Development
In a 5,000-gallon fish tank in a 1980s greenhouse off a side street near Fred Jackson Boulevard, about a thousand koi fish, the fish so often found in Japanese garden ponds, are busy growing lettuce. The “tank” is actually an uncovered, blue-tiled, above-ground swimming pool that local organic farmer Pilar Reber purchased at Target about nine months ago. To see the fish clearly, though, you have to walk on tip-toe to the pool’s edge because the koi are, well, coy….
Congressman George Miller flies in and out of the Bay Area on a near weekly basis. When he looks down as he flies over Richmond he sees one of the “last big promising corners in the Bay Area.” “What you see is this huge asset with a lot of developable properties,” he said to a round-table of reporters in Monday afternoon. Richmond, Miller said, has most everything it needs to facilitate major growth: easy transit, innovative businesses, forward-thinking public officials….
Chevron’s Richmond operation will soon have a change in its top management as General Manager Mike Coyle will leave office in the last week of this month to take a job at corporate headquarters in San Ramon. Coyle, who has “proudly” been the refinery GM for three years, said he will leave with a single regret: that he couldn’t complete the Renewal Project, which was halted during his time as the refinery chief. The task of passing the project will…
After a series of foul odors released from its sewage treatment plant over the last year, the multinational company Veolia may only have 90 days left in Richmond. Although the City Council had considered terminating the contract immediately at the council meeting Tuesday, council members opted to consider the arguments and the possibility of alternatives, and set a decision on the contract for Dec. 6. Mark Russell, a lawyer who is providing the city with outside legal counsel, said Tuesday…
Business owners, entrepreneurs and city leaders crowded the floor of the Civic Center Memorial Auditorium Tuesday morning to swap business cards, study up on market trends and discuss Richmond’s economic future–one that’s looking bright, if you ask organizers of the city’s second annual economic summit. The event, presented by the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, featured a half-day series of workshops, mostly tailored for small- and medium-sized businesses, ranging in topics from company branding to business loans. But the summit’s overarching…
The California Association of Code Enforcement Officers has awarded Richmond’s “One Block at a Time” project with the title of Innovative Code Enforcement Program of the Year. OBAT partners local residents with the Richmond Police Department’s Code Enforcement Unit to target neighborhood blight. The CACEO chose the initiative from a competitive pool of other code enforcement programs throughout the state. Code Enforcement Unit Manager Tim Higares, who has worked in Richmond with OBAT for three of its five years, said…
The director of a Native American mental health clinic in Richmond said on Thursday that the organization has been looking to expand its presence in the area to include primary and dental care near the city’s BART station. The Native American Health Center, which serves residents across Contra Costa County, has been working for the past four months to locate property to open a clinical care center because transportation has proved a barrier to access. “I think transportation is a…
On any given Friday, Victoria Williams serves up to 100 people at the McGlothen Temple Church of God in Christ. They leave with full bellies and a bag loaded with groceries. The 86 year old, known as “Mother Williams,” has spent every Thursday in the temple’s North Richmond kitchen for nine years, prepping food she collects from the food bank and wherever else she can. But the temple is busier than usual this week, as Williams has 1,000 bags of food to…
Harold Beaulieu and his band of youthful surveyors are taking a novel approach to learning about the residents of North Richmond.