Mixtape: Cyndi Lauper
My Mixtape asks people from the Bay Area and beyond to contribute a song that is meaningful to them. For today’s installment, Truc Nguyen tells us why she chose this song by Cyndi Lauper.
Category: KALW
Profile: Sean Kramer
In the Russian Orthodox Church, art is much more than just decoration. Small, elaborate paintings known as icons portray Christianity’s most famous persons, and are used as tools for prayer. Today, a number of artists who are neither Russian nor Russian Orthodox are nonetheless pushing the boundaries of this religious art form. Sean Kramer is one of them.
Understanding SF’s parental leave policy
Maria Su is the executive director of the San Francisco Department for Children Youth and Their Families. They work together with the city and community organizations to improve the life of kids and parents. Hear her speak about the new Paid Parental Leave Ordinance in San Francisco, and what it means for families in the city.
SF Parent Leave
Title: Parents plan for paid family leave in San Francisco [ AUDIO / ARTICLE ] Rents and cost of living in the Bay Area are still on the rise, but San Francisco families will soon start seeing some relief: the city has a new family leave law that will come into effect in January of 2017. The law will guarantee parents six weeks off with full pay while they’re home with a new child. That’s a big departure from current …
Clean power for SF
Close to 8,000 San Francisco homes and businesses were automatically enrolled in CleanPowerSF in May of 2016.
CleanPowerSF is a locally-managed power supplier that gives customers the option to get more renewable energy than they currently get through PG&E.
New Kind of Battery
Harumi Fuji McClure and her husband live in a nice, two-story house in Morgan Hill south of San Jose. It gets pretty hot there in the summers, so they have a large swimming pool and air-conditioning in the whole house. But her electricity bill isn’t high: it’s negative five dollars a month.
StoryCorps SF
The Mission District is famous for its vibrantly colored murals, and some of the oldest murals can be found in Balmy Alley. Mia Gonzalez started the mural project in the early ’70s when the alley was a run down little street that connected 24th Street with nearby Precita Park. She wanted to make the alley safer for the kids who were walking through on their way to the park. What she didn’t expect was that it would launch a new wave of women muralists working in a strong Chicana tradition. Gonzalez sat down in the StoryCorps booth with art archivist Linda Wilson to talk about change, paint and pride.
Young men preventing sexual assault
When it comes to crimes like rape and sexual assault, the focus is shifting from prosecution and punishment to prevention. That means finding the cause of the problem and tackling it early on. Some Bay Area schools are doing just that — by talking to their students about healthy masculinity and what it means to be a man. The goal is to raise a different kind of man, one who stands up against sexual violence.
SF’s bail system
Corrine Rankin is willing to work with people to make bonds affordable. That’s her way of guaranteeing “non-excessive bail.” When bail first originated it was thought of as progressive way to secure people’s release, but what the Constitution does not mention is how to pay for the bail bond. There are options and clients can negotiate down payments and how much collateral to put up. Bond agents can also offer interest-free monthly payment plans, but those can take years to pay off.
Making sense of CA’s family leave
Staying home with a new baby is a rare privilege for many parents these days, but maybe it shouldn’t be. Spending time together in those first months is important for the well-being of both parents and kids. California’s Paid Family Leave policy is starting to address that, but a lot of families are still falling through the cracks.