As more people leave the Bay Area, local moving companies are struggling to keep up.

As more people leave the Bay Area, local moving companies are struggling to keep up. https://t.co/vylEZpkYvp

— The Sacramento Bee (@sacbee_news) July 19, 2018

...From Santa Rosa to San Jose, more and more residents are making the bittersweet decision to leave the Bay Area, abandoning its near-perfect weather, booming economy and thriving arts, culture and food scenes in favor of less-glamorous destinations like Austin, Boise and Knoxville.

Some are fleeing the Bay Area's sky-high housing and rent prices, both among the most expensive in the nation. Others are cashing out, selling their homes to get more for their money in a less expensive city. Nearly all of them are fed up with miserable, hours-long commutes on snarled freeways.

More people are leaving the Bay Area than are moving in...

Now, protests in several of country’s deepest blue and most “tolerant” areas have devolved into hostilities against police.

West Coast #FreddieGray Protesters Clash with Police http://t.co/AEmggWCb1S

— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) May 3, 2015

Clashes erupt in U.S. west coast cities during May Day marches. http://t.co/5b8YEzTjTt pic.twitter.com/XFc7rCDQQu

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) May 2, 2015

Crowds clashed with police during May Day marches in several U.S. West Coast cities late on Friday, as officers responded with stun grenades and pepper spray, police and media said.

Anti-capitalist protesters hurled wrenches and rocks at officers in Seattle, police said. Demonstrators in Oakland, California, and several other cities, rallied against a series of police killings of unarmed black men, local media reported.

Footage on social media showed protesters smashing shop windows in Seattle and crowds scattering as police in riot gear threw in “flashbang” grenades. Demonstrators set fire to garbage and damaged at least two dozen vehicles, police said.

◼ POLL: 96% BRACED FOR SUMMER OF RACE RIOTS - Wall St. Journal via Drudge

Domain Awareness Center: Oakland moves forward with surveillance center...

◼ The council voted 6-1 to approve an incremental resolution allowing the city to hire a new contractor to assemble the Domain Awareness Center, a surveillance hub that would allow police and city officials to continuously monitor video cameras, gunshot detectors and license-plate readers across the city.

Dozens of Oakland residents, deeply worried the center would allow the city to spy on people's everyday lives, tried to turn the resolution into a referendum on surveillance and persuade council members to stall, or scrap, the process.

"Nobody in Oakland wants to be monitored 24/7," said Oakland permaculture designer Ryan Rising, 25. "I see it as a pilot program for other cities to build their own surveillance centers."

..."I don't want to live in a city that is testing this giant surveillance system, because I believe it is going to be used to criminalize normal existence," said Magdalena Kazmierczak, 24, who lives in West Oakland.