Bay Citizen
As they have every Sunday for the last 70 years, members of the Davis Chapel filed into church on a recent weekend and took their seats in the red-cushioned pews. The first sunlight of the day streamed in through the stained-glass windows and members of the choir took their positions behind the altar. Clapping their hands and stepping side-to-side in rhythm, the white-robed choir raised its voice in harmony and sang: “Oh to the blood of Jeee—sus. To the blood…
An international treaty recently recognized the San Francisco Bay estuary — California’s largest wetland — as a “wetland of importance,” but while conservation groups called the news a victory, the designation won’t directly halt development that has threatened the area for years. The 1,600 square mile region is home to hundreds of species of plants and animals, including many that can’t be found anywhere else, such as the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, San Francisco garter snake and the Delta…
Richmond is in good fiscal shape, according to the city’s mid-year review, presented to the city council at Tuesday night’s meeting, which also included talk of bringing a new call center to Richmond, deciding on further development of a Richmond hillside and requiring registration of vacant buildings. Foreclosures have dropped sharply, the city’s unemployment rate is down 6 percent from a high in 2009 of over 19 percent, and taxes on property and sales are higher than mid-year projections. “The…
Federal investigators have concluded an aged and severely corroded pipe caused the Aug. 6 Chevron Refinery fire. Investigators and elected officials were quick to blame the oil giant for the explosion, arguing the corporation knew the pipe should have been replaced years ago. The findings, released by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board on Feb. 13, are consistent with months-old reports that blame the incident on high sulfidation corrosion and low silicon content in the 36-year-old steel pipe…
The addition of new city councilmember Jael Myrick didn’t stop the council from falling back on its old argumentative habits during Tuesday night’s city council meeting. The council passed most items unanimously or with just one vote against—but the majority of the time was spent debating procedures about when a councilmember can make a motion and discussing what Councilmember Corky Booze considers to be South Richmond. Myrick, a field representative in Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner’s office, was appointed from among twelve…
Twelve people have submitted their names for consideration by the Richmond City Council to fill the vacant seat left open when councilmember-elect Gary Bell—who is in a coma after suffering a bacterial sinus infections—was unable to be sworn in earlier this month. Among the twelve are former councilmembers, unsuccessful candidates from November’s race and a handful of new-to-the-scene political hopefuls. On Monday, February 4, the public and the council will have a chance to hear from each of the applicants…
On Friday, Nathanial Burris was sentenced in Contra Costa Superior Court in Martinez to the death penalty for the August, 2009, double murder of his ex-girlfriend Deborah Ann Ross and her friend Ersie “Chuckie” Everette at the toll plaza of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Burris was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder in November 2012; the same jury also recommended the death penalty following a weeklong penalty phase of the trial. California law requires that the presiding judge…
After 30 years as the President of the Richmond Museum Association, Lois Boyle is retiring—sort of. “I’ll be 80 this year,” Boyle said, eyes shining as she reclined back in a felt chair in her office. Her office these days is a small, bare room on a historic battleship—the SS Red Oak Victory Ship. To get to work, Boyle drives into Richmond’s long, windy port, past modern day freight carriers and hundreds of recently offloaded brand new cars, before the SS Red…
Political differences were—mostly—set aside Tuesday night during the celebratory swearing-in of re-elected city council members Nat Bates and Tom Butt. But beneath the congratulatory speeches for Bates and Butt, and the appreciative acknowledgments of outgoing councilmember Jeff Ritterman, were concerns for councilmember-elect Gary Bell and worries about the council’s potential make-up now that Bell’s seat is formally vacant. Bell was hospitalized in early November and underwent two neurosurgeries for complications caused by a bacterial sinus infection, his family wrote in a…