Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
16th And Mission Developer Doubles Number Of Affordable Units \\ SFist
"If you're building a mammoth development in San Francisco like the one proposed by Maximus Real Estate Partners for 330-ish apartments at 16th and Mission, there are a couple of rules. You're required to build 20 percent affordable housing off-site, or to build 12 percent affordable housing on-site, or to pay a serious fee — and under Prop K, passed in November, that overall number pushes to 33 percent.
The current plan (renderings and details here) for 1979 Mission Street have been called by opposition like the Plaza 16 Coalition "the monster in the Mission." But developers are hoping to quell such vocal detractors by giving the project a turn of the screw, now proposing twice as much below-market-rate housing."
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Protesters Drown Out Developers’ Benefits Presentation \\ Mission Local
"Representatives from Maximus Real Estate Partners, the company proposing the 10-story building at 16th and Mission streets, had a hard time getting through their short presentation about the project’s community benefits package as more than 200 dissenters chanted, yelled and disrupted their performance.
Maximus’ proposal has been at the center of debate for years. Housing rights activists say the roughly 300 new market-rate condos to be built in an area with primarily working class and low income residents will drive up property values in its immediate surroundings and prompt evictions and real estate speculation."
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Oakland Police Overtime Costs Continue to Soar\\ East Bay Express
"Over the years, several mayors and city councils have tried to reduce the Oakland Police Department's overtime expenditures, but OPD continues to spend tens of millions of dollars on overtime annually — and the problem has been getting worse recently. According to city records, Oakland has spent approximately $232 million on police overtime over the past decade. In addition, since 1999, OPD has exceeded its overtime budget in every year except one, totaling $81 million in extra spending.
It's not entirely clear what amount of OPD's overtime spending is due to short staffing, and therefore necessary, given the mayor and the city council's desired level of police services; what's due to inefficiency within OPD; and what is caused by officers who game the city's compensation rules to juice their paychecks."
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Protecting OhloneHeritage: A new independent film chronicles a Bay Area effort to create the nation's first women-led urban Native American land trust \\ East Bay Express
"In May 2011, the Greater Vallejo Recreation District planned to break ground on a new park at Glen Cove — a large, shallow recess in the Carquinez Strait. The fifteen-acre site is home to abundant wildlife, as well as native plants, including bulrush and pickleweed, that edge the shoreline in dense stands. To park planners, it seemed to be an ideal place to pave additional trails, install some picnic tables, and construct a parking lot and restrooms.
The cove, however, has been a sacred gathering place and burial ground for Native American people for at least 3,500 years. It's known as Sogorea Te, and the development of a park on top of it would have entailed re-grading several acres, which would have disturbed graves and sacred objects and 'capped' known burial sites with twelve inches of soil. For more than a decade, indigenous activists and their allies had rallied against this planned desecration."
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Taja DeJesus: Community Raises Thousands for Transgender Woman Murdered in San Francisco // SF Weekly
"Community members are scrambling to collect cash on behalf of 36-year-old Taja DeJesus who was found stabbed to death in a stairway outside a Bayview building four weeks ago.
To date, they've raised more than $3,400 of the $10,000 goal; any excess money will go toward a fund to help cover the costs of other transgender women of color who are killed. 'We hate that we know this fund will be necessary, but, unfortunately, we know it will be. So please keep contributing and sharing even if we surpass our goal. All trans women of color deserve to pass in dignity and honor,' the memorial page reads. . .
. . . DeJesus was the fifth transgender woman to be murdered in the nation this year, and the fourth in California. "
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East Bay Schools to Host Art and Feminism Wikipedia Edit-A-Thons \\ East Bay Express
"But just because anyone can edit Wikipedia's articles doesn't mean everyone does. In response to a 2011 survey revealing that less than 13 percent of Wikipedia contributors identify as female, New York City activists hosed the first Art+Feminism Edit-A-Thon last February at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. This campaign led to the creation of over 100 new pages about women in art. This weekend, Edit-A-Thons will take place all over the world (and online, of course) to correct, expand, and create articles for Wikipedia's much-neglected female artists.
In the East Bay, artist and UC Berkeley professor Jill Miller and student Anna Carey will co-host a public Edit-A-Thon in the Berkeley Center for New Media Commons this Saturday, March 7, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, featuring training sessions throughout the day and refreshments."
