General
Seventeen-year-old Phillip Poe starts his days early. He gets up at 5:45 a.m. so that he can catch a ride to BART with a family member. Then he takes a train to catch a bus, arriving at school just before 8 a.m. His days end late, too. He often doesn’t return until 10 p.m., sometimes taking a long bus ride home after evening varsity basketball practice. After finishing homework, he gets to bed by midnight, catching less than six hours…
Diane Maddox sold gold jewelry as a side hustle, just to get by during her 33 years of teaching in Richmond. The single mother raised her two daughters in an apartment above a garage. It took the 56-year-old Maddox more than two decades until she could finally afford to purchase a home. She currently teaches transitional kindergarten for English learners at Downer Elementary School. “I’m a single parent in the Bay Area, so then trying to make it on one…
The charter of Benito Juarez Elementary was renewed by default last Wednesday because of a strange scenario in which incoming board members were unable to vote and one longstanding school board member stepped away from the dais, leaving the decision without enough votes to legally stand. California charter schools must have their charter reapproved every five years, and Benito Juarez’s renewal was in question because its parent organization, Amethod Public Schools, recently came close to having its charter for John…
We waded through murky bay waters and patches of deep mud under the light of the moon and our headlamps. Cool water sloshed over the tops of our boots and covered our toes. We moved slowly and carefully across the slick bottom of the bay. The tide was going out, nearing its lowest mark, and the oyster reef balls had begun to appear as the receding waters exposed them. Watershed project volunteers huddled around the reef balls with scrub brushes,…
María Hernández has faced death twice seeking a better life for herself and her family. The first time she crossed the border from Mexico, she was a 16-year-old crawling over the skeletons of others in a dark and humid tunnel on the journey to the United States. On her next trip as a 40-year-old mother of five, she slipped crossing a mountain in the desert, and would have fallen off a cliff if someone hadn’t grabbed her. Now María is…
For Norman Hantzsche, everything is about water. He spends his free time swimming in open water. At work, he endeavors to make dirty water clean. Most days, he is no more than a few steps from the San Francisco Bay. Hantzsche both lives and works at Richmond’s shoreline. On at least one occasion, he has found himself swimming home from work. Lately, he has turned his focus toward cleaning up the ocean. His new nonprofit Plavel Water is addressing two problems…
Sedzi-Solomon Mcnair stood in front of his tent in September as police and city workers forced him to pack up and move out without proper notice or help. While his neighbors in the Richmond homeless encampment rushed to break down their tents and gather their belongings before the city threw them away, Mcnair stood with his arms crossed, hood pulled over his head and feet firmly planted in the dirt. It was obvious Mcnair had been through this before. And…
Tales of Two Cities reporters explore all things repurposed — from buildings and bridges to names, Lyft rides, school meals, and cannabis.
Eyes slightly gazing over the steering wheel, 11-year-old Cynthia Altamirano drove around her family farm in southern Illinois. She started the day around 3:30 a.m. checking on the well-being of the animals. It was not a for-profit farm. It was a farm to help her poor household survive. By the time the sun was rising, Altamirano had been up for several hours, but it was time for her to rush back home and start getting ready for her school day….