Community
Welcome to the website of the Richmond Street Neighbors Association in El Cerrito, California. El Cerrito was founded by refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. They settled in what was then Don Víctor Castro's Rancho San Pablo. A post office opened at the settlement in 1909 and the refugee camp became known as Rust, after Wilhelm F. Rust, its first postmaster. The village's residents did not care for the name and changed it to El Cerrito (meaning "little hill" or "knoll") in 1916, in reference to nearby Albany Hill. El Cerrito is a sanctuary city. It has a wide variety of people and is welcoming of different cultures, generations and lifestyles.
Our community is not just a place where we live, but it is something we actively create. Everyone plays a role in designing the community we live in. We believe that community residents are the experts on their own neighborhoods and know best how to achieve greater safety and well-being. Residents are also the engines that make things work. No matter how much evidence exists that a certain approach can provide results, it will be ineffective if community members do not buy into it. Neighborhood changes and innovations need to be grounded in community-led information gathering to ensure those most affected have a chance to define what quality of life means and how best to achieve it.