You are cordially invited to COMMUNITY FORUM ON NORTH RICHMOND SHORELINE OPEN SPACE Saturday, December 6th, 10AM-2PM Parchester Village Community Center 900 Williams Dr., Richmond Organized by the North Richmond Shoreline Open Space Alliance A forum to inspire and...

There are ONLY TWO DAYS LEFT to comment on the safety plans required by the Richmond Industrial Safety Ordinance (RISO) for the ChevronTexaco Refinery and General Chemical. Unfortunately, the County Health Department has not made it easy. Only two copies of the plans...

Many have expressed frustration with the delays resulting from the Richmond San Rafael Bridge Seismic Retrofit project. The good news is that there is a website, updated daily, that tells more than you ever wanted to know about the project. See...

It appears the City Council will be revisiting the fence height issue on December 16, 2003. It is certain that a provision for "grandfathering" most existing fences that exceed the current 3 " foot height limit will be included. To be debated will be the maximum fence...

There will be a Town Hall Meeting to discuss pollution today, Thursday, November 20, 2003, from 6:00 -8:30 p.m at the Nevin Community center 598 Nevin Ave. in Richmond. "A Town Hall meeting on Thursday will address pollution from area oil refineries and trucks that...

Richmond City Manager Isiah Turner announced today that he will retire approximately January 1, 2004. He stated that concern about his health was his principal motivation for ending five years of service as Richmond"s chief executive officer. Mr. Turner"s plans were...

Once again, Red Rock Island, which lies just south of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, is being hawked as the ultimate getaway " just minutes from "The City" (San Francisco " not Richmond). A Coldwell Banker Realtor in San Jose has the listing, and the island can be...

Developers and Richmond planners like to call them "ditches," but Richmond is replete with magnificent creeks, including Wildcat, San Pablo, Rheem, Garrity, Baxter and Cerritos. To learn more, come join me at the Second Quadrennial Contra Costa County Creek and...

FORD ASSEMBLY PLANT Please join Ford Motor Company, the National Park Service, the National Park Foundation and the City of Richmond on Tuesday, November 11, at the launch of an exciting new partnership to support the Rosie the Riveter World War II/Home Front National...

The Baltic Restaurant is hosting a Crab Feed fundraiser benefiting the Richmond Plunge on November 30th, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. Included in this family style crab feed is a wine tasting of Noah's wine with the winemaker present, canap"s, music by the Hot Club and a...

On Thursday, November 13, 2003, 9:00 AM, the City Council Public Safety and Public Services Committee will consider adopting a resolution similar to that adopted by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on May 6, 2003, urging the California Public Utility...

As expected, last night"s City Council meeting drew some 500 vocal, mostly Latino, attendees, with over 60 signing up to make a plea for changing Richmond"s Zoning Ordinance to allow substantially higher fences in the front yards of residences. Since 1949, Richmond...

At a time when good news is hard to find in Richmond, it is a bit of extraordinary good fortune that Ford Motor Company, in partnership with the National Park Foundation, published a five-page, full color advertisement in the November 10 edition of Time magazine in...

Since accepting transfer of Point Molate from the Navy on September 23, City of Richmond officials have apparently contacted only one suitor " Chevron Texaco. Anticipating the transfer, the City earlier this year released a Request for Proposals to potential...

For only the second time ever, a Richmond City Council meeting will be held in the Richmond Memorial Convention Center Auditorium to accommodate the hundreds of people expected to show up to protest any restrictions on front yard fence heights. The last time the...

Over a decade ago, the California legislature made it public policy to encourage the creation of smaller second units in existing single family neighborhoods to augment the housing supply. Section 65852.150 of the Government Code states: "The Legislature finds and...

For the last five days, I have been at an ASTM meeting in Tampa, Florida. Always on the lookout for municipal government applications that we could use in Richmond, I came across a story (at the end of this piece) about citizen complaint tracking in the St. Petersburg...

In July of 2003, I described Richmond"s 2003-2004 budget as a "Hail Mary Budget" (See http://www.tombutt.com/forum/030709.htm). Continuing the football analogy, it appears that there are no open receivers and the game will be lost. The West County Times has done a...

The public is invited to participate in Richmond"s annual Arbor Day celebration and tree planting, which will take place as follows: Where: Richmond High School Grounds 1250 23rd Street Several spots in and around the Campus Grounds When: Wednesday, October 15, 2003...

It is after nights like this that I come close to losing it and walking away from this bizarre city government forever. While continuing to spend over $1 million annually in rent for temporary quarters at Marina Bay and while agonizing over a looming $10 million...