I don’t know who Sally Claire is, but she has been widely quoted about the failure of journalism. On journalism: "If someone says it's raining, and another person says it's dry, it's not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out the fucking window and find...

With the City Council set to discuss the future of the Craneway tonight, It may be helpful to explain one issue at the heart of the matter – the Public Trust Doctrine. In California, the arcane public trust doctrine arrived with statehood and lofty language in the...

I wrote this on March 26, 2017, when my father, Thomas Franklin (Tom) Butt, who died at the age of 83 in 2000, would have been 100 years old. His father (my grandfather) lived to be 97. I think my father inherited the family genes, but it was lung cancer that ended...

On my birthday yesterday, I visited the Craneway to check out the opening of the pickleball operation. I have to say, it was impressive. On a rainy and windy day, the Craneway and Assemble Restaurant were both packed with at least a couple hundred people. With 12...

A lack of institutional memory and a motivation to avoid confrontation has resulted in an incomplete and misleading staff report for the March 26 City Council meeting Item Q-1, Update on the Craneway Pavilion Request. As a public service and as the only City-related...

Thank you to those who wished me happy birthday – and even those who didn’t -- it was a good one. We started the day before with some cake and Champagne at Interactive Resources, and then that evening, the whole family plus a Japanese exchange student staying with Kim...

City "still has concerns" as pickleball opening looms Linda Hemmila Mar 20, 2024 — 5 min read A couple of pickleballers test out the newly installed courts March 9 at the Craneway Pavilion. Photo/ Linda Hemmila City Attorney David Aleshire speaking at the city council...

As we get closer to the advertised grand opening of pickleball at the Craneway, the issue and conflicts are expanding exponentially. With the grand opening just three days away, concerned citizens are planning to picket the venue to protest, not a good start. Darlene...

54 years ago this week, in 1970, I had completed my year as a combat engineer and arranged an Army discharge while still in Vietnam so that I could visit the famous temples of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, still a “neutral” country in March of 1970, whose eastern border...

The only vestige of elected office I have hung on to is CivicWell, formerly the Local Government Commission. The City of Richmond has been a member since before I was first elected in 1995. Former Mayor Rosemery Corbin urged me to get involved, and it was some of the...

Apparently oblivious to the fact that they do not have the required approval from the City of Richmond, Craneway Pickleball is forging ahead with a grand opening this weekend. There is still no official response from the City of Richmond, but there is a protect being...

Once again, politics has prevailed over vision as MTC caved in to the politically powerful Bay Area Council and its Get the Richmond Bridge Moving campaign. The Get the Richmond Bridge Moving Campaign has been a fraud from the beginning, making Trump-like claims such...

Lina Velasco has generously provided me with the latest application for the City to approve the sublease for the pickleball venue in the Craneway. Thanks you, Lina. The application materials are copied below: Use description for Craneway BACKGROUND: Orton...

On what would have been her 102nd birthday today, March 6, I offer glimpses of my mother’s early life. First is a piece she wrote in 1980 about her grandmother and life in the Batesville Martin home in the late 1920s and 1930s. Click here for “My Grandmother’s House.”...

Attached are the first batch of election results as of 3:01 AM on Wednesday March 6th. Since West County has so few elections directly affecting them, the only two races included here are the races for the 7th Senate District and for the CCC Central Democratic Party...

Dear Friend of the Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour and Green Home Features Showcase, I’m writing to let you know that a Native Plant Extravaganza—with free Talks in the Nurseries—is coming up, as is the two-day annual online Bringing Back the Natives Garden...

For some nine months, the future of the Craneway has been the subject of intense interest and passionate opinions by the Richmond public, and rightly so because it is owned by the City of Richmond and the subject of a public trust easement that limits its uses. The...

President of the United States Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic County Central Committee Gabriel Quinto (the only one I support – the rest are ultraradical progressives). Cesar Zepeda has shown some intelligence on the City Council – he voted against the Gaza...

The Craneway is unique, in that we, the residents of Richmond actually own it. Our elected officials and City management staff have the responsibility to see that it is being used in a way that benefits the community. When Eddie Orton purchased the Ford Building from...