Richmond Rising partners report progress, budgets and community outreach plans

Beatrice Guerrero, project lead for the City of Richmond, convened the Richard Price Collaborative stakeholder committee on Jan. 7 to review partner project updates, budgets and upcoming outreach.

Partners reported detailed financials and near-term plans. The city said it has expended $413,000 on its Richmond Rising work to date and has about $280,000 remaining; staff are preparing and expect to submit invoice 14 to the Strategic Growth Council. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved $10,000,000 in Regional Measure 3 funding on Dec. 17 that the city plans to appropriate for Neighborhood Complete Streets and the Richmond Wellness Trail phase 2. "We're very excited about this," Guerrero said as she noted continued NEPA work for both projects.

Annie of the Trust for Public Land said her team is coordinating with Caltrans for the trail segment that crosses the freeway and is reviewing budget and scope in light of the new RM3 funds; she reported $418,000 expended and about $4.4 million remaining for the Wellness Trail.

Youth fellow Delia said the e-bike lending library has drafted a local marketing campaign and is coordinating with partners and clinics; the program has reported roughly $2.21 million in expenditures to date and a remaining budget of about $2.17 million. On the e-bike program specifically, committee member Jim Becker urged clearer monthly metrics: "When the bike lending library says we were lending bikes. Well, how many?" Becker said, asking that future presentations include concrete targets and current counts so the committee can track progress and celebrate successes or target assistance.

Ambassador Canteva reported for the Resilient Homes project that invoice 14 was submitted and that city staff are drafting a cost-justification memo to confirm reroofing eligibility; expenditures to date were reported at about $1.01 million with roughly $5.9 million remaining. Urban Tilth’s Shane Wayfield said the basins training program graduated eight apprentices and installed two water-conservation systems that will save an estimated 12,920 gallons annually; that project has spent about $413,000 with approximately $1.2 million remaining.

Lorena Castillo of Groundwork Richmond reported planting 14 residential street trees and maintaining more than 300 trees in the project area, and she said staff will replace 10 residential trees vandalized on New Year’s Day in the Coronado neighborhood. "We are gonna replace those trees that were damaged," Castillo said, and encouraged neighbors to be vigilant.

Other partners reported progress on a universally accessible community garden, Orchard for All harvests and apprenticeship work, VeggieRx health promoter activities, and the UC Berkeley evaluation team’s draft annual report and youth fellows case study. UC Berkeley’s draft evaluation currently lists $549,000 expended with $520,000 remaining; the draft annual report and infographic were shared for partner feedback.

Partners agreed to add clearer numeric status slides to future presentations to show progress toward stated goals (for example, numbers of bikes available, rides or trees planted versus targets). Several groups announced near-term events: a solar information workshop Jan. 28 at the Nevin Center, a community design event for Martin Luther King Memorial Park on Jan. 14, and a youth fellows community bike ride Jan. 18.

The committee approved minutes from the November and December meetings and asked partners to continue refining budgets, scopes and outreach plans as they finalize scope documents tied to new funding. The next regular meeting is scheduled for the first Wednesday of February, when staff expect to present a revised slide set with the added metrics.