They call it the Iron Triangle. It’s an impoverished south Richmond neighborhood, wedged between the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and Interstate 580, that the rest of the city sometimes would rather forget. The streets are threadbare and abandoned; weeds burst through cracks in the sidewalks. The homes here have high fences around their yards and iron bars on their windows. Just walking down the street can be deadly. Gangs work the streets here and many young, jobless men spend their days selling drugs from doorsteps. Many of them have been to jail; many of them expect to go back.

Breaking the Cycle (The East Bay Monthly, December 2007)