Bay Area artist runs unique business inspired by her grandmother

Among the many unorthodox tools Cara Corey has used to make her handmade artist line unique are knitting needles made out of PVC pipe and merino wool fiber (the material before wool becomes “wool”) shipped from the Ukraine. Corey moved to Richmond, California, in 2010 after spending over four years as a newspaper reporter in Des…

Read More

A new Great Migration: the disappearance of the black middle class

After the great recession of 2008, inequality widened along racial lines as people lost their homes, often their only major asset. Earlier this month the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, reported in “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of US,” that the average white family today has net assets of $141,900, compared with the $11,000 for African American families. This hollowing out of the African American family asset base is a nationwide phenomenon that can be explained by the shrinking African American middle class. It’s even more a factor in “strong market” regions like the Bay Area, where housing costs are soaring.

Read More

First community briefing for the Berkeley Global Campus

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.

Read More

Locally Richmond: Jered’s Pottery

Finished mugs sit on a work after being removed from the firing kiln. (Photo by Brittany Kirstin)

Jered’s Pottery works out of Richmond, CA designing fine dinnerware for the world’s top chefs and restaurants with what Nelson calls “California clay.” It’s a personal mix made with materials found in our own state’s backyard.

Read More

Mayoral profile: Uche Uwahemu

Uche Uwahemu—trained in law and business, and shaped by a decade of nonprofit work—speaks earnestly about the future of Richmond. At 41, he is the youngest of Richmond’s four mayoral candidates. Wearing a gray pinstripe suit with a lavender tie, Uwahemu sat in the Café Pascal last week and shared his thoughts on solving the toughest issues facing the city.

Read More

Restoration Hardware moves for bigger horizons

Photo showing outside location of the new Restoration Hardware warehouse.

Upscale luxury furniture retailer Restoration Hardware has outgrown its former Marina Way South location, and now has put down roots in a larger warehouse at 2900 Atlas Road. Plans started last November for the big move, about the same time the national furniture chain went public. The company, headquartered in Corte Madera, signed a 10-year…

Read More