Good evening.

After one year in office as mayor of the city of Richmond, it is an honor and a privilege to be delivering my second state of the city address.

As we reflect on the past year 2007, we can say with great certainty that this past year was a year of contrasts. It was a very good year in many ways and a very, very difficult year in other ways. While it is clear that many seeds of change have been planted, it is also clear that we, as a community, have reaped more than our share of tears….

In delivering this address, I will be describing to you how I see our reality and how I propose that we face this reality together.

First, I’ll speak about direct violence prevention efforts in place and in the making.
Then I want to address how we are carving out our place in the new economy and
transitioning locally to a sustainable Richmond.
And lastly I want to address the issue of community empowerment, which is the gauge
by which true progress in Richmond must be measured.

Violence Prevention

So, in speaking to our violence, let me begin by saying we remain with a heavy heart as a result of an increase in homicides last year and in remembrance of all lives lost to violence in Richmond. We grieve together and extend our deepest sympathies to all those impacted by violence.

Our first and highest priority remains violence prevention and we continue to focus on every possible way to reduce violent crimes in our city. Two key components to reducing violence are the Police Department and the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

Our police department has hired new officers, has expanded to 12 hour shifts, and is getting help from the CHP so as to better respond to all crimes. While the purpose of these changes is to provide better protection for the public, I appreciate the clear-cut understanding of our police force that by their efforts alone we will not resolve our violence. Violence prevention is a collective endeavor for us all.

The Office of Neighborhood Safety (the ONS) is a new office created in 2007 to coordinate and maximize violence prevention efforts in our city. Our ONS director is currently completing the hiring of outreach workers as part of the ONS staff. These outreach workers, or neighborhood change agents (as they are being called) will be working within our high-crime neighborhoods to help redirect our young people to the services they need. Another emphasis of the ONS is expanding re-entry services for those who are returning to Richmond after incarceration. With the help of a community advisory committee, in which my office will participate, the ONS offers us great potential to advance city-wide efforts.

Together with the ONS and the police department, we, as a community, must continue to search for and seek out an understanding as to why this senseless violence is happening. If we are to truly “uproot” violence in Richmond, we must understand it. For decades, structural violence in the form of social oppression, poverty, and lack of opportunity has plagued Richmond neighborhoods. For decades, too many of our residents have not been able to see their way through to a viable and healthy future. Deep-seated disillusionment, despair, frustration, and anger has resulted and is at the root cause of our street violence today. We must face head-on this reality of injustice and inequity and we must nurture and foster a situation that begins to lessen the stress, the shame, the discrimination and the denigration that so many of our troubled youth have inherited from a society that has failed them.

Due to this structural, systemic violence that our community has endured and continues to endure, there exists in our city a massive level of pain and trauma and we are in great need of healing. Therefore, I will be reaching out to survivors throughout Richmond who have been impacted by our violence and are seeking ways to lessen the pain and spread a message of non-retaliation. Last September we honored the September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows whose message of peace, even in light of their deep personal losses to the 9/11 tragedy, contrasts profoundly with our nation’s retaliatory aggression in Iraq. Following their example, I am reaching out to Richmond families who have lost loved ones to street violence and inviting them, with the support of my office, to create Richmond Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. The focus of this group will be to process feelings of grief and to extend community-based support for talk groups. It has been said that there is no grief like the grief which does not speak.

Some of our local families who have been impacted by violence have already found their way to turning their pain into strength and courage, while others are struggling with deep open wounds and heartbreak. By coming together, members of our community can learn to heal together and, from them, we can learn to heal as a city.

And in terms of ongoing community efforts, as exemplified by the many wonderful groups who have just received this year’s MLK award, we continue to see great commitment and undaunted resiliency to bring about a violence-free Richmond. Grassroots organizations, non-profits and faith-based efforts continue to network residents and neighbors…..all outlining pathways to peace.

Youth groups like Youth Build, Youth Together, and the Southeast Asian Youth and Family Alliance are active participants in the dialogue on violence and we need to engage them more in 2008.

Many young people have indicated an interest in advancing activities such as youth poetry slams and spoken word performances. So I will be working with the youth commission and others to organize our first Richmond Youth “Speak-Out” in 2008 to give our youth a chance to utilize their creative talents in the transformation of Richmond. We have an opportunity and a need to grow a movement of young people picking up the pen and the microphone as creators of social, artistic, and political change.

And when one speaks of violence, we cannot fail to address the “silent violence” that attacks our population by way of pollutants and emissions to our air, water, and land. . This environmental degradation and impact on the community must be factored into the roots causes of our violence. The “invisible assault” on our neighborhoods from environmental pollution has spurred epidemic levels of asthma and cancer. Both in terms of public health and in terms of self-esteem and neighborhood pride, living in the shadow of polluting industries presents a roadblock to carving out better lives. When it comes to expansion proposals from Richmond’s petrochemical industry, any thing short of a reduction in each pollutant and a cumulative reduction in the overall pollution that is rained over our heads is simply more of the same….a continuation of the environmental injustice that our city has suffered for decades.

All our violence prevention efforts have an opportunity to play a part in bringing about neighborhood safety. Our Office of Neighborhood Safety is the agency to help connect and network our many different efforts, but each of our efforts is its own branch of the overall peace process. The tree of peace has many branches and each branch has an opportunity, if nurtured effectively, to bear ripe and mature fruit.

New Economy with Green Jobs for our Youth

The next thing I want to address with all of you tonight is the economic condition of our city. We are at a juncture in history (both locally and nationally) in terms of laying the economic foundation for our future. We are transitioning into a new green economy. This is both a great necessity and a great opportunity for us, and we are reaching out with both hands to advance this transition. We have made it clear to all that we are journeying away from the era of dirty industrial practices and into the era of good, clean, green industry and green practices.

First a note on what the city has done over the past year: We, as a city council, have approved a green building ordinance, waived solar permitting fees, passed a resolution declaring Richmond a green economic development area bringing attention to our location, transportation modes, and available space. We have welcomed many green businesses this past year and we welcome more! We have directed staff to pull together all our current city environmental policies, as well as to research other ideas, such as how to reduce our wastestream. Thank you to the council for your commitment to bringing about greener city policies!

And…. I am very excited that there is a working group of staff looking at greening the city’s operations and developing environmental-friendly programs. Thank you to all the staff members who are part of this working group.

Implementing green city policies and operations is helping us set a new image of Richmond as a city committed to building a sustainable economy. We also want to thank our existing businesses for continuing to shift to greener and cleaner practices.

In regard to the broad issue of global warming, we continue to move forward. We will have our baseline greenhouse gas emissions from ICLEI by the month’s end and can begin to plan our actions for reducing our carbon footprint. By including in our new General Plan a Climate Change Element and a Public Health Element, we are at the forefront of cities working on the intersection of climate change and planning.

In fact, when it comes to planning issues, 2008 is a pivotal year. Our General Plan update process continues, and we have the opportunity to plan for a Richmond that values our health, our natural resources, and promotes sustainable, equitable development to better the lives of our residents.

On a regional level, we have partnered with the cities of Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville, along with UC Berkeley, to form the East Bay Green Corridor Partnership in order to better position the East Bay for the emerging billion dollar green economy.

And the most exciting aspect of this, for me, is the opportunity we have to create pathways out of poverty for our residents, particularly our youth, by creating real job training and job placement opportunities. The recent decision to move the Anchor program from Sausalito to Richmond to teach maritime trades to our residents is an example of this.

In conjunction with Oakland and Berkeley, we are seeking out federal funds for job training. It is essential that we assure that Richmond youth are trained and ready to receive these forthcoming green-collar jobs. Our young people, who will be working in these jobs, have an extraordinary role to play as we create and breakthrough to a sustainable future. We must tap the enthusiasm of our youth and engage them -- mind, heart , and body -- in building this new economic future….AND we must place those “green dollars” in their pockets so they can sustain themselves with quality lives along the way.

And when we speak about green job training and job placement, what comes to mind immediately is the Richmond Build/Solar Richmond effort. Richmond Build and Solar Richmond have combined their efforts to advance training and placement of our residents in solar installation jobs. Their successes have received great press locally and nationally as a model approach and clear-cut road to green job development.

So, exciting work and efforts are moving forward. To further efforts, particularly to create jobs in the public arena, my office is planning an Earth Day fundraiser in April to provide “seed money” to create a Richmond Youth Corps. Currently we have a wonderful city summer youth job program….more that 400 young people received summer jobs last year (some public, some private). It is important, however, that the city set a good example for private companies to emulate by providing more city job opportunities. Residents have shared many ideas with me for year-round youth jobs that include environmental stewardship of our parks, shoreline, and greenway, as well as employing youth to help with energy efficiency and energy audits. Helping to green the city and helping put green into the pockets of our youth is a win-win situation for all!

Community Empowerment

Now in part 3, the final part of what I want to say to all of you tonight, I am going to speak on the issue of community empowerment. As I said earlier, the gauge by which true progress in Richmond must be measured is the extent to which we as a community are empowered to meet our needs and further our common interests.

Toward filling those needs, we must reclaim and bring back the commons for Richmond. “The commons” simply refers to gathering spaces—indoor or outdoor— where residents, young and old, come together to relax, talk, enjoy each other’s company; where people are inspired by public art displays and performances; and where events are celebrated and issues debated.

And we have a great deal of raw material to work with in terms of advancing the Richmond commons. To begin with, our community centers and libraries are great places to gather. These public spaces offer us so much and we really have not taken full advantage of them. Although ongoing programs and activities are offered, we can and should utilize our centers more fully. These centers can be used for violence prevention programs and as outreach centers. We need to turn these centers into great places where community truly comes together….places where our seniors and our youth can fully engage in recreation and learning activities.

And we can and should take ownership of more outdoor space for our common good. There is currently a community garden working group among city staff and a coalition of local organizations that are building community gardens. Community gardens are a hallmark of the commons. Yesterday over 100 volunteers gathered at Berryland, in the rain, to continue planting efforts underway along the Greenway. Many of our local schools have lovely community gardens growing organic food. Let’s expand on these efforts and while we plant flowers, veggies and greenery, let’s also plant that sense of community where we can gather and face together our challenges ahead.

So to advance “the commons” in Richmond, we must take further ownership of our parks, our community centers, and elevate, preserve and enjoy our open space and nature-based surroundings. The city can show support for the community by purchasing and holding public land for the much needed purpose of creating these public gathering spots.

But our greatest resource for advancing “the commons” and the common good is our richness of human diversity. To draw from this rich potential requires that we respect and celebrate human rights and cultural differences.

MLK gave us all so much to think about and with Black History month coming up I will be presenting a special proclamation, from the community, celebrating a very important turning event that occurred in Richmond in the 1950s which had a breakthrough effect on housing rights.

In addition to celebrating the great history of civil rights of African Americans in Richmond, it is clear we also have another civil rights movement afoot.

With one fourth of our residents in Richmond being foreign-born, we continue to honor and support the rights of our immigrant families. I thank the Richmond City Council, the city manager and police chief for renewing our commitment last February to a comprehensive and humane immigration policy and upholding Richmond’s policy of non-cooperation with ICE. Richmond has been at the forefront of immigration rights and I will continue to state loud and clear that Richmond is a place that welcomes its newcomers, values the contributions of all our hard-working Richmond residents, and celebrates the many cultural backgrounds of our collective community, as we unite in our common interests and celebrate our unique differences.

It is in that celebratory mode, we have enjoyed many festivities through the past year including Cinco de Mayo, Juneteenth, the Homefront festival, and the Shoreline Festival which brought us together to honor historic events and celebrate cultural solidarity and on-going struggles.

And to honor and celebrate another aspect of community solidarity, on March 8, International Women’s Day, my office, along with a host of community groups, will be sponsoring a special event to pay tribute to the historic and ongoing contributions by women in building a better society.

Finally, as part of advancing the dialogue in our community, as mayor, I am committed to dialoguing through my open forum meetings with residents. My weekly “meet with the mayor” sessions from 5:30 to 6:30 pm will continue at the Whittlesey community room for most Fridays. However, as a way to reach out further, the 4th Friday of every month, I will rotate these meeting in separate city neighborhoods. This Friday we will meet at the Nevin Community Center. Future 4th Friday meetings will occur at Shields-Reid , MLK, Booker T. Anderson, and Parchester community centers. In May, there will be a special “meet with the mayor” that Orlando Ramos, the principal of Richmond High, is helping to plan that will take place at the high school. The schedule for the “meet with the mayor” sessions will be posted on the city’s website, KCRT and in our local newspapers.

To recap, let me conclude with this:

In 2008 we have great challenges:

We are seeing the result of years of neglect, poverty, and oppression playing out on our
city streets. With an ill-conceived war taking money out of our cities, with our state budget
in crisis, with the ongoing problems of global warming, with natural disasters such as last
year’s oil spill into the bay, with all these concerns, worries, and immediacies….we look
to ourselves.
In 2008, we look to ourselves to build the pathways. We look to ourselves to build pathways
to healing and violence prevention; we look to ourselves to build pathways of economic
opportunity; and we look to ourselves to build pathways to nurturing the common good.
Building these pathways will take our collective energies; they will take our collective sweat;
and they will take our collective will.

As we enter 2008, let us nurture the seeds of change we have planted and continue to till our community’s soil for recovery and growth. And let us plant ourselves firmly in the work ahead, in both healing our pain and strengthening our resolve, to create the peaceful and prosperous Richmond that we know is possible!

I want to thank the Richmond City Council, city staff, and all of you for your attention. Together we can make a world of difference!

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin