Economy

Richmond program installing solar panels with help of local labor

When Juan Lores delivered pizzas in the late 1980s, the area around Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street was so dangerous his manager wouldn’t let his drivers deliver there after dark. A lot has changed in the last 20 years. Lores in 2009 moved his family into the neighborhood he used to steer clear of. And on a sunny Thursday this week, he looked on as shiny new solar panels were installed on his home’s roof – at no cost to…

Talks break down, Richmond North Shoreline plan in limbo

Four hours of debate Tuesday night brought elected leaders no closer to resolving a decade-long dispute over the future of the city’s North Shoreline. The Richmond City Council deadlocked on three separate development guidelines, finally agreeing only to return the measure to the Planning Commission to craft a fresh approach. The north shoreline is a mix of a parkland, open beach, dormant industrial land and marsh. Owners there have offered several ideas for what they may develop there, including a…

City officials celebrate friendship, new trade possibilities, with Asian sister cities

City officials ground green tea and talked trade with Richmond’s sister cities of Shimada, Japan, and Zhoushan, China, during a December trip to celebrate a history of friendship and new trade opportunities. Port of Richmond executive director James Matzorkis led the business-related trip to Zhoushan, a city in the northeastern Zhejiang province of Eastern China; the two ports are planning out the future trade of automobiles, as well as dry and liquid bulk products. Accompanying Matzorkis were City Manager Bill…

Richmond 2011: The year in review

2011 was quite a year, to borrow a favorite phrase from longtime resident Sims Thompson, in “our fair city.” I know that’s vague, but it’s tough to turn a pithy phrase that sums up a year in a vibrant, bustling and changing city. We had tragedy and triumph, tumult and harmony. Alliances and rivalries. Echoes of the past and glimmers from the future.

Protesters descend on Chevron tax hearings

About 50 protesters, including some top Richmond elected officials, demonstrated outside county government buildings in Martinez Thursday before filing into a hearing aimed at resolving a tax dispute between Chevron and the Contra Costa County Assessor’s office.

City approves three medical marijuana collectives

In the chambers of the City Council, there are rules. There are procedures to be followed – motions, amendments, voting, establishing a quorum. These are Rosenberg’s Rules of Order, a simplified version of parliamentary procedure that governs how the Richmond City Council conducts its meetings. In the early morning hours of the council’s final meeting of the year, Rosenberg’s Rules were questioned and debated en route to approving three medical marijuana collectives to operate within the city. Medical marijuana became…