Government
The members of 10 households living in Richmond’s infamous Hacienda public housing complex are claiming the city should pay them damages because the city failed to maintain the housing complex and caused them physical injury, property damage and emotional distress. The Hacienda apartments caught media attention when the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit investigative news organization based in Berkeley, California, broke a series of stories last year about the disturbing living conditions there, which include infestations of bugs, mice…
Plywood with large red letters simply reading “DMC Closed” was affixed to the signs on the street that once welcomed patients to the largest public hospital on the western part of Contra Costa County. Members of the community gathered at the hospital in the early morning of April 21 to say goodbye, then made their way to the Board of Supervisors meeting at the county seat to inform the public about the threat of living in an area without a hospital….
Richmond is seeing better days. According to a recent research paper by UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute, homicides and violent crime were at historic lows in 2013, parks are being renewed, living conditions are improving and new investment money is flowing in. But what seems to be good news for the city’s just over 100,000 residents, the authors say, could even pose a threat to a large and deeply rooted community in Richmond: African Americans, who make up almost a quarter…
So far, around 20 families who live at the Hacienda public housing complex have received Section 8 vouchers intended to help them relocate while the building undergoes renovations. They have 60 days to find a new home. But some of them say they have received little search or transportation assistance and are worried they will not be able to find a new home before time runs out. The Hacienda apartments caught media attention when the Center for Investigative Reporting, a…
A former Richmond police officer is suing the City of Richmond and Chief of Police Chris Magnus for wrongful termination, claiming that he was discriminated against after he reported to his supervisor that Magnus allegedly made sexual advances towards him. Thomas Hauschild, 44, was a police officer with the city for over eight years. According to a civil suit filed with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco on April 3, Hauschild began duty as an officer in July 2005,…
It’s not over yet. The measles outbreak, which started in December, 2014, at a Disneyland theme park in Orange County, is still ongoing in the United States, and has now reached Mexico and Canada, where more than 100 people have been reported to have the disease. By March 6, 17 US states and the District of Columbia reported measles cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website. The CDC is only one of the many health…
Sixth grader Clemon Brown loves reading books, but he has a hard time finding books outside of school. “Two weeks ago, I was sitting in my room [and] I want to read a book,” Brown said. He said he wanted to visit a library, but his mom’s car wasn’t working at the time. Brown lives in North Richmond, almost three miles away from the nearest Richmond public library. “That’s really the difficulty,” Richmond Public Library Director Katy Curl said. “[We’re]…
When homeowners first moved to the Marina Bay area, they say, it was a country-like neighborhood. Birds nested on the trees in the gated community. Nights were dark and tranquil. But, they say, everything changed last December when the neighboring business Richmond Wholesale — “one of the largest West Coast distributors of frozen, chilled, and dry food products,” according to its website — closed its Factory Street facility in North Richmond and made the Regatta Boulevard facility its main one….
Sitting patiently in the front row, Vinay Pimple waited to be sworn into office as Richmond’s newest city councilmember at the council’s March 3 meeting. “I, Vinay Pimple, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States…”