Early-Stage Gentrification: Richmond, California, Residents Push Back

By Adam Hudson

While San Francisco gentrification has garnered ample national press coverage, there is one other Bay Area city experiencing a similar phenomenon – Richmond, California.

Richmond has long been known for three c’s – crime, corruption, and Chevron (the city is home to the company’s century-old refinery). For years, Richmond had soaring violent crime rates, leading politicians and pundits to deem it a national “murder capital.” Additionally, its city council was run by Chevron cronies.

However, Richmond’s homicide rate is now at an historic low – the lowest in over 30 years – and a progressive coalition has been running the city council for about a decade. In fact, even though Chevron pumped $3 million into Richmond’s City Council election last year, Chevron’s favored candidate, Nat Bates, lost to Democrat Tom Butt.

On top of that, Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus has openly expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and has significantly restricted lethal force in Richmond’s police department, which has resulted in Richmond police not killing anyone between 2007 and late 2014 – a very rare trend in police departments. However, in September 2014, one unarmed person, Richard Perez, was killed by a Richmond police officer. 

These changes, of course, all make Richmond a better place to live for current residents. On the flipside, the changes have resulted in Richmond attracting rich investors and development projects that could lead to the displacement of current residents. When gentrification in a city makes headlines, the process is usually already happening – high rents, displacement, and a radically changed cultural environment have gained a foothold – and the city is past its breaking point.

A good example is San Francisco: When the national press caught attention of protests against gentrification in San Francisco last year, it was arguably too late for a reversal to occur. Now the city is so far past the breaking point that only the rich can afford to live there. Gentrification in its early stages rarely gets much attention, and this is why it’s so important to focus on places like Richmond. Richmond exemplifies what gentrification looks like at the beginning – and what can be done to mitigate it.

Last month, hundreds of people gathered at Richmond City Hall to rally in support of a legally binding community benefits agreement with the proposed UC Berkeley Global Campus that will be built in Richmond, which sits at Berkeley’s north. The rally was organized by the Raise Up Richmond coalition, which includes a range of local organizations, including advocacy groups, faith groups and unions.

Community benefits agreements are contracts signed by community groups and real estate developers that promise amenities and support for the community in exchange for supporting an impending development project. In San Francisco, for example, tech companies like Spotify, Twitter, and Zendesk signed community benefits agreements as a requirement for tax breaks those companies received from the city. However, many residents complain that those agreements are often meaningless: They hardly do anything to help the community, and meanwhile, gentrification moves forward unfettered.

In October 2014, University of California Chancellor Nicholas Dirks laid out a sprawling vision for the “Berkeley Global Campus” (BGC): an extension campus on 134 acres of land UC Berkeley owns in Richmond. The campus will be 5.5 million square feet and similar to the international extension campuses that US universities build abroad – except it will be 10 miles away from Berkeley. When laying out the project, Dirks said the BCG will be “a new form of international hub where an exclusive group of some of the world’s leading universities and high-tech companies will work side-by-side with us in a campus setting.”

The BCG will emphasize research and education “with both undergraduate and graduate-level academic programs for US and international students,” according to a UC Berkeley Public Affairs article. The Contra Costa Times reported that the “new campus is expected to bring 2,700 temporary construction jobs and 10,000 full-time jobs as well as workforce training and educational partnerships with local schools.”

Even though many Richmond residents don’t disapprove of the UC Berkeley extension campus, they are concerned that people will be displaced if no legally binding community benefits agreement is put in place. Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, in response to criticisms of the project, wrote that UC Berkeley would enter into a legally binding community benefits agreement but that “it is premature to force the issue right now.”

At the rally, Richmond resident Juan Rodriguez spoke about how his landlord recently increased his apartment’s rent by $200 a month. “Back in February, we [apartment tenants] woke up with a letter that the manager posted on the door,” said Rodriguez, a maintenance worker who has lived in his apartment in Richmond’s Iron Triangle neighborhood for three years.

“It wasn’t a pleasant one,” he said of the letter. “It was an increase for $200. So we used to pay $1,000. Now, the rent increase was to $1,200. I was really concerned because I don’t make a lot of money. None of these families make a lot of money.” He explained that a 20 percent increase in rent hurts working-class families in the neighborhood since more of it will go to rent and less to groceries and to raising their children.

Rodriguez also said that his apartment and others in the area are in bad condition: He mentioned mold in ceilings, broken heaters, serious plumbing problems. “As a matter of fact, the ceiling in our bathroom just collapsed due to the bad plumbing,” he said.

In response, Rodriguez and other neighbors in the area organized, joined forces with the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), and put pressure on the landlord and city council to stop the 20 percent rent increase. As a result, the landlord agreed to reduce the rent increase from $200 a month down to $150. Rodriguez said that increase is still steep and that several families in the area “struggle every month to pay their rent” and meet their needs; such an increase could mean a displacement from the neighborhood.

Kimberly Gamboa, a Richmond native formerly incarcerated (she served six months in jail for spanking her child), explained to Truthout how she felt about the BGC. “I like the idea,” she said, “but UC Berkeley needs to make sure that they have a legally binding [community benefits] agreement with the City of Richmond to keep the residents of Richmond here in Richmond.”

Gamboa also said that the BGC must be committed to employing residents and educating young people “so that they can get entry-level positions that turn into great-paying careers.” She also argued that any proposed agreement should “incorporate formerly incarcerated people, as well, not just offer us janitorial positions, or food service positions, or gardening, or parking lot attendants” jobs, so they can also find good-paying jobs and meaningful careers.

While construction has yet to begin for the Berkeley Global Campus, it does seem to be a harbinger of gentrification in Richmond, sparking the concerns of community members. Those concerns are not misplaced, according to a recent UC Berkeley study.

[Source]: Full article at Truth-Out