Crosscurrents

At a time when Americans are increasingly preoccupied the upcoming elections, some of San Francisco’s expatriates recently had a chance to hear from a political fighter of their own. Burmese opposition leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi visited San Francisco at the end of last week, and thousands of members of the city’s Burmese community – which is one of the largest in the US – turned out to hear her speak.

We continue the joint series with our friends at New America Media discussing the issues that various Bay Area ethnic communities care about this election year, and where they stand on local issues. Every Tuesday until election day, we’ll be speaking with representatives from local ethnic media to hear about what’s important to their audiences.

Our Hear Here team has been interviewing people in libraries throughout San Francisco and Oakland about their lives and memories. Now they want to know about the places that make those memories what they are. They’re asking a simple question: what’s a place in your neighborhood that matters to you, and why?

At a time when Americans are increasingly preoccupied with our own upcoming elections, some of San Francisco’s expatriates recently had a chance to hear from a political fighter of their own.  Burmese opposition leader and Nobel prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi visited San Francisco at the end of last week.  

Many of us wonder what we can do for the communities we live in. Sometimes we feel alienated, even from our neighbors, and just want to connect. Other times, we come together for the sake of safety. We join a neighborhood watch, or pay a visit to city hall. In this next story, we meet three residents of West Oakland who are finding new ways to clean up their communities -- literally. Reporter Charlie Mintz has the story from “Chew on This,” a new project coming to KALW this fall.