Canal Alliance hosted Brightline Defense and the OpenRoad crew from NBC Bay Area to film a short documentary highlighting environmental issues in underrepresented communities in San Rafael and San Francisco via a peer-to-peer learning exchange model.
Thirteen youth participated in the peer-learning-exchange with seven teens representing the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael and six youth from the Community Youth Center’s (CYC) Asian-Pacific Islander Youth Leadership Council (APITLC) in San Francisco.
Canal youth include three high school seniors who are part of the Nuestro Canal, Nuestro Futuro’s–a neighborhood planning initiative– Consejo, or advisory committee, comprised of 20 Canal residents. The other four youth are high school sophomores enrolled in the University Prep! program.
Activities included a personalized sea-level rise focused tour of the Canal neighborhood conducted by Canal youth, a presentation to air quality monitoring facilitated by CYC youth, a DIY Air Purifier workshop for groups to build together, and an Air Quality game for youths to play together.
The day was split into two environmental themes: a sea-level rise tour of the Canal neighborhood oriented by Canal youth in the morning and an air quality workshop and activity facilitated by CYC youth in the afternoon.
To start off the morning, students gathered at Canal Alliance’s headquarters to introduce CYC youth to the demographics of the Canal neighborhood and frame sea-level rise as an issue for the neighborhood.
Students and OpenRoad crew prepping for filming at Canal Alliance in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Executive Director of Brightline Defense, Eddie Ahn, records Canal students’ Cynthia Paxtor (left), Mike Morales (center), and Belida Diaz (right) using a 3D model of flooding projections to introduce sea-level rise in the Canal neighborhood at Canal Alliance in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Canal and CYC APIYLC youth cross Grand Ave on their way to City Carpets parking lot in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Afterwards, the students headed outside and walked along Francisco Blvd to the parking lot of City Carpets to highlight an area prone to flooding. At this exact moment – an image was passed around of how the road into the commercial center looked earlier that year when high tides rose above normal measures and inundated the road.
Following City Carpets, students headed to the parking lot of Tacos el Tucan to discuss how businesses like El Tucan have taken informal measures to combat flooding. Here, students pointed to a wall erected by the business to direct water away from the side entrance onto the street. While the wall helps water not enter the restaurant, the wall also helps indirectly funnel flood waters to the center of the Canal neighborhood where mechanic shops are since due to a downward slope.
At Tacos el Tucan, Canal students also had an opportunity to share their personal experiences with flooding, specifically citing the event that occurred shortly after the New Year that took some residents by surprise.
Flooding is certainly not an uncommon occurrence in the neighborhood but the extent to which it happened in January 2026, served as a wakeup call for business owners and residents alike of what their no-longer future but present living conditions are to look like due to sea-level rise.
On Saturday, Jan. 3, a minor winter storm created a stronger than expected king-tide which led water to overflow from levees and inundate roads. With several inches of water on the streets, San Rafael High School sophomore, Ana Sosa, recalled, “I couldn’t get to work.”
Once their conversation wrapped up, students filed onto Harbor St. towards 620 Canal St. Here, our Senior Policy Manager, Carly Finkle, stepped to juxtapose the degrees of vulnerability amongst residents by comparing two residential complexes a mere feet away from one another.
Senior Policy Manager Carly Finkle speaking with a CYC APIYLC youth with 620 Canal St. In the foreground in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
On 27 Harbor St. and adjacent to Tacos el Tucan is a two-story apartment building of four units on each floor. Likely built in the 1960s alongside the rest of the stock of multi-family housing, 27 Harbor represents the vulnerability of residents who live not only in the flood zone, but in outdated apartment complexes. 27 Habor falls into this category not only because the building is on atop of the canal, but because people live on the first floor where water would come in.
Senior Policy Manager Carly Finkle discusses housing conditions in the Canal to Canal and CYC APIYLC youth using 27 Harbor St. as an example in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Contrastingly, a recently built supportive housing building called Jonathan’s Place has no residential units on the first or second floor of its four-story building. This is the measure that would need to be taken across nearly all of the residential buildings in the Canal neighborhood in order to prevent displacement—resident’s biggest worry to rising waters.
Senior Policy Manager Carly Finkle discussing housing in the Canal to a CYC APIYLC youth as they walk past Jonathan’s Place in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
The last stop of the tour was 620 Canal St, the former site of boatyard/soon-to-be park and pedestrian bridge. Here, students spoke to the potential new developments pose for adapting to sea-level rise by theorizing how a pedestrian bridge would not only serve as a more efficient way to connect the Canal neighborhood to the rest of San Rafael, but could also pose a critical evacuation route if the bridge was to be elevated adequately enough.
With that, the first portion of the day concluded, and the students returned to Canal Alliance to eat, wind down, and play rebus puzzles before gearing up for the second half of the day.
Canal student Mika Morales (right) chats with a CYC APIYLC youth at 620 Canal St. in the Canal neighborhood of San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Brightline Defense’s Program Associate Merhawit (Merha) Mehzun facilitates rounds of Rebus Puzzles with Canal students and CYC APIYLC at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
High school seniors Mike Morales (SRHS ‘26), Belida Diaz (Marin Academy ‘26), and Cynthia Paxtor (SRHS ‘26) talk with high school sophomores Cindy Reyes (SRHS ‘28), Adriana Chi Ek (SRHS ‘28), and Isabel Lopez (SRHS ‘28) at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Executive Director of Brightline Defense, Eddie Ahn, Program Associate at Brightline Defense Merhawit (Merha) Mehzun, and Program Coordinator at Community Youth Center (CYC), Sean Uy introduced themselves, their organizations, and their collaboration with the APIYLC to combat air pollution by installing neighborhood-specific air quality measures in San Francisco.
Merha Mezhun (left), Sean Uy (center), and Eddie Ahn (right) introducing the CYC APIYLC at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Merha Mezhun demonstrates how an air quality sensor signales good (green) and bad (red) air quality at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
After their introduction, individual CYC youth stepped in to present the types of air pollutants and how bad air quality impacts the environment and the human body. This led to the air purifier workshop where CYC’s APIYLC taucht Canal students how to create their own DIY air purifier using only a fan, an air filter, and duct tape to use in the case of an emergency.
CYC APIYLC introduces different types of air pollutants at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
CYC APIYLC discusses how air pollutants affect the environment and humans at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Canal students Mike Morales and Belida Diaz building a DIY air purifier alongside a CYC APIYLC at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
CYC APIYLC youth enjoying their recently built air DIY air purifier at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
The second portion of the day closed out with Eddie, Merha, and Sean teaching both CYC and Canal youth how to play an air quality game Brightline Defense created.
Merha Mezhun explaining how to play their one-of-a-kind air quality game at Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
With that, students and staff gathered outside of Canal Alliance to take a photo to remember the day.
Eddie Ahn and Sean Uy with Canal students and CYC APIYLC in front of Canal Alliance’s HQ in San Rafael, Calif., on Saturday, Apr 4, 2026 (Daisy Alvarez/Canal Alliance).
Thank you to Eddie and Merha for bringing this incredible opportunity to our youth, Sean Uy for being a trusted mentor to the CYC youth, and Dan Herz and the OpenRoad crew for spotlighting the Canal neighborhood.
A special thank you to both groups of youth leaders for being superstars in engaging with environmental issues in their local communities. The CYC’s APIYLC and Canal youth leaders Belida Diaz, Mike Morales, Cynthia Paxtor, Ana Sosa, Adriana Chi Ek, Cindy Reyes Lopez, and Isabel Lopez.
We are very excited to see this special day come to fruition in an invite-only screening of the documentary in San Francisco this summer! We’re sure the evening will be one our youth will never forget.