North Richmond

India, Chevron and monitoring pollution after toxic disasters

Shweta Narayan, one of India’s leading environmentalists, paid the Bay Area a visit last week and presented information about the importance of environmental monitoring when it comes to toxic disasters. For the past nine years, Narayan, and Global Community Monitor, a group based in El Cerrito, have collaborated on air pollution awareness campaigns in India, where she coordinates Community Environmental Monitoring. Narayan spoke at the Natural Resources Defense Council in San Francisco and Center for Environmental Health in Oakland. “It’s…

For the Davis Chapel, a long search for a new home after 2003 fire

As they have every Sunday for the last 70 years, members of the Davis Chapel filed into church on a recent weekend and took their seats in the red-cushioned pews. The first sunlight of the day streamed in through the stained-glass windows and members of the choir took their positions behind the altar. Clapping their hands and stepping side-to-side in rhythm, the white-robed choir raised its voice in harmony and sang: “Oh to the blood of Jeee—sus. To the blood…

Giving North Richmond’s kids a safer place to play

With frantic little-kid energy, the Panthers under-10 boys basketball team races around the pavement lot next to the Shields-Reid Park in North Richmond. The kids are fresh from a 42-0 victory over the El Cerrito team, their third straight victory in their youth league. Some of the kids play a pick-up game against their coaches—older boys, brothers, cousins, neighbors—who shout directions and jokes. Around the edges of the court, kids drift in and out of the game, jousting with each…

County Board of Supervisors approves $4 million to invest in jail alternatives

Step foot into the Reach Fellowship for Women in North Richmond, and Dr. Edwina Perez Santiago will greet you like an excited aunt hosting a holiday dinner party. “Come on in baby,” she says to the women as they enter through the front door, a welcome accompanied by a warm smile and a handshake. There are five women in attendance today, from different walks of life but here for the same reason: they want to get their lives back on…

Housing plan sparks arguments on rent control, just cause evictions

After several hours of confusion and bickering, last week the Richmond City Council approved a housing element—a part of the general plan that will address land use and housing development throughout the city—just in time to meet a deadline to be eligible for a state-issued $44 million grant. But although the entire housing element contains more than fifty sub-sections, there are still four sections of the plan the council left undecided, which could affect rent control, eviction laws and low-income…

Romeo and Juliet in Richmond

Students from Richmond are putting a new spin on Shakespeare’s classic tale of forbidden love, making it meaningful to life on the streets.