Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Know Your Voting Rights Reform
Take a mid-morning break today and zoom into the “Making Democracy Work” series with the League of Women Voters of Sonoma and Marin counties. The 10 a.m. online forum features California Congressman Jared Huffman (pictured). He’ll speak about voting rights reform and money in politics, including the For the People Act — H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate. As part of ongoing work to protect everyone’s right to vote, the LWV US worked with members of Congress on critical pieces of the bill, which you can read about here. Those key pieces include expanding automatic voter registration, as well as same-day and online voter registration. Huffman also is expected to speak about action around voter suppression across the U.S.
Address Your Comments
The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) released the draft Plan Bay Area 2050, the long-range plan covering housing, the economy, transportation, and the environment. At the center of the plan is 35 strategies — public policies or investments — that can be implemented at the city, county, regional, or state level over the next 30 years. To provide the public opportunities to comment on the draft, the agencies have scheduled a June 3 webinar at 9:30 a.m., followed by online workshops and virtual public hearings. Click here for a complete schedule and details for submitting feedback. The public comment period runs through July 20, and the final Plan Bay Area 2050 is expected this fall.
Happy Trails to You
Bay Area Ridge Trail Council staff are asking residents to take a survey intended to inform ways to connect people to Bay Area parks and open spaces. Traverse through questions about how and when you use local trails and your experiences with circumnavigating, a term to describe hiking all sections of the nearly 400 miles of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. It will one day become a 550-mile loop circling the entire Bay. The Monitor’s Open Space Reporter, Aleta George, wrote about this network in a 2019 piece outlining trail etiquette.
Green Home Sightseeing
Check out the East Bay Green Home Tour on June 6 and 13 to see how residents have designed their homes to combat climate change, improve air quality, and generate clean energy. Each glimpse consists of a 10-minute video tour, followed by a Q&A with the homeowner or tenant. The event also includes an induction cooking demo and discussion from experts on heat pumps, solar storage, power outages, and rebates. If you register for the first tour, you will automatically be registered for the second as well.
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Banner photo by Karl Nielsen