Government
Mayor Gayle McLaughlin invited the community to the Richmond Public Library Friday night to honor the memory of this year’s homicide victims. More than 30 people attended the event. Chairs formed a circle providing a public forum for the mayor and the attendees who had stories to share about the year’s 18 homicides. “It’s people owning the neighborhood together,” McLaughlin said on ways to decrease crime and violence in the community. She focused on communities taking personal responsibility, being more…
On Wednesday night, in the Richmond high school cafeteria, the more than 40 players on the Oiler roster were congratulated on their successful season. Coaches thanked them for their efforts, certain players received awards for their play, and the team now has a trophy to document it.
When you think of a jail, what comes to mind? Bars. A cell without windows. Agitated prisoners. Maybe I watch too much TV. But when you go to the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, be prepared for something different. This is a model jail where inmates can get a high school diploma or learn a trade. It’s also overcrowded, and its operations are threatened. “So before you go outside to the main part of the jail, I would like…
More than 31,300 voters in Richmond cast a ballot this year, a 10 percent decrease from the last presidential election, according to numbers updated on the Contra Costa County’s election division site on Nov. 17. In 2008, more than 35,000 voters in the city cast a ballot, which was 84 percent of registered voters. This year the voter turnout in the city was just under 72 percent. Below are maps that show where the three City Council winners– Nat Bates,…
As Menbere Aklilu looked across the office in her restaurant, she sighed deeply and said she promised herself she wouldn’t cry this time. This time, it was her second year hosting a Thanksgiving dinner at her restaurant, Salute. Last year, she provided 300 foods to the homeless and this year, she was offering the same dinner twice in the day, doubling the meals to 600. But the promise did no good. Her eyes quickly filled with tears and she began…
This past June, Richmond’s City Council voted to join the Marin Energy Authority, a nonprofit energy provider that derives its electricity from a minimum of 50% renewable sources.
This means that in July 2013, all Richmond residents will be automatically enrolled in the Marin Clean Energy Community Choice Aggregation program’s Light Green package.
The City Council passed a resolution Tuesday night urging Chevron to use the best technology available when it rebuilds its damaged oil refinery. The meeting came a day after a Bay Area Air Quality Management District meeting at which a Chevron representative said that the crude unit would not be restarted until the “findings and actions” of Chevron’s investigation of the fire are “fully communicated.” The approval of the resolution also follows a letter sent on Saturday by the United…
Richmond has been picked over by thieves. A stump of a pipe, the tops of concrete floor boxes pried up from the sidewalk, a lonely hinge hanging from a roof. These remains, which RPD Captain Mark Gagan easily spots throughout the city, are evidence of scrap metal theft that has plagued the city for years. It’s likely that a thief took the bronze pipe, the copper wires in the floor box, and the aluminum gutter held up by the hinge….
With billboards from the Nov. 6 election still standing around the city and councilmembers-elect yet to begin their newest terms, community organizers and elected officials met Thursday night at the Richmond Progressive Alliance to start planning for campaigns in 2014 and beyond.