OUR NEIGHBORS: CHRIS TREADWAY San Pablo restoration holds water Contra Costa Times Article Launched: 12/30/2007 03:00:36 AM PST Lynne Scarpa was named Watershed Forum Participant/Partner of the Year at the Contra Costa County Creek and Watershed Symposium for...

Journalist Janis Mara writes: "Greetings, fellow North and Easters! I am continually amazed and grateful for this list, and decided we all deserved a pat on the back. These days I'm blogging for Redfin, a real estate site, so I put up a blog entry about our list. You...

John Geluardi moved to the San Francisco Weekly earlier this year, where he does investigative journalism. MediaNews CEO Dean Singleton had recently gained unprecedented influence in Northern California by purchasing every major Bay Area daily newspaper except the San...

What do Richmond and Orinda Have in Common? Well, both cities had Bill Lindsay as a city manager, and Richmond still does. Both cities have a recent LEED rated city hall project. Orinda"s is completed, and Richmond"s is still underway " without Orinda"s operable...

SAN FRANCISCO 2 new ferries on order for bay fleet Rachel Gordon Friday, December 21, 2007 The Bay Area Water Transit Authority ordered two ferries Thursday to bolster the regional water transit fleet. The public ferries each will carry up to 199 passengers and travel...

See Richmond Great in 2008? December 12, 2007. As we head to Deepwood in the Arkansas Ozarks for a family Christmas, we wish you a Happy Holiday!

Mayor and Councilmembers: This is the weekly report for the week ending December 21st, 2007. 1. Meeting Notes The next City Council meeting is scheduled for next year, Tuesday, January 8th, 2008. 2. Update on the Richmond Natatorium (the Plunge) Renovation As you...

I don"t normally write about Richmond homicides in the E-FORUM because it seems to be the one area of news coverage that is more than adequately covered by the commercial media. However, reaching the milestone of last year"s 42 homicides with two weeks to go in this...

Two Guest Commentaries in the Contra Costa Times caught my attention this week. They were in response to Jerry Powers" December 1 op ed piece and the Contra Costa Times editorial of December 6 (Ed and Op Ed on Chevron Tax Appeal, December 8, 2007). The first was from...

Mayor and Councilmembers: This is the weekly report for the week ending December 14th, 2007. 1. Meeting Notes The regular City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday, December 18th is cancelled due to a lack of time critical agenda items, and to give Councilmembers and...

" From left, James Wells, Dwaine Lee and Amilcar Laboy work in New York City's South Bronx on Nov. 29. By Todd Plitt, USA TODAY Cities cultivate 2 types of green http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2007-12-12-green-jobs_N.htm By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY...

Because the Memorial Auditorium is under construction with seismic upgrades, Richmond"s two traditional December events were held this year at Richmond"s premier venue, the newly-rehabilitated 40,000 square foot Ford Assembly Building Craneway on Richmond"s southern...

Attorney General Jerry Brown wrote yet another letter (click here) to the City of Richmond alerting the City that information submitted by Chevron to permitting agencies (California Energy Commission and Bay Area Air Quality Management District) and for the EIR is...

Now is time for E-FORUM Readers to weigh in on the best and worst of 2007 and predictions for 2008. For several years, I have prepared detailed year-end evaluations of City of Richmond services, problems challenges and wishes. Originally, these were conveyed only to...

Opinion about Chevron"s greedy effort to recover property taxes paid to the City of Richmond and Contra Costa County and reduce property taxes in the future was featured on both sides of the Contra Costa Times editorial page this past week or so, a rare and remarkable...

Chevron appeals 'illegally' collected taxes in Contra Costa County Chip Johnson Friday, December 7, 2007 In the spirit of the holidays, the Chevron Corp. has launched its appeal to Contra Costa County officials in an attempt to recover what it claims is nearly $60...

Many Richmond residents have received sort of a Christmas card from Chevron, entitled "Chevron Richmond Refinery, our place in the community. Community update news and views from the Richmond refinery featuring an important message from Jim Brumfield." The mailing...

Let"s say you are an ordinary homeowner or small business owner in Richmond and you want to expand your home or office building. You have a design prepared and submit it to the City of Richmond for Design Review. When the application is complete and accepted by the...

The City Manager"s Weekly Report, just posted at 8:27 PM tonight included the following: As you know, a notice was posted indicating that Chevron"s energy and hydrogen renewal project application would be reviewed by the Design Review Board at its next regular...

Chevron got one thing right. For the mailer (click here for a copy) soliciting community support for the Chevron Energy and Hydrogen Renewal Project, they used the smiling face of Jim Brumfield, probably the nicest guy in the world on Chevron"s payroll. Unfortunately,...