Stop the presses: Ex-newspaper man now devoted to a better Richmond

When Vernon Whitmore moved to Richmond in 1992 to take a job with the West County Times, a now shuttered newspaper, he had never visited the city before. He had grown up in St. Louis, the son of two educators, and moved to California when he was 30 years old, after falling in love with the Bay Area on a vacation. 

Today, the 75-year-old Whitmore is well-known in the community, both from his years in the newspaper industry (where he was both an ad man and a publisher) and from his work in local politics, as former Mayor Tom Butt’s chief of staff and a lobbyist for the city. He’s also the president of the Santa Fe neighborhood, where he has lived since 2000, after spending his first eight years living in Point Richmond. 

“After I moved to Santa Fe, it was like the Tale of Two Cities (compared to Point Richmond),” Whitmore said. Crime was high, prostitutes walked the streets and drug dealing was rampant, he said. There were many abandoned properties and plenty of trash. “I just figured that if I’m going to live there, I’m going to do my best to make sure there are changes.”

Whitmore, his wife Linda Jackson-Whitmore and their neighbors began holding trash pick-up days and joining National Night Out gatherings to discuss ways to tackle local issues. One of the first big Santa Fe neighborhood council projects Whitmore was involved in was restoring Santa Fe Union Park, at South Second Street and Maine Avenue. 

“We went to the city manager and asked them to develop the park, but they told us they didn’t have the money,” Whitmore recalled. The group eventually found a partner in For Richmond, a local nonprofit, and together raised funds for the repairs, transforming the park from a garbage-strewn lot with cracked pavement to a neighborhood destination with a playground, futsal and basketball courts and picnic tables.

The Santa Fe council then turned its attention to reviving Southside Community Park, at South Sixth Street and Virginia Avenue, eventually installing a playground, picnic and barbecue areas, bike racks and a bathroom. In recent years, the neighborhood council has partnered with SOS Richmond, a local nonprofit, to address encampments in the area by urging the unhoused to enter transitional housing.

Whitmore says his parents instilled in him the value of helping others, and he has found ways to do that in both his personal and professional life. In 1999, he became the editor of the Richmond Post, a newspaper focused on the local Black community, and in 2002 started his own paper, The Globe Newspaper Group, that, similarly to the Post, sought to uplift and celebrate the community. 

“People just love seeing their child’s, uncle’s or aunt’s name in the paper,” Whitmore said with a chuckle. The newspaper was closed in 2012. Soon after, Whitmore applied for and was selected to help Richmond lobby Sacramento for city funds. Today he is no longer a lobbyist but a consultant who uses his many connections to help new businesses navigate the city’s application process.

When Whitmore is not advocating for cleaner parks and trying to get code enforcement to crack down on absentee landlords and their blighted properties, he spends time with his family: wife Linda and sons Andrew and Christopher (Andrew Whitmore has contributed photography to Richmondside and took one of the photos accompanying this article.). 

One of his favorite spots in his neighborhood is The Back Yard, a beer garden and outdoor cafe on Cutting Boulevard known for good brews, burgers and live music. Whitmore acknowledges that the Santa Fe area is still rough around the edges, but he’s warmed by the thought of what has been accomplished, while he and his neighbors plan the next project. 

Asked to describe his neighborhood, Whitmore pauses for a moment, then responds: “We’re a working-class neighborhood doing its best to move in a positive direction.”

Do you know someone we should interview for this series? Is it you? Let us know. Email hello@richmondside.org.