Mustafa Solomon doesn’t want to leave Oakland. The 59-year-old photographer and activist has been a city resident for 35 years, but in recent months, he’s become unsure if he’ll be able to stay. After losing their longtime housing in North Oakland earlier this year, he and his daughter have been living in a temporary housing setup in East Oakland with someone he met through Causa Justa/Just Cause, the tenants’ rights advocacy group. Solomon said they can’t stay in their current place much longer, and that he’s applying to move into any affordable housing he can find in Oakland. There aren’t many options.

“I just can’t afford what the Bay Area is providing. I’m out there everyday, but it’s stressful,” said Solomon, who is one of more than 5,000 people who recently applied for housing at a recently completed ninety-unit project near the MacArthur BART station — one of the only affordable housing projects constructed in Oakland in 2015. “I’m just waiting and hoping for something permanent.”

Solomon is one of many longtime residents feeling the pinch of the region’s housing crunch, which reached crisis levels in the East Bay in 2015. The median home price in Alameda County is now $691,200, and the average rent for a one-bedroom is $2,891, according to the real estate firm Zillow. Those prices exceed the heights of the housing bubble in the 2000s — and many people’s incomes have failed to keep pace. Relatively little new housing is being built, especially affordable housing, even though thousands of new residents are moving here. Meanwhile, local and state officials have been slow to address the crisis, and battles have erupted over high-profile projects across the region. Here’s our look back at some of the major projects and policy disputes of the past year — and some debates and developments to look forward to in 2016.

New Projects

In Oakland in 2015, about thirty new housing developments were under construction with a total of roughly 1,300 units, according to data provided by Rachel Flynn, the city’s planning and building director. Out of those new units — of which about half are finished or nearly complete, with the rest slated for completion in 2016 — about 430 (32 percent) are considered “affordable,” meaning below market-rate. So while the city is experiencing a relative surge of new development — with many new projects in the pipeline for coming years — a supermajority of the units recently added to Oakland’s housing stock are simply too expensive for low- and middle-income residents.

“We’ve seen a real shift,” Flynn said, noting that in previous years, Oakland built relatively minimal market-rate housing. In 2014, new developments added 715 housing units to the market — of which 82 percent were affordable. And in 2013, 93 percent of the 589 units constructed in Oakland were affordable. There were fewer total units built in 2012 — only 453 — and 82 percent of them were affordable. “If we don’t build in general — whether it’s market-rate or affordable — we’re not going to keep up with demand,” Flynn said.

This year, however, few affordable projects took hold. Bridge Housing, a local developer that does affordable projects, completed the ninety-unit project by MacArthur BART called Mural (for which Solomon applied) and a 68-unit project at 460 Grand Avenue in Oakland, called AveVista. All those units are affordable. Additionally, the East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation began construction on a 71-unit project in Chinatown (1110 Jackson Street), slated for completion in 2016. Other than some senior housing and two smaller affordable projects — 18 units at 618 21st Street and 26 units at 1701 Martin Luther King Jr. Way — the rest of the 2015 housing developments were market-rate.

Of those projects attracting higher-income residents, one of the most notable was the Hive, a mixed-use development along Broadway between 24th and 25th streets — a section of Uptown that is experiencing a significant amount of new economic activity. The Hive — a project of Signature Development Group, a major Oakland real estate company — will feature 115 units total when it is fully complete. Madison Park Financial Corporation, another prominent market-rate developer based in Oakland, is behind one of the other major projects under construction this year — a one hundred-unit building at 3900 Adeline Street in West Oakland. And developer CityVentures began construction this year on a fully market-rate project called Station House with 171 units at 1401 Wood Street in West Oakland.

According to Flynn, Oakland is also on track to break ground on numerous large housing developments in 2016 and beyond. The biggest market-rate projects scheduled to start construction next year are: 435 units at 3093 Broadway (developers Blackstone Group and CityView); 200 units at 2302 Valdez Street (Wood Partners); and 162 units at 2935 Telegraph Avenue (Madison Park). Bridge Housing will also build 286 units as part of a second phase of its MacArthur BART project — but only roughly 6 percent of those will be affordable. In 2017 and onward, Oakland has major buildings scheduled for development across the city’s neighborhoods — with more than 10,000 new units in the pipeline.

The City of Berkeley, too, had a busy year for development — most notably with the approval this month of an 18-story, 302-unit project at 2211 Harold Way in downtown. Though the controversial project is entirely market-rate, the developer, HSR Berkeley Investments, has agreed to pay $10.5 million for affordable housing in the city. Developer Nautilus Group also moved forward with construction of a high-profile project, called Garden Village, on Dwight Way and Fulton Street near UC Berkeley. Ten percent of the building’s 77 units will be affordable, and the project is unique in that it includes no on-site parking. That means it’s a more environmentally friendly project that doesn’t encourage driving and would be a good match for students and others who prefer to walk, bike, or take public transit.

Throughout the East Bay, cities must rapidly build more low-income housing that the most vulnerable residents can afford if they want to curb the crisis, said Louis Chicoine, executive director of Abode Services, a nonprofit that helps homeless people find housing. “The equation is just getting more and more upside down in terms of how many people need affordable housing and how much stock is available,” he said. “We’re going to see more people on the streets for sure — and more desperation.”

Policy Debates

According to the State Controller’s Office, eleven redevelopment agencies in Alameda County allocated half a billion dollars for housing between 2001 and 2011 and built 10,207 affordable housing units. But Governor Jerry Brown eliminated redevelopment in 2011, thereby ending the single biggest affordable housing program in California. The biggest housing policy shift in 2015 was probably the passage of AB 2, which Brown signed into law in September. It allows cities to establish Community Revitalization Investment Authorities (CRIAs). And another new state law that took effect this year allows cities to create Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFDs).

CRIAs and EIFDs will have the power to buy and sell land, issue bonds, incur debt, and build housing. According to Dan Carrigg, legislative director of the League of California Cities, no local government has established a CRIA or EIFD yet, but lots of cities and counties are talking to each other. “The tools of redevelopment are back in the basket,” he said.

Another major housing policy development was the California Supreme Court’s ruling in June that local governments can require homebuilders to set aside a certain percent of houses or condos at affordable prices. It’s known as “inclusionary zoning,” and San Jose’s version of the law came under fire in court by the California Building Industry Association, which called inclusionary zoning an “uncompensated taking” of property. The court ruled, however, that it is within a city’s police powers to ensure a broad mix of housing for all income groups. So as the single family and condo construction markets heat up in 2016, cities with inclusionary housing policies will be able to ensure some new housing is affordable.

Inclusionary zoning is still illegal for rental units, however, due to a 2009 state appeals court decision that said inclusionary zoning interfered with landlords’ rights under Costa Hawkins, a state law that limits rules on rental units. Several East Bay cities have gotten around this by assessing impact fees on market-rate rental housing and allowing developers to forgo paying the fee if they include affordable rentals in their buildings. For example, in 2015, Emeryville enacted an impact fee of $28,000. Berkeley also has an impact fee of $28,000. And Albany, Fremont, Hayward, San Leandro, and Union City are joining with Alameda County to conduct a study, likely to be approved in 2016, necessary to assess impact fees of their own.

But the biggest East Bay city, Oakland, has been slow to adopt an impact fee. Oakland is also the only city in the county that doesn’t have an inclusionary zoning ordinance. In 2015, affordable housing became the single biggest, and most divisive political issue in Oakland, partly because of the perception that the city hasn’t been doing enough.

One battle in 2015 that encapsulated the divide between the city’s affordable housing advocates and its development boosters involved publicly owned property on East 12th Street, near Lake Merritt. The city had planned to sell the parcel to a developer for construction of a luxury apartment tower, but activists battled against it, and even shut down a city council meeting to prevent a vote. The city council scuttled the deal after the Express reported on a leaked legal opinion written by the Oakland City Attorney’s Office that stated that the property sale would violate the Surplus Land Act, which requires public land to be offered first to affordable housing developers. Currently, the city is negotiating with five development teams, all of which are proposing some mix of affordable housing on the site.

“The East 12th Street campaign created a really important conversation about what local governments legally and morally should be doing with public land,” said David Zisser, a staff attorney with Public Advocates, a nonprofit public interest law firm.

But there is widespread agreement that the affordable housing crisis can’t be solved entirely at the local level. State laws need to change, and governments need to cooperate regionally. But Governor Brown has not made affordable housing a priority of his administration. In 2015, he vetoed several bills that could have raised billions for affordable housing construction, including AB 35, which would have raised billions through a tax credit. AB 1335, meanwhile, would have raised $400 million a year for affordable housing by tacking a $75 fee on the recording of real estate sales documents. But that bill didn’t receive the votes it needed to advance to the governor’s desk. Also in early 2015, the East Bay region was abuzz with talk of governments joining forces to issue a regional housing bond to raise hundreds of millions or even billions, but nothing came of it. All of which means that the housing affordability crisis will continue to be the issue in 2016.

Although 2015 was an off year for politics in the East Bay, it’s clear that 2016 is shaping up to be a pivotal one for elected offices throughout the region. It could mark the return of a respected East Bay legislator to Sacramento, and it could feature two expensive Assembly races, along with a growing list of challengers to Oakland City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney — and, yes, the return of Jean Quan. The Berkeley mayor’s race is expected to be a close battle, plus there will be several contested council races in Berkeley, along with contests in San Leandro and Alameda in which progressives could gain some seats amid growing calls to solve the housing crisis.

Legislature

The race to replace termed-out state Senator Loni Hancock in the East Bay’s Ninth State Senate District will dominate the June primary season. The frontrunners are long-time former Democratic assemblymembers Nancy Skinner and Sandré Swanson, both strong progressives with significant local support — Skinner in Berkeley and Swanson in Oakland and Alameda. Hancock’s husband, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, said that while this contest likely will be tight, he thinks Skinner’s got the edge, in part because of the huge advantage she has in fundraising. “She’s a great campaigner,” said Bates, who is backing Skinner. But Swanson has amassed an impressive number of endorsements, including from Hancock.

A wildcard could be newly registered Democrat Katherine Welch, a state education reformer and former Republican. The daughter of former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch may be able to tap deep pockets, not only from her father’s contacts, but also from statewide independent expenditure groups looking to overhaul California’s education system. San Pablo Vice Mayor Rich Kinney, a Republican, is also running for the seat. Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan exited the race in late September.

In the Seventh State Senate District, covering areas in Contra Costa County and the Tri Valley in Alameda County, state Senator Steve Glazer, who won a bruising special election last May over Assemblymember Susan Bonilla, is not expected to face any serious challenge. Many political observers believed a rematch was in the cards, but Bonilla announced in October that she would not enter what would have been another expensive and difficult election. The race last spring invoked more than $7 million in special interest money.

In the Assembly, a majority of the contests feature incumbent Democrats nearing entrenched status. Assemblymembers Rob Bonta of Oakland, Tony Thurmond of Richmond, and Hayward’s Bill Quirk are not expected to face any credible challengers. But the same cannot be said for 16th Assembly District member Catharine Baker, the only Republican in the East Bay’s legislative caucus. Last month, outgoing Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, a Democrat, recruited former Pleasanton councilmember Cheryl Cook-Kallio, also a Democrat, to face Baker in the moderate outer East Bay district. Insiders believe the race could be impacted by the presidential election. If Republicans nominate a reactionary candidate, Democrats could turn out in greater numbers in this toss-up district.

Bonilla is termed out next year in the 14th Assembly District leaving three Democrats to battle for the West Contra Costa County seat. Mae Torlakson, the wife of State Superintendent of Instruction Tom Torlakson, is facing Concord Mayor Tim Grayson and clinical psychologist Harmesh Kumar.

Congressmembers Barbara Lee and Eric Swalwell are not expected to face any serious challengers, but liberal Mike Honda will once again square off in a tough race against moderate Ro Khanna.

Alameda County

Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley is facing a potentially strong challenge from Bryan Parker, the Port of Oakland commissioner who ran a well-funded campaign in 2014 for Oakland mayor. Parker is expected raise significant financing for his supervisor campaign and will give Miley his first real re-election test since Miley first won a seat on the board in 2000. Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Keith Carson are also up for re-election in June, but challengers are not likely.

Oakland

In January 2015, city councilmembers elected Gibson McElhaney to be council president after she had served just two years in office. But of the four contested council races in Oakland next fall, Gibson McElhaney is so far the only incumbent attracting potential challengers. Former Councilmember Nancy Nadel has indicated that she may run for the District Three, West Oakland-downtown, seat. Tyron Jordan, a legal analyst at the state attorney general’s office, formed a campaign committee in October, and at least one of Gibson McElhaney’s opponents in the 2012 campaign could enter next year’s race. Some political observers think Gibson McElhaney is vulnerable because of her ethical lapses, as outlined in a series of Express investigative stories late last year and early this year.

Oakland’s At-Large race, however, could end up overshadowing the District Three contest — if ex-Mayor Quan decides to challenge incumbent Rebecca Kaplan. Kaplan has recently taken a larger profile in the city, leading the effort to stem gun violence in Oakland. Some believe that she’s worried Quan is angling for her seat. In recent months, Quan has shown through her monthly newsletters a keen interest in offering specific solutions to combat the city’s affordable housing crisis. The potential blockbuster race could be hard-fought. In 2014’s mayoral race, Quan beat out Kaplan for first-place votes, but ranked-choice voting showed Kaplan had greater citywide support.

In Fruitvale’s District Five, Councilmember Noel Gallo is not expected to face any serious challengers, even though he recently contemplated retirement. East Oakland Councilmember Larry Reid (District Seven) also raised the possibility of retirement this fall, and if he exits the council, his daughter, Treva Reid, is likely to run for the seat. But Reid’s behavior at a recent council committee meeting suggests he still has passion for the job; he gave a rousing campaign-like speech about his district’s bright economic future. Councilmember Dan Kalb, District One (North Oakland) appears to be the least likely of the group to face serious competition next year.

Berkeley

One of 2016’s closely watched contests in the East Bay will likely be the race to replace Mayor Bates, who is retiring. Councilmembers Laurie Capitelli and Jesse Arreguín are expected to engage in a tight, contentious battle, with the issues of affordable housing and downtown development expected to dominate the campaign.

Capitelli is an ardent supporter of smart growth — dense housing projects built along major transits lines. He was one of the leading backers of the eighteen-story Harold Way development, which was recently approved by the council and also netted $10.5 million in funds for affordable housing. Arreguín, by contrast, abstained from voting for the Harold Way project, arguing that the developer should have paid even more money for affordable housing. Although Arreguín is not a member of the city’s anti-growth contingent, that group likely will support him because he often votes against or abstains from voting for downtown development projects on the grounds that they don’t include enough affordable housing. Arreguín is also popular among progressives, in part because of his advocacy for the city’s homeless population. Bates, who is backing Capitelli, said he expects Arreguín to run a strong grassroots campaign, while Capitelli will likely have big advantage in fundraising.

Another must-watch contest in Berkeley next year will be the one for Capitelli’s District Five (North Berkeley) seat. Capitelli is giving up his spot to run for mayor, and the race is expected to be a two-person contest between Sophie Hahn, an anti-growth activist who lost to Capitelli in 2012 and is a member of the zoning board, and Planning Commission Chair Stephen Murphy, a smart-growth advocate who was appointed to the commission by Capitelli. If Hahn wins, the balance of power on the council would shift toward the anti-growthers.

And the third interesting race in Berkeley will be the contest to replace progressive councilmember Max Anderson, who is also retiring. The District Three (South Berkeley) race is expected to feature planning commissioners Benjamin Bartlett, who was appointed by Anderson and is backed by him, squaring off against Deborah Matthews, a smart-growth advocate appointed by Councilmember Darryl Moore.

District Two’s Moore is also up for reelection, but is not expected to face a serious challenge. Councilmember Susan Wengraf is also expected to cruise to reelection, although there is speculation that she might step aside if former state Assembly candidate Elizabeth Echols decides to run for her District Six seat.

Richmond

Three councilmembers are up for reelection — Nat Bates, Jael Myrick, and Vinay Pimplé — in Richmond, which has no council districts. The Richmond Progressive Alliance, which won three council seats in 2014, is expected to run a slate of candidates in the hopes of gaining a clear majority (although Myrick often votes with the progressive bloc).

But Mayor Tom Butt said the real wildcard in Richmond is Chevron. Last year, the oil giant spent more than $3 million backing Chevron-friendly candidates, but those candidates all lost. There’s speculation that Chevron might decide to sit out the 2016 campaign, considering the company’s losses last year. But Butt is skeptical that the oil giant will resist trying to influence Richmond’s elections. “It’s just not in their bones,” he said.

Alameda

Alameda’s recent inability to attract candidates for its municipal elections could continue in 2016. Two seats on the five-member city council are up for grabs. Incumbent Councilmembers Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft and Tony Daysog are expected to seek re-election. Like Richmond, Alameda uses an at-large election system to choose its city council. Although the names of various people interested in running have periodically surfaced, the most credible is Malia Vella, an attorney employed by the Teamsters who briefly served as Assemblymember Quirk’s district director. In a city in which rent control has become a hot-button issue, Vella’s potential candidacy and her early support for restrictions on rents could drive the conversation in this race.

San Leandro

Long-time councilmembers Jim Prola and Ursula Reed are termed out. The early outlook in each race features a pair of first-time candidates with experience on the city’s boards and commissions. Prola’s District Six seat is a potential race between Pete Ballew, a former San Leandro police lieutenant and current member of the personnel relations board, and Janet Palma, a former zoning commissioner. In District Two, Planning Commissioner Ed Hernandez is facing Recreation and Parks Commissioner Bryan Azevedo, who has union ties and has already attracted early support from current councilmembers. No serious challenger has stepped up yet to face incumbent District Four councilmember Benny Lee.

These days, when newcomers to Oakland ask me where to eat, often the first recommendation out of my mouth is Swan’s Market. Which is to say, even with all of The Town’s gastronomical riches, I’m sending folks to a food court.

But this is hardly your typical mall food court: Walk in almost any night and you’ll see diners in the large communal seating area huddled around bowls of Japanese hot pot from AS B-Dama, ladling noodles and steaming broth from a traditional cast-iron vessel. On the other side of the room, there’s almost always a long line of customers waiting to order fried fish tacos or mole verde from Cosecha, a farm-to-table Mexican food stall with a Chez Panisse pedigree. Others, seated at the counter at The Cook and Her Farmer, might start a seafood-centered meal by slurping down a half-dozen creamy, fresh-shucked Miyagi oysters from Tomales Bay.

Swan’s Market isn’t exactly new — the building will celebrate its one hundred-year anniversary in 2017, and nearly all of the gourmet food hall’s current occupants opened for business prior to this year. And yet, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that the ascendance of Swan’s Market has been, in many ways, the biggest East Bay food story of 2015. This is the year the market hit full occupancy and started firing on all cylinders, both in terms of its popularity and the quality of the food each kitchen was putting out. The result? Swan’s is now packed all the time, and — with prominent shout-outs in both Bon Appetit and The New York Times — the buzz about this humble food court has gone national.

All in all, it’s a stunning turnaround for the market, which, just four or five years ago, had largely been forgotten. Dominica Rice-Cisneros recalled that when she first started testing the waters to see if she could get a small business loan to open Cosecha, everyone she spoke to tried to talk her out of it: “They were all like, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t invest in that market.'” Or, if she insisted on opening at Swan’s, people suggested that Rice-Cisneros build a wall — to separate her restaurant from what was then a mostly empty, somewhat forlorn-looking building.

That was in 2011, and Oakland’s food renaissance was already well under way, spearheaded by a handful of critics’ darlings in neighborhoods like Rockridge and Temescal. But no one was saying much about Old Oakland — least of all about Swan’s Market, despite the presence of a well-liked sausage shop and fishmonger (Taylor’s Sausage and Sincere Seafood, respectively) and the building’s long history as a bustling community gathering place.

But Rice-Cisneros, whose resume includes a stint at Chez Panisse, had a vision for the market that was inspired by a childhood spent growing up around Los Angeles’ Chinatown, as well as the time she spent as a chef in Mexico City, where the vibrant mercados are the heart and soul of the city’s food scene. She wanted to be part of a place like that, not walled off in her own stand-alone eatery.

Still, Rice-Cisneros admitted that, in the beginning, she wasn’t sure if Swan’s Market would ever take off. “I was just like, let’s treat it like a three-month art installation, and let’s see if we’re relevant to the neighborhood,” she said.

Of course, much of the success of Swan’s Market can attributed to the arrival of heavy hitters such as Miss Ollie’s (at the end of 2012) — probably the best Afro-Caribbean restaurant in the Bay Area — and the popular sausage-and-beer slinger Rosamunde (in 2013), both of which have stand-alone locations that are separate from the rest of the market. But the core of what most folks now think of as Swan’s Market is the big communal dining area that’s shared by the current occupants of the “food court”: Cosecha, AS B-Dama, The Cook and Her Farmer, and Deep Roots Oakland/Henhouse (a combination wine bar and pizza restaurant).

According to Rice-Cisneros, part of the reason for the success of the Swan’s food court is the diversity of options available to customers now that all of the individual stalls are up and running. She said she has one family of regular customers who embody this: The wife, a Japanese American, always orders a bunch of izakaya-style dishes from AS B-Dama. The husband, who’s Jewish, usually picks up something from Cosecha, and then they’ll order a pepperoni pizza from Henhouse for their five-year-old daughter. Then, the whole family sits down for dinner together, and they all share — or not, if they aren’t in the mood.

Of course, even a mall food court anchored by a Sbarro, a Panda Express, and an Auntie Anne’s pretzel shop nominally offers “something for everyone.” What sets Swan’s Market apart is the quality of the food, which is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the East Bay — even compared to far ritzier restaurants. As Chikara Ono, owner of AS B-Dama, pointed out, each of the food stalls is committed to using sustainable, mostly organic ingredients. “It’s totally different compared to other food courts,” he said.

According to Rice-Cisneros, it makes a difference, too, that everyone has decided to serve their food on real plates with real silverware — there’s no styrofoam or plastic forks. And, even as the market has gotten busier, the service has remained remarkably personal. The owners of each respective eatery are on-site almost every day. If you order something from AS B-Dama, for instance, the odds are fairly high that Ono himself will be the one to take your order, or to hustle your karaage out to the table.

The restaurateurs at Swan’s Market talked about the sense of collaboration that’s fostered by the wide-open food court-style setup, wherein the more foot traffic the venue as a whole attracts, the better everyone’s business will do. Romney Steele, chef-owner of The Cook and Her Farmer, said that sense of collaboration provides a kind of safety net that she wouldn’t have if she ran a stand-alone restaurant. Often, she said, she has run over to Cosecha to borrow some eggs, for instance, when she was in a bind. When Steele says that Swan’s Market is “like a family,” she means it literally: The daughter of one of Cosecha’s cooks is now the main daytime cook at The Cook and Her Farmer.

The recent success of Swan’s Market has heralded a boom, if not of outright food courts, then at least of restaurants and markets that have food court-like characteristics. “The One-Stop Market Invasion,” a story in the Express‘ September 30 Taste issue, documented the trend in Oakland of new hybrid restaurant-markets, and many of the proprietors of these businesses surely drew at least some of their inspiration from Swan’s in their desire to offer a wide variety of high-quality food options in a casual setting.

Meanwhile, the recent failure of one such market, Oakland’s Grand Fare — which shuttered in November after being open just one month, despite its talented fine-dining chef and gorgeous outdoor patio — might serve as a cautionary tale. Some of the criticism directed at Grand Fare was that the prices were just too high, and according to Rice-Cisneros, one big reason for Swan’s Market’s popularity is the fact that the prices are relatively low. “All these new markets want to start charging San Francisco prices,” she said. “It’s still Oakland.”

What’s clear is that in 2016, the East Bay will be home to even more hybridized markets and gourmet food courts — whether it be Newberry Market, which is slated to occupy the first floor of the Uber building in Uptown, or the newly remodeled Emeryville Public Market, which, after several years’ worth of starts and stops, is finally rolling out its own revamped food court.

Shiba Ramen is the first of the Public Market’s new crop of eateries to open, and co-owner Jake Freed said that, despite whatever stigma there might be, he embraced the food court location from the start. For Freed, the benefits are obvious: He and co-owner Hiroko Nakamura (his wife) didn’t have to build a dining room or a bathroom. All they had to worry about was building a kitchen and making sure that their food was as good as possible.

If last year’s big East Bay food trend was that of food trucks opening brick-and-mortar restaurants, perhaps this is the logical extension of that trend. It’s no coincidence that several of the Public Market’s new tenants — KoJa Kitchen, Mayo & Mustard, and We Sushi — are Bay Area-based food truck operators who are opening their first or second brick-and-mortar location.

Once it’s fully populated, the Public Market should in many ways resemble a permanent, non-mobile version of an Off the Grid-style food truck gathering, Freed said. Like a food truck, a food court stall offers relatively low barriers to entry, at least compared to a stand-alone restaurant. But because Shiba Ramen and its Public Market neighbors have the benefit of fully equipped kitchens, Freed believes that the food has the potential to be better and served even more quickly than what you can get from most trucks.

Freed said that in the two weeks since Shiba Ramen opened, he’s gotten a handful of Yelp reviews in which customers expressed surprise at finding high-quality ramen in a food court. But if Swan’s Market and its successors continue to change the paradigm, that might not be a surprise for much longer.

There is no doubt that in East Bay sports, 2015 was the year of the Golden State Warriors. The Oakland A’s finished with the worst record in the American League, and while the Raiders showed marked improvement this year under new coach Jack Del Rio, the Silver and Black missed the playoffs again for the thirteenth straight season. The Warriors, on the other hand, not only won the NBA title in June, but then opened the 2015­–16 campaign with a league record 24 straight wins.

Just three months ago, things didn’t look so rosy for the Dubs. Sure, they were coming off a record-breaking season in which they went an absurd 83­–20, but concern swirled around the squad because of a surprising health complication for the guy who simultaneously kept every member of the Warriors sharp and loose: Head Coach Steve Kerr. After two offseason back surgeries, Kerr couldn’t participate in the Warriors’ preseason, and then missed much of the first part of the regular season.

Many observers, including General Manager Bob Myers and Kerr himself, expected that losing Kerr would mean losing games,. “It could’ve been like when I was in school and you announce a substitute teacher and the students slump, read comic books, and take advantage,” Myers told KNBR.

“I figured the first part of the season would be tough,” Kerr added. “I was hoping we would just win enough games where [Interim Head Coach Luke Walton] could get his feet wet. And lo and behold, he wins his first 24.”

There are other reasons that happened, of course, including the baby-face assassin: Stephen Curry. He leads the league in scoring, true plus-minus differential, true shooting percentage, and lovability. The most striking demonstration of his dominance has become how mightily announcers struggle to describe his blend of ball handling and shot making, from TNT’s Chris Webber (“He’s a human video game”) to KNBR’s Tim Roy (“Curry has a new middle name: ‘Are You Kidding Me?!'”) to ESPN’s Mike Greenberg (“He’s the reigning MVP and the most improved player”) to Kerr himself (“He’s [Steve] Nash on steroids”).

Another reason: the coaching team that Kerr put in place. With assistant head coach Alvin Gentry absconding to New Orleans after last season, Walton stepped into the lead the team at the young age of 35. “We see the game the same way,” Kerr told reporters, referring to Walton. “He was a brilliant passer as a player — he could pass, cut, and move. He has a great mind for the game, great feel for the players.”

Curry added: “He’s smart. He knows the game. He understands the players’ mentality, the ups and downs of the season.”

Walton deflects credit, pointing to the team’s play and back to Kerr. “We talk every day and run ideas off each other,” Walton told ESPN Radio. “He constantly tells me, ‘it’s your call to make.’ For him to have that trust in me as a coach gives me a lot of confidence. But his biggest influence is what he’s already put in place: How we practice, the way we approach games, the overall attitude we have. Everything we do has his fingerprints all over it.”

Having defensive guru Ron Adams, who play-by-play announcer Bob Fitzgerald calls “Cerebral and direct, the truth teller,” on board helps provide continuity. Adams took all of about a week off after the NBA Finals before resuming work developing the Warriors in summer league.

In addition to designing Golden State’s defense — whether that calls for more switches or schemes for stars like James Harden (the Warriors are back near the top in field goal percentage defense) — Adams works one-on-one with the Ws’ big men.

Meanwhile, former Stanford star and NBA veteran Jarron Collins rose from player development coach to de facto offensive coordinator, helping script out-of-bounds plays, track the success of different lineup combinations, and manage players’ minutes. “I grew up playing with JC,” Walton told reporters. “There’s a lot of trust, and he’s constantly giving me information.”

Like his fellow coaches, Collins ducks credit. “I’m involved a little bit more in coaching duties,” he told reporters. “But, honestly, it comes down to our players.”

Player Development Coach Bruce “Q” Fraser plays a central role in keeping those players sharp, and one player in particular. The so-called Curry Whisperer works closely with the MVP in practice on all the different pressure fronts he’ll face, helps him run through his now-famous pregame drills, and monitors Curry’s technique forensically. “Fraser will suggest things — ways to pass, move side to side … he has a mental focus,” Fitzgerald said. “He doesn’t talk too much, but Stephen listens.”

Fraser is also known for being Kerr’s best friend since their days at Arizona University, and for tucking a Gumby figurine in his sock when he played there. Collins is best known as the brother of one of the most famous gay athletes in the country, his twin Jason. Adams might be known for defense, but he calls himself the “oddball” of the group. And Walton is most widely known as the son of a Hall of Famer named Bill Walton.

But if they’re not careful, these diverse members of the Warriors coaching staff could ultimately be known as one of the better ones ever assembled. For now, they’ll settle on being remarkably close — “Like a brotherhood,” is how Adams put it.

Since the beginning of last season, the Warriors are 109–21. Like Fitzgerald wondered out loud during a recent telecast, “Is this the greatest stretch in NBA history?” Here, a look at some facts that help make the case that it is:

• In the October 27 season opener versus the New Orleans Pelicans, Curry became the third player to score forty points after winning the NBA MVP award and a championship. The other two — Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Wilt Chamberlain — are Hall-of-Fame centers. Four days later, Curry dropped 53 on the Pelicans in Nola. He leads the league in scoring with 31.8 points.

• The Ws’ regular season home winning streak stands at 30 going back to last year. They’re 51–2 at Oracle the last two seasons.

• The Dubs boast the most comebacks from 15 points down or more in the league during the last three seasons, including a soul-rattling resurgence from down 23 versus the Clippers in Los Angeles on November 18.

• Curry has had five 20-point quarters this year — double the rest of the league, not counting Klay Thompson who notched 27 in the third quarter alone versus the Phoenix Suns last week

• The Warriors own the number-one spot for jersey sales as a team, with Curry ranked number one, ahead of the likes of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, with Thompson (number five) and Draymond Green (fifteen) not far behind. Curry’s jersey sales have increased 581 percent since the start of last season. His jersey is the top-seller in 38 states.

• Golden State’s 24-0 start was the best in any major North American professional sports league, eclipsing a St. Louis Maroons record that stood for 131 years. (The Maroons won 20 straight baseball games to start the season in 1884.) The Warriors fourteen straight road wins to start a season is also a record.

• Curry’s 131 three-pointers to date put him on pace to detonate his record of 286. As a team, the Brooklyn Nets have 135.

• Last month, Draymond Green became the first Warrior to post back-to-back triple doubles since Chamberlain more than a half-century ago. Against the Boston Celtics on December 11, he became the first player since Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993 to amass 20 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals, and 5 blocks. Green currently leads the NBA in triple doubles and all forwards in assists, with 7 a game.

• Six different Warriors currently average better than 40 percent from behind the three-point line. Curry, shooting better than 45 percent on the year, only trails Steve Kerr for career three-point percentage.

• The last time a team scored more than 100 points in each of its first 20 games — as the Warriors did this year — was the 1966–67 season.

• Benjamin Morris of statistical analysis hub FiveThirtyEight evaluated NBA shooters based on distance, shot clock, and defender distance. Among his findings: Curry is the league’s most valuable shooter “by a lot.” He shoots as well with a defender 2 to 4 feet away as an average shooter does with the nearest defender 12 feet away. He shoots significantly better with less time on the shot clock, while the rest of the league shoots worse. And he’s measurably improving in scoring efficiency. “Curry is making his MVP season seem pedestrian,” Morris wrote.

• The Warriors set the league record for threes in a half with 15 against Phoenix November 23, finishing with a team record 22. The team averages more than 13 threes a game. Curry averages five by himself.

• Only Lebron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers trump the Warriors average road attendance of 19,596, or the 96.2 percent rate for sell-out crowds on the road.

• Warriors games have been five of the top six highest-rated national broadcasts on ESPN and TNT this season.

• The trendy plus-minus stat measures the point differential for a team when the player is on the court. The four highest ranking plus-minus players in the entire league are Warriors: Curry (16.1 per 36 minutes), Green (15.6), Andre Iguodala (13.2) and Thompson (12.6).

Late in the afternoon of November 4, Berkeley High School sophomore Alecia Harger received a disturbing text message. Someone had discovered a horrific, racist message that an unknown individual had left on a school library computer that day. A student sent Harger, co-president of the school’s Black Student Union (BSU), a screenshot of the frightening threat that was starting to circulate among students. The message stated, in part: “KKK forever public lynching December 9th 2015” and “I hung a [n-word] by his neck in my backyard.”

“I couldn’t believe that this was something that somebody would actually write,” recalled Harger, who is fifteen years old, in a recent interview. “We always talk about racism in Berkeley. … But I didn’t expect that there could be such acute racism, such anti-Blackness in our community.”

Once the initial shock wore off, Harger realized how scared she felt for herself and other Black students. She and other BSU leaders decided they needed to mobilize a response as quickly as possible; the image was spreading on social media, and students deserved information from a reliable source, Harger said. Administrators hadn’t yet issued any statement. That evening, the BSU fired off a press release warning of the “act of blatant terrorism towards the Black students and staff members at Berkeley High.” The statement also demanded that administrators and the Berkeley Police Department address the threat (which officials later determined came from a student).

The next day, the BSU helped facilitate a massive walkout that drew thousands of students to the streets of Berkeley — and national media attention. “This is an opportunity not just for the Black community to heal together, but also to let our message be heard on a greater scale,” Harger said of the protests.

The actions of the BSU — including a series of student-led events and assemblies on December 9, the day cited in the original message — capped off a year of high-profile student protests in the East Bay. High school activists in Oakland, Berkeley, and beyond have used Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to strategically coordinate marches and protest events and to pressure school officials and politicians to respond to their widely circulated messages. Armed with viral hashtags that have helped unify student organizers and attract substantial media coverage, teen activists have launched rallies calling for equitable resources for struggling public schools, actions opposing potential school closures, and protests against police brutality.

“I feel like we had a very big impact,” said Loata Fine, who in the spring graduated from Fremont High School in East Oakland and is now studying political science and public service at UC Davis. Fine, who is eighteen years old, helped coordinate a series of protests this year at Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) public meetings concerning a controversial plan to overhaul five schools, including Fremont High.

As part of OUSD’s so-called “Intensive Support Schools Initiative,” the district solicited proposals to revamp the targeted schools, including allowing outside, private charter school operators to submit applications. The process prompted an intense backlash: Some teachers, students, and parents feared that the potential charter takeovers would only further erode the educational opportunities for disadvantaged students. At Fremont High and McClymonds High School in West Oakland, another school identified for turnaround, students repeatedly spoke out at meetings and played a significant role in calling for increased transparency and student input in the process.

“We indicated that we cared about the school and that these decisions heavily impact us,” recalled Fine, noting that students used the #IAmFremont hashtag on Twitter to get alumni and others interested in the cause. “We showed them that we were not going to back down.” After numerous protests in which students gave thoughtful and passionate speeches in front of large crowds at school board meetings, the district made a more serious effort to reach out to students and let them voice their concerns and offer perspectives on potential reforms, Fine said. “They actually began attempting to work with faculty and students,” said Fine, who later took on a role as a student delegate in the process.

Ultimately, charter school operators did not take over any of the five schools.

This year’s student-driven protests weren’t just limited to internal school politics and conflicts. On November 17, dozens of students at Castlemont High School in East Oakland used a coordinated walkout to help shine a light on a fatal police shooting of a man allegedly armed with a fake gun. A video of the protest that circulated on Twitter showed a crowd of students chanting “Stop police brutality!” after they marched out of class to an intersection near the school where days earlier a group of Oakland cops days had shot and killed the man (who OPD later identified as 39-year-old Richard Perkins). The rally was one of many this year in Oakland in response to violent OPD incidents — but it was notable for the role youth played in organizing the event.

Meanwhile, at East Bay Arts High School in Hayward — a public school within the San Lorenzo Unified School District — sustained student protests this fall appear to have played an important role in blocking the proposed closure of the magnet arts school. “We made it such a publicized issue, and that really made a big difference,” said junior Doug Richman, who helped reach out to reporters in September when students and teachers first learned that the district’s superintendent, Fred Brill, was proposing an imminent shutdown of the school.

Richman and other students drove news coverage highlighting the consequences of the potential closure and spoke up at public meetings. Eventually, officials decided to delay the plan, and the school board ultimately voted unanimously this month to keep the school open. Brill also reversed his position and recommended against closure, saying he was deeply impressed by “the passion and the commitment and the advocacy and the love coming from this community,” according to the Contra Costa Times. He told students at the board meeting: “You guys made me cry many times in this process.”