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North Richmond is an unincorporated community in West Contra Costa County and is almost completely surrounded by the City of Richmond. The idea of annexation, or integration, of North Richmond into the city has been raised for decades. In 2017, it came up once more and residents are currently discussing the possibility.
In U.S. District Court on Tuesday, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers called the years of legal battles over the scenic stretch of shoreline called Point Molate, “a tragedy for a city like the city of Richmond.” But still, Rogers said, she was inclined to allow the court case challenging a recent settlement between the city and casino developers to proceed because, “the law requires that i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed, and it’s not clear to me that that was done.”
A poet from Richmond
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.
Richmond residents will vote in November on a vacant property tax that could raise $5 million in revenue for homeless services and code enforcement. While almost everyone agrees that homelessness and blight are major issues facing the city, there’s a debate over whether taxing property owners is the most effective way to address the problem.