press release:

HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
PRESS ADVISORY
WHAT
The 2013 Richmond’s HOUSING FAIR

The City invites residents to participate in this educational one day event that features four housing related tracks:
Track 1 (Ownership)- Home Improvements, Resources and Know-how
Track 2 (Ownership)- Distressed Properties, Foreclosures, Modifications, Options
Track 3- (Future Ownership)- Pre-purchase counseling, Resources, Know-how
Track 4- (Tenants)- Tenants Rights, Legal Assistance, Fair Housing.
WHO
The FAIR is a private-public partnership between The City of Richmond and NID-HCA (National Investment Division-Housing Counseling Agency).
Since 1985 NID-Housing Counseling Agency has been a leading provider in housing counseling and community development services. NID-HCA is a diverse network of advocacy groups and individuals, organizations, housing counselors, real estate professionals, community groups, civic organizations and faith-based organizations committed to ensuring fair housing opportunities for all in urban/minority communities throughout the country. As an advocacy, communications, education and resource network, NID-HCA works to provide its partners and the communities they serve with information to assist them in their advocacy efforts to address issues ranging from increasing access to quality housing and mortgage products and eliminating housing disparities.
www.nidonline.org
The vision of NID-HCA is to provide housing related counseling to all persons and entities with housing and community development needs.
The vision of the Housing and Community Development Division is to enhance neighborhood beautification through housing stability.
WHEN
June 15, 2013
9 a.m.-4 p.m.
Official Kick Off: 10:00 a.m.
WHERE
Civic Center Auditorium
403 Civic Center Plaza
Richmond CA 94804
REQUEST
We respectfully invite elected officials, community leaders and the media to participate in the kick off ceremony at 10:00 on June 15, 2013.
QUESTIONS
Ana Cortez (510) 231-3078
Jene Levine-Snipes (510) 307-8179
Nancy Rivera (510) 268-9792

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 3, 2013

Contact: Rosa Lara, President RLLPAC

rllpoliticalaction@gmail.com

New Richmond Latino Leadership Political Action Committee Kicks Off with Major Voter Registration Drive at Cinco De Mayo Festival

RLLPAC engages Richmond’s Latino community to support civic engagement

RICHMOND, CA –The Richmond Latino Leadership Political Action Committee (RLLPAC), a newly launched political action committee, will kick off the group’s efforts with a groundbreaking voter registration drive at Richmond’s 7th Annual Cinco De Mayo Festival. RLLPAC volunteers are staffing a booth at the festival and conducting outreach to event attendees to sign-up new voters and provide information about the importance of voting and civic engagement.

The goal of RLLPAC is to increase civic awareness, register and educate voters, and advocate for public policies in Richmond that support job creation and economic development, improve public education and increase public safety by reducing crime.

“We will promote and encourage Latino candidates and work to empower the Latino community in Richmond,” said Rosa Lara, President of the RLLPAC. “We intend to be a political force in the community, working to motivate Latino voters to learn about the issues that have a profound impact on our families and encourage them to advocate for action on the local, state and nation level.” Lara also serves as President of the 23rd Street Merchants Association.

In the coming months, RLLPAC will engage voters to raise the profile of issues critical to the success of Latino families in Richmond and actively support candidates in upcoming elections who will get the job done for the community.

“We are encouraging everybody to get involved and help us achieve our mission of engaging Latinos in civic and public service. Together, we can help our community thrive with excellent public education, high paying jobs and safe streets,” said Lara.

The Board of the RLLPAC includes: Rosa Lara, President; Hernando Ramirez, Vice President of Communication; and Rigo Mendoza, Vice President of Finance.

Those who want to get involved and join the organization can do so by signing-up at the RLLPAC Booth at the Cinco De Mayo festival or by emailing rllpoliticalaction@gmail.com.

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Record Store Day was April 20 and El Cerrito had two locations celebrating. Both Down Home Music on San Pablo Avenue and Mod Lang on Fairmount Avenue sell vinyl records.
Among the selections available at Down Home is an album by The Goodtime Washboard (they added an extra member), an expanded version of The Goodtime Washboard Three, the trio of former UC Berkeley students who recorded the song “Oakland” 50 years ago this year. The song, a tongue-in-cheek salute to the city that isn’t San Francisco, received considerable airplay in the 1960s. The group even appeared with Bing Crosby on the ABC TV variety show “Hollywood Palace.”
As the lyrics go,
Now where did all the people go
when Frisco burned?
They all went to Oakland and
never returned.

The album available at Down Home is a later version, pressed 11 years after the original, but copies still sealed in shrinkwrap (we can’t call them “new” when they are almost 40 years old) are $9.98 each, a high price for 1974, but a bargain today.

A nice article on the Goodtime Washboard Three and the song that brought their greatest fame can be found here.

Incidentally, the GTW3 performed at the 50th anniversary party for Arhoolie Records, founded by Down Home Music owner Chris Strachwitz, and appear on the label’s anniversary box set.

In case you can’t wait and just want to hear the original version of the song, click here.

The latter day version is here:

Richmond is holding a community visioning meeting to discuss ideas for development along Cutting Boulevard between South 9th Street and Marina Way South from 6 to 8 p.m. April 29 in the multipurpose room at Nystrom Elementary School, 230 Harbour Way South. Light refreshments will be served.
The city and Opticos Design Inc. “will present a draft concept plan based on input received from previously developed documents and at the March 5 community meeting.”
The area in question covers about 5.5 blocks east of Interstate 580.
Details: 510-620-6828 or LaShonda White at lashonda_white@ci.richmond.ca.us.

RICHMOND — Something special happened today in the yellow building tucked amid commercial space in the city’s Hilltop District.

While it’s true that special things happen every day at Making Waves Academy, a public charter school serving 600 middle and high school students, today’s events culminating in Literacy Night were on a different level.

The acclaimed charter school hosted a community assembly, book fair and evening events with local dignitaries to launch a new partnership with the My Very Own Library (MVOL) initiative and Scholastic books, who donated more than $30,000 in books to the student body.

“This is our first partnership outside of New Jersey, and we are happy to help build on the excitement and energy around literacy here,” said Shannon Boehmer, a spokeswoman for New Jersey After 3, a nonprofit created in 2004 to expand learning time through high-quality, cost-effective afterschool programs across urban, suburban and rural communities. 

More than 2,400 books were on display Wednesday, from popular titles like “Hunger Games” to classics like “To Kill a Mockingbird.” 

After a morning ”Kick-Off” ceremony, students entered the MVOL book fair to select three new books each. Students also got meet and get their books signed by award winning Children’s Author – Emma Clayton, who chatted with the students about being an author.

Making Waves was founded in 1989 by John Scully, a computer software executive, and the late Rev. Eugene Farlough, pastor of Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church. That year, the program adopted 46 fifth-graders from two elementary schools in Richmond and proceeded to mentor them for eight years. In 1997, Making Waveswatched its first group graduate from high school. In 2001, the program expanded to schools in San Francisco.

Waves mentors its students, called Wave-Makers, by building upon skills learned in its middle school, high school, and college programs. All students are exposed to benefits such as nutrition education, cultural activities and health care assistance. To date, the program serves more than 1,000 in the Bay Area.

In an adiminstration room at the school, dozens of student-written letters were on display, addressed to Dimarea Young, a 19-year-old who was shot and killed in central Richmond earlier this month.

Later in the evening, MakingWavesAcademy hosted a Family Literacy Event, which included workshops and reading activities for parents and students.

Making Waves was founded in 1989 by John Scully, a computer software executive, and the late Rev. Eugene Farlough, pastor of Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church. That year, the program adopted 46 fifth-graders from two elementary schools in Richmond and proceeded to mentor them for eight years. In 1997, Making Waveswatched its first group graduate from high school. In 2001, the program expanded to schools in San Francisco.

The Contra Costa County Board of Education in 2007 approved Making Waves Education Program’s petition to open a school in Richmond’s Hilltop neighborhood.

Waves mentors its students, called Wave-Makers, by building on skills learned in its middle school, high school, and college programs. All students receive nutrition education, cultural activities and health care assistance. The principal, called “Head of School” in Making Waves parlance, is Irene St. Roseman.

The event was for 5th through 10th graders in the Making Waves Middle School. Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Schools Superintendent Bruce Harter also attended.

More about the partners:

My Very Own Library (MVOL), proudly supported by the Family & Friends of the late, Anne Feeley (MVOL Originator), in partnership with NJ After 3, and Scholastic Book Fairs, is a literacy initiative aimed at increasing book ownership for thousands of students in Newark, NJ for the past two years. MVOL is proud to make its way across the country –on Wednesday, April 24, so that 600 students at Making Waves Academy in Richmond, California, will walk away with 4 FREE NEW BOOKS to take home to help build their own home libraries!

A 1938 ad for the Contra Costa County Horse Show and Rodeo, starring famed cowboy and trick roper Montie Montana.

The organizers of the the Contra Costa County Horse Show and Rodeo at Castro Ranch in El Sobrante, a benefit for the county recreational summer camp, pulled out all the stops by featuring star cowboy attraction Montie Montana, the famed rope trick artist who had already started a movie career in Hollywood.
Montana’s acting credits include “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” (1962) and “The Man From Frisco,” a fictionalized story based on Henry J. Kaiser that was shot at the Kaiser Richmond shipyards in 1944.
Montana, who died in 1998, was well known for his rope stunts, with the most infamous coming when he roped Dwight Eisenhower during the 1953 presidential inauguration (below). According to his biography on imdb.com, the Secret Service was not happy about the stunt. At bottom is a video of Montana in the 1953 inaugural parade.

Lucky Lanes in San Pablo, with its distinctive A-frame entrance, was one of the most beloved of the area’s bowling alleys. According to this post it opened in 1958 and, of course, had a pool room.
Lucky Lanes hosted many grad nights and the Lighthouse restaurant was right across the street.
Lucky Lanes met its end when San Pablo approved construction of what is now the San Pablo Lytton Casino.

Uptown Bowl began as Richmond Bowling Courts in 1938.
Quee Prentice, who later opened Golden Gate Lanes in El Cerrito, owned Uptown Bowl in the 1950s and ’60s.
It later went through other ownership changes and is shown below with its new owner in 1990.
If you have memories or photos to share of Uptown Bowl, please let us know in the comments.

Two of the major retail vacancies on San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito are former Safeway grocery stores.
We offer early and modern day views of both here.

Looking north on San Pablo Avenue about 1966. The Safeway store here closed when the chain moved to the new Moeser Lane center in 1970. You almost expect the tower sign to flash messages.

The same location in 2012. After Safeway left this building was home to fabric stores and Guitar Center.

Safeway at the Moeser Lane center in 1986, when Payless was a co-anchor, along with a small Jerry Lewis-franchised cinema. The center opened in 1970 and A.G.E. department store was supposed to open a location there, but it never materialized.

The Moeser Lane center as it looked on Sunday. Safeway is gone, as are most of the major tenants, except for CVS (successor to Payless.Rite-Aid, Longs) and O'Reilly Auto Parts.

This home stood for some time after the Home Depot was built and surrounded it with a parking lot.

The Home Depot store in El Cerrito opened in 1993 on the former Adachi Nursery property that was partially in El Cerrito and partially in Richmond. (The cities divide the sales tax from the warehouse store’s receipts.)
But Adachi wasn’t the only property owner on the site.
A 95-year-old homeowner who had a house on the site declined to sell and finally reached an agreement that his homesite on San Pablo Avenue, built about 80 years earlier, would be sold after he died. As a result, the large store operated in its initial days with a parking lot that surrounded the home.
There was also talk, noted in this article from our archives, that there might be the opportunity to relocate the home for use as a historical museum, a plan that was never realized.