Evelyn Xiaoqing Pi

Richmond Rockets suffer first loss to San Francisco Rumble

For the Richmond Rockets, it was a game of two halves. And a Richmond audience of roughly 800 people did not want to believe the second half Friday night: the Rockets led by 20 points for most of the first half, and kept the lead for most of the second half. But for the last five minutes, the San Francisco Rumble controlled the game to defeat the Rockets 107-97. “We just didn’t play well in the second half,” Coach Lamar…

LBNL community members support Richmond

Although Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory representatives didn’t reveal the lab’s preference for a new location at Thursday night’s Community Advisory Group meeting, community members once again strongly supported Richmond as the site for the second LBNL campus. The meeting was the final update for the community on the site’s selection before the decision, which is expected by the end of November. Sam Chapman, the manager of state and community relations at LBNL, said in a brief presentation that the lab…

RYSE Center turns three

What’s the party like when an anniversary and Halloween are tied together? RYSE Center, a community-based development and educational center for youth, had its third anniversary event Saturday, with plenty of spooky elements – a haunted house, face painting and a costume contest – as well as a bouncy house, musical chairs and a pie-eating contest. The free event attracted dozens of people, who played games and danced. Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia and Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin spoke….

From anti-graffiti to anti-tag: Richmond considering new graffiti ordinance

Last October a group of student artists from Gompers High School pooled their money to buy paint and spent two weeks splashing vibrant blues and greens on the brick wall of an industrial building off 8th Street, composing a colorful jungle with bouncing animals and bubble letters. While they worked, a few miles away, near the railroads and I-580, hurried graffiti popped up on the walls of deserted factory plants. One is an intricate mural, the other is a crude…

Fun run on the Home Front

More than 200 people ran or walked the Bay Trail at Marina Bay on Saturday as part of the Home Front Festival. Runners and walkers had two options: 5k and 10k courses. The fastest man in the 5k run was 37-year-old Tim Stahler, and BZ Churchman, 49, was the fastest woman. In the 10k run, the champion Jack Wallace, 21, took less than 36 minutes. Emily Ferenzi, 31, was the women’s champion, taking about 39 minutes. The youngest “runner” was…

City spends 1.8 million on transMETRO despite disputes

The City Council decided last week to spend most of a $2 million tax settlement with Chevron on a conditional contract with transMETRO, a transportation consulting service that will help the city implement a greenhouse-gas reduction program. Although the majority of the council appeared to enthusiastically embrace the contract, an amendment added at the meeting requires transMETRO to conduct an initial study on how to serve low-income communities, and to present its findings to the council in 120 days, before…

Rough road ahead: Richmond’s pavement program to suffer budget cuts

Sit for a minute and watch cars drive the stretch of road on Barrett Avenue from Harbor Way to Seventh Street, and you can see bad pavement in action. A red Range Rover trips over an uneven patch with a jolt. The Camry behind it slows down and creaks as tires meet pothole. A white Chevy tries to accelerate, but the cracks on the road resist. According to a quality standard set by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the pavement of…

City decides to support CyberTran’s dream

The City Council will spend $20,000 to lobby for a federal transportation grant to help light-rail company CyberTran develop 13 ultralight rail stations throughout the city — a transit system, in the words of city leaders and CyberTran’s CEO, that would be clean, efficient, and create 20,000 jobs in the next decade. Fittingly, “dream” was an oft-used word in the hour-long discussion before the council voted 4-1 to approve the funding Tuesday night. “I believe this is a dream for…

Richmond joins regional approach to ban plastic bags

The council passed a unanimous resolution to collaborate with the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority to develop a single-use bag ordinance and to conduct an environmental review. Richmond Environmental Initiatives, a division of the City Manager’s office that has studied the issue, recommends a ban on plastic bags, and a minimum 5-cent fee for each paper bag in all retail establishments.