The Bay

We need to spend a lot of money on green infrastructure if we want to lower emissions and adapt to the climate crisis. Supporters of Proposition 30 say this measure would help the state do just that — by raising the state income tax by 1.75% on Californians who make more than $2 million a year. That money would be guaranteed for 3 things: electric car debates, electric car charging, and wildfire s...

Launched for a third time by the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, Prop. 29 would add new rules on dialysis clinics. If approved, dialysis clinics would be required to have a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant on site during all treatment hours, among other requirements. Opponents say Prop. 29 imposes unnecessary requirements and would cause c...

Studies show that arts and music education benefit students, reducing things like depression and truancy. However, when budgets are slashed, they’re the first programs to go. The problem is exacerbated in low-income schools, which already face under-staffed and low budgeted music and arts programs, argues former Los Angeles Unified School School District Superintendent, Austin Beutner, who launche...

There’s a pair of dueling ballot measures in California that would affect whether we have legalized sports betting in the state, and what form it should take.  It’s a super expensive campaign. Prop 27 is already the most expensive ballot measure in state history. And that’s because big money is on the line. On this episode of Prop Fest, Bay Curious host Olivia Allen-Price talks to KQED’s Guy Marzo...

For the next 2 weeks, we’re teaming up with our friends at Bay Curious to bring you Prop Fest, where we’ll break down the 7 statewide ballot propositions in the November election. First up: Proposition 1. It was added to the ballot by the state legislature after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Prop 1 would amend the state constitution to include reproductive freedom, which includes...

The Not One More Girl campaign launched in 2020 after a survey of Bay Area youth found that women and girls feared for their safety when using public transportation. Spearheaded by youth, the campaign outlined ways to make BART safer. More than a year since we first aired this episode, the BART board amended its code of conduct to explicitly prohibit sexual harassment.  Guests: Haleema Bharoocha, ...

At its peak, an estimated 500 people lived in tents, vehicles, and camper vans at an encampment near San Jose’s airport. The city has tried to clear it for years, under pressure from the Federal Aviation Administration. Now, it's almost done. San Jose also promised to find housing and fix the vehicles of the people who were moved out of the encampment. But just a fraction have been moved into hous...

Communities of color in California are the most affected by violent crime. But historically, they haven't had a seat at the table when it comes to defining what survivors of violent crime want and need. Now that's starting to change. Advocacy groups, led by Black women, say that the state needs to reform and rethink the way victim support in California works. Guest: Marisa Lagos, politics and gove...

Maria Esquinca is the newest producer for The Bay, taking over after Ericka Cruz Guevarra left the position to become the host of the show.  In this episode we get to know Maria a little bit more. We talk about her hometown of El Paso, Texas (a border town nestled next to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico) burritos, poetry, and finding home in the Bay Area. KQED reporter Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli also...

The Bay Area experienced record-setting heat last week, with temperatures reaching up to 115 degrees in some parts, threatening to overload the state’s power grid.  It won’t be the last. Climate change makes it even more likely that these heat waves will be more frequent and severe. So today, we talk about takeaways from the historic heat wave, and how we just barely avoided rolling blackouts this...

In California, less than 1% of farmland is Black-owned, according to the 2017 Census of Agriculture. One such farm is in Sebastopol in Sonoma County.  EARTHseed farm is Sonoma County’s first Afro-Indigenous permaculture farm. It’s a place for Black and brown people to reconnect with indigenous land stewardship and to build community, at a time when the effects of climate change are challenging us...

Naatak is one of the largest Indian American theater companies in the country. Started in 1995 out of a dorm room at UC Berkeley, Naatak is staging its 100th production this month.  In that time, an estimated 1,000 people have participated in Naatak’s productions — all volunteers, many of whom have day jobs in the tech industry. It’s become an important part of the Indian American community in Sil...

Sonoma County is trying to set a trend for other cities in banning the construction of new gas stations. In 2021, Petaluma became the first city in the whole country to do so. Now nearly half of the county has followed suit, including Santa Rosa. For the residents who’ve pushed this forward, these bans are a small but important step to fighting climate change, in a county that has experienced some...

You’ve probably seen pictures or even smelled them by now. This past week, thousands upon thousands of dead fish have washed up on shorelines all over the Bay Area. And there are way more beneath the surface.  So, what's behind this? And is this a one-off, or a sign that we need to do something to prevent it from happening again? Guest: Jon Rosenfield, senior scientist with SF Baykeeper This episo...

Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have allowed a trial run of safe injection sites in San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles. These sites, where people can use illicit drugs under supervision, would have been the first legal ones in the state. But the idea isn’t new. Safe injection sites have been used as a harm reduction tool for decades in Canada, Australia, and in parts of Europe. The...

More than 2 years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most emergency housing protections have expired. This means millions of renters are facing eviction. Today, in an episode of The California Report Magazine, journalist Kori Suzuki tells the story of a group of tenants in Walnut Creek who tried to fight their evictions in court. Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your...

It’s official: by 2035, California will end the sale of new gas-powered vehicles. State air regulators approved the plan yesterday, but it started back in 2020 when Gov. Gavin Newsom first presented the idea through an executive order. So how big of a dent could this make in addressing the climate crisis? Guest: Kevin Stark, KQED climate editor Read the transcript This episode first aired on Sept....

Over the weekend, protesters tore down a fence that had been put up around the 24th Street Mission BART plaza at the request of San Francisco Supervisor Hilary Ronen.  Proponents of the fence said it was necessary to curb the sale of stolen goods and improve safety. Opponents said it further marginalized people who were already struggling and who relied on the public space to make a living. The fe...

Noncitizen voting isn’t a brand new idea. White, landowning, noncitizen men were once allowed to vote in 40 states. Today, a handful of cities have granted noncitizen residents the right to vote in various local elections. Until recently, San Francisco was one of them: in 2016, voters approved Proposition N, which granted the vote to noncitizen parents of SF Unified students in school board races....

A heat wave that swept through the Bay Area this week made way for fires again. That, plus a slew of other fires burning across California sent smoke hovering over areas of the state. So we thought it’d be a good time to re-evaluate how we talk about fires in the first place, so that we can better understand how to address them. Guest: Danielle Venton, Climate Reporter for KQED Read the transcript...

It’s been one year since the Taliban took control of Kabul. Millions of Afghans have fled the country, in many cases becoming separated from their families in the process. Thousands of refugees have since come to northern California, thanks to the help of resettlement agencies and Afghan community organizations. But many are still in limbo, as they try to secure permanent legal status while also j...

At elite high schools in Silicon Valley, the pressure to succeed is intense. And according to Sophia Shao, a senior at Los Altos High School, her proximity to California’s tech capital is a big reason why. In this special collaboration with KQED’s Youth Takeover, a yearlong project to highlight compelling stories written and produced by local teens, Shao talks with us about growing up in a place w...

School starts again at San Francisco Unified next week. But some teachers and staff still haven’t been fully paid what they’re owed for last year.  Since at least January, SFUSD has had problems with its new payroll system, EmpowerSF. These problems still haven’t been fully resolved, and hundreds of teachers and staff say they’re still being shortchanged. District leaders, including the new superi...

Project Roomkey is coming to an end. Its goal was to temporarily house some of the state’s most vulnerable homeless people in hotel rooms during the COVID-19 pandemic. This would also hopefully serve as a stepping stone to permanent housing.  So, how successful was Project Roomkey at getting people out of homelessness? Today, we look at how it worked in Alameda County. Guest: Vanessa Rancaño, KQED...

Ericka here, bringing you all something different for today’s episode.  Every week, our job here at The Bay is to tell stories about this place and the people in it. But recently, I got the chance to tell a different kind of story: one about…me.  Earlier this summer, the San Francisco chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association hosted a live storytelling event at KQED called Hella Asian....