Here's what's happening in the Bay Area, curated by KALW news:
BART can’t keep pace with rising 'crush loads’ // SF Gate
"With a familiar beep-beep, a Fremont-bound BART train rumbles into MacArthur Station in Oakland and an equally familiar routine begins. Hundreds of passengers exit. Most walk, some jog, across the platform and form neat lines as a San Francisco train rolls in.
"The tightly packed BART cars during commutes these days are a result of the transit agency’s success — and its failure.
"Weekday ridership now averages about 420,000 — 100,000 more than five years ago. But BART hasn’t kept pace with that growth and is hobbled by its inadequate infrastructure."
-----
Plans to build grocery store in West Oakland delayed by rising cost of property // Oakland North
"The People’s Community Market, as envisioned, would focus on serving the low-income families of West Oakland, and in 2013, Ahmadi campaigned to raise initial seed money. Through direct public offerings, or investment crowdfunding, he raised $1.2 million from about 400 shareholders.
"At last, he says, he now believes he is within months of opening. However, ongoing challenges in finding a location for the store continue to delay its debut. Ahmadi is pursuing properties located on W. Grand Avenue, between San Pablo Avenue and Adeline Street, in West Oakland, but the prices he’s been offered are what he believes to be several times market value."
-----
San Jose preparing tough drought plan // Mercury News
"As California braces for a fourth year of record drought, the city of San Jose is getting serious about cutting down on outdoor watering, weighing new restrictions on residents' ability to irrigate their lawns, plants and trees, and weighing significant constraints on new lawns.
"Under a proposal headed to the City Council for approval, officials are considering limiting the number of days per week that people can use potable water for irrigation, with some exceptions for parks, golf courses and other users. The recommendations are meant to bring the city into compliance with new, unprecedented state mandates to cut urban water use."
-----
Presidio takes first steps to rejuvenate Mountain Lake // SF Examiner
"San Francisco is reviving a slice of its natural history one fish, frog and turtle at a time.
"For more than a decade, ecologists have strived to return Mountain Lake — one of three remaining natural lakes in The City — to a healthy body of water. The cleanup efforts follow years of contamination caused primarily by sediment from state Highway 1, which cuts through the Presidio to the Golden Gate Bridge."
-----
Soaring Bay Area rents spark growing calls for rent control // Coco Times
"Four decades after tenants won rent control in some of the Bay Area's biggest and most left-leaning cities, the movement is creeping back to life in the suburbs, spurred on by a runaway rental market that has priced out blue collar workers, young families and seniors.
"Rent control advocates have made their case in council chambers across the Peninsula as well as in Alameda, Richmond and Fremont, where officials are unaccustomed to rental housing politics."
-----
Here's where the next TargetExpress store will open in the Bay Area // SF Biz Times
"Almost nine months after it was first proposed, the third TargetExpress to open in the Bay Area is confirmed to land in the Ingleside neighborhood at 1830 Ocean Ave. in October.
"TargetExpress — Target’s new small-format retail option — will occupy 17,000 square-feet at the former Rite Aid spot, which has been empty for six years. The traditionally blue-collar neighborhood has seen a development boom in recent years with new housing, a Whole Foods and new restaurants as investors are lured to the transit-rich corridor."