Government
Richmond has a new budget, and the outlook is mixed. The budget, approved by the city council Tuesday night, is close to balanced and leaves the city’s $10 million general fund reserve intact, but make cuts to already stretched city services and uses one-time measures that put off larger, structural issues until next year.
Activists, led by Barbara Becnel, gathered in Richmond to learn how to successfully advocate for the abolition of capital punishment. California leads the nation in awarding the death penalty, and Contra Costa County’s court system is among the state’s frequent users of the death sentence.
Last week Richmond city councilmember Corky Boozé, together with BART, gave 18 school children from across Richmond a once-in-a-lifetime experience by taking them on an all-expenses-paid trip to the Oakland Museum and San Francisco Airport as an opportunity to learn new life skills.
Richmond has seen a dramatic decrease in deadly gun violence in recent years, but anti-violence advocates and city officials believe only a sustained, multi-partner commitment to violence prevention and intervention in the coming years can make these gains permanent.
California’s prison population must by law get smaller, and that means more ex-convicts in local communities.
With controversy over California’s use of capital punishment intensifying, anti-death penalty activists are looking to expand their outreach statewide – including into Richmond.
A divided council on Tuesday weighed in on several issues, including increasing funding to local housing programs and projects and proposed Congressional reapportionment that would move Richmond into the same district as Berkeley and Oakland.
In the 1940s and 1950s, the growth of public housing projects swept across urban America. North Richmond was no exception.
South African environmental activist Desmond D’Sa also took a “toxic tour” of Richmond’s challenges after Monday’s protest.