City Council candidate Thushan Amarasiriwardena talks to us about his desire to bolster and protect Alameda's social fabric by creating affordable housing, doing more to support small business and returning to community policing among other ideas. It is another interview with a candidate in our series leading up to the Nov. 3 city election.

Podcast host: Laura Thomas

In our first interview of candidates for Alameda's city council election Nov. 3, we speak with Amos White, long-time Alamedan, political and environmental activist, about his background as a community advocate, his desire to listen to and represent all Alamedans and his love of the city's arts and diversity.

Podcast host: Laura Thomas

Isaac De La Fuente explains how his new business, Collab, provides services to Alamedans. Do you want a really special photo printed on a metal plate? A tee-shirt with a family photo? A coffee cup with your special artwork? Isaac can provide all sorts of image creation to meet your need. https://collabcreate.io/

In another instance of the old guard being challenged by the new, 36-year-old Berkeley resident Jamie Joyce, the director of Society Library, an internet repository of arguments from all points of view, is stepping up to challenge Lateefah Simon, Alameda's representative in congress. She represents a district with a legacy of progressive Democrats in office, but Joyce contends Simon may not be prepared for the challenge the forces behind artificial intelligence and the surveillance state present.

Island City Beat's host, Angie Watson Hajjem, talks about her quest to know exactly what she should be doing with her life and how the answer came to her almost by magic. We hope it will be a source of reflection for many and provide a new theme for this podcast to explore in future episodes.

The Alameda Naval Air Museum is little-known to Alamedans even though it sits not far from the well-known USS Hornet Museum. Staffed by dedicated volunteers, and begun by the first civilian female engine mechanic, this museum represents a piece of Alameda’s historical involvement with war, military preparedness, civil aviation and the civilian workforce. Our country is in a war right now that few of us support, and this podcast is not a statement of promotion of war. However, we thought it important to present this perspective on a facility and a period that involved and affected many residents.

Podcast host: Laura Thomas

Island City Beat art critic OK Boomer speaks to Halloran Parry, an Alameda painter who brings personal stories onto canvas. She discusses how this approach can be a concrete way for her clients to confront the confounding parts of their lives and how she believes that stories, no matter how small, will form the basis for creating the workable system we all want to live in.

The new medical respite center for homeless elderly on McKay Avenue, is finally open. Bonnie Wolf is the consultant who led the project on behalf of the Alameda Point Collaborative which championed it and fought every bureaucratic and social obstacle to realize it. She salutes Alameda for stepping up to defend it against a spiteful minority that opposed it for years. She also explains how healing the beach setting will be for patients at Arnold's Place.

Podcast host: Laura Thomas

For more about the Wellness Center/Arnold Place's history use this link:
https://islandcitybeat.com/episodes/place-holder-for-next-episode