Brendan Moriarty the trust for public land


From Washington’s church it’s about a mile to the Richmond Greenway, a popular biking and walking trail built from a decommissioned freight line. Richmond’s industrial identity long predates the Chevron refinery. In World War II, the city’s shipyards were some of the first to employ the women im- mortalized in the iconic “Rosie the Riveter” campaign; today, a waterside museum and national historic park honors their efforts. This industrial legacy is also visible on the land: train tracks slice diagonally across the street grid, creating the cen- tral neighborhood called the “Iron Triangle.” Residents here are hemmed in by tracks on three sides. For


many, especially those without a car, the greenway along the southern border of the triangle is the best way to get across the city. To the east, it connects to the Ohlone Greenway, which runs six miles all the way to Berkeley. To the west, it continues across Richmond until it dead-ends at an active rail yard.


54 · LAND&PEOPLE · FALL/WINTER 2015


Trust for Public Land project manager Brendan Moriarty sees a tremendous opportunity just beyond the tracks. If the Richmond Greenway could be extended by just one city block, it would connect to the Bay Trail, a 340-mile network of trails encircling the entire San Francisco Bay. “You could start in Richmond and find yourself in San


Jose,” says Moriarty. “It could be an incredible way to connect Richmond residents to their beautiful coastline, and to their neighbors, too.” Moriarty says there’s a lot of work to be done to bring the


Bay Trail in reach of the Iron Triangle—but even at its current length, the Richmond Greenway helps connect people to green space. After passing underneath Interstate 80, cement and gravel give way to grass. The spicy smell of cedar wood- chips hangs in the air. This is Harbour-8 Park, designed by the community with help from The Trust for Public Land and a Richmond nonprofit called Pogo Park.


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