Environment
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…
Around two hundred people gathered Friday at the Richmond BART for a rally in celebration of Earth Day. During the event, organized by Occupy Richmond, protestors carried signs, sang songs and chanted slogans against Chevron.
An unusually large number of people attended Tuesday’s city council meeting in Richmond. Many carried banners or wore bright colored shirts with slogans like “Don’t kill our jobs,” which others changed in “Don’t kill our kids” later in the evening.
As the County Assessor’s Appeals Board prepares to meet to decide on Chevron’s tax assessment appeal value for 2010 and 2011, Richmond Confidential searched for other some US cities where other oil refineries are also appealing their local property tax assessments or have appealed them over the past five years.
In an effort to build better a more amicable relationship with the community, Veolia, the company that manages the wastewater treatment plant in Richmond, has instituted an internship program geared at employing local residents. The company is already through the first stages of selecting two interns, said Jamal Muhammad, the Community Outreach Coordinator for Veolia.