area artist is using dance to explore this timely topic. >> dead reckoning is a dance piece i created in 2014 and it's fundamentally the story about human beings' relationship with the natural world. i'm co-director of odc. we're a dance company in san francisco. so can you get around him? yes. yes. with this thing called climate change, we have scientific evidence, we have statistical analysis. i think maybe the missing ingredient is our emotional world. dance, because it is human beings on stage in a world, can help us embody the meaning of climate change. the term dead reckoning is navigati navigational. it refers to when you don't have your regular points of reference, the stars. where we are with climate change is that we are navigating blindly right now. i think we're in the middle of dead reckoning in the dance. there is this lime green snow or confetti that first starts coming from the dancer's hands. and it's lime green. nothing in nature is like that. so it is about how we have transformed our world into a place we do not know. >> my name is jo lisa darned. i'm one of the dancers here at ocd. what it can do is give voice to how people feel about it. does it create anxiety? does it create vulnerability? dead reckoning is the name of a sabbatical i tok in 2013 to death valley. one of the things that really hit me is this great magnitude of nature. it made me realize how powerful nature is, even though we're so teeny as individuals. we're having a huge impact in changing this world. >> so this is the valley floor. it's about 200 feet below sea level. >> i asked joe and john to recreate the images. >> the end result has a lot to do with how i end up cokocompoi the music. the music of dead reckoning evolved over a process of working with k. t. i would watch the dancers rehearse different sections. ♪ >> and that had a lot to do with how i composed the music. in particular, there is a scene in the dance where there is two women who are running. to me it really expresses this sort of frantic need and desire to do something now with the environment. there is the sound of a tree falling, so let me play that for you. ♪ >> the sound of the free trotreg is used almost as a piece of music. >> i found it a powerful metaphor for where we are. there is something about the tree separating from its roots, the inevitableness of the descent, the unpredictableness of when it will actually fall. that's how i feel we are in the world right now with our environment. one of the things i try to get across in the piece is a lack of awareness. dennis dances solo around the space while everybody is looking into him. and at some point, he takes stephie's head and he turns it to the audience and says, look, look. because he wants us to understand the implications of our actions. the natural world to me is a friend, is a best friend. i think if i dear friend is sick, any one of us would turn around and care for them. yet here is our planet. it's in trouble. and i don't think we realize we need to care for it. today we are at the yerba center for arts in san francisco. i'm putting all of it together, the costumes, the lighting. actually, i'm feeling a little nervous. you never know what's going to happen because it's live. the biggest challenge of dancing dead reckoning is just going zero to 100 and being really physical right away. the curtain comes up, lights are up and we're already going. >> one of the things i want to convey is the feeling of being lost in this world of climate change. the panic, the franticness, the futileness of it. ♪ >> at the very end of this piece, there is a soloist buried downstage caught up in her own little world, and there is a couple in the back, what i call the romantic couple. they are just walking inside this snow-filled world, and eventually they step on this other person and smash her. so at the end, i ask the question, is what we do to the environment also what we do to each other? i don't know if i can change somebody's behavior or actions in the world. the one thing i can do is try to step into people's hearts and try to get them to say, oh, wow. we got to do something. that's what i feel. >> you can watch the full performance of "dead reckoning" on line at odrdance.org. meanwhile the bay area political environment lands in the grips of the housing afford ability crisis. this week housing and urban development wrapped up a nationwide tour with visits to san francisco, oakland and berkeley. castro says he's pressing congress for more money for federal housing vouchers to keep low-income residents living in this region. there was also other activity this week. there were heated city council meetings in east bay and the peninsula and new penalty protection were passed in san francisco. joining me now to discuss these stories are romero, and devon katayuma. let's start with you, devon. it was lots of fireworks. >> apparently hundreds of people signed up for the city council this week. they passed a 90-day emergency moratorium for a majority of its rentals. this means about 60% of oakland's rentals are now covered under a moratorium which says that land owners cannot raise rent past the consumer inflation, which is essentially at 1.7% right now. what's interesting is the other 40% is under a state law, and that's much harder to regulate the rent control. so when we're seeing national headlines of, you know, a two-bedroom in oakland rising 40% over the last year, it's largely driven by these uncontrolled units. so that's a state issue. over the next 90 days, the local municipality, oakland, has to figure out what rules and regulations it wants to do with the units it can control. >> where was all the emotion at the meeting coming from? >> this has been an issue that oakland has been dealing with a long time. over the past two to three years, we've been seeing these rents double and triple in some instances, and the city has been putting out recommendations, the city has been putting out plans, but they haven't been putting out a lot of action. oakland is watching its neighbors do certain things that it wants to do, and again, this 90-day moratorium will give them some time to do it, but it's more seen as a symbolic gesture because some of the bigger things are going to take longer to do. >> i was going to ask that, because it sounds like for a lot of it, these cities have their hands tied. it feels like so many of these things are going around in the region are just symbolic, and i don't know, like how much -- i guess my question is, how much power do cities actually have at making fundamental change in terms of affordability, in terms of folks being able to stay in their homes? >> to that point, there are a couple dozen things that people regularly watch that have to do with rent control. some areas of the bay area are doing it better than others. i think for cities like oakland that are seeing this pressure from its residents, and obviously we're national headlines, i think it kind of was important for the city to do this symbolic gesture and to say we're going to take a stand right now, even though we haven't been doing stuff over the past year when this has been really ramping up. so i think it was kind of important for city leaders to come out and say, okay, let's put the pause button on. let's see what we're going to be doing. they do have stuff in the works, it's just going to take a little bit of time, and people in the meantime are leaving oakland, people are feeling that time is running out. >> is that legal to do that? what about the moratorium? what about property rights? is there any legal challenge to this? >> the city of alameda did an emergency moratorium. it's something i believe needs a majority of councilmembers. not just a majority, but i think 6 of 8, so maybe a super majority of councilmembers, but places are saying, we need to do this, and in the meantime they have to figure out what they're actually going to do, concrete regulations and rules. >> moving down to the south bay for rita, another emotional councilman meeting with a different outcome. >> right, the city council and the city of san mateo was considering a similar measure for the city there, a 90-day moratorium and also cracking down on evictions. san mateo is a small city, maybe 9,000 people, 10,000 people. a lot of people know each other, and over half of theç populati there are renters. there was also three hours of public comment they had to listen to. it was contentious at times, but the city council rejected having this temporary moratorium. but then two things happened, one of them kind of surprising, and that is that major joe gossil proposed that tenants provide relocation assistance for about six months. so that's something that the city council is going to take up next week. and then the other thing that happened is that advocates for tenant protections, you know, so-called rent control and just costs for eviction, they decided to file an initiative for the ballot, for the november ballot for these things. and this is not the only city where this is happening. mountain view raised a similar measure, burlingame, alameda and i think also the city of richmond. we're seeing more and more that this fight over what to do about affordability crisis that is gripping the bay area, like you mentioned, it's going more maybe to the voters directly, because advocates feel that the city governments aren't doing enough. >> and it's hard to tell sometimes when you hear these very vocal people at the city council meetings. is this a very vocal minority or is this the way the people feel? that's a way of gauging that, i suppose. >> i think what's been happening increasingly is this isn't a problem of low-income people, you know, or only minorities. it's been stated a lot of times that this is affecting latinos, african-americans, maybe, more disproportionately than other residents in the bay area. but now we're hearing more of nurses that can't afford to live in the area, doctors who have to commute from, like, tracy or stockton to come to work in hospitals in the peninsula. you're hearing more from businesspeople also that they're having trouble hiring workers who just can't afford to live here. a company that can't pay, you know, workers enough to be able to rent in the bay area, and this is i.t. workers and others. so it's not just, you know, low-income workers. >> what i found interesting is our kqed news assignment editor spoke to the mayor there, and what was so interesting there was unlike san francisco where it's very much, you know, the people against these corporate overlords and developers, he had much sympathy, it was a little nuanced view in that many of these property owners are folks who made an investment, or they might have a duplex, and it was sort of interesting framing that i think is often lost in this debate here in san francisco, that while, yes, it's true there are corporations coming in or big developers who might not have a connection to the community, there are also just like a lot of middle class folks who have made an investment in their property, and it does feel, i don't know, a little problematic that, you know, folks who decided this is going to be their retirement or this is somehow going to be their income are now stripped of it. >> i think this is -- for example, going back to the city of san mateo, the mayor really doesn't want there to be a ballot because he said it's going to tear the city apart, basically. there are people who know each other, they've grown up there. these are really contentious issues, and he was hoping it wouldn't go to the ballot. we'll see what happens. they still have to gather signatures, but what we're seeing more and more is advocates going around city governments and trying to go directly to voters to decide these things. >> speaking of mayors, mayor tom base in berkeley making headlines, too. >> yeah, he put out a list of proposals, recommendations in terms of how to spur more housing in berkeley, and one of the them was to give developers incentives to offer affordable housing to people making up to $112,000 a year, right? so, of course, in berkeley there was some very vocal housing advocates are like, $112,000 a year, that's not low income. and also in palo alto, there was an idea floated that they might allow affordable housing for families making up to $250,000 a year. so what i think is interesting about this is it's not through the traditional low income and developers. it feels very much like a middle class housing revolt to me. >> middle class housing isn't getting built, and i know there is some legislation that is being written right now at the state level to try to get some of the tax credits that normally help a low-income affordable housing to more middle income housing. but yeah, definitely in oakland that's the sentiment as well. >> can i say one more thing? i think this really goes to the root of what we're seeing throughout the bay area, which is just a huge imbalance between the housing that is available and the number of jobs that have been created. and i think, like, at least on the peninsula, there is a lot of cities who are not prepared, basically, in terms of infrastructure and housing for the huge economic growth. >> but i also think there is a lot of fighting whenever there is -- like in berkeley, maybe it illustrates -- right, like in downtown they're trying to build more density, so voters did pass a measure, but now there is a lawsuit for this sort of high-rise apartment building that's going on. so i think that's always a tension here in the bay area. people want affordable housing, yet whenever there is housing -- >> they don't want it built right in their neighborhood. >> and then moving on to san francisco, a lot of it is about protecting the housing that we already have and protecting the people who are already here. in san francisco, the controversial legislation that got passed this week has to do with teacher housing. basically, it's now going to be illegal to evict a teacher or any school worker, whether they be a public school worker, private school worker, janitor, principal. it's legal to haveillegal to ha eviction during the school year. this is sorely needed for teachers because the school system is having a really hard time. but then where do y >> but then where do you draw the line? >> that's the question. that's why it's controversial. >> firefighters, teachers. you mentioned there is a lot of unintentional consequences, right, because if you're a landlord, are you maybe not going to rent to a teacher because you think it's going to be harder to get them out? >> i think what's interesting about this is each city is trying to attack the problem of their housing crisis in as individual a way as possible, so you're seeing teachers in san francisco, you're seeing infrastructure issues where you are. there's not that good of a regional response to all of this that i'm finding. everybody has their own package of things that they're passing, but where is the regional conversation? >> we've got a lot of great questions on facebook from our viewers. one i want to read, christian waters asked about regional planning. he asked, for example, could california merge san mateo county and let the whole town plan the future of the peninsula? >> like maybe regional transportation so people could live in areas that might be more affordable and could get in faster? >> a lot of great questions, and we'll have to leave it there for today. i want to thank our panel devon, farita and queena. this has been an interesting conversation and i'm sure we'll have more to come. moovving on to another topi that sparks a lot of emotions. the giants hosted this week. perhaps violence that is well known is the beating of mark stowe. stowe was on a mission of his own, to end bullying. >> reporter: brian stowe doesn't look like a rock star. >> hey, guys. >> reporter: his limo is a family car. his entourage, tiny, just mom, two sisters and a family friend. >> mom, look on the wall here. look at all the "welcome brian stowe." but at this high school, he is a star to those who know the story of this comeback kid. >> what's up, guys? ♪ >> it seems everyone wants a picture with him. >> go, giants! >> five years ago, stowe's brutal beating made headlines here in the u.s. and around the world. >> two new suspects are under arrest -- >> reporter: something he still struggles to believe. >> i got letters from people in canada, new guinea. new guinea. who lives in new guinea? >> in 2011, stowe was 42 years old, a father of two and a paramedic, a man who loved saving lives. but on opening day outside dodgers stadium, two dodger fans beat stowe nearly to death. >> i think i almost lost a man. >> reporter: so sisters erin collins and bonnie bush has been by his side since the day that changed all of their lives. collins describes one doctor's reaction when he first saw stowe's condition. >> when he first looked at his cat scan, he thought he was looking at the cat scan of a dead person. when we heard that, we knew how bad it was, but to hear that was shocking and devastating. >> reporter: stowe was in a coma for nine months, endured seven surgeries and still needs constant care. but now he is ready to save lives again. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> bullies destroyed my life. bullies hurt my family. >> brian isn't the only one in this situation. it affects his family as well. he was 43 when he came home to live with our parents, so they were taking care of their 43-year-old son. >> we love you so much, brian. >> after waking up from a coma, i had to learn how to live again. i had to learn how to speak again. >> reporter: stowe wants these students to know it's up to everyone to put a stop to bullying. >> no one is born a bad person, even though they make poor decisions. these guys probably started off as bullies when they were young. repeat after me, stand up to the bully. >> stand up to the bully. >> excellent. there is power in numbers, or it can take just one. >> reporter: stowe warned of the potentially deadly effects of bullying. statistics show bullying victims are two times more likely to commit suicide than those not bullied. >> see these three young people? they took their lives. this didn't have to happen. >> reporter: for many, stowe's words strike a deep chord. >> and it's hard for people to understand that the effects of bullying can have many repercussions of people either taking their lives or taking other people's lives. >> i just want to thank you for your speech. >> no problem. >> it really touched me a lot, because when i was in middle school, i went through a lot of depression and bullying. >> you're not alone. i want them to learn to be better so that they can be stronger because of what i went through. >> reporter: it's been a long road to recovery for stowe. his sisters say he still struggles with his memory, but they joke that some changes have been for the better. >> he has a sweet side to him. >> as his sisters, we never would have called brian sweet. he was our older brother so it's just different, but now he's always saying, i love you. we can't hang up the phone without, hey, i love you. >> reporter: and, they say, he's retained his way with the ladies. >> he's just very flirty. but he is such a presence and so charismatic and outgoing. >> the ladies are like, oh. >> i'm just sign ming my name right now. i love doing this. i love to talk and i like to get around. i feel fulfilled. like i was empty before and now i'm full with love and compassion. >> reporter: as for the future -- >> i want him to be happy. like i hope he's happy. >> i think we're doing pretty well. i think he's pretty happy. >> that made me cry. >> i got teary-eyed, too. >> he deserves it. after everything he's been through, he deserves it. >> i want to walk. i want to run. ♪ ♪ rising up, back on the street ♪ >> reporter: stowe says one song vastly captures his story. ♪ >> because i feel like i've been there. i've been beaten. i couldn't be beat. that's it, that's me. that's brian stowe. thank you. ♪ that's our show for tonight. i'm stephanie martin taylor. thanks for joining us. for more of kqed's coverage, please go to kqednews.org. >> the following kqed production was produced in high definition. [ theme music plays ] >> yes, "check, please!" people! >> it's all about licking your plate. >> the food is just fabulous. >> i should be in psychoanalysis for the amount of money i spend in restaurants. >> i had a horrible experience. >> i don't even think we were at the same restaurant. >> and everybody, i'm sure, saved room for those desserts. >> you bet.

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