This story has been updated to correct the ownership of the 801 Marina Way property and to clarify that Urban Tilth is not the fiscal sponsor of the newly formed Rich City nonprofit.
The founder of the now-defunct Rich City Rides Cooperative Inc. bike shop, where police are investigating whether financial and property crimes occurred, is being sued by his former business partner over the duo’s fractured tenant-landlord relationship.
Roshni “Taye” Felonte McGee filed the lawsuit alleging multiple violations of Richmond’s tenant laws against Rich City nonprofit director Najari Smith on Aug.19 in Contra Costa County Superior Court, according to court records. McGee is requesting a jury trial to determine punitive damages. Defendants named in the suit are: District 3 City Council member Doria Robinson, Robinson’s nonprofit Urban Tilth, and commercial landlord Charles Patterson, who owned the rental property in question and the Macdonald Avenue building that housed the nonprofit and the bike shop before it was bought by Urban Tilth in 2023.
According to documents filed with the lawsuit, Smith, on behalf of Rich City Rides/Urban Tilth, leased 801 Marina Way South Unit 2 from Patterson, who on the commercial lease document lists his address as another unit at the same address. The agreement covered the period from September 2017 to September 2019, with the lease indicating that the premise was for the sole use as a “non-profit bike ride meeting location, Rich City Rides Extension and Print shop.”
McGee signed a Letter of Agreement with Smith in August of 2019 to “rent the use of the space” for $1,700 plus $70 for PG&E, according to the filing.
According to the lawsuit, McGee says he was “coerced” into signing a May 4, 2023 termination of this agreement that states “the lease was terminated and its terms were violated.” It states this occurred after McGee was given two $8,000 checks dated May 4, 2023 from Urban Tilth for a “relocation” fee. The lawsuit says during a 2020 Richmond rent program investigation McGee was told to keep his children inside.
Nicolas Traylor, rent program executive director, declined to speak about the 2020 investigation, and said any request for information would need to be made in a Public Records Act request.
The lawsuit says the payments were part of a “broader campaign of harassment and intimidation” aimed at forcing McGee out of the property. The complaint added that the unit was not habitable due to “rodents/insect infestations, mold/mildew, defective plumbing, defective locks, holes in walls and gaps in floors, defective locks, and general dilapidation and lack of maintenance.”
The lawsuit also accuses the defendants of violating Richmond’s tenant protection ordinances and breaching the warranty of habitability. McGee seeks damages for emotional distress, property loss, and rent reimbursement totaling more than $1 million.
Former friends, business associates engage in back-and-forth accusations
The filing is the latest chapter in a dispute between the two former business partners of the Rich City Rides Cooperative Inc. bike shop, which was shuttered earlier this year in the aftermath of what was a reported burglary, with Smith posting online that he had planned to dissolve the co-op bike shop amid “insurmountable debt.” Richmond police told Richmondside in July that no burglary occurred at the shop and that investigators are looking into alleged financial and property crimes that were brought up during the subsequent investigation and interviews with the involved parties.
Richmond police did not respond to a request from Richmondside for an update in the investigation by publication time.
Rich City Rides is a nonprofit which Smith founded in 2012 (one that he now refers to as Rich City), and in 2014 it became fiscally sponsored by Urban Tilth, a food justice organization, operates under the leadership of Robinson, who is the executive director and also Smith’s romantic partner.
When reached by email on Friday, Robinson did not answer questions related to the lawsuit or the two Urban Tilth checks that were submitted as exhibits but was adamant that the claims against her are false. The lawsuit was filed the day before she posted a California’s Fair Political Practices Commission letter dismissing a sworn complaint filed by former Mayor Tom Butt accusing her of co-mingling funds between Urban Tilth and Rich City Rides. Butt’s son Daniel is representing McGee in the lawsuit.
“Similar to the FPPC complaint and the Attorney General investigation, these claims are false and the full truth will come out through the legal process,” she wrote in an email to Richmondside. “Since this is a legal issue, I have no further comment at this time. Once the case is completed I have faith the truth will come out.”
While Smith has maintained that there was a clear separation between the bike co-op and the nonprofit, in a January 2023 email included in the lawsuit filing – written about a year before Smith reported that the bike shop was burglarized – Smith asks McGee and Briana Sidney from Cooperation Richmond about whether the bike shop should pay Smith’s PG&E bill for the Marina Way unit and whether that payment would be a tax deduction “for the business.” (Sidney’s LinkedIn page says that Cooperation Richmond is “a nonprofit, cooperative business incubator that helps BIPOC people start, convert, or optimize their cooperative businesses through individualized help.”)
Urban Tilth’s Board Chair Erwin Acox did not respond to a request for comment on whether the organization knew McGee was living at the commercial property and whether the board was involved in the decision to write two $8,000 checks to him.
After Richmondside’s July 29 story about the police investigation was published, Smith promoted a website that accuses McGee of improperly diverting the cooperative’s funds and selling merchandise that was taken from the shop — accusations McGee has denied.
Daniel Butt in recent weeks has been posting on the private Everybody’s Richmond Facebook page various Rich City Rides co-op bank documents and financially related emails between Urban Tilth, Sidney and Smith. Richmondside has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the documents.
Smith has posted on Instagram about the Butt family and questioned its powerful influence in Richmond.
Robinson has publicly said that the former mayor and his sons have waged a disinformation campaign against her in an attempt to sully her work in the community.
“It is disheartening that the Butts and their followers use their privilege, access, and resources to try to destroy things and people that have helped to bring truly good things to Richmond,” she posted on her website.
When asked about the back-and-forth between his family, Smith and Robinson, Daniel Butt refused to comment, saying that focusing on that takes away from McGee’s story.
When contacted for comment Patterson told Richmondside he was unaware of the lawsuit and thus declined to make a statement.
Smith did not return a request for comment before publication time.
