They talked about his humble consistency. They praised his willingness to tell not the prurient or provacative, but the plain, positive yarns and personal stories unfolding all over Richmond - stories that may otherwise go overlooked.

Whitmore, a longtime newspaperman and current publisher of the Richmond Globe, said that’s the role he relishes most.

“Providing the positive news on all the good people and organizations in the city of Richmond,” Whitmore said. “That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Whitmore, 60, was honored at Tuesday’s City Council meeting for being recently named president of the West Coast Black Publishers Association. The association includes prominent black press organizations in six Western states.

The Council awarded Whitmore a certificate of recognition and hailed him as an integral figure in the community, particularly during a time when trimmed news media staffs in the Bay Area often result in reduced coverage of smaller communities.

During a public comment period praising Whitmore, several residents alluded to the few stories not focused on crime, a dearth they said would be more pronounced without Whitmore’s Richmond Globe.

Richmond has one of the highest homicide rates in California, a fact that some believe results in disproportionate media coverage of local crime.

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said the city was grateful that it had the Globe, which she called a voice for the positive in Richmond.

Councilwoman Ludmyrna Lopez said Whitmore is “not only a publisher, he’s a community leader.”

Resident Jackie Thompson told a little tale of her own that she said exemplified Whitmore’s role.

It was more than two years ago, Thompson said, when a young woman confined to a wheelchair, as the result of being struck by an impaired driver, came to a City Council meeting to speak about the dangers of drunk driving.

“I called Vern, and he dropped what he was doing and he came and took her photo,” Thompson said.

Not long after, the wheelchair-bound woman died.

“But it meant so much to her,” to be featured in the Globe, Thompson said. “(Whitmore) did an admirable thing.”

Whitmore worked at the West County Times newspaper from 1981-88, he said. Later, he worked for the Oakland Post, a paper aimed at black readership.

Since 2004, he has been publisher of the Globe Newspaper Group. He said his paper serves a crucial function.

“Richmond is truly a misunderstood community,” Whitmore said. “A lot more good happens in Richmond than is portrayed in the mainstream media.”

“Come on, hurry up,” his opponents yelled, hassling their friend.

“These guys yell at me all the time, like typical Italians. They don’t care if I can’t see,” Fantin said as he explained his eye condition that results in poor vision. “If I’d known I was going to live this long, I would’ve taken better care of myself.”

His eyesight may be fading, but his wits are fully functional, he proved as he explained the card game Pedro.

“It’s a simple little game, because it has to be simple for Italians,” the Italian-American man said, once again poking fun at his nationality.

Fantin has been a member of Richmond’s Galileo Club for 16 years. And that was nothing compared to his comrades sitting around the table.

Jimmie Rampoldi has been a member for 64 years. He’s 88. The Richmond native has especially enjoyed visiting the club since his wife died two years ago.

“We have good food here and camaraderie, you know,” he said.

Food and friends are not all the Galileo Club offers its 325-plus members, which includes the women’s auxiliary (the female part of the club). The expansive red, orange and yellow building on the corner of Virgina Avenue and 23^rd Street has a ballroom, two fully-stocked bars, a dining hall, a kitchen and bocce ball courts. It used to have slot machines, too.

“People love the building,” said Joe Ursini, 61, who grew up two blocks from the club and is now its president.

The building, which is rented out for weddings, banquets and other events, has been home to the Galileo Club since its inception almost 80 years ago. There are about a dozen active Italian clubs in the East Bay, all belonging to the Italian American Federation.

“Clubs are competitive, but a good kind of competitive,” Ursini said. “They brag about, our sauce be better than their sauce.”

“We always provide a good pasta,” he said. And it’s always served in big bowls, Italian family style.

The Galileo Club has members ranging from their mid-20s to mid-90s. Some families have third and fourth generation Italian Americans as members.

“What’s really sad is you don’t hear the language a lot,” Ursini said, adding that many members were not born in Italy.

“A lot of guys were born in California, but they love wine,” he said. “They love the vino.”

Wine and pasta are often served at club events, which include holiday parties, bereavement get-togethers, and the most raucous event, the monthly men’s night to celebrate recent birthdays.

“That’s the bread and butter,” Ursini said.

Member Don Diani volunteered his time recently to prepare for this month’s famous – or infamous – men’s night at the Galileo Club. Diani is 77.

“I’m the youngest guy here with this group,” he said, looking at the men playing their weekly card game.

“And the meanest,” 81-year-old Frank Pericoli chimed in, adding that his own Italian last name translates in English to “danger.”

Between jokes, Diani headed back to the kitchen to receive a shipment of raviolis for this month’s men’s night. The club ordered nearly a box of pasta for every man. And raviolis are only the first course, followed by roast chicken, not to mention salad, dessert and wine.

Diani used to be the club’s president and still takes on other jobs. His wife is the president of the women’s auxiliary. But however rewarding the responsibilities may be, Diani admits his tasks aren’t always a breeze. He organizes the seating for the men’s nights. This month, 232 men reserved a chair.

“This guy don’t want to sit with him because he stinks. He don’t want to sit next to him because he eats too much,” Diani said. “You ever hear what they say about men? Once an adult, twice a child.”

Fitz spent most of his childhood in Iowa, and lived in Kansas for a couple years during high school. He moved to the Bay Area in 1970, a few years after he first came to do work as an interior decorator installing blinds and nameplates on seamans’ quarters on Treasure Island and officers’ quarters on Yerba Buena Island. He’s lived in Berkeley and Richmond since then.

“I fell in love with this part of the country and said I was going to come back,” he said.

Around 1940, Fitz came across a short clip of a newspaper article in his parents’ scrapbook about a colony for former slaves from Texas established in Coffeyville, Kansas, but he didn’t think much of it and turned the page. It wasn’t until around 1998 that he happened to be in Kansas and someone mentioned something to him about a house still standing from the original colony. He remembered the article he’d seen and went to the local library and courthouse and started piecing the history together.

A number of slave colonies were founded in Kansas after emancipation, when former slaves, mostly from Texas and Louisiana, were stuck in de facto share-cropping situations and migrated to Kansas to improve their lives. They became known as the “Exodusters.” Fitz’s great-grandparents, Alfred and Sally Teal, were among one of these groups, along with their son, Fitz’s grandfather, who was born into slavery.

Through his research, Fitz discovered that his ancestors had traveled to Kansas in covered wagons, which conjured an image he hadn’t thought of before. “I didn’t believe it because I didn’t realize from my school that blacks rode in covered wagons also. It just never dawned on me!”

A white Quaker named Daniel Votaw bought the land that would become the Votaw Colony, and sold 16-acre sections of it to the Exodusters for $100 a plot, which could be paid off over time. The Votaw Colony inhabitants attempted to grow cotton on their land to support themselves, but after a few years it became clear that they didn’t have enough land to make a profit from the crop. Then in 1895 a devastating flood damaged the colony enough that it couldn’t bounce back, and that marked the beginning of the end. Most people moved out around 1900, and the last person, Martha Coleman, left in 1915. Of the 26 former slave colonies in Kansas, only one — the Nicodemus colony — still has inhabitants. Five families live there today.

Fitz founded the Votaw Colony Museum in 2004, largely as a way to be able to receive donations for the work he was doing uncovering information about the colony and tracking down descendants. The museum is virtual right now, but he’s working on moving it into a physical space in Coffeyville. He has six volunteers spread around the country who help with the work, and he’s received three grants so far.

“When I pass, if I don’t record this, my children will know nothing,” Fitz said.

Reconnecting people is one of Fitz’s main goals in the project. The museum hosts a conference each year in Kansas to bring together all the descendants of colony inhabitants and the people who were involved with helping set up the colony. Through Fitz’s project, people have discovered countless new relatives and in one case, even connected a pair of brothers who hadn’t known each other. He said if he weren’t doing this work, he doesn’t think it’s likely that anyone else would have unearthed the information.

Fitz guesses that his parents and grandparents didn’t tell him about the colony because they didn’t want to burden the younger generations. “The great majority of them had such a hard life in slavery that they did not want their children to know how hard the life was and how bitter it was,” he said. He says he doesn’t feel a bitterness from what he’s discovered, though, only a fascination for learning about his ancestors and the people around them.

Fitz urges anybody who thinks they may be a descendant of a colony member, or is simply interested in the project, to contact him. You can find contact information for the Votaw Colony Museum here.

The Santa Fe Railway, one of the largest transcontinental railroads in the country, had its western terminus in Point Richmond, where it unloaded its passengers and cargo onto San Francisco-bound ferries.

Ferry service ended in 1975 and the East Bay Regional Park District eventually restored part of the pier for fishing and recreation.

At the Richmond Museum of History in the iron triangle neighborhood the stories go much further than that.  Executive Director, Donald Bastin recently took Richmond Confidential through a tour of the land that is now Richmond.  Exhibits begin before colonization, continue through the years as Mexican territory, follow industrialization, and conclude with World War II.

It’s got the Red Oak Victory Ship, Rosie-the-Riveter-turned National Park Service ranger Betty Soskin, and a sea of faces representing Richmond’s diversity. Large birds fly overhead, dogs sit patiently, and colorful houses are strung throughout. Trains chug forward on railroad tracks running through the west side. And in the middle of it all, a baseball player is ready to swing a bat as hard as he can, hoping for a home run.

Commissioned by the Richmond PD for its new headquarters on Regatta Boulevard, the 9’6” by 3’5” mural was designed and painted by a group of artists from the National Institute of Arts and Disabilities (NIAD). It was unveiled on Thursday at a ceremony with Police Chief Chris Magnus, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, NIAD staff and the artists themselves. The mural was installed in the reception area outside Magnus’ office.

NIAD teacher Tomoko Murakami had to climb a ladder before unveiling the mural.

“This represents our history and the current state of the community,” Police Chief Magnus said.

Guided by NIAD instructors Carol Stewart and Tomoko Murakami, the artists conducted research about the city’s history at the library and the Richmond History Museum, where they sifted through archival photos and materials. Betty Soskin also gave the group a tour of the Red Oak Victory Ship, the only cargo ship built at the Kaiser Shipyards restored for the public. The group made sketches of the ship and its surroundings.

Asked to point herself out in the mural, Soskin gestured towards the artists’ rendition of a woman facing forward, wearing glasses and a yellow hat. Soskin joked that the elongated shape coming out of the side of her face on the mural “is not a cigar. It’s my ponytail.”

The artists with NIAD Executive Director Pat Coleman.

Based on their research, the artists decided what they wanted to include in the piece. Stewart and Murakami curated drawings from each artist’s work and mapped out the mural’s basic composition. This was then projected onto the canvas so that the artists could trace their drawings on a larger scale, before any painting commenced. Working on the mural intermittently between other projects, the piece took 4 months to complete.

Saul Alegria, a NIAD artist who enjoys painting a variety of animals, described the species of birds he created at the top of the mural. “I painted a pelican – it looks very nice,” he said. “I also made a stork.” Other artists shyly pointed out their contributions as well.

The Police Department paid $4,000 for the mural, and is currently renting 18 of NIAD’s paintings for display, according to Pat Coleman, NIAD’s Executive Director. Coleman said that the artists will receive 50% of the selling price. NIAD will apply the remaining funds towards the organization.

Mayor McLaughlin was inspired. “I love being in your workspace,” she said, referring to NIAD’s studios on 23^rd Street in Richmond. “Maybe you can do a mural for City Hall.”

On December 11, 11 of these women were a part of a group of about 20 who gathered at the BoilerHouse restaurant at Ford Point in Richmond to celebrate the unveiling of eight memorabilia tables. The tables feature pictures, posters and documents relating to Rosies. The event was hosted by Orton Development, the owner of the restaurant, and rangers from the National Park Service.

Pat Wilson lifts a napkin to reveal a new table at the beginning of lunch. (Photo by Ryan Phillips)

The Rosies are now in their 80s. Though they are now friends, most didn’t know one other back when they worked in factories around the Bay Area.

“Even if we did, we wouldn’t remember,” said Betty Soskin, an 88-year-old National Park Service ranger who served as a union office clerk during the war.

The women worked at industrial sites like the Ford Assembly Plant and the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond. On this day, they gathered to chat, dine and check out the tables in a restaurant located inside the same Ford Assembly Plant where some worked.

Agnes Moore didn’t work in the Ford Plant, she worked as a welder at the Kaiser Shipyards. She said she still got a thrill seeing that the restored Ford building looks like she remembers it did in the 1940s.

“It’s so distinct, you never forget it,” said Moore, 89, of Walnut Creek.

Moore said she thought the tables were “wonderful.” Maria Holmes, a project manager for Orton Development, designed the tables. Holmes said she received a collection of 60 photos from the National Park Service, and spent a couple of days collecting artifacts at the Richmond Museum of History. Then she had the challenge of piecing it all together.

“I’ve done a lot of graphic design, but this is the first collage I’ve done since high school,” she said.

After an introduction from ranger Ric Borjes, and before they ordered lunch, the group lifted tablecloths off to unveil the tables. Then they returned to catching up and talking about what it was like when they were young.

“Our era knew real patriotism,” said 83-year-old Marian Sousa of El Sobrante. Sousa lied about her age so she could became a draftsman at the Kaiser Shipyards while still a 17-year-old high school student. “There was just this feeling of energy.”

Priscilla Elder of Pinole was an electrician at the Kaiser Shipyards during World War II. (Photo by Ryan Phillips)

Priscilla Elder, 89, of Pinole, used to be an electrician at the Kaiser Shipyards. She said she has missed the past couple of Rosie get-togethers because her husband has been ill.

Elder said she enjoyed not just seeing all her fellow Rosies, but visiting the city that is much different from the one she worked in more than six decades ago.

“It’s been a treat for me today,” she said. “I lived on 14^th and Virginia (in Richmond). Richmond has really grown up. When I was here, it was just this beautiful little city.”

The project “Where We’re From” was coordinated by Summer Brenner, author of Richmond Tales: Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle.

“You’d think that stories like that would have been talked about in the family,” she said. But, as Ruby Jean Fox told her great-granddaughter Bianca, “Nobody ever asks you to sit down and tell them about your life, and by the time they think of it, it’s too late.”

On display at the Hilltop Mall until February 15^th, are the poems and pictures of this year’s “Where We’re From” project. Under Brenner’s tutelage, 19 students from Kappa Continuation High School conducted interviews with older family or community members in order to find out more about their family history, getting creative with it in the process.

Brenner says that at first, the students were standoffish. But “they were totally transformed” when visitors started coming into the class and sharing stories, such as community leader Fred Davis Jackson.

He told them what it was like for him, coming here from a small town in Missouri to pick cotton in California, and how he still could not escape racism.

“It was amazing,” he said, talking about his young interviewers. “They kind of sifted through me… little did I know they would so precise – and so poignant.”

The kids asked their elders about family traditions, recipes, and places they’ve lived. In class, Brenner taught them interview techniques and discussed genealogy and migration. The result is large, colorful panels with a black and white photograph (taken by Community Works director, Ruth Morgan) and poems written by the kids; both about themselves and the person they interviewed.

Many of the students, like Jose Navarro III, were surprised by what they found out about their family. He said that he never knew that his dad had been to Mexico City – nor that the police had robbed him there.

Navarro was the only student to come to the exhibition’s opening. Brenner said she was disappointed; she had tried to reunite her class for the occasion, but in the seven months that passed, her students – most of which come from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds – had scattered. Navarro read his poem aloud to the 30-odd people who had gathered. In the crowd were the mayors of Richmond and San Pablo, who spoke warmly about the program.

This is the second year “Where we’re From” has taken place; the first, done with ninth-graders from Richmond High, came about in 2007 thanks to a grant from the Christensen Fund. This year, the Lesher Foundation contributed the funds.

Morgan coordinated the project with Brenner. She said she hopes they will get a grant to descend upon yet another Richmond school next spring, and help more students discover their rich, unmined family histories.

After weeks of rancorous debate following a Nov. 17 vote to allot $350,000 for the massive public pool dividing wall, the council on Tuesday voted 5-3 to end debate. The vote affirms the past decision and thwarts a push by opponents to stop the purchase.

The moveable bulkhead will allow The Plunge pool in Point Richmond to be divided in two for separate, simultaneous aquatic activities.  Supporters of the purchase hailed Tuesday’s decision as an economical enhancement of the nearly-restored pool facility, which was closed in 2001.

Opponents responded to the defeat with continuing complaints that the expenditure was wasteful, unnecessary and misappropriated during a time of fiscal constraints and reduced services throughout the city.

“We need to move forward now,” said Bart Hackworth, 42, one of at least a dozen people who addressed the council in support of the bulkhead. “(The bulkhead) will broaden the use of the Plunge.”

In addition to allowing dual use of the pool, which is set to reopen next year, installation will increase residents’ visits, supporters of the bulkhead argued.

Councilman Tom Butt, a staunch supporter of the purchase who delivered a presentation in its defense – often over the heckles of residents in attendance – cited a consulting firm’s estimate that the divider could generate annual revenue gains of $40,000 to $66,000 though increased usage.

“It could easily pay for itself in a short period of time, maybe 5 years,” Butt said.

Opponents disagreed. In addition to questions about the bulkhead’s effectiveness, many questioned how the council could allocate $350,000 on a non-essential item while core services like police, fire and parks face continued budget cuts.

“We must prioritize our funds, and a bulkhead is not a priority,” Texanita Bluitt, 60, told the council. Bluitt also said that public safety cuts are having direct impacts on poorer neighborhoods, a sentiment that was echoed several times by other speakers.

“We need to use this money in other ways,” said 65-year-old Kokoye Sande. “How can we justify this (purchase)?”

The meeting was often raucous and was standing room only, with more than 150 people packed into the council chambers. Councilmembers were repeatedly shouted down while speaking. Some audience members exchanged sharp words and cross stares.

The divisions among attendees fell broadly along racial and geographic lines. The majority of bulkhead supporters were white residents in the Point Richmond area where The Plunge is located, a neighborhood more affluent on average than the rest of the city.

In another tense council meeting on Dec. 1, dozens of children from area soccer leagues held up signs in protest of the bulkhead. They alleged that area parks have fallen into disrepair due to budget cuts while the council considers financing the $350,000 bulkhead.

Most of the opponents who spoke were black or Latino and lived in other neighborhoods throughout the city.

The battle over whether to purchase the bulkhead had devolved into a geographic tug of war to bring scarce dollars to communities, Sande said.

“It’s us against them,” Sande said. “Those who live near the plunge, and those who don’t.”

Butt tried to quell neighborhood tensions. During his Power Point-assisted presentation, Butt used maps created by Richmond Confidential to show the location of local homicides. He noted that The Plunge was the closest pool to some of the crime hot spots.

Butt has often argued that poor and minority residents in the “Iron Triangle,” a high crime sector of the city, would benefit greatly from the installation of a bulkhead. That claim is questioned by opponents, who counter that the biggest beneficiaries would be seniors and competitive swimmers in Point Richmond.

The three votes in favor of further scrutinizing the bulkhead purchase were Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and councilmembers Jim Rogers and Nathanial Bates. Bates was the lone vote against the purchase on Nov. 17, a meeting which McLaughlin did not attend. Rogers voted for the bulkhead on Nov. 17, but pulled back his previous support, which he said was based on scant technical information supplied by city staff.

City Manager Bill Lindsay recommended against the installation of the bulkhead on Nov. 17, saying there were risks due to untested modifications in the installation plans.

On Tuesday, Bates called on Parks and Recreation Director Keith Jabari to address the council. Jabari said repeatedly that he did not oppose the bulkhead, but questioned its usefulness.

“We don’t see that it’s going to enhance anything that we’re able to do,” Jabari said.

City Engineer Rich Davidson said he was ready to mobilize contractors to install the stainless steel bulkhead, which he said would be brought into the indoor pool in pieces through still unfinished double-doors. When questioned by the council, Davidson said the project could potentially run up to $390,000.

Funding for the project will come from $1.9 million in city reserves. The council opted to use the city reserve money to reimburse redevelopment funds, which were borrowed for the city’s civic center project.

Bulkhead supporters said they were hopeful the wounds would heal and the bulkhead would be installed for the Plunge’s reopening next year.

“It’s interesting that this is the issue that has divided the community,” said Councilman Jeff Ritterman. “I’m going to continue to support the bulkhead. I want the best pool for Richmond.”