Business
The Richmond Certified Farmers Market Association plans to open a new market in Marina Bay Park early next year. “It’s more than a dream now,” said Councilmember and former Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, who represents the Marina Bay neighborhood and has been a key advocate for the market. “It’s a work in progress that we expect to happen in a matter of months.” The Richmond Farmers Market, which has operated the original Friday venue for 40 years, also will be in…
Leftside Printing survived COVID-19, the Great Recession and the decline of print, and yet it is still here. A colorful shop on 15th Street and MacDonald Avenue, it has an unfamiliar smell of ink and a humming noise coming from the printing machines. “I started Leftside to change my life and my community,” Diego Garcia, Leftside CEO, said. “Things have been difficult, but here we are.” While the general consensus might be that screen printing is dead, Leftside has not…
As the summer winds down, El Sobrante gears up for what it calls “The Best DAM Road Block Party in the East Bay.” The 28th El Sobrante Stroll, set to kick off with a parade at 11 a.m. Sunday at El Portal Drive and San Pablo Dam Road, features a dozen food booths and trucks, around 168 vendors, a car show with close to 200 entries, six live bands and a BMX bike show sponsored by The Pedaler Bike Shop…
Fine wines from Richmond vineyards, home-baked cakes, and spicy Quesabirria tacos are among the mouth-watering choices at this Saturday’s Taste of Richmond. The event returns after a four-year pandemic hiatus, with 18 local food and drink businesses, and three live music performances from Bay Area artists, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Civic Center. Tickets are $25, giving you five tasty samples; for $49, attendees can have the new VIP experience — 10 samples, a swag bag, and…
“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity. Q: What should Richmond do to attract and retain businesses? “There’s a lot of things they could be doing. Probably revamp the downtown area. The old bank is still empty. … Taxes are very high for businesses so lowering taxes and providing incentives for new businesses is a start. Bigger businesses like the…
Service providers in the East Bay have a message for the 611 workers laid off by HelloFresh in Richmond at the end of October: There are people and services available to help you find work. “You don’t have to navigate this by yourself,” said Carole “DC” Dorham-Kelly, CEO of Rubicon Programs, an anti-poverty nonprofit that is part of the Contra Costa Workforce Collaborative. Through service providers in the Collaborative, which includes nonprofits, adult education organizations, school sites, and community colleges,…
On Wednesday, HelloFresh will close the Richmond facility it opened in 2015, putting 611 people out of work. For Julio de Leon, a HelloFresh driver for the past three years, the closure means losing income his family needs and having to start over. “I depend on my HelloFresh check. And now, that check will no longer be on my table,” he said, in Spanish. “Starting over. Starting from zero, yet again, with new friends, with a new job. That’s the…
Ash Abbott, a 31-year-old single parent and math teacher at Kennedy High School in Richmond, was able to afford taking nine months of parental leave for the birth of their twins only by taking out private and student loans and buying necessities on credit. Now Abbott is in serious debt. “All of my credit cards are maxed out, which I’ve never experienced in my life,” says Abbott. “I’m living paycheck to paycheck, and I have more debt than I’ve ever…
Point Molate, a scenic stretch of San Francisco Bay shoreline, has faced one legal battle after another over its ownership and development potential. A new lawsuit, filed on May 27 in Contra Costa County Superior Court, seeks $20 million from the City of Richmond and threatens to tie up the 425-acre plot indefinitely. Winehaven Legacy LLC, a subsidiary of developer SunCal, has accused the city of breaching its contract and breaking the Brown Act, which governs public meetings in California. …