We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for the effort, time, and heart you poured into the 2018 elections. Despite what the press reports, the results are not yet final. The Contra Costa Elections Department still has 177,000 ballots to count county-wide, and we believe an election does not end until every vote is counted. But while we wait, we wanted to reach out today to tell you that we are so proud of what we have been able to accomplish together.

With our members running for city council, mayor, assembly, and lieutenant governor, the RPA took our progressive agenda to the next level this year. We were, are, and always will be, an audacious, hopeful and visionary group. We ran positive and substantive campaigns in all our races. Through the five campaigns we have made connections with thousands of like-minded people, building alliances which will bring us closer to our goal of creating a society that puts people above profit.

Once the results are in, we know there will still be a solid core of strong progressive voices on the Richmond City Council. Looking at the group of people who made serious runs this year, it’s heartening to see how, after years of effort, we have been able to break the stranglehold of Chevron and establishment politics in our city. RPA has helped redefine the political landscape in Richmond and the East Bay. We look forward to making progress towards a more sustainable, equitable and just city, state, country and world.

Richmond Progressive Alliance
Team Richmond

The Richmond Progressive Alliance has endorsed:

• Jovanka Beckles for Assembly District 15
• Team Richmond (Melvin Willis for Richmond Mayor, Ada Recinos and Eduardo Martinez for Richmond City Council)
• Yes on Proposition 10 (Local Rent Control Initiative)

Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) is pleased to announce that a motion regarding Point Molate, sponsored by RPA-endorsed Council Members Eduardo Martinez and Ada Recinos and Vice Mayor Melvin Willis, was unanimously passed Tuesday June 19, 2018. In the motion Staff was directed to make modifications to the timeline and scope of the Point Molate Land Use Visioning process to allow for more comprehensive outreach and meaningful community participation. This significant motion put forth by RPA council members has the goal of engaging more residents to participate in the decision-making process around Point Molate, something RPA has continuously fought for. Though originally critical of the motion, Mayor Butt voted with the progressive council members to improve on the work plan originally brought forth by consultants

Tuesday’s motion by Martinez, Recinos and Willis will:

1. Make sure that public input on is gathered from a minimum of 2,500 community members from across Richmond (via the website, workshops, pop-up events, youth forum and interviews).

2. Publicize community meetings, tours, forums and other activities widely and at least 30 days before the date of the event.

3. Provide at least 4 public tours of Pt. Molate with transportation, translation, and childcare as needed.

4. Include community-driven, special-topic forums as part of the community planning process. Some examples of potential forums would cover topics relating to:

• Community Economics and Housing Forum
• Public Uses of Pt. Molate Forum
• Achieving Equity and Sustainability
• Natural Resource Forum
• Site Infrastructure Forum

5. Redirect market analysis and feasibility studies to include development benefits for Richmond residents.

6. Add a transparency component that gives progress reports on Council agenda and lists all organizations and businesses that are contacted and interviewed.

7. Add a real-time evaluation component for participants to give feedback after every workshop and event.

8. Solicit development proposals after City has completed zoning and made updates to the General Plan.

For more information about the role of the Richmond Progressive Alliance in protecting Point Molate, go to www.richmondprogressivealliance.net/environment.

The Contra Costa County Racial Justice Task Force (created as a result of excellent campaign work by the CCC Racial Justice Coalition) has recently come out with a set of thirty recommendations for ensuring racial equality within the county’s criminal justice system. Recommendations range from providing resources to incentivize school districts to explore, evaluate, implement or expand existing non-punitive discipline practices; to establishing a community capacity fund to build the capacity of community based organizations - especially those staffed by formerly incarcerated individuals - to provide services to reentry clients.

PRIMARY RACES
Vote for one, top two advance to November election. Elect a West County team!

STATE PROPOSITIONS

CITY OF RICHMOND
Measure E Yes
Charter Amendment creates a Department of Children and Youth with a community oversight board and requires increased funding of youth programs and services from the general fund with significant use of non-profit community organizations (The Richmond Kids First Initiative)

Measure K Yes
Charter Amendment to modify Measure E if it is passed. Modifications include removal of the requirement to use non-profits for a significant portion of the youth services defined in E, and providing that funding obligations beginning on July 1, 2021, are contingent on passage of a general tax measure for the City of Richmond

County Sheriff - Write in “No Confidence”
Current Sheriff David Livingston is running unopposed but has supported the expansion of the County’s contract with ICE and has prioritized jail expansion over providing services that would reduce recidivism and the need for jails. The write-in is the recommendation of the Contra Costa Racial Justice Coalition as well as the RPA — let’s send him a message!

* Candidates marked with an asterisk haven’t yet pledged to run for office free of corporate donations. The RPA only endorses candidates who make this pledge, so these candidates are supported by the RPA but not officially endorsed

Big thanks to all the presenters who inspired us at the RPA’s Earth Day event, Activating Environmental Justice.               

And many thanks to panelist Cheryl Holzmeyer who just introduced us to the Refinery Monitoring Tool.

Produced by Air Watch Bay Area this new, online, interactive tool allows you to see current data on air pollution in Richmond, Crockett, Rodeo, and Benicia. You can also sign up for daily air quality alerts or use the website (or a downloadable app) to report smells and pollution events to the Air Watch Bay Area website and/or to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.

This tool was created by the The Fair Tech Collective at Drexel University in Philadelphia in collaboration with the Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment Lab at Carnegie Mellon University.

Inspired by the Richmond People’s Convention of 2004 (organized by Richmond Progressive Alliance, Just Cause Richmond, ACORN, and others) which drew over 300 people, the 2018 Richmond People’s Assembly aims to gather neighborhoods together to organize for collective power, bring a voice to the community, and empower residents to engage in political activities to create the change and solutions we need as a community.

The Richmond People’s Assembly will take place on May 19^th at Richmond High School from 9:30 - 3pm.

It’s being led by the Richmond Our Power Coalition, a collection of local community organizations including the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Communities for a Better Environment, Urban Tilth.

In the weeks leading up to the Assembly, coalition canvassers will go door to door to listen to and take inventory our community members needs. Maybe you've already been approached! Please mark you calendars and watch this space for more information!

Howie Klein writes: 

Jovanka Beckles is the AD15 candidate whose election would bring to state government, and to national visibility, a uniquely successful local Progressive political model. Jovanka is a working-class veteran of the nation’s most Progressive city council, which has built the nation’s best record of winning elections and implementing successful Progressive policies, in the face of massive oppo-spending by global villain Chevron Corporation, in Chevron’s long-dominated ‘company town’ of Richmond California.

Read More

Our movement is in the news again!

Hot off the "presses" is a wonderful podcast from Stepping Up, titled Smackdown: City Hall v. Big Oil. Produced by Claire Schoen, this podcast focuses on “surprising stories from climate activists” and features our favorite Communities for a Better Environment rep, Andres Soto. Well worth a listen!

And if you haven’t already checked it out, read a Counterpunch article penned by Ralph Nader titled Citizen-Mayor Gayle Roars through Richmond California. It chronicles the history of the RPA and Gayle’s bid for Lt. Governor. An excerpt is below:

[In Richmond], McLaughlin found a few like-minded progressives and started the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA). (Gayle had volunteered in the Green Party’s 2000 Presidential Campaign)

With very little money, but many long overdue proposals for the betterment of the city, the RPA went to work. They had three public assets—a set of progressive policy changes, support of a large silent majority of residents, and a dedicated core of thirty no-nonsense local champions for a just community.

RPA ran a slate of candidates for City Council in 2004, with some success. This was followed by a victory in 2006 that made McLaughlin mayor—a post she held until 2014 when she was termed out and then successfully ran for city council. RPA now controls five of the seven seats—overcoming the Chevron Company’s longtime political boosters…

Because of McLaughlin and the RPA, Richmond has a higher minimum wage of $15 an hour, a police department that has curbed police misconduct, a major drop in serious street crime, an increase in Chevron’s tax payments, a decrease in toxic pollution by Chevron, and Solar Richmond, a program demonstrating a greener local economy, more energy self-reliance and jobs.

Thank you to our progressive City Council!  On April 3, Richmond amended its 1990 Sanctuary Cities ordinance, which bars the police from using city funds to collaborate with ICE. Read more below:

Due to the escalating immigration enforcement, Ordinance 29-90 should be amended to address the threats from the DOJ and the fears of the immigrant and refugee community.

The immigrant and refugee community in Richmond make up more than half of its population, 33.7 % are foreign born and 62.7% are non-citizens (per the 2015 U.S Bureau Census 2011-2015). The following recommendations will assist with educating the residents and departments of the City of Richmond protocols, and inform the public officials.

- Provide information to the general public about this City Council policy in the top three spoken languages in Richmond, such as in English, Spanish and Mandarin. Disseminate information to the community about available resources in English, Spanish, Mandarin.

- Provide a report to the Richmond City Council regarding the threats by the DOJ of incarcerating public officials of Sanctuary Cities

- Provide a report to the Richmond City Council on how the Richmond Police Department is dealing with the escalating immigration enforcement and fear tactics by ICE.