Richmond

City, Contra Costa County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94801, 94802, 94804, 94805, 94807, 94808, 94850

Located on San Pablo Bay. Good mix of housing, including upscale homes with views of Golden Gate. Underwent a small building boom (about 2,400 units) in the early 2000s through infillings in its downtown and new tracts in its northern neighborhoods, close to Pinole. Second-most populous city in the county, 105,630 residents. www.mccormacks.com

Constantly in the news because of its problems — high crime, low scores in many schools and money woes.

 Yet the city's population keeps increasing — up about 5,300 between 2000 and 2009.

Richmond has solid pluses and perhaps its biggest problem, crime, is confined to several neighborhoods. Many parts of the city are suburban safe.

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In 2005, the school district passed its fourth bond, $400 million, bringing to about $890 million the amount of money raised to renovate and rebuild just about every school in the district. This is an unusually large amount of money and speaks well on the west county's ambitions for its children.

Richmond is only a few miles from Berkeley, Oakland and the Bay Bridge. Richmond has two freeways, Interstates 80 and 580. It has a bridge to San Rafael and Marin County. www.mccormacks.com

In the 1990s, Richmond opened the four-lane Richmond Parkway that runs from I-80 near Hilltop Mall down to the San Rafael Bridge. Richmond has BART and Amtrak, bus service, Burlington-Northern-Santa Fe (large yard) and Union Pacific, a UPS terminal and a seaport.

All this makes Richmond a good commute city and, for business, a good transit city.

By today's standards, Richmond has a fair amount of “affordable” housing. The city was built for blue collars and the middle class and, with the exception of homes by the Bay, it has stayed true to the middle.

The city, especially in its downtown, has many low-income residents living in homes and apartments built more than 50 years ago. In recent years, Richmond has been introducing modest homes and apartments in this area, particularly near the BART station.

Richmond has many jobs. The city is home to the Chevron refinery, which catches flak over pollution but provides about 1,500 jobs and tax revenues. Hilltop, one of the largest malls in the East Bay, is located in the northern sector. www.mccormacks.com

Richmond's other firms or agencies include the Social Security center, Bio-Rad, the California Dept. of Justice, the U.S. Postal Service, a Kaiser Medical Center and the University of California. It has many industrial firms and several office-research parks.

Education by West Contra Costa Unified School District. Scores bounce all over, low, middling, high. See Schools.

The bond money will be used to renovate or rebuild schools and equip them for high tech, the sciences and the performing arts. In 2004 and 2008, when the school district found itself short of money and having to cut programs, residents rallied and passed tax measures that saved many threatened programs.

Richmond is a large city. It stretches from Albany-El Cerrito-Kensington to Pinole and east to include most of the El Sobrante Valley. In the 1980s and 1990s, this valley built thousands of modern tract homes, three to five bedrooms.

Modern Richmond was born on Dec. 7, 1941, when the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor. Henry Kaiser months earlier had won a contract to build tramp steamers for the beleaguered British — Liberty ships. With the war, the U.S. poured millions into the shipyards. www.mccormacks.com

Richmond in 1940 had 23,642 residents. Many were employed by Standard Oil (Chevron's predecessor), the town’s biggest industry, and crucial to the war.

Kaiser had nobody to build ships. He dispatched recruiters throughout the South and lured thousands to Richmond. Population zoomed to 100,000, ethnic mix became more diverse.

After the war, Richmond lost many of its war industries and faded, especially in the downtown.

But when the national economy took off and the freeways arrived and the suburbs galloped in, Richmond jumped over its borders and annexed thousands of acres. Left behind were thousands of poor people, many of them residing in and around old downtown.

Much has changed but school scores remain low in these sections, crime high. In 2008, homicides totaled 27. The counts for previous years: 47, 42, 40, 35, 38, 72, 18, 29, 31, 18, 30, 34, 26, 52, 52, 46, 61, 36, 38, 31, 16, 21, and 19, the FBI reports. See Crime. www.mccormacks.com

As these numbers indicate, Richmond's crime problems go way back. In 1990s, California crime dropped sharply and for a few years it looked like Richmond might join the down turn. But, unfortunately, was not to be.

The city has a new police chief. Surveillance cameras have been installed in hot spots. Community groups are pushing for better social programs.

In 2009, a student was gang raped at a high school, a horrible crime that shocked residents. The media portrayed Richmond as crime riddled. Without trivializing this incident — in Richmond you have to be wary — the FBI reported that Richmond in 2009 recorded 15 homicides, the lowest number in at least two decades.  

Here's a brief description of Richmond's neighborhoods:

• The downtown and adjoining neighborhoods. BART, Amtrak, the Social Security Processing Center, the city hall complex, large library, a museum, an arts center, county courthouse, clinics and government offices, Kaiser medical, and new housing.

The downtown has rundown housing but also housing that looks good and has been well kept. In talking about crime, it’s easy to indict an entire neighborhood or an entire people and lump the good with the bad. But many law-abiding people live in the downtown.

For new housing, look to the streets near the BART station.

• Richmond flatlands near Interstate 80, north of Barrett, south of Potrero (Richmond annex) crime drops and neighborhoods stabilize. Good place to shop for first-time home buyers. Swim center at Kennedy High. www.mccormacks.com

• Marina Bay, Brickyard Landing, Point Richmond. Close to downtown, separated from the poor neighborhoods by an industrial belt and by Interstate 580. Marina Bay, 385 acres, consists of condos and single homes, two business parks and a marina. Middle to upscale. Lovely views of Bay and San Francisco. Pt. Isabel Shoreline Park is one of the largest off-leash parks in nation, 20 acres. Many homes erected over the last 25 years. Considered one of the best neighborhoods in Richmond.

• Historic Point Richmond is the city’s first neighborhood, with a main street laid out about the turn of the century. Educated, politically savvy, liberal, the Point and its residents exercise great influence. Several nice restaurants and sandwich shops, a library, churches, tennis courts. Hiking trails. Shoreline park. Boating. Marina. Mostly elderly retired, empty-nesters and young professionals. Now being restored, a large, ornate indoor pool known as the Richmond Plunge.

• Richmond Hills, East Richmond. Hill neighborhoods that border a regional park. Middle class. Great views.

• El Sobrante Valley, east of Interstate 80. About half the valley is unincorporated, the other half in Richmond. Middle class. Well-kept streets and lawns. Views from hills. Oriented somewhat to Central County job market. Commuters take San Pablo Dam Road to Highway 24.

• Hilltop. Site of mall, apartments, condos, paired homes, light industry, offices. Penneys, Macys, Wal-Mart and Sears. Movies. YMCA gym-health facility.  Headquarters for Berlex Biosciences. Private middle school.  

• Point Pinole-Richmond Parkway. Homes, apartments and businesses now going up, many placed close to industrial buildings. Views of San Pablo Bay.  Pt. Pinole Regional Park is one of the loveliest in the Bay Area. Fishing pier.

• North Richmond. Unincorporated neighborhood west of San Pablo. High in crime for decades, it may be becoming more peaceful. Highway Patrol has opened substation in neighborhood.

• Oil-Chemical-Industrial-Warehouse neighborhoods. Generally, the shoreline, from the southern border up to and around the bridge, then up to about Point San Pablo. Skirts around Marina Bay and Point Richmond. The biggest player, the Chevron refinery, parts of which blow up from time to time (but not as often as in past). The refinery and auxiliary businesses employ thousands, account for a good chunk of the city’s tax income and support local charities and benevolent groups.

Museum, art center, boating, art center, clubs, three regional parks, about 30 city parks, swimming, baseball, football, basketball, lawn bowling, etc. Close to UC Berkeley and Contra Costa Community College (San Pablo).

Erected in 2000, a monument to Rosie the Riveter, the women who built the ships and staffed the industries that helped win World War II. After years of work, the state and local groups have put together a parks-trail plan for the shore from Albany to Pt. Isabel in Richmond. www.mccormacks.com

In the 1990s, Richmond increased its population by 13 percent, many people attracted by low and middling rents and home prices.

The 2010 state tally showed 38,532 residences, of which single homes numbered 21,767, single attached 2,985, multiples 13,659, mobile homes 121.

Two more BART stations in nearby El Cerrito. Transit center (buses) near Hilltop.

Chamber of commerce (510) 234-3512.

• Shakeup at city hall. New city manager and finance manager. Mayor in 2006 lost bid for re-election; new mayor represents the Green Party. Also fairly new: the superintendent for the school district. www.mccormacks.com

• In 2004, Richmond residents upped their sales tax by a half cent to restore fire protection and other services and reopen six community centers.

• In planning: a new police station.

• Of all the Bay cities, Richmond, with the help of local residents, private groups, and the East Bay Regional Park District, has done the best job of securing land for a Bay trail. The goal is to build a trail connecting all the cities of the Bay Area.

• Marin connection. In its home prices and rents, Marin has priced out the poor and much of the middle class. When it has jobs to fill, Marin draws many from the East Bay, particularly West Contra Costa. Some businesses leave Marin because commercial space is lacking but they want to stay close to Marin. Richmond fits the bill. The city has an enterprise zone that gives tax breaks to some businesses.

• Hungry for jobs and more tax revenues, the city council signed a contract with an Indian tribe that is trying to build a casino on the north side. Many disagreements. Deal far from done. www.mccormacks.com

• During World War II, Richmond built 747 Liberty and Victory ships. The SS Red Oak Victory was turned into a floating museum, moored in Richmond harbor.

• Kaiser Permanente, the popular HMO health care system, traces its origins to Richmond and the ship building years. The workers needed hospitals and medical care; Kaiser opened a hospital and got a system going.

• Barnes and Noble in 2009 closed its store. Too bad! The store in a quiet way boosted reading. Closest giant bookstore: El Cerrito.

• Richmond and Chevron are banging heads. Chevron wants to process an oil that supposedly contains more impurities — pollutents to enviromentalists. Argument in court. Chevron is suggesting it will reduce operations (jobs) at the refinery. Labor unions support Chevron; the new processing would entail major renovations (jobs). 

School district: www.wccusd.k12.ca.us

City web site: www.ci.richmond.ca.us

Chamber of commerce: www.rcoc.com

March 9, 2010