A tour of toxic hot spots in the Bay Area

The reputation of the Bay Area as a haven for sustainable lifestyle practices, the cradle for the slow food movement and solar energy development reaches far and wide, but it is also the home to pockets of persistent toxic trouble spots, partly as a legacy of past manufacturing activity and partly a result of ongoing business practices. This legacy has real and detrimental effects on the lives of those who live and raise families there.

Two experienced journalists, Kwan Booth and Kim Komenich, are working for Newsdesk.org in partnership with the journalism micro-funding site Spot.us, to identify and tell the narrative of a neglected community in the Bay Area that suffers from this type of pollution and ecological degradation.

The stories come in a multimedia package of photography, audio commentary and text reporting, with the goal of creating a rich audio-visual narrative to give a voice and reveal the lives and challenges of real people who are often reduced to statistics in policy papers.

 

West Oakland Neighbors Tackle Toxic Legacy

By Kwan Booth Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour Just about any long-term West Oakland… 

 

94607: Oakland’s Childhood Asthma Hotspot

Photography and audio by Kim Komenich Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour… 

 

Toxic Tour Blog: Inside West Oakland’s ‘Breathmobile’

By Kwan Booth Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour Talking to Dr. Washington Burns the… 

 

Toxic Tour Blog: West Oakland Activist Shirley Burnell

Image and interview by Kim Komenich Crowdfund this with Spot.Us Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour Interview for Bay… 

 

Oakland is Exhausted


Diesel exhaust from trucks serving the Port of Oakland brought confrontational protests to a May 2 public meeting (right). Our latest collaboration with SPOT.US takes a multimedia look at the conflict, in the first part of a series on pollution and communities. 

Photo: Kim Komenich for Newsdesk.org 

 

Port’s Diesel Pollution Stirs West Oakland Protest

By Kwan Booth (article) and Kim Komenich (photography, audio) Crowdfund this story with Spot.Us Part One in a Series West…

 

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