How has life in the Bay Area changed over the last 20 years? These stories straight from our Bay City News archives capture news of the day from 5, 10, and 20 years ago – as originally published at the time. Explore these history snapshots and ponder how today’s news compares to that of years past.
MAY 13, 2021
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an independent review of the fatal Vallejo police shooting of Sean Monterrosa. The review remains significant in debates over police accountability, local prosecutorial independence, and the role of state oversight in high-profile use-of-force cases.
Bay City News Reported:
“State Attorney General Reviews Sean Monterrosa Shooting“
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Thursday that his office will do an independent review of the fatal shooting of Sean Monterrosa by a Vallejo police officer last year and sharply criticized Solano County’s district attorney for declining to investigate the case.
Monterrosa, 22, was shot by Vallejo Police Officer Jarrett Tonn on June 2, 2020, outside of a Walgreens store. A civil rights lawsuit filed by Monterrosa’s family alleges that Tonn fired an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle five times at Monterrosa through the windshield of an unmarked pickup truck. Vallejo police have claimed that Tonn fired at Monterrosa because he mistook a hammer in Monterrosa’s sweatshirt pocket for the butt of a gun.
Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams declined to review the Vallejo police investigation of the shooting and asked the attorney general’s office to review it without offering evidence of a conflict of interest as outlined under California’s penal codes, an act that Bonta’s office said in a news release “only serves to create more obfuscation and distrust in our justice system.” Bonta said, “It’s past time Sean Monterrosa’s family, the community, and the people of Vallejo get some answers. They deserve to know where the case stands. Instead, they’ve been met with silence. It’s time for that to change; it’s time for action.”
The attorney general’s office said there is no indication that Abrams’ office has done any investigation into the shooting even though district attorney’s offices are typically the agencies to review shootings by law enforcement in California. “Seeing the failure of the District Attorney to fulfill this important responsibility, my office will review the case to ensure a fair, thorough and transparent process is completed,” he said. “This is the right thing to do and I will go where the facts lead.”
Officials with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office were not immediately available Thursday afternoon to respond to the attorney general’s decision to handle the case.
MAY 13, 2016
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art prepared to reopen after a three-year, $610 million expansion. The reopening points to continuing questions about cultural investment, downtown foot traffic, and the role of major arts institutions in the city’s civic identity.
Bay City News reported:
“SFMOMA Reopens After $610 Million Expansion“
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopens Saturday after a three-year, $610 million expansion that aimed to merge an old and a new 10-story structure, museum officials said.
Before a ribbon cutting at 9:45 a.m., ribbon-cutting festivities begin at 8:30 a.m. at the museum at 151 Third St. The activities include entertainment by musicians, street performers and chalk artists. Museum leaders and civic officials will speak to the public at 9:15 a.m. at a stage on Howard Street in the front of the museum. At 11 a.m. the museum opens for free to 5,000 pre-ticketed visitors.
Tickets for the reopening are sold out, but tickets for Sunday and future days are available online, museum officials said. Visitors with tickets are encouraged to arrive 30 minutes before their scheduled time.
With the expansion, the gallery space has nearly tripled and includes the debut of the Pritzker Center for Photography, which will continue to make photography a centerpiece of the museum, according to museum officials. The expansion includes almost 170,000 square feet of new and renewed indoor and outdoor galleries
Access to 45,000 square feet of ground-floor gallery space will be free to everyone every day and admission will be free each day for visitors 18 years old and younger, museum officials said.
MAY 13, 2006
San Francisco, Stockton, and Vallejo groups competed to secure the mothballed USS Iowa as a museum ship. The contest reflected civic questions that still surface in waterfront planning: public history, tourism, and how major artifacts define local identity.
Bay City News reported:
“Bay Area Cities Compete For USS Iowa“
Bay Area cities are battling over the USS Iowa, the World War II and Korean War Navy flagship now mothballed in Suisun Bay north of San Francisco and awaiting donation for use as a museum in California.
Organizations in San Francisco, Stockton and Vallejo have all spent years working to anchor the 45,000-ton, 887-feet-3-inches long ship in their city ports. Interested parties have until today to submit a letter of intent and until Sept. 29 to send in an official application to the Navy Sea Systems Command, which oversees navy ship donations.
Stockton’s Battleship Iowa Museum-Memorial Foundation project manager Bob Rogers said Friday he personally traveled to Washington, D.C., a week and a half ago to present Stockton’s interest firsthand. “If we are fortunate enough to receive the ship, we will build the best museum we can and create a world-class museum that will be the centerpiece of the port of Stockton and a major tourist attraction,” Rogers said. Rogers thinks Stockton is in a favorable position because the port has offered to make available 1,000 feet of docking space, three bases of 30,000-square-feet each, 15 acres of land and a 90,000-square-feet water front building, all along the San Joaquin River at a total value of $33 million.
Additionally, the port has agreed to lease the area to the foundation for $1 a year for 50 years, Rogers said. The three bays would feature different activities, including a museum store, exhibition, cafe, lecture hall and orientation theatre, with the USS Iowa docked at Berth 14 at Rough and Ready Island, a former Naval base, Rogers said.
Although the ship comes as a donation, the cost of moving and refurbishing the fleet into a museum would land in the millions. San Francisco looked just a few weeks ago as if it might be out of the running when the board of supervisors decided they didn’t want a naval ship in its port. But, the port of San Francisco commission recently decided to give the San Francisco’s Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square a chance to come up with a financial plan.
The Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square has fought for eight years to berth the battleship at Fisherman’s Wharf. Vallejo also recently joined the list of cities interested in the ship with a plan to incorporate it in a historical district at Mare Island Naval Shipyard. Spokespersons for San Francisco’s Historic Ships Memorial at Pacific Square and the city of Vallejo did not return calls seeking comment Friday afternoon.
Editor’s Note: All the reporting, writing, and editing of this content was done by human journalists at the time of initial publication. AI tools were used to surface these stories from our internal Bay City News archives and provide the introductory context.