In this first story in a three-part series, Angela Johnston takes us behind the scenes of a San Francisco shelter-in-place hotel to see how housing seniors experiencing homelessness has affected their health.
In prisons, the pandemic has meant a year of even more restrictions than usual. No in-person visits, and months without classes or groups. ‘Letters From The Outside’ showcases how letters from friends and family are always a lifeline. ‘Pandemic Playlist’ shares a selection of songs that kept spirits up throughout the year.
In San Francisco, there are 588 polling places spread out across the city. And, most elections, the city needs about 3,000 people to volunteer to work them. In 2020, the Department of Elections got more applicants than ever — 14,000! They actually had to turn people away. Angela Johnston spoke to some City Election Officials — poll workers, inspectors, clerks and coordinators — at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium. The empty concert hall has been transformed into part of San Francisco's Election Headquarters. They shared their thoughts about working behind the scenes of this historic election, making sure it runs smoothly, and safely.
According to a study done by the California Institute for Rural Studies, agricultural workers in Monterey County are three times more likely to contract COVID-19 than workers in other industries.
Even before COVID-19, working in agricultural fields could be hazardous for farmworker health. Almost 9 million pounds of pesticides were sprayed in Monterey County in 2017. Some workers there spend much of their lives breathing in these toxins, many of which are meant to kill bugs and weeds. And, this has been happening for decades.
Still, scientists are only beginning to learn about pesticides' detrimental long term effects, especially for pregnant farmworkers. In this series made with support from the UC Berkeley 11th Hour Food and Farming Fellowship, we hear about a decades-long study measuring the effects of working in the fields while pregnant. And we hear about potential solutions: Major lawsuits and grassroots efforts led by community clinics in the Salinas Valley.
For the first 100 days of KALW’s shelter-in-place order, KALW checked in regularly with a mix of ordinary people to hear how they are dealing with these extraordinary times. Together, they sketched out our new shared reality and how the pandemic is changing how we live and work. I came up with the concept for this podcast, and produced it alongside two other colleagues.
Lead paint was banned in 1978. But 40 years later there are neighborhoods in the Bay Area that have higher rates of childhood lead poisoning than Flint, Michigan — where a recent lead-poisoning crisis made national news.
To learn more about this ongoing public-health crisis, KALW News environment and health reporters Angela Johnston and Marissa Ortega-Welch spent more than a year sifting data, conducting interviews, chasing down public records, and going into the field. Their research reveals the troubling and persistent intersection of childhood lead poisoning with ongoing Bay Area issues of housing, immigration and public health.
One of the most immediate threats to California’s water and agriculture infrastructure may not be a future drought. It may not be the big twin tunnels project, either. Right now, it's a huge, 20-pound swamp rat with bright yellow teeth — nutria. These rodents have destroyed levees in Louisiana, converted wetlands to open water in the Chesapeake Bay. And, earlier this spring they were detected in California, in the Central Valley. Over the past few months, they’ve been multiplying and making their way to the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta. And the Delta — with its thousands of miles of waterways and levees — is essential to California’s water supply. Nutria could put all of that at risk.
Bay Area photographer Janet Delaney documented the changes in San Francisco’s South of Market in the 1970s and 80s — as the city’s forest of skyscrapers expanded and encroached onto the once quiet neighborhood. Now, 40 years later, those photographs are on display at the DeYoung. KALW’s Angela Johnston tracked down some of the people in Delaney’s photographs and found out how their lives have changed alongside the city.