Postponed: North Richmond youth forum held off after recent violence
on April 18, 2012
A youth forum in North Richmond has been postponed in light of a deadly shooting Tuesday in front of a corner store a few blocks away.
The forum, titled “New Voices,” was scheduled for Thursday at 4 p.m. It was to be hosted by UC Berkeley professor Malo Andre Hutson and his class of city planning graduate students, with sponsorship from The California Endowment and various neighborhood groups.
“We have talked to many people working in Richmond and North Richmond and the consensus is that we should postpone the youth forum,” UC Berkeley grad student Heather Imboden wrote in an email late Wednesday.
The drive-by Tuesday, which occurred in broad daylight, killed Lonnie Peterson, 22, and wounded another man. Peterson died at John Muir Medical Center today, according to Richmond Office of Neighborhood Safety outreach workers who were holding a vigil at the hospital.
The class that organized the event is focused on studying North Richmond, and they hope their work will engage residents and draw up a broad blueprint for the community’s social, economic and physical development in the coming years. The forum Thursday was expected to draw kids and young adults in North Richmond, which has been plagued by violence for years.
Imboden said she hopes the event can be re-scheduled for next month.
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WE NEED HELP OUT HERE PLEASE SOMEBODY HELP US
couldn’t agree more. This is madness, sickness and in need of a lifeline.