What Can the Bay Area Do About Rising Seas? East Palo Alto Has a Few Great Answers

A recent article in KQED News showcases East Palo Alto's community-led efforts to adapt to climate change. The town of 30,000 is one of the most vulnerable localities to rising sea levels in the Bay Area; two-thirds of the city could experience regular flooding within a decade and high-tide inundation by mid-century. East Palo Alto is also a community of color, with a 66% Latino population and a significant number of Pacific Islanders, some of whom previously fled rising seas in the South Pacific.

The article highlights the SAFER Bay Project, which will protect East Palo Alto partly through building a new levee, separating the city from the San Francisquito Creek, and the community groups that are working to educate and solicit feedback from local residents in culturally-sensitive ways. 

BARC previously led a Caltrans-funded advanced adaptation planning effort in the Dumbarton Bridge West Approach vicinity, which is highlighted on our website, in partnership with local community groups Nuestra Casa and Acterra. BARC recently applied for further funds to develop a Master Plan that will tie together the multiple overlapping climate adaptation efforts in the vicinity together to ensure a coordinated approach moving forward.

What Can the Bay Area Do About Rising Seas? East Palo Alto Has a Few Great Answers, KQED