Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Wealth & Poverty: Company Town

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Richmond, California, located about a dozen miles northeast of San Francisco, is like many medium-sized towns across the United States. In its hundred-year history, its fortunes have risen and fell - often based upon the success of the major industries located there.

Two, in particular, put the town on the map. Literally. They were the Santa Fe Railroad, and Standard Oil, both of which predated the city's incorporation.

Over the last century, Standard Oil, later Chevron Corporation, has come to define Richmond. Its refinery tanks - and the smoke that flows from its stacks - dominate the northern horizon. Within eight months of opening, the Richmond refinery became Standard Oil's top producer on the Pacific Coast. Today, Chevron is a $150 billion corporation. It recently posted its highest earnings ever and ranks in the top ten largest companies in the world.

So it's no surprise that Chevron plays a major role in Richmond, itself. For decades, current or retired employees held city council seats - and a couple have even been elected mayor. Chevron is the city's largest employer with roughly 2,500 workers - and is easily its largest taxpayer. But some residents of Richmond are chaffing under this dominance.

In Chevron, they see a bad neighbor - one that, on balance, takes far more away from the city, and its residents, than it gives.

From KALW Public Radio in San Francisco, Kristi Coale takes a look at the relationship between a company and a community. This is the radio documentary "Company Town."