Events
The Sixth Street block party was set, tentatively, for noon Saturday. But by 12:15, the foldaway tables and chairs were still empty. The organizers had said there would be a potluck, but by about 1 p.m., there still wasn’t much food on the tables. A few bags of chips, a bowl of fresh pears, some plastic cups. A set of speakers pumped music up and down the road, and children played some basketball, but there weren’t many potluck-goers. And then…
Roughly 2,500 people collected 25,500 pounds of trash from the Contra Costa County shoreline and creeks during Saturday’s annual coastal cleanup day, said The Watershed Project, the event’s local host. Shimada Friendship Park was the main cleanup station for Richmond’s 26th annual event, which saw about 400 volunteers collect more than 1,774 pounds of trash and 400 pounds of recyclables. “When people come together to work on something that impacts us all, it empowers community, it helps people engage with…
Baxter Creek in Richmond received some negative attention this week after it was highlighted on Save the Bay’s list of most polluted creeks in the Bay Area. But while the creek has a history of pollution problems, a considerable amount of conservation work has made many portions of it cleaner than other creeks in the Bay Area, said Juliana Gonzalez, Healthy Watersheds Program Manager of The Watershed Project. The creeks on Save the Bay’s list were chosen to highlight creeks…
Amidst a series of increasingly public disagreements, City Councilmember Jeff Ritterman filed two formal complaints this week to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, alleging that Councilmember Corky Booze has unfairly punished some local businesses and made alliances with others based on campaign contributions. While the complaints reached the state watchdog agency in Sacramento, the councilmembers clashed repeatedly at Tuesday’s council meeting. Supporters of Booze turned out in droves to lambast Ritterman and the Richmond Progressive Alliance, the influential political…
Chevron will host a “Back to School” event at Nevin Park this Friday to provide school supplies to 1,000 disadvantaged Richmond children. The event is part of the Volunteer Center’s Week of Caring, during which Chevron, the United Way and other Bay Area corporations sponsor employees to volunteer and help complete projects at local Bay Area nonprofit agencies. Chevron employees will participate in 47 projects in West Contra Costa County during the Week of Caring. This is Chevron’s fourth year…
When Amanda Elliott, the executive director of the Richmond Main Street Initiative, describes the menu for the upcoming Spirit and Soul Festival, she scoots to the edge of her seat and flashes a smile. “There’s greens,” she says, “smoked-baked chicken, red beans and rice, and cornbread.” The caterer calls it “healthy soul food,” Elliott says, and it’s a fitting menu for a fundraiser dedicated to the health and soul of downtown Richmond. On Saturday, Sept. 17, the third annual Spirit…
Last year, on California’s annual coastal cleanup day, about 600 volunteers picked up 75,000 pounds of trash off of the Contra Costa coastline, said Linda Hunter, executive director of The Watershed Project. On Saturday, Sept. 17, the event arrives again, and this year Hunter said she wants to “change the dialogue” — to make those volunteers someday unnecessary by preventing trash buildup to begin with.
On any given Friday, Victoria Williams serves up to 100 people at the McGlothen Temple Church of God in Christ. They leave with full bellies and a bag loaded with groceries. The 86 year old, known as “Mother Williams,” has spent every Thursday in the temple’s North Richmond kitchen for nine years, prepping food she collects from the food bank and wherever else she can. But the temple is busier than usual this week, as Williams has 1,000 bags of food to…
“I jumped off like this,” five-year-old Jamonte shouted, bounding off the slide where just a week ago he nearly strangled and died. The Barrett Terrace Apartment community gathered with firemen, police and building security officers Wednesday to talk about Jamonte’s accident and learn about playground safety. A week earlier, Jamonte was playing on the apartment play structure when he wrapped a purple jump rope around his own neck, tied it to a bar above the slide and tried to land…