Category: DailyShorts

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Bay Curious - The Eccentric Personalities Behind Sunnyside Conservatory

Mary Balmana grew up in San Francisco and has driven down Monterey Boulevard near the Glen Park neighborhood hundreds of times. She often notices a large, beautiful Victorian building tucked between the houses and apartment buildings that dominate the block. And she's wondered, what's the story with it? How did such a grand building end up in such an unassuming spot?


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This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.


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Bay Curious - The Case of the Missing Tree Frogs

Bay Curious listener Dave Ellis lives in the South Bay city of Saratoga. When he was a kid growing up there, he remembers loud tree frogs chorusing almost all the time. But now, even in spring when they should be loudest, he says it's eerily quiet. What's going on?


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Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts

This story was reported by Dana Cronin. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Curious City - No cars, no road salt: How one Midwestern community avoids salt all winter

Chicago — like so many other frigid American cities — can’t seem to kick its dependence on road salt. In our last episode, we learned how winter weather on both ends of the thermometer can impact the local economy. Some businesses come out on top during the coldest winters: auto mechanics repairing cars when they hit a pothole, snow plow companies shoveling out small businesses and rock salt providers when the roads get icy. But chloride from salt is harmful to both our natural and built environments. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cold-weather community that avoids road salt altogether, but we found one! In this encore presentation, we visit a place way up north, Mackinac Island, Michigan. Dominick Miller, chief of marketing at the Mackinac State Historic Parks, tells us about how the island deals with snow and ice in the winter without laying down a single grain of salt. And it has a lot to do with the fact that cars have been banned on Mackinac Island for over a century.