Your Call 070108 Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling?

Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling? On the next Your Call, we'll talk about efforts to get people out of their cars and onto a bike. How effective have measures to encourage biking been so far? Does the proposed stop-and-roll law for bikers at red lights and stop signs make it easier to bike in the city, or risk a backlash against cyclists? Do safer streets for bikes inevitably mean it will be harder to drive cars? What sort of changes can city planners make to improve transportation for everyone in our city? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Leah Shahum in San Francisco
Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Bert Hill in San Francisco
Chair of the San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee

Dave Snyder in San Francisco
Transportation Policy Director at The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)

Click to Listen: Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling?

Your Call 070108 Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling?

Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling? On the next Your Call, we'll talk about efforts to get people out of their cars and onto a bike. How effective have measures to encourage biking been so far? Does the proposed stop-and-roll law for bikers at red lights and stop signs make it easier to bike in the city, or risk a backlash against cyclists? Do safer streets for bikes inevitably mean it will be harder to drive cars? What sort of changes can city planners make to improve transportation for everyone in our city? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Leah Shahum in San Francisco
Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

Bert Hill in San Francisco
Chair of the San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee

Dave Snyder in San Francisco
Transportation Policy Director at The San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR)

Click to Listen: Is San Francisco a great city for bicycling?

Your Call 063008 The Light Brown Apple Moth's Future

What is next for the Light Brown Apple Moth? Plans to aerial spray the urban areas of Northern California have been canceled, but what does that mean for the state's strategy to eradicate the pest - and whose communities are still on the list to be sprayed? On the next Your Call we'll take a look at the campaign to stop the spray. How did local governments, environmental activists, and concerned scientists put a stop to the aerial application of pesticides on our cities? Does this victory mark the end of the struggle, or is it just the end of the beginning? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Nan Wishner in San Francisco, CA
Chair of the City of Albany Integrated Pest Management Task Force

David Dilworth in Monterey, CA
Founder of HOPE (Help Our Peninsula Environment)

James R. Carey in Davis, CA
Professor and Program Director of Biodemographic Determinants of Life Span, University of California, Davis

Click to Listen: The Light Brown Apple Moth's Future

Your Call 062708 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday Media Roundtable where we discuss how the news of the week was covered. This week, the man at the helm of the Washington Post for the last 17 years was forced out after a new publisher took the helm, and the editorial page asked, "So what happens to our standards now?" The Supreme Court slashed Exxon's fine for fouling Prince William Sound two decades ago and a newsstand around the corner from the former home of the Oakland Tribune almost closed down after 101 years in business. Where did you get the news you needed and the context to understand it? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Peter Waldman in San Francisco
Senior writer at Condé Nast Portfolio

Eric Lichtblau in Washington DC
Pulitzer-prize winning Washington bureau reporter for The New York Times and author of Bush's Law: The Remaking Of American Justice.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 062608 The State of Black San Francisco

What happened to San Francisco's black population? On the next Your Call we talk with the organizers of a conference on the "State of Black San Francisco." Africans Americans were 13.5% of the population in 1970 but only half that now -- the biggest percentage decline in any major American city. With the passage of Proposition G, the last truly black neighborhood in the city, Bayview-Hunters Point, is about to undergo a multi-year, multi billion dollar make over. How many African Americans will call San Francisco home when it's done? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Julian Davis in San Francisco
Founder of the Osiris Coalition, organizer of this weekend's community forum on the State of Black San Francisco, Saturday, June 28th from 9 AM to 12 noon at the West Bay Conference Center at 1290 Fillmore Street in San Francisco

Sean Reynolds in San Francisco
Social worker and health educator and co-founder of the Medea Project: Theater for Incarcerated Women, with Rhodessa Jones and Idirs Ackamore.

Malo Hutson in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Assistant Professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley.

Dr Raye Richardson in San Francisco
Founder of Marcus Books, former chair of African American Studies at SF State

Click to Listen: The State of Black San Francisco

Your Call 062508 Re/De-regulating Air Travel

How should the market for commercial flying be organized? On the next Your Call we'll explore different ideas for organizing commercial aviation as once again the industry is faltering. Since 1978 when some government controls over the market were loosened, more than 200 airlines have gone out of business but does greater instability mean greater competition? What government policies would lead to the most competition, least pollution and best service? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Professor Paul Dempsey in Montreal
Director of the Institute of Air and Space at McGill University.

Mark Cooper in Maryland
Director of research for the Consumer Federation of America

Click to Listen: Re/De-regulating Air Travel

Your Call 062408 How does theater aid children in conflict zones?

How does theater heal and transform the lives of children living in conflict zones? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Juliano Mer Khamis, General Director of The Freedom Theater in Jenin. We'll also speak with a member of the Destiny Arts Center in Oakland, a city where seven people were fatally shot over the weekend. What role can theater play in violent communities to help children deal with their anger and fear? What challenges do they face? And what can we do to support these efforts? It's Your Call, with me, Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:
Juliano Mer Khamees, General Director of The Freedom Theater in Jenin

Jujuana Williams is a member of Destiny Arts in Oakland. She has written, directed and performed in her original play entitled, "A Christmas Story".

Click to Listen: How does theater aid children in conflict zones?

Your Call 062308 What was the Supreme Court's most important decision lately?

What was the Supreme Court's most important decision in the current session? On the next Your Call, as the Supreme Court wraps up its term, we'll take a look at some of its rulings. From Guantanamo to the death penalty to age discrimination, the Court has decided over 80 cases. What effects have President Bush's conservative appointees had on this session? Were you closely following the cases? And what's the future like for Supreme Court? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Michael Waldman is director of the Brennan Center for Justice, an institute at New York University School of Law.

Professor Neil Kinkopf of the College of Law at Georgia State.

Click to Listen: What was the Supreme Court's most important decision lately?

Your Call 062008 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call it's our Friday Media Roundtable where we discuss how the news of the week was covered. This week, the New York Times ran the headline, "Sense of Calm as Gay Couples Wed in California." While it would be easy to criticize the Times and say the true emotion was joy, did this headline and overall coverage of the nuptials capture the true spirit of the week? We'll also talk about coverage of Tim Russert's death and the success of a local newspaper unionization drive. On the next Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Bill Scher in Northhampton, MA
Online editor for Campaign for America's Future, executive editor of LiberalOasis.com and author of Wait! Don't Move To Canada!: A Stay-and-Fight Strategy to Win Back America

Janet Kornblum in San Francisco
Staff reporter for USA Today in San Francisco

Sara Steffens in San Francisco
Staff reporter at the Contra Costa Times and co-chair of the successful union organizing campaign at the Bay Area News Group.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 061908 World Refugee Day

What kind of a welcome does the Bay Area put out for refugees? World Refugee Day is Friday, and on the next Your Call we'll mark the occasion by talking to refugees who have been relocated to our communities. So often refugees are shown as far away victims of disasters or some other country's failings. We'll speak with two refugees of the Iraq war who just arrived in San Francisco. What kind of welcome are they finding? Who else is in our neighborhoods, fleeing our foreign policy choices? It's Your Call with me Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Lavinia Limn in Washington D.C.
President of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants
Lavinia Limn has more than 30 years of experience working on behalf of refugees and immigrants. During the Clinton Administration, Ms. Limon served as the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services, designing and implementing programs to assist newly arriving refugees in achieving economic and social self-sufficiency.

Ali Muhammed Kareem in San Francisco
Ali arrived on Feb 4th. He was a logistics supervisor and interpreter and was caught in a bomb blast. He had several surgeries during his 16 month stay in Jordan. He is fluent in English and has been asked to write on article on his experiences for the IRC SF Newsletter. He is working as an Office Administrator at Mary Green Company in San Francisco.

Anmar Al Rikibi in San Francisco
Amnar arrived on March 10th. He is a Civil Engineer who worked for Bechtel in Iraq. He spent 18 months in the UAE. He works as a Project Engineer with a small engineering construction firm in the East Bay.

Bir Thapa
Chairman of the Bhutanese American Community Center in Alameda. The local Bhutanese Community is one of only a very few in the U.S. and very small- only about 35 people. All of the Bhutanese that we met have here for between 3 and 7 years. None of them came as refugees because there was no access to the U.S. Refugee Program until recently but were granted political asylum. We are working very closely with them in the resettlement of Bhutanese refugees who are coming from refugee camps in Nepal. They are being resettled in the East Bay. Over the summer months IRC expects about 75 to 100 new arrivals.

Brian Adkins
Resource Developer of the International Rescue Committee's San Francisco office. IRC's local office was established in 1975 to serve the needs of Southeast Asian refugees who were airlifted to the U.S. after the fall of Saigon.

Click to Listen: World Refugee Day

Your Call 061808 The New Blue Media

What explains the success of left wing media? On the next Your Call we speak with Theodore Hamm, author of The New Blue Media- How Michael Moore, MoveOn.org, Jon Stewart and Company Are Transforming Progressive Politics. Hamm says the new left media has grown in power and influence by adopting three strategies- satire, polemic and the activism. But is the popularity of Michael Moore, The Daily Show and Daily Kos dependent on an unpopular Bush Administration? Has the ground work been laid for continued influence if Obama takes the White House? It's Your Call with me, Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Theodore Hamm in San Francisco
The founding editor of The Brooklyn Rail. His first book, Rebel and a Cause, about the 1960 execution of San Quentin death row author Caryl Chessman, was published by the University of California Press in 2001. His new book is The New Blue Media: Progressive Politics and Culture in the Bush Years.

Click to Listen: The New Blue Media

Your Call 061708 The future of gay marriage in CA and the US

What's in store for the future of gay marriage in California and across the country? On the next Your Call, we'll discuss the recent California Supreme Court decision to legalize gay marriage. In November Californians will vote on a state constitutional amendment to ban same sex marriage. Will gay marriage influence the presidential race? And will California influence other courts around the country? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Kate Runyon, interim executive director of Triangle Foundation in Michigan.

Ian Palmquist, executive director of Equality North Carolina

Kate Kendell, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a public interest law firm that joined the legal battle to overturn the ban on same-sex marriage

Click to Listen: The future of gay marriage in CA and the US

Your Call 061608 Rough times at the S.F. Zoo

What is happening at the San Francisco Zoo? On the Next Your Call, well have a conversation about future plans for the Zoo. The San Francisco Zoological Society oversees zoo operations for the city and San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly recently introduced a resolution to turn the 100-acre facility into a rescue house for domestic and exotic animals. What changes would you like to see? And what do you want from the zoo? It's Your Call, with me, Rose Aguilar, and you.

Guests:

Les Schobert worked in zoos for more than 30 years, including as General Curator of the Los Angeles Zoo and the North Carolina Zoo.

Deniz Bolbol, spokesperson for In Defense of Animals.

Click to Listen: Rough times at the S.F. Zoo

Your Call 061308 Media Roundtable

On the next Your Call, it is our Friday Media Roundtable where we call the nation's media to account for the way the news of the week was covered. This week, Bush Administration efforts to ram through a status of forces agreement with the Iraqi government foundered over disagreements about independent contractors and permanent bases. Articles of impeachment were read out on the floor of Congress and a Senate effort to regulate CO2 emissions fell victim to the 75th Republican filibuster this session. Where did you get the context to understand these events? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Fariba Nawa in San Francisco
Award-winning Afghan-American journalist who has written for the Sunday Times of London, Mother Jones, The Village Voice, and The Christian Science Monitor.

Gail Chaddock in Washington D.C.
Gail Chaddock is the Congressional correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor.

Jeremy Scahill in San Francisco
Polk Award-winning investigative journalist, contributor to The Nation and author of the just updated Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 061208 Unsure about UNASUR

Are we on the brink of the United States of South America? On the next Your Call we'll discuss the creation of La Union de Naciones Suramericanas last month in Brasilia. The Constitutive Treaty creates a headquarters in Quito, Ecuador, the South American Parliament in Cochabamba and the Bank of the South in Bogota. How big a deal was the signing? Will momentum for unification weaken when Bush is gone? And why hasn't the agreement garnered more attention in any of the Americas? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Nathan Gill in Valparaiso, Chile
Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar researching globalization and South American regional integration at the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Chile (Catholic University of Valparaiso, Chile). He is also the publisher of Southern Affairs, a blog that offers news and analysis of Latin American international relations, and is the government and economy correspondent in Chile for Bloomberg News.

Larry Birns in Washington, D.C.
The director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs since its founding in 1975. A former defense researcher and strategist and member of the Institute for Strategic Studies in London, and the All Souls College, Oxford's military seminar, he was a senior grade public affairs officer for the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America in Santiago, Chile.

Click to Listen: Unsure about UNASUR

Your Call 061108 The Uprising

What's the biggest movement you've never heard of in America? On the next Your Call we speak with David Sirota, author of The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street & Washington. Sirota traveled around the country listening to the people normally spoken for or spoken to: union members in rust belt cities, Minutemen on the California-Mexico border, and suburban homeowners watching their equity turn to smoke. The rise in inequality has got them angry, right and left. Does it amount to a new populist revolt or another silent majority too ready to be comforted by the status quo? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
David Sirota in San Francisco
Author of The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street & Washington. He is a columnist and former campaign adviser for Ned Lamont, who defeated Sen. Joe Lieberman in the 2006 Democratic primary and former chief spokesman for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee. He is also the author of Hostile Takeover: How Big Money and Corruption Conquered Our Government--And How We Take It Back and The Enthusiastic Employee: How Companies Profit by Giving Workers What They Want.

Click to Listen: The Uprising

Your Call 061008 Commons Series - Public Spaces

What makes a great public space? And how can we create more of them? On the next Your Call, we'll continue with our series on the commons by taking a look at the evolution of public spaces, which allow social interaction between diverse groups of people. But gentrification, policing, and revitalized urban places are changing them. How have the public spaces around you transformed over time? And what do they mean to you? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests:
Gray Brechin, project scholar and writer for the New Deal Legacy Project, which is documenting the physical legacy of the New Deal in California under the aegis of the California Historical Society.

Mona Caron, San Francisco based muralist

Click to Listen: Commons Series - Public Spaces

Your Call 060908 Can the Bay Area impact the pres. election?

How can we in the Bay Area have an impact on the national conversation in this election year? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with our guests and you, our listeners, about the ways in which we can positively influence the current presidential race. What are the conversations you would want us bring to the air? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Lisa Margonelli, California-based Fellow at the New America Foundation

Shanell Williams, Program Director of the Center for Young Women's Development

William Poy Lee, Berkeley based author of Eighth Promise

Click to Listen: Can the Bay Area impact the pres. election?

Your Call 060608 Media Roundtable

How bad has our economy gotten and what will its recovery look like? On the next Your Call, it’s our weekly media roundtable. How are people are coping with the housing and employment crises? AAA reports most Americans are curtailing their summer vacation plans. How are you changing your routines as the result of this economic downturn? And what kind of solutions are you looking to from Washington and Sacramento? On the next Your Call, with me, Ben Temchine and you.

Guests:
Frank Russo, Editor and Publisher, the California Progress Report
 
Steven Greenhouse, Labor and Workplace reporter at the New York Times, author of The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker.
 
David Danelo, a writer and former Captain in the US Marine Corps. He is author of the book Blood Stripes: A Grunts Eye View of the War in Iraq and the upcoming book The Border: Exploring the US-Mexican Divide.

Click to Listen: Media Roundtable

Your Call 060508 Why the Dalai Lama Matters

Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World by Robert Thurman

Guest:
Robert Thurman, author.

Click to Listen: Why the Dalai Lama Matters

Your Call 060408 Author Louise Erdrich (Rebroadcast)

How does a novel mixed with history, magic and mystery get stitched together? On the next Your Call, Rose Aguilar speaks with Louise Erdrich about her latest novel The Plague of Doves which unravels the lynching of three innocent Native Americans after a farming family is brutally murdered. Her novel is based on similar events that occurred in 1897. The perpetrators and the victims of the crime end up intermarrying. Pieces of history are woven throughout her novel. Erdrich's stories focus on native communities in North Dakota similar to her own growing up. Why are these stories important to write? Have you read Erdrich's previous novels or poetry? Join us. It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Renowned author Louise Erdrich

Click to Listen: Renowned author Louise Erdrich

Your Call 060308 Author Russell Banks on America

As the empire crumbles, is there still an American project? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with Russell Banks, author of 16 novels, most recently The Reserve, who has published his first non-fiction collection. In Dreaming Up America, Banks takes a novelists eye to colonial America to find the root of the dreams and obsessions that bind us together today. Do the aspirations in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution still call Americans to action? It's Your Call with me, Ben Temchine and you.

Guest:
Russell Banks, acclaimed American novelist. His latest book is entitled Dreaming Up America.

Click to Listen: Author Russell Banks on America

Your Call 060208 What Do You Think of Term Limits Now?

Is this Tuesday's election evidence that term limits work? On the next Your Call, talk about the profound effects that state and local term limits are having on the political landscape of the Bay Area this year. There are open city council races in Oakland and San Francisco; contested Democratic primaries between incumbents and a termed out politician looking to move up. Is your judgment of term limits confirmed by what you are seeing this year? And if your opinion is changing, which way are you shifting? On the next Your Call with me, Ben Temchine and you.

Guests:
David Latterman in San Francisco
Heads the political consultancy firm Fall Line Analytics that looks at survey and voting data and uses them to understand how our elections and politics are working. He joins us from his office in San Francisco.

Thad Kousser in San Diego
Professor of political science at UC San Diego and the author of the book Term Limits and the Dismantling of State Legislative Professionalism. He joins us on the line from Southern California.

Jesse Taylor in Berkeley
Writes about East Bay politics in his Undercurrents column which is published in the Berkeley Daily Planet. He joins us from Oakland.

Click to Listen: What Do You Think of Term Limits Now?