Since 1874, the Victorian lighthouse at East Brother Island has continued to be a landmark for sailors.

“The light has to be on. If it’s not we have to tell the Coast Guard and there’s a back-up that comes on,” said Anne Witts, who together with her husband Ed, is the innkeeper at the lighthouse.

As the innkeepers, the Witts have to take care of much more than just the light. Around 26 years ago, the East Brother Light Station became a bed and breakfast destination that receives guests from Thursday through Sunday; its earnings are used to maintain the facilities. For the last year and a half, the Witts have been working around the clock, keeping the light station alive.

In 1971, the station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places—that saved it from being demolished and replaced by a light on a tower. It was falling apart from lack of funding to restore it, until the East Brother Light Station, Inc., a nonprofit corporation group, was formed 1979.

Today, the restored structures at the station are still standing, but because they are more than 100 years old, they need constant attention and care. “We fix things every day,” said Ed Witts. Volunteers come on the second Saturday of every month and work on projects around the island. The volunteer board that meets once a month is constantly doing work, too.

The bed and breakfast is a small and cozy place. Guests stay the night in one of the four bedrooms located in the lighthouse building, or at the one in the fog signal building. To get there, customers must make reservations in advance and are picked up by boat from Point San Pablo Yacht Harbor. From the harbor it takes ten minutes to get to the light station, and passengers can enjoy the marvelous views of the San Francisco skyline, Mount Tamalpais, and the Marin coastline.

The experience at the bed and breakfast is definitely a unique getaway. Guests enjoy the views, the food, and get to know the other guests and innkeepers. They also get a tour of the island and the restored lighthouse and foghorn buildings. The original, 136-year-old foghorn is demonstrated for the guests every morning. However there’s an electric modern one inside the building that goes on all winter long.

The only water at the island is rainwater collected on a cistern, and the island has its own sewer treatment plant. Only guests who are staying longer than one night are allowed to take showers. “If all guests were taking showers we would have to close,” said Anne. “We don’t have enough water.”

Anne is the cook at the lighthouse. “When people are fed well, they are really happy and Anne feeds them really well,” said her husband fondly.

Lighthouse guests are usually couples that are celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. “We do a romantic theme,” said Ed. “That’s what the lighthouse is known for.”

As innkeepers, the Witts have Coast Guard licenses to be able to pilot a boat, and they have to do a lot of boating to keep the lighthouse running since everything has to be taken on and off the island. “We try to take all of the laundry and propane and garbage off at the end of our week and bring it all back at the beginning,” said Ed Witts. They also have to transport enough food for the guests and themselves. “We try not to make many extra trips because is very time consuming and expensive,” he said.

The Witts have Tuesdays off, which they spend at their home in Pittsburg; the rest of the week the couple has their plate full innkeeping at the light station. When asked what happens if one of them gets sick, Anne said laughing, “We keep going—there is no ‘stop.’”

The couple has loved their time at the light station. Anne, originally from Belgium, and Ed, from the Bay Area, actually met sailing in Italy.  When they moved from Europe they applied for the job as innkeepers. They said that the job was a perfect fit for them, but they are ready to pass it on in four months when their contract expires. “If you keep doing it for too long, you can burn out,” Ed said.

The Witts aren’t tired of the beautiful views and the ocean, though—when they are done with their work at the light station, said Anne, “We are going to take care of our house and then we’re going sailing for a few months.”

In an effort to build community and prevent crime, the City of Richmond celebrated the 27th annual National Night Out Tuesday with block parties throughout the city. The city joined 35 million citizens around the country in celebration.

Police officers and firefighters visited 24 different neighborhoods across Richmond that were holding block parties. City officials including Police Chief Chris Magnus, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, City Manager Bill Lindsay and Fire Chief Michael Banks attended the kick-off ceremony and party held at the Target Store on Macdonald Avenue.

The event offered music performances by The East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, free hot dogs and hamburgers, and an appearance by the Richmond Fire Department’s demo unit, which showed kids what to do in case of a fire. A bounce house and the free face-painting clowns were also very popular.

“What a pleasure it is to know that our crime prevention is working in the city of Richmond. This is a tribute to a collective effort in the city,” said Mayor McLaughlin, referring to the city’s decreasing crime rate. “People are working together and the city needs more of that.”

For Chief Chris Magnus, the event was a great opportunity for residents to connect with the police, because “really we solve crimes through relationship-building,” he said. Magnus also mentioned the importance of neighbors working together to help prevent crime. “The police can’t be everywhere all the time, so it pays to have in the neighborhood folks that are looking out for each other.”

Additionally, Fire Chief Banks said, “National Night out gives us an opportunity to send our message of fire safety throughout the city.”

Other community organizations and business were also represented at the Target parking lot block party. For instance, nonprofit Building Blocks for Kids, the Contra Costa County Conflict Resolution Program and Target all had tables at the event, where people were giving out information about their organizations and handing out trinkets.

City officials were also available to talk with residents. The elected officials left, however, to go on a community caravan along with police officers and firefighters to tour some of the other neighborhood block parties throughout the city. The tour gave the police officers an opportunity to get reacquainted with the residents of their beat. As residents heard the sirens of police cars and fire engines approaching their party, they clapped in excitement.

Each neighborhood found its own way to connect with the community, and each party had its own feel. The Marina Bay block party at 1 Marina Lakes Drive set out tables hosted by the different condominium committees from the complex and encouraged residents to visit so people could walk around and get information on the different committees. They had cookies, coffee and fliers with information.

The Richmond Heights block party at Tiller Park organized a potluck with music, hot dogs and kids’ attractions such as a face-painting fairy and residents dressed up as cartoon characters Winnie the Pooh, Gossamer and Belle (from The Beauty and the Beast.)

“It’s good to see everyone in the community getting together and having a good time and see the police and fire department too,” said Belle, played by neighborhood resident Elizabeth Thompson. “It is a lot of fun.”

“Anytime you bring people together is important,” said Michael Rogers, a Richmond Heights resident. “When police get to talk with the neighbors, I think it’s great.”

Almost two years after workers broke ground on an ambitious renovation effort at the 84-year-old Richmond Municipal Natatorium, better known as The Plunge, the giant Point Richmond swimming pool is nearly finished.

Workers were mostly relegated to touch-up work Thursday, as the pool prepares for its August 14 grand opening. The interior of the building is nearly complete, with only a few fixes left to go. The pool is filled with 320,000 gallons of water, and the giant mural that covers the western wall appears complete. Save for some landscaping work that is yet to be done in the pool’s front yard, the construction appears to be a success.

“It’s just little stuff now,” lead architect Todd Jersey said of the ongoing work. “We’re putting in the floors, installing the heaters. Then it’s just a lot of clean-up.”

Opening Day for the renovated pool is set for August 14, when members of the trust that helped fundraise to pay for the construction work will give tours of the building and, for the first time since 2001, let folks take a dip in the 9,600-square-foot pool. “We’re starting to see, ‘Oh wow, it’s really coming together,’” Jersey said.

The Plunge, originally opened in 1926, was the largest indoor swimming pool in the state until it was closed in 2001 because of its deteriorating condition. Voters in Richmond originally turned down a ballot measure that would have paid for its reconstruction, but ultimately the city was able to front the majority of the $7.5 million bill through redevelopment funds and small donations.

The renovation has largely remained true to the pool’s historic design – the row of windows above the second-story observation deck is original, as is much of the tile on the mushroom-shaped fountain that has been moved from inside the pool to outside the building. Workers installed a raised “doghouse”-style roof above the pool that more closely resembles the original and are getting ready to hoist a giant sign above the building in the style of the original which read “Municipal Natatorium.”

For more information about the Plunge’s grand opening, visit www.richmondplunge.org.

BART and bus riders from Richmond and neighboring cities give their opinion about the verdict in the Johannes Mehserle trial. The jury found Mehserle, a former BART police officer, guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant on an Oakland train platform.  The verdict caused protests and vandalism in the streets of Oakland.

Point Molate served as a U.S. Navy fuel station on the shoreline of Richmond between 1942 and 1995. The area was then entrusted to the city of Richmond, which in 2004 entered into an agreement with the Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, in association with developer Upstream LCC, to develop 266 acres of Point Molate a resort and casino. The development of this project has created a great deal of controversy among Richmond residents. Some say building a casino will provide local jobs, others say it will invite crime and bring in fewer jobs than the developer claims.

The pictures in this audio slideshow were taken recently on a drive around the area of Point Molate and the voices are those of different Richmond residents.

Politicians, dancers, a Corvette convoy, horses and more paraded from 21st Street and Cutting Boulevard to 37th Street and MacDonald Avenue celebrating the annual Juneteenth Festival this Saturday morning. The festivities continued in the afternoon at Nichol Park, where people gathered to enjoy live music, food and sneak a peak at about 40 community and business booths that were offering their services.

The Juneteenth Festival is a commemoration of the announcement of the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation. The announcement in Texas made the enslaved legally freed in all the United States. Juneteenth is now a recognized holiday in 37 states. Although this is a celebration of African American heritage, in Richmond everyone felt welcome to join.

“Pride and purpose, that’s what Richmond is all about,” said Mel Davis, a member of the National Brotherhood Alliance, the group that organized the event, while standing in front of Nichol Park and speaking by microphone to the crowd.

It was a family event for the city residents and from visitors like Eric Assata who lives in Oakland. “I came to have a good time. It’s a close getaway,” he said while holding hands of three little girls, who were his granddaughter, grandniece and niece.

“It’s like Cinco de Mayo for us,” said Martin Hernandez, who was born in Mexico. “We want to share with them this important day,” Hernandez said referring to African Americans.

“It’s good that it’s multicultural. We have to celebrate each other,” said Lynda Moore, a Richmond resident who commemorates Juneteenth every year with her family. She likes this event because “people come together and don’t act crazy,” she said.

Although there was a heavy police presence, those attending the event seemed to be calmly enjoying the performances and the diverse booths. The booths represented everyone from shoes and jewelry sellers to sports teams like the West County Spartans Football, but most of them were for community organizations like the Brookside Health Center, a non-profit primary care clinic.

Gregory Madison used to live in Richmond and came from Oakland to the Juneteenth celebration for the first time in five years. “I’m glad to see that it’s still going strong,” he said.

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.”

Before bridges spanned the San Francisco Bay and BART trains tunneled beneath it, ferries were the main connector between San Francisco and the rest of the country.

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.

Richmond is a city with a unique and interesting history.  Possibly the most famous part of the story was when the population quadrupled during World War II, from an influx of workers to the Kaiser shipyards.  It is said that the iconic Rosie the Riveter worked in Richmond at that time.

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.

Three times a week 4th to 6th graders write poems and take part in soccer games in the America SCORES after-school program at Lake Elementary. The girls say they love playing soccer and believe that the poetry sessions will help them later in life. Teachers and coaches aim to increase the kids’ literacy, fitness and confidence.