[CPEO-BIF] "The city of Richmond [California] is emerging as a leader in sustainable redevelopment ..."

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Transforming a Bay Area Brownfield Into a Green Jewel
The city of Richmond is emerging as a leader in sustainable redevelopment and in the process, preserving its past.

By Lisa Owens Viani
Next City
November 6, 2017

	
Two decades ago, Richmond, California, was probably best known for its murder rate, poverty and industrial pollution, most famously from the Chevron refinery, which sits at the north end of the city. 

In the curve of a peninsula that juts out into the northeastern shoreline of San Francisco Bay, the city has a natural deep harbor that made it the most productive World War II-era shipyard in the U.S.: 747 warships were built there, many of them by the women known as “Rosie the Riveters.” But the deepwater port also attracted chemical companies like United-Heckathorn, which profited and then left town, contaminating the harbor with persistent pesticides like DDT.

Although Chevron continues to operate, environmental cleanup continues, and poverty is still a problem in Richmond, the murder rate has fallen dramatically, and the city has become a surprising leader in the urban greening movement, recently winning platinum and gold sustainability awards for community greenhouse gas reductions and best practices.

…

For the entire article, see
https://nextcity.org/features/view/richmond-bay-area-transforming-brownfield-into-green-development

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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