Candidate Interview: Doria Robinson runs for re-election in Richmond’s District 3

Doria Robinson grew up on Fifth and Nevin in the 1980s, when the crack epidemic was tearing through her neighborhood, and drive-by shootings were routine.

“My friends I grew up with did not make it,” she said. “Most of them.”

Now a sitting Richmond City Councilmember seeking a second term in District 3, Robinson is running on a record built over decades in the community she never left. She was born and raised in the district. Her grandparents had a church on 13th and Ohio. Her mother went to Kennedy High School. She raised twins there as a single mother, on South 12th Street, where she still lives.

“District Three is truly, truly my home,” she said. “I deeply understand what families are going through when they’re trying to raise kids, trying to work multiple jobs, trying to navigate the school district and the city. I’ve had my car broken into. I grew up here in the 80s. I lived it.”

Who She Is

Robinson has led Urban Tilth, a Richmond-based nonprofit, for 20 years. The organization started with three volunteers and now has 81 staff members, seven sites, and 14 programs, transforming vacant lots into green spaces where youth find jobs and develop as leaders.

“Seventy percent of our staff are kids like me who grew up here, where not many people really believed in them,” she said. “And they’re powerful, and they’re inspiring, and they’re leading, and they’re making an incredible change.”

Before Urban Tilth, she worked in advertising in San Francisco with clients including Apple, Lexus, and Macromedia. She is a published poet who has not had time to write in years. She walked away from a profitable career on purpose.

“I was like, what am I doing? This is not what I was called for,” she said.

Appointed in 2022 to the California State Board of Food and Agriculture and reappointed in 2025, she chaired the committee that defined regenerative agriculture for statewide policy and spent two years on a task force on agricultural land equity, traveling across California, meeting with Black, brown, immigrant, and tribal farmers.

On Homelessness

Robinson says the city’s approach to homelessness rests on a flawed foundation: not enough shelter beds, not enough places for people to go during the day, and too much reliance on police to manage a problem that policing cannot fix.

“We don’t have enough shelter beds. There’s no place for people to go, even if they wanted to go somewhere. And then if they get somewhere to go, they’re kicked out in the morning. Where are they going to sit all day while they wait to have a bed at night? In a park? At the library? And so when people call the police on them, they’re criminalizing them for not having shelter.”

Her top priority is expanding navigation centers, places where unhoused residents can spend the day with access to showers, social workers, job placement, and basic supplies. She points to SOS Wellness Center as the right model, hobbled only by a lack of resources. She has also been in talks with the Richmond Rescue Mission about using city property to add shelter beds and another day center, and wants to bring the county’s Coordinated Outreach Referral, Engagement (CORE) outreach team to a permanent Richmond location.

“All their clients are here,” she said. “We need them here. Having them drive from Martinez to come back here to work, that’s crazy.”

On Public Safety

Robinson does not begin with the police when she talks about public safety. She starts with parks.

“How do you solve the equation so that if somebody is arriving home late tonight and they’re an elder, they’re not afraid about what’s going to happen by the time they get out of their car and walk to their house? How do you solve the equation so that kids can go to the park, play, come back, and it’s okay? Many, many people across this nation have that sense of safety, and we deserve it.”

Her answer is activating public spaces with regular programming and staffed presences that double as community anchors. She remembers snack bars at neighborhood parks growing up. “One job is serving up the ice cream cones. The other job is being there to watch and to be somebody people can come to if they’re having trouble," she said.

On the police department itself, Robinson is candid. She said she grew up watching officers do terrible things in her neighborhood. She believes the department has changed and says so when she brings outside activists to town.

“They come here ready for a fight, and I’m like, no, no, no. We don’t fight with our police here. They’re going to help us be safe. They’re like, what? They’re shocked and surprised that people are personable and human and honestly want to keep the peace.”

She is not without criticism. She has strong feelings about specific officers and specific incidents.

“I have some strong critiques of particular officers, of some of the things that have happened. There are things that have happened that are not right. We need to make sure there’s a culture of accountability.”

What she wants to fix is the structure. A ride-along showed her a department so understaffed that almost everyone is on patrol, with almost no room for advancement. She wants the department reorganized with specialized units for human trafficking, domestic violence, and property crime, and she wants officers treated like the employees they are.

“I am concerned about 18-hour work days, mandatory overtime, officers feeling like their quality of life doesn’t matter to anybody. If you boil it back to just being a good employer, those are very poor work conditions.”

She argues that officers need to feel the city has their back before any cultural shift is possible. “Our police officers have to know that we, to be frank, give a shit about their lives and their families. If they don’t believe that, they’re not going to come along for this journey of redefining what we mean by public safety.”

What’s Left Undone

Robinson rattles off projects she is not willing to leave behind: the MLK community center, now with $2 million allocated and design work underway after years of inattention; the troubled Miraflores development; flooding in Parchester Village; downtown revitalization.

Robinson argues that Measure U is behind Richmond’s current stability. She says the gross-receipts tax has allowed the city to add public works crews, fill long-vacant positions, and run budget surpluses for three years in a row, while other cities are cutting services and considering layoffs.

“Measure U is primarily responsible for us being in such a good financial situation right now, where other cities are having to make cuts and not offer raises and look at layoffs. We are offering raises, considering vacancies to fill, and evaluating capital projects.”

Responding to criticism

Robinson has faced persistent public criticism over her involvement with a $30 million Transformative Climate Communities grant secured by Urban Tilth before her time on the council. Two separate complaints were filed with the California Fair Political Practices Commission alleging conflict-of-interest violations. The FPPC dismissed both.

Robinson describes the pattern plainly. “They don’t like my politics. They don’t like how I vote. So they’re looking for anything they possibly can, even if they have to make it up. You can just throw up a bunch of things that might make absolutely no sense to the FPPC, which has investigated, and to the city attorney, who has investigated their claims and found nothing twice. But they know the average voter won’t go and really look at what they’re saying.”

One allegation framed fiscal sponsorship as money laundering. “Fiscal sponsorship is a very normal thing that’s done in the nonprofit world," she said. "Many of the organizations that the people making these claims deal with are fiscally sponsored projects. But if you don’t know that, it sounds shady. And that is the point.”

She does not dwell on it. Robinson describes a life ruled by a tightly packed schedule, where her calendar dictates everything from meetings to sleep.

“If I’ve got anything, I’ve got stamina. I don’t give up. I keep pushing until the thing is done.”

In the coming weeks, Grandview Independent will publish interviews with candidates running for Richmond City Council and mayor.

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