citymaus

“Contra Costa County officials temporarily issued a public health advisory for portions of Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo after an oil spill sent roughly “600 gallons of a petroleum and water mixture” into San Francisco Bay at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond on Tuesday, authorities said.

a duck swims through oil slick as a five gallon per-minute petroleum leak washes in near the chevron long wharf in richmond, calif., on tuesday, 09.02.2021.

“Chevron officials told The Chronicle that refinery employees “observed a sheen on the water” near the facility’s wharf at about 3 pm and launched their “response protocol.”

Oil was no longer spilling, officials said in a statement at about 5 pm, and the clean-up was underway. Contra Costa Health Services issued an “All Clear” and lifted the health advisory for the area before 9 p.m. Tuesday, but urged residents in Richmond, North Richmond and San Pablo to open their doors and windows “to air out buildings and homes.”

“Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia said that Chevron and fire-agency crews were setting up a boom around a five-gallon-per-minute leak of a petroleum product at the wharf, and that county hazardous-materials staff were responding.

In statements Tuesday night, Gioia said that he had spoken with state Assembly member Buffy Wicks, who indicated her interest in moving forward with legislation to strengthen fines and penalties for releases from refineries and industrial facilities.

“It is unacceptable to have this happen in our community,” Gioia said. “It causes harm to people’s health. It causes harm to bird life, wildlife and marine life. I’ve seen it personally in prior spills. We expect industry to operate at the highest level with no room for error, because error causes harm to life. We coexist with industry in the area, which is why we have high regulatory standards. When you operate industry in an urban environment, there needs to be precautions to protect life.””

read more: sfchronicle, 09.02.2021. and eastbaytimes, 09.02.2021. 

rich city rides: self-care sunday, 26.01.2020. 

“Veteran news documentarian Doug McConnell is joining this Sunday's SelfCare Community Ride! Doug and his news crew will film the ride for an upcoming episode of his NBC Bay Area television series OpenRoad. His focus is on community leaders who help preserve the beauty and soul of the Bay Area for all.“

“For years, Lateefah Simon was an ordinary transit rider — the unflinching single mom who dropped her daughter off at 7 a.m. each weekday, then scrambled to catch a BART train. Now, she helps set an agenda for the regional rail system. She was elected president of BART’s Board of Directors in December, signaling a political shift for the transit agency.

“In 1994, I jumped the fare gates every day to get to my internship at Youth Radio,” Simon said matter-of-factly, sitting on the couch at her home in North Richmond. “And yes,” she added, “I got a couple citations.”

Though she believes everyone should pay his fare, Simon empathizes with BART’s neediest riders — teens whose parents have no money to buy them a Clipper card, transients who sleep on the seats, people rummaging in their bags for change to get home. Simon spent much of her life struggling to get by. She grew up in public housing in San Francisco and had her first child at 19 after graduating from George Washington High School.

She would go on to lead several influential nonprofits, earn a public policy degree at Mills College, win a MacArthur Foundation grant and become a dynamic public servant whose personal story and credentials seemed unusual for BART.

“At the time of her election, Simon rented a Victorian in West Oakland. She loved living in the urban core, where she walked her younger daughter, Lelah, to preschool every morning, smiling as the other parents rushed in with their coffee thermoses, everyone in a hurry to catch a bus or a train. Simon had just roared back to life after a period of intense grief when her husband, Kevin Weston, died from a rare form of leukemia two years earlier. 

In summer 2016, she became executive director of the Akonadi Foundation in downtown Oakland and dreamed of buying a house nearby — in a neighborhood rich with transit. But everything was too expensive.

lateefah simon, BART’s new board president and a single mom (widowed) who is legally blind, speaks with a worker at the richmond station during her morning commute.

“Simon bought a house in 2018 in a small residential community tucked into a hillside in North Richmond. Now she hails a Lyft at 7:20 every morning, stopping first to drop her younger daughter Lelah off at Bethel Christian Academy, then heading to Richmond BART, where Simon boards the train. In the evenings, Lelah’s grandmother picks her up so Simon can work late. She catches another Lyft from the BART station to get home. Costs for these rides hover at about $30 a day.”

read more: sfchronicle, 18.01.2020.

richmond-san rafael bridge bike path: grand opening, 16.11.19.

info and map: mtc.

new bike path on richmond-san rafael bridge leads to future of transportation.

“Nakari Syon grew up in Richmond, in the shadow of the refinery. Until Saturday, there was no practical way to get to the trails and parks of Marin County [without a car]. 

“My peers and I, we’d always dreamed of having this access to Marin,” said Syon, who doesn’t drive. “It’s just so exciting that now I can bring 15 or 20 cyclist friends across the bridge and give them that experience.””

read more: sfchronicle, 17.11.19. 

the battle for the richmond bridge bike path. 

“During fall of 1996, Robert Raburn of the East Bay Bicycle Coalition organized a ride to protest the lack of access on the Richmond bridge.

For the next several years, activist Jason Meggs and others organized rides to the bridge that sometimes ended at the toll plaza and sometimes went further. They rode the freeway to get there. They argued with the CHP and Caltrans about whether they could hoist a banner.”

read more: streetsblog, 15.11.19. 

richmond-san rafael bridge bike path: grand opening on saturday 16.11.19!

info and map: mtc.

join rich city rides cycling from richmond! or if you want a longer ride, join luckyduck bicycle cafe taking BART from oakland to SF and biking through marin and over the bridge back to the east bay!

richmond-san rafael bridge bike path: grand opening on saturday 16.11.19!

info and map: mtc. 

join rich city rides cycling from richmond! or if you want a longer ride, join luckyduck bicycle cafe taking BART from oakland to SF and biking through marin and over the bridge back to the east bay! 

“From the densely urban neighborhoods of Oakland and Berkeley, to the gritty, industrial swaths of Richmond, to the suburbia of Pinole and Hercules and the small company towns of Rodeo and Crockett, San Pablo Avenue is the common link that all of these communities share.

Starting at the northern end of San Pablo Ave is the small town of Crockett. Crockett was built around the C&H sugar factory, and has an architectural style that is reminiscent of Sausalito. One of the main attractions in Crockett is the Dead Fish, an upscale, waterside restaurant with views of the Carquinez Strait, the Napa River, San Pablo Bay; as well as views of Mare Island, Vallejo and Benicia directly across the bridge. Crockett also has some local fame as the hometown of Alfred Zampa, a legendary iron worker, who, during his career, worked on many of the Bay Area’s bridges, including the Golden Gate Bridge, which he fell off of and miraculously survived. As a result of his larger than life legend, the Carquinez Bridge is also known a the “Al Zampa Bridge.”

the carquinez bridge and crockett hills regional park. flickr/pbo31

“While Hercules’ next door neighbor, Rodeo is a blue collar, refinery town. Hercules is every example of modern, master-planned suburbia. The streets are perfectly paved, people are reserved, but friendly enough; crime is low and schools are above average. The town started off similarly to Rodeo, as a company town, rather than an oil refinery, it was situated around an explosives and munitions manufacturer called The Hercules Powder Company. As a result, people colloquially called the area Hercules, after the Powder Company. Once the city was incorporated, no one could really come up with anything, so the name stuck. Although, it’s hard to see any evidence of its industrial past as you cruise down San Pablo Ave through Hercules today.”

hercules. flickr/jlin45d

read more: brokeassstuart, 27.09.19.

the writer forgot the most important fact—san pablo ave is a highway, which is why it cuts through a bunch of cities.

“State Route 123 (SR 123) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California in the San Francisco Bay Area. Named San Pablo Avenue for virtually its entire length, SR 123 is a major north–south state highway along the flats of the urban East Bay. Route 123 runs about 7.39 miles (11.9 km) between Interstate 580 in Oakland in the south and Interstate 80 in Richmond in the north. San Pablo Avenue itself, a portion of Historic US 40, continues well past these termini, south to Downtown Oakland and north to Crockett, but without the Route 123 designation.“ —wikipedia

related: the san pablo avenue corridor project.

repairing the richmond–san rafael bridge. photos by karl nielsen.

“Every night, the large metal joints are jackhammered out, cut free and replaced with the smaller rubber joints. To take up some of the space left after removing the large expansion joints, a new section of concrete has to be poured. The concrete has to be poured and cured in time for the morning commute. Failure is not an option. The concrete is measured out and mixed on location in a special concrete mixing truck, with as little water as possible and with accelerants added to the mix to ensure the concrete will set well before morning traffic has to pass over the repaired joint. The challenging and dangerous work these crews do each night helps keep the bridge safe and the Bay Area humming.”

read more: mtc, 11.06.19. 

“The new San Francisco Bay Ferry route met its ridership goals six years early, netting an average of 688 daily boardings when it launched, and upwards of 740 daily boardings in the last two months. Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), which runs the SF Bay Ferry service, had projected ridership would be roughly 480 daily boardings.

“BART is packed, the roads are clogged, and the water is an underutilized resource,” said Elaine Forbes, executive director of the Port of San Francisco, where the Richmond ferry lands and departs from in The City. “Ferries should be an essential part of the public transportation system.”

She added, “as the region grows, we just need alternatives.”

And those alternatives are coming. In 2016, the water authority’s board approved a major expansion to increase its fleet from 16 vessels to 44, to ultimately increase their ridership five-fold by 2035, anticipating millions of more Bay. That’s seen the water authority invest $465 million in new ferry assets, from new terminals and maintenance facilities to brand new vessels.

As part of that expansion, the water authority also partnered with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority and the city of Richmond to build the Richmond Ferry Terminal to the tune of $20 million.

richmond ferry terminal, opened in january 2019. flickr/jef

“The data shows it paid off. The boon in ridership is a boon to the water authority’s coffers which may be used down the line to fund future expansions in ferry service from Richmond, pending decisions by local authorities.

The ridership boon is likely helpful to those driving and on BART. Some informal survey data conducted by the water authority show 1/5 of Richmond ferry riders used to drive alone to San Francisco. Now they skip across the water each morning, potentially easing congestion on local freeways.”

read more: sfexaminer, 15.06.19.

or maybe WETA just made an ultra conservative projection of ridership numbers to make sure they’re on the safe side..

the richmond-san rafael bridge, beautifully empty yesterday...

when pieces of concrete fell from the upper deck onto the lower deck.

see more: abc7, 08.02.19.  and: “richmond-san rafael bridge opens after 9-hour shutdown due to falling concrete.” sfchronicle, 08.02.19. 

“A new Richmond terminal will on Thursday, January 10 begin offering weekday commuter service to San Francisco. It’s the latest upgrade in a series of expansions (2016 Strategic Plan [PDF]) for the Water Emergency Transportation Authority (WETA), also known as the San Francisco Bay Ferry, which runs routes from Vallejo, Oakland, Alameda and South San Francisco.

“The San Francisco Bay Ferry may carry just a fraction of the total commuters — carting around 10,000 passengers daily compared to 270,000 drivers crossing the Bay Bridge and 432,000 riders hopping onto BART — but there was a time in the mid-1930’s when ferries ruled the bay waters, shuttling more than 150,600 passengers each day.

Those numbers petered out after the Golden Gate and Bay bridges were built and may never return, but there are plans to vastly expand the ferry network by growing the landings during peak-commute hours from five to 25 by 2040 and quadrupling the number of passengers — which actually might make a meaningful dent in traffic, said Arielle Fleisher, who studies transportation policy for SPUR, an urban planning think-tank.

“It’s about giving people more choices besides the car, and giving people better ways to get around the bay,” she said. “And, frankly, (the ferry’s) got a great view.”

the new dock is located near the craneway pavilion and rosie the riveter museum along the bay trail in richmond. 

“Schedule: The first ferry leaves Richmond for San Francisco at 6:10 a.m., followed by morning departures at  7:10, 8:15 and 8:40. On the way back from San Francisco, the ferry leaves at 4:30 p.m., 5:20 p.m., 6:35 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. For those doing the reverse commute from San Francisco to Richmond, there are two morning departures at 6:25 and 7:55. In the evening, two ferries at 5:15 p.m. and 6:05 p.m. depart Richmond for San Francisco. (Ultimately, the city and WETA would like to have weekend service to support events at the Craneway Pavilion and ferry tourists to the Rosie the Riveter-WWII Home Front National Historical Park.)

Cost: A one-way, adult fare is $9, or $6.75 with a Clipper card. Clipper card users simply tap on and off on the gangways. Otherwise, you can buy your ticket on the ferry. Youth between the ages of 5 and 18, seniors aged 65 and over, and disabled passengers pay $4.50. Kids under 5 years old are free.

Bike parking: There are standard bike racks at the terminal, along with the more-secure BikeLink lockers, which you can unlock with a BikeLink card. There are also at least 20 spots for bikes on the ferry, so you can bring your bike aboard, too.”

read more: eastbaytimes, 04.01.19. 

happy new year!

from coalesce with cosmic synergy @the craneway pavilion, richmond. 

photos by nate nafyah. 

biking while black—justice for najari smith, at wiley manuel courthouse in oakland, 31.08.18.

najari was wrongly arrested by oakland police for playing music from his bike sound system. he turned it off, but police arrested him, confiscated his bike and sound system, and threw him in jail. 

photos by malcolm wallace. 

“Najari Smith’s Aug. 3 arrest by Oakland police for violating a noise ordinance stunned Richmond residents who know him to be a dedicated community activist who has made a positive impact on Richmond youth through bicycling. 

posted by jennifer rougeaux on fb, 06.08.18.

“Smith is the cofounder and director of Rich City Rides, a nonprofit that offers young people numerous opportunities for positive activities including regular group bicycle rides, internships, working to earn their own bicycles, learning bicycle repair, trail maintenance, and advocating local government on a variety of transportation issues. Smith, 39, is also a respected member of the Richmond Bicycle-Pedestrian Advisory Committee. 

Smith’s arrest caused alarm throughout Richmond. More than a thousand people signed a petition asking for the charges against Smith to be dropped, and hundreds of people signed up to support Smith at his Aug. 31 court date. 

“Richmond Mayor Tom Butt immediately looked into the circumstances of Smith’s arrest and said it appeared to be a case of “bicycling while black.” On Thursday, Butt wrote a three-page letter to Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley and Oakland Mayor Libby Shaaf asking that the charges against Smith be dropped. 

read more: ebx, 15.08.18 and 21.08.18.

rally against police misconduct at oakland city hall, 24.08.18. photo by alyssa

“In the fall, passengers will board ferry boats from a new $20 million terminal at Harbour Way South, an industrial strip of roadway that spills onto the Bay Trail. From there it’s a half-hour commute by water to downtown San Francisco.

Officials, business owners and real estate developers see the terminal as a trigger for economic development. They say it could spur the revival that Richmond leaders have talked about for years, although it’s always seemed just a little out of reach.

It will probably bring new shops and restaurants to the area around the former Ford assembly plant, now a gleaming brick-and-windowed showroom called the Craneway Pavilion. It may draw tourists to the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historic Park Visitor Center or lure tech workers into shoreline housing developments — including a planned apartment building on a weed-choked lot at Harbour Way South, which could hold as many as 600 units.

“But the possibility of an economic boom on the shoreline worries members of Richmond’s progressive political wing. Some are concerned that the ferry will speed up tenant displacement in one of the Bay Area’s least costly places to rent that is connected to a BART station.

If a new mass transit option entices newcomers and there isn’t enough housing to accommodate them, they will compete for Richmond’s existing housing stock, said the city’s vice mayor, Melvin Willis.

Alternatively, Willis said, the ferry could lead to prodigious development but also bump up property values.

“If rents go up in certain areas around the ferry, that would cause rents to go up in other parts of Richmond,” Willis said. He worries that longtime residents will get priced out.

“The proposed fare is $9 one way for adults, $6.75 with a Clipper card, which is more expensive than BART. It will probably be half price for seniors and those ages 5 to 18, $2.90 for those in school groups and free for children younger than 5.

Yet when a city adds a new transit service — even a service that only a slice of the population can afford — it helps alleviate congestion for everyone...”

read more: sfchronicle, 06.07.18.