Economy
As I drove down 23rd Street on my way to Erica’s Beauty Salon on Saturday morning, I wondered how many people had already canceled their hair appointments. The clouds were still slumbering at 9 a.m., but the morning news report had assured everyone that heavy showers were inevitable. Rain equals bad hair.
The first shipment of Subaru automobiles arrived at the Port of Richmond Monday to kick off a five-year deal that will bring $5 million in revenue to the city and create around 35 new jobs. Subaru of America unloaded 888 Subarus from ship to shipyard Monday afternoon with the help of RichmondWORKS-trained employees. It was the first shipment of a total of nearly 40,000 vehicles that will come through the port in the next five years. “It’s great for the…
Chevron announced $1 million in grants for six local initiatives in job training and science education on Monday. Recipients include the West Contra Costa Unified School District and Contra Costa College. “[We’re] happy to contribute a total of $1 million – that’s easy to say, $1 million,” said refinery General Manager Nigel Hearne at a reception for the winners. The grant announcement was Hearne’s first public act since taking over from former general manager Mike Coyle in September. About a…
There is a time machine in Richmond that will take you back. Way back. Where 80s crooners sing of careless whispers and sepia-tinted photographs bring you back to the better days of peace and love. This blast from the past is actually a mid-sized storefront in Richmond’s North and East neighborhood, where 16 waterbeds are on display, waiting for customers to come in and sit on them. And waiting. At one time, Odds ‘N Ends Waterbeds on San Pablo Avenue…
In the food packaging business, polystyrene has become a four-letter word, but the food industry simply doesn’t have a cost-effective, eco-friendly answer to the plastic that Dow Chemical introduced to Americans in the early 1940s. In 2007, Richmond business owner Allen King thought he had the answer.
When Luz Gomez, the deputy chief of staff for County Supervisor John Gioia, tried to establish a small deli on a corner in North Richmond, even with help from the County, had to overcome more zoning code, development agency and operator obstacles then she anticipated. Though she says that she feels close to opening the neighborhood’s only restaurant, it has been a battle that has lasted years. “I can’t tell you the kinds of barriers we have encountered along this…
Mark Norstad, the owner of Paragon Machine Works in south Richmond, says business remained stable as the economy faltered, thanks to a steady demand for bicycle parts. The small business, which sports a customized skull and cross bones logo, does work in titanium, steel, aluminum and plastics.
As protesters trickled out of the Port of Oakland Wednesday night, after Occupy Oakland demonstrations shut down business at the port, scores of them filed into a retrofitted, former AC Transit bus that was giving free rides back to the encampments in downtown Oakland.
“Free rides for the 99 percent … Say hi to your bus driver, John, on your way in,” a man shouted from a megaphone, as he directed protesters to the bus.
Richmond will host a major public meeting on environmental justice and job creation Thursday, with representatives from nearly a dozen federal agencies as well as local officials, social-service providers and environmental and business groups. Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Army, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and the departments of Justice, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development will be among those present. The event is one in a series of meetings nationwide between local stakeholders and…