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Pogo Park, Richmond CA

Pogo Park Model

Pogo Park strives to improve the built environment by transforming city parks into safe, green, beautiful public spaces for children by hiring, training, and empowering community residents to make the changes themselves. In this way, Pogo Park sees neighborhood parks as a vehicle for the development of the entire community.

Neighborhood Investment

The Iron Triangle neighborhood the surrounds Elm Playlot is 18% Black, 11% Asian-American and 62% Latinx.
The median household Income in 2018 was $38,442 in the Iron Triangle but $64,575 for the entire City of Richmond, CA.
The percentage of families in the Iron Triangle living in poverty has declined from 31% in 2010 t0 19.5% in 2018.
From 2007 to 2019, there was a 102% increase in the number of Iron Triangle residents rating their neighborhood as a good or excellent place to live.
Pogo Park has brought $16.7M in capital improvements to the Iron Triangle neighborhood since 2010.

Community Staff

Pogo Park had created jobs and training opportunities for 150 residents
A spin-off enterprise by community-member staff called Pogo Park Products has secured over $820,000 in contracts with the city of Richmond and Contra Costa County.

“I’m glad we built this park. It came from the community – for the people, by the people, however you want to put it. It’s one place kids can come where it’s safe and they feel loved.”

— Carmen Lee, Park Supervisor

Residents

“I love the staff because they are always there and because so many parents now are at the park, I can take a break in the house without worrying about the kids. I like the bathrooms and lunch. My kids get lunch every day. The neighborhood crime has gone down because of Pogo Park. The staff and the neighbors are watching out for the park. And because it’s full of kids, the troublemakers stay away.”

— Yiness Tolbert, Mother of three and local resident

Community Services

Pogo Park is used as a hub to provide existing community programs to residents such as bookmobile, farmers’ market, community health vans. Pogo Park distributes over 9,500 meals to hungry children at Elm each year.
Pogo Park provides a community garden, peace circles, dance and exercise classes, art classes and haircuts to community members.
Secured $8.5M from the California Department of Parks and Recreation to expand the Harbour-8 Park located along the Richmond Greenway.
Partnered with local business called Scientific Art Studio, to deliver job training skills in design and construction to local residents.

Recreation

87% of Iron Triangle residents reported visiting a neighborhood park in the last year in 2019.
There was a 139% increase in Iron Triangle residents rating recreational opportunities in their neighborhood as good or excellent from 2009-2019.
50% of Richmond residents rated their parks as good or excellent in 2019
40% of Richmond residents rated recreation centers and programs as good or excellent in 2019.
There was a 163% increase in the percent of Iron Triangle residents rating that opportunities for walking were good or excellent from 2009-2019.*

*All data from the City of Richmond Community Survey, which is administered by the International City Management Association (ICMA).

Parks, People, and Place Building

Pogo Park

Pogo Park began in 2008 when Iron Triangle Residents Toody Maher, Tonie Lee, and Carmen Lee organized the Elm Playlot Action Committee to strategize about improving Elm Playlot. They surveyed residents, held tens of community workshops and built a pop-up or temporary park to observe how residents would use different design features. Residents were trained and employed to build almost all park features. The park is constantly being transformed by residents, including youth, as new ideas and needs emerge.

Iron Triangle

Elm Playlot is located in the heart of the Iron Triangle, a one-square mile neighborhood in Richmond, California. The neighborhood was named for the three railroad tracks that once defined its borders. As African-Americans came to Richmond to work in the Kaiser Shipyards during WWII, they were forced to live in segregated housing, much of it was in the Iron Triangle. Industries were adjacent to housing in the Iron Triangle and supported the ship building efforts. Very little space in the Iron Triangle was set aside for parks.

By 1950, the shipyards had closed and 36% of Richmond’s population was unemployed. By 1953, seventeen of Richmond’s public housing projects had been razed as part of the federal Urban Renewal Program. The Black Panther Party for Self Defense held its first protest against racist policing in Richmond in 1967, after an unarmed, 22 year old black man named Denzil Dowell was shot in North Richmond. This launched the national Black Panther Party (BPP), which was fundamentally about delivering essential, life-supporting services to Blacks who were discriminated against by Jim Crow era laws and denied the means to survive.

The crack epidemic hit Richmond in the 1980s as did a spike in gun violence. There were 62 murders in 1991. The violence was also environmental, as there were over 300 reported accidents, fires, spills, leaks and explosions at the Chevron refinery, which borders the Iron Triangle, from 1989 to 1995.

Richmond

The Iron Triangle lies at the center of The City of Richmond, which covers 56 square miles and has a population of over 110,000. Richmond is a sanctuary city, which means it has welcomed refugees and immigrants. Richmond has a median household income of $64,575 while it is $112,376 in San Francisco and $125,987 in Silicon Valley. The average rent for shelter in Richmond was $1,400 per month, compared to about $1,800 in the Bay Area. Chevron Corporation, Contra Costa County government, the federal government’s Social Security Administration, and Blueapron, Inc., are the four largest employers in Richmond. Only 6.2% of Richmond’s park land is city-owned, with the majority of its over 6,000 acres of park consisting of regional and state parks along the waterfront and in the eastern hills. Over the last decade, Richmond has seen an increase in life expectancy following trends across the Bay Area.

San Francisco Bay Area

The City of Richmond is located 16 miles northeast of San Francisco, directly across San Francisco Bay. Richmond is on a peninsula separating San Francisco Bay (on the south) and San Pablo Bay (to the north). Richmond has 32 miles of shoreline. 27% of Richmond residents identify as African-American, 13.5% as Asian, 21.8% as another race and not white; 39.5% of Richmond residents identify as Latinx and over 33% are foreign born. In the Bay Area, about 6.5% of residents are African-American, 23% Asian, 24% Latinx and 30% are foreign born.

Pogo Park Impact

In 2017, a team from UC Berkeley, under the leadership of Professor Jason Corburn, began partnering to study the impacts the redevelopment of Elm Playlot and Pogo Park more generally were having on the health and well-being of Iron Triangle residents. The UC Berkeley team partnered with Pogo Park staff, community residents and youth to conduct community-based participatory action research. Four research methods were used: (1) Interviews with residents and Pogo Park staff to generate oral histories (2) spatial analyses of the Richmond Community Survey (RCS) and built environment data (3) a household survey as a follow-up to a similar survey conducted in 2009, and; (4) a youth-led photovoice project, where young people took pictures and videos and narrated them with their perceptions of community change.

We are mostly reporting on the household survey and RCS findings here. For the household survey, we analyzed the findings based on responses that were close to Elm Playlot, or within 1,500 feet (green dots) and those beyond 1,500 feet (orange dots). We are calling the green shaded circle the “Pogo Park Impact Zone.” The hypothesis was that those living closer to Elm Playlot would experience a greater influence from the redevelopment.

Neighborhood Safety

A key concern of residents is safety and street-violence. Historically, the Iron Triangle has had a high number of gun homicides and assaults. However, over the last decade Richmond and the Iron Triangle have experienced a significant decrease in gun violence. We found that the work of Pogo Park is contributing to a greater sense of neighborhood safety among Iron Triangle residents.

In 2009, 76% of surveyed residents within the 1,500 foot Pogo Park Impact Zone said “there is a lot of crime near my home” while 57% of those further away agreed.

By 2019, only 55% of respondents within the 1,500 feet Pogo Park Impact Zone said “there was a lot of crime near my home.” This was a 27% decrease from 2009. Outside the Pogo Impact Zone, there was only a 17% decrease in respondents reporting there was a lot of crime near their home.

harbor 8 mural of person with outstretched arms

In 2009, 53% of respondents within the Pogo Park Impact Zone agreed with the statement, “crime on the streets near my home makes it unsafe to go for walks during the day” while only 36% of those outside the zone agreed.”

In 2019, only 34% of respondents within the Pogo Park Impact Zone agreed that crime on the streets made it unsafe to go on walks during the day. This was a 36% decrease from 2009. Outside the Impact Zone, there was a 36% increase between 2009 to 2019 in the percentage of residents that agreed with that statement.

harbor 8 park aerial view of two people walking

Since 2009, Richmond has experienced significant decreases in firearm homicides and non-fatal shootings. From 2010 to 2019, the Iron Triangle has experienced a decline in gun shootings with an injury.

In 2010, the Iron Triangle had 34 firearm shootings with an injury, and this number declined to only 8 in 2019.

Neighborhood Opportunities

When barriers are removed from feeling safe and comfortable going outside, interacting with one’s neighbors and knowing your children will be safe playing outside, everyone’s health can be improved.

The RCS data reveals improved perceptions and higher utilization of recreational opportunities for residents of both the City of Richmond and the Iron Triangle.

There was a 67% increase in 2019 of Iron Triangle residents rating that their neighborhood was conducive to bicycling as compared to 2009.

There was a 157% increase in 2019 of Iron Triangle residents rating that it was easy to go for a walk in their neighborhood as compared to 2009.

There was a 143% increase in 2019 of Iron Triangle residents rating recreational opportunities in their neighborhood as good or excellent as compared to 2009.

Feature of the Yellow Brick Road road improvements

Future of Pogo Park