back on the successful effort to fund the art installation, and why it promises to be bigger and better, and the bike lane wars expand, this time to a college campus. our media partner, the san francisco standard, looks into the latest battle between those who want to bike and those who want to park. but first, as protests, encampments continue to grow across college campuses, what are the political ramifications in a presidential

election year? you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. here's the latest students at stanford, uc berkeley and other bay area universities continue to stand their ground in their encampments, demanding that their university divest from israel. this video just in from berkeley, where things are calm today in front of sproul hall after a minor, quickly resolved conflict last night between protesters and counter-protesters for israel university administrators and protesters are reportedly negotiating to try to end this encampment. meantime, here's new video from stanford today. the small encampment there in white plaza remains. so far, no violence and no arrests in this latest go around. although students have been threatened with suspension and legal action. but the situation is dramatically different at ucla, bulldozers are being used today to remove the remnants after police forcibly dismantled the encampment. there abc's zohreen shah is at ucla with the chaotic moments last night when police moved in in force overnight and

into the early morning, police in riot gear moved into a pro-palestinian demonstrators encampment on the ucla campus. >> shame on you. authorities calling the encampment an unlawful gathering. police ordering the protesters to disperse, firing what appeared to be rubber bullets and flashbangs over the crowd. >> it looks like these explosive fire sticks, i think, that are designed just to strike. fear doesn't seem like they're hitting anybody, but they're extraordinarily loud and extraordinarily bright. >> chp officers pulling apart the barriers and tents and arresting demonstrators. >> i'm a student here. i'm an english major. >> please don't fail us. as the sun came up, debris litter the campus and most of the demonstrators were gone. but around the country, protests continue. in oregon, at portland state university, demonstrators barricading themselves inside the library since monday, despite the school telling them to leave immediately, food and

bedding was seen being delivered. president biden weighing in on the campus unrest. >> the senate is essential to democracy, but dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education. >> so classes here at ucla are now canceled. many protesters, as they were leaving, left waving the palestinian flag and vowing to come back. zohreen shah, abc news, los angeles. >> you heard president biden comment on the student encampments for the very first time today. he kept it short, but his message was clear. he says he supports free speech, but not the kind of actions seen at many of these protests, including vandalism, intimidation and shutting down campuses. does this wave of student activism pose a threat to biden's reelection? joining us live now to dissect the political impact of these protests, paul mitchell, vice president of political data inc, a california based bipartisan voter data firm. paul, thanks for joining us today. thanks for

having me. look, i'm reading some reaction from students who are slamming president biden's remarks today. is he losing support amongst this age group? >> well, definitely. there's a very vocal portion of the electorate and a very important part of the electorate for the democratic president to, you know, try to sway over the next six months. this group is clearly, solidifying support, in those university campuses and probably among a lot of other young people who are watching this on the news or hearing about it. so it's definitely an emerging, growing issue that i think, needs to be taken seriously. >> just how important is this age group to him when we consider, you know, in 2020, when he won, i mean, did they turn up for him and, you know, can he afford to lose any part of this group? >> it's definitely an important demographic. and young voters traditionally don't vote in the same numbers as seniors, but they can vote very cohesively, meaning that you can have large blocks of voters, especially in key states, especially around

university campuses, in fact, really helping sway elections because even if they don't turn out in the same numbers, they are more polarized in their voting. so they tend to vote more cohesively with each other. >> okay, so given that this group is important to biden, let's take a look at why these numbers might be troubling. in general. they don't think he's handling the war in gaza. well, let's look at that poll you shared with us from december. and we do have a graphic up. this is the new york times siena poll. talk to us about what we're seeing here and what they're saying. >> yeah. so foreign policy was not the top issue for young voters in this poll. oh sorry. >> they did one. that's the other one, new york times, siena in december. >> yes. >> yeah. so in that poll, you know, they viewed actually that they trusted donald trump more than they trusted biden, they said that young voters said that biden was too supportive of israel, and they expressed sympathy with gaza, and the, the fact is, is that the foreign

policy was only the key issue for about 6% of the voters. and in contrast to things like the economy and inflation, that was more around 20, and so we a situation with that poll from december. now, that was a few months ago, where foreign policy was not the driving issue for these young voters. and we talk about another poll that was done more recently among young voters. it was actually put out last month in march. and this is the harvard poll. and so in the one where they say economics is the top issue, really in foreign policy is kind of low down there. yeah. same as we saw on the other poll. in this poll, the economic issues are the number one foreign policy is only 8% say that's their top issue. and of that, that 2% of that is coming from people citing israel and gaza. so not large numbers, so but the point of it is that these are

the numbers that we expect might change as we're having these protests. it's a small portion of the electorate, but it is a key portion of the electorate, but you know, the polling doesn't really support maybe as much as we're seeing in news coverage. it might not be the thing that most young people are thinking right now is their top issue based on this polling. >> well, it is one thing though, right? because even though that may not be the most salient issue for them, it is the most visible one that represents their generation because they're not out there visibly protesting loudly over economic issues or job opportunities or even abortion, which i think is an important issue for this age group. right? >> yeah. you know, in 2022, young voters came out in droves, to support a california constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights. and you saw with the women's march, when donald trump was president, really abortion solidifying a lot of young people. and the support on that issue. so there might be these waves in which certain issues percolate to the

top in terms of activist energy, and that also speaks to the fact that there's, you know, six months to go before the general election, you know, six months ago, i actually looked on my calendar around six months ago, you and i were talking about who was going to replace dianne feinstein, you know, kevin mccarthy was the speaker of the house, and jorge santos was a member of congress in good standing. a lot has changed in the last six months, and a lot will probably change in the next six months. i get it's possible that this might not be the top issue. >> you're right, a lot could change, right? it just takes one major event. nonetheless, bernie sanders today said this may be biden's vietnam. quoting sanders, he said he's alienated young people and a lot of the democratic base. so do you think sanders is right? i mean, not just young people, but really the left left, which i assume he needs. but who are they going to flock to? the left? left? they're not going to turn to trump. >> yeah. so that'll be a question as we get towards the general election. i think that there's a lot of people who are expressing dissatisfaction on

this issue, and i think everybody can agree. we hope that this issue is resolved in the next coming months, but the fact is that when we get to the general election, our politics have really been defined by trump ever since he came down that escalator, you have seen democrats and progressives really organizing around a message of, you know, basically voting against trump even when he wasn't on the ballot in 2018, you had a lot of voters turn out based on that message. so you would expect that in this polarized environment that a lot of voters, particularly these younger voters, are going to see issues like the economy, even abortion, other key issues, and say, well, i might not like either of these two, but i need to make sure that it's not donald trump. all right. >> i want to zoom out and make it not just about biden, but some of the actions that biden denounced today. right. like he was talking about the vandalism and things like that. older people tend to see it as chaos and inexcusable. but many younger people see these tactics as necessary. means to an end. again, not the violence part,

right? nobody excuses that, but certainly bringing business to a halt, for example, or breaking into a university building to hang a sign off of it and occupy it. they believe disruption is the point. so is this a political tightrope? not just for biden, but other democratic candidates, too? >> well, i think that is an important point. in fact, there's a real polarization on the polling here where when you ask younger voters, essentially, who do they side with in this conflict, they side with the people in, in gaza. but when you ask older people, they side with israel, and it is pretty polarized in that regard. i think a lot of older voters view israel in a different context than younger voters do. and so and they're not even getting the same media. young people are getting a lot of media through social media, and older voters are still getting media through more traditional media. and so the messages they're getting in this, policy area are vastly different. >> all right, paul, before we let you go real quickly, what is the presidential race looking like right now based on the

latest polls? >> well, right now trump is ahead in most of the polling that you see both at the national level and in the key swing states, so there's a lot of time between now and the general election, a lot of externalities that might come into play. but right now, you, you know, if you're expecting as the biden administration, that your better economy and higher job rate and you know, lowering inflation is actually working, i think they're probably waking up every morning pretty frustrated. >> yeah. all right. paul mitchell vice president of political data, inc. thank you so much for your analysis. >> thanks for having me. >> let there be light bay area, those popular lights on the bay bridge will soon be back on. we'll tell you when and how it happened from the creator of get exceptional offers at your local audi dealer. ♪ ♪

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have been dark since march of last year, will once again be illuminated at night. not during the daytime, of course, but this is the span. thanks to generous donors who are funding the public art project. joining us live now is ben davis, founder and chief visionary at the san francisco based art nonprofit illuminate. ben, welcome to the show. thank you. all right, let's cut to the chase. when are the lights coming back on? >> well, first of all, i need to acknowledge all of the generosity that got us to this moment, which has been fantastic. but, if all goes to plan, we'll begin installing the lights sometime this fall. the artist will begin testing them in the winter, and then we're looking to come back sometime around march of 2025. i wouldn't make a hotel reservation just yet, but that's the that's what's in our sights. >> well, i can just walk outside, but i'll be on the

lookout. all right, so we got about 11 months or so. hey, look, ben, people forget there was a time before. right before 2013, there were no special lights on the western span. uh- tell us how this came to be. >> you know, this is one of these projects that actually visited me. i have great love for the bay bridge, and i had worked on it professionally for a while from a communications perspective, and i was just trying to figure out how to let this bridge shine in the region's consciousness. again. it lives in many ways in the shadows of the golden gate, and this vision, which took two and a half years to happen and, you know, with the great support of the artist leo villareal and a huge community really changed the way we felt about downtown san francisco. mission accomplished. the bay bridge is certainly getting a lot of love, but it it means much more than that to the city now, do you think it was just the city or maybe even the whole region? >> what do you think the impact was? >> well, i think it actually has a it. it does. i know it has a global a global impact. you know, there are nine bridges on the river thames now that are illuminated. there are bridges

around the world that are illuminated because people could see that it was possible and it could be done beautifully, but none of them are as majestic and beautiful as the bay lights. so i'm very excited to bring them back right now. >> why did it have to go dark last year? was it just that the funds ran out? maybe you can tell us a little bit about the money aspect. you know how much it cost. who originally founded it? >> it wasn't really the money. it was the technology. it's a very harsh environment for electronics. and we were using an off the shelf product from an international conglomerate and, you know, it just didn't hold up over time. and it was starting to fail faster than we could ever keep up with economically. so we did the responsible thing rather than let it fade into oblivion. we pulled it down. we have a crackerjack team now committed to making a product from the ground up. musco lighting that will perform well over time, guaranteed minimally for ten years. and more than that, and we're bringing it back with double the number of leds. so they'll actually wrap around the cables. so the light will be visible as a matter of esthetic equity to communities all around the bay. and you know, we'll be working closely with the traffic engineers, but also we believe

it can be, offered to drivers on the bridge so you can enter san francisco through a portal of public art. when these lights come back on, something just majestic and beautiful. >> okay, so brighter and more reliable is what i'm hearing and more sustainable, and more accessible, to me. okay. >> so by the way, and also the artists will have another crack at this piece. i think it'll look a substantially the same as it does now. but he, he likes to refine, and i think it'll be even more beautiful and bold when he's, when he's done with his part of it. >> cannot wait. so who came through with the funding, it was, you know, $10 million in major gifts, and, just a, you know, a beautiful collection of people from around san francisco. we have we've accepted no corporate sponsorship. we didn't ask for any city money. we didn't want to rob the public art kitty from other nonprofit organizations. we're part of the community here and want to keep those funds where they are. we made this a philanthropic choice, and we received a series of very big gifts. and we also have $1 million in a crowdfunding campaign that we're halfway through. so people can still support this project. there's still half $1 million more to go

and they can go to the bay lights 360 org to do that. >> all right. and we do have that up so people can see it if they wish to contribute. but you do more than just the bay bridge project, right. that is your signature. but i know you guys have illuminated a lot of other big public spaces in san francisco. and maybe we'll just show the video and then you can tell us about some of the other projects. >> sure. >> all right. i think we have what the conservatory of flowers in golden gate park. i know there's something at grace cathedral, but just go ahead and talk about what else you've done. >> well, sure. i mean, we've done a lot of beautiful projects. we illuminated the pink triangle for three years during covid. every night, the conservatory of flowers shines with a beautiful light display, we have, have a beautiful installation at grace cathedral that shows, rarely, but it's very beautiful. we've, illuminated the golden gate bandshell, where we host 100 over 100 live, free concerts. and really, we're doing a bunch of stuff in the daytime, too, the golden mile on jfk promenade and golden gate park is full of

art and thousands of thousands of people, that is actually the new cultural gem in san francisco is the golden mile and golden gate park. and people should get out and experience that, as well as the, the other projects we're working on. and we've done all the major lazer projects that people saw over the course of the summer and have a very big treat in store for san francisco coming up over pride weekend this year. >> whoa. >> okay. you just teased something, so maybe you can drop some details here. where are we going to be able to see this special something during pride weekend? >> you know, if for people who saw what we did during the apec week in november, it's that plus a little more, so we'll have a beam of light that will go across all of san francisco up market street, we're going to bring actually 20 lasers out for the 20 years since san francisco was the first city to legalize same sex marriage. and we're going to show the world that it's san francisco's moment every year. >> well, that sounds amazing, ben davis with illuminate. thank you so much for coming on. and again, if folks want to help out and contribute to these beautiful lights, it's the bay

lights 360. .org. thanks so much . >> thank you. thank you. >> all right. coming up, another battle over bike lanes breaks out in san francisco. this one on a college campus over just 29 parking spots. our media partner, the san francisco standard, looks into whether the city can break out of the

the situation on valencia street for months, but now city college of san francisco is in a war of its own. our media partner, the san francisco standard, has published this article on this latest feud. why an sf college is going to war over 29 parking spots. the school is located in the sunnyside neighborhood, just off interstate 280. joining us live now is noah boston, a data reporter for the standard. hi, noah. >> hey, thanks for having me. >> so tell us a little bit more about this proposed sfmta bike

lane project. it's on frida kahlo way, right? that's near city college, but not actually on campus. >> that's right. so free to call away. it's a san francisco city street, but it kind of is the main drag that runs right alongside the city college main campus. there you know, on one side you have the entrance to campus. on the other side, you have the main parking lots for the college, and some other campus buildings. and yeah, the city is proposing to put in a protected bike lane, uh- on the street there. that would eliminate 29 parking spots. >> can i just ask you how this protects the lane might look, right, because we've covered the valencia one, which a lot of the businesses said this ruined us because it was down the center in the middle of the road. uh. and i know you know, that design didn't work for them. what is this design supposed to be? >> yes. so this design would not be in the middle of the road. it would be on the east side of the street and it would be if you

can envision a single bike lane on one side of the street that has kind of two lanes for bikes. so it's like bicyclists could be going both ways and there would be protected poles, cars. so it would be separated physically from the traffic on the street. >> i see, i see, and the main complaint is it that it would have to, you know, eliminate 29 parking spots in order to do this. >> yes, exactly. that's that's a big complaint that's happening. and, you know, people at city college say, hey, we really rely on these parking spots. a lot of our students s faculty drive to school, they're kind of the most convenient spots. they're the only free spots that the other parking on campus. you have to you have to pay. you have to buy a pass to park there. wait, what? >> wait what? whoa, whoa. we buried the lead here. there are still free spots in san francisco. my goodness. noah. okay but let me just ask you, like, in terms of these particular spots, 29 is that a

big or small percentage of the parking spots available on campus or around campus? >> yeah. so it's a very small percent. sfmta says this is less than 1% of the spots that are available to city college students, but this is coming at a time where the college is planning to get rid of 60% of its parking, and that has nothing to do with the bike lane, but everything to do with the fact that one of the main parking lots at the college is going to be developed into over 1000 units of housing and there's a theater building that's going to be erected in the other main parking lot. so it's coming at this big transition moment, i see, i see, okay, so a lot of other spots will be disappearing. >> so they really want to preserve this. but let me just ask you, can the city college afford to lose these spots in the sense that i think they've been seeing a drop in student population. right. and at the same time, the city, everybody is urging people to take

transit. so how important are these spaces? >> yeah, that really depends on who you speak to. it is true that, you know, city college's enrollment is about a third of what it used to be years ago, on the other hand, i did speak to students who said, you know, hey, i've got the semester parking pass, but if i don't come really early to class, you know, i'm driving around looking for a spot, others in the neighborhood say, hey, you know, it's really not that bad to find a spot, but at the end of the day, the city, you know, has this long term goal. they want 80% of the trips in san francisco to be transit, walking, biking, basically not in a car. so really, the city, you know, they're trying to push people away from driving to places like city college, right? >> right. i mean, i know that's a big thing for, you know, both sustainability but also for vision zero. right? to try to get the traffic fatalities down.

and cars are a big piece of that, so who ultimately has the say, because it does sound like there's a bit of a disagreement here, right? it's on the city streets. so who gets the final say? >> yes. so sfmta they get the final say. and on tuesday, the agency's board of directors, they're going to vote on whether or not they want to push the project forward. so we'll see what happens on tuesday. >> all right. i assume, though, that university or college interest faculty students may show up to speak right before the vote. >> oh, i think that's inevitable . okay. i should say that the board of trustees, you know, they passed a motion, not too long ago opposing the current iteration of the plan. >> okay, well, we'll see what happens. noah boston, thank you so much. >> hey. thank you. >> you can check out noah's story and more of the standard's other original reporting on their website, sf standard.com.

sessions with experts from around the bay area. world news tonight, breaking news. the sweeping arrests on campuses, the dramatic images tonight from ucla. and from new york city to portland, oregon, how many of these protesters are outside agitators? the new numbers tonight. president biden this evening saying violent protest is not protected. also tonight here, in the northeast, the crash and tanker truck explosion shutting down a key part of i-95 in both directions. and severe storms tonight across several states. the disaster just declared. >> get back! first tonight, police in riot gear clearing the campus at ucla. flashbangs echoing across the university.