City Government

Limited Community Access to Helms Middle

Published

7 years ago

July 4, 2019

San Pablo City Council on Monday approved a 32-week pilot program allowing community access to the sports fields at Helms Middle School.

The city is working with the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) on the proposal allowing access Monday-Friday from 6:00 p.m. till 8:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 5:00 p.m. till 8:00 p.m. beginning in August through the end of October, and re-opening again in March 2020 and running through June 30, 2020.

San Pablo has committed about $15,000 to pay for the pilot program, which, if successful, could be extended, according to San Pablo city staff.

The pilot project would allow residents to access the football field, soccer fields, track, basketball courts and other amenities of the fields. The entire property, including where the community center is located, belongs to the school district.

During those non-school hours, safe access to the fields will be provided through the community center, according to city staff.

Campus safety has been at the center of why the community hasn’t been able to use the fields, city staff says. Gates providing access to the community have been kept shut in order to keep visitors from intermingling with children in physical education classes or after school programs. The locked gates haven’t stopped some community members from crawling under or hopping over fences to gain access to the fields, city staff said.

The solution, staff said, was to identify a way to safely gain access to the sports amenities. That led to the proposal for limited access during non-school hours using the community center’s front and back entrances.

Some community members say it’s about time. San Pablo Mayor Rich Kinney said voters approved a property tax that promised access to school-built facilities such as Helms Middle, which was rebuilt in 2010. The mayor said community access to the property was part of discussions during early meetings about the San Pablo Community Center. The city paid for the construction of the center, which opened in 2014, and the district leases use of the property to the city for $1 in perpetuity. In those early discussions about the site, the school district and city talked about sharing cost for community access to the fields, Kinney said.

“We were always promised from Day 1 that we would have access to the black top and the basketball courts behind the Community Center,” Mayor Kinney said.

It’s the reason high fences were installed to wall off access to the school, he said.

The mayor said he approved the pilot program Monday because he wants access for the community, but added that the fight should continue for the right of city taxpayers to use the fields at no cost.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

6 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”