Government
The Citizens Police Review Commission voted to send the Richmond Police Department recommendations that emphasize the use of non-lethal force and new officer training Wednesday night. These recommendations come several months after the commission ruled that Officer Wallace Jensen used excessive force in the September 2014 shooting death of Pedie Perez.
The monthly vigils were started seven years ago by the Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity as a way to show support for undocumented immigrant detainees held inside the West County Detention Center.
As rents and home prices continue to skyrocket across California, a major ballot fight is brewing between tenants and the real estate industry over the state rent control law Costa Hawkins. The law prohibits cities from implementing rent control on single family homes as well as homes or apartments built after 1995 (or the year the city passed it’s rent control law, which, in Oakland, is 1983), resulting in 100% or more rent increases for tenants in these dwellings. The…
Richmond has hundreds of abandoned and blighted properties at any given time. These properties cost the city millions of dollars, because numerous city departments have to deal with them, they drive down property values, and pose serious health and safety risks to neighbors. City officials have taken a unique approach to solving this problem with a municipal bond-funded housing renovation program, which may also assist in providing affordable housing in the Bay Area. Click the video above to learn more…
After almost eight years of grinding litigation that has brought proposals to develop Richmond’s controversial Point Molate area to a halt, the city and the developer who sued it over a plan to build a casino have finally reached a settlement. This means 13 years of political fighting since Richmond officially acquired the 270-acre parcel of land and former fuel depot from the Navy in 2003 may finally give way to a unified plan to make economic use of the…
Every morning in front of Melrose Leadership Academy, the same choreography is repeated: the uproar of the children arriving at the school displaces squirrels and birds to the cherry and palm trees that adorn the sidewalk. At this public school, in the sanctuary city of Oakland, people exchange greetings in Spanish. The first poster near the school’s entrance doesn’t inform parents about opening hours or extracurricular activities. Instead, it states: “You have rights, don’t let ICE or police enter your…
Richmond joined in the nationwide effort against gun violence. Students led the March for our Lives, which ended at Richmond City Hall, where young people expressed expressed how gun violence affects their lives. Click the story above to see the video by Abené Clayton. You can read the text story and see the photo gallery by Annabell Brockhues here.
Hundreds of thousands of marchers rallied across the United States on Saturday to protest gun violence. More than 800 events were planned, one of them in Richmond initiated by the mayor’s office. Some 400 people were expected to come—but in the end, almost 1,000 joined the “March for our Lives,” estimated Mayor Tom Butt, showing the community’s urgency for actions against gun violence.
Almost five years after Richmond filed a lawsuit against Chevron for damages in response to the massive 2012 fire at the oil company’s local refinery, the case is finally moving forward to the trial phase.