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.