Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, as curated by KALW news:
Outside the box means living inside the box for some Oaklanders // Oakland North
"The Oakland housing market has gotten so high-priced that some residents have decided to think creatively and chosen a shipping container as their home.
"The decision to live in a discarded steel box is one that Heather Stewart made two years ago. 'For less than the price of one month’s rent, I decided to buy a shipping container and live in it,' Stewart said."
---
In East Oakland a couple offers 24-hour two parent care // Oakland North
"On a Thursday morning just before lunch, 40-year-old Eugene Hamilton is looking at one of the two-year-old boys in his daycare. 'You’re going to behave properly and not like a baby if you want to get back in there,' he says. The young boy wears a clean and snazzy orange flannel shirt, but is delivering a cross between a whine and a cry, the specialty of the walking, but not yet articulate, toddler. Eugene, dressed in crisp Nike casual sportswear, lays plates out for lunch. 'Those tears better vanish, fast.' The kid has been, for one reason or another, banished from the playroom where eight other kids are engaged in a call-and-answer game with Eugene’s 45-year-old wife, Keishna.
"The Hamiltons run a daycare in East Oakland. Like many daycares, they have a playroom, a TV, a kitchen with miniature tables and chairs, colorful posters on the walls and crates full of various toys and games. Unlike most daycares, Keishna’s Kiddie’s Corner takes care of kids 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The rise of 24-hour daycares in the past few years has followed naturally from the proliferation of non-conventional job hours, as well as zero-hour contracts and last-minute shift scheduling."
---
How East Bay tenants get displaced // East Bay Express
"When Tony Zhang read the fine print of a letter his new landlord sent him last month, he was stunned. After real estate company Berkshire Group bought his 75-unit apartment building in Old Oakland in December, tenants suspected they might face rent increases — but the notice still shocked Zhang. His rent, currently $1,800 on a month-to-month lease, was going to jump by more than 40 percent to $2,555. Berkshire would also be billing tenants for many services that were previously covered in the rent, the letter stated. With added utility bills and a new $100 parking fee, Zhang's monthly rent will soon increase by 50 percent — nearly $1,000 a month.
" 'A lot of us are working very hard trying to make ends meet,' he said. 'We acknowledge the need for Berkshire to make money. ... But if your profit is based on driving 75 people out of their homes, then I'd call that bad business.' "
---
San Francisco becomes the first city to ban sale of plastic bottles // Global Flare
"In a bold move toward pollution control, San Francisco has just become the first city in America to ban the sale of plastic water bottles, a move that is building on a global movement to reduce the huge amount of waste from the billion-dollar plastic bottle industry.
"Over the next four years, the ban will phase out the sales of plastic water bottles that hold 21 ounces or less in public places. Waivers are permissible if an adequate alternative water source is not available."
---
GoFundMe cancels sex workers' legal fundraising efforts // The Daily Dot
"Earlier this week, the sex worker advocacy group Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education and Research Project (ESPLERP) filed a lawsuit against the attorney general of the state of California, arguing that the state’s prostitution laws violate their constitutional rights. ESLERP set up a campaign on the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe before filing the suit, raising $30,000 in the process. Earlier this week, the group set up another campaign on GoFundMe for the court case.
"Last Friday, however, GoFundMe abruptly canceled the campaign without warning, deleting ESPLERP’s account on the website and changing its terms of service. Now, sex workers and sex worker allies are protesting GoFundMe’s actions on social media, arguing that the crowdfunding platform is discriminating against sex workers."
---
Black owned hotel group to open hotel in downtown Oakland // Black to Business
"The Homage Hotel Group is giving you a chance to become a part of making Black History in the Travel and Leisure Industry. Homage is seeking to make a change in the American hotel industry, in which African Americans own less than 1% by opening a new hotel in downtown Oakland, CA. Though the vast majority of black owned hotels are a franchise of Marriott or Hilton, the Oakland hotel is slated to be independently and black owned.
" 'Historically, it’s easier to secure funding if the management is done through established hotel management companies like the Hilton, Wyndham or Marriott,' Damon Lawrence, Homage Hotel Group CEO, says. 'But Homage seeks to bring a unique, independent hospitality experience to our guests.' "