Welcome to Monitor Notes, a weekly roundup of news items, event announcements, and updates on past Bay Area Monitor articles.
Monitor Updates
The Bay Area Monitor is returning to publishing long form journalism next week! It’s when the August print edition would be published anyway, but instead of editions, we will be publishing one article every Monday going forward. We will also feature a redesigned homepage and some increased browsing functionality. Check out bayareamonitor.org tomorrow for the redesign, and every Monday after that, starting 2 August, for new articles.
Plastic-Free Future
To round out the end of Plastic Free July, the Ecology Center in Berkeley is hosting an online event tomorrow night, 29 July, at 6pm about legislation for a plastic-free future. The panel session will feature experts on plastic policy to outline ways to address a plastic industry expected to grow by 30% in the next five years. The event will also feature a Q&A session for the community to join in.
Equality in Energy
The 12th Annual California Climate & Energy Collaborative (CCEC) Forum is set to begin next Tuesday, 3 August. The three weeklong forum will feature interactive and solution-oriented webinars centered around “implementing equitable energy efficiency solutions for underserved, under-resourced, and disproportionately affected communities to ensure a just transition towards a clean energy future.” This year’s theme is “Transforming Tomorrow Together,” and will also look at systemic inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plan Bay Area
The public comment period for the MTC/ABAG groundbreaking collaboration Plan Bay Area 2050 has concluded. By focusing on four key issues–economy, environment, housing, and transportation–the plan seeks to be a roadmap for the Bay Area’s future. The collaborative invites the public to join a webinar on 17 August to provide an overview of the engagement process and an extensive review of the input received during the public comment period. Staff will also discuss the next steps leading up to the Final Implementation Plan.
BART News
BART has a few updates. The first is that they are returning to “near-regular service” on 2 August, meaning trains will run until midnight Monday through Saturday and there will be increased service to SFO. There currently does not appear to be a plan to return to a full pre-pandemic schedule. The second update regards the BART Measure RR Bond Oversight Committee, which released its annual report. A key takeaway from the report is that BART was able to use the reduced service time of the last year to accelerate the bond work and limit future disruptions to ridership.
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