In 2003, the City of Richmond rolled out what was supposed to be a new effort to effectively enforce codes and abate nuisances in the City. A new page on the City"s website was introduced, and City Council members were invited to participate in a high profile play to...

Nat Bates, Charles Belcher and I attended the City of Richmond SAP Study Session at City Hall on February 24. There was both good news and bad news. Based on the many written comments I received from city employees and others, SAP is a system that can serve the city"s...

One of the reasons that Richmond continues to be strapped for money is a perennial reluctance by the administration to collect revenue. This is not a recent phenomenon; it is a pattern that goes back decades. Case in point is the ordinance that requires a business...

Our older son, Andrew Martin Butt, was notified on February 27 that he had passed his final test, an oral examination before the California Architects Board, to complete his eligibility to become a licensed architect in California. In order to legally use the title...

Big Floyd died today. He was a giant of a goat " almost the size of a small horse. The biggest goat I ever saw. We acquired Floyd about 1996 when feral dogs had decimated our herd down to a single goat. Our last remaining goat, Truffle, was exceedingly lonely and in a...

The search for The World"s Best Lighthouse Keepers enters the home stretch, boosted by two Bay Area media personalities, Chip Johnson of the San Francisco Chronicle and Mike Sugarman of KCBS. The airwaves have been reverberating to the sounds of Richmond"s East...

The Kucinich Campaign and the Richmond Progressive Alliance packed the Foyer of the Richmond Memorial Auditorium with a standing room only crowd of about 600 enthusiastic supporters and maybe some curiosity seekers. Fred Jackson and Andres Soto warmed up the crowd...

There are many City employees on my E-FORUM distribution list, so this is addressed primarily to them because I have no way of automatically separating them out. To others, please indulge me. Perhaps you will find this interesting anyway. When I first took my seat on...

The Richmond Progressive Alliance announced a second Community Forum, at which Dennis Kucinich will appear as a speaker. The Forum is hosted by The Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), "a coalition of progressive Democrats, Greens, and Independents." It will be an...

On the waterfront Richmond looks to make old Ford plant a tourist draw Daniel Moulthrop, Special to The Chronicle Friday, February 20, 2004 "2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ URL: sfgate.com/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/02/20/EBGPQ4UNTP1.DTL...

I only found out later that after I left the City Council meeting on February 17 after being shut down by Mayor Anderson, she allowed other City Council members to freely debate the same topic. This points up one of the long standing problems with the Richmond City...

Like most other Richmond fiascos, the current budget crisis didn"t just happen. The apparent problem and its repercussions, including hiring a quarter million dollars worth of damage control consultants, was caused by someone either asleep at the switch or someone...

From September 2002 to May 2003, when Richmond City Jailer Shelley Miyuki Tolliver was allegedly sexually harassed by former Police Department executive Armand Mulder and complained to her superiors, she was apparently shocked that her harasser was allowed to continue...

We went to lunch today at the Baltic Restaurant in Point Richmond. The place didn"t look overcrowded, but we were told the only seating was at the bar. Soon, we knew why. A tour bus operated by Golden West Travel discharged nearly 50 seniors from the Peninsula for...

Not only is the Richmond City Council too large by two to four members and largely dysfunctional, it makes a mockery of parliamentary procedure and common courtesy. Mayor Anderson is the worst. Every meeting, she piously says "I do," after the Clerk reads the...

Regarding CITY TRIES TO SPEND AND SPIN ITSELF OUT OF FINANCIAL CRISIS, February 15, 2004, Councilmember Jim Rogers joined me on February 10, in voting against hiring Davis & Associates, Public Relations, LLC, in open session, and in closed session voted against...

Getting the message out the way they want it and circling the wagons to defend themselves from any adverse consequences of recent statements about the City" financial position led to City officials advising the City Council of an urgent need to retain a quartet of...

I regret to report that City management has severely crippled the recently vaunted Code Enforcement and Abatement program by releasing ten Code Enforcement Aides that actually do the cleanup of vacant lots and unkempt properties when the owners balk. The downsizing...

It was like old Richmond home week with friends and neighbors at The Playhouse on Friday, February 6, at the west coast premier of "The Glory of Living," a play by Rebecca Gilman, starring Richmond native Lauren English. The Playhouse is a newly opened San Francisco...

On February 4, 2004, the Richmond City Attorney"s office won a Contra Costa Superior Court judgment in favor of the City for $601,000 plus $25,000 in attorney"s fees against a Florida Avenue property owner for illegal storing of "vehicles, cars, motorcycles, trucks,...