I
t’s been quite a year. So much happened, and we experienced most of it in isolation. We transformed our homes into offices, schools and sometimes mask-making factories. We absorbed moments of violence, solidarity and great compassion through screens rather than face to face. But whether or not we were able to join marches for racial justice or comfort our far-flung loved ones in person, we were more connected than ever before by a shared global condition: the coronavirus pandemic.
Looking back on 2020, it’s hard to comprehend that an entire year has gone by. Throughout these 12 months, KQED’s visual journalist Beth LaBerge has captured many of the moments that will define our memories of this year in the Bay Area. With the hope of vaccinations ahead, there is so much to be done in 2021, but more than anything, this collection of images reminds me of how capable we are. –Sarah Hotchkiss
The San Francisco Women’s March heads down Market Street toward the Embarcadero on Jan. 18, 2020. Thousands of people joined in the fourth annual protest with the theme of “Together We Rise,” emphasizing the importance of voting out Trump in the November election. Read more.
Rice flies in the air during the wedding scene in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" amid a sold-out performance at the Clay Theatre on Jan. 25, 2020.
Many theaters don’t like to host the film due to the mess and late-night debauchery. The Clay welcomed the cast back in 2007 when no other theater was playing the film. This midnight movie performance was the last for the theater, which shut its doors on Jan. 26, 2020, after 110 years. Read more.
A man reads a sign on an empty shelf once occupied by paper products notifying customers that toilet paper is restricted to one package per person at a Target in Colma on March 15, 2020.
Fears over COVID-19 and a shelter-in-place order that took effect in the Bay Area on March 17 contributed to people panic-buying household products. Read more.
Jayson Naona, a biotech technician with Cure Biomedical, tests ventilator functionality at Bloom Energy in Sunnyvale on March 28, 2020.
Bloom Energy is a fuel cell generator company that switched over to refurbishing ventilators as an increasing number of patients experienced respiratory issues as a result of COVID-19. Read more.
Seton Medical Center employees practice safe distancing at a rally at the hospital in Daly City on April 2, 2020, to bring awareness to their need for more protective equipment.
“Nurses and front-line health care providers, we want to work, we want to be able to take care of patients,” said intensive care nurse Phoebe Minkler. “But we also have to be able to take care of ourselves and stay safe.” Read more.
A staff member at Chinatown Community Development Center helps to distribute meals at New Asia restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown on April 5, 2020.
CCDC partnered with New Asia to form the Community Kitchen Meal Take-out Program, which provides 700 take-out meals to families in SROs, five days a week. Read more.
A man wears an American flag in front of tents lining Fulton Street near City Hall in San Francisco on May 5, 2020, just days before the first city-sanctioned open-air tent encampment took their place.
These “Safe Sleeping Sites” would be a place for unhoused people to be socially distant during the COVID-19 pandemic while also providing services such as bathrooms, showers and food. Read more.
Brianna Noble rides her horse Dapper Dan down Broadway in Oakland on May 29, 2020 during a protest over the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd. Read more.
Political activist, scholar and author Angela Davis addresses the assembled crowd at the June 19 Juneteenth rally at the Port of Oakland, which was shut down to mark the day.
“Thank you for shutting down the ports today, on Juneteenth ... the day when we renew our commitment to the struggle for freedom,” she said. Read more.
Philip Melendez touches up a haircut that he gave to himself at his home on July 25, 2020. He learned to cut his own hair while in prison, which has helped him adapt to life during a pandemic.
Melendez is currently a program director for Re:Store Justice, an organization working toward what they term “restorative policy change.” The group brings together those who have been convicted of homicide to meet with family members of homicide victims. Read more.
A firefighter battles the LNU Lightning Complex blaze as it engulfs a home off Pleasants Valley Road near Vacaville on Aug. 19, 2020.
A series of wildfires sparked by lightning beginning on Aug. 16 spread rapidly across wide stretches of the outer Bay Area as fire crews contended with high winds, dry air and triple-digit temperatures amid an extended heat wave. Read more.
A surfer catches a wave at Ocean Beach in San Francisco under an orange-red sky on Sept. 9, 2020.
Dense smoke plumes from multiple large wildfires burning in parts of Northern California and Oregon blocked out the sun, covering the Bay Area in a surreal orange glow. Read more.
Sandra Raya, senior park aide for interpreters, looks at burned redwood branches at Big Basin Redwoods State Park on Sept. 10, 2020.
The CZU Lightning Complex wildfire tore through the park in August, forcing its closure. Most of the redwoods in the park withstood the blaze, and now efforts are in place to re-imagine the park for the future, including addressing climate change and inclusivity for its visitors. Read more.
Halima Watson attends school from her home in Oakland on Sept. 16, 2020. She is an eighth-grader at Edna Brewer Middle school who says of all her distance learning classes, math has been the best. She balances her school work with online zoomed gymnastics classes five days a week and biking with her family for exercise.
Venus Morris, SHADE advocate, speaks out against police killings in front of a Breonna Taylor mural on 15th Street and Broadway in Oakland on Sept. 24, 2020.
“We’ve straightened our hair, we’ve code switched, what more do you want?” she said. Read more.
Henok Welday and his son Nathan drop off a mail-in ballot at the Alameda County Registrar of Voters in Oakland on Oct. 27, 2020.
“We are all human beings. I would like the chance that I’ve been given here to be given to other people too,” said Welday, who fled an Eritrean regime accused by the United Nations of crimes against humanity. “People may have no other choice than to leave their countries and seek a better life here.” Read more.
Joy Kirkwood, an outreach specialist at LifeLong Medical Care, receives a COVID-19 test at Acts Full Gospel Church in Oakland on Oct. 31, 2020.
Hundreds of supporters of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris take to the streets of the Castro neighborhood in San Francisco on Nov. 7, 2020 to celebrate their victory.
“Today is a day for celebration and joy, and tomorrow we get back to the fight,” said Ariel Ajagu. Read more.
Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater marquee reads “America just told Trump, you’re fired!” on Nov. 7, 2020, after victory was announced for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Read more.
Lauren reads a book behind a plexiglass divider at The Little’s Daycare run out of the home of Katina Richardson in Hayward on Dec. 15, 2020.
During the pandemic, Richardson has been tasked with caring for more children and taking on responsibilities she didn’t have before, like making sure school-age children complete assignments. She’s managed to stay open, but says it’s a stressful time. Read more.