Government
The City of Richmond and the West Contra Costa Unified School District are working to bring free Wi-Fi to residents of the Iron Triangle, by building a fiber optic network. Richmond is joining other cities like New York City, San Francisco and San Jose to supply residents with free public Wi-Fi.
Talk about policing dominated the Richmond City Council meeting on Tuesday, as councilmembers and citizens discussed amending the Richmond Police Commission enabling ordinance, initiating a police commission investigation into the death of Richard “Pedie” Perez following a settlement between the city and Perez’ family earlier that day, and investigating all cases in which individuals are seriously injured by Richmond police. At the meeting’s beginning, Richmond Mayor Tom Butt proposed moving these three agenda items to a future meeting, based on…
Frustration was the headliner at Tuesday night’s city council meeting, at which the council heard from a mourning family and unanimously elected a new vice mayor.
The California Transportation Commission approved a $6 million grant for a plan to improve Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood. Known as the Iron Triangle Yellow Brick Road Walkable Neighborhoods Plan, the project aims to improve streets notorious for high crime and blighted conditions. Pedestrians and bicyclists would get safer, cleaner pathways to schools, parks and churches. The paths would be marked by stencils of yellow bricks, fulfilling a vision teenagers came up with during a 2008 summer youth program. City planners made a point to emphasize…
Richmond is a record breaker. Known for many years to host the largest oil refinery in the country and as the most productive World War II shipyard, Richmond also once hosted the biggest winery in the world. The city’s historical legacy has been recognized in some respects. The transformation of a 1930s Ford assembly plant, a beacon of the industrial age, into a conference center and museum complex is one example. However, there are still some major historic assets in Richmond standing idle — or even crumbling into disrepair.
It wasn’t quite dark in central Richmond, a little before 5 p.m. the day before Thanksgiving. A 13-year-old girl was walking down a flight of stairs, two people were driving north in a white sedan on Carlson Boulevard “when they shot into the direction of the Pullman Townhouses, and kept on driving,” police said. The 13-year-old was shot in the leg, just above the knee. Police said the girl, treated and released at a local hospital, “was not the intended…
Editor’s note: This is Part One in a two-part series on the departure of Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus, who leaves after this month to become police chief in Tucson, Arizona. In Part Two tomorrow, staff writer Matt Beagle looks at a recent rise in Richmond homicides and the unfinished agenda facing Richmond’s next top cop. When Chris Magnus came to Richmond in 2006, gun violence by all accounts was out of control. Many people considered Magnus an unlikely choice to do much…
UC Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory are planning the new Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay. The committee wants the university to sign a legally binding agreement aiding those such as disadvantaged workers, emancipated foster youth, homeless people and individuals with criminal records, and requesting the university pay a fee to the city, to improve affordable housing and displacement issues, among other suggestions.
Richmond youth have rallied together in an effort to lower the city’s voting age to 16. If successful, they would earn the right to vote in municipal and school board elections long before they can even buy tobacco.