East Bay Yesterday

Emeryville is a tiny town – less than 2 square miles. It’s nestled between Oakland and Berkeley, right at the foot of the Bay Bridge, and most people probably think of it as a place to go shopping. Two major freeways cut through Eville and from your car, while you’re inevitably sitting in traffic, you can see giant signs for Ikea, Target, and Bay Street mall. If you’re not from the Bay Area, you might know it as the home of Pixar. This era of Emeryville as a mecca of cartoons and commerce is relatively new. A generation ago, the landscape looked drastically different. Media often described it as an “industrial wasteland” due to the toxic pollution left behind by factories that fled in the 1970s and 80s. It was also known as a place where corruption festered during the reign of an allegedly corrupt police chief who “ruled the town with an iron fist,” according to former city manager Joe Tanner. Flash forward to 2024 and Emeryville’s brand new mayor Courtney Welch, the first Black woman to hold that position, can legitimately claim that the town is “having a bit of a renaissance.” Brand new parks, apartments, and shops now occupy land that was littered with junked cars, rusty warehouses, and crumbling buildings. Taking notice of this transformation, I wrote about some of my favorite things to do in Emeryville recently for SF Gate and the article got a huge response. So, since a lot of people seem to be checking out Emeryville for the first time, I though it would be a good opportunity to look back at Emeryville’s history and ask some important questions… Like: How did it become such a hell hole in the 80s? How did it transform so radically since then? Why does this extremely unique tiny little town even exist? Spoiler alert: The answers to all these questions are pretty crazy. There’s a good reason why former Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren famously called Emeryville “the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast.” Today’s episode features interviews with Rob Arias, publisher of The Eville Eye community news site, and creator of the Emeryville Historical Society’s new Park Avenue District walking tour; and also Joe Tanner, who served as Emeryville’s city manager in the 1980s. https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/rotten-city-no-more/ Note: Note: To hear my previous episode about the history the “Emeryville shellmound” and battles over Ohlone sacred sites, click here: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/where-are-those-ancestors-now/ This episode is sponsored by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. For over a century, UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland has upheld a long legacy of providing essential healthcare for kids and families across the East Bay. Today, UCSF is continuing the tradition of care by making a major investment which includes a new hospital building that will expand critical treatment options for those that need it most. To learn more about the future of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, click here: https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2023/12/01/ucsf-benioff-childrens-hospital-expansion.html?b=1701377706^22331569 East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday. You can also support East Bay Yesterday by purchasing the official t-shirt or hat from Oaklandish.

In 1970, Dr. Marcus Foster was hired as the first Black superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District. Widely recognized as one of the greatest educators of his generation, he was brought here to help rescue a deeply troubled system. Within three years of his arrival, exactly 50 years ago this month, Foster was assassinated by a shady militant group that called itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. Even though many of the details of Foster’s death are known, it remains one of the most mysterious murders of a notoriously turbulent era. Although the SLA supposedly emerged from Berkeley’s revolutionary underground, there are some startling connections that point to a far more complicated story. On the anniversary of this tragic killing, this episode celebrates the legacy of Foster’s impact on Oakland school and also delves into the murky origins of the group responsible for this death. The first segment features Patanisha Williams, the curator “The Audacity to Believe,” an exhibit about Dr. Marcus Foster currently on display at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland. The second half of the show includes bestselling author and investigative journalist David Talbot, who wrote about the SLA in his book “Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror, and Deliverance in the City of Love.” Music for this episode was generously provided by Jason Stinnett and Justin Lee. To see images & more, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/he-was-bringing-people-together/ Note: As I was finalizing production on this episode, KQED Arts published an article about alleged financial mismanagement by the Marcus Foster Education Institute. You can read about the allegations here: https://www.kqed.org/arts/13937772/artist-as-first-responder-marcus-foster-education-institute This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday.

When Oakland’s most prominent graveyard celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015, SF Gate honored the occasion with this description: “There are 177,000 people at historic Mountain View Cemetery, many of them famous and all of them dead.” The permanent residents of this picturesque site may indeed be deceased, but their stories live on through Michael Colbruno’s blog “Lives of the Dead.” Since 2007, Colbruno has chronicled the politicians, athletes, inventors, and civil rights icons whose names are carved into imposing mausoleums, but he’s also unearthed many fascinating stories behind far less prominent tombstones.  Check out this episode to hear our conversation, which covers the origins of Mountain View, its famous designer Frederick Law Olmstead, the symbolism attached to many iconic monuments, and much more. Listen now via Apple, SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Music for this episode was generously provided by Jason Stinnett and Om Aranda Stinnett. To see photos and links related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/unearthing-lives-of-the-dead/ Special thank you to Shaping San Francisco and the Oakland History Center for co-hosting my live presentation on Mountain View Cemetery history on October 24, 2023. This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday.

19-year-old Laura Brown started the Oakland Feminist Women’s Health Center in 1972. In the early days, Laura would answer the clinic’s phone using different voices so it sounded like there were multiple people working there. From its humble beginnings in a tiny Temescal house, this DIY project would eventually grow into an institution that would serve countless patients, help many people from poor and marginalized backgrounds become healthcare professionals, and make a historic impact on the trajectory of reproductive justice in this country. Angela Hume uncovers the history of this clinic, which was later renamed West Coast Feminist Health Project / Women’s Choice, in the new book “Deep Care: The radical activists who provided abortions, defied the law, and fought to keep clinics open.” As the title suggests, this story covers topics that range from underground gynecological “self-help” groups to terrifying battles with swarms of anti-choice militants attempting to violently shut down abortion providers. Amidst an ongoing rollback of reproductive rights, where women are being jailed for accessing abortion pills once again, the lessons that dozens of activists share with Hume in this book are crucially relevant, sometimes heartbreaking, and occasionally even hilarious. To see photos related to this episode: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/abortion-poetry-and-stink-bombs/ This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

These days the East Bay’s waterfront is lined with parks, restored wetlands, marinas, and beaches, but for most of the twentieth century this shoreline was a dirty, dangerous wasteland. Factories stretching from Emeryville to Richmond treated the San Francisco Bay as a garbage bin. The habit of using the Bay as a dump was so common in Berkeley that the city legitimized the practice by creating a massive landfill on its western border in 1923. Beneath the idyllic grassy hills of Cesar Chavez Park and the bird-filled marshes of McLaughlin Eastshore State Seashore lay hidden mountains of trash. The transformation of this area from a leaky dump into a beautiful site for recreation and nature, a controversial process that unfolded over several decades, has been well-documented. Less has been said about the day-to-day activities of the landfill before its closure in 1983. Although the dump was a loud, smelly, wind-blasted environmental hazard, some of the people who worked there still carry fond memories of the place, and several significant Berkeley institutions emerged from friendships that were nurtured in that toxic soil. This episode explores the interconnected stories of folks who remember “the pit” long before it was turned into a park. First, you’ll hear from Margie Ellis and her daughter Ruby Quintana, whose family were the unofficial managers of the landfill from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s. Then Martin Borque, executive director of The Ecology Center, and Dan Knapp, co-founder of Urban Ore, will discuss the dump’s connection to Berkeley’s pioneering recycling movement, as well as a consequential battle over a proposed incinerator. Finally, Katherine Davis and Steve Smith of the recently closed Ohmega Salvage, will explain how lessons learned at the dump informed a lifelong dedication to combatting the wastefulness of contemporary culture. Listen now via Apple, SoundCloud, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Music for this episode was generously provided by Pacific Bells: https://pacificbells.bandcamp.com/album/7-days East Bay Yesterday relies on listener donation to survive. To support this program, visit: https://www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

Long before BART or AC Transit, East Bay commuters relied on the Key System, a network of electric streetcars, for local travel and even to cross the Bay (there used to be tracks on the lower deck of the Bay Bridge!). Despite serving millions of passengers annually, the rails were ripped out and the network was completely dismantled by 1958. This episode explores the forces that brought down the Key System and the lessons this history might hold for those interested in a more transit-friendly future. Listen to the podcast to hear memories from former riders who remember taking many exciting excursions on the streetcars, and also from volunteers at the Western Railway Museum, an organization dedicated to celebrating the legacy of track-based modes of transport. Big thanks to this episode’s guests: John Harder, Robert Immergluck, Cambridge Lutèce, and Mickey Simmons. See photos related to this episode here: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/end-of-the-line/ This episode marks the launch of my new line of apparel with Oaklandish. The design on the hats and shirts is based on the Key System’s “flying key” logo. Over on the Oaklandish blog, I share some additional thoughts on what inspired the theme of this collaboration. I hope you’ll check it out, especially if you’re interested in thinking about ways to make the Bay Area’s roads safer, cleaner, and less gridlocked. https://www.oaklandish.com/blogs/news/east-bay-yesterday-the-history-of-the-key-system This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell

Up until the 1850s, the East Bay was home to hundreds of grizzlies and some of the tallest redwoods in the history of the planet. Within about a decade of the Gold Rush, nearly all of the bears and the trees were wiped out. This episode looks back at the local environment before colonization—and explores how such a massive wave of devastation was able to change the landscape so quickly. Note: This episode was originally released in 2018. It’s being reposted now in celebration of the Long Lost Puzzle, available now for pre-order: https://oaklandpuzzle.com/products/long-lost-oakland Come to a free Long Lost Oakland presentation on July 31! Details here: https://eastbayyesterday.com/events/journey-through-long-lost-oakland/ To listen to the rest of the Long Lost Oakland miniseries, find the links on this page: https://eastbayyesterday.com/long-lost-oakland/

As a librarian at the Oakland History Center, Dorothy Lazard helped countless patrons research their connections to the past. In her new memoir “What You Don’t Know Will Make a Whole New World,” digs into her own history, examining the forces that shaped her young life in San Francisco and Oakland. After getting bounced around between relatives, schools, and towns in her early years, Dorothy found refuge in reading, a habit that would have a profound impact on how she established her place in a tumultuous world. To commemorate the release of this memoir, I recorded a conversation with Dorothy in front of a live audience at Clio’s Books on June 4, 2023. In addition to discussing her book, we also cover her favorite History Center memories, what it was like to live through “urban renewal,” the importance of libraries, and much more. To see photos related to this episode, visit: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/you-get-to-play-a-game-of-detective/ East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday

For the past eight years, Olivia Allen-Price has been solving local mysteries and debunking myths on her KQED podcast Bay Curious. Each week the show tackles listeners’ questions on topics ranging from architecture to salad dressing. Now a new book called “Bay Curious: Exploring the Hidden True Stories of the San Francisco Bay Area” has compiled some of the show’s best investigations along with a batch of new stories. On May 18, I interviewed Olivia about the joys and challenges of investigating forgotten histories, legendary local figures, and all the quirks and oddities that make the Bay Area so unique. To make this special evening even more immersive, the event was held at the Camron-Stanford House, the last of the beautiful Victorian mansions that once surrounded Lake Merritt. If you want to hear about the origins of iconic local cocktails, the saga of the Bay Bridge troll, some very difficult trivia questions, and much more, check out the episode now: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/a-curious-conversation/ East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: https://www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell

Did you know that downtown Oakland is built on ancient sand dunes? Or that the East Bay hills used to be honeycombed with quarries and mines? Or why Fruitvale was such a great place to plant orchards in the 1800s? These are just a few of the stories Andrew Alden explores in his new book “Deep Oakland: How Geology Shaped a City.” (Heyday) According to Alden, Oakland has the most rock diversity of any U.S. city, and in today’s episode we discuss stories below the soil. The conversation covers everything from earthquakes and volcanoes to landslides and potholes. Check out photos related to this episode at: https://eastbayyesterday.com/episodes/from-volcanoes-to-potholes/ East Bay Yesterday can’t survive without your donations. Please make a pledge to keep this show alive: www.patreon.com/eastbayyesterday This episode is supported by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals. I highly recommend checking out their new podcast, “Revolutionary Care: An Oakland Story,” a series about the history of treating sickle cell anemia: www.ucsfbenioffchildrens.org/sickle-cell