Development
There is no task too big or small or obscure for Brandy Esparza and Kyle Silber, who know how to market an artisanal stamp for a doughnut wrapper, a latex mask for a life-sized Buddha, or a seal for an architect to sign for his or her work. Together they operate two businesses, Underdog Press and Painted Wonderland, out of their home in Richmond, California Esparza started independent contracting work about 10 years ago doing face painting, special effects for…
Dear Readers/Listeners, The combined staff of Oakland North and Richmond Confidential is excited to announce a new bi-weekly podcast featuring radio stories from Richmond and Oakland, as well as interviews with our reporters, community leaders and other news-worthy characters. Every two weeks until June, we will bring you radio stories focused on a theme or issue affecting these two cities. You will also hear from our reporters to get a behind the scenes look at our news room. Every other Thursday, check our sites for new…
Among the many unorthodox tools Cara Corey has used to make her handmade artist line unique are knitting needles made out of PVC pipe and merino wool fiber (the material before wool becomes “wool”) shipped from the Ukraine. Corey moved to Richmond, California, in 2010 after spending over four years as a newspaper reporter in Des Moines, Iowa. She had written a wide variety of stories about people who owned their own businesses, and at one point, she had her own…
Plans to build a bike/pedestrian path on the west span of the Bay Bridge—connecting San Francisco, Treasure Island and Oakland—are moving full-speed ahead.
The California Transportation Commission approved a $6 million grant for a plan to improve Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood. Known as the Iron Triangle Yellow Brick Road Walkable Neighborhoods Plan, the project aims to improve streets notorious for high crime and blighted conditions. Pedestrians and bicyclists would get safer, cleaner pathways to schools, parks and churches. The paths would be marked by stencils of yellow bricks, fulfilling a vision teenagers came up with during a 2008 summer youth program. City planners made a point to emphasize…
Richmond is a record breaker. Known for many years to host the largest oil refinery in the country and as the most productive World War II shipyard, Richmond also once hosted the biggest winery in the world. The city’s historical legacy has been recognized in some respects. The transformation of a 1930s Ford assembly plant, a beacon of the industrial age, into a conference center and museum complex is one example. However, there are still some major historic assets in Richmond standing idle — or even crumbling into disrepair.
After the great recession of 2008, inequality widened along racial lines as people lost their homes, often their only major asset. Earlier this month the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, reported in “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of US,” that the average white family today has net assets of $141,900, compared with the $11,000 for African American families. This hollowing out of the African American family asset base is a nationwide phenomenon that can be explained by the shrinking African American middle class. It’s even more a factor in “strong market” regions like the Bay Area, where housing costs are soaring.
James Anderson has a habit of peeking out of his house, day or night, constantly checking on his unofficial front yard. From his front door or upstairs window, he can scan the half-acre park known as Elm Playlot, just to make sure there’s no trouble. He grew up in the Iron Triangle, a notoriously high-crime neighborhood in central Richmond named for the train tracks that create its distinctive borders. More than year ago Anderson started working at Elm Playlot, located…
Andromeda Brooks is changing the way we look at vacant lots.
Tired of staring at the litter outside her window, Brooks decided to turn a blighted lot at Chanslor Avenue and First Street into an experiment in urban agriculture.