Since the pandemic began, state and local officials have been racing against time to get homeless Californians off the streets and into shelter, but after a year of effort, will the progress that's been made last? 

On this edition of How to Bay Area, we're going to discuss how advocates are hoping to build on the momentum of the past year and move closer to ending the region's homelessness crisis once and for all. 

Guests: 

• Danny Goddard, formerly homeless San Jose resident
• Andrea Urton, chief executive officer, HomeFirst Services of Santa Clara County
• Margot Kushel, professor of medicine, UCSF | director, UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations

Host: Keith Menconi 

Election day is coming up in just a few days, and if you haven't cast your ballot already the window for mail-in voting is closing fast, but there are still plenty of other ways to get that vote counted: So on this mini-edition of How to Bay Area we lay out all the options that remain for last-minute voters and also explain what changes might be in store when you get to your polling place. 

Guest: Kim Alexander, president and founder, California Voter Foundation

Host: Keith Menconi

On this edition of How to Bay Area we take closer look at masks, the funny face protectors that have sparked so much controversy since this pandemic began (and as we discover, long before then as well). Over the course of the program we speak with three expert guests on the best masking practices, as well as what the latest science has to say about mask effectiveness. We also take a closer look at Bay Area history to find out what the region's last bout with pandemic has to teach us today as we sort through one Covid controversy after another. 

Guests: 

• Nicole Meldahl, executive director of the Western Neighborhoods Project history nonprofit in San Francisco  
• Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease physician at UC San Francisco
• Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, a Bay Area infectious disease physician and also a biosecurity fellow with the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

Host: Keith Menconi 

On this edition of How to Bay Area, we consider the monumental effort to prepare the Bay Area for reopening from the Covid-19 lockdown, and why it is that health officials still believe that work is not yet done. 

Guest: Dr. Marm Kilpatrick, who studies infectious diseases at UC Santa Cruz’s Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Host: Keith Menconi 

Even the most rigorous social distancers among us will most likely need to venture outside every now and then, so when we do, how can we avoid bringing the virus back inside with us? On this edition of How to Bay Area, we speak with Annelys Roque Gardner -- an infectious disease specialist with UC San Francisco -- who gives us the same advice she’s giving to her friends and family about how to best keep homes clean, safe, and virus free.

Host: Keith Menconi 

Programming note: This edition features an expanded interview from a recent KCBS In Depth program

When it comes to sheltering in place it seems like there shouldn’t be that much too it: stay there, don’t move. But life is more complicated than that, and it’s pretty clear that different Bay Area residents have decided to interpret these orders in different ways. So on this edition of How to Bay Area, we speak with social epidemiologist Carolyn Cannuscio to hear it from the expert, what are the safest social distancing practices during the coronavirus pandemic?  

Host: Keith Menconi 

Programming note: This edition features an expanded interview from a recent KCBS In Depth program

Here in the Bay Area the number of people infected with coronavirus can still be counted on one hand, and all of them so far appear to have been isolated before they spread the illness more widely. 

Spreading faster though: fear about the illness. And that fear is at times manifesting itself in ugly ways, including numerous reports of harassment targeted against Asian Americans. But if coronavirus concern isn't going anywhere, is there a more productive way to direct those worries?  

On this edition of How to Bay Area we'll be discussing how Bay Area residents can better respond to coronavirus risks. In the first segment, we check in with two Bay Area health experts who have been working to prevent the spread of the illness to learn more about the current risks for the region. Then in the second half of the program we speak with two psychology experts and consider how to better react to our own overreactions. 

Guests: 

• Dr. Sara Cody, the director of Santa Clara County’s Public Health Department and a county health officer
• Dr. Charles Chiu, a Professor of Laboratory Medicine and infectious disease at the University of California, San Francisco
• Roxane Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science, public health and medicine at the University of California, Irvine who has studied the psychological toll of past health scares
• Sherry Wang, professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University who wrote an opinion piece for the the San Francisco Chronicle with advice on how to combat discrimination fueled by the coronavirus scare

Host: KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi 

As fire season gets ready to blaze into full force communities around California are getting ready too. In some places this means clearing out excess vegetation, elsewhere it means hardening homes to make them more resilient to fire -- but no matter the work, it's more and more clear that Californians are approaching it with a new sense of urgency prompted by the past two years of devastating fire seasons. 

On this edition of How to Bay Area we speak to fire prevention experts to learn about the work we should all be doing to prepare our homes, our communities and ourselves for fire season. This will include practical home hardening tips as well as explainers on how to interpret the torrent of information that broadcasts out from disaster zones when fires begin. 

Host: KCBS reporter Keith Menconi

Guests: 

• Todd Lando, executive coordinator at Fire Safe Marin
• Michele Steinberg, the wildfire division director at the National Fire Protection Association 
• Lucas Spelman, Cal Fire Battalion Chief 

Resources:

• Firewise, a national program from the National Fire Protection Association, which recognizes communities that meet certain fire safety standards and provides those communities with support. Learn how to become a Firewise site here. And learn how to prepare your home for wildfire here.  
• Cal Fire's Ready Fore Wildfire website with more helpful information on how to prevent the spread of wildfires. 

Production Note:

This edition of How to Bay Area first aired on KCBS as an episode of In Depth. This version of the program has been expanded to include more tips on fire prevention than we could fit in the broadcast. 

There was a time when the Bay Area was home to highly visible queer communities full of LGBTQ-friendly businesses. And while you do still have plenty of rainbow flags in the Castro, if you look past the obvious symbols, the character of these neighborhoods has changed dramatically with many of those businesses shutting down and many long-time residents pushed out by the high cost of living.

So on this edition of How to Bay Area we speak with the people at ground zero of this change to find out what they feel like they’re losing and what they are fighting to preserve.

Through the course of this episode we learn how this preservation work is being carried out, how community organizers are adapting their work to the internet age and also offer practical advice on how to find queer-friendly housing in the Bay Area. 

Hosts: 

KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi and KCBS Radio production assistant Mary Hughes 

Guests: 

• Terra Haywood, co-owner and business operations manager for The Stud
• Jolene Linsangan, owner of Jolene’s Bar
• Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society
• Brian Basinger, executive director of the Q Foundation
• Juanita MORE!, creator of Juanita's List (and much more!)

Resources:

Here are some of the queer-friendly housing resources mentioned in this episode. 

• Juanita's List, a Facebook group connecting members of the LGBTQ community to queer-friendly housing in the Bay Area
• Gay Area Queer Housing S.F. Bay Area, another Facebook group carrying out similar work
• Q Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit providing support and advocacy for those facing homelessness with a special focus on members of the LGBTQ community and those living with HIV/AIDS; among its services, the group provides assistance to those seeking public housing support in San Francisco. 
• Dahlia, San Francisco's public housing portal
• The Bill Wilson Center, a Santa Clara-based service organization for at-risk or homeless youth and families. Their LGBTQ-specific housing programs include BWC Connections, LGBTQ Host Homes and their LGBTQ Transitional Living Program. 
• LifeMoves, a housing and service organization operating on the Peninsula and within Silicon Valley; the group just opened a new homeless shelter for LGBTQ adults in downtown San Jose.

Special thanks to Housing Trust Silicon Valley for helping to connect us with some of the organization's mentioned in this episode. 

There are many sources of Bay Area angst -- the high cost of housing, the high cost of living, homelessness, the threat of wildfires -- but traffic stands out as an especially sore spot. There’s just something about it that grinds on our nerves and makes all our other headaches even more difficult to deal with. And like those other challenges the traffic problem isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

On this edition of How to Bay Area, we speak to traffic experts of several stripes to find out how the traffic situation got so bad and what could be done to make it better.

We also provide practical advice on how you can use KCBS and other resources to shorten your drive time. And to close out the program we speak to a San Francisco-based stress expert to learn how we can all better cope with the mental strain that seems to be an all too common side effect of the Bay Area's punishing commutes. 

Hosts: KCBS Radio Reporters Keith Menconi and Jenna Lane.

Guests:

• KCBS Radio Traffic Reporters George Rask, John Atkinson, Kim Wonderley, Bob Pryor
• John Goodwin, transportation expert and a public information officer for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission
• Jason Henderson, professor of geography at San Francisco State University studying the politics of urban transportation 
• Jonathan Horowitz, clinical psychologist and director of the Stress and Anxiety Center in San Francisco

Show Notes: 

You can find weekly traffic tips by checking out Bob Pryor's traffic blog on the KCBS Radio website. He'll clue you in to major events -- like parades, sports games, or large-scale construction -- that will be gumming up the ride so you'll know where not to drive during your commute and weekend excursions. 

Portions of this How to Bay Area podcast were broadcast on KCBS Radio's weekly interview program, In Depth.