A Changing Bay Area: The Year in KQED News Videos, 2015

A rapidly changing neighborhood, a historic drought, raging wildfires and the reflections of a 96-year-old Beat poet — KQED News videos captured 2015 in and around the Bay Area.

While last year was filled with drought, fire and demolition, this year  we told stories of an evolving and growing Bay Area community (in addition to the continuing drought and several more fires). From quickly gentrifying neighborhoods to intimate stories of gender reassignment, 2015 was, plain and simply, a year of change.

To browse through the full year's worth of videos, check out kqednews.org/video.

Here’s a selection of some of our favorite work of 2015:

At 95, Lawrence Ferlinghetti Recounts More Than Six Decades of Life in San Francisco

As San Francisco changes, we hear from one of the city's most prominent voices, poet and co-founder of City Lights bookstore, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

See also: From the Gold Rush to Today in Just 217 seconds

Welcome to West Oakland: A Changing Neighborhood

From an organic grocery store to an urban garden, this video profiles a number of people trying to build and maintain community in rapidly gentrifying West Oakland.

See also: A Brief History of West Oakland

Transitioning

For a year, KQED photographer Deborah Svoboda followed two Bay Area residents through their respective gender transitions.

9-Year-Old, Shot and Paralyzed, Struggles to Return to Life

For our Books and Bullets series, KQED spent a day with Jacqueline Funes, a 9-year-old left paralyzed by a stray bullet while playing in her East Oakland neighborhood.

See also:

-Part Two: Violence Causes Ripple Effects for Thousands of Oakland Schools

-Part Three: Mom Seeks to Make Schools Better for Kids Traumatized by Violence

Devastation and Recovery: Scenes from the Valley Fire Aftermath

In a matter of hours, 3,000 people in Lake County were left homeless as a wildfire decimated the area. Four people lost their lives, and the economic costs are estimated in the millions.

Not Vaccinated? ‘Stay Home from School’

In Marin County, which has the highest number of personal belief exemptions for vaccinations in the country, a father petitions the school board to “require immunization as a condition of attendance, with the only exception being those who cannot medically be vaccinated.”

Best of the Rest:

-After Years of Drought, the Stanislaus River Re-emerges

-TURF Dancing on Bart

-A Trip to the Top of Sutro Tower

-Folsom Lake Nears Record Low

-'Krazy' Origins of the Wave

-A Real (Free) Rideshare

What should we cover in 2016? If you have any video ideas, get in touch with us here.