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BAY AREA — The number of Bay Area employees who work from home full-time post-pandemic has dropped considerably, while so-called hybrid schedules that combine work-from-home with in-office work has risen, according to a survey sponsored by the Bay Area Council and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission.

Just 11% of employers surveyed reported full-time employees working from home in February, down from 32% in October 2021.

The Return to Office Survey also examined so-called hybrid employment, where an employee shares their time in the office and at home. According to the survey, in October 2021, 44% of workers were on hybrid schedules, but by February of this year, that number had risen to 63%. Most workers come into the office Tuesdays through Thursdays.

"While hybrid work has become the new norm, there continues to be a shift back to in-person work," Jim Wunderman, president of the Bay Area Council, said in a statement.

Both the Bay Area Council, a business-sponsored public policy organization, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which regulates transportation across the region's nine counties, have a stake in knowing how many workers are commuting on a daily basis.

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According to the council, traffic across some Bay Area bridges has returned or exceeded pre-pandemic levels "on days when workers leave their home offices behind."

In February, employers said that over 46% of their employees take transit to get to work at least some of the time, compared to 35% in January 2024.

"Hybrid work ... has become a dominant model in the post-pandemic world," said the Bay Area Council, "but the average number of days workers are doing their work from home has decreased from almost three per week in 2021 to two in 2025, with many more working at home just one day a week."

The exact number of employers surveyed was not released by the council, which said it numbered in the hundreds. The survey itself was carried out by Oakland public opinion research firm EMC Research, with an analysis of the data by the Bay Area Council Economic Institute think tank.

The study seems to show that many of the current trends will be permanent without much fluctuation. The council said the survey showed that in February, 84% of businesses reported adopting permanent, long-term attendance policies. For those who anticipate more changes, 40% of them were companies with more than 10,000 employees. For those employing less than 25 people, only 10% are planning more in-person days in the coming months. Employers with between 25 and 100 employees said they are aiming for fewer fully remote or hybrid days, the survey found.

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Saturday’s sun-filled ceremony at California Memorial Stadium was attended by 7,000 new graduates and 23,000 of their loved ones.

On Saturday morning, the mood outside UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium was effervescent. Some students blew soap bubbles into the air as they paraded, in a river of blue and gold, toward their 2025 campuswide commencement ceremony. Others sported sparkly stilettos, and some wore mortarboards with crocheted or bedazzled adornments. As they approached the amphitheater from Witter Rugby Field, many hugged and crowded together for photos.

The annual celebration, attended this year by more than 7,000 new graduates and 23,000 family members, was a joyous send-off for a graduating class that — in large part — first arrived on campus as the COVID-19 emergency lifted and in-person, masked education resumed.

The event’s speakers, however, didn’t dwell on this less-than-ideal beginning; instead, they focused on how Berkeley empowered these students to become changemakers and, crucially, how this year’s seniors got to witness four years in a row of Cal victories over Stanford at Big Game.

In his first spring campuswide commencement address as chancellor, an energized Richard K. Lyons harkened back to his own time as a Berkeley undergraduate. “Berkeley has strived to help you to see the potential and promise in yourself that was not visible before,” he said, adding, “I know that was the case for me when I graduated.”

Before the ceremony, several graduates expressed similar sentiments about having confidently come into their own while at Berkeley.

“Being able to come to a school that’s so diverse, it’s made me learn a lot about people [whom] I hadn’t been able to surround myself with” growing up in predominantly white Chester County, Pennsylvania, said Archana Kulkarni, a cognitive science major who will work as a behavioral technician after graduation. “I feel like I’ve become a lot more comfortable with myself.”

Standing beside her, her friend Ariana Quintana lamented that their friend group was spreading to all corners of the country, from a banking job in Chicago to graduate school in New York City. But she expressed optimism about starting a new phase of life with a “world-class education” that had allowed her to chart her own path by pairing business classes with environment- and sustainability-focused coursework.

Later, standing at the podium, Shrinidhi Gopal, the ASUC president, mirrored those friends’ feelings of growth, gratitude and purpose: “Each of us [is] taking a different path, but all of us [are] carrying the same legacy of intellectual fire, relentless drive and a refusal to settle for the world as it is. And though we may be walking out through Sather Gate for one last time, the light we found here — the light we became here — will never stop walking with us.”

Regents’ and Chancellor’s Scholar Marlo de la Mora had a front-row seat to take in Gopal’s words. Sitting with her fellow transfer students and with Einstein, her Chihuahua-toy poodle mix, on her lap, de la Mora was jubilant to be graduating with a degree in anthropology after she’d had to drop out of college decades ago due to recurring medical issues following her lupus diagnosis.

After a marriage, two children and a divorce, not to mention forming a chronic illness support group and a related business, de la Mora decided to return to school when she was bedridden, recuperating from a spinal surgery.

“There’s only so much Netflix you can watch. There’s only so many games you can play. I was getting bored,” she said. So she took inspiration from her nieces, who were preparing for a new school year, and returned to community college for her associate degree before transferring to Berkeley. Einstein, a well-behaved therapy pup, accompanied her to classes where she learned about disability studies and how different cultures approach health and traditional medicine.

Twenty-five years after she’d first started college, de la Mora was cheered on in the stands by her children and some 20 other relatives, who were wearing shirts with her face stamped proudly on them.

Media studies major Gavriel Curameng’s route to Berkeley also wasn’t what he’d once expected. On a whim, he’d applied to be one of the students who anonymously bring Oski the Bear to life. To his surprise, he got the job and traveled across the country, waving and hyping up crowds in a fuzzy costume. Yesterday, he was finally allowed to reveal his double life as the campus mascot on Instagram.

While Curameng lifted the energy of countless crowds at athletic events with his Oski antics, he said he was buoyed personally at Berkeley by the Filipino community. Many of his peers walked beside him before the ceremony as they headed to their seats on the bleachers.

“The Filipino community made me feel seen, which is not too easy at a large public university,” he said. A few steps ahead of him, a friend smiled and snapped his fingers in agreement.

Not everyone wearing regalia was at the stadium as an undergraduate. Sydney Lister and Chelle Davies had participated in Berkeley’s mostly remote, top-ranked master of information and data science program. The classmates flew in from Seattle and Boston, respectively, to receive their master’s degrees this week.

In addition to tasseled caps and honor cords, students customized their regalia to reflect their heritages, beliefs, campus activities and the loved ones who had encouraged them.

Tora Hoar Vea wore a tapa cloth made of beaten bark, a nod to her Tongan culture, as well as a women’s rugby stole. Maddy Fukuda’s neck was draped with multiple leis and two giant, faux-candy necklaces that relatives had bestowed upon her. Elizabeth Moore’s cousin, who wasn’t able to watch her relative graduate, decked out Moore’s mortarboard in flowers, gears to allude to her mechanical engineering degree and red letters that stood for Santa Barbara City College, where Moore began her collegiate journey.

Estefania Lopez, who grew up in Lancaster, California, had put flowers and 3D golden butterflies on one side of her mortarboard. On the other side, in matching gold lettering that reflected the sunlight, was a message in Spanish that translated to: “Dedicated to my parents for being the wind beneath my wings and my source of inspiration.” Lopez, who majored in psychology, said she was deeply thankful for the sacrifices that her parents, immigrants from El Salvador and Guatemala, had made for her education — including offering to sell their house to pay for her tuition. With her degree, Lopez said, “I want to help people in my community with mental health, because it is very stigmatized.”

Outreach was also emphasized by keynote speaker Daniel Lubetzky, the KIND snack company founder and a new Shark Tank judge. After talking about the “superpowers” of youth — grit, fearlessness, creativity and love — he told the graduates that two KIND bars would be waiting for each of them upon exiting the stadium. He encouraged them to share one with someone who’d supported them on their academic journey and the other with someone they’d had disagreements or differences with, to “rebuild a bridge.”

Before the graduates reunited with their families for celebratory hugs and picked up their KIND bars, the California Victory Cannon fired from above the stadium and, before the smoke had fully cleared, the students moved their tassels from the right side of their caps to the left.

The department is working to secure additional grant funding.

Bea Karnes, Patch Staff

BERKELEY, CA — The Berkeley Fire Department is stepping up wildfire prevention efforts with its Resident Assistance Program (RAP), designed to help property owners comply with defensible space regulations.

The program provides financial and logistical support to residents who are physically unable or financially unable to clear vegetation and meet safety standards.

Defensible space—the buffer between a building and the surrounding grass, trees, shrubs, or wildland—is critical to slowing or stopping the spread of wildfire.

Through RAP, the Berkeley Fire Department will fund contractors to complete vegetation management work for eligible homeowners, helping to protect both individual properties and surrounding neighborhoods. “When residents can’t create defensible space due to age, disability, or financial hardship, they face higher fire risks and possible penalties,” a fire department spokesperson said.

“The Resident Assistance Program helps make wildfire safety more accessible and achievable for everyone.”

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The program is not currently accepting applications as the department works to secure additional grant funding. Contact the program administrator by email to make a donation or for more information: FireSafeBerkeley@berkeleyca.gov.

Updates on program availability will be shared through the department’s website and direct community outreach.

In its most recent cycle, RAP successfully helped dozens of households reduce fire hazards and improve safety compliance. Residents are encouraged to check the Berkeley Fire Department’s announcement page for updates and application details once the program reopens.

With wildfire season approaching, the department emphasizes the importance of early preparation and community-wide participation in fire prevention efforts.

BERKELEY, CA — Sometimes we treat a sandwich as if we are settling for a meager meal, when the opposite can be true. An amazing sandwich can be an elevated dining experience, both delicious and filling.

The Bay Area News Group recently came up with a list of 10 sandwich spots to try now, including Saul’s Restaurant & Delicatessen in Berkeley.

Saul’s was picked for its "comforting the belly and soul with Jewish grub like liver and onions and pastrami on rye." While the favorites are continuing under new ownership at the 40-year-old restaurant, the reviewer also praised a vegetarian offering, "Saul’s pita sabich ($13.50). It starts with housemade pita that’s not paper-thin but puffy and doughy. The chefs stuff it with discs of fried eggplant and hard-boiled eggs. Onto that goes a potato latke and tabbouleh with fresh parsley and dill, and you dunk it in two sauces – creamy tahini and amba, a tangy-sweet concoction with fenugreek and pickled mango." Saul's Deli is at 1475 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley.

The East Bay is well represented on the list, snagging six of the 10 slots.

Read the full 10 terrific Bay Area sandwiches to try right now at the Bay Area News Group website.

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Allocations range from 50 to 100 percent, depending on the state or federal agency. See what's happening in NorCal.

CALIFORNIA — Water agencies up and down California will be getting larger allocations from the state and federal delivery systems this year, water managers announced this week.

On Tuesday, the California Department of Water Resources announced it would be increasing deliveries to 50 percent of requested supplies from the State Water Project — that's up from 40 percent in March.

Also, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that deliveries to irrigation systems and other water contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are being increased from 40 percent of requested supplies to 50 percent.

Meanwhile, farms north of the Delta, and within the Delta itself, will receive 100 percent of their requested supplies from the federal Central Valley Project.

The increased deliveries were announced on the heels of a relatively wet rainy season that resulted in 100 percent of the historical average for precipitation statewide, according to data from DWR.

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Currently, nearly all of the state's major reservoirs are at or above historical averages, including Butte County's Lake Oroville, which is at 120 percent of average for this date and 95 percent full, and San Luis Reservoir in Merced County, a critical reservoir for Southern California water, which is at 101 percent of average and 83 percent full.

DWR operates the State Water Project, which provides water to 29 public agencies that serve 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland across the state.

The Bureau of Reclamation operates the Central Valley Project, which delivers irrigation water to 3 million acres of farmland and drinking water to more than 6 million people in the state.

Copyright © 2025 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.