Creating A Bold Vision for MacDonald Ave

Growing up near the Nevin Center in the Iron Triangle, I spent a lot of time along Macdonald Avenue. I remember going to the Value Village often, buying our clothes secondhand was one way my mom made ends meet, and when I earned money doing chores for relatives, I’d go downtown to buy Jellies or China flats with that embroidered rose on the toe from the National Dollar Store. My mom was a big believer in buying fewer things but the best quality we could afford, then taking care of them. She was a regular at the shoe repair shop where all of our shoes got new soles, heels, and other minor repairs before we bought new ones. We shopped at the supermarket that used to be near Kaiser in the 1980s while it was open.

Macdonald Avenue was the route I walked to the Richmond BART Station, which was my gateway to the rest of the Bay. I was a kid who relied on public transportation, AC Transit, and BART, to get around the Bay Area from a very early age, something we just do not see as often today.

Macdonald Avenue has always felt like the heart of downtown Richmond to me. Unfortunately, it is a heart that has not been cared for, especially since 1976. Over these years, attention was pulled away and put on other areas, like Hilltop Mall, another place I spent a lot of time growing up, especially as a teenager, while our downtown was left behind.

While campaigning in 2022, I heard the same message again and again from residents. People want a place in Richmond where they can go out at night or on a Saturday afternoon. A place to grab a tasty meal, have a coffee with a friend, see a movie, hear live music, or get an ice cream cone with their kids. They want arts, culture, entertainment, and stores right here in their own city, a place where their spending supports local businesses and contributes directly to the life and growth of their community. Residents have told me repeatedly that they are already spending their money elsewhere. They go shopping in Pinole, El Cerrito, Oakland, Berkeley, and Emeryville. They ask, 

“Why can’t we spend our money here in Richmond?” 

Many also shared that, with the state of downtown today, there is little reason to go there. There are very few shops and not enough of what people are looking for.

That feedback deeply resonated with me and led me to make a commitment in 2022. If elected, I would work to address this issue and help create the vibrant downtown our community has been craving.

Getting Started

As a person who is a doer, once elected, instead of spending my time only naming the shortcomings of our current downtown, I went to work talking to small business owners, stakeholders, and residents, and began dreaming up a collaboration to create the change we all want to see on Macdonald Avenue.

I wanted to start off by recognizing that there are real jewels downtown, businesses like Leftside Printing, owned by Diego Garcia, an inspiring print shop where you can print everything from posters to T-shirts right here in Richmond, Vibe Bistro, CoBiz, Rich City Rides Bike Shop, New Life Cafe, Gratitude LLC, Marty’s Grill, and San Francisco Pizza. These small businesses offer unique experiences that cannot be found in cookie-cutter national brand malls, but they need more support to truly thrive. We need more people to come downtown and shop, and in order to make that happen, we also need more reasons for people to come to downtown Richmond so that they can discover and support these small businesses.

So the question is this: What else do we want in our downtown? What does an expansive, future-focused vision look like, not just for what is possible within existing storefronts, but for what could happen if we reimagined vacant lots, city-owned parcels, boarded-up buildings, and underused spaces entirely?

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Officially forming the Macdonald Avenue Taskforce

This is why I pushed forward and joined with Mayor Martinez, Sarah Wally of Richmond Main Street Initiative, and Vernon Whitmore of the Richmond Chamber of Commerce to form the Macdonald Avenue Task Force and to nurture a shared and exciting vision for downtown Richmond.

In late 2023, I began meeting informally with Sarah from Richmond Main Street and Vernon Whitmore to discuss the possibility of forming a group to come up with a vision for downtown. I reached out to the Mayor’s office to see if they would support the idea and learned they were already working on an effort to support businesses along the corridor and would love to join efforts. We held a few informal meetings in early 2024 with the Mayor’s Office, city staff, and another council member, who was also looking to better support businesses along Macdonald Avenue as well as address ongoing blight and safety concerns. In those meetings, we discussed the potential scope, timeframe, and deliverables of a task force. We then moved forward, officially establishing the Macdonald Avenue Task Force through a proposal brought forward by Mayor Eduardo Martinez and myself, which was unanimously supported by a City Council vote in September 2025.

With leadership from city staff, including Nannette Beacham, City of Richmond’s Economic Development Director, and Lina Velasco, City of Richmond’s Director of Community Development, along with support from the City Manager’s Office, this effort is well underway.

We are also honored to have the enthusiastic support of State Senator Jesse Arreguín’s office and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks’ office. With this level of partnership, the project is off to a powerful start.

To be clear, revitalizing Richmond’s downtown is not a new idea. What is new is this powerful collaboration.

With all of this support, the Macdonald Avenue Task Force is moving forward with a clear mission to create a visionary revitalization plan for Macdonald Avenue that will support local businesses, draw in new business and people from across the Bay Area—and be a vibrant corridor for the arts, cultural diversity, food, and entertainment that gives people a reason to come to Richmond.

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Our plan for this moment of opportunity that will not come again for generations

Right now, the FoodsCo shopping center is up for sale. At 12th Street and Macdonald Avenue, there is a seven-acre, city-owned lot in the very center of the corridor, across the street from the FoodsCo site, that the city is wrestling with how best to reissue an RFQ or RFP for development given the current difficult market conditions. Because these two sites, directly across from one another, have tremendous potential to become powerful anchors for downtown transformation, it is more important than ever to move this project forward.

Our goal is to bring a consultant on board by February 2026 to help facilitate the research, community engagement, and develop visual schematic designs necessary to illustrate the vision. We aim to begin sharing our draft plan by the summer of 2026 and conduct a series of community meetings to get feedback on that draft plan in the late summer and early fall. The final plan will include a marketing plan as well as schematic designs to help attract developers who are ready to collaborate and bring these ideas to life. We will finalize the plan and present it to the Council for adoption by December 2026. This is not a plan meant to sit on a shelf. It is a plan we intend to build.

Because Macdonald Avenue is long, we are starting with a defined project area. This project area includes 21st Street to 8th Street and Bissell Avenue to Nevin Ave. This is still a substantial area, but one where we believe meaningful and inspiring transformation is possible. 

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What has been accomplished so far?

Since its formation, the Task Force has met monthly (review meeting minutes here) and hosted two official walking tours of Macdonald Avenue for key state elected officials, sharing our vision and intentions firsthand. These tours included a stop at the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, a historic institution located in a renovated historic building along Macdonald Ave. Due to the renovations the  EBCPAs have been able to now serve hundreds of Richmond youth every day but despite the expansion they still have a waiting list of over 80+ young people who would also love to participate. Their need for additional space is a powerful example of how thoughtful development can directly support arts, culture, and create opportunities for our community.

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Learn More and Get Involved

Over the next 12 months, we will be working hard to develop this vision with strong community input. We currently have four open seats on the task force. We are seeking business owners, property owners, residents who live in the project area and stakeholders to join the task force and help create this vision for revitalization.  We invite you to visit the task force page on the City of Richmond website,  apply to become a member if you meet this criteria. You can apply to join by clicking here. 

All task force meetings are open to the public and conducted in accordance with the Brown Act. Meeting notes are available, and public comment is always welcome. Join us on this journey. Help us create a bold, vibrant and economically strong downtown Richmond.

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For more information visit the City of Richmond Macdonald Taskforce webpage:

https://www.richmondca.gov/4919/Macdonald-Avenue-Corridor-Task-Force

The Task Force supports several City of Richmond strategic initiatives:

– Objective 2.3.c: Development and Downtown Revitalization – Adopted: September 27, 2023

• Richmond Green-Blue New Deal Opportunities Report
• Recommendation 7: “Destination Downtown” – Adopted: June 17, 2024

City Council Goals & Priorities

– Strategic Goal Area 2: Increase Revenue and Improve Economic Development