In the shadow of Silicon Valley’s booming technology industry, a growing number of people remain out in the cold. 

Skyrocketing housing prices and an astronomical cost-of-living in America’s hub of innovation have pushed many onto the streets, straining policymakers to find solutions to a homelessness problem that directly, or indirectly, impacts everyone in the community.

It is a problem that is impossible to miss in California, which has more people experiencing homelessness than anywhere else in the country. 

San Jose, the city at the heart of Silicon Valley, has the sixth largest number of unhoused citizens in the United States.

It is amidst this growing humanitarian crisis that Batman of San Jose and Crimson Fist have found their mission.

The two superheroes work anonymously in costume to provide a lifeline to the many people who sleep without shelter on San Jose’s sidewalks, camp in tents along the Guadalupe River or retreat to the subterranean darkness of the city’s storm drain tunnel system.

Lights in the Shadows follows the two superheroes as they hand out water and food to those in need, provide outreach for those who live on the margins and help Gretchen, a woman in the midst of an domestic violence crisis.

During their missions they discuss their views about what is leading to the rapidly growing homelessness crisis in their area, the common misconceptions other citizens have about the unhoused and what policymakers can, and should, be doing to help the most vulnerable in their districts.

Although Batman of San Jose and Crimson Fist are well-known in their community, especially among the unhoused whom they call friends, they have chosen to do their work without revealing their true identities, hoping their actions will be seen purely as benefit to the larger community, rather than themselves.

Lights in the Shadows is an exploration of the motives and mission of these two superheroes, whose selfless work to help others serves as an example for us all.

In the end, the two superheroes find that by acting upon their compassion and helping others in their community, they discover who they really are.

Tim Obert has been hooked on fishing since landing his first fish as a young boy with his father off the Santa Cruz Wharf on California’s Central Coast.

By the time he was 12, he was working and sleeping on charter boats in the town’s harbor.

It was an early start to the dream he’s been living for the nearly two decades since, as a captain and commercial fisherman.

The sea has provided Obert a stable life, allowing him to raise a family and invest in his business. But in fishing, there is always a risk. 

Sometimes the fish are biting, sometimes they aren’t. There are good days and bad days. Sometimes those bad days turn into bad years. 

It’s a salty old truth that long-time fishermen know how to plan for a rainy day.

Recent state regulations aimed at saving whales and increasing the salmon population have kept fishing boats like the Stacey Jo, which Obert captains, stuck at the dock.

Obert has stepped up to help his fishing buddies, running the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen’s Association and serving as a member of the Dungeness Crab Task Force to work with California’s environmental agencies on behalf of his fleet.

But it’s a role that comes at a cost, and not just financial. The most important trade off for Obert is time spent away from his family.

“I’m on like ten boards right now. Not a dollar am I making for it,” Obert said. “Being on a six-hour call is excruciating sometimes. The time away is horrible.”

In Finding Balance, Obert speaks candidly about the struggles of being a good husband and father while also working to succeed as a commercial fisherman, and how that’s been further complicated by the leadership roles he shoulders while stuck on land.

Obert and the other fishermen who have braved such regulatory storms before believe it will pass and they’ll again be pulling their catch from the ocean.

Obert believes both sides must work together to consider conservation interests alongside those of the fishing industry, just as he works to find the right centerpoint between his family’s needs and those of the industry he loves during his fleet’s long, rainy day.

It’s all just a matter of finding the right balance.

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This story was reported by four workshop participants in Santa Cruz, CA for the MediaStorm Storytelling Workshop in early December, 2023.