January:

* Developers Onni pulled the plug on their plans to build highrises in Steveston amid stiff opposition from the local community.

* A murder-suicide is suspected after a middle-aged Richmond couple is found dead in a local hotel room. Staff at the Hampton Inn on Bridgeport Road, concerned about the wellbeing of the couple, called the police after the pair failed to check out.

* Much-loved Richmond educator and McNair secondary vice-principal Lorne Bodin, 50, lost his battle with stomach cancer.

* The City of Richmond pulled out of the Tall Ships 2011 Festival due to fears over lack of tall ships and corporate sponsorship. In the summer, it successfully hosted, instead, a smaller Ships to Shore Festival.

* A cruel thief pretended to be an electrician to dupe his way into a blind man’s home and steal his precious collection of martial arts knives.

February:

* B.C. Liberal leadership candidate George Abbott swept through Richmond during his unsuccessful campaign to lead the party.

* Winterfest 2011 took place at the oval, stirring memories of the 2010 Games. Olympic athletes, including Richmond’s own Alexa Loo and Vanoc CEO John Furlong, attended the event.

* Disgraced Paralympic curler Jim Armstrong was fined $30,000 for his part in a counterfeit Viagra smuggling operation over the U.S. border. His son, Greg, didn’t get off so lightly, copping a one year jail term.

* A small 2.9 magnitude earthquake was felt in some parts of Richmond, with the epicenter gauged at 38 kilometres southwest of the city and 19 kilometres underground.

* The Richmond News published an entire edition dedicated to the arts community in the city.

* Richmond School Board was surprised to find a $4 million surplus in its budget.

March:

* Budget cuts were blamed for a rat problem at James Whiteside elementary. A cut to janitorial services was one of the reasons put forward for the rodents causing issues at the school.

* Veteran MP John Cummins finally admitted to the worst kept secret in B.C. politics: he’s stepping down from his Ottawa job. Cummins is now leader of the B.C. Conservatives.

* A massage parlour called the Water Club was shut down for 60 days after continually flouting the city’s bylaws regarding body-rub studios. Naked employees and customers were caught in compromising positions by inspectors.

* Palmer secondary’s Griffins basketball won the provincial championship with a 71-63 win over Vancouver College’s Fighting Irish.

* The federal election campaign kicked off in Richmond with a spat between rivals Joe Peschisolido and Alice Wong over signage. Wong reported her rival to the city for illegally putting up his signs on city land.

April:

* The Richmond News pulled the leg of its readers to kick the month off, reporting that a new French Canadian political party had launched in the city, demanding more French language on road signs on No. 3 Road.

* The City of Richmond demanded that a consortium of airlines — which wants to pump jet fuel via pipeline through the city to YVR — divert the pipeline route up Highway 99.

* After being surveyed by the city if they want to spend tax dollars to keep one of the Biennale public art installations, a whopping 75 per cent of Richmondites who took part rejected the notion.

* A “Chinese-only” need apply rental advert on Craigslist sparked an angry reaction from a prospective Richmond renter. The woman who placed the ad claimed it was worded to suit the apartment owner, who only speaks Chinese.

* Protest group VAPOR (Vancouver Airport Pipeline Opposition for Richmond) is launched in the backyard of local activist Carol Day. The organization is dedicated in halting the creation of a jet fuel off-loading terminal on the south arm of the Fraser River and a fuel pipeline through the city to YVR.

* VAFFC — the consortium of airlines behind the proposal to barge jet fuel up the Fraser River and then pipe it through Richmond to YVR — asked for the provincial environmental review process into its project to be halted. so it can look into re-routing the pipeline up Highway 99 as opposed to through residential Richmond.

May:

* The Conservative Party’s Alice Wong buried her rivals to record a landslide victory in the federal election and retain her seat in Parliament. Newcomer Kerry-Lynne Findlay also enjoys a facile success in the Delta-Richmond East riding for the Tories.

* A massive fire reduced the Remy development construction site to a smouldering ruin. The project’s all-wooden design — a first for its size in B.C. — was not thought to be to blame for the speed and extent of the blaze.

* Soccer mom Debbie Judd — accused of defrauding Richmond Youth Soccer of around $200,000 — finally made an appearance in court, eight years after the offences took place.

* A cold, wet and dark spring was getting the blame for a shortage of local fruits and vegetables on the shelves. Many early field crops rotted in the ground after weeks of heavier than normal rains and lower than seasonal temperatures.

June:

* The innagural Ships to Shore Steveston festival sailed into port to replace the failed bid to host the 2011 Tall Ships Festival.

* A hostage-taking at a townhouse complex just south of the Granville and Railway avenues intersection prompted a lockdown at the nearby Burnett secondary. After several hours, the suspect is talked out of the building peacefully with no further incident.

* Richmond joined in with the rest of the province as Canuck Stanley Cup Final fever swept through B.C. Everywhere you went, the famous blue and green colours appeared in all kinds of forms.

* The roof caved in the Canucks’ Stanley Cup dream and a riot — both watched by and involving Richmondites — kicked off downtown soon after Game 7 finishes.

* Out of the post-Stanley Cup riot gloom emerged a hero from Richmond, teenager Darrel Seskin. Seskin, 18, was captured on video during the riot, pulling a baying mob off a man who was being beaten on the ground.

July:

Tributes poured into the News for the late Milan Ilich who died after a long battle with illness. Businessman Ilich — one of Richmond’s best known and most respected philanthropists — donated and raised tens of millions of dollars for worthy causes across the city in his time, most notably Richmond Hospital.

The devastating fire that razed the all-wooden Remy development to the ground earlier in the year sparked the city of Surrey to tighten its fire codes with regard to large wood-framed structures.

Vancouver Airport celebrated its 80th birthday. In 1931, the original grass airstrip at Minoru Park was replaced after the City of Vancouver purchased a large parcel of land on Sea Island. Its decision was motivated by Charles Lindbergh’s refusal to bring his 1927 North American tour to Vancouver because of the lack of a proper airport.

Raccoon attacks on family cats and dogs continued to rise. Many family pets were injured in the south-west corner of Richmond and some went missing altogether, with the black and white rodents getting the blame. Animal experts are bemused, saying attacks on cats are rare.

Free parking in Steveston Village became a thing of the past after the local harbour authority — which owns large swathes of vacant land, previously used by visitors during big tourist events — decided to introduce pay parking.

One of B.C.’s largest ever meth drug labs is uncovered by cops in Richmond. The clandestine operation, found in the 6200-block of Gibbons Drive, lead to four men and one woman being arrested.

A postman, bitten six times by dogs during his career, urged dog owners to help reduce the number of attacks on postal workers. Dan Douey told how one dog even broke a window to get at him.

Mounties are known for “always getting their man.” This time, Richmond RCMP got their ram, after pursuing a runaway beast nicknamed Rambo for the best part of three hours through residential streets and yards.

August:

The sound of gunshot in a quiet cul-de-sac stunned residents. Police cordon off the area in the 10,000-block of Whistler Court in south Richmond to investigate what appeared to be an accidental shooting of a six-year-old child. The child recovered from the non-life threatening injuries and a 53-year-old man was later charged with firearms offences.

The return of the Maritime Festival in Steveston drew a bumper crowd with more than 35,000 swarming to the village to check out an array of ships and boats from the past and present.

The sockeye fishery opened with a bite-sized three-hour window for local fishermen. Longer and more frequent windows opened up later in the season.

Property tourists arrived by the planeload in Richmond to tap into the lucrative local market. Richmond realtor Steve Latham took the VIPs on a guided tour of the city and a sample of some two- to three-million dollar homes.

The filming of ABC’s Once Upon A Time rolls in Steveston, with the village transformed into Storybrooke. The fantasy TV adventure later became a hit with viewers, raking in an audience of millions for each episode.

Child porn trader Clifton Siemens was jailed for 18 months after being caught distributing hundreds of vile images and videos of sexual abuse from his Blundell Gardens home.

A Steveston fisherman won $7.2 million on Lotto 6/49. Van Hen Lu planned to buy a new house and a new motor for his boat with the winnings.

Books of condolence opened up around the city in memory of NDP leader Jack Layton who died after battling cancer for the second time.

September:

Police pulled over a slew of luxury sports cars — mostly driven by inexperienced teenagers — in White Rock after they allegedly started racing each other down Highway 99 from Richmond at speeds of up to 200 kilometres per hour. A meeting to plan the race took place in Richmond and many of the suspected racers were from the city.

A second Richmondite won $7 million on Lotto 6/49. Factory worker Eddie Uy, 59, vowed to keep working, despite his massive win.

A family survived a mini-Tsunami after what appeared to be a freak surge of water while they fished in a sheltered Garry Point inlet. Stuart Sequeira, his daughter Chloe and his father Mike were almost swept away after they were engulfed by water. The Transportation Safety Board later met with the family at the scene to pick over what happened and promised to launch a probe, with water displacement from large vessel traffic on the south arm of the Fraser River a possible cause. After reading the story, a woman came forward and told the News that the exact same thing happened at the same place to her and her cousin the year before.

The consortium of airlines (VAFFC) behind the proposal to barge jet fuel up the south arm of the Fraser River and then pump it through a pipe under Richmond to YVR decided to “look at alternatives” to its controversial plan. VAFFC told the City of Richmond it’s now looking into three other options.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake rumbled around Richmond, causing many people in high-rises to experience dizziness and pot plants and TVs to shake. The quake centred about 80 kilometres off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The same bank was hit twice in two weeks — but by a car, not thieves. The RBC branch at No. 3 and Cook roads became a dangerous place to do business after two drivers apparently hit the gas instead of the brake in the parking lot outside the bank and plowed through the window.

Steveston welcomed its new fire hall at the corner of No. 2 Road and Steveston Highway. The building is a state-of-the-art structure with many environmentally friendly features.

October:

Veteran councillor Harold Steves was honoured at the annual UBCM conference for an incredible 41 years of service to the City of Richmond. Steves told the News that he was thinking of retiring, but not just yet.

The body of a newborn baby was found in a log boom floating on the north arm of the Fraser River near the Richmond/Burnaby border. The baby’s mother has never been identified.

The campaign for the 2011 civic election finally started to heat up after two city council incumbents — former mayor and MLA Greg Halsey-Brandt and his ex-wife Sue Halsey-Brandt — announce their retirement from local politics. Meanwhile, former Olympic snowboarder and mom-to-be Alexa Loo threw her hat into the election ring at the last minute.

A pair of teenagers was attacked in broad daylight by thugs armed with baseball bats as they cycled home from playing basketball at South Arm Community Centre. The 15-year-olds suffered non life-threatening injuries and were released from hospital soon after the attack.

A pervert is given a conditional sentence and ordered to keep clear of all Winners stores in B.C. after he was caught filming up a woman’s skirt. Harshit Garcha, 21, was spotted by a security officer at the Lansdowne Centre store, shooting the video of the unsuspecting woman. A collection of similar videos and pictures were found on Garcha’s camera, but he claimed they must have been taken by the camera’s previous owner.

A small plane crashed onto Russ Baker Way at the Dinsmore Bridge and burst into flames. The aircraft, carrying seven passengers and two pilots, aborted a flight from YVR to Kelowna and was trying to return to Vancouver when it swerved violently on approach. The plane narrowly missed traffic on the normally busy road, but horrified motorists rushed to the aid of the crew and passengers. Both pilots subsequently lost their lives.

November:

The City of Richmond opened up a new community safety headquarters in southeast Richmond. The $36 million facility on No. 5 Road near Steveston Highway now houses many public safety arms under one roof.

Senior Jean Ann James was found guilty of murdering a woman she suspected was having and affair with her husband. Richmondite James, 72, slit the throat of her friend, Gladys Wakabayashi, in a jealous rage in her victim’s Vancouver home.

Former school board chair Linda McPhail and former school trustee Chak Au became the new faces on city council after the civic election, while Malcolm Brodie cruised into the mayor’s seat once more ahead of his only challenger, lawyer Richard Lee. Yet another low voter turnout was recorded — 23.75 per cent, up from 22 in 2008 — despite significant efforts by the city to boost the election’s profile and offer more places to vote.

December:

A former Miss B.C. finalist was one of the first people charged with looting and taking part in the infamous 2011 Stanley Cup Final riot in downtown Vancouver. Sophie Laboissonniere, 20, a former McMath secondary student, has yet to plead to the allegations.

Richmond student Sasha Mirza was the catalyst for the seismic changes that rocked the student association board at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. Amid chaotic scenes at the Surrey campus, Mirza moved the motion at a special general meeting to impeach 12 members of the controversy-ridden former board.

A second pedestrian was killed in less than two weeks while trying to cross a road away from a crosswalk. The 86-year-old man was attempting to negotiate No. 3 Road near Ryan road when he was struck and later lost his life.

A new crosswalk is opened in Steveston. The “scramble,” as it’s called, stops all traffic in all directions and allows pedestrians to cross the intersection at No. 1 Road and Moncton Street in any direction, even diagonally.

The notorious Water Club massage parlour finally lost its business licence after flouting one too many city bylaws. The club, which rented the 11th and 12th floors of the Radisson hotel on Cambie Street, had its lease terminated by the landlord and lost its right to do business after refusing inspection access to bylaw and RCMP officers.

Two more Richmondites, whose names have yet to be released, are charged with their part in the Stanley Cup Final riot.

Police issue a warning after another pedestrian, an elderly Asian male, was killed while trying to cross a Richmond road away from a crosswalk. He lost his life soon after the collision on No. 2 Road, just south of Steveston Highway.

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