Hey Area: You ask, we answer

Listener Katie Taylor asked us to find out how San Francisco’s Folsom Street became “the center of sexy times.” KALW Audio Academy Fellow Lance Gardner went to find out.

Hey Area is where you ask the questions and we find the answers. Listener Mark Pritchard noticed the Oakland's flag shares the colors of its baseball team and wondered, why are green and gold a characteristic color of Oakland?

Hey Area is where you ask the questions and we find the answers. Today’s question comes from Monzerrath Gonzalez: “Who are the most influential Latinos in the Bay Area?”

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Brit Byrd wanted to know, “Why does San Francisco have the Farallon Islands? They’re thirty miles off the coast, but they’re legally part of San Francisco. What’s up with that?” The Farallones are these islands off the coast of San Francisco, and Brit noticed them on the internet. One day he was looking at San Francisco and noticed that the county line jutted thirty miles out into the ocean and circled some tiny little dots. On a clear day you can just make out the islands from the city — they’re like jagged teeth sticking out of the Pacific. To understand why they’re part of San Francisco you first have to understand what they’re like, so I went to the visitor center for the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. It’s at Crissy Field in the Presidio. These days the islands are protected as a national wildlife refuge, and only a handful of people get to set foot on them. One of those lucky people is Mary Jane Schramm . She

KALW is listener supported. Donate to support local public radio. Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. This one comes from New York staff writer Jelani Cobb. He asks, “How did there get to be an entirely separate city inside of Oakland?”

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Adam Incera recently visited San Francisco from New York and wanted to know: Why does the Bay Area have so many transit systems?

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Nastassya Saad wonders about the origins of the world-famous moniker for the South Bay.

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Cameron Williams wanted to know: "What’s the best place in the Bay Area to have a first kiss?"

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. David Shayer wanted to know, “Why is highway 101 plastered with billboards, while highway 280, a few miles west, has no billboards? I hate billboards, I would cut them all down if I could!”

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Ben Harney wanted to know why is it called earthquake weather?

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. In the years following 9/11, Congress wanted stricter rules for IDs used to board commercial planes. Which is why, almost two decades later you will need a REAL ID to fly domestically. So, listener Mary Rees wanted to know, “Can people who are homeless get a REAL ID?”

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. One listener wanted to know, "Where is the best place in East Oakland to buy fresh produce with WIC vouchers?"

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. San Francisco artist Jeremy Fish wanted to know: What is the value today of an authentic monetary note from the famous San Francisco anti-hero Emperor Norton?

This Hey Area question comes from three members of the East Oakland Collective, a group working for positive change in deep East Oakland. They wanted to know: What is the impact of the history of the Black Panthers in East Oakland?

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. One listener wanted to know, what’s the history behind the street fire alarm boxes around the city? Are they functioning today?

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. One listener wanted to know, what is the back story of Jose Castro, the individual that the Castro District is named after?

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Nastassya Saad wanted to know how many ships are buried under San Francisco.

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. One listener wanted to know how bad the air quality is in the Bay Area.

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. One listener wanted to know about the infamous motorcycle club, the Frisco Hells Angels.

Hey Area is where we find answers to questions you ask. Jonathan Davis wanted to know why Amtrak drivers blare their horns so loudly in the middle of the night as they pass through the East Bay.

If you’ve ever attended a professional sporting event, there’s a good chance at some point you have found yourself rising to your feet with hands raised in rhythm with thousands of other fans. It’s a phenomenon known simply as “the Wave. ”

KALW listener Richard Goldman wanted to know if there was ever an exotic zoo in Glen Canyon, and whether there was a railroad that connected the canyon to downtown San Francisco.

Oakland’s food scene has been blowing up the past few years, with an increase in new, delicious restaurants. Diane Rodriguez asked Hey Area, “Where are the good places to eat in East Oakland?”