Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
How Do You Like This #WetWeather?
A universal pastime — talking about the weather — is the subject of a new study led by University of California, Davis researchers who combed through more than 2 billion U.S. Twitter posts to determine what kind of temperatures generated the most tweets. Through that lens, researchers were able to see how quickly we normalize weird weather and when these perceptions shape views about climate change, the effects of which are seen locally in both drought and powerful storms. Get wind of what conditions induce Twitter posts and the phenomenon researchers said explains dimming social media discussion.
Airing on the Big Screen
Check out the Clear the Air Film Fest on Saturday, March 16 at the New People Cinema in San Francisco from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. It will feature student-produced short films that focus on improving air quality for the benefit of environmental and lung health —topics entrenched in local policy planning. Now in its eighth year, the film fest intends to encourage “young people to use film as a medium to interpret and change the world around them,” according to the event website. Click here for tickets and information.
Rack Your Brain
Armed with a supply of bike racks, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) is asking residents to submit requests and help pinpoint places to install them. Each rack can accommodate two bikes, helping to meet rising demand for more spaces to securely lock bikes (and scooters). SFMTA received 500 rack requests last year. Go along for the ride and learn how to make a rack request.
Park That Thought in a Survey
Add your two cents about the care and maintenance of local parks and open space. Contra Costa County and the East Bay Regional Park District want feedback about the 18.5-mile Iron Horse Trail that runs through Concord to help plan improvements. In the North Bay, Marin County Parks, which cares for 34 open space preserves and 43 parks, needs input about how residents use these areas and what priorities the agency should focus on going forward.
Monitor Notes is produced by Cecily O’Connor. To receive it by email, scroll to the bottom of this page, enter your email address in the box under “RECEIVE EMAIL UPDATES,” and click the red “SIGN UP” button.