Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a city council. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area's East Bay region, Richmond borders San Pablo, Albany, El Cerrito and Pinole in addition to the unincorporated communities of North Richmond, Hasford Heights, Kensington, El Sobrante, Bayview-Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, and East Richmond Heights, and for a short distance San Francisco on Red Rock Island in the San Francisco Bay.
Richmond is one of two cities, the other being San Rafael, that sits on the shores of both San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. Its population was 116,448 as of the 2020 United States census making it the second largest city in the United States named Richmond after Richmond, Virginia.
Etymology
The name "Richmond" predates incorporation of the city by more than fifty years. Edmund Randolph, originally from Richmond, Virginia, represented the city of San Francisco when California's first legislature met in San Jose in December 1849, and he became state assemblyman from San Francisco. Out of fondness for his hometown, Randolph persuaded a federal surveying party, surveying and mapping the San Francisco Bay, to place the names "Point Richmond" and "Richmond" on their 1854 geodetic coastal map. The map was used at the terminal selected by the San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad. By 1899 maps made by the railroad carried the name "Point Richmond Avenue", a county road that later became Barrett Avenue, a central street in Richmond. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad purchased the railroad making their terminus at Richmond. The first post office opened in 1900, They spoke the Chochenyo language, and subsisted as hunter-gatherers and harvesters.
Origins
The site that would eventually become the city of Richmond was part of the Rancho San Pablo land granted to Don Francisco María Castro, from which the nearby town of San Pablo inherited its name; the Point Richmond area was known originally as The Potrero and then renamed as Point Stevens in early charts of San Francisco Bay.
thumb|left|250px|The Standard Oil refinery pictured in 1913.
Standard Oil set up operations on land sold by Emily Tewksbury in 1901, including what is now the Chevron Richmond Refinery and tank farm, which Chevron still operates. There is a pier into San Francisco Bay south of Point Molate for oil tankers.
Early days
The city of Richmond was incorporated in 1905. Until the enactment of prohibition in 1919, the city had the largest winery in the world; The facility connected with both the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific and serviced their passenger coach equipment. The Pullman Company was a large employer of African American men, who worked mainly as porters on the Pullman cars. Many of them settled in the East Bay, from Richmond to Oakland, before World War II.
thumb|left|Southern Richmond in 1930, then known as the town of [[Stege, California]]
From 1917 and throughout the 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was active in the city.
In 1930 the Ford Motor Company opened the Richmond Assembly Plant, which later moved to Milpitas in 1956. The old Ford plant in Richmond has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988. In 2004 it was purchased by developer Eddie Orton, who converted it into an events center named Ford Point Building–The Craneway.
Wartime boomtown and shifting demographics
At the onset of World War II, the four Richmond Shipyards were built along Richmond's waterfront, employing thousands of workers, many migrating to Richmond from other parts of the country after being recruited. These new workers generally lived in housing constructed specifically for the wartime boom, scattered throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, including Richmond, Berkeley and Albany. Many of these new migrants were Black Americans from the South and to a lesser extent the Midwest who took jobs in heavy industry and transport as those industries expanded to meet the needs of the war economy, while increased numbers of women also joined the industrial workforce for the first time as large numbers of working-age men were drafted for the war effort. During the war, Richmond's population increased dramatically, rising from 23,000 in 1940 to 114,899 in 1942 and peaking at around 120,000 by 1945.
A specially built rail line, the Shipyard Railway, transported workers to the shipyards. Kaiser's Richmond shipyards built 747 Victory and Liberty ships for the war effort, more than any other site in the U.S. The shipyards broke many records, including the completion of a Liberty ship in just five days. On average the yards built a new ship in 30 days.
The medical system established for the shipyard workers at the Richmond Field Hospital eventually became today's Kaiser Permanente HMO. The hospital remained in operation until 1993, when it was replaced by the Richmond Medical Center hospital, which has since expanded to a multi-building campus.
Point Richmond was Richmond's original commercial hub, but a new downtown arose in the center of the city along Macdonald Avenue during the war. It was populated by department stores such as Kress, J.C. Penney, Sears, Macy's, and Woolworth's.
<gallery mode=packed heights=150px widths=200px>
File:Richmondunderpass.jpg|An E&SR streetcar in the Macdonald Avenue subway in downtown Richmond, 1906
File:"4,000 Unit Housing Project Progress Photographs March 6,1943 to August 11, 1943, Looking down a street towards the... - NARA - 296755.tif|A 4,000-unit housing project was completed in Richmond during 1943.
File:USNS General A.W. Greely (T-AP-141) at Thule, Greenland, on 19 July 1951 (NH 97108).jpg|, built in Richmond
File:12-3-1 Permanente-Nos1-4-25.jpg|Aerial photo of Richmond Shipyards, 1944, view directed north: #3 (west, foreground); #2 (rectangular basin, east foreground); #4 (end of the channel, south bank); #1 (north of the channel bend).
File:Wendy Welder Richmond Shipyards.jpg|A "Wendy the Welder" at the Kaiser Richmond Shipyards, contributing to the war effort
File:Welders Alivia Scott, Hattie Carpenter, and Flossie Burtos await an opportunity to weld their first piece of steel - NARA - 535800.jpg|Richmond Shipyards welders prepare for a performance demonstration test
</gallery>
Post-war decline and rebound
When the war ended the shipyard workers were no longer needed, and a decades-long population decline ensued. The census listed 99,545 residents in 1950. By 1960 much of the temporary housing built for the shipyard workers was torn down, and the population dropped to about 71,800.
Just before his April 1968 assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. had been working on plans for the Poor People's Campaign, including a multi-city tour of the U.S. with a stop in Richmond. His son, Martin Luther King III, completed the Poverty in America Tour in 2007, stopping in Richmond. Most notably, the Travalini Furniture Store was destroyed by fire, which was assumed to be the result of the violent protests, but according to Fraser Felter, who was a reporter for the Richmond Independent, police sources told him the fire was set to avoid a debt instead by destroying store records.
thumb|right|Entrance to [[Hilltop Horizon|Hilltop Mall]]
In the 1970s, the Hilltop area was developed in Richmond's northern suburbs, further depressing the downtown area as it drew retail clients and tenants away to the large indoor Hilltop Mall, which opened in 1976. The shopping mall, last named Hilltop Horizon, was opened under Taubman Centers, and has been sold since then to GM Pension Trust (1998), Simon Property Group (2007), Jones Lang LaSalle (2012), LBG Real Estate (2017), and Prologis (2021), who announced plans to close and demolish the building, reusing the land for a mixed-use development including residential, retail, and logistics facilities.
In the late 1990s the Richmond Parkway was built along Richmond's western industrial and northwestern parkland, connecting Interstates 80 and 580. Construction of the Parkway, which follows the alignment of SR 93 as proposed in 1958, started in 1990 and completed in 1996 at a cost of $193 million. However, Caltrans issued a letter in 1998 saying it would not take over responsibility for the road unless it was brought up to expressway standards; as it was cost-prohibitive to convert it, the road remains the responsibility of the city and county.
In 2006, the city celebrated its centennial. This coincided with the repaving and streetscaping project of Macdonald Avenue. The city's old rundown commercial district along Macdonald has been designated the city's "Main Street District" by the state of California. This has led to funding of improvements in the form of state grants.
Geography
thumb|right|250px|[[East Brother Island Lighthouse, located in a small island group in San Francisco Bay called The Brothers]]
Richmond is located at . The city borders San Francisco Bay to the southwest and San Pablo Bay to the northwest, and includes Brooks Island and the Brother Islands entirely, and half of Red Rock Island.
There are several cities and unincorporated communities surrounding or bordering Richmond. To the south is the city of Albany which is in Alameda County and the city of El Cerrito. The unincorporated communities of East Richmond Heights, Rollingwood, Hasford Heights, and El Sobrante lie to the east. North Richmond to the west and San Pablo to the east are almost entirely surrounded by Richmond's city limits. To the north, Richmond borders the city of Pinole and the unincorporated areas of Bayview, Montalvin Manor, Hilltop Green, Tara Hills. Richmond borders Alameda, San Francisco, and Marin counties in the Bay and Red Rock Island.
The city is within the 94801, 94803, 94804, 94805, and 94806 ZIP Codes.
thumb|Aerial view in 2015
Climate
Richmond, like the rest of the East Bay, has a Mediterranean climate. The climate is slightly warmer than the coastal areas of San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Marin County; it is however more temperate than areas further inland. The average highs range from and the lows range from year round. Richmond usually enjoys an "Indian summer", and September is, on average, the warmest month. January is on average the coldest month.
The highest recorded temperature in Richmond was in September 1971 while the coldest was in December 1990.
Environment
thumb|left|View of [[Winehaven, California|Winehaven]]
Richmond is home to many species of animals. Canada geese visit the city on their annual migrations. Harbor seals live on the Castro Rocks, and pigeons and gulls populate the sidewalks and parking lots. Tadpoles and frogs can be found in the local creeks and vernal pools. Field mice and lizards are also found. Herons and egrets nest in protected areas on Brooks Island. Deer, falcons, raccoons, ducks, foxes, owls, and mountain lions live in Wildcat Canyon and Point Pinole Regional Shoreline.
A license is needed for fishing on the waterfront or city waters but not on the piers, where in addition to crabs, sturgeon are plentiful. Striped bass, bat rays, leopard sharks, surf perch, jacksmelt, white croaker, and flounders are also found. Richmond is one of the few places where you can find the rare Olympia oyster on the West Coast, in the waters along the refinery's shoreline. Rainbow trout have recently returned to San Pablo and Wildcat creeks.
Red-tailed hawks patrol the skies. Monarch butterflies migrate through the city on their journey between Mexico and Canada. Wildcat Marsh has two ponds where Canada geese often rest, and is also the home of the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse and California clapper rail. Another endangered species in the city is the Santa Cruz tarweed which survives alongside Interstate 80. Wildcat Canyon also hosts falcons and vultures. Threatened black rails also live in the city's marshes.
thumb|[[Otters at the Richmond Marina]]
After a baby gray whale was beached on the Point Richmond shore in May 2007, its rotting corpse became bothersome to neighbors. Removal was delayed as various agencies argued over which would have to pay for it, at an eventual cost of $18,000.
Richmond is also home to one of the last pristine moist grassland habitats in the entire Bay Area at the former Campus Bay UC Berkeley Field Station near Meeker Slough. Richmond residents, however, have limited access to other environmental benefits. Because of the refineries located in Richmond, air quality is particularly low, and residents are especially at risk of air-pollution-related health issues.
In 2006, the city was sued by an environmental group for dumping raw sewage into the Bay. Councilmember Tom Butt was very vocal on the subject, accusing the city council of turning a blind eye to the problem.
A 60-acre, 10.5-megawatt solar farm was opened within the city in 2018. The farm sits on a former landfill owned by Chevron.
Crime
The city has in the past suffered from a high crime rate; at one point, the city council requested a declaration of a state of emergency and asked for the intervention of the Contra Costa County Sheriff and the California Highway Patrol. Murder, vehicle theft, and larceny rates remain high, although they tend to be concentrated in the Iron Triangle and adjacent unincorporated North Richmond, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Richmond Police Department. By 1991, the city's all-time high of 62 homicides, among a population of 98,000, was seven times the national average. The portion of these homicides that were drug- or gang-related increased from 5 percent to 55 percent between 1989 and 1991.
Despite the city making extreme headway in crime reduction and prevention, Richmond received widespread attention in 2009 when a girl was gang raped at a homecoming dance at Richmond High School.
In 2007, Richmond opened a program to prevent gun violence, the Office of Neighborhood Safety. The program collects information and analyzes public records to determine "the 50 people in Richmond most likely to shoot someone and to be shot themselves." It then offers selected individuals "a spot in a program that includes a stipend to turn their lives around". "Over an 18-month period, if the men demonstrate better behavior, ONS offers them up to $1,000 a month in cash, plus opportunities to travel beyond Richmond."
In 2004, Richmond was ranked the 12th most dangerous city in America. Those rankings have changed, and Richmond is no longer ranked as a "most dangerous" city, in either California or the United States. This is in large part due to the efforts of Police Chief Chris Magnus, who established "community policing", which involves police officers engaging with affected high crime communities.
Disasters
thumb|Map showing the Hayward fault running through the eastern Richmond hills and the hilltop area through to San Pablo Bay
Richmond lies in the volatile California region that has a potential for devastating earthquakes. Many buildings were damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The city has also had at least one minor tornado. The Chevron Richmond Refinery had highly noted chemical leaks in the 1990s. The company has been fined thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of dollars.
Richmond has a siren system consisting of 17 emergency warning sirens located across the city; they are tested on the first Wednesday of every month, at 11 am PST (12 pm PDT), and are usually used to warn of toxic chemical releases from the Chevron Richmond Refinery.
In a July 26, 1993, industrial accident, a General Chemical company rail tanker car containing oleum overheated and exploded in the General Chemical railyard. This resulted in a area contaminated with the poisonous gas, and led to 25,000 people landing in the hospital. The incident led to lawsuits, and has been referred to as a mini-Bhopal.
thumb|A beach closed due to [[Oil spill|oil contamination along the shoreline at Marina Bay]]
2007 San Francisco Bay Oil Spill
The city's shoreline and wildlife were seriously affected by the 2007 San Francisco Bay oil spill. Beaches and shoreline were closed, but later reopened. Keller Beach was closed to public access for swimmers.
2010 sinkhole
On April 15, 2010, a sinkhole roughly deep appeared at the intersection of El Portal Drive and Via Verdi. Although no one was hurt, a car fell into the sinkhole.
2012 Chevron Refinery fire
On August 6, 2012, at around 6:15 PM, a large fire erupted at the Chevron refinery, sending plumes of toxic smoke into the surrounding area and resulting in nearly 15,000 people to seek medical treatment following the incident. Just minutes after the fire was reported, Contra Costa Health Services notified residents “shelter in place”; the local siren system was activated and several messages were issued through the Emergency Alert System. The fire was reported contained at around 10:40 PM.