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Across the Bay Area, the 2010s were breathtaking, heartbreaking and groundbreaking.
The decade began with the economy still shrugging off the Great Recession, then roared ahead with technological breakthroughs, civil rights activism, historic disasters and skyrocketing housing prices. It ended with San Francisco’s Nancy Pelosi banging down the gavel on President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
Looking back, was the drought a bigger story than the wildfires? The Warriors bigger than the Giants? Was the rise of the gig economy a bigger deal than Facebook’s and Google’s world dominance? Can anybody top PG&E for futility?
What Bay Area story was the most important? Here’s our countdown of the Top 10 news events that defined the region during the 2010s:
10) Tesla opens in Fremont, sparking electric car revolution
To see the evolution of California’s clean economy, look no further than Alameda County. Starting in 1984, General Motors and Toyota built 7.7 million cars and pick-up trucks in a partnership at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont. It was America’s only auto plant west of the Mississippi River.
But the assembly line shut down April 1, 2010, after GM’s bankruptcy, and 4,700 workers lost their jobs. Two months later, entrepreneur Elon Musk’s fledgling electric car company, Tesla, bought the plant and began producing 21st-century vehicles. Today, more than 10,000 people are employed at the Tesla Factory, and the company is the largest seller of electric cars in the world. The Tesla Model 3 is the third best-selling car in California this year, behind only the Honda Civic and Toyota Camry.
9) Rise of the gig economy
Temporary office workers have been around for generations. But the idea of building entire industries around self-employed contractors — often without pensions, sick pay, minimum wage, paid holidays or other benefits — took off this decade. Ride-sharing company Uber launched in San Francisco in 2011, allowing passengers to use a cellphone app to hail a cab. But it was a private contractor’s personal vehicle, not a taxi. Followed a year later by competitor Lyft, Uber is now an $11 billion company operating in 63 countries and has dealt a severe blow to the traditional taxi industry.
Dozens of other companies embraced the idea, from Airbnb and Vrbo, which allow homeowners to rent their houses like hotels, to GrubHub and DoorDash, which deliver food, to TaskRabbit, which matches people who do handiwork and odd jobs with customers who need chores done.
Supporters say such companies keep prices down, create jobs and allow flexibility. But as the decade ended, the gig economy saw growing pushback from critics who said it shortchanges workers. In 2019, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a landmark law, AB 5, requiring gig economy companies to treat contract workers like employees. It faces years of legal challenges.
8) #MeToo movement calls for accountability
The term “Me Too” originated online in 2006 as a powerful message to support women who were victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment. It became a global movement in the 2010s, fueling waves of resignations and prosecutions of powerful men, from TV host Matt Lauer to U.S. Sen. Al Franken. The biggest case was Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was arrested and charged with rape and other crimes after more than 80 women accused him of sexual abuse.
The focus shifted to the Bay Area in 2018. Stanford University research psychologist Christine Blasey Ford alleged that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her in the 1980s at a teenage party in Maryland. Her Senate testimony riveted the nation. But Kavanaugh was confirmed 50-48 after Republicans and Trump argued he was a victim of a partisan attack.
That same year, voters recalled Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, who drew widespread criticism for sentencing former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner to a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious 22-year-old woman, Chanel Miller. Persky became the first California judge in 86 years to be removed from the bench by voters.
7) Giants and Warriors reign supreme
Marking a golden age for Bay Area sports, two of the region’s longest-suffering fan bases finally reached the promised land this decade.
The San Francisco Giants, who hadn’t won a World Series since 1954, broke their curse in 2010, beating the Texas Rangers in five games, following a dramatic 3-run home run by Edgar Renteria. Two years later, the Giants made it look easy, sweeping the Detroit Tigers. And in 2014, they survived a heart-stopping Game 7 against the Kansas City Royals, saved by a historic pitching performance from Madison Bumgarner. More than 1 million people attended parades to celebrate Buster Posey, Tim Lincecum, Pablo Sandoval and other Giants heroes, and manager Bruce Bochy seemed headed for baseball’s Hall of Fame.
Not to be outdone, the Golden State Warriors, who hadn’t won an NBA Championship since 1975, came under new ownership in 2010 as media mogul Joe Lacob and his business partner Peter Guber purchased the team and ushered in a new era. Led by Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, “The Dubs” won it all in 2015, revolutionized basketball with their three-point shooting, and captured two more titles in 2017 and 2018 with the help of superstar Kevin Durant. Although the Warriors suffered injuries and setbacks in 2019, Curry remains one of the world’s most popular NBA stars, and hope springs eternal for the 2020s.
6) Silicon Valley loses its way: Russians manipulate 2016 election with social media
For a while, Facebook and Twitter were seen as harmless, fun ways to stay in touch with family and friends, read news stories or debate issues. But starting with the 2016 U.S. election, it became clear the social media giants were also massive publishers of disinformation and polarizing propaganda that could harm democracy itself. In 2018, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for “engaging in operations to interfere with U.S. political and electoral processes, including the 2016 presidential election.”
Mueller reported that the Internet Research Agency, an organization run by Russian military intelligence, had purchased advertising and set up bogus accounts to support Trump and spread disinformation about race, immigration and other topics in posts seen by millions of Americans leading up to the election. Two years later, news broke that the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users had been harvested without their consent by Cambridge Analytica, a firm that worked for the Trump campaign, and used it for political ad purposes.
In 2019, Twitter banned all political ads on its platform. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was hauled in front of Congress, and the company announced it had closed hundreds of Russian accounts. But Facebook continues to post political ads without fact-checking them, sparking concerns the company may again warp a U.S. election in 2020.
5) Nancy Pelosi re-elected Speaker of the House, impeaches Trump
Nancy Pelosi, the longtime Democratic congresswoman from San Francisco and daughter of a Baltimore mayor, secured her place in the history books in 2007 when she was elected the first woman Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, second in the line of succession to the presidency. But Pelosi, 79, won the Speaker’s gavel back in 2019 after Republicans lost the 2018 elections.
At first, she resisted pressure from her left flank to impeach Trump over his involvement with Russia and his business conflicts. But on Sept. 24, Pelosi announced the House would begin an impeachment inquiry after evidence surfaced that Trump withheld military funding from Ukraine to “undermine the integrity” of the 2020 election by pressuring the country’s president to open an investigation of Joe Biden, Trump’s leading rival. On Dec. 18, the House approved two articles of impeachment for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, making Trump the third president in U.S. history to be impeached. A Senate trial awaits in 2020.
4) Historic drought
Brown lawns. Bricks in the toilet. Empty reservoirs. Fallowed farmland. After a disappointingly dry winter in 2012, California endured its most severe drought since statehood in 1850. During the next arid five years, Bay Area residents cut water use by 25% or more in most communities, as water agencies imposed fines, higher prices and public shaming to conserve precious supplies.
In 2014, voters approved Proposition 1, a $7.5 billion statewide water bond. Roughly $1 billion from it was allocated to two big Bay Area proposals to build a new reservoir near Pacheco Pass in Santa Clara County and to raise Los Vaqueros Dam in Contra Costa County.
Powerful storms drenched the state in early 2017, filling reservoirs, causing floods, boosting Sierra snowpack, and ending water shortages — until the next drought.
3) Oakland’s Ghost Ship fire
Late on Dec. 2, 2016, fire broke out at a ramshackle warehouse in Oakland’s Fruitvale District during a concert. The building, which was permitted only for industrial use, had been converted illegally into living quarters and an artists’ collective known as “The Ghost Ship.” In the chaos, 36 people died — the deadliest building fire in California since the 1906 earthquake.
Investigations showed the 1930s-era structure had a history of electrical problems, a lack of inspection by Oakland officials, and no fire alarms or sprinklers. In 2017, prosecutors charged the master tenant, Derick Almena, and his assistant Max Harris, with involuntary manslaughter. But this September, a jury deadlocked to convict Almena, causing a mistrial, and Harris was acquitted. Prosecutors refiled felony charges against Almena. His new trial is set to begin in March.
2) PG&E’s disasters lead to its bankruptcy
On Sept. 9, 2010, a massive explosion rocked the Crestmoor neighborhood in San Bruno. It sent flames roaring 1,000 feet high, leveling 38 homes, killing eight people and injuring 58. Investigators concluded a defective weld in an underground gas pipe owned by Pacific Gas & Electric was to blame. State auditors found PG&E had illegally shifted $100 million from ratepayers for safety programs to pay for executive salaries. State regulators fined the San Francisco company $1.6 billion, and a federal court found PG&E guilty of violating federal safety standards.
Only a few years later, PG&E’s electric lines sparked multiple wildfires, including the Wine Country Fires in 2017 and the Camp Fire in 2018 in Butte County, which killed 85 people. Facing billions in liabilities, PG&E filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 14, 2019, then replaced its CEO, and shut off power this fall during hot, dry days to millions of people to reduce fire risk. The utility enters 2020 as a pariah, amid calls for a public takeover.
1) Housing prices soar
No story affected Bay Area residents more than the meteoric rise in housing costs. Driven by land prices, a booming job market, and a shortage of new construction due in part to strict local development limits, the median home price in the Bay Area stood at $910,000 in the third quarter of 2019 — more than three times the U.S. median price — and roughly double where it was in 2010. To buy a house at that price requires a minimum annual income of $178,400, something only 21% of Bay Area households can afford, according to the California Association of Realtors.
The high prices were good news for existing homeowners. But Bay Area renters struggled. Homelessness became a stark problem. A March poll by the Bay Area News Group and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group found housing was the number one concern of Bay Area residents.
As the decade ended, Newsom and voters across the Bay Area boosted funding for affordable housing. But legislative efforts stalled to limit the power of local officials to block new housing construction — projects that often face opposition from residents concerned about density and traffic in their neighborhoods. Some price dips began, but experts said it could take years, if not decades, to solve the problem.
Other notable news events of the decade:
- Jury convicts former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle of involuntary manslaughter for killing Oscar Grant, an unarmed passenger, in Oakland. Protests ensue. (2010)
- Death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs (2011)
- Chevron refinery fire in Richmond sends 15,000 people to the hospital with breathing problems and other issues (2012)
- New $6.4 billion eastern span of the Bay Bridge opens (2013)
- Asiana Airlines crash at SFO kills three, injures 187 (2013)
- 6.0 earthquake rocks Napa, the largest since 1989 (2014)
- Death of comedian Robin Williams (2014)
- Balcony collapse kills six in Berkeley (2015)
- Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara hosts Super Bowl 50 (2016)
- Coyote Creek flood causes $100 million in damage to downtown San Jose (2017)
- Ed Lee, San Francisco’s first Asian-American mayor, dies in office (2017)
- Apple opens $5 billion spaceship headquarters in Cupertino and becomes first $1 trillion company (2017-18)
- Google announces plans to build a massive campus in downtown San Jose (2019)
Fire crews put out fire of Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 that crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, July 6, 2013. (John Green/Bay Area News Group)
