Richmond is a city in western

Contra Costa County, California ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

.East Shore and Suburban Railway Chronology
, ''

El Cerrito Historical Society EL, El or el may refer to: Religion * El (deity), a Semitic word for "God" People * EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer * El DeBarge, music artist * El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American po ...

'', June 2007. Retrieved August 15, 2007. Located in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

East Bay The East Bay is the eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa countie ...

region, Richmond borders San Pablo, Albany, El Cerrito and

Pinole Pinole, also called pinol or pinolillo, is roasted ground maize, which is then mixed with a combination of cocoa, agave, cinnamon, chia seeds, vanilla, or other spices. The resulting powder is then used as a nutrient-dense ingredient to make di ...

in addition to the

unincorporated communities An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

of North Richmond, Hasford Heights,

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

, El Sobrante, Bayview-Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, and East Richmond Heights, and for a short distance San Francisco on Red Rock Island in the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

. Richmond is one of two cities, the other being San Rafael, that sits on the shores of both

and

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water ch ...

. During

Gayle McLaughlin Gayle McLaughlin (born 1952) is an American politician from Richmond, California. She was first elected to the Richmond City Council in 2004 when she was a member of the Green Party of California. She won two consecutive four-year terms as the ...

's mayoralty, Richmond was the nation's largest city with a

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

mayor. Its population was 116,448 as of the 2020 census. Stegeaerial1930

Etymology

The name "Richmond" predates incorporation of the city by more than fifty years.

Edmund Randolph Edmund Jennings Randolph (August 10, 1753 September 12, 1813) was a Founding Father of the United States, attorney, and the 7th Governor of Virginia. As a delegate from Virginia, he attended the Constitutional Convention and helped to create ...

, originally from

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

, represented the city of San Francisco when California's first legislature met in San Jose in December 1849, and he became state assemblyman from San Francisco. Out of fondness for his hometown, Randolph persuaded a federal surveying party, surveying and mapping the San Francisco Bay, to place the names "Point Richmond" and "Richmond" on their 1854 geodetic coastal map. The map was used at the terminal selected by the

San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad The San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad was a California rail line between Stockton and Bakersfield constructed in the late 1890s and very shortly thereafter purchased by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad and became their Val ...

. By 1899 maps made by the railroad carried the name "Point Richmond Avenue", a county road that later became Barrett Avenue, a central street in Richmond. The

Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and ...

purchased the railroad making their terminus at Richmond. The first post office opened in 1900, and the city of Richmond incorporated in 1905.

History

The

Ohlone The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

were the first inhabitants of the Richmond-area, settling an estimated 5,000 years ago. They spoke the Chochenyo language, and subsisted as

hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

s and

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...

ers. The city of Richmond was carved out of

Rancho San Pablo Rancho San Pablo was a land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello to Francisco María Castro (1775–1831), a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio and one-time ''alcalde'' ...

, from which the nearby town of San Pablo inherited its name. Until the enactment of prohibition in 1919, the city had the largest

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

in the world; the small abandoned village of Winehaven remains fenced off along Western Drive in the Point Molate Area. From 1917 and throughout the 1920s, the

Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...

was active in the city. In 1930 the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

opened the Richmond Assembly Plant, which moved to

Milpitas Milpitas (Spanish for "little milpas") is a city in Santa Clara County, California, in Silicon Valley. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 80,273. The city's origins lie in Rancho Milpitas, granted to Californio ranchero José Marí ...

in 1956. The old Ford plant has been a National Historic Place since 1988. In 2004 it was purchased by developer Eddie Orton, who converted it into an events center (Ford Point Building–The Craneway). Richmond was a small town at that time, until the onset of World War II brought a rush of migrants and a boom in the industrial sector.

Standard Oil Standard Oil Company, Inc., was an American oil production, transportation, refining, and marketing company that operated from 1870 to 1911. At its height, Standard Oil was the largest petroleum company in the world, and its success made its co-f ...

set up operations there in 1901, including what is now the Chevron Richmond Refinery and

tank farm Tank Farm (sometimes Tuff Crater) is the name of a volcanic explosion crater (or maar) on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand, near the approaches to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Geology Part of the Auckland volcanic field, it was crea ...

, which

Chevron Chevron (often relating to V-shaped patterns) may refer to: Science and technology * Chevron (aerospace), sawtooth patterns on some jet engines * Chevron (anatomy), a bone * '' Eulithis testata'', a moth * Chevron (geology), a fold in rock ...

still operates. There is a pier into San Francisco Bay south of Point Molate for oil tankers. The

Santa Fe Railroad The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway , often referred to as the Santa Fe or AT&SF, was one of the larger railroads in the United States. The railroad was chartered in February 1859 to serve the cities of Atchison and Topeka, Kansas, and S ...

's western terminus was established in Richmond with ferry connections at Ferry Point in the Brickyard Cove area of

Point Richmond Point Richmond, also sometimes referred to locally as The Point, is a neighborhood in Richmond, California, United States, near the eastern end of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, between Interstate 580 and the San Francisco Bay. History O ...

to San Francisco. At the outset of World War II, the four

Richmond Shipyards The four Richmond Shipyards, in the city of Richmond, California, United States, were run by Permanente Metals and part of the Kaiser Shipyards. In World War II, Richmond built more ships than any other shipyard, turning out as many as three ships ...

were built along Richmond's waterfront, employing thousands of workers, many recruited from other parts of the country, including many African-Americans and women entering the workforce for the first time. Many of these workers lived in specially constructed houses scattered throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Richmond, Berkeley and Albany. A specially built rail line, the

Shipyard Railway The Shipyard Railway was an electric commuter rail/interurban line that served workers at the Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California, United States, during World War II. It was funded by the United States Maritime Commission and was built an ...

, transported workers to the shipyards. Kaiser's Richmond shipyards built 747

Victory The term victory (from Latin ''victoria'') originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal Duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitu ...

and

Liberty ship Liberty ships were a class of cargo ship built in the United States during World War II under the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. Though British in concept, the design was adopted by the United States for its simple, low-cost construction. Mass ...

s for the war effort, more than any other site in the U.S. The city broke many records and even built a Liberty ship in a record five days. On average the yards could build a ship in 30 days. The medical system established for the shipyard workers at the Richmond Field Hospital eventually became today's

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

HMO In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded heal ...

. It remained in operation until 1993, when it was replaced by the

Richmond Medical Center Kaiser Richmond Medical Center is a large Kaiser Permanente hospital in downtown Richmond, California which serves 77,000 members registered under its medical plans.

hospital, which has since expanded to a multi-building campus. Point Richmond was originally Richmond's commercial hub, but a new downtown arose in the center of the city. It was populated by department stores such as Kress, J.C. Penney,

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, and

Woolworth's Woolworth, Woolworth's, or Woolworths may refer to: Businesses * F. W. Woolworth Company, the original US-based chain of "five and dime" (5¢ and 10¢) stores * Woolworths Group (United Kingdom), former operator of the Woolworths chain of shops ...

. During the war Richmond's population increased dramatically, peaking at around 120,000 by 1945. When the war ended the shipyard workers were no longer needed, and a decades-long population decline ensued. The census listed 99,545 residents in 1950. By 1960 much of the temporary housing built for the shipyard workers was torn down, and the population dropped to about 71,000. Many Black Americans from the South and to a lesser extent the Midwest migrated to Richmond during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

to take up jobs as production in heavy industry and transport expanded to meet the needs of the war economy, while increased numbers of women in general also joined the industrial workforce as large numbers of working-age men were drafted for the war effort. In the early 1900s, the Santa Fe railroad established a major rail yard next to Point Richmond. It constructed a tunnel through the Potrero San Pablo ridge to run track from the yard to a ferry landing from which freight cars could be transshipped to San Francisco. Where this track crosses the main street in Point Richmond, there remain two of the last operational wigwag grade crossing signals in the United States, and the only surviving examples of the "upside-down" type. The wigwag is a type of railroad crossing signal that was phased out in the 1970s and '80s across the country. There was controversy in 2005 when the State Transportation Authority ordered the BNSF railroad company to upgrade the railroad crossing signals. A compromise was achieved that included installing new modern crossing gates, red lights and bells while not removing, but simply shutting off, the historic ones and preserving their functionality for special events. The

Pullman Company The Pullman Company, founded by George Pullman, was a manufacturer of railroad cars in the mid-to-late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, during the boom of railroads in the United States. Through rapid late-19th century d ...

also established a major facility in Richmond in the early 20th century. The facility connected with both the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific and serviced their passenger coach equipment. The Pullman Company was a large employer of African American men, who worked mainly as

porters Porters may refer to: * Porters, Virginia, an unincorporated community in Virginia, United States * Porters, Wisconsin, an unincorporated community in Wisconsin, United States * Porters Ski Area, a ski resort in New Zealand * ''Porters'' (TV ser ...

on the Pullman cars. Many of them settled in the East Bay, from Richmond to Oakland, before World War II. Just before his April 1968

assassination Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

had been working on plans for the

Poor People's Campaign The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCL ...

, including a multi-city tour of the U.S. with a stop in Richmond. His son,

Martin Luther King III Martin Luther King III (born October 23, 1957) is an American human rights activist, philanthropist and advocate. The oldest son and oldest living child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, King served as the 4t ...

, completed the Poverty in America Tour in 2007, stopping in Richmond. In the 1970s, the Hilltop area, including a large shopping mall, was developed in Richmond's northern suburbs, further depressing the downtown area as it drew retail clients and tenants away. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the Richmond Parkway was built along Richmond's western industrial and northwestern parkland, connecting Interstates 80 and 580. In 2006, the city celebrated its centennial. This coincided with the repaving and streetscaping project of

Macdonald Avenue Macdonald Avenue is the main east-to-west artery in Richmond, California. File:Richmondunderpass.jpg, An E&SR streetcar in the Macdonald Avenue subway in downtown Richmond, 1906 File:"4,000 Unit Housing Project Progress Photographs March 6,1943 to August 11, 1943, Looking down a street towards the... - NARA - 296755.tif, A 4,000-unit housing project was completed in Richmond during 1943. File:USNS General A.W. Greely (T-AP-141) at Thule, Greenland, on 19 July 1951 (NH 97108).jpg, , built in Richmond File:Wendy Welder Richmond Shipyards.jpg, A "Wendy the Welder" at the Kaiser

, contributing to the

war effort In politics and military planning, a war effort is a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force. Depending on the militarization of the culture, the relative size ...

Geography

Richmond is located at . According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (comprising 42.71%) is water. The city sits on of waterfront, more than any other city in the Bay Area.Statistics of Richmond, California
City Data.com The city borders

to the southwest and

to the northwest, and includes

Brooks Island Brooks Island Regional Preserve includes both the of Brooks Island above the low-tide line and of the surrounding bay. The only public access to the island is via an East Bay Regional Park District naturalist tour. Brooks Island is a mostly fla ...

and the Brother Islands entirely, and half of Red Rock Island. There are several cities and

surrounding or bordering Richmond. To the south is the city of Albany which is in

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and List ...

and the city of El Cerrito. The unincorporated communities of East Richmond Heights, Rollingwood, Hasford Heights, and El Sobrante lie to the east. North Richmond to the west and San Pablo to the east are almost entirely surrounded by Richmond's city limits. To the north, Richmond borders the city of

and the unincorporated areas of Bayview, Montalvin Manor, Hilltop Green, Tara Hills. Richmond borders

Alameda An alameda is a Avenue (landscape), street or path lined with trees () and may refer to: Places Canada *Alameda, Saskatchewan, town in Saskatchewan **Grant Devine Dam, formerly ''Alameda Dam'', a dam and reservoir in southern Saskatchewan Chile ...

, San Francisco, and

Marin Marin (French) or Marín (Spanish "sailor") may refer to: People * Marin (name), including a list of persons with the given name or surname * MaRin, in-game name of professional South Korean ''League of Legends'' player Jang Gyeong-hwan (born 19 ...

counties in the Bay and Red Rock Island. The city is within the 94801, 94803, 94804, 94805, and 94806 ZIP Codes.City of Richmond Geographic Information System Viewer
. Retrieved August 1, 2007. Richmond-California-aerial

Climate

Richmond, like much of the coastal

, enjoys a very mild

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...

year round. The climate is slightly warmer than the coastal areas of San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin County; it is however more temperate than areas further inland. The average highs range from and the lows between year round.Average Weather for Richmond, California
Weather.com. Richmond usually enjoys an "

Indian summer An Indian summer is a period of unseasonably warm, dry weather that sometimes occurs in autumn in temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several sources describe a true Indian summer as not occurring until after the first frost, or more s ...

", and September is, on average, the warmest month. January is on average the coldest month. The highest recorded temperature in Richmond was in September 1971 while the coldest was in December 1990. The rainy season begins in late October and ends in April, with some showers in May. Most of the rain occurs during stronger storms which occur between November and March and drop of rain per month. January and February are the rainiest months. Like most of the Bay Area, Richmond is made up of several

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

s. Southern parts of the city and the ridges receive more

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...

than northern areas. Summer temperatures are higher in inland areas, where the moderating influence of San Francisco Bay is lessened. The average wind speed is with stronger winds from March through August; the strongest winds are in June. The city also enjoys more than 80% sunshine seven months out of the year and ten months with 60% or more. December and January are the darkest months with about 45% average brightness. The city experiences virtually no snowfall, and brief hail annually.

Environment

Richmond is home to many species of animals.

Canada geese The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

visit the city on their annual migrations.

Harbor seal The harbor (or harbour) seal (''Phoca vitulina''), also known as the common seal, is a true seal found along temperate and Arctic marine coastlines of the Northern Hemisphere. The most widely distributed species of pinniped (walruses, eared sea ...

s live on the Castro Rocks, and pigeons and

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the family Laridae in the suborder Lari. They are most closely related to the terns and skimmers and only distantly related to auks, and even more distantly to waders. Until the 21st century, m ...

s populate the sidewalks and parking lots. Tadpoles and frogs can be found in the local creeks and vernal pools. Field mice and lizards are also found.

Heron The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...

s and

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

s nest in protected areas on Brooks Island.

Deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

s, ducks, foxes, owls, and

mountain lion The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. I ...

s live in Wildcat Canyon and

Point Pinole Regional Shoreline Point Pinole Regional Shoreline is a regional park on the shores of the San Pablo Bay, California (the northern arm of the San Francisco Bay), in the United States. It is approximately in area, and is operated by the East Bay Regional Park Dis ...

. A license is needed for fishing on the waterfront or city waters but not on the piers, where in addition to crabs,

sturgeon Sturgeon is the common name for the 27 species of fish belonging to the family Acipenseridae. The earliest sturgeon fossils date to the Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretace ...

are plentiful and manta rays may also be found.

Striped bass The striped bass (''Morone saxatilis''), also called the Atlantic striped bass, striper, linesider, rock, or rockfish, is an anadromous perciform fish of the family Moronidae found primarily along the Atlantic coast of North America. It has al ...

bat ray The bat ray (''Myliobatis californica'')Gill, T.N. (1865). "Note on the family of myliobatoids, and on a new species of ''Aetobatis''". ''Ann. Lyc. Nat. Hist. N. Y.'' 8, 135–138. is an eagle ray found in muddy or sandy sloughs, estuaries and ...

leopard shark The leopard shark (''Triakis semifasciata'') is a species of houndshark, in the family Triakidae. It is found along the Pacific coast of North America, from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico. Typically measuring 1.2–1.5 m (3.9� ...

s, surf

perch Perch is a common name for fish of the genus ''Perca'', freshwater gamefish belonging to the family Percidae. The perch, of which three species occur in different geographical areas, lend their name to a large order of vertebrates: the Percif ...

jacksmelt ''Atherinopsis californiensis'', the jack silverside or jacksmelt,Leo PinkasCalifornia Marine Fish Landings For 1972 and Designated Common Names of Certain Marine Organisms of California fish bulletin 161, Marine Resources Region, 1974 is a speci ...

white croaker White croaker (''Genyonemus lineatus'') is a species of croaker occurring in the Eastern Pacific. White croakers have been taken from Magdalena Bay, Baja California, to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, but are not abundant north of San Francis ...

, and

flounder Flounders are a group of flatfish species. They are demersal fish, found at the bottom of oceans around the world; some species will also enter estuaries. Taxonomy The name "flounder" is used for several only distantly related species, thou ...

s are also found. Richmond is one of the few places where you can find the rare

Olympia oyster ''Ostrea lurida'', common name the Olympia oyster, after Olympia, Washington in the Puget Sound area, is a species of edible oyster, a marine bivalve mollusk in the family Ostreidae. This species occurs on the northern Pacific coast of North A ...

on the West Coast, in the waters along the refinery's shoreline.

Rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

have recently returned to San Pablo and Wildcat creeks.

Red-tailed hawk The red-tailed hawk (''Buteo jamaicensis'') is a bird of prey that breeds throughout most of North America, from the interior of Alaska and northern Canada to as far south as Panama and the West Indies. It is one of the most common members with ...

s patrol the skies.

Monarch butterflies The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...

migrate through the city on their journey between Mexico and Canada. Wildcat Marsh has two ponds where Canada geese often rest, and is also the home of the endangered

salt marsh harvest mouse The salt marsh harvest mouse (''Reithrodontomys raviventris''), also known as the red-bellied harvest mouse, is an endangered rodent endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area salt marshes in California. The two distinct subspecies are both endangere ...

and

California clapper rail Ridgway's rail (''Rallus obsoletus'') is a near-threatened species of bird. It is found principally in California's San Francisco Bay to southern Baja California. A member of the rail family, Rallidae, it is a chicken-sized bird that rarely fli ...

. Another endangered species in the city is the

Santa Cruz tarweed ''Holocarpha macradenia'', commonly known as the Santa Cruz tarplant, is an endangered plant endemic to Northern California.

which survives alongside Interstate 80. Wildcat Canyon also hosts falcons and vultures. Threatened black rails also live in the city's marshes. River otter Richmond Marina Scott Campbell July 29, 2010

River otter Richmond Marina Scott Campbell July 29, 2010

After a baby

gray whale The gray whale (''Eschrichtius robustus''), also known as the grey whale,Britannica Micro.: v. IV, p. 693. gray back whale, Pacific gray whale, Korean gray whale, or California gray whale, is a baleen whale that migrates between feeding and bree ...

was beached on the Point Richmond shore in May 2007, its rotting corpse became bothersome to neighbors. Removal was delayed as various agencies argued over which would have to pay for it, at an eventual cost of $18,000. Richmond is also home to one of the last pristine moist grassland habitats in the entire Bay Area at the former

Campus Bay Campus Bay is a baylet of the Richmond Inner Harbor in Richmond, California formed by conflicting drainage on opposite ends from Meeker Slough Creek and Baxter Creek's deltas Meeker Slough and Stege Marsh Stege Marsh, also known as the South Ri ...

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

Field Station near Meeker Slough.Save The Bay's "Creeks to the Bay" Restoration Vision for Eastshore State Park
well.com. Retrieved August 1, 2007. Richmond residents, however, have limited access to other environmental benefits. Because of the refineries located in Richmond, air quality is particularly low, and residents are especially at risk of air-pollution-related health issues. In 2006, the city was sued by an environmental group for dumping raw

sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

into the Bay. Councilmember Tom Butt was very vocal on the subject, accusing the city council of turning a blind eye to the problem.Sewage Leaks
, Richmond Councilman Tom Butt can't keep his mouth shut, bless him. Wikipedians poke at Dick Pombo's bio; and mystery fliers sully mayor's race, by Will Harper, ''

East Bay Express The ''East Bay Express'' is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is distributed throughout Alameda County and parts of Contra Costa County every Wednesday. The ''E ...

'', March 1, 2006. Retrieved August 1, 2007. Mayor McLaughlin has set a goal of installing five megawatts of solar photovoltaic generation in Richmond.A Step Toward "Cleaning and Greening" Richmond
, MSH Properties' Richmond Cooperative Advances City's 5-Megawatt Solar Energy Goal, Borrego Solar, May 3, 2007. Retrieved August 2, 2007.

Crime

The city has in the past suffered from a high crime rate; at one point, the city council requested a declaration of a state of emergency and asked for the intervention of the Contra Costa County Sheriff and the

California Highway Patrol The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a state law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has primary patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and roads and streets outside city limits, and can exercise law enfor ...

. Murder, vehicle theft, and larceny rates remain high, although they tend to be concentrated in the Iron Triangle and adjacent unincorporated North Richmond, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Richmond Police Department. By 1991, the city's all-time high of 62 homicides, among a population of 98,000, was seven times the national average. The portion of these homicides that were drug- or gang-related increased from 5 percent to 55 percent between 1989 and 1991. Despite the city making extreme headway in crime reduction and prevention, Richmond received widespread attention in 2009 when a girl was gang raped at a homecoming dance at Richmond High School. In 2007, Richmond opened a program to prevent gun violence, the Office of Neighborhood Safety. The program collects information and analyzes public records to determine "the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone and to be shot themselves." It then offers selected individuals "a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around". "Over an 18-month period, if the men demonstrate better behavior, ONS offers them up to $1,000 a month in cash, plus opportunities to travel beyond Richmond." In 2004, Richmond was ranked the 12th most dangerous city in America. Those rankings have changed, and Richmond is no longer ranked as a "most dangerous" city, in either California or the United States. This is in large part due to the efforts of Police Chief Chris Magnus, who established "community policing", which involves police officers engaging with affected high crime communities.

Disasters

Richmond lies in the volatile California region that has a potential for devastating earthquakes. Many buildings were damaged in the 1989

Loma Prieta earthquake The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred on California's Central Coast on October 17 at local time. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately northeast of Santa Cruz on a section of t ...

. The city has also had at least one minor tornado. The Chevron Richmond Refinery had highly noted chemical leaks in the 1990s. The company has been fined thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of dollars.Chevron Fined Over March Blast, Fire
, Sfgate.com, ''San Francisco Chronicle'', September 17, 1999. In a July 26, 1993, industrial accident, a

General Chemical Tata Chemicals Limited is an Indian global company with interests in chemicals, crop protection and specialty chemistry products headquartered in Mumbai, India. The company is one of the largest chemical companies in India with operations in In ...

company rail tanker car containing

oleum Oleum (Latin ''oleum'', meaning oil), or fuming sulfuric acid, is a term referring to solutions of various compositions of sulfur trioxide in sulfuric acid, or sometimes more specifically to disulfuric acid (also known as pyrosulfuric acid). Ole ...

overheated and exploded in the General Chemical railyard. This resulted in a area contaminated with the poisonous gas, and led to 25,000 people landing in the hospital. The incident led to lawsuits, and has been referred to as a mini-

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

Richmond marina bay shore closure - oil spill

The city's shoreline and wildlife were seriously affected by the 2007 San Francisco Bay oil spill. Beaches and shoreline were closed, but later reopened.Oil Spill Information
, City of Richmond website. Retrieved December 18, 2007. Keller Beach was closed to public access for swimmers. On April 15, 2010, a

sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...

roughly deep appeared at the intersection of El Portal Drive and Via Verdi. Although no one was hurt, a car fell into the sinkhole.Richmond Sinkhole Fix Could Cost $7.5 Million
, CBS Local News, April 28, 2010. Retrieved August 12, 2010. On August 6, 2012, a fire erupted in the Chevron refinery, resulting in 15,000 residents in the surrounding area seeking medical treatment. There are 17 emergency warning sirens in the city; they are tested on the first Wednesday of every month, at 11 am, and are usually used to warn of toxic chemical releases from the Chevron Richmond Refinery.

Demographics

2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race.''

2010

The

2010 United States census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators servin ...

reported that Richmond had a population of 103,701. The population density was . The racial makeup of Richmond was 32,590 (31.4%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 27,542 (26.6%)

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

, 662 (0.6%) Native American, 13,984 (13.5%)

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

(4.0%

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

, 3.5%

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

, 1.6% Laotian, 1.2%

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

, 0.7%

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

, 0.6%

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

, 0.4%

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.1%

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

), 537 (0.5%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

, 22,573 (21.8%) from

other races Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * ''The Other'' (1930 film), a ...

, and 5,813 (5.6%) from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

of any race were 40,921 persons (39.5%). Among the Hispanic population, 27.3% were of

Mexican Mexican may refer to: Mexico and its culture *Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America ** People *** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants *** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...

origin, 4.7%

Salvadoran Salvadorans (Spanish: ''Salvadoreños''), also known as Salvadorians (alternate spelling: Salvadoreans), are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvado ...

, 1.7% Guatemalan, and 1.2%

Nicaraguan Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

heritage. The census reported that 102,118 people (98.5% of the population) lived in households, 670 (0.6%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 913 (0.9%) were institutionalized. There were 36,093 households, out of which 13,487 (37.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 14,502 (40.2%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 6,931 (19.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 2,585 (7.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 2,538 (7.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 427 (1.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 9,546 households (26.4%) were made up of individuals, and 2,707 (7.5%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.83. There were 24,018

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

(66.5% of all households); the average family size was 3.43. The age distribution of the population shows 25,800 people (24.9%) under the age of 18, 10,364 people (10.0%) aged 18 to 24, 30,846 people (29.7%) aged 25 to 44, 26,109 people (25.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 10,582 people (10.2%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.8 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.0 males. There were 39,328 housing units at an average density of , of which 36,093 were occupied, of which 18,659 (51.7%) were owner-occupied, and 17,434 (48.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 8.1%. 52,683 people (50.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 49,435 people (47.7%) lived in rented housing. The population of Richmond was 22% African-American as of 2015, while it was 44% African-American in 1990.

2000

As of the census of 2000, there were 99,216 people, 34,625 households, and 23,025 families in the city. The population density was . There were 36,044 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 36.06%

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

, 21.36%

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 0.64% Native American, 12.29%

, 0.50%

, 13.86% from

, and 5.27% from two or more races. 26.53% of the population were

, of any race. Of the 34,625 households, 33.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.5% were married couples living together, 20.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.5% were non-families. 26.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.82 and the average family size was 3.44. In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 27.7% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 31.4% from 25 to 44, 21.2% from 45 to 64, and 9.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males. The median income for a household in the city was $44,210, and the median income for a family was $46,659. Males had a median income of $37,389 versus $34,204 for females. The per capita income for the city was $19,788. About 13.4% of families and 16.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.1% of those under age 18 and 11.8% of those age 65 or over. 75.4% of inhabitants over the age of 25 were high school graduates, while 22.4% had bachelor's degrees, and 8.3% had a graduate or professional degree. 7.7% of the population was unemployed and those who were employed took, on average, 34.3 minutes to commute to their place of work. 33.2% of the population aged 15 and over has never married, while 46.3% is currently wed. 11.1% have already divorced, 3.1% is currently separated, and 6.4% has been widowed. 20.6% of the population was born outside the U.S., of which 15.4% were born in Latin America and 8.7% in Asia. During the day the population shrinks by 6.2% due to commuting while 23.3% of the population works within the city limits. 20.5% of the jobs in the city are in the educational, health, and social service fields, while 10.9% are professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste disposal, and 10.4% are in retail. 7.0% of Richmonders are veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces compared with 10.9% nationally. 33.2% are foreign born while 12.4% are nationwide. 48.1% of men and 43.2% of women are married; 55.9 and 51% of Americans are respectively. Nearly half (46.7%) speak a language other than the English language at home. 65.3% are employed, even with the national average. The average household income is US$52,794; $6,552 higher than the national average. The average family makes 57,931 dollars while the average American household makes 55,832 dollars. The per capita income is 22,326 compared with 25,035 federally.Richmond Fact Sheet
, U.S. Census Bureau. Among Richmond residents, 64.56% residents speak English, 23.13% speak Spanish, 2.11% speak Tagalog, 1.75% speak Chinese, 1.20% speak Miao–Mien, 1.12% speak Laotian, 0.72% speak Punjabi, 0.54% speak

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

, 0.51% speak French, 0.5% speak

, 3.49% speak other languages, none of which represents more than half of one percent of the population.Richmond, California entry
, MLA Data Center. Retrieved October 21, 2007.

Economy

Many industries have been and are still sited in Richmond. It had a

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

and

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). ...

works (the

Giant Powder Company The Giant Powder Company was an explosives manufacturing company which operated from the mid 19th century through the first half of the 20th century, located in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. The Giant Powder Company was the first com ...

, closed in 1960, now the site of

), the last active

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

station in the country at Point Molate (closed in 1971), and one of the world's largest

wineries A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, b ...

( Winehaven), closed by

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

in 1919. During World War II, Richmond developed rapidly as a heavy industrial town, chiefly devoted to

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

. Its major activity now is as a

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...

, with 26 million

ton Ton is the name of any one of several units of measure. It has a long history and has acquired several meanings and uses. Mainly it describes units of weight. Confusion can arise because ''ton'' can mean * the long ton, which is 2,240 pounds ...

s of goods shipped through Port Richmond in 1993, mostly oil and petroleum products. The seaport is also home to a major oil refinery operated by

Chevron Corporation Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil, and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California (shortened to Socal or CalSo), it is headquartered in S ...

. The

Social Security Administration The United States Social Security Administration (SSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government that administers Social Security (United ...

employs over 1,000 at its regional office and program service center in Downtown Richmond.

Richmond Medical Center Kaiser Richmond Medical Center is a large Kaiser Permanente hospital in downtown Richmond, California which serves 77,000 members registered under its medical plans.

hospital in the Downtown Richmond is one of the largest employers in the city. Galaxy Desserts is run and operated in the city. Vetrazzo, an award-winning green business that manufactures Recycled Glass Countertops out of waste glass such as beer bottles and old traffic lights, is located in the refurbished Ford Assembly Plant.Vetrazzo About
Treeskunk Productions a video game animation studio is based in the town. Bay View recording studios are located in the city, and have worked with artists such as

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994, and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). With Harwell's depar ...

. Photon Films, LLC, a video production and editing studio, is located in Harborfront area along the southeast shoreline.

Shopping

The Hilltop District includes

Prologis Hilltop Center Hilltop Horizon, formerly known as Hilltop Mall, East Bay Science and Technology Center and The Shops At Hilltop, was a regional shopping center in the Hilltop neighborhood of Richmond, California. Hilltop is managed and co-owned by Prologis ...

which had planned renovations, beginning with the addition of

99 Ranch Market 99 Ranch Market () is an American supermarket chain owned by Tawa Supermarket Inc., which is based in Buena Park, California. 99 Ranch has 54 stores (as of June 2021), primarily in California, with other stores in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Ne ...

, which have since been canceled. Two of their long time anchors,

and

, both ceased operations there in 2020 and 2021 respectively. This leaves the mall with one last existing anchor of the

Wal-Mart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

department store. Furthermore, the area is home to Hilltop

Auto Mall An auto row or auto mall is a business cluster with multiple car dealerships in a single neighborhood or road. Auto rows are distinct from car supermarkets which are a single, large dealership. Economics Auto rows, like mall food courts, are an ...

, a 16-screen

Century Theatres Century Theatres is a movie theater chain that operates many multiplexes in the western United States, primarily in California, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. In its later years, it had expanded into the inter-mountain states, t ...

alongside, Hilltop Plaza Shopping Center. The 23rd Street business district has evolved into a predominantly Latino neighborhood over the last twenty years as have the storefronts.23rd Street Corridor Visioning and Form-Based Code: Charette Summary Report Richmond, California
. City of Richmond website. August 26, 2009. Retrieved May 22, 2011. In the Downtown Richmond District the Richmond Shopping Center was built as part of the city's "''main street''" revitalization efforts. It is anchored by a

Foods Co. Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the ...

supermarket and a

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

pharmacy. The

Macdonald 80 Shopping Center Macdonald 80 Shopping Center, or Macdonald 80, is a 200,000 sq. ft. (18,580m³) regional shopping mall in the North & East (Central Richmond), Richmond, California, North & East neighborhood

is a commercial plot along the trunk route of Macdonald Avenue which has been designated the city's main street under the aforementioned program. It was once anchored by the now-defunct Montgomery Wards and a Toys"R"Us. Demolition of the former buildings and construction of a new shopping mall were completed in 2006 and the center is now anchored by a

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

store.

Richmond Annex and Southwest Annex

"Big-box" stores already in the city include

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

in the Point Isabel area and a

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...

which is partially in Richmond. A controversial

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawai ...

department store has been proposed for Point Isabel. (See Point Isabel)New Kohl's store proposed for Richmond
by Katherine Tam,

Contra Costa Times The ''East Bay Times'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California, United States, owned by the Bay Area News Group (BANG), a subsidiary of Media News Group, that serves Contra Costa and Alameda counties, in the East Bay ...

, May 30, 2008. Retrieved August 8, 2008.

Redevelopment

The former

were transformed starting in the late 1980s into a multiunit residential area, Marina Bay. Starting in the early 2000s, the city began an aggressive redevelopment effort spurring exurban tract housing, condominiums, townhomes, a

transit village A transit village is a pedestrian-friendly mixed-use district or neighborhood oriented around the station of a high-quality transit system, such as rail or B.R.T. Often a civic square of public space abuts the train station, functioning as the hu ...

, and terraced hillside subdivisions. The city also created a

redevelopment agency A redevelopment agency is a government body dedicated to urban renewal. Typically it is a municipal level city department focused on a particular district or corridor that has become neglected or blighted (a community redevelopment agency or CRA) ...

that refurbished

Macdonald Avenue Macdonald Avenue is the main east-to-west artery in Richmond, California.Macdonald 80 Shopping Center Macdonald 80 Shopping Center, or Macdonald 80, is a 200,000 sq. ft. (18,580m³) regional shopping mall in the North & East (Central Richmond), Richmond, California, North & East neighborhood

, and created the

Richmond Greenway The Richmond Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in Richmond, California.rails-to-trails A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetcar ...

trail and

urban farming Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. It encompasses a complex and diverse mix of food production activities, including fisheries and for ...

project. Since 1996, new homes have increased in price by 32%, and there has been a 65.6% increase in the total amount of new dwellings built annually. Country Club Vista is a development surrounding the Richmond Country Club to the south and north. It includes suburban style tract houses with cul-de-sac courts and small yards. Seacliff, at Point Richmond, is a development of luxury waterfront homes built on a terraced hillside. San Marcos is a series of about ten condominium multistory buildings between The Shops at Hilltop and Country Club Vista. Richmond Transit Village has been constructed in the former west parking lot and an adjacent empty lot of the combined Richmond BART and Amtrak station. The development is part of the city's downtown revitalization efforts.

Richmond CARES

On September 11, 2013, the seven-member Richmond City Council, in a four-to-three vote, decided to pursue a scheme for using

eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...

to buy out mortgages. The vote was on "

etting Etting (; ; Lorraine Franconian: ''Ettinge'') is a commune in the Moselle department of the Grand Est administrative region in north-eastern France. The village belongs to the Pays de Bitche. See also * Communes of the Moselle department The ...

up a Joint Powers Authority to bring more cities into the plan". However, at least five votes would be needed before any mortgage could actually be bought out.

North Las Vegas, Nevada North Las Vegas is a suburban city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, in the Las Vegas Valley. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 216,961, with an estimated population of 251,974 in 2019. The city was incorporated on May 1, 19 ...

and California governments including El Monte

Fontana Fontana may refer to: Places Italy *Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone *Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone *Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino *Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi * ...

, the city of

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

and

San Bernardino County San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,181, ...

had considered such plans but decided not to pursue them. The vote made Richmond the first to accept the idea. The plan had been opposed by the vice-mayor and some members of the city council, who said it would "compromise" the city's finances. Critics of the plan noted that the company Mortgage Resolution Partners stood to potentially profit: it would receive $4,500 from the new lenders for each refinanced mortgage for arranging the financing to purchase the original loans and for handling all legal, administrative, and refinancing operations (an amount matching what lenders are compensated for under the Federal HARP loan modification program). Critics also questioned the inclusion of wealthy neighborhoods such as "the area near the Richmond Country Club". The Western Contra Costa Association of Realtors hired a public relations agency and sent mass mailings warning against the scheme; its advertising was "funded, in part, by more than $70,000 from the California Association of Realtors and the National Associations of Realtors."

Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (), sometimes referred to simply as Deutsche, is a German multinational investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Sto ...

and

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

had sued, claiming the program was unconstitutional. " e National Housing Law Project, Housing and Economic Rights Advocates, Bay Area Legal Aid, the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, and the California Reinvestment Coalition" opposed the suit, calling the banks' request for an injunction against the city "discrimination in violation of the Fair Housing Act". Supporters of the plan include the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment and Robert Hockett, a professor of law at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Casinos

Many casinos have been proposed for the West Contra Costa area. Point Molate would have a casino, resort, and a luxury shopping mall.

Sugar Bowl Casino Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double s ...

proposes a casino, a steakhouse, and a buffet promoted by the Pomo Tribe's Scotts Valley Band near the border between North Richmond and the city of Richmond's Parchester Village, whose residents have lauded it as a boon to fighting crime by adding more of a police presence and creating jobs for shiftless youth, but residents from neighboring newly developed sub-divisions along the Richmond Country Club were fervently opposed based on potential losses to property values. Casino San Pablo has already been built in neighboring San Pablo, with 2,500 slots. The projects have been the subject of much civic debate; supporters contend that the often cash-strapped government would get a major new source of revenue, while opponents air their concerns over the ramifications, including an increase in already high crime rates, lowered property values, and worsening neighborhood quality of life. Point Molate is currently slated to either become a housing and conference center, a

casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

resort shopping area, or a large regional park. In 2010, the city approved the environmental review of the plan in which the tribe agreed to contain development of the casino to the footprint of the buildings on the former naval depot site.Richmond rejects tribe's plans for casino resort
Carolyn Jones. San Francisco Chronicle. April 7, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2011. The lobbying and reports required by Richmond have cost the tribe $15 million. This approval won over the region's strict environmentalists and many council members. Later that year residents were given the opportunity to weigh in on the issue and voted on the non-binding measure U to determine their approval of the project. 58% of voters opposed the $1 billion project. Citing the people's opposition and the inability to negotiate several key points with the developer, the city council voted down the project in 2011. Councilman Nat Bates remained a proponent of the plan with its projected 17,000 jobs, while the remainder of the council was chagrined at the fact that there was no guarantee that the jobs would go to Richmonders. The city of San Pablo, whose lifeline is their card club,

Casino San Pablo Casino San Pablo is a Native American reservation with a gambling hall located in San Pablo, California.

, was elated. The

Guideville Band of Pomo Indians The Guideville Band of Pomo Indians is a Native American tribe of the Pomo Indians of northern California.

Government

The Richmond city government operates under a council-manager system with seven members (including mayor and vice mayor) elected to alternating four-year terms. Politically, the city is a Democratic stronghold. By the early 1990s, not a single

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

remained on the council. The city council has four African Americans, four whites and two Latinos. The position of Mayor rotated between members of the Richmond City Council until 1981, when the office became an elected position. George D. Carroll, who was voted by the City Council to become Mayor on July 6, 1964, was described at the time as "the first Negro mayor in California and first in America with the exception of small, scattered all-Negro communities in the Deep South,".

George Livingston George Livingston (c. 1933 – January 7, 2012) was an American politician who served as the first elected African American Mayor of Richmond, California, from 1985 to 1993. Livingston was appointed Mayor in 1985 by the city council. He won ele ...

Sr. was the first elected African American mayor. He served from 1985 to 1993.

Rosemary Corbin Rosemary Corbin is a longstanding Democratic public figure and former mayor of Richmond, California.

served as the mayor from 1993 to 2001. The current mayor

Thomas K. Butt Thomas King Butt is an American politician and architect serving as the sixth mayor of Richmond, California. He was vice-mayor in 2002 and 2012 and a member of the Richmond city council, City Council for over 20 years before being elected mayor. ...

was elected Mayor of Richmond in 2015 with more than 50 percent of the vote. Prior to winning the mayoral election, he served on the Richmond City Council for 20 years (from 1995 to 2015) and served as the city's vice-mayor in 2002 and 2012. Years of political domination by the local firefighters union subsided after an

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

corruption investigation. In the early 2000s

was the first Green elected to the council, with the support of the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), a coalition of liberal Democrats, progressive independents, and Greens. In November 2006, McLaughlin was elected mayor, defeating incumbent first-term Mayor

Irma Anderson Irma L. Anderson was the elected mayor of the city of Richmond, California serving between 2001 and 2006. She ran for re-election as the incumbent Democrat in the 2006 mayoral race and lost to Green Party challenger councilperson Gayle McLaughl ...

. In 2006, the city implemented a computer program that it had ordered from a German firm that provides the city with statistical interactive maps. These maps cover such areas as signage locations, streets, crime hot-spots, and zoning information. In 2007 the city won a contest in which its previously substandard website was upgraded and improved to make it more modern and functional. The prize includes two years of free webmastering. There has recently been controversy regarding appointments of councilpersons Sandhu and Thurmond who were not elected at-large or were appointed to the ballot on a Yes/No basis. Recently Mayor McLaughlin and Councilperson Butt have opposed Chevron's Renewal Project that would replace their 1950's era Hydrogen Manufacturing plant with a newer more efficient plant and would increase pollution by using dirtier, thicker, but cheaper crude oil. The city of Richmond has eight community centers which are located within city parks. Many of the city's community centers were closed in the early 2000s following budget miscalculations and financial difficulties. In the 2006 city elections many candidates ran on platforms promising to reopen these community centers, most of which had been closed due to budget cuts. That election also featured a city sales tax increase, Measure Q, which failed. There are 53 voting precincts in Richmond. During the regular election on November 7, 2006, 21,575 of 37,605 (57.37%) registered voters cast their ballots.OFFICIAL RESULTS OF THE 2006 MUNICIPAL ELECTION HELD ON NOVEMBER 7, 2006
. Retrieved August 2, 2007. Richmond has formerly been home to black culture and activist movements, most notably the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

Cannabis

The city has eight

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

dispensaries, and although the city has passed legislation approving them and has legalized their presence, city management does not accept their legality. In fact, the city had sued to close them. It is trying to enforce an injunction that would suspend their operating licenses. Although the city council has passed an ordinance permitting the dispensaries, city management refuses to cooperate with the spirit of the law because it has yet to take effect. The question remains whether the clubs will be closed before the law allowing them to open takes effect. In 2019 the city approved "Power Plant Park" a marijuana farm consisting of 45 greenhouses on 18 acres north of North Richmond near

Breuner Marsh The Dotson Family Marsh, formerly Breuner Marsh, is a 238-acre (96 ha)California Secretary of State The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's other constitutional officers; the officeho ...

, as of February 10, 2019, Richmond has 52,364 registered voters. Of those, 33,166 (63.3%) are registered Democrats, 2,979 (5.7%) are registered Republicans, 14,108 (26.9%) have

declined to state Decline to State (DTS) was an affiliation designation on the California voter registration form that allows voters to register to vote without choosing a party affiliation. It is similar to what in other states would be called declaring oneself as ...

a political party, and 4.1% are registered members of a third party.

Education

The public schools in Richmond are administered by the

West Contra Costa Unified School District The West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD; formerly known as Richmond School District) is the school district for western Contra Costa County, California. It is based in Richmond, California. In addition to Richmond, the district co ...

, formerly the Richmond Unified School District. There are also many private schools, mostly Catholic schools under the authority of the

Diocese of Oakland The Diocese of Oakland ( la, Diœcesis Quercopolitana) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern California. The diocese comprises Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in the San Francisco Bay Area. Th ...

. The city has four high schools:

De Anza High School De Anza High School is a secondary school located in Richmond, California, United States, named after Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza. It is part of the West Contra Costa Unified School District and serves northeast Richmond, the unincorpor ...

Salesian College Preparatory Salesian College Preparatory (formerly Salesian High School and Salesian House of Studies) is a private, Roman Catholic, co-educational, college-preparatory high school in Richmond, California, United States. Established in 1927, it is part of t ...

, Richmond High School, and Kennedy High School. In addition, there are four charter high schools, Making Waves Academy, Aspire Richmond California College Preparatory Academy, Leadership Public Schools: Richmond and West County Community High School, although West County Community High School was shut down in 2012. In 2012, Richmond Charter Academy, part of the Amethod Public Schools system, opened a charter middle school. There are also three middle schools, 16 elementary schools, and seven elementary-middle schools. Richmond also hosts three adult education schools. The

Contra Costa Community College District The Contra Costa Community College District is a community college district that encompasses three community colleges in Contra Costa County, California - Contra Costa College, Diablo Valley College and Los Medanos College. The headquarters is i ...

serves all of Contra Costa County, and Richmonders who decide to attend a community college typically go to

Contra Costa College Contra Costa College is a public community college in San Pablo, California. It is the west campus of the Contra Costa Community College District. It is part of the California community colleges system, one of the three college systems in Califor ...

, located in the neighboring city of San Pablo. 79.8% of Richmonders have a high school diploma or equivalent, compared with 84.2% nationally. But 27.1% have a bachelor's degree compared with a statistically similar 27.2% nationally. Since an exit exam requirement was implemented for California high schools, the

CAHSEE The California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE) was an examination created by the California Department of Education, that was previously mandated to administer in high schools statewide in order to graduate. The examination was suspended in ...

, some Richmond high school students have been protesting against it. Some students sued the district in an attempt to eliminate the requirement. In July 2007, a compromise was reached in which the district would provide two additional years of educational assistance for the purposes of passing the exam. That year, only 28% of Richmond High School students had passed the CAHSEE, a prerequisite for graduating.

Obesity

All Richmond schools have banned junk food, such as candy, soda,

Twinkies A Twinkie is an American snack cake, described as "golden sponge cake with a creamy filling". It was formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. The brand is currently owned by Hostess Brands, Inc. (), having been formerly owned by privat ...

, pizza, and other similar items in attempt to curb

childhood obesity Childhood obesity is a condition where excess body fat negatively affects a child's health or well-being. As methods to determine body fat directly are difficult, the diagnosis of obesity is often based on BMI. Due to the rising prevalence of ...

and change children's eating habits. It has been speculated that this was done preemptively, because some believe the state will soon mandate such restrictions. Despite these efforts, soda consumption in Richmond schools has not diminished.City Council moves forward with soda tax
Alexis Kenyon, ''

Richmond Confidential Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

'', December 12, 2011. Retrieved December 25, 2011 Furthermore, the current 32% of Richmond children who are obese will increase the current 24% adult obesity rate to 42% according to the

Contra Costa County Health Services Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland ...

. This led the city council to approve a referendum on a 1 cent per ounce tax on beverages with a high sugar content for the 2012 elections, a first in the nation. The measure was opposed by councilmembers Corky Boozé and

Nat Bates Nathaniel Bates is a former mayor and eight-term city councilman of Richmond, California in addition to being a former professional baseball player in the Canadian League in his earlier years. History He arrived in Richmond in 1942 by train f ...

, who stated that he knew "many obese people that are perfectly healthy" and that it was "elitist" and "targeted black" people respectively. Members

Jovanka Beckles The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a left-wing multi-tendency socialist and labor-oriented political organization. Its roots are in the Socialist Party of America (SPA), whose leaders included Eugene V. Debs, Norman Thomas and Mich ...

and Jeff Ritterman – the latter a cardiologist – expressed horror at the obesity rate. Beckles chastized the other black members (Bates and Boozé) for not supporting the measure, as she found that the epidemic most affected people of color like themselves. The revenues would have been used to counter obesity through health and fitness campaigns and expenditures. The referendum was defeated by voters in the November 2012 election.

Attractions and landmarks

The city of Richmond has dozens of parks, national historic parks, and 10 sites listed under the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, a neighborhood in Richmond, is known for its small-town appearance. ''The Point'', as it is known by locals, offers owner-operated stores, coffee shops, historic benches, and streetlights.

The Masquers Playhouse The Masquers Playhouse (formerly the Point Richmond Village Playhouse) is an 89-seat community theatre in Point Richmond in Contra Costa County, California. It is home to the Masquers, a local performing group that has been in production since 19 ...

is a performing arts center that offers shows and productions year round. Hotel Mac is one of the oldest buildings in the area and has classic early 20th century architecture, like many other buildings in the area. There is also

The Plunge The Richmond Municipal Natatorium, commonly known as The Plunge or The Richmond Plunge, is a historic swim center in the Point Richmond, Richmond, California, Point Richmond neighborhood of Richmond, California. It was closed in August 2001 for ...

, a natatorium which had been closed due to seismic safety issues but was re-opened in August 2010 after the retrofitting was completed. The city expressed a desire to demolish the building at one point, but this was halted by the actions of a neighborhood preservation campaign which continues its mission to "''Save the Plunge!''". The Ferry Point Tunnel is one of the oldest tunnels in California. Built in 1899, this structure still gives access to many attractions and neighborhoods in Brickyard Cove. The tunnel goes to the Golden State Railroad Museum, the USS ''Red Oak Victory'', and many beaches and parks, and to Ferry Point where an abandoned ferry-rail pier stands with a historic ferry slip still standing, though somewhat damaged by fire. It can be viewed from an adjacent fishing pier. The is a restored World War II

Victory ship The Victory ship was a class of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace losses caused by German submarines. They were a more modern design compared to the earlier Liberty ship, were slight ...

, the 558th ship made in Richmond.

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

and Victory ships transported troops and supplies during World War II. During World War II the city sprawled and its population increased dramatically. This led city leaders to construct the Richmond Civic Center in 1957. This center houses the city hall, a small convention center, library, hall of justice, police headquarters, and arts center. The Richmond Public Library, the only public library independent of the Contra Costa County Public Libraries system, lies in the heart of the civic center. It houses over 204,686 books, 4,014 audio materials, 5,277 video materials, and 491 serial subscriptions. The

Richmond–San Rafael Bridge The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge (also officially named the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge) is the northernmost of the east–west crossings of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA. Officially named after California State Senator John ...

extends across San Pablo Bay. The bridge is the origin of the term ''rollercoaster span'', due to its curves, bumps, and appearance, which have also earned the bridge the nickname of ''the rollercoaster bridge''. It was built in 1957, and connects Contra Costa County with

Marin County Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...

. Automobiles are charged a $6 toll in the westbound (towards Marin) direction only. The Golden State Railroad Museum is a complex series of model railroad layouts in a museum in the Brickyard Cove area of Point Richmond. A visitor can operate trains of various eras, and there are miniature freight and passenger terminals, trestles, tunnels, and meticulously detailed town and city scenes, many of which are copied from real life scenes of the 1950s. The Santa Fe Railroad Terminal operated as the western terminus for the railroad from the late 19th century to the late 20th century. It has now been transformed into a museum to exemplify the feel of the terminal in that era. Point Richmond, Richmond, California

The

Rosie the Riveter/World War II Home Front National Historical Park Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park is a United States national historical park located in Richmond, California, near San Francisco. The park preserves and interprets the legacy of the United States home front ...

is in Richmond, and commemorates women's shipbuilding and support for the war effort in the 1940s. Keller Beach is one of the city's beaches, located at Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline, a park in Brickyard Cove. It offers picnicking, sunbathing, wading, and swimming. The beach is overlooked by vehicles exiting the Brickyard Cove drive, Ferry Point tunnel and houses on the steep cliffs above. The beach, as with most of the cove, offers spectacular panoramic bay views of the Oakland hills, bridges, the San Francisco skyline and the Golden Gate. Point Molate Beach Park is a park on the western coast of Richmond along Western Drive. It was originally a Chinese shrimp camp in the 1870s. Point San Pablo yacht harbor accommodates hundreds of private boats. East Brother Light Station on East Brother Island (one of the Brother Islands) is host to an exclusive

bed and breakfast Bed and breakfast (typically shortened to B&B or BnB) is a small lodging establishment that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast. Bed and breakfasts are often private family homes and typically have between four and eleven rooms, wit ...

. It is only accessible by private boat. Visitors come and stay for the day and picnic for free or they may pay for a room. The city is also home to a radio controlled model airplane airport, Breuner Airfield that is located in

Breuner Marsh The Dotson Family Marsh, formerly Breuner Marsh, is a 238-acre (96 ha)Rolling Hills Memorial Park Rolling Hills Memorial Park is a cemetery in Richmond, Contra Costa County, California, established in 1960. The site has approximately 50,000 interments. Notable interments * Nicholas Caldwell (1944–2016), Singer * Proverb Jacobs (1935–20 ...

and St. Joseph Cemetery.

Leisure and culture

Several

regional park A regional park is an area of land preserved on account of its natural beauty, historic interest, recreational use or other reason, and under the administration of a form of local government. Definition A regional park can be a special park distri ...

s administered by the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

lie within the city, including the Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline and the

. They are linked by the San Francisco Bay Trail. Part of the former shipyard is now a marina. Th
Richmond Art Center
founded by Hazel Salmi in 1936, is one of the oldest continually operating non-profit art centers on the entire West Coast of the United States. Its programming includes exhibitions, adult and youth education, and community initiatives. The center currently provides some of the only visual arts education programming in the city of Richmond, relying primarily on public donations and private grants as its means of support. There is also the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, Hilltop Multiplex, or Masquers Theaters in Point Richmond. The Richmond Progressive Alliance and California Green Party are active political parties in Richmond. The House Rabbit Society has its national headquarters in Richmond.

Art

Richmond is home to the National Institute of Art and Disabilities Art Center, also known locally as the NIAD Art Center. NIAD is a non-profit organization hosting over sixty client artists weekly. NIAD's client artists' work can be seen at NIAD's on-site gallery, the Florence Ludins-Katz Gallery. NIAD has a gift shop. Th
Richmond Art Center
] is a contemporary visual arts center, with a gallery and art classes in the heart of Richmond. A showcase for emerging and established artists, the Richmond Art Center hosts the annual ''"The Art of Living Black''", art show which is a showcase of the artwork of Bay Area Black Artists. ''"Featuring over 50 local artists, the works include fine arts and crafts, paintings, sculpture, photography, prints, masks, stained glass, quilts, textile art, ceramics, jewelry and dolls."'' The beauty, the pain, the power and the eye of these black artists touch the soul deeply. Founded in 1936 by local artist Hazel Salmi, the Richmond Art Center is a Bay Area cultural institution. In addition
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
has maintained its roots in the Richmond community since 1968. The Center engages youth and young adults in imagining and creating new worlds for themselves and new visions for their communities through the inspiration and discipline of rigorous training in world performance traditions. The Hyphy subculture and subgenre of rap music originated in Richmond and surrounding cities. From 1996 to 2002 a "geekfest" was held on the beach in Point Molate every few weeks or monthly by S.P.A.M. Records. The festival was a community service for under-21-year-olds.

Religion

There are dozens of houses of worship for various religions in the city, and some which are not represented in the city can be found nearby. Christian denominational churches include the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses; Word of Faith church; St. Peters C.M.E.; Kingdom Land Baptist Church; Grace Baptist Church; Grace Lutheran Church; Grace Lao Lutheran Church; Temple Baptist Church; Unity Church of Richmond; Holy Trinity Episcopal Church; First Mexican Baptist Church; Holy Mission Christian Center; St. David School (Richmond, California), St. David Catholic Church, Greater New Bethel Apostolic Ministries, formerly New Bethel Church of God in Christ, founded by Bishop A.D. Bradley in 1945; Faith Temple C.O.G.I.C., and Faith Tabernacle A.O.H. Church Of God; and the Largest Church in Richmond, Hilltop Community Church which is Assemblies of God. There is also a large Laotian Buddhist temple that serves as a community center for the Lao community of the East Bay. There is a synagogue in the Hilltop Green, Richmond, California, Hilltop Green District.

Parks and recreation

The city has of parkland, which constitutes 1.5% of the city's land territory. A new national park, Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historical Park, is now under construction in the former Kaiser shipyards and other wartime industrial sites in Richmond. The park is a memorial to the six million women who labored on the home front, symbolized by the mythical figure "Rosie the Riveter". Richmond was selected for the park because it has many intact buildings that were constructed for 56 wartime industries. Its four shipyards produced an amazing 747 large ships and set production records. The home front changed Richmond from a predominantly rural community of 23,600 residents to a diverse population of over 100,000 people within a year. Industries operated around the clock and public housing, schools, day care centers, health care and merchants mobilized to support the new workforce that arrived on the city's doorstep. Fortunately, Richmond's turbulent and productive home front years were well chronicled and photographed. The National Park Service provides interpretive services and operates a Visitor Center in the craneway of the Ford Assembly Building. Richmond also has number of local parks and two large regional parks are under the authority of the East Bay Regional Parks District, a consortium of most of the Parks and Recreation lands and facilities of Alameda and Contra Costa County. Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is the city's largest park at . The park once housed a dance hall and roller rink and has distinctive stonework throughout, which was the rationale for its placement on the National Register of Historic Places. It features San Pablo Creek, trails, forests, horseback riding, picnic areas, and a play structure for children, as well as horses for rent and mountain biking trails. High school students practice cross-country in the park. It is situated in the eastern Richmond hills and stretches into Berkeley's Tilden Regional Park in Alameda County. The park has diverse animal and plant life including great horned owls, opossums, king snakes, rubber boas, turkey vultures and many others. Point Isabel Regional Shoreline is the largest off-leash dog park in the United States. The

Richmond Greenway The Richmond Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in Richmond, California.

Celebrations and conferences

The city has annual Juneteenth and Cinco de Mayo celebrations.Thousands Celebrate Cinco de Mayo in Richmond.
Kornelia Trytko. Richmond Confidential. May 2, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2011. The Cinco de Mayo celebrations sponsored by the 23rd Street (Richmond, California), 23rd Street Merchant's Association attracts thousands and closes the entire length of the roadway. The Richmond Police Department, Fire Brigade, United States Marine Corps and other organizations participate in the parade. This is in addition to a fireworks show at Marina Bay celebrating the Independence Day (United States), July 4 and a Silly Parade, an event where people march down the street and generally act "weird" and silly. The city also participates in various Earth Day activities. The city hosts an annual and a physical activity and nutrition forum to discuss health in the community, it has been running since 2006. In 2010 the city began celebrating the Richmond Native American Pow-Wow in Nicholl Park, in 2012 this included area politicians and members of over 50 tribes from throughout the country.

Media

Newspapers

There are two African American weekly newspapers, one general interest online publication, and one multimedia news project that cover Richmond exclusively. The Richmond Post and Richmond Globe publish print and online editions. RichmondConfidential.org, which is run by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, is a general interest online-only news publication serving the city of Richmond. Richmond Pulse is a youth-led print and online publication which focuses on community health. The West County Times, run by Media News Group, covers greater Contra Costa County.

Television

A local cable TV station, KCRT-TV, mainly plays historical archives but also airs government-access television (GATV), city council meetings and music videos.

Radio

KKSF (AM) transmits from towers at Point Isabel.

Infrastructure

Port of Richmond

The Port of Richmond, located in along the city's South Richmond, Richmond, California, southern coast beside the Richmond Inner Harbor, handles the third-largest shipping tonnage in California annually, a total of 19 million short tons. It ranks number one for ports of the San Francisco Bay for vehicles and liquid bulk. In addition to these commodities, the port can also handle dry-bulk, break-bulk, and containers. Seven of the terminals are city-owned, in addition to five dry docks, while there are 11 privately owned terminals. The port is served by a rail network operated by four major rail companies.

Roadways

Highways and expressways

* Interstate 80 (California), Interstate 80 cuts through the eastern and northeastern portions of the city, through a mostly residential area, connecting to Pinole, Hercules and then on to Vallejo, California, Vallejo via the Carquinez Bridge in the eastbound direction, and through Albany, Berkeley, California, Berkeley, Emeryville, California, Emeryville and eventually terminating in San Francisco via the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, Bay Bridge in the westbound direction. The weekday westbound morning commute on I-80 through Richmond lies within the most congested stretch of freeway in the Bay Area, according to Caltrans, and has been ranked as such since 2001. * Interstate 580 (California), Interstate 580 curves along the southern waterside of Richmond and merges into I-80 in Albany in the southern Oakland, California, Oakland/San Francisco direction while slicing through mixed medium and heavy industries and homes through

and onto the

over the

segment of the

into San Rafael and Marin County, California, Marin County. * The Richmond Parkway, built between the early 1990s and early 2000s, connects I-580 in the Point Richmond area in the southwest to the Hilltop Area and I-80, and runs along the city's heavily industrial western side and through the unincorporated area of North Richmond. It has been proposed that it be upgraded to a state highway and be redesignated: California State Route 93, State Route 93 and transferred to the authority of Caltrans. * San Pablo Avenue (California State Route 123, State Route 123) runs through Richmond and San Pablo to Pinole, Hercules and to its terminus in Crockett, California, Crockett, and south through El Cerrito, Albany, Emeryville, California, Emeryville, and Berkeley, until it runs into Oscar Grant Plaza, Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland, California, Oakland.

Major trunk streets

Macdonald Avenue Macdonald Avenue is the main east-to-west artery in Richmond, California.

Public transportation

The city's primary transportation hub is Richmond station (California), Richmond station. It is served by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and service, plus Amtrak , , and regional rail and intercity rail service. The primary bus service in Richmond is operated by AC Transit, which runs 14 bus lines in the city. Service includes a number of local routes, rapid route 72R along San Pablo Avenue, transbay commuter service across the Bay Bridge to the Transbay Transit Center and limited All Nighter (night bus service), All-Nighter service. Additional local service is operated by WestCAT. Bear Transit provides commuter and student service from El Cerrito BART and UC Berkeley to the UC Field Station in Campus Bay on route RFS.RFS schedule
, Bear Transit website Several regional bus operators serve El Cerrito del Norte station (just south of Richmond) rather than Richmond station because of the former station's proximity to I-80. Before AC Transit and BART, the Key System provided a network of several rail lines on the East Shore and Suburban Railway.keysystemmap.gif
, BayRails. Retrieved August 13, 2007.

Commercial and cargo rail

The Union Pacific Railroad (UP) has a mainline passing through Richmond. This line was formerly operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP). The BNSF Railway (BNSF) has a yard and that serves as the Northern California terminus of their line that goes to their main classification yard at Barstow, California, Barstow via the San Joaquin Valley. The track was formerly operated by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF). Many years ago, the ATSF offered rail car ferry service from

to San Francisco. The partially burnt remnants of the ferry pier can still be seen at Point Richmond. The Richmond Pacific Railroad (RPRC) is a class III shortline railroad operating on of track, providing switching services at Richmond's wharves. The RPRC is owned by the Levin-Richmond Terminal Corporation and was formerly known as the Parr Terminal Railroad (PRT).

Ferry

The San Francisco Bay Ferry relaunched ferry service to the San Francisco Ferry Building in January 2019. The service runs from the Craneway Pavilion in Marina Bay to the San Francisco Ferry Building seven days a week, with lower frequency on the weekends as opposed to higher volume weekday commutes. Schedules call for a 35-minute commute from the Marina Bay Terminal to San Francisco Ferry Building in either direction. Historically, Richmond had commuter ferry service from the Richmond Ferry Terminal to the San Francisco Ferry Building on weekdays and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, Fisherman's Wharf on weekends in addition to special San Francisco Giants, Giants AT&T Park, Ballpark service during the MLB, baseball season. The voyage took approximately 45 minutes each way. The service began in 1999, but was discontinued in the late 2000s in the economic downturn following the dot-com bust. Ferry ridership plummeted and the service became economically unsustainable, which led Red and White Fleet to discontinue the service. The Richmond ferry terminal is at Ford Point located adjacent to the historic Ford Richmond Plant, Ford Plant in Marina Bay which is now open as an industrial park and under renovation. The terminal had its own dedicated AC Transit feeder service from Point Richmond, Richmond, California, Point Richmond and Downtown Richmond, Richmond, California, downtown Richmond with route 374 also now discontinued. A Richmond Ferry Terminal, new ferry service from Richmond is planned for 2018 by the San Francisco Bay Area Water Transit Authority. The new ferry will take only half an hour to San Francisco and will use the existing terminal and parking facilities at Ford Point in Marina Bay. The San Francisco Bay Ferry relaunched ferry service to the San Francisco Ferry Building in January 2019.

Pedestrian and bike lanes

The city has aggressively developed its portions of the San Francisco Bay Trail and has more than any other city at present. The total length is 2007 State of the City Address
, by Gayle McLaughlin, March 6, 2007, Gayle McGlaughlin website. Retrieved August 3, 2007. and more is to be built. The city is also currently developing the

Richmond Greenway The Richmond Greenway is a pedestrian and bicycle path in Richmond, California.Richmond–San Rafael Bridge The Richmond–San Rafael Bridge (also officially named the John F. McCarthy Memorial Bridge) is the northernmost of the east–west crossings of the San Francisco Bay in California, USA. Officially named after California State Senator John ...

(Interstate 580 (California), Interstate 580) alongside Red Rock Island and barges crossing

. Image:Sanpab-n-mac.jpg, Tree-lined San Pablo Avenue at Macdonald Avenue with an AC Transit bus rapid transit, BRT stop and businesses in East Richmond, Richmond, California, eastern Richmond. Image:Richmond Pacific Railroad RPRC Switcher 1268.JPG, A freight train of the Richmond Short Railroad Image:Richmond BART.jpg, Richmond BART Station within the intermodal Richmond Station which carries 1.9 million passengers annually.

Municipal services

Dozens of parks are run by the Richmond Parks & Recreation Department. The Richmond Civic Center is currently undergoing a seismic upgrade and renovations program. Some buildings are being refurbished while other buildings will be replaced.Civic Center Revitalization
, Mitigative and negative declaration, City of Richmond website. Retrieved August 1, 2007. Richmond is also home to the West County Detention Facility in the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline, Point Pinole area. It is a male and female county jail. RichmondWorks and Richmond Summer YouthWorks are city programs that aim to decrease unemployment and crime and have led to hundreds receiving employment at area retail businesses. Richmond's waste disposal and recycling is handled by the Richmond Sanitary Service. Water is provided by the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD), while sewers are operated by the city government. The city's electricity and gas is provided by the Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E). Sewage is largely handed by the Richmond Sewage Treatment Plant in Point Richmond, Richmond, California, Point Richmond. Medical and trauma patients are transported by American Medical Response Paramedics and EMTs.

Fire Department

The Richmond Fire Department is the fire and rescue service for Richmond, and by contract with Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County it also serves East Richmond Heights, and North Richmond. The department is responsible for an area of . The department has seven fire stations in the city. In September 2002 the city coordinated an eight alarm fire call at the Richmond Sanitary Service landfill. After putting the fire out steam continued to spew forcing crews to remain on site for hours to water the still heated area in order to prevent reignition.

Police department

The Richmond Police Department, first organized in 1909, is now headquartered at the Richmond Civic Center. The building was recently renovated, and is LEED certified.

Notable people

Athletics

* Brian Abshire (born 1963), Olympic track and field athlete, 1988 Summer Olympics in 3,000-meter steeplechase * C. J. Anderson, running back for NFL's Denver Broncos * Courtney Anderson (born 1980), Oakland Raiders football player * Benny Barnes, Stanford and NFL player, 11 years as cornerback for Dallas Cowboys, starter for Super Bowl XII champions * Ken Carter (born 1959), Richmond High School basketball coach, inspiration for 2005 film ''Coach Carter'' * Loyd Christopher, Major League Baseball, MLB player and scout * Russ Christopher, MLB pitcher for 1948 World Series champion Cleveland Indians * Darrell Johnson, MLB player, backup catcher for New York Yankees behind Yogi Berra; also played with St. Louis Cardinals; manager for Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners and Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers * Ricky Jordan (born 1965), MLB player for Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners * Willie McGee (born 1958), MLB player, outfielder for 1982 World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals, two-time National League batting champion, 1985 MVP * Takkarist McKinley, NFL player for Atlanta Falcons * Master P, Percy Robert Miller (also known as Master P), had a contract with NBA teams twice, with Charlotte Hornets during 1998–99 season and Toronto Raptors in 1999 pre-season; played in Continental Basketball Association for Fort Wayne Fury and for ABA's Las Vegas Rattlers; in 2008 McDonald's NBA All-Star Celebrity Game scored 17 points, hit two free throws to win the game * Dave Smith (NL pitcher), Dave Smith (born 1955), MLB pitcher for Houston Astros, Chicago Cubs, and San Diego Padres * Dale Sveum, MLB player and former manager of Chicago Cubs * Lamont Thompson (born 1978), National Football League, NFL American football, football defensive back for Tennessee Titans and Cincinnati Bengals

Music

* Jason Becker (born 1969), musician, songwriter and composer * Stephen Bradley (musician), Stephen Bradley, musician, producer, and touring member of band No Doubt * Billie Joe Armstrong (born 1972), lead singer and musician from the band Green Day was born in Richmond. * Peter Buck (born 1956), guitarist for rock band R.E.M. * Norton Buffalo (born Phillip Jackson; 1951–2009), twice Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter, country and blues harmonica, toured 32 years with Steve Miller. * Canary Lee Burton (born 1942), composer and keyboardist * Les Claypool (born 1963), bassist, songwriter and vocalist of Primus * Gary Holt (musician), Gary Holt (born 1964), guitarist and founding member of Exodus (band), Exodus; also a member of Slayer since 2011. * Iamsu! (born 1989), rapper and fellow organizer of The HBK Gang. * Larry LaLonde (born 1968), guitarist in Primus (band), Primus * Locksmith (rapper), Locksmith (born 1984), rapper. * Master P (born Percy Robert Miller), rapper, founder and owner of P. Miller clothing, former local businessman ::* Also connected to Master P: Silkk Tha Shocker, Lil Romeo, both relatives/associates of Master P, and Big Ed (rapper), Big Ed (formerly under Master P's No Limit Records) were residents of Richmond * Dorothy Combs Morrison, Dorothy Morrison (born 1944), lead singer for Edwin Hawkins Singers on their hit "Oh Happy Day"

Other

* Peter S. Beagle (born 1939), writer, author of the fantasy novel ''The Last Unicorn'' * David DePape (born 1979-80), suspect in assault of Paul Pelosi * Lucretia Edwards (1916–2005), preservation activist and environmentalist * Carl Franklin (born 1949), director of films such as ''Devil in a Blue Dress (film), Devil in a Blue Dress'' and ''One True Thing'' * William Haynes (comedian), William Haynes, comedian, co-host of the YouTube channel SourceFed. *Emiko Nakano (1925–1990), abstract expressionist artist * Glenn Plummer (born 1961), actor, known for films such as ''South Central (film), South Central'', ''Showgirls'' and ''Menace II Society'' * Ronnie Schell (born 1931), actor and comedian * Betty Reid Soskin (born 1921), park ranger, educator, and activist

Neighborhoods

Richmond has many distinct neighborhoods. The city can roughly be divided into the northern Hilltop/El Sobrante, eastern Central/East Richmond, downtown/Iron Triangle and Southern Point Richmond/Marina Bay areas.

In literature and film

Books

* An oral history based photographic history. * This book is an anthropological study of a group of Romani Americans living in Richmond (Barvale), California; based on fieldwork done during 1968–1970. * * *''In Contempt'' (Mass Market Paperback) by Christopher A. Darden, Jess Walter, ReganBooks; Reprint edition (February 1997) (Christopher Darden, one of the prosecutors in the criminal case against O.J. Simpson, grew up in Richmond.) * * * * * ''The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America'' by Richard Rothstein (2017)

Film and television

* The film documentary "Enough is Enough: Live From Tent City in Richmond, CA," details a grassroots movement of Richmond city residents to fight violence on their street

* Much of the movie ''Tucker: The Man and His Dream'' was filmed at the National Preservation Award-winning Ford Assembly Building, now commonly referred to as Ford Point. * Many scenes from the Robin Williams film, ''Patch Adams (film), Patch Adams'' were filmed during a week in Point Richmond. * The basketball movie, ''Coach Carter'' although filmed across the bay in San Francisco was based on the story of the Richmond High School Basketball team being benched for poor grades despite an undefeated season. * In the T.V. Show ''The Game (U.S. TV series), The Game'', character ''Latasha "Tasha" Mack'' grew up in Richmond. * Many parts of the Mel Gibson movie ''Forever Young (1992 film), Forever Young'' were filmed in Point Richmond. * DeVry College has made a commercial showing businesses along San Pablo Avenue in Richmond. * Kaiser Permanente made a commercial showing a man riding a bicycle in Point Richmond. * In the 2002 movie, The Sweetest Thing starring Cameron Diaz and Christina Applegate, the town of Somerset, where an important wedding scene takes place, includes filming in the historic Point Richmond district (not the church itself however).

Sister cities

Richmond, California has three sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International: * Shimada, Shizuoka, Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka, Japan (December 12, 1961)Northern and Central California Sister Cities in Japan , Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco
/ref> * Regla, Cuba, Regla, Cuba * Zhoushan, Zhejiang, China

References

Bibliography

External links

*
West Contra Costa Unified School District
* {{Authority control Richmond, California, 1905 establishments in California Cities in Contra Costa County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Incorporated cities and towns in California Populated places established in 1905 Port cities in California Populated coastal places in California