Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Grief and Anger
A mass shooting at a Boulder, Colo. supermarket on Monday occurred less than a week after a gunman in Atlanta shot and killed eight people, including six Asian women.
The two tragic events leave in their wake feelings of grief and anger about racism, bigotry, and gun violence. The League of Women Voters of San Francisco recently expressed sentiment for supporting stronger gun laws on its Twitter account. It also posted about events to help people stand up to hate and intolerance targeting Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. One of those events is bystander intervention training with Hollaback!, a global movement to end harassment, and AAJC. There also is training for people experiencing discrimination.
“No one should have to live in fear because of who they are,” said Stephanie Doute, executive director of LWV California, in a March 19 statement that was distributed by several Bay Area Leagues as part of the broader call to end anti-Asian hate and violence.
We’re interested to know what Notes readers are feeling right now. How will you turn grief and anger into action?
League Event Hits Home
There’s also much work to be done in core policy areas like housing. So check out the next “Face the Future” speaker series with the LWV Berkeley-Albany-Emeryville on March 29 from 7 to 9 p.m. The virtual talk, a “Conversation on Housing,” will strike up a discussion with keynote speaker, California state Senator Scott Wiener. He’ll be joined by a panel of officials and local citizens. Their conversation is expected to flow into how more affordable housing can be built. That includes looking at state measures like Wiener’s Senate Bill 10 to build high-density housing near jobs and transit, as well as local steps to ban exclusionary zoning. Click here to register, read background material, and see a complete speaker list.
The Shape of Water
The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) is updating its Urban Water Management Plan and Water Shortage Contingency Plan, and inviting the public to participate in the process. Proposed revisions to both long-range planning documents — which help ensure water service reliability, especially during droughts — will be available for review and comment between April 7 and May 12. As part of the review, EBMUD will hold a virtual public comment meeting on April 29 and a virtual public hearing on May 11. You also can learn another perspective about the path to a sustainable water future in a new documentary film, “Brave Blue World.” It explores water technologies and innovations to improve stewardship of this precious resource. Watch the film on Netflix and then join a March 29 panel discussion about it with the Pacific Institute and California Water Environment Association.
Climate Fight
How will California’s nearly 300 state parks survive the threat of climate change? A March 17 CalMatters article investigates how state parks officials are confronting a range of complexities, highlighting a particular “climate-reckoning moment” from last summer. That’s when a lightning-sparked wildfire burned about 97 percent of Big Basin Redwoods, California’s oldest state park. The article includes interviews with officials working on ways to make the indefinitely closed park more resilient. The Monitor’s Aleta George also explains the storytelling opportunity to convey the evolving history of the trails near Big Basin in the February/March edition.
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