Could 'Urban Villages' Help Fix San Jose's Suburban Sprawl?

02/17/24 • 29 min

How The Bay Area’s Biggest City Wants to Overcome Its Sprawl

The cars and trucks we drive account for nearly half of California’s total carbon emissions. And bringing those emissions down is going to require more than just swapping out gas guzzling cars for electric ones. It’s going to mean redesigning our cities around people, not cars. KQED’s Adhiti Bandlamudi takes us to San Jose where local leaders are trying to rethink how residents live and how they get around. This story comes to us from KQED’s podcast Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America.

LA’s Bé Ù Puts a New Spin on Vietnamese Takeout, and Workers’ Rights

Many chefs will tell you their cooking reflects the food they grew up eating. Food shared on holidays or at family parties. For our series Flavor Profile, The California Report’s Keith Mizuguchi introduces us to a chef cooking up Vietnamese comfort food inspired by her family’s recipes. She’s also a former union organizer trying to build a business where workers are paid a fair wage.

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How The Bay Area’s Biggest City Wants to Overcome Its Sprawl

LA’s Bé Ù Puts a New Spin on Vietnamese Takeout, and Workers’ Rights

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Previous Episode

From Mannequins to Musical Roads: More of California's Hidden Gems

This week, we feature stories from our Hidden Gems series about out-of-the-way secret spots in California - places you might want to visit on a road trip!

How This Oakland Business Gives Mannequins New Life (Almost)

You might not notice them, but mannequins can be found everywhere from the tiniest boutiques to Target. But what happens to these non-biodegradable figures when stores go out of business or styles change? In California, many of them end up at Mannequin Madness, an Oakland warehouse run by a woman whose mission is to keep mannequins out of the landfill.

This Stretch of the Mojave Desert Plays the ‘Lone Ranger’ Theme

There’s a road in the western Mojave Desert that’s supposed to sound like the "William Tell Overture" by Rossini. Honda built the road back in 2008 as part of a TV commercial for the Civic. But it's seen better days. Reporter Clare Wiley headed out to Lancaster to make some music with her tires.

Fort Bragg’s Larry Spring Museum Preserves Creativity in California

The tiny Larry Spring Museum is dedicated to a Mendocino County TV repairman who lived in Fort Bragg most of his life. He was an amateur physicist, a keen observer of nature and the items he left behind reveal his deep curiosity about the world. KQED’s Katrina Schwartz takes us to this whimsical museum to learn more about the man behind it.

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Next Episode

How the Freeway System Shaped California

In many California cities, freeways and sprawl are just a fact of life. They’re baked into the design of much of the state. But how did we get here? Just how did freeways come to be such a big part of California life?

This week, we’re featuring a story from our friends at the KPBS podcast Freeway Exit. Host and producer Andrew Bowen looks at how our relationship with the freeway has changed over time, and how it will have to change in the future.

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