The Progressive City on the Bay (And It’s Not Berkeley or S.F.)

[marmar]

from In These Times:


The Progressive City on the Bay (And It’s Not Berkeley or S.F.)
An interview with the mayor of Richmond–a Green Party member who has been making corporations furious.

BY STEVE EARLY AND SUZANNE GORDON


When we sat down to talk with 60-year old Gayle McLaughlin, the mayor of Richmond, Calif., she had just been through a summer media whirlwind. Policy innovation and political controversies landed McLaughlin and her East Bay city of 100,000 on the front page of The New York Times, on MSNBC with Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes, and on Democracy Now with Juan González and Amy Goodman. Even Fox News recently hosted a debate between two Richmond city council members about the merits of a new “ban the box” ordinance passed to ease the re-entry of former prisoners into the community.

The national media’s rediscovery of Richmond began last fall when the Times informed an unsuspecting world that McLaughlin’s “small, blue-collar city best known for its Chevron refinery has become the unlikely vanguard for anticorporate, left-wing activism in recent years, having seized the mantle from places like Berkeley, just south of here, or San Francisco, across the Bay.”

Since 2007, Richmond has approved a business tax increase and defeated a casino development scheme; opposed Immigration & Customs Enforcement raids in the city and created a municipal ID card to aid the undocumented; sought fair property taxation of Chevron and sued the giant oil company over the damage done by a huge refinery fire and explosion last year; and supported “community policing” initiatives introduced by Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus, which have helped reduce violence.

In 2012, Richmond progressives failed to win voter approval for a penny-per-ounce tax on sugary drinks, a public health measure bitterly opposed by the beverage industry. And since Richmond became the first city in the country to threaten the use of eminent domain to avert foreclosures, major banks have sued to block the plan and some investors have shunned the city’s municipal bonds. Home owners without mortgage problems have been flooded with banking-industry funded mailers claiming that their property values will be adversely affected. At a Sept. 10 meeting attended by 300 people, the city council voted, by a 4 to 3 margin, to resist these pressures and pursue McLaughlin’s anti-foreclosure initiative. (Actual use of the city’s eminent domain powers will require five council member votes.) ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.com/article/15610/the_progressive_city_on_the_bay_and_its_not_berkeley_or_s.f/

[JEFF9K]

1. Any city referred to as "progressive" ...

... is a good place to live. Does anyone want to move to a "conservative" city?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. Good for Richmond.

It'll be interesting to see how the anti-foreclosure initiative moves forward, it'll be fought tooth and nail by the banks.

[Warren DeMontague]

3. Yeah, those refineries have a habit of exploding with disturbing regularity.

I've witnessed a few in my day.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I visited San Francisco many years ago and I loved it.

I would like to live in the Bay Area, but S.F. prices make it way out of reach for me. Richmond might be a more affordable alternative. I'll explore some options there.