People of Emeryville: What story do you think local news should cover?
on October 1, 2026
Today we launch Emeryville Today, a local news publication by graduate students at UC Berkeley Journalism School. Our reporters are covering meetings and events, taking pictures and videos, and engaging residents in conversations about the city. To get started, we asked Emeryville residents what they would like us to cover. Here are their answers, presented verbatim and edited for brevity.
Question: What is an issue or story in Emeryville that you think local news should cover?
“A problem that news should cover in Emeryville is homelessness and crime rates because I feel like there are a lot of resources that there is in the Bay Area for homelessness. Of course there’s police who manage crime, but I feel like there should be something more of a better solution to all of the problems.”
–– Jennifer Andrade, employee of Chick-fil-A Emeryville
“Find out about the kids who are committing crimes. It’s not very many kids but it’s a few who are at loose ends and have nothing else to do. I don’t like calling these kids criminals. I call them kind of on the wrong path.”
––Diane Trewin, retired Social Security worker
“Well, what makes me happy is when I see Emeryville very clean — the landscaping, the trees, and the people are very polite. So I would like to talk about this in the news, you know, the beauty. The beauty of the city, the diversity, discipline and neatness.”
–– Afewerki Fissehaye, security guard
“I think Emeryville pays for the after school program, which is an enormous help, and it’s one of the reasons why we stayed in Emeryville. We have to work later than school goes, so the program continues after school, and the city pays for it, or the school pays for it.…I think this is a unique thing in Emeryville.”
––Chris Schlicksup, Emeryville resident
“I think that, in addition to a news outlet covering specific issues, they should provide a voice for the community. And frankly, an uncensored voice. Too much of the mainstream media doesn’t want to share controversy, but controversy is what makes us human.”
––Seth Morrison, activist
“Well, I think the local news should cover what’s going on in terms of ICE expansion. There are new centers being contemplated in Dublin and in Gilroy and in California City, which is not quite in the Bay Area, but a lot of the people detained in this area are taken there and incarcerated. …We’re already seeing a lot of increased ICE activity in our community, and I feel like this is something that we really need to fight against.”
––Julie Litwin, activist
“You can really see when the small government is actually doing certain things, like, simple things: bike lanes and infrastructure, parks and stuff. And I think that’s really cool. Especially when you’re by bigger cities like Berkeley, Oakland, San Francisco, that kind of stuff can be harder to do.
––Olivia Petti, tech company project manager
“In such a prosperous and dynamic Bay Area, why does Emeryville have so many vacant office and residential buildings?”
––Jerry Kopel, retired
“I would love it if the media covered what was unique about Emeryville’s needs, different from Oakland, different from other cities. I would love the media to cover all the great things that are happening in Emeryville. Emeryville has a thriving arts community and would love them to focus on that, and what an impact art in all the buildings has on other people who live here.”
Sharon Lipping, operations manager at ECAP
“Local reporters should write about road safety for pedestrians and cyclists being hit by vehicles here. And also cleaning the city, areas like this and public spaces.”
––Martin Mickey, resident
Nellie Hannon Gateway complex on San Pablo Avenue offers a home and free meals for many who have gone without.
1 Comment
Leave a Comment
Emeryville Today welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Emeryville Today assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
I think it would be lovely to have a feature called “exceptional in Emeryville“ that covers single individuals who are doing something great in our town. I’m a big fan of News that is uplifting a time in our country is in such Dire Straits..