Comedian, historian reinvents life in Point Richmond

Karen Buchanan has worn many hats during her life.

A Point Richmond resident for the last decade, Buchanan, 60, is a fixture around the neighborhood and can be often found at Kaleidoscope Coffee — where she hosts a recurring comedy show — or perusing the many eateries around the 1.5-square-mile area.

She’s the daughter of an ex-Mormon who raised her at the height of the 1960s San Francisco counter-culture movement in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. She later served as a U.S. Senate page who ran errands for legislators, including President Joe Biden during his tenure as a Delaware senator. She dove into her love for comedy while frequenting San Francisco comedy clubs, mingling with the likes of Bob Saget and Robin Williams.

After moving to Point Richmond, she dug into the local history and now serves on the board of Richmond’s Museum of History and Culture. She’s a claims administrator for the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District and looking forward to soon retiring.

Buchanan also has a history of activism. In the early 2000s, while living in Mill Valley, she organized parents at her daughter’s elementary school, becoming the first suburban chapter of Safe Routes to Schools. 

In a conversation with Richmondside at Kaleidoscope Coffee, Buchanan detailed how a move to Point Richmond helped her reinvent herself after she ended an abusive relationship. In Richmond she rediscovered passions such as performing stand-up comedy and sharing the region’s history with others.

Comedian, history buff and haunted Halloweens

Buchanan definitely keeps busy. In addition to her museum board work, She’s a stand-up comedian and producer of a weekly show and leads history tours and urban history hikes, including a popular haunted Halloween hike for the last eight years.

Her journey to Point Richmond, she said, came after attending a birthday lunch at Kaleidoscope, then dubbed the Hidden City Cafe.

“The seeds were planted for one day living here,” she said. 

After making a few connections at her Mill Valley church, including the family of former Richmond Mayor Tom Butt, she found a place to live and soon moved into the neighborhood.

“It was like the first place I lived since I was 16 years old where I freely felt like I had found a community that I could deeply connect with.”

Karen Buchanan, Point Richmond resident

She quickly got involved,  joining the Point Richmond History Association, the Women’s Westside Improvement Club, the Point Richmond Neighborhood Council, the Richmond Museum Association and the Richmond Main Street initiative.

“I always saw Richmond as this place of amazing, multicultural pride and purpose. People are just hardcore, hardworking, honest and non-pretentious, and I had felt like a second-class citizen for those 24 years living in southern Marin,” Buchanan said, adding that she tells people, “I’m a refugee from southern Marin.”

She said she left an abusive marriage to reinvent her life and found Richmond made her feel at home the same way that Haight-Ashbury felt during her childhood.

“It was like the first place I lived since I was 16 years old where I freely felt like I had found a community that I could deeply connect with,” she said. “That’s why I settled here because I had 25 years of suppressed community engagement.”

She challenges what she says is a false perception that Point Richmond residents think the neighborhood is different from the rest of the city.

“There seems to be this perception that, just like Richmond has this false perception across the bay, that Point Richmond has a false perception across the railroad tracks that we somehow think we’re better than the rest of Richmond or that we want to secede from the city of Richmond and create our own Kensington,” she said “We are not Kensington or Piedmont. We’re just a neighborhood of Richmond, and there’s no difference.”

For those wanting to get to know the Point Richmond neighborhood better, Buchanan shared a suggested Sunday outing itinerary, explaining that it’s the one day the SS Red Oak Victory is open and the Model Railroad Museum is running trains.

“You can pack all that with lunch at Sailing Goat, and then come back and do the Visitor Education Center. After ice cream from the Point Richmond Market, you can pop off the night with jazz on the back patio of Baltic Kiss with Judge Jeff’s jazz quartet,” she said.

If you still have the energy, she even suggests ending the night later with some punk music and a nightcap at the Up and Under.

While there is a solid base of small businesses in the neighborhood, keeping those shops thriving is an important consideration, as is keeping housing affordable and crime low.

That said, she sees a positive post-pandemic renaissance happening.

“We had the Fantastic Negrito at the Point Richmond Music Festival which was one of the biggest crowds we’ve had,” she said.“I see the future as thriving and becoming more multicultural and with an engaged, cohesive community.”

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