Economy
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.”
Uche Uwahemu—trained in law and business, and shaped by a decade of nonprofit work—speaks earnestly about the future of Richmond. At 41, he is the youngest of Richmond’s four mayoral candidates. Wearing a gray pinstripe suit with a lavender tie, Uwahemu sat in the Café Pascal last week and shared his thoughts on solving the toughest issues facing the city.
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…
West Contra Costa School Board President and mayoral candidate Charles Ramsey, age 52, believes that Richmond can be a vibrant community, a bustling hub where young people choose to settle down after their youthful stints in San Francisco – as Ramsey did himself. After growing up in Richmond – while his father was worked in the Contra Costa District Attorney’s office in the sixties – Ramsey went to U.C. Hastings School of Law. He then moved back to Point Richmond…
Richmond residents, unions, and community groups are keeping a close eye on the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and its plans for a Richmond Bay Campus: a development that is projected to take shape over the next four decades.
Richmond’s effort to pass a minimum wage hike has stalled. A general increase to the minimum wage gained support from the city council on March 19, but the proposed ordinance failed to pass a second reading after some councilmembers felt the wage hike deserved more input from small businesses.
City releases a draft Environmental Impact Report of Chevron’s Modernization Project.
Richmond is headed for a new record: the highest minimum wage in the Bay Area. The plan is for a minimum wage of $12.30 per hour to be phased in over the next four years. The City Council voted 6-1 to pass the first reading of the ordinance with Councilmember Tom Butt voting no.
Ross Woodbury’s one-screen art film theater, The Magick Lantern isn’t making any money one year after opening. While many people show up for the free Thursday classic movie screenings, crowds are hit-and-miss for the $7 art and foreign film screenings during the weekend.