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Eerie Apocalyptic Sky in Bay Area Raises Concerns for Residents

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In addition to smoke from the August fires, the Bay Area branch of the National Weather Service noted on Twitter that lower temperatures and weaker winds compared to the last several days are allowing wildfire smoke suspended in the air to fall closer to the ground, contributing to the sky color change.

People all over the Bay Area woke up Wednesday morning to ominous, orange skies. Street lights stayed on long past what should have been daybreak that — under normal circumstances –would have been a clear, sunny day.

‘Surreal,’ ‘hell,’ and variants of ‘apocalypse’ were terms that peppered conversations on and off social media.

The cause, as reported by Bay City News, is smoke from the August Complex fires in Mendocino County that settled on top of a marine layer in the Bay Area Wednesday, turning the sky various shades of red and orange.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, “ . . . [t]he ominous pallor of the skies, experts said, were a product of the plumes of smoke billowing from the historic number of wildfires burning across the state.  Wind conditions overnight pushed smoke into lower elevations, filtering sunlight and producing dark tints of red, orange and gray.  Still, air quality remained mostly unchanged.”

Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokesman Ralph Borrmann said the smoke is filtering out blue light, giving skies around the Bay Area a red-orange tint.

Borrmann said that while the air district extended its Spare the Air alerts through Friday, air quality is not being adversely affected by the smoke because the marine layer is, in effect, insulating low-lying areas.

Parts of the Bay Area at higher elevations may be more susceptible to poor air quality, but parts of the Bay Area that lie at or close to sea level were not being adversely affected like in previous days.  Updates about air quality in the Bay Area can be found at  baaqmd.gov.

This writer woke up to ash on my car and lawn and confused about the time of day and why it wasn’t lighter at dawn.  By noon on Wednesday, people were still driving with their headlights on.  Streetlights that turn off at dawn were still illuminated.  People complained of their eyes being irritated.

This writer received a text from a friend, Ange, about “ . . . the impending apocalypse and obvious undercurrent of anxiety” followed by  “ . . . seriously though . . . what is with the sky?”

Jim Tang tweeted: “If you told me that I was actually in hell right now, I would believe you.”

Connie Guglielmo of CNET tweeted “Strange skies over the Bay Area again this morning.  Ominous music optional.”

Will Tran of KRON 4 tweeted: “[o]range, dark and ashy bc of wildfires.  I was two days away from my 8th birthday when Mt. St. Helens shook the planet.  I’m from Seattle-Tacoma and I remember the sky looked just like this.”

(Mount St Helens is an active volcano in nearly 100 miles south of Seattle, Wash. It had a deadly eruption in 1980.)

News reports discussed how residents of Oakland, San Francisco, and the Bay Area were sharing images of the “apocalyptic morning light” as record heat continues to fuel local fires.

Wildfires are changing the weather of an entire region, meteorologists said. And forecasters don’t know when it will end.

“Fires create their own weather,” National Weather Service meteorologist Roger Gass explained, but usually only on a small scale, in areas close to the flames.

The smoke that upended the Bay Area on Wednesday, though, was coming from hundreds of miles away, according to reports from The East Bay Times. Most of it, Gass said, “was likely from the August Complex Fire in the Mendocino National Forest and the Bear Fire in the western Sierra. Smoke from other fires throughout California, Oregon and Washington was also mixed into the massive layer of haze,” the East Bay Times reported.

“We’re having such a large scope of dense smoke across the Bay Area and the West Coast in general, that it’s actually impacting our weather conditions,” Gass told the East Bay Times. “We’re kind of in uncharted territory right now.”

Meteorologists said that the air quality is not as bad as it appears to be, but that is not reassuring to some.

“I woke to an apocalyptic sky, orange haze elicits a sense of dusk rather than day.  I’m reminded of all the dystopian books I’ve read. I also sense that we are doomed. The world descending into chaos around me” said my wife, Natalie Devora Monifa.

“I think this weather is a ‘no’” added my 19-year-old daughter, Isabella Bolden-Monifa

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, I’ve been feeling as if I was in an apocalypse.  Today’s weather in the Bay Area is ‘outpicturing’ what I’ve been feeling” said another friend, Pamela Grimm.

But for my son, Benjamin Bolden-Monifa, “It’s cool.” My 17-year-old’s favorite color is orange and he wears it daily.

 

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.
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Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 13 – 19, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 6 – 12, 2024

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Who are the Alameda County District 4 Supervisor Candidates’ Top Campaign Contributors?

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

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Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).
Jennifer Esteen. (Campaign photo) and Supervisor Nate Miley. (Official photo).

By Zack Haber

Nate Miley, who has served on Alameda County’s Board of Supervisors since 2000, is running for reelection to the District 4 supervisor seat.

Jennifer Esteen, a nurse and activist, is seeking to unseat him and become one of the five members of the powerful board that sets the county’s budget, governs its unincorporated areas, and oversees the sheriff, Alameda Health System, and mental health system.

District 4 includes most of East Oakland’s hills and flatlands beyond Fruitvale, part of Pleasanton and unincorporated areas south of San Leandro like Ashland and Castro Valley.

Voting is open and will remain open until March 5.

In California, campaign donations of $100 or more are public record. The records show that Miley has received about $550,000 in total campaign donations since he won the previous District 4 election in March 2020. Esteen has raised about $255,000 in total campaign donations since she started collecting them last July. All figures are accurate through Feb. 20.

While Miley has raised more money, Esteen has received donations from more sources. Miley received donations of $100 or more from 439 different sources. Esteen received such donations from 507 different sources.

Below, we’ve listed each candidate’s 10 highest campaign contributors. For Miley, two of his top campaign donors also bought their own advertisements to support him and/or oppose Esteen through independent expenditures. Such expenditures, though separate from campaign donations, are also public record, and we listed them. Additionally, the National Organization of Realtors has spent about $70,500 on their own independent expenditures to support Miley.

Nate Miley’s top campaign contributors:

The California Apartment Association, a trade group representing landlords and investors in California’s rental housing business, has spent about $129,500 supporting Miley’s election bid through about $59,500 in ads against Esteen$55,000 in ads supporting Miley, and $15,000 in campaign donations.

The independent expenditure committee Preserve Agriculture in Alameda County has spent about $46,025 supporting Miley through about $27,200 in their own ads, and $18,825 in donations to his campaign. Preserve Agriculture has supported reelection efforts for former Alameda County DA Nancy O’Malley, and Sheriff Greg Ahern, a republican. It’s received funding from ChevronPG&E, and a the California Apartment Association.

Organizations associated with the Laborers’ International Union of North America, or LiUNA, have donated about $35,000 in total. Construction and General Laborers Local 304, a local chapter of the union representing which represents over 4,000 workers, donated $20,000.

Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition, which represents 70,000 LiUNA members in Arizona, California, Hawaii and New Mexico, donated $15,000.

William ‘Bill’ Crotinger and the East Oakland-based company Argent Materials have donated $26,000. Crotinger is the president and founder of Argent, a concrete and asphalt recycling yard. Argent’s website says it is an eco-friendly company that diverts materials from landfills. In 2018, Argent paid the EPA $27,000 under a settlement for committing Clean Water Act violations.

Michael Morgan of Hayward, owner of We Are Hemp, a marijuana dispensary in Ashland, has donated $21,500.

Alameda County District 1 Supervisor David Haubert has donated $21,250 from his 2024 reelection campaign. He’s running unopposed for the District 1 seat.

SEIU 1021which represents over 60,000 workers in local governments, non-profit agencies, healthcare programs, and schools in Northern California, has donated $20,000.

UA Local 342, which represents around 4,000 pipe trades industry workers in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, donated $20,000.

The union representing the county’s deputy sheriffs, Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Alameda County, has donated $17,000.

Becton Healthcare Resources and its managers have donated $14,625. Becton’s mission statement says it provides “behavioral health management services to organizations and groups that serve the serious and persistent mentally ill population.”

Jennifer Esteen’s top campaign contributors:

Mary Quinn Delaney of Piedmont, founder of Akonadi Foundation, has donated $20,000. Akonadi Foundation gives grants to nonprofit organizations, especially focusing on racial justice organizing,

Bridget Galli of Castro Valley has donated $7,000. Galli is a yoga instructor and a co-owner of Castro Valley Yoga.

Rachel Gelman of Oakland has donated $5,000. Gelman is an activist who has vowed to redistribute her inherited wealth to working class, Indigenous and Black communities.

California Worker Families Party has donated $5,000. The organization’s website describes itself as a “grassroots party for the multiracial working class.”

David Stern of Albany has donated $5,000. Stern is a retired UC Berkeley Professor of Education.

Oakland Rising Committee—a collaborative of racial, economic, and environmental justice organizations—has donated about $3,050.

Fredeke Von Bothmer-Goodyear, an unemployed resident of San Francisco, has donated $2,600.

Robert Britton of Castro Valley has donated $2,500. Britton is retired and worked in the labor movement for decades.

Progressive Era PAC has donated about $2,400. Its mission statement says it “exists to elect governing majorities of leaders in California committed to building a progressive era for people of color.”

East Bay Stonewall Democrats Club has donated $2,250. The club was founded in 1982 to give voice to the East Bay LGBTQIA+ communities.

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