News Pix: Parent Trigger Law, Berkeley Sunday Streets, Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Carving Contest

Mothers of the Desert Trails Parent Union stand inside their headquarters in Adelanto. They are the first in the country to successfully employ a so-called 'parent trigger law' to radically transform a failing public school. They voted to hand over control of the elementary school to a local charter school group, after 18 months of battling the Adelanto Elementary School District and its teachers. (Ana Tintocalis/KQED)

Between 30,000 - 40,000 people headed to Shattuck Avenue on Sunday for Berkeley’s first Sunday Streets event which saw 17 blocks, from Haste to Rose, closed to traffic and open to pretty much everything else. (Nancy Rubin/Berkeleyside)

Anna Lisa jumps into a Stanford campus fountain dyed red in preparation for the Stanford football game against California Berkeley. (Kristina Krohn / Peninsula Press)

Festival-goers look on as the "Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers," Mike Valladao, shows off his handiwork at the 42nd Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival. (Caroline Davis / Peninsula Press)

On Saturday, the sixth annual Home Front Festival paid homage to the importance of World War II in the shaping and growth of Richmond. Rod Woods, Richmond Fire Fighter, spent hours helping kids like Jawanda DK Moore in and out of the big red fire truck. (Jennifer Baires / Richmond Confidential)

A homeless man amid his belongings in the alleyway where he lives in Berkeley. (Anna Vignet/San Francisco Public Press)

This photo is part of a photo essay on homelessness entitled "Architecture of Homelessness." The photographer's statement on the project is included below.

Initiatives to help San Francisco’s homeless find shelter, jobs or medical treatment remain controversial. One recent law, the “sit-lie” ordinance, made it illegal to sit or lie down on city sidewalks. Some homeless people say this law takes away their right to dwell freely — essentially the right to be alive. How does one build a place of one’s own in a city where other opportunities are not available? We all have the need to create a sense of home, even in extreme circumstances. In these photos, the lines between public and private, urban and domestic, blur. They reveal the architecture of homelessness, and contribute to the understanding of a displaced people who make their own spaces.