The Bay

The killing of George Floyd led to protests in South San Francisco, and the creation of a youth-led activist group called Change SSF.

These last few months have also exposed a generational divide about how quickly the city should make changes — and how sweeping they should be. And that divide is also showing itself in South San Francisco's race for city council, where a 22-year-old political newcomer is running against the city's longtime mayor.

Guest: Adhiti Bandlamudi, Silicon Valley reporter for KQED News

This episode is part of our series on how protests on policing and racial justice are showing up on Bay Area ballots and beyond. Click here to listen to the story of the local police shooting at the center of this year's city council race in Walnut Creek. And click here to listen to how Martinez residents are growing an infrastructure for activism in their community.

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Martinez isn't known for its activism. But after George Floyd was killed, and after a white couple defaced a Black Lives Matter mural in Martinez, many residents decided it was time for that to change.

Now, they've started a conversation about race in Martinez that hasn't really happened in public before. That conversation has been difficult, especially with local leaders — but activists say this is just the beginning of a long struggle to build the Martinez they want.

Guest: Devin Katayama, The Bay host and reporter

This episode is part of how protests on policing and racial justice are showing up on Bay Area ballots and beyond. Tap here to listen to the story of the local police shooting at the center of this year's city council race in Walnut Creek.

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Miles Hall was shot and killed by Walnut Creek police a year before many residents joined national protests supporting Black lives this past summer. The Hall family and friends have been showing up at City Council meetings demanding justice for a year, but it wasn't until George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police that more people began pressuring local politicians.

Now half of the eight City Council candidates in Walnut Creek are running because of what happened to Hall, and some activists see this election as a referendum for how much this wealthy, mostly white Bay Area suburb supports Black lives.

Guest: Ericka Cruz Guevarra, producer and reporter for The Bay

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Bela Gonzalez and Louie Licea are 15. Both of their parents are essential workers and need to leave the house every day.

It's all pretty stressful. And it's also brought more responsibility: while their parents are gone, Bela and Louie take care of their little sister, Mia.

Guests: Sasha Khokha, host of The California Report Magazine, Bela Gonzales and Louie Licea

This episode originally ran in April 2020.

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On Tuesday, a California court ruled that officials at San Quentin State Prison have to either transfer or release half of the facility's population. That's because the outbreak at San Quentin got so bad that roughly 2,200 people got sick with COVID-19. 28 people have died.

Today, we're revisiting how the outbreak first started at the beginning of the summer — and what incarcerated people and their loved ones were warning and worrying about at the time.

Guest: Kate Wolffe, KQED reporter

This episode originally aired on June 26, 2020.

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Housing is not a human right in the United States. But more people are saying it should be.

That growing movement has roots here in the Bay Area, where it's been nearly a year since the mothers behind Moms 4 Housing first occupied a house on Magnolia Street in West Oakland. Earlier this month, the moms announced that the home would soon be used for transitional housing.

In the latest episode of the KQED podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America, hosts Molly Solomon and Erin Baldassari dive deep into what it would actually mean to make housing a right.

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Generations of Armenians and descendants of those who escaped the Armenian Genocide have found refuge in San Francisco. That’s the epicenter of a robust church community center and where Armenian Americans can celebrate their culture, history and heritage. It’s also where a recent spate of suspected hate crimes are raising fears about the current border conflict — and painful memories of violence.

Guest: Nastia Voynovskaya, KQED Arts and Culture editor and reporter

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Community fridges have been popping up all over the Bay since the pandemic began as a form of mutual aid, which has deep roots here. There's a long history of this kind of community care, especially around food insecurity.

Private companies have also used similar language to describe some of their own efforts. But KQED food writer and columnist Ruth Gebreyesus writes that the values of mutual aid are distinct — and worth protecting.

Guest: Ruth Gebreyesus, food reporter and columnist for KQED Arts and Culture

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Proposition 25 is the culmination of a long fight over the bail system in California. A win for the "Yes" vote would uphold a law that abolishes cash bail and replaces it with a system that uses "risk assessment" algorithms to help judges decide whether to keep people locked up before trial. A win for the "No" vote would stop these changes and keep cash bail in place.

The bail industry is in the "No" camp, but so are some progressive groups who think this new system would also be unjust and want the state legislature to go back to the drawing board on bail reform. That's why the campaign around Prop 25 isn't just about the merits of cash bail — it's about whether or not this is the state's best chance to end it for good.

Guest: Marisa Lagos, KQED politics correspondent and co-host of the Political Breakdown podcast

Click here to check out KQED's California Voter Guide, which includes information on statewide propositions, local measures, and voting.

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Distance learning is hard enough. And once you get past acquiring the technology needed to make it happen, there’s an additional step for many immigrant families and Indigenous-language speakers: figuring out how to log on and communicate with your teachers. In Oakland Unified School District, where about half of students speak a language other than English at home, supporting all students has been a struggle.

Guests: Madeleine Bair, founding director of El Tímpano and Ashley McBride, Education Equity reporter for The Oaklandside

You can find the full story at The Oaklandside.

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