette Morehouse related to sensuality.\" width=\"1296\" height=\"412\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM.png 1296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-800x254.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-1020x324.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-10-at-10.36.31-AM-160x51.png 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1296px) 100vw, 1296px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Current sensuality-related courses offered by Lafayette Morehouse. \u003ccite>(Lafayette Morehouse)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The focus on sex is a reflection of the culture at the time of Morehouse’s founding, said Rivlin-Heller. Baranco, who was in his 30s at the time, saw a way for people his age and older to participate in the sexual revolution happening around them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of these different gurus had different hooks,” Rivlin-Heller said. “Ram Dass did meditation and chanting and Buddhism. Esalen had humanistic psychology. So the sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One notorious Morehouse event was a \u003ca href=\"http://www.lafayettemorehouse.com/first-demo.html\">public demonstration\u003c/a> in 1976 of what the group claimed was a woman having a three-hour orgasm. (No, I couldn’t find any video.) And Baranco took advantage of California’s loose postsecondary education standards to turn the Lafayette commune into “More University,” which offered Ph.D.s in the humanities and sensuality, and conducted what the organization said was sexual research. In 1992, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that courses cost as much as $16,800. A 1994 profile of the university in \u003ca href=\"https://docplayer.net/45093155-Volume-2-no-7-march-1994-2-50.html\">the conservative magazine Heterodoxy\u003c/a> described a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/31/us/california-trying-to-close-worthless-diploma-schools.html\">less than rigorous academic program\u003c/a>, to put it mildly, as well as some alleged troubling sexual incidents, though no arrests or charges were ever made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the 1980s and ’90s, Baranco unsuccessfully sued The Chronicle and The Contra Costa Times for libel. One court decision is not-safe-for-work reading: According to the court, More University’s Advanced Sensuality class included research in “engorgement, lubrication, seminal secretion.” It said one of the goals of the course was to “make friends with another crotch.” The university was forced to shut down in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebekah Beneteau, at least, believes Morehouse did legitimate sexual research.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There are many people now who are teaching [the one-hour orgasm] who either attribute it to them or not,” she said. “They have a technique that allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For a whole hour?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flafayette.morehouse%2Fvideos%2F2506462923003338%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"314\" style=\"border:none;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003cbr>\n \u003cem>A Facebook Live video from Lafayette Morehouse discussing their approach to communal living and COVID-19.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Fear of what’s different\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1970s into the early 1990s, Lafayette Morehouse engaged in an ongoing battle with the county and neighbors over zoning issues and code violations, including allowing unhoused people to live on the property in tents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tim Miller, the historian of intentional communities, said it’s not uncommon for communes to be unpopular among local residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s a very typical thing that’s happened throughout history,” he said. “There seems to be an instinctive fear among a lot of people of anything that’s new or different.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Miller said the remaining ’60s-era communes are “often quite quiet. They don’t want to call attention to themselves, even though … they get along with their neighbors and all of that. [But] the big problem they have over and over are zoning laws [that] often forbid communal living.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Surviving the decades\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Baranco died in Hawaii in 2002, and since then Lafayette Morehouse has been mostly free of controversy. The great swell of ’60s-era communes eventually dissipated, leaving only a small fraction of surviving groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A friend of mine, who still lives on one of the ’60s-era communes, said when their community had a great out-migration in the ’80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all,” said Miller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s hard to say why Morehouse has outlasted its peers, but Rebekah Beneteau said \u003ca href=\"https://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/how-to-free-love-commune-neil-strauss-2018-6/\">Morehouse has figured out how to make group living work\u003c/a>. During the coronavirus pandemic, \u003ca href=\"https://fb.watch/cNfpmcgSuM/\">the group held a webcast\u003c/a> where they described the difficulty of living in a close community with so many people during a pandemic. But true to their “silver lining” philosophy, they were looking for ways the experience could actually enhance their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not a bad goal, really.\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>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. You’re listening to Bay Curious.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today we’re going to venture back to the 1960s and 70s, when the Bay Area was a center for many social movements.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People took to the streets to protest the Vietnam War …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sound pop of protest\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Black Panther Party formed in response to police brutality against Black people …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Speech: We are talking about the survival of Black people, nothing else…\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women were frustrated by the gender inequality they faced daily … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Chanting: Free our sisters, free ourselves\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And a lot of people started to think differently about how they wanted to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As many as a million Americans decided to join communes, group living situations, often with shared chores and finances.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now the vast majority of those intentional communities that formed in the 60s and 70s have disappeared. But not all of them. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reporter Jon Brooks went looking for one that survived in the suburbs of Contra Costa County, a group that has been steeped in mystery and sometimes controversy.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One note for listeners: we do talk about sex in this episode. It first aired in 2022. Here’s Jon… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> If you were a high school kid growing up in the Walnut Creek area back in the 1990s, there wasn’t a lot to do. That’s one reason why Sabrina McQueen has never forgotten the big purple car she saw driving around town. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They’d drop people off at the grocery store. So it’s like, well, what’s that? And that’s when my mom told me, ‘Oh, those are the purple people.’ \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Purple people. That is fun to say. Say it once, you’re probably gonna want to say it again. Purple people. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Who could they possibly be? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what Sabrina wants to know. She remembers in the seventh grade she went with a friend to pick someone up who lived on the purple people’s property…a com pound on some 20-plus acres. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was so excited that I thought I was going to go inside and be able to see it. And then we got just to the gate, and that was it. You can’t get past the gate.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What exactly was going on in there? It’s one of those lingering mysteries to people who live in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, here we should tell you, the Purple People aren’t really called the Purple People. (I know, rats.) That is just what locals call them. Why? Because they’re known to drive around in purple vehicles and live in purple-painted houses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Do you know the official name of the group?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> No, I don’t. That’s why I asked this question. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Their real name is Lafayette Morehouse. And they are one of a very small fraction of 1960s-era communes that survive to this day. Lafayette Morehouse was so mysterious to locals like Sabrina, she and her friends on weekends would drive to this one lookout point to see if they could catch a glimpse of the property. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be kind of like, Hey, what do you guys want to go do tonight? It’s like, Oh, you guys want to go like, check out the purple people? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s driving me to that spot now. But she’s having a hard time finding it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> So, here’s where we’re going to turn. But it has been 30 years\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Excuse me, we’re looking for the Purple People campus … \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Purple people campus? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks in scene:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Yeah. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Man on street:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Sorry, no idea.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> You never heard that?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Do you think they don’t know for real?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music post\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lafayette Morehouse has a colorful history, which we’re going to get into in a moment, but in recent decades it’s been quiet. Three years ago, the group was briefly in the news after someone left racist graffiti on their buildings. Morehouse’s reaction to the media at the time: No comment. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Naturally, I wanted very much to talk to the group, but they declined multiple interview requests. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I did find three former Morehouse members who did want to talk. Like Rebekah Beneteau. She took courses at Lafayette Morehouse in the 1990s. The group was so successful at attracting members, Morehouse branches sprang up around the country. Beneteau says she lived for six years in one of the sister Morehouse communes in New York. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Really the core of Morehouse’s philosophy is that life is better lived together and that we disrupted that in the 50s by shuttling every woman, every couple, off into their own houses. And then we invented Valium because there were all these women alone at home going nuts. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1960s and 70s a lot of people were looking for new ways to live more fulfilling lives, at least more fulfilling than their parents. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to escape the prescribed path laid out by society – school, job, marriage, kids, death – was to live together in groups organized around political, religious, or environmental ideals.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hundreds of thousands, up to a million, people tried their hand at communal living, says professor Tim Miller, an expert on intentional communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tim Miller:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting in 1965, I think you can date it that precisely. there was a whole new wave of communities came along… (4:00) I would say by and large these new young people’s communities were not very popular with mainstream society, and I would say that’s a very typical thing. I think it’s just that fear of what’s different.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1970s ..and all the way through the 90s, Morehouse and Contra Costa County also battled over zoning issues and code violations … skirmishes that were frequently reported in the news. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Psychedelic music starts\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The 1960s and 70s were also the age of … the guru. Like Timothy Leary – who urged people to take psychedelic drugs.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Leary: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Turn on, tune in, and drop out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And Werner Erhard, creator of something called E-S-T, or EST. This was a program of intense seminars supposedly leading to personal transformation. What Erhard was prescribing was… um, I don’t know…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Werner Erhard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People are…that love is attention. People are…that love is attention. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of these different gurus had different hooks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Laurie Rivlin Heller. In the early ‘70s she dropped out of college and moved to the Bay Area. Here, she got interested in the human potential movement – the idea that people could tap into their unused abilities to reach their full potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s when she discovered someone named \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/i> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We’ve got to pause for a quick break. When we return … we get to know Victor Baranco.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Laurie Rivlin Heller met Victor Baranco in the early 70s, and found herself drawn to him.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Berkeley-born Baranco was the founder of Morehouse, which had branches in a few Bay Area cities. Baranco had a successful career as an appliance salesman. But with Morehouse, he was offering something more than consumer goods. He was selling a new philosophy. The goal…remove the self-created obstacles between you and what you want. And he was \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">good\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He would be able to see you in a way that most people are not capable of doing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that he could so clearly understand who I was and where I was coming from. And he did that to everybody. It was a unique gift. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco called his program for living “responsible hedonism.” That means creating a pleasurable life for not only yourself, but for others. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The responsible part\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was that you take responsibility for your life and your action. Things could change, but it was up to you to do that.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The hedonism part? That’s where the “more” in Mor ehouse comes in. And a lot of it has to do with … you guessed it … or you didn’t, because this is public media: sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The sexual revolution, I guess you would say, was the hook for Victor Baranco. There were young people in this time period who were experiencing sexuality in a way that hadn’t been done previously. And there were older people who wanted a piece of it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to former members, one of the tenets of Baranco’s teaching was that a community functioned better when the women were happy, sexually and otherwise.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The group is famous for a 1976 demonstration of a woman reportedly having a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3-hour\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> orgasm. Yes I said what I said. I spent a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">lot\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of time looking for that tape. Didn’t find it. But I did find some current Morehouse YouTube videos.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the fundamentals of sensuality course, we discuss the nature of orgasm. And in the afternoon, there’s a live demonstration of a woman in orgasm for an hour that will really blow your mind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rebekah Beneteau…the woman who lived in a Morehouse commune in New York… was at first put off by the emphasis on sex. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They had a class where a woman was demonstrating being in orgasm for an hour. I thought that was extremely freaky. I didn’t want anything to do with them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But she did like the group’s positive outlook and focus on people’s ability to change. Now, she offers sex and intimacy coaching. And, she changed her mind about the one-hour orgasm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They have a technique that also allowed me to sink into my body much more instead of always being up in my head. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> 30:05 Can you really have a one-hour orgasm?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Rebekah Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Not yet, but I’ve gotten up to 27 minutes\u003c/span>\u003cb>\u003ci> \u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mm, 27 minutes. Pretty, pretty good.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All of this focus on sex has led to a certain reputation for Morehouse among its neighbors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s a couple of rumors, one that it was a sex cult. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes, the group has definitely at times been labeled a sex cult. So much so they even have a question on their F-A-Q page … “Are you a sex cult?”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I mean, that’s complete nonsense.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Marco Beneteau. He and Rebekah used to be married. He also took a lot of Morehouse courses. Then the two of them started their own commune in Philadelphia. Now he lives on a commune in Wyoming. So the man knows his communes. He says Morehouse didn’t have any of the characteristics people associate with cults.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Marco Beneteau: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, excommunication for leaving, financial coercion. You know, demanding that people cut off relationships with their relatives, that, you know, none of this has ever been practiced at Morehouse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If Morehouse isn’t a cult, it has been controversial. In 1971, Rolling Stone published a pretty unflattering portrait of the group – complete with Baranco driving around in a chauffeur-driven limo. The article implied Baranco was making a lot of money off group members. But Laurie Rivlin Heller says there was nothing devious going on. Self-interest was an open part of Baranco’s philosophy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Laurie Rivlin Heller:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I would say that he put everything up front. The introductory course to Morehouse is called the Mark Group, where you are the mark. So there was no denying that he had put together a hustle, but you were voluntarily entering into the hustle and participating in it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, that Rolling Stone article later appeared in a book alongside a chapter on Charles Manson. Not a good look for any leader of a commune. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lafayette Morehouse Video: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using classical educational modes, More university is dedicated to the full realization of human potential. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Baranco later turned Lafayette Morehouse into More University. More University, more controversy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university offered PhDs in the humanities and of course, sensuality, including sexual research. In 1992, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at least one course cost almost 17-thousand dollars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 80s and 90s Baranco sued the Chronicle and the Contra Costa Times for libel. (Hashtag please don’t sue \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">us\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.) The court threw those lawsuits out. One of the decisions is not-safe-for-work reading. According to the court, a goal of More University’s Advanced Sensuality class was to “make friends with another crotch.” Which, if you’re listening Morehouse, would be an awesome bumper sticker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The university shut down in the mid-90s.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Baranco died in 2002 at the age of 68. And, eventually, the great majority of ‘60s communes faded away. Professor Timothy Miller:\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Timothy Miller: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Friend of mine, who still lives on one of the 60s era communes, said when their community had a great outmigration in the 80s, he thought some of them just decided they were Republicans, after all.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Morehouse has survived. The decades come, the decades go, and they’re still doing their thing – whatever it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back in the car with Sabrina, we wandered around trying to find that one view of the campus she remembers. We kept taking wrong turns, going back over the same streets. And then… …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a purple house.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sabrina’s excited. She’s a Purple People fan. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wonder if that belongs to… Oh, yeah, I mean, that is, does that look like it’s purple?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It’s a \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nice\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> property, with tennis courts and everything. But really, there’s not much to see and the group does have a right to its privacy. Sabrina, I think, is viewing it through the eyes of her high school years, when there was this mysterious aura around this counterculture group … \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">right\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in her own suburban home town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I wanted to know what she thinks of the Purple People now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sabrina McQueen: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is kind of interesting that this has survived so long, which I think is so amazing. I mean, hey, if that’s what they want to do and they’re peaceful and they are able to be part of our community, it sounds like they’re having fun. So good for them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jon Brooks: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m a reporter. It’s my job to be skeptical. But I will say one thing. At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Lafayette Morehouse went live over Facebook. They were definitely taking safety seriously. But, their aim wasn’t just to survive COVID, they said that wasn’t a high enough goal. They wanted to use the experience as a way to make their lives even better.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If life hands you really sour lemons, make even sweeter lemonade.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to admit, I’m still thinking about that one.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was reporter Jon Brooks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you like Bay Curious, I’ve got a request. Please tell your podcast listening friends about the show. We all like a good recommendation…help us grow!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as always, consider donating to help sustain the work we do on Bay Curious. More info at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Brendan Willard and Sebastian Miño-Bucheli also helped on this episode. We get extra support from: Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "meet-the-around-the-clock-mechanics-keeping-golden-gate-ferries-moving",
"title": "Meet the Around-the-Clock Mechanics Keeping Golden Gate Ferries Moving",
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"headTitle": "Meet the Around-the-Clock Mechanics Keeping Golden Gate Ferries Moving | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Breck remembers sitting in traffic on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/richmond\">Richmond\u003c/a> Bridge and looking out on the water. She spotted a ferry coming in from Vallejo. Then she saw another one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just thought, they’re so beautiful,” she said. “What happens if they get injured? Where do they go? Who is taking care of them?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is home to two major public ferry agencies: SF Bay Ferry, serving the East Bay, and Golden Gate Ferry, which serves the North Bay. Last year, both agencies combined carried about 4 million passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in the region. Before the late 1930s, ferries were the primary way people got across the bay. But after the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were constructed in 1936 and 1937, respectively, ferry ridership dwindled to “extinction levels,” according to Tom Hall, director of operations and customer experience at SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a number of smaller companies continued to ferry people across the bay, the region went without a major ferry agency for decades. In 1970, Golden Gate Ferry began service to the North Bay as a way to ease congestion on the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 1989, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949362/how-loma-prieta-changed-earthquake-science-building-codes-and-the-bay-area\">Loma Prieta earthquake\u003c/a> hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6.9 magnitude earthquake, in which \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3092/pdf/fs2014-3092.pdf\">63 people died\u003c/a> and more than 3,700 were injured, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge. It was unusable for about a month. Hall said that, after the disaster, officials realized they needed an alternative way to evacuate the city in cases of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passengers exit from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local officials started to plan for a ferry service to serve the East Bay. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) was formed in 2007, and four years later, it started operating SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay Area,” Hall said. “Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping the ferries running\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day long and doing it full speed — you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running,” said Mike Hoffman, deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry. “It’s no different for our ferry vessels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies send most ferries to maintenance shops located locally for quick fixes. Golden Gate Ferry’s maintenance shop, at the Larkspur terminal, handles everything from replacing lightbulbs to rebuilding engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hoffman, the deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry, poses for a portrait at the shop where ferry machinery is maintained at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To avoid service delays, mechanics in groups of four work in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, to make sure the seven Golden Gate ferries are running smoothly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry,” said Ray Garibaldi, who has worked as a ferry mechanic for the Golden Gate Transportation District since 2001. “I decided to stick with mechanical welding and fabricating. And it’s been a great career for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said every day brings a new problem to solve. One day, he might be making replacement parts and welding them in the metal shop. Other days, he is repairing water jets when they get clogged with fishing line and debris. If there are problems with the main engine, he will spend days in the hot engine room repairing the control system.[aside postID=news_12078602 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/20241204-BART-JY-002_qed.jpg']Meanwhile, across the bay, SF Bay Ferry operates 11 vessels, sailing from the San Francisco Ferry Building to several destinations in the East Bay, including Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo. For everyday maintenance, vessels are sent to decommissioned military bases in Alameda and Mare Island in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects ferries run by both agencies to make sure they are up to code. For those inspections, the ferries are sent to the decommissioned military bases so they can be hoisted out of the water — or “dry docked” — if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors will look for signs of weakness in the hull of the vessel or any small water intrusions that might be on the surface of the vessel. They will also ride with crews to make sure safety measures are followed properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries are dry-docked again every five or six years so crews can do more extensive repairs, including replacing carpets, repairing damaged seats and changing out older technology for updated systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with California’s emissions standards, ferries are often decommissioned after 25 years. But Hall said the agencies often sell vessels to other states whose standards are less strict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats,” Hall said. “They always seem to have a second life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The future of Bay Area ferry service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ferry operators, like other public transportation agencies, struggled during the coronavirus pandemic and mandatory shelter-in-place orders. SF Bay Ferry’s ridership dropped to 6% of its normal capacity, Hall said. They immediately reduced service to two routes built around essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people came back to work, different commuting patterns emerged. Before the pandemic, the agency could count on passengers five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Napa ferry is stationed at a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But after the pandemic, with many people working from home at least some of the time, ridership has been less predictable. Hall said one of the most surprising changes has been a boost in weekend ridership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were ready to go back out,” he said. “I think the fact that we have outdoor seating on all of the ferries helped us a ton because if you were uncomfortable being in an enclosed area with other people that you didn’t know, you [could] sit outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As companies slowly called employees back into the office, the agency saw an uptick in ridership. Now, with the trend towards more weekend riding continuing, along with some weekday commuting, the agency is seeing more riders than it ever has. In May of 2026, it \u003ca href=\"https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/san-francisco-bay-ferry-sets-another-ridership-record-in-may/\">beat its all-time ridership\u003c/a> record for the third month in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078040\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A replacement water jet sits on a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on track to have our all-time best year in 2026, if things keep going the way they do,” Hall said. “That’s been gratifying to see people come back to the ferries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferry lovers will be excited to know that SF Bay Ferry someday hopes to expand its service to Treasure Island, Mission Bay, Berkeley and Redwood City. However, that expansion probably won’t happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More immediately, riders of the Golden Gate ferries will start seeing new vessels in the rotation. Next year, the agency plans to start replacing its fleet, and the new boats will be more fuel efficient and will have elevators and more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds water lapping\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Every time I ride a ferry across San Francisco Bay I feel a little fizz of excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ferry engine sounds along with lapping water\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Part of me knows that ferries are practical. A way a lot of people commute to work. But I mean look around – it’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of being on the water in such a gorgeous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people even ride them just for fun. Like Peggy Gallagher who was riding the Larkspur ferry with her sister, in from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peggy Gallegher: \u003c/strong>I mean, we live in the Bay Area, the most beautiful area in the world. And you just kind of forget your troubles because everywhere you look is just another view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>From the deck of the ferry there’s a great view of downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Golden Gate Bridge…even Mount Tam. When you’re riding one, you can really appreciate the bay itself…the water at the heart of our region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>I think ferries really are emblematic of where we live and I love where we live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Kristen Breck, our question asker today, doesn’t get to ride ferries as often as she’d like. But she sees them when she’s driving around. One day she was on the Richmond bridge looking out over the water when she saw a Vallejo ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>And I just thought, there’s just so beautiful. What happens if they get injured? I’d like to know how and where the Golden Gate ferries around the bay are serviced and fixed. What does it take to fix a ferry? Where does that work get done, and who does it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in our region. Before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built in the 1930s, ferries were the primary way to get to and from The City from the North and East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more people drive than take ferries of course, but we still have two major public ferry services that together carry about 3 to 4 million passengers a year. SF Bay Ferry services the East Bay and Golden Gate Ferries serve the North Bay. KQED’s housing and transportation reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi checked in with both ferry agencies about how they manage and repair their vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of ferry commuters boarding\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> I join a group of commuters and tourists headed from the San Francisco Ferry building to Larkspur on a beautiful sunny day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene : \u003c/strong>That was so easy, I could use my clipper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I’m on my way to the maintenance shop housed at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, where a lot of the Golden Gate Ferries get repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>These ferry vessels go back and forth from San Francisco to Marin County all day long and they go full speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Mike Hoffman is the Deputy General Manager of Golden Gate Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>So imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day along and doing it full speed, you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running. It’s no different for our ferry vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The average ferry has a lifespan of about 25 years. And it’s mechanic Ray Garibaldi’s job to keep them running smoothly throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Wow, okay. What is this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray and I are looking at a ferry jet that has a fishing line and other debris caught in the rotors. It looks like the metal blade at the bottom of a blender…just much larger. All seven of Golden Gate Ferry’s vessels cycle through this shop at the Larkspur terminal at one time or another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We can be fabricating parts, welding, rebuilding water jets, working on the main engines, repairing the control systems. So every day is a little bit different.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are big machines all over the place– a bandsaw that cuts metal, a big crane and a huge workbench. The walls are lined with nuts and bolts organized into little cubbies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray has been a ferry mechanic for the past 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry and I decided to stick with mechanical welding, fabricating, and it’s been a great career for me.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>He and his colleagues at the Larkspur shop handle all the routine maintenance issues that come up. Everything from changing lightbulbs to fixing the main engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the team can’t get a boat running safely, that will cause service delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We have three shifts, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are usually four mechanics on each shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>And each shift kind of does things a little different. You know, day shift takes care of the terminals and rebuilding some of the major components and swing shift starts doing the maintenance and repairs and then graveyard kind of gets scheduled for. Get the boats ready to go out again in the morning if there’s any issues that need to be taken care of.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray says, when he travels on a ferry now, he pays attention in a different way..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Boats are like a big tuning fork you could have you know a problem in one part of the boat and the sound will travel through the boat and end up in a different spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>In addition to these routine maintenance needs, every ferry boat goes through inspections every 2-3 years…and major refurbishments every 5-6 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on that after this quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We’ve learned what happens when one of our ferries needs day to day repairs, but where do they go when they need more intense repairs? KQED reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us into a ferry’s engine room to find out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Look closely next time you’re on a ferry, and you might notice a hatch on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, this is where we’re going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray Garibaldi leads me down a narrow ladder into the belly of the vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Okay, so, uh, where, where are we, Ray?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Oh, we’re in the main engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Oh man, okay, we’re like basically surrounded by pipes and ducts and nice and toasty in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it always stays warm in the engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> When things break in this room, Ray is looking at a longer repair. Changing fuel pumps and other machinery can be week-long fixes. It’s warm in here… I’m starting to sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> I would imagine if it’s like cold outside then it would be really nice to work in the engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yes, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects the engine room to make sure everything is up to code. They also look for signs of weakness in the hull of the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Hall is the Director of Operations and Customer Experience of SF Bay Ferry serving the East Bay. He explains the aluminum boats are light and strong, but susceptible to water damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>So what they’re inspecting for is any intrusions, which kind of looks like little holes cropping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>If they find any, those get patched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom says, after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built, ferry ridership dropped dramatically. But when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge, lawmakers realized people needed an alternative way to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately following the earthquake, smaller ferry services picked up the slack. And in 2011, SF Bay Ferry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay area. Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well, you known, moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>It’s now grown to be the largest ferry operator in the region, carrying three quarters of passengers on its routes to San Francisco, South San Francisco,Vallejo, Richmond, Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every five or six years, all ferries need a little bit of extra maintenance love. That means using a lift to hoist the vessel out of the water. Then, maintenance crews get to work replacing stuff like the carpets, electronics and other technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of that more intensive maintenance also happens here in the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>At our two maintenance facilities, we have one in Alameda, our Central Bay facility, and the second one is in Vallejo on Mare Island. They’re both on decommissioned military bases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>After 25 years of service, vessels often have to be decommissioned because they no longer meet state emissions standards. So, they get sold to other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats and so yeah, they always seem to have a second life.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I know a lot more about how ferries get fixed, Adhiti, but I’m wondering about their future. So many transit agencies have really been struggling these past few years. So, how is the ferry system doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> SF Bay Ferry is actually seeing more people use its service now than it did before the pandemic. But like other transit agencies, they took a huge hit when commuters were told to stay home and shelter in place. Tom Hall said, when people started coming back, they saw different patterns emerging. With people working from home some days of the week, they can’t rely on consistent weekday ridership. But–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our weekend ridership, which is why we have so much weekend service now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Even though ridership is up now, they haven’t fully recovered. Both ferry services get some money from bridge tolls and local governments, but both still rely on fares. In fact, there’s a bond initiative making its way to the November ballot which could provide funding for BART and other transit agencies. If it passes, the two ferry agencies could get some money out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Since people really like ferries, we often get questions about whether service will expand in the future. Can you tell us anything about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Well, SF Bay Ferry, which serves the East Bay, has long wanted to expand its service to Treasure Island and Mission Bay. And eventually, it could even run vessels to Berkeley and Redwood City too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But something that’s happening sooner– Golden Gate Ferry, which operates in the North Bay, is slowly replacing their fleet of vessels with brand new ships, thanks to some federal dollars that came through. The first vessel hits the water next year. The new ships will have elevators, which will make the ships more accessible. They’ll also be more fuel efficient, and will have more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Adhiti Bandlamudi covers housing and transit for KQED. Thanks so much for diving into this topic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> My pleasure! It was a wild, but mostly pleasant ride!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Just like the ferries – KQED also needs some funding! Help us out by becoming a sustaining member. It’s an ongoing monthly donation that happens automatically – and you can change or cancel at any time. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a>. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olivia: Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kristen Breck remembers sitting in traffic on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/richmond\">Richmond\u003c/a> Bridge and looking out on the water. She spotted a ferry coming in from Vallejo. Then she saw another one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just thought, they’re so beautiful,” she said. “What happens if they get injured? Where do they go? Who is taking care of them?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Area is home to two major public ferry agencies: SF Bay Ferry, serving the East Bay, and Golden Gate Ferry, which serves the North Bay. Last year, both agencies combined carried about 4 million passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in the region. Before the late 1930s, ferries were the primary way people got across the bay. But after the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were constructed in 1936 and 1937, respectively, ferry ridership dwindled to “extinction levels,” according to Tom Hall, director of operations and customer experience at SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a number of smaller companies continued to ferry people across the bay, the region went without a major ferry agency for decades. In 1970, Golden Gate Ferry began service to the North Bay as a way to ease congestion on the Golden Gate Bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in 1989, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1949362/how-loma-prieta-changed-earthquake-science-building-codes-and-the-bay-area\">Loma Prieta earthquake\u003c/a> hit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 6.9 magnitude earthquake, in which \u003ca href=\"https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2014/3092/pdf/fs2014-3092.pdf\">63 people died\u003c/a> and more than 3,700 were injured, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge. It was unusable for about a month. Hall said that, after the disaster, officials realized they needed an alternative way to evacuate the city in cases of emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078039\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078039\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00673_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passengers exit from the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State and local officials started to plan for a ferry service to serve the East Bay. The Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA) was formed in 2007, and four years later, it started operating SF Bay Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay Area,” Hall said. “Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keeping the ferries running\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“Imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day long and doing it full speed — you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running,” said Mike Hoffman, deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry. “It’s no different for our ferry vessels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Agencies send most ferries to maintenance shops located locally for quick fixes. Golden Gate Ferry’s maintenance shop, at the Larkspur terminal, handles everything from replacing lightbulbs to rebuilding engines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078030\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078030\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00168_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mike Hoffman, the deputy general manager for Golden Gate Ferry, poses for a portrait at the shop where ferry machinery is maintained at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>To avoid service delays, mechanics in groups of four work in shifts around the clock, seven days a week, to make sure the seven Golden Gate ferries are running smoothly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry,” said Ray Garibaldi, who has worked as a ferry mechanic for the Golden Gate Transportation District since 2001. “I decided to stick with mechanical welding and fabricating. And it’s been a great career for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said every day brings a new problem to solve. One day, he might be making replacement parts and welding them in the metal shop. Other days, he is repairing water jets when they get clogged with fishing line and debris. If there are problems with the main engine, he will spend days in the hot engine room repairing the control system.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Meanwhile, across the bay, SF Bay Ferry operates 11 vessels, sailing from the San Francisco Ferry Building to several destinations in the East Bay, including Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo. For everyday maintenance, vessels are sent to decommissioned military bases in Alameda and Mare Island in Vallejo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects ferries run by both agencies to make sure they are up to code. For those inspections, the ferries are sent to the decommissioned military bases so they can be hoisted out of the water — or “dry docked” — if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inspectors will look for signs of weakness in the hull of the vessel or any small water intrusions that might be on the surface of the vessel. They will also ride with crews to make sure safety measures are followed properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferries are dry-docked again every five or six years so crews can do more extensive repairs, including replacing carpets, repairing damaged seats and changing out older technology for updated systems.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To comply with California’s emissions standards, ferries are often decommissioned after 25 years. But Hall said the agencies often sell vessels to other states whose standards are less strict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats,” Hall said. “They always seem to have a second life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The future of Bay Area ferry service\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ferry operators, like other public transportation agencies, struggled during the coronavirus pandemic and mandatory shelter-in-place orders. SF Bay Ferry’s ridership dropped to 6% of its normal capacity, Hall said. They immediately reduced service to two routes built around essential workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When people came back to work, different commuting patterns emerged. Before the pandemic, the agency could count on passengers five days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00390_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Napa ferry is stationed at a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But after the pandemic, with many people working from home at least some of the time, ridership has been less predictable. Hall said one of the most surprising changes has been a boost in weekend ridership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People were ready to go back out,” he said. “I think the fact that we have outdoor seating on all of the ferries helped us a ton because if you were uncomfortable being in an enclosed area with other people that you didn’t know, you [could] sit outside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As companies slowly called employees back into the office, the agency saw an uptick in ridership. Now, with the trend towards more weekend riding continuing, along with some weekday commuting, the agency is seeing more riders than it ever has. In May of 2026, it \u003ca href=\"https://sanfranciscobayferry.com/san-francisco-bay-ferry-sets-another-ridership-record-in-may/\">beat its all-time ridership\u003c/a> record for the third month in a row.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078040\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078040\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260324-BAYCURIOUSFERRY00383_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A replacement water jet sits on a servicing dock at Larkspur Ferry Terminal in Larkspur on March 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on track to have our all-time best year in 2026, if things keep going the way they do,” Hall said. “That’s been gratifying to see people come back to the ferries.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ferry lovers will be excited to know that SF Bay Ferry someday hopes to expand its service to Treasure Island, Mission Bay, Berkeley and Redwood City. However, that expansion probably won’t happen anytime soon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More immediately, riders of the Golden Gate ferries will start seeing new vessels in the rotation. Next year, the agency plans to start replacing its fleet, and the new boats will be more fuel efficient and will have elevators and more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sounds water lapping\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Every time I ride a ferry across San Francisco Bay I feel a little fizz of excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Ferry engine sounds along with lapping water\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Part of me knows that ferries are practical. A way a lot of people commute to work. But I mean look around – it’s hard not to get caught up in the romance of being on the water in such a gorgeous place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people even ride them just for fun. Like Peggy Gallagher who was riding the Larkspur ferry with her sister, in from out of town.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peggy Gallegher: \u003c/strong>I mean, we live in the Bay Area, the most beautiful area in the world. And you just kind of forget your troubles because everywhere you look is just another view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>From the deck of the ferry there’s a great view of downtown San Francisco, Alcatraz and Angel Island, the Golden Gate Bridge…even Mount Tam. When you’re riding one, you can really appreciate the bay itself…the water at the heart of our region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>I think ferries really are emblematic of where we live and I love where we live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Kristen Breck, our question asker today, doesn’t get to ride ferries as often as she’d like. But she sees them when she’s driving around. One day she was on the Richmond bridge looking out over the water when she saw a Vallejo ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kristen Breck: \u003c/strong>And I just thought, there’s just so beautiful. What happens if they get injured? I’d like to know how and where the Golden Gate ferries around the bay are serviced and fixed. What does it take to fix a ferry? Where does that work get done, and who does it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Ferries have long been an important mode of transportation in our region. Before the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built in the 1930s, ferries were the primary way to get to and from The City from the North and East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, more people drive than take ferries of course, but we still have two major public ferry services that together carry about 3 to 4 million passengers a year. SF Bay Ferry services the East Bay and Golden Gate Ferries serve the North Bay. KQED’s housing and transportation reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi checked in with both ferry agencies about how they manage and repair their vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sound of ferry commuters boarding\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> I join a group of commuters and tourists headed from the San Francisco Ferry building to Larkspur on a beautiful sunny day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene : \u003c/strong>That was so easy, I could use my clipper card.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>I’m on my way to the maintenance shop housed at the Larkspur Ferry Terminal, where a lot of the Golden Gate Ferries get repairs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>These ferry vessels go back and forth from San Francisco to Marin County all day long and they go full speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Mike Hoffman is the Deputy General Manager of Golden Gate Ferry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Hoffman: \u003c/strong>So imagine driving your vehicle to and from work all day along and doing it full speed, you’re probably going to have a decent amount of maintenance that needs to be required to keep your car running. It’s no different for our ferry vessels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>The average ferry has a lifespan of about 25 years. And it’s mechanic Ray Garibaldi’s job to keep them running smoothly throughout.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Wow, okay. What is this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray and I are looking at a ferry jet that has a fishing line and other debris caught in the rotors. It looks like the metal blade at the bottom of a blender…just much larger. All seven of Golden Gate Ferry’s vessels cycle through this shop at the Larkspur terminal at one time or another.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We can be fabricating parts, welding, rebuilding water jets, working on the main engines, repairing the control systems. So every day is a little bit different.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are big machines all over the place– a bandsaw that cuts metal, a big crane and a huge workbench. The walls are lined with nuts and bolts organized into little cubbies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ray has been a ferry mechanic for the past 25 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Back in 2001, there was a tech boom going on and a lot of friends and family were getting into the tech industry and I decided to stick with mechanical welding, fabricating, and it’s been a great career for me.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>He and his colleagues at the Larkspur shop handle all the routine maintenance issues that come up. Everything from changing lightbulbs to fixing the main engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the team can’t get a boat running safely, that will cause service delays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>We have three shifts, seven days a week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>There are usually four mechanics on each shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>And each shift kind of does things a little different. You know, day shift takes care of the terminals and rebuilding some of the major components and swing shift starts doing the maintenance and repairs and then graveyard kind of gets scheduled for. Get the boats ready to go out again in the morning if there’s any issues that need to be taken care of.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray says, when he travels on a ferry now, he pays attention in a different way..\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Boats are like a big tuning fork you could have you know a problem in one part of the boat and the sound will travel through the boat and end up in a different spot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>In addition to these routine maintenance needs, every ferry boat goes through inspections every 2-3 years…and major refurbishments every 5-6 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More on that after this quick break.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>We’ve learned what happens when one of our ferries needs day to day repairs, but where do they go when they need more intense repairs? KQED reporter Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us into a ferry’s engine room to find out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Look closely next time you’re on a ferry, and you might notice a hatch on the floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene: \u003c/strong>Oh, this is where we’re going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Ray Garibaldi leads me down a narrow ladder into the belly of the vessel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Okay, so, uh, where, where are we, Ray?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Oh, we’re in the main engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> Oh man, okay, we’re like basically surrounded by pipes and ducts and nice and toasty in here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yeah, it always stays warm in the engine room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> When things break in this room, Ray is looking at a longer repair. Changing fuel pumps and other machinery can be week-long fixes. It’s warm in here… I’m starting to sweat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi in scene:\u003c/strong> I would imagine if it’s like cold outside then it would be really nice to work in the engine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray Garibaldi: \u003c/strong>Yes, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>Every two years, the U.S. Coast Guard inspects the engine room to make sure everything is up to code. They also look for signs of weakness in the hull of the boat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom Hall is the Director of Operations and Customer Experience of SF Bay Ferry serving the East Bay. He explains the aluminum boats are light and strong, but susceptible to water damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>So what they’re inspecting for is any intrusions, which kind of looks like little holes cropping up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>If they find any, those get patched.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tom says, after the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges were built, ferry ridership dropped dramatically. But when the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged the Bay Bridge, lawmakers realized people needed an alternative way to evacuate in an emergency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately following the earthquake, smaller ferry services picked up the slack. And in 2011, SF Bay Ferry was born.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>Our core mission is emergency water transit in the event of a natural disaster or another event that disrupts the existing transportation system in the Bay area. Since we have all the boats and terminals to be ready for that, we might as well, you known, moonlight as a ferry operator in the interim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>It’s now grown to be the largest ferry operator in the region, carrying three quarters of passengers on its routes to San Francisco, South San Francisco,Vallejo, Richmond, Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Every five or six years, all ferries need a little bit of extra maintenance love. That means using a lift to hoist the vessel out of the water. Then, maintenance crews get to work replacing stuff like the carpets, electronics and other technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of that more intensive maintenance also happens here in the bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>At our two maintenance facilities, we have one in Alameda, our Central Bay facility, and the second one is in Vallejo on Mare Island. They’re both on decommissioned military bases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi: \u003c/strong>After 25 years of service, vessels often have to be decommissioned because they no longer meet state emissions standards. So, they get sold to other states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: We have a couple of boats in Alaska that are serving as whale watching boats and so yeah, they always seem to have a second life.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music transition\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> I know a lot more about how ferries get fixed, Adhiti, but I’m wondering about their future. So many transit agencies have really been struggling these past few years. So, how is the ferry system doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> SF Bay Ferry is actually seeing more people use its service now than it did before the pandemic. But like other transit agencies, they took a huge hit when commuters were told to stay home and shelter in place. Tom Hall said, when people started coming back, they saw different patterns emerging. With people working from home some days of the week, they can’t rely on consistent weekday ridership. But–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Hall: \u003c/strong>We’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth in our weekend ridership, which is why we have so much weekend service now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Even though ridership is up now, they haven’t fully recovered. Both ferry services get some money from bridge tolls and local governments, but both still rely on fares. In fact, there’s a bond initiative making its way to the November ballot which could provide funding for BART and other transit agencies. If it passes, the two ferry agencies could get some money out of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Since people really like ferries, we often get questions about whether service will expand in the future. Can you tell us anything about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> Well, SF Bay Ferry, which serves the East Bay, has long wanted to expand its service to Treasure Island and Mission Bay. And eventually, it could even run vessels to Berkeley and Redwood City too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But something that’s happening sooner– Golden Gate Ferry, which operates in the North Bay, is slowly replacing their fleet of vessels with brand new ships, thanks to some federal dollars that came through. The first vessel hits the water next year. The new ships will have elevators, which will make the ships more accessible. They’ll also be more fuel efficient, and will have more bike parking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Adhiti Bandlamudi covers housing and transit for KQED. Thanks so much for diving into this topic!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Adhiti Bandlamudi:\u003c/strong> My pleasure! It was a wild, but mostly pleasant ride!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Just like the ferries – KQED also needs some funding! Help us out by becoming a sustaining member. It’s an ongoing monthly donation that happens automatically – and you can change or cancel at any time. Learn more at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a>. Thanks!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Olivia: Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "the-wetsuit-changed-surfing-weve-got-a-berkeley-physicist-to-thank-for-it",
"title": "The Wetsuit Changed Surfing — We’ve Got a Berkeley Physicist to Thank for It",
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"headTitle": "The Wetsuit Changed Surfing — We’ve Got a Berkeley Physicist to Thank for It | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove is located at the northernmost curve of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Ocean Beach. Tucked right below the Cliff House, it was one of the earliest surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The now quintessential California sport was late to arrive in San Francisco, only coming into its own in the 1940s. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in the ocean here, you’ll know why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water temperatures would creep below 50 degrees at times,” longtime surfer Jim Gallagher said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was part of the Kelly’s Cove community. They were a select group, willing to brave frigid waters for the chance at the perfect wave. And in the early days, they did it without wetsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before neoprene suits were invented, surfers like Gallagher had to rely on their senses to keep them safe. “We became experts in hypothermia,” Gallagher said. Surfers kept sessions short and experimented with creative ways to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guys tried almost everything,” Gallagher said. People surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surfers near Ocean Beach in San Francisco in an undated photograph believed to date to the late 1960s or early 1970s. Photographer unknown. The image is from a collection of photo negatives belonging to Dennis O’Rorke. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079525 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2000x664.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-1536x510.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2048x680.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Surfers check out a wetsuit at Kelly’s Cove on Ocean Beach, circa 1970s. Right: Beach goers lie out to enjoy a warm day at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, circa 1970s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a theory that two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear, which was nylon and close-fit, you would have less cloth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That particular hypothesis was debunked quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonfires were the most reliable way to warm up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer walks in the water to surf at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Feb. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Typically, somebody would bring down old tires because tires really hold the heat,” Gallagher said. “It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 75 years later, everyone at Ocean Beach is wearing a wetsuit, not to mention neoprene hoods, gloves, and booties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How that happened has roots in Kelly’s Cove and a whole lot to do with a Berkeley physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Designing a suit for the military man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the major challenges for Allied forces during World War II was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on enemy coasts. The shorelines were heavily fortified, rigged with concrete, metal and wood obstacles that could only be dismantled by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On D-Day in 1944, Naval Combat Demolition Units — better known as frogmen — deployed to Omaha Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just wearing wool sweaters and things like that,” historian Peter Westwick said. “And they suffered terribly; their casualty rate was like 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-160x72.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-1536x692.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Hugh Bradner at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. Right: Hugh Bradner at his desk at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire, doing precision work in cold water for a long time. For the U.S., it was part of a larger wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Navy [is] quickly realizing the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference,” Westwick said. “So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Post-war, the Navy turned to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasonline.org/\">National Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> for help. They convened a panel to tackle the problem and tapped Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner to join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After completing his PhD at Caltech, Bradner had worked on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956611/from-berkeley-to-the-bomb-oppenheimer-before-los-alamos\">Manhattan Project\u003c/a>, helping the United States develop the atomic bomb. Perhaps more importantly, he was an avid diver and waterman.[aside postID=news_12082529 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_004-KQED.jpg']One of his first projects with the panel was trying to design a suit to help divers survive underwater explosions. But he soon realized the foam materials he was working with could help tackle the cold water problem, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then, Westwick said, that Bradner came up with his fundamental contribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a concept that flew in the face of accepted knowledge at the time, when the best option for watermen was a dry suit. Dry suits, as the name suggests, keep divers warm by keeping them dry. They’d bundle up in wool underlayers and step into a bulky rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around [in],” Westwick said. Bradner’s “wetsuit” idea wouldn’t depend on layers of wool underwear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You let the water in and then let [the divers’] body warm them up,” Westwick said. “The [suit] material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague. It’s the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other innovation in Bradner’s design was the use of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that became widely available during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084195\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1211\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-1536x930.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Two men in diving gear with small, round raft. These diving suits predate the neoprene wetsuit. Right: John S. Foster modeling wet suit designed by Hugh Bradner around 1953. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Westwick said Bradner started testing his neoprene suit in 1951. “He tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. But Bradner wasn’t interested in becoming a businessman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He says, ‘No, no, I want to preserve my objectivity here,’” Westwick said. “‘I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Bradner never patented his design. “‘Let’s just throw it out there,” Westwick paraphrased, “and let people run with it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The wetsuit goes mainstream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the other side of San Francisco Bay — back on foggy Ocean Beach — a local surfer and tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove was working on his own suit. After experimenting with other materials, Jack O’Neill also stumbled across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher, the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach, was friends with O’Neill. “He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things,” Gallagher said. “But he was a really curious sort of guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1021\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-1536x784.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill as a young man wearing a pre-wetsuit in the 1950s. Right: Jack O’Neill and sons Pat and Mike demonstrating Jack’s supersuit he invented between 1970 and 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>O’Neill has long been considered one of the fathers of the wetsuit, along with the Southern California company Body Glove, a distinction both were happy to cultivate. But this line on the \u003ca href=\"https://eu.oneill.com/blogs/all/who-was-jack-oneill\">O’Neill company blog\u003c/a> raises questions about those claims: “Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to the O’Neill company to get a better understanding of the degree to which O’Neill was aware of Bradner’s discovery, but the company did not respond to my request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, said the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher said the O’Neill suit was a game-changer for surfers at Kelly’s Cove. When they saw the inventor in his neoprene suit, “[they] said, ‘Well, how do I get one?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll make you one.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was lucky enough to get one of the early models. It was custom in every sense of the word, carefully measured and tailored to his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Silberstein sits in the back of his car next to his surfboard at his home in Santa Cruz on April 14, 2026, before heading out to surf. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084192\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-1536x630.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Gary Silberstein holds a Jack O’Neill wetsuit he has owned since the 1960s. Right: Silberstein surfing at Ocean Beach in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Left: Beth LaBerge/KQED. Right: Courtesy of Gary Silberstein)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These early suits weren’t lined. Surfers like Kelly’s Cove local Gary Silberstein used cornstarch or talc to help them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silberstein has held on to one of O’Neill’s later models. The neoprene is thick and inflexible by today’s standards, but it still looks warmer than a wool sweater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Silberstein has put the suit through the wringer. “The wetsuit has 18 holes; it’s real leaky and cold,” he said, pointing out the tears. “You can see this has been repaired, but this would still be a functional wetsuit 50 years in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill’s first surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco with Jack’s children, Cathy, Mike and Pat, standing in front of shop in 1957. Right: The site of the first Jack O’Neill surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco on April 14, 2026. The shop opened in the early 1950s and later moved to Santa Cruz in the late 1950s. \u003ccite>(Left: Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library. Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-160x102.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-1536x982.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer stands at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1972. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops. He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles and diving headfirst into marketing. Today, O’Neill is one of the biggest surf companies out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why you might know his name, while Bradner has largely been left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the wetsuit changed surfing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter, and of course at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world,” Silberstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed. “I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water,” despite the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Jack O’Neill used to say, “When you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s a foggy day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach … just like so many before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything’s gray … cold and windy … but familiar landmarks stick out in the fog … seal rock … the Cliff House …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the early 1950s … and the waves are roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Waves crashing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There are a few surfers paddling out. They’re wearing … shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>When you first went in the water, your fingers would sting and your toes would sting, and that stinging would begin to increase a little bit up your arms and so forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jim Gallagher was part of a group of surfers who braved Northern California’s frigid waters in the early days of surfing here. A place where ocean temperature stays in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/coastal-water-temperature-guide/all_table.html\">50s\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Ocean-Beach/seatemp\">most\u003c/a> of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> And then after an hour or so, that stinging would abate, and you start feeling good, well, you’re about to die, so you better get out of the water fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> At Ocean Beach, surfers found community and creative ways to keep warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> We became experts on hypothermia …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cu>\u003c/u>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Jim got into body surfing as a kid and soon found a community of surfers at Kelly’s Cove, at the north end of Ocean Beach. It was one of the earliest board and body surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>A myth went out that somebody named Kelly died on the beach. There was a competing story that was a Foster & Kleiser sign, a big advertisement for Kelly’s tires. So people had been saying, where’s the beach, or go down to see the Kelly sign …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>In the early days of the sport, people surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly, or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> Guys tried almost everything. There was a theory, two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear was nylon and close fit, you would get have less cloth. And that got debunked pretty quick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The solution was quick surf sessions, maybe ride a few waves and come running back to the beach, to the bonfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>Typically, somebody would bring down old tires, and because tires really hold the heat. And so you could be standing 5 and 6 feet away from the fire and be quite warmed by that fire. It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>While Kelly’s Cove surfers were doing their best to outsmart the ocean … thousands of miles away, another group was having trouble with cold water too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the U.S. military learned the hard way that a soldier’s capacity to function in cold water could make or break an invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World War II music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>For the Allied forces, one of the major challenges of the war was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on heavily fortified enemy coasts\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concrete, metal and wood obstacles could only really be dealt with by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The story of the United States Navy’s frogmen is a story of adventure, of brave men against the enemy and against the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>So-called “frogmen” trained in warm-weather Florida, in mild surf … not the kind of conditions you typically find off the coast of France.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The weather is none too good, but the little ships are plugging onto the beaches, bringing enormous support of manpower and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>On D-Day, they deployed to Omaha Beach. And as historian Peter Westwick tells it, they were pretty poorly equipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And basically, they’re just wearing kind of like wool sweaters and things like that. And they suffered terribly. Their casualty rate was like 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire … doing precision work in cold water for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the US military, the whole war was one big wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The US Navy is quickly realizing, OK, the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference. So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>At the time, if you wanted to stay warm underwater … dry suits were the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And what the dry suit basically did was, as its name suggests, was it kept you dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The suits were bulky. You’d bundle up in wool layers and then step into a watertight rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even today, many scuba divers use a more advanced version of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Americans sometimes used drysuits during the war, they weren’t perfect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The downside was, you know, you stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>“Suit squeeze” was common, pinching watermen in sensitive places at the most inopportune times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine trying to disarm a bomb underwater while wearing 20 leather jackets stacked on each other. Not exactly practical combat gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what’s a Navy to do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Navy turned to scientists for help. One man in particular seemed like a good bet — Hugh Bradner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>Bradner likes to dive, and has dived in cold water regions before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner got his PhD in physics from Caltech. During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project… helping the United States develop the atomic bomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, he got a job as a professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He’s diving, swimming and playing water polo around the Bay Area. So avid kind of waterman, as we would call it now, but also a top-notch physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner joined the project … working first on a different problem … a suit to protect divers from underwater explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s tinkering with these foam materials, using them like shock absorbers … and starts wondering if the foam could also help keep divers warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And then he comes in and ends up with the really fundamental contribution to this whole, this whole enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Actually, I do not think it is necessary to have a waterproof suit. It should be possible to obtain adequate warmth by use of a “dead water” space from a furry type of porous material …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>There’s this really kind of central, counterintuitive insight there, before the whole assumption was that if you’re in cold water, the way you keep from getting cold is to keep the water out. The water is cold. If you keep the water out, you will stay warm. Bradner says you let the water in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Let the water in, he thought, and your body would warm it up naturally.\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And the material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>His other big breakthrough was identifying the kind of material needed to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>When he’s looking around for materials to test, here is this material right at hand that the chemical industry is cranking out in great quantities, especially for the U.S. military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The synthetic rubber was invented in the 1930s by chemists at DuPont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, it became an important substitute for rubber, which was hard to come by. Inventors improved on the material, making it better and more widely available … just in time for Bradner to prototype his wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He begins testing this in 195. And he tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. Bradner’s 1951 letter describing his idea is the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But chances are, unless you’re a physicist or history nerd, you probably haven’t heard of Hugh Bradner. That’s because he never patented his design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>So he says, no, no, I want to preserve my kind of objectivity here. I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>He was a science guy … not a businessman. And as the thinking went, diving and surfing were destined to remain small niches, not places to make real money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And it’s funny, because some of the other panel members are actually writing Bradner at this time, saying, like, Dude, you’re blowing it. Like you can do both … you can be a businessman. And Brander says, like, no, no… forget it. I’m not going to patent it, and let’s just make it. Let’s just throw it out there and let people run with it, which is what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bradner had no idea that the suit he’d invented would forever change the world of surfing and water sports. More on that when we return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re enjoying stories like this one, consider becoming a member of KQED. We can’t do this work without listener donations, so consider joining the hundreds of thousands of your Bay Area neighbors today. \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a> is the place to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about the invention of the wetsuit, and its Bay Area connection. Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner came up with the idea in 1951, but he never had it patented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for the novel concept to go mainstream, thanks in part to the ingenuity and marketing prowess of a few California surfing legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Just a short time after Bradner comes up with his wetsuit, a local tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove stumbled upon a similar idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher — the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach — he was friends with him: a man named Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things, but he was a really curious sort of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Legend has it that O’Neill experimented with all kinds of interesting suit solutions. But nothing really worked. Until he, like Bradner, came across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He made the neoprene suit, and he made one for himself, went out and came back, and people saw that, and he said, Well, how did I get one? He said, Well, I’ll make you one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Unlike the mainstream wetsuits of today, Jack’s suits were always custom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>And I remember when I went down to get mine, I went to his home. He was still living on Wawona, and his brother Bob was there. He was working for Jack, and you went in and he measured you like a tailor would … almost you know, the length of from your elbow midpoint to your wrist and up to your shoulders, around your waist or chest, arm length, legs, the whole body, and he might make a template and then cut the neoprene to that template and glue it together. And that’s how the first ones were made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles … and dove headfirst into marketing. At a 1956 San Francisco trade show, for instance, he dressed up his six kids in little wetsuits and threw them into tubs of ice water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove surfer Gary Silberstein remembers this time well, when the early wetsuit was gaining traction, rudimentary as they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> They weren’t lined, okay, with any fabric. And … use cornstarch to or talc, something to make them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When I met up with Gary at his Santa Cruz home, he pulled an old O’Neill suit out to show me … like most early wetsuits, it’s just a jacket, nothing covering the legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You are looking at Jack O’Neill. This is his logo, which is now all kind of etched away from years and years of surfing. And it’s a jacket. It’s simply a long sleeved, long sleeve jacket, pretty heavy neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The neoprene was rough … and cracked in places …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>You can see that the stitches hold the arm pieces. These are all pieces of neoprene that had to be cut before they’re stitched together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck in scene: \u003c/strong>And do you remember how much they cost back in\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>I’m guessing everything’s so much cheaper, probably 35-40 bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary’s old O’Neill suit ended up in a museum one day. It’s well-preserved evidence of an invention that changed surfing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter… and of course, at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> And so the whole culture, the whole availability of equipment, improved enormously over those years, from, let’s say, 58 to 65 or 64 when I left Kelly’s Cove … Wet suits became very inexpensive and available, and surfboards made of foam were mass produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When Gary goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Due to his commercial success, O’Neill came to be known as one of the “fathers of the wetsuit.” Body Glove, an early SoCal surf and dive company, is often also given that accolade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bradner, though, was largely left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But about 40 years after walking away from wetsuit development, Bradner began writing letters to try to clarify the history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Jack, You have lately been getting much well-deserved publicity for your invention of the surfing wetsuit. You perhaps recall that I was early in the wetsuit too, but not for surfers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>One letter recipient? Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>The enclosed xerox of my June 21, 1951, letter to Larry Marshall has the disclosure that I believe \u003cu>may\u003c/u> (underlined) have been the beginning of it all. I’d be interested to learn whether your wetsuit predates it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sincerely,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hugh Bradner\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner’s copy of O’Neill’s reply, if one existed, isn’t in the archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a lot of other letters. All following a similar thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Bill, I am enjoying very much your latest book … There is one experience in which I did participate: the wetsuit … We have there an important question of timing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I consider this very important because if your work predates June 21, 1951, I must set about recanting my claim and fame by contacting significant people and widely read publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please set my mind at rest as soon as you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The letter recipients, all in all, seem to have been less concerned than Bradner about clearing up the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over Willard Bascom: \u003c/strong>“Dear Hugh … History is what we remember (including you).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My suggestion is that you let all statements stand …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax and have a merry Christmas. Kindest, Willard”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Like Hugh Bradner, I did some of my own due diligence … and reached out to O’Neill and Body Glove for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, told me the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The O’Neill company didn’t respond to my request for comment … But they’ve got this line on their company blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Versions of this neoprene suit are everywhere these days. Now complete with gloves, booties, and a hood for the cold-weather rider. It’s a combination early Ocean Beach surfers could have only dreamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, as Jack O’Neill would say, when you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to let you all in on something we’ve been working on behind the scenes for the last few months! A historically-themed gaming experience at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. It’s like nothing Bay Curious had done before … and now, it’s time to invite you to join us! Come out on June 20 and 21st and explore the history of the Conservatory and the people who created it. Tickets on sale at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be no episode dropping next week because of the Memorial Day holiday. We’ll be back with the freshy fresh on June 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove is located at the northernmost curve of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Ocean Beach. Tucked right below the Cliff House, it was one of the earliest surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The now quintessential California sport was late to arrive in San Francisco, only coming into its own in the 1940s. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in the ocean here, you’ll know why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water temperatures would creep below 50 degrees at times,” longtime surfer Jim Gallagher said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was part of the Kelly’s Cove community. They were a select group, willing to brave frigid waters for the chance at the perfect wave. And in the early days, they did it without wetsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before neoprene suits were invented, surfers like Gallagher had to rely on their senses to keep them safe. “We became experts in hypothermia,” Gallagher said. Surfers kept sessions short and experimented with creative ways to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guys tried almost everything,” Gallagher said. People surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surfers near Ocean Beach in San Francisco in an undated photograph believed to date to the late 1960s or early 1970s. Photographer unknown. The image is from a collection of photo negatives belonging to Dennis O’Rorke. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079525 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2000x664.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-1536x510.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2048x680.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Surfers check out a wetsuit at Kelly’s Cove on Ocean Beach, circa 1970s. Right: Beach goers lie out to enjoy a warm day at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, circa 1970s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a theory that two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear, which was nylon and close-fit, you would have less cloth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That particular hypothesis was debunked quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonfires were the most reliable way to warm up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer walks in the water to surf at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Feb. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Typically, somebody would bring down old tires because tires really hold the heat,” Gallagher said. “It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 75 years later, everyone at Ocean Beach is wearing a wetsuit, not to mention neoprene hoods, gloves, and booties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How that happened has roots in Kelly’s Cove and a whole lot to do with a Berkeley physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Designing a suit for the military man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the major challenges for Allied forces during World War II was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on enemy coasts. The shorelines were heavily fortified, rigged with concrete, metal and wood obstacles that could only be dismantled by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On D-Day in 1944, Naval Combat Demolition Units — better known as frogmen — deployed to Omaha Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just wearing wool sweaters and things like that,” historian Peter Westwick said. “And they suffered terribly; their casualty rate was like 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-160x72.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-1536x692.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Hugh Bradner at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. Right: Hugh Bradner at his desk at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire, doing precision work in cold water for a long time. For the U.S., it was part of a larger wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Navy [is] quickly realizing the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference,” Westwick said. “So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Post-war, the Navy turned to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasonline.org/\">National Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> for help. They convened a panel to tackle the problem and tapped Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner to join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After completing his PhD at Caltech, Bradner had worked on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956611/from-berkeley-to-the-bomb-oppenheimer-before-los-alamos\">Manhattan Project\u003c/a>, helping the United States develop the atomic bomb. Perhaps more importantly, he was an avid diver and waterman.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One of his first projects with the panel was trying to design a suit to help divers survive underwater explosions. But he soon realized the foam materials he was working with could help tackle the cold water problem, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then, Westwick said, that Bradner came up with his fundamental contribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a concept that flew in the face of accepted knowledge at the time, when the best option for watermen was a dry suit. Dry suits, as the name suggests, keep divers warm by keeping them dry. They’d bundle up in wool underlayers and step into a bulky rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around [in],” Westwick said. Bradner’s “wetsuit” idea wouldn’t depend on layers of wool underwear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You let the water in and then let [the divers’] body warm them up,” Westwick said. “The [suit] material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague. It’s the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other innovation in Bradner’s design was the use of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that became widely available during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084195\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1211\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-1536x930.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Two men in diving gear with small, round raft. These diving suits predate the neoprene wetsuit. Right: John S. Foster modeling wet suit designed by Hugh Bradner around 1953. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Westwick said Bradner started testing his neoprene suit in 1951. “He tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. But Bradner wasn’t interested in becoming a businessman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He says, ‘No, no, I want to preserve my objectivity here,’” Westwick said. “‘I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Bradner never patented his design. “‘Let’s just throw it out there,” Westwick paraphrased, “and let people run with it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The wetsuit goes mainstream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the other side of San Francisco Bay — back on foggy Ocean Beach — a local surfer and tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove was working on his own suit. After experimenting with other materials, Jack O’Neill also stumbled across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher, the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach, was friends with O’Neill. “He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things,” Gallagher said. “But he was a really curious sort of guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1021\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-1536x784.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill as a young man wearing a pre-wetsuit in the 1950s. Right: Jack O’Neill and sons Pat and Mike demonstrating Jack’s supersuit he invented between 1970 and 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>O’Neill has long been considered one of the fathers of the wetsuit, along with the Southern California company Body Glove, a distinction both were happy to cultivate. But this line on the \u003ca href=\"https://eu.oneill.com/blogs/all/who-was-jack-oneill\">O’Neill company blog\u003c/a> raises questions about those claims: “Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to the O’Neill company to get a better understanding of the degree to which O’Neill was aware of Bradner’s discovery, but the company did not respond to my request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, said the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher said the O’Neill suit was a game-changer for surfers at Kelly’s Cove. When they saw the inventor in his neoprene suit, “[they] said, ‘Well, how do I get one?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll make you one.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was lucky enough to get one of the early models. It was custom in every sense of the word, carefully measured and tailored to his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Silberstein sits in the back of his car next to his surfboard at his home in Santa Cruz on April 14, 2026, before heading out to surf. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084192\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-1536x630.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Gary Silberstein holds a Jack O’Neill wetsuit he has owned since the 1960s. Right: Silberstein surfing at Ocean Beach in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Left: Beth LaBerge/KQED. Right: Courtesy of Gary Silberstein)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These early suits weren’t lined. Surfers like Kelly’s Cove local Gary Silberstein used cornstarch or talc to help them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silberstein has held on to one of O’Neill’s later models. The neoprene is thick and inflexible by today’s standards, but it still looks warmer than a wool sweater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Silberstein has put the suit through the wringer. “The wetsuit has 18 holes; it’s real leaky and cold,” he said, pointing out the tears. “You can see this has been repaired, but this would still be a functional wetsuit 50 years in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill’s first surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco with Jack’s children, Cathy, Mike and Pat, standing in front of shop in 1957. Right: The site of the first Jack O’Neill surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco on April 14, 2026. The shop opened in the early 1950s and later moved to Santa Cruz in the late 1950s. \u003ccite>(Left: Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library. Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-160x102.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-1536x982.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer stands at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1972. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops. He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles and diving headfirst into marketing. Today, O’Neill is one of the biggest surf companies out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why you might know his name, while Bradner has largely been left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the wetsuit changed surfing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter, and of course at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world,” Silberstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed. “I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water,” despite the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Jack O’Neill used to say, “When you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s a foggy day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach … just like so many before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything’s gray … cold and windy … but familiar landmarks stick out in the fog … seal rock … the Cliff House …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the early 1950s … and the waves are roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Waves crashing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There are a few surfers paddling out. They’re wearing … shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>When you first went in the water, your fingers would sting and your toes would sting, and that stinging would begin to increase a little bit up your arms and so forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jim Gallagher was part of a group of surfers who braved Northern California’s frigid waters in the early days of surfing here. A place where ocean temperature stays in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/coastal-water-temperature-guide/all_table.html\">50s\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Ocean-Beach/seatemp\">most\u003c/a> of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> And then after an hour or so, that stinging would abate, and you start feeling good, well, you’re about to die, so you better get out of the water fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> At Ocean Beach, surfers found community and creative ways to keep warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> We became experts on hypothermia …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cu>\u003c/u>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Jim got into body surfing as a kid and soon found a community of surfers at Kelly’s Cove, at the north end of Ocean Beach. It was one of the earliest board and body surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>A myth went out that somebody named Kelly died on the beach. There was a competing story that was a Foster & Kleiser sign, a big advertisement for Kelly’s tires. So people had been saying, where’s the beach, or go down to see the Kelly sign …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>In the early days of the sport, people surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly, or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> Guys tried almost everything. There was a theory, two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear was nylon and close fit, you would get have less cloth. And that got debunked pretty quick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The solution was quick surf sessions, maybe ride a few waves and come running back to the beach, to the bonfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>Typically, somebody would bring down old tires, and because tires really hold the heat. And so you could be standing 5 and 6 feet away from the fire and be quite warmed by that fire. It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>While Kelly’s Cove surfers were doing their best to outsmart the ocean … thousands of miles away, another group was having trouble with cold water too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the U.S. military learned the hard way that a soldier’s capacity to function in cold water could make or break an invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World War II music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>For the Allied forces, one of the major challenges of the war was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on heavily fortified enemy coasts\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concrete, metal and wood obstacles could only really be dealt with by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The story of the United States Navy’s frogmen is a story of adventure, of brave men against the enemy and against the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>So-called “frogmen” trained in warm-weather Florida, in mild surf … not the kind of conditions you typically find off the coast of France.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The weather is none too good, but the little ships are plugging onto the beaches, bringing enormous support of manpower and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>On D-Day, they deployed to Omaha Beach. And as historian Peter Westwick tells it, they were pretty poorly equipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And basically, they’re just wearing kind of like wool sweaters and things like that. And they suffered terribly. Their casualty rate was like 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire … doing precision work in cold water for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the US military, the whole war was one big wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The US Navy is quickly realizing, OK, the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference. So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>At the time, if you wanted to stay warm underwater … dry suits were the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And what the dry suit basically did was, as its name suggests, was it kept you dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The suits were bulky. You’d bundle up in wool layers and then step into a watertight rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even today, many scuba divers use a more advanced version of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Americans sometimes used drysuits during the war, they weren’t perfect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The downside was, you know, you stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>“Suit squeeze” was common, pinching watermen in sensitive places at the most inopportune times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine trying to disarm a bomb underwater while wearing 20 leather jackets stacked on each other. Not exactly practical combat gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what’s a Navy to do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Navy turned to scientists for help. One man in particular seemed like a good bet — Hugh Bradner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>Bradner likes to dive, and has dived in cold water regions before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner got his PhD in physics from Caltech. During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project… helping the United States develop the atomic bomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, he got a job as a professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He’s diving, swimming and playing water polo around the Bay Area. So avid kind of waterman, as we would call it now, but also a top-notch physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner joined the project … working first on a different problem … a suit to protect divers from underwater explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s tinkering with these foam materials, using them like shock absorbers … and starts wondering if the foam could also help keep divers warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And then he comes in and ends up with the really fundamental contribution to this whole, this whole enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Actually, I do not think it is necessary to have a waterproof suit. It should be possible to obtain adequate warmth by use of a “dead water” space from a furry type of porous material …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>There’s this really kind of central, counterintuitive insight there, before the whole assumption was that if you’re in cold water, the way you keep from getting cold is to keep the water out. The water is cold. If you keep the water out, you will stay warm. Bradner says you let the water in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Let the water in, he thought, and your body would warm it up naturally.\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And the material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>His other big breakthrough was identifying the kind of material needed to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>When he’s looking around for materials to test, here is this material right at hand that the chemical industry is cranking out in great quantities, especially for the U.S. military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The synthetic rubber was invented in the 1930s by chemists at DuPont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, it became an important substitute for rubber, which was hard to come by. Inventors improved on the material, making it better and more widely available … just in time for Bradner to prototype his wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He begins testing this in 195. And he tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. Bradner’s 1951 letter describing his idea is the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But chances are, unless you’re a physicist or history nerd, you probably haven’t heard of Hugh Bradner. That’s because he never patented his design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>So he says, no, no, I want to preserve my kind of objectivity here. I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>He was a science guy … not a businessman. And as the thinking went, diving and surfing were destined to remain small niches, not places to make real money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And it’s funny, because some of the other panel members are actually writing Bradner at this time, saying, like, Dude, you’re blowing it. Like you can do both … you can be a businessman. And Brander says, like, no, no… forget it. I’m not going to patent it, and let’s just make it. Let’s just throw it out there and let people run with it, which is what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bradner had no idea that the suit he’d invented would forever change the world of surfing and water sports. More on that when we return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re enjoying stories like this one, consider becoming a member of KQED. We can’t do this work without listener donations, so consider joining the hundreds of thousands of your Bay Area neighbors today. \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a> is the place to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about the invention of the wetsuit, and its Bay Area connection. Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner came up with the idea in 1951, but he never had it patented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for the novel concept to go mainstream, thanks in part to the ingenuity and marketing prowess of a few California surfing legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Just a short time after Bradner comes up with his wetsuit, a local tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove stumbled upon a similar idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher — the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach — he was friends with him: a man named Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things, but he was a really curious sort of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Legend has it that O’Neill experimented with all kinds of interesting suit solutions. But nothing really worked. Until he, like Bradner, came across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He made the neoprene suit, and he made one for himself, went out and came back, and people saw that, and he said, Well, how did I get one? He said, Well, I’ll make you one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Unlike the mainstream wetsuits of today, Jack’s suits were always custom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>And I remember when I went down to get mine, I went to his home. He was still living on Wawona, and his brother Bob was there. He was working for Jack, and you went in and he measured you like a tailor would … almost you know, the length of from your elbow midpoint to your wrist and up to your shoulders, around your waist or chest, arm length, legs, the whole body, and he might make a template and then cut the neoprene to that template and glue it together. And that’s how the first ones were made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles … and dove headfirst into marketing. At a 1956 San Francisco trade show, for instance, he dressed up his six kids in little wetsuits and threw them into tubs of ice water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove surfer Gary Silberstein remembers this time well, when the early wetsuit was gaining traction, rudimentary as they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> They weren’t lined, okay, with any fabric. And … use cornstarch to or talc, something to make them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When I met up with Gary at his Santa Cruz home, he pulled an old O’Neill suit out to show me … like most early wetsuits, it’s just a jacket, nothing covering the legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You are looking at Jack O’Neill. This is his logo, which is now all kind of etched away from years and years of surfing. And it’s a jacket. It’s simply a long sleeved, long sleeve jacket, pretty heavy neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The neoprene was rough … and cracked in places …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>You can see that the stitches hold the arm pieces. These are all pieces of neoprene that had to be cut before they’re stitched together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck in scene: \u003c/strong>And do you remember how much they cost back in\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>I’m guessing everything’s so much cheaper, probably 35-40 bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary’s old O’Neill suit ended up in a museum one day. It’s well-preserved evidence of an invention that changed surfing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter… and of course, at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> And so the whole culture, the whole availability of equipment, improved enormously over those years, from, let’s say, 58 to 65 or 64 when I left Kelly’s Cove … Wet suits became very inexpensive and available, and surfboards made of foam were mass produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When Gary goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Due to his commercial success, O’Neill came to be known as one of the “fathers of the wetsuit.” Body Glove, an early SoCal surf and dive company, is often also given that accolade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bradner, though, was largely left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But about 40 years after walking away from wetsuit development, Bradner began writing letters to try to clarify the history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Jack, You have lately been getting much well-deserved publicity for your invention of the surfing wetsuit. You perhaps recall that I was early in the wetsuit too, but not for surfers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>One letter recipient? Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>The enclosed xerox of my June 21, 1951, letter to Larry Marshall has the disclosure that I believe \u003cu>may\u003c/u> (underlined) have been the beginning of it all. I’d be interested to learn whether your wetsuit predates it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sincerely,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hugh Bradner\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner’s copy of O’Neill’s reply, if one existed, isn’t in the archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a lot of other letters. All following a similar thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Bill, I am enjoying very much your latest book … There is one experience in which I did participate: the wetsuit … We have there an important question of timing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I consider this very important because if your work predates June 21, 1951, I must set about recanting my claim and fame by contacting significant people and widely read publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please set my mind at rest as soon as you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The letter recipients, all in all, seem to have been less concerned than Bradner about clearing up the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over Willard Bascom: \u003c/strong>“Dear Hugh … History is what we remember (including you).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My suggestion is that you let all statements stand …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax and have a merry Christmas. Kindest, Willard”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Like Hugh Bradner, I did some of my own due diligence … and reached out to O’Neill and Body Glove for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, told me the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The O’Neill company didn’t respond to my request for comment … But they’ve got this line on their company blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Versions of this neoprene suit are everywhere these days. Now complete with gloves, booties, and a hood for the cold-weather rider. It’s a combination early Ocean Beach surfers could have only dreamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, as Jack O’Neill would say, when you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to let you all in on something we’ve been working on behind the scenes for the last few months! A historically-themed gaming experience at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. It’s like nothing Bay Curious had done before … and now, it’s time to invite you to join us! Come out on June 20 and 21st and explore the history of the Conservatory and the people who created it. Tickets on sale at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be no episode dropping next week because of the Memorial Day holiday. We’ll be back with the freshy fresh on June 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "a-vinyl-found-in-san-francisco-contains-echoes-of-a-filipino-american-love-story",
"title": "A Vinyl Found in San Francisco Contains Echoes of a Filipino American Love Story",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jess Garcia has a little game she and her husband like to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll enjoy a big pitcher of margaritas on Valencia Street in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, and then wander over to the nearby thrift stores to see what kinds of treasures they’ll find. One day, they were rummaging through the vinyls when they found an album that caught their eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover had hand-painted illustrations of San Francisco landmarks, including cable cars, the Transamerica Building, Coit Tower, and the Golden Gate Bridge — all circling a portrait of a Filipino couple wearing a blue suit and a white lace dress. The album title was etched across the top in thick black letters: \u003cem>Cora and Santos, In Baghdad by the Bay.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t really understand what type of album this was at first,” Garcia said. Her first impression was that it was a 50th anniversary album given to their guests as gifts. But when she rushed home to play the record, she realized it was something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[When] the music started playing, it just had this really nostalgic feeling to it,” she said. “Their voices were just so vibrant and sentimental. And I’ve never heard of Cora and Santos Beloy before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Memorabilia from Cora and Santos Beloy, including a 45 rpm record, photographs and album materials, are arranged together in San Francisco on April 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garcia did a little research and discovered the Beloys recorded their album at \u003ca href=\"https://www.hydestreet.com/history.html\">Wally Heider Studio\u003c/a>, which had once hosted iconic Bay Area bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. Garcia had heard of those bands, of course, which made her wonder if there was more to Cora and Santos Beloy’s story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just really interested to know what their life was like, the types of achievements that I can’t find on the internet, and just curious about their legacy overall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, a simple internet search of Cora and Santos Beloy doesn’t yield much information. There’s a beautiful obituary for Cora, who died in 2022, but nothing about Santos’ funeral. You might also find a smattering of Facebook posts about the couple’s involvement in their Catholic parish. On the surface, it all feels pretty mundane. But then you’ll find a handful of links to Cora and Santos’ music, especially their rendition of the classic Filipino love song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7o5weu-YE&list=RDiHI2RypmtmI&index=2\">Dahil Sa Iyo\u003c/a>” — an anthem among Filipinos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7o5weu-YE&list=RDyY7o5weu-YE&start_radio=1\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos’ version is a duet, where Santos takes the classic Tagalog, while Cora croons in the lesser-known English translation. According to Cora and Santos’ daughter, Cissy Beloy Sherr, this arrangement was a kind of role reversal because Cora was fluent in Tagalog and Santos was not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She could sing in seven languages, and Dad could barely remember his Tagalog words in a song,” Sherr said. “So when you say that opposites attract, I think that they were meant to be together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos also grew up in dramatically different ways. Cora was raised on a sugar plantation in the Philippines, while Santos was raised in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. Cora sang to entertain the Japanese soldiers occupying her town during World War II. Santos was a young soprano who sang on the radio. Cora immigrated to the US alone at 18, while Santos was a veteran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their paths crossed in the early 1950s when Cora attended a mixer for Filipinos in San Francisco. One night, she heard Santos singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember her saying, ‘Once I heard your dad’s voice, that was it,’” Sherr said. “It didn’t take a long time for them to fall in love with each other. I know that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12070415 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/20251221_JohnColtraneChurch_December_GH-15_qed.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos shared the kind of love where they forgot about everything else when they were together, Sherr said. They had a whole rolodex of special songs, just their own, and a little whistle to catch each other’s attention at parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After they married, the couple took a long honeymoon to the Philippines so Santos could meet Cora’s family. While there, Cora, under her maiden name “Cora Delfino,” recorded a handful of songs with her brother, who was a well-known musician in the Philippines. Overnight, she became a star. Songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPgSFXm9DeI&list=RDHPgSFXm9DeI&start_radio=1\">Silver Moon\u003c/a>” took over Manila airwaves, and her single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkjT4WQHE\">My Song of Love\u003c/a>” soared to the very top of the Filipino charts in the early 1950s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People to this day remember their grandparents singing it to them to sleep,” said Sherr. “I mean, I can see where my mom’s voice had that calming lullaby tone to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora’s singing aligned with the \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FlxtqjkBY0tKRUUdjAcEb\">classic kundiman style\u003c/a>, a type of Filipino music — mostly smooth, romantic ballads — sung in Tagalog. Cora gave it a modern twist by singing in English, a common trend applied to Filipino folk songs at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something about her songs,” Sherr said. “The way she sang, the minor key of it, the melody. There’s this bittersweet sadness of love and just the emotion with it. It’s kind of in your soul, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Truly a performer’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Cora and Santos returned to San Francisco, Cora didn’t try to leverage her mega-hit in the Philippines into a flashy music career stateside. Instead, she prioritized motherhood. Cora was already pregnant with Sherr’s older brother, Chris Beloy, by the time she and Santos returned from their honeymoon. They settled down in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco and Santos took a day job as a technician for Bank of America, working on the predecessor to the ATM machine. Cora stayed home, and Cissy came along a few years after Chris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But between the hustle and bustle of potty training and school drop-offs, Cora never stopped playing music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkjT4WQHE\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She was just truly a performer,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora once confessed a secret to Cissy about this time when the kids were young. While Sherr and her brother were in school, Cora would get dressed up and sneak out to perform for the shoppers at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo with a group of musicians. That surprised Sherr, who had no idea of her mom’s secret performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it wasn’t sneaking out,” Cissy said. “Maybe it was fitting it into everything else, you know? Maybe her love of singing … she got to do that as well as be a mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mall gigs were also surprising to Sherr because at the time, her mom was getting offers for other glamorous, high-profile jobs. At one point, the comedian Phyllis Diller approached Cora for a nightly stint at a legendary comedy club in San Francisco called \u003ca href=\"https://www.comedyhistory101.com/comedy-history-101/2019/3/4/history-of-the-purple-onion-comedy-club-in-san-francisco\">The Purple Onion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cissy said her mother turned the job down, claiming it would interfere with her ability to be present with her family. Instead, Cora only took the so-called “casuals,” referring to gigs that were short-term and close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her niche became performing at local hotels, the lead vocalist for big bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never got to see her perform because I was just too little,” Sherr said. “I got to see her get dressed. That was the show for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on the night, Cora would don Filipino formalwear or a sparkly evening gown. Sherr’s favorite, though, was her mom’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000544/\">Carmen Miranda\u003c/a> outfit, a reference to the Brazilian pop star famous for wearing a massive hat with fake fruit piled on top. “I don’t know how she even got in the car with that thing,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her father, Santos, loved the spotlight as much as Cora. Back then he would work a full day, come home, throw on a Hawaiian shirt or a matching band suit and join his wife onstage. Over the years, Cora and Santos played restaurants, weddings, and anniversary parties. In 1964, they even decided to record their music. This record had just two tracks, including their famous duet of “Dahil Sa Iyo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To this day people tell me ‘Oh, Cora and Santos, ‘Dahil Sa Iyo,’ that was my favorite,’” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED-1536x1187.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cora Beloy poses with fellow musicians. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cissy Beloy Sherr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Beloys worked on the record with Tom Spinosa, a bandleader who had opened a small music label in the 1950s. To this day, Spinosa is the one typically credited with popularizing “Dahil Sa Iyo” to English speakers in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t really want to give him credit because I don’t know that I have a positive recollection of him,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though her parents loved everybody, they had no desire to work with Spinosa again, Sherr said. Even now, she has a feeling that Spinosa could have helped put her parents on the map in a bigger way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like that record should have probably made them some money. I don’t think it did,” she said. “Here’s my impression, they were naive about whatever the business of it was. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they just said, ‘Okay, we did it for the love of music.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos doubled down on their love of music, expanding their reach as a family band around the state, and even performing on cruise ships around the world. Eventually, Cora and Santos landed their most iconic gig as the house band at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Performing alongside stars\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1940s to the 1970s, the Fairmont was a nightly destination for live music. Some of the world’s biggest stars performed at the hotel’s Venetian Room, including Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/story-tony-bennett-i-left-heart-san-francisco-18254163.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=content_acquisition&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23286310966&gbraid=0AAAAADfW6kE7McpsTc-vgAQgwHkuK5L3i&gclid=CjwKCAiA-__MBhAKEiwASBmsBNb_pn1CBbHh_3UtFLZeN_yEKTDE-9A3pfyvO0TIBS8KFkEkRbrKXhoCWbUQAvD_BwE\">famously sang\u003c/a> “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” during his 1961 residency there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos performed five nights a week at the New Orleans Room, a cocktail lounge adjacent to the Venetian Room. Its high profile location allowed them to befriend people such as Tony Bennett himself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ysw4svDmcxc\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherr’s godsister, Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter, still remembers arriving at the Beloys’ house for dinner one night, decades ago, to find the music legend sitting in the Beloys’ living room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Tony Bennett] just hung out and we were all laughing” she said. “We had Auntie’s chili; she made lumpias and she treated him just like family. It could have been any other night.” And to top it all off, Cora Santos and Tony Bennet played a duet at the living room piano. Ofalsa-Nutter also said that she’d witnessed a similar experience with The Lettermen, whose lead singer \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124650/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm\">Tony Butala\u003c/a> became a good friend to the Beloys. And one night while performing at the Fairmont, the Beloys invited Sammy Davis Jr. to perform onstage with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite never achieving the level of mega stardom that surrounded them, Cora and Santos became “San Francisco famous,” especially through their performances at The Fairmont Hotel’s Polynesian-themed tiki bar, the Tonga Room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos performed their showstopping set on a barge that floated over the Tonga Rooms’s indoor swimming pool, as a synthetic thunderstorm poured around them. Cora knew how to work a crowd, and Santos entranced the audience by playing multiple instruments at once. The performance was so elaborate, it garnered a kind of cult following. One of their fans included the man their niece, Ange Beloy Wesley, was dating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went in there once and saw them, and so he just kept going back,” Wesley said. She hadn’t known that her now-husband was a fan of her aunt and uncle until she introduced them for the first time. “‘[Are they] the little Filipino couple on the boat,’” she recalled him asking her. “He’s going, ‘They are a bad ass couple!’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED-1536x1187.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cora and Santos Beloy performing the traditional Filipino bamboo dance. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cissy Beloy Sherr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wesley’s husband wasn’t the only one taken by Cora and Santos. Sherr said that more than once, her parents would return from a night at the Tonga Room, and tell her about the customers who had jumped into the indoor swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d have to fish them out of the water because they drank too much,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Sherr remembers these performances with nostalgia, she also admits it was a heavy lift for her dad, who was still working his day job at the bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It must have been hard to come home, power nap, and then go 9 to 1 at the Fairmont Hotel,” she said. “I think a lot of it he did for Mom because it was Mom’s dream.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Building community out of music\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Aside from music, Sherr said her mom’s other dream was to have a big family. But since Cora and Santos couldn’t have more children, they volunteered all their free time to St. Anne’s Catholic Church, several blocks away from their house in the Inner Sunset. In the early 1960s, Cora and Santos became advisors for the church teen program, chaperoning dozens of kids to bowling nights and ski trips. Cora also ran the children’s choir, and together, she and Santos taught Filipino folk dancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There weren’t any Filipinos – very few Filipino people in the parish,” Sherr said. “So they were really involved in trying to bring the Philippine culture to all those white people,” Cissy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12080794 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-baycurioustacobell01913_TV.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, Cora and Santos also provided music lessons to countless children around the neighborhood. Oftentimes, the couple would give away instruments for free, just to ensure their students had access to music all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, they also taught music to their family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had specific lessons. They made sure of that,” said Cora and Santos’ niece, Chelle Lindahl. “There was a set time and then we practiced every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindahl’s parents divorced when she was about 8 years old. Soon after, her mom left, and her dad was overwhelmed raising three young girls. So Lindahl and her sisters, including Wesley, went to live with their Auntie Cora and Uncle Santos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They took on the parent roles,” Lindahl said. “They had two children of their own, and to take on three even younger children who are struggling with their mother leaving and all of that … That was incredibly generous on their part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Auntie and uncle had taken over so fiercely,” Wesley agreed. “We were living in a good environment, we were fed and clothed, and all our needs were met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindahl and Wesley said that their aunt and uncle made them feel special during a time when they especially needed love and tending to. They performed alongside Cora and Santos at weddings and The Tonga Room. And Cora, who had begun writing jingles for local businesses, invited the girls to record what she had written for a popular local burger chain — Doggie Diner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They just brought a joy to all of this that we wouldn’t have had otherwise in our life,” said Lindahl. “Just no way. And it was just them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Recording an album on their own terms\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1974, after several years performing at the Fairmont Hotel, Cora and Santos released their only full-length record — In Baghdad By The Bay. The title is a reference to a nickname for San Francisco given by beloved \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist \u003ca href=\"https://www.norcalmediamuseum.org/?page_id=218\">Herb Caen\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Beloys decided to produce this record on their own terms — no middlemen — under the label Cora & Santos Enterprise. The whole record is a homage to the city where they fell in love and raised their children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos asked a friend to design the cover and invited local musicians to perform with them. Lindahl and Wesley recalled celebrating the album’s release at Cora and Santos’ home in the Inner Sunset.“That was a big, big deal,” Lindahl said. “But Auntie and Uncle singing together, that’s some kind of magic there. They were beautiful together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos continued singing love songs to each other until Santos died of cancer in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, Mom just sadly carried on,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ange Westly, Cissy Sherr and Tisha Nutter, relatives of Cora and Santos Beloy, are photographed with the album In Baghdad By the Bay in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco on April 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Cora never stopped performing, taking the stage at nursing homes, birthday parties, and anywhere else she could get her hands on a microphone. Into her nineties, Cora would ask to play the piano at restaurants with in-house entertainment, rather than eat her food. Cora performed her last song in 2022, just weeks before she passed away at 93-years-old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Cora and Santos’ musical careers in San Francisco, they brushed elbows with the stars that have become household names, but that lifestyle wasn’t what called to them. They wanted their music to make the people around them happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherr acknowledged that people may not have stories about “the famous Cora and Santos,” but they do have stories about the generous couple who wouldn’t accept payment for playing at a wedding or the skillful teachers who instilled a love of music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos Beloy were legends at the Tonga Room and larger than life figures at home. Their legacy may not have made it to the internet, but for the people who knew them, they were stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jess Garcia, has a little game she and her husband like to play…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>They’ll enjoy a big ole pitcher of margaritas on Valencia St in San Francisco, and then wander over to the nearby thrift stores to see what kinds of treasures they’ll find. They were rummaging through the vinyls one day when they saw something that caught their eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>So when we saw this album, obviously it attracted our attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The album cover has these hand-painted illustrations of San Francisco landmarks. Cable cars, the Transamerica Building, Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge – and they’re all circling this portrait of a Filipino couple. It looks like a wedding photo from the 70s or 80s, maybe. He’s in a blue suit with a purple ruffled shirt underneath. She’s in a white lace dress. And in thick black letters, the album title reads “Cora and Santos, In Baghdad by the Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>We didn’t really understand like what type of album this was at first. My first impression was that, like maybe it was like a 50th anniversary album that, like they gave out to like friends and family with like just like their favorite songs on it which I thought was like such a cute idea. And then we actually did kind of rush home because we were eager to listen to the album. So when we put it on and the music started playing it just had this like really nostalgic feeling to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Spanish Eyes” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>The very first track is Spanish Eyes. And you know, a couple of seconds into the track, Cora and Santos start singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Spanish Eyes” in the clear: “Spanish Eyes. Teardrops are falling from your Spanish Eyes.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>Their voices were just so vibrant and sentimental. And I just thought they were so sweet and I’ve never, you know, I’ve never heard of Cora and Santos Beloy before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The couple recorded at a studio called Wally Heider. Some other Iconic Bay Area bands have recorded there. Like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead. Jess had heard of those bands, of course, which made her wonder if there was more to Cora and Santos Beloy’s story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>I was just really interested to know what their life was like, the types of achievements that I can’t find on the internet, and just curious about their legacy overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Jess is right, if you search the names “Cora and Santos Beloy,” you probably won’t find much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Reporter Asal Ehsanipour loves a good mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>There’s a beautiful obituary for Cora, who died in 2022, but not much about Santos’ funeral. A few Facebook posts about the couple’s involvement in their Catholic parish. It all feels pretty mundane. But then… you’ll find a handful of links to Cora and Santos’ music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And music was everything to this couple. Today we’re digging into the lives and legacy…big and small…of Cora and Santos Beloy. Take it away, Asal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The song that comes up most is Cora and Santos Beloy’s biggest hit – a rendition of the classic Filippino love song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7o5weu-YE&list=RDiHI2RypmtmI&index=2\">Dahil Sa Iyo\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Dahil Sa Iyo” in the clear for a moment \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Dahil Sa Iyo is a kind of anthem among Filipinos. Cora and Santos’ version is a duet, where Santos takes the classic Tagalog, while Cora croons in the lesser-known English translation… It’s a kind of role reversal – because Cora was fluent in Tagalog, and Santos wasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>She could sing in seven languages, // And Dad could barely remember his Tagalog words in a song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This is Cora and Santos’ daughter, Cissy Beloy Sherr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So, when you say that opposites attract, in some ways, I think that they were meant to be together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s parents were also opposite in the way they’d grown up. Cora was raised on a sugar plantation in the Philippines, Santos was raised in the Fillmore. She sang to entertain the Japanese soldiers occupying her town during World War II. He was a young soprano, who sang on the radio. Cora was an immigrant, Santos was a veteran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So dad grew up so different from mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Their paths finally crossed in the early 50s, when Cora attended a mixer for Filipinos in San Francisco. And one night… she heard Santos singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I remember her saying, “once I heard your dad’s voice, that was it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos’ song “Hawaiian Wedding Song” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> It didn’t take a long time for them to fall in love with each other. I knew that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos were crazy about each other. Cissy says it was the kind of love where they forgot about everything else when they were together… The kind where they had a whole rolodex of special songs, just their own… and a little whistle so they could get each other’s attention at a party. .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After they married, the couple took a long honeymoon to the Philippines, so Santos could meet Cora’s family. And while they were there, Cora recorded a handful of songs with her brother – a well-known musician in the Philippines. Overnight, Cora became a star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“My Song of Love” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Her single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkjT4WQHE\">My Song of Love\u003c/a>,” soared to the very top of the Filipino charts in the early 50s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora Delphino singing: “My Song of Love”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>People to this day remember their grandparents singing it to them to sleep. I mean, I can see where my mom’s voice had that calming lullaby tone to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora’s singing was very much in the classic kundiman style. A type of Filipino music – mostly smooth, romantic ballads – sung in Tagalog. Cora gave it a modern twist, singing in English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>There’s something about her songs. The way she sang, the minor key of it, the melody. There’s this bittersweet sadness of love and just the emotion with it. It’s kind of in your soul, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“My Song of Love” ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>Despite her mega hit in the Phillipines, Cora didn’t try to leverage her success into a flashy music career back in San Francisco. Instead, she immediately shifted into mom mode. This was the 1950s. Corae was already pregnant by the time she and Santos got back from their honeymoon. They settled down in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco, and Santos took a day job as a technician for Bank of America. He worked on the predecessor to the ATM machine. Cora stayed home, and Cissy came along 14 months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But between the hustle and bustle of potty training and school drop-offs – Cora never stopped playing music. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>She was like just truly a performer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora once told Cissy a secret about this time. When the kids were in school, she confessed almost wistfully… that she’d sneak out and perform at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo with a group of musicians.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>They’d pick her up, bring her down to the mall and they’d be all set up for her to sing for the shoppers going through the mall.I would get home before you did and we never knew she did this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy had always thought her mom was doing the dishes and baking cookies while she was in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Maybe it wasn’t sneaking out, maybe it was fitting it into everything else, you know. Maybe her love of singing, she got to do that as well as be a mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But it wasn’t just mall jobs. Cora also got offers for glamorous, higher profile jobs. At one point, Cissy said her mom had been approached by the comedian Phyllis Diller for a nightly stint at a legendary comedy club in the city, called The Purple Onion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I do remember that, because Phylliss Diller, she’s famous, you know. Oh, but mommy’s not gonna do that because that means she won’t be home to cook dinner for us\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Instead, Cora took the so-called “casuals.” Gigs that were short-term and close to home. She started performing at local hotels, singing with the big bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Big band music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh… my mom sounded great with a big band.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Those huge jazz ensembles – a dozen or more musicians packed onstage together playing a big brassy sound. This was Cora’s niche.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> I never got to see her perform because I was just too little, you know. I got to see her get dressed that was the show for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Depending on the night, Cora would dress in Filipino formalwear or a sparkly evening gown. Cissy’s favorite, though, was her mom’s Carmen Miranda outfit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Because that big hat had a whole bowl of fruit on the top. And I don’t know how she even got in the car with that thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>And Santos loved the spotlight as much as Cora. He would work a full day at the bank, come home, throw on a Hawaiian shirt or a matching band suit – and join his wife on stage. And eventually… once the kids got older… they became the house band at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Piano music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This was during the Fairmont’s heyday… back when it was a nightly destination for live music. The main attraction was the Venetian Room, a glamorous concert hall where some of the world’s biggest stars performed – people like Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. In fact, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/story-tony-bennett-i-left-heart-san-francisco-18254163.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=content_acquisition&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23286310966&gbraid=0AAAAADfW6kE7McpsTc-vgAQgwHkuK5L3i&gclid=CjwKCAiA-__MBhAKEiwASBmsBNb_pn1CBbHh_3UtFLZeN_yEKTDE-9A3pfyvO0TIBS8KFkEkRbrKXhoCWbUQAvD_BwE\">Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” during his 1961 residency at the Venetian Room.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tony Bennet singing “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>And then there was, uh, I think there was a little lounge on each side. There was one to the right, a cocktail lounge with live music. And that’s the one mom and dad played in. And it was called the New Orleans Room. And I feel like it was kind of a staging or maybe a waiting area for either if you couldn’t get tickets for the main show or you were waiting to go in that main show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This regular gig adjacent to the Venetian Room meant Cora and Santos befriended all kinds of people. Including…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>Tony, just Tony.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s god sister, Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter, is talking about that very same Tony Bennett. She still remembers one night, decades ago, when her Auntie Cora invited the family over for dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>Just come on over, it’s Monday. Except Tony Bennett was sitting there in the living room. And he just hung out and we were all just laughing. We had Auntie’s chili. She made lumpias and // it was like she treated him just like family. It could have been any other night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Except on this night, Cora sang a duet with Tony Bennet at the piano in her living room. Casual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>And this not only happened with Tony Bennett, this happened with The Letterman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos became longtime friends with the pop group’s lead singer, Tony Butala. One night, they invited Sammy Davis Jr. to perform onstage with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite never achieving THAT level of stardom, Cora and Santos became “San Francisco famous” … especially through their performances at The Fairmont Hotel’s Tonga Room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rumbling music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>For the uninitiated, The Tonga Room is a Polynesian-themed tiki bar known for extravagant umbrella drinks and an indoor thunderstorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>When they were about to come out and perform, they would start this thunder and lightning. And then the rain would start coming down. And there would be Auntie Cora, Uncle Santos and they would be on this barge and the barge would come out on this little waterway then the rain would stop and then they would start performing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos start singing: “When I Hear the Church Bells Ringing”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I mean, it was just gobsmacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>This is Chelle Lindahl, Cora and Santos’ niece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl:\u003c/strong> I know we were just all like, oh, oh my God, look at this. And then Auntie and Uncle are on this thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>People would go to the Tonga Room FOR Cora and Santos…they had a bit of a cult following.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora knew how to work a crowd. And when Santos sang… you couldn’t help but pay attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos song “Now That Summer Is Gone” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh, he’s so fun. My dad had this way of playing like three instruments at once. Like three quarters of a one-man band. It was great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy says that more than once, her parents would come from a night at the Tonga Room, and tell her about the customers who got a little too swept up in the music, and would jump into the indoor swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>They’d have to fish them out of the water because they drank too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy remembers it all with nostalgia. But she also admits it was a heavy lift for her dad, who was still working his day job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It must have been hard to come home power nap and then go nine to one at the Fairmont hotel or something // and I think a lot of it he did it for mom because it was mom’s dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But more than anything, they loved to perform together. Cora and Santos played restaurants, anniversary parties, and cruise ships around the world. Back in 1964, they even decided to record their music – this was before the album our question asker found. This one had just two tracks, including their famous duet of “Dahil Sa Iyo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> To this day people tell me “Oh, Cora and Santos, “Dahil Sa Iyo” – that was my favorite, you know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They worked with Tom Spinosa, a big-deal bandleader who’d opened a small music label in the 1950s. To this day, Spinosa – not Cora and Santos – is typically credited with popularizing “Dahil Sa Iyo” to English speakers in the US…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t really want to give him credit. Because I don’t know that I have a positive recollection of him to be honest with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy says her parents loved everybody, but had no desire to work with Spinosa again. She’s got this feeling that the record could have put her parents on the map in a bigger way… Spinosa could have helped with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I feel like that record should have probably made them some money. I don’t think it did\u003cem>. \u003c/em>So I think that maybe they were…here’s my impression, that they were naive about whatever the business of it was. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they just said, okay, you know, we did it for the love of music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>And as it turns out…. their love of music, their desire to build community out of music, would be the \u003cem>\u003cu>real\u003c/u>\u003c/em> legacy of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos may have had a glamorous onstage life at the Fairmount hotel, befriending famous singers and sparkling under the lights, but Asal Ehsanipour tells us their most lasting legacy may have been on their local community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Cissy says her mom had always dreamt of having a big family. But since Cora and Santos couldn’t have more children, they volunteered all their free time to St. Anne’s Catholic Church – just a few blocks away from their house in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora ran the children’s choir and together, she and Santos taught Filipino folk dancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>There weren’t any Filipinos, very few Filipino people in the parish, so they were teaching the bamboo dance to people, those kids and their parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>By the 1960s, San Francisco had a sizable Filipino population, but not many lived in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So they were really involved in trying to bring the Philippine culture to all those white people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora would teach the moms how to make lumpia, while Santos played poker with the dads. And together the couple gave music lessons to kids all around the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>How many students would you say they had?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh I could not keep, I have no idea. Countless I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Teaching them bass, banjo, piano…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Guitar, ukulele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, they’d give away instruments for free, just to ensure kids had access to music all the time. And of course, they made sure their nieces knew music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>We had specific lessons. I mean they made sure of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s cousin, Chelle Lindahl again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>There was a set time and then we practiced every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Chelle was Santos’ brother’s kid. Her parents divorced when she was about eight. Then her mom left, and her dad was overwhelmed. So the girls went to live with their Auntie Cora and Uncle Santos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>And they took on the parent roles. I mean they had two children of their own and to take on three even younger children who are struggling with their mother leaving and all of that. That was incredibly generous on their part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Chelle said her aunt and uncle made the girls feel special during a time when they really needed love and tending to. Music was a big part of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I think the thing that I enjoyed the most was the singing, // And they gave us that opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora had started writing jingles for local businesses. So she invited the girls to record what she’d written for a very popular local burger chain, Doggie Diner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl and Ange Wesley sing together: \u003c/strong>Doggie Diner, nothing’s finer, doggy diners, dog gone good!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>We went down to a radio station and recorded it, and then we were kind of famous at school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Under the care of Cora and Santos, the ragged edges of their broken family began to smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>They, they just brought a joy to all of this that we wouldn’t have had otherwise in our life. Just no way. And it was just them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They modeled what a loving relationship and happy family looks like… It really set the bar for Chelle and her sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I mean, it sounds corny these days, but. They really were it, you know, they embodied it. They really did.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>In 1974… a full decade after “Dahil Sa Iyo” came out, Cora and Santos decided to release their music again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This time, they produced it on their own terms… no middlemen… under the label Cora & Santos Enterprise. They called it “In Baghdad By The Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora singing: “I know a great old city down California Way. They call it San Francisco or Baghdad By The Bay.” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This is the very same record our question asker Jess Garcia found at the thrift store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>I remember just admiring the cover art and they had the cable car on there and I think the bridge is on there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos asked a friend to design the cover, and invited local musicians to perform with them. The whole record is a homage to the city where they fell in love and raised their children. They celebrated in classic Beloy fashion, with a huge party at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I remember being in the living room and like having it presented and everybody’s like ‘oh my god this is amazing.’ you know I mean this was, in this day and age of you can record anything and this and that like to get your songs pressed onto vinyl. That was a big, big deal. But Auntie and Uncle singing together, that’s some kind of magic there. Like their voices, they were beautiful together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In Baghdad by the Bay” ends \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>I hope it pans to your parents. I want to see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Come on, pan out, pan it out.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Back at Cissy’s house, she’s showing me a home video of her parents in their later years. They’re performing on a lawn together. It’s a stark contrast to the drama of The Tonga Room… This feels light and casual. No pretenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Always the last song they play, this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>What’s this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr singing: \u003c/strong>Have I told you lately that I love you? Dear, have I told you…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Your mom was looking at your dad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Always. Lookit. Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Home movie sound fades out\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos continued singing love songs to each other until Santos died of cancer in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>You know? Mom just sadly carried on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But she never stopped performing. She played at nursing homes, birthday parties — wherever she could get her hands on a microphone, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>We go to a brunch. Boy, my mom was drooling over the piano before the food. She would ask can I play? can I play for everybody? She wanted to play that piano for everybody at the brunch rather than eat, in her 90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora performed her last song in 2022… just weeks before she died at 93 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music fades out\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>Throughout Cora and Santos’ musical career in San Francisco, they brushed elbows with the stars that have become household names. But that lifestyle wasn’t what called to them…they wanted their music to make the people around them happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>You will talk to so many people and they might not have this story about, oh, the famous Cora and Santos, but they will have a great story. Oh gosh, they played at my wedding and I couldn’t afford to pay them or they wouldn’t let me pay them, but it made it so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They were legends at the Tonga Room…larger than life figures at home… their legacy may not have made it to the internet, but for the people who knew them, they were stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Cora and Santos Beloy were talented local AAPI musicians, who played regularly at the Fairmount Hotel’s Tonga Room in the 1970s. But their most lasting legacy is on their family and friends.\r\n\r\n",
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"title": "A Vinyl Found in San Francisco Contains Echoes of a Filipino American Love Story | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jess Garcia has a little game she and her husband like to play.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’ll enjoy a big pitcher of margaritas on Valencia Street in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, and then wander over to the nearby thrift stores to see what kinds of treasures they’ll find. One day, they were rummaging through the vinyls when they found an album that caught their eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cover had hand-painted illustrations of San Francisco landmarks, including cable cars, the Transamerica Building, Coit Tower, and the Golden Gate Bridge — all circling a portrait of a Filipino couple wearing a blue suit and a white lace dress. The album title was etched across the top in thick black letters: \u003cem>Cora and Santos, In Baghdad by the Bay.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t really understand what type of album this was at first,” Garcia said. Her first impression was that it was a 50th anniversary album given to their guests as gifts. But when she rushed home to play the record, she realized it was something else.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[When] the music started playing, it just had this really nostalgic feeling to it,” she said. “Their voices were just so vibrant and sentimental. And I’ve never heard of Cora and Santos Beloy before.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Memorabilia from Cora and Santos Beloy, including a 45 rpm record, photographs and album materials, are arranged together in San Francisco on April 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Garcia did a little research and discovered the Beloys recorded their album at \u003ca href=\"https://www.hydestreet.com/history.html\">Wally Heider Studio\u003c/a>, which had once hosted iconic Bay Area bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, and the Grateful Dead. Garcia had heard of those bands, of course, which made her wonder if there was more to Cora and Santos Beloy’s story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was just really interested to know what their life was like, the types of achievements that I can’t find on the internet, and just curious about their legacy overall,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, a simple internet search of Cora and Santos Beloy doesn’t yield much information. There’s a beautiful obituary for Cora, who died in 2022, but nothing about Santos’ funeral. You might also find a smattering of Facebook posts about the couple’s involvement in their Catholic parish. On the surface, it all feels pretty mundane. But then you’ll find a handful of links to Cora and Santos’ music, especially their rendition of the classic Filipino love song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7o5weu-YE&list=RDiHI2RypmtmI&index=2\">Dahil Sa Iyo\u003c/a>” — an anthem among Filipinos.\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/yY7o5weu-YE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/yY7o5weu-YE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Cora and Santos’ version is a duet, where Santos takes the classic Tagalog, while Cora croons in the lesser-known English translation. According to Cora and Santos’ daughter, Cissy Beloy Sherr, this arrangement was a kind of role reversal because Cora was fluent in Tagalog and Santos was not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She could sing in seven languages, and Dad could barely remember his Tagalog words in a song,” Sherr said. “So when you say that opposites attract, I think that they were meant to be together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos also grew up in dramatically different ways. Cora was raised on a sugar plantation in the Philippines, while Santos was raised in San Francisco’s Fillmore District. Cora sang to entertain the Japanese soldiers occupying her town during World War II. Santos was a young soprano who sang on the radio. Cora immigrated to the US alone at 18, while Santos was a veteran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their paths crossed in the early 1950s when Cora attended a mixer for Filipinos in San Francisco. One night, she heard Santos singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember her saying, ‘Once I heard your dad’s voice, that was it,’” Sherr said. “It didn’t take a long time for them to fall in love with each other. I know that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos shared the kind of love where they forgot about everything else when they were together, Sherr said. They had a whole rolodex of special songs, just their own, and a little whistle to catch each other’s attention at parties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After they married, the couple took a long honeymoon to the Philippines so Santos could meet Cora’s family. While there, Cora, under her maiden name “Cora Delfino,” recorded a handful of songs with her brother, who was a well-known musician in the Philippines. Overnight, she became a star. Songs like “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPgSFXm9DeI&list=RDHPgSFXm9DeI&start_radio=1\">Silver Moon\u003c/a>” took over Manila airwaves, and her single “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkjT4WQHE\">My Song of Love\u003c/a>” soared to the very top of the Filipino charts in the early 1950s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People to this day remember their grandparents singing it to them to sleep,” said Sherr. “I mean, I can see where my mom’s voice had that calming lullaby tone to it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora’s singing aligned with the \u003ca href=\"https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4FlxtqjkBY0tKRUUdjAcEb\">classic kundiman style\u003c/a>, a type of Filipino music — mostly smooth, romantic ballads — sung in Tagalog. Cora gave it a modern twist by singing in English, a common trend applied to Filipino folk songs at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s something about her songs,” Sherr said. “The way she sang, the minor key of it, the melody. There’s this bittersweet sadness of love and just the emotion with it. It’s kind of in your soul, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>‘Truly a performer’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When Cora and Santos returned to San Francisco, Cora didn’t try to leverage her mega-hit in the Philippines into a flashy music career stateside. Instead, she prioritized motherhood. Cora was already pregnant with Sherr’s older brother, Chris Beloy, by the time she and Santos returned from their honeymoon. They settled down in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco and Santos took a day job as a technician for Bank of America, working on the predecessor to the ATM machine. Cora stayed home, and Cissy came along a few years after Chris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But between the hustle and bustle of potty training and school drop-offs, Cora never stopped playing music.\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/M6bkjT4WQHE'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/M6bkjT4WQHE'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“She was just truly a performer,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora once confessed a secret to Cissy about this time when the kids were young. While Sherr and her brother were in school, Cora would get dressed up and sneak out to perform for the shoppers at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo with a group of musicians. That surprised Sherr, who had no idea of her mom’s secret performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it wasn’t sneaking out,” Cissy said. “Maybe it was fitting it into everything else, you know? Maybe her love of singing … she got to do that as well as be a mom.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mall gigs were also surprising to Sherr because at the time, her mom was getting offers for other glamorous, high-profile jobs. At one point, the comedian Phyllis Diller approached Cora for a nightly stint at a legendary comedy club in San Francisco called \u003ca href=\"https://www.comedyhistory101.com/comedy-history-101/2019/3/4/history-of-the-purple-onion-comedy-club-in-san-francisco\">The Purple Onion\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Cissy said her mother turned the job down, claiming it would interfere with her ability to be present with her family. Instead, Cora only took the so-called “casuals,” referring to gigs that were short-term and close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her niche became performing at local hotels, the lead vocalist for big bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never got to see her perform because I was just too little,” Sherr said. “I got to see her get dressed. That was the show for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Depending on the night, Cora would don Filipino formalwear or a sparkly evening gown. Sherr’s favorite, though, was her mom’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000544/\">Carmen Miranda\u003c/a> outfit, a reference to the Brazilian pop star famous for wearing a massive hat with fake fruit piled on top. “I don’t know how she even got in the car with that thing,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her father, Santos, loved the spotlight as much as Cora. Back then he would work a full day, come home, throw on a Hawaiian shirt or a matching band suit and join his wife onstage. Over the years, Cora and Santos played restaurants, weddings, and anniversary parties. In 1964, they even decided to record their music. This record had just two tracks, including their famous duet of “Dahil Sa Iyo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To this day people tell me ‘Oh, Cora and Santos, ‘Dahil Sa Iyo,’ that was my favorite,’” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-04-KQED-1536x1187.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cora Beloy poses with fellow musicians. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cissy Beloy Sherr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The Beloys worked on the record with Tom Spinosa, a bandleader who had opened a small music label in the 1950s. To this day, Spinosa is the one typically credited with popularizing “Dahil Sa Iyo” to English speakers in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t really want to give him credit because I don’t know that I have a positive recollection of him,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though her parents loved everybody, they had no desire to work with Spinosa again, Sherr said. Even now, she has a feeling that Spinosa could have helped put her parents on the map in a bigger way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel like that record should have probably made them some money. I don’t think it did,” she said. “Here’s my impression, they were naive about whatever the business of it was. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they just said, ‘Okay, we did it for the love of music.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos doubled down on their love of music, expanding their reach as a family band around the state, and even performing on cruise ships around the world. Eventually, Cora and Santos landed their most iconic gig as the house band at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Performing alongside stars\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>From the 1940s to the 1970s, the Fairmont was a nightly destination for live music. Some of the world’s biggest stars performed at the hotel’s Venetian Room, including Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/story-tony-bennett-i-left-heart-san-francisco-18254163.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=content_acquisition&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23286310966&gbraid=0AAAAADfW6kE7McpsTc-vgAQgwHkuK5L3i&gclid=CjwKCAiA-__MBhAKEiwASBmsBNb_pn1CBbHh_3UtFLZeN_yEKTDE-9A3pfyvO0TIBS8KFkEkRbrKXhoCWbUQAvD_BwE\">famously sang\u003c/a> “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” during his 1961 residency there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos performed five nights a week at the New Orleans Room, a cocktail lounge adjacent to the Venetian Room. Its high profile location allowed them to befriend people such as Tony Bennett himself.\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/Ysw4svDmcxc'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Ysw4svDmcxc'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Sherr’s godsister, Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter, still remembers arriving at the Beloys’ house for dinner one night, decades ago, to find the music legend sitting in the Beloys’ living room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[Tony Bennett] just hung out and we were all laughing” she said. “We had Auntie’s chili; she made lumpias and she treated him just like family. It could have been any other night.” And to top it all off, Cora Santos and Tony Bennet played a duet at the living room piano. Ofalsa-Nutter also said that she’d witnessed a similar experience with The Lettermen, whose lead singer \u003ca href=\"https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0124650/bio/?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm\">Tony Butala\u003c/a> became a good friend to the Beloys. And one night while performing at the Fairmont, the Beloys invited Sammy Davis Jr. to perform onstage with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite never achieving the level of mega stardom that surrounded them, Cora and Santos became “San Francisco famous,” especially through their performances at The Fairmont Hotel’s Polynesian-themed tiki bar, the Tonga Room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos performed their showstopping set on a barge that floated over the Tonga Rooms’s indoor swimming pool, as a synthetic thunderstorm poured around them. Cora knew how to work a crowd, and Santos entranced the audience by playing multiple instruments at once. The performance was so elaborate, it garnered a kind of cult following. One of their fans included the man their niece, Ange Beloy Wesley, was dating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He went in there once and saw them, and so he just kept going back,” Wesley said. She hadn’t known that her now-husband was a fan of her aunt and uncle until she introduced them for the first time. “‘[Are they] the little Filipino couple on the boat,’” she recalled him asking her. “He’s going, ‘They are a bad ass couple!’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1545\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260427-CORA-SANTOS-BELOY-02-KQED-1536x1187.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Cora and Santos Beloy performing the traditional Filipino bamboo dance. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Cissy Beloy Sherr)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Wesley’s husband wasn’t the only one taken by Cora and Santos. Sherr said that more than once, her parents would return from a night at the Tonga Room, and tell her about the customers who had jumped into the indoor swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’d have to fish them out of the water because they drank too much,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though Sherr remembers these performances with nostalgia, she also admits it was a heavy lift for her dad, who was still working his day job at the bank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It must have been hard to come home, power nap, and then go 9 to 1 at the Fairmont Hotel,” she said. “I think a lot of it he did for Mom because it was Mom’s dream.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Building community out of music\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Aside from music, Sherr said her mom’s other dream was to have a big family. But since Cora and Santos couldn’t have more children, they volunteered all their free time to St. Anne’s Catholic Church, several blocks away from their house in the Inner Sunset. In the early 1960s, Cora and Santos became advisors for the church teen program, chaperoning dozens of kids to bowling nights and ski trips. Cora also ran the children’s choir, and together, she and Santos taught Filipino folk dancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There weren’t any Filipinos – very few Filipino people in the parish,” Sherr said. “So they were really involved in trying to bring the Philippine culture to all those white people,” Cissy said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Together, Cora and Santos also provided music lessons to countless children around the neighborhood. Oftentimes, the couple would give away instruments for free, just to ensure their students had access to music all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of course, they also taught music to their family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had specific lessons. They made sure of that,” said Cora and Santos’ niece, Chelle Lindahl. “There was a set time and then we practiced every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindahl’s parents divorced when she was about 8 years old. Soon after, her mom left, and her dad was overwhelmed raising three young girls. So Lindahl and her sisters, including Wesley, went to live with their Auntie Cora and Uncle Santos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They took on the parent roles,” Lindahl said. “They had two children of their own, and to take on three even younger children who are struggling with their mother leaving and all of that … That was incredibly generous on their part.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Auntie and uncle had taken over so fiercely,” Wesley agreed. “We were living in a good environment, we were fed and clothed, and all our needs were met.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lindahl and Wesley said that their aunt and uncle made them feel special during a time when they especially needed love and tending to. They performed alongside Cora and Santos at weddings and The Tonga Room. And Cora, who had begun writing jingles for local businesses, invited the girls to record what she had written for a popular local burger chain — Doggie Diner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They just brought a joy to all of this that we wouldn’t have had otherwise in our life,” said Lindahl. “Just no way. And it was just them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Recording an album on their own terms\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In 1974, after several years performing at the Fairmont Hotel, Cora and Santos released their only full-length record — In Baghdad By The Bay. The title is a reference to a nickname for San Francisco given by beloved \u003cem>San Francisco Chronicle\u003c/em> columnist \u003ca href=\"https://www.norcalmediamuseum.org/?page_id=218\">Herb Caen\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Beloys decided to produce this record on their own terms — no middlemen — under the label Cora & Santos Enterprise. The whole record is a homage to the city where they fell in love and raised their children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos asked a friend to design the cover and invited local musicians to perform with them. Lindahl and Wesley recalled celebrating the album’s release at Cora and Santos’ home in the Inner Sunset.“That was a big, big deal,” Lindahl said. “But Auntie and Uncle singing together, that’s some kind of magic there. They were beautiful together.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos continued singing love songs to each other until Santos died of cancer in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, Mom just sadly carried on,” Sherr said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Ange Westly, Cissy Sherr and Tisha Nutter, relatives of Cora and Santos Beloy, are photographed with the album In Baghdad By the Bay in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco on April 25, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But Cora never stopped performing, taking the stage at nursing homes, birthday parties, and anywhere else she could get her hands on a microphone. Into her nineties, Cora would ask to play the piano at restaurants with in-house entertainment, rather than eat her food. Cora performed her last song in 2022, just weeks before she passed away at 93-years-old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Throughout Cora and Santos’ musical careers in San Francisco, they brushed elbows with the stars that have become household names, but that lifestyle wasn’t what called to them. They wanted their music to make the people around them happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherr acknowledged that people may not have stories about “the famous Cora and Santos,” but they do have stories about the generous couple who wouldn’t accept payment for playing at a wedding or the skillful teachers who instilled a love of music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos Beloy were legends at the Tonga Room and larger than life figures at home. Their legacy may not have made it to the internet, but for the people who knew them, they were stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jess Garcia, has a little game she and her husband like to play…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>They’ll enjoy a big ole pitcher of margaritas on Valencia St in San Francisco, and then wander over to the nearby thrift stores to see what kinds of treasures they’ll find. They were rummaging through the vinyls one day when they saw something that caught their eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>So when we saw this album, obviously it attracted our attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The album cover has these hand-painted illustrations of San Francisco landmarks. Cable cars, the Transamerica Building, Coit Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge – and they’re all circling this portrait of a Filipino couple. It looks like a wedding photo from the 70s or 80s, maybe. He’s in a blue suit with a purple ruffled shirt underneath. She’s in a white lace dress. And in thick black letters, the album title reads “Cora and Santos, In Baghdad by the Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>We didn’t really understand like what type of album this was at first. My first impression was that, like maybe it was like a 50th anniversary album that, like they gave out to like friends and family with like just like their favorite songs on it which I thought was like such a cute idea. And then we actually did kind of rush home because we were eager to listen to the album. So when we put it on and the music started playing it just had this like really nostalgic feeling to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Spanish Eyes” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>The very first track is Spanish Eyes. And you know, a couple of seconds into the track, Cora and Santos start singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Spanish Eyes” in the clear: “Spanish Eyes. Teardrops are falling from your Spanish Eyes.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>Their voices were just so vibrant and sentimental. And I just thought they were so sweet and I’ve never, you know, I’ve never heard of Cora and Santos Beloy before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>The couple recorded at a studio called Wally Heider. Some other Iconic Bay Area bands have recorded there. Like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jefferson Airplane, the Grateful Dead. Jess had heard of those bands, of course, which made her wonder if there was more to Cora and Santos Beloy’s story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jess Garcia: \u003c/strong>I was just really interested to know what their life was like, the types of achievements that I can’t find on the internet, and just curious about their legacy overall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Jess is right, if you search the names “Cora and Santos Beloy,” you probably won’t find much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Reporter Asal Ehsanipour loves a good mystery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>There’s a beautiful obituary for Cora, who died in 2022, but not much about Santos’ funeral. A few Facebook posts about the couple’s involvement in their Catholic parish. It all feels pretty mundane. But then… you’ll find a handful of links to Cora and Santos’ music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> And music was everything to this couple. Today we’re digging into the lives and legacy…big and small…of Cora and Santos Beloy. Take it away, Asal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>The song that comes up most is Cora and Santos Beloy’s biggest hit – a rendition of the classic Filippino love song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7o5weu-YE&list=RDiHI2RypmtmI&index=2\">Dahil Sa Iyo\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Dahil Sa Iyo” in the clear for a moment \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Dahil Sa Iyo is a kind of anthem among Filipinos. Cora and Santos’ version is a duet, where Santos takes the classic Tagalog, while Cora croons in the lesser-known English translation… It’s a kind of role reversal – because Cora was fluent in Tagalog, and Santos wasn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>She could sing in seven languages, // And Dad could barely remember his Tagalog words in a song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This is Cora and Santos’ daughter, Cissy Beloy Sherr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So, when you say that opposites attract, in some ways, I think that they were meant to be together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s parents were also opposite in the way they’d grown up. Cora was raised on a sugar plantation in the Philippines, Santos was raised in the Fillmore. She sang to entertain the Japanese soldiers occupying her town during World War II. He was a young soprano, who sang on the radio. Cora was an immigrant, Santos was a veteran.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So dad grew up so different from mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Their paths finally crossed in the early 50s, when Cora attended a mixer for Filipinos in San Francisco. And one night… she heard Santos singing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I remember her saying, “once I heard your dad’s voice, that was it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos’ song “Hawaiian Wedding Song” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> It didn’t take a long time for them to fall in love with each other. I knew that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos were crazy about each other. Cissy says it was the kind of love where they forgot about everything else when they were together… The kind where they had a whole rolodex of special songs, just their own… and a little whistle so they could get each other’s attention at a party. .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After they married, the couple took a long honeymoon to the Philippines, so Santos could meet Cora’s family. And while they were there, Cora recorded a handful of songs with her brother – a well-known musician in the Philippines. Overnight, Cora became a star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“My Song of Love” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Her single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6bkjT4WQHE\">My Song of Love\u003c/a>,” soared to the very top of the Filipino charts in the early 50s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora Delphino singing: “My Song of Love”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>People to this day remember their grandparents singing it to them to sleep. I mean, I can see where my mom’s voice had that calming lullaby tone to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora’s singing was very much in the classic kundiman style. A type of Filipino music – mostly smooth, romantic ballads – sung in Tagalog. Cora gave it a modern twist, singing in English.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>There’s something about her songs. The way she sang, the minor key of it, the melody. There’s this bittersweet sadness of love and just the emotion with it. It’s kind of in your soul, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“My Song of Love” ends\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>Despite her mega hit in the Phillipines, Cora didn’t try to leverage her success into a flashy music career back in San Francisco. Instead, she immediately shifted into mom mode. This was the 1950s. Corae was already pregnant by the time she and Santos got back from their honeymoon. They settled down in the Inner Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco, and Santos took a day job as a technician for Bank of America. He worked on the predecessor to the ATM machine. Cora stayed home, and Cissy came along 14 months later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But between the hustle and bustle of potty training and school drop-offs – Cora never stopped playing music. \u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>She was like just truly a performer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora once told Cissy a secret about this time. When the kids were in school, she confessed almost wistfully… that she’d sneak out and perform at the Hillsdale Mall in San Mateo with a group of musicians.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>They’d pick her up, bring her down to the mall and they’d be all set up for her to sing for the shoppers going through the mall.I would get home before you did and we never knew she did this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy had always thought her mom was doing the dishes and baking cookies while she was in school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Maybe it wasn’t sneaking out, maybe it was fitting it into everything else, you know. Maybe her love of singing, she got to do that as well as be a mom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But it wasn’t just mall jobs. Cora also got offers for glamorous, higher profile jobs. At one point, Cissy said her mom had been approached by the comedian Phyllis Diller for a nightly stint at a legendary comedy club in the city, called The Purple Onion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I do remember that, because Phylliss Diller, she’s famous, you know. Oh, but mommy’s not gonna do that because that means she won’t be home to cook dinner for us\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Instead, Cora took the so-called “casuals.” Gigs that were short-term and close to home. She started performing at local hotels, singing with the big bands.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Big band music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh… my mom sounded great with a big band.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Those huge jazz ensembles – a dozen or more musicians packed onstage together playing a big brassy sound. This was Cora’s niche.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> I never got to see her perform because I was just too little, you know. I got to see her get dressed that was the show for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Depending on the night, Cora would dress in Filipino formalwear or a sparkly evening gown. Cissy’s favorite, though, was her mom’s Carmen Miranda outfit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Because that big hat had a whole bowl of fruit on the top. And I don’t know how she even got in the car with that thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>And Santos loved the spotlight as much as Cora. He would work a full day at the bank, come home, throw on a Hawaiian shirt or a matching band suit – and join his wife on stage. And eventually… once the kids got older… they became the house band at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Piano music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This was during the Fairmont’s heyday… back when it was a nightly destination for live music. The main attraction was the Venetian Room, a glamorous concert hall where some of the world’s biggest stars performed – people like Ella Fitzgerald and Tony Bennett. In fact, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/oursf/article/story-tony-bennett-i-left-heart-san-francisco-18254163.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=google&utm_campaign=content_acquisition&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23286310966&gbraid=0AAAAADfW6kE7McpsTc-vgAQgwHkuK5L3i&gclid=CjwKCAiA-__MBhAKEiwASBmsBNb_pn1CBbHh_3UtFLZeN_yEKTDE-9A3pfyvO0TIBS8KFkEkRbrKXhoCWbUQAvD_BwE\">Tony Bennett first sang “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” during his 1961 residency at the Venetian Room.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tony Bennet singing “I Left My Heart In San Francisco”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>And then there was, uh, I think there was a little lounge on each side. There was one to the right, a cocktail lounge with live music. And that’s the one mom and dad played in. And it was called the New Orleans Room. And I feel like it was kind of a staging or maybe a waiting area for either if you couldn’t get tickets for the main show or you were waiting to go in that main show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This regular gig adjacent to the Venetian Room meant Cora and Santos befriended all kinds of people. Including…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>Tony, just Tony.\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s god sister, Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter, is talking about that very same Tony Bennett. She still remembers one night, decades ago, when her Auntie Cora invited the family over for dinner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>Just come on over, it’s Monday. Except Tony Bennett was sitting there in the living room. And he just hung out and we were all just laughing. We had Auntie’s chili. She made lumpias and // it was like she treated him just like family. It could have been any other night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Except on this night, Cora sang a duet with Tony Bennet at the piano in her living room. Casual.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>And this not only happened with Tony Bennett, this happened with The Letterman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos became longtime friends with the pop group’s lead singer, Tony Butala. One night, they invited Sammy Davis Jr. to perform onstage with them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite never achieving THAT level of stardom, Cora and Santos became “San Francisco famous” … especially through their performances at The Fairmont Hotel’s Tonga Room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Rumbling music begins\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>For the uninitiated, The Tonga Room is a Polynesian-themed tiki bar known for extravagant umbrella drinks and an indoor thunderstorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tisha Ofalsa-Nutter: \u003c/strong>When they were about to come out and perform, they would start this thunder and lightning. And then the rain would start coming down. And there would be Auntie Cora, Uncle Santos and they would be on this barge and the barge would come out on this little waterway then the rain would stop and then they would start performing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos start singing: “When I Hear the Church Bells Ringing”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I mean, it was just gobsmacking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>This is Chelle Lindahl, Cora and Santos’ niece.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl:\u003c/strong> I know we were just all like, oh, oh my God, look at this. And then Auntie and Uncle are on this thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>People would go to the Tonga Room FOR Cora and Santos…they had a bit of a cult following.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora knew how to work a crowd. And when Santos sang… you couldn’t help but pay attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora and Santos song “Now That Summer Is Gone” starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh, he’s so fun. My dad had this way of playing like three instruments at once. Like three quarters of a one-man band. It was great.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy says that more than once, her parents would come from a night at the Tonga Room, and tell her about the customers who got a little too swept up in the music, and would jump into the indoor swimming pool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>They’d have to fish them out of the water because they drank too much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy remembers it all with nostalgia. But she also admits it was a heavy lift for her dad, who was still working his day job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>It must have been hard to come home power nap and then go nine to one at the Fairmont hotel or something // and I think a lot of it he did it for mom because it was mom’s dream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But more than anything, they loved to perform together. Cora and Santos played restaurants, anniversary parties, and cruise ships around the world. Back in 1964, they even decided to record their music – this was before the album our question asker found. This one had just two tracks, including their famous duet of “Dahil Sa Iyo.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr:\u003c/strong> To this day people tell me “Oh, Cora and Santos, “Dahil Sa Iyo” – that was my favorite, you know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They worked with Tom Spinosa, a big-deal bandleader who’d opened a small music label in the 1950s. To this day, Spinosa – not Cora and Santos – is typically credited with popularizing “Dahil Sa Iyo” to English speakers in the US…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>I don’t really want to give him credit. Because I don’t know that I have a positive recollection of him to be honest with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy says her parents loved everybody, but had no desire to work with Spinosa again. She’s got this feeling that the record could have put her parents on the map in a bigger way… Spinosa could have helped with that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>I feel like that record should have probably made them some money. I don’t think it did\u003cem>. \u003c/em>So I think that maybe they were…here’s my impression, that they were naive about whatever the business of it was. And it wouldn’t surprise me if they just said, okay, you know, we did it for the love of music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>And as it turns out…. their love of music, their desire to build community out of music, would be the \u003cem>\u003cu>real\u003c/u>\u003c/em> legacy of their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> More after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor message\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos may have had a glamorous onstage life at the Fairmount hotel, befriending famous singers and sparkling under the lights, but Asal Ehsanipour tells us their most lasting legacy may have been on their local community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong> Cissy says her mom had always dreamt of having a big family. But since Cora and Santos couldn’t have more children, they volunteered all their free time to St. Anne’s Catholic Church – just a few blocks away from their house in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora ran the children’s choir and together, she and Santos taught Filipino folk dancing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>There weren’t any Filipinos, very few Filipino people in the parish, so they were teaching the bamboo dance to people, those kids and their parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>By the 1960s, San Francisco had a sizable Filipino population, but not many lived in the Inner Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>So they were really involved in trying to bring the Philippine culture to all those white people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora would teach the moms how to make lumpia, while Santos played poker with the dads. And together the couple gave music lessons to kids all around the neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>How many students would you say they had?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Oh I could not keep, I have no idea. Countless I would say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Teaching them bass, banjo, piano…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Guitar, ukulele.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, they’d give away instruments for free, just to ensure kids had access to music all the time. And of course, they made sure their nieces knew music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>We had specific lessons. I mean they made sure of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cissy’s cousin, Chelle Lindahl again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>There was a set time and then we practiced every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Chelle was Santos’ brother’s kid. Her parents divorced when she was about eight. Then her mom left, and her dad was overwhelmed. So the girls went to live with their Auntie Cora and Uncle Santos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>And they took on the parent roles. I mean they had two children of their own and to take on three even younger children who are struggling with their mother leaving and all of that. That was incredibly generous on their part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Chelle said her aunt and uncle made the girls feel special during a time when they really needed love and tending to. Music was a big part of that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I think the thing that I enjoyed the most was the singing, // And they gave us that opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora had started writing jingles for local businesses. So she invited the girls to record what she’d written for a very popular local burger chain, Doggie Diner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl and Ange Wesley sing together: \u003c/strong>Doggie Diner, nothing’s finer, doggy diners, dog gone good!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>We went down to a radio station and recorded it, and then we were kind of famous at school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Under the care of Cora and Santos, the ragged edges of their broken family began to smooth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>They, they just brought a joy to all of this that we wouldn’t have had otherwise in our life. Just no way. And it was just them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They modeled what a loving relationship and happy family looks like… It really set the bar for Chelle and her sisters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I mean, it sounds corny these days, but. They really were it, you know, they embodied it. They really did.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>In 1974… a full decade after “Dahil Sa Iyo” came out, Cora and Santos decided to release their music again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Music starts\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This time, they produced it on their own terms… no middlemen… under the label Cora & Santos Enterprise. They called it “In Baghdad By The Bay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Cora singing: “I know a great old city down California Way. They call it San Francisco or Baghdad By The Bay.” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>This is the very same record our question asker Jess Garcia found at the thrift store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>I remember just admiring the cover art and they had the cable car on there and I think the bridge is on there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora and Santos asked a friend to design the cover, and invited local musicians to perform with them. The whole record is a homage to the city where they fell in love and raised their children. They celebrated in classic Beloy fashion, with a huge party at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Chelle Lindahl: \u003c/strong>I remember being in the living room and like having it presented and everybody’s like ‘oh my god this is amazing.’ you know I mean this was, in this day and age of you can record anything and this and that like to get your songs pressed onto vinyl. That was a big, big deal. But Auntie and Uncle singing together, that’s some kind of magic there. Like their voices, they were beautiful together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“In Baghdad by the Bay” ends \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>I hope it pans to your parents. I want to see them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Come on, pan out, pan it out.\u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Back at Cissy’s house, she’s showing me a home video of her parents in their later years. They’re performing on a lawn together. It’s a stark contrast to the drama of The Tonga Room… This feels light and casual. No pretenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>Always the last song they play, this one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>What’s this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr singing: \u003c/strong>Have I told you lately that I love you? Dear, have I told you…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Your mom was looking at your dad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>Always. Lookit. Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Home movie sound fades out\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cora and Santos continued singing love songs to each other until Santos died of cancer in 1997.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003cem> \u003c/em>\u003c/strong>You know? Mom just sadly carried on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>But she never stopped performing. She played at nursing homes, birthday parties — wherever she could get her hands on a microphone, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>We go to a brunch. Boy, my mom was drooling over the piano before the food. She would ask can I play? can I play for everybody? She wanted to play that piano for everybody at the brunch rather than eat, in her 90s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>Cora performed her last song in 2022… just weeks before she died at 93 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music fades out\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour:\u003c/strong>Throughout Cora and Santos’ musical career in San Francisco, they brushed elbows with the stars that have become household names. But that lifestyle wasn’t what called to them…they wanted their music to make the people around them happy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cissy Beloy Sherr: \u003c/strong>You will talk to so many people and they might not have this story about, oh, the famous Cora and Santos, but they will have a great story. Oh gosh, they played at my wedding and I couldn’t afford to pay them or they wouldn’t let me pay them, but it made it so special.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Asal Ehsanipour: \u003c/strong>They were legends at the Tonga Room…larger than life figures at home… their legacy may not have made it to the internet, but for the people who knew them, they were stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> That was reporter Asal Ehsanipour.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "alameda-relies-on-bridge-tenders-for-safety-on-land-and-sea",
"title": "Alameda Relies on Bridge Tenders for Safety on Land and Sea",
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"headTitle": "Alameda Relies on Bridge Tenders for Safety on Land and Sea | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many people who travel to and from the city of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda\">Alameda\u003c/a>, Sarah Reid, one day, found herself facing a bridge that was temporarily disconnected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Park Street Bridge, a forest green drawbridge, about the length of a football field, had split open, casting the four-lane bridge at a 70-degree angle in the air so a boat could pass underneath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening and closing of Alameda’s drawbridges is a familiar ritual for people who travel to the Bay Area’s island city. Alameda is connected to the rest of the Bay Area by six bridges, as well as two underwater tunnels. All but two of the bridges are required to open 24 hours a day, sometimes on very short notice, in order to let ships travel down the Oakland Estuary, which separates Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With nothing to do but to wait, Reid peered through her windshield and noticed a little tower connected to the bridge, with a room full of windows at the top. She wondered if someone was inside that room, and what they did up there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember wondering, does someone just sit there all day? And what is that like?” Reid said. “What’s a good day look like? What’s a bad day? What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The High Street Bridge begins to lift over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There was, in fact, a bridge tender in the control tower of the Park Street Bridge that day, just as there has been for decades. Bridge tenders are the workers responsible for safely opening and closing the bridges, so that people both on land and on water can move through the area. It’s a job that comes with life -or-death public safety risks, stunning views, ample alone time, and a strong connection to the history of the island city itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A public service job with risks\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“ It’s the best job in the world,” said John Williams, a bridge tender for Alameda County Public Works Agency, who has held the job for 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams was the bridge tender on duty at the Park Street Bridge on a sunny winter morning earlier this year. From his perch inside the control tower, Williams could see up and down the estuary, with Berkeley and downtown Oakland in the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12081386 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-08-KQED-3.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One end of the room is all business: with a control panel for operating the drawbridge, a maritime radio, security cameras, a log book and a laptop. In a corner of the other side of the room is a little kitchenette. On that particular day, there was a French press and an avocado sitting on the counter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the bridges are staffed 24/7, with bridge tenders working day, swing and graveyard shifts, each bridge control tower has its own kitchenette and bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said the perks include beautiful sunsets, great wildlife viewing and dedicated colleagues. But he also takes pride in being a public servant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our first job is to make sure no one gets hurt while we’re operating these massive machines,” Williams said. “You could crush a car or kill somebody if you’re not following procedure properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said being a bridge tender requires constant vigilance, ensuring nobody is in harm’s way when the bridge is moving. Still, there have been accidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will run on the bridge while it’s moving, and I think twice we’ve had people run their cars through the barrier,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just the terrestrial side of his worries. The bridge also needs to be opened in a timely manner so that a boat doesn’t hit it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll get a call and tug and barge is coming in with 20 tons of gravel, and a fat tide and wind behind them, and you have to open the bridge because it’s very hard for them to stop,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boats can schedule openings ahead of time or call to request one. The bridges don’t open during the morning and afternoon rush hour unless a boat captain makes an appointment at least two hours ahead of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams is relaxed and friendly in his downtime at work, but when it comes time to open the bridge, he gets intensely focused. When opening the bridge, the first thing he does is open all the blinds in the control tower, so he has full visibility. He stops speaking to anyone else around so that he can concentrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He activates an alarm bell as he makes an announcement over a loudspeaker, telling the public to stand clear. Then he drops the gates that block the road and sidewalk leading to the bridge. He double and triple checks the security cameras and walks out on a little catwalk adjacent to the tower to verify that nobody is on the bridge. Then he initiates the opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metal locks underneath the bridge disconnect, an electric motor deep in the bowels below the bridge begins to whir, a massive counterweight sinks into a pit and the bridge begins to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flock of pigeons flies near the Park Street Bridge over the Oakland Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For second-generation bridge tender Damon Wallace, it’s a special moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re these giant machines, and you don’t realize it until you’re up in the tower the first time and you press that button, and then your world starts to tilt sideways,” Wallace, whose father and uncle worked as bridge tenders, said as he gazed up at the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a minute, you get to just sit there and watch this amazing, surreal thing happen right in front of you. It’s one of my favorite things,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the bridge reaches its apex, Williams repeats the process in reverse until the bridge is back together, and the traffic on the bridge resumes again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The chaotic past of Alameda’s bridges\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ever since early European settlers founded the city of Alameda, its residents have had to navigate getting across the strip of water and marshland separating it from Oakland, and bridge tenders have been part of that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem started in the 1870s when people on the west end of Alameda complained, ‘Oakland’s right there, we sure would like to get over there,” Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12080794 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-baycurioustacobell01913_TV.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, Alameda wasn’t yet an island, but connected to Oakland by a marshy stretch of land at its eastern end. Years later, in 1902, the Army Corps of Engineers would finish work dredging that channel, flooding the area connecting Oakland’s inner harbor with San Leandro Bay, making Alameda an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, even before that, crossing the marshy stretch of land connecting it to Oakland wasn’t easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first bridge to connect Alameda to Oakland was the Webster Street bridge, built by Alameda County in 1871. It’s now long gone. And pretty much from the get-go, it had its fair share of tragedies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Webster Street Bridge was a disaster,” Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t a drawbridge, but rather a swing bridge that could turn 90 degrees, out of the way of ship traffic. This was the design of most early Alameda bridges. Evanosky said it was hit by ships multiple times, and in 1900 was the site of a tragic train accident in which 13 people were killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Webster Street bridge couldn’t catch a break. It was destroyed and rebuilt three more times, and its successors were the site of more ship collisions, a fire, and an attempted bombing, according to Bernard C. Winn, the author of \u003cem>California Drawbridges\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials made the decision to dismantle the bridge in 1928, after the construction of the Webster Street Tube, an underwater tunnel connecting Oakland and Alameda, made it obsolete. This is the pattern most of Alameda’s bridges have followed. Some don’t exist anymore, but the ones that do have been rebuilt at least once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070403\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vincent Cerletti, the High Street Bridge operator with the Alameda County Public Works Agency, sits at the controls used to raise and lower the drawbridge over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 13, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been all ship strikes and disasters. Alameda residents have had some fun along the way. Evanosky said early Alameda residents used to “ride the bridges,” clinging on as the bridges swung open and taking them for a ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People even did this on the current version of the Park Street Bridge. Clinging on as the drawbridge raised open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s pretty dangerous. So they put a stop to that,” Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities of Alameda and Oakland commemorated the opening of the current version of the Park Street Bridge in 1935, with a wedding between a woman from Alameda, Edith Bird, and a man from Oakland, Edward M. Drotloff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newspaper clippings from the time describe it as a huge party. There was a parade, marathon runners from Oakland, and the mayors of the two towns clasped hands as hundreds came out to see the new bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What it takes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the High Street Bridge control tower, just a half-mile down up the estuary from the Park Street Bridge, Vincent Cerletti strummed his ukulele in a moment of downtime during his shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ Part of the job is to stare out the window and the ukulele accompanies it pretty good,” Cerletti said. “You have to have somewhat of a little hobby to pass the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070401\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vincent Cerletti, the High Street Bridge operator, looks out from the bridge’s operator tower on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. The Miller-Sweeney Bridge is visible in the distance. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said other bridge tenders paint watercolors or fix small electronics between bridge openings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cerletti has been a bridge tender since 2014, and said the stability of working for Alameda County has been great, he said. But the job can get a little lonely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ You have to be able to be comfortable with yourself sitting up here too, because you can get go a little stir crazy being alone all the time,” Cerletti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Generations of bridge tenders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The work of being a bridge tender has seeped into Damon Wallace’s bones. Wallace fondly remembers moments from his youth, like when he greeted his father at the door in the morning after a graveyard shift, noticing the smell of oil, grease and work his father would bring home with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I started working here and I was like, ‘oh, that’s that smell,’ I get it now,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070400\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070400\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steel beams and the roadway deck are seen as the Park Street Bridge lifts over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. The double-leaf bascule bridge spans 372 feet and is raised to about 70 degrees for most openings. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even the sound of rubber car tires driving on the bridges’ metal road deck, a sort of ever-present drone around the bridges, has become soothing for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ Over the years, I’ve gotten to actually look and put hands on these things and understand what they are for and why they’re here. My childhood became my adulthood, and my world got bigger somehow,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he’s started to bring his children to work with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ It’s honest work, and it’s kind of a special thing, this sort of infrastructure, this kind of machinery, this sort of job,” Wallace said. “There’s not a lot of it left, and I’m proud to be part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hey everyone! This is Bay Curious. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Crossing bridges can be essential to getting around the Bay Area. No matter what side of the water you live on, odds are, you’re probably going to use a bridge sooner than later. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And for the people who live, work or just hang out in the City of Alameda, crossing a bridge is almost non-negotiable. The island is connected to the rest of the Bay by six drawbridges, as well as two underwater tunnels, that span the Oakland Estuary. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When those bridges open to let a boat pass, everybody has to wait. One day, Sarah Reid was in her car, watching the Park Street bridge open, when she noticed a little room attached to one of the bridges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Reid:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I remember looking up at those little rooms wondering, does someone just sit up there all day? And what is that like, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She also wants to hear some stories …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Reid:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What’s a good day look like? What’s a bad da y? What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Turns out – yeah! There’s a bridge tender sitting in that little room 24/7. And they’ve seen a lot! KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman has the story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Cars on Bridge Noise\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Car tires hum against the steel deck of the Park Street Bridge. This hypnotic drone is the bridge’s soundtrack. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I grew up on these bridges. Um, the sound of the cars going overhead is, is soothing to me. It’s like a, it’s a comfort thing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Damon Wallace, he’s a bridge utility worker for Alameda County’s Public Works Agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been doing that for about two years, and prior to that I was a bridge tender. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bridge tenders are the people that operate Alameda’s drawbridges. It runs in his family, his father and his uncle both held the job when he was a kid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My dad 25 years. Uh, my uncle, uh, a little bit less than that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re standing in the machinery room underneath the Park Street Bridge…its a large concrete bunker full of tools and the giant electrical motor that opens and closes the bridge\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s like a little Home Depot in here, just for the bridge, they’ve got everything they need to keep the bridge running which is essential because The Park Street Bridge is the busiest of Alameda’s bridges. Around 40,000 vehicles travel across its four lanes on an average weekday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Up on the deck of the bridge, which is about the length of a football field we can see Berkeley, downtown Oakland, and ships at the Port of Oakland. We walk up to the bridge tower. It’s fixed on the Alameda side of the bridge, and almost looks like a little miniature clock tower. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carl Speaker:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Knock, knock. Hello. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Come on up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carl Speaker:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> How you doing, John? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We head up a spiral staircase to the top floor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Park Street Bridge, uh, Alameda County Public Works Agency. How you doing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">John Williams is the bridge tender on duty right now. He’s got a big white beard and his orange public works shirt tucked into his work pants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s the best job in the world, you know, I mean, I, it’s really an excellent job \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The top floor is just one room with windows all around, giving the operator a 360 degree view of the bridge and the Oakland estuary. One end is all business: with a control panel for operating the drawbridge, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow. There are a lot of big red buttons there, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">right? There are. And you don’t just randomly push them either. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, that’s too bad. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s also a maritime radio, security cameras, a log book and a laptop. In a corner of the other side of the room is a little kitchenette, there’s a french press and an avocado sitting on the counter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve seen a lot of wildlife out here over, over the years. You know, way l one time, lot of otters now and then, um, a lot of seabirds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some great sunsets too. John says he found the job on Craigslist. Besides the perks, he says this job has some big responsibilities. Public safety is their number one concern. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Our first job is to make sure no one gets hurt while we’re operating these massive machines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A normal opening of the bridge splits the road deck in half, tons of concrete and steel lift into the sky at a 70 degree angle, about 143 feet in the air. The process requires constant vigilance and double, triple checking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cause people will run on the bridge while it’s moving. They’ll go underneath the barriers. I think twice we’ve had people run their cars through the barrier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s just keeping the PEOPLE safe. The bridge also needs to be opened in a timely manner so that a boat doesn’t hit it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You get a call and tug and barge is coming in with like, you know whatever, 20 tons of gravel, you know, with a, a fat tide behind them pushing ’em in, in wind, and you have to open the bridge. You can’t not open the bridge. It’s very hard for ’em to stop. Really hard for ’em to stop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All but two of Alameda’s drawbridges are staffed around the clock because ships, including the nearby Coast Guard base, need to be able to travel up and down the estuary at all hours. On a busy day, the Park Street bridge might open and close 14 different times. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I could be in a crowd of a thousand people and if somebody on the other side of that crowd said Park Street Bridge, I would hear them. Because I’m trained to hear it, you know, the radio call.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boats can schedule openings ahead of time, or just call to request one. The bridges don’t open during the morning and afternoon rush hour unless a boat makes an appointment\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">John comes off pretty relaxed and friendly, but when it comes time to open the bridge, he gets intensely focused. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now, there isn’t a ship passing, this is an operational check, that the tenders do from time to time, to make sure everything is working as it should. John starts by opening all the blinds in the little tower room. He wants full visibility. And he stops talking to me. He says he needs to concentrate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">St and clear for bridge opening. Please stand clear for Park Street Bridge opening\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First he drops the gates and barriers to keep cars and pedestrians off the bridge, and makes sure all the traffic is stopped. Then he walks out on a little catwalk extending out from the tower, and double checks that nobody is in harms way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sounds of birds\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just then, recordings of birds play underneath the bridge, in an attempt to shoo nesting pigeons away. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then it gets pretty quiet. The hum of traffic stops, and the bridge begins to rise. You can hear the electrical motors whirring. For Damon, the second generation bridge worker, it’s a special moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s these giant machines, and you don’t realize they’re machines until you’re up in the tower the first time and you press that button and the your world starts to tilt sideways.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says there’s something magical about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For a minute you get to just sit there and watch this amazing, surreal thing happened right in front of you. And it’s, it’s, it’s one of my favorite things, you know? It always has been. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the bridge sticking straight up in the air, John checks again before letting it down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Okay, you guys. All right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voices: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">good!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then, John guides the bridge slowly back down, metal locks click back together underneath the road deck, and the traffic starts again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s clear the bridge tenders are essential. But in this world of technological innovation, especially artificial intelligence, I wonder, how much longer will these jobs be around? I put that question to John Medlock, he’s the Deputy Director of Maintenance Operation for Alameda County, PublicWorks Agency.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Medlock: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At some point in time, you know, maybe, maybe everything needs to be replaced. We’ll probably find new technology or, or new way of spanning the, uh, the estuary. But right now that’s what we have and love it or hate it. If that’s what we have. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He thinks the bridge tenders, will be around for the foreseeable future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we return – some history of these drawbridges. And the unique ways bridge tenders pass the time. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nowadays Alameda’s bridges are a reliable way to get on and off the island. But it wasn’t always that way. Here’s Azul again…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since early European settlers founded the city of Alameda, its residents have had to navigate getting across the strip of water and marshland … separating it from Oakland. And bridge tenders have been part of that history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem started in, in the, in the 1870s when people on the west end of Alameda complained, ‘Boy Oakland’s right over there. We’d like to get over there.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s historian Dennis Evanosky. The first bridge to connect Alameda to what’s now Oakland was the Webster Street bridge, built by Alameda County in 1871. It’s now long gone. And pretty much from the get go, it had its fair share of tragedies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Webster Street Bridge was a disaster. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t a drawbridge, but rather a swing bridge, that could turn 90 degrees, out of the way of ship traffic. This was the design of most early Alameda bridges. But Evanosky says it was hit by ships multiple times, and in 1900 was the site of a tragic train accident. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They misunderstood a signal and, and the, the whole train dumped into the estuary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thirteen people were killed. The Webster Street bridge couldn’t catch a break. It was destroyed and rebuilt 3 more times, and its successors were the site of more ship collisions, a fire, and an attempted bombing. The bridge was dismantled for the last time, shortly after the construction of the Webster Street Tube in 1928., the tube is an underwater tunnel connecting Oakland and Alameda. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s kind of the story of all of Alameda’s bridges. Some don’t exist anymore, but the ones that do have been rebuilt, at least once.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So each of the bridges has two lives. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it hasn’t been all ship strikes and disasters. Alameda residents have had some fun along the way. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then the people, uh, who, who were really close by when they heard the boat toot for permission, they’d all run down there and they’d ride the bridge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">…Climbing on the bridge as it swung open and taking it for a ride. People even did this on the current version of the park street bridge. Clinging on as the drawbridge raised open. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s pretty dangerous. So they, they, they put a stop to that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cities of Alameda and Oakland commemorated the opening of the latest Park Street Bridge in 1935, with a wedding between a woman from Alameda and a man from Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice over reading newspaper clip: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miss Edith Bird of Alameda became Mrs. Edward M. Drotloff of Oakland yesterday afternoon. The ceremony that united them as they stood at the site of the newly-completed Park Street Bridge symbolized the uniting of the two cities by the huge structure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a huge party. There was a parade, marathon runners from oakland, and the mayors of the two towns clasped hands as hundreds came out to see the new bridge. The same one that stands today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, there are 14 bridge tenders that work the Alameda bridges, and they switch between all 6 of the bridges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I go to visit the High Street Bridge, Vincent Cerletti is the bridge tender on duty. He’s wearing orange alameda county coveralls, and a psychedelic trucker hat for a disc golf supply company. This bridge sees less traffic, so has a calmer vibe.. Across the water I can see houseboats bobbing up and down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There’s a lot going on out there. It’s peaceful. The birds. Oh man. When you get these huge flocks that come flying in here and settle into the estuary, it’s like a, like a painting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vincent has been a bridge tender for more than ten years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the first regular thing that I got into that gave me a stability working for the county, which has been awesome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And he’s seen some things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Like a guy with a couch once came down with a, a, you know, like the small little trolling motor on the back? I think he was floating on, on a piece of a dock with a couch on it. A little motor. He’s fishing. He was having a good time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says that in order to be a bridge tender, you have to be ok with spending a lot of time by yourself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Some guys paint, paint, little, uh, pictures, you know, watercolors of the boats and stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says one bridge tender fixes electronics to pass the time. Vincent, likes to bring his Ukelele. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. So I just, uh, yeah. Sit here and.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>(Ukelele Music)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And when you’re here on like, you know, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving, I worked all those holidays this year. I dunno, you gotta have somewhat of a little hobby to pass the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do you ever feel lonely? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sure. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to have a relationship if you’re doing graveyards, you know, seven nights of the month and you’re on swing shift. So you take off at two o’clock and get home at 11. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Being a bridge tender can be tough, but its also rewarding. Here’s Damon, the bridge tender we heard from in the beginning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>It’s honest work. It’s, uh, and it’s kind of a special thing, these sort of infrastructure, this kind of machinery, this sort of job. It, it does. There’s not a lot of it left, and, uh, I’m proud to be part of it. I am.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says he’s started to bring his kids to work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to learn more about Alameda, including how it isn’t actually a natural island – hit up our show notes where we’ve linked some other Bay Curious episodes you might enjoy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is gearing up for KQED Fest – an all-day open house at KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco. It’s a block party with educational activities, live music, food, and more! I’ll be doing a fireside chat about how we make Bay Curious at 11:15 a.m. Tickets are free, but you do need to register. You can do it at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/live\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made by Christopher Beale, Katrina Schwartz and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We get extra support from Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Big thanks to all our members out there who help keep Bay Curious going. If you aren’t a member yet – please consider joining at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many people who travel to and from the city of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/alameda\">Alameda\u003c/a>, Sarah Reid, one day, found herself facing a bridge that was temporarily disconnected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Park Street Bridge, a forest green drawbridge, about the length of a football field, had split open, casting the four-lane bridge at a 70-degree angle in the air so a boat could pass underneath.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The opening and closing of Alameda’s drawbridges is a familiar ritual for people who travel to the Bay Area’s island city. Alameda is connected to the rest of the Bay Area by six bridges, as well as two underwater tunnels. All but two of the bridges are required to open 24 hours a day, sometimes on very short notice, in order to let ships travel down the Oakland Estuary, which separates Alameda and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With nothing to do but to wait, Reid peered through her windshield and noticed a little tower connected to the bridge, with a room full of windows at the top. She wondered if someone was inside that room, and what they did up there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember wondering, does someone just sit there all day? And what is that like?” Reid said. “What’s a good day look like? What’s a bad day? What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_020-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The High Street Bridge begins to lift over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>There was, in fact, a bridge tender in the control tower of the Park Street Bridge that day, just as there has been for decades. Bridge tenders are the workers responsible for safely opening and closing the bridges, so that people both on land and on water can move through the area. It’s a job that comes with life -or-death public safety risks, stunning views, ample alone time, and a strong connection to the history of the island city itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A public service job with risks\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“ It’s the best job in the world,” said John Williams, a bridge tender for Alameda County Public Works Agency, who has held the job for 16 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams was the bridge tender on duty at the Park Street Bridge on a sunny winter morning earlier this year. From his perch inside the control tower, Williams could see up and down the estuary, with Berkeley and downtown Oakland in the distance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One end of the room is all business: with a control panel for operating the drawbridge, a maritime radio, security cameras, a log book and a laptop. In a corner of the other side of the room is a little kitchenette. On that particular day, there was a French press and an avocado sitting on the counter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the bridges are staffed 24/7, with bridge tenders working day, swing and graveyard shifts, each bridge control tower has its own kitchenette and bathroom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams said the perks include beautiful sunsets, great wildlife viewing and dedicated colleagues. But he also takes pride in being a public servant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our first job is to make sure no one gets hurt while we’re operating these massive machines,” Williams said. “You could crush a car or kill somebody if you’re not following procedure properly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said being a bridge tender requires constant vigilance, ensuring nobody is in harm’s way when the bridge is moving. Still, there have been accidents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People will run on the bridge while it’s moving, and I think twice we’ve had people run their cars through the barrier,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just the terrestrial side of his worries. The bridge also needs to be opened in a timely manner so that a boat doesn’t hit it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ll get a call and tug and barge is coming in with 20 tons of gravel, and a fat tide and wind behind them, and you have to open the bridge because it’s very hard for them to stop,” Williams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Boats can schedule openings ahead of time or call to request one. The bridges don’t open during the morning and afternoon rush hour unless a boat captain makes an appointment at least two hours ahead of time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams is relaxed and friendly in his downtime at work, but when it comes time to open the bridge, he gets intensely focused. When opening the bridge, the first thing he does is open all the blinds in the control tower, so he has full visibility. He stops speaking to anyone else around so that he can concentrate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He activates an alarm bell as he makes an announcement over a loudspeaker, telling the public to stand clear. Then he drops the gates that block the road and sidewalk leading to the bridge. He double and triple checks the security cameras and walks out on a little catwalk adjacent to the tower to verify that nobody is on the bridge. Then he initiates the opening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Metal locks underneath the bridge disconnect, an electric motor deep in the bowels below the bridge begins to whir, a massive counterweight sinks into a pit and the bridge begins to rise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flock of pigeons flies near the Park Street Bridge over the Oakland Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For second-generation bridge tender Damon Wallace, it’s a special moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re these giant machines, and you don’t realize it until you’re up in the tower the first time and you press that button, and then your world starts to tilt sideways,” Wallace, whose father and uncle worked as bridge tenders, said as he gazed up at the bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a minute, you get to just sit there and watch this amazing, surreal thing happen right in front of you. It’s one of my favorite things,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the bridge reaches its apex, Williams repeats the process in reverse until the bridge is back together, and the traffic on the bridge resumes again.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The chaotic past of Alameda’s bridges\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Ever since early European settlers founded the city of Alameda, its residents have had to navigate getting across the strip of water and marshland separating it from Oakland, and bridge tenders have been part of that history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem started in the 1870s when people on the west end of Alameda complained, ‘Oakland’s right there, we sure would like to get over there,” Alameda historian Dennis Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Back then, Alameda wasn’t yet an island, but connected to Oakland by a marshy stretch of land at its eastern end. Years later, in 1902, the Army Corps of Engineers would finish work dredging that channel, flooding the area connecting Oakland’s inner harbor with San Leandro Bay, making Alameda an island.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, even before that, crossing the marshy stretch of land connecting it to Oakland wasn’t easy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first bridge to connect Alameda to Oakland was the Webster Street bridge, built by Alameda County in 1871. It’s now long gone. And pretty much from the get-go, it had its fair share of tragedies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Webster Street Bridge was a disaster,” Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t a drawbridge, but rather a swing bridge that could turn 90 degrees, out of the way of ship traffic. This was the design of most early Alameda bridges. Evanosky said it was hit by ships multiple times, and in 1900 was the site of a tragic train accident in which 13 people were killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Webster Street bridge couldn’t catch a break. It was destroyed and rebuilt three more times, and its successors were the site of more ship collisions, a fire, and an attempted bombing, according to Bernard C. Winn, the author of \u003cem>California Drawbridges\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>County officials made the decision to dismantle the bridge in 1928, after the construction of the Webster Street Tube, an underwater tunnel connecting Oakland and Alameda, made it obsolete. This is the pattern most of Alameda’s bridges have followed. Some don’t exist anymore, but the ones that do have been rebuilt at least once.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070403\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070403\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_021-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vincent Cerletti, the High Street Bridge operator with the Alameda County Public Works Agency, sits at the controls used to raise and lower the drawbridge over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 13, 2026, in Alameda. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t been all ship strikes and disasters. Alameda residents have had some fun along the way. Evanosky said early Alameda residents used to “ride the bridges,” clinging on as the bridges swung open and taking them for a ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>People even did this on the current version of the Park Street Bridge. Clinging on as the drawbridge raised open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s pretty dangerous. So they put a stop to that,” Evanosky said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities of Alameda and Oakland commemorated the opening of the current version of the Park Street Bridge in 1935, with a wedding between a woman from Alameda, Edith Bird, and a man from Oakland, Edward M. Drotloff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newspaper clippings from the time describe it as a huge party. There was a parade, marathon runners from Oakland, and the mayors of the two towns clasped hands as hundreds came out to see the new bridge.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What it takes\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At the High Street Bridge control tower, just a half-mile down up the estuary from the Park Street Bridge, Vincent Cerletti strummed his ukulele in a moment of downtime during his shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ Part of the job is to stare out the window and the ukulele accompanies it pretty good,” Cerletti said. “You have to have somewhat of a little hobby to pass the time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070401\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_018-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Vincent Cerletti, the High Street Bridge operator, looks out from the bridge’s operator tower on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. The Miller-Sweeney Bridge is visible in the distance. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>He said other bridge tenders paint watercolors or fix small electronics between bridge openings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cerletti has been a bridge tender since 2014, and said the stability of working for Alameda County has been great, he said. But the job can get a little lonely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ You have to be able to be comfortable with yourself sitting up here too, because you can get go a little stir crazy being alone all the time,” Cerletti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Generations of bridge tenders\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The work of being a bridge tender has seeped into Damon Wallace’s bones. Wallace fondly remembers moments from his youth, like when he greeted his father at the door in the morning after a graveyard shift, noticing the smell of oil, grease and work his father would bring home with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ I started working here and I was like, ‘oh, that’s that smell,’ I get it now,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12070400\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12070400\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/011526_ALAMEDABRIDGES_GH_013-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steel beams and the roadway deck are seen as the Park Street Bridge lifts over the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on Jan. 15, 2026, in Alameda. The double-leaf bascule bridge spans 372 feet and is raised to about 70 degrees for most openings. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even the sound of rubber car tires driving on the bridges’ metal road deck, a sort of ever-present drone around the bridges, has become soothing for him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ Over the years, I’ve gotten to actually look and put hands on these things and understand what they are for and why they’re here. My childhood became my adulthood, and my world got bigger somehow,” Wallace said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he’s started to bring his children to work with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“ It’s honest work, and it’s kind of a special thing, this sort of infrastructure, this kind of machinery, this sort of job,” Wallace said. “There’s not a lot of it left, and I’m proud to be part of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hey everyone! This is Bay Curious. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Crossing bridges can be essential to getting around the Bay Area. No matter what side of the water you live on, odds are, you’re probably going to use a bridge sooner than later. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And for the people who live, work or just hang out in the City of Alameda, crossing a bridge is almost non-negotiable. The island is connected to the rest of the Bay by six drawbridges, as well as two underwater tunnels, that span the Oakland Estuary. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When those bridges open to let a boat pass, everybody has to wait. One day, Sarah Reid was in her car, watching the Park Street bridge open, when she noticed a little room attached to one of the bridges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Reid:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And I remember looking up at those little rooms wondering, does someone just sit up there all day? And what is that like, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> She also wants to hear some stories …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Sarah Reid:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> What’s a good day look like? What’s a bad da y? What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Turns out – yeah! There’s a bridge tender sitting in that little room 24/7. And they’ve seen a lot! KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman has the story.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ci>Cars on Bridge Noise\u003c/i>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Car tires hum against the steel deck of the Park Street Bridge. This hypnotic drone is the bridge’s soundtrack. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I grew up on these bridges. Um, the sound of the cars going overhead is, is soothing to me. It’s like a, it’s a comfort thing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Damon Wallace, he’s a bridge utility worker for Alameda County’s Public Works Agency.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve been doing that for about two years, and prior to that I was a bridge tender. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bridge tenders are the people that operate Alameda’s drawbridges. It runs in his family, his father and his uncle both held the job when he was a kid. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">My dad 25 years. Uh, my uncle, uh, a little bit less than that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re standing in the machinery room underneath the Park Street Bridge…its a large concrete bunker full of tools and the giant electrical motor that opens and closes the bridge\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s like a little Home Depot in here, just for the bridge, they’ve got everything they need to keep the bridge running which is essential because The Park Street Bridge is the busiest of Alameda’s bridges. Around 40,000 vehicles travel across its four lanes on an average weekday. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Up on the deck of the bridge, which is about the length of a football field we can see Berkeley, downtown Oakland, and ships at the Port of Oakland. We walk up to the bridge tower. It’s fixed on the Alameda side of the bridge, and almost looks like a little miniature clock tower. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carl Speaker:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Knock, knock. Hello. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Come on up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carl Speaker:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> How you doing, John? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Good. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We head up a spiral staircase to the top floor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Welcome to Park Street Bridge, uh, Alameda County Public Works Agency. How you doing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">John Williams is the bridge tender on duty right now. He’s got a big white beard and his orange public works shirt tucked into his work pants. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s the best job in the world, you know, I mean, I, it’s really an excellent job \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The top floor is just one room with windows all around, giving the operator a 360 degree view of the bridge and the Oakland estuary. One end is all business: with a control panel for operating the drawbridge, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow. There are a lot of big red buttons there, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">right? There are. And you don’t just randomly push them either. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh, that’s too bad. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">There’s also a maritime radio, security cameras, a log book and a laptop. In a corner of the other side of the room is a little kitchenette, there’s a french press and an avocado sitting on the counter. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’ve seen a lot of wildlife out here over, over the years. You know, way l one time, lot of otters now and then, um, a lot of seabirds.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some great sunsets too. John says he found the job on Craigslist. Besides the perks, he says this job has some big responsibilities. Public safety is their number one concern. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Our first job is to make sure no one gets hurt while we’re operating these massive machines.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A normal opening of the bridge splits the road deck in half, tons of concrete and steel lift into the sky at a 70 degree angle, about 143 feet in the air. The process requires constant vigilance and double, triple checking.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cause people will run on the bridge while it’s moving. They’ll go underneath the barriers. I think twice we’ve had people run their cars through the barrier. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s just keeping the PEOPLE safe. The bridge also needs to be opened in a timely manner so that a boat doesn’t hit it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You get a call and tug and barge is coming in with like, you know whatever, 20 tons of gravel, you know, with a, a fat tide behind them pushing ’em in, in wind, and you have to open the bridge. You can’t not open the bridge. It’s very hard for ’em to stop. Really hard for ’em to stop.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All but two of Alameda’s drawbridges are staffed around the clock because ships, including the nearby Coast Guard base, need to be able to travel up and down the estuary at all hours. On a busy day, the Park Street bridge might open and close 14 different times. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I could be in a crowd of a thousand people and if somebody on the other side of that crowd said Park Street Bridge, I would hear them. Because I’m trained to hear it, you know, the radio call.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Boats can schedule openings ahead of time, or just call to request one. The bridges don’t open during the morning and afternoon rush hour unless a boat makes an appointment\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">John comes off pretty relaxed and friendly, but when it comes time to open the bridge, he gets intensely focused. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right now, there isn’t a ship passing, this is an operational check, that the tenders do from time to time, to make sure everything is working as it should. John starts by opening all the blinds in the little tower room. He wants full visibility. And he stops talking to me. He says he needs to concentrate. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams (in scene): \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">St and clear for bridge opening. Please stand clear for Park Street Bridge opening\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">First he drops the gates and barriers to keep cars and pedestrians off the bridge, and makes sure all the traffic is stopped. Then he walks out on a little catwalk extending out from the tower, and double checks that nobody is in harms way.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sounds of birds\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just then, recordings of birds play underneath the bridge, in an attempt to shoo nesting pigeons away. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then it gets pretty quiet. The hum of traffic stops, and the bridge begins to rise. You can hear the electrical motors whirring. For Damon, the second generation bridge worker, it’s a special moment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s these giant machines, and you don’t realize they’re machines until you’re up in the tower the first time and you press that button and the your world starts to tilt sideways.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says there’s something magical about it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For a minute you get to just sit there and watch this amazing, surreal thing happened right in front of you. And it’s, it’s, it’s one of my favorite things, you know? It always has been. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">With the bridge sticking straight up in the air, John checks again before letting it down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Okay, you guys. All right?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voices: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">good!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Williams: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then, John guides the bridge slowly back down, metal locks click back together underneath the road deck, and the traffic starts again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s clear the bridge tenders are essential. But in this world of technological innovation, especially artificial intelligence, I wonder, how much longer will these jobs be around? I put that question to John Medlock, he’s the Deputy Director of Maintenance Operation for Alameda County, PublicWorks Agency.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>John Medlock: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">At some point in time, you know, maybe, maybe everything needs to be replaced. We’ll probably find new technology or, or new way of spanning the, uh, the estuary. But right now that’s what we have and love it or hate it. If that’s what we have. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He thinks the bridge tenders, will be around for the foreseeable future. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When we return – some history of these drawbridges. And the unique ways bridge tenders pass the time. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Nowadays Alameda’s bridges are a reliable way to get on and off the island. But it wasn’t always that way. Here’s Azul again…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ever since early European settlers founded the city of Alameda, its residents have had to navigate getting across the strip of water and marshland … separating it from Oakland. And bridge tenders have been part of that history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The problem started in, in the, in the 1870s when people on the west end of Alameda complained, ‘Boy Oakland’s right over there. We’d like to get over there.’\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s historian Dennis Evanosky. The first bridge to connect Alameda to what’s now Oakland was the Webster Street bridge, built by Alameda County in 1871. It’s now long gone. And pretty much from the get go, it had its fair share of tragedies. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Webster Street Bridge was a disaster. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It wasn’t a drawbridge, but rather a swing bridge, that could turn 90 degrees, out of the way of ship traffic. This was the design of most early Alameda bridges. But Evanosky says it was hit by ships multiple times, and in 1900 was the site of a tragic train accident. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They misunderstood a signal and, and the, the whole train dumped into the estuary.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thirteen people were killed. The Webster Street bridge couldn’t catch a break. It was destroyed and rebuilt 3 more times, and its successors were the site of more ship collisions, a fire, and an attempted bombing. The bridge was dismantled for the last time, shortly after the construction of the Webster Street Tube in 1928., the tube is an underwater tunnel connecting Oakland and Alameda. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And that’s kind of the story of all of Alameda’s bridges. Some don’t exist anymore, but the ones that do have been rebuilt, at least once.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So each of the bridges has two lives. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And it hasn’t been all ship strikes and disasters. Alameda residents have had some fun along the way. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And then the people, uh, who, who were really close by when they heard the boat toot for permission, they’d all run down there and they’d ride the bridge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">…Climbing on the bridge as it swung open and taking it for a ride. People even did this on the current version of the park street bridge. Clinging on as the drawbridge raised open. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Dennis Evanosky: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s pretty dangerous. So they, they, they put a stop to that. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cities of Alameda and Oakland commemorated the opening of the latest Park Street Bridge in 1935, with a wedding between a woman from Alameda and a man from Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Voice over reading newspaper clip: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miss Edith Bird of Alameda became Mrs. Edward M. Drotloff of Oakland yesterday afternoon. The ceremony that united them as they stood at the site of the newly-completed Park Street Bridge symbolized the uniting of the two cities by the huge structure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was a huge party. There was a parade, marathon runners from oakland, and the mayors of the two towns clasped hands as hundreds came out to see the new bridge. The same one that stands today. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Today, there are 14 bridge tenders that work the Alameda bridges, and they switch between all 6 of the bridges. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I go to visit the High Street Bridge, Vincent Cerletti is the bridge tender on duty. He’s wearing orange alameda county coveralls, and a psychedelic trucker hat for a disc golf supply company. This bridge sees less traffic, so has a calmer vibe.. Across the water I can see houseboats bobbing up and down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There’s a lot going on out there. It’s peaceful. The birds. Oh man. When you get these huge flocks that come flying in here and settle into the estuary, it’s like a, like a painting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Vincent has been a bridge tender for more than ten years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s the first regular thing that I got into that gave me a stability working for the county, which has been awesome. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And he’s seen some things. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Like a guy with a couch once came down with a, a, you know, like the small little trolling motor on the back? I think he was floating on, on a piece of a dock with a couch on it. A little motor. He’s fishing. He was having a good time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says that in order to be a bridge tender, you have to be ok with spending a lot of time by yourself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Some guys paint, paint, little, uh, pictures, you know, watercolors of the boats and stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says one bridge tender fixes electronics to pass the time. Vincent, likes to bring his Ukelele. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yeah. So I just, uh, yeah. Sit here and.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>(Ukelele Music)\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And when you’re here on like, you know, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving, I worked all those holidays this year. I dunno, you gotta have somewhat of a little hobby to pass the time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do you ever feel lonely? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Vincent Cerletti:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Sure. Yeah, it’s kind of hard to have a relationship if you’re doing graveyards, you know, seven nights of the month and you’re on swing shift. So you take off at two o’clock and get home at 11. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Being a bridge tender can be tough, but its also rewarding. Here’s Damon, the bridge tender we heard from in the beginning. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Damon Wallace: \u003c/b>It’s honest work. It’s, uh, and it’s kind of a special thing, these sort of infrastructure, this kind of machinery, this sort of job. It, it does. There’s not a lot of it left, and, uh, I’m proud to be part of it. I am.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says he’s started to bring his kids to work. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you want to learn more about Alameda, including how it isn’t actually a natural island – hit up our show notes where we’ve linked some other Bay Curious episodes you might enjoy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is gearing up for KQED Fest – an all-day open house at KQED’s headquarters in San Francisco. It’s a block party with educational activities, live music, food, and more! I’ll be doing a fireside chat about how we make Bay Curious at 11:15 a.m. Tickets are free, but you do need to register. You can do it at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/live\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made by Christopher Beale, Katrina Schwartz and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We get extra support from Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our show is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Big thanks to all our members out there who help keep Bay Curious going. If you aren’t a member yet – please consider joining at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a good one. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "why-its-taken-concord-40-years-to-turn-a-former-bomb-site-into-a-neighborhood",
"title": "Why It’s Taking Concord Decades to Turn a Former Bomb Site into a Neighborhood",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suzanne Howard loves living in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/east-bay\">Walnut Creek\u003c/a>. She said it’s safe, walkable and she bikes everywhere. The only downside? She lives right next to a 12-lane freeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I’m] super thankful to have a house, but… noise pollution is a little much,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, Howard was daydreaming about living near open space and started looking around online for places that fit the bill. Is it even possible to buy a house in the East Bay next to undeveloped land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there, in Concord, behind a local high school, was a swath of green rolling hills big enough to accommodate a new airport. When she zoomed in, she saw puzzling features, grass mounds in a grid pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is this?” she wondered to herself. “Could we build housing there? It’s prime real estate, why not?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those grassy mounds in a grid pattern are huge concrete bunkers, wider than a train car, used by the Navy for more than 60 years to store weapons, bombs and ammunition.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What happened at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dozens of these ammunition bunkers, grass-covered trapezoids poking up from the landscape, are what’s known as “bunker city,” just one part of a 5,000-acre inland section of a military base called the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The storage units are empty now, but they once stored the weapons of war that the Navy needed to fight wars from the 1940s all the way through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/articles/persian-gulf-war\">1991 Gulf War\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Railroads connected this inland base to the bay where artillery was loaded onto warships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081249\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Gleason looks through her back fence at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In years gone by, we could hear trains moving at night out there,” said Kathy Gleason, who moved next to the Naval base back in 1974. “They were moving munitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Kathy’s backyard is separated from bunker city by just two fences, you can’t tell she lives next to a military site. By design, the mounds blend into the lush green landscape to camouflage them from enemies coming by air or by foot. Besides the mounds, there aren’t many buildings. And it has always been relatively quiet here, with vistas of sheep and cattle grazing. That’s what drew her here in the first place, 50 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to see tule elk roaming around,” Gleason said. “Now we see turkeys, we hear coyotes, we’ll see deer every now and then. It’s pretty peaceful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2005, everything changed. The Concord Naval Weapons Station closed, as part of a federal initiative — the Base Realignment and Closure process (BRAC) — to cut military costs and adapt to new systems of warfare. Through BRAC, hundreds of military sites shuttered nationwide, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022479/why-are-there-so-many-abandoned-military-bases-in-the-bay-area\">dozens in the Bay Area\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_12080794 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260408-baycurioustacobell01913_TV.jpg']\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately, the city of Concord started making plans for redevelopment. The 5,200 acres behind Gleason’s house would change hands. She feared a big developer would swoop in to turn it into a metropolis, and before that, a big, noisy construction zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all kind of panicked,” Gleason said. “We wanted our peace and quiet, and we were concerned about what’s in the soil. What’s going to happen with that when they develop?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleason became a key organizer in the Concord Naval Weapons Station Neighborhood Alliance, which tabled at farmers markets, knocked on doors, and showed up at city planning meetings advocating to keep the weapons station land untouched and open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were like the old town people that went down Main Street with pitchforks and torches. We were so angry,” Gleason said about their organizing efforts back in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We told them, we are not going away. We want this preserved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Reenvisioning ‘Bunker City’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, all the peace and quiet that the Concord Neighborhood Alliance wanted is still there. Not a single permanent structure has been built on the former weapons base yet. What’s the holdup?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, the city went through a seven-year process of engaging residents to come up with a master vision for the site. It culminated in \u003ca href=\"https://concordreuseproject.org/152/The-Area-Plan\">the 2012 area plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Josh Roden, a developer at Brookfield Residential working with the city of Concord to redevelop the Concord Naval Weapons Station, stands on a hillside overlooking the former naval base in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All the while, there was a lot of cleanup and bureaucracy. The Navy had to remove \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778\">arsenic and lead\u003c/a> from the soil and groundwater. The city had contracts with two developers before the current one. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/labor-dispute-stalls-redevelopment-of-concord-naval-weapons-station/2210946/\">jumped ship,\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/deal-for-planned-development-at-concord-naval-weapons-station-collapses/\">one was booted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the slow and deliberate pace the Navy and city have been on is not necessarily a bad thing, the current master developer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Concord did a really good job of engaging the entire community,” said Josh Roden, president of Brookfield Northern California, which is \u003ca href=\"https://concordreuseproject.org/\">managing the redevelopment of the site\u003c/a>. “It’s a lot of work and effort, and it can be a little painful to manage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roden’s team is now tasked with implementing the specifics of the 2012 general plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like building a small city,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concord residents expect 12,000 residential units, which is roughly equivalent to the nearby town of Pleasant Hill, home to 34,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six million square feet are earmarked for retail, office and institutional space, and businesses such as hotels and restaurants, which will be most dense near the North Concord Bart Station. That’s more space than the footprint of Disneyland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be a sports complex and city park, stretching over 175 acres, and a higher education campus, like a college or technical school, along with elementary and middle schools. Fire and police stations will be built, as well as a food bank, and a pedestrian path along Mount Diablo Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plans are grand and exciting, but Concord residents will have to wait a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roden said construction won’t break ground until 2030, and it will probably be “a 40-year build out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first phase includes housing near the North Concord BART station. Residents can expect more electric vehicle infrastructure, denser housing, and retail space blended with other leisure activities. How quickly it all moves along depends on the health of the economy, Roden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Gleason’s home abuts the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Open space advocates like Kathy Gleason have already had a notable win. Half of the inland naval base — roughly 2,500 acres, has already been handed over to East Bay Regional Parks. \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/thurgood-marshall-regional-park-home-port-chicago-50\">Thurgood Marshall Regional Park\u003c/a> is not yet open to the public, but when it does, visitors will be able to see the ammunition bunkers during historic tours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put years of our time into preserving what we can out here,” said Gleason, who also said she now understands that housing is a critical need in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s make it as good as we can for future generations. And that’s the best we can do,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suzanne Howard of Walnut Creek said she’s glad the Concord housing development will be near open space. She just hopes she’s alive when it all comes to fruition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s kind of scary how long it takes,” she said. But sometimes, “good things take time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey everyone! This is Bay Curious — the podcast that answers listener questions about the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We recently got a question from a woman named Suzanne Howard. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She bought a house with her husband in Walnut Creek two years ago and she loves the place. How it feels safe and walkable to lots of shops. They bike everywhere. But one thing gives Suzanne a little buyer’s remorse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s right next to the 12 lane freeway. It’s super noisy, super thankful to have a house, but like quality of life noise pollution is a little much.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> One day, Suzanne was feeling curious, and she started studying online maps, looking for open space in the East Bay. Where could more housing be built near her that might offer a little more peace and quiet?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I found as I zoomed out, I saw east of Concord High School green open fields, gorgeous greenery hillside, some streets. And then little mounds, little grass mounds which, all in a grid pattern. What is this thing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Five thousand acres of open space with seemingly nothing going on. It wasn’t a park or anything. Just a big open area and those mounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Could we build housing there? It’s prime real estate, why not? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. On today’s episode, we asked KQED’s Pauline Bartolone to scout out that area behind Concord High School. What are those grassy mounds in a grid pattern? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’ll give you a hint, it’s not a cemetery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ok. Is it open to the public? Can I go on a walk there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, right now, no. In a few years, probably.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What about Suzanne’s question, could housing be built there?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes, actually that’s in the works, we’ll get to more on that in a minute. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ok, so tell me what you saw when you went out there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well I found someone who lives right near Concord High School, and those 5,000 acres of rolling hills are right behind her house. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> My name is Kathy Gleason. We’re in Concord in my backyard, and looking at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Concord Naval Weapons Station. That property our listener Suzanne saw on the map, belongs to the Navy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During World War 2, the navy stored tons of explosives here in huge concrete bunkers camouflaged with earth to look like grassy hills. Those are the mounds Suzanne saw on the map. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Go ahead. You can see the bunkers back there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over a hundred concrete weapons storage units here supplied bullets, missiles, bombs, anything the military needed for combat all the way up to the first Gulf War. Railroads connected this inland base to the Bay where artillery was loaded onto warships. When Kathy moved here in 1974, it was active.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In years gone by, we could hear trains moving at night out there. So they were moving munitions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kathy says she loves living next to a weapons base… because.. it’s quiet. Those ammo bunker mounds…. they’re empty now… and they blend into the lush green landscape… And there aren’t many other buildings there. She says it’s always been pretty calm, part of what drew her here in the first place 50 years ago. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Who wouldn’t like this in their backyard? You can hear that plane, but other than that it’s pretty quiet. When we first moved in, there were a lot of sheep out there. There’s still a lot of cattle out there grazing. So we used to see tule elk roaming around, now we see turkeys, we hear coyotes, we’ll see deer every now and then. It’s pretty peaceful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Then Concord residents got news that could change everything. The weapons station would close in 2005. This huge swath of open land, roughly the size of San Francisco International airport, was going to change hands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We all kind of panicked. All the neighbors along here kind of panic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They worried a developer would swoop in and build a metropolis, a big noisy construction project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We wanted our peace and quiet, and we were concerned about what’s in the soil. What’s going to happen with that when they develop? And the noise and everything that would go with developing a project this big, this is huge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Concord Naval Weapons Station closure was part of a federal project to cut military costs. It was called BRAC, the Base Realignment and Closure process. Hundreds of military sites shuttered nationwide. Immediately, the city of Concord started making plans for redevelopment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We were so angry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Locally, Kathy quickly became a key organizer among neighbors pushing to keep the weapons station land untouched and open.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We quickly got a group together, went down the City Hall. Surprised the hell out of the city council members because we were like the old town people that went down Main Street with pitchforks and torches. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For years, they tabled at farmers markets and knocked on people’s doors to educate Concord residents about the potential for development. And of course, they were squeaky wheels at city council meetings and planning commission hearings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We told them, we are not going away, you know, listen to us, we’re not going away, we want this preserved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they got their wish, in part. Half of the area behind Kathy’s house has been handed over to east bay regional parks. The old ammo bunkers there will become part of historic tours. And when it opens, locals can hike, camp or have a picnic next to protected wildlife areas. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We put years of our time into preserving what we can out here. We hope that it works. We slowed down after we got the park. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming up, we’ll learn how the other half of the land will be used. That’s after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> KQED’s Pauline Bartolone takes us back to the Concord mounds, to find out what’s planned here. But this time, from a different vantage point. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kathy and her neighbors were up in arms about plans to build on the military site next to their homes. That was two decades ago, and all that peace and quiet? It’s still there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We are looking out over the valley or floor area of old bunker city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Josh Roden is a private developer, and he took me onto the old Concord Naval Weapons station. From our vantage point you can see the former weapons storage clearly… dozens of massive trapezoids poking up from the soil. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re mostly concrete bunkers with earth over them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Josh heads up Brookfield Residential in Northern California, which is working with the city of Concord to redevelop the navy base based on a roadmap Concord residents like Kathy helped create. When it’s done, the site will have housing, businesses, schools and parks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Concord did a really good job of engaging the entire community, getting a whole bunch of feedback. It’s a lot of work and effort, and it can be a little painful to manage through that, because it’s a lot of opinions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But so far, it’s been a lot of discussion, 20 years worth. And not a single permanent structure has been built here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> One of the most important parts is the first, being able to flush a toilet and turn a light on. So we really do have to go bring power. We have to bring potable water, we have to bring storm drains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, what’s the hold up? Well, there’s been a lot of clean up and bureaucracy. The Navy had to remove \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">arsenic and lead\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the soil and groundwater. The city had contracts with two developers before the current one. One jumped ship and one was booted. And before all that, Concord spent seven years coming up with a master plan with residents. A vision for the site.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So they ended up coming up with what we think is a very reasonable and good area plan, but it did take some time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And their plans are grand… just down the hill from where Josh and I are standing, will be some of the 12,000 residential homes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The number of units, the size of it is similar to Pleasant Hill. So for context the population that it would generate. It’s similar to Pleasant Hill.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’d be housing for something like 34-thousand people. Also in the plan are retail and office space, most dense near the North Concord Bart Station.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hotels and maybe more restaurants and a place people go leisure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then there’s the outline for a sports park – stretching over 175 acres – and a higher education campus, like a college or technical school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are also coordinating some of the elementary school, middle school potentially to be in that vicinity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fire stations, police stations. A food bank and a pedestrian path along Mt Diablo creek, All the amenities of a town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like building a small city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That may sound exciting but it will all take a looong time. Like decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Currently, it’s planned out for probably a 40 year build out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They won’t even break ground until 2031, and there’s still some bureaucratic hurdles. Ultimately, Josh says how quickly it gets built depends on the health of the economy, Housing is what pays off for the developer, so the the first to go up will be homes close to the North Concord BART station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite her early reservations about building on the site, Kathy has had a bit of a change of heart about new housing. She says the Bay Area needs it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We were not as panicked as we were. I think I do understand. Let’s do it. Let’s make it as good as we can for future generations. And that’s the best we can do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a long time. Geez. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I took all this back to Suzanne Howard, our question asker. She likes that the Concord development will have open space near it, not a 12 lane highway like the one next to her house. As far as taking more than half a century to finish the new housing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s kind of scary how long it takes. But hopefully, you know, assuming positive intent and the cleanup hopefully is being very thorough and good things take time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She just hopes she’s alive to see it come to fruition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was KQED’s Pauline Bartolone.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks to our question asker this week, Suzanne. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Did you know that we send a little thank you gift to each question asker? Just one more reason to take a few minutes and send your burning question our way! Ask at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BayCurious.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or shoot us an email at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is our last Monday episode during our experimental period of dropping two episodes a week. We’ve learned so much — and had a lot of fun answering twice as many of your questions these past few months. We always planned this to be a limited-term trial — so we’re back to our once a week publishing schedule next week. If you have thoughts or feedback for us as we take stock and move forward, email us at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by me, Olivia Allen Price, Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and you! Yes you are a producer on this show if you are a member of KQED. Your financial support makes everything possible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deep gratitude to all the KQED members out there, and if you aren’t one yet, join us! Give at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suzanne Howard loves living in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/east-bay\">Walnut Creek\u003c/a>. She said it’s safe, walkable and she bikes everywhere. The only downside? She lives right next to a 12-lane freeway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[I’m] super thankful to have a house, but… noise pollution is a little much,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One day, Howard was daydreaming about living near open space and started looking around online for places that fit the bill. Is it even possible to buy a house in the East Bay next to undeveloped land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And there, in Concord, behind a local high school, was a swath of green rolling hills big enough to accommodate a new airport. When she zoomed in, she saw puzzling features, grass mounds in a grid pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What is this?” she wondered to herself. “Could we build housing there? It’s prime real estate, why not?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those grassy mounds in a grid pattern are huge concrete bunkers, wider than a train car, used by the Navy for more than 60 years to store weapons, bombs and ammunition.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>What happened at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Dozens of these ammunition bunkers, grass-covered trapezoids poking up from the landscape, are what’s known as “bunker city,” just one part of a 5,000-acre inland section of a military base called the Concord Naval Weapons Station. The storage units are empty now, but they once stored the weapons of war that the Navy needed to fight wars from the 1940s all the way through the \u003ca href=\"https://www.history.com/articles/persian-gulf-war\">1991 Gulf War\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Railroads connected this inland base to the bay where artillery was loaded onto warships.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081249\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081249\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-07-KQED-2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Gleason looks through her back fence at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“In years gone by, we could hear trains moving at night out there,” said Kathy Gleason, who moved next to the Naval base back in 1974. “They were moving munitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though Kathy’s backyard is separated from bunker city by just two fences, you can’t tell she lives next to a military site. By design, the mounds blend into the lush green landscape to camouflage them from enemies coming by air or by foot. Besides the mounds, there aren’t many buildings. And it has always been relatively quiet here, with vistas of sheep and cattle grazing. That’s what drew her here in the first place, 50 years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We used to see tule elk roaming around,” Gleason said. “Now we see turkeys, we hear coyotes, we’ll see deer every now and then. It’s pretty peaceful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then in 2005, everything changed. The Concord Naval Weapons Station closed, as part of a federal initiative — the Base Realignment and Closure process (BRAC) — to cut military costs and adapt to new systems of warfare. Through BRAC, hundreds of military sites shuttered nationwide, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12022479/why-are-there-so-many-abandoned-military-bases-in-the-bay-area\">dozens in the Bay Area\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Immediately, the city of Concord started making plans for redevelopment. The 5,200 acres behind Gleason’s house would change hands. She feared a big developer would swoop in to turn it into a metropolis, and before that, a big, noisy construction zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We all kind of panicked,” Gleason said. “We wanted our peace and quiet, and we were concerned about what’s in the soil. What’s going to happen with that when they develop?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gleason became a key organizer in the Concord Naval Weapons Station Neighborhood Alliance, which tabled at farmers markets, knocked on doors, and showed up at city planning meetings advocating to keep the weapons station land untouched and open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We were like the old town people that went down Main Street with pitchforks and torches. We were so angry,” Gleason said about their organizing efforts back in 2006.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We told them, we are not going away. We want this preserved.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Reenvisioning ‘Bunker City’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Twenty years later, all the peace and quiet that the Concord Neighborhood Alliance wanted is still there. Not a single permanent structure has been built on the former weapons base yet. What’s the holdup?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, the city went through a seven-year process of engaging residents to come up with a master vision for the site. It culminated in \u003ca href=\"https://concordreuseproject.org/152/The-Area-Plan\">the 2012 area plan\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081257\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081257\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-12-KQED-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Josh Roden, a developer at Brookfield Residential working with the city of Concord to redevelop the Concord Naval Weapons Station, stands on a hillside overlooking the former naval base in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All the while, there was a lot of cleanup and bureaucracy. The Navy had to remove \u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778\">arsenic and lead\u003c/a> from the soil and groundwater. The city had contracts with two developers before the current one. One \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/labor-dispute-stalls-redevelopment-of-concord-naval-weapons-station/2210946/\">jumped ship,\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/deal-for-planned-development-at-concord-naval-weapons-station-collapses/\">one was booted\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the slow and deliberate pace the Navy and city have been on is not necessarily a bad thing, the current master developer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Concord did a really good job of engaging the entire community,” said Josh Roden, president of Brookfield Northern California, which is \u003ca href=\"https://concordreuseproject.org/\">managing the redevelopment of the site\u003c/a>. “It’s a lot of work and effort, and it can be a little painful to manage.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roden’s team is now tasked with implementing the specifics of the 2012 general plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s like building a small city,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Concord residents expect 12,000 residential units, which is roughly equivalent to the nearby town of Pleasant Hill, home to 34,000 people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six million square feet are earmarked for retail, office and institutional space, and businesses such as hotels and restaurants, which will be most dense near the North Concord Bart Station. That’s more space than the footprint of Disneyland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be a sports complex and city park, stretching over 175 acres, and a higher education campus, like a college or technical school, along with elementary and middle schools. Fire and police stations will be built, as well as a food bank, and a pedestrian path along Mount Diablo Creek.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plans are grand and exciting, but Concord residents will have to wait a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roden said construction won’t break ground until 2030, and it will probably be “a 40-year build out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first phase includes housing near the North Concord BART station. Residents can expect more electric vehicle infrastructure, denser housing, and retail space blended with other leisure activities. How quickly it all moves along depends on the health of the economy, Roden said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260423-CONCORD-MOUNDS-MD-06-KQED-2-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kathy Gleason’s home abuts the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in Concord on April 23, 2026. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Open space advocates like Kathy Gleason have already had a notable win. Half of the inland naval base — roughly 2,500 acres, has already been handed over to East Bay Regional Parks. \u003ca href=\"https://www.ebparks.org/parks/thurgood-marshall-regional-park-home-port-chicago-50\">Thurgood Marshall Regional Park\u003c/a> is not yet open to the public, but when it does, visitors will be able to see the ammunition bunkers during historic tours.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We put years of our time into preserving what we can out here,” said Gleason, who also said she now understands that housing is a critical need in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Let’s make it as good as we can for future generations. And that’s the best we can do,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Suzanne Howard of Walnut Creek said she’s glad the Concord housing development will be near open space. She just hopes she’s alive when it all comes to fruition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s kind of scary how long it takes,” she said. But sometimes, “good things take time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey everyone! This is Bay Curious — the podcast that answers listener questions about the San Francisco Bay Area.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We recently got a question from a woman named Suzanne Howard. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She bought a house with her husband in Walnut Creek two years ago and she loves the place. How it feels safe and walkable to lots of shops. They bike everywhere. But one thing gives Suzanne a little buyer’s remorse.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s right next to the 12 lane freeway. It’s super noisy, super thankful to have a house, but like quality of life noise pollution is a little much.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> One day, Suzanne was feeling curious, and she started studying online maps, looking for open space in the East Bay. Where could more housing be built near her that might offer a little more peace and quiet?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I found as I zoomed out, I saw east of Concord High School green open fields, gorgeous greenery hillside, some streets. And then little mounds, little grass mounds which, all in a grid pattern. What is this thing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Five thousand acres of open space with seemingly nothing going on. It wasn’t a park or anything. Just a big open area and those mounds. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Could we build housing there? It’s prime real estate, why not? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’m Olivia Allen-Price. On today’s episode, we asked KQED’s Pauline Bartolone to scout out that area behind Concord High School. What are those grassy mounds in a grid pattern? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’ll give you a hint, it’s not a cemetery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ok. Is it open to the public? Can I go on a walk there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Well, right now, no. In a few years, probably.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">What about Suzanne’s question, could housing be built there?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Yes, actually that’s in the works, we’ll get to more on that in a minute. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Ok, so tell me what you saw when you went out there? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Well I found someone who lives right near Concord High School, and those 5,000 acres of rolling hills are right behind her house. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> My name is Kathy Gleason. We’re in Concord in my backyard, and looking at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Concord Naval Weapons Station. That property our listener Suzanne saw on the map, belongs to the Navy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">During World War 2, the navy stored tons of explosives here in huge concrete bunkers camouflaged with earth to look like grassy hills. Those are the mounds Suzanne saw on the map. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Go ahead. You can see the bunkers back there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over a hundred concrete weapons storage units here supplied bullets, missiles, bombs, anything the military needed for combat all the way up to the first Gulf War. Railroads connected this inland base to the Bay where artillery was loaded onto warships. When Kathy moved here in 1974, it was active.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> In years gone by, we could hear trains moving at night out there. So they were moving munitions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kathy says she loves living next to a weapons base… because.. it’s quiet. Those ammo bunker mounds…. they’re empty now… and they blend into the lush green landscape… And there aren’t many other buildings there. She says it’s always been pretty calm, part of what drew her here in the first place 50 years ago. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Who wouldn’t like this in their backyard? You can hear that plane, but other than that it’s pretty quiet. When we first moved in, there were a lot of sheep out there. There’s still a lot of cattle out there grazing. So we used to see tule elk roaming around, now we see turkeys, we hear coyotes, we’ll see deer every now and then. It’s pretty peaceful.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Then Concord residents got news that could change everything. The weapons station would close in 2005. This huge swath of open land, roughly the size of San Francisco International airport, was going to change hands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We all kind of panicked. All the neighbors along here kind of panic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They worried a developer would swoop in and build a metropolis, a big noisy construction project.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We wanted our peace and quiet, and we were concerned about what’s in the soil. What’s going to happen with that when they develop? And the noise and everything that would go with developing a project this big, this is huge.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Concord Naval Weapons Station closure was part of a federal project to cut military costs. It was called BRAC, the Base Realignment and Closure process. Hundreds of military sites shuttered nationwide. Immediately, the city of Concord started making plans for redevelopment.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We were so angry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Locally, Kathy quickly became a key organizer among neighbors pushing to keep the weapons station land untouched and open.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We quickly got a group together, went down the City Hall. Surprised the hell out of the city council members because we were like the old town people that went down Main Street with pitchforks and torches. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> For years, they tabled at farmers markets and knocked on people’s doors to educate Concord residents about the potential for development. And of course, they were squeaky wheels at city council meetings and planning commission hearings.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We told them, we are not going away, you know, listen to us, we’re not going away, we want this preserved.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And they got their wish, in part. Half of the area behind Kathy’s house has been handed over to east bay regional parks. The old ammo bunkers there will become part of historic tours. And when it opens, locals can hike, camp or have a picnic next to protected wildlife areas. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We put years of our time into preserving what we can out here. We hope that it works. We slowed down after we got the park. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Coming up, we’ll learn how the other half of the land will be used. That’s after this quick break. Stay with us.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sponsor message\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> KQED’s Pauline Bartolone takes us back to the Concord mounds, to find out what’s planned here. But this time, from a different vantage point. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kathy and her neighbors were up in arms about plans to build on the military site next to their homes. That was two decades ago, and all that peace and quiet? It’s still there. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> We are looking out over the valley or floor area of old bunker city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Josh Roden is a private developer, and he took me onto the old Concord Naval Weapons station. From our vantage point you can see the former weapons storage clearly… dozens of massive trapezoids poking up from the soil. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> They’re mostly concrete bunkers with earth over them.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Josh heads up Brookfield Residential in Northern California, which is working with the city of Concord to redevelop the navy base based on a roadmap Concord residents like Kathy helped create. When it’s done, the site will have housing, businesses, schools and parks. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Concord did a really good job of engaging the entire community, getting a whole bunch of feedback. It’s a lot of work and effort, and it can be a little painful to manage through that, because it’s a lot of opinions. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But so far, it’s been a lot of discussion, 20 years worth. And not a single permanent structure has been built here. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> One of the most important parts is the first, being able to flush a toilet and turn a light on. So we really do have to go bring power. We have to bring potable water, we have to bring storm drains.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, what’s the hold up? Well, there’s been a lot of clean up and bureaucracy. The Navy had to remove \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?fuseaction=second.cleanup&id=0902778\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">arsenic and lead\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from the soil and groundwater. The city had contracts with two developers before the current one. One jumped ship and one was booted. And before all that, Concord spent seven years coming up with a master plan with residents. A vision for the site.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So they ended up coming up with what we think is a very reasonable and good area plan, but it did take some time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And their plans are grand… just down the hill from where Josh and I are standing, will be some of the 12,000 residential homes. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The number of units, the size of it is similar to Pleasant Hill. So for context the population that it would generate. It’s similar to Pleasant Hill.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’d be housing for something like 34-thousand people. Also in the plan are retail and office space, most dense near the North Concord Bart Station.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Hotels and maybe more restaurants and a place people go leisure. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Then there’s the outline for a sports park – stretching over 175 acres – and a higher education campus, like a college or technical school.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We are also coordinating some of the elementary school, middle school potentially to be in that vicinity. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fire stations, police stations. A food bank and a pedestrian path along Mt Diablo creek, All the amenities of a town.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s like building a small city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That may sound exciting but it will all take a looong time. Like decades. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Josh Roden:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Currently, it’s planned out for probably a 40 year build out.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They won’t even break ground until 2031, and there’s still some bureaucratic hurdles. Ultimately, Josh says how quickly it gets built depends on the health of the economy, Housing is what pays off for the developer, so the the first to go up will be homes close to the North Concord BART station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Despite her early reservations about building on the site, Kathy has had a bit of a change of heart about new housing. She says the Bay Area needs it.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kathy Gleason: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We were not as panicked as we were. I think I do understand. Let’s do it. Let’s make it as good as we can for future generations. And that’s the best we can do.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s a long time. Geez. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I took all this back to Suzanne Howard, our question asker. She likes that the Concord development will have open space near it, not a 12 lane highway like the one next to her house. As far as taking more than half a century to finish the new housing? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Suzanne Howard: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s kind of scary how long it takes. But hopefully, you know, assuming positive intent and the cleanup hopefully is being very thorough and good things take time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Pauline Bartolone: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">She just hopes she’s alive to see it come to fruition. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> That was KQED’s Pauline Bartolone.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thanks to our question asker this week, Suzanne. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Did you know that we send a little thank you gift to each question asker? Just one more reason to take a few minutes and send your burning question our way! Ask at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://baycurious.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">BayCurious.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, or shoot us an email at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is our last Monday episode during our experimental period of dropping two episodes a week. We’ve learned so much — and had a lot of fun answering twice as many of your questions these past few months. We always planned this to be a limited-term trial — so we’re back to our once a week publishing schedule next week. If you have thoughts or feedback for us as we take stock and move forward, email us at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"mailto:baycurious@kqed.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">baycurious@kqed.org\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. Our show is produced by me, Olivia Allen Price, Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and you! Yes you are a producer on this show if you are a member of KQED. Your financial support makes everything possible. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Deep gratitude to all the KQED members out there, and if you aren’t one yet, join us! Give at \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"id": "code-switch-life-kit",
"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
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"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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},
"hidden-brain": {
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"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/",
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"source": "pbs"
},
"link": "/radio/program/pbs-newshour",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Perspectives_Tile_Final.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Perspectives",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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