By Mike Kinney
A new victory garden in Richmond built with the help of local youth will one day provide fruits and vegetables to disadvantaged communities.
On Wednesday, Groundwork Richmond, tasked since 2010 with improving the city’s environment via community partnerships, and its Green Team, a group of local students engaged in service-learning opportunities, were busy putting the finishing touches on the garden located behind the City of Richmond Park and Recreation Administrative Building at 33rd Street and Macdonald Avenue.
The garden has 13 beds approximately 6 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep. Growing there are zucchini squash, cucumbers, black and blue berries, raspberries, peppers, melons and eggplants along with herbs such as basil and lemon thyme. And tomatoes too.
Over 700 new trees coming to Richmond via grant-funded projects richmondstandard.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from richmondstandard.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Mike Kinney and Kathy Chouteau
You could say that Richmond resident and independent filmmaker, Jayson Johnson, is a triple threat: he not only directs his films, but also writes and produces them to boot. The owner of Strike Five Films recently sat down with the
Standard to tell us about his latest passion projects a film he just wrapped up called “T.H.O.T?” and a screenplay for another film he plans to shoot right here in his home city.
According to Johnson, T.H.O.T?, which stands for “That Hoe Over There,” tells the tale of a young man named Kev who is excited to go on a date with Stacy, until terrible rumors about her past force him to make a decision: Is Stacy really a T.H.O.T? Or is it all just talk? Adrian Marcel, a Grammy-nominated vocalist from Oakland, plays the lead role.
By Mike Kinney
Martin Luther King Jr. Day wasn’t just a day of service in Richmond on Monday, but also one of hope. That hope came in the form of 100 sleeping bags, along with tents, coats and other resources, being distributed at various locations where people experiencing homelessness reside in the city, including an encampment on Caltrans property that was recently dismantled for health and safety reasons.
Big City Mountaineers and NEMO donated 200 sleeping bags to Groundwork Richmond, half of which were distributed Monday. Safe Organized Spaces Richmond (S0S!), Contra Costa County’s CORE Mobile Homeless Outreach (Coordinated Outreach Referral, Engagement) team and Ephesians Church-God in Christ also pooled their resources for Monday’s distribution.