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"content": "\u003cp>As part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/youthtakeover\">Youth Takeover at KQED\u003c/a>, The Bay and Bay Curious have teamed up to collaborate with four high school students who live in San Pablo, Fremont, Walnut Creek and San Jose. For several months, these teenagers — two juniors and two seniors — have shared what’s going on in their lives, what’s got them worried, what’s making them excited and what their passionate about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC9248879342&light=true\" width=\"100%\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>Hey I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra from The Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And I’m Katrina Schwartz from Bay Curious. And today, we’ve got something special for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>It’s Youth Takeover week here at KQED and that means we’re handing the mic over to Bay Area youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>In this special collaboration between The Bay and Bay Curious, we asked four high school students to send us audio diaries over the last few months to bring us into their worlds for a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> We wanted to know: What’s on your mind these days? What’s getting you excited, worried?\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And today, you’re gonna hear from those students, in their own words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>So without further ado, we’re gonna let the students introduce themselves to you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, my name is Oumou, and I’m a junior at Summit Tamalpais in San Pablo. I live in San Pablo with my parents and my siblings. I have one older sister and one little brother. My dad works with audio visual tech, and my mom is a teacher. I would describe myself as someone who’s very observant. I pay attention to the smallest details about people or stuff, and it can be both useful and annoying. I would also describe myself as someone who’s creative. Of course, I love art and I love my writing, but I’m also really creative with words. Like if I were to have an argument with anyone, I’m usually the one who ends up victorious. I also have killer comebacks if anyone disses me. What excites me every day is knowing that I’m slowly getting closer to accomplishing my personal life goals, such as making my webcomic, or whether it be like finishing my novel, which I need to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. I am currently the graduating class of 2026 and I attend Tilden Preparatory School in Walnut Creek, California. I play competitive field hockey, which is a very uncommon sport in California compared to like the East Coast. And as I’ve begun to grow and cultivate a love for the sport that I play, and as I started to make national selections and attend the junior Olympic qualifiers and play on a much higher level than I anticipated I would be playing at, I realized that this meant that I would not only have to commit to practicing and putting a lot of time and effort into my own personal skill and development but I would also have to find a club or a team that would compete with other clubs in the East Coast more competitively. And so little did I know this would essentially entail me driving down to San Diego every weekend during the school year in order for me to play at this higher level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>My name is Olivia Ma. I go to BASIS Independent Fremont Upper School in Fremont, California. I’m 17 and I’m a senior. I mean, I feel like to be very frank, the last year aspect hasn’t really hit for me yet. Like people have asked me like, oh, are you feeling sad or whatever? And then I don’t really know what to say because I don’t feel anything when I think about it being my senior year. I think maybe it’ll hit in May when I actually graduate. But I’m just trying to make the most of what I have right now so that maybe I don’t regret it later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> Hi, I’m Riya Minglani. I’m in the class of 2025 at Prospect High School and I’m from San Jose. It’s college decision month. Even though I’ve gotten into a couple of safety schools, the schools I really are really dreaming about and I could really, really want to go to are coming out this month, so feeling anxious. I’m also trying to put that anxiousness into excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Oumou and today is January 22nd, 2025. My favorite kind of music is heavy metal. More specifically, my favorite band is called Lacuna Coil, which is an Italian Gothic metal band from Milan. When I found them at the beginning of sophomore year, I was in this dark moment. I had a fallout with one of my teachers because I wrote a story and she didn’t really like it and I was just feeling all these emotions and I needed some place to put it. My most played song of my Spotify rap of 2024 was Intoxicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Intoxicated Song Playing]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>During sophomore year it helped me through those hard times, especially when school was difficult and I was going through friend drama and shifting hormones and puberty and all that stuff. It was just really hard for me to express my emotions without lashing out at somebody. And it’s just, I love that during those dark times heavy metal really got me through it and I could connect with the music itself. People don’t think I like heavy metal because I’m black which is funny because you shouldn’t be grouped in with the certain with a certain race to like a certain kind of music. If you have strong emotions then heavy metal is for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. Today is January 17th, 2025. And if we’re really specific, it’s 3:55 p.m. right now. And I don’t know, I just been, there’s been a lot on my mind. You know, junior year is considered like rough. Everyone knows going into junior year is academically hard, because everything’s due for college apps and stuff. But playing a sport on top of that really adds to the stress. And then on top of not having your school have the sport you play or sports in general for in my case, it’s hard navigating everything, I think the biggest thing that made me actually, like the allure to the sport as I continued practicing was that I actually saw progress. Like I was like, okay, if I, you know, I used to suck at this one particular skill, but if I keep doing it, I can do really cool stuff with it. I can maneuver the ball this way. I can it this way, I can, like I could be as creative as I want. So that was kind of what made me really fall deep into the sport and fall in love with it. And of course now, as I’m older, it’s the people that you meet, and it’s the different experiences with coaches. Just overall, the sport is so fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>My name is Olivia Ma. I’m a senior at BASIS Independent of Fremont, California, and it’s January 19th. Currently, I go to school in pretty much all STEM grade. I think I’m the only person who’s doing humanities because I’m gonna major in journalism. I’ve had a lot of faith in myself over the years to get myself out of tough situations because I’ve been able to. And while I think that’s a good thing to have faith in myself, I think, I’ve also gotten used to not having a plan B or being safe about things. So like, for example, last week I applied to a scholarship and it was a pretty big one because college is expensive. Anyways, I was gonna apply to a scholarship and it a video scholarship. I spent a lot of time on the video. I worked so hard on it and I was so proud of it and I was gonna submit it at school. But then my laptop died. So I had to call my mom. I begged her to take me home so I could charge my laptop and submit it. I got home half an hour before I was supposed to submit it and then I realized, hmm, I should add some pictures into my video because this section is kind of blank. And my mom kept begging me, like, no, this is a terrible idea. Like, you don’t know what’s going to happen on the website if it glitches. You’re not going to be able to turn it in. I said, it’s fine. And so I submitted it two minutes late because my video kept loading. And it didn’t let me submit. I bawled my eyes out for an hour. It was so bad that my voice, like I couldn’t talk after. My eyes were puffy. My head was like throbbing. And like I emailed the scholarship. And one reply I got was, oh, we can’t have any exceptions. I cried again. And then another email was like, oh we can reopen it for you. I was like oh, that’s so great. And I kept checking my portal and it wasn’t reopening. And I keep emailing this person. I sent them like 10 emails. And they eventually said, oh sorry, yeah, we can’t do anything about it. It’s good to take risks, but also be aware of the consequences that those risks come with. I do work hard, I do plan things out, but not enough. And I’ve realized that I need to be even more strict with myself than I was before, if I really wanna do well when I go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Hi, this is Riya. It’s Sunday, January 26th, and I just got back from hanging out with my dad and my brother at the mall. My parents got divorced in 2020, so they were one of those, like, 2020 divorces. My mom moved to San Jose, and my dad got remarried, and his wife, my stepmom, lives in Fremont. And usually every Friday, my dad comes, pick my brother and I up to drive to Fremont and I really like those drives because like those are really the only time I get to talk to my dad because a lot of the times like when I’m at his house like I’ll be doing homework he’ll be working. He like works a lot over the weekend. I feel like there’s this stereotype that immigrant dads tend to be really closed off and you just don’t know much about their personal lives but the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve really actually been able to talk to my dad and learn more about him as a person beyond him just being my dad. He’s so honest with me that I feel I can be super honest with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>So dad, how’s your day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>Ah yeah, it’s a usual day, busy day at work, a lot of meetings, discussion and planning for what we are going next in the AI driven world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>AI driven realm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>That’s all the people, everybody that’s the company I’m in, all they talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>I always like these car rides because I feel like we talk the most when we’re driving the car. Do you feel that way too?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>Yeah, I think that’s because we don’t have anything else which can distract us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>How do you feel about me starting driving?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>That’s just something I’m nervous about. That’s, um, something really nervous about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Oh my god, I’m not a bad driver!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>You are not, but you need some practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>I do. Okay, that’s fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Oumou, and today is February 4th, 2025, and I’m actually at home. So my school, Summit Tamalpais, has this thing called Expeditions, which is a special time for students to focus on what they want to do. And for me, in the beginning, was to make my art portfolio for college, because I wanted to become an animator, have a show idea that I wanted to do, I was originally gonna make it a TV show, but because it’s expensive and I don’t have any animation experience and I would probably have to go to art school for that and that’s also expensive, I decided to turn my idea into a comic. First it was called Children of Eternity, and I was heavily inspired by Peter Pan, and as well as Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Basically, the plot of the story is that every year, children are summoned to the Isle of Content, which is a star-shaped island on a star, to flee from the troubles of the Elder World, which is Earth. Once they come, they receive a luminescent, a glowing blue ball of light that keeps them young. So the idea is that the isle will be shaped like a star and have the same tropical look to it, like, you know, trees. I was thinking about making the star, like every single point of the star into a cliff. So it would be called the five cliffs because stars have like five points. The main reason why I’m really passionate about making a comic is because it is a form of expression, just like singing or dancing or even writing. And as a writer, I specialize in conveying stories through words. However, now that I’m slowly becoming a better artist, I wanted to try a new approach to my storytelling journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. It is currently February 9th, 2025. Now, as you know, a junior, I would say there’s a lot more challenges being in California. One of them being that when you’re trying to get recruited, a lot of college coaches, like I’ve had some college coaches tell us, we’re not recruiting any girls from California because they don’t trust the quality of players that are produced here. If I had to sum up recruiting process in one word, I would definitely say stress. I assumed, oh, the main gist of the recruitment process for athletes and field hockey are, I go to a tournament, coaches are there watching you and they will contact you and that is the end of that. While that’s true, that’s simply one factor out of a larger scheme of things. You send over film, you tell them hey I’m gonna be at this showcase please watch me, and you just constantly are kind of you’re kind of like a mosquito you constantly email them make sure that you’re building that relationship and that they know your name you go to their clinics, you just update them about everything, you send them your transcripts of you know, that year, that semester, you let them know what’s going on in your life, so it’s kind of like a report, you basically, you essentially just send them reports of updates of your life. So if you make one bad impression on one coach, you know that other coaches probably have heard of you and know you kind of have this reputation. And so it’s very tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Hi, I’m Olivia. I’m a senior at BASIS Independent Fremont, and today is February 14th, Valentine’s Day. So today was my last day of high school. Not like I graduated or anything, but yeah, we ended all our classes and for the next trimester, so the next, I think, two and a half-ish months, I’ll be working on like my senior project. Basically like, I leave school, I do whatever research or volunteer or etc. project I want to do, come back in May and present on it. I don’t know, I was just, it was pretty sad this morning. I never thought that I would be the kind of person to cry leaving school like this. But then in English class today, my teacher who I’ve had since I was in fourth grade, and I started fourth grade when I was eight, so it’s been a long time, he’s my English teacher now and we have this tradition every Friday in our classes where we do like shout outs or like you shout out your family, friends, teachers, etc. And then you like tell the whole class. And on our last day, everyone gave a shout out to our teacher. And I don’t remember my specific note, but it went something along the lines of, shout out to Mr. Becher for being my teacher and mentor since fourth grade. Under your guidance, I’ve learned what a truly open and creative space has looked like. And I think I wouldn’t be who I am today without you. Having him as a teacher in a very, very STEM school, it’s just, it’s helped me so, so much and like with exploring all my interests. And I think he’s always been there to support me and like all of my classmates, no matter what. He’s a very very like understanding and sweet person. And I don’t know, I just started crying. Like everyone else was already crying and I saw everyone else like, okay, I might as well cry now. And then he went around giving everyone little shout outs too. He is like shoutout to Olivia for her passion, leadership and there was a third one but I don’t specifically remember it. But I remember crying in that class but I don’t know, I don’t really know how I’m feeling. I’m mostly just tired and wanna take a nap, but yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> This is Riya, and it’s March 2nd. What makes me super anxious is like University of Washington in Seattle. I hate that they say it’s just gonna come out March 1st to 15th. Give me a date, give me a date. What if I don’t get into like a super good school? Like are my friends gonna judge me? Like am I gonna feel like super dumb? Like all my friends get into these amazing schools and I get into no good schools? Like that, honestly, I know it’s bad, like I know it’s not healthy. But I think even talking to my own friends and talking about how they feel. They’re kind of like saying the same thing that what makes them like the most anxious is like kind of how other people will perceive their college decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something I’m so excited for, Senior Assassin. Senior Assassin is basically this game where seniors try to shoot other teams with water guns. I remember watching the seniors doing it last year and it looked like so much fun. I think it is a great way to distract from college applications and like to do something that’s fun and silly when everything feels so like scary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sound of Senior Assassin]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Today is March 10th and I got into San Diego State this week on Tuesday and I’m so excited because it’s a great school. I love the campus, it’s such a beautiful campus. They have a really cool journalism program and it’s more affordable because it is in-state California CSU tuition. So options like that have made me a lot more excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>After the break, the semester is ending. And the students are wrestling through some tough decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>That’s coming up right after this. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, this is Abby and today is 3-17. It is also a Monday. We have a dance coming up, but I just found out that it conflicts with one of my field hockey tournaments. And it is devastating. I do have to like call my friend and tell her cause like we planned it. We’re like, I told her, I was like, oh, I get to go to the school dance. And so I’m gonna have to tell her I cannot go. Personally, I’ve never gone to a single school dance in high school. I know she’ll be pretty upset about it cause we have been like talking about a lot. We’ve gone, you know, she’s been calling me for dress shopping. Here goes nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>Hey girl, I was literally just about to call you. So my parents said that we can get ready for prom together at my house. So then we can finish up our prom dress shopping and girl, we’re set, we going to prom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Zia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>I love you! Oh gosh, okay, Abby, wait, what?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Look, I know we’ve been planning prom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>Oh, Abby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>But…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>No, Abby, don’t tell me, please, oh my god.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> I do have a big field hockey event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> To give you a little bit more insight in what my final decision is when it comes to like athletics and my club. There’s one moment that I do very vividly recall. We were doing this drill and when it was my turn and I finished the drill, my coach stopped the whole drill, made everyone drop their sticks and pulled me to the front of all three lines and screamed at me. Essentially, she called me stupid and incompetent in one sentence. It was a moment that I’ll never forget. Now, every time I do a drill, I never wanna be the first in line because I’m so scared that I’m gonna mess up and get yelled at again. There’s this one time where we’re at a big tournament and I had sprained my ankle really badly and I remember telling a coach at a clinic, she just examined my foot and she said, it looks fine to me, I don’t know why you had to lie and say that you’re injured, just say that your tired. It ended up being that I tore three ligaments and my foot was black and blue when I couldn’t play for a month. Which I was told I wouldn’t be able to play for a month, but I ended up playing two weeks, only two weeks after that, because I had individual national selection tryouts, which I was dead set on going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>So, I am interviewing my sister about comics, well, more specifically, my webcomic. So, why don’t you introduce yourself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé:\u003c/b> My name is Fatoumata Cissé, I’m Oumou’s older sister, older, better, amazing, greater sister. I’m just kidding, she’s pretty great too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>No you’re not the better sister, that’s not true. Okay, so first I’m going to have you look into my notebook. Okay, so the first, this side on the, your right, your left side is Seth. So this is just facial front. He’s the protagonist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>I like the emotion here. I don’t like that. I like this. I like this but I would say his face is too long. If I had the liquified tool, I would just push his face up. But I really like this one. It’s a good perspective. And this one’s Ori, right? Yeah. I like Ori’s outline in her hair. It’s like the line art of her own hair. I like the stylistic effort in there, it’s giving Black Lightning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>How do you think the story’s gonna end?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>Well, there could be two endings. One is like the Disney channel version and then one is like the Oumou Channel version. So the Disney channel version is like you know, like become friends again and they’re like, you know Seth is also a friend and everyone is kumbaya, right. The Oumou channel version is that Vin ends up killing Ori or something like that. Well, I just know this is going to be like a bad, not a bad ending, quote unquote, but like a sour, bittersweet ending. Go read her webtoon when it comes out. Probably going to come out, what, 2025, 2026?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>I’m thinking about whenever I get my drawing tablet, which is soon, I will start like getting used to it and then start drawing like probably the first episode. So maybe sometime near the end of this year or early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>Okay, my deadline for you is December 31st, 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>You’re diabolical. Okay, thank you so much for joining me. Goodbye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Olivia Ma, and today is March 11th. I haven’t been to school in a while and, you know, that’s given me time to pick up some new hobbies, so for one, I’ve gotten kind of into latte art. My mom’s been into it for a while, and she has an espresso machine, and you know I’ve like watched her do it before, but I was really busy this year, so I never really had any time to indulge in it. You know recently I’ve been getting into it a bit more because you know my mornings are open now I’m able to get up at what 9:30 and just chill and it’s a new thing that me and my mom do together, and it’s really really fun. \u003ci>[Sound of steaming milk]\u003c/i> I’m so nervous okay, okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma’s Mom: \u003c/b>Go, go!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Ok, that’s a shape. Oh wait, this is cute. Mommy, I know you’re a very, very ambitious person. You love, you don’t like wasting your time. You love to explore new things. So when I go to college, a lot of your time will be freed up, tell me what you’re gonna do with that time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma’s Mom: \u003c/b>Okay, that’s a good question. I have been thinking about that and preparing for that for last six months. So with you are gone to college, I’ll have definitely much more time for my work and my team. And I’ve been trying to take singing lessons which I really enjoy very much and other things as well. So I can see myself enjoy those personal hobbies very much and maybe adding new things and meeting new people, new friends. One thing I want to tell you Olivia is that I really enjoy the time we spend together. It’s very important for me and I hope it’s also very sweet memories for you. But now you are going to start a new chapter for your own life. I’m going to start a new chapter for my life too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>It’s March 12th, 2025. So I just got my University of Washington, Seattle decision back and I got rejected. And like my heart was racing so, so much when I saw it, like my first reaction was just to like laugh. But like after kind of sitting with it for a couple of like minutes, I’m feeling a lot sadder than I thought I would have. My tears welling up a little bit. Oh my god I’m graduating, like it hits me in waves. Like sometimes I’ll be just like in my friend’s car and like we’re gonna go get food, I’m like oh my god I’m graduating right now. I’m not feeling nostalgia or sadness but like talk to me in maybe even like three hours and like I’ll be crying or like when I listen to like certain songs for example like Ribs from Lorde. \u003ci>[Ribs by Lorde] \u003c/i>Every time I hear that song, oh my god it just like is a knife to the heart, it just makes me feel so emotional about growing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Ribs by Lorde]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> Hello, this is Abby Kim. After really sitting down and figuring out what’s gonna be the best for me, I ultimately decided that I will not be continuing on with the club that I’m currently at. It’s very difficult because I tied my self-value on my performance, therefore how I perceive myself is very much contingent on how well I perform as an athlete. I’m gonna essentially take a little break from club field hockey, focus on myself and still engage in active ID clinics and camps. Because I do love the sport, but I think that taking a little break from my club and focusing on myself a little bit and finding balance is something that I’m gonna really have to work on. Because I think with all that travel that I did during the school year, in the middle of the year, that messed me up a little and I have to find, hopefully that, that perfect medium again. I think if I were to approach a new club, I would enjoy the sport more than having to focus on being so technical. And I think that’s when I play the best. When I have the most fun, I play the best, I don’t let my thoughts take over and that’s where I really excel. So yeah, those are the next steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi! It’s Oumou. Now that junior year is coming to an end, I’ve realized how much I hated this school year. To be honest, it’s probably one of my worst years yet out of my entire high school career. Not like academically but like socially and I’m not proud of it. The only good thing that happened this year was the like me making my webcomic which I’m really proud of that. My hopes for senior year are that I will be able to do better than this year. And I hope I can keep my perfect grade point average. I have a 4.0 GPA, woohoo. I guess I’d also like to find stability with my choices, such as like my career and my future goals and like making my web comic, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do hope that my peers and I can connect on a deeper level, because I feel like this year we definitely did get closer, but I wanna get even closer and I wanna really strengthen that friendship bond, especially with like the group of girls I usually hang out with. And of course, senior year is gonna be my last year at Summit Tamalpais, which means I can finally leave this school. My friends all know how much I wanna walk that stage and earn my diploma. I really wanna step outside of the confinements of my school, because it feels like a jail. I want to experience life for what it is and find my passion and my path and just follow it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>I think that I’m really excited to go to college because I’m going to have a lot more freedom to kind of do what I want. I’m gonna like try to explore as much stuff as I can. Like might sound, basically, joining new clubs. I love performing, and I’ve always wanted to do theater, but I never had time to in high school. So I’m really, really gonna try to dive deep into that when I go to college. I’ve also always wanted learn a second language. This might also come from my mom as well, because I don’t think she’s fluent in another language, but she loves French, and that kind of rubbed off on me. So I’d really love to learn a 2nd language too. And I also love to travel like her. I have very similar interests to her, so I will also really want to study abroad as soon as I can and get as many internships that aren’t super close to home. I don’t know if this part is a positive necessarily, but my mom and I both have this problem where we tend to get too excited and then we can over schedule and burn ourselves out. And I’m just gonna try to be very wary of that, but also try to explore as many avenues as I can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> Today is April 5th, 2025, and I finished getting all my college decisions. Um, I got rejected from Berkeley, which was really hard for me. I had an okay chance there and I was pretty sad and I got rejected. But it’s been a couple of days and I’m pretty much over it. Now I’m just kind of choosing what schools I’m going to based on like the options I have. Right now I’m kind of between Cal Poly Slo, like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and University of Missouri. I wouldn’t say I’m like super disappointed with my college results. Everything still feels so up in the air because I have a lot of wait lists I’m waiting for. Everything still feels like kind of up in the air, which kind of sucks because I, you know, the one thing that’s good about college app season is that it ends. So yeah, a lot is still kind of unwrapped, unfinished, but I’m feeling a lot better than I was a couple weeks ago where I was super, super anxious and just stressed. I think what this college app season has taught me is it’s so stressful to always be thinking about like the past and the future and the best thing you can do for yourself is just like think of the moment. When I’m worried about something it like consumes my whole entire body and my whole entire life, kind of learn like that’s not really the best way to live and I’m slowly being becoming better at that I would like to think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>That was Riya Minglani, Olivia Ma, Abby Kim, Oumou Cissé, students on KQED’s Youth Advisory board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>This episode was produced by: Jessica Kariisa, Alan Montecillo, Kyana Moghadam, Olivia Allen-Price, Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale. And us, Katrina Schwartz and Ericka Cruz Guevarra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>With extra support from: Randall Depew, Cheyanne Bearfoot,, Mel Velasquez, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> And everyone on team KQED. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>Music courtesy of Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions. Funding for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>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>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Have a great week.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As part of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/youthtakeover\">Youth Takeover at KQED\u003c/a>, The Bay and Bay Curious have teamed up to collaborate with four high school students who live in San Pablo, Fremont, Walnut Creek and San Jose. For several months, these teenagers — two juniors and two seniors — have shared what’s going on in their lives, what’s got them worried, what’s making them excited and what their passionate about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC9248879342&light=true\" width=\"100%\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>Hey I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra from The Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And I’m Katrina Schwartz from Bay Curious. And today, we’ve got something special for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>It’s Youth Takeover week here at KQED and that means we’re handing the mic over to Bay Area youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>In this special collaboration between The Bay and Bay Curious, we asked four high school students to send us audio diaries over the last few months to bring us into their worlds for a little bit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra:\u003c/b> We wanted to know: What’s on your mind these days? What’s getting you excited, worried?\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>And today, you’re gonna hear from those students, in their own words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>So without further ado, we’re gonna let the students introduce themselves to you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, my name is Oumou, and I’m a junior at Summit Tamalpais in San Pablo. I live in San Pablo with my parents and my siblings. I have one older sister and one little brother. My dad works with audio visual tech, and my mom is a teacher. I would describe myself as someone who’s very observant. I pay attention to the smallest details about people or stuff, and it can be both useful and annoying. I would also describe myself as someone who’s creative. Of course, I love art and I love my writing, but I’m also really creative with words. Like if I were to have an argument with anyone, I’m usually the one who ends up victorious. I also have killer comebacks if anyone disses me. What excites me every day is knowing that I’m slowly getting closer to accomplishing my personal life goals, such as making my webcomic, or whether it be like finishing my novel, which I need to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. I am currently the graduating class of 2026 and I attend Tilden Preparatory School in Walnut Creek, California. I play competitive field hockey, which is a very uncommon sport in California compared to like the East Coast. And as I’ve begun to grow and cultivate a love for the sport that I play, and as I started to make national selections and attend the junior Olympic qualifiers and play on a much higher level than I anticipated I would be playing at, I realized that this meant that I would not only have to commit to practicing and putting a lot of time and effort into my own personal skill and development but I would also have to find a club or a team that would compete with other clubs in the East Coast more competitively. And so little did I know this would essentially entail me driving down to San Diego every weekend during the school year in order for me to play at this higher level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>My name is Olivia Ma. I go to BASIS Independent Fremont Upper School in Fremont, California. I’m 17 and I’m a senior. I mean, I feel like to be very frank, the last year aspect hasn’t really hit for me yet. Like people have asked me like, oh, are you feeling sad or whatever? And then I don’t really know what to say because I don’t feel anything when I think about it being my senior year. I think maybe it’ll hit in May when I actually graduate. But I’m just trying to make the most of what I have right now so that maybe I don’t regret it later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> Hi, I’m Riya Minglani. I’m in the class of 2025 at Prospect High School and I’m from San Jose. It’s college decision month. Even though I’ve gotten into a couple of safety schools, the schools I really are really dreaming about and I could really, really want to go to are coming out this month, so feeling anxious. I’m also trying to put that anxiousness into excitement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Oumou and today is January 22nd, 2025. My favorite kind of music is heavy metal. More specifically, my favorite band is called Lacuna Coil, which is an Italian Gothic metal band from Milan. When I found them at the beginning of sophomore year, I was in this dark moment. I had a fallout with one of my teachers because I wrote a story and she didn’t really like it and I was just feeling all these emotions and I needed some place to put it. My most played song of my Spotify rap of 2024 was Intoxicated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Intoxicated Song Playing]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>During sophomore year it helped me through those hard times, especially when school was difficult and I was going through friend drama and shifting hormones and puberty and all that stuff. It was just really hard for me to express my emotions without lashing out at somebody. And it’s just, I love that during those dark times heavy metal really got me through it and I could connect with the music itself. People don’t think I like heavy metal because I’m black which is funny because you shouldn’t be grouped in with the certain with a certain race to like a certain kind of music. If you have strong emotions then heavy metal is for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. Today is January 17th, 2025. And if we’re really specific, it’s 3:55 p.m. right now. And I don’t know, I just been, there’s been a lot on my mind. You know, junior year is considered like rough. Everyone knows going into junior year is academically hard, because everything’s due for college apps and stuff. But playing a sport on top of that really adds to the stress. And then on top of not having your school have the sport you play or sports in general for in my case, it’s hard navigating everything, I think the biggest thing that made me actually, like the allure to the sport as I continued practicing was that I actually saw progress. Like I was like, okay, if I, you know, I used to suck at this one particular skill, but if I keep doing it, I can do really cool stuff with it. I can maneuver the ball this way. I can it this way, I can, like I could be as creative as I want. So that was kind of what made me really fall deep into the sport and fall in love with it. And of course now, as I’m older, it’s the people that you meet, and it’s the different experiences with coaches. Just overall, the sport is so fun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>My name is Olivia Ma. I’m a senior at BASIS Independent of Fremont, California, and it’s January 19th. Currently, I go to school in pretty much all STEM grade. I think I’m the only person who’s doing humanities because I’m gonna major in journalism. I’ve had a lot of faith in myself over the years to get myself out of tough situations because I’ve been able to. And while I think that’s a good thing to have faith in myself, I think, I’ve also gotten used to not having a plan B or being safe about things. So like, for example, last week I applied to a scholarship and it was a pretty big one because college is expensive. Anyways, I was gonna apply to a scholarship and it a video scholarship. I spent a lot of time on the video. I worked so hard on it and I was so proud of it and I was gonna submit it at school. But then my laptop died. So I had to call my mom. I begged her to take me home so I could charge my laptop and submit it. I got home half an hour before I was supposed to submit it and then I realized, hmm, I should add some pictures into my video because this section is kind of blank. And my mom kept begging me, like, no, this is a terrible idea. Like, you don’t know what’s going to happen on the website if it glitches. You’re not going to be able to turn it in. I said, it’s fine. And so I submitted it two minutes late because my video kept loading. And it didn’t let me submit. I bawled my eyes out for an hour. It was so bad that my voice, like I couldn’t talk after. My eyes were puffy. My head was like throbbing. And like I emailed the scholarship. And one reply I got was, oh, we can’t have any exceptions. I cried again. And then another email was like, oh we can reopen it for you. I was like oh, that’s so great. And I kept checking my portal and it wasn’t reopening. And I keep emailing this person. I sent them like 10 emails. And they eventually said, oh sorry, yeah, we can’t do anything about it. It’s good to take risks, but also be aware of the consequences that those risks come with. I do work hard, I do plan things out, but not enough. And I’ve realized that I need to be even more strict with myself than I was before, if I really wanna do well when I go to college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Hi, this is Riya. It’s Sunday, January 26th, and I just got back from hanging out with my dad and my brother at the mall. My parents got divorced in 2020, so they were one of those, like, 2020 divorces. My mom moved to San Jose, and my dad got remarried, and his wife, my stepmom, lives in Fremont. And usually every Friday, my dad comes, pick my brother and I up to drive to Fremont and I really like those drives because like those are really the only time I get to talk to my dad because a lot of the times like when I’m at his house like I’ll be doing homework he’ll be working. He like works a lot over the weekend. I feel like there’s this stereotype that immigrant dads tend to be really closed off and you just don’t know much about their personal lives but the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve really actually been able to talk to my dad and learn more about him as a person beyond him just being my dad. He’s so honest with me that I feel I can be super honest with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>So dad, how’s your day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>Ah yeah, it’s a usual day, busy day at work, a lot of meetings, discussion and planning for what we are going next in the AI driven world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>AI driven realm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>That’s all the people, everybody that’s the company I’m in, all they talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>I always like these car rides because I feel like we talk the most when we’re driving the car. Do you feel that way too?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>Yeah, I think that’s because we don’t have anything else which can distract us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>How do you feel about me starting driving?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>That’s just something I’m nervous about. That’s, um, something really nervous about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Oh my god, I’m not a bad driver!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani’s Dad: \u003c/b>You are not, but you need some practice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>I do. Okay, that’s fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Oumou, and today is February 4th, 2025, and I’m actually at home. So my school, Summit Tamalpais, has this thing called Expeditions, which is a special time for students to focus on what they want to do. And for me, in the beginning, was to make my art portfolio for college, because I wanted to become an animator, have a show idea that I wanted to do, I was originally gonna make it a TV show, but because it’s expensive and I don’t have any animation experience and I would probably have to go to art school for that and that’s also expensive, I decided to turn my idea into a comic. First it was called Children of Eternity, and I was heavily inspired by Peter Pan, and as well as Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Basically, the plot of the story is that every year, children are summoned to the Isle of Content, which is a star-shaped island on a star, to flee from the troubles of the Elder World, which is Earth. Once they come, they receive a luminescent, a glowing blue ball of light that keeps them young. So the idea is that the isle will be shaped like a star and have the same tropical look to it, like, you know, trees. I was thinking about making the star, like every single point of the star into a cliff. So it would be called the five cliffs because stars have like five points. The main reason why I’m really passionate about making a comic is because it is a form of expression, just like singing or dancing or even writing. And as a writer, I specialize in conveying stories through words. However, now that I’m slowly becoming a better artist, I wanted to try a new approach to my storytelling journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, my name is Abby Kim. It is currently February 9th, 2025. Now, as you know, a junior, I would say there’s a lot more challenges being in California. One of them being that when you’re trying to get recruited, a lot of college coaches, like I’ve had some college coaches tell us, we’re not recruiting any girls from California because they don’t trust the quality of players that are produced here. If I had to sum up recruiting process in one word, I would definitely say stress. I assumed, oh, the main gist of the recruitment process for athletes and field hockey are, I go to a tournament, coaches are there watching you and they will contact you and that is the end of that. While that’s true, that’s simply one factor out of a larger scheme of things. You send over film, you tell them hey I’m gonna be at this showcase please watch me, and you just constantly are kind of you’re kind of like a mosquito you constantly email them make sure that you’re building that relationship and that they know your name you go to their clinics, you just update them about everything, you send them your transcripts of you know, that year, that semester, you let them know what’s going on in your life, so it’s kind of like a report, you basically, you essentially just send them reports of updates of your life. So if you make one bad impression on one coach, you know that other coaches probably have heard of you and know you kind of have this reputation. And so it’s very tricky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Hi, I’m Olivia. I’m a senior at BASIS Independent Fremont, and today is February 14th, Valentine’s Day. So today was my last day of high school. Not like I graduated or anything, but yeah, we ended all our classes and for the next trimester, so the next, I think, two and a half-ish months, I’ll be working on like my senior project. Basically like, I leave school, I do whatever research or volunteer or etc. project I want to do, come back in May and present on it. I don’t know, I was just, it was pretty sad this morning. I never thought that I would be the kind of person to cry leaving school like this. But then in English class today, my teacher who I’ve had since I was in fourth grade, and I started fourth grade when I was eight, so it’s been a long time, he’s my English teacher now and we have this tradition every Friday in our classes where we do like shout outs or like you shout out your family, friends, teachers, etc. And then you like tell the whole class. And on our last day, everyone gave a shout out to our teacher. And I don’t remember my specific note, but it went something along the lines of, shout out to Mr. Becher for being my teacher and mentor since fourth grade. Under your guidance, I’ve learned what a truly open and creative space has looked like. And I think I wouldn’t be who I am today without you. Having him as a teacher in a very, very STEM school, it’s just, it’s helped me so, so much and like with exploring all my interests. And I think he’s always been there to support me and like all of my classmates, no matter what. He’s a very very like understanding and sweet person. And I don’t know, I just started crying. Like everyone else was already crying and I saw everyone else like, okay, I might as well cry now. And then he went around giving everyone little shout outs too. He is like shoutout to Olivia for her passion, leadership and there was a third one but I don’t specifically remember it. But I remember crying in that class but I don’t know, I don’t really know how I’m feeling. I’m mostly just tired and wanna take a nap, but yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> This is Riya, and it’s March 2nd. What makes me super anxious is like University of Washington in Seattle. I hate that they say it’s just gonna come out March 1st to 15th. Give me a date, give me a date. What if I don’t get into like a super good school? Like are my friends gonna judge me? Like am I gonna feel like super dumb? Like all my friends get into these amazing schools and I get into no good schools? Like that, honestly, I know it’s bad, like I know it’s not healthy. But I think even talking to my own friends and talking about how they feel. They’re kind of like saying the same thing that what makes them like the most anxious is like kind of how other people will perceive their college decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Something I’m so excited for, Senior Assassin. Senior Assassin is basically this game where seniors try to shoot other teams with water guns. I remember watching the seniors doing it last year and it looked like so much fun. I think it is a great way to distract from college applications and like to do something that’s fun and silly when everything feels so like scary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Sound of Senior Assassin]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>Today is March 10th and I got into San Diego State this week on Tuesday and I’m so excited because it’s a great school. I love the campus, it’s such a beautiful campus. They have a really cool journalism program and it’s more affordable because it is in-state California CSU tuition. So options like that have made me a lot more excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>After the break, the semester is ending. And the students are wrestling through some tough decisions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>That’s coming up right after this. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Hello, this is Abby and today is 3-17. It is also a Monday. We have a dance coming up, but I just found out that it conflicts with one of my field hockey tournaments. And it is devastating. I do have to like call my friend and tell her cause like we planned it. We’re like, I told her, I was like, oh, I get to go to the school dance. And so I’m gonna have to tell her I cannot go. Personally, I’ve never gone to a single school dance in high school. I know she’ll be pretty upset about it cause we have been like talking about a lot. We’ve gone, you know, she’s been calling me for dress shopping. Here goes nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>Hey girl, I was literally just about to call you. So my parents said that we can get ready for prom together at my house. So then we can finish up our prom dress shopping and girl, we’re set, we going to prom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Zia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>I love you! Oh gosh, okay, Abby, wait, what?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>Look, I know we’ve been planning prom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>Oh, Abby.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim: \u003c/b>But…\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Zia: \u003c/b>No, Abby, don’t tell me, please, oh my god.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> I do have a big field hockey event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> To give you a little bit more insight in what my final decision is when it comes to like athletics and my club. There’s one moment that I do very vividly recall. We were doing this drill and when it was my turn and I finished the drill, my coach stopped the whole drill, made everyone drop their sticks and pulled me to the front of all three lines and screamed at me. Essentially, she called me stupid and incompetent in one sentence. It was a moment that I’ll never forget. Now, every time I do a drill, I never wanna be the first in line because I’m so scared that I’m gonna mess up and get yelled at again. There’s this one time where we’re at a big tournament and I had sprained my ankle really badly and I remember telling a coach at a clinic, she just examined my foot and she said, it looks fine to me, I don’t know why you had to lie and say that you’re injured, just say that your tired. It ended up being that I tore three ligaments and my foot was black and blue when I couldn’t play for a month. Which I was told I wouldn’t be able to play for a month, but I ended up playing two weeks, only two weeks after that, because I had individual national selection tryouts, which I was dead set on going.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>So, I am interviewing my sister about comics, well, more specifically, my webcomic. So, why don’t you introduce yourself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé:\u003c/b> My name is Fatoumata Cissé, I’m Oumou’s older sister, older, better, amazing, greater sister. I’m just kidding, she’s pretty great too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>No you’re not the better sister, that’s not true. Okay, so first I’m going to have you look into my notebook. Okay, so the first, this side on the, your right, your left side is Seth. So this is just facial front. He’s the protagonist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>I like the emotion here. I don’t like that. I like this. I like this but I would say his face is too long. If I had the liquified tool, I would just push his face up. But I really like this one. It’s a good perspective. And this one’s Ori, right? Yeah. I like Ori’s outline in her hair. It’s like the line art of her own hair. I like the stylistic effort in there, it’s giving Black Lightning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>How do you think the story’s gonna end?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>Well, there could be two endings. One is like the Disney channel version and then one is like the Oumou Channel version. So the Disney channel version is like you know, like become friends again and they’re like, you know Seth is also a friend and everyone is kumbaya, right. The Oumou channel version is that Vin ends up killing Ori or something like that. Well, I just know this is going to be like a bad, not a bad ending, quote unquote, but like a sour, bittersweet ending. Go read her webtoon when it comes out. Probably going to come out, what, 2025, 2026?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>I’m thinking about whenever I get my drawing tablet, which is soon, I will start like getting used to it and then start drawing like probably the first episode. So maybe sometime near the end of this year or early next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Fatoumata Cissé: \u003c/b>Okay, my deadline for you is December 31st, 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>You’re diabolical. Okay, thank you so much for joining me. Goodbye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Hi, it’s Olivia Ma, and today is March 11th. I haven’t been to school in a while and, you know, that’s given me time to pick up some new hobbies, so for one, I’ve gotten kind of into latte art. My mom’s been into it for a while, and she has an espresso machine, and you know I’ve like watched her do it before, but I was really busy this year, so I never really had any time to indulge in it. You know recently I’ve been getting into it a bit more because you know my mornings are open now I’m able to get up at what 9:30 and just chill and it’s a new thing that me and my mom do together, and it’s really really fun. \u003ci>[Sound of steaming milk]\u003c/i> I’m so nervous okay, okay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma’s Mom: \u003c/b>Go, go!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>Ok, that’s a shape. Oh wait, this is cute. Mommy, I know you’re a very, very ambitious person. You love, you don’t like wasting your time. You love to explore new things. So when I go to college, a lot of your time will be freed up, tell me what you’re gonna do with that time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma’s Mom: \u003c/b>Okay, that’s a good question. I have been thinking about that and preparing for that for last six months. So with you are gone to college, I’ll have definitely much more time for my work and my team. And I’ve been trying to take singing lessons which I really enjoy very much and other things as well. So I can see myself enjoy those personal hobbies very much and maybe adding new things and meeting new people, new friends. One thing I want to tell you Olivia is that I really enjoy the time we spend together. It’s very important for me and I hope it’s also very sweet memories for you. But now you are going to start a new chapter for your own life. I’m going to start a new chapter for my life too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani: \u003c/b>It’s March 12th, 2025. So I just got my University of Washington, Seattle decision back and I got rejected. And like my heart was racing so, so much when I saw it, like my first reaction was just to like laugh. But like after kind of sitting with it for a couple of like minutes, I’m feeling a lot sadder than I thought I would have. My tears welling up a little bit. Oh my god I’m graduating, like it hits me in waves. Like sometimes I’ll be just like in my friend’s car and like we’re gonna go get food, I’m like oh my god I’m graduating right now. I’m not feeling nostalgia or sadness but like talk to me in maybe even like three hours and like I’ll be crying or like when I listen to like certain songs for example like Ribs from Lorde. \u003ci>[Ribs by Lorde] \u003c/i>Every time I hear that song, oh my god it just like is a knife to the heart, it just makes me feel so emotional about growing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>[Ribs by Lorde]\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Abby Kim:\u003c/b> Hello, this is Abby Kim. After really sitting down and figuring out what’s gonna be the best for me, I ultimately decided that I will not be continuing on with the club that I’m currently at. It’s very difficult because I tied my self-value on my performance, therefore how I perceive myself is very much contingent on how well I perform as an athlete. I’m gonna essentially take a little break from club field hockey, focus on myself and still engage in active ID clinics and camps. Because I do love the sport, but I think that taking a little break from my club and focusing on myself a little bit and finding balance is something that I’m gonna really have to work on. Because I think with all that travel that I did during the school year, in the middle of the year, that messed me up a little and I have to find, hopefully that, that perfect medium again. I think if I were to approach a new club, I would enjoy the sport more than having to focus on being so technical. And I think that’s when I play the best. When I have the most fun, I play the best, I don’t let my thoughts take over and that’s where I really excel. So yeah, those are the next steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Oumou Cissé: \u003c/b>Hi! It’s Oumou. Now that junior year is coming to an end, I’ve realized how much I hated this school year. To be honest, it’s probably one of my worst years yet out of my entire high school career. Not like academically but like socially and I’m not proud of it. The only good thing that happened this year was the like me making my webcomic which I’m really proud of that. My hopes for senior year are that I will be able to do better than this year. And I hope I can keep my perfect grade point average. I have a 4.0 GPA, woohoo. I guess I’d also like to find stability with my choices, such as like my career and my future goals and like making my web comic, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do hope that my peers and I can connect on a deeper level, because I feel like this year we definitely did get closer, but I wanna get even closer and I wanna really strengthen that friendship bond, especially with like the group of girls I usually hang out with. And of course, senior year is gonna be my last year at Summit Tamalpais, which means I can finally leave this school. My friends all know how much I wanna walk that stage and earn my diploma. I really wanna step outside of the confinements of my school, because it feels like a jail. I want to experience life for what it is and find my passion and my path and just follow it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Ma: \u003c/b>I think that I’m really excited to go to college because I’m going to have a lot more freedom to kind of do what I want. I’m gonna like try to explore as much stuff as I can. Like might sound, basically, joining new clubs. I love performing, and I’ve always wanted to do theater, but I never had time to in high school. So I’m really, really gonna try to dive deep into that when I go to college. I’ve also always wanted learn a second language. This might also come from my mom as well, because I don’t think she’s fluent in another language, but she loves French, and that kind of rubbed off on me. So I’d really love to learn a 2nd language too. And I also love to travel like her. I have very similar interests to her, so I will also really want to study abroad as soon as I can and get as many internships that aren’t super close to home. I don’t know if this part is a positive necessarily, but my mom and I both have this problem where we tend to get too excited and then we can over schedule and burn ourselves out. And I’m just gonna try to be very wary of that, but also try to explore as many avenues as I can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Riya Minglani:\u003c/b> Today is April 5th, 2025, and I finished getting all my college decisions. Um, I got rejected from Berkeley, which was really hard for me. I had an okay chance there and I was pretty sad and I got rejected. But it’s been a couple of days and I’m pretty much over it. Now I’m just kind of choosing what schools I’m going to based on like the options I have. Right now I’m kind of between Cal Poly Slo, like Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and University of Missouri. I wouldn’t say I’m like super disappointed with my college results. Everything still feels so up in the air because I have a lot of wait lists I’m waiting for. Everything still feels like kind of up in the air, which kind of sucks because I, you know, the one thing that’s good about college app season is that it ends. So yeah, a lot is still kind of unwrapped, unfinished, but I’m feeling a lot better than I was a couple weeks ago where I was super, super anxious and just stressed. I think what this college app season has taught me is it’s so stressful to always be thinking about like the past and the future and the best thing you can do for yourself is just like think of the moment. When I’m worried about something it like consumes my whole entire body and my whole entire life, kind of learn like that’s not really the best way to live and I’m slowly being becoming better at that I would like to think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>That was Riya Minglani, Olivia Ma, Abby Kim, Oumou Cissé, students on KQED’s Youth Advisory board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>This episode was produced by: Jessica Kariisa, Alan Montecillo, Kyana Moghadam, Olivia Allen-Price, Gabriela Glueck, Christopher Beale. And us, Katrina Schwartz and Ericka Cruz Guevarra.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>With extra support from: Randall Depew, Cheyanne Bearfoot,, Mel Velasquez, Katie Springer, Jen Chien, Alana Walker, Holly Kernan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b> And everyone on team KQED. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/b>Music courtesy of Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions. Funding for the Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>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>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "bus-drivers-light-rail-operators-on-strike-in-the-south-bay",
"title": "Bus Drivers, Light Rail Operators On Strike in the South Bay",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Monday, more than 1,500 Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus drivers, light rail operators and other employees went on strike for the first time in the agency’s history after more than six months of failed negotiations over wages and other issues.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1945432953\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:33] It’s about nine a .m. on Tuesday, and we’re talking about the VTA strike. But first, I mean, just sort of stepping back here, how big of a role does the VTA play in getting people around the South Bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:10] Vta, the Valley Transportation Authority, runs a ton of busses and light rail all around Santa Clara County. They serve, according to the agency right now, about 100,000 people per day. They are the transit agency for this region. And so that means they serve the most heavily populated and dense areas and do all kinds of bus and light rail transfers at really popular places like Diridon Station in downtown San Jose or at these various BART stations. They also serve the outer reaches of the county, like Morgan Hill and Gilroy with bus service, and light rail extending into the eastern foothills and into different regions all around big and small cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:04] Okay, so we’re talking about 100,000 people across Santa Clara County who rely on the VTA every day. Now I wanna talk about the strike, which is affecting all of those folks who rely on this agency. Who exactly is on strike right now and what jobs are we talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:25] The Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 265, it’s a long name for a union, but that is the local chapter of a very large national transit union. And at VTA, Local 265 represents more than 1 ,500 currently, bus drivers and light rail train operators, as well as a series of other critical functions like maintenance workers who keep those trains and busses operating. as well as customer service agents and dispatchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:03:58] A lot of us here don’t want to, but we have to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:00] Melissa Rodriguez is a bus driver, and she’s been doing it for years with VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] It’s hard to live. A lot of people, a lot of drivers live really far away. They drive two to three hours just to get here, just to go to work, and it’s hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:16] And I talked to her outside of the Cerone yard. It’s a bus depot in North San Jose. And she’s essentially one of hundreds of workers yesterday who were taking shifts on picket lines and protesting essentially what they believe is an unfair contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:04:32] People that I’ve had on my bus, they were supportive. They said they had to find other avenues to go ahead and get to where they needed to get to. I feel really bad, but if we don’t do anything about this now, we’re just gonna continue to fight like this back and forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:54] Yeah, let’s talk about that a little bit more, Joseph. Why exactly is this strike happening? And I guess how did we get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:01] It’s been months and months of negotiations. ATU members were negotiating for a new contract. Their current contract expired in early March, but they’ve been negotiating with the agency to hammer out a new contract since August. Despite that, you know, more than six month negotiation period where for most weeks they were meeting twice a week, they were unable to get the contract completely figured out. And the two sides, the agency and the union, they remain really far apart on these critical issues like wages, as well as how employee grievances are handled and a couple of other issues that are important to the union right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] What exactly are these VTA workers asking for? What are their demands?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:57] Yeah, the biggest one right now, at least in terms of, you know, on paper, where they’re farthest apart is wages. So the VTA made its most recent offer to the union in late February, on February 28th, and they were offering a 9 % raise to these drivers, operators, and other workers over a period of three years. Meanwhile, on the other hand, you’ve got the union on that same day making their most recent ask. And for wages, they are asking for 18%. So they want a 6 % raise in each of the three years that this contract would cover. The union is asking for double what the agency is offering. So that is one of the biggest chasms, I guess, you could say. One of the bigger sticking points is the arbitration issue. So essentially, this is the way that the union and the agency work out disputes. When there is a problem with the way a worker was treated in the view of the union, they can bring a grievance to the agency. and that can sometimes go into the arbitration process. The ATU and the VTA have been meeting for months and negotiating multiple times a week up until this strike occurred. And the negotiation team for the union includes its president, Raj Singh, and he has been characterizing these negotiations in a really negative light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Raj Singh \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] Negotiations have not been in good faith, you know, the communication was very poor. The agency has stuck to their normal routine that it’s, you know, it’s used for every single negotiations that I’ve seen in my 17 years of employment here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:29] He said that the agency is wasting the union’s time for the first several months of the negotiations and not addressing real issues and not making what the union considers to be real substantive offers in terms of wages. He has kind of lambasted the agency and claimed that they are the reason this strike is happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Raj Singh \u003c/strong>[00:07:49] We’re asking for the agency to, you know, present something that they believe is fair. We want to get this done sooner rather than later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:01] Wow, strong words there. And also seems like there’s just a lot going on here. The union and the agency being very far apart on wages and this sort of conflict resolution process. I mean, how has VTA responded to all of this and especially these demands?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:24] Yeah, I mean, I think there’s been some nearly equally strong words coming from the VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] Let me first start by saying how disappointed we are with the action taken last night by ATU Local 265 with their communication to our board of their intent to strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:45] you’ve got the deputy general manager of VTA, his name’s Greg Richardson, and he has, you know, been interviewed a million times by local media as well as held press conferences where he has decried what he calls a decision, a choice by the union to basically abandon a hundred thousand people every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:09:05] you know these are folks who are trying to get to their job and if they’re not aware of it and they’re having a clock in clock out i mean this is going to be something that that could impact them dramatically and uh… it’s not something that we want to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:18] The other thing that Greg Richardson and VTA spokespeople have noted is that there simply in their view is not enough money in the piggy bank, so to speak, to meet the union where they are asking to be met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:09:33] ATU’s demand is for a 19 .1 % increase over three years. The reality, with a wage increase at this level, or anything close to it, would be service cuts throughout our system and the likely elimination of positions across VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:50] Richardson has said, you know, it’s going to be a little bit of a fiscal challenge for the agency to be able to meet the offer that they’ve already made at 9%, but they’re willing to do that and they are committed to doing that without having to cut, first of all, any employees or cut any service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:10:06] You know, do we want to keep the ridership going? Of course. I mean, the momentum that VTA has gained over the last 18 to 24 months has been dramatic, but it’s more important about the impact it’s going to have on those riders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:21] And as we’re talking Joseph, it’s day two now of the strike. How has it gone so far?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:27] Yeah, day one was interesting. Spirits were high, a lot of strikes with labor unions often start early in the morning, and there’s no exception here. You had workers kind of in line with their shifts, right? Because bus drivers and train operators, they get up before the crack of dawn in some cases. And so you had folks picketing outside of five locations that are run by the VTA, including their headquarters in North San Jose, and you had folks out there in the dark of night, essentially around four in the morning. beginning their picketing and their chanting of slogans and, you know, basically just making a public show of force that they won’t be ignored and that their demands are serious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was an incident in the morning at the Cerone yard where there’s this pickup truck driven by what ATU says was a VTA supervisor that kind of made contact with a couple of the picketers. And there was a dispute about whether he collided with them on purpose or what was happening. But it was a really messy situation. A couple of people got sent to the hospital just to make sure they were okay with some minor injuries. but overall that incident really increased the tensions. VTA, for its side, is saying that the picketing workers were at fault, essentially blocking the car’s way, the pickup truck’s way, and kind of getting in the way of the car on purpose. So there seems to be a lot of disagreement, but either way, nobody is happy about this incident with the pickup truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:53] I mean, what impact is this having so far on riders in the county, Joseph? I mean, because obviously no one, it seems like, is driving the busses. So are none of the trains or busses operating right now? I mean, what does this all mean for riders?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:14] Yeah, not a single bus or train, light rail train, from VTA is running right now and has not been running since just after midnight on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:12:23] And so there’s a strike that I didn’t listen to the news this morning. So now I have to take an Uber out to Mountain View.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:32] Sheila Mirrelees of Mountain View took Cal Train and BART into work in Oakland in the morning but was coming back through BART and planned to take a VTA light rail train back home in the afternoon and she found out after walking the footbridge over to the light rail station that there were going to be no trains this week or that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] I saw people walking back but they didn’t tell me so yeah, I walked all the way over there, so\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] A lot of people have mixed feelings about when a public agency workforce like this goes on strike and affects so many people on a daily basis. But some of those people who were directly affected, like Sheila, still have empathy and understanding for this workforce and what they’ve chosen to do here to get a better contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:13:19] People just don’t go on strike for the fun of it. There’s something going on in their lives or they really need to for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:30] Joseph, you’ve talked to both the union and the VTA at this point. Any sense on how long this could last?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:40] That’s the million dollar question, but the short answer is no. There’s no big insight or secret here. The VTA says, hey, we’re ready for the union to come back to the table. And the union says, hey, we’re waiting for the VTA to improve its offer and call us back to the table. So there’s a little bit of finger pointing and a little bit of inaction, it seems, at this moment. It’s unclear how long that’ll last. You know, the union has not said if there’s a limit on how long they plan to strike. And the agency itself has not said, you know, if they would change their approach after a certain amount of time of the strike continuing. So it’s really unclear.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On Monday, more than 1,500 Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority bus drivers, light rail operators and other employees went on strike for the first time in the agency’s history after more than six months of failed negotiations over wages and other issues.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1945432953\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:33] It’s about nine a .m. on Tuesday, and we’re talking about the VTA strike. But first, I mean, just sort of stepping back here, how big of a role does the VTA play in getting people around the South Bay?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:10] Vta, the Valley Transportation Authority, runs a ton of busses and light rail all around Santa Clara County. They serve, according to the agency right now, about 100,000 people per day. They are the transit agency for this region. And so that means they serve the most heavily populated and dense areas and do all kinds of bus and light rail transfers at really popular places like Diridon Station in downtown San Jose or at these various BART stations. They also serve the outer reaches of the county, like Morgan Hill and Gilroy with bus service, and light rail extending into the eastern foothills and into different regions all around big and small cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:04] Okay, so we’re talking about 100,000 people across Santa Clara County who rely on the VTA every day. Now I wanna talk about the strike, which is affecting all of those folks who rely on this agency. Who exactly is on strike right now and what jobs are we talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:25] The Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 265, it’s a long name for a union, but that is the local chapter of a very large national transit union. And at VTA, Local 265 represents more than 1 ,500 currently, bus drivers and light rail train operators, as well as a series of other critical functions like maintenance workers who keep those trains and busses operating. as well as customer service agents and dispatchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:03:58] A lot of us here don’t want to, but we have to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:00] Melissa Rodriguez is a bus driver, and she’s been doing it for years with VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] It’s hard to live. A lot of people, a lot of drivers live really far away. They drive two to three hours just to get here, just to go to work, and it’s hard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:16] And I talked to her outside of the Cerone yard. It’s a bus depot in North San Jose. And she’s essentially one of hundreds of workers yesterday who were taking shifts on picket lines and protesting essentially what they believe is an unfair contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Melissa Rodriguez \u003c/strong>[00:04:32] People that I’ve had on my bus, they were supportive. They said they had to find other avenues to go ahead and get to where they needed to get to. I feel really bad, but if we don’t do anything about this now, we’re just gonna continue to fight like this back and forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:54] Yeah, let’s talk about that a little bit more, Joseph. Why exactly is this strike happening? And I guess how did we get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:01] It’s been months and months of negotiations. ATU members were negotiating for a new contract. Their current contract expired in early March, but they’ve been negotiating with the agency to hammer out a new contract since August. Despite that, you know, more than six month negotiation period where for most weeks they were meeting twice a week, they were unable to get the contract completely figured out. And the two sides, the agency and the union, they remain really far apart on these critical issues like wages, as well as how employee grievances are handled and a couple of other issues that are important to the union right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:50] What exactly are these VTA workers asking for? What are their demands?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:57] Yeah, the biggest one right now, at least in terms of, you know, on paper, where they’re farthest apart is wages. So the VTA made its most recent offer to the union in late February, on February 28th, and they were offering a 9 % raise to these drivers, operators, and other workers over a period of three years. Meanwhile, on the other hand, you’ve got the union on that same day making their most recent ask. And for wages, they are asking for 18%. So they want a 6 % raise in each of the three years that this contract would cover. The union is asking for double what the agency is offering. So that is one of the biggest chasms, I guess, you could say. One of the bigger sticking points is the arbitration issue. So essentially, this is the way that the union and the agency work out disputes. When there is a problem with the way a worker was treated in the view of the union, they can bring a grievance to the agency. and that can sometimes go into the arbitration process. The ATU and the VTA have been meeting for months and negotiating multiple times a week up until this strike occurred. And the negotiation team for the union includes its president, Raj Singh, and he has been characterizing these negotiations in a really negative light.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Raj Singh \u003c/strong>[00:07:13] Negotiations have not been in good faith, you know, the communication was very poor. The agency has stuck to their normal routine that it’s, you know, it’s used for every single negotiations that I’ve seen in my 17 years of employment here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:29] He said that the agency is wasting the union’s time for the first several months of the negotiations and not addressing real issues and not making what the union considers to be real substantive offers in terms of wages. He has kind of lambasted the agency and claimed that they are the reason this strike is happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Raj Singh \u003c/strong>[00:07:49] We’re asking for the agency to, you know, present something that they believe is fair. We want to get this done sooner rather than later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:01] Wow, strong words there. And also seems like there’s just a lot going on here. The union and the agency being very far apart on wages and this sort of conflict resolution process. I mean, how has VTA responded to all of this and especially these demands?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:24] Yeah, I mean, I think there’s been some nearly equally strong words coming from the VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] Let me first start by saying how disappointed we are with the action taken last night by ATU Local 265 with their communication to our board of their intent to strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:45] you’ve got the deputy general manager of VTA, his name’s Greg Richardson, and he has, you know, been interviewed a million times by local media as well as held press conferences where he has decried what he calls a decision, a choice by the union to basically abandon a hundred thousand people every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:09:05] you know these are folks who are trying to get to their job and if they’re not aware of it and they’re having a clock in clock out i mean this is going to be something that that could impact them dramatically and uh… it’s not something that we want to see.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:18] The other thing that Greg Richardson and VTA spokespeople have noted is that there simply in their view is not enough money in the piggy bank, so to speak, to meet the union where they are asking to be met.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:09:33] ATU’s demand is for a 19 .1 % increase over three years. The reality, with a wage increase at this level, or anything close to it, would be service cuts throughout our system and the likely elimination of positions across VTA.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:50] Richardson has said, you know, it’s going to be a little bit of a fiscal challenge for the agency to be able to meet the offer that they’ve already made at 9%, but they’re willing to do that and they are committed to doing that without having to cut, first of all, any employees or cut any service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Greg Richardson \u003c/strong>[00:10:06] You know, do we want to keep the ridership going? Of course. I mean, the momentum that VTA has gained over the last 18 to 24 months has been dramatic, but it’s more important about the impact it’s going to have on those riders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:21] And as we’re talking Joseph, it’s day two now of the strike. How has it gone so far?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:27] Yeah, day one was interesting. Spirits were high, a lot of strikes with labor unions often start early in the morning, and there’s no exception here. You had workers kind of in line with their shifts, right? Because bus drivers and train operators, they get up before the crack of dawn in some cases. And so you had folks picketing outside of five locations that are run by the VTA, including their headquarters in North San Jose, and you had folks out there in the dark of night, essentially around four in the morning. beginning their picketing and their chanting of slogans and, you know, basically just making a public show of force that they won’t be ignored and that their demands are serious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There was an incident in the morning at the Cerone yard where there’s this pickup truck driven by what ATU says was a VTA supervisor that kind of made contact with a couple of the picketers. And there was a dispute about whether he collided with them on purpose or what was happening. But it was a really messy situation. A couple of people got sent to the hospital just to make sure they were okay with some minor injuries. but overall that incident really increased the tensions. VTA, for its side, is saying that the picketing workers were at fault, essentially blocking the car’s way, the pickup truck’s way, and kind of getting in the way of the car on purpose. So there seems to be a lot of disagreement, but either way, nobody is happy about this incident with the pickup truck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:53] I mean, what impact is this having so far on riders in the county, Joseph? I mean, because obviously no one, it seems like, is driving the busses. So are none of the trains or busses operating right now? I mean, what does this all mean for riders?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:14] Yeah, not a single bus or train, light rail train, from VTA is running right now and has not been running since just after midnight on Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:12:23] And so there’s a strike that I didn’t listen to the news this morning. So now I have to take an Uber out to Mountain View.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:32] Sheila Mirrelees of Mountain View took Cal Train and BART into work in Oakland in the morning but was coming back through BART and planned to take a VTA light rail train back home in the afternoon and she found out after walking the footbridge over to the light rail station that there were going to be no trains this week or that day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] I saw people walking back but they didn’t tell me so yeah, I walked all the way over there, so\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:58] A lot of people have mixed feelings about when a public agency workforce like this goes on strike and affects so many people on a daily basis. But some of those people who were directly affected, like Sheila, still have empathy and understanding for this workforce and what they’ve chosen to do here to get a better contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Sheila Mirrielees \u003c/strong>[00:13:19] People just don’t go on strike for the fun of it. There’s something going on in their lives or they really need to for the most part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:30] Joseph, you’ve talked to both the union and the VTA at this point. Any sense on how long this could last?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:40] That’s the million dollar question, but the short answer is no. There’s no big insight or secret here. The VTA says, hey, we’re ready for the union to come back to the table. And the union says, hey, we’re waiting for the VTA to improve its offer and call us back to the table. So there’s a little bit of finger pointing and a little bit of inaction, it seems, at this moment. It’s unclear how long that’ll last. You know, the union has not said if there’s a limit on how long they plan to strike. And the agency itself has not said, you know, if they would change their approach after a certain amount of time of the strike continuing. So it’s really unclear.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Bay Area public schools are struggling, especially in Oakland and San Francisco. Both districts are among only a handful across the state with negative budgets, and as a result recently voted to approve preliminary layoff notices for teachers, counselors, and other staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC4698991256\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:19] All right, Katie, so last week, some huge budget cuts were announced for Oakland and San Francisco schools. How big of a deal are these cuts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:29] They’re significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] Katie DeBenedetti is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:34] San Francisco needs to cut about $113 million from their budget, and Oakland needs to cut about $95 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:45] In San Francisco, the cuts, which are really potential layoff notices, impact about 10% of the district’s teachers, social workers, counselors, teacher aides. And in Oakland, hundreds of staff could be affected. There, the district is eliminating about 800 positions, but it’s creating 700 new ones. So a lot of people might get shifted into a new role. They might move from a 12 month position to an 11 month position, but there’s still gonna be a lot of confusion and a lot of jobs are changing, which could result in pay cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:03:29] I think it’s really demoralizing for both teachers and staff that have kind of gotten used to receiving these pink slips. We’re looking at staffing that might cut a lot of the really key services that students rely on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:47] Yeah, let’s dig into that a little bit more. What is the range of things actually on the chopping block? Starting with San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:03:55] In San Francisco, they have basically said, we’re going to cut 395 or so roles across teachers, social workers, counselors, and under teachers, there are a lot of specialist positions. So those are English language arts specialist, literacy coaches, a lot of librarians are teachers. And then a lot of also administrators, most schools right now might not have an assistant principal. Basically, it’s anything that doesn’t fit in the state standard of positions needed to, quote, keep the lights on in school. So classroom teachers, a principal, a janitor, and a clerk are pretty much the only guarantees right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] And what about Oakland?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] In Oakland, a lot of the positions that are getting cut are going to be reallocated. So, you know, there’s going to be some cuts to classroom teachers in certain cases. But a big category of the cuts that people are worried about are these substitute teachers called STIP subs. They work at one school site. They say they’re year round. Basically, the district is going to eliminate those roles and kind of replace them with a group of subs that will live at the district level and be sent out based on teacher absences. The other big category there is a lot of roles for support staff are going to be changed from 12 months to 11 months, which results in a pay cut and also makes it so that those staff members won’t be able to use that 12th month of the year where they’re doing planning and preparing over the summer to really get things done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:51] I really do feel like I have seen story after story after story about budget cuts at public schools all over the Bay Area. It really seems like a tough time right now for public schools. I mean, is it just, am I just imagining this, Katie? Like, or are public schools across the Bay really struggling right now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:16] No, you are not imagining it. This is not isolated to San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:25] Many, many school districts are struggling. In just the Bay Area, Santa Rosa is planning to close five schools because of budget cuts. In San Jose, they’re also closing schools. And districts throughout the state are facing these deficits and making staff cuts kind of across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:47] And why is that, Katie? Why is it that so many public schools seem to be struggling so much in this particular moment in time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:57] One of the biggest reasons is declining enrollment. Families have moved out of cities. Kids might be attending private school in higher numbers. The birth rate is also declining. So there are a couple of reasons that schools aren’t growing. Basically the way that school districts get their funding is they get a certain amount of money for every student that they have. That makes up a big bulk of their total budget. So when you have a district like San Francisco, which has lost 10,000 students in the last 10 years or Oakland, which has lost 15,000 in the last 20, they’re getting a lot less money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Another big reason is during COVID, districts got a lot of relief money from the government and a lot of districts already facing that declining enrollment kind of used it to pay for ongoing expenses, but that money is now gone. And I think things are also just costing more. The cost of living in Oakland and San Francisco has gone up disproportionately to the, you know, amount of funding that they get from the state for schools. but they need to pay more in wages, they’re paying more for their buildings, for their third-party contracts, and that’s just not being reflected in the amount of funding they’re getting from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:27] Coming up, why the budget situation is even worse in Oakland and San Francisco. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:12] So it sounds like a lot of school districts across the Bay Area are struggling with issues like low enrollment, the end of these COVID funds, inflation, but where do the budget problems at Oakland and San Francisco public schools, where do they stack up against these other Bay Area school districts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:09:34] They’re definitely among the worst off. Oakland and San Francisco are among seven of about a thousand districts in California that have negative interim budgets from December. That basically means that without making big changes, they won’t be able to pay their bills in the next few years. Hayward Unified School District is also on that list, but the other four districts are much smaller. They’re in rural parts of the state and their budgets are really a fraction of the size of San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] I mean, Katie, why are things so bad at schools in Oakland and San Francisco, specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:10:14] Oakland and San Francisco have historically, you know, talked about big cuts, talked about school closures, and then backed off those plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Grant Dawson \u003c/strong>[00:10:24] It’s been decades of not dealing with systemic issues and ultimately asking the superintendent and the staff to make it work for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:10:36] So Lisa Grant Dawson is Oakland’s budget officer, and she said that they have this pattern. They’ll workshop a plan, they’ll discuss it, they’ll talk about the community impact, what can go, but then they won’t implement it. And that’s kind of continued for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Grant-Dawson \u003c/strong>[00:10:56] It often sounds like our issue is strictly financial, but it’s really how we operate and we’ve just reached a place that we’ve run out of space in order for us to be able to make amends as we have historically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:15] I mean, is this normal that that these two districts sort of come up with a plan, you know, commit to these cuts and then decide to sort of back off on them?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:11:30] No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Fine \u003c/strong>[00:11:33] Oakland is notorious for planning, for taking a plan, and naming it five different times, but never fully implementing the plan. San Francisco has yet to come up with a plan, in my opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:11:46] Mike Fine, who is the executive director of FCMAT, which is a financial company that helps California districts with their finances, said that a lot of districts are having these same issues, but what’s hurting Oakland and San Francisco is that they’re not taking the steps they need to, to remediate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Fine \u003c/strong>[00:12:06] This failure to implement idea is really harmful because you go through the same grind and you go through the same emotional trauma year after year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:12:20] Realistically, all of the budget balancing work that they’re doing costs money. Like last fall, Oakland and San Francisco both had plans to close schools, which admittedly it’s unclear how much money closing schools really saves, but developing the plans to close schools costs money, staff puts time into it. It’s a lot of work and then to get no gain out of it is hurting them even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:49] Coming back to the students here who really will, I imagine, bear the brunt of these cuts. I mean, what are these cuts going to mean for San Francisco and Oakland students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:13:01] I think a lot of families and teachers are really concerned about how equitable they’re going to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kampala Taiz-Rancifer \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] Our main function as a school district is to provide quality education. And when we make cuts so close to schools, we’re really undermining that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:13:19] Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, who is the Oakland Union President for teachers, she says that a lot of the cuts that are being made are gonna impact students on their school sites. So, you know, teachers who are working 11 instead of 12 months won’t engage with families during the summer as much. Without subs on site, kids will have to, you know, get accustomed to working with teachers that they don’t know as well. They’ll lose kind of another adult resource. And really, they’re just going to hurt students more than they’re hurting the function of the district at the central office level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kampala Taiz-Rancifer \u003c/strong>[00:14:00] We are going to be having threats from our national government and we really at this time need to make sure that schools are stable and that they are places that students can rely upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:14:16] Both districts in the past have had school closure plans and budget cut plans that school communities feel have really negatively impacted low -income students and students of color disproportionately. And so there’s a lot of distrust just when we’re making these cuts, are we prioritizing those students’ needs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 1 \u003c/strong>[00:14:36] The positions that you’re proposing to cut or reduce work directly with students and families, particularly from our most disadvantaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:14:43] and you can really hear a lot of those concerns at these districts recent board meetings from parents and from teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 2 \u003c/strong>[00:14:51] Please fund a full social worker at every site at minimum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 3 \u003c/strong>[00:14:54] District employees receive high salaries, yet they remain inaccessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 4 \u003c/strong>[00:14:58] I am here to demand that this board protect our student -facing services. I don’t even like calling it services. These are human beings. These are people, essential people, that work with our babies every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:15] What is next here, Katie? It sounds like, at least in San Francisco, TBD on who exactly could lose their jobs. And then in the case of Oakland, I mean, are these cuts going to happen in the next school year or what is next year?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:15:36] So the next step is layoff notice letters going out. These are not set in stone. A lot of people are going to get layoff notices and then in May, when budgets become more clear, get those notices rescinded. If they don’t get rescinded and they get confirmed in May, those employees will be without a job beginning in the next school year. The state would only step in if either district makes it to June just before the start of the new fiscal year without balancing a budget. So because both districts did pass layoff notice resolutions, they are technically making the cuts that they need to make. So it really depends on May and what cuts stay and what cuts get rescinded. And I’m sure in the months in between, there’s gonna be a lot of organizing from, you know each district’s unions, the parent communities, to fight cuts and try to shift them away from students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:46] Well, Katie, thanks so much for breaking this down for us. I really appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:16:49] Thanks so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:56] That was Katie DeBenedetti, a reporter for KQED. This 25 -minute conversation with Katie was cut down and edited by senior editor, Alan Montecillo. Jessica Kariisa is our producer. She scored this episode. Our intern, Mel Velasquez, added all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network, Blue Dot Sessions, and NPR. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. 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. I’m Erica Cruz Guevarra, thanks for listening, peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027158/how-oakland-and-sf-ended-up-among-7-ca-school-districts-who-cant-pay-their-bills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Oakland and SF Ended Up Among 7 CA School Districts Who Can’t Pay Their Bills\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Bay Area public schools are struggling, especially in Oakland and San Francisco. Both districts are among only a handful across the state with negative budgets, and as a result recently voted to approve preliminary layoff notices for teachers, counselors, and other staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC4698991256\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:19] All right, Katie, so last week, some huge budget cuts were announced for Oakland and San Francisco schools. How big of a deal are these cuts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:29] They’re significant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] Katie DeBenedetti is a reporter for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:34] San Francisco needs to cut about $113 million from their budget, and Oakland needs to cut about $95 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:02:45] In San Francisco, the cuts, which are really potential layoff notices, impact about 10% of the district’s teachers, social workers, counselors, teacher aides. And in Oakland, hundreds of staff could be affected. There, the district is eliminating about 800 positions, but it’s creating 700 new ones. So a lot of people might get shifted into a new role. They might move from a 12 month position to an 11 month position, but there’s still gonna be a lot of confusion and a lot of jobs are changing, which could result in pay cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:03:29] I think it’s really demoralizing for both teachers and staff that have kind of gotten used to receiving these pink slips. We’re looking at staffing that might cut a lot of the really key services that students rely on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:47] Yeah, let’s dig into that a little bit more. What is the range of things actually on the chopping block? Starting with San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:03:55] In San Francisco, they have basically said, we’re going to cut 395 or so roles across teachers, social workers, counselors, and under teachers, there are a lot of specialist positions. So those are English language arts specialist, literacy coaches, a lot of librarians are teachers. And then a lot of also administrators, most schools right now might not have an assistant principal. Basically, it’s anything that doesn’t fit in the state standard of positions needed to, quote, keep the lights on in school. So classroom teachers, a principal, a janitor, and a clerk are pretty much the only guarantees right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] And what about Oakland?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] In Oakland, a lot of the positions that are getting cut are going to be reallocated. So, you know, there’s going to be some cuts to classroom teachers in certain cases. But a big category of the cuts that people are worried about are these substitute teachers called STIP subs. They work at one school site. They say they’re year round. Basically, the district is going to eliminate those roles and kind of replace them with a group of subs that will live at the district level and be sent out based on teacher absences. The other big category there is a lot of roles for support staff are going to be changed from 12 months to 11 months, which results in a pay cut and also makes it so that those staff members won’t be able to use that 12th month of the year where they’re doing planning and preparing over the summer to really get things done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:51] I really do feel like I have seen story after story after story about budget cuts at public schools all over the Bay Area. It really seems like a tough time right now for public schools. I mean, is it just, am I just imagining this, Katie? Like, or are public schools across the Bay really struggling right now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:16] No, you are not imagining it. This is not isolated to San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:25] Many, many school districts are struggling. In just the Bay Area, Santa Rosa is planning to close five schools because of budget cuts. In San Jose, they’re also closing schools. And districts throughout the state are facing these deficits and making staff cuts kind of across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:47] And why is that, Katie? Why is it that so many public schools seem to be struggling so much in this particular moment in time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:06:57] One of the biggest reasons is declining enrollment. Families have moved out of cities. Kids might be attending private school in higher numbers. The birth rate is also declining. So there are a couple of reasons that schools aren’t growing. Basically the way that school districts get their funding is they get a certain amount of money for every student that they have. That makes up a big bulk of their total budget. So when you have a district like San Francisco, which has lost 10,000 students in the last 10 years or Oakland, which has lost 15,000 in the last 20, they’re getting a lot less money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Another big reason is during COVID, districts got a lot of relief money from the government and a lot of districts already facing that declining enrollment kind of used it to pay for ongoing expenses, but that money is now gone. And I think things are also just costing more. The cost of living in Oakland and San Francisco has gone up disproportionately to the, you know, amount of funding that they get from the state for schools. but they need to pay more in wages, they’re paying more for their buildings, for their third-party contracts, and that’s just not being reflected in the amount of funding they’re getting from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:27] Coming up, why the budget situation is even worse in Oakland and San Francisco. Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:12] So it sounds like a lot of school districts across the Bay Area are struggling with issues like low enrollment, the end of these COVID funds, inflation, but where do the budget problems at Oakland and San Francisco public schools, where do they stack up against these other Bay Area school districts?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:09:34] They’re definitely among the worst off. Oakland and San Francisco are among seven of about a thousand districts in California that have negative interim budgets from December. That basically means that without making big changes, they won’t be able to pay their bills in the next few years. Hayward Unified School District is also on that list, but the other four districts are much smaller. They’re in rural parts of the state and their budgets are really a fraction of the size of San Francisco and Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] I mean, Katie, why are things so bad at schools in Oakland and San Francisco, specifically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:10:14] Oakland and San Francisco have historically, you know, talked about big cuts, talked about school closures, and then backed off those plans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Grant Dawson \u003c/strong>[00:10:24] It’s been decades of not dealing with systemic issues and ultimately asking the superintendent and the staff to make it work for the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:10:36] So Lisa Grant Dawson is Oakland’s budget officer, and she said that they have this pattern. They’ll workshop a plan, they’ll discuss it, they’ll talk about the community impact, what can go, but then they won’t implement it. And that’s kind of continued for years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lisa Grant-Dawson \u003c/strong>[00:10:56] It often sounds like our issue is strictly financial, but it’s really how we operate and we’ve just reached a place that we’ve run out of space in order for us to be able to make amends as we have historically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:15] I mean, is this normal that that these two districts sort of come up with a plan, you know, commit to these cuts and then decide to sort of back off on them?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:11:30] No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Fine \u003c/strong>[00:11:33] Oakland is notorious for planning, for taking a plan, and naming it five different times, but never fully implementing the plan. San Francisco has yet to come up with a plan, in my opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:11:46] Mike Fine, who is the executive director of FCMAT, which is a financial company that helps California districts with their finances, said that a lot of districts are having these same issues, but what’s hurting Oakland and San Francisco is that they’re not taking the steps they need to, to remediate them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mike Fine \u003c/strong>[00:12:06] This failure to implement idea is really harmful because you go through the same grind and you go through the same emotional trauma year after year after year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:12:20] Realistically, all of the budget balancing work that they’re doing costs money. Like last fall, Oakland and San Francisco both had plans to close schools, which admittedly it’s unclear how much money closing schools really saves, but developing the plans to close schools costs money, staff puts time into it. It’s a lot of work and then to get no gain out of it is hurting them even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:49] Coming back to the students here who really will, I imagine, bear the brunt of these cuts. I mean, what are these cuts going to mean for San Francisco and Oakland students?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:13:01] I think a lot of families and teachers are really concerned about how equitable they’re going to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kampala Taiz-Rancifer \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] Our main function as a school district is to provide quality education. And when we make cuts so close to schools, we’re really undermining that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:13:19] Kampala Taiz-Rancifer, who is the Oakland Union President for teachers, she says that a lot of the cuts that are being made are gonna impact students on their school sites. So, you know, teachers who are working 11 instead of 12 months won’t engage with families during the summer as much. Without subs on site, kids will have to, you know, get accustomed to working with teachers that they don’t know as well. They’ll lose kind of another adult resource. And really, they’re just going to hurt students more than they’re hurting the function of the district at the central office level.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Kampala Taiz-Rancifer \u003c/strong>[00:14:00] We are going to be having threats from our national government and we really at this time need to make sure that schools are stable and that they are places that students can rely upon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:14:16] Both districts in the past have had school closure plans and budget cut plans that school communities feel have really negatively impacted low -income students and students of color disproportionately. And so there’s a lot of distrust just when we’re making these cuts, are we prioritizing those students’ needs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 1 \u003c/strong>[00:14:36] The positions that you’re proposing to cut or reduce work directly with students and families, particularly from our most disadvantaged.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:14:43] and you can really hear a lot of those concerns at these districts recent board meetings from parents and from teachers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 2 \u003c/strong>[00:14:51] Please fund a full social worker at every site at minimum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 3 \u003c/strong>[00:14:54] District employees receive high salaries, yet they remain inaccessible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Community Member 4 \u003c/strong>[00:14:58] I am here to demand that this board protect our student -facing services. I don’t even like calling it services. These are human beings. These are people, essential people, that work with our babies every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:15] What is next here, Katie? It sounds like, at least in San Francisco, TBD on who exactly could lose their jobs. And then in the case of Oakland, I mean, are these cuts going to happen in the next school year or what is next year?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:15:36] So the next step is layoff notice letters going out. These are not set in stone. A lot of people are going to get layoff notices and then in May, when budgets become more clear, get those notices rescinded. If they don’t get rescinded and they get confirmed in May, those employees will be without a job beginning in the next school year. The state would only step in if either district makes it to June just before the start of the new fiscal year without balancing a budget. So because both districts did pass layoff notice resolutions, they are technically making the cuts that they need to make. So it really depends on May and what cuts stay and what cuts get rescinded. And I’m sure in the months in between, there’s gonna be a lot of organizing from, you know each district’s unions, the parent communities, to fight cuts and try to shift them away from students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:46] Well, Katie, thanks so much for breaking this down for us. I really appreciate it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Katie DeBenedetti \u003c/strong>[00:16:49] Thanks so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:56] That was Katie DeBenedetti, a reporter for KQED. This 25 -minute conversation with Katie was cut down and edited by senior editor, Alan Montecillo. Jessica Kariisa is our producer. She scored this episode. Our intern, Mel Velasquez, added all the tape. Music courtesy of Audio Network, Blue Dot Sessions, and NPR. Support for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. 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. I’m Erica Cruz Guevarra, thanks for listening, peace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12027158/how-oakland-and-sf-ended-up-among-7-ca-school-districts-who-cant-pay-their-bills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How Oakland and SF Ended Up Among 7 CA School Districts Who Can’t Pay Their Bills\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "san-jose-announces-plan-to-send-some-homeless-residents-out-of-the-city",
"title": "San José Announces Plan to Send Some Homeless Residents Out of the City",
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"headTitle": "San José Announces Plan to Send Some Homeless Residents Out of the City | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. 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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San José leaders have announced a new and controversial plan as part of their efforts to end street homelessness. ‘Homeward Bound’ will offer to send unhoused residents to family or friends who are willing to take them in. Mayor Matt Mahan says it’s an additional tool to get people off the streets, while some homelessness advocates say it’s an ineffective and inhumane approach.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links: \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028615/san-jose-adopts-controversial-plan-to-bus-homeless-people-out-of-the-city\">San José Adopts Controversial Plan to Bus Homeless People Out of the City\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC3422661440&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] Homelessness in San Jose is a major problem. Over 6 ,300 people counted as homeless in some of the latest numbers. Usually those counts are considered undercounts, so it’s a significant problem. People have a lot of different feelings about how it should be approached, but most people seem to agree that it’s a major problem that the city should be doing all it can to solve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:01:39] And so what has the city been doing about homelessness, especially the mayor, Matt Mahan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:01:46] So Mayor Matt Mahan, since taking office and even during his initial campaigns, you know, he’s been pushing for what he called basics, right? Back to basics was one of his campaign slogans about public safety and about homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:01:59] I want us to act with a greater sense of urgency. I think we have have a true humanitarian crisis on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And what he’s done now since having the governing power for a couple of years is really push things toward shorter term solutions. The city has said that with their current shelter space, both with places run by the county and by the city, but within the bounds of San Jose, there are several thousand people who still do not have places to go right now, even as the city plans to in the next several months and coming years more than triple its temporary shelter space, there’s still going to be a shortage for a long time, even in some very optimistic projections. And so in the past, while the city has kind of taken a mixed approach towards supporting things like permanent affordable housing and supportive housing with services, so people have a place to live forever, and also supported some short -term solutions like temporary shelters, Mayor Matt Mahan has really pushed it toward a focus almost entirely on short -term. like temporary shelters, like sanctioned encampments, like safe parking sites, and now this latest program.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:13] We’re talking now, Joseph, speaking of this latest program, because last Tuesday, the city of San Jose announced that it would be launching a pilot program called Homeward Bound.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:03:26] Yeah, so the mayor and the city’s director of housing, Eric Solivan, came out and essentially told folks at a press conference that the city is putting up $200,000 of its housing funds to help support a pilot program to buy train or bus tickets for people who are unhoused in the city, so long as they have somewhere to go in another part of the city or another part of the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan \u003c/strong>[00:03:51] Homeward Bound offers one way out. If our outreach workers can offer people family reconnection services immediately, that saves a bed in our shelter system for someone who truly doesn’t have anyone to support them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:06] The city is willing to help facilitate their transportation and get them to this place where they may become, you know, housed and more stable. And it’s not a new idea. Other cities have tried this, but in San Jose, this would be the first time the city is officially kind of supporting it from its own housing department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:04:27] I want to know about the details here. Like, how is that going to work? Are they going to take a survey? Like, hey, who has family that could take them in? Who is this intended for? How is this going to work?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:04:38] Yeah so technically anybody who’s currently unhoused is eligible. If you are one of the many thousands living on the streets of San Jose and trying to find a better situation you have the prerequisites already. Outreach workers who work for the city currently or who contract with the city through a non -profit who are already going out to talk to unhoused people on a daily or weekly basis and learn about their living situation and ask them about their needs well they’re essentially just going to be adding one more question into something that they might already be talking with them about, and that question’s going to be, hey, do you think you have a family member or a friend or someone from your past who would be willing to put you up? And if that conversation develops into, you know, the right opportunity being there, that outreach worker can verify some of those details with, like, a phone call to a family member or a friend and try to ensure that all that is correct and that there’s a person willing to accept someone on the other end. And then if that all lines up, they can help them buy a bus or train ticket right there on the spot, or maybe within a couple of days and get this person set up and on their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:44] And this would be a bus or train ticket to potentially anywhere in the country.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:05:49] Anywhere. Yeah, it sounds like anywhere that can be reached by bus or train up to a $1 ,000 limit is what the city said they will spend on each person. At least in the early going here, that’s going to be on the table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:01] You know, I know that you can, through this program, get transported to another part of San Jose. It’s not just to get people out of the area. But I do think embedded in this story is this idea that I hear a lot, which is that people come to cities in California, like San Jose, San Francisco, LA, from other parts of the country because it’s a better place to live outside. It’s warmer and there’s more resources to essentially take advantage of. How true is that in San Jose? Do we even know how many people living outside in San Jose are from out of town versus in the city?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:06:40] It’s a common misconception that a lot of people who are unhoused might come to places like San Jose for, you know, more generous handouts or better weather, but the data doesn’t really support that. What we have seen in surveys from city and county officials who who work with the unhoused is that the large majority of people living on the streets of San Jose right now report that their last known physical address was in San Jose or in Santa Clara County, which is a broad place. but certainly they’re not necessarily, you know coming from afar before they became homeless they were living here or living in this region when whatever the circumstances were that occurred to make them lose their houses\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] As you said, this is new for San Jose, but isn’t new in general. And this certainly isn’t the first time I’ve heard of this idea. Do we have any examples, recent examples or otherwise, of this type of program in action?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:07:42] Absolutely. One of the best programs, I guess, to make a comparison for here in the Bay Area is San Francisco. In San Francisco, they had a program called Homeward Bound, which is the same name as the San Jose program that’s been running for about 20 years. That program was started by then -mayor Gavin Newsom in San Francisco. The issue there is we’ve had some kind of mixed results in terms of understanding how successful it has been. Some of the issues might be, okay, so the person gets set up with this ticket, they end up where they’re going, and maybe even they call the back to let them know. that, yes, I’ve made it to so -and -so’s place, and things are going good. But who knows what happens to them a week, a month, three months, a year out? Are they becoming homeless in another city or another portion of the city? Are they struggling in some way? Is their life improving in a marked way?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] The lack of a bus ticket home is not the root cause of homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] I spoke with Dr. Jamie Chang, she’s an associate professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare, and she has raised some concerns about whether or not the program does enough to find out if it is a success.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:08:53] There is very, very little evidence as to the long -term success of these programs. We don’t really know what happens to people once they’re dropped off at their destination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:03] And that’s why some people have concerns about whether or not the program is doing what it actually intends to do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Dr. Jamie Chang \u003c/strong>[00:09:09] While these programs might temporarily be effective at removing people from an area without a system in place to ensure their success elsewhere, I’m skeptical about its overall efficacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:27] Okay, so people like Mayor Matt Mahan say, this is just one tool in the toolbox. We’re trying a lot of things. If you have a loved one who can take care of you somewhere else, we will help you get there. People like Dr. Chang are warning that there’s not a lot of data or evidence that this really works, at least based on San Francisco’s experience. I gotta imagine there are critics based in San Jose as well who think that this is a bad idea, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:09:54] Yeah, one of the people I spoke with is Gail Osmer, and she’s a long -time advocate for people who are unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] I don’t agree with it. Some people do want to go home and it works for them and I think it’s a great idea, but I think mainly it’s going to be a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] But her biggest concern when I spoke with her about this is, you know, a few things. First of all, a trust element. She’s not really certain that folks who are in the unhoused community who might have a little bit of, you know, distrust of authority figures and stuff, or someone they may not know in an outreach worker very closely, that they’re just going to start spilling all these details about their friends or family or their past lives or somebody who might be able to take them in. You know, it may not be a subject they want to talk about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:10:37] Do you think the unhoused are going to trust a stranger or somebody they don’t really know to give them information or even talk to them about going home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:10:47] The second problem she had, of course, is just similar to Dr. Chang, is the verification of where they’re going to end up. And, you know, she raised an example, of course, that the city, even through its best efforts and good faith, may not actually be able to verify what kind of home environment people are going to be sent to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:04] But there’s a lot of problems that people have probably at home, you know, and we don’t know the home environment. What if somebody is clean and sober and they send them home or whatever, and they’re in a home where there’s, you know, alcoholism?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] The connotation with hearing about bus or train tickets being offered for unhoused people to essentially leave the area, it does sometimes strike people the wrong way. One of the concerns that Gail Osmer raised with us was that she believes the mayor might be doing this for the wrong reasons. She said essentially that he wants unhoused people out of sight and out of mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gail Osmer \u003c/strong>[00:11:48] I think this is just a way to get rid of the unhoused from the mayor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:56] So all that said, Joseph, what’s next for the program? I know it was just announced on Tuesday. What has the city said? How will we know if it’s working?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Yeah, so, you know, as far as the city officials have told us, this can pretty much be implemented immediately and get started right away. The city did say it is going to emphasize that upfront verification. It’s gonna do all it can through its teams and its workers to ensure that the person or place that they are helping an unhoused person reach in the end is a good place for them. As far as whether the follow -up is actually going to be there, it sounds like the city is not going to put a lot of resources into that. So what kind of data and what kind of qualitative evaluation the city is gonna put into deciding whether or not to. continue or expand this program in the future after its initial run, it still kind of remains to be seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:53] We should say this is one of many things San Jose is doing. You know, it’s a $200 ,000 pilot program, which is not a lot of money for a city of San Jose size, definitely a lot of money for a regular person. But what does this story tell us about the city’s priorities when it comes to homelessness and housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joseph Geha \u003c/strong>[00:13:13] This program in particular, along with all these other efforts, will kind of fit into a larger picture, so to speak, of what Mayor Matt Mahon has really staked part of his reputation on is his approach to this issue. And I think he wants to be the mayor who says, I ended street homelessness in San Jose in my tenure. I got 5,000 plus people off the street in short order. But if it doesn’t end up working out in the long term, you know, there could be bigger questions. He doesn’t want, as he just said last week, he doesn’t want perfect to be the enemy of good. He openly admitted that it’s easy for folks to poke holes in some of these attempts or some of these programs. It’s easy to say there are problems with this approach or gaps in this approach or it may not be correct for everybody. But he’s saying because of the literal life and death stakes for the people living on the street, that something needs to be done now and the city is willing to try multiple efforts to reach this goal.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this edition of the Bay’s monthly news roundup, Alan, Jessica, and intern Mel talk about renewed fears of real estate development at San Francisco’s Presidio, an increase in FasTrak scam texts, and concerns around two famous peregrine falcons at UC Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028300/trump-order-revives-fears-real-estate-push-san-franciscos-presidio\">Trump Order Revives Fears of Real Estate Push for San Francisco’s Presidio\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/fastrak-scam-texts-20184874.php\">Bay Area FasTrak scams are surging — again: ‘It’s been nonstop’\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/02/24/uc-berkeley-falcons-missing-avian-flu-annie-archie\">UC Berkeley falcons Annie and Archie are missing. Is bird flu the cause?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC2783029169&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:31] I wanna thank all the people who filled in on the show throughout the month. That’s Cecilia Lei, Katrina Schwartz, Dana Cronin, Alex Gonzalez, and Tessa Paoli. If that feels like a long list of people filling in, it’s because both myself and Erica have been out for a good amount of the month. So thanks to all those folks for filling in and thank you both Mel and Jessica for holding it down. Okay, well, let’s jump into the news roundup. Let’s talk about some. stories that we’ve all been following. Actually, Mel, let’s start with you. What do you got for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:01:03] I have this story that was originally reported by KQED reporter Katie DeBenedetti. And last week, the Trump administration signed an executive order to dramatically cut federal agencies, including the Presidio Trust. That would mean that that land, the park, would no longer be public land and could be up for grabs to be developed by private companies. and they’re even asking for the $200 million given to the park through the Inflation Reduction Act back. It’s really devastating. It’s the first park I ever visited in San Francisco as a kid, and that was like stunning. And I was like, one day I’m gonna live in San Francisco. So that was kind of like my first kind of my source of love for the city. All around, this is just pretty shocking news to most San Franciscans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:04] Obviously the Presidio is beloved. I mean, I used to live nearby. What are people worried could happen to the Presidio now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:02:13] Yeah, so not only do people like really love this park, but they’re also worried that it could turn into a land grab for real estate developers to build city developments on. And this isn’t the first time that the Bayside has been like considered for more urban development. There is this idea for a city called Marincello in the Marin Headlands, and it was proposed in the 1960s. It was supposed to be a bustling city with 30 ,000 residents and tons of new developments. And the Marin County Board of Supervisors actually approved it, but the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was then established as a result of all the legal battles of environmental activists and environmental groups coming in and trying to push back against this proposed Maroncello. So then it just didn’t happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:15] So there’s this history of attempts to develop on this public land. Are there current plans to build stuff in this area? Are there people saying, Hey, if you get rid of the Presidio Trust, I would love to build something here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:03:32] Well, actually, Trump proposed an idea for this concept called freedom cities. It would be like 10 different cities built on federal land. I think this was just mentioned during his campaign, but there’s this guy, the founder of Charter Cities Institute, which pretty much advocates for new independent cities with like different… methods of governing. It’s a little vague, but that’s what I’ve found on it. His name is Mark Lutter, and he actually was urging Trump on X to start developing a freedom city in the Presidio, but it’s not anything that’s actually happening right now. It’s just being talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:24] Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting, you know, we’ve obviously seen a slew of executive orders. We’ve also seen pushback in the courts. We’ve seen things walked back. With the Presidio, do you think that, you know, this could actually happen? Like, do you think that, you know, it could dramatically change from being this like public park to something private or are there other, you know, mechanisms or laws in place that are protecting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:04:52] So because it’s such a beloved piece of land, like, this would take a really long time to happen and is unlikely that this will happen because of something passed in 1996 called the Presidio Trust Act, which incorporates the Presidio land into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which protects it from being developed, which includes that a previous proposed Marincello area, which is the Marin Headlands, or what we know to be the Marin Headlands. So the Presidio is a part of that, and it would be very hard to work around that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:37] Well, Mel, I appreciate you bringing this story to us and kind of like a history behind, you know, the sort of big headline grabby story about the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:05:48] Of course, thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:52] We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we’ll talk about a fast track, scam texts, and where did the Falcons go in Berkeley? Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:10] And you’re listening to The Bay. I’m Alan Montesilio in for Erika Cruz Guevara. And this is our news roundup for the month of February. I’m here with intern Mel Velasquez and producer Jessica Carissa. And next up, we have a story that I’ve been following. FasTrak scam texts appear to be on the rise. I don’t know, have either of you gotten a text from a number saying, Hey, you didn’t pay your FasTrak bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:06:38] Oh, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:06:39] Literally, literally all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:42] Yeah, I mean, apparently they are increasing. They’re getting more aggressive and more sophisticated even. I mean, I got one about three weeks ago. It was from a number in the Philippines. So I could, you know, kind of tell that it was not. to tell that it was not. Not legit, but it does say, you know, pay your fast track lane tolls by February 1st to avoid a fine and your license you can pay at, and then there’s a URL. So more and more of these, I think, attempted scams in general, but fast track in particular seems to be on the rise lately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] You know, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot of these texts. So how can you tell that this is a scam text?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:20] Well, currently there’s a few telltale signs. Um, one is, is oftentimes the phone number is, you know, from another country. A lot of times these messages will provide a URL to a website. Oftentimes those, that website URL will have like a series of numbers and letters. It’ll look kind of weird. Sometimes they’ll even try to imitate the URL of, you know, fast track or whatever the transit authorities try, you know, is in the region. The most recent ones I’ve gotten too, and not even just for fast track for, for texts I’ve gotten pretending to be the post office, they’ll say, please reply why then copy this link into your browser and activate it. So some of those signs are definitely there. One thing that folks have noticed recently is that the spelling in these texts has gotten much better. There are fewer mistakes. You know, usually you can tell if, if like the spelling is way off or the grammar is way off. This is probably not coming from, you know, Fast Track, but that’s gotten better. And the messaging has gotten more aggressive saying like, hey, if you don’t pay, you’re gonna lose your license. Hey, if you don’t pay, you know, you’re gonna pay a fine. But those are some of the signs, right? FasTrak has said, they will never ask you to pay over text. In fact, the only text I’ve ever gotten related to Fast Track come from 86557 and they’re only about when I’m trying to reset my online account. If it does happen to you, FasTrak says call your bank, call your credit card company. We know that law enforcement is obviously aware of this. And in fact, a spokesperson with Rob Bonta’s office, the attorney general said, don’t click on these, but they also couldn’t confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. So maybe they’re checking it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:09:07] Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten those scams before And it always freaks me out because I’m always dipping into the fast track lane I guess how do we even know that they’re increasing? I guess it’s only been anecdotal for me, but is there a way to actually report this stuff or track it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:24] I mean, data is a little hard, right? I mean, I just told you about a message I got. I did not report that to some agency. John Goodwin with Metropolitan Planning Commission, that’s the agency that handles transit, planning for regional projects. They also run the Bay Area seven bridges. He told the San Francisco Chronicle a few days ago that it’s been about nonstop for almost a year. There were also about 2000 reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in about a two month span last year. So, you know, it is hard to, this is also a national thing. It’s not just a Bay area thing, right? In many states across the country, this is happening. So it is a little tough, but even just like having this conversation and even just in my own life, I’m noticing that I’m getting more of it. So, hard to be, you know, hard to put an exact number on it. But this is kind of, you know, I think just one of the features of our, you know, technological existence that we can get pinged by all these texts that say, you didn’t pay your bill. Have you ever like fallen for one of these or have you had to like help a relative sort of navigate this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:10:29] I haven’t, but I know that my grandpa has unfortunately fallen for one of those internet security scams. For people who didn’t grow up with the technology, it can be really scary to receive a message like that, especially threatening ones being like, you owe this much money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:10:52] Yeah. Stay vigilant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:10:54] Stay vigilant. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:00] Okay, and for our last story for the roundup, we have producer Jessica Kariisa. Jessica, what do you got?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:06] Yeah, so there’s two Peregrine Falcons who live on top of the Bell Tower at UC Berkeley. Their names are Annie and Archie. And [2.1s] they haven’t been seen since January. I first saw this reported in Berkleyside, but quite a few other news outlets have picked it up at this point because it’s a big deal. They’re a big part of the campus community and they’re missing now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] Maybe remind folks maybe who don’t live in Berkeley, who don’t walk through UC Berkeley, who are these Peregrine Falcons and why do they mean so much to people who live nearby?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] Annie has been there since 2016. [00:11:48]She’s had different partners over the years. Archie is her latest partner. [3.7s] And they’re just a really beloved part of the community. First of all, they’re peregrine falcons, which I learned are some of the fastest animals in the world. They can go over 200 miles per hour when they die. Um, you know, they’re just like amazing birds and you know, they’ve built a huge following over the years. [00:12:11]There’s a 24 hour webcam. [0.8s] There’s a dedicated website for them. They have an Instagram page with over 18,000 followers. Um, they’ve been part of the community for so long and, uh, people really care about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:26] Do we know anything about why they’re missing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:12:29] We don’t have a clear definitive answer. [00:12:34]You know, there’s a 24 -hour webcam [1.2s] on their nesting site and a few other perches that they like to hang out at on the bell tower. But unfortunately, the big elephant in the room is definitely bird flu. You know, bird flu has devastated, you know, avian communities all around the country, all around the Bay Area especially, you know, Newsom instituted a state of emergency towards the end of last year around bird flu. So the longer that they go missing, it seems like that might be the culprit, but they also haven’t found them and it is possible that they could come back, but the longer the time goes, the less likely it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:17] So they’re obviously beloved figures in Berkeley, but have they gone missing before?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:26] They have gone missing before. In fact, they’ve even, Berkeley’s even written an obituary before for Annie when she was gone for about a week. It’s not uncommon for them to go on hunting trips, sometimes really extended hunting trips, and there’s still the possibility that that’s what this could be. But you know, it is quite long, and I don’t think that they’ve been gone this long before. So, you know, people are getting a little bit worried. They haven’t. made any definitive statements yet about what happened to them. But yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see. Thoughts and prayers for the birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:03] Yeah, come home Archie and Annie or just be safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:14:08] Yeah, we miss you Archie and Annie, come home.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In this edition of the Bay’s monthly news roundup, Alan, Jessica, and intern Mel talk about renewed fears of real estate development at San Francisco’s Presidio, an increase in FasTrak scam texts, and concerns around two famous peregrine falcons at UC Berkeley.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links:\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12028300/trump-order-revives-fears-real-estate-push-san-franciscos-presidio\">Trump Order Revives Fears of Real Estate Push for San Francisco’s Presidio\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/fastrak-scam-texts-20184874.php\">Bay Area FasTrak scams are surging — again: ‘It’s been nonstop’\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyside.org/2025/02/24/uc-berkeley-falcons-missing-avian-flu-annie-archie\">UC Berkeley falcons Annie and Archie are missing. Is bird flu the cause?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC2783029169&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:00:31] I wanna thank all the people who filled in on the show throughout the month. That’s Cecilia Lei, Katrina Schwartz, Dana Cronin, Alex Gonzalez, and Tessa Paoli. If that feels like a long list of people filling in, it’s because both myself and Erica have been out for a good amount of the month. So thanks to all those folks for filling in and thank you both Mel and Jessica for holding it down. Okay, well, let’s jump into the news roundup. Let’s talk about some. stories that we’ve all been following. Actually, Mel, let’s start with you. What do you got for us?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:01:03] I have this story that was originally reported by KQED reporter Katie DeBenedetti. And last week, the Trump administration signed an executive order to dramatically cut federal agencies, including the Presidio Trust. That would mean that that land, the park, would no longer be public land and could be up for grabs to be developed by private companies. and they’re even asking for the $200 million given to the park through the Inflation Reduction Act back. It’s really devastating. It’s the first park I ever visited in San Francisco as a kid, and that was like stunning. And I was like, one day I’m gonna live in San Francisco. So that was kind of like my first kind of my source of love for the city. All around, this is just pretty shocking news to most San Franciscans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:02:04] Obviously the Presidio is beloved. I mean, I used to live nearby. What are people worried could happen to the Presidio now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:02:13] Yeah, so not only do people like really love this park, but they’re also worried that it could turn into a land grab for real estate developers to build city developments on. And this isn’t the first time that the Bayside has been like considered for more urban development. There is this idea for a city called Marincello in the Marin Headlands, and it was proposed in the 1960s. It was supposed to be a bustling city with 30 ,000 residents and tons of new developments. And the Marin County Board of Supervisors actually approved it, but the Golden Gate National Recreation Area was then established as a result of all the legal battles of environmental activists and environmental groups coming in and trying to push back against this proposed Maroncello. So then it just didn’t happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:03:15] So there’s this history of attempts to develop on this public land. Are there current plans to build stuff in this area? Are there people saying, Hey, if you get rid of the Presidio Trust, I would love to build something here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:03:32] Well, actually, Trump proposed an idea for this concept called freedom cities. It would be like 10 different cities built on federal land. I think this was just mentioned during his campaign, but there’s this guy, the founder of Charter Cities Institute, which pretty much advocates for new independent cities with like different… methods of governing. It’s a little vague, but that’s what I’ve found on it. His name is Mark Lutter, and he actually was urging Trump on X to start developing a freedom city in the Presidio, but it’s not anything that’s actually happening right now. It’s just being talked about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:24] Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting, you know, we’ve obviously seen a slew of executive orders. We’ve also seen pushback in the courts. We’ve seen things walked back. With the Presidio, do you think that, you know, this could actually happen? Like, do you think that, you know, it could dramatically change from being this like public park to something private or are there other, you know, mechanisms or laws in place that are protecting it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:04:52] So because it’s such a beloved piece of land, like, this would take a really long time to happen and is unlikely that this will happen because of something passed in 1996 called the Presidio Trust Act, which incorporates the Presidio land into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which protects it from being developed, which includes that a previous proposed Marincello area, which is the Marin Headlands, or what we know to be the Marin Headlands. So the Presidio is a part of that, and it would be very hard to work around that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:37] Well, Mel, I appreciate you bringing this story to us and kind of like a history behind, you know, the sort of big headline grabby story about the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:05:48] Of course, thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:05:52] We’re going to take a break. When we come back, we’ll talk about a fast track, scam texts, and where did the Falcons go in Berkeley? Stay with us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:10] And you’re listening to The Bay. I’m Alan Montesilio in for Erika Cruz Guevara. And this is our news roundup for the month of February. I’m here with intern Mel Velasquez and producer Jessica Carissa. And next up, we have a story that I’ve been following. FasTrak scam texts appear to be on the rise. I don’t know, have either of you gotten a text from a number saying, Hey, you didn’t pay your FasTrak bill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:06:38] Oh, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:06:39] Literally, literally all the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:06:42] Yeah, I mean, apparently they are increasing. They’re getting more aggressive and more sophisticated even. I mean, I got one about three weeks ago. It was from a number in the Philippines. So I could, you know, kind of tell that it was not. to tell that it was not. Not legit, but it does say, you know, pay your fast track lane tolls by February 1st to avoid a fine and your license you can pay at, and then there’s a URL. So more and more of these, I think, attempted scams in general, but fast track in particular seems to be on the rise lately.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] You know, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten a lot of these texts. So how can you tell that this is a scam text?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:07:20] Well, currently there’s a few telltale signs. Um, one is, is oftentimes the phone number is, you know, from another country. A lot of times these messages will provide a URL to a website. Oftentimes those, that website URL will have like a series of numbers and letters. It’ll look kind of weird. Sometimes they’ll even try to imitate the URL of, you know, fast track or whatever the transit authorities try, you know, is in the region. The most recent ones I’ve gotten too, and not even just for fast track for, for texts I’ve gotten pretending to be the post office, they’ll say, please reply why then copy this link into your browser and activate it. So some of those signs are definitely there. One thing that folks have noticed recently is that the spelling in these texts has gotten much better. There are fewer mistakes. You know, usually you can tell if, if like the spelling is way off or the grammar is way off. This is probably not coming from, you know, Fast Track, but that’s gotten better. And the messaging has gotten more aggressive saying like, hey, if you don’t pay, you’re gonna lose your license. Hey, if you don’t pay, you know, you’re gonna pay a fine. But those are some of the signs, right? FasTrak has said, they will never ask you to pay over text. In fact, the only text I’ve ever gotten related to Fast Track come from 86557 and they’re only about when I’m trying to reset my online account. If it does happen to you, FasTrak says call your bank, call your credit card company. We know that law enforcement is obviously aware of this. And in fact, a spokesperson with Rob Bonta’s office, the attorney general said, don’t click on these, but they also couldn’t confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. So maybe they’re checking it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:09:07] Yeah, I’ve definitely gotten those scams before And it always freaks me out because I’m always dipping into the fast track lane I guess how do we even know that they’re increasing? I guess it’s only been anecdotal for me, but is there a way to actually report this stuff or track it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:09:24] I mean, data is a little hard, right? I mean, I just told you about a message I got. I did not report that to some agency. John Goodwin with Metropolitan Planning Commission, that’s the agency that handles transit, planning for regional projects. They also run the Bay Area seven bridges. He told the San Francisco Chronicle a few days ago that it’s been about nonstop for almost a year. There were also about 2000 reports to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in about a two month span last year. So, you know, it is hard to, this is also a national thing. It’s not just a Bay area thing, right? In many states across the country, this is happening. So it is a little tough, but even just like having this conversation and even just in my own life, I’m noticing that I’m getting more of it. So, hard to be, you know, hard to put an exact number on it. But this is kind of, you know, I think just one of the features of our, you know, technological existence that we can get pinged by all these texts that say, you didn’t pay your bill. Have you ever like fallen for one of these or have you had to like help a relative sort of navigate this?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:10:29] I haven’t, but I know that my grandpa has unfortunately fallen for one of those internet security scams. For people who didn’t grow up with the technology, it can be really scary to receive a message like that, especially threatening ones being like, you owe this much money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:10:52] Yeah. Stay vigilant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mel Velasquez \u003c/strong>[00:10:54] Stay vigilant. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:00] Okay, and for our last story for the roundup, we have producer Jessica Kariisa. Jessica, what do you got?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:06] Yeah, so there’s two Peregrine Falcons who live on top of the Bell Tower at UC Berkeley. Their names are Annie and Archie. And [2.1s] they haven’t been seen since January. I first saw this reported in Berkleyside, but quite a few other news outlets have picked it up at this point because it’s a big deal. They’re a big part of the campus community and they’re missing now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:11:35] Maybe remind folks maybe who don’t live in Berkeley, who don’t walk through UC Berkeley, who are these Peregrine Falcons and why do they mean so much to people who live nearby?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] Annie has been there since 2016. [00:11:48]She’s had different partners over the years. Archie is her latest partner. [3.7s] And they’re just a really beloved part of the community. First of all, they’re peregrine falcons, which I learned are some of the fastest animals in the world. They can go over 200 miles per hour when they die. Um, you know, they’re just like amazing birds and you know, they’ve built a huge following over the years. [00:12:11]There’s a 24 hour webcam. [0.8s] There’s a dedicated website for them. They have an Instagram page with over 18,000 followers. Um, they’ve been part of the community for so long and, uh, people really care about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:12:26] Do we know anything about why they’re missing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:12:29] We don’t have a clear definitive answer. [00:12:34]You know, there’s a 24 -hour webcam [1.2s] on their nesting site and a few other perches that they like to hang out at on the bell tower. But unfortunately, the big elephant in the room is definitely bird flu. You know, bird flu has devastated, you know, avian communities all around the country, all around the Bay Area especially, you know, Newsom instituted a state of emergency towards the end of last year around bird flu. So the longer that they go missing, it seems like that might be the culprit, but they also haven’t found them and it is possible that they could come back, but the longer the time goes, the less likely it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:17] So they’re obviously beloved figures in Berkeley, but have they gone missing before?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:26] They have gone missing before. In fact, they’ve even, Berkeley’s even written an obituary before for Annie when she was gone for about a week. It’s not uncommon for them to go on hunting trips, sometimes really extended hunting trips, and there’s still the possibility that that’s what this could be. But you know, it is quite long, and I don’t think that they’ve been gone this long before. So, you know, people are getting a little bit worried. They haven’t. made any definitive statements yet about what happened to them. But yeah, we’ll just have to wait and see. Thoughts and prayers for the birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo \u003c/strong>[00:14:03] Yeah, come home Archie and Annie or just be safe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:14:08] Yeah, we miss you Archie and Annie, come home.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s sanctuary policies have been contested repeatedly since they were first enacted in the 1980s following an immigration raid at a Mission District dance club that left dozens of people detained for hours — some U.S. citizens. So what can the history of challenges against the city’s sanctuary policies tell us about President Donald Trump’s threats to it today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1834114881&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:57] I wonder if you could take us back to the 1980s before San Francisco was a sanctuary city. What was going on in the U .S. and abroad at that time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] So in the 1980s, there was a number of Central American countries, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, who were wrapped up in civil wars. A lot of people were fleeing to the United States and seeking refugee status. The Reagan administration, Ronald Reagan was in the White House at the time, refused to recognize these folks as asylum seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:45] Was the city then at the time like openly collaborating with federal immigration agents like all the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:01:53] You know, it was normal for federal immigration officials to show up at the county jail, ask to just look through the records of who was there. From what I’ve talked to folks who were in the sheriff’s department and around during that time, it sounds like there was sort of this open door policy into the jails. And then there was a moment in 1989 that really sort of changed the entire dynamic here in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:17] And that turning point moment was this immigration raid that happened at a dance club in the Mission known as Club Elegante. What was Club Elegante?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] So this was like a Latin dance club in the Mission. It was a super popular spot for folks to go on the weekends and blow off steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:02:36] You know, you get your paycheck on Friday and you want to go, you know, have a little fun or whatever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:43] Tom Amiano was a longtime politician in San Francisco, and I spoke to him about what was going on in San Francisco in the 1980s, back in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] It was really a place where I think a lot of people were undocumented, you know, especially people maybe associated with the day laborers. And when it happened, you could hear the sirens and the activity, but one one really didn’t know what was it, you know, what was what was really happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:03:17] There was a joint raid between the federal government and local police in which they essentially came into this club on a busy weekend night and took, I think, most everyone there into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:03:31] Our police, they went in there and they roughed up a lot of people. And I think they busted some people who were citizens. You know, it was obvious that this was a big snafu that should have never happened. And I think it was what ignited that sleeping giant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:03:50] So it was a really huge moment in the city, and it was something that people were very much aware of. It made a lot of headlines and sparked a lot of anger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:00] I mean, I can’t even imagine something like that happening today in San Francisco. That would just be insane. And I guess how did we go from this raid at Club Elegante to city leaders starting to to really talk seriously about the sanctuary policies and what was their rationale at the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:29] Some of them actually came out of law enforcement. Like the police themselves were saying, hey, if we’re being deputized to essentially do the job of the federal government, we are undermining our ability to build trust with these immigrant communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:04:46] There were demands made on the mayor. And what are you going to do? What is the solution?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:51] When this Club Elegante raid happened and there was such huge outcry and fear in the immigrant community, it really created a lot of political momentum and pressure on City Hall and on the police chief, Frank Jordan, to figure out a way to kind of thread this needle. Because it’s not just about someone who’s undocumented being scared to come to the police, although certainly it’s that. But if you are a citizen or a legal resident, but your neighbor is not, or your uncle or your spouse, like a crime happens to you, are you going to be willing to go to the police if you know that they might actually call federal immigration enforcement? And so by the end of that year, they had written and passed the sanctuary policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:42] What exactly do San Francisco’s first sanctuary policies look like? And I guess what was passed as a result of this raid?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:05:51] Yeah, the original sanctuary ordinance was really straightforward. It basically just said city employees may not use city funds or resources to help federal immigration enforcement. We won’t stand in the way because that would be illegal, but we’re not going to participate in immigration actions as a local police force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:20] It’s sort of interesting to think of sanctuary policies being really a result of pushes by local law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:06:28] But I do think when you have people in law enforcement, I mean, who are part of, let’s be real, that political system and they’re hearing the same thing and they’re seeing the impact on their ability to investigate and solve crimes, which is the main sort of core function of a local police department. You know, I think often there are disagreements around the nuance and details of these things. But I think that over the years, there has been a fair amount of support within police agencies for these sorts of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:20] I mean, for I guess as long as I’ve lived now, San Francisco has always been a sanctuary city, but has there always been support for this policy or these policies in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:07:33] Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting. I was not here in the 1990s, but that was an era where there was a lot of sort of backlash to immigration in California, right? This was an era when Prop 187 was passed statewide, which sought to take any public resources and benefits away from folks without legal status. But it really wasn’t until the 2000s that we saw some really high profile criminal cases that kind of brought the sanctuary policy back into the forefront in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] The first one was a really tragic triple murder. A man and his two sons were driving in San Francisco in June of 2008, and they were shot by a man who turned out was a gang member and an undocumented immigrant, and it was a case of mistaken identity. This was the first real example in recent years that we saw the right really seize on these policies and really go after San Francisco. The widow of the man, Tony Bologna, who died, you know, went on Fox News and was on Laura Ingraham talking about this. They really made a connection between these sanctuary policies and this murder because the accused shooter, Edwin Ramos, had been convicted of two violent felonies when he was a juvenile. The federal government knew exactly who this person was, Edwin Ramos. He had applied for legal status, so he was in their system. They knew where he lived and what he was doing. And there’s evidence that shows that they had actively sort of chosen not to deport him because they were trying to build a bigger gang case against him and other folks. But because under the current policy at the time, there was like no mechanism to hand over youths to immigration officials, it really sort of focused attention on the sanctuary policy, and at the time, now Governor Gavin Newsom was the mayor here in San Francisco, and ended up in a lot of pressure to try to figure out kind of how to answer this political firestorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:06] Right. And he did respond to that pressure by actually making some changes to San Francisco sanctuary policy at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:10:16] Yeah. And what we saw at the time was a sort of, I think maybe what some might argue, I don’t know, maybe even the governor was like maybe an overcorrection. He essentially kind of unilaterally, as the head official in the city, changed the policy so that any undocumented kid merely accused of a felony was handed over to immigration officials. And that in itself caused sort of a backlash. Within a year, the city turned over more than 100 young people to immigration and customs enforcement. And eventually, a year later, the board of supervisors came back to table and amended the city law to say, look, we’re not going to just turn people over who have been accused of felonies and are undocumented young people. So much of the attention, if you were here at the time, was focused on Newsom and Democrats and their policies. And very little attention was given to the mistakes that were, quite frankly, pretty obviously made by immigration officials. If you’re going to say, like, we could have, would have, should have, I don’t think you can only blame the city policies. I think you have to look at the actions of the feds as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:23] Right. Although that’s that’s what usually happens is that it’s the local measures that get all the attention. Right. And I feel like another big case that really put San Francisco’s sanctuary policies in the spotlight again was, and I remember this case very vividly, the 2015 fatal shooting of Kate Steinle, which I just remember being just like all over national news at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:11:52] Yeah. And that, again, was a horribly tragic event. This is a young woman, 32 years old, walking along the San Francisco waterfront on Embarcadero Pier and she is shot. The case was very complicated. The accused killer, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had stolen the gun used in this case from a federal park ranger who had left it unsecured in his car. Lopez Sanchez maintained throughout the entire trial it was an accidental firing of the gun. But, you know, at the core of this, again, was these questions over why he was still in the U .S. He had been deported five times before this. The shooting occurred right after he got out of San Francisco County jail. And again, that’s what a lot of folks seized on, especially critics of the sanctuary policy. Why didn’t San Francisco hand over this known felon to immigration officials?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] So, Marisa, I mean, it’s pretty clear San Francisco’s sanctuary status has been challenged repeatedly since the 1980s. And of course, we’re talking about this now because we’re in another one of those moments with President Donald Trump, you know, really challenging California sanctuary status and the sanctuary statuses of other municipalities and states. Tell me a little bit more about what that current fight looks like now\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:13:20] The first time Trump was president, his administration went after sanctuary cities threatening to withhold funding from them. They have essentially dusted off almost identical language and issued a series of executive orders and memos out of D .C. that seek to do exactly what they tried to do the first time, which is essentially say either drop these policies, help us with immigration enforcement, or we’re going to cut off federal funds. And so San Francisco and Santa Clara, along with some other jurisdictions around the nation, have sued. And I think, you know, we’re going to see this really play out in court. The city feels very strongly that they have the Constitution and the law on their side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Chiu \u003c/strong>[00:14:06] It’s not clear from the executive order what they mean by a sanctuary city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:14:11] What David Chiu, the city attorney, says is that they are illegally asserting a right and commandeering local law enforcement for something that is not the city’s job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Chiu \u003c/strong>[00:14:23] One of the aspects of our lawsuit points out that you have to be clear when you lay out rules and it violates due process if you don’t have clarity. My hope is they would look at facts and the studies that show that building trust with communities help to reduce crime, to improve public safety. That is what this is about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:46] This is not the first time San Francisco is facing a challenge of its sanctuary status and policies. But why do you think that looking back at this long history and even the origins of San Francisco sanctuary policy is so important?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:15:04] I think it’s important to sort of know where we came from and to understand that a lot of these debates have been going on for decades, that they’re not new to this moment. You know, we tend to see these pendulum swings around public opinion on issues like immigration and criminal justice. It’s important to understand that, you know, there’s a reason cities like this did this, not something that David Chiu really underscored that, you know, the role of San Francisco Police Department or the Sheriff’s Department is to keep this community safe. And to them, that includes everyone in the community.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">San Francisco’s sanctuary policies have been contested repeatedly since they were first enacted in the 1980s following an immigration raid at a Mission District dance club that left dozens of people detained for hours — some U.S. citizens. So what can the history of challenges against the city’s sanctuary policies tell us about President Donald Trump’s threats to it today?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1834114881&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:00:57] I wonder if you could take us back to the 1980s before San Francisco was a sanctuary city. What was going on in the U .S. and abroad at that time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:01:07] So in the 1980s, there was a number of Central American countries, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, who were wrapped up in civil wars. A lot of people were fleeing to the United States and seeking refugee status. The Reagan administration, Ronald Reagan was in the White House at the time, refused to recognize these folks as asylum seekers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:01:45] Was the city then at the time like openly collaborating with federal immigration agents like all the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:01:53] You know, it was normal for federal immigration officials to show up at the county jail, ask to just look through the records of who was there. From what I’ve talked to folks who were in the sheriff’s department and around during that time, it sounds like there was sort of this open door policy into the jails. And then there was a moment in 1989 that really sort of changed the entire dynamic here in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:02:17] And that turning point moment was this immigration raid that happened at a dance club in the Mission known as Club Elegante. What was Club Elegante?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] So this was like a Latin dance club in the Mission. It was a super popular spot for folks to go on the weekends and blow off steam.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:02:36] You know, you get your paycheck on Friday and you want to go, you know, have a little fun or whatever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:02:43] Tom Amiano was a longtime politician in San Francisco, and I spoke to him about what was going on in San Francisco in the 1980s, back in 2017.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] It was really a place where I think a lot of people were undocumented, you know, especially people maybe associated with the day laborers. And when it happened, you could hear the sirens and the activity, but one one really didn’t know what was it, you know, what was what was really happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:03:17] There was a joint raid between the federal government and local police in which they essentially came into this club on a busy weekend night and took, I think, most everyone there into custody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:03:31] Our police, they went in there and they roughed up a lot of people. And I think they busted some people who were citizens. You know, it was obvious that this was a big snafu that should have never happened. And I think it was what ignited that sleeping giant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:03:50] So it was a really huge moment in the city, and it was something that people were very much aware of. It made a lot of headlines and sparked a lot of anger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:00] I mean, I can’t even imagine something like that happening today in San Francisco. That would just be insane. And I guess how did we go from this raid at Club Elegante to city leaders starting to to really talk seriously about the sanctuary policies and what was their rationale at the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:29] Some of them actually came out of law enforcement. Like the police themselves were saying, hey, if we’re being deputized to essentially do the job of the federal government, we are undermining our ability to build trust with these immigrant communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tom Ammiano \u003c/strong>[00:04:46] There were demands made on the mayor. And what are you going to do? What is the solution?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:04:51] When this Club Elegante raid happened and there was such huge outcry and fear in the immigrant community, it really created a lot of political momentum and pressure on City Hall and on the police chief, Frank Jordan, to figure out a way to kind of thread this needle. Because it’s not just about someone who’s undocumented being scared to come to the police, although certainly it’s that. But if you are a citizen or a legal resident, but your neighbor is not, or your uncle or your spouse, like a crime happens to you, are you going to be willing to go to the police if you know that they might actually call federal immigration enforcement? And so by the end of that year, they had written and passed the sanctuary policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:05:42] What exactly do San Francisco’s first sanctuary policies look like? And I guess what was passed as a result of this raid?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:05:51] Yeah, the original sanctuary ordinance was really straightforward. It basically just said city employees may not use city funds or resources to help federal immigration enforcement. We won’t stand in the way because that would be illegal, but we’re not going to participate in immigration actions as a local police force.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:20] It’s sort of interesting to think of sanctuary policies being really a result of pushes by local law enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:06:28] But I do think when you have people in law enforcement, I mean, who are part of, let’s be real, that political system and they’re hearing the same thing and they’re seeing the impact on their ability to investigate and solve crimes, which is the main sort of core function of a local police department. You know, I think often there are disagreements around the nuance and details of these things. But I think that over the years, there has been a fair amount of support within police agencies for these sorts of things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:07:20] I mean, for I guess as long as I’ve lived now, San Francisco has always been a sanctuary city, but has there always been support for this policy or these policies in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:07:33] Yeah, I mean, it’s interesting. I was not here in the 1990s, but that was an era where there was a lot of sort of backlash to immigration in California, right? This was an era when Prop 187 was passed statewide, which sought to take any public resources and benefits away from folks without legal status. But it really wasn’t until the 2000s that we saw some really high profile criminal cases that kind of brought the sanctuary policy back into the forefront in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] The first one was a really tragic triple murder. A man and his two sons were driving in San Francisco in June of 2008, and they were shot by a man who turned out was a gang member and an undocumented immigrant, and it was a case of mistaken identity. This was the first real example in recent years that we saw the right really seize on these policies and really go after San Francisco. The widow of the man, Tony Bologna, who died, you know, went on Fox News and was on Laura Ingraham talking about this. They really made a connection between these sanctuary policies and this murder because the accused shooter, Edwin Ramos, had been convicted of two violent felonies when he was a juvenile. The federal government knew exactly who this person was, Edwin Ramos. He had applied for legal status, so he was in their system. They knew where he lived and what he was doing. And there’s evidence that shows that they had actively sort of chosen not to deport him because they were trying to build a bigger gang case against him and other folks. But because under the current policy at the time, there was like no mechanism to hand over youths to immigration officials, it really sort of focused attention on the sanctuary policy, and at the time, now Governor Gavin Newsom was the mayor here in San Francisco, and ended up in a lot of pressure to try to figure out kind of how to answer this political firestorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:06] Right. And he did respond to that pressure by actually making some changes to San Francisco sanctuary policy at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:10:16] Yeah. And what we saw at the time was a sort of, I think maybe what some might argue, I don’t know, maybe even the governor was like maybe an overcorrection. He essentially kind of unilaterally, as the head official in the city, changed the policy so that any undocumented kid merely accused of a felony was handed over to immigration officials. And that in itself caused sort of a backlash. Within a year, the city turned over more than 100 young people to immigration and customs enforcement. And eventually, a year later, the board of supervisors came back to table and amended the city law to say, look, we’re not going to just turn people over who have been accused of felonies and are undocumented young people. So much of the attention, if you were here at the time, was focused on Newsom and Democrats and their policies. And very little attention was given to the mistakes that were, quite frankly, pretty obviously made by immigration officials. If you’re going to say, like, we could have, would have, should have, I don’t think you can only blame the city policies. I think you have to look at the actions of the feds as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:23] Right. Although that’s that’s what usually happens is that it’s the local measures that get all the attention. Right. And I feel like another big case that really put San Francisco’s sanctuary policies in the spotlight again was, and I remember this case very vividly, the 2015 fatal shooting of Kate Steinle, which I just remember being just like all over national news at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:11:52] Yeah. And that, again, was a horribly tragic event. This is a young woman, 32 years old, walking along the San Francisco waterfront on Embarcadero Pier and she is shot. The case was very complicated. The accused killer, Juan Francisco Lopez Sanchez, had stolen the gun used in this case from a federal park ranger who had left it unsecured in his car. Lopez Sanchez maintained throughout the entire trial it was an accidental firing of the gun. But, you know, at the core of this, again, was these questions over why he was still in the U .S. He had been deported five times before this. The shooting occurred right after he got out of San Francisco County jail. And again, that’s what a lot of folks seized on, especially critics of the sanctuary policy. Why didn’t San Francisco hand over this known felon to immigration officials?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] So, Marisa, I mean, it’s pretty clear San Francisco’s sanctuary status has been challenged repeatedly since the 1980s. And of course, we’re talking about this now because we’re in another one of those moments with President Donald Trump, you know, really challenging California sanctuary status and the sanctuary statuses of other municipalities and states. Tell me a little bit more about what that current fight looks like now\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:13:20] The first time Trump was president, his administration went after sanctuary cities threatening to withhold funding from them. They have essentially dusted off almost identical language and issued a series of executive orders and memos out of D .C. that seek to do exactly what they tried to do the first time, which is essentially say either drop these policies, help us with immigration enforcement, or we’re going to cut off federal funds. And so San Francisco and Santa Clara, along with some other jurisdictions around the nation, have sued. And I think, you know, we’re going to see this really play out in court. The city feels very strongly that they have the Constitution and the law on their side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Chiu \u003c/strong>[00:14:06] It’s not clear from the executive order what they mean by a sanctuary city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:14:11] What David Chiu, the city attorney, says is that they are illegally asserting a right and commandeering local law enforcement for something that is not the city’s job.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>David Chiu \u003c/strong>[00:14:23] One of the aspects of our lawsuit points out that you have to be clear when you lay out rules and it violates due process if you don’t have clarity. My hope is they would look at facts and the studies that show that building trust with communities help to reduce crime, to improve public safety. That is what this is about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:14:46] This is not the first time San Francisco is facing a challenge of its sanctuary status and policies. But why do you think that looking back at this long history and even the origins of San Francisco sanctuary policy is so important?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Marisa Lagos \u003c/strong>[00:15:04] I think it’s important to sort of know where we came from and to understand that a lot of these debates have been going on for decades, that they’re not new to this moment. You know, we tend to see these pendulum swings around public opinion on issues like immigration and criminal justice. It’s important to understand that, you know, there’s a reason cities like this did this, not something that David Chiu really underscored that, you know, the role of San Francisco Police Department or the Sheriff’s Department is to keep this community safe. And to them, that includes everyone in the community.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we asked listeners to share their stories about dating in the Bay Area. Today, we meet some daters from all around the region and hear how they’re navigating the highs and lows of the Bay Area dating scene. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC2077177491&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:03:42] Hey, Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos \u003c/strong>[00:03:44] Hi, Jessica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:03:45] I’m so excited to talk to you today. Can you maybe start by telling us a bit about the people that you spoke to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:03:52] For this story, I spoke to folks all over the Bay Area. We wanted to make sure that we understood the experiences of what it’s like to be single, of what it’s like to date. Most of the folks we spoke to were born and raised in the Bay Area. I also spoke to a couple of folks who had moved from other places and loved the Bay, but they told me that, hey, this little region that we call home has a very particular energy that sometimes takes a while to get used to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:21] Sounds like we got a lot of really great perspectives and also there’s you, Carlos. You’re a dater in the Bay Area. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:04:35] 5’8, deep dark brown eyes, melanated and marinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:41] There you go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:04:43] I started using the apps, specifically Tinder, since I was able to. You know at that age, I was trying to figure out, like, hey, do I like girls, and I was like, oh, wait, I like both. And San Francisco is a place where I felt very comfortable and just being able to tell people that. I’ve met a lot of characters, a lot, a lot of characters, and I’m sure many of them can say the same about me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:05:13] Speaking of the apps, you mentioned the apps, and honestly, that’s the first thing I think of when I think of dating, especially in the past five, 10 years. And I’m curious, what’s your experience been like on the apps?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:05:29] I’m a very spontaneous, instinctual person, and over time, I’ve learned that they’re tools, they’re helpful tools, but they’re also imperfect tools. But also, they make it really hard to just accurately express what you’re feeling, the energy, and also understand the other person. And also, it’s, you know, six, seven photos with maybe like two or three sentences. Right, right. How much are you going to get out of that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:05:54] Like you said, the apps are a tool. There’s good experiences to be had. There’s also not so great experiences to be had. But it seems like it’s just kind of an inevitable part of dating. And I want to get into the story of someone you talk to named Brenda. Can you tell me who she is and what her story is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] Brenda B is a teacher. For privacy reasons, we’re only going to be using the first letter of her last name. She is from Walnut Creek. She’s in her late 30s. She’s been in the apps and online dating for about 20 years, since she was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:06:30] So that’s mostly how I’ve been able to meet people. And I also like make sure, like on my profile, that I say exactly like what I’m looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:06:44] What did she tell you about what her overall experience has been like on the apps?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:06:49] You know, one of the issues that comes up for her is that a lot of the guys she talks to, it’s just that they either don’t know what they want or they don’t want what she wants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:06:59] A lot of people are interested in polyamory and/or non-monogamy. And so at my age and then wanting monogamy is really hard to find. I think in particular, that’s a unique trait of this area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:07:19] Wow, I mean, I didn’t realize monogamy was out of style. Maybe I’m out of touch. But I’m curious, you know, when Brenda does meet people who are also interested in monogamy, has she had good experiences?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:07:37] She puts the best of herself out there. She’s very intentional. And she reminds me a lot of my female besties who go out to meet someone and they are putting so much thought into where the date’s gonna be, what they’re gonna wear, what they’re gonna talk about. And then they leave the house so excited and then a few hours later they come back and they’re like, the guy just didn’t measure up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:08:03] Single guys in the bay, I feel like if you put in a little bit of effort, it will be appreciated. Don’t waste people’s time. If you’re not interested in dating anyone, just delete your app, please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:08:17] Something else that bothers her is that she might go out with someone three, four, five times, start building a bit of a connection with them and then the guy’s like, “Wait a minute. This is not something I was ready for. I don’t know what I want. Let’s just stop seeing each other.” Brenda said it very clear. “Hey, it’s okay if you don’t wanna date or if you don’t want something serious, but communicate that from the beginning. The other person might be cool with that. But just don’t lead them along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:08:55] People obviously resort to the apps because meeting people in real life is hard. I mean, even just making friends in real life is hard. But people are still managing to meet people IRL and I’m curious, based on the people you spoke to, what did you hear about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:09:12] I spoke to Bri Fritz. She’s from Napa, works at a community college and dates queer people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:09:19] There are a couple queer people out here but it is very slim picking. For me, what I have found really successful is I joined sports leagues. Now, I’m not a sporty person. I had never played soccer, never played sports, but I went and they were so welcoming and through that, I met other people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:09:37] She’s been able to form really cool networks of queer women and she’s been really intentional about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:09:43] I really wish I was a sporty girl, but I would get so intimidated. I would definitely be the worst on the team. How did Bri choose sports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] These kind of spaces work really well for Bri because she’s not a drinker. She tries not to drink and wants to seek out spaces where drinking isn’t the center of what people are doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] The thing with the queer community is there’s a lot of focus on drinking and going to the bars and that’s not really my scene. I don’t like to just randomly approach people. I get pretty nervous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:10:22] There’s a lot of really fun sports leagues for queer women, queer men, trans and non-binary folks all over the Bay Area and it can make meeting people a lot less daunting and even if you don’t meet someone that you’re romantically interested in, you’re now just gonna have a bigger network of people, of friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] I mean, it honestly sounds like a win -win. You know, she’s doing, she’s being active. She’s, you know, doing these fun activities. She’s meeting super cool people. I wonder, is Brie running into any challenges? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:11:02] The Bay Area is a huge place. It’s nine counties. But what that means is like, you know, you can meet someone at a bar or an app or something that might tell you, oh yeah, I live in the Bay too. And you might live in Marin and they’re like, and I live in San Jose. So you’re like, okay, how am I gonna make this work? Especially if you’re interested in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] I met actually somebody who’s originally from Napa, lived in Walnut Creek and then moved to Fremont and they were asking if I was okay with the commute. Luckily, I love to drive. I have a little Honda Fit. And so for me, that commute was okay. We would sometimes meet halfway but it was kind of difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:37] I feel the commuting pain point. I live in San Jose. I obviously work here in San Francisco. I feel like I’m in a long distance relationship with the rest of the Bay team. But I’m curious, you know, besides joining a sports league which is super cool. What are some other good ways you heard from the people that you spoke to about meeting people in real life?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:04] Yeah, I spoke about that with Tim Huey. He’s in his 30s, living in Oakland and working as an organizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:12:12] When it comes to meeting people in real life that’s certainly something that is maybe a little bit of a lost art. And so for myself, one of those spaces is kind of within community organizing, activism and advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] Something that’s really important to Tim are the values, what the other person believes. Tim mentioned is that it helps you build trust with that person. That’s, I mean, in any relationship if you already have that, that makes things a lot stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:12:43] You’re sitting in city hall for five hours for a meeting and you’re trying to wait for your turn to speak to you and making friends with people around you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] Has this worked out romantically for Tim as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:55] In his case, it hasn’t worked out just because with the folks he’s met they mentioned that it’s best to not date within the movements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:13:05] A lot of these spaces are very close -knit doing a lot of important and stressful work. So adding romantic relationships into that element can and has in some cases been a little bit more drama than maybe it’s worth to some people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:24] Yeah, like dating within a particular community if it’s small or if it overlaps with your work like it definitely sounds like there are some real pitfalls there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:13:36] Yeah, no, it makes things messy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:43] Just to wrap up, Carlos, I know you asked each of these daters for their best advice and I’m curious, what did they tell you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:13:51] I loved asking folks this question because what they told me it just made me smile. Like Bri, she actually printed out little business cards with her Instagram, funny facts, cool things about her that when she meets someone at a bar she’ll actually pass this card to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:14:15] It’s such a power move to be like, oh yeah, here, contact me. Everybody I’ve ever given one to they say that their friends think it’s so funny. It’s such a power move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:14:24] I love that. I might take that idea, honestly. Business cards, we need to bring those back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:14:28] Me too! Me too. Me too. And other folks had kind of like bigger suggestions. Brenda, she really recommends to other women to be clear about what you want from the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] I think women in particular have been taught to like kind of just smile and be happy and that we’re like too much and I think I bought into that and I’ve learned as I’ve dated more and as I’ve matured and gone to therapy that no, it’s really important to say like, hey, this is bothering me or this is something I’ve noticed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:15:06] She mentioned that sometimes if you say, “Hey, I want something serious” or “I want kids” or “I don’t want kids” at the beginning it might be daunting because you’re like, hey, is the other person going to be turned off by that or are they just going to leave? But she pointed out that if they leave or they step away once you mention what you want, that’s just how it’s meant to be, right? You don’t want to be with someone who’s not interested in the same things or doesn’t have the same goal in mind as you are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:15:36] That’s all such great advice. What about advice for the general dating pool? Were there any no-nos, anything that we should be leaving behind in 2025?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:15:48] Yeah, I really, really like what Tim said, that we need to get better at closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:15:55] Especially in this day and age with social media and digital communication or it can be seen as disposable or really ready to kind of move on to the next thing. There’s something to be said for messaging. Some may say I’m just not feeling it but I wish you the best on finding your person. Something simple like that rather than just ghosting. I think that’s the big thing that a lot of people have either experienced or have done themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:16:23] You don’t have to be besties with everyone who you date, right? But at least in my case, I do appreciate when someone lets me know what they’re thinking and they’re honest that it’s not going to work out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:16:43] Carlos, what is your takeaway from all these conversations, would you say?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:16:49] Every person I spoke to has a completely different background experience than I do. But hearing someone who lives in Walnut Creek is a teacher or lives in Napa or is an organizer but has gone through similar things as I have that has been ghosted or has dated someone who turned out to be in a committed relationship and didn’t communicate that to you or where you’ve been maybe not the good person. I think that’s really good to know that someone out there here in the Bay is going exactly through something that you’re going through right now. I mean, it’s not just affirming, but it’s like, okay, whoa, it’s not just about me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:17:34] I love that so much and I’ve really, really loved this conversation. Thank you so much, Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:17:39] Thank you, Jessica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:17:43] That was Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, a community reporter for KQED. This conversation was cut down and edited by our intern Mel Velasquez. Dana Cronin added all the music and the tape. Alan Montecillo is our editor. 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. Music courtesy of Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions. Funding for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. I’m Jessica Kariisa, in for Erica Cruz Guevarra. Thanks for listening and happy Valentine’s Day!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we asked listeners to share their stories about dating in the Bay Area. Today, we meet some daters from all around the region and hear how they’re navigating the highs and lows of the Bay Area dating scene. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>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/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC2077177491&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:03:42] Hey, Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos \u003c/strong>[00:03:44] Hi, Jessica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:03:45] I’m so excited to talk to you today. Can you maybe start by telling us a bit about the people that you spoke to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:03:52] For this story, I spoke to folks all over the Bay Area. We wanted to make sure that we understood the experiences of what it’s like to be single, of what it’s like to date. Most of the folks we spoke to were born and raised in the Bay Area. I also spoke to a couple of folks who had moved from other places and loved the Bay, but they told me that, hey, this little region that we call home has a very particular energy that sometimes takes a while to get used to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:21] Sounds like we got a lot of really great perspectives and also there’s you, Carlos. You’re a dater in the Bay Area. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:04:35] 5’8, deep dark brown eyes, melanated and marinated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:04:41] There you go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:04:43] I started using the apps, specifically Tinder, since I was able to. You know at that age, I was trying to figure out, like, hey, do I like girls, and I was like, oh, wait, I like both. And San Francisco is a place where I felt very comfortable and just being able to tell people that. I’ve met a lot of characters, a lot, a lot of characters, and I’m sure many of them can say the same about me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:05:13] Speaking of the apps, you mentioned the apps, and honestly, that’s the first thing I think of when I think of dating, especially in the past five, 10 years. And I’m curious, what’s your experience been like on the apps?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:05:29] I’m a very spontaneous, instinctual person, and over time, I’ve learned that they’re tools, they’re helpful tools, but they’re also imperfect tools. But also, they make it really hard to just accurately express what you’re feeling, the energy, and also understand the other person. And also, it’s, you know, six, seven photos with maybe like two or three sentences. Right, right. How much are you going to get out of that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:05:54] Like you said, the apps are a tool. There’s good experiences to be had. There’s also not so great experiences to be had. But it seems like it’s just kind of an inevitable part of dating. And I want to get into the story of someone you talk to named Brenda. Can you tell me who she is and what her story is?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:06:15] Brenda B is a teacher. For privacy reasons, we’re only going to be using the first letter of her last name. She is from Walnut Creek. She’s in her late 30s. She’s been in the apps and online dating for about 20 years, since she was 15.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:06:30] So that’s mostly how I’ve been able to meet people. And I also like make sure, like on my profile, that I say exactly like what I’m looking for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:06:44] What did she tell you about what her overall experience has been like on the apps?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:06:49] You know, one of the issues that comes up for her is that a lot of the guys she talks to, it’s just that they either don’t know what they want or they don’t want what she wants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:06:59] A lot of people are interested in polyamory and/or non-monogamy. And so at my age and then wanting monogamy is really hard to find. I think in particular, that’s a unique trait of this area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:07:19] Wow, I mean, I didn’t realize monogamy was out of style. Maybe I’m out of touch. But I’m curious, you know, when Brenda does meet people who are also interested in monogamy, has she had good experiences?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:07:37] She puts the best of herself out there. She’s very intentional. And she reminds me a lot of my female besties who go out to meet someone and they are putting so much thought into where the date’s gonna be, what they’re gonna wear, what they’re gonna talk about. And then they leave the house so excited and then a few hours later they come back and they’re like, the guy just didn’t measure up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:08:03] Single guys in the bay, I feel like if you put in a little bit of effort, it will be appreciated. Don’t waste people’s time. If you’re not interested in dating anyone, just delete your app, please.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:08:17] Something else that bothers her is that she might go out with someone three, four, five times, start building a bit of a connection with them and then the guy’s like, “Wait a minute. This is not something I was ready for. I don’t know what I want. Let’s just stop seeing each other.” Brenda said it very clear. “Hey, it’s okay if you don’t wanna date or if you don’t want something serious, but communicate that from the beginning. The other person might be cool with that. But just don’t lead them along.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:08:55] People obviously resort to the apps because meeting people in real life is hard. I mean, even just making friends in real life is hard. But people are still managing to meet people IRL and I’m curious, based on the people you spoke to, what did you hear about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:09:12] I spoke to Bri Fritz. She’s from Napa, works at a community college and dates queer people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:09:19] There are a couple queer people out here but it is very slim picking. For me, what I have found really successful is I joined sports leagues. Now, I’m not a sporty person. I had never played soccer, never played sports, but I went and they were so welcoming and through that, I met other people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:09:37] She’s been able to form really cool networks of queer women and she’s been really intentional about this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:09:43] I really wish I was a sporty girl, but I would get so intimidated. I would definitely be the worst on the team. How did Bri choose sports?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:10:01] These kind of spaces work really well for Bri because she’s not a drinker. She tries not to drink and wants to seek out spaces where drinking isn’t the center of what people are doing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:10:12] The thing with the queer community is there’s a lot of focus on drinking and going to the bars and that’s not really my scene. I don’t like to just randomly approach people. I get pretty nervous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:10:22] There’s a lot of really fun sports leagues for queer women, queer men, trans and non-binary folks all over the Bay Area and it can make meeting people a lot less daunting and even if you don’t meet someone that you’re romantically interested in, you’re now just gonna have a bigger network of people, of friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] I mean, it honestly sounds like a win -win. You know, she’s doing, she’s being active. She’s, you know, doing these fun activities. She’s meeting super cool people. I wonder, is Brie running into any challenges? Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:11:02] The Bay Area is a huge place. It’s nine counties. But what that means is like, you know, you can meet someone at a bar or an app or something that might tell you, oh yeah, I live in the Bay too. And you might live in Marin and they’re like, and I live in San Jose. So you’re like, okay, how am I gonna make this work? Especially if you’re interested in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:11:21] I met actually somebody who’s originally from Napa, lived in Walnut Creek and then moved to Fremont and they were asking if I was okay with the commute. Luckily, I love to drive. I have a little Honda Fit. And so for me, that commute was okay. We would sometimes meet halfway but it was kind of difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:11:37] I feel the commuting pain point. I live in San Jose. I obviously work here in San Francisco. I feel like I’m in a long distance relationship with the rest of the Bay team. But I’m curious, you know, besides joining a sports league which is super cool. What are some other good ways you heard from the people that you spoke to about meeting people in real life?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:04] Yeah, I spoke about that with Tim Huey. He’s in his 30s, living in Oakland and working as an organizer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:12:12] When it comes to meeting people in real life that’s certainly something that is maybe a little bit of a lost art. And so for myself, one of those spaces is kind of within community organizing, activism and advocacy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:30] Something that’s really important to Tim are the values, what the other person believes. Tim mentioned is that it helps you build trust with that person. That’s, I mean, in any relationship if you already have that, that makes things a lot stronger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:12:43] You’re sitting in city hall for five hours for a meeting and you’re trying to wait for your turn to speak to you and making friends with people around you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:12:51] Has this worked out romantically for Tim as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:12:55] In his case, it hasn’t worked out just because with the folks he’s met they mentioned that it’s best to not date within the movements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:13:05] A lot of these spaces are very close -knit doing a lot of important and stressful work. So adding romantic relationships into that element can and has in some cases been a little bit more drama than maybe it’s worth to some people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:24] Yeah, like dating within a particular community if it’s small or if it overlaps with your work like it definitely sounds like there are some real pitfalls there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:13:36] Yeah, no, it makes things messy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:13:43] Just to wrap up, Carlos, I know you asked each of these daters for their best advice and I’m curious, what did they tell you?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:13:51] I loved asking folks this question because what they told me it just made me smile. Like Bri, she actually printed out little business cards with her Instagram, funny facts, cool things about her that when she meets someone at a bar she’ll actually pass this card to them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bri Fritz \u003c/strong>[00:14:15] It’s such a power move to be like, oh yeah, here, contact me. Everybody I’ve ever given one to they say that their friends think it’s so funny. It’s such a power move.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:14:24] I love that. I might take that idea, honestly. Business cards, we need to bring those back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:14:28] Me too! Me too. Me too. And other folks had kind of like bigger suggestions. Brenda, she really recommends to other women to be clear about what you want from the beginning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brenda B \u003c/strong>[00:14:41] I think women in particular have been taught to like kind of just smile and be happy and that we’re like too much and I think I bought into that and I’ve learned as I’ve dated more and as I’ve matured and gone to therapy that no, it’s really important to say like, hey, this is bothering me or this is something I’ve noticed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:15:06] She mentioned that sometimes if you say, “Hey, I want something serious” or “I want kids” or “I don’t want kids” at the beginning it might be daunting because you’re like, hey, is the other person going to be turned off by that or are they just going to leave? But she pointed out that if they leave or they step away once you mention what you want, that’s just how it’s meant to be, right? You don’t want to be with someone who’s not interested in the same things or doesn’t have the same goal in mind as you are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:15:36] That’s all such great advice. What about advice for the general dating pool? Were there any no-nos, anything that we should be leaving behind in 2025?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:15:48] Yeah, I really, really like what Tim said, that we need to get better at closure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tim Huey \u003c/strong>[00:15:55] Especially in this day and age with social media and digital communication or it can be seen as disposable or really ready to kind of move on to the next thing. There’s something to be said for messaging. Some may say I’m just not feeling it but I wish you the best on finding your person. Something simple like that rather than just ghosting. I think that’s the big thing that a lot of people have either experienced or have done themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:16:23] You don’t have to be besties with everyone who you date, right? But at least in my case, I do appreciate when someone lets me know what they’re thinking and they’re honest that it’s not going to work out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:16:43] Carlos, what is your takeaway from all these conversations, would you say?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:16:49] Every person I spoke to has a completely different background experience than I do. But hearing someone who lives in Walnut Creek is a teacher or lives in Napa or is an organizer but has gone through similar things as I have that has been ghosted or has dated someone who turned out to be in a committed relationship and didn’t communicate that to you or where you’ve been maybe not the good person. I think that’s really good to know that someone out there here in the Bay is going exactly through something that you’re going through right now. I mean, it’s not just affirming, but it’s like, okay, whoa, it’s not just about me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:17:34] I love that so much and I’ve really, really loved this conversation. Thank you so much, Carlos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí \u003c/strong>[00:17:39] Thank you, Jessica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jessica Kariisa \u003c/strong>[00:17:43] That was Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí, a community reporter for KQED. This conversation was cut down and edited by our intern Mel Velasquez. Dana Cronin added all the music and the tape. Alan Montecillo is our editor. 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. Music courtesy of Audio Network and Blue Dot Sessions. Funding for The Bay is provided in part by the Osher Production Fund. I’m Jessica Kariisa, in for Erica Cruz Guevarra. Thanks for listening and happy Valentine’s Day!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "How Oakland's 16th Street Train Station Helped Build West Oakland and the Modern Civil Rights Movement",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>View the full episode transcript. \u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003cem>This story was first published on April 14, 2022, and updated on Feb. 13, 2025.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re in Oakland, take 16th Street west from downtown like you’re heading to the freeway. As you travel, single-family homes will give way to vacant lots, industrial warehouses and shiny new condominiums. Pretty soon you’ll see the 880 freeway roaring above you. You’ve hit a dead end, and you’ll be staring up at Oakland’s 16th Street Station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a massive, 40-foot-high stone structure covered in terra-cotta tiles. Designed in the Beaux Arts style, it’s elegant, with three large arched windows over the main door. There’s a wide parking lot, an old control tower and what looks like the skeleton of an elevated train line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all its grandeur, it clearly has been left to the slow decay of time. Local graffiti artists have covered its once bright walls, the perimeter is encircled by cyclone fencing and weeds grow everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely could have been cared for better,” says Tadd Williams, our question asker. He drives by the station on 880 every day and often wonders about the lives it has lived. “What’s the deal with the 16th Street station?” he wanted to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, the 16th Street station played a crucial role in the Bay Area’s transportation infrastructure during the golden age of rail travel, helped establish a working-class Black community in West Oakland and was a major organizing force behind America’s first Black union.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The golden age of rail travel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 16th Street station opened in 1912. Trains were the way to get around, and Oakland soon became a major hub for the Southern Pacific Railroad, which operated a rail yard there. In the decades following its opening, the station boomed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11910937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-800x479.jpeg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of multiple rail lines and trains exiting a busy train station.\" width=\"800\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-800x479.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-160x96.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928.jpeg 803w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Southern Pacific lines approaching Oakland Pier Terminal in 1928. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR%2C_Oakland_Pier%2C_San_Francisco_%28CJ_Allen%2C_Steel_Highway%2C_1928%29.jpg\">Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like an airport is today,” said Mitchell Schwarzer, a professor at California College of the Arts and author of the book “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391536/hella-town\">Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption\u003c/a>.” “Back in the day, there would have been 50 or more trains coming into the station from long distances every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of interurban trains would pass through from all over the East Bay, as would hundreds more street cars. Some trains ran on the first elevated train tracks to be constructed west of the Mississippi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Bridge wasn’t constructed until 1936, so for many years the 16th Street station was a passthrough for travelers headed to San Francisco. Trains took passengers out onto “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbicSxD0_g\">moles\u003c/a>” — essentially, wooden piers built far out into the bay. Riders then would transfer to a ferry for the final leg of their journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910936\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Key_Route_Pier_postcard_(3).jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910936\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3.jpeg\" alt=\"A color drawing shows ferries and other boats out in the Bay with a long stretch of rail tracks connecting back to the mainland.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1002\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3.jpeg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-800x501.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-1020x639.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-160x100.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-1536x962.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Postcard circa 1915-1930: “The Key Route Pier: San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Cal.” \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Key_Route_Pier_postcard_(3).jpg\">Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps even more surprising, two lanes of traffic on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge were once devoted to rail travel. From 1936, the year the Bay Bridge opened, until 1941, riders could board a train at 16th Street station and take it across the bridge into San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Southern Pacific Railroad was a major employer in Oakland, and workers migrated from all over the country to live and work in West Oakland near the station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy Laird arrived in Oakland in the 1920s, and found a job working as a cook on trains. Like many Black people at the time, he was looking for a better life away from the Jim Crow South. The first steps of this new life were into Oakland’s 16th Street Station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland was a golden doorway to a new life,” said Alan Laird, Levy’s son. “When the doors opened up, and the passengers were departing the train, the engine would let off this last blast of steam. It was like a sigh of relief, like hope is here, we made it, and now we are in a new home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pullman car porters make their mark on West Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cross-country rail travel could be long, harsh and uncomfortable. So, it was only a matter of time until companies started catering to the wealthy who wanted to travel in style. The Pullman Palace Car Company was known for its luxury sleeping cars, like hotels on wheels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2288px\">\u003ca href=\"https://lccn.loc.gov/2012649450\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910920\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar.png\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a woman in early 20th century clothing reading while lying down in a sleeping birth on a train. A small hammock for belongings hands abvoe her.\" width=\"2288\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar.png 2288w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-800x300.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1020x383.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-160x60.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1536x576.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-2048x768.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1920x720.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2288px) 100vw, 2288px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman reading in bed in a Pullman car berth with curtains up, circa 1905. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://lccn.loc.gov/2012649450\">Geo. R. Lawrence Co./Library of Congress\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Imagine travelers sitting on plush seats, chandeliers hanging from ceilings, windows with silk curtains and dark walnut woodwork. Travelers could get almost anything on a Pullman car, and it took an army of employees to deliver that experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullman employed maids, waiters and cooks to provide top-quality service. But the porters were the most renowned part of the operation. They would carry luggage, shine shoes and wait on passengers’ every need. The Pullman Palace Car Company hired almost exclusively Black men for these jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was this racist idea of Blacks serving whites in a subsidiary role,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://interactive.wttw.com/a/chicago-stories-pullman-porters\">Pullman managers expected porters to work 20-hour shifts.\u003c/a> They were at the beck and call of passengers at any time, day or night. Many customers wouldn’t even call the porters by their given names, instead referring to them all as “George,” after the company’s founder, George Pullman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions didn’t improve over time. One report from 1935 found that the porters made just $0.278 per hour, whereas workers in manufacturing or federally funded New Deal projects made twice that. Yet despite the terrible working conditions, being a porter was considered a good job. It was one of the few opportunities Black people had to travel and earn a steady income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911065\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911065 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-800x1073.jpg\" alt=\"A very old and poor quality image shows a man wearing a pullman porters uniform holding 2 pieces of luggage at a train station.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1073\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-800x1073.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-1020x1368.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-160x215.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-1145x1536.jpg 1145w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319.jpg 1267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clinton Jones stands at a railroad station wearing a porter’s uniform and holding two pieces of luggage, circa 1920. \u003ccite>(Cottrell Laurence Dellums papers/African American Museum and Library at Oakland)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a huge source of employment for Blacks around the country,” Schwarzer said. “The porters had a kind of role as ambassadors of information throughout the United States to Black communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/defender.html\">Porters often distributed the Chicago Defender\u003c/a> — the largest Black newspaper at the time — across the country, including to the American South, where the paper was banned in some places. The Defender helped fuel the Great Migration out of the South by informing people of opportunities elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The porters also were talking to each other on their long trips, and organizing to take on the systemic racism in the railroad business. In 1925, the porters announced they wanted to form a union. It would come to be known as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters — the first Black union in the country. It was based in Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the vice president, C.L. Dellums, was based in Oakland,” Schwarzer said. “So Oakland takes on a very large role within the brotherhood. It’s kind of the secondary headquarters of the brotherhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brotherhood-of-Sleeping-Car-Porters\">The struggle to unionize was a long one, taking 12 years.\u003c/a> The Pullman company fired workers who tried to organize, and did everything they could to discourage the union. But in the end, the porters were successful, and Oakland played no small part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911063\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11911063\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-800x654.jpg\" alt=\"A photo shows three black men in suits and ties standing in front of a banner for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters\" width=\"800\" height=\"654\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-800x654.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-1020x834.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048.jpg 1252w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, C.L. Dellums, vice president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; A. Philip Randolph, president; and unidentified man, at the 28th anniversary of the union, in 1953. \u003ccite>(Cottrell Laurence Dellums papers/African American Museum and Library at Oakland)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s widely reported that the branch that was the most steadfast, that had the largest membership, who supported ongoing union efforts, was the Oakland branch under C.L. Dellums,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is credited with helping to establish the Black middle class in America, as well as the modern civil rights movement. \u003ca href=\"https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/a-philip-randolph-first-call-mow/\">In 1941, the porters threatened to march on Washington to protest employment discrimination.\u003c/a> This was more than 20 years before the March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103880184#:~:text=Pullman%20Porters%20Helped%20Build%20Black%20Middle%20Class%20Porters%20combined%20their,for%20the%20civil%20rights%20movement.\">porter’s offspring\u003c/a> also made their mark on history. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall both are descendants of Pullman porters. C.L. Dellums’s nephew, Ron Dellums, served both as the mayor of Oakland and a U.S. Representative of California in Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Oakland’s history of civil rights activism, this is really the start,” Schwarzer said. “If you think about the Occupy movement in the 2010s, the Black Panthers in the ’60s and ’70s, or \u003ca href=\"https://moms4housing.org/\">Moms 4 Housing\u003c/a> now, it all goes back to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good railroad jobs offered at Oakland’s 16th Street Station, along with the nearby Army base, helped the community to thrive. West Oakland had a vibrant business district, swinging nightclubs and plenty of people who owned homes. Alan Laird remembers going to the porters’ union hall with his father. He looked up to the men there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a vibration there,” Laird said. “It felt like I was getting vitamins from them. It was like I was a sponge receiving it all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Redevelopment guts West Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910898\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An older Black man wearing an athletic jacket, necklace and white hat stands in the hall of an old building. Sunlight pores through a window behind him, spotlighting the floor.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Amtrak employee Lamar McDaniel poses for a portrait in the Main Hall of the 16th Street station in West Oakland on Feb. 16, 2022. McDaniel toured the station with KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman and shared his memories on the podcast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s, Oakland leaders approved two major infrastructure projects that leveled hundreds of homes and businesses, displacing thousands of mostly Black West Oakland residents. In little more than a decade, the neighborhood suffered the construction of the Cypress viaduct (part of the 880 freeway), a huge regional post office, a BART line and several other “\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-history-of-resistance-to-racism\">urban renewal\u003c/a>” projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no place in the Bay Area that received more abuse than West Oakland,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without a business district, the economy of West Oakland began to decline. At the same time, the rising popularity of the automobile made the 16th Street station less relevant. By the late 1980s, just a few trains a day stopped there. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake badly damaged the structure, forcing it to close. The last train rolled past it in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without regular visitors, people squatted inside the building and stripped its once immaculate interior of anything useful. The tracks themselves disappeared, dug up and sold for scrap, leaving the station disconnected from the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of fixing the station’s aging structure, Amtrak opened two new stations serving the Oakland area: the Jack London Square station in 1994, and the Emeryville station in 1993. The 16th Street station and West Oakland’s prosperous past became a distant memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s next for the station?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A once grand hall stands dilapidated and empty. A stairway leads up to the left and light streams in through huge windows.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Light shines through windows in the main hall of the now abandoned 16th Street station in West Oakland on Feb. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nowadays, the station stands in a strange limbo. BRIDGE Housing, a large affordable housing nonprofit, bought the station in 2005. But after nearly two decades in their care, the station still stands vacant and in disrepair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just a housing developer, we try to develop community,” said Jim Mather, chief investment officer for BRIDGE. “I think this was seen as something that could benefit the community and something that could help bring West Oakland back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t gone according to plan. The building needs over $50 million dollars worth of seismic retrofitting and historic restoration. BRIDGE hoped to get help footing that massive bill from local redevelopment agencies, but the 2008 recession dashed those dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A close up of one wall shows the plaster is crumbling away and bricks can be seen underneath.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plaster has crumbled to reveal brick in the Main Hall of 16th Street Station in West Oakland, Feb. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on hold, trying to find the financing,” Mather said. “So if there are any billionaires listening who want a project, here it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BRIDGE used to rent the station out for events. A few \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZbaXdK8Js\">music videos\u003c/a> were shot there. But even those uses are a thing of the past. Pieces of the ceiling can fall without warning, Mather said, and the city of Oakland won’t grant BRIDGE permits anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The liability is too high,” Mather said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people want the station turned into a museum for the railroad and the porters; others want it to be an event space. Community advocates, historians and West Oaklanders who remember the building’s former glory don’t want any part of it torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever happens here, BRIDGE is going to recognize and honor the history behind the station and its significance to the African American community of Oakland,” Mather said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may never hear a train pull into 16th Street Station again, but it’s possible the site could have a new beginning, just like the people who passed through it all those years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updates:\u003c/strong> The 16th Street Station was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024819/historic-landmark-status-boosts-push-restore-iconic-west-oakland-train-station\">added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 21.\u003c/a> BRIDGE Housing sold the property to City Ventures, a housing developer based in San Francisco and Irvine, in 2022.\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\">Bay Curious listener Tadd Williams often finds himself driving on the 880 freeway in West Oakland. There’s this one building that’s visible from the road that he’s always wondered about…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tadd Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It seemed like such a beautiful structure. I guess that was the first thing that kinda caught my eye. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s an impressive building, in a beaux arts style that looks stately and European. The front is dominated by three grand arched windows, positioned over the entrance. Everything is very symmetrical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the outside is routinely covered with graffiti, and this place is surrounded by a perimeter of chain link fencing … Because it’s been abandoned for more than 3 decades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tadd Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s something I’ve always seen from the freeway and I just wanted to understand more about its background, you know, its history, its purpose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Turns out the building Tadd has been eyeing is the 16th street train station in West Oakland. It’s got a storied legacy that can hardly be overstated. It helped give rise to West Oakland’s Black community … and laid a foundation for activism in the town. But with all these accolades, why does it sit empty today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On today’s show, we go inside the once grand, now derelict 16th Street Station.This episode first ran on Bay Curious in 2022, but there’s been an exciting update. So we’re bringing it back to refresh your memory. Hang out at the end for what’s new. That’s all just ahead on Bay Curious. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. \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\">Question asker, Tadd Williams, sent us on a journey to learn about the impressive, and neglected, 16th Street Train Station in West Oakland. Reporter Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman found that for many coming to California, it was the end of the line. The opening scene in your next chapter …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland was a golden doorway to a new life \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Alan Laird, he was born in Oakland, but before he was born, his father made the journey from Mississippi to California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And leaving the south. Um, Uh, brown paper bags and baskets worth of fried chicken and things just to make the journey. And chairs, chair cars that would not give sometimes and your back would ache and your rock and you think, and all the time about making it to that place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an opportunity to start a\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">life away from the Jim Crow South. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When the doors opened up the engine led off this last blast of steam. Ahh. You almost hear a sigh of relief, like hope is here. We made it on time. We made it all the way through that. And now we are at home, a new home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many people, the first steps of this new life would be into the 16th street station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And they stop and pause for a minute, getting off the train, gazing around, not knowing what to expect beyond those, uh, highly polished brass plated doors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Laird’s father worked as a cook on the Southern Pacific Railroad. So Laird was there a lot in the 50’s when he was a boy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I remember the smell of the hot dogs and the hot peanuts and things from it, from the little snack shop there that had all the books that you could buy to read and…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the marble floors were so polished, you could see the reflection of the chandeliers when you looked down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So I had a love affair with that station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was built in 1912, during the golden age of rail travel. For decades, the station was as busy as an airport is today. There would be \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dozens of long distance trains\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> arriving every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Now on train number track 22. That Shasta Daylight coming in, now arriving.” And depending on what train my father was on, it was extra exciting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music ends)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was the grandest railroad station ever designed in the San Francisco Bay Area. That includes San Francisco, Oakland, and all the cities around. This was the big station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Mitchell Schwarzer, professor and author of the book \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption.” \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says that the station was also home to a huge network of local trains and streetcars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: T\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here would have been hundreds – 500 or more – electric interurban trains arriving from various parts of the East Bay. There would have been about 200 street cars arriving and departing every day as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before the Bay Bridge was built you could take a train from 16th street station to something called the Mole. Essentially a pier that took trains out into the bay, to a terminal where people transferred to a ferry to get to San Francisco. Later, for about five years, you could even take a train across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the decades after the station was built, throughout the early 1900’s, you’d see all sorts of trains, but the most luxurious were Pullman Palace Cars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By day or by night, Pullman offers complete rest and relaxation cleanliness, safety, and comfortable transportation for the American public.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These trains were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/traveling-style-and-comfort-pullman-sleeping-car-180949300/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">luxury sleeping cars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, like hotels on wheels, designed for wealthy people to make the long transcontinental railroad trip in comfort. Imagine well-to-do travelers sitting on plush seats, chandeliers hanging from ceilings, windows with silk curtains and dark walnut woodwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It takes a great army of men and women to maintain Pullman standards. The yards and shops storerooms and offices work smoothly day and night.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an operation. Pullman employed maids, waiters, and cooks to provide top quality service. But the porters were the most renowned part of the operation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And electric bell with which to summon the porter at any hour. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They would carry luggage, shine shoes, and basically wait on passengers every need. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PORTER! PORTER!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the Pullman Palace Car company almost exclusively hired Black men for these jobs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So there was that kind of racist idea of Blacks serving whites in a subsidiary role. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were expected to work hard, 20 hour shifts. Many customers wouldn’t even call the porters by their name, they just referred to them as George, after the founder, George Pullman. Calling someone the name of their enslaver was a tradition carried over from slavery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But at the same time, it gave a great source of employment for Blacks around the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The combination of a steady income and the ability to travel around the country was almost unheard of for Black people at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So the porters have a kind of role as ambassadors of information, right throughout the United States to Black communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Porters were known for distributing the Chicago Defender, the largest Black newspaper at the time, across the country, including to the south, where the paper was banned in some places. The paper helped fuel The Great Migration out of the south by informing people of opportunities elsewhere.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So they’re both, they have relatively well-paying jobs, stable jobs. They’re moving around the United States. And basically communicating to other Black communities cause they’re getting off and sleeping and then getting back on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because of the hard working conditions and the systemic racism, in 1925, the Porters announced they wanted to form a union. The first Black union in the country, called the Brotherhood of Sleepingcar Porters. They were based in Chicago\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the vice-president C.L. Dellums was based in Oakland. \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\">(Music)\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So Oakland takes on a very large role within the brotherhood. You know, it’s kind of, it’s kind of what the secondary headquarters of the brotherhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the struggle to unionize was a long one. It took 12 years. The Pullman company fired workers who tried to organize, and did everything they could to discourage the union. But in the end, the porters were successful, and Oakland played no small part. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The branch that was the most steadfast, that had the largest membership who supported ongoing union efforts was the Oakland branch under C.L. Dellums.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The porters are credited with helping to found the Black middle class in America, as well as the modern civil rights movement. In 1941, they threaten a march on Washington to protest employment discrimination. This is more than 20 years before the March on Washington where Martin Luther King makes his “I have a dream” speech.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schwarzer says the community organizing that continues in West Oakland today, groups like Moms 4 Housing, are part of a legacy started by the Brotherhood. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you look at Oakland’s history of civil rights activism, this is really the kind of start, you know. You think about the occupy movement in the 2010s, and the Black panthers in the 60s and 70s. It all goes back to the brotherhood of sleeping car porters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These railroad jobs were the foundation for a neighborhood of black owned businesses, nightclubs, and homes in West Oakland. Alan Laird remembers going to the porters union hall with his father and seeing a flourishing community. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So in that community, we had all our own businesses and finances. I remember my barber shop, Stovall Barber Shop, was right there on Seventh Street. It was vibrant. It was people walking on both sides of the street going and coming with shopping bags and different things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West Oakland, and the 16th Street Station, were thriving. But all that starts to change in the late 1950s. The construction of the 880 freeway and later, the BART line, demolished a lot of those West Oakland businesses. And as the economy of West Oakland begins to decline, so does the 16th street station. The golden age of railroads comes to an end. Cars and airplanes become more popular and all those streetcars and suburban trains ceased to exist. By the late 80’s, just a few trains a day stopped at 16th Street Station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alan Laird remembers seeing the station in disrepair.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I pass by and it’s just a hulk, with a million memories, you know, the windowpanes looked as though they’d been in steady tears. And say, “Won’t, they notice me can’t they see me don’t they know who I was,” you know?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1989 the Loma Prieta Earthquake badly damaged the structure of the station, and it was closed. The last train rolled past it in 1994.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The station sat vacant and abandoned for 11 years. People squatted in it, covered it in graffiti, and stripped the interior. In 2005 it was bought by BRIDGE housing, an non-profit affordable housing developer. They wanted to turn the station into something the community could use, but like other redevelopment plans in West Oakland… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of those plans have been derailed by at least two major recessions during that time. I mean, the dot com bust was one, then the big recession.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Jim Mather, the Chief Investment Officer for BRIDGE. I met him outside the station. He says those recessions dried up a lot of the funding that the station needed. And the price tag for the restoration and seismic retrofitting the station needs is at least $50 million dollars. So the station is in limbo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re on hold. I mean, it’s really trying to find the financing. Any billionaires listening who want to want a project here, here it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like to say we’re looking for, uh, somebody with deep pockets who says, this is my legacy to Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also here is, Frankie Whitman a consultant for BRIDGE.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re going to go inside the station, for a chance to peek at some history most Oaklander’s never get to see. So I brought someone along who knows the station firsthand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recordings outside the station: \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice to meet you, man.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, Am I late?\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, you’re right on time. Perfect timing. So welcome back.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alright alright\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How’s it feel to be back? \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh man, I just got a little chill.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Lamar MacDaniel. He started working out of the station in 1973. He’s 71 now. He walks a bit slowly, which he credits to working on the railroad.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the time you leave the railroad, walking on the train, serving, waiting tables and taking all that rocking and rolling, You’d be wowed, you’ll feel like you’ve been in football game for the last 27 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he started, MacDaniel was trained by some of the last of the Pullman Porters to work on the railroads. He started as a waiter and worked his way up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was the one that got, you know, I got taught a lot. That’s how I ended up being a maitre’d, which was the job that a Black guy didn’t have during the Pullman days. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He hasn’t been inside since the station was closed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of door being unlocked\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But today we get to go in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of everyone “wow” as they enter the station\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The inside is jaw dropping. The ceilings are 40 feet high, adorned with intricate plaster work. Golden light filters in through arched windows. MacDaniel remembers some of the same things that made Alan Laird’s eyes big as a kid …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They used to have a guy over there that was shine shoes … and over in that corner was a snack stand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the grand clocks and chandeliers that Alan Laird told me about are gone. Somethings off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you could even see here, even though it looks very distressed, it’s very evenly distressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since BRIDGE has owned the station, they’ve rented it out to companies like HBO and Netflix for TV and movies, and those companies have left a lot of their sets behind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All the wainscoting, the door treatment, the window treatment, the valances … those are not elevators cause there’s no second floor. All movie set. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than one music video has been filmed here as well. So in the same spot where porters once carried luggage, E-40 told us how to go dumb in the Tell Me When To Go Music video.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clip from “Tell Me When To Go”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumford and Son’s did a video here too, and it has hosted Burning Man inspired parties. But BRIDGE can’t even do that anymore. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, this, this is new\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in the main hall, Whitman points to a pile of debris on the floor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In the train station:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where do you think that fell from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jim Mather: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right up there. \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow. So the, the ceilings like actively crumbling, huh?\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jim Mather: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes. Another reason we don’t have, I mean, it’s part of the liability thing. Why we not having events in here anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We walk out of the main hall, through a dark corridor, to the old baggage wing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’m going to need my flashlight\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, it’s pretty dark here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The baggage wing is thick with history. There’s an old scale for weighing luggage, and a large rolling door where passengers used to wait for their things. The first elevated tracks west of the Mississippi are directly over our heads. I walk with Lamar over to another small room. It’s the utility room, where the porters would hang out between shifts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There would be luggage all over the place. Guys would be here, when there wasn’t a train to be ready to be serving. The red caps would just hang out, back here and shoot the breeze, tell jokes and all kinds of stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some people want the station turned into a museum for the railroad and the porters, others want it to be an event space. Jim Mather from Bridge. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever happens here, BRIDGE is going to recognize and honor the history behind the station and its significance to the African-American community of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just When the doors of the 16th Street Station will reopen again is unclear. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of freeway\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To complete the tour we walk out to the back of the station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where once there was the shore of the bay, there’s the 880 freeway. Instead of trains, semi’s run in and out of the Port of Oakland. There are no tracks connected to 16th Street Station anymore. They’ve been dug up and taken away. It’s reminiscent of how this station has been disconnected from Oakland, the building neglected, the history obscured. Alan Laird again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was like losing a friend, you know, but, you see the shadow of it right there and you want to run and tell people: “I remember when that was a palace! And that was filled with thriving hearts and minds and souls and energy and hope was waiting for you as you got off the train.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll never hear a train pull into 16th Street Station again, but it’s still possible the station could have a new beginning, just like the people that passed through it all those years ago. \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\">(music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So, Azul, as we mentioned earlier this story first aired in 2022, and there have been some recent developments. What’s happening now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the big news is that the 16th Street Station has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. A non-profit group called the Oakland Heritage Alliance submitted the application for the station, which basically outlined the stations significance for three things; its importance to local transportation, its architectural significance, and its relation to C.L. Dellums, and that’s the labor organizer you heard about in this story. The station was one of the first places to be recognized for this newly created category within the register, that recognizes the history of African Americans in California. I spoke to Feleciai Favroth, whose the treasurer with the Oakland Heritage Alliance, about this, she said she was ecstatic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Feleciai Favroth:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This could be the key to make the station a viable rehab project. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Alliance is really hoping this will turn the tide in the battle to get the station repaired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Historic sites make me think the building is like going to get a fancy plaque that has a little bit of history written on it. But what does historic designation mean practically?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So yes there is a lot of notoriety and national recognition that comes with being added to the register, but a really big thing that’s tangible is that it also opens the station up to a 20% federal income tax credit. And a developer could use that towards restoration of the station. This has actually worked in the Bay Area before. Like say, have you ever been to the Fox Theater in Oakland?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, I’ve seen some great shows there and I always marvel at the ceiling in that place …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, well the Fox is on the National Register, and received a federal tax credit toward its rehabilitation, including that really nice ceiling. So advocates are hoping this will happen to the 16th Street Station as well. But again this is all still just theoretical. There’s no money that has been committed yet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it’s not like the station is suddenly saved necessarily…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. There still aren’t any plans to restore the station itself. And another change is that BRIDGE Housing no longer owns the station, they sold it to City Ventures, a housing developer based in San Francisco and Irvine in 2022. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">City Ventures has submitted plans to the city of Oakland to build a 77-unit townhome-style development — called “Signal House” — on the area around the station, but there’s no plan to rehabilitate the station itself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To that end, City Ventures has hired a consulting group called OE Consulting to explore finding someone or some group to fund the rehabilitation of the station, separate from this housing project. They’re still trying to find someone to fund that. And even what the space could become is still open ended. Members of the Oakland Heritage Alliance have suggested a business incubator, or an events space, and something that highlights the history of the station, but as of now, those are all just ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alright. Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED Features Reporter – thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re welcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you want to see some pictures of 16th Street Station, including some from our tour inside, head to BayCurious.org. We’ll drop a link in the show notes too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Special thanks to Dan Brekke and Paul Lancour for their help on this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was made by Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli, Brendan Willard and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional engineering from Christopher Beale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is produced at member-supported KQED in San Francisco.\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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"title": "How Oakland's 16th Street Train Station Helped Build West Oakland and the Modern Civil Rights Movement | KQED",
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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>\u003cem>This story was first published on April 14, 2022, and updated on Feb. 13, 2025.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re in Oakland, take 16th Street west from downtown like you’re heading to the freeway. As you travel, single-family homes will give way to vacant lots, industrial warehouses and shiny new condominiums. Pretty soon you’ll see the 880 freeway roaring above you. You’ve hit a dead end, and you’ll be staring up at Oakland’s 16th Street Station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a massive, 40-foot-high stone structure covered in terra-cotta tiles. Designed in the Beaux Arts style, it’s elegant, with three large arched windows over the main door. There’s a wide parking lot, an old control tower and what looks like the skeleton of an elevated train line.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For all its grandeur, it clearly has been left to the slow decay of time. Local graffiti artists have covered its once bright walls, the perimeter is encircled by cyclone fencing and weeds grow everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It definitely could have been cared for better,” says Tadd Williams, our question asker. He drives by the station on 880 every day and often wonders about the lives it has lived. “What’s the deal with the 16th Street station?” he wanted to know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As it happens, the 16th Street station played a crucial role in the Bay Area’s transportation infrastructure during the golden age of rail travel, helped establish a working-class Black community in West Oakland and was a major organizing force behind America’s first Black union.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The golden age of rail travel\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 16th Street station opened in 1912. Trains were the way to get around, and Oakland soon became a major hub for the Southern Pacific Railroad, which operated a rail yard there. In the decades following its opening, the station boomed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910937\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11910937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-800x479.jpeg\" alt=\"Black and white photo of multiple rail lines and trains exiting a busy train station.\" width=\"800\" height=\"479\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-800x479.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928-160x96.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR_Oakland_Pier_San_Francisco_CJ_Allen_Steel_Highway_1928.jpeg 803w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Southern Pacific lines approaching Oakland Pier Terminal in 1928. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Busy_scene_on_the_Southern_Pacific_RR%2C_Oakland_Pier%2C_San_Francisco_%28CJ_Allen%2C_Steel_Highway%2C_1928%29.jpg\">Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was like an airport is today,” said Mitchell Schwarzer, a professor at California College of the Arts and author of the book “\u003ca href=\"https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520391536/hella-town\">Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption\u003c/a>.” “Back in the day, there would have been 50 or more trains coming into the station from long distances every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of interurban trains would pass through from all over the East Bay, as would hundreds more street cars. Some trains ran on the first elevated train tracks to be constructed west of the Mississippi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bay Bridge wasn’t constructed until 1936, so for many years the 16th Street station was a passthrough for travelers headed to San Francisco. Trains took passengers out onto “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXbicSxD0_g\">moles\u003c/a>” — essentially, wooden piers built far out into the bay. Riders then would transfer to a ferry for the final leg of their journey.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910936\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1600px\">\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Key_Route_Pier_postcard_(3).jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910936\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3.jpeg\" alt=\"A color drawing shows ferries and other boats out in the Bay with a long stretch of rail tracks connecting back to the mainland.\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1002\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3.jpeg 1600w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-800x501.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-1020x639.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-160x100.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Key_Route_Pier_postcard_3-1536x962.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Postcard circa 1915-1930: “The Key Route Pier: San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, Cal.” \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Key_Route_Pier_postcard_(3).jpg\">Wikimedia Commons\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Perhaps even more surprising, two lanes of traffic on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge were once devoted to rail travel. From 1936, the year the Bay Bridge opened, until 1941, riders could board a train at 16th Street station and take it across the bridge into San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Southern Pacific Railroad was a major employer in Oakland, and workers migrated from all over the country to live and work in West Oakland near the station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Levy Laird arrived in Oakland in the 1920s, and found a job working as a cook on trains. Like many Black people at the time, he was looking for a better life away from the Jim Crow South. The first steps of this new life were into Oakland’s 16th Street Station.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Oakland was a golden doorway to a new life,” said Alan Laird, Levy’s son. “When the doors opened up, and the passengers were departing the train, the engine would let off this last blast of steam. It was like a sigh of relief, like hope is here, we made it, and now we are in a new home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Pullman car porters make their mark on West Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Cross-country rail travel could be long, harsh and uncomfortable. So, it was only a matter of time until companies started catering to the wealthy who wanted to travel in style. The Pullman Palace Car Company was known for its luxury sleeping cars, like hotels on wheels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910920\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2288px\">\u003ca href=\"https://lccn.loc.gov/2012649450\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910920\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar.png\" alt=\"Black and white photo of a woman in early 20th century clothing reading while lying down in a sleeping birth on a train. A small hammock for belongings hands abvoe her.\" width=\"2288\" height=\"858\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar.png 2288w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-800x300.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1020x383.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-160x60.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1536x576.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-2048x768.png 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/SleepingCar-1920x720.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2288px) 100vw, 2288px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman reading in bed in a Pullman car berth with curtains up, circa 1905. \u003ccite>(\u003ca href=\"https://lccn.loc.gov/2012649450\">Geo. R. Lawrence Co./Library of Congress\u003c/a>)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Imagine travelers sitting on plush seats, chandeliers hanging from ceilings, windows with silk curtains and dark walnut woodwork. Travelers could get almost anything on a Pullman car, and it took an army of employees to deliver that experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pullman employed maids, waiters and cooks to provide top-quality service. But the porters were the most renowned part of the operation. They would carry luggage, shine shoes and wait on passengers’ every need. The Pullman Palace Car Company hired almost exclusively Black men for these jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There was this racist idea of Blacks serving whites in a subsidiary role,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://interactive.wttw.com/a/chicago-stories-pullman-porters\">Pullman managers expected porters to work 20-hour shifts.\u003c/a> They were at the beck and call of passengers at any time, day or night. Many customers wouldn’t even call the porters by their given names, instead referring to them all as “George,” after the company’s founder, George Pullman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Conditions didn’t improve over time. One report from 1935 found that the porters made just $0.278 per hour, whereas workers in manufacturing or federally funded New Deal projects made twice that. Yet despite the terrible working conditions, being a porter was considered a good job. It was one of the few opportunities Black people had to travel and earn a steady income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911065\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11911065 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-800x1073.jpg\" alt=\"A very old and poor quality image shows a man wearing a pullman porters uniform holding 2 pieces of luggage at a train station.\" width=\"800\" height=\"1073\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-800x1073.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-1020x1368.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-160x215.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319-1145x1536.jpg 1145w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS189_1319.jpg 1267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clinton Jones stands at a railroad station wearing a porter’s uniform and holding two pieces of luggage, circa 1920. \u003ccite>(Cottrell Laurence Dellums papers/African American Museum and Library at Oakland)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It was a huge source of employment for Blacks around the country,” Schwarzer said. “The porters had a kind of role as ambassadors of information throughout the United States to Black communities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/defender.html\">Porters often distributed the Chicago Defender\u003c/a> — the largest Black newspaper at the time — across the country, including to the American South, where the paper was banned in some places. The Defender helped fuel the Great Migration out of the South by informing people of opportunities elsewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The porters also were talking to each other on their long trips, and organizing to take on the systemic racism in the railroad business. In 1925, the porters announced they wanted to form a union. It would come to be known as the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters — the first Black union in the country. It was based in Chicago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But the vice president, C.L. Dellums, was based in Oakland,” Schwarzer said. “So Oakland takes on a very large role within the brotherhood. It’s kind of the secondary headquarters of the brotherhood.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brotherhood-of-Sleeping-Car-Porters\">The struggle to unionize was a long one, taking 12 years.\u003c/a> The Pullman company fired workers who tried to organize, and did everything they could to discourage the union. But in the end, the porters were successful, and Oakland played no small part.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11911063\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11911063\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-800x654.jpg\" alt=\"A photo shows three black men in suits and ties standing in front of a banner for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters\" width=\"800\" height=\"654\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-800x654.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-1020x834.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048-160x131.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/MS014_B12_F11_048.jpg 1252w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">From left, C.L. Dellums, vice president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; A. Philip Randolph, president; and unidentified man, at the 28th anniversary of the union, in 1953. \u003ccite>(Cottrell Laurence Dellums papers/African American Museum and Library at Oakland)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s widely reported that the branch that was the most steadfast, that had the largest membership, who supported ongoing union efforts, was the Oakland branch under C.L. Dellums,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is credited with helping to establish the Black middle class in America, as well as the modern civil rights movement. \u003ca href=\"https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/a-philip-randolph-first-call-mow/\">In 1941, the porters threatened to march on Washington to protest employment discrimination.\u003c/a> This was more than 20 years before the March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103880184#:~:text=Pullman%20Porters%20Helped%20Build%20Black%20Middle%20Class%20Porters%20combined%20their,for%20the%20civil%20rights%20movement.\">porter’s offspring\u003c/a> also made their mark on history. Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall both are descendants of Pullman porters. C.L. Dellums’s nephew, Ron Dellums, served both as the mayor of Oakland and a U.S. Representative of California in Congress.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you look at Oakland’s history of civil rights activism, this is really the start,” Schwarzer said. “If you think about the Occupy movement in the 2010s, the Black Panthers in the ’60s and ’70s, or \u003ca href=\"https://moms4housing.org/\">Moms 4 Housing\u003c/a> now, it all goes back to the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The good railroad jobs offered at Oakland’s 16th Street Station, along with the nearby Army base, helped the community to thrive. West Oakland had a vibrant business district, swinging nightclubs and plenty of people who owned homes. Alan Laird remembers going to the porters’ union hall with his father. He looked up to the men there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was a vibration there,” Laird said. “It felt like I was getting vitamins from them. It was like I was a sponge receiving it all.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Redevelopment guts West Oakland\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910898\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910898\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"An older Black man wearing an athletic jacket, necklace and white hat stands in the hall of an old building. Sunlight pores through a window behind him, spotlighting the floor.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/LamarMcDaniel_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Amtrak employee Lamar McDaniel poses for a portrait in the Main Hall of the 16th Street station in West Oakland on Feb. 16, 2022. McDaniel toured the station with KQED’s Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman and shared his memories on the podcast. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the 1950s, Oakland leaders approved two major infrastructure projects that leveled hundreds of homes and businesses, displacing thousands of mostly Black West Oakland residents. In little more than a decade, the neighborhood suffered the construction of the Cypress viaduct (part of the 880 freeway), a huge regional post office, a BART line and several other “\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/topics/oaklands-history-of-resistance-to-racism\">urban renewal\u003c/a>” projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no place in the Bay Area that received more abuse than West Oakland,” Schwarzer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without a business district, the economy of West Oakland began to decline. At the same time, the rising popularity of the automobile made the 16th Street station less relevant. By the late 1980s, just a few trains a day stopped there. In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake badly damaged the structure, forcing it to close. The last train rolled past it in 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without regular visitors, people squatted inside the building and stripped its once immaculate interior of anything useful. The tracks themselves disappeared, dug up and sold for scrap, leaving the station disconnected from the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of fixing the station’s aging structure, Amtrak opened two new stations serving the Oakland area: the Jack London Square station in 1994, and the Emeryville station in 1993. The 16th Street station and West Oakland’s prosperous past became a distant memory.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s next for the station?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910935\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910935\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A once grand hall stands dilapidated and empty. A stairway leads up to the left and light streams in through huge windows.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Hall_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Light shines through windows in the main hall of the now abandoned 16th Street station in West Oakland on Feb. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nowadays, the station stands in a strange limbo. BRIDGE Housing, a large affordable housing nonprofit, bought the station in 2005. But after nearly two decades in their care, the station still stands vacant and in disrepair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not just a housing developer, we try to develop community,” said Jim Mather, chief investment officer for BRIDGE. “I think this was seen as something that could benefit the community and something that could help bring West Oakland back.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it hasn’t gone according to plan. The building needs over $50 million dollars worth of seismic retrofitting and historic restoration. BRIDGE hoped to get help footing that massive bill from local redevelopment agencies, but the 2008 recession dashed those dreams.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11910897\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11910897\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A close up of one wall shows the plaster is crumbling away and bricks can be seen underneath.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2022/04/Disrepair_16thStreetStationOakland_02162022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Plaster has crumbled to reveal brick in the Main Hall of 16th Street Station in West Oakland, Feb. 16, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re on hold, trying to find the financing,” Mather said. “So if there are any billionaires listening who want a project, here it is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BRIDGE used to rent the station out for events. A few \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GZbaXdK8Js\">music videos\u003c/a> were shot there. But even those uses are a thing of the past. Pieces of the ceiling can fall without warning, Mather said, and the city of Oakland won’t grant BRIDGE permits anymore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The liability is too high,” Mather said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some people want the station turned into a museum for the railroad and the porters; others want it to be an event space. Community advocates, historians and West Oaklanders who remember the building’s former glory don’t want any part of it torn down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whatever happens here, BRIDGE is going to recognize and honor the history behind the station and its significance to the African American community of Oakland,” Mather said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may never hear a train pull into 16th Street Station again, but it’s possible the site could have a new beginning, just like the people who passed through it all those years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updates:\u003c/strong> The 16th Street Station was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12024819/historic-landmark-status-boosts-push-restore-iconic-west-oakland-train-station\">added to the National Register of Historic Places on Jan. 21.\u003c/a> BRIDGE Housing sold the property to City Ventures, a housing developer based in San Francisco and Irvine, in 2022.\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\">Bay Curious listener Tadd Williams often finds himself driving on the 880 freeway in West Oakland. There’s this one building that’s visible from the road that he’s always wondered about…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tadd Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It seemed like such a beautiful structure. I guess that was the first thing that kinda caught my eye. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s an impressive building, in a beaux arts style that looks stately and European. The front is dominated by three grand arched windows, positioned over the entrance. Everything is very symmetrical.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the outside is routinely covered with graffiti, and this place is surrounded by a perimeter of chain link fencing … Because it’s been abandoned for more than 3 decades.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Tadd Williams:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It’s something I’ve always seen from the freeway and I just wanted to understand more about its background, you know, its history, its purpose.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Turns out the building Tadd has been eyeing is the 16th street train station in West Oakland. It’s got a storied legacy that can hardly be overstated. It helped give rise to West Oakland’s Black community … and laid a foundation for activism in the town. But with all these accolades, why does it sit empty today? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">On today’s show, we go inside the once grand, now derelict 16th Street Station.This episode first ran on Bay Curious in 2022, but there’s been an exciting update. So we’re bringing it back to refresh your memory. Hang out at the end for what’s new. That’s all just ahead on Bay Curious. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. \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\">Question asker, Tadd Williams, sent us on a journey to learn about the impressive, and neglected, 16th Street Train Station in West Oakland. Reporter Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman found that for many coming to California, it was the end of the line. The opening scene in your next chapter …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Oakland was a golden doorway to a new life \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Alan Laird, he was born in Oakland, but before he was born, his father made the journey from Mississippi to California.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And leaving the south. Um, Uh, brown paper bags and baskets worth of fried chicken and things just to make the journey. And chairs, chair cars that would not give sometimes and your back would ache and your rock and you think, and all the time about making it to that place.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an opportunity to start a\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">life away from the Jim Crow South. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> When the doors opened up the engine led off this last blast of steam. Ahh. You almost hear a sigh of relief, like hope is here. We made it on time. We made it all the way through that. And now we are at home, a new home. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">For many people, the first steps of this new life would be into the 16th street station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> And they stop and pause for a minute, getting off the train, gazing around, not knowing what to expect beyond those, uh, highly polished brass plated doors.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Laird’s father worked as a cook on the Southern Pacific Railroad. So Laird was there a lot in the 50’s when he was a boy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I remember the smell of the hot dogs and the hot peanuts and things from it, from the little snack shop there that had all the books that you could buy to read and…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says the marble floors were so polished, you could see the reflection of the chandeliers when you looked down. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So I had a love affair with that station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was built in 1912, during the golden age of rail travel. For decades, the station was as busy as an airport is today. There would be \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">dozens of long distance trains\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> arriving every day.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> “Now on train number track 22. That Shasta Daylight coming in, now arriving.” And depending on what train my father was on, it was extra exciting.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music ends)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was the grandest railroad station ever designed in the San Francisco Bay Area. That includes San Francisco, Oakland, and all the cities around. This was the big station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Mitchell Schwarzer, professor and author of the book \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption.” \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He says that the station was also home to a huge network of local trains and streetcars.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: T\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">here would have been hundreds – 500 or more – electric interurban trains arriving from various parts of the East Bay. There would have been about 200 street cars arriving and departing every day as well.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before the Bay Bridge was built you could take a train from 16th street station to something called the Mole. Essentially a pier that took trains out into the bay, to a terminal where people transferred to a ferry to get to San Francisco. Later, for about five years, you could even take a train across the lower deck of the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the decades after the station was built, throughout the early 1900’s, you’d see all sorts of trains, but the most luxurious were Pullman Palace Cars. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By day or by night, Pullman offers complete rest and relaxation cleanliness, safety, and comfortable transportation for the American public.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These trains were \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/traveling-style-and-comfort-pullman-sleeping-car-180949300/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">luxury sleeping cars\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, like hotels on wheels, designed for wealthy people to make the long transcontinental railroad trip in comfort. Imagine well-to-do travelers sitting on plush seats, chandeliers hanging from ceilings, windows with silk curtains and dark walnut woodwork. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It takes a great army of men and women to maintain Pullman standards. The yards and shops storerooms and offices work smoothly day and night.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">It was an operation. Pullman employed maids, waiters, and cooks to provide top quality service. But the porters were the most renowned part of the operation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And electric bell with which to summon the porter at any hour. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They would carry luggage, shine shoes, and basically wait on passengers every need. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Archival tape: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">PORTER! PORTER!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the Pullman Palace Car company almost exclusively hired Black men for these jobs. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So there was that kind of racist idea of Blacks serving whites in a subsidiary role. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were expected to work hard, 20 hour shifts. Many customers wouldn’t even call the porters by their name, they just referred to them as George, after the founder, George Pullman. Calling someone the name of their enslaver was a tradition carried over from slavery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But at the same time, it gave a great source of employment for Blacks around the country. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The combination of a steady income and the ability to travel around the country was almost unheard of for Black people at the time.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So the porters have a kind of role as ambassadors of information, right throughout the United States to Black communities.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Porters were known for distributing the Chicago Defender, the largest Black newspaper at the time, across the country, including to the south, where the paper was banned in some places. The paper helped fuel The Great Migration out of the south by informing people of opportunities elsewhere.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So they’re both, they have relatively well-paying jobs, stable jobs. They’re moving around the United States. And basically communicating to other Black communities cause they’re getting off and sleeping and then getting back on.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because of the hard working conditions and the systemic racism, in 1925, the Porters announced they wanted to form a union. The first Black union in the country, called the Brotherhood of Sleepingcar Porters. They were based in Chicago\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the vice-president C.L. Dellums was based in Oakland. \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\">(Music)\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So Oakland takes on a very large role within the brotherhood. You know, it’s kind of, it’s kind of what the secondary headquarters of the brotherhood.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the struggle to unionize was a long one. It took 12 years. The Pullman company fired workers who tried to organize, and did everything they could to discourage the union. But in the end, the porters were successful, and Oakland played no small part. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The branch that was the most steadfast, that had the largest membership who supported ongoing union efforts was the Oakland branch under C.L. Dellums.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The porters are credited with helping to found the Black middle class in America, as well as the modern civil rights movement. In 1941, they threaten a march on Washington to protest employment discrimination. This is more than 20 years before the March on Washington where Martin Luther King makes his “I have a dream” speech.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Schwarzer says the community organizing that continues in West Oakland today, groups like Moms 4 Housing, are part of a legacy started by the Brotherhood. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Mitchell Schwarzer: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If you look at Oakland’s history of civil rights activism, this is really the kind of start, you know. You think about the occupy movement in the 2010s, and the Black panthers in the 60s and 70s. It all goes back to the brotherhood of sleeping car porters. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">These railroad jobs were the foundation for a neighborhood of black owned businesses, nightclubs, and homes in West Oakland. Alan Laird remembers going to the porters union hall with his father and seeing a flourishing community. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So in that community, we had all our own businesses and finances. I remember my barber shop, Stovall Barber Shop, was right there on Seventh Street. It was vibrant. It was people walking on both sides of the street going and coming with shopping bags and different things.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">West Oakland, and the 16th Street Station, were thriving. But all that starts to change in the late 1950s. The construction of the 880 freeway and later, the BART line, demolished a lot of those West Oakland businesses. And as the economy of West Oakland begins to decline, so does the 16th street station. The golden age of railroads comes to an end. Cars and airplanes become more popular and all those streetcars and suburban trains ceased to exist. By the late 80’s, just a few trains a day stopped at 16th Street Station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alan Laird remembers seeing the station in disrepair.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Alan Laird: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When I pass by and it’s just a hulk, with a million memories, you know, the windowpanes looked as though they’d been in steady tears. And say, “Won’t, they notice me can’t they see me don’t they know who I was,” you know?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 1989 the Loma Prieta Earthquake badly damaged the structure of the station, and it was closed. The last train rolled past it in 1994.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The station sat vacant and abandoned for 11 years. People squatted in it, covered it in graffiti, and stripped the interior. In 2005 it was bought by BRIDGE housing, an non-profit affordable housing developer. They wanted to turn the station into something the community could use, but like other redevelopment plans in West Oakland… \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of those plans have been derailed by at least two major recessions during that time. I mean, the dot com bust was one, then the big recession.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s Jim Mather, the Chief Investment Officer for BRIDGE. I met him outside the station. He says those recessions dried up a lot of the funding that the station needed. And the price tag for the restoration and seismic retrofitting the station needs is at least $50 million dollars. So the station is in limbo.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re on hold. I mean, it’s really trying to find the financing. Any billionaires listening who want to want a project here, here it is. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">I like to say we’re looking for, uh, somebody with deep pockets who says, this is my legacy to Oakland.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Also here is, Frankie Whitman a consultant for BRIDGE.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We’re going to go inside the station, for a chance to peek at some history most Oaklander’s never get to see. So I brought someone along who knows the station firsthand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Recordings outside the station: \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, nice to meet you, man.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hey, Am I late?\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No, you’re right on time. Perfect timing. So welcome back.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alright alright\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">How’s it feel to be back? \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh man, I just got a little chill.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is Lamar MacDaniel. He started working out of the station in 1973. He’s 71 now. He walks a bit slowly, which he credits to working on the railroad.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">By the time you leave the railroad, walking on the train, serving, waiting tables and taking all that rocking and rolling, You’d be wowed, you’ll feel like you’ve been in football game for the last 27 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he started, MacDaniel was trained by some of the last of the Pullman Porters to work on the railroads. He started as a waiter and worked his way up. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And I was the one that got, you know, I got taught a lot. That’s how I ended up being a maitre’d, which was the job that a Black guy didn’t have during the Pullman days. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He hasn’t been inside since the station was closed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of door being unlocked\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But today we get to go in.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of everyone “wow” as they enter the station\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The inside is jaw dropping. The ceilings are 40 feet high, adorned with intricate plaster work. Golden light filters in through arched windows. MacDaniel remembers some of the same things that made Alan Laird’s eyes big as a kid …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">They used to have a guy over there that was shine shoes … and over in that corner was a snack stand. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But the grand clocks and chandeliers that Alan Laird told me about are gone. Somethings off.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But you could even see here, even though it looks very distressed, it’s very evenly distressed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since BRIDGE has owned the station, they’ve rented it out to companies like HBO and Netflix for TV and movies, and those companies have left a lot of their sets behind. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">All the wainscoting, the door treatment, the window treatment, the valances … those are not elevators cause there’s no second floor. All movie set. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">More than one music video has been filmed here as well. So in the same spot where porters once carried luggage, E-40 told us how to go dumb in the Tell Me When To Go Music video.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clip from “Tell Me When To Go”\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mumford and Son’s did a video here too, and it has hosted Burning Man inspired parties. But BRIDGE can’t even do that anymore. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Frankie Whitman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, this, this is new\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Back in the main hall, Whitman points to a pile of debris on the floor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In the train station:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where do you think that fell from? \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jim Mather: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Right up there. \u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wow. So the, the ceilings like actively crumbling, huh?\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jim Mather: \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yes. Another reason we don’t have, I mean, it’s part of the liability thing. Why we not having events in here anymore.\u003c/span>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">We walk out of the main hall, through a dark corridor, to the old baggage wing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I’m going to need my flashlight\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, it’s pretty dark here.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The baggage wing is thick with history. There’s an old scale for weighing luggage, and a large rolling door where passengers used to wait for their things. The first elevated tracks west of the Mississippi are directly over our heads. I walk with Lamar over to another small room. It’s the utility room, where the porters would hang out between shifts.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There would be luggage all over the place. Guys would be here, when there wasn’t a train to be ready to be serving. The red caps would just hang out, back here and shoot the breeze, tell jokes and all kinds of stuff. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some people want the station turned into a museum for the railroad and the porters, others want it to be an event space. Jim Mather from Bridge. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jim Mather: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whatever happens here, BRIDGE is going to recognize and honor the history behind the station and its significance to the African-American community of Oakland. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just When the doors of the 16th Street Station will reopen again is unclear. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sound of freeway\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To complete the tour we walk out to the back of the station. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Where once there was the shore of the bay, there’s the 880 freeway. Instead of trains, semi’s run in and out of the Port of Oakland. There are no tracks connected to 16th Street Station anymore. They’ve been dug up and taken away. It’s reminiscent of how this station has been disconnected from Oakland, the building neglected, the history obscured. Alan Laird again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Lamar MacDaniel:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> It was like losing a friend, you know, but, you see the shadow of it right there and you want to run and tell people: “I remember when that was a palace! And that was filled with thriving hearts and minds and souls and energy and hope was waiting for you as you got off the train.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’ll never hear a train pull into 16th Street Station again, but it’s still possible the station could have a new beginning, just like the people that passed through it all those years ago. \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\">(music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> So, Azul, as we mentioned earlier this story first aired in 2022, and there have been some recent developments. What’s happening now?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So the big news is that the 16th Street Station has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. A non-profit group called the Oakland Heritage Alliance submitted the application for the station, which basically outlined the stations significance for three things; its importance to local transportation, its architectural significance, and its relation to C.L. Dellums, and that’s the labor organizer you heard about in this story. The station was one of the first places to be recognized for this newly created category within the register, that recognizes the history of African Americans in California. I spoke to Feleciai Favroth, whose the treasurer with the Oakland Heritage Alliance, about this, she said she was ecstatic.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Feleciai Favroth:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> This could be the key to make the station a viable rehab project. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Alliance is really hoping this will turn the tide in the battle to get the station repaired. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Historic sites make me think the building is like going to get a fancy plaque that has a little bit of history written on it. But what does historic designation mean practically?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So yes there is a lot of notoriety and national recognition that comes with being added to the register, but a really big thing that’s tangible is that it also opens the station up to a 20% federal income tax credit. And a developer could use that towards restoration of the station. This has actually worked in the Bay Area before. Like say, have you ever been to the Fox Theater in Oakland?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oh yeah, I’ve seen some great shows there and I always marvel at the ceiling in that place …\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yeah, well the Fox is on the National Register, and received a federal tax credit toward its rehabilitation, including that really nice ceiling. So advocates are hoping this will happen to the 16th Street Station as well. But again this is all still just theoretical. There’s no money that has been committed yet. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So it’s not like the station is suddenly saved necessarily…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">No. There still aren’t any plans to restore the station itself. And another change is that BRIDGE Housing no longer owns the station, they sold it to City Ventures, a housing developer based in San Francisco and Irvine in 2022. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">City Ventures has submitted plans to the city of Oakland to build a 77-unit townhome-style development — called “Signal House” — on the area around the station, but there’s no plan to rehabilitate the station itself.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">To that end, City Ventures has hired a consulting group called OE Consulting to explore finding someone or some group to fund the rehabilitation of the station, separate from this housing project. They’re still trying to find someone to fund that. And even what the space could become is still open ended. Members of the Oakland Heritage Alliance have suggested a business incubator, or an events space, and something that highlights the history of the station, but as of now, those are all just ideas.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alright. Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman, KQED Features Reporter – thank you.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">You’re welcome.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Music bridge)\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> If you want to see some pictures of 16th Street Station, including some from our tour inside, head to BayCurious.org. We’ll drop a link in the show notes too.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Special thanks to Dan Brekke and Paul Lancour for their help on this episode.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This episode was made by Katrina Schwartz, Sebastian Miño-Bucheli, Brendan Willard and me, Olivia Allen-Price. Additional engineering from Christopher Beale.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Bay Curious is produced at member-supported KQED in San Francisco.\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>\n\u003c/div>"
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"slug": "bay-areas-ai-boom-fuels-a-dirty-energy-dilemma",
"title": "How the Bay Area’s AI Boom Is Fueling a Dirty Energy Dilemma",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soaring demand for AI has accelerated the building of massive data centers to support the technology, including in the Bay Area. As more centers are built, local residents and environmentalists are concerned about how they disrupt local communities and pose significant health and environmental risks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://capitalandmain.com/as-california-ai-data-centers-grow-so-does-dirty-energy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As California AI Data Centers Grow, So Does Dirty Energy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8815208190&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:36] Aaron, you spent some time looking into how data centers are impacting the communities that live nearby, and you visited the construction site of one in San Jose. Tell me what you saw and who you met with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:01:49] This was a data center being constructed by the company Equinix, a partially constructed facility, but much of it was still under development. I saw construction crews clearing land and basically preparing to build out this data center facility. I also had a chance to meet with some residents who live in a nearby neighborhood. This is the neighborhood of Santa Teresa in southern San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:23] I hear the noise. There’s more dust. There’s more pollutants in the air. We know, see it in the backyards of our neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] A woman named Mimi Patterson, who’s lived in the Santa Teresa neighborhood for 26 years, described to me how she came to find out about this data center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:43] They only put the signage after I brought it up. It was no signage, no notice, no notification to the neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:02:50] She described to me a lack of outreach from the city or from any officials about this facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:59] The neighbors who lived here lived here for 45 years, and they moved to San Diego. They moved to a different location in San Jose because they don’t want to be near this facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:16] Okay, so clearly locals aren’t happy about data centers, but they do serve an important function for AI. Tell me more about what they do and what are the broader concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] It’s a facility that hosts servers. They analyze lots and lots of data and they use a ton of electricity to do this. And they do this in order to find patterns within that data. And so the more data you have being analyzed by these servers, the more electricity, the more energy is going to be used for that process. They also use much more water because they need that water to cool the servers so that they continue to function properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:04:01] I think people should be more aware that data centers lead to environmental harms that impact the rights of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:04:09] So Betsy Popken, she’s the executive director of the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law. And so Betsy and a lot of other researchers looking at the ethics of this kind of technology have been raising concerns and questions about the build out of ever larger data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:04:29] It increases the amount of water that’s used, the amount of waste that’s produced, it increases the load of pollutants that go out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:04:41] So right now these data centers are primarily drawing their electricity from California’s grid. In the event that the grid goes down or for whatever reason electricity isn’t available from the grid, these centers rely on diesel generators on site to produce that electricity and to ensure that there’s no interruption in Internet service at these data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:05:11] I do think that independent research should continue to be funded on the environmental harms of AI data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:20] We know diesel is a fossil fuel and that’s like a dirty word in California. They’re notoriously bad for the environment and we know this is a state that’s committed to green energy. So why diesel?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:05:34] The argument for diesel is that it is a stable form of energy that can enable these servers to continue to run in the event of a power outage. There’s a lobbying group called the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and they have supported efforts to basically make it easier for data center builders to erect these large centers with limited public input. And they’ve responded to concerns about diesel backup generators, essentially by saying that it’s an overblown concern. These generators only run very rarely in a given year. And so the concern that they’re going to be emitting greenhouse gasses or going to be polluting nearby communities is not legitimate because these are just meant to be emergency sources of power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:36] So like you mentioned, the data centers primarily use electricity from the state’s power grid. But even if it’s used sparingly, why do critics say relying on diesel as a backup power supply is harmful?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:06:50] So first of all, diesel is a fossil fuel. Burning diesel, even if it’s just for a few hours a year, can result in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Diesel is a carcinogen. It is known to exacerbate respiratory and other illnesses in people. And in fact, a paper published in December by researchers at UC Riverside looked at diesel generators for data centers in Virginia. They found that the increase in permits could be tied to an increase of asthma symptoms, 14,000 additional cases of asthma symptoms and 300 million dollars in additional health costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:37] And as we talked about, people who live near these data centers are dealing with a lot of disruption and health risks. How are residents like Mimi in San Jose, who we heard from earlier, how are they pushing back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:07:49] I think there isn’t much pushback right now. Mimi told me that she believes her neighborhood in southern San Jose was targeted because residents don’t have the same resources to fight back against companies that want to build large data centers. And they don’t have the same kind of political clout with local authorities that wealthier communities have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:08:14] We were fighting a five billion dollar company called Equinix. I mean, who was going to fight that? We’re not Los Gatos, we’re not Saratoga, we’re not Los Altos. You’re going to ask yourself, why don’t you build in those neighborhoods? Because you have people who have deep dollars who can fight you. We don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] Even when they spoke with others who lived in their neighborhood, people just had no idea that this data center could pose any kinds of risks. You know, some of their neighbors even thought that because the data centers would be constructed down the street, that they would have better internet access. And that’s just not how it works. So I think you’re probably going to see an increase in that gap between sort of a public lack of awareness and policymakers and lawmakers who are really driving this push for data centers to be built more quickly and larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] And this brings into question regulation. I wonder who’s ultimately responsible for regulating data centers as they continue to be built and expand. And what are they doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] Basically, anything that’s over 50 megawatts in the state is supposed to be under the purview of the California Energy Commission. But there’s actually an exception to that rule. If a facility such as a data center uses between 50 and 100 megawatts, it actually can be exempted from that oversight process from the state. And then those approvals fall to the city and the county. So there’s not as much regulation as you might think there would be because California has this sort of loophole. And so companies have essentially constructed these facilities to operate on up to 99 megawatts. And so they’re just under that limit. And so you have a pretty lax environment right now that’s also kind of behind the curve of the the build out that’s happening right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:20] Well, it seems like these days everybody’s talking about AI. It’s clearly here to stay, whether we like it or not. But from what we’re discussing, there’s clearly this steep environmental cost. And it really does point to this tension between California’s innovation technology and also the state’s environmental leadership. So how do you see this playing out as we move forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] I think that a first step and a logical step would be a requirement for the state to disclose the amount of electricity and energy that these facilities use in a given year. The California Energy Commission does collect that information, but the law currently prevents it from being made public. So I think that’s probably one step is to make that information public. And then I think residents who live near these facilities could be more informed. But otherwise, I think, you know, there’s a lot of pressure, political pressure, to get these facilities built and built quickly. And so I think it’s going to take some advocacy, you know, by residents, by people concerned with greenhouse gas emissions and by lawmakers to ensure that the public has some insight into what’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:42] Well, Aaron, this is such important reporting. Thank you so much for talking about it with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:11:47] Thanks for having me.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Soaring demand for AI has accelerated the building of massive data centers to support the technology, including in the Bay Area. As more centers are built, local residents and environmentalists are concerned about how they disrupt local communities and pose significant health and environmental risks.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Links\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://capitalandmain.com/as-california-ai-data-centers-grow-so-does-dirty-energy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">As California AI Data Centers Grow, So Does Dirty Energy\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: left\">\n\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8815208190&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:36] Aaron, you spent some time looking into how data centers are impacting the communities that live nearby, and you visited the construction site of one in San Jose. Tell me what you saw and who you met with.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:01:49] This was a data center being constructed by the company Equinix, a partially constructed facility, but much of it was still under development. I saw construction crews clearing land and basically preparing to build out this data center facility. I also had a chance to meet with some residents who live in a nearby neighborhood. This is the neighborhood of Santa Teresa in southern San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:23] I hear the noise. There’s more dust. There’s more pollutants in the air. We know, see it in the backyards of our neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:02:31] A woman named Mimi Patterson, who’s lived in the Santa Teresa neighborhood for 26 years, described to me how she came to find out about this data center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:43] They only put the signage after I brought it up. It was no signage, no notice, no notification to the neighborhoods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:02:50] She described to me a lack of outreach from the city or from any officials about this facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:02:59] The neighbors who lived here lived here for 45 years, and they moved to San Diego. They moved to a different location in San Jose because they don’t want to be near this facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:16] Okay, so clearly locals aren’t happy about data centers, but they do serve an important function for AI. Tell me more about what they do and what are the broader concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:03:28] It’s a facility that hosts servers. They analyze lots and lots of data and they use a ton of electricity to do this. And they do this in order to find patterns within that data. And so the more data you have being analyzed by these servers, the more electricity, the more energy is going to be used for that process. They also use much more water because they need that water to cool the servers so that they continue to function properly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:04:01] I think people should be more aware that data centers lead to environmental harms that impact the rights of people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:04:09] So Betsy Popken, she’s the executive director of the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law. And so Betsy and a lot of other researchers looking at the ethics of this kind of technology have been raising concerns and questions about the build out of ever larger data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:04:29] It increases the amount of water that’s used, the amount of waste that’s produced, it increases the load of pollutants that go out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:04:41] So right now these data centers are primarily drawing their electricity from California’s grid. In the event that the grid goes down or for whatever reason electricity isn’t available from the grid, these centers rely on diesel generators on site to produce that electricity and to ensure that there’s no interruption in Internet service at these data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Betsy Popken \u003c/strong>[00:05:11] I do think that independent research should continue to be funded on the environmental harms of AI data centers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:20] We know diesel is a fossil fuel and that’s like a dirty word in California. They’re notoriously bad for the environment and we know this is a state that’s committed to green energy. So why diesel?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:05:34] The argument for diesel is that it is a stable form of energy that can enable these servers to continue to run in the event of a power outage. There’s a lobbying group called the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and they have supported efforts to basically make it easier for data center builders to erect these large centers with limited public input. And they’ve responded to concerns about diesel backup generators, essentially by saying that it’s an overblown concern. These generators only run very rarely in a given year. And so the concern that they’re going to be emitting greenhouse gasses or going to be polluting nearby communities is not legitimate because these are just meant to be emergency sources of power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:36] So like you mentioned, the data centers primarily use electricity from the state’s power grid. But even if it’s used sparingly, why do critics say relying on diesel as a backup power supply is harmful?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:06:50] So first of all, diesel is a fossil fuel. Burning diesel, even if it’s just for a few hours a year, can result in greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. Diesel is a carcinogen. It is known to exacerbate respiratory and other illnesses in people. And in fact, a paper published in December by researchers at UC Riverside looked at diesel generators for data centers in Virginia. They found that the increase in permits could be tied to an increase of asthma symptoms, 14,000 additional cases of asthma symptoms and 300 million dollars in additional health costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:37] And as we talked about, people who live near these data centers are dealing with a lot of disruption and health risks. How are residents like Mimi in San Jose, who we heard from earlier, how are they pushing back?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:07:49] I think there isn’t much pushback right now. Mimi told me that she believes her neighborhood in southern San Jose was targeted because residents don’t have the same resources to fight back against companies that want to build large data centers. And they don’t have the same kind of political clout with local authorities that wealthier communities have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mimi Patterson \u003c/strong>[00:08:14] We were fighting a five billion dollar company called Equinix. I mean, who was going to fight that? We’re not Los Gatos, we’re not Saratoga, we’re not Los Altos. You’re going to ask yourself, why don’t you build in those neighborhoods? Because you have people who have deep dollars who can fight you. We don’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:08:32] Even when they spoke with others who lived in their neighborhood, people just had no idea that this data center could pose any kinds of risks. You know, some of their neighbors even thought that because the data centers would be constructed down the street, that they would have better internet access. And that’s just not how it works. So I think you’re probably going to see an increase in that gap between sort of a public lack of awareness and policymakers and lawmakers who are really driving this push for data centers to be built more quickly and larger.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:10] And this brings into question regulation. I wonder who’s ultimately responsible for regulating data centers as they continue to be built and expand. And what are they doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] Basically, anything that’s over 50 megawatts in the state is supposed to be under the purview of the California Energy Commission. But there’s actually an exception to that rule. If a facility such as a data center uses between 50 and 100 megawatts, it actually can be exempted from that oversight process from the state. And then those approvals fall to the city and the county. So there’s not as much regulation as you might think there would be because California has this sort of loophole. And so companies have essentially constructed these facilities to operate on up to 99 megawatts. And so they’re just under that limit. And so you have a pretty lax environment right now that’s also kind of behind the curve of the the build out that’s happening right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:20] Well, it seems like these days everybody’s talking about AI. It’s clearly here to stay, whether we like it or not. But from what we’re discussing, there’s clearly this steep environmental cost. And it really does point to this tension between California’s innovation technology and also the state’s environmental leadership. So how do you see this playing out as we move forward?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Aaron Cantu \u003c/strong>[00:10:46] I think that a first step and a logical step would be a requirement for the state to disclose the amount of electricity and energy that these facilities use in a given year. The California Energy Commission does collect that information, but the law currently prevents it from being made public. So I think that’s probably one step is to make that information public. And then I think residents who live near these facilities could be more informed. But otherwise, I think, you know, there’s a lot of pressure, political pressure, to get these facilities built and built quickly. And so I think it’s going to take some advocacy, you know, by residents, by people concerned with greenhouse gas emissions and by lawmakers to ensure that the public has some insight into what’s happening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:42] Well, Aaron, this is such important reporting. Thank you so much for talking about it with me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'We Deserve Better': Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident",
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"headTitle": "‘We Deserve Better’: Fear and Anger in Martinez After Another Refinery Incident | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>On February 1, 2025 a massive fire broke out at the Martinez Refinery Company’s petroleum refinery leading to unsafe air conditions and a shelter in place order. It’s the third major incident at the refinery in the past five years. KQED’s Julie Small explains what led to the fire and how residents are responding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">Huge Martinez Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8386428121&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] So, Julie, you met with Martinez resident Lizzie Lara. Tell me a little bit about her. Where did you meet her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:31] Well, I met her at her home. She lives in a neighborhood that’s on a hillside kind of above the Martinez refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] She was at home with her two girls on a Saturday when she noticed a message on Facebook about a fire at the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:01:52] I kind of looked outside because we can see it from the front of our house and it looked like there was some smoke coming up, but nothing out of the ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:00] Then she got a notice from County Health warning that the air could be dangerous for people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And so I said, okay. I turned on our air purifiers and, you know, just decided to kind of monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:14] She wasn’t particularly afraid at that point. So she went upstairs. She was watching TV. But then she started hearing strange noises coming from the direction of the refinery that she’s never heard in all the years that she lived there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] It’s like pop, pop, pop. And I was, like, concerning, but okay. And then all of a sudden, it sounded like almost like a military jet taking off. And then I looked out the window and you could see fire and just like a huge black cloud coming from the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:47] So she put her daughter’s and she grabbed her two dogs in the car and left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:02:57] It’s been some days now since the incident. What have we learned about the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:03] Well, the company thinks that the fire started when a couple of their workers were doing maintenance. While they were opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material started to leak and the two workers immediately evacuated the area. And then that material just caught fire and and it spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:21] Julie, the county waited three hours before issuing a shelter in place order to residents. Days later, that was downgraded to a health advisory. What kind of risks were residents facing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Well, we know that the company said what burned is hydrocarbons, which are basically the fuel that they refine at Martinez. That caught on fire and it released sulfur dioxide into the air. That creates typically the smell like rotten eggs. According to the California Air Resources Board, a lot of studies have shown that sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals. And if it and if people are exposed at high levels, that can include risks to your to your heart, cardiac arrest, you know, some kinds of heart diseases and an increased risk of death. The effects on people in Martinez and the folks working at the refinery and the first responders, you know, we’ll have to see. It depends on how much of the stuff actually got released and for how long. We do know that six employees were treated and examined for injuries. They’ve all been released. The company reported that at least 500 pounds of this stuff was released, but probably is a lot more. We won’t know until the various regulators complete their investigation of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] Well, Julie, let’s take a step back a little bit, because I’m curious to just learn more about this facility itself. Tell me what it produces and what do we know about its owners?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Well, this refinery is over 100 years old. It used to belong to Shell Company, but they sold it to the current owners of PBF Energy in 2020. That company is actually based in New Jersey, but it owns a few refineries across the nation, including here in California. At this Martinez refinery, they produce about 30% of the jet fuel used in California, along with diesel and other fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:23] So, Julie, you spoke to some residents in Martinez, and this fire has certainly revived some long term concerns from community members. Tell me why and what are they worried about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] Bottom line, they’re worried about history repeating itself. In 2022 right after Thanksgiving dinner, and people woke up the next morning in Martinez to a blanket of white powder. It looked like ash. Nobody knew what it was. There was no warning issued. It took the company a week to notify them that the substance was spent catalyst, basically a byproduct of refining. And then in 2023, there were two more releases of petroleum coke. That’s also a refining byproduct that looks a lot like coal. It’s made of particulate matter and it can irritate the lungs. But, you know, it’s just one thing after another as far as residents are concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:18] And I understand truly that residents have taken it upon themselves to do something to try to keep their community safe. Tell me more about those efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] That released that happened in 2022 of the spent catalysts where it like rained ash over the city of Martinez, that was a wake up call for residents. And a number of them got together and formed this nonprofit grassroots group called Healthy Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:53] Two of the members of Healthy Martinez showed up at the Air District Board meeting this week. Alicia Gide spoke first and then Heidi Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] I just want to say for the last two years, I’ve been to hundreds of meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] They’re seeking answers. They want accountability for the releases. They want the company held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] They have asked me and our community trust them. And I tell you this, we will never trust them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:24] They want more information. They say there’s no public information about what’s being released in the air. And they’re really looking to regulators to get much more aggressive in their monitoring and in finding the company and restricting the operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:44] Well, Julie, I wonder what has been the reaction from city leaders and other public officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:51] Well, our congressman Mark DeSaulnier, this is his district. He called for a temporary closure of the refinery while this fire is being investigated. The mayor, Brianne Zorn, wants to see the company do more to create a safe work environment to improve the safety of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] We’ve had coke dust releases. We’ve had hydrogen sulfide releases. There’s a lot of different chemicals associated with the refinery that we have had to learn about, the community has had to learn about and become aware of what those impacts might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:26] She says she doesn’t have the authority to call for the shut down of the refinery. But she is pushing to make sure that the regulatory agencies do their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] It’s important to remember that the Martinez Refining company has Martinez in the name, but it’s not in Martinez. It’s in Contra Costa County. We are simply advocating for our communities, but the decisions are in the hands of other folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:52] And she didn’t say it explicitly, but I think she thinks they should be doing a lot more and being more aggressive with the company to ensure that they are running their operations safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] And how has the Martinez Refining Company responded to these concerns and these community reactions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:13] Well, the company has responded by making itself available to the public. They set up a 24 hour phone bank where residents can call in. They say they’re ready to help people make claims for damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] As you’re aware, we had a fire that we’ve been responding to at the refinery this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Brandon Mattson, the spokesperson for MRC, has made a point to show up at a number of public forums this week following the fire. Here he is addressing the Bay Area Quality Board on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I know there’s a lot of anger and frustration from the community about the incident. And I know there’s nothing that I can say to alleviate that. I’m here to just be present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:51] He apologized for the incidents and promised to be forthcoming and cooperative with all the investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Well, Julie, even with that presence from the company, are there still questions that are left unanswered for Martina’s residents?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] Well, there’s so many questions that are left unanswered for them. I mean, how did this fire spread so quickly? Why did it take the county three hours to call for shelter in place after the fire broke out, after they were notified? How much of this these hydrocarbons were released into the atmosphere? For how long? What are the long term effects on residents and workers? Probably one of the biggest questions they have is what is the company going to do different and what are regular just going to do different to prevent this from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:43] And Julie, there’s also the accountability question, too, right? I mean, we know that this facility sits in an unincorporated part of the county. So who is ultimately responsible for making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] Well, the responsibility ultimately lies with the company, of course, but there are a lot of county and state regulators who are also looking at this and have some jurisdiction over various aspects of the refinery. But I think people are really looking to the Air Board, which monitors refinery emissions for toxicity and pollutants, and has taken a much more aggressive stance recently towards refineries in the Bay Area. And they’re investigating this fire and people will be looking to see what they find and what they do to hold the company accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:31] So an investigation is underway. But, you know, thinking about Lizzie Lara and other Martinez residents you spoke to, what are they need right now in order to feel safe living so close to this refinery?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] They want to see greater oversight. They want an improvement in the warning system. Residents really felt like it didn’t match what they were seeing. And they’re asking for an investigation by the Chemical Safety Board. Ultimately, though, a lot of people like Lizzie Lara, say they’re just not going to feel comfortable until this refinery is shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:12:05] I love Martinez, we’re a really tight knit community like very family focused. It’s really sad to see this happen to our community and hopefully something will be done this time.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On February 1, 2025 a massive fire broke out at the Martinez Refinery Company’s petroleum refinery leading to unsafe air conditions and a shelter in place order. It’s the third major incident at the refinery in the past five years. KQED’s Julie Small explains what led to the fire and how residents are responding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12025377/huge-martinez-refinery-fire-renews-neighbors-fear-frustration\">Huge Martinez Fire Renews Neighbors’ Fear and Frustration\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC8386428121&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:01:24] So, Julie, you met with Martinez resident Lizzie Lara. Tell me a little bit about her. Where did you meet her?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:31] Well, I met her at her home. She lives in a neighborhood that’s on a hillside kind of above the Martinez refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:01:41] She was at home with her two girls on a Saturday when she noticed a message on Facebook about a fire at the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:01:52] I kind of looked outside because we can see it from the front of our house and it looked like there was some smoke coming up, but nothing out of the ordinary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:00] Then she got a notice from County Health warning that the air could be dangerous for people with asthma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:06] And so I said, okay. I turned on our air purifiers and, you know, just decided to kind of monitor it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:14] She wasn’t particularly afraid at that point. So she went upstairs. She was watching TV. But then she started hearing strange noises coming from the direction of the refinery that she’s never heard in all the years that she lived there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:02:28] It’s like pop, pop, pop. And I was, like, concerning, but okay. And then all of a sudden, it sounded like almost like a military jet taking off. And then I looked out the window and you could see fire and just like a huge black cloud coming from the refinery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:02:47] So she put her daughter’s and she grabbed her two dogs in the car and left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:02:57] It’s been some days now since the incident. What have we learned about the cause?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:03] Well, the company thinks that the fire started when a couple of their workers were doing maintenance. While they were opening the equipment, hydrocarbon material started to leak and the two workers immediately evacuated the area. And then that material just caught fire and and it spread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:03:21] Julie, the county waited three hours before issuing a shelter in place order to residents. Days later, that was downgraded to a health advisory. What kind of risks were residents facing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:03:35] Well, we know that the company said what burned is hydrocarbons, which are basically the fuel that they refine at Martinez. That caught on fire and it released sulfur dioxide into the air. That creates typically the smell like rotten eggs. According to the California Air Resources Board, a lot of studies have shown that sulfur dioxide has adverse health effects on humans and animals. And if it and if people are exposed at high levels, that can include risks to your to your heart, cardiac arrest, you know, some kinds of heart diseases and an increased risk of death. The effects on people in Martinez and the folks working at the refinery and the first responders, you know, we’ll have to see. It depends on how much of the stuff actually got released and for how long. We do know that six employees were treated and examined for injuries. They’ve all been released. The company reported that at least 500 pounds of this stuff was released, but probably is a lot more. We won’t know until the various regulators complete their investigation of the fire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:04:42] Well, Julie, let’s take a step back a little bit, because I’m curious to just learn more about this facility itself. Tell me what it produces and what do we know about its owners?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:04:53] Well, this refinery is over 100 years old. It used to belong to Shell Company, but they sold it to the current owners of PBF Energy in 2020. That company is actually based in New Jersey, but it owns a few refineries across the nation, including here in California. At this Martinez refinery, they produce about 30% of the jet fuel used in California, along with diesel and other fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:05:23] So, Julie, you spoke to some residents in Martinez, and this fire has certainly revived some long term concerns from community members. Tell me why and what are they worried about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:05:35] Bottom line, they’re worried about history repeating itself. In 2022 right after Thanksgiving dinner, and people woke up the next morning in Martinez to a blanket of white powder. It looked like ash. Nobody knew what it was. There was no warning issued. It took the company a week to notify them that the substance was spent catalyst, basically a byproduct of refining. And then in 2023, there were two more releases of petroleum coke. That’s also a refining byproduct that looks a lot like coal. It’s made of particulate matter and it can irritate the lungs. But, you know, it’s just one thing after another as far as residents are concerned.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:06:18] And I understand truly that residents have taken it upon themselves to do something to try to keep their community safe. Tell me more about those efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] That released that happened in 2022 of the spent catalysts where it like rained ash over the city of Martinez, that was a wake up call for residents. And a number of them got together and formed this nonprofit grassroots group called Healthy Martinez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:06:53] Two of the members of Healthy Martinez showed up at the Air District Board meeting this week. Alicia Gide spoke first and then Heidi Taylor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:02] I just want to say for the last two years, I’ve been to hundreds of meetings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] They’re seeking answers. They want accountability for the releases. They want the company held accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Heidi Taylor \u003c/strong>[00:07:12] They have asked me and our community trust them. And I tell you this, we will never trust them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:24] They want more information. They say there’s no public information about what’s being released in the air. And they’re really looking to regulators to get much more aggressive in their monitoring and in finding the company and restricting the operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:07:44] Well, Julie, I wonder what has been the reaction from city leaders and other public officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:07:51] Well, our congressman Mark DeSaulnier, this is his district. He called for a temporary closure of the refinery while this fire is being investigated. The mayor, Brianne Zorn, wants to see the company do more to create a safe work environment to improve the safety of the facility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:12] We’ve had coke dust releases. We’ve had hydrogen sulfide releases. There’s a lot of different chemicals associated with the refinery that we have had to learn about, the community has had to learn about and become aware of what those impacts might be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:26] She says she doesn’t have the authority to call for the shut down of the refinery. But she is pushing to make sure that the regulatory agencies do their jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brianne Zorn \u003c/strong>[00:08:37] It’s important to remember that the Martinez Refining company has Martinez in the name, but it’s not in Martinez. It’s in Contra Costa County. We are simply advocating for our communities, but the decisions are in the hands of other folks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:08:52] And she didn’t say it explicitly, but I think she thinks they should be doing a lot more and being more aggressive with the company to ensure that they are running their operations safely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] And how has the Martinez Refining Company responded to these concerns and these community reactions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:13] Well, the company has responded by making itself available to the public. They set up a 24 hour phone bank where residents can call in. They say they’re ready to help people make claims for damages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:25] As you’re aware, we had a fire that we’ve been responding to at the refinery this past weekend.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Brandon Mattson, the spokesperson for MRC, has made a point to show up at a number of public forums this week following the fire. Here he is addressing the Bay Area Quality Board on Wednesday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Brandon Matson \u003c/strong>[00:09:41] I know there’s a lot of anger and frustration from the community about the incident. And I know there’s nothing that I can say to alleviate that. I’m here to just be present.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:09:51] He apologized for the incidents and promised to be forthcoming and cooperative with all the investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:02] Well, Julie, even with that presence from the company, are there still questions that are left unanswered for Martina’s residents?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:10] Well, there’s so many questions that are left unanswered for them. I mean, how did this fire spread so quickly? Why did it take the county three hours to call for shelter in place after the fire broke out, after they were notified? How much of this these hydrocarbons were released into the atmosphere? For how long? What are the long term effects on residents and workers? Probably one of the biggest questions they have is what is the company going to do different and what are regular just going to do different to prevent this from happening again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:10:43] And Julie, there’s also the accountability question, too, right? I mean, we know that this facility sits in an unincorporated part of the county. So who is ultimately responsible for making sure that something like this doesn’t happen again?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:10:58] Well, the responsibility ultimately lies with the company, of course, but there are a lot of county and state regulators who are also looking at this and have some jurisdiction over various aspects of the refinery. But I think people are really looking to the Air Board, which monitors refinery emissions for toxicity and pollutants, and has taken a much more aggressive stance recently towards refineries in the Bay Area. And they’re investigating this fire and people will be looking to see what they find and what they do to hold the company accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cecilia Lei \u003c/strong>[00:11:31] So an investigation is underway. But, you know, thinking about Lizzie Lara and other Martinez residents you spoke to, what are they need right now in order to feel safe living so close to this refinery?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Julie Small \u003c/strong>[00:11:44] They want to see greater oversight. They want an improvement in the warning system. Residents really felt like it didn’t match what they were seeing. And they’re asking for an investigation by the Chemical Safety Board. Ultimately, though, a lot of people like Lizzie Lara, say they’re just not going to feel comfortable until this refinery is shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lizzie Lara \u003c/strong>[00:12:05] I love Martinez, we’re a really tight knit community like very family focused. It’s really sad to see this happen to our community and hopefully something will be done this time.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Sonoma County's Measure J Could Reshape Farming",
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"headTitle": "Sonoma County’s Measure J Could Reshape Farming | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Sonoma County, no ballot measure has gotten more attention than Measure J.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Put on the ballot by animal rights groups, Measure J would ban “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” in the county. It would be the first law of its kind in the nation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Supporters say this ban on so-called factory farms is an issue of animal welfare and environmental protection, while opponents see it as an existential threat to the farming economy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1990897213&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] Locals will tell you about the “Sonoma aroma,” which is on certain days when the weather conditions are right, there’s a waft of manure smell all over the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:09] Gabe Malin is senior editor of arts and culture for KQED. He’s based in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:16] Any drive out to like the coast or on Petaluma Hill Road or between Petaluma and Point Reyes – just cows on the hills everywhere. Cows. Sheep. Goats. And there are some big dairy brands up there too, that everybody knows. Clover Farms and Strauss Creamery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:36] I’ve never actually heard that idea of the Sonoma aroma. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:41] It’s like our version of the Santa Ana winds or something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:44] Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like that smell is actually something I associate with a place like the Central Valley, which Sonoma County is not, right? Like, at the end of the day, it is still in the Bay Area and is therefore also still a liberal place compared to maybe an Iowa or a central valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:05] It is really interesting in Sonoma County because it is this progressive liberal place and then you think of farming or animal farming as like, the heartland, the old way of doing things, the more conservative way of doing things. I think we coexist pretty well up there. There is a history of support for animal welfare in Sonoma County. There are a number of propositions on the ballot recently, Prop 2 and Prop 12 that Sonoma County voters were in favor of. And proponents of Measure J are saying, hey, Sonoma County, you voted for these animal welfare props before. Why wouldn’t you also vote for this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] Yeah, let’s get into Measure J. How did this get on the ballot, Gabe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:49] A measure J was put on the ballot by a group based in Berkeley called the Coalition to End Factory Farming, and that is a group of advocacy organizations and activist organizations and animal welfare organizations. They got the signatures and they put it on the ballot. So Measure J would ban concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs for short. The Yes on J people like to refer to them as factory farms, and the No on J people refute that. It’s a EPA designation. It’s a water permit requirement, but it does set numbers for the amount of animals that can be held at a farm before they are considered a for. Large CFOs are defined as having 700 mature dairy cows or 85,000 egg laying hens or 25,000 meat producing chickens. The numbers are a little bit lower for medium CAFOs, but one of the designations of a medium CAFO is if it has a manmade ditch or pipe. Transferring waste to surface water. There’s some debate about how what that would actually apply to in Sonoma County. This measure would ban or it would force large farms to curtail operations to be under these limits. It would affect at least 11, very likely, 21 of the largest farms in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] Who are the proponents of Measure J, Gabe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] Supporters on the Yes on J site are Coalition To End Factory Farming and all of the people that make up that coalition. The Peace and Justice Center, a very lefty liberal group in Santa Rosa, the Green Party, which some people may scoff at. But Sebastopol at one point had all Green Party members on it, City Council in Sonoma County. So the Green Party does have influence in Sonoma County in defense of animals. Other animal advocacy organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:59] And also notably this group, Direct Action Everywhere. Yes. Tell me a little bit about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] Ah yes, the boogie man. Direct action everywhere has been brought up so many times in relation to Measure J. Some people think that they directly put it on the ballot. I direct action Everywhere is a is an activist group based in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Footage \u003c/strong>[00:07:22] (sound of ducks) Put down that gate. Yeah, you can run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] In Sonoma County. They’re best known for breaking into farms in the middle of the night and filming operations, you know, unannounced, which they say is the only way that the public can get a true picture of how animals are treated in these farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Lewis Bernier \u003c/strong>[00:07:43] We have a right under California penal code 597 E to enter any facility where we know animals are sick or injured or do not have access to food and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:52] Some people think that they’re operating in the shadows with marionette strings. But it is true that there is a lot of overlap between direct action everywhere and Measure J.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:04] And what are the arguments for Measure J?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] These people believe that animals feel emotions and they feel things like stress and fear and that they are being mistreated as a as a result of some of these exposes by direct action everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:08:21] The CAFOs in Sonoma County have been exposed for rampant animal cruelty, including birds that have been left sick and injured to just starve to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:31] Kristina Garfinkel is a lead organizer of the Coalition to End Factory Farming. She spoke at a KRCB town hall at a local library recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] They’ve also polluted our local water sources with key waterways like the Petaluma River, Laguna de Santa Rosa being impaired with nitrates and phosphates, which are key indicators of CAFO waste pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:56] Her support of Measure J is about animal welfare, is about environmental protection. It’s about public health and this perceived threat to small farms in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] But over the last few decades, large companies have been coming in. They’ve been consolidating and they’ve been taking over the market. And they’ve done so at the cost of small farms, of animal welfare, of the environment and the health of the residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:26] Why are there eyes set on Sonoma County though?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Gabe I think because Sonoma County is more likely to vote for it than say, Tulare County or San Joaquin County. Like there’s enough of that progressive mindset in Sonoma County that might say, ban factory farms. Of course, they think it has a chance in Sonoma County. It’s also really seen as a bellwether measure. Like if it passes in Sonoma County, they’ve essentially said we’re going to try it in other counties as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:03] And who’s coming out against Measure J and what are their arguments?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] Well, Ericka, can you read the tiny, small print on this mailer that I got in the mail the other day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:14] That is a long list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:16] I didn’t count, but it looks like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. A funny moment in this measure. History is when the the board of supervisors has to rubber stamp it and say, okay, it’s going on the ballot. And they did so plugging their noses. They almost protested in place while they were doing it. Similarly, in just about every city council in Sonoma County, except for Cotati, which was neutral, but all the other city councils in Sonoma County have passed resolutions against it. You know, there are some obvious ones like the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, both the Sonoma County Republican Party and Sonoma Valley Democrats are against it. Sonoma County Conservation Action and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau oppose it. When you have in Sonoma County, you know, those are strange bedfellows. North Bay Labor Council are recognizable businesses like Dellinger Winery, Freedman Brothers, Martinelli Winery, and the list goes on and on and on and on. They’ve really gotten a lot of people to sign up against this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:18] What is the main argument, you would say, Gabe, that they’re making against Measure J.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:11:24] The argument is that it would put out of business, you know, these family owned farms that have been around for over 100 years, some of them that it would create higher food costs and have less locally sourced food. They’re saying that it comes with certain mandates with no plan for funding them, so it would cost taxpayers millions of dollars. They cite a University of California study that has estimated the damage to the economy in Sonoma County at $500 million. The details of that are a little bit in dispute. Really, you know, making a major, major devastating impact on farming in Sonoma County and the economy as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Well, it’s it’s pretty clear that the measure is designed to ban farming in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:12:13] Mike Weber is the owner of Weber Family Farms Poultry Farm in Sonoma County. One of his big points is you can’t do this regulating size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:12:24] Size doesn’t matter. This has got to be about merit. If you’re doing something wrong, if you’re breaking the rules, then you need the punishment. Otherwise, it’s on merit. And this has nothing to do with merit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:12:34] Farms are already under audits and investigations and county, state, federal regulations. You know, these auditors and regulators come and show up and do very, very in-depth inspections of their farms. And when there’s a bad actor, they get penalized or they get sued. So if you have a good actor, what’s the point of reducing the size of their operation if their operation is operating within the regulations that have been set?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:13:01] This measure will go to put us out of business. We won’t have milk, eggs and other fresh produce from this community. We’ll be left with nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] There’s some interesting language in this measure. One of them is about authorizing citizen enforcement. But there’s another one about job retraining program for people who would lose their jobs. People who work at these farms who would lose their jobs. The county agricultural commissioner would have to develop and execute and manage a job retraining program for people who lose their jobs on farms. That would close. The No on J. Crowd is saying it’s not just the people who work at the farms. This is going to cause exponential job losses. You know, everyone down the food chain, the truckers, the grocers, the suppliers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:48] It seems like the yes and the no sides are not quite on the same page in a lot of ways, even just in the language that they’re using around this measure, around what to call these farms, whether they’re factory farms versus family farms. I mean, those mean very different things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:14:09] They do mean very different things. I mean, this is not new in politics, but the. Yes. Underside prefers the term factory farms, I think because it has that resonance with people when you hear factory farm. I think most people in the Bay Area think of Harris Ranch, which is on I-5, halfway to L.A. You know it because you smell it before you see it. It is a gigantic, gigantic factory farm. It’s a really big there’s no farms in Sonoma County that are even remotely close to Harris Ranch. A lot of them that would fall under this ban are pasture grazing farms, which means that cows can roam the hills. They’re not confined in these like, dirty, smelly warehouses. But the No and J crowd loves to say family farms. And yeah, they’re definitely family farms. They’ve been in the family for a long time. Does that mean that they’re inherently good or bad? I mean, the Koch brothers is a family business, technically, Right? So but I think that’s all just about resonance with voters. You know, family farms, good factory farms, bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:18] You brought into the studio, these large mailers that you got in your man box. I’m curious how they fit those in there. There seems to be a lot of campaign spending. What do we know about how much has been spent?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:15:31] There’s been at least it might be more by now, but there’s been at least $2 million in campaign spending that has just poured in, a lot of it from outside the county. Because like I said, this is seen as a canary in the coal mine for other counties to face bans on their ballots, too. Most of it is no longer spending, but $2 million is a lot of money, especially from Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:02] You’ve lived there your whole life. I’m curious what the last couple of months have been like in Sonoma County. How do you see Measure J in your community and how it’s sort of being received? And have you ever seen anything like it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:16:17] I’ve never seen this much money poured in for a county measure, and I’ve never seen this many billboards for and against it. But I’m also not seeing like fistfights at the soccer game, you know, on the weekend .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Protesters \u003c/strong>[00:16:31] Protect our water, Yes on J!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:16:36] There, there have been large protests. And in downtown Santa Rosa, we’d like to protest one side on one side of the street and one on the other. So there’s been, you know, large. Yes on J people and large no on J people. The No on J crowd has been bigger and louder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:58] This ballot measure, should it pass, would be the first of its kind in the country. Really, Gabe, what do you think this story tells us about, I guess, the broader struggle between. Animal rights activists and the agricultural industry. It’s sort of feels like a very Bay Area struggle to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:20] It does. It’s a little bit of a generational one, too, I’ve noticed. Have you ever heard of Clo the Cow?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:26] I have heard of Clo the Cow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:28] The cow is like our mascot. Clo the cow is the mascot for Clover Stornetta Farms. Clo the cow gives out free ice cream and free chocolate milk to kids at the fair. Clo The cow is that Wednesday night market at every single street fair like. And there’s a billboard right near Rohnert Park that says Save Clo, Vote No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:56] It’s also an industry that you can’t really whitewash it. It kills animals. Voting against Measure J is going with the status quo, literally. And, you know, if you’re against killing animals, even for food. Voting for it is pushing in a, you know, ostensibly moral direction.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Sonoma County, no ballot measure has gotten more attention than Measure J.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Put on the ballot by animal rights groups, Measure J would ban “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations” in the county. It would be the first law of its kind in the nation. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Supporters say this ban on so-called factory farms is an issue of animal welfare and environmental protection, while opponents see it as an existential threat to the farming economy.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=KQINC1990897213&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:02:53] Locals will tell you about the “Sonoma aroma,” which is on certain days when the weather conditions are right, there’s a waft of manure smell all over the valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:09] Gabe Malin is senior editor of arts and culture for KQED. He’s based in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:16] Any drive out to like the coast or on Petaluma Hill Road or between Petaluma and Point Reyes – just cows on the hills everywhere. Cows. Sheep. Goats. And there are some big dairy brands up there too, that everybody knows. Clover Farms and Strauss Creamery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:36] I’ve never actually heard that idea of the Sonoma aroma. Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:03:41] It’s like our version of the Santa Ana winds or something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:03:44] Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like that smell is actually something I associate with a place like the Central Valley, which Sonoma County is not, right? Like, at the end of the day, it is still in the Bay Area and is therefore also still a liberal place compared to maybe an Iowa or a central valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:05] It is really interesting in Sonoma County because it is this progressive liberal place and then you think of farming or animal farming as like, the heartland, the old way of doing things, the more conservative way of doing things. I think we coexist pretty well up there. There is a history of support for animal welfare in Sonoma County. There are a number of propositions on the ballot recently, Prop 2 and Prop 12 that Sonoma County voters were in favor of. And proponents of Measure J are saying, hey, Sonoma County, you voted for these animal welfare props before. Why wouldn’t you also vote for this one?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:04:44] Yeah, let’s get into Measure J. How did this get on the ballot, Gabe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:04:49] A measure J was put on the ballot by a group based in Berkeley called the Coalition to End Factory Farming, and that is a group of advocacy organizations and activist organizations and animal welfare organizations. They got the signatures and they put it on the ballot. So Measure J would ban concentrated animal feeding operations, CAFOs for short. The Yes on J people like to refer to them as factory farms, and the No on J people refute that. It’s a EPA designation. It’s a water permit requirement, but it does set numbers for the amount of animals that can be held at a farm before they are considered a for. Large CFOs are defined as having 700 mature dairy cows or 85,000 egg laying hens or 25,000 meat producing chickens. The numbers are a little bit lower for medium CAFOs, but one of the designations of a medium CAFO is if it has a manmade ditch or pipe. Transferring waste to surface water. There’s some debate about how what that would actually apply to in Sonoma County. This measure would ban or it would force large farms to curtail operations to be under these limits. It would affect at least 11, very likely, 21 of the largest farms in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:23] Who are the proponents of Measure J, Gabe?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:06:27] Supporters on the Yes on J site are Coalition To End Factory Farming and all of the people that make up that coalition. The Peace and Justice Center, a very lefty liberal group in Santa Rosa, the Green Party, which some people may scoff at. But Sebastopol at one point had all Green Party members on it, City Council in Sonoma County. So the Green Party does have influence in Sonoma County in defense of animals. Other animal advocacy organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:06:59] And also notably this group, Direct Action Everywhere. Yes. Tell me a little bit about them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:06] Ah yes, the boogie man. Direct action everywhere has been brought up so many times in relation to Measure J. Some people think that they directly put it on the ballot. I direct action Everywhere is a is an activist group based in Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Footage \u003c/strong>[00:07:22] (sound of ducks) Put down that gate. Yeah, you can run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:26] In Sonoma County. They’re best known for breaking into farms in the middle of the night and filming operations, you know, unannounced, which they say is the only way that the public can get a true picture of how animals are treated in these farms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Lewis Bernier \u003c/strong>[00:07:43] We have a right under California penal code 597 E to enter any facility where we know animals are sick or injured or do not have access to food and water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:07:52] Some people think that they’re operating in the shadows with marionette strings. But it is true that there is a lot of overlap between direct action everywhere and Measure J.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:08:04] And what are the arguments for Measure J?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:09] These people believe that animals feel emotions and they feel things like stress and fear and that they are being mistreated as a as a result of some of these exposes by direct action everywhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:08:21] The CAFOs in Sonoma County have been exposed for rampant animal cruelty, including birds that have been left sick and injured to just starve to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:31] Kristina Garfinkel is a lead organizer of the Coalition to End Factory Farming. She spoke at a KRCB town hall at a local library recently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:08:41] They’ve also polluted our local water sources with key waterways like the Petaluma River, Laguna de Santa Rosa being impaired with nitrates and phosphates, which are key indicators of CAFO waste pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:08:56] Her support of Measure J is about animal welfare, is about environmental protection. It’s about public health and this perceived threat to small farms in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kristina Garfinkel \u003c/strong>[00:09:06] But over the last few decades, large companies have been coming in. They’ve been consolidating and they’ve been taking over the market. And they’ve done so at the cost of small farms, of animal welfare, of the environment and the health of the residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:09:26] Why are there eyes set on Sonoma County though?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:09:30] Gabe I think because Sonoma County is more likely to vote for it than say, Tulare County or San Joaquin County. Like there’s enough of that progressive mindset in Sonoma County that might say, ban factory farms. Of course, they think it has a chance in Sonoma County. It’s also really seen as a bellwether measure. Like if it passes in Sonoma County, they’ve essentially said we’re going to try it in other counties as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:03] And who’s coming out against Measure J and what are their arguments?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:07] Well, Ericka, can you read the tiny, small print on this mailer that I got in the mail the other day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:10:14] That is a long list.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:10:16] I didn’t count, but it looks like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. A funny moment in this measure. History is when the the board of supervisors has to rubber stamp it and say, okay, it’s going on the ballot. And they did so plugging their noses. They almost protested in place while they were doing it. Similarly, in just about every city council in Sonoma County, except for Cotati, which was neutral, but all the other city councils in Sonoma County have passed resolutions against it. You know, there are some obvious ones like the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, both the Sonoma County Republican Party and Sonoma Valley Democrats are against it. Sonoma County Conservation Action and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau oppose it. When you have in Sonoma County, you know, those are strange bedfellows. North Bay Labor Council are recognizable businesses like Dellinger Winery, Freedman Brothers, Martinelli Winery, and the list goes on and on and on and on. They’ve really gotten a lot of people to sign up against this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:11:18] What is the main argument, you would say, Gabe, that they’re making against Measure J.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:11:24] The argument is that it would put out of business, you know, these family owned farms that have been around for over 100 years, some of them that it would create higher food costs and have less locally sourced food. They’re saying that it comes with certain mandates with no plan for funding them, so it would cost taxpayers millions of dollars. They cite a University of California study that has estimated the damage to the economy in Sonoma County at $500 million. The details of that are a little bit in dispute. Really, you know, making a major, major devastating impact on farming in Sonoma County and the economy as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:12:07] Well, it’s it’s pretty clear that the measure is designed to ban farming in Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:12:13] Mike Weber is the owner of Weber Family Farms Poultry Farm in Sonoma County. One of his big points is you can’t do this regulating size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:12:24] Size doesn’t matter. This has got to be about merit. If you’re doing something wrong, if you’re breaking the rules, then you need the punishment. Otherwise, it’s on merit. And this has nothing to do with merit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:12:34] Farms are already under audits and investigations and county, state, federal regulations. You know, these auditors and regulators come and show up and do very, very in-depth inspections of their farms. And when there’s a bad actor, they get penalized or they get sued. So if you have a good actor, what’s the point of reducing the size of their operation if their operation is operating within the regulations that have been set?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Mike Weber \u003c/strong>[00:13:01] This measure will go to put us out of business. We won’t have milk, eggs and other fresh produce from this community. We’ll be left with nothing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:13:10] There’s some interesting language in this measure. One of them is about authorizing citizen enforcement. But there’s another one about job retraining program for people who would lose their jobs. People who work at these farms who would lose their jobs. The county agricultural commissioner would have to develop and execute and manage a job retraining program for people who lose their jobs on farms. That would close. The No on J. Crowd is saying it’s not just the people who work at the farms. This is going to cause exponential job losses. You know, everyone down the food chain, the truckers, the grocers, the suppliers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:13:48] It seems like the yes and the no sides are not quite on the same page in a lot of ways, even just in the language that they’re using around this measure, around what to call these farms, whether they’re factory farms versus family farms. I mean, those mean very different things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:14:09] They do mean very different things. I mean, this is not new in politics, but the. Yes. Underside prefers the term factory farms, I think because it has that resonance with people when you hear factory farm. I think most people in the Bay Area think of Harris Ranch, which is on I-5, halfway to L.A. You know it because you smell it before you see it. It is a gigantic, gigantic factory farm. It’s a really big there’s no farms in Sonoma County that are even remotely close to Harris Ranch. A lot of them that would fall under this ban are pasture grazing farms, which means that cows can roam the hills. They’re not confined in these like, dirty, smelly warehouses. But the No and J crowd loves to say family farms. And yeah, they’re definitely family farms. They’ve been in the family for a long time. Does that mean that they’re inherently good or bad? I mean, the Koch brothers is a family business, technically, Right? So but I think that’s all just about resonance with voters. You know, family farms, good factory farms, bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:15:18] You brought into the studio, these large mailers that you got in your man box. I’m curious how they fit those in there. There seems to be a lot of campaign spending. What do we know about how much has been spent?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:15:31] There’s been at least it might be more by now, but there’s been at least $2 million in campaign spending that has just poured in, a lot of it from outside the county. Because like I said, this is seen as a canary in the coal mine for other counties to face bans on their ballots, too. Most of it is no longer spending, but $2 million is a lot of money, especially from Sonoma County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:02] You’ve lived there your whole life. I’m curious what the last couple of months have been like in Sonoma County. How do you see Measure J in your community and how it’s sort of being received? And have you ever seen anything like it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:16:17] I’ve never seen this much money poured in for a county measure, and I’ve never seen this many billboards for and against it. But I’m also not seeing like fistfights at the soccer game, you know, on the weekend .\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Protesters \u003c/strong>[00:16:31] Protect our water, Yes on J!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:16:36] There, there have been large protests. And in downtown Santa Rosa, we’d like to protest one side on one side of the street and one on the other. So there’s been, you know, large. Yes on J people and large no on J people. The No on J crowd has been bigger and louder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:16:58] This ballot measure, should it pass, would be the first of its kind in the country. Really, Gabe, what do you think this story tells us about, I guess, the broader struggle between. Animal rights activists and the agricultural industry. It’s sort of feels like a very Bay Area struggle to me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:20] It does. It’s a little bit of a generational one, too, I’ve noticed. Have you ever heard of Clo the Cow?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra \u003c/strong>[00:17:26] I have heard of Clo the Cow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:28] The cow is like our mascot. Clo the cow is the mascot for Clover Stornetta Farms. Clo the cow gives out free ice cream and free chocolate milk to kids at the fair. Clo The cow is that Wednesday night market at every single street fair like. And there’s a billboard right near Rohnert Park that says Save Clo, Vote No.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Gabe Meline \u003c/strong>[00:17:56] It’s also an industry that you can’t really whitewash it. It kills animals. Voting against Measure J is going with the status quo, literally. And, you know, if you’re against killing animals, even for food. Voting for it is pushing in a, you know, ostensibly moral direction.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"id": "baycurious",
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"tagline": "Exploring the Bay Area, one question at a time",
"info": "KQED’s new podcast, Bay Curious, gets to the bottom of the mysteries — both profound and peculiar — that give the Bay Area its unique identity. And we’ll do it with your help! You ask the questions. You decide what Bay Curious investigates. And you join us on the journey to find the answers.",
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},
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},
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
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"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
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"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
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"order": 1
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"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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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
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"title": "Forum",
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"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
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"id": "fresh-air",
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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",
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"source": "NPR"
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"how-i-built-this": {
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"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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"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
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"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. ",
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"jerrybrown": {
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"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. ",
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"order": 18
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},
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"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
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"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/",
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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": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
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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": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
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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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