Environment
It all started over a decade ago, when Point Richmond resident Norman Hantzsche and his dogs started swimming in the bay at Keller Cove. With its sweeping bridge views and high water quality, the cove offers some of the best open water swimming around. It wasn’t long before a group of local swimmers jumped in alongside Hantzsche. The group of intrepid bay swimmers soon started an annual event to raise funds for a youth swimming program in the city of…
Despite some concerns about water pollution from the city’s industries, people fish in many different spots across Richmond’s extensive shoreline: in parks, off piers, and even under bridges and highways. They do so for relaxation, to enjoy the outdoors, and to feed their families. Meet some of them here.
Eco-churches are coming to Richmond. True Fellowship Baptist Church in Shields-Reid announced this week that it is planning to become the first congregation in Richmond to rely only on solar energy. “This is just the beginning,” said David Green, True Fellowship Deacon. Green said the church ultimately hopes to be certified as a green building through the national Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. The church launched an online crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday with the help of RE-volv, a…
According to a city report, in 2017, Richmond’s abatement staff collected more than three million pounds of illegally dumped debris from 13,430 locations. A pile of waste strewn around the entrance of the Lillie Mae Jones Trail is just one example of dozens of waste piles illegally dumped throughout the city of Richmond on a daily basis.
Following the settlement which ended a years-long legal battle between casino developers and the city of Richmond over the fate of the scenic Point Molate, several activist groups have filed suit to block the development of housing in the area.
In the past six months, Richmond officials have received hundreds of complaints regarding LED light pollution from the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The goal of installing the new lights was to save energy, but now some residents can’t sleep.
The lack of modern energy services, also referred to as energy poverty, is an ongoing issue in the Bay Area. But many organizations are working hard to make new energy options available to households. In Richmond, in the Iron Triangle neighborhood, many low-income families now have access to solar panels thanks to Oakland non-profit GRID Alternatives. Starting in June, Alameda County will launch their very own community choice energy agency, East Bay Community Energy, in hopes of providing county residents with…
After almost eight years of grinding litigation that has brought proposals to develop Richmond’s controversial Point Molate area to a halt, the city and the developer who sued it over a plan to build a casino have finally reached a settlement. This means 13 years of political fighting since Richmond officially acquired the 270-acre parcel of land and former fuel depot from the Navy in 2003 may finally give way to a unified plan to make economic use of the…
The Home Team, a collaboration of design firms and community organizations, is working on a proposal to reduce the risk of rising sea levels in Richmond. The project is part of the Resilient by Design challenge, a 10-team competition to create the best model for addressing climate disasters in the Bay Area.