El Cerrito

El Cerrito school combats social media bullying: ‘These anonymous posts are shaming and harassing students.’

As class ends for the day at Fred T. Korematsu Middle School in El Cerrito, students stream through the gates, blinking into the sun. They board buses, climb into cars, or sit on the cement blocks that line the campus. Many of them crouch over their phones.  Some of these students are being bullied or harassed through social media apps.  Korematsu’s principal, Matthew Burnham, has been on a crusade to shut down bullying accounts on Instagram for years. So far,…

El Cerrito to create more than 700 housing units near BART station

A high-density housing development of more than 700 homes, nearly half of them deemed affordable, is in the works in El Cerrito on land owned by BART.  The city received a $20 million state grant in October to propel the progress it has made on the San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan, which was adopted in 2014 to meet community housing needs.  The plan, updated  in 2019, would put houses on land by the El Cerrito Plaza BART station that is…

What did El Cerrito look like 50 or more years ago? Residents answer the question with photos

In 1897, Isaburu Adachi left Gifu, Japan, for California at the age of 25. Eight years later, Isaburo managed to buy five acres of land in El Cerrito. That land turned into 12 greenhouses before the first world war broke out. The Adachi Florist and Nursery survived into the 21st century, closing its last nursery five years ago.  Isaburo’s granddaughter Wendy Adachi wanted to honor her family’s legacy — and that of the other Japanese Americans who opened nurseries in…

Did El Cerrito council go too far in protecting community against hate speech?

Residents are no longer allowed to comment on Zoom during El Cerrito City Council meetings, after an ugly incident last month in which a group spewing hate speech took over the public comment session.  El Cerrito Mayor Pro Tem Tessa Rudnick, who is Jewish, described the hateful rhetoric that erupted during the session in an opinion piece in The Jewish News of Northern California, noting that it included a depiction of pedophilia and remarks denying the Holocaust. She said a…

El Cerrito and other Contra Costa libraries could see upgrades and expanded hours

Claudia Vela studies at the El Cerrito Library every morning. The 38-year-old graphic design student at Berkeley City College has a 1-year-old son — the library gives her a quiet place to get her work done.  But Vela wishes the library, which opens at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, opened earlier.  “I get a lot more done here,” she said.  Vela may get her wish under the Contra Costa County Library’s plan to keep libraries open for 56 hours…