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"content": "\u003cp>The San José City Council on Tuesday gave its final approval \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958290/san-jose-city-council-approves-agreements-with-unions-to-avoid-strike\">to raises for thousands of municipal employees\u003c/a>, finding trims in the city budget to pay for the wage increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote brought a close to a contentious bargaining process that \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958216/san-jose-city-worker-strike-on-hold-after-agreement\">nearly resulted in a historic strike by city workers\u003c/a> last month. Council members acknowledged that the pay hikes for city employees could lead to growing budget shortfalls in the years ahead, but approved an agreement that avoids large cuts to city services in the current fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What we did here collectively as a council was push beyond our comfort zone,” said Councilmember David Cohen, who co-authored the budget agreement. “But it’s important, I believe, that our employees feel valued and are compensated as well as possible. We knew that whatever final agreement we came to, we would be dealing with budget cuts in the year ahead.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the agreement, members of MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21, which represent workers including city planners, code inspectors and librarians, will receive raises of at least 14.5% over three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That deal, along with a handful of smaller agreements with other bargaining units, will cost the city $13.8 million from the general fund in the current fiscal year. As a result, the council was forced to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957368/san-jose-budget-deep-dive-setting-dollars-aside\">rebalance the city budget passed in June\u003c/a>.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Councilmember David Cohen\"]‘I believe that our employees feel valued and are compensated as well as possible. We knew that whatever final agreement we came to, we would be dealing with budget cuts in the year ahead.’[/pullquote]Mayor Matt Mahan was the lone vote against the agreement, arguing that the raises “are not within our projection or in line with our revenue.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to be very honest with ourselves and our community that we’re looking at some offsets that are not too painful this year, but if the projections hold and we don’t get lucky, it could be very painful over the next couple of years,” he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the current fiscal year, the shortfall will largely be filled by tapping reserves, although the council also approved $2.8 million in cuts. These include reductions in funding for outdoor event programs Viva CalleSJ and Viva Parks SJ. To avoid larger cuts, Council members agreed to trim $100,000 each from their office budgets — and $200,000 from Mahan’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve seen what some would do with this money and I fail to see how hiring content creators for our offices would help the families of our district,” said Councilmember Peter Ortiz. “I don’t think we need more IG reels and TikTok videos.”[aside postID=news_11960306 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-07-KQED-1020x680.jpg']A recommendation by city staff to enact larger cuts to the Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services department drew criticism from dozens of residents and workers at Tuesday’s meeting. Speakers urged the city to maintain funding for Viva CalleSJ, an outdoor event in which streets are closed for walking, biking and vendors, along with Viva Parks — which brings free arts and entertainment programming to city parks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really disheartening having to fight so hard to make a livable wage and to be able to live here in the city that I call my home,” said Jeremy Corrales, a city parks employee. “But it’s even more discouraging knowing that we’re trying to cut programming that enriches the lives of residents here in San José.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city estimates that each Viva CalleSJ event, the most recent of which was held this past weekend in Japantown and Tamien Park, attracts 100,000 people and generates $1 million in economic activity.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Councilmember Pat Foley\"]‘This year, it’s easy because it’s $2.8 million that we’re trying to make up the deficit. But next year, I acknowledge that it’s going to be more difficult than that.’[/pullquote]The deal approved by the Council maintains the city staffing necessary for the events, but will require the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services department to raise roughly $350,000 through sponsorships and grants to pay for the non-personnel costs to maintain a third yearly Viva CalleSJ event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most Council members viewed the budget maneuvering as a worthwhile cost to avoid a labor stoppage. 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"content": "\u003cp>Lilia Gaspar moved into her house next to the Singleton Road landfill in San José when she was 6 years old in the early 1970s. Her parents were farmworkers – her father came to California through the Bracero Program in 1951. She still remembers how the block looked during her youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the city dump and the recycling center right behind us,” Gaspar said. “Cherry orchards were over here, where Lantern Way is, that used to be all cherry orchards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residential and commercial developments gobbled up most centrally located parcels in Silicon Valley, but the 90-acre landfill on Singleton Road has sat virtually untouched since it closed in the late 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Gaspar has watched the high flames from the landfill’s methane stacks burn in the night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the drying brush along Singleton Road could become a veritable field of dreams for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957907/this-is-our-city-san-joses-berryessa-flea-market-vendors-fight-to-stay\">vendors at the legendary San José Berryessa Flea Market\u003c/a>. The market, known as La Pulga, is set to close in the coming years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials acknowledge the challenges of turning a landfill into a landmark, but they see Singleton Road as uniquely suited for a sprawling bazaar \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11916729/my-roots-are-at-the-flea-market-as-la-pulga-closure-looms-over-vendors-one-san-jose-family-weighs-the-future\">housing hundreds of small businesses\u003c/a> that are in need of a new place to sell their goods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is probably the only site that I know of right now in San José where we could keep everybody together,” said Nanci Klein, the city’s director of Economic Development & Cultural Affairs, at a meeting of flea market vendors in June. “But it’s far from a given.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11879717/san-jose-approves-plan-to-radically-transform-flea-market-site\">deal to redevelop the current market site on Berryessa Road\u003c/a>, the owners of the flea market and the city are putting $7.5 million into a fund aimed at helping vendors when the market closes, which could come as soon as 2025.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Gabriel Filippelli, executive director, Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute\"]‘You always have to remember that you are sitting on a pile of material that has a potential to release toxins. So, you have to keep monitoring it, you have to keep checking it …’[/pullquote]The goal is to mitigate the effects of what would be a massive displacement of at least 460 small businesses. By comparison, the Westfield mall in San Francisco housed around 50 stores when its well-publicized closure was announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday evening, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11951100/san-joses-flea-market-la-pulga-has-new-vendor-group-voicing-its-future\">an advisory group of flea market vendors\u003c/a> will review an analysis of potential future market sites prepared by a city consultant. The firm identified eight future sites and designated five as “more viable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They include the Singleton landfill, the former Sears store at Eastridge Center, the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds and a small piece of land on the current market site. The fifth option would be to help individual vendors set up shop in vacant storefronts throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the meeting’s agenda, only the Singleton Road landfill is singled out for discussion. Of the five sites, it’s also the only one owned by the city that could potentially keep the market whole in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960271\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A sign on a chain link fence reading \"No Illegal Dumping\" in front of a large open field.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘No Illegal Dumping’ sign on the fencing surrounding the landfill at 850 Singleton Rd. in San José on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s our north star for the Vendor Association, right? Advocating and fighting for a whole relocated spot,” said Roberto Gonzalez, president of the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzalez, a member of the advisory group, preferred casting a wide net for future sites, and not zeroing in on one replacement location too soon. But the Singleton parcel, he said, “obviously is attractive because it’s a large piece of land [and] San José doesn’t really have anything like that around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the mid-1960s until the late 1970s, the land was home to private and municipal dumps. Problems quickly piled up. \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em> in San José documented resident complaints about dust control and fears about the landfill contaminating local groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city landfill on Singleton Road was cited for not properly covering refuse, having a history of fire problems and not controlling access by the public,” read an article from October 1980.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Nanci Klein, director, San José Economic Development & Cultural Affairs\"]‘There’s a heck of a lot to think about if this site could be made to be a home for the vendors.’[/pullquote]Over the ensuing decades, the land was imagined as a future golf course, a methane power plant and a recreational sports complex, none of which panned out. It sits mostly vacant now, apart from the flare stacks burning off methane — and \u003ca href=\"https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/SolidWaste/SiteInspection/Details/349860?siteID=3391\">several roosters being raised for cockfighting that city inspectors stumbled across last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The land still holds value: A 2008 city estimate pegged the site’s worth at up to $57 million. It sits along Capitol Expressway and is less than two miles from Highway 101. The size of the site would allow vendors to relocate together, and potentially recreate the cross-pollination of shoppers that takes place at La Pulga. By contrast, the future market space envisioned for the current flea market site (if the current owners find a willing developer) would only have room for some vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retail is most successful when there is a critical mass of compatible retailers located in the same place,” consultants write in the alternative site presentation to the advisory group. “A smaller market could still succeed, but would need to offer something special or different to attract shoppers and generate sufficient revenue for vendors to make a profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The methane releases at the Singleton site are unlikely to pose a threat to merchants and shoppers in an open-air market, said Gabriel Filippelli, executive director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. The flaring is a method of managing the gas releases that occur as bacteria consume the materials in the landfill over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, this kind of reuse — reusing the surface of the landfill for another activity — is viable, and it’s done in a lot of other places, and it can be safe,” said Filippelli, who reviewed the city’s quarterly inspection reports for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A top concern for developing the site, Filippelli added, is ensuring the landfill’s structural integrity in case of an earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960270\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960270\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A small structure with a large smokestack is seen from behind a chainlink fence in the center of a large field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A methane release structure at 850 Singleton Rd. in San José on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You always have to remember that you are sitting on a pile of material that has a potential to release toxins,” he said. “So, you have to keep monitoring it, you have to keep checking it, and of course, if there’s any seismic disruption or digging or trenching, you have to pay extra special care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alternative site analysis lays out additional concerns: a long public process for development, regulatory hurdles and “significant site work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a heck of a lot to think about if this site could be made to be a home for the vendors,” said Klein, with the city’s Economic Development and Cultural Affairs department, in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city will also need to convince residents near the Singleton landfill that the flea market would be a positive addition to the Seven Trees neighborhood.[aside label='More on San José' tag='san-jose']From her perch next to the landfill, Gaspar said she didn’t like the idea of La Pulga coming to the neighborhood. For one, she’s worried about the rush of customers it could bring to the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We already have enough traffic here, it’s too congested,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven Trees resident Alie Victorine also had concerns — about the traffic, noise and potential illegal parking by market customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she described the area around the landfill as ripe for attention and investment from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the area that we are hoping to really tackle next year, to get the city to do something about it, to improve the look so that the neighbors aren’t dealing with the crime issues and the blight issues for this area,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaspar is not getting her hopes up for a transformation. In 2000, San José voters passed Measure P, a bond to fund a proposed sports complex on the Singleton landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody was excited, everybody went for it and everything,” she said. “And to this day, we’re still waiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Lilia Gaspar moved into her house next to the Singleton Road landfill in San José when she was 6 years old in the early 1970s. Her parents were farmworkers – her father came to California through the Bracero Program in 1951. She still remembers how the block looked during her youth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the city dump and the recycling center right behind us,” Gaspar said. “Cherry orchards were over here, where Lantern Way is, that used to be all cherry orchards.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residential and commercial developments gobbled up most centrally located parcels in Silicon Valley, but the 90-acre landfill on Singleton Road has sat virtually untouched since it closed in the late 1970s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For decades, Gaspar has watched the high flames from the landfill’s methane stacks burn in the night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, the drying brush along Singleton Road could become a veritable field of dreams for the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957907/this-is-our-city-san-joses-berryessa-flea-market-vendors-fight-to-stay\">vendors at the legendary San José Berryessa Flea Market\u003c/a>. The market, known as La Pulga, is set to close in the coming years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials acknowledge the challenges of turning a landfill into a landmark, but they see Singleton Road as uniquely suited for a sprawling bazaar \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11916729/my-roots-are-at-the-flea-market-as-la-pulga-closure-looms-over-vendors-one-san-jose-family-weighs-the-future\">housing hundreds of small businesses\u003c/a> that are in need of a new place to sell their goods.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That is probably the only site that I know of right now in San José where we could keep everybody together,” said Nanci Klein, the city’s director of Economic Development & Cultural Affairs, at a meeting of flea market vendors in June. “But it’s far from a given.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11879717/san-jose-approves-plan-to-radically-transform-flea-market-site\">deal to redevelop the current market site on Berryessa Road\u003c/a>, the owners of the flea market and the city are putting $7.5 million into a fund aimed at helping vendors when the market closes, which could come as soon as 2025.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The goal is to mitigate the effects of what would be a massive displacement of at least 460 small businesses. By comparison, the Westfield mall in San Francisco housed around 50 stores when its well-publicized closure was announced.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday evening, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11951100/san-joses-flea-market-la-pulga-has-new-vendor-group-voicing-its-future\">an advisory group of flea market vendors\u003c/a> will review an analysis of potential future market sites prepared by a city consultant. The firm identified eight future sites and designated five as “more viable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They include the Singleton landfill, the former Sears store at Eastridge Center, the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds and a small piece of land on the current market site. The fifth option would be to help individual vendors set up shop in vacant storefronts throughout the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the meeting’s agenda, only the Singleton Road landfill is singled out for discussion. Of the five sites, it’s also the only one owned by the city that could potentially keep the market whole in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960271\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960271\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt='A sign on a chain link fence reading \"No Illegal Dumping\" in front of a large open field.' width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-03-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A ‘No Illegal Dumping’ sign on the fencing surrounding the landfill at 850 Singleton Rd. in San José on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“That’s our north star for the Vendor Association, right? Advocating and fighting for a whole relocated spot,” said Roberto Gonzalez, president of the Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzalez, a member of the advisory group, preferred casting a wide net for future sites, and not zeroing in on one replacement location too soon. But the Singleton parcel, he said, “obviously is attractive because it’s a large piece of land [and] San José doesn’t really have anything like that around.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the mid-1960s until the late 1970s, the land was home to private and municipal dumps. Problems quickly piled up. \u003cem>The Mercury News\u003c/em> in San José documented resident complaints about dust control and fears about the landfill contaminating local groundwater.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The city landfill on Singleton Road was cited for not properly covering refuse, having a history of fire problems and not controlling access by the public,” read an article from October 1980.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Over the ensuing decades, the land was imagined as a future golf course, a methane power plant and a recreational sports complex, none of which panned out. It sits mostly vacant now, apart from the flare stacks burning off methane — and \u003ca href=\"https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/SolidWaste/SiteInspection/Details/349860?siteID=3391\">several roosters being raised for cockfighting that city inspectors stumbled across last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The land still holds value: A 2008 city estimate pegged the site’s worth at up to $57 million. It sits along Capitol Expressway and is less than two miles from Highway 101. The size of the site would allow vendors to relocate together, and potentially recreate the cross-pollination of shoppers that takes place at La Pulga. By contrast, the future market space envisioned for the current flea market site (if the current owners find a willing developer) would only have room for some vendors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Retail is most successful when there is a critical mass of compatible retailers located in the same place,” consultants write in the alternative site presentation to the advisory group. “A smaller market could still succeed, but would need to offer something special or different to attract shoppers and generate sufficient revenue for vendors to make a profit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The methane releases at the Singleton site are unlikely to pose a threat to merchants and shoppers in an open-air market, said Gabriel Filippelli, executive director of the Indiana University Environmental Resilience Institute. The flaring is a method of managing the gas releases that occur as bacteria consume the materials in the landfill over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general, this kind of reuse — reusing the surface of the landfill for another activity — is viable, and it’s done in a lot of other places, and it can be safe,” said Filippelli, who reviewed the city’s quarterly inspection reports for KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A top concern for developing the site, Filippelli added, is ensuring the landfill’s structural integrity in case of an earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11960270\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11960270\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A small structure with a large smokestack is seen from behind a chainlink fence in the center of a large field.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/09/230906-850-SINGLETON-RD-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A methane release structure at 850 Singleton Rd. in San José on Sept. 6, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You always have to remember that you are sitting on a pile of material that has a potential to release toxins,” he said. “So, you have to keep monitoring it, you have to keep checking it, and of course, if there’s any seismic disruption or digging or trenching, you have to pay extra special care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The alternative site analysis lays out additional concerns: a long public process for development, regulatory hurdles and “significant site work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s a heck of a lot to think about if this site could be made to be a home for the vendors,” said Klein, with the city’s Economic Development and Cultural Affairs department, in June.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city will also need to convince residents near the Singleton landfill that the flea market would be a positive addition to the Seven Trees neighborhood.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>From her perch next to the landfill, Gaspar said she didn’t like the idea of La Pulga coming to the neighborhood. For one, she’s worried about the rush of customers it could bring to the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We already have enough traffic here, it’s too congested,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seven Trees resident Alie Victorine also had concerns — about the traffic, noise and potential illegal parking by market customers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she described the area around the landfill as ripe for attention and investment from the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the area that we are hoping to really tackle next year, to get the city to do something about it, to improve the look so that the neighbors aren’t dealing with the crime issues and the blight issues for this area,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaspar is not getting her hopes up for a transformation. In 2000, San José voters passed Measure P, a bond to fund a proposed sports complex on the Singleton landfill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody was excited, everybody went for it and everything,” she said. “And to this day, we’re still waiting.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "The Bay's August News Roundup: San José Strike Averted, Henrietta Lacks’ Family Sues, and A Mysterious Land Purchase in Solano County",
"headTitle": "The Bay’s August News Roundup: San José Strike Averted, Henrietta Lacks’ Family Sues, and A Mysterious Land Purchase in Solano County | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">We bring you 3 stories a week, but there’s so much more that’s happening in the Bay Area than we can get to. Today, Ericka, Maria and Alan each bring a story they’ve been following in a new monthly news roundup segment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6539131865&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957208/near-1-billion-land-purchase-around-california-air-base-under-investigation\">Near $1 Billion Land Purchase Around California Air Base Under Investigation\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958290/san-jose-city-council-approves-agreements-with-unions-to-avoid-strike\">San Jose City Council Approves Agreements With Unions to Avoid Strike\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/henrietta-lacks-lawsuit-18290615.php\">Henrietta Lacks’ Family Sues Bay Area Company Over Use of Stolen Cells\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. And welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Today I’ve got senior editor Alan Montecillo in the studio with me. Hey, Alan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Hi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And I also have our producer, Maria Esquinca. What’s up, Maria?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Hello.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And here’s the deal. We’re kind of doing something a little different today. We only get three slots a week to bring you a story. And there’s so much happening in the Bay Area that we definitely cannot get into. Can you talk a little bit more about that, Maria?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Yeah, so I think three slots sounds like a lot, but there’s a lot going on in the Bay Area, so we don’t always really get to talk about things that we’re really interested about. And so yeah, I think we are all news people and we all have other things that we want to talk about and we thought this would be like a cool idea to bring something a little bit different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. So, today we’re bringing you a little peek into what we call the white board. Alan, can you explain what the white board is or was, I guess?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, until March of 2020, I was a literal white board, and I hold office, which included everything from our plans for the week, you know, meetings that we had to go to and stuff, but really story ideas. The white board is now a Google doc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Thanks to the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah. And so we wanted to just give listeners a peek into some of the other things that each of us individually has been following beyond the sort of three-day-a-week deep-dive kind of storytelling that folks are used to hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>All right. So today, me, Maria and Alan, the Bay team are going to talk about three stories that were on our radars this month. Alan, I will start with you. What story did you pick?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, my story is more of an update to an episode we did earlier this month, and that’s the San Jose City workers strike, or lack thereof. Actually, there was going to be a strike with about 4500 city workers beginning Tuesday the 15th. But at the last minute, the city council and the two unions representing those workers reached a tentative deal and the strike was called off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And it was actually going to be one of the biggest strikes in the city’s history, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah, By some estimates, it would have been the largest strike of that size in San Jose since the 1980s. I mean, it would have been enormous. You’re talking about workers from the airport to the zoo to the libraries, not fire and police and not garbage. But there’s no doubt this strike would have had a huge impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So, what happened? How did they what was the deal that they came to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>So, there are a number of things in the tentative agreement. I mean, these negotiations are always very complex with pay and benefits. But really the sticking point has always been about wage increases. And so initially the two unions wanted pay increases over three fiscal years of 7%, 6% and 5%. And then the city’s offer was 5%, 4%, 3% over that same period. So seven, six five versus five, four, three. In a literal sense, the two sides really did meet in the middle on this because the agreement that was reached was for 6% the first fiscal year, 5% the second fiscal year, and 4% the next fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, back when we did our episode on this with Guy Marzorati, I remember that the mayor wasn’t exactly too enthused about potentially reaching a deal. I think his concern was reopening the budget. And I think since the deal, he kind of came out with similar sentiments. But I’m curious, where does he stand now and where does the rest of the city council stand in there as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah, I mean, I think Mayor Matt Mahan would have been happy if they did reach a deal and the deal stuck at 5% because that’s the number that he really wanted. Now, it’s important to note that the mayor is not the chief decider on this. It’s the city council. And actually that they’re the ones who empower the city manager to negotiate with the unions, I should say, voted to approve this sort of six, five, four compromise. And Mahan came out again and said he wasn’t happy with this deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people and the needs of the people took a backseat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>He felt like the city couldn’t afford it. He had said in the past that if you go too high, the council would have to go back into the budget that they already approved to try and find the money to reach to go up from that 5% that they budgeted for up to 6%, and that that would mean cuts in important services. But in the end, I mean, Mahan was outvoted. You know, he is the mayor. He’s the most public face of the city. But he was only one vote on the city council. Another council member who was really pushing to bring the council back and negotiate over this was Pam Foley. She said, look, you know, this compromise was necessary to keep city services running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Pam Foley: \u003c/strong>We really depend on public works, Department of Transportation, Parks and Rec, all of those staff to help make life easier for our residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So I’m kind of curious, like what happens next, Alan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, actually, as we’re taping on this, the union is voting on it right now. They’re widely expected to approve the deal. I mean, workers, that guy kind of circled back with from his original reporting said that they are pleased to see this increase. Assuming the union approves it and the council will have to go back into the budget that they passed and find ways to get up to that 6% pay increase. And we’ll see if what Mayor Mahan says is true, you know, whether or not the council really will need to make cuts in other areas that will harm residents in other ways, or maybe that won’t be the case. Maybe there will be money elsewhere and areas that residents won’t notice. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I mean, you know, budget stuff is is not the most exciting thing, but in the end, it’s about providing services to residents. So we’ll see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Okay. Now it’s actually my turn. And I’ve got this really interesting story out of Fairfield of Solano County, the 707 say it backwards. Basically, what’s happening is that there is a new land owner in Solano County. Actually, they’re now the biggest land owners in the entire county, and no one knows who they are. So this is a story that was actually first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and it’s about this investment firm called Flannery Associates. And this firm purchased 50,000 acres of land in Solano County for nearly $1,000,000,000, an amount that the investment firm itself has acknowledged is actually way over market value. So they spent a lot of a lot of money on this land. And what’s interesting about this story is that it’s. Not just any land. It’s actually this sort of dry, agricultural, grazing land that now surrounds the Travis Air Force Base on three sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>I’m curious, like, what are people saying or talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>It’s actually raising a lot of red flags, especially among lawmakers who represent this area for them, like what’s happening here and the fact that there is so much that we don’t know about who is buying this land is raising a lot of actually national security concerns because of just the significance of Travis Air Force Base. So I have this clip from John Garamendi, who is a Democrat who represents this part of Solano County, just kind of talking about how important Travis Air Force Base is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>John Garamendi \u003c/strong>Travis Air Force Base is absolutely a critical national defense. The munitions for Ukraine. A lot of that flights out of Travis Air Force Base all the way to Poland. And it is also the gateway to the Pacific. So what’s happening here? We don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Are there any theories as to who might be behind Flannery? Because that clip you played from Congressman Garamendi suggests that he – I mean, he specifically is suggesting that this is some sort of national security risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. The Wall Street Journal reported that Flannery had previously told the county that the entity is basically just a bunch of American and European families looking to diversify their portfolio. And The Hill reported that the firm is registered as an agricultural company. We also know from The Wall Street Journal that Flannery is registered actually in Delaware, where I didn’t know this, but L.L.C.’s don’t have to publicly disclose the identity of their owners in Delaware. So, that sort of adds to the like difficulty around figuring out who these people actually are. But yeah, it’s just sort of a weird story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>It’s spooky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Actually, the FBI and the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense are all now investigating Flannery and its investments. And the reason why is because there is sort of context to this story, which is that there was a previous attempt by a Chinese owned firm to buy up land in North Dakota. And this was a purchase that the Air Force base there had opposed, citing national security risk. So, there is this fear that being so close to an an Air Force base like Travis kind of sort of opened the door for spying. But KQED has reported that there is no evidence so far to suggest that Flannery has ties with China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Do we have any idea what these folks want to do with this land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The most we know is that earlier this week, the mayor of Fairfield, Catherine Moy, actually posted something on Facebook about how she’s been hearing from Solano County residents about this, a supposed poll that has been sent out by Flannery to Solano County residents that kind of outlines a sort of proposal for what they want to do with the land. And it includes a plan to build tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees and over 10,000 acres of new parks and open space. I mean, I think it’s still kind of unclear what exactly is going to happen with this land. But I think at the end of the day, we still have no idea who is behind Flannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>It’s also a little strange that the most info we know is coming from a poll that the mayor is finding out secondhand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Yeah, definitely. And also it’s kind of strange that this kind of came out on Facebook when there’s also like an FBI and federal investigations into this group. So, yeah, I guess it remains to be seen who exactly is behind Flannery and why are they so interested in Fairfield. So that is my story. Last but not least, Maria. What story is on your radar this month?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, a story that stood out to me was the story about the family of Henrietta Lacks. They’re suing a Bay Area company called Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical based in Novato.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Henrietta Lacks is a pretty, I’d say pretty famous name, but I don’t know if everyone remembers her story. So can you remind us about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>We have to go back to 1951 Henrietta Lacks. She was a black woman at the time that had cervical cancer, and she was being treated for Johns Hopkins. And basically doctors took her cells from her womb without her consent or without her knowledge. And the reason they they did that was because at the time, they were kind of trying to see if cells could survive out of the body. They had not been able to do this with anyone. But Henrietta’s cells were different. She she’s actually described as miraculous. Some people have called her cells an immortal cell line because once they were outside of her body, they didn’t instantly die and they were actually able to reproduce every 24 to 48 hours. Her cells have contributed, I think, to all of our lives. Her cells have been used to create the polio vaccine. They helped create the COVID vaccine. They’ve helped with genetic mapping, cancer care, HIV treatment. But this all happened without her consent. It was a very clear case of medical racism. And her family has obviously very strong feelings about this. One of her granddaughters, Kimberly Lux, spoke about just her grandmother just sitting there not knowing what was going on with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kimberley Lacks: \u003c/strong>I think about my grandmother, as I said before, laying and then hospital room and how they came in there when she had radiation going through her body in horrific pain. But all they were concerned about was taken cell tissues from her body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So you mentioned that this actually happened to Henrietta at Johns Hopkins, but what connection does the story have to the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, the connection to the Bay Area is that the family is suing this Bay Area pharmaceutical company that does gene therapy because they argue that they’ve benefited from her cells and they – this is like a multibillion dollar company and they have been successful with a similar case. In 2021, they sued another pharmaceutical company. And this year, actually the beginning of this month, they reached a settlement with that company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So, basically they’re suing this Bay Area company for profiting off of these cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Exactly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kimberley Lacks: \u003c/strong>Has the family or their attorney said anything about this case specifically against Ultragenyx in Novato?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>No, specifically about ultragenyx. The family attorney ben crump actually was on democracy now! And he does talk about how the lawsuit is based on this idea of genetic justice and this belief that justice should flow from like one family to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Attorney for Henrietta Lacks’ Family: \u003c/strong>If you are unjustly rich from the wrong doing, then you should not be allowed to continue to benefit the pearl of the victim, which is Henrietta Lacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>At the time they were specifically talking about this other settlement that just happened, but he did mention that they are that they plan to sue other other pharmaceutical companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, that is it for the day’s first ever August news roundup. There’s still so much more on our whiteboard that we did not get to, but at least we got to do three more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>We be here a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We be here a real long time. Maria and Alan, thank you all so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Before we go, just a little fact check. In this episode, Alan said that the agreement between the city of San Jose and its workers would provide a 4% raise in the fiscal year beginning July 2025. It’s actually 3.5%. Unless the city has a surplus of $10 million or more. If that happens, workers will get 4%. If you’re interested in reading more about the stories that we talked about today, peep the links in our show notes. The Bay is made by senior editor Alan Montecillo, producer Maria Esquinca, and me. Shout out as well to the rest of the podcast squad here at KQED. That’s Jen Chien, the director of podcasts; Katie Sprenger, our podcast operations manager. We also get audience engagement support from César Saldaña. And Holly Kernan is our chief content officer. We’re a production of member-supported, people-powered KQED in San Francisco. Thanks for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">We bring you 3 stories a week, but there’s so much more that’s happening in the Bay Area than we can get to. Today, Ericka, Maria and Alan each bring a story they’ve been following in a new monthly news roundup segment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"card card--enclosed grey\">\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC6539131865&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\">\u003cstrong>Links:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957208/near-1-billion-land-purchase-around-california-air-base-under-investigation\">Near $1 Billion Land Purchase Around California Air Base Under Investigation\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958290/san-jose-city-council-approves-agreements-with-unions-to-avoid-strike\">San Jose City Council Approves Agreements With Unions to Avoid Strike\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003cli dir=\"ltr\">\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\" role=\"presentation\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/henrietta-lacks-lawsuit-18290615.php\">Henrietta Lacks’ Family Sues Bay Area Company Over Use of Stolen Cells\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. And welcome to The Bay. Local news to keep you rooted. Today I’ve got senior editor Alan Montecillo in the studio with me. Hey, Alan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Hi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And I also have our producer, Maria Esquinca. What’s up, Maria?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Hello.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And here’s the deal. We’re kind of doing something a little different today. We only get three slots a week to bring you a story. And there’s so much happening in the Bay Area that we definitely cannot get into. Can you talk a little bit more about that, Maria?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Yeah, so I think three slots sounds like a lot, but there’s a lot going on in the Bay Area, so we don’t always really get to talk about things that we’re really interested about. And so yeah, I think we are all news people and we all have other things that we want to talk about and we thought this would be like a cool idea to bring something a little bit different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. So, today we’re bringing you a little peek into what we call the white board. Alan, can you explain what the white board is or was, I guess?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, until March of 2020, I was a literal white board, and I hold office, which included everything from our plans for the week, you know, meetings that we had to go to and stuff, but really story ideas. The white board is now a Google doc.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Thanks to the pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah. And so we wanted to just give listeners a peek into some of the other things that each of us individually has been following beyond the sort of three-day-a-week deep-dive kind of storytelling that folks are used to hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>All right. So today, me, Maria and Alan, the Bay team are going to talk about three stories that were on our radars this month. Alan, I will start with you. What story did you pick?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, my story is more of an update to an episode we did earlier this month, and that’s the San Jose City workers strike, or lack thereof. Actually, there was going to be a strike with about 4500 city workers beginning Tuesday the 15th. But at the last minute, the city council and the two unions representing those workers reached a tentative deal and the strike was called off.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>And it was actually going to be one of the biggest strikes in the city’s history, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah, By some estimates, it would have been the largest strike of that size in San Jose since the 1980s. I mean, it would have been enormous. You’re talking about workers from the airport to the zoo to the libraries, not fire and police and not garbage. But there’s no doubt this strike would have had a huge impact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So, what happened? How did they what was the deal that they came to?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>So, there are a number of things in the tentative agreement. I mean, these negotiations are always very complex with pay and benefits. But really the sticking point has always been about wage increases. And so initially the two unions wanted pay increases over three fiscal years of 7%, 6% and 5%. And then the city’s offer was 5%, 4%, 3% over that same period. So seven, six five versus five, four, three. In a literal sense, the two sides really did meet in the middle on this because the agreement that was reached was for 6% the first fiscal year, 5% the second fiscal year, and 4% the next fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, back when we did our episode on this with Guy Marzorati, I remember that the mayor wasn’t exactly too enthused about potentially reaching a deal. I think his concern was reopening the budget. And I think since the deal, he kind of came out with similar sentiments. But I’m curious, where does he stand now and where does the rest of the city council stand in there as well?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Yeah, I mean, I think Mayor Matt Mahan would have been happy if they did reach a deal and the deal stuck at 5% because that’s the number that he really wanted. Now, it’s important to note that the mayor is not the chief decider on this. It’s the city council. And actually that they’re the ones who empower the city manager to negotiate with the unions, I should say, voted to approve this sort of six, five, four compromise. And Mahan came out again and said he wasn’t happy with this deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people and the needs of the people took a backseat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>He felt like the city couldn’t afford it. He had said in the past that if you go too high, the council would have to go back into the budget that they already approved to try and find the money to reach to go up from that 5% that they budgeted for up to 6%, and that that would mean cuts in important services. But in the end, I mean, Mahan was outvoted. You know, he is the mayor. He’s the most public face of the city. But he was only one vote on the city council. Another council member who was really pushing to bring the council back and negotiate over this was Pam Foley. She said, look, you know, this compromise was necessary to keep city services running.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Pam Foley: \u003c/strong>We really depend on public works, Department of Transportation, Parks and Rec, all of those staff to help make life easier for our residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So I’m kind of curious, like what happens next, Alan?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Well, actually, as we’re taping on this, the union is voting on it right now. They’re widely expected to approve the deal. I mean, workers, that guy kind of circled back with from his original reporting said that they are pleased to see this increase. Assuming the union approves it and the council will have to go back into the budget that they passed and find ways to get up to that 6% pay increase. And we’ll see if what Mayor Mahan says is true, you know, whether or not the council really will need to make cuts in other areas that will harm residents in other ways, or maybe that won’t be the case. Maybe there will be money elsewhere and areas that residents won’t notice. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I mean, you know, budget stuff is is not the most exciting thing, but in the end, it’s about providing services to residents. So we’ll see what happens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Okay. Now it’s actually my turn. And I’ve got this really interesting story out of Fairfield of Solano County, the 707 say it backwards. Basically, what’s happening is that there is a new land owner in Solano County. Actually, they’re now the biggest land owners in the entire county, and no one knows who they are. So this is a story that was actually first reported by The Wall Street Journal, and it’s about this investment firm called Flannery Associates. And this firm purchased 50,000 acres of land in Solano County for nearly $1,000,000,000, an amount that the investment firm itself has acknowledged is actually way over market value. So they spent a lot of a lot of money on this land. And what’s interesting about this story is that it’s. Not just any land. It’s actually this sort of dry, agricultural, grazing land that now surrounds the Travis Air Force Base on three sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>I’m curious, like, what are people saying or talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>It’s actually raising a lot of red flags, especially among lawmakers who represent this area for them, like what’s happening here and the fact that there is so much that we don’t know about who is buying this land is raising a lot of actually national security concerns because of just the significance of Travis Air Force Base. So I have this clip from John Garamendi, who is a Democrat who represents this part of Solano County, just kind of talking about how important Travis Air Force Base is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>John Garamendi \u003c/strong>Travis Air Force Base is absolutely a critical national defense. The munitions for Ukraine. A lot of that flights out of Travis Air Force Base all the way to Poland. And it is also the gateway to the Pacific. So what’s happening here? We don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Are there any theories as to who might be behind Flannery? Because that clip you played from Congressman Garamendi suggests that he – I mean, he specifically is suggesting that this is some sort of national security risk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Right. The Wall Street Journal reported that Flannery had previously told the county that the entity is basically just a bunch of American and European families looking to diversify their portfolio. And The Hill reported that the firm is registered as an agricultural company. We also know from The Wall Street Journal that Flannery is registered actually in Delaware, where I didn’t know this, but L.L.C.’s don’t have to publicly disclose the identity of their owners in Delaware. So, that sort of adds to the like difficulty around figuring out who these people actually are. But yeah, it’s just sort of a weird story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>It’s spooky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Actually, the FBI and the Treasury Department and the Department of Defense are all now investigating Flannery and its investments. And the reason why is because there is sort of context to this story, which is that there was a previous attempt by a Chinese owned firm to buy up land in North Dakota. And this was a purchase that the Air Force base there had opposed, citing national security risk. So, there is this fear that being so close to an an Air Force base like Travis kind of sort of opened the door for spying. But KQED has reported that there is no evidence so far to suggest that Flannery has ties with China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Do we have any idea what these folks want to do with this land?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The most we know is that earlier this week, the mayor of Fairfield, Catherine Moy, actually posted something on Facebook about how she’s been hearing from Solano County residents about this, a supposed poll that has been sent out by Flannery to Solano County residents that kind of outlines a sort of proposal for what they want to do with the land. And it includes a plan to build tens of thousands of new homes, a large solar energy farm, orchards with over a million new trees and over 10,000 acres of new parks and open space. I mean, I think it’s still kind of unclear what exactly is going to happen with this land. But I think at the end of the day, we still have no idea who is behind Flannery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>It’s also a little strange that the most info we know is coming from a poll that the mayor is finding out secondhand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Yeah, definitely. And also it’s kind of strange that this kind of came out on Facebook when there’s also like an FBI and federal investigations into this group. So, yeah, I guess it remains to be seen who exactly is behind Flannery and why are they so interested in Fairfield. So that is my story. Last but not least, Maria. What story is on your radar this month?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, a story that stood out to me was the story about the family of Henrietta Lacks. They’re suing a Bay Area company called Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical based in Novato.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Henrietta Lacks is a pretty, I’d say pretty famous name, but I don’t know if everyone remembers her story. So can you remind us about that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>We have to go back to 1951 Henrietta Lacks. She was a black woman at the time that had cervical cancer, and she was being treated for Johns Hopkins. And basically doctors took her cells from her womb without her consent or without her knowledge. And the reason they they did that was because at the time, they were kind of trying to see if cells could survive out of the body. They had not been able to do this with anyone. But Henrietta’s cells were different. She she’s actually described as miraculous. Some people have called her cells an immortal cell line because once they were outside of her body, they didn’t instantly die and they were actually able to reproduce every 24 to 48 hours. Her cells have contributed, I think, to all of our lives. Her cells have been used to create the polio vaccine. They helped create the COVID vaccine. They’ve helped with genetic mapping, cancer care, HIV treatment. But this all happened without her consent. It was a very clear case of medical racism. And her family has obviously very strong feelings about this. One of her granddaughters, Kimberly Lux, spoke about just her grandmother just sitting there not knowing what was going on with her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kimberley Lacks: \u003c/strong>I think about my grandmother, as I said before, laying and then hospital room and how they came in there when she had radiation going through her body in horrific pain. But all they were concerned about was taken cell tissues from her body.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So you mentioned that this actually happened to Henrietta at Johns Hopkins, but what connection does the story have to the Bay Area?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>So, the connection to the Bay Area is that the family is suing this Bay Area pharmaceutical company that does gene therapy because they argue that they’ve benefited from her cells and they – this is like a multibillion dollar company and they have been successful with a similar case. In 2021, they sued another pharmaceutical company. And this year, actually the beginning of this month, they reached a settlement with that company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>So, basically they’re suing this Bay Area company for profiting off of these cells.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Exactly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Kimberley Lacks: \u003c/strong>Has the family or their attorney said anything about this case specifically against Ultragenyx in Novato?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>No, specifically about ultragenyx. The family attorney ben crump actually was on democracy now! And he does talk about how the lawsuit is based on this idea of genetic justice and this belief that justice should flow from like one family to the next.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Attorney for Henrietta Lacks’ Family: \u003c/strong>If you are unjustly rich from the wrong doing, then you should not be allowed to continue to benefit the pearl of the victim, which is Henrietta Lacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>At the time they were specifically talking about this other settlement that just happened, but he did mention that they are that they plan to sue other other pharmaceutical companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, that is it for the day’s first ever August news roundup. There’s still so much more on our whiteboard that we did not get to, but at least we got to do three more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>We be here a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>We be here a real long time. Maria and Alan, thank you all so much.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Alan Montecillo: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Maria Esquinca: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Before we go, just a little fact check. In this episode, Alan said that the agreement between the city of San Jose and its workers would provide a 4% raise in the fiscal year beginning July 2025. It’s actually 3.5%. Unless the city has a surplus of $10 million or more. If that happens, workers will get 4%. If you’re interested in reading more about the stories that we talked about today, peep the links in our show notes. The Bay is made by senior editor Alan Montecillo, producer Maria Esquinca, and me. Shout out as well to the rest of the podcast squad here at KQED. That’s Jen Chien, the director of podcasts; Katie Sprenger, our podcast operations manager. We also get audience engagement support from César Saldaña. And Holly Kernan is our chief content officer. We’re a production of member-supported, people-powered KQED in San Francisco. Thanks for listening. Peace.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>"
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"title": "San José City Council Approves Agreements With Unions to Avoid Strike",
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"content": "\u003cp>The San José City Council on Tuesday approved agreements with two unions representing nearly 4,500 city workers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957602/san-joses-looming-city-worker-strike-would-be-largest-in-42-years\">averting a historic strike that threatened to disrupt\u003c/a> basic city services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote follows the announcement of a deal reached late Monday, hours before a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957679/4500-san-jose-city-workers-are-about-to-go-on-strike\">scheduled work stoppage\u003c/a> that would have been the city’s largest in more than 40 years — potentially shuttering libraries and community centers and also delaying permitting and inspections. The council’s approval came despite objections from Mayor Matt Mahan, who blasted the pact as irresponsible and predicted it would lead to painful budget cuts.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Michael Jun, housing development officer, San José\"]‘Workers have power, our labor has power. I’m really glad we came to an agreement and the city came back to the table and listened to our needs.’[/pullquote]Union leaders cheered the deal, which will give employees an immediate 6% raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have power, our labor has power,” said Michael Jun, a development officer with the city’s Housing Department. “I’m really glad we came to an agreement and the city came back to the table and listened to our needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-year contract also includes a 5% wage hike in the fiscal year beginning July 2024 and a pay increase of at least 3.5% in July 2025. The final year raise will increase to 4% if city budget analysts project a surplus of at least $10 million in 2025, according to a bulletin sent to union members and shared with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City workers represented by MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21 will also receive eight weeks of paid family leave, up from one week, along with eight hours of new personal leave and a lump sum payment. Union leaders said they did not secure their desired outcome on callback pay — a bonus for extra work performed on short notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the key sticking point throughout months of negotiations was wages. Workers represented by the unions maintained that wages in San José are not keeping pace with other municipalities, leading to employee turnover. Mahan argued that an overly generous wage offer would result in layoffs or service cuts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our unions did their job,” Mahan said. “But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people, and the needs of the people took a back seat. The reality is, we are gambling with the services people rely on.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"San José Mayor Matt Mahon\"]‘Our unions did their job. But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people, and the needs of the people took a back seat.’[/pullquote]Mahan supported a 5% raise in the current fiscal year and said the council must now amend \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957368/san-jose-budget-deep-dive-setting-dollars-aside\">the spending plan it passed in June\u003c/a> to account for the new raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The council will have to reopen the balanced budget that we just passed and find a few million dollars to cut,” said Mahan, who implied the raises could lead the city back into the kind of fiscal problems it experienced last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have seen this movie before, so I am frustrated with where we are,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Councilmember Pam Foley said she voted for the contract along with eight other council members in order to aid workers and avert a work stoppage, even if it means cuts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really important that we have labor peace right now,” Foley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really depend on Public Works, Department of Transportation, Parks and Rec — all of those staff to help make life easier for residents,” Foley added. “If they’re not happy, it makes it very difficult for them to do their job and my staff to do their job to take care of our residents.”[aside label='More Around San José' tag='san-jose']It was Foley and Councilmember David Cohen who pushed for the council to return from summer recess on Aug. 1, a week earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to break the gridlock in negotiations. Last week, the unions announced that 99% of members had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958216/san-jose-city-worker-strike-on-hold-after-agreement\">supported a strike vote\u003c/a>, and the two sides returned to the bargaining table repeatedly in recent days as a potential strike drew near.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal falls roughly in between the two sides’ last public offer: The union previously asked for an 18% wage hike over three years, while the city had offered 12%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for MEF-AFSCME Local 101 said union members would vote on the contract beginning on Aug. 22. The council is expected to debate how to rebalance the current fiscal year budget in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The San José City Council on Tuesday approved agreements with two unions representing nearly 4,500 city workers, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957602/san-joses-looming-city-worker-strike-would-be-largest-in-42-years\">averting a historic strike that threatened to disrupt\u003c/a> basic city services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The vote follows the announcement of a deal reached late Monday, hours before a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957679/4500-san-jose-city-workers-are-about-to-go-on-strike\">scheduled work stoppage\u003c/a> that would have been the city’s largest in more than 40 years — potentially shuttering libraries and community centers and also delaying permitting and inspections. The council’s approval came despite objections from Mayor Matt Mahan, who blasted the pact as irresponsible and predicted it would lead to painful budget cuts.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Union leaders cheered the deal, which will give employees an immediate 6% raise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Workers have power, our labor has power,” said Michael Jun, a development officer with the city’s Housing Department. “I’m really glad we came to an agreement and the city came back to the table and listened to our needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The three-year contract also includes a 5% wage hike in the fiscal year beginning July 2024 and a pay increase of at least 3.5% in July 2025. The final year raise will increase to 4% if city budget analysts project a surplus of at least $10 million in 2025, according to a bulletin sent to union members and shared with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City workers represented by MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21 will also receive eight weeks of paid family leave, up from one week, along with eight hours of new personal leave and a lump sum payment. Union leaders said they did not secure their desired outcome on callback pay — a bonus for extra work performed on short notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the key sticking point throughout months of negotiations was wages. Workers represented by the unions maintained that wages in San José are not keeping pace with other municipalities, leading to employee turnover. Mahan argued that an overly generous wage offer would result in layoffs or service cuts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our unions did their job,” Mahan said. “But our council did not do its job. Our leaders were elected to represent the people, and the needs of the people took a back seat. The reality is, we are gambling with the services people rely on.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Mahan supported a 5% raise in the current fiscal year and said the council must now amend \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957368/san-jose-budget-deep-dive-setting-dollars-aside\">the spending plan it passed in June\u003c/a> to account for the new raises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The council will have to reopen the balanced budget that we just passed and find a few million dollars to cut,” said Mahan, who implied the raises could lead the city back into the kind of fiscal problems it experienced last decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have seen this movie before, so I am frustrated with where we are,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Councilmember Pam Foley said she voted for the contract along with eight other council members in order to aid workers and avert a work stoppage, even if it means cuts down the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s just really important that we have labor peace right now,” Foley said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really depend on Public Works, Department of Transportation, Parks and Rec — all of those staff to help make life easier for residents,” Foley added. “If they’re not happy, it makes it very difficult for them to do their job and my staff to do their job to take care of our residents.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>It was Foley and Councilmember David Cohen who pushed for the council to return from summer recess on Aug. 1, a week earlier than scheduled, in an attempt to break the gridlock in negotiations. Last week, the unions announced that 99% of members had \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11958216/san-jose-city-worker-strike-on-hold-after-agreement\">supported a strike vote\u003c/a>, and the two sides returned to the bargaining table repeatedly in recent days as a potential strike drew near.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The deal falls roughly in between the two sides’ last public offer: The union previously asked for an 18% wage hike over three years, while the city had offered 12%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokesman for MEF-AFSCME Local 101 said union members would vote on the contract beginning on Aug. 22. The council is expected to debate how to rebalance the current fiscal year budget in September.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San José City Worker Strike on Hold After Agreement",
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"content": "\u003cp>Two unions representing nearly 4,500 San José city workers have reached an agreement with the city to potentially \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957602/san-joses-looming-city-worker-strike-would-be-largest-in-42-years\">avert a historic strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conceptual agreement, confirmed by both sides late Monday, came hours before a scheduled work stoppage that would have been the city’s largest in more than 40 years — potentially shuttering libraries and community centers and delaying permitting and inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither side shared details of the terms of the pact, which will be reviewed and potentially approved by the city council on Tuesday. Officials with the unions MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21 said they are pausing the strike, which would have begun on Tuesday morning.[aside postID=news_11957086,news_11957602]In guidance sent to union members and shared with KQED, union leaders advised workers to “go to work as normal tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes after months of bargaining, largely over employee pay. Workers represented by the unions argued that wages in San José are not keeping pace with other municipalities, leading to employee turnover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels good, overall it feels good,” David Nerhood, a financial analyst with the department of transportation and a member of the IFPTE Local 21 bargaining team, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did quite a bit of work over the weekend and then today was a long haul,” Nerhood added. “I’m pleased where things are at this point in the proceedings and I’m hopeful it continues towards the resolution we’re all after.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from the city manager’s office said all city services “will be open and take place as normally scheduled on Tuesday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Manager Jennifer Maguire’s office has led negotiations, while the city council has set the parameters of the city’s offers in closed session meetings. The council can now approve the contract on a majority vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I support substantial raises for our workers, I will be paying close attention to the budget office’s projected fiscal impact before voting on the proposal,” Mayor Matt Mahan said, in a statement. “Signing up for tens of millions of dollars in projected deficits and, therefore, likely future service cuts and layoffs wouldn’t be fair to city workers or residents. I won’t vote for something today that’s going to hurt us tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Two unions representing nearly 4,500 San José city workers have reached an agreement with the city to potentially \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957602/san-joses-looming-city-worker-strike-would-be-largest-in-42-years\">avert a historic strike\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conceptual agreement, confirmed by both sides late Monday, came hours before a scheduled work stoppage that would have been the city’s largest in more than 40 years — potentially shuttering libraries and community centers and delaying permitting and inspections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Neither side shared details of the terms of the pact, which will be reviewed and potentially approved by the city council on Tuesday. Officials with the unions MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21 said they are pausing the strike, which would have begun on Tuesday morning.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In guidance sent to union members and shared with KQED, union leaders advised workers to “go to work as normal tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The announcement comes after months of bargaining, largely over employee pay. Workers represented by the unions argued that wages in San José are not keeping pace with other municipalities, leading to employee turnover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It feels good, overall it feels good,” David Nerhood, a financial analyst with the department of transportation and a member of the IFPTE Local 21 bargaining team, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We did quite a bit of work over the weekend and then today was a long haul,” Nerhood added. “I’m pleased where things are at this point in the proceedings and I’m hopeful it continues towards the resolution we’re all after.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A statement from the city manager’s office said all city services “will be open and take place as normally scheduled on Tuesday.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José City Manager Jennifer Maguire’s office has led negotiations, while the city council has set the parameters of the city’s offers in closed session meetings. The council can now approve the contract on a majority vote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While I support substantial raises for our workers, I will be paying close attention to the budget office’s projected fiscal impact before voting on the proposal,” Mayor Matt Mahan said, in a statement. “Signing up for tens of millions of dollars in projected deficits and, therefore, likely future service cuts and layoffs wouldn’t be fair to city workers or residents. I won’t vote for something today that’s going to hurt us tomorrow.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">\u003cem>This story contains a correction.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 4,000 San José city workers are preparing to go on strike tomorrow morning, after months-long negotiations between the employee unions and the city have failed to reach an agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#services\">\u003cstrong>Jump to: How will the strike affect city services?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A strike could have massive implications for residents of the Bay Area’s largest city. Here’s a look at the impasse and which city agencies will be the most affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When could a strike take place?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A strike is planned to start on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 6 a.m. and last for three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How long could a strike last?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The unions are proposing an initial strike that would last three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, John Tucker, representative for MEF-AFSCME Local 101, one of the unions bargaining with the city, said they would be prepared to strike for longer if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Should we have to talk about a further strike afterwards, we’re willing to do so,” said Tucker, but he believes three days should be enough for the unions to show officials how serious they are about their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"services\">\u003c/a>How could the strike affect city services?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With workers potentially walking off the job in so many departments, both union and city officials expect disruptions to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tucker predicted the suspension of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/parks-recreation-neighborhood-services/programs-activities/recreation-camps\">city-run summer recreation programs for kids\u003c/a>, delays in permit applications for building and renovations and flight delays at San José International Airport as workers hit the picket lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have operations specialists who really kind of handle a lot of the day to day operations of the airport, from perimeter security to [responding to] issues at different gates,” Tucker added.[aside label='More Guides from KQED' tag='audience-news']San José’s deputy city manager Kip Harkness says it is impossible to predict the strike’s impact with full certainty without knowing how many workers will follow through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It all depends on who will show up, but we’d look to libraries and community centers as ones that might be affected,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harkness added that each of the city departments that could be affected by a work stoppage has a contingency plan to continue services, either with existing employees or contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Would my garbage and recycling still be collected?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes. The city has existing agreements with four contractors who collect garbage, recycling and yard trimmings from businesses, homes and apartments in the city. Those agreements all run through 2036 and the collections are not affected by a MEF-AFSCME/IFPTE strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What about emergency services like fire and police?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Emergency services such as police and fire will not be affected by the strike. In California, police officers and firefighters are prohibited from striking, and the unions representing police and fire in San José have existing contracts with the city. However, MEF-AFSCME does represent public safety dispatchers; but Tucker acknowledged that those workers are likely to be deemed “essential” and excluded from any work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which workers are negotiating a new contract?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Workers with four bargaining units have been in negotiations with the city. The largest is Municipal Employees’ Federation (MEF)-AFSCME Local 101, which represents thousands of employees, including librarians, city planners and code inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three other bargaining units, representing workers such as architects, building maintenance supervisors, park managers and wastewater operators, are negotiating under their umbrella union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What are the latest proposals from each side?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The unions’ latest offer asks for a 7% pay hike in the fiscal year that began on July 1, with raises of 6% in fiscal year 2024–25 and 5% for 2025–26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers are also pushing for increased paid family leave and other benefits. They say their demands are needed in order to reverse what they call a staffing and retention crisis at the city. City officials point out that the vacancy rate is similar to cities such as Oakland and Fremont — and that it has remained around 12% for the last half-decade despite a growing workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s last offer would provide wage increases of 5% in the current fiscal year, with increases of 4% and 3% in the following years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are both sides saying about the impasse?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>City employees interviewed by KQED complain that their teams are chronically understaffed, resulting in unrealistic workloads and burnout. They say the city has turned into a launching pad for employees to build their skills before moving on to neighboring local governments that offer higher wages and better benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking forward to voting for a strike because things have not been getting better within the city,” said Michael Jun, who works on residential development in the city’s housing department. “It’s really [that] we’ve been asked to do more with less for a long time now, so this is a real last resort.”[aside label='More on the Strike' tag='san-jose']But the city manager’s office, which is conducting the negotiations with direction from the City Council, argues higher wage increases and corresponding pension contributions will outstretch the city’s financial resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to come to an agreement that’s fair for the workers, but that we can also afford as a city and as taxpayers,” said Harkness, the deputy city manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José has not seen a strike by city employees since 2007, when fewer than a hundred city inspectors walked off the job for nearly two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A much larger action by AFSCME Local 101 took place in the summer of 1981, when hundreds of San José workers went on strike for nine days to push for equal pay for female employees who did comparable jobs to their male colleagues. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/06/us/san-jose-employees-strike-over-equal-pay-for-women.html\">It was the first municipal strike over equal pay in U.S. history.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the work stoppage struggled to compete for local headlines \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK-xtG75l2M\">with the MedFly outbreak in the Santa Clara Valley,\u003c/a> it drew national attention — Mayor Janet Gray Hayes and union leaders even flew to New York to discuss the impasse on “Good Morning America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em>, the late Phil Trounstine described a tense standoff, “marked by angry confrontations between workers and the city council and by the threatened firing of 400 employees.” On July 15, 1981, the strike came to an end, with the city and union agreeing to a compromise that set aside $1.4 million over two years to increase pay for positions historically held by female employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>CORRECTION – Aug. 2: An earlier version of this story stated leadership of the unions involved in negotiations would tally the strike vote on Aug. 7. This story has been corrected to reflect that the strike vote tally will be completed by Aug. 7 and union leadership will announce the results on that date.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Over 4,000 San José city workers are preparing to go on strike. How could a strike affect the residents of the biggest city in the Bay Area?",
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"title": "San José City Workers Strike: Service Disruptions to Expect | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#correction\">\u003cem>This story contains a correction.\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over 4,000 San José city workers are preparing to go on strike tomorrow morning, after months-long negotiations between the employee unions and the city have failed to reach an agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#services\">\u003cstrong>Jump to: How will the strike affect city services?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>A strike could have massive implications for residents of the Bay Area’s largest city. Here’s a look at the impasse and which city agencies will be the most affected.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>When could a strike take place?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A strike is planned to start on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 6 a.m. and last for three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How long could a strike last?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The unions are proposing an initial strike that would last three days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, John Tucker, representative for MEF-AFSCME Local 101, one of the unions bargaining with the city, said they would be prepared to strike for longer if necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Should we have to talk about a further strike afterwards, we’re willing to do so,” said Tucker, but he believes three days should be enough for the unions to show officials how serious they are about their demands.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"services\">\u003c/a>How could the strike affect city services?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With workers potentially walking off the job in so many departments, both union and city officials expect disruptions to take place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tucker predicted the suspension of \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/parks-recreation-neighborhood-services/programs-activities/recreation-camps\">city-run summer recreation programs for kids\u003c/a>, delays in permit applications for building and renovations and flight delays at San José International Airport as workers hit the picket lines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have operations specialists who really kind of handle a lot of the day to day operations of the airport, from perimeter security to [responding to] issues at different gates,” Tucker added.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>San José’s deputy city manager Kip Harkness says it is impossible to predict the strike’s impact with full certainty without knowing how many workers will follow through.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It all depends on who will show up, but we’d look to libraries and community centers as ones that might be affected,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harkness added that each of the city departments that could be affected by a work stoppage has a contingency plan to continue services, either with existing employees or contractors.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Would my garbage and recycling still be collected?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Yes. The city has existing agreements with four contractors who collect garbage, recycling and yard trimmings from businesses, homes and apartments in the city. Those agreements all run through 2036 and the collections are not affected by a MEF-AFSCME/IFPTE strike.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What about emergency services like fire and police?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Emergency services such as police and fire will not be affected by the strike. In California, police officers and firefighters are prohibited from striking, and the unions representing police and fire in San José have existing contracts with the city. However, MEF-AFSCME does represent public safety dispatchers; but Tucker acknowledged that those workers are likely to be deemed “essential” and excluded from any work stoppage.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which workers are negotiating a new contract?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Workers with four bargaining units have been in negotiations with the city. The largest is Municipal Employees’ Federation (MEF)-AFSCME Local 101, which represents thousands of employees, including librarians, city planners and code inspectors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three other bargaining units, representing workers such as architects, building maintenance supervisors, park managers and wastewater operators, are negotiating under their umbrella union, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers Local 21.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>What are the latest proposals from each side?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The unions’ latest offer asks for a 7% pay hike in the fiscal year that began on July 1, with raises of 6% in fiscal year 2024–25 and 5% for 2025–26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Workers are also pushing for increased paid family leave and other benefits. They say their demands are needed in order to reverse what they call a staffing and retention crisis at the city. City officials point out that the vacancy rate is similar to cities such as Oakland and Fremont — and that it has remained around 12% for the last half-decade despite a growing workforce.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s last offer would provide wage increases of 5% in the current fiscal year, with increases of 4% and 3% in the following years.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What are both sides saying about the impasse?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>City employees interviewed by KQED complain that their teams are chronically understaffed, resulting in unrealistic workloads and burnout. They say the city has turned into a launching pad for employees to build their skills before moving on to neighboring local governments that offer higher wages and better benefits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking forward to voting for a strike because things have not been getting better within the city,” said Michael Jun, who works on residential development in the city’s housing department. “It’s really [that] we’ve been asked to do more with less for a long time now, so this is a real last resort.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the city manager’s office, which is conducting the negotiations with direction from the City Council, argues higher wage increases and corresponding pension contributions will outstretch the city’s financial resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need to come to an agreement that’s fair for the workers, but that we can also afford as a city and as taxpayers,” said Harkness, the deputy city manager.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José has not seen a strike by city employees since 2007, when fewer than a hundred city inspectors walked off the job for nearly two weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A much larger action by AFSCME Local 101 took place in the summer of 1981, when hundreds of San José workers went on strike for nine days to push for equal pay for female employees who did comparable jobs to their male colleagues. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/06/us/san-jose-employees-strike-over-equal-pay-for-women.html\">It was the first municipal strike over equal pay in U.S. history.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the work stoppage struggled to compete for local headlines \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK-xtG75l2M\">with the MedFly outbreak in the Santa Clara Valley,\u003c/a> it drew national attention — Mayor Janet Gray Hayes and union leaders even flew to New York to discuss the impasse on “Good Morning America.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003cem>The\u003c/em> \u003cem>Mercury News\u003c/em>, the late Phil Trounstine described a tense standoff, “marked by angry confrontations between workers and the city council and by the threatened firing of 400 employees.” On July 15, 1981, the strike came to an end, with the city and union agreeing to a compromise that set aside $1.4 million over two years to increase pay for positions historically held by female employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca id=\"correction\">\u003c/a>\u003cem>CORRECTION – Aug. 2: An earlier version of this story stated leadership of the unions involved in negotiations would tally the strike vote on Aug. 7. This story has been corrected to reflect that the strike vote tally will be completed by Aug. 7 and union leadership will announce the results on that date.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "this-is-our-city-san-joses-berryessa-flea-market-vendors-fight-to-stay",
"title": "'This Is Our City': San José's Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Fight to Stay",
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"headTitle": "‘This Is Our City’: San José’s Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Fight to Stay | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#clarify\">This story contains a clarification and correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maggie Castellon, 44, manages the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayfresh_pinateria/\">BayFresh Piñateria\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11951100/san-joses-flea-market-la-pulga-has-new-vendor-group-voicing-its-future\">Berryessa Flea Market\u003c/a> with confident ease. She keeps an eye on the people passing by her stand, searching for potential customers while instructing her brother and her kids to keep the stall clean and organized. The brightly colored piñatas and Mexican candy they sell are lined up in cheerful rows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the candy we have, we work with distributors that import from Mexico,” she said. “Then our piñatas — each style you see is a different family that works on the style.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family has had a stall at this market since 1974, a little more than a decade after the flea market first opened in 1960 when George Bumb decided to turn an old meat processing plant into a 120-acre outdoor market. It became a hub for thousands of immigrants to start small businesses and build their lives in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the vendors immigrated from Latin America, but there are business people from many other places, too: Vietnam, China, India and Korea, among others. Castellon grew up helping her parents in their stall and recalled how important it was for her to be exposed to many different cultures, languages and religions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the best pieces of all these different cultures [come] together and [clash] together [in the market],” Castellon said. “It’s beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957363\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing earrings in a pink top smiles at the camera in a busy outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maggie Castellon stands in front of her business, the BayFresh Piñateria, at the Berryessa Flea Market in San José on July 29, 2023. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this vibrant place, an intersection of so many people and cultures that now call San José home, could soon cease to exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 2000s, BART selected the Berryessa neighborhood as the ideal place for its southernmost stop. As a result, city officials started rezoning the land surrounding the station — including where the market operates — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/planning-building-code-enforcement/planning-division/citywide-planning/urban-villages/berryessa-bart\">to make way for thousands of housing units\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a little over 20 years later, the Berryessa BART station is open and the 120-acre market site could be a perfect location for transit-friendly housing. City officials say when the development they plan to build is complete, it will include 4,000 houses and apartments, acres of public parks, and could create 22,000 jobs in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José, like many California cities, is facing pressure from the state to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938267/to-meet-state-housing-goals-one-bay-area-city-had-to-overcome-its-nimby-past\">meet housing and climate goals\u003c/a>. For city planners, dense housing developments near regional transit stations appear to be the perfect solution.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Maggie Castellon, manager, BayFresh Piñateria\"]‘The funds that come from the flea market are able to supply food and additional payments. Having a second income seems to be the way a lot of residents in San José are having to go.’[/pullquote]“From a good development standpoint, [the Berryessa Flea Market] would have to be put into other economic uses,” said San José Councilmember David Cohen. “At that time, the council did not take any action to determine what would happen to the flea market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of planning for their future has infuriated some vendors. The market is their livelihood. Maggie Castellon’s family is lucky; she has a full-time job as a courtroom clerk that anchors them. But, they still depend on proceeds from the stall to cover expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The funds that come from the flea market are able to supply food and additional payments,” she said. “Having a second income seems to be the way a lot of residents in San José are having to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957361\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two large white piñata unicorns in front of a stall full of wares.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wares for sale at the Berryessa Flea Market. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late 2020, a small group of vendors formed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebfva.org/\">Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">led protests and hunger strikes\u003c/a> to petition the city to include the vendors in conversations about the flea market’s future. This year, the city created an advisory committee tasked with drafting a transition plan for the vendors as the market closes. Maggie is a member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their advocacy efforts have made an impact. The city council recently set aside 5 acres in the new development plan for an outdoor market. Cohen and other city officials say they will do everything they can to encourage whoever builds the housing to continue the flea market. But there’s no guarantee the developer will follow the city’s advice. No matter what happens, the market would be significantly smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957367\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Vendors stalls with people walking by are seen in front of a large public transit station.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Berryessa Flea Market and BART station. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some vendors, including Castellon, see the 5-acre plan as a paltry commitment. They don’t want to wait for a spot in a market that may not have space for them. Instead, they’re working with the city to find an alternative spot in San José where all the vendors can move together to start a new flea market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re considering the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, the Reid-Hillview Airport and the Singleton Road disposal site. The city promised to investigate each option, but officials haven’t committed to any particular site yet. Meanwhile, the Berryessa Flea Market’s owners announced in July that they expect to start issuing eviction notices in January 2024. The vendors will then have a year to move out from whenever they receive an eviction notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More on San José' tag='san-jose']Castellon hopes the city will step in and find a solution for the vendors, but is willing to leave the city and start a market elsewhere if she has to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s good to have hope, but you also have to have initiative and motivation,” she said. “And that’s what we’re going to do. [We’re] just going to make it happen, whether it’s in San José or in another city, with the goal being for us to stay here. But if we’re not going to be welcomed in San José, then we’ll make it happen elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Castellon and the other vendors may get a temporary reprieve. Fears of a recession have developers canceling and stalling housing projects. Subsequently, the owners of the flea market still haven’t found a developer to take on the project, partially because of its size and the current economic climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The environment isn’t ideal now,” Cohen said. “Chances are the market’s going to be open even longer than people thought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"clarify\">\u003c/a>This story has been updated to reflect that flea market vendors can expect to begin receiving eviction notices in January, 2024, and not October, 2023 as the story previously stated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Aug. 13: An earlier version of this story stated Reid Hillview Airport is closed when it is still open for business. This story has been edited to correct the inaccuracy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San José city leaders want to build housing where the Berryessa Flea Market, La Pulga, currently sits. Vendors are unsure when they will be forced to leave.",
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"title": "'This Is Our City': San José's Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Fight to Stay | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#clarify\">This story contains a clarification and correction.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maggie Castellon, 44, manages the \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/bayfresh_pinateria/\">BayFresh Piñateria\u003c/a> at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11951100/san-joses-flea-market-la-pulga-has-new-vendor-group-voicing-its-future\">Berryessa Flea Market\u003c/a> with confident ease. She keeps an eye on the people passing by her stand, searching for potential customers while instructing her brother and her kids to keep the stall clean and organized. The brightly colored piñatas and Mexican candy they sell are lined up in cheerful rows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All the candy we have, we work with distributors that import from Mexico,” she said. “Then our piñatas — each style you see is a different family that works on the style.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family has had a stall at this market since 1974, a little more than a decade after the flea market first opened in 1960 when George Bumb decided to turn an old meat processing plant into a 120-acre outdoor market. It became a hub for thousands of immigrants to start small businesses and build their lives in Silicon Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most of the vendors immigrated from Latin America, but there are business people from many other places, too: Vietnam, China, India and Korea, among others. Castellon grew up helping her parents in their stall and recalled how important it was for her to be exposed to many different cultures, languages and religions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“All of the best pieces of all these different cultures [come] together and [clash] together [in the market],” Castellon said. “It’s beautiful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957363\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957363\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person wearing earrings in a pink top smiles at the camera in a busy outdoor setting.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67671_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-12-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maggie Castellon stands in front of her business, the BayFresh Piñateria, at the Berryessa Flea Market in San José on July 29, 2023. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But this vibrant place, an intersection of so many people and cultures that now call San José home, could soon cease to exist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the early 2000s, BART selected the Berryessa neighborhood as the ideal place for its southernmost stop. As a result, city officials started rezoning the land surrounding the station — including where the market operates — \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/planning-building-code-enforcement/planning-division/citywide-planning/urban-villages/berryessa-bart\">to make way for thousands of housing units\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, a little over 20 years later, the Berryessa BART station is open and the 120-acre market site could be a perfect location for transit-friendly housing. City officials say when the development they plan to build is complete, it will include 4,000 houses and apartments, acres of public parks, and could create 22,000 jobs in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José, like many California cities, is facing pressure from the state to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11938267/to-meet-state-housing-goals-one-bay-area-city-had-to-overcome-its-nimby-past\">meet housing and climate goals\u003c/a>. For city planners, dense housing developments near regional transit stations appear to be the perfect solution.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The funds that come from the flea market are able to supply food and additional payments. Having a second income seems to be the way a lot of residents in San José are having to go.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“From a good development standpoint, [the Berryessa Flea Market] would have to be put into other economic uses,” said San José Councilmember David Cohen. “At that time, the council did not take any action to determine what would happen to the flea market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lack of planning for their future has infuriated some vendors. The market is their livelihood. Maggie Castellon’s family is lucky; she has a full-time job as a courtroom clerk that anchors them. But, they still depend on proceeds from the stall to cover expenses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The funds that come from the flea market are able to supply food and additional payments,” she said. “Having a second income seems to be the way a lot of residents in San José are having to go.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957361\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957361\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Two large white piñata unicorns in front of a stall full of wares.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67669_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-09-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wares for sale at the Berryessa Flea Market. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In late 2020, a small group of vendors formed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.thebfva.org/\">Berryessa Flea Market Vendors Association\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11878548/san-jose-flea-market-leaders-end-hunger-strike-but-future-of-la-pulga-still-hangs-in-the-balance\">led protests and hunger strikes\u003c/a> to petition the city to include the vendors in conversations about the flea market’s future. This year, the city created an advisory committee tasked with drafting a transition plan for the vendors as the market closes. Maggie is a member.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their advocacy efforts have made an impact. The city council recently set aside 5 acres in the new development plan for an outdoor market. Cohen and other city officials say they will do everything they can to encourage whoever builds the housing to continue the flea market. But there’s no guarantee the developer will follow the city’s advice. No matter what happens, the market would be significantly smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957367\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957367\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Vendors stalls with people walking by are seen in front of a large public transit station.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/RS67679_230729-BERRYESSA-FLEA-MARKET-RT-18-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Berryessa Flea Market and BART station. \u003ccite>(Raphaël Timmons/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some vendors, including Castellon, see the 5-acre plan as a paltry commitment. They don’t want to wait for a spot in a market that may not have space for them. Instead, they’re working with the city to find an alternative spot in San José where all the vendors can move together to start a new flea market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re considering the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, the Reid-Hillview Airport and the Singleton Road disposal site. The city promised to investigate each option, but officials haven’t committed to any particular site yet. Meanwhile, the Berryessa Flea Market’s owners announced in July that they expect to start issuing eviction notices in January 2024. The vendors will then have a year to move out from whenever they receive an eviction notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Castellon hopes the city will step in and find a solution for the vendors, but is willing to leave the city and start a market elsewhere if she has to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s good to have hope, but you also have to have initiative and motivation,” she said. “And that’s what we’re going to do. [We’re] just going to make it happen, whether it’s in San José or in another city, with the goal being for us to stay here. But if we’re not going to be welcomed in San José, then we’ll make it happen elsewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Castellon and the other vendors may get a temporary reprieve. Fears of a recession have developers canceling and stalling housing projects. Subsequently, the owners of the flea market still haven’t found a developer to take on the project, partially because of its size and the current economic climate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The environment isn’t ideal now,” Cohen said. “Chances are the market’s going to be open even longer than people thought.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca id=\"clarify\">\u003c/a>This story has been updated to reflect that flea market vendors can expect to begin receiving eviction notices in January, 2024, and not October, 2023 as the story previously stated.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Aug. 13: An earlier version of this story stated Reid Hillview Airport is closed when it is still open for business. This story has been edited to correct the inaccuracy.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "from-fruit-picker-to-political-trailblazer-the-92-year-old-madrina-of-east-san-jose",
"title": "From Fruit Picker to Political Trailblazer: The 92-Year-Old 'Madrina' of East San José",
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"headTitle": "From Fruit Picker to Political Trailblazer: The 92-Year-Old ‘Madrina’ of East San José | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>She was San José’s first Latina city council member, and the first Latina on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Today, she goes by many honorifics, but Blanca Alvarado’s favorite is “La Madrina” — the godmother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 92 years old, her body has slowed down, and her hair has gone gray, but she remembers with absolute clarity the way her life tracked the rise of Chicana power in what we now call Silicon Valley. \u003ca href=\"https://digitalcollections.sjsu.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A7875\">Born in Colorado\u003c/a>, Alvarado came to San José with her family in 1948, when she was just 16 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San José had a population of 70,000 people,” she recalled. “So it was a small burg, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that time, the region was called the Valley of Heart’s Delight, famous across the country for its stone fruit and vegetables. People from all over North America arrived in successive waves to pick and process the crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fragrance that wafted in the air — to this day, I will never, never forget it,” said Alvarado. “The valley was just replete with blossoms. All of the orchards were fruit orchards primarily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a man sitting on stairs with five small children, including on on his lap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca Alvarado, shown here in the 1930s with her father and four of her siblings, spent her childhood in Cokedale, Colorado, a mining town where her father was a miner and union activist. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She remembers her father telling her that she was the best fruit picker in the family, but it was an incredibly difficult job. “Being on your knees, on clods of dirt. It was very uncomfortable, to say the least,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado’s life closely parallels the South Bay’s most famous Chicano export. César Chávez also moved here with his family in 1948. At one point, as a young man, he would work in an apricot orchard like Alvarado, making less than a dollar an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lived in tents for two years. We lived in tin shacks for two years. Until finally, we were able to rent a house up in the foothills of Evergreen,” she said, referring to the neighborhood in East San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Successive waves of migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Given the name, it’s obvious San José was founded by Latinos; on Nov. 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, to be specific. But it wasn’t until after the Civil War, when railroads crisscrossed North America, linking farmers and ranchers to millions of hungry consumers, that Mexicans began traveling north of the border to work on farms and ranches in the Western U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The railroads are definitely a sign of industrialization, and they’re used not only to bring fruit out to markets, but bring labor in,” said Dr. Margo McBane, history professor and co-director of an extensive oral history project based at San José State called \u003ca href=\"https://library.sjsu.edu/b4sv\">Before Silicon Valley: A History of Mexican Agricultural and Cannery Workers of Santa Clara County, 1920–1960\u003c/a>.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Blanca Alvarado\"]‘I have maintained throughout my political career that there is nothing that I can do by myself. We live in a tumultuous political time now. And one of the sad parts of our political institutions is the inability to collaborate and to work together for a joint common purpose.’[/pullquote]“Mexican workers were referred to as traqueros,” said co-director Suzanne Guerra. For Guerra, like many on her team, this history is personal. “My grandfather was one of those who came in [to the Western U.S.] at 14 years old on a railroad car all the way up to Chicago to work,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the beginning, Guerra says, the people like her grandfather who picked the crops were at the bottom of the economic and social hierarchy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were subject to the whims of the weather, just as the farmers were. So if the crop got wiped out, you didn’t have a job. And also, you were subject to the seasonality of things,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the decades wore on, many Mexican Americans moved into better-paying cannery jobs, and into the middle class. Blanca Alvarado’s generation — born in the 1930s — was poised to flex its political muscle and advocate for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-800x1201.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage headshot of a Latina woman. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1201\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-800x1201.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1020x1531.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even as a teenager in this San José High School headshot from the late 1940s, you can see the self-possession and steely determination that would mark Blanca Alvarado’s political career in the decades to follow. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A golden age for culture and politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alvarado met her first husband, local radio host and activist Jose Alvarado, when she was a senior at San José High. Jose was decades older than her. He owned a record shop and a broadcasting studio for his show on the local radio station KLOK on Post Street in downtown San José. She would come in after school to listen to the jukebox and play games like ping pong and Chinese checkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had a huge following on KLOK. He was the most prominent bilingual radio broadcaster in Northern California,” she recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They married in 1953. Five children soon followed. The marriage provided Blanca Alvarado with a golden ticket of sorts, access to the backstages of San José’s music scene. Thanks to her husband, Alvarado even got to host her own bilingual radio talk show at KLOK called “Merienda Musical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a woman wearing a dark dress and a man wearing a suit hold children with two other children sitting next to them on a couch.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca and Jose Alvarado are shown here with four of their 5 children (from left, Tisha, Monica, Michael and Jaime) in this photo from the early 1950s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"pop_102633,arts_12616712,news_11668265\" label=\"Related Stories\"]However, there’s little recorded evidence left from the Alvarados’ radio days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve searched high and low for any sort of Spanish language jingles, clips. There’s nothing there,” said Juan Antonio Cuellar, curator of the \u003ca href=\"https://arhoolie.org/category/the-frontera-collection/\">Frontera Collection\u003c/a> for the Arhoolie Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to preserving American roots music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The Mexican American community in East San José] was such a huge community. Such a huge pool of talent,” Cuellar added. “You’re rubbing shoulders with people with the same experience. You’re listening to the same music. You’re going to work in the canneries with the same people you just spent the weekend dancing with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1950s and 1960s were, by all accounts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/12/17/richard-diaz-photographer-of-the-stars-captured-latino-social-life-in-san-jose-2/\">a golden age\u003c/a> for both Mexican music and cinema. Fortunately, we can still hear some recordings of the really big acts from San José, like the Montoya Sisters. They recorded some of their music, like this song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-rfD3fBAM&list=PLJv1UYhNlyyAkKc2T8hMHXYscYzeE7K2Y&index=7\">Bomboncito\u003c/a>” in Mexico City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957946\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957946\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-800x571.png\" alt=\"A vintage, black and white photo of three women wearing dresses with a man playing piano in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-800x571.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-1020x727.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-160x114.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ofelia, Emilia, and Esther Montoya of Las Hermanas Montoya. The San José locals were good friends with Alvarado’s first husband, Jose. As a promoter, he presented them and other popular artists in local venues in San José. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Las Hermanas Montoya were one of a few homegrown acts that made it big. They toured in the 1950s with a steady stream of hits, like the million-selling single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnGLXab8J0\">Mucho Mucho Mucho\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember them well,” Alvarado said of the glamorous singers. “They needed a larger audience, and where could they get it but in Mexico? Then they hit it big in Mexico City. And so they never came back until years later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the oral histories Guerra and her colleagues collected over more than 15 years, local elders speak of a time when San José drew Mexican Americans from farming regions far and wide, looking for fun and community on the weekends. “When you went to the big city, you know, you didn’t go to San Francisco,” said Guerra. “You went to San José.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because San José had everything. It had the shops. It had the movie theaters. It had the dances, the ballrooms, the clubs, the bookstores. It had all these Spanish-speaking services,” she said. If you couldn’t find it in Gilroy or you couldn’t find it in Alviso, then you would come to the city, and the city was San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From ‘Sal si puede’ to ‘Sí se puede’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 1950s and 60s were also ripe for political organizing. Guerra says many of Alvarado’s neighbors in East San José — including César Chávez — were Mexican American veterans of World War II, angry and frustrated by all sorts of systemic inequities in housing, infrastructure and schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had sacrificed so much, and contributed to the American, the Allied victory. And what obligations [did] the country [fulfill] to its citizens? These were things that, by law, we’re entitled to!” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as the rest of the region boomed with new suburban development in the decades following World War II, East San José struggled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no sidewalks. There were no streetlights,” Alvarado recalled. Things were so bad back then, locals nicknamed their neighborhood “Sal si puede,” or “Get out if you can.” Alvarado said the nickname stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the rainy season, the storms would be so bad and the mud would be so thick that it was difficult to get out,” she said. “So from ‘Sal si puede,’ we went to ‘Sí se puede.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Si se puede” translates to “Yes, we can,” and it’s a slogan \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10156066250300256\">credited to Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later called the United Farm Workers union) with César Chávez. In the decades since, the slogan has been adopted by activists all over the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado remembers meetings Chávez held in her garage. “We saw our movement beginning to pick up steam and presence with César Chávez, CSO and the farmworker call for action as well. So today, when we talk about César Chávez, I think we do it with nostalgia for the man. But [also]for the time that we experienced with him. There was so much excitement. There was so much energy. There was so much goodwill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chávez didn’t come out of nowhere,” said Margo McBane of San José State. “He came out of the shoulders of all these other people working for labor and community civil rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In San José, in Los Angeles, and in other urban communities, we, the Mexican American people, were dominated by a majority that was Anglo,” Chávez said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1jwR1h9qo\">Commonwealth Club address\u003c/a> in 1984. “I began to realize that the only answer, the only hope, was in organizing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 1970s wore on, the Chicano Movement made steady gains: improving conditions for migrant farmworkers, establishing Chicano studies in California schools and universities, and getting Mexican Americans elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Alvarado said it was slow going “because we were not allowed to be part of the establishment, of the rulers of the time. We had to form our own institutions and we had to form our own protest organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado became the president of the Santa Clara County chapter of the Mexican American Political Association. She got into commission and committee work where she and other members learned the rules about how to confront, petition, and be a voice in government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado helped push for San José to switch from at-large to district elections, making it much easier for political newcomers to win elections, especially in under-represented areas. In 1980, she ran to represent her district, and won. That’s when she became the first Latina member of the San José City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957885\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957885\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-800x640.jpg\" alt='A vintage photo a party with a banner that reads \"Blanca Alvarado our 1st\" with a woman in a blue dress standing next to a man in a white suit holding a microphone facing a group of men playing instruments.' width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 1980, Blanca Alvarado ran for a seat on the San José City Council. Her win made Alvarado San José’s first Latina council member. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over her roughly 30-year \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltVgnShSKA0\">political career\u003c/a>, Alvarado focused on health insurance and literacy programs for children; expanding access to public green space; and starting the fight to close down a small airport in East San José because of the noise and air pollution. She played a key role in launching the Mexican Heritage Plaza, and getting San José’s premier downtown park, known for hosting parties and protests, renamed the Plaza de César Chávez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these are the kinds of battles against systemic racism that take years to wage, the kinds of wins that typically fade fast from public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s saying, ‘My community deserves a seat at the table. I deserve a seat at the table,’” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said of Alvarado. Chavez got involved with local politics in the late 1980s, in large part, she says, because of Alvarado’s example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Latinas in the South Bay have sought public office in Alvarado’s wake, often seeking her endorsement. Chavez says she feels a sense of responsibility to finish what Alvarado started, on behalf of a community that has long felt unseen and unheard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-800x533.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing a hat with her arms outstretched stand behind students in a graduation gowns under a tent that reads \"Public Schools Alpha Blanca Alvarado.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca Alvarado celebrates at the Alpha Blanca Alvarado Middle School Promotion Ceremony on June 1, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rita Duarte Herrera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Historian Suzanne Guerra says understanding the impact of Mexican Americans on this region deepens our connection to history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, when I was a kid, I learned my American history, my California history like everybody else, but folks like me and my family, we disappeared,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google it. This history is hard to find unless you already know what you’re looking for. And even then, “We’re still considered ‘other history,’ not American history. When the truth is, American history is everyone’s history,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Alvarado got a special thrill when a local elementary school was named after her: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alphapublicschools.org/school/blanca-alvarado/\">Alpha Blanca Alvarado School\u003c/a> in East San José. There’s also a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/celebrating-hispanic-heritage/new-east-san-jose-community-and-health-center-named-after-la-madrina-blanca-alvarado/2659902/\">community health center\u003c/a> named after her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado says she hopes younger generations of Latino activists take strength from her example. Many of the issues she fought for including health care, representation and housing are still fights today in San José. She says it’s time for the youngsters to start making their mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A coal miner’s daughter, Alvarado became a political force in Santa Clara County, organizing with César Chavez and later becoming the first Latina to serve on the San José City Council.",
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"title": "From Fruit Picker to Political Trailblazer: The 92-Year-Old 'Madrina' of East San José | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>She was San José’s first Latina city council member, and the first Latina on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors. Today, she goes by many honorifics, but Blanca Alvarado’s favorite is “La Madrina” — the godmother.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 92 years old, her body has slowed down, and her hair has gone gray, but she remembers with absolute clarity the way her life tracked the rise of Chicana power in what we now call Silicon Valley. \u003ca href=\"https://digitalcollections.sjsu.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3A7875\">Born in Colorado\u003c/a>, Alvarado came to San José with her family in 1948, when she was just 16 years old.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San José had a population of 70,000 people,” she recalled. “So it was a small burg, you know?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During that time, the region was called the Valley of Heart’s Delight, famous across the country for its stone fruit and vegetables. People from all over North America arrived in successive waves to pick and process the crops.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The fragrance that wafted in the air — to this day, I will never, never forget it,” said Alvarado. “The valley was just replete with blossoms. All of the orchards were fruit orchards primarily.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957882\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957882\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a man sitting on stairs with five small children, including on on his lap.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5283-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca Alvarado, shown here in the 1930s with her father and four of her siblings, spent her childhood in Cokedale, Colorado, a mining town where her father was a miner and union activist. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She remembers her father telling her that she was the best fruit picker in the family, but it was an incredibly difficult job. “Being on your knees, on clods of dirt. It was very uncomfortable, to say the least,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado’s life closely parallels the South Bay’s most famous Chicano export. César Chávez also moved here with his family in 1948. At one point, as a young man, he would work in an apricot orchard like Alvarado, making less than a dollar an hour.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We lived in tents for two years. We lived in tin shacks for two years. Until finally, we were able to rent a house up in the foothills of Evergreen,” she said, referring to the neighborhood in East San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Successive waves of migration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Given the name, it’s obvious San José was founded by Latinos; on Nov. 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, to be specific. But it wasn’t until after the Civil War, when railroads crisscrossed North America, linking farmers and ranchers to millions of hungry consumers, that Mexicans began traveling north of the border to work on farms and ranches in the Western U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The railroads are definitely a sign of industrialization, and they’re used not only to bring fruit out to markets, but bring labor in,” said Dr. Margo McBane, history professor and co-director of an extensive oral history project based at San José State called \u003ca href=\"https://library.sjsu.edu/b4sv\">Before Silicon Valley: A History of Mexican Agricultural and Cannery Workers of Santa Clara County, 1920–1960\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I have maintained throughout my political career that there is nothing that I can do by myself. We live in a tumultuous political time now. And one of the sad parts of our political institutions is the inability to collaborate and to work together for a joint common purpose.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Mexican workers were referred to as traqueros,” said co-director Suzanne Guerra. For Guerra, like many on her team, this history is personal. “My grandfather was one of those who came in [to the Western U.S.] at 14 years old on a railroad car all the way up to Chicago to work,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the beginning, Guerra says, the people like her grandfather who picked the crops were at the bottom of the economic and social hierarchy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were subject to the whims of the weather, just as the farmers were. So if the crop got wiped out, you didn’t have a job. And also, you were subject to the seasonality of things,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as the decades wore on, many Mexican Americans moved into better-paying cannery jobs, and into the middle class. Blanca Alvarado’s generation — born in the 1930s — was poised to flex its political muscle and advocate for change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957884\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957884\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-800x1201.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage headshot of a Latina woman. \" width=\"800\" height=\"1201\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-800x1201.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1020x1531.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-160x240.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295-1365x2048.jpg 1365w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5295.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Even as a teenager in this San José High School headshot from the late 1940s, you can see the self-possession and steely determination that would mark Blanca Alvarado’s political career in the decades to follow. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>A golden age for culture and politics\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Alvarado met her first husband, local radio host and activist Jose Alvarado, when she was a senior at San José High. Jose was decades older than her. He owned a record shop and a broadcasting studio for his show on the local radio station KLOK on Post Street in downtown San José. She would come in after school to listen to the jukebox and play games like ping pong and Chinese checkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He had a huge following on KLOK. He was the most prominent bilingual radio broadcaster in Northern California,” she recalled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They married in 1953. Five children soon followed. The marriage provided Blanca Alvarado with a golden ticket of sorts, access to the backstages of San José’s music scene. Thanks to her husband, Alvarado even got to host her own bilingual radio talk show at KLOK called “Merienda Musical.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957883\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957883\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A vintage photo of a woman wearing a dark dress and a man wearing a suit hold children with two other children sitting next to them on a couch.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5292-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca and Jose Alvarado are shown here with four of their 5 children (from left, Tisha, Monica, Michael and Jaime) in this photo from the early 1950s. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>However, there’s little recorded evidence left from the Alvarados’ radio days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve searched high and low for any sort of Spanish language jingles, clips. There’s nothing there,” said Juan Antonio Cuellar, curator of the \u003ca href=\"https://arhoolie.org/category/the-frontera-collection/\">Frontera Collection\u003c/a> for the Arhoolie Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to preserving American roots music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“[The Mexican American community in East San José] was such a huge community. Such a huge pool of talent,” Cuellar added. “You’re rubbing shoulders with people with the same experience. You’re listening to the same music. You’re going to work in the canneries with the same people you just spent the weekend dancing with.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 1950s and 1960s were, by all accounts, \u003ca href=\"https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/12/17/richard-diaz-photographer-of-the-stars-captured-latino-social-life-in-san-jose-2/\">a golden age\u003c/a> for both Mexican music and cinema. Fortunately, we can still hear some recordings of the really big acts from San José, like the Montoya Sisters. They recorded some of their music, like this song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH-rfD3fBAM&list=PLJv1UYhNlyyAkKc2T8hMHXYscYzeE7K2Y&index=7\">Bomboncito\u003c/a>” in Mexico City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957946\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957946\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-800x571.png\" alt=\"A vintage, black and white photo of three women wearing dresses with a man playing piano in the background.\" width=\"800\" height=\"571\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-800x571.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-1020x727.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM-160x114.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/Screenshot-2023-08-10-at-3.44.25-PM.png 1234w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ofelia, Emilia, and Esther Montoya of Las Hermanas Montoya. The San José locals were good friends with Alvarado’s first husband, Jose. As a promoter, he presented them and other popular artists in local venues in San José. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of La Raza Historical Society of Santa Clara Valley)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Las Hermanas Montoya were one of a few homegrown acts that made it big. They toured in the 1950s with a steady stream of hits, like the million-selling single, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnGLXab8J0\">Mucho Mucho Mucho\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember them well,” Alvarado said of the glamorous singers. “They needed a larger audience, and where could they get it but in Mexico? Then they hit it big in Mexico City. And so they never came back until years later.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the oral histories Guerra and her colleagues collected over more than 15 years, local elders speak of a time when San José drew Mexican Americans from farming regions far and wide, looking for fun and community on the weekends. “When you went to the big city, you know, you didn’t go to San Francisco,” said Guerra. “You went to San José.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Because San José had everything. It had the shops. It had the movie theaters. It had the dances, the ballrooms, the clubs, the bookstores. It had all these Spanish-speaking services,” she said. If you couldn’t find it in Gilroy or you couldn’t find it in Alviso, then you would come to the city, and the city was San José.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>From ‘Sal si puede’ to ‘Sí se puede’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The 1950s and 60s were also ripe for political organizing. Guerra says many of Alvarado’s neighbors in East San José — including César Chávez — were Mexican American veterans of World War II, angry and frustrated by all sorts of systemic inequities in housing, infrastructure and schools.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had sacrificed so much, and contributed to the American, the Allied victory. And what obligations [did] the country [fulfill] to its citizens? These were things that, by law, we’re entitled to!” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as the rest of the region boomed with new suburban development in the decades following World War II, East San José struggled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There were no sidewalks. There were no streetlights,” Alvarado recalled. Things were so bad back then, locals nicknamed their neighborhood “Sal si puede,” or “Get out if you can.” Alvarado said the nickname stuck.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“During the rainy season, the storms would be so bad and the mud would be so thick that it was difficult to get out,” she said. “So from ‘Sal si puede,’ we went to ‘Sí se puede.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Si se puede” translates to “Yes, we can,” and it’s a slogan \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10156066250300256\">credited to Dolores Huerta\u003c/a>, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (later called the United Farm Workers union) with César Chávez. In the decades since, the slogan has been adopted by activists all over the United States.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado remembers meetings Chávez held in her garage. “We saw our movement beginning to pick up steam and presence with César Chávez, CSO and the farmworker call for action as well. So today, when we talk about César Chávez, I think we do it with nostalgia for the man. But [also]for the time that we experienced with him. There was so much excitement. There was so much energy. There was so much goodwill.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chávez didn’t come out of nowhere,” said Margo McBane of San José State. “He came out of the shoulders of all these other people working for labor and community civil rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In San José, in Los Angeles, and in other urban communities, we, the Mexican American people, were dominated by a majority that was Anglo,” Chávez said in a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB1jwR1h9qo\">Commonwealth Club address\u003c/a> in 1984. “I began to realize that the only answer, the only hope, was in organizing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the 1970s wore on, the Chicano Movement made steady gains: improving conditions for migrant farmworkers, establishing Chicano studies in California schools and universities, and getting Mexican Americans elected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Alvarado said it was slow going “because we were not allowed to be part of the establishment, of the rulers of the time. We had to form our own institutions and we had to form our own protest organizations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado became the president of the Santa Clara County chapter of the Mexican American Political Association. She got into commission and committee work where she and other members learned the rules about how to confront, petition, and be a voice in government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado helped push for San José to switch from at-large to district elections, making it much easier for political newcomers to win elections, especially in under-represented areas. In 1980, she ran to represent her district, and won. That’s when she became the first Latina member of the San José City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957885\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957885\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-800x640.jpg\" alt='A vintage photo a party with a banner that reads \"Blanca Alvarado our 1st\" with a woman in a blue dress standing next to a man in a white suit holding a microphone facing a group of men playing instruments.' width=\"800\" height=\"640\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-800x640.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1020x816.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-160x128.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1536x1229.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_5302-1920x1536.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In 1980, Blanca Alvarado ran for a seat on the San José City Council. Her win made Alvarado San José’s first Latina council member. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Blanca Alvarado)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Over her roughly 30-year \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltVgnShSKA0\">political career\u003c/a>, Alvarado focused on health insurance and literacy programs for children; expanding access to public green space; and starting the fight to close down a small airport in East San José because of the noise and air pollution. She played a key role in launching the Mexican Heritage Plaza, and getting San José’s premier downtown park, known for hosting parties and protests, renamed the Plaza de César Chávez.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But these are the kinds of battles against systemic racism that take years to wage, the kinds of wins that typically fade fast from public view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“She’s saying, ‘My community deserves a seat at the table. I deserve a seat at the table,’” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said of Alvarado. Chavez got involved with local politics in the late 1980s, in large part, she says, because of Alvarado’s example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Generations of Latinas in the South Bay have sought public office in Alvarado’s wake, often seeking her endorsement. Chavez says she feels a sense of responsibility to finish what Alvarado started, on behalf of a community that has long felt unseen and unheard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957880\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11957880\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-800x533.jpg\" alt='A woman wearing a hat with her arms outstretched stand behind students in a graduation gowns under a tent that reads \"Public Schools Alpha Blanca Alvarado.\"' width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/IMG_0290-1920x1279.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Blanca Alvarado celebrates at the Alpha Blanca Alvarado Middle School Promotion Ceremony on June 1, 2022. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Rita Duarte Herrera)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Historian Suzanne Guerra says understanding the impact of Mexican Americans on this region deepens our connection to history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You know, when I was a kid, I learned my American history, my California history like everybody else, but folks like me and my family, we disappeared,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Google it. This history is hard to find unless you already know what you’re looking for. And even then, “We’re still considered ‘other history,’ not American history. When the truth is, American history is everyone’s history,” Guerra said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A few years ago, Alvarado got a special thrill when a local elementary school was named after her: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.alphapublicschools.org/school/blanca-alvarado/\">Alpha Blanca Alvarado School\u003c/a> in East San José. There’s also a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nbcbayarea.com/celebrating-hispanic-heritage/new-east-san-jose-community-and-health-center-named-after-la-madrina-blanca-alvarado/2659902/\">community health center\u003c/a> named after her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarado says she hopes younger generations of Latino activists take strength from her example. Many of the issues she fought for including health care, representation and housing are still fights today in San José. She says it’s time for the youngsters to start making their mark.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>After three years of economic growth and historic federal pandemic relief, local budgets in the Bay Area are looking a little different this year. Much of that federal aid has been spent, and cities are grappling with the economic fallout of turmoil in Silicon Valley and changing commuter habits. Elected officials often say that budgets are “statements of values.” So KQED is checking the receipts of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/city-budgets\">spending plans recently passed in San Francisco, San José and Oakland\u003c/a> to see how leaders in the region’s three largest cities are prioritizing taxpayer dollars.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, when San José’s City Council passed its budget for the 2023–24 fiscal year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">debate largely centered on how the city should spend\u003c/a> $87 million in earmarked funds left over from previous years to reduce homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Matt Mahan led a controversial push to prioritize funding temporary shelter, while other Council members urged a continued focus on paying for more permanent affordable housing. The compromise reached will shift a quarter of the unspent money toward temporary housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the budget, the Council broadly agreed on increasing police staffing and setting aside the city’s modest budget surplus to deal with potential shortfalls in future years.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957433\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-800x210.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-1020x267.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-160x42.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-1536x403.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike San Francisco and Oakland — which have both suffered from a steep decline in downtown commuters — San José is less reliant on a surge in daytime population, helping to land the city in a projected budget surplus of $35.2 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its proposed operating budget, the city manager’s office wrote that “key economic areas remain strong, including robust employment figures, rebounding hotel occupancy and room rates, and growing sales tax activity levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said the city’s diversified economy also helped shield the budget from the fallout of tech layoffs that began surging at the end of 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost one in five jobs in the city are in manufacturing, so when you see these big top-line layoff numbers, they aren’t actually impacting San José as much,” Mahan told KQED. “We’re also a very residential-heavy city, which gives you a bit more stability in terms of revenues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-800x438.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-1020x559.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-1536x841.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is not planning a spending spree with its $35 million surplus. Again, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a pretty modest windfall — just 2% of the entire general fund — and city leaders are opting to use it conservatively, putting the majority of it, $19 million, into a reserve to prepare for an anticipated $18.8 million \u003cem>deficit \u003c/em>next fiscal year (more on that below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are setting dollars aside, and have consistently, in rainy day funds,” Mahan said. “We have not overextended ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next largest surplus expenditure, $8 million, is for the BeautifySJ program. That initiative, launched in 2017, funds neighborhood clean-ups and staffing to respond to graffiti and illegal dumping complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957437\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-800x242.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-1020x308.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-160x48.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-1536x465.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José budget officials aren’t expecting the good times to last for long. The City Manager’s office is projecting this year’s surplus to be followed by a $18.8 million deficit next year, followed by roughly balanced books in the fiscal year beginning in July of 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current projections, according to the city’s operating budget document, are “built on the assumption of a moderate recession beginning in summer 2023, which impacts several economically sensitive categories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly, things can (and have) changed. Despite a long-feared recession, the national and local economy has continued to motor along. On the flip side, the city’s ongoing labor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956630/thousands-of-san-jose-city-workers-to-vote-next-week-on-strike-authorization\">tensions with its largest employee unions\u003c/a> could add some unforeseen costs in future budgets. Unlike the federal government, cities and states are not allowed to pass budgets with deficits, so if San José faces a shortfall, the books will need to be balanced with cuts or taxes — or as bureaucrats lovingly refer to them: savings and revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957387\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"1194\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-800x582.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-1020x743.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-160x116.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-1536x1118.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address economic uncertainty during the pandemic, San José city services were bolstered by an unprecedented level of aid from the federal government — most notably, the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Joe Biden in March of 2021, which delivered some $213 million to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last two years, those funds have allowed the city to maintain its staff, while expanding waste pickup, rental assistance, housing for people experiencing homelessness and food distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, those federal dollars are running out, with: only $38 million remaining in the pot.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11957602,news_11952913\"]In budget terms, the sunsetting of funds like these is not technically a cut. But it feels that way for organizations like Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen, a nonprofit meal provider that relied on that money to ramp up its delivery service to residents in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That contract that we were asked to create meals for, it represents about 500,000 meals,” said David Hott, the group’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hott said that infusion of funding allowed his organization to deliver meals to a variety of service providers, including the Alum Rock School District, churches and local housing groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pandemic activities have lessened and the funding has ceased,” Hott said. “That does not mean the need has ceased, and that’s the struggle that we face now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with no more federal relief coming in, Hott said they could be forced to scale back, and stop these expanded services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Unlike Oakland and San Francisco, San José relies less on a surge in daytime population, helping to land the city in a projected budget surplus of $35.2 million for this fiscal year.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>After three years of economic growth and historic federal pandemic relief, local budgets in the Bay Area are looking a little different this year. Much of that federal aid has been spent, and cities are grappling with the economic fallout of turmoil in Silicon Valley and changing commuter habits. Elected officials often say that budgets are “statements of values.” So KQED is checking the receipts of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/city-budgets\">spending plans recently passed in San Francisco, San José and Oakland\u003c/a> to see how leaders in the region’s three largest cities are prioritizing taxpayer dollars.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June, when San José’s City Council passed its budget for the 2023–24 fiscal year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">debate largely centered on how the city should spend\u003c/a> $87 million in earmarked funds left over from previous years to reduce homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Matt Mahan led a controversial push to prioritize funding temporary shelter, while other Council members urged a continued focus on paying for more permanent affordable housing. The compromise reached will shift a quarter of the unspent money toward temporary housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Elsewhere in the budget, the Council broadly agreed on increasing police staffing and setting aside the city’s modest budget surplus to deal with potential shortfalls in future years.\u003cbr>\n\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957433\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"430\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-800x210.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-1020x267.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-160x42.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Uon0q-san-jos-2023-2024-budget-1-1536x403.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike San Francisco and Oakland — which have both suffered from a steep decline in downtown commuters — San José is less reliant on a surge in daytime population, helping to land the city in a projected budget surplus of $35.2 million for the fiscal year beginning July 1.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its proposed operating budget, the city manager’s office wrote that “key economic areas remain strong, including robust employment figures, rebounding hotel occupancy and room rates, and growing sales tax activity levels.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said the city’s diversified economy also helped shield the budget from the fallout of tech layoffs that began surging at the end of 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Almost one in five jobs in the city are in manufacturing, so when you see these big top-line layoff numbers, they aren’t actually impacting San José as much,” Mahan told KQED. “We’re also a very residential-heavy city, which gives you a bit more stability in terms of revenues.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957434\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"898\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-800x438.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-1020x559.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-160x88.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/ghwys-where-is-san-jos-s-surplus-going-1-1536x841.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is not planning a spending spree with its $35 million surplus. Again, in the grand scheme of things, it’s a pretty modest windfall — just 2% of the entire general fund — and city leaders are opting to use it conservatively, putting the majority of it, $19 million, into a reserve to prepare for an anticipated $18.8 million \u003cem>deficit \u003c/em>next fiscal year (more on that below).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are setting dollars aside, and have consistently, in rainy day funds,” Mahan said. “We have not overextended ourselves.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The next largest surplus expenditure, $8 million, is for the BeautifySJ program. That initiative, launched in 2017, funds neighborhood clean-ups and staffing to respond to graffiti and illegal dumping complaints.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957437\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"496\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-800x242.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-1020x308.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-160x48.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/08/Pn8ak-san-jos-s-projected-surplus-deficit-in-upcoming-fiscal-years-1-1536x465.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José budget officials aren’t expecting the good times to last for long. The City Manager’s office is projecting this year’s surplus to be followed by a $18.8 million deficit next year, followed by roughly balanced books in the fiscal year beginning in July of 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The current projections, according to the city’s operating budget document, are “built on the assumption of a moderate recession beginning in summer 2023, which impacts several economically sensitive categories.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clearly, things can (and have) changed. Despite a long-feared recession, the national and local economy has continued to motor along. On the flip side, the city’s ongoing labor \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11956630/thousands-of-san-jose-city-workers-to-vote-next-week-on-strike-authorization\">tensions with its largest employee unions\u003c/a> could add some unforeseen costs in future budgets. Unlike the federal government, cities and states are not allowed to pass budgets with deficits, so if San José faces a shortfall, the books will need to be balanced with cuts or taxes — or as bureaucrats lovingly refer to them: savings and revenues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-11957387\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1640\" height=\"1194\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2.png 1640w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-800x582.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-1020x743.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-160x116.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/0q52a-how-san-jos-spent-its-american-rescue-plan-arpa-money-nbsp-nbsp-2-1536x1118.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1640px) 100vw, 1640px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To address economic uncertainty during the pandemic, San José city services were bolstered by an unprecedented level of aid from the federal government — most notably, the American Rescue Plan Act, signed by President Joe Biden in March of 2021, which delivered some $213 million to the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the last two years, those funds have allowed the city to maintain its staff, while expanding waste pickup, rental assistance, housing for people experiencing homelessness and food distribution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now, those federal dollars are running out, with: only $38 million remaining in the pot.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In budget terms, the sunsetting of funds like these is not technically a cut. But it feels that way for organizations like Loaves and Fishes Family Kitchen, a nonprofit meal provider that relied on that money to ramp up its delivery service to residents in need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That contract that we were asked to create meals for, it represents about 500,000 meals,” said David Hott, the group’s CEO.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hott said that infusion of funding allowed his organization to deliver meals to a variety of service providers, including the Alum Rock School District, churches and local housing groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The pandemic activities have lessened and the funding has ceased,” Hott said. “That does not mean the need has ceased, and that’s the struggle that we face now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with no more federal relief coming in, Hott said they could be forced to scale back, and stop these expanded services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "San José City Workers Are About to Go on Strike",
"headTitle": "San José City Workers Are About to Go on Strike | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#episode-transcript\">\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Next Tuesday, nearly 4,500 San José city workers are planning to walk off the job for three days. Garbage, fire, and police won’t be affected, but many critical services like the airport, libraries, and housing construction will be. KQED’s Guy Marzorati explains how we got here, and what could happen next. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp id=\"embed-code\" class=\"inconsolata\">\n\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=KQINC4929729158&light=true\" width=\"100%\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\n\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. And welcome to The Bay. Local news to Keep You Rooted. Nearly 4500 employees with the city of San Jose are about to go on a three day strike starting next week after contract negotiations over higher pay fell through. Workers from the housing department to the zoo say they plan to walk off the job until the city agrees to pay up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m in a little bit of a daze. I’m happy it’s where we need to go. But I’m thinking it’s a shame it had to come to this. I would really prefer not to strike. I had a lot of nervous nights around it. I was on the negotiating team, but there’s this aura here. There’s this aura about good things are going to happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>But 4500 people whose literal job is to keep the city running, there’s a lot of people. So what do all these employees say they want from the city that they aren’t getting? And what’s a strike going to mean for all the crucial services they provide? That’s coming up right after this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>We’re talking about a lot of workers. I mean, this is nearly 4500 employees in jobs all across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Guy Marzorati is a politics and government correspondent for KQED, who’s based in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Literally from A to Z, you have airport employees at San Jose Mineta. You have the zoo workers at Happy Hollow. In between that, you have, you know, code inspectors, people managing city parks, librarians, city planners, all of these employees had their contract expire on June 30th and are now, you know, potentially going to be striking next week. And the plan is a work stoppage that’s set to begin six in the morning on Tuesday, August 15th, and last until six in the morning on Friday, August 18th. That does not include, however, police and fire. They’re not allowed to strike in California. And besides that, they are separate unions that have their own existing contracts with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Why is this happening? Like, how did we get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah, well, one huge piece of this is San Jose’s tax base. I mean, historically, it’s been the only major city in the U.S. that has a smaller daytime population than a nighttime population. And what that basically means is there’s not a lot of jobs here. Historically, people live in this city, but go to work for companies that are located elsewhere in the bay. And that’s led to a lot of challenges with the tax base. So on a per capita basis, San Jose is getting, you know, lower property tax revenue, lower sales tax revenue than its neighbors. And then what that translates to is a lack of funding for city services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>I think it’s kind of well understood that we are underpaid compared to other municipalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So Michael Jun:works on residential development in the city’s housing department. He talks a lot about making up the gap between what he’s paid and kind of what he thinks he deserves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>What we’re hoping for is a little bit of kind of just trying to make up the gap between what we feel we deserve and what we feel is required to provide the level of services our residents deserve and what the city right now is willing to give.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He mentioned anecdotally at least he sees colleagues leaving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Just like last month, we had several closings and new construction groundbreaking. But if we had more people, we could have built more affordable housing and quicker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So I also talked to a city employee named David Nerhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m a 22-year veteran of the city of San Jose. I work the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He’s a financial analyst with the Department of Transportation. Before that, he worked with the Department of Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m in a little bit of a daze. I’m happy It’s where we need to go. But I’m thinking it’s a shame it had to come to this. I would really prefer not to strike. I had a lot of nervous nights around it. I was on the negotiating team. So I know that we weren’t where we needed to be. So I’m fully in favor of it. And I think the nervousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He used this word. Training ground. He that’s how he described San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>So you get these kids coming out of college, and I’ve worked with so many of them, and they’re some of the most capable young kids that I meet. And I’m getting excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>You talked about all these experiences he’s had with young planners or young engineers that he’s helped train in his department who have then, you know, in a year or maybe two years, they call him, say, you know, David, thanks for everything, but I’ve got a better job offer in Fremont, in Santa Clara, somewhere else. And he loses that kind of budding talent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>They’ll get paid better with probably a less complicated workload. I don’t know the word to use for doing the same exact work at that other place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The unions want a pay increase over the next three fiscal years. In their most recent offer. Workers would get a 7% increase this year, 6% the following, and 5% after that. The city is offered a 5%, 4% and 3% raise over that same period. And the city says that’s because they can’t really afford to go any higher. I know you talked with Mayor Matt Mehan. How has he responded to these demands to pay workers more?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yes. I’ll start by noting that the unions are actually negotiating with officials in the city manager’s office, not the mayor’s office. So in this setup, may hands just one vote on the council. The council can meet with the city manager and give direction on what can be offered. But all that said, Mahen has been kind of the de facto spokesperson for the city side of bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>So we have limited resources. We’re always trying to strike a fair balance for both residents and city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He’s basically made the argument that the fiscal year already started. The council, if they offer more than 5%, they’re going to go back into the budget that they approved in June and find cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>The math is very clear, and I certainly don’t want to see and won’t support cuts to police or fire staffing, library hours, any other essential services. At the margins, there may be ways to be creative, but we have to find ongoing funding for wage increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So far, Macon’s kind of stuck to that argument. That being said, he hasn’t really gone on the offensive against the unions, and that’s something I’m going to be watching in the days to come. Now that we’re edging towards this massive work stoppage, does he like kind of heat up his rhetoric and even go as far as like attacking the unions, attacking city workers?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, what do we make of that idea guy that, like there isn’t enough money to raise wages by the amount that the union wants? I mean, they feel like that’s sort of something we hear often. Like what do we make of that idea that it would require cuts to other things that people probably won’t be happy about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah. So I think, you know, that all of that remains to be seen. Like it’s impossible to know until the council would be pressed in that situation if they had to go above whatever they allocated for raises in this fiscal year to go back and amend the budget. And, you know, you often do get into kind of accounting tricks where you budget something based on excess funds that you think you might have at the end of the year. Mehan wants to avoid that. Union leaders have made the argument that the city often ends up with this kind of excess funds and that that might be a place to look in the unions opinions for ways to get the existing city employees higher wages in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, 4500 city workers going on strike. That’s pretty significant. Is the city prepared?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>No. I mean, you can prepare, but there is no way you can completely mitigate the effects. I mean, San Jose has about 7000 employees. We’re talking about unions representing 4500 people. Now, it would be a huge impact. And the city acknowledges that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati:\u003c/strong>Well, there are likely to be disruptions and a lot of that will depend on how many people adhere to the strike itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>But I talked with Kip Harkness. He’s a deputy city manager. He said with the caveat that, you know, it’s impossible to know the full effect of a strike until we see how many people wake up that morning and hit the picket lines. But he expects libraries, community centers to be among the places that residents would really notice a drop off in service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati:\u003c/strong>Where there would be service difficulties. We have plans for workers, contractors to continue the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Got it. So it’d be bringing in contractors to maybe fill some of those positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Perhaps contractors to fill some of those positions, as well as for certain positions that are critical to public health and safety. Those can be prohibited from striking garbage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Recycling services are contracted out, so they’re not going to be affected by a strike. But outside of that, union officials have warned of really broad impacts. I mentioned the airport. They say there could be flight delays, youth summer camps getting canceled. So starting next week, over the course of those three days, residents could notice, you know, a lot of changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>There is still time between now and the start of the strike, right, guys? So does that mean that things could take a turn before the strike even happens?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah, there’s still definitely the possibility that a deal gets reached. The city council met Tuesday with the city manager in closed session. Again, they could kind of give direction to raise the offer. There’s also this possibility that Megan floated when I talked with him about the second and third years of the contract. So maybe there’s ways to increase those raises based on how much tax revenue comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>If our revenue comes in higher than expected, I think it would be appropriate for us to have a modest increase that’s automatically triggered if there’s more money. If we have the money there, I would be perfectly happy with increasing wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Or even just build those raises in. And then you go into the next budget process knowing that you have to account for those. I think what the what Mehan and like minded city officials are really concerned about is this current fiscal year where they’ve already passed the budget. That process is done. They’re worried about having to go revisit those numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How would you maybe sum up this moment in San Jose? Like, why do you think this is happening now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Well, I’d say the mood is probably, you know, a bit uncertain. There hasn’t been a major strike in the city like this since 1981. So this whole experience is going to be new for a lot of residents, even a lot of city officials. I mean, they’ve never experienced something like that. As to why this is happening now, I mean, we are in the hot Labor Summer, I guess, and we’re seeing this kind of extend to the municipal sector, not just in San Jose, L.A., too. There was a one day strike on Tuesday by thousands of city employees there. And it’s the same story you hear in the private sector, right? The cost of living has skyrocketed with inflation. And again, when you’re only able to bargain or negotiate these wages on a set timetable over the span of this contract that expired on June 30th, that’s when we’ve seen this major inflation occur in the country. So there hasn’t been an opportunity for a lot of workers to go to the table and in their mind, kind of catch up to all the rising prices that have been baked in over the last few years. You may only get this one chance every few years to secure a boost like this. The stakes are magnified by inflation, and I think that’s why you’re seeing this standoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Guy, thanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Guy Marzorati, a politics and government correspondent for KQED, who’s based in San Jose. Guy’s also the producer of the Political Breakdown podcast, which you can find wherever you found the Bay. This episode was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Maria Esquinca is our producer. She scored this episode and added of the tape extra production support from me. If you like this episode, consider sharing it with a friend. And I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you next time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Hot Labor Summer. Did you make that up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>No, I did not. Okay. But on top of hot Labor Summer, it’s also just a hot summer. Can I say that, too? This is all, you know, taking place in just a hot South Bay summer as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-content post-body\">\u003ch2 id=\"episode-transcript\">Episode Transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. And welcome to The Bay. Local news to Keep You Rooted. Nearly 4500 employees with the city of San Jose are about to go on a three day strike starting next week after contract negotiations over higher pay fell through. Workers from the housing department to the zoo say they plan to walk off the job until the city agrees to pay up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m in a little bit of a daze. I’m happy it’s where we need to go. But I’m thinking it’s a shame it had to come to this. I would really prefer not to strike. I had a lot of nervous nights around it. I was on the negotiating team, but there’s this aura here. There’s this aura about good things are going to happen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>But 4500 people whose literal job is to keep the city running, there’s a lot of people. So what do all these employees say they want from the city that they aren’t getting? And what’s a strike going to mean for all the crucial services they provide? That’s coming up right after this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>We’re talking about a lot of workers. I mean, this is nearly 4500 employees in jobs all across the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Guy Marzorati is a politics and government correspondent for KQED, who’s based in San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Literally from A to Z, you have airport employees at San Jose Mineta. You have the zoo workers at Happy Hollow. In between that, you have, you know, code inspectors, people managing city parks, librarians, city planners, all of these employees had their contract expire on June 30th and are now, you know, potentially going to be striking next week. And the plan is a work stoppage that’s set to begin six in the morning on Tuesday, August 15th, and last until six in the morning on Friday, August 18th. That does not include, however, police and fire. They’re not allowed to strike in California. And besides that, they are separate unions that have their own existing contracts with the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Why is this happening? Like, how did we get here?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah, well, one huge piece of this is San Jose’s tax base. I mean, historically, it’s been the only major city in the U.S. that has a smaller daytime population than a nighttime population. And what that basically means is there’s not a lot of jobs here. Historically, people live in this city, but go to work for companies that are located elsewhere in the bay. And that’s led to a lot of challenges with the tax base. So on a per capita basis, San Jose is getting, you know, lower property tax revenue, lower sales tax revenue than its neighbors. And then what that translates to is a lack of funding for city services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>I think it’s kind of well understood that we are underpaid compared to other municipalities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So Michael Jun:works on residential development in the city’s housing department. He talks a lot about making up the gap between what he’s paid and kind of what he thinks he deserves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>What we’re hoping for is a little bit of kind of just trying to make up the gap between what we feel we deserve and what we feel is required to provide the level of services our residents deserve and what the city right now is willing to give.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He mentioned anecdotally at least he sees colleagues leaving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Michael Jun: \u003c/strong>I don’t know. Just like last month, we had several closings and new construction groundbreaking. But if we had more people, we could have built more affordable housing and quicker.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So I also talked to a city employee named David Nerhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m a 22-year veteran of the city of San Jose. I work the first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He’s a financial analyst with the Department of Transportation. Before that, he worked with the Department of Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>I’m in a little bit of a daze. I’m happy It’s where we need to go. But I’m thinking it’s a shame it had to come to this. I would really prefer not to strike. I had a lot of nervous nights around it. I was on the negotiating team. So I know that we weren’t where we needed to be. So I’m fully in favor of it. And I think the nervousness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He used this word. Training ground. He that’s how he described San Jose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>So you get these kids coming out of college, and I’ve worked with so many of them, and they’re some of the most capable young kids that I meet. And I’m getting excited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>You talked about all these experiences he’s had with young planners or young engineers that he’s helped train in his department who have then, you know, in a year or maybe two years, they call him, say, you know, David, thanks for everything, but I’ve got a better job offer in Fremont, in Santa Clara, somewhere else. And he loses that kind of budding talent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>David Nerhood: \u003c/strong>They’ll get paid better with probably a less complicated workload. I don’t know the word to use for doing the same exact work at that other place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>The unions want a pay increase over the next three fiscal years. In their most recent offer. Workers would get a 7% increase this year, 6% the following, and 5% after that. The city is offered a 5%, 4% and 3% raise over that same period. And the city says that’s because they can’t really afford to go any higher. I know you talked with Mayor Matt Mehan. How has he responded to these demands to pay workers more?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yes. I’ll start by noting that the unions are actually negotiating with officials in the city manager’s office, not the mayor’s office. So in this setup, may hands just one vote on the council. The council can meet with the city manager and give direction on what can be offered. But all that said, Mahen has been kind of the de facto spokesperson for the city side of bargaining.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>So we have limited resources. We’re always trying to strike a fair balance for both residents and city workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>He’s basically made the argument that the fiscal year already started. The council, if they offer more than 5%, they’re going to go back into the budget that they approved in June and find cuts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>The math is very clear, and I certainly don’t want to see and won’t support cuts to police or fire staffing, library hours, any other essential services. At the margins, there may be ways to be creative, but we have to find ongoing funding for wage increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>So far, Macon’s kind of stuck to that argument. That being said, he hasn’t really gone on the offensive against the unions, and that’s something I’m going to be watching in the days to come. Now that we’re edging towards this massive work stoppage, does he like kind of heat up his rhetoric and even go as far as like attacking the unions, attacking city workers?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>I mean, what do we make of that idea guy that, like there isn’t enough money to raise wages by the amount that the union wants? I mean, they feel like that’s sort of something we hear often. Like what do we make of that idea that it would require cuts to other things that people probably won’t be happy about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah. So I think, you know, that all of that remains to be seen. Like it’s impossible to know until the council would be pressed in that situation if they had to go above whatever they allocated for raises in this fiscal year to go back and amend the budget. And, you know, you often do get into kind of accounting tricks where you budget something based on excess funds that you think you might have at the end of the year. Mehan wants to avoid that. Union leaders have made the argument that the city often ends up with this kind of excess funds and that that might be a place to look in the unions opinions for ways to get the existing city employees higher wages in the short term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Well, I mean, 4500 city workers going on strike. That’s pretty significant. Is the city prepared?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>No. I mean, you can prepare, but there is no way you can completely mitigate the effects. I mean, San Jose has about 7000 employees. We’re talking about unions representing 4500 people. Now, it would be a huge impact. And the city acknowledges that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati:\u003c/strong>Well, there are likely to be disruptions and a lot of that will depend on how many people adhere to the strike itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>But I talked with Kip Harkness. He’s a deputy city manager. He said with the caveat that, you know, it’s impossible to know the full effect of a strike until we see how many people wake up that morning and hit the picket lines. But he expects libraries, community centers to be among the places that residents would really notice a drop off in service.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati:\u003c/strong>Where there would be service difficulties. We have plans for workers, contractors to continue the work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Got it. So it’d be bringing in contractors to maybe fill some of those positions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Perhaps contractors to fill some of those positions, as well as for certain positions that are critical to public health and safety. Those can be prohibited from striking garbage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Recycling services are contracted out, so they’re not going to be affected by a strike. But outside of that, union officials have warned of really broad impacts. I mentioned the airport. They say there could be flight delays, youth summer camps getting canceled. So starting next week, over the course of those three days, residents could notice, you know, a lot of changes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>There is still time between now and the start of the strike, right, guys? So does that mean that things could take a turn before the strike even happens?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Yeah, there’s still definitely the possibility that a deal gets reached. The city council met Tuesday with the city manager in closed session. Again, they could kind of give direction to raise the offer. There’s also this possibility that Megan floated when I talked with him about the second and third years of the contract. So maybe there’s ways to increase those raises based on how much tax revenue comes in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Matt Mahan: \u003c/strong>If our revenue comes in higher than expected, I think it would be appropriate for us to have a modest increase that’s automatically triggered if there’s more money. If we have the money there, I would be perfectly happy with increasing wages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Or even just build those raises in. And then you go into the next budget process knowing that you have to account for those. I think what the what Mehan and like minded city officials are really concerned about is this current fiscal year where they’ve already passed the budget. That process is done. They’re worried about having to go revisit those numbers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>How would you maybe sum up this moment in San Jose? Like, why do you think this is happening now?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Well, I’d say the mood is probably, you know, a bit uncertain. There hasn’t been a major strike in the city like this since 1981. So this whole experience is going to be new for a lot of residents, even a lot of city officials. I mean, they’ve never experienced something like that. As to why this is happening now, I mean, we are in the hot Labor Summer, I guess, and we’re seeing this kind of extend to the municipal sector, not just in San Jose, L.A., too. There was a one day strike on Tuesday by thousands of city employees there. And it’s the same story you hear in the private sector, right? The cost of living has skyrocketed with inflation. And again, when you’re only able to bargain or negotiate these wages on a set timetable over the span of this contract that expired on June 30th, that’s when we’ve seen this major inflation occur in the country. So there hasn’t been an opportunity for a lot of workers to go to the table and in their mind, kind of catch up to all the rising prices that have been baked in over the last few years. You may only get this one chance every few years to secure a boost like this. The stakes are magnified by inflation, and I think that’s why you’re seeing this standoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Guy, thanks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>That was Guy Marzorati, a politics and government correspondent for KQED, who’s based in San Jose. Guy’s also the producer of the Political Breakdown podcast, which you can find wherever you found the Bay. This episode was cut down and edited by senior editor Alan Montecillo. Maria Esquinca is our producer. She scored this episode and added of the tape extra production support from me. If you like this episode, consider sharing it with a friend. And I’m Ericka Cruz Guevarra. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you next time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Ericka Cruz Guevarra: \u003c/strong>Hot Labor Summer. Did you make that up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cstrong>Guy Marzorati: \u003c/strong>No, I did not. Okay. But on top of hot Labor Summer, it’s also just a hot summer. Can I say that, too? This is all, you know, taking place in just a hot South Bay summer as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>"
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"content": "\u003cp>Thousands of San José city employees voted to strike next week, union leaders announced Monday, moving the city closer to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11957086/san-jose-city-workers-strike-what-residents-can-expect-if-municipal-employees-walk-out\">historic work stoppage over municipal employee pay\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an overwhelming vote, workers in four bargaining units represented by unions MEF-AFSCME Local 101 and IFPTE Local 21 authorized a three-day strike beginning Aug. 15. The move ratchets up the pressure on union leaders and the City Council to avoid a work stoppage that could limit service at libraries, community centers and even San José Mineta International Airport.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Striking is a last resort,” said Kyle Wong, a transportation specialist. “Our hope is that city councilmembers and Mayor Mahan will finally listen to us and address the understaffing crises impacting libraries, the airport, affordable housing, response times and more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mayor Matt Mahan and officials in the City Manager’s office, which leads negotiations with employee unions, counter that San José’s vacancy rate is in line with cities like Oakland and Fremont — and that the city can’t afford the wage increases that workers demand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest public ask from the bargaining units, which represent roughly 4,500 employees, amounts to a 7% wage increase in the current fiscal year and raises of 6% and 5% in the following two years. The city offered a 5% pay bump, followed by 4% and 3% increases.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Kyle Wong, transportation specialist, San José\"]‘Our hope is that city councilmembers and Mayor Mahan will finally listen to us and address the understaffing crises impacting libraries, the airport, affordable housing, response times and more.’[/pullquote]David Nerhood, a financial analyst with the Department of Transportation, said colleagues can often find better pay in neighboring cities for jobs with the same or lighter workload.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San José has become what we call a training ground,” Nerhood said. “What inevitably happens is we train people in doing whatever they’re doing for this particular city, and it’s great training … it’s complicated work and we’re not getting benefits or pay commensurate with these other positions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, the City Council returned from summer recess earlier than expected to hear an update on the negotiations from City Manager Jennifer Maguire, who has led bargaining with the unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said San José is constrained by its tax base, which is smaller on a per-capita basis than most neighboring cities. A 7% wage increase in the current fiscal year would require changes to the budget passed by the council in June, Mahan told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If any of my colleagues want to go higher than a 5% raise in this fiscal year, they’re going to have to point in the budget to what they want to cut,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor left the door open to one-time bonuses or higher raises for union members tied to the city’s revenue in 2024–25 and 2025–26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In years two and three, if our revenue comes in higher than expected, I think it would be appropriate for us to have a modest increase that’s automatically triggered if there’s more money,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the council could authorize the city manager to increase or amend the city’s offer. Attorneys working for the city estimate that the cost of a 1% wage increase to the four bargaining units is $3.56 million. [aside label='More on San José' tag='san-jose'] “It’s my hope that the offer does increase,” said Councilmember Peter Ortiz. “It’s my hope that we are able to provide staff members here at the city of San José a wage increase and a contract that honors their commitment to the residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If no agreement is reached, the unions have scheduled the strike to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 6 a.m. and last until Friday, Aug. 18 at 5:59 a.m., with picket lines planned for City Hall, the airport and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work stoppage would be the city’s largest since 1981 when AFSCME workers hit the picket lines for nine days to advocate for equal pay for women workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say striking workers could result in flight delays, building permit holdups and the cancellation of city summer camps for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Manager’s office has acknowledged that service interruptions could be felt at libraries and community centers, but cautioned that the strike impact would depend on the number of workers participating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>David Nerhood, a financial analyst with the Department of Transportation, said colleagues can often find better pay in neighboring cities for jobs with the same or lighter workload.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“San José has become what we call a training ground,” Nerhood said. “What inevitably happens is we train people in doing whatever they’re doing for this particular city, and it’s great training … it’s complicated work and we’re not getting benefits or pay commensurate with these other positions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week, the City Council returned from summer recess earlier than expected to hear an update on the negotiations from City Manager Jennifer Maguire, who has led bargaining with the unions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan said San José is constrained by its tax base, which is smaller on a per-capita basis than most neighboring cities. A 7% wage increase in the current fiscal year would require changes to the budget passed by the council in June, Mahan told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If any of my colleagues want to go higher than a 5% raise in this fiscal year, they’re going to have to point in the budget to what they want to cut,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayor left the door open to one-time bonuses or higher raises for union members tied to the city’s revenue in 2024–25 and 2025–26.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In years two and three, if our revenue comes in higher than expected, I think it would be appropriate for us to have a modest increase that’s automatically triggered if there’s more money,” Mahan said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, the council could authorize the city manager to increase or amend the city’s offer. Attorneys working for the city estimate that the cost of a 1% wage increase to the four bargaining units is $3.56 million. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> “It’s my hope that the offer does increase,” said Councilmember Peter Ortiz. “It’s my hope that we are able to provide staff members here at the city of San José a wage increase and a contract that honors their commitment to the residents.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If no agreement is reached, the unions have scheduled the strike to begin on Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 6 a.m. and last until Friday, Aug. 18 at 5:59 a.m., with picket lines planned for City Hall, the airport and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The work stoppage would be the city’s largest since 1981 when AFSCME workers hit the picket lines for nine days to advocate for equal pay for women workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Union leaders say striking workers could result in flight delays, building permit holdups and the cancellation of city summer camps for kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The City Manager’s office has acknowledged that service interruptions could be felt at libraries and community centers, but cautioned that the strike impact would depend on the number of workers participating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>On May 3, a mob rushed into a tribal area in the Indian state of Manipur.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They started screaming ‘Kill Kuki, Kill Kuki’ and started burning our church,” Niang Hangzo, a San José resident who immigrated to the United States in 1990, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hangzo was born and raised in Manipur. Nestled in the mountains of northeast India, Manipur, which borders Myanmar, is about the size of New Hampshire and has a population of 3.7 million people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twenty of Hangzo’s family members used to live in this region, which is currently engulfed in violent conflict. At least 150 people have died as a result and more than 60,000 were displaced, according to the International Crisis Group. Those displaced include Hangzo’s 86-year-old mother, six of Hangzo’s siblings and several cousins who are now in Delhi, more than 1,500 miles from their homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The violence erupted after a local court ruling awarded government benefits to the Meitei, a mostly Hindu community that maintains a majority in the area. The Kuki tribal community, who are mostly Christian and represent the minority faction, protested. That prompted the waves of armed Meitei mobs that are unofficially supported by the state government, according to activists and human rights groups.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which is in charge of India’s central government, has stoked politically motivated policies promoting Hindu majoritarianism, according to Human Rights Watch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The bloodshed is resonating within the large Indian diaspora in the Bay Area. Rallies, hunger strikes and educational Zoom meetings were held to raise awareness of the persecution of the Kuki community in Manipur.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Niang Hangzo, co-founder, North American Manipur Tribal Association\"]‘They had to run for their lives with just the clothes on their back.’[/pullquote]Hangzo, like most of her family in India, is a member of the Kuki, which is sometimes referred to as Kuki-Zomi or Kuki-Zo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the mob burned the church, Hangzo’s family hid in a local hotel. They watched the growing mob outside on the security camera before escaping to an army camp. Hangzo and others convinced them to leave the region by plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had to run for their lives with just the clothes on their back,” said Hangzo, who works as an engineer in the tech industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With luck and help from people Hangzo describes as “angels,” the family made it safely out of the region. Images from the local news channel showed their homes looted and burned. Eleven members are now crowded in a three-bedroom apartment in New Delhi, India’s capital. Despite leaving all their possessions behind, Hangzo said they feel fortunate to have made it out alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the violence broke out in Manipur, Hangzo has dedicated her time to informing people about the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is one of the founding members of the North American Manipur Tribal Association, a national organization formed to promote awareness of the hill tribes of Manipur in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group wrote letters to President Joe Biden, asking him to raise the issue when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the U.S. at the end of June. NAMTA also coordinated efforts with the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, as well as Indian Christian organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not much we can do on our own, but I think the atrocities and the stories from Manipur have shaken people and shaken the conscience of other people,” Hangzo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indian communities in the Bay Area held rallies in Oakland, Palo Alto and Fremont after a video showing two Kuki women being assaulted in public went viral in India. Members of the Muslim, Sikh and Dalit communities in the Bay Area also combined efforts to pressure congressional leaders to take action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1620px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stands outdoors in front of a building holding signs while one person speaks into a megaphone.\" width=\"1620\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED.jpg 1620w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1620px) 100vw, 1620px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shan Sankaran (left) stands alongside Niang Hangzo (right) at a rally outside of Oakland City Hall on July 23, 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of North American Manipur Tribal Association.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pieter Friedrich and Shan Sankaran protested the treatment of the Kuki with a hunger strike. Friedrich, a human rights advocate, ended his fast after nine days at the request of NAMTA and the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, Sankaran, a Sunnyvale resident, ended his hunger strike after 10 days. Sankaran said if the central government wanted the crisis under control, they would’ve taken action earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not the first incident under this administration,” said Sankaran, recalling how Modi was denied a visa to the U.S. for several years for “severe violations of religious freedom.”[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Niang Hangzo, co-founder, North American Manipur Tribal Association\"]‘It’s very difficult living in sort of limbo for them and for us. We have become so embroiled in what’s happening out there that that’s become our reality more than what’s going on here.’[/pullquote] Friedrich, who has written extensively on Hindu nationalism, said “what is happening in Manipur is being driven by the Hindutva movement in India,” which is the political ideology that believes in Hindu supremacy and that India’s identity is inseparable from the Hindu religion. Friedrich wants Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) to publicly condemn the violence in Manipur on the House floor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve consistently used my position in Congress to defend human rights and admire the activists who work to drive change on these important issues,” Khanna told KQED in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added that he “condemns all violence against civilians or places of worship in Manipur and speaks out on those issues whenever I can.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hangzo wants to see politicians “raise the humanitarian issue of the ethnic cleansing of the Kuki-Zomi and the genocide that is in progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Their lands are being seized,” she said of the Kuki.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hangzo gets up every morning and routinely checks news and messages to see what happened the night before. Her mother wants to return to Manipur and be among familiar surroundings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very difficult living in sort of limbo for them and for us,” said Hangzo, who plans to go to India in December. “We have become so embroiled in what’s happening out there that that’s become our reality more than what’s going on here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Hangzo, like most of her family in India, is a member of the Kuki, which is sometimes referred to as Kuki-Zomi or Kuki-Zo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the mob burned the church, Hangzo’s family hid in a local hotel. They watched the growing mob outside on the security camera before escaping to an army camp. Hangzo and others convinced them to leave the region by plane.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They had to run for their lives with just the clothes on their back,” said Hangzo, who works as an engineer in the tech industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With luck and help from people Hangzo describes as “angels,” the family made it safely out of the region. Images from the local news channel showed their homes looted and burned. Eleven members are now crowded in a three-bedroom apartment in New Delhi, India’s capital. Despite leaving all their possessions behind, Hangzo said they feel fortunate to have made it out alive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since the violence broke out in Manipur, Hangzo has dedicated her time to informing people about the conflict.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She is one of the founding members of the North American Manipur Tribal Association, a national organization formed to promote awareness of the hill tribes of Manipur in the U.S.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The group wrote letters to President Joe Biden, asking him to raise the issue when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the U.S. at the end of June. NAMTA also coordinated efforts with the Indian American Muslim Council, Hindus for Human Rights, as well as Indian Christian organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s not much we can do on our own, but I think the atrocities and the stories from Manipur have shaken people and shaken the conscience of other people,” Hangzo said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indian communities in the Bay Area held rallies in Oakland, Palo Alto and Fremont after a video showing two Kuki women being assaulted in public went viral in India. Members of the Muslim, Sikh and Dalit communities in the Bay Area also combined efforts to pressure congressional leaders to take action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11957326\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1620px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11957326\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A group of people stands outdoors in front of a building holding signs while one person speaks into a megaphone.\" width=\"1620\" height=\"1080\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED.jpg 1620w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/08/230803-Manipur-05-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1620px) 100vw, 1620px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shan Sankaran (left) stands alongside Niang Hangzo (right) at a rally outside of Oakland City Hall on July 23, 2023. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of North American Manipur Tribal Association.)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pieter Friedrich and Shan Sankaran protested the treatment of the Kuki with a hunger strike. Friedrich, a human rights advocate, ended his fast after nine days at the request of NAMTA and the Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Thursday, Sankaran, a Sunnyvale resident, ended his hunger strike after 10 days. Sankaran said if the central government wanted the crisis under control, they would’ve taken action earlier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is not the first incident under this administration,” said Sankaran, recalling how Modi was denied a visa to the U.S. for several years for “severe violations of religious freedom.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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}
},
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"id": "californiareportmagazine",
"title": "The California Report Magazine",
"tagline": "Your state, your stories",
"info": "Every week, The California Report Magazine takes you on a road trip for the ears: to visit the places and meet the people who make California unique. The in-depth storytelling podcast from the California Report.",
"airtime": "FRI 4:30pm-5pm, 6:30pm-7pm, 11pm-11:30pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/californiareportmagazine",
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"order": 10
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM3NjkwNjk1OTAz",
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},
"city-arts": {
"id": "city-arts",
"title": "City Arts & Lectures",
"info": "A one-hour radio program to hear celebrated writers, artists and thinkers address contemporary ideas and values, often discussing the creative process. Please note: tapes or transcripts are not available",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/05/cityartsandlecture-300x300.jpg",
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"airtime": "SUN 1pm-2pm, TUE 10pm, WED 1am",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "City Arts & Lectures"
},
"link": "https://www.cityarts.net",
"subscribe": {
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/City-Arts-and-Lectures-p692/",
"rss": "https://www.cityarts.net/feed/"
}
},
"closealltabs": {
"id": "closealltabs",
"title": "Close All Tabs",
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"info": "Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/closealltabs",
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"order": 1
},
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"title": "Code Switch / Life Kit",
"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"meta": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnByLm9yZy9yc3MvcG9kY2FzdC5waHA_aWQ9NTEwMzEy",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
"airtime": "THU 10pm, FRI 1am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Commonwealth-Club-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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"meta": {
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
},
"link": "/radio/program/commonwealth-club",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5jb21tb253ZWFsdGhjbHViLm9yZy9hdWRpby9wb2RjYXN0L3dlZWtseS54bWw",
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},
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"id": "forum",
"title": "Forum",
"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
"info": "KQED’s live call-in program discussing local, state, national and international issues, as well as in-depth interviews.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 9am-11am, 10pm-11pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED Forum with Mina Kim and Alexis Madrigal",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 9
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM5NTU3MzgxNjMz",
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"id": "freakonomics-radio",
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"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/freakonomicsRadio.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://freakonomics.com/",
"airtime": "SUN 1am-2am, SAT 3pm-4pm",
"meta": {
"site": "radio",
"source": "WNYC"
},
"link": "/radio/program/freakonomics-radio",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/podcasts/WNYC-Podcasts/Freakonomics-Radio-p272293/",
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},
"fresh-air": {
"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"info": "A live production of NPR and WBUR Boston, in collaboration with stations across the country, Here & Now reflects the fluid world of news as it's happening in the middle of the day, with timely, in-depth news, interviews and conversation. Hosted by Robin Young, Jeremy Hobson and Tonya Mosley.",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510051/podcast.xml"
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},
"hidden-brain": {
"id": "hidden-brain",
"title": "Hidden Brain",
"info": "Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships.",
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"airtime": "SUN 7pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "NPR"
},
"link": "/radio/program/hidden-brain",
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},
"how-i-built-this": {
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"title": "How I Built This with Guy Raz",
"info": "Guy Raz dives into the stories behind some of the world's best known companies. How I Built This weaves a narrative journey about innovators, entrepreneurs and idealists—and the movements they built.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/05/howIBuiltThis.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this",
"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
"subscribe": {
"npr": "https://rpb3r.app.goo.gl/3zxy",
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/how-i-built-this-with-guy-raz/id1150510297?mt=2",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510313/podcast.xml"
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},
"hyphenacion": {
"id": "hyphenacion",
"title": "Hyphenación",
"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Hyphenacion_FinalAssets_PodcastTile.png",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
"meta": {
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"order": 15
},
"link": "/podcasts/hyphenacion",
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"spotify": "https://open.spotify.com/show/2p3Fifq96nw9BPcmFdIq0o?si=39209f7b25774f38",
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"rss": "https://feeds.megaphone.fm/KQINC2275451163"
}
},
"jerrybrown": {
"id": "jerrybrown",
"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-Political-Mind-of-Jerry-Brown-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 18
},
"link": "/podcasts/jerrybrown",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/id1492194549",
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}
},
"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
"airtime": "MON 1am-2am, SUN 6pm-7pm",
"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "http://latinousa.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "npr"
},
"link": "/radio/program/latino-usa",
"subscribe": {
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
}
},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "American Public Media"
},
"link": "/radio/program/marketplace",
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"rss": "https://feeds.publicradio.org/public_feeds/marketplace-pm/rss/rss"
}
},
"masters-of-scale": {
"id": "masters-of-scale",
"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://mastersofscale.com/",
"meta": {
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"source": "WaitWhat"
},
"link": "/radio/program/masters-of-scale",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "http://mastersofscale.app.link/",
"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
"subscribe": {
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"link": "/radio/program/morning-edition"
},
"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "On Our Watch from NPR and KQED",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"meta": {
"site": "news",
"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1567098962",
"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510360/podcast.xml"
}
},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
}
},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
"title": "PBS NewsHour",
"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3pm-4pm",
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