Community
At the corner of 22nd Street and Carlson Boulevard in Richmond sits a homeless encampment where the unofficial mayor, Oretha “Porkchop” Stevens, is calming down her next-door neighbor Tone. His phone is missing and Porkchop works to reassure him. “You’re not crazy, you know where you put your stuff! Don’t play with your own mind,” she says with authority, perched on the bed inside her tent from where she presides all day over her dozen neighbors’ lives. She and her…
First San Pablo’s Doctors Medical Center closed in 2015. Now Sutter Health’s Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley is planning to shut its doors. This means patients in Richmond, who already have fewer hospitals to turn to for critical medical care, could see the options shrink further. Pregnant women and new mothers could be the ones to most acutely feel the squeeze. Alta Bates hospital, expected to close in 2030, has by far the highest number of live births of any…
The board directed its staff to reach an agreement with the Amethod Public Schools, which operates the John Henry school, on how to move forward.
As city workers continue to uproot the homeless from encampments around Richmond, at times without any warning or help, Mayor Tom Butt is pushing to raise $1.5 million from local companies to pay for a managed homeless encampment. He has asked several local companies, including Chevron Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Apron, Costco Wholesale and Sims Metal Management to donate $154,000 each—to build and run a camp serving 100 people for a year. As a group of homeless people were being…
It all started over a decade ago, when Point Richmond resident Norman Hantzsche and his dogs started swimming in the bay at Keller Cove. With its sweeping bridge views and high water quality, the cove offers some of the best open water swimming around. It wasn’t long before a group of local swimmers jumped in alongside Hantzsche. The group of intrepid bay swimmers soon started an annual event to raise funds for a youth swimming program in the city of…
A series of recently proposed housing developments along Macdonald Avenue in downtown Richmond could spur a business renaissance in the struggling district if city and local business leaders’ predictions ring true. In a city desperate for affordable housing, the developments reserve only about one quarter of the total number of units for residents making below the median income. The rest of the apartments would be rented at market rates. Still, Richmond leaders are supporting the proposals on land that has…
Despite some concerns about water pollution from the city’s industries, people fish in many different spots across Richmond’s extensive shoreline: in parks, off piers, and even under bridges and highways. They do so for relaxation, to enjoy the outdoors, and to feed their families. Meet some of them here.
Rebeca Garcia-Gonzalez, a local painter, paints portraits of Latinos living or working in Richmond as a way to fight against discrimination in her community. This fall, the Richmond Art Center is exhibiting a selection of Garcia-Gonzalez’ portraits as part of Califas: Art of the US-Mexico Borderlands.