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Tom Butt looked tired. At 8:00 p.m. on Election Day he finally sat down, stein of beer in hand, to wait for the results. He had been on his feet all day. Twelve hours earlier, the mayoral candidate had arrived to the first polling place on an itinerary of five, to do last-minute outreach.
The Richmond Bay Trail will be revamped to the tune of $335,000 after the city council approved the renovation project, which includes wider sidewalks, six-foot bike lanes, and new signs and landscape improvements. The project starts in November and will take about a month to complete, according to the construction company tasked with the upgrade.
“It looks like the campaign is over and Butt is your new mayor,” Bates conceded. “Everyone that Chevron supported was unsuccessful.”
A long and tense day brought an end to an election that looks set to bring a David v Goliath story.
Money ran the race on Tuesday’s school board elections, with the best funded candidates Block, Kronenberg and Cuevas winning the seats of the West Contra Costa Unified School District.
Measure U, the ballot item to increase the retail sales taxes to 9.5%, passed yesterday with 53.7% of the vote. Another key ballot item, Proposition 47, also passed. The statewide proposition to reduce six types of felony crimes to misdemeanors was approved with 65% of voters in favor.
Violence marred Election Day in Richmond as four teens were shot in close proximity to one another on Tuesday night. Police say the shootings may be related.
City Councilman Tom Butt defeated his opponent Nat Bates, winning Richmond’s mayoral contest today and dealing a blow to local oil giant Chevron, which allocated over $3 million to political spending.
Berkeley has become the first city in the country to pass a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in an effort to combat childhood obesity and diabetes, according to Josh Daniels, co-chair of the Yes on D campaign. As the polls closed Tuesday night, an energetic crowd, many of whom wore black t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Berkeley vs. Big Soda,” clapped and cheered within the Yes on D campaign headquarters on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.