jo joe rosato, jr., takes us to oakland where memories of his visit came back to life today. >> reporter: the city of oakland opened the doors of city hall today to pay tribute to the memory of nelson mandela as the local choir took the stage, the clock rolled back to 1990. ♪ it was during mandela's 1990 visit to the oakland coliseum andrea turner helped organize a choir to sing for him. >> we organized 200 and some voices from different groups all over the bay area to come and flank behind nelson mandela. >> reporter: today members of the choir reunited in city hall to once again pay tribute to the former south african president. >> he has gone on but we must carry the torch on. so that's what brought us here. >> reporter: it was a fitting tribute in the east bay where the u.s. anti-apartheid movement got its spark in the 1980s. >> great things have been done by ordinary people of oakland and berkeley and also by the leaders. >> reporter: among those ordinary folks turning out today was lori hill who also attended mandela's oakland visit. >> i believe nelson mandela was one of the most

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. shows us why the field is getting a new name. >> reporter: let's face it. on the field, the cal bear football team hasn't been able to exactly deliver that big knockout punch. yet, from now on its field will bear the name, kabam. in one of the biggest college naming rights deals in country, the cal athletic department today announced it sold the field name rights to san francisco mobile video game company, kabam. >> the field is going to be kabam field. we're going to refer to it as kabam field. >> reporter: the company paid $18 million to have its name emblazoned on the field over the next 15 years. no coincidence kabam founder, kevin, is a cal grad. >> i'm a big cal fan and follow. >> reporter: he's a big enough fan to realize a good branding opportunity when he sees it. >> kabam isn't necessarily the most well-known gaming company in the world or in the bay area. so this is a fantastic way for us to build that visibility. >> reporter: cal say it's a fantastic way for the athletic d

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. shows us what led to this legal battle. >> reporter: this empty industrial building near the oakland international airport is at the center of this fight. in 2012, oakland's planning department approved the neptune society's plans to turn it into the west coast's largest crematorium incinerating 3,600 bodies a year. the oakland city council got wind of the idea and tried to pass an emergency ordinance requiring all new crematoriums to go through an environmental review. a judge ruled it was too late to stop the project. >> should have required a use permit which would have been an opportunity to address the environmental impacts but also give a answer fchance for the c to hear about the project. >> reporter: this week environmental watchdog communities for a better environment filed a lawsuit against the city trying to norse it to reconsider. >> we felt like the city made an error and feel like they tried to correct that error and we feel like it's still an error that the community st

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. shows us how new technology is helping to predict all kinds of natural hazards. >> reporter: and earthquake and tsunami bear down on the coast of japan destroying cities and killing more than 15,000. but what if scientists could issue warnings before such disasters even take place? a team of scientists from nasa and the scrips constitution of oceanography say they're working on such a system. by modifying existing gps seismic monitoring stations in california, the group says it can predict deadly storms, earthquakes and tsunamis earlier and accurately. >> we're using existing gps technology, gps instruments that have been, that are working continuously at locations around california. >> reporter: this researcher says the group added seismic and meteorological sensors to 20 existing gps stations like this one in southern california. he says sensors can analyze first moments of the earthquake and show the more violent shaking that will follow. advanced warnings could range from seconds

as joe rosato jr. shows us, p g g&e got the go ahead to start it up again, even after facing tough questions from the state. >> reporter: burden park in san carlos is where neighbors walk dogs, play baseball ar take a stroll. >> i drive down this street maybe three or four times a day. >> reporter: just 20 feet away, below britton street is pg&e's gas line, number 147. the utility began running natural gas through the line over concerns of neighbors like mike mcquaid. >> they haven't gotten down to the brass facts and understand the details of what's happening. >> reporter: in october, pg mrnd e was ordered to shut down the line, documents revealing potential flaws in the pipe. >> we know from the experience in san bruno what can happen if something terribly goes wrong. >> reporter: the state allowed pg&e to restart the line today after it agreed to reduce pressure, while san carlos' own expert believes the line is safe, city managers think the move to press it into service is premature. >> we don't th

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. shows us how mandela is being remembered by a few people here in the bay area who played a small role in mandela's effort to end apartheid. >> reporter: there are many pictures in the collection of reverend cecile williams but the one he counts as his most precious is the photo of him with nelson mandela. >> that picture you see of me speaking from after greeting him at that particular point is a picture that i cherish. >> reporter: the picture was taken during mandela's 1990 visit to the oakland coliseum four months after released from prison. williams was there to greet him. >> i was just so, so overcome by this man who was not just soft spoken, but who articulated and interpreted to people his genuine humanness. >> reporter: williams was asked to speak before mandela. the memory flooded back yesterday when he learned mandela died at age 95. >> i went numb. i just said, you know, we've lost something that was so important. >> demonstrators scuffled with police and more than 150 peop

"today in the bay's" joe rosato, jr.o one bay area woman who overcomes even bigger odds just to compete. >> ever since i was a little kid, done sports. running was always my big thing. >> reporter: there's rarely a day when naomi isn't running, biking, or swimming. >> i exercise probably six times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. >> reporter: earlier this year she was busy training for an upcoming grueling ironman triathlon but her plan skidded off the pavement on march 3rd when her car hit a patch of black eye near tahoe. >> the car flipped and rolled and landed on the roof twice and came to rest upside down. >> naomi landed in the hospital with a broken neck and two badly damaged vertebrae. she eventually wound up at ucsf hospital in san francisco. >> with that accident she could have been completely paralyzed. she could have been quadriplegic, lose both arms and leg function. >> reporter: luckily she didn't suffer a major spinal cord injury. still her doctor was surprised by the question she posed just before u

joe rosato, jr. shows us the harrowing journey that dog survived. >> reporter: every day at his job at san francisco's ecology recycling yard gregory foster watches the world's castoffs roll by. >> you name it, it came down this line. >> reporter: as a trash sorter, he scans a conveyor belt looking for things to save. >> our job is to pull off as much material as we can and try to save things from going into the landfill. >> reporter: he's never been called on to save a living thing. >> this is where i saw the puppy coming down the line. it was in the bag. >> reporter: there among the trash was a small poodle. foster pulled the emergency cord to stop the belt. >> it was wet, bleeding, it was cut. >> reporter: workers cared for the animal number animal care and control arrived. someone appropriately named it gem. >> the dog has some bite wounds and conjunctivitis and she's expected to make a full recovery. >> reporter: the puppy's sad story has prompted hundreds of calls from people hoping to ahospit

. >> nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. walks down memory lane with the stick's longtime employees who have seen it all. >> reporter: it looked something like a concrete spaceship touched down on the south end of san francisco. candlestick park, the stick, built for the giants, occupied by the 49ers. now nearing the end of its days. >> old giants locker room is now present day 49er locker room. >> reporter: for more than 30 years, care of the 49ers locker room has fallen on bob. >> every player at some point in their career that played for the team has sat up there and had their ankles tapes. >> reporter: just past the 49ers current locker room is the original locker room where legends like joe montana and gary rice once suited up. >> i come in here, i still get goose bumps. i really do coming in here. all the memories. >> reporter: the memories are surfacing as the stick counts down to monday night's 49ers game which will likely be its last big sporting event. >> throws a pass. caught by clark. >> reporter: stadium enginee

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr. shows us the impact of overzealous souvenir hunters. >> reporter: the 49ers' last regular season game in candlestick park ended with a bang. fireworks lit up the sky above the park following the 49ers victory over the atlanta falcons. it was a special might for fans like viet le. >> it was my birthday, last game at candlestick. a lot of memories here. >> reporter: the scene inside the park ended with its own kind of bang. people looking for last souvenirs of the stick damaged 120 seats and 25 signs. one man was arrested in parking lot with two stolen seats. >> we saw one guy, he was trying to peel the number off of his seat. >> reporter: still, police described the 81 ejections and 30 arrests mostly for public intoxication as relatively peaceful. le figures fans just felt a connection to the old ballpark. >> i'm sure everyone wanted a piece of the candlestick, and some of them helped themselves yesterday. >> reporter: today some 45 cleanup workers spanned out across the parking lot cl

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr.checked out some of the places where the tides were the highest. >> reporter: there wasn't a cloud in the sky this morning, not a drop of rain to be seen. yet -- roads in sausalito beneath the 101 underpass looked like a creek. with the phenomenon known as king tides. those are higher than normal tides occurring a couple times a year when the sun, moon and earth are aligned to create a particularly strong gravitational pull. christopher has lived with them for 20 years. >> you just have to sort of plan and time your getting to the office. >> reporter: sauce lsalito is susceptible to the tide since it's on the edge of the bay. it's a glimpse into the future when sea levels are expected to rise up to a foot. >> they are the highest tides and we can kind of use the tides to help us visual ice what the average daily tide will look like in 5,200 years. >> reporter: san francisco recently installed a trio of colorful poles on the wharf which rise and fall with the tide. the california king t

nbc bay area's joe rosato jr.ws us why attorneys for the city are in a race with time to stop that from happening. >> reporter: supporters of san francisco's city college filled the hallways of san francisco superior court today, inside attorneys representing the city and the california federation of teachers asked the judge to put an immediate stop to the process of taking away the college's accreditation. >> if this accreditation continues, more students are going to leave and we're going to continue to see drop in finances for the college. >> reporter: last july, an accreditation commission moved to pull city college's accreditation over a long list of financial problems. the order is set to take effect july 31st of next year. the head of the california federation of teachers says the decision has already devastated the college's enrollle. >> the enrollment at one point was 125,000. now it's down to 85,000. >> reporter: attorneys for the teachers are asking the judge to throw out the commission's decision, at l