Matt Ray and Matthew Wranovics are the founders of Left in the Bay, a project that uncovers and retells stories of social struggle in the San Francisco Bay Area. Follow them on social media @leftinthebay.
‘They couldn’t give me a home as homey as my home out here, homie’
The off-leash glory of the Albany Bulb. By Left in the Bay
Insurrection City: the radical beginnings of Ohlone Park
Ohlone Park was born as a sortie in a war over whether public space would be controlled democratically or according to the whims of property owners.
Rent strike syndrome: Ping Yuen tenants fight back
Left in the Bay details the conditions leading to the longest rent strike in San Francisco history.
Irresponsible and human: the story of Rainbow Village
Rainbow Village came to symbolize the hope of a humane response to homelessness that would prioritize the autonomy and dignity of unhoused communities themselves.
Landing on the landlords: The great Berkeley rent strike of 1970
The Berkeley Tenants Union had its roots in the People’s Park struggle, when community activists reclaimed land cleared for “urban renewal” and turned it into a guerrilla park in the spring of 1969.
‘People’s Pad’ and revolutionary gentrification
After UC Berkeley used lethal state force to block People’s Park from public use in 1969, the
community reclaimed a new space to organize the revolution: People’s Pad.
‘Bodies and force’: Lessons from Alameda’s tenant organizers of the 1960s
In 1960s Alameda, Black residents of a low-income housing project fight back after government threatens to evict.