If you want to stay in touch with what’s happening in Richmond, there are a lot of easy ways, but they all take some degree if time and motivation by the user. I’m not aware that anyone or anything is available to act as filter to send you just the news in which you are interested, although the City website has some options available. In no particular order, I recommend:

• West County Times (http://www.contracostatimes.com). The digital edition is free and searchable, although I continue to subscribe because I think it’s important to support the published media. For Richmond-specific news, click on “My Town” and then “Richmond.”
• Richmond Confidential (http://richmondconfidential.org) is a grant funded online news service produced by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. It provides an amazing diversity of news stories by over a dozen reporters who swarm all over Richmond constantly.
• City of Richmond Website and City Calendar (http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/calendar.aspx). There is even a box to check (“Notify Me”) that will automatically put you on distribution lists for categories of announcements according to your selection (http://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/list.aspx). Included is the City Managers Weekly Report, which I also send out via my E-FORUM, neighborhood council newsletter postings, calendars, news flashes, etc.
• Neighborhood Council and Neighborhood Websites. My neighborhood, Point Richmond has www.pointrichmond.com and http://www.pointrichmond.org, which are absolutely outstanding. For El Sobrante, contact perfectpage@compuserve.com to get on the email distribution list for The El Sobrante Connection. For the north & East, see http://northandeast.org. These are just examples; there are many more.
• If you email City Council Intern Erica McFadden, she will put you o a distribution list for her weekly Governmental Events Calendar.

 

There are more, and would welcome your suggestions.