The Bay

People just aren’t taking public transit like they used to.

BART’s ridership is still less than 40% of what it was before March 2020. On top of that, the agency’s federal emergency funding is scheduled to run out in January 2025.

Leaders of BART and other public transit agencies are now trying to bring back riders and find sources of funding as soon as possible. This will mean everything from new construction, increased policing, and asking for financial help from state lawmakers and voters. Will it work?

Guest: Dan Brekke, KQED editor and reporter

Episode transcript

Links:

• The Bay Survey

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and guest hosted by Guy Marzorati.

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If you’ve been to the City of Alameda, you’ve probably noticed its beautiful Victorian homes lining the shore of the San Francisco Bay. This has been by design. For decades the city has fought against building new housing, but last November, members of Alameda City council agreed that it was time for a change. They passed a plan to build over 6400 new housing units on the island, making Alameda the first Bay Area city to get its housing plan approved by the state.

The state requires cities to come up with these new plans, called “housing elements,”every 8 years. Until recently, cities have ignored them. But now, more pressure is coming from voters, developers, and Gov. Gavin Newsom — and cities that don’t comply could face steep consequences. 

Guest: Adhiti Bandlamudi, KQED housing producer/reporter 

Links: 

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In early February, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Here in California, we know the Big One is coming someday. In fact, the same kind of fault runs across our state.

This makes it all the more important to be prepared. So today, we’re sharing an episode with former KQED science reporter Peter Arcuni, who narrated his experience creating an earthquake preparedness plan over the course of 4 days.

Episode transcript

This episode originally aired on October 18, 2019. This episode was originally produced by Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Kyana Moghadam, Julie Caine, and Erika Aguilar.

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Workers at nonprofits like the Felton Institute are on the front lines of our region’s biggest problems, like poverty, homelessness, and addiction. Employees say the work is meaningful yet grueling, with low pay and high turnover.

For nearly 3 years now, a group of workers at Felton, one of the Bay’s oldest social service agencies, have been campaigning to unionize the organization’s nearly 500 employees. But the campaign is currently in limbo, as organizers encounter difficulties reaching their co-workers across 7 counties. The union, SEIU Local 21, has also accused managers at Felton of retaliating against workers trying to unionize, filing 10 unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board.

Guest: Holly J. McDede, KQED producer/reporter 

Links:

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra.

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For many members of the public, COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror. People are tired. Governments have dropped things like mask and vaccine mandates. And the virus isn’t as lethal as it once was.

On the other hand, this virus is still very much a part of our lives, especially for people who are vulnerable, immunocompromised, or have long COVID.

Now, California is going to end its COVID state of emergency at the end of month. We’ll dive into what that means.

Guest: Carly Severn, KQED senior engagement editor

Links:

This episode was produced by Maria Esquinca and Jehlen Herdman, and guest hosted by Alan Montecillo, who also edited.

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Originally from The Bronx, New York, Dave “Davey D” Cook was there when this thing we call hip-hop was in its nascent form, before it even had a name. When he arrived in the Bay Area in the early ’80s, one of his missions as a UC Berkeley student was to lend some insight to this burgeoning culture. So he put on a few events, one of which was The Day in Hip-Hop on Oct. 24, 1984. Rightnowish host Pendarvis Harshaw looks back on that day with Davey D, and traces how far hip hop has come since — in the Bay Area and beyond.  

This episode of Rightnowish first published on Feb. 1, 2023. It’s part of That’s My Word, KQED’s year-long exploration of Bay Area hip-hop history, with new content dropping all throughout 2023.

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Crisis pregnancy centers, or anti-abortion centers, are designed to look like community health clinics. But the vast majority of them don’t have a medical license, and all of them have an explicit goal: to persuade people to not have an abortion. 

There are thousands of these centers all over the country. They advertise aggressively — especially in lower-income communities of color — and are in many cases located directly next to abortion clinics. And despite California’s reputation as a sanctuary state for abortion rights, there are more crisis pregnancy centers than abortion centers in our state.

Guest: Emma Silvers, KQED digital editor/producer

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra.

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In November 2020, then-San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin filed criminal charges against former SFPD officer Christopher Samayoa. In 2017, Samayoa, who had been on the force for just 4 days, shot and killed 42-year old Keita O’Neil through a police vehicle window. 

But now, Boudin’s successor, Brooke Jenkins, has announced she plans to drop the charges, arguing that Boudin pursued the case for "political reasons and not in the interests of justice." Meanwhile, O’Neil’s aunt, April Green, says she told the DA “all that blood from killing and murders you're justifying from police are going to be on your head.” She has stated that she does not trust Jenkins to prosecute the officer who killed her nephew.

Guest: Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez, KQED politics reporter

Links:

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca. Jehlen Herdman is our intern. Ericka Cruz Guevarra is the host. 

Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts.

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Last spring, workers at Chevron’s Richmond refinery went on strike for 10 weeks, demanding higher pay, better health benefits, and safer working conditions. When the strike ended, union leaders say that Chevron initially encouraged managers and workers to put the strike behind them.

But now, USW Local 5, the union representing Richmond refinery workers, alleges Chevron has fired at least 5 workers for their role in the strikes, a claim that Chevron denies.

Guest: Ted Goldberg, KQED supervising senior editor for news

Links:

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca, and hosted by Ericka Cruz Guevarra.

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The Here/There homeless encampment was familiar to anybody who drove between Oakland and Berkeley. The camp had its roots in the Bay Area’s Occupy movements in the early 2010s, and was founded in 2017 to highlight the problem of homelessness. It once had its own structure, rules, and a good relationship with the neighborhood.

But over the last few years, the camp changed. Its founders passed away and people moved on. And last week, the city officially closed it down.

Read the episode transcript

Guest: Supriya Yelimeli, Berkeleyside housing and homelessness reporter

Links:

This episode was produced by Alan Montecillo and Maria Esquinca. Jehlen Herdman is our intern. Ericka Cruz Guevarra is the host. 

Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts.

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