Richmond Confidential » Economy

Prospective Point Molate builders secure fresh extension

Robert Rogers — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:00:03 +0000

The developers of a possible casino project on waterfront property in the city succeeded Tuesday in securing another extension to get their plans in order.

Upstream Point Molate LLC, which hopes to build a resort and gaming casino on a peninsula formerly used as a naval fuel depot, now has until April 20 to submit an updated project plan. In exchange for the time, the developer will pay the city $90,000 for maintenance, security and other expenses associated with the site, according to a city report.

A divided City Council passed a resolution Tuesday granting the extension. Councilmembers Tom Butt, Nat Bates, Ludmyrna Lopez and Jim Rogers approved, while Mayor Gayle McLaughlin voted against the extension. Councilmembers Maria Viramontes and Jeff Ritterman abstained from the vote.

The move follows a similar measure passed in January, when the council granted Upstream a two-month extension, that time over the dissenting votes of McLaughlin, Ritterman and Butt.

Butt has switched his position on the casino at least twice. This time, he initiated the resolution to grant the extension.

Butt said he has renewed hope that the proposed project still has life.

“Progress is being made,” Butt said.

Upstream has long hoped to develop a project along with the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians at the former naval fuel depot. Layers of state and federal regulations must still be negotiated before any project could commence, a point that opponents stressed at the meeting.

The issue is a divisive one in the community.

At Tuesday’s meeting, a large contingent of supporters, many in pro-casino T-shirts, packed the chambers. On numerous occassions, members of both sides heckled one another as they took the public-speaker microphone.

McLaughlin, a stalwart opponent of the project on the grounds that casino developments carry social costs for the city, repeatedly reminded public speakers to state their city of residence. Most of those who declared their home city were union construction workers from other Bay Area cities.

But in a city where the unemployment rate is well above the state average, any compunction about gambling was outweighed by the debate over jobs.

“I have no interest in regulating morality,” said John Marquez, a former City Councilman. “We need these jobs for Richmond.”

Corky Booze, a longtime local advocate, said promises of jobs were unlikely, and even in the best of scenarios, merely a distant possibility.

“A shovel won’t go in the ground for five years” at the minimum, Booze said, due to gaming regulations which require federal approval.

John Salmon, a Napa-based executive of Upstream Investments LLC, said the T-shirt wearing, poster-board holding supporters in the chambers were present to lobby the council because they are in need of jobs.

“We didn’t make them come here,” Salmon said.

Local meeting examines a possible future without Chevron

Robert Rogers — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 22:37:56 +0000

City leaders said the time has come to plan for a future without the company that has dominated the local economy for more than a century.

A future without Chevron, the city’s largest taxpayer and employer, was a reverberating theme at a community meeting Friday night held by the Richmond Progressive Alliance, a local activist group. About 50 people attended the meeting, which featured Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Councilman Tom Butt, and author Antonia Juhasz.

“Regardless of whether Chevron stays or leaves, the main thing is that we are an independent agency as a city, as a municipality,” said McLaughlin, a frequent critic of Chevron and the only Green Party mayor of a U.S. city of more than 100,000 people. “We are not under the domination of Chevron or any corporation and we cannot go back into that kind of thinking.”

Tom Butt addresses the crowd. Photo courtesy Michael Beer

During her short remarks, McLaughlin alternately compared the relationship between the city and the corporation to the “Stockholm Syndrome” and an abusive marriage.

But the city would no longer be a victim, McLaughlin said.

“They can co-exist with us if they pay their fair share of taxes and if they use the highest state of the art pollution controls,” McLaughlin said.

The featured speaker was Juhasz, an author and activist with expertise in petrol energy. Her most recent book, 2008’s “Tyranny of Oil: The world’s most powerful industry – and what we must do to stop it,” received rave reviews from leading critics.

Juhasz painted a grim picture of the multinational oil corporation, accusing it of flexing its legal and political power to pursue profitable – but environmentally devastating – operations spanning the globe.

The planned upgrades to the local refinery were the latest example, Juhasz said. She noted that Chevron has been documented as being the largest greenhouse gas producer in the state.

“The retooling that Chevron would like to do, which is the source of so much controversy, would significantly increase those greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention toxic pollutants,” Juhasz said.

Still, Juhasz said she believes the Richmond refinery, one of more than a dozen Chevron operates in the U.S., would not be selected for closure.

“If (Chevron) does close a U.S. refinery, it will probably be the one in Hawaii,” Juhasz said.

In January, the Contra Costa Times’ business editor declared that he expects Chevron to announce plans to close the refinery during a strategy unveiling in March.

Last year, Chevron was forced to halt work on a nearly $1 billion project to upgrade the refinery to allow for processing of a larger range of oil products when a state judge sided with environmentalists who’d filed suit. The suit alleges that an environmental impact report filed by Chevron was incomplete.

Chevron representatives have countered that the project has gone through proper channels and would generate jobs and revenue in the city.

Chevron spokespersons have been measured in their public statements since late last year, when they first publicly hinted at the possibility the refinery may close. In recent weeks, the company’s public stance has been noncommittal on the refinery’s future, but that there may be an “opportunity” for improving relations with local leaders and the public.

Public statements from Chevron’s representatives have emphasized the corporation’s 108-year relationship with the city, which was all-but-founded thanks to development by the company, then part of Standard Oil.

Chevron has also embarked on a stepped-up philanthropic program, including programs for underprivileged youth, funding more than $2 million in Richmond projects last year alone.

At the same time, company officials have attended community meetings and offered tours of the refining facility, including one that brought along a handful of leaders from the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council, in order to answer questions and clarify the company’s position.

Chevron employs about 1,200 workers at its local refinery, but for years the company has declined to specify how many of those workers are Richmond residents. Councilman Butt said he would guess only about 5 percent of employees at the local refinery live in Richmond.

Butt criticized the corporation, saying that Chevron “doesn’t have a heart” and exists solely to make money, which he said was “what business is about.”

“But, I also have a job, as a Richmond city councilmember,” Butt said. “My job is to get as much money as I can out of Chevron while they’re here, and to try to protect the safety and the welfare and the health of people who live in Richmond.”

Butt did acknowledge the possibility that Chevron will shutter its local refinery, the largest on the West Coast and the source of nearly half the city’s tax receipts, but said that decision would be unaffected by local politics.

“Whatever Chevron does is going to be a product of their internal economic and strategic planning,” Butt said. “They’re not going to do it because people in Richmond try to get too much taxes out of them. That has nothing to do with it, absolutely nothing.”

Butt said other possibilities include Chevron downsizing its local operations, which would also have significant public policy implications.

As Butt spoke, he drifted noticeably toward not only the likelihood that Chevron would leave, but the potential long-term benefits.

“My gut feeling is,” Butt said before a lengthy pause, “it may happen.”

About 50 residents attended the event. Photo courtesy Michael Beer.

Butt added again that it would not be because of local politics, but due to weakened global demand for petrol products.

By the end of his remarks, with the virtually unified crowd’s encouragement, Butt was ticking off a litany of possible benefits from the loss of the city’s largest taxpayer. They included: “no more (air pollution) sirens,” a new influx of residents to a newly-opened up “waterfront community,” and a cleaner and more diversified local economy.

He said the Feb. 23 City Council meeting would include a preliminary study session on planning for the possibility of Chevron’s departure.

Councilman Jeff Ritterman, a consistent Chevron critic, also attended the event.

Residents in attendance ranged from wanting Chevron’s outright exodus to calling for increases in taxes and regulation.

Resident Michael Beer said the time was now for solidarity among residents to help impose restrictions on the corporation’s local practices.

“Richmond for many, many years has been in this thrall,” Beer said. “It’s like a spell that Chevron had put on the city, and (Richmond’s) beginning to wake up.”

www.chevron.com

www.thetruecostofchevron.com

Council calls for reduced airborne pollution

Robert Rogers — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:07:32 +0000

Richmond was born an industrial town of sooty petroleum refineries and locomotives, but its future should be based on low-emission, high-tech industries, the City Council declared Tuesday.

After a long, and sometimes contentious, public debate, the Council voted 5-1 to declare the city in recognition of a lower standard of carbon dioxide levels in the air.

<View resolution and supporting materials here.>

The new standard, 350 CO2 parts-per-million (ppm), was established by a team of scientists and environmentalists who argue that the ratio should be the upper limit for how much carbon dioxide is in the earth’s air. According to research published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2008, the current level worldwide stands at 387 ppm; about 40 percent higher than at the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

Although the recognition has no legal force nor costs, Councilman Jeff Ritterman, who introduced the resolution with the support of Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilman Jim Rogers, said he hoped the resolution would raise awareness and spur public debate about climate change.

“I really wanted to do something on the local level,” Ritterman said. “We didn’t get much international leadership on this in Copenhagen,” Ritterman added, referring to the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark in December 2009.

The Council’s adoption of the measure, which includes an agreement to begin organizing community meetings to draw input for possible future local climate measures, comes amid intensifying public debate over the city’s largest employer, Chevron Corp.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has proposed that the local Chevron refinery upgrade old infrastructure and improve energy efficiency in exchange for environmental groups’ dropping their objections to expansion in Chevron’s refining operations.

Dozens of community members spoke out during public debate, most in criticism of Chevron.

The lone dissent on the council for the air quality declaration came from Councilman Nat Bates, who at one point called his council colleagues “socialists.” He also accused McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party, and Ritterman of working to “run Chevron out of town.”

“This city is going to be a ghost town,” Bates said of what would happen if Chevron ceased local operations. Rumors that Chevron may consider closing its Richmond refinery have swirled of late. The refinery employs about 1,200 workers. Bates said Chevron pays the city nearly $35 million annually in total taxes.

McLaughlin and Councilman Tom Butt said they hoped the resolution would be part of a larger effort to establish Richmond as an environmentally-friendly city and a hot spot for green technology and industry. Butt said Richmond had recently been accepted to Green Cities California, a coalition of local governments calling for policies that support sustainable development.

On Jan. 27, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger toured a local solar panel manufacturing company to tout his statewide jobs growth plan.

Gov. Schwarzenegger outlines state plan at local “green” business

Robert Rogers — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:44:30 +0000

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived at SunPower Corp.’s local manufacturing plant facility Wednesday, he briskly walked the production floor, watching solar energy panels being pressed and shaped.

Green technology, he told a gaggle of news cameras and reporters moments later, must be a main driver in breaking the state’s economic malaise.

“I am here because of the great technology that is being developed here,” Schwarzenegger said to a crowd that included a handful of SunPower employees. “But also because of job creation … my top priority is jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Thomas Werner, right, CEO of SunPower Systems.

Schwarzenegger held the news conference as part of a statewide push to tout his recently proposed jobs package. He spoke in a massive former Ford Motor Company Assembly Plant, the largest ever built on the West Coast.

Today the waterfront facility houses a number of smaller, cleaner enterprises, including SunPower and a popular eatery. The governor toured the solar panel manufacturing plant in part to talk about his recent proposal to cease all sales tax on green technology manufacturing equipment.

California is currently one of only three states that charges sales tax on purchases of green technology manufacturing equipment, Schwarzenegger said. He added that he has been traveling “up and down” the state stumping for elements of his economic plan.

Schwarzenegger chatted briefly with workers after the press conference.

“It doesn’t make us competitive,” Schwarzenegger said of charging sales tax on capital investments in what he called the “clean tech” sector.

The governor’s office issued a fact sheet that claimed his jobs program will “create or retain” 100,000 jobs statewide.

“It’s important to recognize that we cannot bring our economy back, we cannot bring our revenues back, if we don’t have jobs for all Californians,” Schwarzenegger said.

Schwarzenegger said the state was mired in a 12.4 percent unemployment rate, about 20 percent higher than the national average.

“We need jobs now,” Schwarzenegger said. The governor added that he expected the legislature to move quickly on his proposals. “I want to urge them that it has now been three weeks since I made my announcement of my job initiative.”

Gov. Schwarzenegger with Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin.

SunPower CEO Tom Werner, Silicon Valley Leadership Group representative Mike Mielke and California Conference of Carpenters Director Danny Curtin also spoke in favor of the governor’s jobs plan. The proposal has a number of other provisions, including: A $3,000 payment to employers who hire previously unemployed state residents; new job training funds; and an extension of the tax credit for new home buyers.

But it was the sales tax exemption that took center stage Wednesday. The industry leaders on hand said slashing the sales tax would stimulate investment.

“He gets that you can improve the environment, you can improve energy security and you can create jobs by encouraging the use of solar,” Werner said.

SunPower also produces solar panels in San Jose, Irvine and Chino.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin introduced Schwarzenegger after her own brief presentation on Richmond. McLaughlin, a member of the Green Party, said the city was on the “cutting edge” of green technology, and mentioned a handful of other local companies producing environmentally-friendly, energy conserving products. She said the city is home to “30 to 40” green businesses.

“We know these businesses are helping transform Richmond economically and environmentally,” McLaughlin said.

According to the governor’s office, California is home to more than 10,000 clean technology companies that would benefit from the sales tax exemption.

Labor and Workforce Development Agency Secretary Victoria Bradshaw said clean technology producers will continue to outperform other industries.

“Between 1995 and 2008, clean tech jobs grew at 36 percent while the overall jobs only grew at 13 percent,” Bradshaw said. “And in the year 2007 to 2008, clean jobs continued to grow at 5 percent when overall jobs declined 1 percent. So we see a great future for California’s economy in the green and clean tech industry sectors.”

City council continues ban on new pot dispensaries

Natalie F. Jones — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 14:00:39 +0000

The Richmond City Council renewed its commitment Tuesday night to preventing new medical marijuana dispensaries from moving into the city. The council voted unanimously to extend a moratorium banning new clubs, giving the city at least another 45 days to figure out a strategy.

The city passed an initial moratorium in early December, which also had a limit of 45 days. The goal of the moratorium is to give the city Planning Department time to assess the situation of dispensaries in Richmond, examine how other cities in California are dealing with regulating them, and come up with a recommendation for how to manage the clubs, collectives and dispensaries that provide medical marijuana. Richmond currently has no laws on the books regarding dispensaries, and a handful already exist in the city.

The director of the Planning Department, Richard Mitchell, recommended the extension, but did not specify how far along city staff were in attempting to gather information on the issue. California law allows for a moratorium to be extended for another 10 months if the city needs the time.

“One of our major problems in our fair city is people that are dealing drugs openly on the streets and elsewhere,” said Richmond resident Sims Thompson. Thompson is concerned that club members could potentially buy marijuana from a dispensary and then sell it illegally on the street for a profit.

Lisa Hirschhorn is a consultant for GDP Collective, a dispensary that’s been at Hilltop Mall for almost five years, and she supports some kind of regulation around dispensaries. GDP Collective does have a business license from the city and according to Hirschhorn, has attempted to abide by city regulations as much as they exist.

“I think that there’s an avid need for the patients here in the city of Richmond, and we together need to form resolutions and ordinances,” Hirschhorn said in an appeal to the council to work on regulation, yet find a way to keep medical marijuana available in the city. She thinks clubs that skirt the law hurt the legitimacy of businesses that operate according to the rules.

Some residents are concerned about the clubs whether or not they abide by the law.

“Why do we have to have it here in Richmond?” asked Corky Booze, an active Richmond community member. “Our kids need better than this.”

Rebecca Vasquez, director of the Holistic Healing Collective in Pt. Richmond, said she hasn’t felt any additional pressure from the city about her dispensary since the initial moratorium went into effect, despite talk by councilmembers at previous meetings about finding a way to get rid of the clubs completely.

State proposition 215 allows California residents to legally seek marijuana treatment for medical purposes. The proposition also defines collectives and cooperatives as legal avenues for patients to obtain marijuana, paving the way for dispensaries.

Mayor delivers State of City address

Robert Rogers — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:00:28 +0000

What Mayor Gayle McLaughlin’s State of the City address Tuesday night may have lacked in a unifying theme, it compensated for in sheer breadth.

McLaughlin touted the city’s progress last year on an array of fronts, including environmentally-sound development, employment training, youth outreach work and public health. But she also wasted little time in addressing the city’s woes, bemoaning the spiking homicide rate within the first minute of the 3,180 word speech. McLaughlin criticized national policies that she said neglect communities and act as contributing factors to crime and economic decay.

“Unfortunately, the money we need for jobs and education is going to foreign wars for oil and to Wall Street bankers,” McLaughlin said. “… As priorities at the national level continue to neglect our communities, the responsibility for preventing violent crime in Richmond rests more and more on our shoulders.”

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin delivers the 2009 State of the City address.

McLaughlin addressed the nearly-full council chambers at the outset of Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. Her City Council colleagues, two of whom are rumored to be considering challenging her in her bid for re-election in November, looked on from the dais as McLaughlin spoke while standing behind a podium.

McLaughlin noted that 47 homicides were recorded in the city in 2009, a dramatic spike from 27 the year before. She blamed the increase in part on the slumping economy, which she said have driven unemployment rates to their highest levels since the Great Depression.

“When unemployment rates doubled as they did in 2009 it is not surprising that violent crime and homicide also skyrocketed,” she said.

McLaughlin’s grim assessment of crime in the city was a notable contrast to recent public comments made by Police Chief Chris Magnus, who said during a recent public meeting that overall crime edged down in 2009, despite the increase in homicides.

There were some empty seats in the chamber.

After plunging early on into the somber crime and economic situations, McLaughlin transitioned into much more upbeat reports about the city’s progress on a number of other fronts.

The initiatives highlighted included:

- Youth programs aimed at training young people to work in green economy initiatives.

- A summer youth job program that employs hundreds of local youths in paid internships.

- Securing federal and private grant monies, including a $1 million energy block grant and $3.3 million for affordable housing and homeless services.

- Securing nearly $20 million in federal stimulus dollars.

- A city commitment to provide $3 million over two years to the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

The Mayor also touted her office’s sponsorship of the Youth Stopping Violence Summit last October, some of whose members she said would join a youth advisory commission to be established this year. At another point McLaughlin – who has consistently sought to win tax, fee and regulatory concessions from Chevron Corp., which runs a local refinery – expressed support for a coming ballot measure to lift caps on the energy giant’s tax burden.

The crowd interrupted for applause several times during McLaughlin’s speech. After she concluded, with the aid of a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. (“No one can ride your back unless it’s bent,” she said), residents in attendance expressed support for her remarks.

“I’m glad to hear the focus on our youth,” said Vernon Williams, 34, who runs a local youth development program. “In the middle of a lot of chaos last year, there was some phenomenal progress.”

Longtime resident Juan Reardon, 58, said he liked the mayor’s vision and her “frank” approach to local problems.

“Violence in our community is the number one problem, and she put it into a larger perspective that showed some of the causes,” Reardon said.

A look ahead at November’s mayoral prospects

Robert Rogers — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:51 +0000

Since early 2007, Richmond has held the distinction of being the largest United States city with an elected mayor identified as a member of the Green Party.

Whether that is still the case after November, when Mayor Gayle McLaughlin faces re-election, remains to be seen.

About 10 months out from the Nov. 2 election, the only thing that seems clear is that McLaughlin will run for re-election, but she’s leaving it at that for the time being.

“Right now I’m very focused on moving forward ongoing issues and policies in my day-to-day work as mayor,” McLaughlin wrote in an e-mail response to inquiries about the coming election.

Mayor McLaughlin, right, and Vice Mayor Maria Viramontes in November.

McLaughlin indicated in the same e-mail that an official announcement that she will seek re-election is coming sometime in the next few months.

As for who will challenge her, no one has officially declared. Rumors are rampant, however, about two current City Council members.

Nat Bates, the city’s most experienced politician and one with long-cultivated constituencies, has been privately talking with close friends and aides about making a run, according to sources who declined to speak on record. Speculation is also swirling about Vice Mayor Maria Viramontes, McLaughlin’s consistent political foe and a politician whose blunt personal style and work, particularly on children’s issues and in support of the city’s growing Latino community, could translate into a formidable candidacy.

Bates, who was reached by telephone while in Southern California last week, acknowledged the possibility that he could run for the office he held during two separate stints in the 1970s.

“It is too early to make a decision with respect to the upcoming election,” Bates said. “At this point, I’m undecided.”

Bates, who was first elected to the public office when Richmond voters sat him on the City Council in 1967, has developed strengths and liabilities over a career that has made him the longest-serving councilmember in the city’s history.

Bates supports an investment in facility upgrades at the local Chevron refinery, which McLaughlin opposed and is currently winding through court. He has also called for tougher policing strategies, such as sobriety checkpoints, a measure which has unsettled many city residents, particularly immigrant communities. Bates has also had rubs with election law. In 2005, he paid fines to the state Fair Political Practices Commission for failing to disclose contributions to his campaign.

Bates supports the Point Molate Casino project, as does Viramontes.

On Jan. 11, the City Council voted 4-3 to extend a developer’s deadline to produced a plan to develop an Indian gaming casino on the former Point Molate Naval Fuel Depot. Bates and Viramontes headed the narrow majority, with McLaughlin on the other side.

Bates, center, was first elected to Richmond City Council in 1967.

With three City Council seats also up for grabs in what are expected to be competitive races, some city leaders are reluctant to cast their lot in a particular direction at this early juncture.

Councilman Jim Rogers, who faces his own re-election battle this November, acknowledged that he and McLaughlin have frequently seen eye-to-eye, but declined to weigh in on the race.

“The mayor and I, we have our similarities, particularly on the issues involving Chevron and our schools … certainly overall more similarities than differences,” Rogers said. “But I’m not going to endorse, I have my own plate full.”

Viramontes, who did not return calls seeking comment, has strong support among the city’s Latino residents and has sat on the council since 2002. A fourth generation Richmond native, Viramontes frequently clashes with McLaughlin on the dais, leading some to believe the two harbor personal animus toward each other. She is seen by many as pro-business and pro-casino, a diametrically opposite foil to McLaughlin, who never wavers from her green credentials and uses phrases like “social justice” as often as a street-level activist.

But Viramontes also touts youth-related issues and community policing along with her pro-business stances.

McLaughlin, who came to the city from Chicago earlier in 2000, relied on significant support from both black and Latino communities in 2006, when she narrowly defeated the incumbent, Irma Anderson, by barely 300 votes.

Councilman Tom Butt said he’ll “probably” support McLaughlin for re-election.

“She thinks close to the way I do on most subjects,” Butt said. Both have been critical of Chevron Corp.

Viramontes and McLaughlin have been known to have sharp exchanges during public meetings.

But they have differences as well. McLaughlin voted against a $350,000 pool divider for the Plunge in Point Richmond, a project Butt adamantly supported.

Butt has written in his own e-newsletter about how Bates would complicate the race, possibly siphoning off sizable numbers of both McLaughlin and Viramontes’ supporters.

However, McLaughlin has generally performed consistent with the expectations that preceded her term. She has vociferously battled with Chevron Corp. over taxes, fees and pollution. She is also among the most well-traveled elected officials in the city, often being sighted at multiple community events in a given day, giving crowd-pleasing speeches at events ranging from homicide memorials to a small gathering last week protesting the possible closure of a local post office.

“Word on the street is that she maintains an electable popularity that may have even expanded since her razor-thin win” in 2006, Butt wrote on Jan. 10.

Broker claims city owes $1.5 million for Point Molate

Josh Wolf — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:12 +0000

Commercial real estate broker John Troughton claims the City of Richmond agreed to pay him $1.5 million if the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians came to Point Molate. But Troughton admits no deal was signed, and no one at City Hall has acknowledged the agreement.

What Troughton, a Cushman & Wakefield senior director, does have is a letter that shows he met with four council members and city officials about Point Molate in November 2002. Council members Nat Bates and Jim Rogers attended the meeting along with former council members Richard Griffin and Mindell Penn, according to the city’s letter, which Troughton showed Richmond Confidential.

When reached by phone, Rogers wouldn’t comment on the meeting and alleged agreement. He said he’s been advised by the city attorney not to discuss it.

“It’s a matter that is potentially involving litigation,” he said.

Troughton claims that during this meeting, which four of the then-nine council members attended, the city agreed to pay a $1.5 million finder’s fee if he could convince the Guidiville Band to open a casino at Point Molate.

Administrative Chief Janet Schneider said she didn’t know anything about the deal, but she also said she didn’t start working for the city until several years after the meeting.

“I’m not aware of any involvement with Cushman & Wakefield,” she said. “There’s certainly no documents to that effect that I’m aware of.”

Troughton has worked on many Indian casino projects in the Bay area, and he said that he was already engaged with the Guidiville Band in their search for land to develop.

After taking the city’s offer, Troughton said he attended tribal meetings to promote Point Molate. He said he was also the first person to take the tribe to see the land.

“My only mistake was trusting [the City of Richmond],” said Troughton. “In my mind they owe my company the money.”

But council member Tom Butt said that Troughton has no claim to the money without a written contract.

“It’s a figment of his imagination,” said Butt. “If there’s no contract, there’s no fee. … If they think the city owes them money for this, I think they’re dreaming.”

Coffee roaster: neighborhood change starts with cafe

Leah Bartos — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:00:06 +0000

Tim Manhart didn’t get a lot of encouragement when he decided to open a coffee roastery in Richmond’s North & East neighborhood.

“Some of my good friends told me in so many words, ‘You will fail,’” Manhart recalled, hearing only gloomy predictions: “‘Richmond does not have the type of clientele that will want and appreciate the high level of coffee you’re producing.’”

There was the problem of appealing to the general Richmond clientele, and then there was the problem of the economy.

Manhart had barely opened the coffee shop when the national economy plummeted into the worst downturn since the Great Depression — a downturn that has hit small businesses particularly hard.

Last year, more than 400,000 small businesses (establishments with fewer than 100 employees) shut down in just the first quarter, eliminating more than one million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But two years after opening, Catahoula Coffee (named after Manhart’s favorite dog breed) is still brewing.

Manhart says that’s because coffee is “an affordable luxury,” and that in times of economic hardship, a community-gathering place — like a coffee shop — becomes even more sought-after.

“I’ve had people that have been laid off, people who have lost their homes and been through a lot of trauma … and they still come in and get a cup of coffee,” Manhart said.

Manhart’s cynical friends questioned the ethics of enticing Richmond’s hard-pressed blue-collar locals to drink custom-roasted lattes at $3 a serving.

But Manhart says the Catahoula clientele has been a revelation, dispelling some widely-held notions not only about who drinks gourmet espresso, but about who makes up Richmond’s population in general.

He said he was at first surprised to see landscapers and mechanics among his regulars, but perhaps even more surprised to see a large number of local artist and musician-types — the kind he said you’d expect to see in San Francisco or Berkeley coffee shops, but not Richmond.

Manhart has lived in Richmond since 1999, when he bought a house in the North & East neighborhood and took over a Merry Maids franchise, which includes the property next door to Catahoula.

And although he’s enthusiastic about the amenities of his adopted neighborhood — affordable real estate, easy access to Interstate 80, Bay views from the hills — he says Richmond’s reputation for crime and blight still keeps many East Bay locals from venturing north of El Cerrito.

But, Manhart said, that reputation might change if more entrepreneurs were willing to make an investment on the San Pablo Avenue corridor of North & East. He points to the commercial development of Temescal — a rough-turned-hip neighborhood in North Oakland — as a potential success model for North & East.

“That area was a dump 10 years ago. I remember I used to drive through it really fast because of that,” Manhart said of driving along Telegraph Avenue, the neighborhood’s main artery. “It started only with a couple of shops and it’s really blossomed.”

Manhart envisions better schools and the razing of abandoned buildings as prerequisites to improve Richmond’s quality of life, but also, he muses, wouldn’t it be nice to have a pizza joint nearby where you can get a Racer Five and a good salad? Maybe he’d even open it himself.

“I’m never opposed to doing anything,” he said, “but I’ve got my hands full now.”

Residents oppose possible post office closure

Robert Rogers — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:00:23 +0000

About 30 residents and two city leaders turned out Tuesday to give federal postal officials an emphatic message: They don’t want their post office branch to be closed.

After months of research and mailing out community bulletins, postal officials considering closure of the Station A office at 200 Broadway hosted a community meeting in a city recreation hall to hear residents’ concerns.

Ellen Gailing, right, opposes closing Post Office Station A

“I don’t see why you would close Station A, which has such a close proximity to other public services,” said Ellen Gailing, 56. Gailing, to nods of approval from other residents sitting in the hall, went on to tick off the library, senior center, Richmond Works building and other buildings she said residents, many disabled and indigent, will lose ready access to without the post office branch.

Postal Service representative Albert Martinez had few answers, instead spending most of the more than one hour of open forum assuring residents that he was hearing their concerns and would convey them to upper level post office officials.

“We can only forward all this on to someone else,” Martinez said. “But your concerns here will get to the people who will make the decision.”

Martinez did not offer a timetable for when the small station – which is staffed by one full-time employee – could be shuttered, but several residents in attendance said they feared the closure could come this year.

Residents focused on location, good parking, friendly customer service and accessibility to public transit as reasons to maintain the station. Many barely concealed their anger and offered emotional pleas to the stoic postmaster.

“For you to take this away would be a disgrace, a disgrace,” said Archie Brumfield, 47.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said she would team with Councilman Jim Rogers on a resolution opposing closure.

The possible local closure is part of the U.S. Postal Service’s nationwide cost-cutting program. About 170 stations nationwide are being considered for closure. The list of offices was finalized Dec. 14, and is significantly fewer than the original list of nearly 700 potential closures, which was announced last year.

The rise of electronic mail and private competitors has sharply reduced the postal service’s revenue, Martinez said.

“The mail is drying up,” Martinez said.

Labor also opposes the local closure. Stephen Lysaght, president of the American Postal Workers Union, spoke out against the tentative plan to close Station A.

“It’s horrible to even consider closing this station,” Lysaght said. “Revenue was about $350,000 while the lease was under $20,000, it makes no sense.”

Lysaght presented to Martinez a packet he said contained more than 1,500 local residents’ signatures opposing the closure.

If the station is closed, Martinez said five alternate stations are operating within 2.3 miles of the location. The closest office to Station A is the Richmond Main Office, at 1025 Nevin Avenue, about one mile away.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilman Jim Rogers were on hand. Both spoke out in opposition to the closure, and vowed to work together to propose a resolution opposing closure at the next City Council meeting. Martinez said such a move by city government could sway Postal Service leaders.

“I have received so many e-mails and phone calls from constituents about this,” McLaughlin said. “It’s clearly a well-used office.”