People of Richmond: What should the city do to attract businesses?

“People of Richmond” is a regular series in which reporters pose a question to people in the community. Answers are presented verbatim, though sometimes edited for brevity.

Q: What should Richmond do to attract and retain businesses?

“There’s a lot of things they could be doing. Probably revamp the downtown area. The old bank is still empty. … Taxes are very high for businesses so lowering taxes and providing incentives for new businesses is a start. Bigger businesses like the corporations are able to absorb these costs of doing business here, but smaller mom and pop shops can’t.”

(Wyatt Patak, sales and marketing professional)

“I’d probably say getting more involved in the community, because I think if the community can get involved with the businesses coming in, they’d be more inclined to support those businesses. That would probably be the best way, especially with all the gentrification involved and with all the money that’s coming in the Bay Area. A lot of people are getting left out, they feel left out. So I think that’d probably be one of the best ways, to get the community involved.”

(Uzo Nwadugbo, exectuve director at Black Neighborhood)

“Maybe we need to clean up a little more to make the appearance of the city more welcoming. Also, I’m pretty sure rent is quite high for businesses in Richmond so cheaper prices could help to attract and retain them.” (Stephanie Martinez)

“The city should give businesses incentives to stay here. If we want them to come here and stay here and continue to stay here, Richmond needs to treat them better. I wouldn’t want to have a store or business here.”

(Emily Hall, student)

“Holding businesses accountable for the bad they do and whatnot will attract the right type of businesses to our city. It’s not good enough to bring in any business. Our businesses and companies have to be a model. Now, show these outside businesses that we respect them and our city enough to hold them to a certain standard; businesses will want to be part of that.”

(Jack Thompson, manager)

“I’d say maybe provide a better atmosphere, maybe try to clean up the streets a little bit more, you know, make it a little more inviting, maybe make people feel a bit safer.” (Brandin Finta, field supervisor)

“There should be more advertisements for the Richmond community and have events for up-and coming businesses. Sometimes they have events, but I don’t know about them beforehand. I’ll find out if I happen to be driving by or if I see someone post it on Instagram.”

(Patricia Ponce, medical assistant)

“To attract and retain businesses, Richmond should clean up its streets more, I guess. And the city should lend more support to those who already own businesses here in Richmond. They should be supported financially.”

(Derek Smith, shop assistant)

“I would say two things: Safety is probably the first thing — make the area around the small businesses safer so people can be comfortable with parking or going into those areas; and supporting taxes for small businesses to make it attractive from the tax perspective.” (Margaret Honeycutt, product manager)

“What the city is doing now, doing that will retain business. I don’t know everything going on in the city, but something I do know is seeing shops open street after street.”

(Lucy Garcia)

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