Chevron

I really enjoy running around Richmond all day and seeing the wide spectrum of "good and bad." This makes me feel like I'm getting a holistic experience. The one thing that tied it all together for me though: Chevron.

I spent the earlier part of my day with a friend of mine who was raised in Richmond. We went to Wildcat Canyon (from the Richmond entrance), and the EcoVillage where we met Shyaam.


To contrast these positive experiences we went to the Hilltop Mall. Hilltop opened in 1976 and sucked business away from downtown Richmond. Stores either had to move in to the Hilltop complex or shut down entirely. This of course really impacted the local economy. The mall was not as crowded as one would expect for a summer day. Where I grew up, teenagers took shelter at the mall during school's off-season. There were the usual big names like Macy's and McDonald's but the smaller spaces were occupied by names I had never heard of. My friend and tour guide informed me that most of these businesses change every 5 months or so. This didn't surprise me. The big guys can afford to stay there without making profit because they can support themselves with revenue from other locations but the little guy does not have much chance here.

We concluded our brief tour with a walk around the neighborhood my friend grew up in. He showed me Richmond High School, the newly rebuilt Boys and Girls Club, and of course the Chevron refinery looming ominously in the background. I asked my friend about what his childhood was like here, where the kids played, all the seemingly mundane details that make for a great piece of the puzzle when you look at the grand scheme of things. As one would expect, he told me about the noises he heard at night - the sirens, the occasional gun shots. He spent his free time at friends' houses. This also doesn't surprise me given the lack of public space. The most interesting or perhaps most pertinent comment my friend made was about what he realized when he "went away" to college - to UC Berkeley. Everything about life in Richmond seemed normal to him until he got to Berkeley and realized that his city was "different" and, furthermore, that it was of interest to the professors and researchers.

On my way home I decided to swing by the greenhouses that have become a hot topic among the folks at touchable stories. Being there always makes me utter obsenities under my breath. The potential for these buildings is so great.