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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove is located at the northernmost curve of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Ocean Beach. Tucked right below the Cliff House, it was one of the earliest surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The now quintessential California sport was late to arrive in San Francisco, only coming into its own in the 1940s. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in the ocean here, you’ll know why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water temperatures would creep below 50 degrees at times,” longtime surfer Jim Gallagher said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was part of the Kelly’s Cove community. They were a select group, willing to brave frigid waters for the chance at the perfect wave. And in the early days, they did it without wetsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before neoprene suits were invented, surfers like Gallagher had to rely on their senses to keep them safe. “We became experts in hypothermia,” Gallagher said. Surfers kept sessions short and experimented with creative ways to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guys tried almost everything,” Gallagher said. People surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surfers near Ocean Beach in San Francisco in an undated photograph believed to date to the late 1960s or early 1970s. Photographer unknown. The image is from a collection of photo negatives belonging to Dennis O’Rorke. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079525 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2000x664.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-1536x510.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2048x680.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Surfers check out a wetsuit at Kelly’s Cove on Ocean Beach, circa 1970s. Right: Beach goers lie out to enjoy a warm day at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, circa 1970s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a theory that two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear, which was nylon and close-fit, you would have less cloth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That particular hypothesis was debunked quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonfires were the most reliable way to warm up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer walks in the water to surf at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Feb. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Typically, somebody would bring down old tires because tires really hold the heat,” Gallagher said. “It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 75 years later, everyone at Ocean Beach is wearing a wetsuit, not to mention neoprene hoods, gloves, and booties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How that happened has roots in Kelly’s Cove and a whole lot to do with a Berkeley physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Designing a suit for the military man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the major challenges for Allied forces during World War II was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on enemy coasts. The shorelines were heavily fortified, rigged with concrete, metal and wood obstacles that could only be dismantled by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On D-Day in 1945, Naval Combat Demolition Units — better known as frogmen — deployed to Omaha Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just wearing wool sweaters and things like that,” historian Peter Westwick said. “And they suffered terribly; their casualty rate was like 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-160x72.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-1536x692.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Hugh Bradner at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. Right: Hugh Bradner at his desk at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire, doing precision work in cold water for a long time. For the U.S., it was part of a larger wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Navy [is] quickly realizing the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference,” Westwick said. “So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Post-war, the Navy turned to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasonline.org/\">National Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> for help. They convened a panel to tackle the problem and tapped Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner to join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After completing his PhD at Caltech, Bradner had worked on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956611/from-berkeley-to-the-bomb-oppenheimer-before-los-alamos\">Manhattan Project\u003c/a>, helping the United States develop the atomic bomb. Perhaps more importantly, he was an avid diver and waterman.[aside postID=news_12082529 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/042506CORASANTOSBELOY_GH_004-KQED.jpg']One of his first projects with the panel was trying to design a suit to help divers survive underwater explosions. But he soon realized the foam materials he was working with could help tackle the cold water problem, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then, Westwick said, that Bradner came up with his fundamental contribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a concept that flew in the face of accepted knowledge at the time, when the best option for watermen was a dry suit. Dry suits, as the name suggests, keep divers warm by keeping them dry. They’d bundle up in wool underlayers and step into a bulky rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around [in],” Westwick said. Bradner’s “wetsuit” idea wouldn’t depend on layers of wool underwear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You let the water in and then let [the divers’] body warm them up,” Westwick said. “The [suit] material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague. It’s the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other innovation in Bradner’s design was the use of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that became widely available during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084195\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1211\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-1536x930.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Two men in diving gear with small, round raft. These diving suits predate the neoprene wetsuit. Right: John S. Foster modeling wet suit designed by Hugh Bradner around 1953. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Westwick said Bradner started testing his neoprene suit in 1951. “He tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. But Bradner wasn’t interested in becoming a businessman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He says, ‘No, no, I want to preserve my objectivity here,’” Westwick said. “‘I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Bradner never patented his design. “‘Let’s just throw it out there,” Westwick paraphrased, “and let people run with it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The wetsuit goes mainstream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the other side of San Francisco Bay — back on foggy Ocean Beach — a local surfer and tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove was working on his own suit. After experimenting with other materials, Jack O’Neill also stumbled across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher, the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach, was friends with O’Neill. “He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things,” Gallagher said. “But he was a really curious sort of guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1021\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-1536x784.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill as a young man wearing a pre-wetsuit in the 1950s. Right: Jack O’Neill and sons Pat and Mike demonstrating Jack’s supersuit he invented between 1970 and 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>O’Neill has long been considered one of the fathers of the wetsuit, along with the Southern California company Body Glove, a distinction both were happy to cultivate. But this line on the \u003ca href=\"https://eu.oneill.com/blogs/all/who-was-jack-oneill\">O’Neill company blog\u003c/a> raises questions about those claims: “Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to the O’Neill company to get a better understanding of the degree to which O’Neill was aware of Bradner’s discovery, but the company did not respond to my request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, said the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher said the O’Neill suit was a game-changer for surfers at Kelly’s Cove. When they saw the inventor in his neoprene suit, “[they] said, ‘Well, how do I get one?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll make you one.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was lucky enough to get one of the early models. It was custom in every sense of the word, carefully measured and tailored to his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Silberstein sits in the back of his car next to his surfboard at his home in Santa Cruz on April 14, 2026, before heading out to surf. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084192\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-1536x630.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Gary Silberstein holds a Jack O’Neill wetsuit he has owned since the 1960s. Right: Silberstein surfing at Ocean Beach in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Left: Beth LaBerge/KQED. Right: Courtesy of Gary Silberstein)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These early suits weren’t lined. Surfers like Kelly’s Cove local Gary Silberstein used cornstarch or talc to help them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silberstein has held on to one of O’Neill’s later models. The neoprene is thick and inflexible by today’s standards, but it still looks warmer than a wool sweater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Silberstein has put the suit through the wringer. “The wetsuit has 18 holes; it’s real leaky and cold,” he said, pointing out the tears. “You can see this has been repaired, but this would still be a functional wetsuit 50 years in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill’s first surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco with Jack’s children, Cathy, Mike and Pat, standing in front of shop in 1957. Right: The site of the first Jack O’Neill surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco on April 14, 2026. The shop opened in the early 1950s and later moved to Santa Cruz in the late 1950s. \u003ccite>(Left: Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library. Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-160x102.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-1536x982.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer stands at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1972. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops. He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles and diving headfirst into marketing. Today, O’Neill is one of the biggest surf companies out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why you might know his name, while Bradner has largely been left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the wetsuit changed surfing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter, and of course at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world,” Silberstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed. “I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water,” despite the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Jack O’Neill used to say, “When you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s a foggy day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach … just like so many before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything’s gray … cold and windy … but familiar landmarks stick out in the fog … seal rock … the Cliff House …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the early 1950s … and the waves are roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Waves crashing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There are a few surfers paddling out. They’re wearing … shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>When you first went in the water, your fingers would sting and your toes would sting, and that stinging would begin to increase a little bit up your arms and so forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jim Gallagher was part of a group of surfers who braved Northern California’s frigid waters in the early days of surfing here. A place where ocean temperature stays in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/coastal-water-temperature-guide/all_table.html\">50s\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Ocean-Beach/seatemp\">most\u003c/a> of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> And then after an hour or so, that stinging would abate, and you start feeling good, well, you’re about to die, so you better get out of the water fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> At Ocean Beach, surfers found community and creative ways to keep warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> We became experts on hypothermia …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cu>\u003c/u>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Jim got into body surfing as a kid and soon found a community of surfers at Kelly’s Cove, at the north end of Ocean Beach. It was one of the earliest board and body surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>A myth went out that somebody named Kelly died on the beach. There was a competing story that was a Foster & Kleiser sign, a big advertisement for Kelly’s tires. So people had been saying, where’s the beach, or go down to see the Kelly sign …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>In the early days of the sport, people surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly, or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> Guys tried almost everything. There was a theory, two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear was nylon and close fit, you would get have less cloth. And that got debunked pretty quick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The solution was quick surf sessions, maybe ride a few waves and come running back to the beach, to the bonfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>Typically, somebody would bring down old tires, and because tires really hold the heat. And so you could be standing 5 and 6 feet away from the fire and be quite warmed by that fire. It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>While Kelly’s Cove surfers were doing their best to outsmart the ocean … thousands of miles away, another group was having trouble with cold water too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the U.S. military learned the hard way that a soldier’s capacity to function in cold water could make or break an invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World War II music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>For the Allied forces, one of the major challenges of the war was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on heavily fortified enemy coasts\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concrete, metal and wood obstacles could only really be dealt with by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The story of the United States Navy’s frogmen is a story of adventure, of brave men against the enemy and against the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>So-called “frogmen” trained in warm-weather Florida, in mild surf … not the kind of conditions you typically find off the coast of France.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The weather is none too good, but the little ships are plugging onto the beaches, bringing enormous support of manpower and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>On D-Day, they deployed to Omaha Beach. And as historian Peter Westwick tells it, they were pretty poorly equipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And basically, they’re just wearing kind of like wool sweaters and things like that. And they suffered terribly. Their casualty rate was like 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire … doing precision work in cold water for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the US military, the whole war was one big wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The US Navy is quickly realizing, OK, the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference. So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>At the time, if you wanted to stay warm underwater … dry suits were the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And what the dry suit basically did was, as its name suggests, was it kept you dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The suits were bulky. You’d bundle up in wool layers and then step into a watertight rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even today, many scuba divers use a more advanced version of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Americans sometimes used drysuits during the war, they weren’t perfect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The downside was, you know, you stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>“Suit squeeze” was common, pinching watermen in sensitive places at the most inopportune times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine trying to disarm a bomb underwater while wearing 20 leather jackets stacked on each other. Not exactly practical combat gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what’s a Navy to do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Navy turned to scientists for help. One man in particular seemed like a good bet — Hugh Bradner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>Bradner likes to dive, and has dived in cold water regions before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner got his PhD in physics from Caltech. During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project… helping the United States develop the atomic bomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, he got a job as a professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He’s diving, swimming and playing water polo around the Bay Area. So avid kind of waterman, as we would call it now, but also a top-notch physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner joined the project … working first on a different problem … a suit to protect divers from underwater explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s tinkering with these foam materials, using them like shock absorbers … and starts wondering if the foam could also help keep divers warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And then he comes in and ends up with the really fundamental contribution to this whole, this whole enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Actually, I do not think it is necessary to have a waterproof suit. It should be possible to obtain adequate warmth by use of a “dead water” space from a furry type of porous material …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>There’s this really kind of central, counterintuitive insight there, before the whole assumption was that if you’re in cold water, the way you keep from getting cold is to keep the water out. The water is cold. If you keep the water out, you will stay warm. Bradner says you let the water in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Let the water in, he thought, and your body would warm it up naturally.\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And the material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>His other big breakthrough was identifying the kind of material needed to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>When he’s looking around for materials to test, here is this material right at hand that the chemical industry is cranking out in great quantities, especially for the U.S. military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The synthetic rubber was invented in the 1930s by chemists at DuPont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, it became an important substitute for rubber, which was hard to come by. Inventors improved on the material, making it better and more widely available … just in time for Bradner to prototype his wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He begins testing this in 195. And he tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. Bradner’s 1951 letter describing his idea is the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But chances are, unless you’re a physicist or history nerd, you probably haven’t heard of Hugh Bradner. That’s because he never patented his design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>So he says, no, no, I want to preserve my kind of objectivity here. I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>He was a science guy … not a businessman. And as the thinking went, diving and surfing were destined to remain small niches, not places to make real money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And it’s funny, because some of the other panel members are actually writing Bradner at this time, saying, like, Dude, you’re blowing it. Like you can do both … you can be a businessman. And Brander says, like, no, no… forget it. I’m not going to patent it, and let’s just make it. Let’s just throw it out there and let people run with it, which is what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bradner had no idea that the suit he’d invented would forever change the world of surfing and water sports. More on that when we return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re enjoying stories like this one, consider becoming a member of KQED. We can’t do this work without listener donations, so consider joining the hundreds of thousands of your Bay Area neighbors today. \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a> is the place to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about the invention of the wetsuit, and its Bay Area connection. Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner came up with the idea in 1951, but he never had it patented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for the novel concept to go mainstream, thanks in part to the ingenuity and marketing prowess of a few California surfing legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Just a short time after Bradner comes up with his wetsuit, a local tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove stumbled upon a similar idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher — the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach — he was friends with him: a man named Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things, but he was a really curious sort of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Legend has it that O’Neill experimented with all kinds of interesting suit solutions. But nothing really worked. Until he, like Bradner, came across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He made the neoprene suit, and he made one for himself, went out and came back, and people saw that, and he said, Well, how did I get one? He said, Well, I’ll make you one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Unlike the mainstream wetsuits of today, Jack’s suits were always custom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>And I remember when I went down to get mine, I went to his home. He was still living on Wawona, and his brother Bob was there. He was working for Jack, and you went in and he measured you like a tailor would … almost you know, the length of from your elbow midpoint to your wrist and up to your shoulders, around your waist or chest, arm length, legs, the whole body, and he might make a template and then cut the neoprene to that template and glue it together. And that’s how the first ones were made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles … and dove headfirst into marketing. At a 1956 San Francisco trade show, for instance, he dressed up his six kids in little wetsuits and threw them into tubs of ice water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove surfer Gary Silberstein remembers this time well, when the early wetsuit was gaining traction, rudimentary as they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> They weren’t lined, okay, with any fabric. And … use cornstarch to or talc, something to make them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When I met up with Gary at his Santa Cruz home, he pulled an old O’Neill suit out to show me … like most early wetsuits, it’s just a jacket, nothing covering the legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You are looking at Jack O’Neill. This is his logo, which is now all kind of etched away from years and years of surfing. And it’s a jacket. It’s simply a long sleeved, long sleeve jacket, pretty heavy neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The neoprene was rough … and cracked in places …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>You can see that the stitches hold the arm pieces. These are all pieces of neoprene that had to be cut before they’re stitched together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck in scene: \u003c/strong>And do you remember how much they cost back in\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>I’m guessing everything’s so much cheaper, probably 35-40 bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary’s old O’Neill suit ended up in a museum one day. It’s well-preserved evidence of an invention that changed surfing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter… and of course, at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> And so the whole culture, the whole availability of equipment, improved enormously over those years, from, let’s say, 58 to 65 or 64 when I left Kelly’s Cove … Wet suits became very inexpensive and available, and surfboards made of foam were mass produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When Gary goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Due to his commercial success, O’Neill came to be known as one of the “fathers of the wetsuit.” Body Glove, an early SoCal surf and dive company, is often also given that accolade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bradner, though, was largely left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But about 40 years after walking away from wetsuit development, Bradner began writing letters to try to clarify the history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Jack, You have lately been getting much well-deserved publicity for your invention of the surfing wetsuit. You perhaps recall that I was early in the wetsuit too, but not for surfers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>One letter recipient? Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>The enclosed xerox of my June 21, 1951, letter to Larry Marshall has the disclosure that I believe \u003cu>may\u003c/u> (underlined) have been the beginning of it all. I’d be interested to learn whether your wetsuit predates it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sincerely,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hugh Bradner\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner’s copy of O’Neill’s reply, if one existed, isn’t in the archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a lot of other letters. All following a similar thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Bill, I am enjoying very much your latest book … There is one experience in which I did participate: the wetsuit … We have there an important question of timing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I consider this very important because if your work predates June 21, 1951, I must set about recanting my claim and fame by contacting significant people and widely read publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please set my mind at rest as soon as you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The letter recipients, all in all, seem to have been less concerned than Bradner about clearing up the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over Willard Bascom: \u003c/strong>“Dear Hugh … History is what we remember (including you).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My suggestion is that you let all statements stand …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax and have a merry Christmas. Kindest, Willard”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Like Hugh Bradner, I did some of my own due diligence … and reached out to O’Neill and Body Glove for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, told me the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The O’Neill company didn’t respond to my request for comment … But they’ve got this line on their company blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Versions of this neoprene suit are everywhere these days. Now complete with gloves, booties, and a hood for the cold-weather rider. It’s a combination early Ocean Beach surfers could have only dreamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, as Jack O’Neill would say, when you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to let you all in on something we’ve been working on behind the scenes for the last few months! A historically-themed gaming experience at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. It’s like nothing Bay Curious had done before … and now, it’s time to invite you to join us! Come out on June 20 and 21st and explore the history of the Conservatory and the people who created it. Tickets on sale at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be no episode dropping next week because of the Memorial Day holiday. We’ll be back with the freshy fresh on June 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove is located at the northernmost curve of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>’s Ocean Beach. Tucked right below the Cliff House, it was one of the earliest surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The now quintessential California sport was late to arrive in San Francisco, only coming into its own in the 1940s. If you’ve ever dipped your toes in the ocean here, you’ll know why.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The water temperatures would creep below 50 degrees at times,” longtime surfer Jim Gallagher said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was part of the Kelly’s Cove community. They were a select group, willing to brave frigid waters for the chance at the perfect wave. And in the early days, they did it without wetsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before neoprene suits were invented, surfers like Gallagher had to rely on their senses to keep them safe. “We became experts in hypothermia,” Gallagher said. Surfers kept sessions short and experimented with creative ways to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Guys tried almost everything,” Gallagher said. People surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079528\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079528\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/O_Neill-14ARP_edited-1-3-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surfers near Ocean Beach in San Francisco in an undated photograph believed to date to the late 1960s or early 1970s. Photographer unknown. The image is from a collection of photo negatives belonging to Dennis O’Rorke. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079525\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079525 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"850\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2000x664.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-1536x510.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/South-1AAANC-9-2048x680.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Surfers check out a wetsuit at Kelly’s Cove on Ocean Beach, circa 1970s. Right: Beach goers lie out to enjoy a warm day at Ocean Beach, San Francisco, circa 1970s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a theory that two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear, which was nylon and close-fit, you would have less cloth,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That particular hypothesis was debunked quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonfires were the most reliable way to warm up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084172\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084172\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/250210-SurferSewage-05-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer walks in the water to surf at Ocean Beach in San Francisco on Feb. 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Typically, somebody would bring down old tires because tires really hold the heat,” Gallagher said. “It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nearly 75 years later, everyone at Ocean Beach is wearing a wetsuit, not to mention neoprene hoods, gloves, and booties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How that happened has roots in Kelly’s Cove and a whole lot to do with a Berkeley physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Designing a suit for the military man\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One of the major challenges for Allied forces during World War II was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on enemy coasts. The shorelines were heavily fortified, rigged with concrete, metal and wood obstacles that could only be dismantled by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On D-Day in 1945, Naval Combat Demolition Units — better known as frogmen — deployed to Omaha Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re just wearing wool sweaters and things like that,” historian Peter Westwick said. “And they suffered terribly; their casualty rate was like 50%.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084194\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084194\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"901\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-160x72.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HughBradner-1536x692.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Hugh Bradner at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. Right: Hugh Bradner at his desk at the California Institute of Technology around 1941. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire, doing precision work in cold water for a long time. For the U.S., it was part of a larger wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. Navy [is] quickly realizing the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference,” Westwick said. “So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Post-war, the Navy turned to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasonline.org/\">National Academy of Sciences\u003c/a> for help. They convened a panel to tackle the problem and tapped Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner to join the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After completing his PhD at Caltech, Bradner had worked on the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956611/from-berkeley-to-the-bomb-oppenheimer-before-los-alamos\">Manhattan Project\u003c/a>, helping the United States develop the atomic bomb. Perhaps more importantly, he was an avid diver and waterman.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One of his first projects with the panel was trying to design a suit to help divers survive underwater explosions. But he soon realized the foam materials he was working with could help tackle the cold water problem, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was then, Westwick said, that Bradner came up with his fundamental contribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a concept that flew in the face of accepted knowledge at the time, when the best option for watermen was a dry suit. Dry suits, as the name suggests, keep divers warm by keeping them dry. They’d bundle up in wool underlayers and step into a bulky rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around [in],” Westwick said. Bradner’s “wetsuit” idea wouldn’t depend on layers of wool underwear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You let the water in and then let [the divers’] body warm them up,” Westwick said. “The [suit] material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague. It’s the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The other innovation in Bradner’s design was the use of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that became widely available during World War II.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084195\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084195\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1211\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-160x97.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/HistoryoftheWetsuit3-1536x930.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Two men in diving gear with small, round raft. These diving suits predate the neoprene wetsuit. Right: John S. Foster modeling wet suit designed by Hugh Bradner around 1953. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of UC San Diego Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Westwick said Bradner started testing his neoprene suit in 1951. “He tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. But Bradner wasn’t interested in becoming a businessman.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He says, ‘No, no, I want to preserve my objectivity here,’” Westwick said. “‘I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the end, Bradner never patented his design. “‘Let’s just throw it out there,” Westwick paraphrased, “and let people run with it.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s exactly what happened.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The wetsuit goes mainstream\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>On the other side of San Francisco Bay — back on foggy Ocean Beach — a local surfer and tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove was working on his own suit. After experimenting with other materials, Jack O’Neill also stumbled across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher, the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach, was friends with O’Neill. “He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things,” Gallagher said. “But he was a really curious sort of guy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084191\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084191\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1021\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-160x82.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/JackONeill_SFPL-1536x784.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill as a young man wearing a pre-wetsuit in the 1950s. Right: Jack O’Neill and sons Pat and Mike demonstrating Jack’s supersuit he invented between 1970 and 1979. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>O’Neill has long been considered one of the fathers of the wetsuit, along with the Southern California company Body Glove, a distinction both were happy to cultivate. But this line on the \u003ca href=\"https://eu.oneill.com/blogs/all/who-was-jack-oneill\">O’Neill company blog\u003c/a> raises questions about those claims: “Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I reached out to the O’Neill company to get a better understanding of the degree to which O’Neill was aware of Bradner’s discovery, but the company did not respond to my request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, said the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher said the O’Neill suit was a game-changer for surfers at Kelly’s Cove. When they saw the inventor in his neoprene suit, “[they] said, ‘Well, how do I get one?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ll make you one.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gallagher was lucky enough to get one of the early models. It was custom in every sense of the word, carefully measured and tailored to his body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080309\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080309\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260414-BAYCURIOUSINVENTIONOFWETSUIT-09-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gary Silberstein sits in the back of his car next to his surfboard at his home in Santa Cruz on April 14, 2026, before heading out to surf. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084192\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084192\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"820\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-160x66.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/260414-HistoryoftheWetsuit-30-BL-1536x630.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Gary Silberstein holds a Jack O’Neill wetsuit he has owned since the 1960s. Right: Silberstein surfing at Ocean Beach in the 1960s. \u003ccite>(Left: Beth LaBerge/KQED. Right: Courtesy of Gary Silberstein)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>These early suits weren’t lined. Surfers like Kelly’s Cove local Gary Silberstein used cornstarch or talc to help them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Silberstein has held on to one of O’Neill’s later models. The neoprene is thick and inflexible by today’s standards, but it still looks warmer than a wool sweater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the years, Silberstein has put the suit through the wringer. “The wetsuit has 18 holes; it’s real leaky and cold,” he said, pointing out the tears. “You can see this has been repaired, but this would still be a functional wetsuit 50 years in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080277\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080277\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Untitled-1-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Jack O’Neill’s first surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco with Jack’s children, Cathy, Mike and Pat, standing in front of shop in 1957. Right: The site of the first Jack O’Neill surf shop on Wawona Street in San Francisco on April 14, 2026. The shop opened in the early 1950s and later moved to Santa Cruz in the late 1950s. \u003ccite>(Left: Courtesy of Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library. Right: Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084402\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084402\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis.jpeg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-160x102.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/1972-Dennis-1536x982.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A surfer stands at Ocean Beach in San Francisco in 1972. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Dennis O'Rorke)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops. He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles and diving headfirst into marketing. Today, O’Neill is one of the biggest surf companies out there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why you might know his name, while Bradner has largely been left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How the wetsuit changed surfing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter, and of course at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world,” Silberstein said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed. “I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water,” despite the cold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Jack O’Neill used to say, “When you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> It’s a foggy day at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach … just like so many before it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Everything’s gray … cold and windy … but familiar landmarks stick out in the fog … seal rock … the Cliff House …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the early 1950s … and the waves are roaring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Waves crashing\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> There are a few surfers paddling out. They’re wearing … shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just shorts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>When you first went in the water, your fingers would sting and your toes would sting, and that stinging would begin to increase a little bit up your arms and so forth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Jim Gallagher was part of a group of surfers who braved Northern California’s frigid waters in the early days of surfing here. A place where ocean temperature stays in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/coastal-water-temperature-guide/all_table.html\">50s\u003c/a> for \u003ca href=\"https://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Ocean-Beach/seatemp\">most\u003c/a> of the year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> And then after an hour or so, that stinging would abate, and you start feeling good, well, you’re about to die, so you better get out of the water fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> At Ocean Beach, surfers found community and creative ways to keep warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> We became experts on hypothermia …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck takes it from here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cu>\u003c/u>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Jim got into body surfing as a kid and soon found a community of surfers at Kelly’s Cove, at the north end of Ocean Beach. It was one of the earliest board and body surfing spots in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>A myth went out that somebody named Kelly died on the beach. There was a competing story that was a Foster & Kleiser sign, a big advertisement for Kelly’s tires. So people had been saying, where’s the beach, or go down to see the Kelly sign …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>In the early days of the sport, people surfed in wool sweaters, covered their bodies in petroleum jelly, or tried warming up from the inside with brandy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher:\u003c/strong> Guys tried almost everything. There was a theory, two or three of them started by wearing your mother’s underwear was nylon and close fit, you would get have less cloth. And that got debunked pretty quick.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The solution was quick surf sessions, maybe ride a few waves and come running back to the beach, to the bonfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>Typically, somebody would bring down old tires, and because tires really hold the heat. And so you could be standing 5 and 6 feet away from the fire and be quite warmed by that fire. It didn’t smell too good, but it was better than freezing to death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>While Kelly’s Cove surfers were doing their best to outsmart the ocean … thousands of miles away, another group was having trouble with cold water too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, the U.S. military learned the hard way that a soldier’s capacity to function in cold water could make or break an invasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>World War II music\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>For the Allied forces, one of the major challenges of the war was figuring out how to land ships and soldiers on heavily fortified enemy coasts\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The concrete, metal and wood obstacles could only really be dealt with by soldiers in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The story of the United States Navy’s frogmen is a story of adventure, of brave men against the enemy and against the sea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>So-called “frogmen” trained in warm-weather Florida, in mild surf … not the kind of conditions you typically find off the coast of France.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>War tape\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UDv5BUUm2A\">\u003cstrong>:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The weather is none too good, but the little ships are plugging onto the beaches, bringing enormous support of manpower and weapons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>On D-Day, they deployed to Omaha Beach. And as historian Peter Westwick tells it, they were pretty poorly equipped.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And basically, they’re just wearing kind of like wool sweaters and things like that. And they suffered terribly. Their casualty rate was like 50%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The soldiers were left exposed to enemy fire … doing precision work in cold water for a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the US military, the whole war was one big wake-up call.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The US Navy is quickly realizing, OK, the equipment that these divers are wearing really is going to make a difference. So the Navy started thinking more about how we can improve these things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>At the time, if you wanted to stay warm underwater … dry suits were the answer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And what the dry suit basically did was, as its name suggests, was it kept you dry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The suits were bulky. You’d bundle up in wool layers and then step into a watertight rubber shell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even today, many scuba divers use a more advanced version of this technology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Americans sometimes used drysuits during the war, they weren’t perfect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>The downside was, you know, you stayed relatively warm, but they’re really hard to move around.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>“Suit squeeze” was common, pinching watermen in sensitive places at the most inopportune times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Imagine trying to disarm a bomb underwater while wearing 20 leather jackets stacked on each other. Not exactly practical combat gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, what’s a Navy to do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the war, the Navy turned to scientists for help. One man in particular seemed like a good bet — Hugh Bradner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>Bradner likes to dive, and has dived in cold water regions before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner got his PhD in physics from Caltech. During World War II, he worked on the Manhattan Project… helping the United States develop the atomic bomb.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After that, he got a job as a professor at UC Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He’s diving, swimming and playing water polo around the Bay Area. So avid kind of waterman, as we would call it now, but also a top-notch physicist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner joined the project … working first on a different problem … a suit to protect divers from underwater explosions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s tinkering with these foam materials, using them like shock absorbers … and starts wondering if the foam could also help keep divers warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And then he comes in and ends up with the really fundamental contribution to this whole, this whole enterprise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>You don’t have to stay dry to stay warm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter dated June 21, 1951, Bradner shared his revolutionary idea with a colleague …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Actually, I do not think it is necessary to have a waterproof suit. It should be possible to obtain adequate warmth by use of a “dead water” space from a furry type of porous material …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>There’s this really kind of central, counterintuitive insight there, before the whole assumption was that if you’re in cold water, the way you keep from getting cold is to keep the water out. The water is cold. If you keep the water out, you will stay warm. Bradner says you let the water in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Let the water in, he thought, and your body would warm it up naturally.\u003cu> \u003c/u>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And the material acts not as a barrier, but rather as an insulator. So this is really his crucial insight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>His other big breakthrough was identifying the kind of material needed to make that happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>When he’s looking around for materials to test, here is this material right at hand that the chemical industry is cranking out in great quantities, especially for the U.S. military.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The synthetic rubber was invented in the 1930s by chemists at DuPont.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During World War II, it became an important substitute for rubber, which was hard to come by. Inventors improved on the material, making it better and more widely available … just in time for Bradner to prototype his wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>He begins testing this in 195. And he tests them in swimming pools. He tests them in Lake Tahoe, and they seem to work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>It was a novel idea and a patentable invention. Bradner’s 1951 letter describing his idea is the earliest known documentation for what would later come to be known as the wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But chances are, unless you’re a physicist or history nerd, you probably haven’t heard of Hugh Bradner. That’s because he never patented his design.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>So he says, no, no, I want to preserve my kind of objectivity here. I don’t want to be tainted with commercial bias or the perception of commercial bias … I just want to be available to advise the Navy if they want to call on me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>He was a science guy … not a businessman. And as the thinking went, diving and surfing were destined to remain small niches, not places to make real money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Peter Westwick: \u003c/strong>And it’s funny, because some of the other panel members are actually writing Bradner at this time, saying, like, Dude, you’re blowing it. Like you can do both … you can be a businessman. And Brander says, like, no, no… forget it. I’m not going to patent it, and let’s just make it. Let’s just throw it out there and let people run with it, which is what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> Bradner had no idea that the suit he’d invented would forever change the world of surfing and water sports. More on that when we return.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re enjoying stories like this one, consider becoming a member of KQED. We can’t do this work without listener donations, so consider joining the hundreds of thousands of your Bay Area neighbors today. \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/a> is the place to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Sponsor messages\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price:\u003c/strong> We’re talking about the invention of the wetsuit, and its Bay Area connection. Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner came up with the idea in 1951, but he never had it patented.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It didn’t take long for the novel concept to go mainstream, thanks in part to the ingenuity and marketing prowess of a few California surfing legends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Just a short time after Bradner comes up with his wetsuit, a local tinkerer at Kelly’s Cove stumbled upon a similar idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gallagher — the guy who used to warm up by tire fires on Ocean Beach — he was friends with him: a man named Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He was a guy that was a salesman and did a bunch of different things, but he was a really curious sort of guy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Legend has it that O’Neill experimented with all kinds of interesting suit solutions. But nothing really worked. Until he, like Bradner, came across neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>He made the neoprene suit, and he made one for himself, went out and came back, and people saw that, and he said, Well, how did I get one? He said, Well, I’ll make you one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Unlike the mainstream wetsuits of today, Jack’s suits were always custom.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jim Gallagher: \u003c/strong>And I remember when I went down to get mine, I went to his home. He was still living on Wawona, and his brother Bob was there. He was working for Jack, and you went in and he measured you like a tailor would … almost you know, the length of from your elbow midpoint to your wrist and up to your shoulders, around your waist or chest, arm length, legs, the whole body, and he might make a template and then cut the neoprene to that template and glue it together. And that’s how the first ones were made.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>As demand for his surf gear grew, O’Neill opened up a store near Ocean Beach, often thought of as one of America’s first surf shops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He continued refining his wetsuit, rolling out new styles … and dove headfirst into marketing. At a 1956 San Francisco trade show, for instance, he dressed up his six kids in little wetsuits and threw them into tubs of ice water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s Cove surfer Gary Silberstein remembers this time well, when the early wetsuit was gaining traction, rudimentary as they were.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> They weren’t lined, okay, with any fabric. And … use cornstarch to or talc, something to make them slip on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When I met up with Gary at his Santa Cruz home, he pulled an old O’Neill suit out to show me … like most early wetsuits, it’s just a jacket, nothing covering the legs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You are looking at Jack O’Neill. This is his logo, which is now all kind of etched away from years and years of surfing. And it’s a jacket. It’s simply a long sleeved, long sleeve jacket, pretty heavy neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The neoprene was rough … and cracked in places …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>You can see that the stitches hold the arm pieces. These are all pieces of neoprene that had to be cut before they’re stitched together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck in scene: \u003c/strong>And do you remember how much they cost back in\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>the day?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein: \u003c/strong>I’m guessing everything’s so much cheaper, probably 35-40 bucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary’s old O’Neill suit ended up in a museum one day. It’s well-preserved evidence of an invention that changed surfing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> You think of the product, and it really was the foundation of the explosion of winter surfing sports all over the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>These days, people are surfing in Iceland, British Columbia, the Great Lakes in the middle of winter… and of course, at Ocean Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> And so the whole culture, the whole availability of equipment, improved enormously over those years, from, let’s say, 58 to 65 or 64 when I left Kelly’s Cove … Wet suits became very inexpensive and available, and surfboards made of foam were mass produced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>When Gary goes out to surf on his home waves in Santa Cruz, it’s pretty much guaranteed to be packed\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gary Silberstein:\u003c/strong> I can go out here on a good day and see over 100 people in the water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Due to his commercial success, O’Neill came to be known as one of the “fathers of the wetsuit.” Body Glove, an early SoCal surf and dive company, is often also given that accolade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bradner, though, was largely left out of the popular retelling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But about 40 years after walking away from wetsuit development, Bradner began writing letters to try to clarify the history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Jack, You have lately been getting much well-deserved publicity for your invention of the surfing wetsuit. You perhaps recall that I was early in the wetsuit too, but not for surfers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>One letter recipient? Jack O’Neill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>The enclosed xerox of my June 21, 1951, letter to Larry Marshall has the disclosure that I believe \u003cu>may\u003c/u> (underlined) have been the beginning of it all. I’d be interested to learn whether your wetsuit predates it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sincerely,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hugh Bradner\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Bradner’s copy of O’Neill’s reply, if one existed, isn’t in the archive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But there are a lot of other letters. All following a similar thread.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over for Hugh Bradner: \u003c/strong>Dear Bill, I am enjoying very much your latest book … There is one experience in which I did participate: the wetsuit … We have there an important question of timing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I consider this very important because if your work predates June 21, 1951, I must set about recanting my claim and fame by contacting significant people and widely read publications.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Please set my mind at rest as soon as you can.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>The letter recipients, all in all, seem to have been less concerned than Bradner about clearing up the timeline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over Willard Bascom: \u003c/strong>“Dear Hugh … History is what we remember (including you).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My suggestion is that you let all statements stand …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Relax and have a merry Christmas. Kindest, Willard”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Like Hugh Bradner, I did some of my own due diligence … and reached out to O’Neill and Body Glove for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jenna Meistrell, the granddaughter of one of Body Glove’s founders, told me the family does not believe the founders knew of Hugh Bradner, and that the company credits itself with the first commercially viable wetsuit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The O’Neill company didn’t respond to my request for comment … But they’ve got this line on their company blog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Voice Over: \u003c/strong>Seeing the successful experiments of UC Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner in the early 1950s, Jack O’Neill switched to neoprene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Gabriela Glueck: \u003c/strong>Versions of this neoprene suit are everywhere these days. Now complete with gloves, booties, and a hood for the cold-weather rider. It’s a combination early Ocean Beach surfers could have only dreamed of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because, as Jack O’Neill would say, when you’re wearing a wetsuit, it’s always summer on the inside.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/strong>That was Bay Curious reporter Gabriela Glueck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I want to let you all in on something we’ve been working on behind the scenes for the last few months! A historically-themed gaming experience at San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers. It’s like nothing Bay Curious had done before … and now, it’s time to invite you to join us! Come out on June 20 and 21st and explore the history of the Conservatory and the people who created it. Tickets on sale at \u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/live\">KQED.org/live\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There will be no episode dropping next week because of the Memorial Day holiday. We’ll be back with the freshy fresh on June 4.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and me Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We get extra support from Maha Sanad, Katie Sprenger, Jen Chien, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a wonderful week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Sales specialist Eli Inkelas helps outdoor enthusiasts shop at Recreational Equipment Inc. But on a recent day, the 28-year-old asked potential customers approaching \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037284/frustrated-berkeley-rei-workers-accuse-co-op-union-busting-straying-from-values\">REI’s Berkeley store\u003c/a> to boycott the retailer’s biggest sale of the year in support of unionized workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want REI corporate and their attorneys to treat us respectfully and to bargain in good faith and help us ratify this contract that we’ve been fighting for now for three years,” said Inkelas, a Berkeley native who has also worked at REI in Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of unionized REI workers are urging customers to boycott the retailer’s anniversary sale through Memorial Day as contract negotiations have stretched for more than three years, escalating pressure on the outdoor co-op to reach a deal while it works to recover from recent financial losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said the controversial tactic, also opposed by some employees at union stores, threatens jobs at a time when it’s trying to regain its financial footing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a disappointing move that targets the co‑op. It seems the union’s focus is on harming the financial wellbeing of the business, instead of advancing negotiations,” REI said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-statement-on-bargaining-status-and-union-s-planned-boycott\">statement\u003c/a>. “The union’s dedication to undermining the business puts jobs, wages, benefits, and future opportunity at risk, and pulls everyone further from the progress our employees deserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>REI, a values-based consumer co-op, said it remains committed to bargaining in good faith. The specialty outdoor retailer, headquartered near Seattle, has not finalized an agreement with workers at any of the 11 locations that have unionized since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_5408-scaled-e1779300643537.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084518\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_5408-scaled-e1779300643537.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eli Inkelas passes out flyers encouraging REI customers to boycott the outdoors retailer, outside the Berkeley store where he works on May 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>REI has 195 stores across the U.S., employing about 14,000 people. Workers at a 12th store in San Diego are scheduled to vote on whether to join the union next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In North Berkeley, some shoppers entered the San Pablo Avenue store after declining flyers offered by workers in “REI Union” white T-shirts. Other customers chatted with the employees and their supporters, opting to leave without shopping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of a no-brainer. I wasn’t going to cross the line and go in and buy,” said Cristina Cano, a San Francisco public school teacher and union member who lives in Berkeley. “I can buy whatever I need at another place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, REI reported revenue of more than $3.5 billion annually, but also net losses of $311 million in \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-releases-2023-impact-report-and-financials-reporting-3-76-billion-in-revenue\">2023\u003c/a> and $156.4 million in \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-releases-2024-impact-report-and-financials-becoming-first-national-retailer-to-achieve-zero-waste\">2024\u003c/a>, even as it opened new stores. The co-op, which invests significantly in member rewards, nonprofit donations and employee incentives and retirement contributions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/2025-financials-impact\">posted\u003c/a> a narrower net loss of $54.3 million in 2025, citing “progress toward profitability.”[aside postID=news_12032259 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/03/REIDublinGetty-1020x680.jpg']Workers supporting the boycott pushed aside concerns that it risks alienating customers beyond the 10-day sale event. As a consumer co-op, REI’s 25 million members can make a difference in how the company approaches bargaining, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“REI’s only tactic has been to delay and obfuscate and to make the process more difficult to convince us that we don’t need a union,” said Inkelas, who studies city planning and law at UC Berkeley and works part-time at REI, including as a cashier. “I just want them to come back to the table and negotiate fairly with us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said that company negotiators recently floated requiring the labor organization to make a $1 million charitable donation, and limit negative talk about the company — claims that REI said \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/document/some-straightforward-facts-about-rei-co-op-s-union-negotiations\">misrepresented\u003c/a> bargaining discussions that were ultimately not pursued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private-sector employees have a right to choose whether to organize and bargain collectively in the U.S. But labor experts said employers opposing a union can undermine those rights with little to no accountability, as federal law does not financially penalize violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, investigators with the National Labor Relations Board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032259/rei-punished-unionized-workers-in-berkeley-by-holding-back-raises-labor-board-alleges\">found evidence\u003c/a> that REI illegally withheld wage raises and bonuses from hundreds of employees — while continuing to give the benefits to nonunion employees — to discourage union membership. The company reached \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050938/unionized-berkeley-rei-workers-get-pay-raises-after-labor-board-alleged-they-were-shut-out\">a settlement agreement \u003c/a>on that complaint, paying impacted workers retroactive raises, in exchange for the union dropping dozens of unfair labor practice charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samuel Wirt, a Berkeley REI employee who is part of the bargaining team, said workers can’t accept offers of lower pay increases and fewer benefits when compared to nonunion stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could be hashed out tomorrow if they’re willing to meet us on an offer that we can actually vote yes on,” he said. “We’re not asking for the sun and the stars here. We want to be able to continue working here in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "REI has not reached contracts with any unionized stores since bargaining began in 2022, as workers in Berkeley and other locations escalate a boycott of the anniversary sale, while the outdoor retailer insists it is negotiating in good faith.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Sales specialist Eli Inkelas helps outdoor enthusiasts shop at Recreational Equipment Inc. But on a recent day, the 28-year-old asked potential customers approaching \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037284/frustrated-berkeley-rei-workers-accuse-co-op-union-busting-straying-from-values\">REI’s Berkeley store\u003c/a> to boycott the retailer’s biggest sale of the year in support of unionized workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want REI corporate and their attorneys to treat us respectfully and to bargain in good faith and help us ratify this contract that we’ve been fighting for now for three years,” said Inkelas, a Berkeley native who has also worked at REI in Boston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hundreds of unionized REI workers are urging customers to boycott the retailer’s anniversary sale through Memorial Day as contract negotiations have stretched for more than three years, escalating pressure on the outdoor co-op to reach a deal while it works to recover from recent financial losses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The company said the controversial tactic, also opposed by some employees at union stores, threatens jobs at a time when it’s trying to regain its financial footing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a disappointing move that targets the co‑op. It seems the union’s focus is on harming the financial wellbeing of the business, instead of advancing negotiations,” REI said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-statement-on-bargaining-status-and-union-s-planned-boycott\">statement\u003c/a>. “The union’s dedication to undermining the business puts jobs, wages, benefits, and future opportunity at risk, and pulls everyone further from the progress our employees deserve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>REI, a values-based consumer co-op, said it remains committed to bargaining in good faith. The specialty outdoor retailer, headquartered near Seattle, has not finalized an agreement with workers at any of the 11 locations that have unionized since 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12084518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_5408-scaled-e1779300643537.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12084518\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/IMG_5408-scaled-e1779300643537.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eli Inkelas passes out flyers encouraging REI customers to boycott the outdoors retailer, outside the Berkeley store where he works on May 15, 2026. \u003ccite>(Farida Jhabvala Romero/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>REI has 195 stores across the U.S., employing about 14,000 people. Workers at a 12th store in San Diego are scheduled to vote on whether to join the union next week.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In North Berkeley, some shoppers entered the San Pablo Avenue store after declining flyers offered by workers in “REI Union” white T-shirts. Other customers chatted with the employees and their supporters, opting to leave without shopping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was kind of a no-brainer. I wasn’t going to cross the line and go in and buy,” said Cristina Cano, a San Francisco public school teacher and union member who lives in Berkeley. “I can buy whatever I need at another place.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, REI reported revenue of more than $3.5 billion annually, but also net losses of $311 million in \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-releases-2023-impact-report-and-financials-reporting-3-76-billion-in-revenue\">2023\u003c/a> and $156.4 million in \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/rei-co-op-releases-2024-impact-report-and-financials-becoming-first-national-retailer-to-achieve-zero-waste\">2024\u003c/a>, even as it opened new stores. The co-op, which invests significantly in member rewards, nonprofit donations and employee incentives and retirement contributions, \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/article/2025-financials-impact\">posted\u003c/a> a narrower net loss of $54.3 million in 2025, citing “progress toward profitability.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Workers supporting the boycott pushed aside concerns that it risks alienating customers beyond the 10-day sale event. As a consumer co-op, REI’s 25 million members can make a difference in how the company approaches bargaining, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“REI’s only tactic has been to delay and obfuscate and to make the process more difficult to convince us that we don’t need a union,” said Inkelas, who studies city planning and law at UC Berkeley and works part-time at REI, including as a cashier. “I just want them to come back to the table and negotiate fairly with us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The union said that company negotiators recently floated requiring the labor organization to make a $1 million charitable donation, and limit negative talk about the company — claims that REI said \u003ca href=\"https://www.rei.com/newsroom/document/some-straightforward-facts-about-rei-co-op-s-union-negotiations\">misrepresented\u003c/a> bargaining discussions that were ultimately not pursued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Private-sector employees have a right to choose whether to organize and bargain collectively in the U.S. But labor experts said employers opposing a union can undermine those rights with little to no accountability, as federal law does not financially penalize violations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, investigators with the National Labor Relations Board \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12032259/rei-punished-unionized-workers-in-berkeley-by-holding-back-raises-labor-board-alleges\">found evidence\u003c/a> that REI illegally withheld wage raises and bonuses from hundreds of employees — while continuing to give the benefits to nonunion employees — to discourage union membership. The company reached \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12050938/unionized-berkeley-rei-workers-get-pay-raises-after-labor-board-alleged-they-were-shut-out\">a settlement agreement \u003c/a>on that complaint, paying impacted workers retroactive raises, in exchange for the union dropping dozens of unfair labor practice charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samuel Wirt, a Berkeley REI employee who is part of the bargaining team, said workers can’t accept offers of lower pay increases and fewer benefits when compared to nonunion stores.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This could be hashed out tomorrow if they’re willing to meet us on an offer that we can actually vote yes on,” he said. “We’re not asking for the sun and the stars here. We want to be able to continue working here in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "berkeley-extends-surveillance-contract-with-flock-safety-but-rejects-major-expansion",
"title": "Berkeley Extends Surveillance Contract With Flock Safety but Rejects Major Expansion",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> is extending its contract with the surveillance company Flock Safety but halting a proposed major expansion that would have added drones and more cameras to the city’s system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council’s vote Thursday night comes after a leaked memo from the city attorney’s office pointing to high-profile instances in other cities where data from Flock’s automated license plate readers was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12072077/as-california-cities-grow-wary-of-flock-safety-cameras-mountain-views-shuts-its-off\">shared with outside agencies\u003c/a>. The memo warned council members that Flock might not be able to comply with contractual obligations not to share their data with other customers, including federal immigration enforcement and out-of-state agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Flock’s track record raises serious concerns about data sharing, accountability and oversight,” Mayor Adena Ishii said ahead of the meeting. “One, I do not trust Flock as a company, and two, I don’t trust our current federal government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council voted 5 to 4 to approve an extension of up to 12 months of its existing contract with Flock, which was initially approved in 2023 and provides 52 automatic license plate readers. The cameras are used to track down suspects and stolen vehicles, streamline police department coordination and aid investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Council members, however, overwhelmingly rejected the Berkeley Police Department’s request to grow its Flock fleet, introducing new drone technology, investigative software and additional fixed surveillance cameras that would have cost an additional $1.4 million over the next four years. Instead, the council directed the city to engage in a competitive bidding process with other vendors who could offer that surveillance software.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii, along with Councilmembers Igor Tregub, Cecilia Lunaparra and Ben Bartlett, voted against the extension of the city’s current contract. The expanded package was rejected on an 8–1 vote, with only Bartlett opposed. He said his district’s residents opposed any contract that could be awarded to Flock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom ahead of a Berkeley City Council meeting on a proposed expansion of the city’s contract with surveillance company Flock Safety in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Berkeley is one of many Bay Area cities that have contracted with Flock to operate automatic license plate reading cameras in recent years, as police officials and the company have hailed the technology as an effective tool to find suspects and stolen vehicles, and even curb dangerous collisions by reducing the need for pursuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, municipalities have started to rethink or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069705/santa-cruz-the-first-in-california-to-terminate-its-contract-with-flock-safety\">terminate\u003c/a> their contracts with Flock after reports that some customers’ data had been accessed by out-of-state agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, without their knowledge and in violation of California law. Separately, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080233/san-jose-residents-sue-city-saying-flock-safety-cameras-allow-mass-surveillance\">San José is facing lawsuits in state and district courts\u003c/a> from civil liberties organizations alleging that the technology creates an unconstitutional “mass surveillance system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a 2015 state law, California public agencies are barred from sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies, and they are subject to strict privacy policies on such information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flock advertises data sharing as part of its offerings, providing options for its customers to share their camera data with other contracted agencies on either a national, state or one-to-one sharing level.[aside postID=news_12080233 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260402-FLOCK-SECURITY-CAMERA-FILE-MD-04_qed.jpg']While many Bay Area agencies have said that they do not participate in the “National Lookup,” and instead share their data on a one-to-one basis with neighboring departments, some have alleged that the wider sharing setting was reactivated by Flock without their knowledge, allowing out-of-state agencies to access their information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flock spokesperson Trevor Chandler told the council at Thursday’s meeting that the company has made it possible for cities to opt out of data sharing and “could have communicated the compliance features better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take full responsibility for that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public officials and activists say the data collected by Flock’s systems could be used against immigrants and women seeking reproductive care, as the Trump administration moves to expand deportations and limit abortion access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our data not only could be, but has been accessed time and time again and used by federal agencies in ways that have undermined other commitments elsewhere, and could and would undermine Berkeley Sanctuary City commitments here,” Tregub said. “There is a real anxiety among our immigrant residents. And safety that does not include our immigrant community is not true public safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2025, Flock began a pilot program with the U.S. Border Patrol that allowed the agency to search its “National Lookup” database without alerting affected jurisdictions, according to the memo from Berkeley’s city attorney. Berkeley — and the state of California — have sanctuary policy protections that prevent local law enforcement from aiding in federal immigration enforcement operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom before a Berkeley City Council meeting on Berkeley’s proposed contract expansion with surveillance company Flock Safety in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Allowing Border Patrol to access California agencies’ data, the city attorney said, “raises concerns among civil liberty groups that Flock is either intentionally violating or recklessly disregarding local sanctuary policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data from departments that aren’t opted in to the National Lookup could also be at risk if it is shared with other local jurisdictions that then share the information nationally themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/06/california-police-sharing-license-plate-reader-data/\">investigation by \u003cem>CalMatters\u003c/em>\u003c/a> last summer revealed that multiple law enforcement departments in Southern California had carried out searches of data from other agencies in the state on behalf of ICE and Customs and Border Protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organizers speak during a rally opposing Berkeley’s proposed contract expansion with surveillance company Flock Safety outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the fall, California Attorney General Rob Bonta also sued the city of El Cajon, alleging it had shared data with more than 100 agencies, including in Texas, Florida and Georgia — all states with stricter limitations on abortion access. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/10/08/records-el-cajon-license-plate-data-used-in-nationwide-immigration-searches\">city’s data\u003c/a> was used in immigration-related searches more than 500 times last year, according to KPBS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal agencies have accessed data from Flock cameras in Oakland, and the city of Richmond earlier this year deactivated its own camera network after discovering that federal officials could search its database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the city can map who attends a place of worship or who seeks immigration help, people fear the worst,” said Musa Tariq, the policy coordinator for the Bay Area’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “They fear that by simply showing up to pray, by seeking legal help, or by standing up for justice, that they or their kids will be violently kidnapped or worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kmonahan\">\u003cem>Katherine Monahan\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Although the City Council approved up to 12 more months of Flock’s automated license plate readers, it voted against the Berkeley Police Department’s request to add drones, more cameras and new technology. ",
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"headline": "Berkeley Extends Surveillance Contract With Flock Safety but Rejects Major Expansion",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> is extending its contract with the surveillance company Flock Safety but halting a proposed major expansion that would have added drones and more cameras to the city’s system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Council’s vote Thursday night comes after a leaked memo from the city attorney’s office pointing to high-profile instances in other cities where data from Flock’s automated license plate readers was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12072077/as-california-cities-grow-wary-of-flock-safety-cameras-mountain-views-shuts-its-off\">shared with outside agencies\u003c/a>. The memo warned council members that Flock might not be able to comply with contractual obligations not to share their data with other customers, including federal immigration enforcement and out-of-state agencies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Flock’s track record raises serious concerns about data sharing, accountability and oversight,” Mayor Adena Ishii said ahead of the meeting. “One, I do not trust Flock as a company, and two, I don’t trust our current federal government.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The council voted 5 to 4 to approve an extension of up to 12 months of its existing contract with Flock, which was initially approved in 2023 and provides 52 automatic license plate readers. The cameras are used to track down suspects and stolen vehicles, streamline police department coordination and aid investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Council members, however, overwhelmingly rejected the Berkeley Police Department’s request to grow its Flock fleet, introducing new drone technology, investigative software and additional fixed surveillance cameras that would have cost an additional $1.4 million over the next four years. Instead, the council directed the city to engage in a competitive bidding process with other vendors who could offer that surveillance software.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ishii, along with Councilmembers Igor Tregub, Cecilia Lunaparra and Ben Bartlett, voted against the extension of the city’s current contract. The expanded package was rejected on an 8–1 vote, with only Bartlett opposed. He said his district’s residents opposed any contract that could be awarded to Flock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082869\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082869\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_004-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom ahead of a Berkeley City Council meeting on a proposed expansion of the city’s contract with surveillance company Flock Safety in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Berkeley is one of many Bay Area cities that have contracted with Flock to operate automatic license plate reading cameras in recent years, as police officials and the company have hailed the technology as an effective tool to find suspects and stolen vehicles, and even curb dangerous collisions by reducing the need for pursuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, municipalities have started to rethink or \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069705/santa-cruz-the-first-in-california-to-terminate-its-contract-with-flock-safety\">terminate\u003c/a> their contracts with Flock after reports that some customers’ data had been accessed by out-of-state agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, without their knowledge and in violation of California law. Separately, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12080233/san-jose-residents-sue-city-saying-flock-safety-cameras-allow-mass-surveillance\">San José is facing lawsuits in state and district courts\u003c/a> from civil liberties organizations alleging that the technology creates an unconstitutional “mass surveillance system.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under a 2015 state law, California public agencies are barred from sharing license plate reader data with federal and out-of-state agencies, and they are subject to strict privacy policies on such information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flock advertises data sharing as part of its offerings, providing options for its customers to share their camera data with other contracted agencies on either a national, state or one-to-one sharing level.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>While many Bay Area agencies have said that they do not participate in the “National Lookup,” and instead share their data on a one-to-one basis with neighboring departments, some have alleged that the wider sharing setting was reactivated by Flock without their knowledge, allowing out-of-state agencies to access their information.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Flock spokesperson Trevor Chandler told the council at Thursday’s meeting that the company has made it possible for cities to opt out of data sharing and “could have communicated the compliance features better.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take full responsibility for that,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public officials and activists say the data collected by Flock’s systems could be used against immigrants and women seeking reproductive care, as the Trump administration moves to expand deportations and limit abortion access.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our data not only could be, but has been accessed time and time again and used by federal agencies in ways that have undermined other commitments elsewhere, and could and would undermine Berkeley Sanctuary City commitments here,” Tregub said. “There is a real anxiety among our immigrant residents. And safety that does not include our immigrant community is not true public safety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2025, Flock began a pilot program with the U.S. Border Patrol that allowed the agency to search its “National Lookup” database without alerting affected jurisdictions, according to the memo from Berkeley’s city attorney. Berkeley — and the state of California — have sanctuary policy protections that prevent local law enforcement from aiding in federal immigration enforcement operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082870\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082870\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Protesters gather outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom before a Berkeley City Council meeting on Berkeley’s proposed contract expansion with surveillance company Flock Safety in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Allowing Border Patrol to access California agencies’ data, the city attorney said, “raises concerns among civil liberty groups that Flock is either intentionally violating or recklessly disregarding local sanctuary policies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Data from departments that aren’t opted in to the National Lookup could also be at risk if it is shared with other local jurisdictions that then share the information nationally themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/economy/technology/2025/06/california-police-sharing-license-plate-reader-data/\">investigation by \u003cem>CalMatters\u003c/em>\u003c/a> last summer revealed that multiple law enforcement departments in Southern California had carried out searches of data from other agencies in the state on behalf of ICE and Customs and Border Protection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12082873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12082873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/05/050726BERKELEY-FLOCK-RALLY_GH_023-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Organizers speak during a rally opposing Berkeley’s proposed contract expansion with surveillance company Flock Safety outside the Berkeley Unified School District boardroom in Berkeley on May 7, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the fall, California Attorney General Rob Bonta also sued the city of El Cajon, alleging it had shared data with more than 100 agencies, including in Texas, Florida and Georgia — all states with stricter limitations on abortion access. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.kpbs.org/news/border-immigration/2025/10/08/records-el-cajon-license-plate-data-used-in-nationwide-immigration-searches\">city’s data\u003c/a> was used in immigration-related searches more than 500 times last year, according to KPBS.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal agencies have accessed data from Flock cameras in Oakland, and the city of Richmond earlier this year deactivated its own camera network after discovering that federal officials could search its database.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When the city can map who attends a place of worship or who seeks immigration help, people fear the worst,” said Musa Tariq, the policy coordinator for the Bay Area’s chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “They fear that by simply showing up to pray, by seeking legal help, or by standing up for justice, that they or their kids will be violently kidnapped or worse.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/kmonahan\">\u003cem>Katherine Monahan\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On a sunny Friday afternoon at Memorial Glade, the center of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley’s campus\u003c/a>, students set up volleyball nets, cornhole, picnic blankets and a makeshift plywood stage for live music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their goal? To throw a phone-free party.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Music blasted from a speaker near a snack table. Colorful, handwritten signs read messages like “Favorite app? Delete it,” and “Take back your mind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a check-in table, students had the option to seal their cell phones in a plastic bag. Nearby, students propped up gravestones cut out of posterboard, each bearing the logo of a different social media app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectreboot.school/\">Project Reboot\u003c/a>, an organization born on Berkeley’s campus, with the mission of helping young people “reset their tech habits, reclaim their time and regain their focus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project began in the form of a semester-long class that helped students reduce their screen time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081401 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A handmade sign reads “Live With Intention” at a phone-free event at UC Berkeley on Friday, April 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Eliza Peppel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I feel like [screen] addiction has kind of been our birthright,” said Dawson Kelly, a third-year student and one of the event’s hosts. Kelly said he’s working on a thesis about digital dependence. “We need more infrastructure for our generation to take back our time, take back our agency, and look at all the things that have been stolen from us, and not let this be the anxious generation that we’ve been made out to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahar Yousef, a Berkeley neuroscientist and lecturer who serves on Project Reboot’s research advisory board, said her students are increasingly pushing back “against the default of being on their phones, constantly scrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is truly a demonstration that they’ve wanted to put together,” Yousef said, “to demonstrate what has really been taken from them.”[aside postID=news_12078253 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/01/240104-PEOPLES-PARK-MD-05-1020x680.jpg']According to a survey of UC Berkeley undergraduates, 78% of students reported that they believe their phone use “prevents them from thinking deeply, being creative, or engaging fully with ideas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third-year students Ashlyn Torres and Izzy Newman said they found out about Friday’s event from a flier, instead of through the usual social media channels. Torres said she left her phone at home before joining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was different this morning because I was able to recognize there is life around me,” she said. “And we probably should talk to each other more and just listen to what the world has to offer rather than just what our phones have to offer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jonny Vasquez is a third-year student and advocate for reduced screen time on campus. To reach other students, he said, he started standing in a busy area of campus holding a sign that read, “Lowest screentime contest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People would either completely ignore the sign,” Vasquez said, “or they would come up and say, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve been waiting for someone to help us with this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vasquez said that since he deleted his social media accounts, he’s stopped comparing himself to others and experiences greater overall satisfaction with his life. He said he hopes to continue to share that with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students rally during a game of volleyball on the grass at a phone-free gathering at UC Berkeley on Friday, April 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Eliza Peppel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several students offered each other tips about creating some distance with their phones, including plugging it in out of reach overnight, turning it completely off while socializing, and leaning on a community with like-minded goals to hold each other accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly said that the movement the students hope to create is about their personal agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the peak years of our lives, and they’ve been stolen from us by companies that are making billions and billions of dollars every single year to take as much of our time as possible. We have to fight back, and we fight back by connecting and engaging in a life that we should have been living from the beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a check-in table, students had the option to seal their cell phones in a plastic bag. Nearby, students propped up gravestones cut out of posterboard, each bearing the logo of a different social media app.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The event was hosted by \u003ca href=\"https://www.projectreboot.school/\">Project Reboot\u003c/a>, an organization born on Berkeley’s campus, with the mission of helping young people “reset their tech habits, reclaim their time and regain their focus.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The project began in the form of a semester-long class that helped students reduce their screen time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081401\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12081401 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones1-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A handmade sign reads “Live With Intention” at a phone-free event at UC Berkeley on Friday, April 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Eliza Peppel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I feel like [screen] addiction has kind of been our birthright,” said Dawson Kelly, a third-year student and one of the event’s hosts. Kelly said he’s working on a thesis about digital dependence. “We need more infrastructure for our generation to take back our time, take back our agency, and look at all the things that have been stolen from us, and not let this be the anxious generation that we’ve been made out to be.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sahar Yousef, a Berkeley neuroscientist and lecturer who serves on Project Reboot’s research advisory board, said her students are increasingly pushing back “against the default of being on their phones, constantly scrolling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is truly a demonstration that they’ve wanted to put together,” Yousef said, “to demonstrate what has really been taken from them.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>According to a survey of UC Berkeley undergraduates, 78% of students reported that they believe their phone use “prevents them from thinking deeply, being creative, or engaging fully with ideas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Third-year students Ashlyn Torres and Izzy Newman said they found out about Friday’s event from a flier, instead of through the usual social media channels. Torres said she left her phone at home before joining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was different this morning because I was able to recognize there is life around me,” she said. “And we probably should talk to each other more and just listen to what the world has to offer rather than just what our phones have to offer.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jonny Vasquez is a third-year student and advocate for reduced screen time on campus. To reach other students, he said, he started standing in a busy area of campus holding a sign that read, “Lowest screentime contest.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“People would either completely ignore the sign,” Vasquez said, “or they would come up and say, ‘Oh my goodness, I’ve been waiting for someone to help us with this.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vasquez said that since he deleted his social media accounts, he’s stopped comparing himself to others and experiences greater overall satisfaction with his life. He said he hopes to continue to share that with others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12081399\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12081399\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/UCBNoPhones3-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Students rally during a game of volleyball on the grass at a phone-free gathering at UC Berkeley on Friday, April 24, 2026. \u003ccite>(Eliza Peppel/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Several students offered each other tips about creating some distance with their phones, including plugging it in out of reach overnight, turning it completely off while socializing, and leaning on a community with like-minded goals to hold each other accountable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly said that the movement the students hope to create is about their personal agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These are the peak years of our lives, and they’ve been stolen from us by companies that are making billions and billions of dollars every single year to take as much of our time as possible. We have to fight back, and we fight back by connecting and engaging in a life that we should have been living from the beginning.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "the-bay-area-is-expensive-what-do-you-do-when-its-the-only-place-that-feels-safe",
"title": "The Trans ‘Tax’: Why Feeling Safe Can Mean Paying More to Live in the Bay",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a young age, Liam Chavez felt different from the people around him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Thousand Oaks, he got bullied. In high school, he didn’t know anyone who was openly gay or queer. “I didn’t really fit in,” said Chavez, 28. “It was really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was sure something was wrong with him. It wasn’t until he moved to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley \u003c/a>a decade ago for college that he felt like he was home. “A lot of people I meet are surprised to learn I didn’t grow up here because I enjoy it so much and fit in so well,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first time, he’d found the language and the identity that matched his experience. “Basically, the day that I found out that trans men existed, I realized I was a trans man,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But staying here has come at a real cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he came out to his family, they cut him off. His parents told him it was Berkeley’s fault, “that I’ve been brainwashed,” he said. His father refused to come to his graduation, and he said he’s hardly spoken to either parent since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh out of school, he felt overwhelmed. He struggled to find his financial footing, knowing nobody was there to catch him if he fell. At the same time, he was trying to heal from the trauma of a sexual assault by another college student, and he had developed chronic migraines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I go back to that time, I just remember terror,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez examines yarn for an upcoming artisans fair on April 8, 2026, at Avenue Yarn in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no family support and significant medical expenses, including medication for his migraines and therapy, in part for the assault, the gap between what he earned and what he needed to live widened fast. But he couldn’t go home, and leaving the state for somewhere cheaper didn’t feel like an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Chavez was transitioning, his doctor sat him down and issued some advice: Don’t leave California, at least not for a while. “I think she was right,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Bay Area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, transgender Californians like Chavez have found that the calculation of whether to stay or go is about more than rent prices.[aside postID=news_12078915 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/012426_FREEOAKLANDUP_GH_011-KQED.jpg']In \u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/transgender-moving-desire/\">a national survey\u003c/a> conducted following the 2024 presidential election, nearly half of trans respondents said they had already moved, or were considering moving, in search of a more trans-friendly community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To afford life here, Chavez patched together part-time work as a tutor and dog sitter and picked up random gigs on Craigslist. His friends joked that he was always hustling. “I had no choice,” he said. “I had to, and it was exhausting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it still wasn’t enough, he turned to credit cards. He charged food, gas and rent until he owed close to $15,000, on top of his student loan debt. “It felt crushing,” he said. “It felt like I could never get out from under that money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/lgbt-poverty-us/\">Research has found\u003c/a> that nearly 1 in 3 transgender Americans lives in poverty — double the rate of cisgender straight people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether you’re looking at individual income, household income, food insecurity or housing instability, what you’ll see among trans people are much higher rates of economic vulnerability,” said Brad Sears, a distinguished scholar at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason for these discrepancies lies, in part, in demographics. Research from the Williams Institute found that, compared with cisgender straight men, transgender people are more likely to be young and people of color, and almost twice as likely to be living with a disability — all factors that can make it more difficult to achieve financial stability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez and Avenue Yarn employee Leti Iversen compare yarn colors on April 8, 2026, in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even when researchers compared people with the same education, age, race and disability status, they found that transgender people still have 70% higher odds of living in poverty than cisgender straight men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sears attributes this to the unique layer of discrimination that transgender people face. “The pathways to poverty really start with [family] rejection, over-criminalization, homelessness … while trans people are still young,” he said. “That continues into adult life, where you continue to see high rates of discrimination in all parts of life, including housing, but particularly in the workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Addressing these disparities, he said, means working with parents to decrease family rejection, and with law enforcement — “so it’s not a crime to be walking while trans” — in order to keep trans people out of the foster care and criminal justice systems, “which are just huge predictors for future poverty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez speaks with Avenue Yarn employee Leti Iversen on April 8, 2026, in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Workplace protections also make a big difference. Although federal employment protections prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Trump administration has sought to \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trumps-executive-orders-promoting-sex-discrimination-explained\">limit and roll back safeguards\u003c/a> for transgender Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, meanwhile, has one of the country’s strongest \u003ca href=\"https://transgenderlawcenter.org/resources/employment/know-your-rights/faq-the-gender-nondiscrimination-act/\">nondiscrimination frameworks for transgender people\u003c/a>, and some Bay Area cities add \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/san-francisco-all-gender-restroom-ordinance?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">additional\u003c/a> protection \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/title-vi-nondiscrimination-policy#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Berkeley%20is,Rights%20Restoration%20Act%20of%201987\">through\u003c/a> local \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/employment-investigations-and-civil-rights-compliance/documents/working-for-oakland/workplace-amp-employment-standards/employment-investigations-and-civil-rights-compliance/city-of-oakland-gender-inclusion-policy-ai-73.pdf\">policies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sears said having a gender identity nondiscrimination policy is a good start, but workplaces should also have a plan in place to support employees who want to transition by doing things like ensuring there’s an appropriate bathroom available and providing colleagues with training. “Visible support from leadership at the top is one of the biggest things that make a difference,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A whole future that I can think about’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Chavez, the turning point came when, out of desperation, he called the free, 24-hour 211 helpline that connects callers to social services. The operator referred him to a nonprofit credit counseling agency, Money Management International, where a counselor helped him build a monthly budget and negotiated with his creditors to cut his interest rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency consolidated his debt into a single monthly payment automatically drafted from his bank account — something that credit counseling agencies have set up in agreements with major creditors to help close accounts and dig borrowers out of crushing debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez opens the trunk of his car as he prepares for a morning swim at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach on March 30, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“These creditors know that when people come to us, they’re not just getting plugged into this affordable repayment plan, but they’re also getting budgeting advice and advice that helps people achieve financial stability, which makes it more likely that they will repay the debt that they owe when presented with more affordable repayment terms,” said Bruce McClary, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez said the counselor’s debt management plan helps hold him accountable, and the low monthly payment has allowed him to chip away at his balance. “That’s really helped because it’s really the interest that is just like a killer,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, he has paid off more than $10,000. “I really want to be debt-free,” he said. “And I’m so close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Chavez’s life today is structured around that goal.[aside postID=news_12075761 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00263_TV-KQED.jpg']At home in Oakland, he tracks every dollar in a spreadsheet: rent, insurance, groceries, savings, income from his job and side gigs like a pet-sitting job he recently took on. “I’m actually pretty comfortable this month, which I’m kind of like, whoa, this is new,” he said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To cut costs, he keeps his heater off and uses an electric blanket. He buys clothes, furniture and appliances secondhand. Groceries come from a mix of bulk purchases, discount markets and Trader Joe’s. When money gets tight, he turns to food pantries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just visited a couple weeks ago because I had some unexpected expenses and I was really hungry and I needed to eat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He shares a one-bedroom apartment with Erasmo, a 7-year-old Greek tortoise he got during a difficult stretch in college. “I thought to myself, it might be good to have somebody to be responsible to, another creature,” Chavez said. “In order to take care of him, I have to take care of myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tortoise’s name means “beloved” in Greek, and Chavez has a custom bumper sticker on his car that reads: My tortoise is smarter than your honor student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Chavez has a full-time job at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, where he administers grant funding to students working on community health projects and helps them manage budgets — skills he’s honed through hard experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, he ran his salary through an online calculator and was surprised to find himself labeled middle class, like his family had been growing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079296\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079296\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez swims in the bay at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda on March 30, 2026. He says open water swimming helps him manage stress and reconnect with his body. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was like, really?” he said. “Because … I think about my family, they could go out and buy their RV, and they could go on vacations. But I don’t do any of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even small splurges require planning. Instead of credit cards, Chavez sometimes uses “buy now, pay later services” to spread out costs, like when he bought a hot pink inflatable flamingo-shaped buoy that he named Chorizo, which bobs along behind him to keep him safe on his open-water swims off Crown Beach in Alameda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s been swimming since he was a kid. As an adult, it’s become a kind of therapy. “Sport has been such an instrumental way of me reclaiming my bodily autonomy and my power,” he said. It’s one of the small, hard-won pleasures that make staying in the Bay Area feel worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079297\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez swims across the bay with “Chorizo” trailing behind him at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda on March 30, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In his spare time, he volunteers on a crisis line for sexual assault survivors. He said he recently took a call from someone whose circumstances closely mirrored his own. “It was incredible that I could answer that call and be their advocate and be their support,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s considering pursuing a master’s degree in social work or public health once his debt is paid off — a path he hopes will lead him to a stable career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kinda been crazy for me to think about, like, oh wow, I actually have a whole future that I can think about,” he said. “I can have professional aspirations now instead of just thinking about: Where’s my next meal? How am I gonna pay the rent?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some months, Chavez is still living with little room to spare. His medical expenses remain high, and the cost of living continues to climb. But for the first time in years, he said, “I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "The Trans ‘Tax’: Why Feeling Safe Can Mean Paying More to Live in the Bay",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From a young age, Liam Chavez felt different from the people around him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Growing up in Thousand Oaks, he got bullied. In high school, he didn’t know anyone who was openly gay or queer. “I didn’t really fit in,” said Chavez, 28. “It was really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He was sure something was wrong with him. It wasn’t until he moved to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley \u003c/a>a decade ago for college that he felt like he was home. “A lot of people I meet are surprised to learn I didn’t grow up here because I enjoy it so much and fit in so well,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first time, he’d found the language and the identity that matched his experience. “Basically, the day that I found out that trans men existed, I realized I was a trans man,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But staying here has come at a real cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When he came out to his family, they cut him off. His parents told him it was Berkeley’s fault, “that I’ve been brainwashed,” he said. His father refused to come to his graduation, and he said he’s hardly spoken to either parent since.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fresh out of school, he felt overwhelmed. He struggled to find his financial footing, knowing nobody was there to catch him if he fell. At the same time, he was trying to heal from the trauma of a sexual assault by another college student, and he had developed chronic migraines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If I go back to that time, I just remember terror,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079248\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079248\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_003_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez examines yarn for an upcoming artisans fair on April 8, 2026, at Avenue Yarn in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>With no family support and significant medical expenses, including medication for his migraines and therapy, in part for the assault, the gap between what he earned and what he needed to live widened fast. But he couldn’t go home, and leaving the state for somewhere cheaper didn’t feel like an option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Chavez was transitioning, his doctor sat him down and issued some advice: Don’t leave California, at least not for a while. “I think she was right,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the Bay Area is one of the most expensive places to live in the country, transgender Californians like Chavez have found that the calculation of whether to stay or go is about more than rent prices.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/transgender-moving-desire/\">a national survey\u003c/a> conducted following the 2024 presidential election, nearly half of trans respondents said they had already moved, or were considering moving, in search of a more trans-friendly community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To afford life here, Chavez patched together part-time work as a tutor and dog sitter and picked up random gigs on Craigslist. His friends joked that he was always hustling. “I had no choice,” he said. “I had to, and it was exhausting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it still wasn’t enough, he turned to credit cards. He charged food, gas and rent until he owed close to $15,000, on top of his student loan debt. “It felt crushing,” he said. “It felt like I could never get out from under that money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/lgbt-poverty-us/\">Research has found\u003c/a> that nearly 1 in 3 transgender Americans lives in poverty — double the rate of cisgender straight people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whether you’re looking at individual income, household income, food insecurity or housing instability, what you’ll see among trans people are much higher rates of economic vulnerability,” said Brad Sears, a distinguished scholar at the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reason for these discrepancies lies, in part, in demographics. Research from the Williams Institute found that, compared with cisgender straight men, transgender people are more likely to be young and people of color, and almost twice as likely to be living with a disability — all factors that can make it more difficult to achieve financial stability.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079250\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079250\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_007_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez and Avenue Yarn employee Leti Iversen compare yarn colors on April 8, 2026, in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But even when researchers compared people with the same education, age, race and disability status, they found that transgender people still have 70% higher odds of living in poverty than cisgender straight men.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sears attributes this to the unique layer of discrimination that transgender people face. “The pathways to poverty really start with [family] rejection, over-criminalization, homelessness … while trans people are still young,” he said. “That continues into adult life, where you continue to see high rates of discrimination in all parts of life, including housing, but particularly in the workplace.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Addressing these disparities, he said, means working with parents to decrease family rejection, and with law enforcement — “so it’s not a crime to be walking while trans” — in order to keep trans people out of the foster care and criminal justice systems, “which are just huge predictors for future poverty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079251\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079251\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040826TransAffordability-_GH_008_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez speaks with Avenue Yarn employee Leti Iversen on April 8, 2026, in Albany, California. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Workplace protections also make a big difference. Although federal employment protections prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, the Trump administration has sought to \u003ca href=\"https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trumps-executive-orders-promoting-sex-discrimination-explained\">limit and roll back safeguards\u003c/a> for transgender Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, meanwhile, has one of the country’s strongest \u003ca href=\"https://transgenderlawcenter.org/resources/employment/know-your-rights/faq-the-gender-nondiscrimination-act/\">nondiscrimination frameworks for transgender people\u003c/a>, and some Bay Area cities add \u003ca href=\"https://www.sf.gov/san-francisco-all-gender-restroom-ordinance?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">additional\u003c/a> protection \u003ca href=\"https://berkeleyca.gov/your-government/our-work/title-vi-nondiscrimination-policy#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Berkeley%20is,Rights%20Restoration%20Act%20of%201987\">through\u003c/a> local \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/files/assets/city/v/1/employment-investigations-and-civil-rights-compliance/documents/working-for-oakland/workplace-amp-employment-standards/employment-investigations-and-civil-rights-compliance/city-of-oakland-gender-inclusion-policy-ai-73.pdf\">policies\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sears said having a gender identity nondiscrimination policy is a good start, but workplaces should also have a plan in place to support employees who want to transition by doing things like ensuring there’s an appropriate bathroom available and providing colleagues with training. “Visible support from leadership at the top is one of the biggest things that make a difference,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘A whole future that I can think about’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>For Chavez, the turning point came when, out of desperation, he called the free, 24-hour 211 helpline that connects callers to social services. The operator referred him to a nonprofit credit counseling agency, Money Management International, where a counselor helped him build a monthly budget and negotiated with his creditors to cut his interest rates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The agency consolidated his debt into a single monthly payment automatically drafted from his bank account — something that credit counseling agencies have set up in agreements with major creditors to help close accounts and dig borrowers out of crushing debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079242\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079242\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_001_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez opens the trunk of his car as he prepares for a morning swim at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach on March 30, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“These creditors know that when people come to us, they’re not just getting plugged into this affordable repayment plan, but they’re also getting budgeting advice and advice that helps people achieve financial stability, which makes it more likely that they will repay the debt that they owe when presented with more affordable repayment terms,” said Bruce McClary, a spokesperson for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chavez said the counselor’s debt management plan helps hold him accountable, and the low monthly payment has allowed him to chip away at his balance. “That’s really helped because it’s really the interest that is just like a killer,” Chavez said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three years later, he has paid off more than $10,000. “I really want to be debt-free,” he said. “And I’m so close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much of Chavez’s life today is structured around that goal.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At home in Oakland, he tracks every dollar in a spreadsheet: rent, insurance, groceries, savings, income from his job and side gigs like a pet-sitting job he recently took on. “I’m actually pretty comfortable this month, which I’m kind of like, whoa, this is new,” he said, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To cut costs, he keeps his heater off and uses an electric blanket. He buys clothes, furniture and appliances secondhand. Groceries come from a mix of bulk purchases, discount markets and Trader Joe’s. When money gets tight, he turns to food pantries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I just visited a couple weeks ago because I had some unexpected expenses and I was really hungry and I needed to eat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He shares a one-bedroom apartment with Erasmo, a 7-year-old Greek tortoise he got during a difficult stretch in college. “I thought to myself, it might be good to have somebody to be responsible to, another creature,” Chavez said. “In order to take care of him, I have to take care of myself.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tortoise’s name means “beloved” in Greek, and Chavez has a custom bumper sticker on his car that reads: My tortoise is smarter than your honor student.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, Chavez has a full-time job at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, where he administers grant funding to students working on community health projects and helps them manage budgets — skills he’s honed through hard experience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, he ran his salary through an online calculator and was surprised to find himself labeled middle class, like his family had been growing up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079296\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079296\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_012_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez swims in the bay at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda on March 30, 2026. He says open water swimming helps him manage stress and reconnect with his body. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was like, really?” he said. “Because … I think about my family, they could go out and buy their RV, and they could go on vacations. But I don’t do any of it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even small splurges require planning. Instead of credit cards, Chavez sometimes uses “buy now, pay later services” to spread out costs, like when he bought a hot pink inflatable flamingo-shaped buoy that he named Chorizo, which bobs along behind him to keep him safe on his open-water swims off Crown Beach in Alameda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s been swimming since he was a kid. As an adult, it’s become a kind of therapy. “Sport has been such an instrumental way of me reclaiming my bodily autonomy and my power,” he said. It’s one of the small, hard-won pleasures that make staying in the Bay Area feel worth it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079297\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/033026Trans-affordability-_GH_013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Liam Chavez swims across the bay with “Chorizo” trailing behind him at Robert W. Crown Memorial State Beach in Alameda on March 30, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In his spare time, he volunteers on a crisis line for sexual assault survivors. He said he recently took a call from someone whose circumstances closely mirrored his own. “It was incredible that I could answer that call and be their advocate and be their support,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s considering pursuing a master’s degree in social work or public health once his debt is paid off — a path he hopes will lead him to a stable career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kinda been crazy for me to think about, like, oh wow, I actually have a whole future that I can think about,” he said. “I can have professional aspirations now instead of just thinking about: Where’s my next meal? How am I gonna pay the rent?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some months, Chavez is still living with little room to spare. His medical expenses remain high, and the cost of living continues to climb. But for the first time in years, he said, “I think I see a light at the end of the tunnel.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "uc-berkeley-offers-freshmen-2-year-housing-guarantee-with-new-dorms",
"title": "UC Berkeley Offers Freshmen 2-Year Housing Guarantee With New Dorms",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley \u003c/a>will offer incoming freshmen two years of guaranteed housing next fall, marking a major expansion for the campus that’s long struggled to keep up with accommodations for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university said it will also guarantee a year of campus housing for transfer students, thanks to two new housing projects set to open to students in 2027 and 2028, adding 2,700 beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Two years of guaranteed housing for every incoming first-year student is transformative for our student experience,” Chancellor Rich Lyons said in a press release last week. “It gives students the foundation they need — a place to live, a community to be part of and the stability that supports their well-being, allowing them to fully engage in their education and in the life of this university.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley has historically had the lowest rate of students in housing of the University of California campuses, hosting just 22% of its undergraduate population a decade ago, compared to an average of 38% systemwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school only began to guarantee housing for freshmen during the 2023-2024 academic year, after a yearslong effort to expand campus housing supply, spearheaded by former Chancellor Carol Christ. One of the projects she helped get off the ground was Heumann House, the university’s 1,100-bed apartment-style housing project set to open next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The development has been controversial on campus and has been decades in the making. It sits on the former site of People’s Park, where students and neighbors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971915/peoples-park-fight-pits-housing-against-history\">fought the university’s efforts \u003c/a>to build housing since it acquired the land in the late 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078284\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078284 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Storage containers surround the perimeter of People’s Park in Berkeley, California, on June 6, 2024. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of UC Berkeley’s plans to develop the park into student housing. \u003ccite>(Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The university had planned to develop student housing before running out of money. In 1969, residents planted trees and turned it into a park. When the university tried to reclaim the land, it sparked major protests and clashes between local police and park supporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the plot remained mostly undeveloped, serving as a gathering place for students and activists, and a long-standing homeless encampment before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989237/uc-berkeley-can-start-building-on-peoples-park-california-supreme-court-rules\">a state Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> cleared the way for the university to build. The campus \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998188/uc-berkeley-quietly-starts-construction-at-peoples-park-capping-decades-of-conflict\">quietly broke ground\u003c/a> on its new housing in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann House, named for disability rights leader Judith Heumann, adds to the campus’s supply of apartment-style housing filled by many transfer students. In 2024, Berkeley opened Anchor House, which features around 800 beds in similar units. Together, the projects bring the campus’s housing capacity to 33% of its student population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project, the other new development expected in 2028, will add another 1,600 dorm-style beds.[aside postID=news_12066766 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/12/251211-PEOPLES-PARK-RENDERINGS-01-KQED.jpg']Junior Ysabela Philip said she’s encouraged to see the campus offering more housing options, but is wary of the rapid expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want there to be quality over quantity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Philip said most students find it less expensive to live off campus, unless they receive financial aid that they are able to put toward housing expenses. She said she’s worried that the push to be able to house more of the student population could lead the school to put off renovations on older buildings, like her freshman dorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conditions we were living in the dorms were terrible,” she said. “My heater was broken. I couldn’t have hot water in my shower. There was mold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of a two-year housing guarantee, [I] would have preferred to see existing housing being brought up to safer standards and higher standards,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley officials say they “are committed to ensuring all of our campus housing options are safe, healthy and supportive spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university has also proposed a tower up to 26 stories on the corner of Channing Way and Bowditch Street that would house up to 2,000 more students, and feature a new dining facility and “social and academic spaces.” It’s expected to go before the UC Board of Regents for approval next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By providing stability from the moment students arrive, we can help them focus on what matters most: their academic journey and building connections at Berkeley,” Jo Mackness, associate vice chancellor for Residential and Student Service programs, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/uc-berkeley\">UC Berkeley \u003c/a>will offer incoming freshmen two years of guaranteed housing next fall, marking a major expansion for the campus that’s long struggled to keep up with accommodations for students.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university said it will also guarantee a year of campus housing for transfer students, thanks to two new housing projects set to open to students in 2027 and 2028, adding 2,700 beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Two years of guaranteed housing for every incoming first-year student is transformative for our student experience,” Chancellor Rich Lyons said in a press release last week. “It gives students the foundation they need — a place to live, a community to be part of and the stability that supports their well-being, allowing them to fully engage in their education and in the life of this university.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UC Berkeley has historically had the lowest rate of students in housing of the University of California campuses, hosting just 22% of its undergraduate population a decade ago, compared to an average of 38% systemwide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The school only began to guarantee housing for freshmen during the 2023-2024 academic year, after a yearslong effort to expand campus housing supply, spearheaded by former Chancellor Carol Christ. One of the projects she helped get off the ground was Heumann House, the university’s 1,100-bed apartment-style housing project set to open next fall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The development has been controversial on campus and has been decades in the making. It sits on the former site of People’s Park, where students and neighbors \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11971915/peoples-park-fight-pits-housing-against-history\">fought the university’s efforts \u003c/a>to build housing since it acquired the land in the late 1960s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078284\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078284 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/UCBerkeleyPeoplesParkHousingGetty-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Storage containers surround the perimeter of People’s Park in Berkeley, California, on June 6, 2024. The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of UC Berkeley’s plans to develop the park into student housing. \u003ccite>(Brontë Wittpenn/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The university had planned to develop student housing before running out of money. In 1969, residents planted trees and turned it into a park. When the university tried to reclaim the land, it sparked major protests and clashes between local police and park supporters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, the plot remained mostly undeveloped, serving as a gathering place for students and activists, and a long-standing homeless encampment before \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11989237/uc-berkeley-can-start-building-on-peoples-park-california-supreme-court-rules\">a state Supreme Court ruling\u003c/a> cleared the way for the university to build. The campus \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11998188/uc-berkeley-quietly-starts-construction-at-peoples-park-capping-decades-of-conflict\">quietly broke ground\u003c/a> on its new housing in 2024.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Heumann House, named for disability rights leader Judith Heumann, adds to the campus’s supply of apartment-style housing filled by many transfer students. In 2024, Berkeley opened Anchor House, which features around 800 beds in similar units. Together, the projects bring the campus’s housing capacity to 33% of its student population.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bancroft-Fulton Student Housing project, the other new development expected in 2028, will add another 1,600 dorm-style beds.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Junior Ysabela Philip said she’s encouraged to see the campus offering more housing options, but is wary of the rapid expansion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want there to be quality over quantity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Philip said most students find it less expensive to live off campus, unless they receive financial aid that they are able to put toward housing expenses. She said she’s worried that the push to be able to house more of the student population could lead the school to put off renovations on older buildings, like her freshman dorm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The conditions we were living in the dorms were terrible,” she said. “My heater was broken. I couldn’t have hot water in my shower. There was mold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Instead of a two-year housing guarantee, [I] would have preferred to see existing housing being brought up to safer standards and higher standards,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Berkeley officials say they “are committed to ensuring all of our campus housing options are safe, healthy and supportive spaces.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The university has also proposed a tower up to 26 stories on the corner of Channing Way and Bowditch Street that would house up to 2,000 more students, and feature a new dining facility and “social and academic spaces.” It’s expected to go before the UC Board of Regents for approval next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“By providing stability from the moment students arrive, we can help them focus on what matters most: their academic journey and building connections at Berkeley,” Jo Mackness, associate vice chancellor for Residential and Student Service programs, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús Help Reimagine ‘All My Sons’ at Berkeley Rep",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have to admit, meeting celebrities is an awkward part of my job as a journalist. Still, when actors Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús came to KQED’s studios recently for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913094/real-life-couple-jimmy-smits-and-wanda-de-jesus-play-husband-and-wife-in-berkeley-reps-all-my-sons\">an interview on Forum\u003c/a> about a production of \u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em> in which they are starring for Berkeley Rep, I wasn’t sure what to expect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smits became a household name in the 1980s thanks to his appearances on hit TV shows, including \u003cem>L.A. Law\u003c/em> and \u003cem>NYPD Blue\u003c/em>. I first noticed him in \u003cem>My Family\u003c/em>, a 1995 hit that is considered a seminal Latino film. De Jesús has starred in dozens of movies and television shows, including \u003cem>CSI: Miami\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Gentefied\u003c/em> and \u003cem>RoboCop 2.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing Smits, De Jesús, his costar and real-life partner, and the play’s director, David Mendizábal, all hanging out before the interview, I experienced a moment of awe from being in the presence of three powerhouse Latine artists and realized this is what true representation looks like. Mendizábal was the behind-the-scenes mastermind who created a space for two brilliant actors to shine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em> tells the story of a father whose success in business allows him to attain the American Dream, but at a high cost to himself and everyone around him. Legendary playwright Arthur Miller wrote it in 1947 with all-white characters, but when Mendizábal studied it in high school, they imagined a different cast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a play that I always wanted to do since I first read it. I immediately saw my family in it, even though it wasn’t written for them,” they said. “I grew up in a time when I had to see myself in the stories of white people. You like this thing, but you can’t find yourself in it, so how can you imagine yourself in it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.instagram.com/reel/DVkmbG4DUUM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In their role as associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, Mendizábal, now 41, is in a position to make their vision and version of a story into reality. They reimagined the main characters as Puerto Rican and brought in Black and Latino actors for other roles while keeping the script and characters’ names intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What really piqued my interest was David’s take on what he wanted to say with this particular piece,” Smits said during his interview on Forum. “And, how, on a cultural level, we can brushstroke in the importance of the piece itself in 1947 and add these other touches without changing the basic tenets of the play.”[aside postID=news_12073361 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/DULCETRICOLOR-22-JL-012526-KQED.jpg']Mendizábal grew up in Orlando, Fla., where they were raised by a father from Ecuador and a mother from Puerto Rico. They learned about the art of performing from watching their father, an immigration attorney, defend his clients in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like watching a play, like an actor telling people’s stories,” they said. “It showed me the power of performance and how the power of someone’s story could change lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal’s high school drama program set them on a trajectory to study theater at New York University. They stayed in New York working for various theater companies, including The Movement Theatre Company, where they worked for 15 years before joining Berkeley Rep in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While New York is the epicenter of American theater, Berkeley Rep offered Mendizábal an opportunity to stage larger, more ambitious projects. Their previous productions for Berkeley Rep include \u003cem>Mexodus\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Mother Road\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Sanctuary City\u003c/em>, all of which were written by playwrights of color and featured diverse casts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal’s goal is to produce great art that incorporates their values of promoting social justice, radical inclusion, and anti-racism. They recalled that their mother discouraged them from pursuing a career in theater, not because she didn’t believe in them, but because she couldn’t see a path forward for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1429\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02-1536x1097.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Mendizábal, associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, directed the theater company’s production of “All My Sons,” starring Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal realized early that they didn’t want to be an actor or a writer. Instead, they wanted to focus on working behind the scenes to shape stories and bring productions to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality in arts and entertainment is who are the ones making the decisions — it’s not the actors,” they said. “There’s real power in being the one who gets to invite people in the room to do the thing they love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came time to cast \u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em>, Mendizábal immediately thought of Smits, even though it felt aspirational despite Berkeley Rep’s reputation for attracting big-name actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal had seen Smits in \u003cem>Anna in the Tropics\u003c/em> more than 20 years ago in a rare all-Latino cast in a Broadway play. It turned out Smits and De Jesús had costarred in the Berkeley Rep production of \u003cem>The Guys\u003c/em> in 2003, so they were interested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I saw the play with my mother, I was captivated by the entire cast and the storytelling. One of the plotlines involves two brothers who fought in World War II. One brother disappears, and the other returns home and wants to marry his brother’s former girlfriend, which felt very telenovela-like to my mom and me. The play’s themes are universal, Mendizábal said, which is why it makes sense to bring a new lens to the characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experiencing live theater, especially when it includes actors like Smits and De Jesús, who you are used to seeing on a screen, was awe-inspiring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as the entertainment industry continues to sideline Latino actors and stories, meeting Mendizábal, Smits and De Jesús reminded me of the amazing art our people produce and why it’s so important to support them, especially this close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no small feat for Smits, 70, and De Jesús, 68, to have sustained decadeslong careers in acting, a notoriously challenging field, especially for Latine artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a demonization of all things Latino, the culture. Unfortunately, this (presidential) administration has made half of the country afraid of the other and what it represents,” De Jesús told me. “Our culture informs us, but we are creative human beings. And working with David, he comes from the same mindset. He is Latino and proud of it, but his imagination as a creator, he works with people that can think beyond the tropes and beyond the stereotypes and that’s what is so exciting. His future voice is very important in the theater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All My Sons at Berkeley Repertory Theatre runs through March 29 at Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets cost $25-$135.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story was reported for K Onda KQED, a monthly newsletter focused on the Bay Area’s Latinx community. \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/newsletters/k-onda\">Click here to subscribe\u003c/a>\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I have to admit, meeting celebrities is an awkward part of my job as a journalist. Still, when actors Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús came to KQED’s studios recently for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101913094/real-life-couple-jimmy-smits-and-wanda-de-jesus-play-husband-and-wife-in-berkeley-reps-all-my-sons\">an interview on Forum\u003c/a> about a production of \u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em> in which they are starring for Berkeley Rep, I wasn’t sure what to expect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Smits became a household name in the 1980s thanks to his appearances on hit TV shows, including \u003cem>L.A. Law\u003c/em> and \u003cem>NYPD Blue\u003c/em>. I first noticed him in \u003cem>My Family\u003c/em>, a 1995 hit that is considered a seminal Latino film. De Jesús has starred in dozens of movies and television shows, including \u003cem>CSI: Miami\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Gentefied\u003c/em> and \u003cem>RoboCop 2.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeing Smits, De Jesús, his costar and real-life partner, and the play’s director, David Mendizábal, all hanging out before the interview, I experienced a moment of awe from being in the presence of three powerhouse Latine artists and realized this is what true representation looks like. Mendizábal was the behind-the-scenes mastermind who created a space for two brilliant actors to shine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em> tells the story of a father whose success in business allows him to attain the American Dream, but at a high cost to himself and everyone around him. Legendary playwright Arthur Miller wrote it in 1947 with all-white characters, but when Mendizábal studied it in high school, they imagined a different cast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a play that I always wanted to do since I first read it. I immediately saw my family in it, even though it wasn’t written for them,” they said. “I grew up in a time when I had to see myself in the stories of white people. You like this thing, but you can’t find yourself in it, so how can you imagine yourself in it?”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In their role as associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, Mendizábal, now 41, is in a position to make their vision and version of a story into reality. They reimagined the main characters as Puerto Rican and brought in Black and Latino actors for other roles while keeping the script and characters’ names intact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What really piqued my interest was David’s take on what he wanted to say with this particular piece,” Smits said during his interview on Forum. “And, how, on a cultural level, we can brushstroke in the importance of the piece itself in 1947 and add these other touches without changing the basic tenets of the play.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mendizábal grew up in Orlando, Fla., where they were raised by a father from Ecuador and a mother from Puerto Rico. They learned about the art of performing from watching their father, an immigration attorney, defend his clients in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was like watching a play, like an actor telling people’s stories,” they said. “It showed me the power of performance and how the power of someone’s story could change lives.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal’s high school drama program set them on a trajectory to study theater at New York University. They stayed in New York working for various theater companies, including The Movement Theatre Company, where they worked for 15 years before joining Berkeley Rep in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While New York is the epicenter of American theater, Berkeley Rep offered Mendizábal an opportunity to stage larger, more ambitious projects. Their previous productions for Berkeley Rep include \u003cem>Mexodus\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Mother Road\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Sanctuary City\u003c/em>, all of which were written by playwrights of color and featured diverse casts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal’s goal is to produce great art that incorporates their values of promoting social justice, radical inclusion, and anti-racism. They recalled that their mother discouraged them from pursuing a career in theater, not because she didn’t believe in them, but because she couldn’t see a path forward for them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12075845\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12075845\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1429\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260309-K-ONDA-MARCH-02-1536x1097.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Mendizábal, associate artistic director at Berkeley Rep, directed the theater company’s production of “All My Sons,” starring Jimmy Smits and Wanda De Jesús. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Ben Krantz)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal realized early that they didn’t want to be an actor or a writer. Instead, they wanted to focus on working behind the scenes to shape stories and bring productions to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality in arts and entertainment is who are the ones making the decisions — it’s not the actors,” they said. “There’s real power in being the one who gets to invite people in the room to do the thing they love.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it came time to cast \u003cem>All My Sons\u003c/em>, Mendizábal immediately thought of Smits, even though it felt aspirational despite Berkeley Rep’s reputation for attracting big-name actors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mendizábal had seen Smits in \u003cem>Anna in the Tropics\u003c/em> more than 20 years ago in a rare all-Latino cast in a Broadway play. It turned out Smits and De Jesús had costarred in the Berkeley Rep production of \u003cem>The Guys\u003c/em> in 2003, so they were interested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I saw the play with my mother, I was captivated by the entire cast and the storytelling. One of the plotlines involves two brothers who fought in World War II. One brother disappears, and the other returns home and wants to marry his brother’s former girlfriend, which felt very telenovela-like to my mom and me. The play’s themes are universal, Mendizábal said, which is why it makes sense to bring a new lens to the characters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experiencing live theater, especially when it includes actors like Smits and De Jesús, who you are used to seeing on a screen, was awe-inspiring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as the entertainment industry continues to sideline Latino actors and stories, meeting Mendizábal, Smits and De Jesús reminded me of the amazing art our people produce and why it’s so important to support them, especially this close to home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s no small feat for Smits, 70, and De Jesús, 68, to have sustained decadeslong careers in acting, a notoriously challenging field, especially for Latine artists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There is a demonization of all things Latino, the culture. Unfortunately, this (presidential) administration has made half of the country afraid of the other and what it represents,” De Jesús told me. “Our culture informs us, but we are creative human beings. And working with David, he comes from the same mindset. He is Latino and proud of it, but his imagination as a creator, he works with people that can think beyond the tropes and beyond the stereotypes and that’s what is so exciting. His future voice is very important in the theater.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>All My Sons at Berkeley Repertory Theatre runs through March 29 at Roda Theatre, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets cost $25-$135.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "for-56-years-this-berkeley-food-pantry-built-a-community-now-its-shutting-down",
"title": "For 56 Years, This Berkeley Food Pantry Built a Community. Now It’s Shutting Down",
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"content": "\u003cp>For the last three years, Robin Franklin has been a fixture of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> Food Pantry’s thrice-weekly distributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without fail, she can be found on the bottom floor of the Berkeley Friends Quaker Church on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, running the operation’s cold bag assembly like a well-oiled machine, loading paper sacks onto a queue of rolling carts to be wheeled out to the church parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t used to do it like this. They didn’t use the carts,” Franklin said Wednesday as she packed macaroni salad — a premium “extra” — into bags filled with eggs and chicken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bags get done by a morning group. They get them all set up on the table. I load the carts, and then when we start getting down, if we still have a lot of people coming in, I start making more bags,” Franklin said as a line formed around the block. “If there’s any that aren’t given away, then I have to break them down, put stuff back in the refrigerators, in the freezer, so it doesn’t spoil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change, though, after the pantry shut its doors for good on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 56 years, it operated out of the Berkeley Friends Church in North Berkeley, providing fresh produce and groceries to more than 4,000 Berkeley and Albany residents a month. But since July, Franklin and the pantry’s community of more than 100 volunteers — along with its shoppers and three part-time employees — have known changes, at the least, were on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer with the Berkeley Food Pantry grabs a grocery bag to distribute to community members on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the operation expands beyond the church’s capacity, and its congregation ages, Berkeley Friends Church \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyfoodpantry.org/2025-july-newsletter\">announced over the summer\u003c/a> that the pantry would merge with the larger Berkeley Food Network, which serves about 6,500 residents a week in West Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pantry said at the time that beginning this year, it would be managed and overseen by the Berkeley Food Network, but its food distribution program would continue to operate at the church site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in December, the groups jointly announced that negotiations had fallen through, and the Berkeley Food Pantry would shutter at the end of January. A group of regular volunteers is still trying to figure out a way to keep the pantry open elsewhere, but it’s unclear whether that will be possible.[aside postID=news_12058985 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/EastBayFoodBankGetty1.jpg']“It’s incredibly sad,” said Marice Ash, who has volunteered every Wednesday for three and a half years. “It just feels like a very mutual, self-help community coming together. I’m going to miss it … and people need this. That’s hard, too, knowing that we’re closing when there’s so much need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash said that other food banks nearby will likely absorb the organization’s stock and customers, but the pantry has always felt different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a little anarchic,” she said, laughing. “It’s a creative place, and we’re not stuck in narrow jobs. If you see a job that needs to get done, you can jump in and do it. And the clients are jumping in all the time, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of people who’ve been here for years and years — in fact, some people … are still working here every day,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash remembers when Franklin first volunteered: For years, she rummaged through the church’s garbage bins for cracked eggs and spoiled produce to feed her chickens. One day, she came by during a distribution and noticed that the crew was short-staffed, so she locked up her bike and offered to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never missed a day since,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers Kris Starr’Witort (right) and Carter Mehl embrace outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The pantry is set to close on Friday after 56 years in operation. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Becky Cooper mans the “milk area,” directing clients to the right food bags from behind a small plastic table on Wednesdays. She said she started volunteering about nine months ago, when she came to pick up groceries for a neighbor on a day that they didn’t have a lot of help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘[Do] you want me to put my groceries in the car and then I’ll come help?’ That’s how that happened,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a nice interaction with the people, and it makes me smile,” she said. “If you can smile on Wednesday, you can make it to Friday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pantry was founded by a Berkeley Friends Church member in 1969, and it still operates under the church’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12071491 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prepped paper bags line the walls inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the Berkeley Food Pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But last month, as the church and the Berkeley Food Network tried to negotiate the future of the pantry, it became clear that neither organization had the capacity to transition and keep the pantry running, “particularly in light of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064126/snap-benefits-hung-in-limbo-for-weeks-it-was-a-peek-at-life-under-long-term-cuts\">impacts of the government shutdown\u003c/a> and surging needs for food assistance,” they said in a joint statement. “This mutual conclusion reflects a commitment to responsible stewardship of community resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Franklin said that when the partnership with Berkeley Food Network fell through, a group of volunteers had hoped to find another nonprofit that might take in their operation. They identified two in the fall; one didn’t have a physical space large enough, but the other, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, already runs a bi-weekly pantry on Saturdays, she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Berkeley Friends Church didn’t seem open to those options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Sims, the presiding clerk for Berkeley Friends Church, said that the church is aware that some volunteers are trying to relocate the operation elsewhere and plans to meet with them in February to share their knowledge and give input. He said the pantry has volunteer and donor lists it could share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marice Ashe, a longtime volunteer and public health advocate, pauses while preparing grocery bags inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to kind of take a fallow period to catch our breath, and then we’re going to do some discernment about what should be done with residual resources,” he said. The new operation wouldn’t operate under the same name, he said, but “if the new pantry is something that looks like it’s a viable operation and would be a responsible use of that money that still remains, we could contribute to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But running the pantry out of the church is no longer an option, after it grew rapidly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while the congregation dwindled in size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just didn’t have the capacity to run that big of an organization,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with the community they built over several years, volunteers said the pantry’s closure also means losing longstanding relationships that people who’ve worked at the pantry for more than a decade have formed with local grocery stores and nonprofits. Most of that food will be redirected to other organizations, like Berkeley Food Network, but Franklin said some of these deals were unique, like one that a volunteer had struck up with the local Trader Joe’s for their damaged egg cartons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071487\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A van marked with the Berkeley Food Pantry logo is parked as two people pass by on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She takes out the cracked ones and repackages the good eggs into new dozens — setting aside the broken ones for Franklin’s chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Target delivers diapers and toiletries, and Tim Tang, who travels more than two miles by bike and bus to reach the pantry from South Berkeley, said he can sometimes get a rare assortment of specialty foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can pick up stuff that they usually don’t give out at food banks, like fermented foods … kimchi or some kombucha, or a bread that’s not made from wheat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Customers can get four bags once a month — two of produce, along with one of grains and another with meat and eggs — and can come back a second time for two more, Cooper said. But Tang shows up on almost every distribution day because of another unconventional fixture of the pantry’s operation: the sharing table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two community members reach for a can of soup at a food swap table outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the back corner of the church parking lot, people gather around two plastic folding tables, discarding and grabbing items they don’t want to schlep home or likely won’t eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general idea is that if you don’t want it, you put it on the table, and then there’s always other people like us vultures kind of circling around,” he said, eyeing a can of corn that’d just been put up for grabs. “It’s just kind of, so they don’t have to haul it home and throw it out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said when the pantry closes, he’ll probably go to the Berkeley Food Network’s 9th Street warehouse, where they distribute food on Tuesdays and Thursdays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be kind of a pain,” he said, adding that getting to the other spot means a bus transfer and likely longer lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer posted at Berkeley Friends Church announces a Jan. 31, 2026, event marking the closure of the Berkeley Food Pantry after more than five decades in service. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the volunteers said they would also look elsewhere to continue their work, though many aren’t sure where yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Next Monday, when I’m not going to be here, am I going to be happy? I’ll figure out a routine for myself; it’ll just be different. I’ll be losing contact with a lot of the people around here,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Wednesday’s distribution was wrapping up around 4 p.m., many of the regulars were headed to Ash’s house to commemorate the final day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve vowed to try to stay in contact. But you know people have busy lives,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The pantry operating out of North Berkeley’s Friends Quaker Church helped more than 4,000 residents a month. But as it closes, its volunteers say food distribution is not the only thing being lost.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>For the last three years, Robin Franklin has been a fixture of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/berkeley\">Berkeley\u003c/a> Food Pantry’s thrice-weekly distributions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Without fail, she can be found on the bottom floor of the Berkeley Friends Quaker Church on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, running the operation’s cold bag assembly like a well-oiled machine, loading paper sacks onto a queue of rolling carts to be wheeled out to the church parking lot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They didn’t used to do it like this. They didn’t use the carts,” Franklin said Wednesday as she packed macaroni salad — a premium “extra” — into bags filled with eggs and chicken.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The bags get done by a morning group. They get them all set up on the table. I load the carts, and then when we start getting down, if we still have a lot of people coming in, I start making more bags,” Franklin said as a line formed around the block. “If there’s any that aren’t given away, then I have to break them down, put stuff back in the refrigerators, in the freezer, so it doesn’t spoil.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about to change, though, after the pantry shut its doors for good on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For 56 years, it operated out of the Berkeley Friends Church in North Berkeley, providing fresh produce and groceries to more than 4,000 Berkeley and Albany residents a month. But since July, Franklin and the pantry’s community of more than 100 volunteers — along with its shoppers and three part-time employees — have known changes, at the least, were on the horizon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071484\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071484\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_001-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A volunteer with the Berkeley Food Pantry grabs a grocery bag to distribute to community members on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As the operation expands beyond the church’s capacity, and its congregation ages, Berkeley Friends Church \u003ca href=\"https://www.berkeleyfoodpantry.org/2025-july-newsletter\">announced over the summer\u003c/a> that the pantry would merge with the larger Berkeley Food Network, which serves about 6,500 residents a week in West Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pantry said at the time that beginning this year, it would be managed and overseen by the Berkeley Food Network, but its food distribution program would continue to operate at the church site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in December, the groups jointly announced that negotiations had fallen through, and the Berkeley Food Pantry would shutter at the end of January. A group of regular volunteers is still trying to figure out a way to keep the pantry open elsewhere, but it’s unclear whether that will be possible.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It’s incredibly sad,” said Marice Ash, who has volunteered every Wednesday for three and a half years. “It just feels like a very mutual, self-help community coming together. I’m going to miss it … and people need this. That’s hard, too, knowing that we’re closing when there’s so much need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash said that other food banks nearby will likely absorb the organization’s stock and customers, but the pantry has always felt different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re a little anarchic,” she said, laughing. “It’s a creative place, and we’re not stuck in narrow jobs. If you see a job that needs to get done, you can jump in and do it. And the clients are jumping in all the time, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a lot of people who’ve been here for years and years — in fact, some people … are still working here every day,” she continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ash remembers when Franklin first volunteered: For years, she rummaged through the church’s garbage bins for cracked eggs and spoiled produce to feed her chickens. One day, she came by during a distribution and noticed that the crew was short-staffed, so she locked up her bike and offered to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve never missed a day since,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_003-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Volunteers Kris Starr’Witort (right) and Carter Mehl embrace outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The pantry is set to close on Friday after 56 years in operation. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Becky Cooper mans the “milk area,” directing clients to the right food bags from behind a small plastic table on Wednesdays. She said she started volunteering about nine months ago, when she came to pick up groceries for a neighbor on a day that they didn’t have a lot of help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I said, ‘[Do] you want me to put my groceries in the car and then I’ll come help?’ That’s how that happened,” she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a nice interaction with the people, and it makes me smile,” she said. “If you can smile on Wednesday, you can make it to Friday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pantry was founded by a Berkeley Friends Church member in 1969, and it still operates under the church’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071491\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12071491 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_016-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Prepped paper bags line the walls inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the Berkeley Food Pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But last month, as the church and the Berkeley Food Network tried to negotiate the future of the pantry, it became clear that neither organization had the capacity to transition and keep the pantry running, “particularly in light of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12064126/snap-benefits-hung-in-limbo-for-weeks-it-was-a-peek-at-life-under-long-term-cuts\">impacts of the government shutdown\u003c/a> and surging needs for food assistance,” they said in a joint statement. “This mutual conclusion reflects a commitment to responsible stewardship of community resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Franklin said that when the partnership with Berkeley Food Network fell through, a group of volunteers had hoped to find another nonprofit that might take in their operation. They identified two in the fall; one didn’t have a physical space large enough, but the other, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley, already runs a bi-weekly pantry on Saturdays, she told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said the Berkeley Friends Church didn’t seem open to those options.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steve Sims, the presiding clerk for Berkeley Friends Church, said that the church is aware that some volunteers are trying to relocate the operation elsewhere and plans to meet with them in February to share their knowledge and give input. He said the pantry has volunteer and donor lists it could share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071488\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071488\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marice Ashe, a longtime volunteer and public health advocate, pauses while preparing grocery bags inside Berkeley Friends Church on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. The church has housed the pantry for years and will host its final distribution on Friday. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We’re going to kind of take a fallow period to catch our breath, and then we’re going to do some discernment about what should be done with residual resources,” he said. The new operation wouldn’t operate under the same name, he said, but “if the new pantry is something that looks like it’s a viable operation and would be a responsible use of that money that still remains, we could contribute to them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But running the pantry out of the church is no longer an option, after it grew rapidly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while the congregation dwindled in size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just didn’t have the capacity to run that big of an organization,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along with the community they built over several years, volunteers said the pantry’s closure also means losing longstanding relationships that people who’ve worked at the pantry for more than a decade have formed with local grocery stores and nonprofits. Most of that food will be redirected to other organizations, like Berkeley Food Network, but Franklin said some of these deals were unique, like one that a volunteer had struck up with the local Trader Joe’s for their damaged egg cartons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071487\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071487\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A van marked with the Berkeley Food Pantry logo is parked as two people pass by on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She takes out the cracked ones and repackages the good eggs into new dozens — setting aside the broken ones for Franklin’s chickens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Target delivers diapers and toiletries, and Tim Tang, who travels more than two miles by bike and bus to reach the pantry from South Berkeley, said he can sometimes get a rare assortment of specialty foods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I can pick up stuff that they usually don’t give out at food banks, like fermented foods … kimchi or some kombucha, or a bread that’s not made from wheat,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Customers can get four bags once a month — two of produce, along with one of grains and another with meat and eggs — and can come back a second time for two more, Cooper said. But Tang shows up on almost every distribution day because of another unconventional fixture of the pantry’s operation: the sharing table.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071486\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071486\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_005-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two community members reach for a can of soup at a food swap table outside the Berkeley Food Pantry on Jan. 28, 2026, in Berkeley. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In the back corner of the church parking lot, people gather around two plastic folding tables, discarding and grabbing items they don’t want to schlep home or likely won’t eat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The general idea is that if you don’t want it, you put it on the table, and then there’s always other people like us vultures kind of circling around,” he said, eyeing a can of corn that’d just been put up for grabs. “It’s just kind of, so they don’t have to haul it home and throw it out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said when the pantry closes, he’ll probably go to the Berkeley Food Network’s 9th Street warehouse, where they distribute food on Tuesdays and Thursdays.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s going to be kind of a pain,” he said, adding that getting to the other spot means a bus transfer and likely longer lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12071489\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12071489\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/012826_THEBERKELEYFOODPANTRY_GH_008-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A flyer posted at Berkeley Friends Church announces a Jan. 31, 2026, event marking the closure of the Berkeley Food Pantry after more than five decades in service. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Most of the volunteers said they would also look elsewhere to continue their work, though many aren’t sure where yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Next Monday, when I’m not going to be here, am I going to be happy? I’ll figure out a routine for myself; it’ll just be different. I’ll be losing contact with a lot of the people around here,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Wednesday’s distribution was wrapping up around 4 p.m., many of the regulars were headed to Ash’s house to commemorate the final day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve vowed to try to stay in contact. But you know people have busy lives,” Franklin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Attorney General Rob Bonta Says if Trump Ends Sanctuary City Funding, He Will Lose",
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"headTitle": "Attorney General Rob Bonta Says if Trump Ends Sanctuary City Funding, He Will Lose | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>After \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">President Donald Trump\u003c/a> announced this week that he plans to withhold funding from cities and states that have “sanctuary” immigration policies beginning next month, Attorney General \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rob-bonta\">Rob Bonta\u003c/a> and Bay Area cities are promising to take legal action should payments stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta and Bay Area prosecutors said Wednesday that California has repeatedly won legal battles to block similar threats by the president during both of his administrations, and would do so again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a lawless repeat offender president who has lost on this issue multiple times already and will lose again,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump made the threat on Tuesday amid escalating immigration crackdowns in Democrat-led cities, where three people have been shot by federal officials this month. In an address to the Detroit Economic Club, he said that beginning Feb. 1, his administration would withhold all payments to sanctuary cities and their states, which he said “protect criminals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more payments will be made by the federal government to states for their corrupt criminal protection centers known as sanctuary cities,” he reiterated in a post on social media on Wednesday. “All they do is breed crime and violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12045683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12045683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump addresses the nation, alongside Vice President JD Vance (left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second, right) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (right), from the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP via Getty Images )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The announcement echoes a pair of executive orders from last January, which said that the administration would take action to ensure that jurisdictions with sanctuary policies do not receive federal funding. A memorandum by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February reiterated that sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco federal judge in April \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037376/sf-santa-clara-counties-ask-us-court-halt-trumps-sanctuary-city-funding-freeze\">granted a preliminary injunction \u003c/a>halting those orders, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053486/judge-blocks-trump-from-cutting-money-to-la-chicago-and-bay-area-cities-over-sanctuary-policies\">extended in August\u003c/a> and expanded to more than 30 cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same judge in 2017 ruled that a similar Trump executive order was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/21/565678707/enter-title#:~:text=Sullivan/Getty%20Images-,Protesters%20stand%20arm%2Din%2Darm%20as%20they%20block%20an%20entrance,cooperate%20with%20federal%20immigration%20authorities.&text=The%20Trump%20administration%20cannot%20withhold,the%20previous%20ones%2C%20is%20permanent.\">unduly coercive\u003c/a>” and violated the separation of powers, and permanently blocked him from withholding funds over cities’ sanctuary policies.[aside postID=news_12069540 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/260113-BROOKE-JENKINS-ON-PB-MD-04-KQED-1.jpg']“Federal courts have held a number of times that our sanctuary policies are lawful,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, whose office is party to the suit filed earlier this year. “This administration has repeatedly tried to withhold funding or impose illegal funding conditions on our city and many others. We’ve already taken legal action to protect our federal funding, and we’re going to continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiu said the move feels like an attempt by the president to distract from “horrific actions” in Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month while acting as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069104/bay-area-immigrant-defense-groups-report-surge-in-support-after-minneapolis-ice-killing\">legal observer for immigrants\u003c/a> in the city, according to Minnesota’s Attorney General.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney General Kristi Noem, meanwhile, has said Good was carrying out actions that amounted to an “act of domestic terrorism” before she was shot, and Trump has made false claims about the events that led up to the incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two others were shot by Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, the following day, on Jan. 8, during an attempt to pull over their vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024429\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024429\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chiu and Tony LoPresti, county counsel for Santa Clara County, both said that whether the cities launch further legal action will depend on whether Trump follows through on this week’s threats, and in what form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County doesn’t use “sanctuary” language specifically, it also has policies that assert its right not to use local resources to aid federal immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are certainly going to ensure that we’re enforcing the injunctions that we have in place, and that we will continue as a county … to litigate our constitutional rights not to cooperate with the federal government and their immigration enforcement campaign,” LoPresti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee called Trump’s announcement an attempt to “bully” sanctuary cities, and said that threats from Washington would not be effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should the Trump administration begin withholding funds next month, Bonta said, the state is prepared to take legal action “within minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got the arguments, we have the briefs, we have a legal strategy,” he said. “We just need to see how his general statements manifest into a specific action — what funding to what city for what issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it’ll be nothing, but we’re not counting on that. We believe he’s gonna do something, and whatever it is, we’ll be ready,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tychehendricks\">\u003cem>Tyche Hendricks\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/donald-trump\">President Donald Trump\u003c/a> announced this week that he plans to withhold funding from cities and states that have “sanctuary” immigration policies beginning next month, Attorney General \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rob-bonta\">Rob Bonta\u003c/a> and Bay Area cities are promising to take legal action should payments stop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bonta and Bay Area prosecutors said Wednesday that California has repeatedly won legal battles to block similar threats by the president during both of his administrations, and would do so again.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is a lawless repeat offender president who has lost on this issue multiple times already and will lose again,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump made the threat on Tuesday amid escalating immigration crackdowns in Democrat-led cities, where three people have been shot by federal officials this month. In an address to the Detroit Economic Club, he said that beginning Feb. 1, his administration would withhold all payments to sanctuary cities and their states, which he said “protect criminals.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No more payments will be made by the federal government to states for their corrupt criminal protection centers known as sanctuary cities,” he reiterated in a post on social media on Wednesday. “All they do is breed crime and violence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12045683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12045683\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-2000x1333.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/GettyImages-2220642625-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">President Donald Trump addresses the nation, alongside Vice President JD Vance (left), Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second, right) and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (right), from the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 21, 2025. \u003ccite>(Carlos Barria/Pool/AFP via Getty Images )\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The announcement echoes a pair of executive orders from last January, which said that the administration would take action to ensure that jurisdictions with sanctuary policies do not receive federal funding. A memorandum by Attorney General Pam Bondi in February reiterated that sentiment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A San Francisco federal judge in April \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037376/sf-santa-clara-counties-ask-us-court-halt-trumps-sanctuary-city-funding-freeze\">granted a preliminary injunction \u003c/a>halting those orders, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12053486/judge-blocks-trump-from-cutting-money-to-la-chicago-and-bay-area-cities-over-sanctuary-policies\">extended in August\u003c/a> and expanded to more than 30 cities and counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The same judge in 2017 ruled that a similar Trump executive order was “\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/11/21/565678707/enter-title#:~:text=Sullivan/Getty%20Images-,Protesters%20stand%20arm%2Din%2Darm%20as%20they%20block%20an%20entrance,cooperate%20with%20federal%20immigration%20authorities.&text=The%20Trump%20administration%20cannot%20withhold,the%20previous%20ones%2C%20is%20permanent.\">unduly coercive\u003c/a>” and violated the separation of powers, and permanently blocked him from withholding funds over cities’ sanctuary policies.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Federal courts have held a number of times that our sanctuary policies are lawful,” said San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu, whose office is party to the suit filed earlier this year. “This administration has repeatedly tried to withhold funding or impose illegal funding conditions on our city and many others. We’ve already taken legal action to protect our federal funding, and we’re going to continue to do so.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chiu said the move feels like an attempt by the president to distract from “horrific actions” in Minneapolis, where 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent earlier this month while acting as a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12069104/bay-area-immigrant-defense-groups-report-surge-in-support-after-minneapolis-ice-killing\">legal observer for immigrants\u003c/a> in the city, according to Minnesota’s Attorney General.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorney General Kristi Noem, meanwhile, has said Good was carrying out actions that amounted to an “act of domestic terrorism” before she was shot, and Trump has made false claims about the events that led up to the incident.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Two others were shot by Border Patrol agents in Portland, Oregon, the following day, on Jan. 8, during an attempt to pull over their vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12024429\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12024429\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/01/250128-SFImmigration-05-BL-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu speaks during a press conference with elected and public safety officials and labor leaders in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Jan. 28, 2025, to reaffirm San Francisco’s commitment to being a Sanctuary City. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chiu and Tony LoPresti, county counsel for Santa Clara County, both said that whether the cities launch further legal action will depend on whether Trump follows through on this week’s threats, and in what form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While Santa Clara County doesn’t use “sanctuary” language specifically, it also has policies that assert its right not to use local resources to aid federal immigration enforcement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are certainly going to ensure that we’re enforcing the injunctions that we have in place, and that we will continue as a county … to litigate our constitutional rights not to cooperate with the federal government and their immigration enforcement campaign,” LoPresti said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee called Trump’s announcement an attempt to “bully” sanctuary cities, and said that threats from Washington would not be effective.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Should the Trump administration begin withholding funds next month, Bonta said, the state is prepared to take legal action “within minutes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’ve got the arguments, we have the briefs, we have a legal strategy,” he said. “We just need to see how his general statements manifest into a specific action — what funding to what city for what issue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Maybe it’ll be nothing, but we’re not counting on that. We believe he’s gonna do something, and whatever it is, we’ll be ready,” he continued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/tychehendricks\">\u003cem>Tyche Hendricks\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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