Fremont

In Fremont, an industrial road near Tesla has become home to a large number of people living in RVs. In February, the city ordered them to leave and began placing boulders in their place. We followed one resident as she struggled with her next move.

Lynn Shipman and her boyfriend live in their RV along Kato Road in Fremont. When I meet her, she immediately invites me in.

Inside, the RV looks like a miniature botanical garden.

Every day, the Dumbarton Bridge is choked with tech workers commuting from the East Bay to Silicon Valley. Next to the bridge is a rail line that’s been defunct for almost 40 years. Now, that rail crossing could be rebuilt for commuters. And Facebook might pay to make it happen.

Find more information on the Dumbarton rail bridge project here.

Tesla is one of the largest employers in the Bay Area, with around 10,000 workers at its factory in South Fremont. That factory used to be the NUMMI plant, where General Motors partnered with Toyota to learn how to run an efficient assembly line with a relatively happy work force. Some current Tesla employees once worked at the NUMMI factory, which had a union. The Tesla factory does not.

After a long day teaching at Ohlone College in Fremont, Rose-Margaret Itua often spends 40 minutes just waiting to get on the highway. It’s only a mile – a straight shot down Mission Boulevard to 680. But in the four years Itua has been teaching at the college, this short stretch has become maddeningly slow.

When construction workers break into the earth’s surface, it’s not unusual for them to discover ancient worlds. For example, on a 2013 dig, crews in San Francisco unearthed the remains of three mammoths and one giant bison. While working at the Caldecott Tunnel, fossil hunters discovered the remains of camels that once roamed the East Bay. There are actually provisions in California’s environmental laws that require anyone doing major digging projects to call fossil experts first, just in case. So when work began near Fremont to rebuild the Calaveras Dam, paleontologist Jim Walker was called to the scene to hunt for fossils. He expected to find a few, but the count surpassed 600.

This is Part 3 of a three-part series looking at what’s happened in the five years since the NUMMI auto plant closed. Read Part 1 and Part 2, or (we recommend) listen to the whole radio show!

This is Part 2 of a three-part series looking at what’s happened in the five years since the NUMMI auto plant closed. Read Part 1 and Part 3, or (we recommend) listen to the whole radio show!

On April 1st, the lunch line at the Golden Corral Buffet in Tracy snaked out the door. It was full of people who hadn’t seen each other in over five years.

To many Americans, Falafel is a fried ball of mashed up garbanzo beans that you can put in a sandwich. But to me, falafel reminds me of where I’m from – Sudan. Until recently, I thought there was really only one way to make it. But it turns out, there are many ways to fry a falafel, depending on where you’re from – and of course, everyone thinks their way is best. So I headed out around the Bay on a falafel shop hop.

All week long we've been playing this sound, and asking you to guess what exactly it is and where exactly in the Bay Area we recorded it.

The main prayer hall at Gurdwara Sahib Fremont, the Fremont Sikh temple, is a cavernous room. A beautiful marble center aisle leads to an altar, which contains the holy book, or Guru Granth Sahib. This is one of the biggest gurdwaras in the Bay Area -- every Sunday, around 3,000 people come to worship, eat, and find fellowship.

Digging up ancient worlds

When construction workers break into the earth’s surface, it’s not unusual for them to discover ancient worlds. Last year, crews unearthed the remains of three mammoths and one giant bison in San Francisco. While working at the Caldecott Tunnel, fossil hunters discovered the remains of camels that once roamed the East Bay. There are actually provisions in California’s environmental laws that require anyone doing major digging projects to call fossil experts first, just in case. So when work began near Fremont to rebuild the Calaveras Dam, paleontologist Jim Walker was called to the scene to hunt for fossils. He expected to find a few, but the count surpassed 600.

Fremont high school student Lynnea Shuck is being honored as one of the nation's top environmentalists. She and five others will receive the Brower Youth Award from the Earth Island Institute. The award is named after David Brower, an environmentalist who helped create the Point Reyes National Seashore and other nature preserves around the state and country.

To many Americans, Falafel is a fried ball of mashed up garbanzo beans that you can put in a sandwich. But to me, falafel reminds me of where I’m from – Sudan. Until recently, I thought there was really only one way to make it. But it turns out, there are many ways to fry a falafel, depending on where you’re from – and of course, everyone thinks their way is best. So I headed out around the Bay on a falafel shop hop.