Vandals strike Richmond Museum over weekend

Richmond Museum of History

Vandals smashed a window at the Richmond Museum of History early Sunday morning. The museum’s alarm system alerted the Richmond Police Department just after midnight, and responding officers discovered the damaged building. Public Information Officer Sergeant Nicole Abetkov said investigators dusted for fingerprints, but have no suspects. Alarm response is typically fast, Abetkov said. Police…

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RPD Ride-Along: Night on the Richmond beat

Officers Brandon Ruffin and Jennifer Cortez patrol the central beat, an area comprising Richmond’s inner city and high crime Iron Triangle neighborhood. Some shifts pop with energy and danger – including reports of sometimes deadly gunfire – while others are placid.

“It comes in waves,” Ruffin, 28, says as he slides the cruiser through a back alley. “The key is to keep the bad waves small and quick.”

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JoAnn Ford advocates for health in Iron Triangle

JoAnn Ford is a Richmond native and has raised seven children in the Iron Triangle. After battling several health issues herself, she has become an advocate for improving health outcomes in Richmond. Through her work with Building Blocks for Kids, JoAnn raises awareness in the community around issues like access to healthy foods and increasing…

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Richmond remembers the dead

On Saturday, the Richmond Museum of History celebrated Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. Students from Manzanita charter school brought faded photographs of deceased parents and grandparents, cut paper flowers, and skulls made from colored sugar to display on an altar at the museum.

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Nonprofit installs solar panels on inner-city homes in Richmond

A big smile spread across Raul Valencia’s face as he watched volunteer workers prepare to install solar panels on his house. The Valencias are one of eight families in Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood to receive a free rooftop solar installation as part of the eighth annual Bay Area Solarthon. The Solarthon is a one-day event…

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Play shows history of Iron Triangle

On the stage of the Iron Triangle Theater, 8-year-old Sayirah Woods leans over her copy of the book Richmond Tales: Lost Secrets of the Iron Triangle, absorbed in the adventures of Maisha and Mario. The book tells the story of two friends who take a journey to learn the history behind the Iron Triangle . . .

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Portrait of an empty house

127 Chanslor Avenue

A yellow cat runs up the steps of the house on 127 Chanslor Avenue, hopping over the weeds sprouting from the charred wood. It stops in the entryway and turns, shutting its eyes against the sun streaming down through the hole where the roof used to be. The house, on the corner of 2nd Street…

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Candlelight vigil for Lincoln Plair honors a giving spirit

A man prays at a vigil

Until his death, Lincoln Plair would show up each morning at 8 a.m. at the Elm Playlot in the Iron Triangle to pluck broken glass, syringes and other dangerous debris from the sandbox where local kids play. Then he’d leave his daily mark: a series of geometric patterns in the sand, “like a little Zen…

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