While a band of mariachis played in front of the new Walter T. Helms Middle School, some teachers, city officials, parents and children were lining up to get meat and frijolesat a buffet. Others were touring the brand new campus under a cloudless blue sky. This Saturday, the Contra Costa Unified School District invited the community to an open house showcasing the new campus of Helms, the only middle school in San Pablo. The 140,000 square foot facility had been under construction for almost three years next to the old facility and it will be ready for the kids in the fall. “We invited the community to see what all the traffic, dust and noise were about,” said Bill Fay, Chief Operations Officer, who was responsible of the construction. Fay said that the old campus was built fifty to sixty years ago — the electrical system was old, the roof needed repair and there was no infrastructure for computers. Now at the Helms Middle School all classrooms and offices are fully wired for Internet access. There are three computer labs and a computer lab area in the library. The school includes “Green Schools” elements such as lighting efficient controls and a storm water treatment system. For the first time the community was invited to tour around the facilities. “It’s very important for me to know the place where my kids are coming to school,” said Richmond resident Xiomara Diaz, the mother of 11-year old twins William and Walter. Security is an issue that concerns many parents. “I like the fact that there are going to be security cameras because they are going to be checking out what the kids are doing,” said Paula Soltero, whose child will attend the school this fall. The school will also have a full surveillance camera system that the San Pablo Police Department will be able to access via a web-based coordination system. Brian Tibbot, the school’s life science teacher who was attending the event, said that his students were eager to leave the old campus and would regularly ask him during the school year, “When are we moving?” “In this new school there are way more things to do, like a big gym, basketball court, auditorium and even a dance room,” said 12-year-old Yomani Mapp. The school includes a multi-purpose room that has a stage for events and performances, and a full-service kitchen, with interior speed line system for service and multiple snack bar locations. “It’s clean and it looks new, ” said 11-year-old Jonathan Dueñas after looking at the facilities. “Hopefully there won’t be graffiti everywhere,” said Tamisha Walker, Yomani Mapp’s mother. Jorge Flores, father of a 13-year-old student, said he hopes everyone will make a collective effort to take care of the school and keep it new. “We hope that the kids, feeling more secure and motivated, will try harder,” said Flores. The Measure J Bond, approved by voters in 2005, provided the $70 million needed to rebuild the school, including  $54 million for the main campus and $16 million for demolition of the old campus and new field construction. The old school building is currently standing, but the last step for completing the new campus will to demolish it and build an integrated recreation area that can be used by the community.  Like many Richmond middle schoolers, Katie Hueso went to Helms. Now a Richmond High senior, she visited the new campus on Saturday with her family. Her little sister Nancy will come to Helms in August. Katie said that she liked the new facilities a lot. “In the old school you couldn’t even go to the bathrooms—they didn’t even have doors and there was no privacy. Here everything is new,” she said. June 2, 2010 Richmond Confidential

A big Brazilian flag can be seen from the intersection of San Pablo and MacDonald avenues in Richmond. Smart BR Coffee, a Brazilian restaurant-coffee house at 4820 Bissell Avenue, has the flag painted covering the front of its building. During World Cup matches, the restaurant’s parking lot fills up and cheers can be heard from the street in the middle of the day. In addition to a Brazilian flag outside, the café flies fabric flags of the U.S., Mexico, Honduras and South Africa both inside and outside the building. “Welcome,” reads one big sign hanging on the interior. There’s a wall covered with flyers, postcards and cards advertising the many Brazilian events and businesses all over the Bay Area. “I come here to eat typical Brazilian food, find friends and community and watch the game,” said Cesar Menezes, a Richmond resident and Brazilian immigrant whose work maintaining soccer fields is flexible enough that he can come and watch the World Cup at Smart BR Coffee. Menezes was one of about 60 people who showed up at the restaurant to watch Brazil’s national soccer team play Chile at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. Most of the spectators were Brazilian and were wearing the team’s T-shirt, caps or some item that represented their country. Opened just eight months ago, Smart BR Coffee is a spot where Brazilians who live in or near Richmond come to have a little taste of home. Richmond has only three Brazilian restaurants, but different Brazilian communities organize events to make sure they gather together with their compatriots. The Brazilian Consulate in San Francisco estimates that there are 40,000 Brazilians living in the Bay Area. “We don’t really know because we don’t have them registered,” said Rosana Sa, Assistant for Cultural Affairs from of the Brazilian Consulate. The high rents in the Bay Area have led many Brazilian immigrants to choose to live in Richmond because housing is more affordable. Menezes said that’s the case for his friends and himself. “I found a cheap place in Richmond and it’s a nice place,” he said. Two printed Brazilian newspapers — Brasil Best and Brazil Today — circulate in the Bay Area. Three of Richmond’s Christian churches — the Bay Area Brazilian Church, The First Presbyterian Church and the Church of the Living God — offer Portuguese-speaking ministries. William Silva, or “Pastor William,” as his parishioners from the Bay Area Brazilian Church know him, said that Brazilian immigrants usually work in construction, as baby sitters, drivers, delivering newspapers and in the hauling business. “They work hard,” he said. Olavo Dourado, owner of Smart BR Coffee, said that he was one of the first Brazilians to move to Richmond 23 years ago, and that during the past 20 years the population grew. However, “about 30 percent had left in the past two or three years,” Dourado estimated, saying that the recent economy here had pushed some immigrants to go back to their home country. Eddy Delima immigrated from Brazil 24 years ago. He’s seen the growth and decline of the Brazilian population, too. Delima is member of Saint John the Baptist, a Catholic church in El Cerrito. On Sundays his church offers mass in Portuguese. According to Delima, about 140 Brazilians are members of this church, and half of them are Richmond residents, including himself. Delima was one of the organizers of Festa Junina, a traditional Brazilian June Festival related to St. John the Baptist’s holy day. The festival took place June 5 at Richmond’s Veteran’s Hall, where more than 500 people showed up to enjoy the Brazilian food, live music, costumes, and a play. Delima said that events like these are important because, “We want to celebrate our culture and keep it alive.” Acording to Delima, Brazilian immigrants work too hard and don’t have much of a social life, so his hope is that, “if they are feeling homesick, they can come to the event and have fun for one day,” he said. “We get together to celebrate because we are lonely,” said Thais Silva, owner of Pikanha’s steak house, a Brazilian family-owned restaurant in Point Richmond. She said that Brazilians like to hear happy music and to feel at home with one another because, “We miss our country.” Pastor William says that most Brazilian immigrants in Richmond are young people in their twenties who left their families behind. “They work so hard that they don’t have a life anymore,” said the pastor. Like Delima’s church, Pastor William’s Bay Area Brazilian Church also organizes events, like a Brazilian celebration this past Saturday that included capoeira, food and music. “People started to came at eight in the morning until eight at night,” he said. His church has a TV screen where parishioners can watch the World Cup games — they had one last Sunday, when Brazil was played the Ivory Coast, which was followed by a barbeque. Maria Rodman, who was born in Brazil and is now a U.S. citizen, has lived in the country for 38 years. She came from Berkeley to the Smart BR Coffee to watch the match against Chile together with other Brazilians, “We are patriots, we like soccer games and we like to cheer up together,” she said. Brazil beat Chile 3-0. July 1, 2010 Richmond Confidential

Over the past few weeks, a full color brochure titled “The battle for the bay” turned up in the mailboxes of Richmond residents. The brochure shows two boxing gloves facing each other. “Out of town card rooms vs. Richmond city council” reads the text on the front page, implying that the Richmond city council is in favor of the proposal to build a casino at Point Molate and is fighting with out of town card rooms who oppose its construction. “Winners purse: Jobs & $20,000,000 a year for Richmond,” reads the text at the bottom of the front page. Inside, the brochure states that the casino project would create 12,000 jobs. But the brochure was not an initiative of the Richmond city council —  in reality Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman and councilmember Tom Butt have all expressed concerns about the building of the casino. The brochure was paid for by Upstream LLC, the developer that intends to build a casino resort at Point Molate. The mailing return address at the back of the brochure is Upstream’s. (Click here for the website version of the brochure.) This ad might have gone to the household recycle bin in many cases, but didn’t go unnoticed by residents who are concerned about the building of a casino. “The entire messaging that the developer has been using is ‘We will bring jobs.’ The problem that a lot of people have with the message is that the numbers are hyper-inflated,” said Joan Garrett, a member of Citizens for a Sustainable Point Molate, a grassroots organization that opposes the construction of a casino. Upstream officials readily admit that they are behind the ad and say that it was necessary to combat inaccurate information circulated by their opponents via other brochures. “Over the last six months there was a huge amount of misinformation put out about the project,” said Jim Levine, managing partner of Upstream, referring to other fliers and a TV ad opposing the building of the casino. Levine specifically mentioned a brochure titled “What happens in Richmond stays in Richmond” mailed by a group called Stop the Mega Casino. This flier, which shows a parody of the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign, claims that building a casino in Richmond is not going to bring positive changes or jobs. “If we allow the Pt. Molate Mega Casino, here’s what stays in Richmond: The drug dealing will stay … The crime will stay,” reads the brochure. “The Point Molate Mega casino is money Richmond will never see and jobs Richmond will never get,” it concludes. “It was clear after we did some investigating that most of it was being put out by a consortium of card clubs,” said Levine. He claimed that the California Grand Casino, a card club in Pacheco, was one of them but didn’t want to mention others. (The California Grand Casino didn’t respond to Richmond Confidential for comment.) A Contra Costa Times article published in May claims that fourteen card clubs are behind the Stop the Mega Casino campaign and were the ones responsible for the brochures and the ads. Levine says that card clubs “historically had no interest in doing anything for Richmond — they are just concerned about their own profits.” Levine said that the “The battle for the bay” brochure was created to contest the “misinformation” on the fliers created by the card clubs. However, some people are questioning whether the Upstream brochure itself is spreading misinformation. What got Garrett’s attention was the statement that the casino would create 12,000 jobs. Garrett claims that casino developments the size of the proposed casino at Point Molate generally employ between 1,500 and 2,000 people to work on the site and between 1,600 and 1,800 for construction jobs. Levine said that Upstream got the 12,000 jobs figure from an independent economic analysis done as part of the project’s Environmental Impact Review. “That’s the independent estimate, that’s not our number,” he said. Levine mentioned that because of a local hiring requirement, 70 percent of the on-site jobs will be for people from Contra Costa County, and 40 percent of the jobs will go to Richmond residents. “That’s in the county agreements that we signed. That’s over 3,000 on-site jobs for people from the county,” said Levine. But Garrett said that there are no guarantees that will happen. “Everything is in the fine print,” she said, and explained that the services agreement with Contra Costa County states that employing 70 percent county residents, including 40 percent Richmond residents, is merely a goal, not a rule. “There is no mandate to do so. I can have a goal to climb the Empire State Building and state that that’s my goal but it’s never going to happen,” said Garrett. The official agreement document does use the word “goal” — it reads: “The Tribe commits to collaborate with the County with a goal to hire a total of 70% of non-management operational employees of the Tribe (including those under the Richmond agreement) from within the County at the opening of the facilities.” Another of Garrett’s concerns is that even if the casino was to hire the full quota of Richmond and county employees, there is no protection to ensure that those employees will keep those jobs, because the agreement only specifies that local employees be hired “at the opening” of the casino. “They could hire them on a Monday and fire them on a Friday and the terms and conditions of the agreements would have been met,” said Garrett. Although the proposed casino project has always been controversial, it does have some public support, largely from Richmond residents who think the casino will bring jobs to the city. “We have a lot of supporters and a lot of people that are signing up to help us,” said Levine. “The city of Richmond does struggle. We do have a high unemployment rate,” said Garrett, but as for the “battle for the bay” brochure, she said, “I find it exploitative.” June 17, 2010 Richmond Confidential