Donna Summer hit the music chart with the song “Love To Love You” in the mid 1970s. It was a sensuous sound that we had not heard since the late Silvia’s song “Pillow Talk.” Terry Lynn, a Richmond native, conveyed her fanship to Donna Summer as a person of unique style and class. I saw a profile on Donna Summer on ABC’s 20/20 at the time of her Disco reign in the mid 1970s. There the history of her eastern…
A version of this story first appeared in the Contra Costa Times Richmond leaders hope to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages in the city, and they want voters to approve a fee on local businesses’ sales of those products. The city council on Tuesday will consider placing a measure on the November 6 ballot asking voters to approve an ordinance imposing a business license fee of one cent per ounce of sugar-sweetened beverages sold businesses within the city. Grocery stores,…
How do you say hello to a convicted murderer? The thought darted through my head as I strode through the Martinez Courthouse jail facility’s winding corridors of concrete and steel. In moments I would be face-to-face—albeit divided by two-inch thick Plexiglas—with Joe Blacknell III, the young man described by police and District Attorney’s Office officials as one of the most violent offenders in Richmond’s history. I opened the steel door and there he was. His fist was pressed against the…
A man was shot and killed Monday morning as he walked in front the North Richmond Senior Center. No suspect or motive is yet known. By 8:20 a.m., the victim’s body was covered with a yellow tarp at the southwest corner of Silver Avenue and Fifth Street. Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives roped off a square block area around the scene, and large crowds of residents clustered near the four entry points to the intersection. More than 20…
The Cinco de Mayo celebration on the 23rd Street corridor has become one of Richmond’s grandest events But it wasn’t always that way. Ten years ago, the street and the holiday became synonymous with an incident that would become a turning point in the city’s history, ushering in a new generation of political leaders and a renewed commitment to citizen oversight of the police department. Those were the themes explored at “2002 5 De Mayo Richmond Police Riot: What Really…
North Richmond is a unique Bay Area community poised for growth and investment in the coming years. But it’s also saddled with a history of decades of poverty and violence, and a jaded outlook toward political leaders and outside forces. How well the tiny community of about 4,000 residents can reconcile those clashing realities could determine the future, according to a report produced by UC Berkeley graduate students. “This is part of a process of building institutional linkages between this…
The golden shovels were out, but this wasn’t a “groundbreaking” ceremony. It was a ground “filling” one. City leaders and state and county officials were joined by more than 100 people Friday to mark the start of the final phase of a project to repair a massive sinkhole that swallowed cars and blocked access to a residential community more than two years ago near Via Verdi Road off I-80. The Via Verdi repair project began April 15, 2010, when heavy…
Tyris Franklin was convicted of first degree murder with special circumstances Thursday in the killing of Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell in January 2011. Franklin, 17, showed no emotion as the clerk read the verdict in a Martinez courtroom. Wearing glasses and a gray button-up shirt, Franklin looked at a cluster of family and friends as they left the courtroom. Franklin, who was charged as an adult, faces 50 years to life in prison for murder with a firearm. The jury deliberated…
A divided City Council halted a grant-funded port security construction project Tuesday, opting to put plans for the site on hold while exploring the feasibility of a nearby location. The move delays a nearly $4 million project to build a security and operations center for first responders at 1411 Harbour Way South, the Richmond Port’s current main office. Councilman Tom Butt lobbied for more than a month, first to initiate a $40,000 engineering assessment of Riggers Loft, and now to…
The jury has the case. What then-16-year-old Tyris Franklin was thinking when he shot another teen four times is what they have to decide. Closing arguments concluded the trial proceedings Tuesday in the case against Franklin, now 17, accused of first-degree murder in the Jan. 10, 2011 killing of El Cerrito High School student athlete Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell, 16. Deputy District Attorney Barry Grove painted a picture of Richmond neighborhoods plagued by territorial rivalries and senseless violence, a milieu in…
For Tyris Franklin, the rest of his life could depend on what was going through his 16-year-old mind when he shot Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell four times, killing the unarmed student-athlete. “I don’t remember what happened,” Franklin said Thursday, testifying on his own behalf. “Things just boiled up and boiled up to where I had no choice … I don’t know, I just snapped and things happened.” Franklin, now 17, is on trial, accused of first-degree murder in the killing of…
Chevron Corp. invested $1 million in seven nonprofits focused on improving science and math education and enhancing economic development in Richmond. On Wednesday, about more than 100 people came to the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts to hear leaders from the seven organizations report on what they accomplished with the money over the last year. Leaders from each group presented short videos highlighting what they did with the money and provided statistics demonstrating everything from improved high school…
After six years, Richmond’s long-awaited General Plan update was passed by the City Council early Wednesday after a lengthy City Council meeting. The vote was 5-2, with Councilmen Corky Booze and Nat Bates dissenting. The plan was passed as recommended by city staff, with two modifications and a series of recommendations proposed by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. McLaughlin added two key changes to the massive plan, which has been likened by staff to a “land use Constitution” that will guide development…