Development
Plywood with large red letters simply reading “DMC Closed” was affixed to the signs on the street that once welcomed patients to the largest public hospital on the western part of Contra Costa County. Members of the community gathered at the hospital in the early morning of April 21 to say goodbye, then made their way to the Board of Supervisors meeting at the county seat to inform the public about the threat of living in an area without a hospital….
Richmond is seeing better days. According to a recent research paper by UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute, homicides and violent crime were at historic lows in 2013, parks are being renewed, living conditions are improving and new investment money is flowing in. But what seems to be good news for the city’s just over 100,000 residents, the authors say, could even pose a threat to a large and deeply rooted community in Richmond: African Americans, who make up almost a quarter…
Fast food and low-wage workers in Oakland, Richmond and Berkeley joined a workers’ strike dubbed “Fight for $15” on Wednesday, continuing a two-year-long campaign that calls on fast food chains to institute a $15 minimum wage and the right for workers to unionize without reprisal.
So far, around 20 families who live at the Hacienda public housing complex have received Section 8 vouchers intended to help them relocate while the building undergoes renovations. They have 60 days to find a new home. But some of them say they have received little search or transportation assistance and are worried they will not be able to find a new home before time runs out. The Hacienda apartments caught media attention when the Center for Investigative Reporting, a…
On Wednesday evening, a group of tenants at two apartment buildings in Richmond participated in a partial rent strike over rent increases. After working with organizers from the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), the tenants decided to only pay their landlords the value of their rent before the increases, handing over checks for the old amounts to the buildings’ on-site manager. The apartment buildings are located on 1200 and 1300 Bissell Avenue. Each building has 20 units. The…
The West Contra Costa Unified School District’s school board meeting Wednesday night included discussion of the need to find a home for Caliber Beta charter schools, updates on the district’s bond program, and recognizing the Richmond High School soccer team. The night started on a light note with a video representing the achievements of the Oilers soccer team. Not only did the team win the championship in the 2014-15 North Coast Section Division 2 soccer league, but the players have done…
Sixth grader Clemon Brown loves reading books, but he has a hard time finding books outside of school. “Two weeks ago, I was sitting in my room [and] I want to read a book,” Brown said. He said he wanted to visit a library, but his mom’s car wasn’t working at the time. Brown lives in North Richmond, almost three miles away from the nearest Richmond public library. “That’s really the difficulty,” Richmond Public Library Director Katy Curl said. “[We’re]…
When homeowners first moved to the Marina Bay area, they say, it was a country-like neighborhood. Birds nested on the trees in the gated community. Nights were dark and tranquil. But, they say, everything changed last December when the neighboring business Richmond Wholesale — “one of the largest West Coast distributors of frozen, chilled, and dry food products,” according to its website — closed its Factory Street facility in North Richmond and made the Regatta Boulevard facility its main one….
Richmond Housing Authority (RHA) executive director Tim Jones said a little over $1 million in grant funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will cover relocation cost for Hacienda residents, who should have already moved out of the bug-infested roof-leaking public housing.