john gioia Archives

Santa returns to Verde Elementary in North Richmond

By Robert Rogers | December 16, 2011 |

For more than a decade, Santa Claus and his natural white beard regaled the children at Verde Elementary in North Richmond every December.

Healthy Steps: A hospital administrator’s struggle to save Doctors Medical Center

By Hasan Dudar | November 28, 2011 |

Dawn Gideon remembers walking down the steep stadium steps of the Ashland Regional Medical Center auditorium, staring at the backs of the heads of 100 hospital workers, each step taking her closer to the front of a crowd filled with people she had known for only a month. It would be her first attempt at…

Waterfront restaurant hosts Thanksgiving for homeless

By Stacey Kennelly | November 21, 2011 |

There’s something about Menbere Aklilu. Maybe it’s the way she calls everyone bella. Maybe it’s the affection she pours onto her friends and customers. Or maybe it’s the way her honest eyes well with tears when she talks about her past, and the fruitfulness of the present. Whatever it is, she is a woman who…

Voters pass parcel tax for Doctors Medical Center

By Hasan Dudar | November 16, 2011

Voters in West Contra Costa County passed a ballot measure Tuesday that Doctors Medical Center administrators said will keep the struggling hospital from closing. Measure J, which won with nearly 74 percent of voters casting “yes” ballots, will allow the county to put in place a $47 parcel tax increase per household in West County,…

Environmental inequalities are hot topic at Richmond sustainability conference

By Wendi Jonassen | November 7, 2011 |

When Luz Gomez, the deputy chief of staff for County Supervisor John Gioia, tried to establish a small deli on a corner in North Richmond, even with help from the County, had to overcome more zoning code, development agency and operator obstacles then she anticipated. Though she says that she feels close to opening the…

RYSE Center turns three

By Evelyn Xiaoqing Pi | November 3, 2011

What’s the party like when an anniversary and Halloween are tied together? RYSE Center, a community-based development and educational center for youth, had its third anniversary event Saturday, with plenty of spooky elements – a haunted house, face painting and a costume contest – as well as a bouncy house, musical chairs and a pie-eating…

Hearing opens Monday on Chevron’s $58 million property tax appeal

By Rachel Waldholz | October 23, 2011 |

Chevron will present its case for a $58 million tax refund before an appeals board on Monday, as the company seeks to prove that it overpaid property taxes on its Richmond refinery between 2007 and 2009. Chevron believes the county has overvalued its Richmond refinery by nearly $2 billion per year.

If the company succeeds in its appeal, it would create a “brutal situation” for the county and cities, Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin said.

North Richmond’s struggle to decide who will lead

By Robert Rogers | September 28, 2011 |

North Richmond is no stranger to conflict, but this is a strange conflict for North Richmond. The small community, which straddles the boundary separating the city of Richmond and unincorporated Contra Costa County, has become the site of an acrimonious power struggle between ambitious community leaders.

Goodbye to you, Fred Jackson

By Robert Rogers | September 16, 2011

Nearly 400 friends, family, dignitaries and well-wishers turned out for the midday service, which was a medley of love and music and anecdotes that all agreed would have induced Jackson’s trademark wide grin.

A North Richmond tribute to the man, the ‘Fred Jackson Way’

By Robert Rogers | September 16, 2011 |

As one of the dozens of buoyant well-wishers put it Thursday night, these services didn’t have the feel of a funeral – there was too much joy in the room.

Power struggle erupts in North Richmond

By Robert Rogers | September 14, 2011

It was North Richmond. The little neighborhood that has historically suffered from a lack of leadership was suddenly over-represented. It was a dubious honor.

Fred Jackson, North Richmond leader, dead at 73

By Robert Rogers | September 8, 2011 |

As odes from well-wishers flow from Washington D.C. to the Bay Area, North Richmond mourns one of its greatest products. Fred Jackson was born in rural Mississippi and came to the Bay Area in 1950. Over the next 61 years, he would establish a reputation as one of the region’s most consistent humanitarians and community leaders, amassing an innumerable collection of accolades and commendations along the way.