For Gene Deshawn Grisby-Bell, a toxic mixture of neighborhood feuds, searing juvenile emotions, a small-caliber handgun and bad luck led to the end of his promising young life on a January afternoon in 2011. Grisby-Bell, a 16-year-old El Cerrito High School student and football player, was walking from his grandmother’s Crescent Park apartment when a white sedan packed with five teenagers stopped in the street. According to both the prosecution and defense in a murder trial that started Monday in…
City Council officials will decide tonight whether to halt federal grant-funded project to convert a building into a port security center. Councilman Tom Butt has for weeks raised concerns about whether the money would be better spent doing the same thing in a nearby structure. Butt says the city’s port operations have devolved into a “boondoggle” and that the city should reconsider port officials’ original plan, for which they received nearly $4 million in federal funding. See the port’s balance…
Jeff Ritterman is out. Marilyn Langlois and Eduardo Martinez want in. The campaign kickoff event at the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) downtown offices Sunday drew more than 120 people and featured speeches from this fall’s candidates for city office about platforms and accomplishments. But the biggest news was Councilman Ritterman’s public proclamation that he will not run for re-election in November after one term on the council. “I came here in 1981. I was 32 years old, and they made…
More than 100 residents and activists turned out in force to work and celebrate Earth Day in North Richmond on Saturday. But they had a lot of help from those no longer here in body, but very much loom over this historic community in spirit. “It feels so good that the community thinks so much of my brother to want to dedicate this garden to him,” said Leo Jackson, brother of longtime community advocate Fred Jackson, who died of cancer…
For eight years, a jewel in Richmond has been kept from public view. It’s a stretch of sandy beach, where gentle swells lap against the shore and each day closes with a brilliant sunset framed by the San Rafael Bridge. But Point Molate Beach has been closed since 2004, when the city’s fiscal troubles forced drastic cutbacks, including to funds for maintaining public parks. But if a group of concerned residents gets its way, that will change. More than 70…
The baseball field at Kennedy High School was abuzz with activity Saturday. But the sounds weren’t the cracks of bats or the smacks of leather. They were laughs, and rhythmic staccatos of some of the city’s finest hip hop voices. More than 70 people, mostly local rap artists, gathered at the baseball field for an afternoon photo shoot organized by Lil Ric, a Richmond-bred rap artist who has been a prominent hip-hop luminary since the mid-1990s. Rappers and friends chatted…
The day after Tuesday’s shooting in unincorporated North Richmond left a 22-year-old man dying on the sidewalk, a city anti-violence agency filed a complain tagainst a Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputy, accusing him of assaulting one of its staff members minutes after the fatal shooting of Lonnie Peterson III. Office of Neighborhood Safety staff say a deputy shoved ONS Agent Kevin Muccular and kicked and dented a Richmond city vehicle. Muccular rushed to the scene after receiving a tip that a…
There’s a lot happening in Richmond Friday thru Sunday. It’s a mix of environmental, social, educational and political-themed events in our community. FRIDAY Occupy Richmond Earth Day March: 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., begins at Richmond BART station. Progressive activists will march from BART station to City Hall in Richmond to protest pollution and tax rates for big corporations. Gathering at City Hall will feature speakers and food. More info here. Ceasefire/Lifelines to Healing Nightwalk: 7 p.m. at Bethlehem Missionary…
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…
North Richmond is no stranger to challenges – or proposed solutions. But a class of UC Berkeley grad students, backed by The California Endowment and a network of local allies, hope their efforts can make a difference. “Our hope is that we can help bring neighbors together in a way that creates new energies focused on key neighborhood issues and shared concerns,” said Heather Imboden, a first year master’s candidate in city planning. Imboden is one of a half dozen…
A midday shooting in front of a North Richmond corner market left two people shot Tuesday. Contra Costa County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives cordoned off the corner of Market Avenue and Fifth Street minutes after the shooting. More than two-dozen shell casings were strewn about the sidewalk and street, and a large bloodstain stretched from Rancho Market’s front door to the gutter. The identity of the victims is not yet known. Two high-ranking Richmond Police officials said one of the…
The race for Richmond City Council 2012 just got more interesting. Longtime mayoral aide and local activist Marilyn Langlois has resigned her post in Gayle McLaughlin’s office to run for a chance to govern beside her former boss. “I will still be very close with the mayor and volunteering in the community,” Langlois said by phone Saturday morning. “But I am now planning to run for city council.” Langlois joins a field of contenders that already includes her friend and…
The night before the unique Richmond festival that is his brainchild, Michael Beer was at Nicholl Park making his pitch to a pack of pre-teen skateboarders. “What other parade would honor skateboarders alongside Gospel Choirs and low-rider car clubs?” asked Beer, the creator of Richmond’s “Silly Parade,” which will kick off for the third time on Saturday morning. “The point I try to get across is: People can do extraordinary things when it’s safe to be silly.” The skateboarders will…