Building Blocks for Kids

A Place-Based Collaborative
Focused on Community Change
in the Iron Triangle Neighborhood

Richmond, California

 Building Block for Kids ~ Richmond, California
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 The City of Richmond, on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay, is a small, once bustling
industrial center, home to about 100,000 people (American Community Survey, 2008). During
World War II, the City experienced unprecedented growth, as workers flocked to jobs in its
shipyards. With the end of the War, however, economic activity dried up; between 1950 and
1960, 30,000 people left the City. During the 1980s and 1990s, Richmond grew again, mostly
from a housing and shopping mall construction boom (www.ci.richmond.ca.us). Now, with the
most recent economic downturn, the growth has ceased, and again Richmond is experiencing the
brunt of our recession.

Because of this boom and bust cycle, inner-city neighborhoods remain distressed and
Richmond lags behind the rest of the Bay Area in most indicators of community wellbeing.
Today, our City is marked by a disintegrating urban infrastructure, environmental contamination,
failing schools, and high levels of violence. One neighborhood in particular, the Iron Triangle,
encapsulates the City’s problems. In 2005, in an effort to establish a place-based initiative from
which to eventually scale-up, Building Blocks for Kids (BBK) conducted a blind comparison of
seven neighborhoods to identify a specific neighborhood on which to focus attention. Time and
again, indicators of health, educational attainment, economic self-sufficiency and neighborhood
safety pointed us to the Iron Triangle.

The Iron Triangle derives its name from the shape carved through the City by rail lines. The northeast boundary is defined by Union Pacific Railroad tracks and the northwest by Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) tracks. The southern border is defined by the abandoned tracks of the Santa Fe line. The Iron Triangle is one square mile with approximately 14,000 residents (American Community Survey 2008). Iron Triangle residents make up 14% of Richmond’s population. Approximately 44% identify as Latino/Hispanic; 41% are non-Hispanic Black. Non-Hispanic whites and Asians each comprise 6.5% of the population, with the remaining 2% encompassing a range of
racial and ethnic identities. Children make up 25% of residents. The percentage of single parents
with children under 18 is 29%, twice the regional, state, and national rates (US Census 2000). According tostatistics, one-third of Iron Traingle residents are now unemployed (www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov) and children live in poverty at three times the rate of the Bay Area as a whole.
Map of Iron Triangle
 
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