Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
Bay Area Muslims Say Presidential Candidates Cruz, Trump Creating Backlash // NBC Bay Area
“Statements from presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump that police patrol Muslim neighborhoods in the United States has many in the Bay Area balking and calling for an end to political rhetoric meant to be incendiary and divisive.”
‘I worry about a potential president of our country is so un-American in his explanation of civil liberties,’ said Zahra Billoo, executive director for the San Francisco Bay Area Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. ‘It now feels like six months of a barrage of candidates and pundits using tragedies like this to attempt to further divide.’
“Billoo said the recent backlash against American Muslims is real. Her office receives up to 400 calls a year for help when people in her community have their civil liberties violated.”
-----
Dismantling Food Deserts in an Age of Speculation: People's Community Market Purchases Site for West Oakland Grocery Store // East Bay Express
“Back in the fall of 2012, food activist Brahm Ahmadi stood in front of a packed room in East Oakland’s warehouse district and made a simple pitch: Would the assorted local business owners and community organizer types who had gathered consider investing in People’s Community Market, the ambitious full-service grocery store that Ahmadi wanted to open in West Oakland? Would they do their part to bring healthy food to one of the city’s most notorious food deserts, where the primary shopping option is the corner liquor store?”
-----
New Website Sheds Light On UC Berkeley’s History Of Sexual Harassment Problems // Huffington Post
“Sofie Karasek was doing research in 2013 as she prepared to file a federal complaint against her school, the University of California, Berkeley, over accusations that it had mishandled sexual assault cases, including hers.
“Karasek’s roommate told her about a campus archive of material from old student newspapers and magazines — material that wasn’t available online. The roommate suggested she poke around and see if there was anything in there about sexual violence or sexual harassment.
“’I wasn’t expecting to find anything,’ Karasek told The Huffington Post. ‘When I went down there, I found so much information, and I was really shocked.’
“This week, Karasek posted a series of these clips online. As far as she knows, this is the first time many of them have been written out — and thus made searchable — anywhere on the Internet.”
-----
Will the Berkeley Flea Market Survive a Changing Neighborhood? // KQED News
“You can hear the rumble of a drum circle from more than a block away, and it grows louder and louder as you approach Berkeley’s Ashby BART Station. Every Saturday and Sunday — except when it rains — a freewheeling jam session brings together drummers and other musicians in the BART parking lot…
“This drum circle is part of the Berkeley Flea Market, which has served as a gathering place for African-Americans and other local residents for decades. Now the city of Berkeley is planning improvements to the surrounding neighborhood, and many are concerned that will contribute to more displacement of longtime residents — and of this well-loved market.”
-----
Bike-share system expanding in Bay Area, starting in SF // SF Gate
“San Francisco’s small but robust bike-sharing system is getting ready to spread into the Mission, move deeper into South of Market and roll into the Duboce Triangle as the first part of a massive expansion of the regional Bay Area Bike Share program.
“After months of meetings and surveys, Motivate, the firm that operates the system for the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, on Tuesday announced 72 tentative locations for new bike-sharing stations in San Francisco.…
“Under the proposed expansion, six dozen new stations — and about 700 to 1,000 more bikes — will arrive, probably near the end of this year. San Jose will also see an expansion with 13 additional locations and about 150 more bikes. The program will move into the East Bay near the end of the year.”
-----
SF Hotels Get Busy On Sustainability With Rooftop Beehives // Hoodline
“High above the frenetic city streets, full of shoppers shopping, tourists touring, and workers working, you'll find a new set of neighbors who are also busy as bees, and for good reason: they're actually bees. Hives are being kept on the rooftops of several SF hotels these days, from Union Square to Nob Hill to Fisherman's Wharf.
“Michael Pace, general manager of the Clift Hotel in Union Square and chair of the Sustainability Committee for the Hotel Council of San Francisco, has spearheaded the effort to encourage city hotels to keep bees, as an environmentally friendly initiative.”