If you were born after 1990, it might be easy to think that the world has always had wheelchair ramps, closed captions, and bathroom stalls for people with disabilities. But none of those things existed until a few decades ago - and they all had to be demanded. Until a group of confrontational activists emerged out of Berkeley in the 1960s, it was legal to discriminate against people with disabilities. All that changed thanks to the radical students who built one of the most successful movements of the 20th century. Today’s episode features my interview with Scot Danforth, the author of “An Independent Man: Ed Roberts and the Fight for Disability Rights” (UC Press). Listen now to hear about how a man who couldn’t move his arms or legs changed laws, architecture, and society’s view on people with disabilities. To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/he-wanted-people-to-take-risks/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/c/eastbayyesterday

Everyone has opinions on the Bay Area’s problems with housing, transit and public infrastructure, but Darrell Owens digs deep into the historical roots of these issues on his Substack “The Discourse Lounge.” When Darrell is analyzing a topic like gentrification, he doesn’t just start in the 1990s or 2000. He’ll go back more than a century, because, yes, the origins of our current demographic trends really do stretch that far. He also knows how to grab readers’ attention with headlines like “Why new apartments look ugly” and “Bay Area nightlife sucks – here’s how to fix it.” In addition to his writing, Darrell has been active with numerous “hands on” projects – from restoring long lost street neighborhood landmarks to installing “guerilla” bus benches at AC Transit stops lacking adequate seating. In this episode, Darrell and I discuss the origins of Nimby and Yimbyism, establishing criteria for historical preservation, the history of public housing, and much more. To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/my-neighborhood-looks-the-same-as-it-did-50-years-ago/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Donate to keep this show alive: https://www.patreon.com/c/eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. To learn more about BAMPFA’s current exhibit “Lee ShinJa: Drawing with Thread,” visit: https://bampfa.org/program/lee-shinja-drawing-thread

How did Jessica Mitford go from being an elite British debutante to fighting on the front lines of America’s early civil rights struggles? While two of her older sisters befriended Adolph Hitler, Jessica came to Oakland, organized the first investigation into police brutality, helped desegregate all-white neighborhoods, and became a famous muckraking journalist. This astonishing tale is vividly told in Mimi Pond’s new graphic novel “Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me” [Drawn & Quarterly]. Given America’s current context of rising fascism, government repression, and historical erasure, the timing of this book could not be more appropriate. Although one of her older sisters teasingly called Jessica a “ballroom communist,” her lifelong struggles for racial and economic justice illustrate a true commitment to solidarity. In addition to discussing The Mitfords, this episode also covers Pond’s earlier graphic novels about her career as an Oakland diner waitress in the late 1970s and early 80s. In “Over Easy” and “The Customer is Always Wrong,” Pond shares wild, behind-the-scenes memories of the sex-and-drug-fueled restaurant where she worked while trying to make it as an aspiring cartoonist. To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/the-ballroom-communist/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

In recent years, volunteer-led groups like Urban Compassion Project have struggled to deal with illegal dumping in Oakland. Despite removing more than half a million pounds of trash this year, piles of garbage continue to plague our streets. How did this problem get so bad and why is it so hard to fix? As usual, I turned to history for answers. Before Waste Management took over in 1986, trash collection was handled by the worker-owned Oakland Scavenger Company, a business founded by Italian immigrants more than a century ago. For this episode, I spoke with several retired third-generation garbage men: Robert Biasotti and the Muzio brothers – Tony, Dino, and Mike. I also unearthed a 1981 interview with Ed Lavagetto, whose father was one of the original Oakland Scavenger partners. These conversations revealed not only a totally different system of trash collection, but a story that illuminates so many changes in American culture. It’s a story of poor immigrants grinding their way into the middle class. It’s the story of why Temescal, now one of Oakland’s trendiest neighborhoods, used to be called Little Italy. It’s a story of an old world mentality clashing with new values ushered in by the Civil Rights era… and it’s also a story of what’s been lost as mega-corporations have risen to dominance. To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/we-let-everybody-throw-it-away/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

In 1973, Chile’s democratically elected socialist president Salvador Allende was toppled by a right-wing military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. As news of the brutal repression that followed spread around the globe, a group of activists in Berkeley opened a cafe to serve as a hub of organizing against Pinochet’s fascist regime. Modeled after gathering spaces in Chile that combined music, food, art, and politics, La Peña emerged as a hotbed of leftist internationalism. Over the years, La Peña evolved along with a changing political landscape. Besides hosting countless international activist groups, the space became a hub for Native American organizations, Latin American music lovers, hip hop, poetry, muralists, and more. In 2025, as La Peña celebrates its 50th anniversary, the United States is faced with a crisis Chile confronted decades ago: How do we respond to the dismantling of democracy by an authoritarian government? This episode weaves together the history of La Peña with America’s current dilemma. Listen to the podcast to hear interviews with La Peña co-founder Eric Leenson, longtime director Paul Chin, and current executive director Consuelo Tupper. https://lapena.org/ To see photos related to this episode, visit: eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/respect-the-patch/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: eastbayyesterday.substack.com/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Tobie Gene Levingston left behind his life as a Louisiana sharecropper in the mid-1950s to work at an Oakland metal foundry. Within a few years, he started the East Bay Dragons, which grew to be one of the most legendary Black motorcycle clubs in the world. This episode goes into the Dragons’ clubhouse for a deep conversation with two long-time members, Melvin Shadrick and Picasso, to explore how the club has managed to thrive all these years – and what it feels like to cruise past another motorcycle pack on the highway going 140 miles per hour. [Note: This episode originally aired in 2018] To see photos related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/respect-the-patch/ This episode’s art is a watercolor painted by Oakland-based illustrator and author Robert Liu-Trujillo. You can see more of Rob’s work at http://work.robdontstop.com/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://eastbayyesterday.substack.com/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

There’s an area southeast of Lake Merritt that’s lined with abandoned buildings, boarded up storefronts, vacant lots, and decrepit warehouses. The neighborhoods here, Clinton and San Antonio, are some of Oakland’s oldest. Although there are also beautiful Victorian houses, long-established churches, and several thriving immigrant communities, including a stretch of Vietnamese establishments known as Little Saigon, this area has suffered from disinvestment and high crime rates for decades – why? Answering that question requires a trip through more than a century of Oakland history – from the Gold Rush up through the Urban Renewal era and beyond. Exploring this story illuminates not only the problems of these neighborhoods, but helps explain the rise and fall of entire cities. “The leading edge of development follows the wealthiest residents,” according to Mitchell Schwarzer, the author of “Hella Town: Oakland’s History of Development and Disruption.” In this episode, Schwarzer unpacks that diagnosis, and what it means for older neighborhoods left to crumble as investors chase new frontiers. This conversation was inspired by Schwarzer’s work with the San Antonio Station Alliance, a campaign advocating for the construction of a BART station and transit village. For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/not-on-the-wealth-corridor/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: eastbayyesterday.substack.com/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

From the gold rush to the tech boom, this region has been shaped by successive waves of business growth and decline. Every generation, new investments, innovations, and industries have led the way in building the Bay Area, attracting immigrants, and impacting every aspect of life here. For better or worse, the legacy of these trends is the world we live in today. In this episode, urban geographer Richard Walker, author of “Pictures of a Gone City: Tech and the Dark Side of Prosperity in the San Francisco Bay Area,” discusses the pros and cons of these boom/bust cycles and explores the history of local development through the lens of Big Business. As the Bay Area’s economy faces an uncertain future under the threat of a global trade war and a looming “AI revolution,” this wide-ranging conversation gives context to our often bewildering present. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://eastbayyesterday.substack.com/ For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/industry-makes-and-breaks-the-bay-area/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

On March 25, I interviewed Alexis Madrigal and Noni Session in front of a sold out crowd at Spire in West Oakland. Madrigal is the author of an essential new book called “The Pacific Circuit: A Globalized Account of the Battle for the Soul of an American City.” He is also host of KQED’s Forum, a longtime journalist, and a dear friend. Noni Session is a third generation West Oaklander and the executive director of East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, a community-funded organization that challenges displacement with cooperative economic strategies. Through her groundbreaking work with EB PREC, Session is rebuilding local institutions, such as Esther’s Orbit Room, and also removing housing from the speculative market to create permanently affordable, community-controlled homes. Our discussion explored themes that connect Madrigal’s book and Session’s revitalization projects, the history of West Oakland’s role in the global economy, and much more. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: substack.com/@eastbayyesterday For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/people-of-the-pacific-circuit/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

On the western outskirts of Crockett, on the bluffs overlooking the Carquinez strait, there’s a small unincorporated neighborhood called Valona. These days, this community isn’t that different from any of the others that stretch along this northern edge of Contra Costa County, but things used to be a lot different. If you were in Valona a century ago, you might have felt more like you were in a traditional Italian village than a Bay Area suburb. You would’ve seen kids stomping grapes to make wine during harvest season and families making salami from scratch to hang in their cellars. And you definitely would’ve heard people speaking Italian, which was more common than hearing English around these parts. But one thing hasn’t changed – looking down from Valona back then, and now, you’d see a giant brick factory, flanked by huge silos and loading docks. That is the C&H Sugar Factory, and in a lot of ways, that factory is the reason why Valona and the entire town of Crockett exists. Today’s episode is a journey into the history of Valona and Crockett, and our guide is Barbara Pangi Denton, the author of a new book called “Sweet Success: How Industry, Immigrants, and Working Women Shaped a Town.” Listen now to hear Barbara discuss her deep Italian roots, the downfall of Crockett’s “golden age,” and the importance of community cookbooks. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: substack.com/@eastbayyesterday For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/crockett-became-italy/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Anyone who has ever driven on 880 and noticed that there appears to be ancient brick walls closing in on you as you pass through Oakland’s Jingletown neighborhood has probably wondered about the history of this post-industrial landscape. The California Cotton Mill was founded in 1883 and employed more than 1200 workers at its peak. Many of the workers were Portuguese immigrants who created a tight-knit, working class community, which eventually dwindled down after the Mill closed and the Nimitz Freeway tore the neighborhood in half in the early 1950s. On February 13, 2025, I co-hosted an event in the former Cotton Mill, a sprawling 4-acre complex of brick lofts and warehouses, with Adesha Adefela, Ryan Nicole Austin and Beau Lewis, the creators of an upcoming hip hop musical called Co-Founders. We discussed how being in this historic, industrial space influenced the development of their show, the global impact of Oakland music, and their personal stories of being artists in the Bay. The event also featured an interview with Mario Hernandez, an assistant Professor of Sociology at Mills College at Northeastern University who specializes in the study of gentrification. Listen now to hear a deep conversation about art, tech, and history… plus an exclusive clip from a new E-40 song on the forthcoming Co-Founders soundtrack! Special thanks to TK Campbell from Stay Diff for recording this event. Tickets for Co-Founders available now: https://www.act-sf.org/whats-on/2024-25-season/co-founders/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: substack.com/@eastbayyesterday For photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/ Donate to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Since the dawn of the smartphone era, everybody has carried a camera with them at all times. If anything, there are too many photos and videos being recorded at concerts. We all know the annoyance of being distracted from the music by outstretched arms holding up glowing screens in front of the stage. During the early years of the Bay Area punk scene, however, there was usually only one person with a camera documenting the action – Murray Bowles. Back when this aggressively self-marginalized genre was relegated to sweaty basements, decrepit warehouses, and outdoor wastelands, Murray could consistently be found in the mosh pit, snapping photos of the glorious chaos erupting around him. As the scene’s popularity grew, buoyed by local institutions like all-ages club 924 Gilman and Maximumnrocknroll magazine, Murray’s images became the defining visual documentation of a punk rock renaissance. He was even immortalized (in cartoon form) on the cover of Green Day’s “Dookie,” the biggest selling punk album of all time. “Hail Murray: The Bay Area Punk Photography of Murray Bowles, 1982-1995” (Last Gasp) is the first book to compile his explosive photographic catalogue and pay tribute to the man behind the lens. This episode features an interview with Anna Brown, a lifelong friend of Murray who compiled this posthumous retrospective. https://lastgasp.com/products/hail-murray Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news. https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Donate to keep this show alive: https://www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Despite being one of Oakland’s most iconic buildings, the history of the Fox Theater is filled with unsolved mysteries. In preparation for his ongoing tours of the nearly century-old structure, architectural historian J.M. Marriner has been digging into the archives and looking for answers. This episode features our conversation on everything from arson and art theft to mushrooms growing in the balcony carpet.  If you want to see more photos related to this episode, check out my SF Gate article: https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/fox-theater-oakland-landmark-mysteries-19988446.php You can contact J.M. Marriner to get a copy of his booklet about the history of the theater and I also highly recommend checking out one of his tours: https://www.instagram.com/jmmarriner/ Subscribe to the Oakland Heritage Alliance email list to find out about upcoming dates: https://www.oaklandheritage.org/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: For 112 years, Children’s Hospital in Oakland has been a foundational part of keeping our local communities healthy and happy. UCSF is proud to celebrate its award-winning care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland, throughout the East Bay, and around the Bay Area. Thank you to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland for being a proud sponsor of East Bay Yesterday.

About 20 years ago, Joey Santore went from illegally riding freight trains across the country to working as a “train man” for Union Pacific. His official duties, which included driving the trains, gave him a unique look at the decline of the East Bay’s industrial sector and blue collar workforce. Spending time in decaying factories and train yards also sparked his interest in nature, as he saw plants and animals returning to repopulate these post-industrial spaces. Eventually Joey finally got fed up with his corporate railroad bosses and quit working on trains in order to focus full-time on nature. His wildly successful podcast and video series Crime Pays, but Botany Doesn’t now attracts legions of fans from all over the world who tune in to hear Joey share his vast knowledge of plants along with a healthy dose of socio-political analysis thrown into the mix. Although Joey no longer lives in West Oakland, he returned for a visit recently to check on “the illegal garden” he left behind. While he was in town, we caught up on everything from his craziest memories of the train years to his observations about the Bay Area’s many fascinating ecosystems. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: For 112 years, Children's Hospital in Oakland has been a foundational part of keeping our local communities healthy and happy. UCSF is proud to celebrate its award-winning care at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland, throughout the East Bay, and around the Bay Area. Thank you to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in Oakland for being a proud sponsor of East Bay Yesterday. East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday. More details here: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/freight-trains-plants-and-a-vanishing-world/

“Contrary to popular belief, most Native American people in the United States live in urban areas and not reservations.” Those words are from “Refusing Settler Domesticity: Native Women’s Labor and Resistance in the Bay Area Outing Program,” a new book by historian Caitlin Keliiaa. Caitlin grew up in Hayward and her family is part of what she describes as the Bay Area’s large, thriving, and diverse Urban Indian population. Just to be clear, Caitlin isn’t Ohlone. She’s not a descendant of the Indigenous tribes who’ve lived in the Bay Area for millennia. Like many Urban Indians, her family has only been here for a few generations – and her new book helps answer the question of how they, and many other Native families, got here. The book is important, because as Caitlin explained: “A lot of people think about Indian relocation in the 1950s as the moment when Native people come to the Bay, but actually they were here decades prior.” Listen to the episode now to hear about a mostly forgotten chapter of Bay Area history that is crucial to understanding the roots of this region’s Urban Indian community. https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/the-missing-chapter/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, boat tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals are committed to supporting the health and development of all children. At UCSF’s Pediatric Heart Center, doctors are using cutting edge 3D modeling technology to provide lifesaving treatments for Bay Area children. Using state-of-the-art 3D heart imaging, the team at Children’s can diagnose previously unseen complications, unlock solutions, and empower life-saving surgical approaches. To learn more, click here: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/04/425186/how-3d-printer-heart-technology-changed-teens-life East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: https://www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Many communities in the East Bay’s flatlands are built in areas that were either wetlands or completely underwater less than two centuries ago. Following the Gold Rush, much of the Bay was filled in so that industry, neighborhoods and landfills could be developed along the shoreline. Now these areas are at risk not only from increasing sea levels, but also rising ground water that contains toxic chemicals accumulated from decades of unregulated pollution. Confronting the future of climate change demands understanding the history of this land. Rosanna Xia’s brilliant book “California Against the Sea: Visions for our Vanishing Coastline” (Heyday Books) not only explores these threats, but also highlights promising (albeit complicated) solutions, such as wetlands restoration, that are already being deployed throughout the Bay Area. On October 28, I interviewed Rosanna in front of a packed crowd at Clio’s Books in Oakland. Listen to the episode to hear all about our shifting shorelines, why sea walls won’t save us, and much more. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/sea-walls-wont-save-us/ Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: Every week at UCSF’s Food Farmacy clinic, nurses, staff, and volunteers distribute fresh produce and food to Bay Area and Oakland families. This free program makes sure growing children have dependable access to healthy food options, growing produce oases in urban food deserts. To learn more, visit: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/08/425936/food-farmacy-provides-fresh-and-free-food-oakland-families

Although Oakland has one of the highest concentrations of lesbians in the country, the history—and impact—of this community is relatively unknown. Lenn Keller tried to change that by creating the Bay Area Lesbian Archives, a wide-ranging collection of photographs, activist materials, meeting notes, videos and more. In this episode, Keller shares stories of why some of the world’s first lesbian of color groups formed, discusses the thriving network of collectives that existed here in the 1970s and 80s, and reminisces about some of her favorite lesbian bars of the era. [Note: This interview with Lenn Keller originally aired in 2018. Although Lenn Keller passed away in 2020, the Bay Area Lesbian Archives is still going strong. The organization recently moved its vast and impressive collection of rare materials and books from a storage unit into a beautiful home in the East Bay hills, the former house of pioneering lesbian writer and activist Elana Dykewoman. Also, Bay Area Lesbian Archives has an exhibition and event series currently happening at Eastside Arts Alliance. Stay tuned after the segment with Lenn Keller to hear a new interview with BALA members Dr. Kerby Lynch and Sharon de la Pena Davenport, who discuss their upcoming events, the importance of intergenerational organizing, and gathering community materials for a time capsule.] To see photos and get links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/these-stories-still-matter/ Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals are committed to supporting the health and development of all children. At UCSF’s Pediatric Heart Center, doctors are using cutting edge 3D modeling technology to provide lifesaving treatments for Bay Area children. Using state-of-the-art 3D heart imaging, the team at Children’s can diagnose previously unseen complications, unlock solutions, and empower life-saving surgical approaches. To learn more: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/04/425186/how-3d-printer-heart-technology-changed-teens-life East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday. Don’t forget to follow East Bay Yesterday’s Substack newsletter to stay updated on upcoming tours, events, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday

Idora Park was much more than just the largest amusement park that ever existed in Oakland. Developed by real estate moguls who also owned a network of electric streetcars, this “mecca of pleasure seekers” played a significant role in the development of the East Bay, especially after the park sheltered thousands of refugees following San Francisco’s devastating 1906 earthquake. Idora served as a showcase for cutting edge technological marvels, it helped launch the careers of several early Hollywood superstars, and it functioned as a vast testing ground for the emerging amusement industry until its closure in 1928. Nearly a century after Idora Park was bulldozed into history, curator Justin Limoges is resurrecting the memory of this mostly forgotten landmark through his upcoming “Idora Idora” exhibit*. In addition to showcasing historical materials, “Idora Idora” will explore the relationship between the amusement park and the very unique neighborhood that now exists in its footprint. In order to stimulate all the senses, Limoges has also commissioned an Idora-themed fragrance and an original song, performed by Greg Gardner with Jeremy Brown, Cass McCombs, and Ben Sigelman. [*The exhibit’s site isn’t live yet, but I’ll post links on social media as soon as it’s up.] Listen now to hear my conversation with Justin Limoges about what Idora Park’s history can teach us about the evolution of amusement, collective memory, and the development of Oakland in the early 20th century. To see more images and links related to this story, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/the-mecca-of-pleasure-seekers-in-california/ Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals are committed to supporting the health and development of all children. In 2010, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and the Taylor Family Foundation co-founded Camp Winning Hands, a Bay Area summer camp for children with limb differences. Hosting activities like archery, rock climbing, and kayaking – Camp Winning Hands has welcomed nearly 100 campers, for free, at its specially-designed, accessible East Bay campground every summer for over a decade. Click here to learn more about Camp Winning Hands: https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/08/426021/how-unique-summer-camp-connects-kids-limb-differences East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday.

Before the 1960s, coffee was a faceless commodity: hot brown beanwater with caffeine. Alfred Peet began a revolution in America’s coffee culture when he opened his first shop in Berkeley in 1966. Peet changed the way coffee was imported, the way it was roasted, the way it was sold, and even the way it was savored. He also trained multiple generations of people who would go on to be leaders in the coffee industry, including the founders of Starbucks. Today’s episode explores the long history of coffee in the Bay Area. In addition to covering Peet’s widespread influence, we discuss how beatniks got buzzed in the Italian cafes of North Beach; the somewhat murky origins of Irish coffee and the latte; the birth of 3rd wave, cupping, cowboys, and much more. Listen now to hear a conversation with coffee industry veteran Evan Gilman of The Crown, a “Coffee Lab and  Tasting Room” in Oakland, where you can sample and learn about some of the world’s finest coffee beans.  Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Oakland, home of UCSF’s Center of Excellence for Immigrant Child Health and Wellbeing, an initiative that addresses the health of immigrant children through advocacy, education, and evidence-based clinical services.  This volunteer-run pediatric health center provides care that makes a critical difference: https://immigrantchild.ucsf.edu/home East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday.

The 16th Street Station was built in 1912 to serve as the western depot for Southern Pacific’s transcontinental railroad. For millions of people migrating to California, their first up-close glimpse of the Golden State was getting off the train in West Oakland and entering the station’s 13,000-square-foot main hall. The room’s massive, arched windows allowed light to fill the soaring space. For weary travelers, especially Black families fleeing the Jim Crow south, this building was a beacon of hope. Ron Dellums, Oakland’s former mayor and congressman, called the station “Ellis Island for the African American community.” Flash forward to 2024. The 16th Street Station is empty and slowly crumbling – a monument to broken promises and shattered dreams. Why has one of the most architecturally and historically significant buildings in the Bay Area been neglected and mostly vacant for so long? This episode explores the history and potential future of a unique Beaux Arts transit temple. Listen now to hear: Daniel Levy and Feleciai Favroth of the Oakland Heritage Alliance discuss their campaign to save the 16th Street Station; Tom Vinson share memories of his boyhood adventures at the station; and Marcus Johnson discussing his 13-year tenure as the station’s property manager. Don’t forget to follow the East Bay Yesterday Substack for updates on events, tours, exhibits, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsor of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals Oakland, home of the East Bay’s only level one pediatric trauma center. I encourage you to read the incredible story of how UCSF Benioff’ trauma team saved a teen surfer from paralysis: https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/patient-stories/broken-neck-recovery See photos and links related to this episode at: https://eastbayyesterday.com/