Thanks to an offer of a substantial grant from the U.S. State Department, the Richmond City Council will decide on Tuesday whether to enter into a sister city relationship with the City of Baghdad.

Richmond is one of only six American cities that have been offered the opportunity to form a sister city relationship with an Iraq city with all expenses paid for by the U.S. government.

With the war winding down, the government is looking for alternative ways to foster democracy and civic engagement once the troops are gone.

The economic incentives for Richmond are substantial. The U.S. government would pay all the expenses for at least two annual exchanges of dozens of civic and business leaders from both cities as well as provide trade opportunities through tax credits, subsidies and elimination of tariffs. “The benefits to the Port of Richmond could be substantial,” Jim Matzorkis surmised in the staff report. “We could use this to finally upstage Oakland.”

The purpose of sister city relationships is to exchange information, arts, culture, resources and assistance between the two cities.  It was President Dwight D. Eisenhower who said, “Two deeply held convictions unite us in common purpose.  First, is our belief in effective, responsive, local government as a principal bulwark of freedom; second, is our faith in the great promise of Sister City affiliations in helping build the solid structure of world peace.”

 The City of Richmond has established three Sister City relationships: Shimada, Japan in 1961; Zhoushan, China in 1993; and Regla, Cuba in 1999.  The City of Richmond is also a member of the US Cuba Sister City Association and Sister Cities International.

The prospect has already generated a lot of discussion among City Council members evidenced by a flurry of emails.

Councilman John Marquez noted that while he first thought the two cities have little in common, he later realized that they share some interesting similarities. Both are waterfront cities, and both have a really big problem with violence. “I think Chris Magnus could help them set up community policing the way he did in Richmond,” said Marquez. “We’ve already reduced homicides in Richmond this year, and if we can do it in Richmond, we can do it in Baghdad.”

Magnus emailed the Council that he would take charge of providing whatever protective gear would be needed. “We have just acquired some new Kevlar vests, and it would be an honor for Councilmembers to test drive them in Sadr City before we release them for use by our officers in Richmond.”

A sister city relationship also involves business, and Richmond’s largest business, Chevron, is looking forward to the prospect. Spokesman Dean O’Hair noted that both cities have intimate ties to the petroleum industry. “We both have problems securing our petroleum infrastructure, and we are both plagued with fires and explosions, athough the source of those threats is different. They have Al-Quada, and we have the impending threat of that damn Bay Trail bicycle path.”

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin was at first skeptical, but when she realized Baghdad had a Green Zone, she became enthusiastic. “We could probably learn a lot from each other about greening our cities. I think we should consider a Green Zone in Richmond, and I already have my staff drafting an ordinance to that effect.”

Perhaps the most enthusiastic Council member is Harpreet Sandhu. “I don’t think it’s fair for Richmond to have sister cities only in the Far East and the Caribbean,” argued Sandhu. “We don’t have a single Council members of Japanese or Chinese ancestry, so why are we concentrating on that area of the world? We haven’t been to Regla but once, and that’s just because former Mayor Anderson had a cousin there. The Middle East is where the action is, and that’s where we should be putting our efforts.”

The only dissenting voice came form Ludmyrna Lopez, who noted that four councilmembers speak Spanish and thought that our efforts should be focused on sister cities with Spanish speaking populations. “I’m really disappointed that we let our relationship with Regla lapse. We should not only renew it, but we should seek out other Spanish speaking cities. I would like to volunteer to find at least one prospect in Spain and maybe two or three in South or Central America.

Thurmond, Viramontes and Marquez all nodded. “While I still like this Baghdad thing, said Marquez, “I could see some real opportunities for translations if we stick to Spanish. My Arabic is a little weak.”

Nat Bates, always the practical one, responded, “Myrna, you are simply ignoring the fact that you have to follow the money. The government is offering thousands of dollars for Baghdad trips. I don’t see a nickel coming for any South American visits. If you want to go to Buenos Aires, you can pay for it yourself.”

Rogers is considering a substitute motion, and in fact, has already drafted and circulated it. “I will move that we still go to Baghdad but that we also require Baghdad to hire 100 youth from our city for summer jobs in Iraq. That will not only get potential juvenile delinquents off our streets, it will probably permanently cure them of any violent tendencies. They’ll come home as better people, if at all.”

Maria Viramontes noted that she had been following the sister city movement for years, first as an Assembly staffer and later as a Richmond City Council member. As director of the East Bay Public Safety Corridor project, she knows what it was like for cities to collaborate to fight violence. She went on to explain how Richmond had first hooked up with Shimada and how the Shimada relationship had become self-supporting while Regla and Zhoushan had to be subsidized by taxpayers. “We have to be fiscally responsible about this,” she warned. “This is a plan by the Bush White House, but they are only gong to be there a couple more years. If the money dries up, we could be stuck up the Euphrates without a paddle. That’s one place I don’t want to be, especially with this city council.”

As for me, the thing that interests me most is the opportunity to explore historic preservation in a city that is not just a hundred years old but one that dates from the 4^th millennium B.C. I could see an exchange of our respective Historic Preservation Advisory Committees as a beginning of a more intense cultural exchange. I plan to vote for this measure, and I urge all E-FORUM readers to contact their City Council members and ask them to support it.

April Fool!