Environment
It’s the first Saturday in July, and like every first Saturday of the month, Tom and Jane Kelly are out on the Bay Trail down Rydin Road, off Central Avenue in Richmond, working with volunteers to clear away invasive plants and give native species a chance to survive.
On Saturday evening more than 30 Richmond residents concerned about the environment gathered at the home of Marci Valdivieso to watch a documentary about Wangari Maathai. Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who started the Green Belt Movement that shed light on the importance of trees and soil conservation in 1977, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. She died last year due to complications from ovarian cancer. The event was organized by Richmond Trees, a small…
Talk about bang for your buck—14,000 square feet for a dollar a year ain’t bad. In terms of food production, that could mean a whole lot of apples, and whatever else will take root on the corner of 1st Street and Chanslor Avenue. The nearly half-acre lot sits just one block east of the Iron Triangle and used to be a popular spot for drug dealing and a dumping ground for trash. Now thanks to the daringness of one resident,…
North Richmond is a unique Bay Area community poised for growth and investment in the coming years. But it’s also saddled with a history of decades of poverty and violence, and a jaded outlook toward political leaders and outside forces. How well the tiny community of about 4,000 residents can reconcile those clashing realities could determine the future, according to a report produced by UC Berkeley graduate students. “This is part of a process of building institutional linkages between this…
The golden shovels were out, but this wasn’t a “groundbreaking” ceremony. It was a ground “filling” one. City leaders and state and county officials were joined by more than 100 people Friday to mark the start of the final phase of a project to repair a massive sinkhole that swallowed cars and blocked access to a residential community more than two years ago near Via Verdi Road off I-80. The Via Verdi repair project began April 15, 2010, when heavy…
Chevron Corp. invested $1 million in seven nonprofits focused on improving science and math education and enhancing economic development in Richmond. On Wednesday, about more than 100 people came to the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts to hear leaders from the seven organizations report on what they accomplished with the money over the last year. Leaders from each group presented short videos highlighting what they did with the money and provided statistics demonstrating everything from improved high school…
On Saturday, dozens turned out at Richmond’s EcoVillage Farm to celebrate Earth Day. Shyaam M. Shabaka, the farm’s founder and executive director, gave a guided tour of the estate and offered tips on growing food in an urban environment.
More than 100 residents and activists turned out in force to work and celebrate Earth Day in North Richmond on Saturday. But they had a lot of help from those no longer here in body, but very much loom over this historic community in spirit. “It feels so good that the community thinks so much of my brother to want to dedicate this garden to him,” said Leo Jackson, brother of longtime community advocate Fred Jackson, who died of cancer…
For eight years, a jewel in Richmond has been kept from public view. It’s a stretch of sandy beach, where gentle swells lap against the shore and each day closes with a brilliant sunset framed by the San Rafael Bridge. But Point Molate Beach has been closed since 2004, when the city’s fiscal troubles forced drastic cutbacks, including to funds for maintaining public parks. But if a group of concerned residents gets its way, that will change. More than 70…