Development

Mayoral profile: Mike Parker

If elected, the 73-year-old Mike Parker said he will focus on education, affordable housing and job training.

“I believe the school system has failed both the teachers and the parents in Richmond,” said Parker. “People don’t have confidence in it.”

Mayoral profile: Nat Bates

It was decades ago, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, when Richmond mayoral candidate Nat Bates received a call from his buddy, the late then Richmond Councilman George Livingston, to spur his interest in public service. He was then working for the Alameda County Probation Department, and a career in politics was the farthest thing from his mind. But he knew Richmond, and had spent the majority of his life here. Many remembered his run excelling in both…