The Richmond City Council chamber was packed beyond capacity last night. Family, friends, and supporters of the victors in last November’s election came out to watch as their newly-minted government representatives took the oath to be sworn into office.  Continue reading

Kato Jaworski was hired as Studio Art Director at the Richmond Art Center in 2005, the same year I decided to return to art-making. I had resigned from a very stressful job and returned to live in the East Bay. I knew nothing about the Center, but had signed up for a figure drawing class thinking I would reconnect with my love for the human form. The teaching artist, Laura Paulini, was engaging and we often found ourselves mesmerized by the learning process. But our breaks were interrupted often, by an extrovert who said she was a staff member. This elfish woman distributed postcards, made announcements and even had the nerve to look at our work approvingly. She engaged everyone in conversation, and seemed to be in a permanent good mood. Her name, I found out later, was Kato. Continue reading

In the main gallery of the Richmond Art Center hangs a large painting with the words “BLACK LIVES MATTER” scrawled across the canvas in blood red paint. Around a corner is series of busts of Malcolm X. Scattered between the two are photographs, abstract paintings, and jewelry — all done by local African American Artists. Continue reading

Remember Botto Bistro, the Richmond, CA restaurant that hates Yelp so much they were offering 25% off pizza to any customer who left them a bad Yelp review? They're back, they're offering an even bigger discount, and they are so filled with loathing for the website that I'm a little surprised they haven't tried to burn the corporate HQ down. Continue reading

Tucked into a small strip mall in the city’s Hilltop neighborhood is a tiny Thai restaurant with a big reputation. Due to its location — and the confusing sign outside that still lists its former name “Sala Thai” — Tiparos can be a little hard to find, but the flavors in each dish are worth the hunt. Continue reading

Every week Radio Free Richmond highlights events in the city. Here is what's happening from January 9th through the 15th. Continue reading

Booker Williams III hadn't missed a day of work for two years. So when the 34-year-old San Quentin State Prison correctional officer got a call on the morning of August 20, 2014 that his father was going to the hospital, he decided not to break his streak. Plus, his 62-year-old father, Booker Williams II, a lifelong Richmond resident, had been relatively healthy in recent years. Continue reading

A cast of powers is hard at work at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline. As natural as the park’s towering eucalyptus trees, sprawling trails, and marshy shoreline may look, this environment is the calculated result of three local organizations. Their combined efforts have propelled the northern Richmond park from a dynamite-blasted space into a natural oasis, but their work isn’t over yet.  Continue reading

The Richmond City Council unanimously approved last night an $18 million bond program to fund the renovation the Richmond Housing Authority’s Friendship Manor and Triangle Court complexes.  Continue reading

Constance Gary has seen it all. Over the 12 years that she has lived in the Richmond Housing Authority’s Hacienda building, Gary has experienced first-hand the decay, bureaucratic frustration, and helplessness that are now synonymous with the experience of RHA residents. Nearly 11 months after these issues were first unearthed, Gary continues to be plagued by problems in the face of a protracted effort to reform the building. Continue reading