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In ‘Deep East’ Oakland, youths pegged as criminals say police harassment spurs more violence

Crosscurrents on KALW Public Radio — Oct 7 2009 - 3:39pm

For many, the police are here to serve and protect. The men and women in blue are those we call when we’re in trouble. And no part of Oakland is more in need of policing than the streets between the East 70s avenues and the East 100s avenues — stretching from the base of the hills to the bottom of the flatlands — or what residents call the “Deep East.”

It is where over one-third of the city’s 124 homicides occurred last year. But many of the youths living on these dangerous streets don’t welcome the police as protectors — they consider them the enemy.

Environmentalists, preservationists face off in Parkmerced

Alison Hawkes, KALW Public Radio — Feb 18 2010 - 5:08pm

KALW Public Radio reporter Alison Hawkes took a closer look at Parkmerced, where owners are pitching a 30-year plan to transform the site into a low-carbon community. For developers, it’s a test to see if “green” can stand for both environmental sustainability and the color of money. Hawkes found the drive for a clean new future is clashing with the past.

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Oakland’s community policing program continues to face challenges

Sandhya Dirks, Crosscurrents on KALW Public Radio — Oct 28 2009 - 3:49pm

Officer Clay Burch is one part of the three-pronged approach that makes up Measure Y, in which community police are complemented by street outreach teams. PSOs and outreach teams link young people to the actual programs that help create foundations for a better life. And for Burch, improving Oakland’s toughest neighborhoods happens one building, and one person, at a time.

Special sign district on SF’s Mid-Market faces ‘uphill battle’

Marjorie Beggs, Central City Extra — Oct 16 2009 - 2:39pm

Warfield Building owner David Addington said he spent several years, working to bring general advertising back on Market Street from Fifth to Seventh streets, in hopes of returning the central city stretch to its former glory days as a theater district.

Although his enthusiasm for the special district hasn’t dimmed, a sense of reality has crept in as opposition to the initiative, Proposition D, mounts.

Hellman and partners to launch Bay Area newsroom

Steve Jones, San Francisco Bay Guardian — Sep 24 2009 - 2:09pm

San Francisco Bay Guardian
San Francisco financier Warren Hellman – in partnership with KQED, the UC Berkeley School of Journalism and perhaps even the New York Times – is about to launch a nonprofit, locally focused, online news organization with a medium-sized newsroom of full-time journalists, Hellman has confirmed to the Guardian.

Public Press/KALW budget roundtable examines city’s fiscal crisis

Christopher D. Cook, The Public Press — Aug 24 2009 - 9:04pm

The Public Press and KALW (91.7 FM) teamed up for a budget roundtable that aired Aug. 17 on the “Crosscurrents” news program. A panel of local experts offered a lively and informative on-the-air discussion about San Francisco’s budget crisis and its impacts on residents and communities.

A tour of toxic hot spots in the Bay Area

www.newsdesk.org — Jun 2 2009 - 4:38pm

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.

State lacks control over grant spending, audit finds

G.W. Schulz, Center for Investigative Reporting — Apr 10 2009 - 10:40am

Local officials in California failed to properly account for millions of dollars spent on homeland security efforts in the state, made dubious purchases that may not make communities safer, and could have overpaid millions by not seeking competitive bidding for equipment, according to an audit by the inspector general of the US Department of Homeland Security.

In one example cited, a California county bought a $96,600 generator to provide its public works department with emergency power during a catastrophe but didn't factor in a $130,000 overhaul of its electrical system needed to accommodate the generator. So nearly two years after the purchase, the new equipment wasn't ready for a disaster and might never be, county leaders admitted.

In spite of budget woes, Muni expects to improve commuter service

Tom Prete, Mar 22 2009 - 7:07am

For years, a lack of information left Muni in the dark about what it was doing well, what it had to improve and what its riders actually needed. But a proposed shuffling of resources following the Transit Effectiveness Project, a massive systemwide study, would add more frequent service and extend routes on some express lines serving city commuters.

When the Longevity Revolution Hits Your Town: A Gray Wave Hits Home

Cecily O'Connor, RedwoodAge — Jan 30 2009 - 1:21pm

Changes in cities over the next two decades will be driven by the "longevity revolution" as the ranks of US adults over 60 soar and many more lifespans stretch past the century mark. While these changes present challenges to cities that are ill-equipped or unprepared, they also serve as a wake-up call to tap into the skill and expertise of older adults. These elders represent a key to the solutions, whether it's through volunteer work, sharing professional experience or helping families with childcare.