What Rising Seas Mean for San Francisco
Weve all read dire projections of how rising global temperatures are raising sea levels. I wanted to better understand what that means for people in coastal cities right now. Not in the distant future, but right now. I chose sprawling, fast-growing Metropolitan Manila and the San Francisco Bay Area. I grew up in California, though very far from the ocean, in the flat, inland suburb of Covina. Like many Californians, I thought living by the ocean would be dreamy, and until recently I had not really give much thought to the risks we have inherited by building right up to the waters edge. Houses, highways, sewer mains: Theyre now at risk. Saving them means building costly walls and barriers or moving people and property out of harms way. Those are hard choices. Reporting this story sharpened three lessons for me. First, the hazards of the present are shaped by decisions of the past. According to the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, more than 20,000 households and 13 miles of highway are at risk of permanent inundation with two feet of sea level rise. Second, climate change has starkly unequal impacts. How you face the rising sea, I wrote, depends mostly on the accident of birth, whether your property is worth millions or is little more than a tin roof. Third, dealing with the impact of sea level rise means not just moving people away from hazardous parts of the coast, but reimagining these sprawling, car-congested metropolitan areas altogether. My photographer colleague, Chang W. Lee, and I planned our reporting days in the Bay Area to avoid the chockablock traffic on Highway 101. (We were not always successful.) In Manila, we rode tricycle cabs, hired a boat to get around a few times, and sat in traffic for hours. Commutes are typically two hours or more each way. Housing is scarce and expensive in both places. I heard experts press for a climate solution that on its face has nothing to do with sea level rise: Build more dense, affordable housing, they said, close to jobs, schools and public transportation. Thats politically difficult, including in the Bay Area. Two weeks before Super Tuesday, a new poll showed . He was the choice for 32 percent of likely primary voters, while 14 percent picked Joe Biden, 13 percent supported Senator Elizabeth Warren and 12 percent each supported Michael Bloomberg and Pete Buttigieg. Last month, the survey showed the race at almost a three-way tie with 27 percent supporting Mr. Sanders, 24 percent supporting Mr. Biden and 23 percent supporting Ms. Warren. in his presidency on Tuesday, where he met with organizers of the 2028 Olympics and attended a fund-raiser. [ ] After London Breed, briefly dated and were longtime friends, she said on Tuesday that accepting $5,600 in gifts from him was a lapse in judgment. [ ] Representative from a water discussion with a top federal official. Observers said it was troubling that a lawmaker would bar his hometown paper from an event. [ ] If you missed it, Los Angeless district attorney announced that her office had in the county, effectively erasing the felony records of 22,000 people. [ ] Graduate students at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have said they plan to continue to strike even after Janet Napolitano, the U.C. president, said . [ ] and how to comply with federal guidelines for students who have traveled to China amid the coronavirus outbreak. [ ] and has four movies coming out this year. He talked extensively about trying to be more honest and vulnerable. [ ] Women are tough enough to deal with, anyway. , wont be invited to a 2010 World Series reunion, the team said, and on Tuesday, he was cut off air during a radio interview for his sexist comments. [ ] Whether it was as a founding member of the Long Beach Community Improvement League or as a teacher of black studies at Cal State Long Beach, . People tell me to shut up. I dont listen. [ ] talked about nonviolence, health care for all as an ethical concept and the uninhibited satisfactions of sadism. [ ] Switching back and forth between languages has never been my job; its the only way of life I know. as he reeled in accolades for Parasite, wrote touching essay about the surreal, singular experience. [ ] is the correspondent, keeping tabs on the most important things happening in her home state every day.