Report from the ongoing “Underbelly Tours” of Richmond

Update from Shannon: - Photos by Dashal Moore

As the director of Touchable Stories I’ve been exploring the often unseen places or underbelly of Richmond through a series of guided tours of the many neighborhoods. From cops to cowboys, my designated tour-guides have all shown me unique perspectives of this place adding an incredibly rich dimension to the ongoing exploration and discovery of Richmond.

On Wednesday, Dashal Moore (UCB Grad. Ethnic Studies) and I were treated to a tour of a former roofing factory, just over the tracks on Chesley St. in North Richmond by Ellen Gailing – The City of Richmond’s “Photo Girl”. Protected by combat boots, with Ellen and Dashal both toting digital cameras we entered one building after another in this huge complex of structures that has been abandoned for who knows how long. Graffiti, temporary sleeping structures, and random machinery left over from the manufacture of roofing supplies, existed in one variation or another everywhere we went. The majority of graffiti was exceptional – being a former painter I have a soft spot for anyone who can successfully get a spray paint can to do painterly things. Ellen identified the main artists as the “Lords” who have chapters throughout California and apparently even have their own website. We arrived late morning on Ellen’s advice to give the sleeping folks time to get up and off to start a brand new day. Ellen and Dashal shot so many images that by the end of the afternoon and multiple flash cards later, both were experiencing a distinct twitch in the right eye and some blurring of vision. Both though, had a well defined grin that lasted all the way home.

I found myself playing detective and trying to piece together how the factory was set up, the function of the machines left behind, and a general gathering of the remaining pieces of evidence that could put the machine back in motion in my head. Most people we encountered thought we were reporters or maybe OSHA inspectors even though none of us were sporting a clipboard.

Today a city employee will be giving us a tour of the 3rd floor of the old city hall – at 2pm - right after his union meeting he tells me. We have been searching for a “centrally located” site in Richmond for our final exhibit and this place was on our list. Believe it or not – no one is at home there – city hall moved closer to coast 3 or 4 years ago and are renting facilities there because the civic center needs an overall refit for earthquakes that still has yet to happen.

The underbelly tours will be a continuing series as Ellen and other Richmond folks have promised more surprise adventures to come. Our next tour scheduled will be led by Donald Hardison, currently a board member of The Richmond Museum of History but also the architect responsible for many buildings in Richmond including the original Easter Hill Housing project, JFK & Richmond High, and the Hall of Justice in Richmond’s Civic Center. So keep posted.



- Shannon Flattery
Artistic Dir/Founder Touchable Stories
Artist-in-Residence UCB Art Research Center

Calender Up

I added a calender which everyone can post events to. Click on "Calender" in the links section.

Environmental Justice Health Summit

On Saturday June 10, I attended a Health Summit at Verde Elementary School in North Richmond.

I arrived just in time for Chuck Mckitney's presentation on health disparities in Contra Costa County. Chuck works for the Contra Costa Health Department (so an appropriate speaker on the subject). A few statistics that shocked me - Richmond accounts for 15% of the CC county population but 70% (!!) of its homicides. African Americans between the ages of 15 and 35 are the most likely to be victims or perpetrators of these homicides. Chuck also made some not so shocking comments - poverty is linked to poor school performance and high violence rates.

Young people are at highest risk to be the victims/perpetrators of violence, getting preganant, or abusing substances in the afternoons (3-6pm). I wonder...what happened to afterschool programs and the like? Too expensive?

Chuck went on to ask How much does violent crime cost? Consider incarceration, trials, treating a gunshot wound, and loss of income. Every $1 spent on prevention saves $100s on enforcement.

During a Q&A session that followed, an outraged audience member brought up Seneca. She witnessed 5 children "waddling in contamination" and urged that the kids shouldn't be there. Amen.

Theme for today: The ER should not be the first time a patient gets seen. There should be preventive care and health care...at least in school!

Interesting fact: Latinos don't arrive in this country with high rates of obesity. The lack of available good food and activity cause the rates to rise. A study shows that looking at several generations of latinos, the longer the family member has been in the US, the more obese the person was.

The next speaker was a woman from the Asthma Coalition which also operates through Contra Costa County. Their main goal is to prevent environmental triggers of asthma through policy. One way they do this is to train residents to be advocates. Community empowerment= good. African American children and women show the highest national rate of asthma. Many ask why asthma is an environmental justice issue. Hmm.

A shocking thing I learned from this presentation is that children are currently not allowed to carry their inhalers on them. In addition, funding for school nurses has been cut so that there is at best one per district. What is a child supposed to do when s/he has an attack on the playground? At the very least there should be education programs and there is currently a proposed bill to allow the children to carry their inhalers with them. The Pacific Institute has a great report on a major cause of this asthma.

At this point of the day, Cassie, Verde Elementary School's Garden teacher, took those interested to see this amazing urban garden. The garden is funded by United Way and has been around for approximately 10 years. The garden provides veggies for the school's weekly salad bar and integrates programs like nutrition education.



There are beds shaped like Africa and South America to teach the kids about their heritage. In the backdrop of the garden is Color Spot Nursery. This has been somewhat of a problem for the garden in terms of weeds but the nursery is due to close and who knows what demon will take its place.

The city of pride and purpose.

This morning Kate and I got an excellent tour of Richmond with Michelle.


We started at the Recreation and Parks Department on MacDonald avenue, where Michelle works. Our first destination was the Civic Center which is home to a library, the police department, an auditorium, and city hall. However, the building is WW2 era and in need of renovation so only the police department and the auditorium are currently being used. City hall was moved to a new location which we saw later and the rest of it is up for grabs. Since today is Friday, the weekly farmers market was in full swing in front of the library. Few things bring me more joy than seeing a farmers market in an area that needs it so urgently.

From there we drove around the neighborhood, named Northeast because it is north and east of the civic center - very intuitive. These homes were built during the WW2 era to house white shipyard workers. Michelle pointed out that the white workers could leave their children at a daycare while the blacks had to take shifts watching each other's children so that they could work.

We took 23rd street, which was lined with Latino businesses. We passed a few nurseries and Michelle informed us that Richmond was once home to a substantial nursery and farming industry. Many of these businesses were owned by Japanese that were taken to interment camps during the war. In some cases the businesses were returned to them at the end of the war but this was rare. The industry also suffered from increasing competition from South America.

Our tour then took us to North Richmond. This was the area that once made Richmond famous for its blues and jazz clubs. Here the theme of today's tour emerged - the juxtaposition of the vastly different socioeconomic classes in this city. A contemporary building housing the Center for Health sat across the street from an abandoned old shack of a building.

I noted a few things as we drove to our next destination like the West County Landfill, conveniently located near a sign that read "Welcome to Richmond - The City of Pride and Purpose." This really made me wonder what the pride and purpose of Richmond is.

In 1949 two developers named Parr and Chester established a "village" for African Americans (called ParrChester village - go figure). From what I understand this was an effort to further segregate them although it was undoubtedly posed as some kind of humanitarian act. Parrchester is now home to a large Latino population. To its credit, the village does have a neighborhood center, an attribute I like.

Around the corner, quite literally a few feet away, is the Richmond Country Club complete with golf course. This is yet another example of the juxtaposition of the vastly different socioeconomic classes in Richmond.

The trains of course are a constant presence here. The railroads once ended in Richmond and brought with them the first major population surge. The second influx of population was in WW2. Although Richmond is a hub for both ships and the railroad industry, getting around is a nightmare. Public transportation is scarce and the few busses that the city does have run seldomly.

The next few "villages" we visited were the Iron Triangle, named so because the neighborhood sits in the middle of 3 railroads and Atchison Village. Both of these neighborhoods were build for whites but are now predominantly black. Atchison Village rarely has vacancies because most of the homes stay in the family and when homes do go for sale, they sell fairly quickly. This is due to the affordable price and the community feel of the place.

We passed the first Kaiser Hospital. During WW2, the shipworkers all had health insurance which was unheard of during those times (Not surprising since health insurance is still a commodity today).

Old downtown MacDonald is now home to many churches but was once a bustling business center. The street's style is reminescent of that time. A national Blues organization (I may have to be corrected on exactly what it is) is considering opening their headquarters here which would do wonders for the revival of this area. North Richmond was once a center of blues and jazz clubs so this would be an appropriate headquarters.

Our tour cut through Brickyard Cove and Sandpiper Spit, a few of Richmond's ridiculously rich communities located right on the bay. The view was incredible. Almost as incredible as the segragation of classes.

Back to the "reality" of Richmond. We passed the Bay Area Mission Rescue where homeless people from all over the Bay Area are sent for food, shelter, and help. I find it interesting that such a place would be located in a city as hard to access as Richmond.

On our way to the shipyards we drove past the lots of new cars which are now stored in large numbers in Richmond. They looked very out of place. Nearby, the famous (infamous?) Chevron and other refineries were doing their part in making the air look (not good when you can SEE the air) atrocious.

At the shipyards, we made a stop at the Ford Building, an impressive self sufficient structure that will soon house the Rosie the Riveter museum among other things. Not far from that is the new (or temporary?) city hall offices.



After nearly 2 hours of driving, Kate and I got out of the car to wander around Lucretia Edwards park. Edwards was a quaker that helped establish many shoreline parks. This particular one had interesting art installations bringing awareness of the various WW2 shipyards in the Bay Area.

When we got back in the car, I asked Michelle why there were so few services/businesses in Richmond. One of the reasons for this is that the Hilltop Mall, which I have yet to brave a visit to, sucked much of the business away from the rest of the city.

The last stop on our tour was the Rosie the Riveter memorial. A very interesting art installation featuring pictures and quotes of Rosies. There is also a walkway that replicates the length of the Libery ship. An interesting fact we picked up here was that many dwarfs and small women were hired to work on the ships because of the small openings they had to squeeze through.