Quiet, Diverse, not without problems
-
3/21/2022
I've lived in Richmond since 2014. I find that for proximity to the rest of the East Bay, Marin county, and San Francisco it's a tremendous location. We moved here from Oakland in order to raise our kids. We were lucky enough to find a quiet neighborhood (East Richmond Heights) where all our neighbors have either been here for a long time or herald from Berkeley.
There are many great things about Richmond -
The public areas are fantastic. Lots of parks scattered throughout the city, including some East Bay Regional Parks like Miller-Knox Shoreline and Wildcat Canyon. Lots of green spaces for the kids to play outside.
The weather is moderate with lots of sunshine throughout the year.
The diversity at our local public school is a wonderful mix of different backgrounds. People have mentioned the schools being "bad" but our experience so far has not been any different than the schools I've had experience with in the past. We've dealt with El Cerrito Preschool Co-op, George Miller III (a head start program), Cameron School as well as Mira Vista. All of them have their flaws but for the most part my children are thriving thanks to the hard working staff at these schools.
Richmond feels like a working-class city. The restaurants are not fancy, but excellent none the less. Lots of great Mexican food, Korean food, Thai, Mediterranean. There are a lot of hard-working local businesses like car mechanics and other commercial enterprises along 23rd avenue as well as San Pablo Ave.
I love the sheer amount of Mexican Tiendas on San Pablo avenue and throughout the city. Getting high quality produce and fresh food, spices and the like for while supporting a local neighborhood business is fantastic.
Having lots of options for public transportation is excellent, including the giant commuter BART station El Cerrito Del Norte. SF is only 45 minutes and $6 away by BART. It is easy to get in and get out of the city for baseball games, concerts, and events without having to pay for parking or sit in traffic. There is also a ferry which goes to SF daily.
The things I like least about the city -
There are 2 railroad tracks that cut the city in half, and the city has not done much to make the neighborhoods around these train tracks accessible. It makes it difficult to get from one side of town to another, as there are only a few roads that cross over each - 37th, 23rd, Cutting, MacDonald road are some of the few that can get you 'over the tracks.'
I also loathe the Chevron refinery. It has a huge footprint down by Point Richmond, with tons of oil tanker shipping vessels parking down by the bridge and lots of trains pulling in and out with oil tanker cars. I commonly see the refinery "flaring" or burning excess gases as a 'safe' way to release dangerous chemicals. Chevron gets involved in local politics and talks a lot about "giving back to the community" but in reality they support business-friendly politicians who will overlook their bad safety record (among the worst refineries in the Bay Area) and continue to allow Chevron to pollute the local neighborhood. This city will be much better off when the refinery safely shuts down and stops being a monument to fossil fuel dependency.
David | Richmond, CA