Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Cecily O’Connor is off this week. Alec MacDonald is filling in.
Sustaining Energy
This Friday, June 25, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group hosts its 9th annual Energy & Sustainability Summit from 9 a.m. to noon. Held online and organized around the theme “Race to Net Zero: Resilient, Equitable Solutions for the Climate,” the event features speakers from the private, nonprofit, and public sectors discussing solutions to pressing energy, environmental, and equity challenges ahead. Included on the agenda are EPA Administrator Michael Regan (pictured), White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry, California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph, and USC Schwarzenegger Institute Environmental Policy Director Fran Pavley, among others. The annual summit should provide some stimulating conversation, as when the Monitor attended back in 2015.
More Homes, Less Driving
After two years providing technical analysis and community engagement support on transit-oriented development projects for BART, Oakland-based nonprofit TransForm has published a robust report on those efforts. Entitled Measuring the Promise of Transit-Oriented Development, the report explains how housing (especially affordable units) on BART property is crucial to addressing the Bay Area’s interrelated housing, climate, and affordability crises. It also offers recommendations to agencies who hold developable public land in close proximity to transit, providing useful strategies that can work in the Bay Area and beyond.
Youth Leading on Climate
Manisha Rattu (pictured) is the featured guest in the latest installment of Greenbelt Alliance’s Climate Leader Series next Tuesday, June 29 at 5 p.m. The co-founder of Pittsburg Youth Action, Rattu works to center equity, uplift environmental justice principles, and strive toward a just future through climate policy development at the city and community level. In conversation with Greenbelt Alliance’s Zoe Siegel, she’ll discuss how young people are being engaged in the fight against climate change. Last month, the webinar series featured Newsha Ajami, who was profiled in a Monitor article last year.
Gardening During the Drought
Our current drought means we’ll all need to cut back on water use, but that doesn’t mean our gardens must shrivel up and die. We can still keep them thriving through these dry times with tips from a gardening webinar on Thursday, July 8 from 4 to 5 p.m. Sponsored by the Clean Water Program, this event features professional gardener Suzanne Bontempo (pictured), program manager for Our Water Our World, a partnership between local governments and retail outlets that aims to reduce water pollution.
More Gardening: Monitor Editor’s Forthcoming Book
As I mentioned in the final print edition of the Monitor, after 15 years with the League I will be stepping away to explore other pursuits. Several readers contacted me to ask what those pursuits might be, so in this last message as editor, I’ll share that my current focus is writing a book. It’s called The One-Seed Revolution: A Return to What Feeds Us, and it will be published early next year by Stone Pier Press, a San Francisco nonprofit focusing on food and the environment. The book shares many of the themes and topics covered in the Monitor, and you can learn more about it here.
Thanks again, Monitor readers, for your support over the years. It’s been a pleasure to represent the League with this fine publication and I am grateful for having had the opportunity. Until we meet again, please take good care!
-Alec
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