Development

Nutiva hosts grand opening

Terry Harris spent the last four years bouncing between temp agencies and commuting to the South Bay to find work, never able to find a full-time job. Then Nutiva, an organic “superfood” company, arrived in Richmond and started hiring Richmond residents – including Harris, a forklift operator. Now, he said, he can ride his bike to work. Thursday afternoon Harris walked through the cavernous 105,000-square-foot warehouse, mixing with business owners, residents, politicians — and his new coworkers – at a…

LBNL unveils long term plan for new Richmond Bay Campus

Representatives from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab unveiled long term plans for the Richmond Bay Campus, including ideas on how to involve surrounding neighborhoods, at a workshop at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium Thursday night. The lab’s Long Range Development Plan will consolidate existing bioscience facilities associated with LBNL from around the East Bay. The research goals at the Richmond campus will include bioscience solutions for carbon-neutral fuels, reduced human environmental footprint, and improved human health. The presentation Thursday highlighted the…

Art on the Greenway exhibit a community effort to celebrate Richmond

The Richmond Greenway got a huge makeover this summer – from colorful murals to mosaic benches to hand-welded bike racks – thanks to $65,000 in grants through Richmond’s Neighborhood Public Art program. The summer’s projects culminated in a multimedia exhibit at the Richmond Art Center called Art on the Greenway that will remain until November 9, 2012. The Richmond Arts & Culture Commission awarded NPA grants to three different entities this year: The Community Rejuvenation Project for eight murals and…

Council passes resolutions urging Chevron to tighten refinery safety, invest in Richmond

The City Council unanimously adopted two resolutions Tuesday: an industrial safety resolution calling on Chevron to adopt the highest possible safety standards during renovations to the crude distillation unit damaged in the Aug. 6 refinery fire, and a long term investment resolution encouraging the energy giant to invest in a technology campus at Marina Bay. The industrial safety resolution, authored by Mayor Gayle Mclaughlin and Councilmember Jovanka Beckles, received public backing from the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, an environmental conservation…

Peres Elementary Dental Clinic reopens with major changes

The Peres Elementary Dental Clinic has come a long way from its modest start as a janitorial closet with a dentist chair. Twelve years, $500,000 and 412 square feet later, a new dual dentist chair clinic has emerged. Following a major reconstruction, the 12-year-old clinic reopened on Friday in a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Dr. Daniel Tanita, the dentist who will continue to maintain it. With brand new equipment, Dr. Tanita and the nine other volunteer dentists will now have…

Boot seller: Construction jobs are coming back

The last few years saw many boots unlaced as development stalled and jobs disappeared, with construction workers—carpenters and roofers, pipefitters and welders, cement masons and bricklayers—unemployed at more than double the rate of the general population. But things finally seem to be improving, says one local boot seller—and he would know.

Olive trees given to lucky shoppers

Richmond residents shopping at the farmers market for fresh produce Saturday snapped up 1,000 free organically grown olive trees alongside their bags of fruits and vegetables. The giveaway was a collaboration between McEvoy Ranch in Petaluma and the environmental group Self-Sustaining Communities. “We’re not only trying to change the scenery of Richmond by having more trees but also change people’s internal lifestyles,” said Mayor Gayle McLaughlin. “Gardens are fabulous places for people to get to know each other and for…