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Richmond, CA, May 1, 2024 – California’s Strategic Growth Council awarded a $10
million “CRC grant” to Richmond nonprofit, Pogo Park, to transform Harbour-8 Park, a
two-block park on the Richmond Greenway, into Contra Costa County’s first Community
Resilience Center (CRC).

Community Resilience Centers provide shelter and resources during climate and other
emergencies, as well as year-round services and programming that strengthen
community connections and build resilience.

As part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s $48 billion California Climate Commitment, the
CRC grant aims to build climate resilience in California’s most underserved
communities.

In a highly competitive statewide grant program, out of nearly 200 applicants, Pogo Park
was only one of nine CRC implementation projects recommended for funding.

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Click here to read the full press release.

Published: April 24, 2024

SACRAMENTO, CA – April 24, 2024 – Today, the California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) approved $93.6 million to help build climate resiliency centers in neighborhoods most impacted by extreme heat and other climate related issues, fulfilling part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s $48 billion California Climate Commitment. This funding is part of Round One of the Community Resilience Centers (CRC) program, which falls under California’s Climate Adaption Strategy and Extreme Heat Action Plan.

“These community resilience centers will serve as beacons of hope, empowering neighborhoods on the front lines of the climate crisis to drive proactive, community-driven action,” said Governor Gavin Newsom.

SGC, which is made up of three public members and seven heads of State agencies, voted to approve the $93.6 million of CRC funding to be divided between four Project Development Grant awardees and nine Project Implementation Grant awardees. In February, the Council voted unanimously to approve close to $5 million in funding to 11 Planning Grant projects.

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How Richmond’s Pogo Park is changing the narrative of a struggling community

By Beki San Marin

Richmond, CA January 9, 2024 Frederick Law Olmsted once said that parks had the potential to serve as the lungs of a city. If he were alive today and could see the magic that unfolds at Pogo Park, he’d likely note that it’s the heart and pulse of Richmond’s Iron Triangle. 

Forty-two-year-old Robin Doss has lived in Richmond for all of her life, but Pogo Park’s been a game changer for her since she discovered it a few years ago. On the kick-off of winter, during the park’s first-ever Winter Wonderland, Doss smiled from her wheelchair as she watched community members ice skate for the first time and children bounce in a gigantic snowman-shaped bouncy house or ride around the park in a train, as holiday tunes blared in Spanish.

“It makes me feel good to see children feeling happy and enjoying themselves,” Doss said. 

Pogo Park’s inaugural Winter Wonderland removed the barriers of distance and cost that so often prevent people from experiencing winter fun like ice skating, which can cost $18-$20 per person and requires people to travel outside the community, which isn’t possible for many families. It also made everything from hot cocoa and electronic reindeer rides to ziplining, bouncing and skating free and centrally accessible to everyone.

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Richmond, CA December 11, 2023 — Pogo Park will offer free ice skating to the community at its Winter Wonderland Festival at Elm Playlot (Pogo Park) on Thursday and Friday, Dec. 21-22.

Winter Wonderland will take place at Elm Playlot, 720 Elm Ave., from 3-9 p.m. both days.

The free community event encourages families to skate under the starts, ride the mechanical reindeer, jump for joy in the jumper, and enjoy other holiday activities, like a free cup of hot chocolate, according to Pogo Park.

Ice skating will be offered in 20-minute time slots. Register online here or stop by the Pogo Park office
at Elm Playlot M-F from 1-4 p.m. to register.

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By Beki San Marin

Richmond, CA December 8, 2022 – It’s Bridge Week in Richmond and through Saturday, people can attend events that showcase the proposed Richmond Greenway Bridge over 23rd Street, a project that would close the Greenway trail’s remaining gap, providing an uninterrupted 17-mile biking and walking path from Berkeley to Marin County.

The proposal grew out of the Richmond Greenway Gap Study, which was funded by a $280,000 grant from the California Department of Transportation.

“It’s going to blow everyone’s minds. It’s going to be really cool!,” said Catherine Waller, an artist and West Contra Costa resident who attended Monday’s Bridge Week kickoff at Armistice Brewing Co.

The weeklong series of events is hosted by Pogo Park, a Richmond-based organization that works to rebuild city parks. Pogo Park collaborated with the city and Civic Well, a nonprofit that helps local governments implement sustainability projects, to carry out the study.

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Richmond, CA December 1, 2022 – Iron Triangle-based nonprofit Pogo Park is unveiling the conceptual design for a new bicycle and pedestrian bridge on the Richmond Greenway that would cross over 23rd Street, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and Carlson Boulevard, closing a significant trail gap.

The design will be unveiled during “Bridge Week,” a series of public events from Dec. 5-10 in Richmond, according to Pogo Park.

Donald MacDonald Architects, which creates award-winning bridges around the world, including the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge, has worked with hundreds of Richmond residents and key stakeholders over the past 18 months to create the proposed design for the 23rd Street Bridge Project. Funding to plan, design and develop the bridge concept came from an Environmental Justice grant.

The design is inspired by the shape of an osprey diving into the water. The osprey is Richmond’s official bird. Pogo Park says the design delivers on community requests for a unique, iconic bridge that puts Richmond on the map.

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Richmond, CA March 29, 2022 – For years it’s been a dream of many to connect the Eastern and Western sides of the Greenway at 23rd Street. To continue traveling on the Greenway, you have to go under a dangerous overpass and walk through a confusing set of city streets to get to the other side.

The City of Richmond and a team of partners secured an Environmental justice grant from Caltrans to plan, design and develop a concept for a bridge across 23rd Street that would close the Greenway Gap.

We invite you to attend the Greenway Gap Community Planning and Design event on April 12, 13 and 14.

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Click here for information about attending this event.

By Cathy Chouteau

Richmond, CA March 8, 2022 — The City of Richmond has been awarded $10 million in grant funding from the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) Clean California Local Grant Program to fund several efforts to improve city parks and roads, City officials announced today.

The program funding will allocate $5 million to the Richmond Communities Clean Collaborative and nearly $5 million to the Yellow Brick Road: Clean, Green and Beautiful project.

By Chris Kelly

Richmond, CA January 18, 2022 — Few states have done more to conserve land than California. In the last 20 years alone, California voters have approved more than $20 billion to fund land conservation, which private and public partners have used to protect more than 1.5 million acres of land throughout the state. During that same period, The Conservation Fund, working with local, state and federal partners, has protected more than 200,000 acres in California. This important work continues with projects like Pogo Park’s Harbour-8 Park in Richmond, California.

At the same time, the 2015 “Conservation Horizons Report” prepared by the California Council of Land Trusts found that these protected lands are often not located where people live and that “inequities exist with respect to access to nearby park and open spaces.” In short, we needed to do more to bring parks, open space and safe places to play to where people live, particularly in urban and underserved communities.

But parks and park enhancements in underserved communities can have the unintended consequence of displacement—a process known as “green gentrication.” A recent report from the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability found that introducing or Privacy – Terms enhancing parks can result in “increases in housing prices and the inux of new, wealthier and often white residents in low-income communities of color” leading to “the displacement of longtime residents that many park equity efforts are designed to serve.”