The Bay

What if we looked at solving the Bay Area’s housing crisis from a regional lens? Could we come up with solutions that actually work? It’s often said …

The debate over whether gig workers are employees or contractors has been a slow, messy conversation. Now, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, is trying to help broker a deal between the two sides. But some drivers …

PG&E says it has no choice but to enter Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and that it’s going to file papers around Jan. 29. A lot of things led …

Valero spent $200,000 in last year’s Benicia city council election to help elect two candidates who were less critical of the company than others. That’s created tension between the oil refiner and the city, leading …

About 40 percent of students in the Salinas City Elementary School District are considered homeless. This can mean living in a shelter or living in …

The San Mateo County district attorney is looking to reopen an investigation against a fired Burlingame police officer. The cop was accused by three …

Food says a lot about who we are. It can identify where we come from and what we like. In some cases, it may even let us know when we’re being racist. In a way, that’s a starting point for the San Francisco Chronicle’s …

Getting access to police records has never been easy. Especially when the records involve allegations of police wrongdoing. A new California law – SB …

See ya, 2018. What up, 2019! We’ve produced almost 150 episodes of The Bay covering all kinds of local news from e-scooters, to housing policies and …

Ten years ago, in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, Oscar Grant was shot and killed by Bart police officer, Johannes Mehserle. This was one …

We jump into a stranger’s car and take a ride over the Bay Bridge in the “casual carpool lane” to talk about higher bridge tolls. Our carpool driver …

#WhileBlack was a popular hashtag in 2018. This year we watched several videos on social media that included white people harassing black people …

This was a big year for people of color in lead movie roles — especially for culture, language and accents that are not English or American. One of …

What happens when the people most invested in trying to make the Bay Area a better place decide to LEAVE entirely? Gabriel Metcalf is the outgoing president of the Bay Area think tank SPUR, and he’s moving to take a …

In December 2016, Lindsay McCollum and Eddie “Tennessee” Tate were shot and killed in San Francisco’s Mission District. The two were homeless and …

Mention electric scooters and people usually react with an eye roll. It’s associated with the newness of the tech culture of the Bay Area. Some see …

Most landlords in San Jose don’t take Section 8 housing vouchers. And housing advocates see the vouchers as a proxy for race, or keeping out people …

Veronica Aguilar crossed the U.S.-Mexico border seeking asylum from El Salvador earlier this year. She’s staying with a host family in Pinole while …

Here’s a new one: stacking homes on top of a city bus yard. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency wants to build housing on top of its Potrero bus yard right across the street from KQED studios. Their idea …

We need homes near transit. But the first time state Sen. Scott Wiener introduced a bill, SB 827, that would have required cities to approve dense …

This isn’t supposed to be your traditional tech campus. Google says it wants to build a village inside San Jose that will be open to the public, different from how most tech campuses operate. It’s expected to have …

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced a $6 million donation he is making to subsidize five years of rent for formerly homeless residents who will move into a renovated apartment …

The city of Oakland wasn’t pleased when a group of homeless people moved to a vacant lot in East Oakland in October. After the city posted a notice to vacate, the homeless residents went to court to stop the eviction. …

Harvey Milk and the city of San Francisco gives many people the “permission” they need to fight for gay rights in other places. The Castro became a …

When rain begins to fall on Butte County this week, some will be sleeping on the streets. The Camp Fire displaced tens of thousands of people, many of whom are struggling to do basic things: find shelter, see a doctor, …

A small number of people — spouses of H1B visa holders — were given the right to work under a special type of visa created under President Obama in …

Paradise was a city where a lot of people already carried more than their share of trauma from childhood. Now, as many work to piece their lives back together they have the added weight of trauma from the Camp Fire. Our …

After two fires burned right up to the edge of town in 2008, the town of Paradise made a plan. It divided itself into evacuation zones. It went so …

Caviar, Postmates, Uber Eats…the Bay Area’s tech family gave us food delivery apps. And there are plenty of gig workers willing to drive us this …

People from the Bay Area or those who live here are a proud bunch. But how do you define this magical place? Do you use geography to draw the boundaries? Maybe it’s about sports teams and their fan bases or where BART …

Resistance. That’s been the call of many, including those in the Bay Area who have led the country in resisting President Trump’s attacks on marginalized people and the state’s liberal ideals. We’ll hear from those who …

School bond measures almost always pass. More money for schools – and by extension, kids – seems like an obvious yes. But less attention is given to …

Gab.ai is like Twitter without any restrictions. Gab is also where a man named Robert Bowers posted comments before allegedly shooting and killing 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Today: what Silicon Valley is doing …

Are you embarrassed to share your salary? Yeah, a lot of us are. Software engineer Jackie Luo makes the case that we can’t improve the pay gap (for …

We don’t often hear about priests abusing their adult parishioners. As advocates renew calls for accountability for priests accused of abusing …

John Carlos and Tommie Smith both won medals in the same track event at the 1968 Olympic games in Mexico City. On the medal stand, both raised …

Power is important. Both the kind that lets us switch on the lights and the kind that gives people the ability to make decisions for us. Tens of thousands of Northern California residents lost power over the weekend …

Oakland sure has a lot of vacant properties, despite being in the middle of a housing crisis. In November, voters will decide whether the city should …

New homes are popping up in Santa Rosa one year after the Northern California fires. Some are rebuilding in the exact same spots. Others are worried about losing everything again when the next fire comes, including …

Kayla Swaim lived in Coffey Park, the Santa Rosa neighborhood that was destroyed a year ago in the Tubbs Fire. She lost everything, including her sense of safety. It’s been a year of rebuilding. She has since gotten …

Do you ever wish you had a coupon that would give you a discount on what you pay for your house? Proposition 13 is kind of like that. Now Proposition …

Most people run from a fire. Some journalists go toward it. Two reporters at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, winner of a 2018 Pulitzer Prize for its …

Christine Blasey Ford’s and Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony riveted Americans to their screens on Thursday. People gathered in Oakland, Palo Alto, San Francisco and elsewhere to watch the historic Supreme Court nomination …

After a police killing, it can be hard to get a clear picture of what exactly happened. Like the case of Mario Woods, who was shot and killed by San …

If you use Uber or Lyft in San Francisco, you’re no doubt helping to kill the taxi cab industry. But the city didn’t help either when it started charging $250,000 for taxi medallions as the ride service companies were …

Parents hate it, for sure. But more than that, the schools selection process has created even more segregated student bodies. The goal was the exact …

Silicon Valley got its start with a man who was regarded as a genius and won a Nobel prize. But William Shockley was also a racist and eugenicist who promoted sterilizations of black Americans. A new monument in …

Your car says a lot about you. It can tell people how much money you have. It can say, “I care about the environment.” And while we know that the adoption of electric cars is key to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, …

Imagine attending a yoga class and finding yourself in a situation where your instructor has violated your personal space by sexually abusing you. …

Writer Iris Kuo knows what it feels like to forget her wallet and still walk out of a fancy department store with a bag full of merchandise: It feels …

We can’t freakin’ believe it! The Bay has produced 100 episodes that represent the moment in time the Bay Area’s going through. Today, Devin, Erika and Vinnee (The Bay team) talk about some of their favorite episode …

Fentanyl is partly to blame for a rise in *drug* overdose deaths, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control report. Officials say the …

Trump may have been the catalyst for some California women seeking political office, but their campaigns are driven by local issues. The KQED special …

LuPaulette Taylor has worked for decades at McClymonds High School in West Oakland. McClymonds is a school where only around 15 percent of teachers …

Imagine fighting the largest wildfire in California history and Verizon says you’d have to upgrade your plan if you want faster internet to get your maps and documents. That’s what happened to a couple of Santa Clara …

Midriffs, pajamas, and ball caps are all allowed this year at Alameda schools. A group of middle school students worked for three years to change a …

Green bins, blue bins, black bins. San Francisco is known for being super progressive when it comes to the environment. But some say the city’s behind the curve on this one thing: water. This week state water officials …

Mansions. A multimillion-dollar wedding. Sexy characters in swank settings. The release of Crazy Rich Asians is a cultural event onscreen and off. …

There aren’t that many people riding buses into San Francisco’s new $2 billion transbay terminal. At least not when compared to the city’s first terminal that opened in 1939. So how will the new transit hub that opened …

Kelly Johnson’s last days were his final act. He was a Bay Area musician, a dancer, a vaudeville act — a performer for life. Johnson used the End of Life Option Act that has been law in California since June 2016. The …

Fire drip torches, dozers, and prevailing winds – just some of the tools firefighters are using to battle the blazes engulfing California. With fires …

California voters are going to make the biggest rent control decision ever in November. If Proposition 10 is approved, it would repeal a law known as …

Waiting at the DMV can be hell, but you gotta go. Over the last year, wait times at Bay Area DMVs increased 48 percent. We take a trip to the DMV (it’s more fun than it sounds) and look at what’s causing these delays …

Some people in the Bay Area paid hundreds of dollars to see a speech by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the new liberal Democratic star from New York. She …

This week, the first black “Peanuts” cartoon character turns 50, marking the first time that Charlie Brown and Franklin met. It all started with a …

Can big tech companies call themselves progressive? One of Silicon Valley’s biggest CEOs says he has identified as progressive. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says he felt conflicted once about whether to charge people to use …

Do you work in tech? Have you bought a home recently? Use Uber? Postmates? And you live in San Francisco? Well then, you might be part of the so-called Outer Party, one of the four informal “castes” in San Francisco …

No one knows how to run a protest like Bay Area activists. In fact, faith leaders and Black Lives Matter activists from the Bay brought their strategies to the U.S.-Mexico border near San Diego to protest family …

It cost $1.3 billion for the federal government to clean up after the fires that devastated Northern California last October. Through the process, one worker died, others were injured, and many homeowners still have …

Oakland is having a moment on the big screen. This weekend Blindspotting will be released, the third movie this year featuring the city that is …

A journalist at the East Bay Express wrote about Napa’s BottleRock music festival and criticized it for being by and for white people. Then the paper’s publisher took down the stories and used the N-word in a meeting. …

Sam Vogelstein was having as many as 100 seizures a day. His parents tried more than 20 different medications. Then they stumbled on research showing the benefits of a marijuana-based drug. After trying to buy and make …

There are no banks in East Palo Alto – a city surrounded by some of the wealthiest communities in the Bay Area. There is one lone ATM, though. We’ll take you there and meet some people who say being ignored by banks is …

When Ed Lee died on Dec. 12, 2017, London Breed was suddenly thrust into acting as San Francisco’s mayor. Six weeks later, she was booted from that …

A standing room-only crowd of tech workers from the most iconic Silicon Valley companies met last week in the Mission District of San Francisco. They were there to talk about how to organize against the very companies …

The Golden State Warriors have not always been the golden team. Oakland fans supported the Warriors through decades of losing seasons and rode the …

The original sideshows were pop-up parties — part car show, part block party. They first bubbled up in mall parking lots of Deep East Oakland in the …

The lines at La Taqueria in San Francisco’s Mission District are long. Business picked up after getting named the No. 1 burrito in the country back in 2014. But some workers say the company wasn’t properly compensating …

Homelessness in Bay Area has become a common sight; one we even try to avoid. When KQED reporter Dan Brekke interviewed one man named Perry Foster, …

More than a thousand people have evacuated their homes because of the Pawnee Fire in Lake County. The wildfire that started Saturday has destroyed at least 22 buildings. It’s a reoccurring nightmare; wildfires have …

The fire that ignited at the Sims Metal Management scrap yard site in January alarmed a lot of people who live in the city of Richmond. It got them …

The Trump administration’s fight against sanctuary policies is now being litigated in federal court. The first hearing was Wednesday in Sacramento. …

A recent survey showed nearly half of Bay Area residents say they’ll likely leave the region in a few years. KQED wanted to know where you’re going, why and how you feel about that. These are your answers and phone …

On May 5th, 2017 the power went out at the Valero oil refinery in Benicia. Above the refinery, flares blazed and released thick clouds of black …

When ICE raided Northern California cities in February, they arrested more people than they expected. But you wouldn’t have known that from the Trump …

The Golden State Warriors have not always been the golden team. Oakland fans have supported the Warriors through decades of losing seasons and rode …

Huedell Freeman was hauling 47 pounds of marijuana from a farm in Mendocino County to a medical dispensary in Los Angeles when two Rohnert Park …

Flavored tobacco gets booted out of San Francisco. On Tuesday, voters passed Proposition E with 69 percent of the vote, making the city the first in the nation to pass such a comprehensive ordinance banning all flavored …

#TBT on The Bay: Sixty percent of voters decided to remove Aaron Persky from his judgeship in Santa Clara County. He’s the judge who handed a six-month sentence to former Stanford athlete Brock Turner after Turner was …

Hang out with The Bay team as we wait for results from the June 5 primary. It’s time to eat newsroom pizza and hit the refresh button over and over …

The three top candidates running for mayor in San Francisco will have the chance to be the city’s “first” in some way. But does a candidate’s …

Many of the Bay Area’s largest fire agencies are failing to inspect apartment buildings and schools. An analysis by the Bay Area News Group looked at …

Billboards adorned with giant pot leaves line Bay Area freeways. This can make it hard for parents to ignore that awkward coming of age conversation about drugs. Our health editor, who’s also a parent, says drug …

Antioch has waited decades for a BART station. The city has seen a population boom led by the Bay Area’s housing crisis, which has pushed people …

If you’re voting in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley or San Leandro … you get three votes! Kind of. Today, we explain how ranked-choice voting works, …

Two deaths by police. Zero charges. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón said Thursday that his hands are tied and he won’t be prosecuting …

District 15 isn’t your normal district. At a forum in Berkeley, East Bay candidates for State Assembly are asked to do something they almost never do on the campaign trail: validate their opponent’s point of view.

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We jump into a stranger’s car on the Bay Bridge in the “casual carpool lane” to talk about raising bridge tolls. Our carpool driver and rider join in …

The costs of processing crime in San Francisco has left the city’s convicted criminals with millions of dollars in unpaid debt. Many people can’t …

Calle 24. Japantown. The Leather District. These are all neighborhoods in San Francisco that the city has formally recognized as cultural districts. …

Oakland has lost a battle with coal. A judge ruled Tuesday to uphold a contract that lets a developer ship coal through an Oakland port. Developer …

San Francisco supervisors were not happy with answers they got on Monday from the company accused of falsifying soil data at Hunters Point. In recent weeks, we learned two pleaded guilty to faking reports, and there is …

Oakland’s Lake Merritt is supposed to be a public space for everyone. But it doesn’t feel that way when white residents complain about the way black residents use the park. So how did people respond when a white woman …

For a housing starved San Francisco, Hunters Point might look like a developers dreamland. The area has large plots of land, a waterfront and …

There are few women in tech. There are even fewer women of color in tech, which can be isolating. At a women’s mixer in Mountain View for Google …

Judge Aaron Persky is facing a recall election in June after sentencing a former Stanford student-athlete Brock Turner to six months in jail for …

Thousands of University of California union employees are on strike this week amid failed contract negotiations. Among them are gardeners, janitors, nurses aides and food service workers who say the Bay Area’s expensive …

San Francisco named the Julius Kahn Playground located in the Presidio after the congressman who represented the city in the early 1900s. But his …

Chinatown is one of the few San Francisco neighborhoods where lower income residents can still afford to make rent. The tenants living in one Single Room Occupancy – where rooms are 80 square feet – are the latest to …

Working without a boss has its perks. But many gig workers, like those who drive for Uber and Lyft, say they’re treated more like employees than …

There are license plate readers all over the Bay Area that law enforcement can use to track vehicles coming in and out of a particular area. Many of …

The debate over rent control is at a new crossroads. Tenant advocates say they’ve collected enough signatures to ask voters in November to repeal …

The so-called Golden State Killer raped more than 50 women and murdered a dozen people. Law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they’d arrested …

What’s it like to be a teenager living through the Bay Area’s affordability crisis? Today, as part of KQED’s Youth Takeover week — when we hand the mic to the generation that will save us all — the team asks San …

Some Bay Area cities want plastic straws out. Oakland and Berkeley are both considering ordinances on Tuesday that would force people to request …

We published an episode on Friday featuring comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell who told us about a racist incident he suffered in 2015 when he was …

Comedian W. Kamau Bell knows what it feels like to be on the receiving end of some racism. His experience at Berkeley’s Elmwood Cafe in 2015 is a prelude to what we saw last week, with the arrest of two black men at a …

The Hayward Fault — geologists warn this Bay Area fault line that runs through several East Bay cities could unbuckle an earthquake more dangerous, …

Some parents in Fremont don’t want comprehensive sex ed to be taught to their fourth and fifth graders in schools. They’ve flooded school board …

Long hours, lots of injuries: That’s the story some Tesla workers tell about a factory in Fremont. Elon Musk’s electric car company says it’s fixed its problem and improved worker safety. But a new story by Reveal from …

Buying a house while black or brown is tough, especially in Vallejo. Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting found that white people are more likely than black people to be approved for a conventional home …

First came dockless bikes. Now — scooters. These zippy, motorized, human transporters have descended upon San Francisco sidewalks. Local politicians …

I know your name. Your face. The way you walk. And what you like. But should I? While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies in Washington D.C. this …

How has the Bay Area shaped and defined hip hop? A new exhibit at the Oakland Museum of California looks at the legacy of the music and culture. We …

Oakland has banned coal from being shipped through its East Bay port. But well-known (and well-connected) developer Phil Tagami says he has the right …

On Tuesday afternoon there were reports of an active shooter on the campus of YouTube in San Bruno.

In the moments after a potential mass shooting it can be hard to know what has happened, even as first responders, …

It’s now easier for ICE to arrest immigrants in Contra Costa County. The sheriff’s office is making public the names and release dates of inmates …

Stephon Clark. Family, friends and the Sacramento community buried the 22 year-old who was shot at at least 20 times by police. We talk to one Bay …

A year ago today, a West Oakland fire killed four people, displaced dozens and destroyed a halfway house that was the very last housing option for …

A San Francisco judge wearing a space tie (yes, outer space) is setting the tone for future climate change court battles. But who is he? We learn about Judge William Alsup.

Guests: Sarah Jeong, senior writer for The …

Cars without humans are coming. On April 2, California will allow tech companies to test driverless cars that don’t have people behind the steering …

San Francisco’s got a problem with car break-ins. Police have been trying to solve it and the first month of the year is looking good. But the city …

An Oakland coffee shop that refuses to serve uniformed police officers attracts pro-Trump protesters. Coffee shops are often seen as symbols of …

San Francisco is one of the last major U.S. cities to arm police officers with Tasers. The city’s Police Commission approved a Taser policy on …

What if you saw gun violence all the time? Some Bay Area students do. We check in with high schoolers in Oakland where shootings are common, as other …

The housing bill that could remake Bay Area neighborhoods. SB 827 would make it easier to build higher near transit. It pits city versus state. We …

Combat veterans fight invisible but very real battles at the Pathway Home in Yountville. We talk to a reporter who visited the facility months before last Friday’s deadly shooting to see how veterans struggle with the …

Journalists cover protests. They don’t organize them. So it’s rare when they pick a side. That’s what a group of Bay Area journalists did this week, …

Delayed evacuations, communication gaps, the North Bay on fire. KQED investigated emergency alerts during the North Bay fires. Today, we trace the first eight hours of October 8.

Guest: KQED News reporter Sukey Lewis. …

The U.S. attorney general calls out Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf after filing a lawsuit against California over its sanctuary state laws. During a speech in Sacramento, Jeff Sessions targeted The Town, specifically. …

One Bay Area school is preparing students to join a national movement for stricter gun laws following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida. We’ll …

Immigration officials made mass arrests of hundreds of undocumented Bay Area residents last week. Today, we’ll walk you through an ICE arrest and what happens next.

Guests: Alex Emslie, KQED criminal justice reporter …

The Tubbs Fire in the North Bay created a whole new group of homelessness in Santa Rosa. Since October, those who lost their homes have received most …

The San Francisco taxi driver is going extinct. And it seems nothing cab companies try is enough to survive the competition of app-based ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft. The recent suicide of a driver in New …