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Community-Focused CBD and Agriculture Shop to Open in Scott’s Addition

Noah Daboul | June 23, 2020

Topics: agricultural supply, Arthur Ashe Boulevard, business, CBD, cbd store, chris haynie, community, happy trees, happy trees agricultural supply, josiah ickes, new business, scotts addition

Happy Trees Agricultural Supply can’t wait to bring high-quality CBD and knowledge of sustainable farming to Richmonders.

A new community-based CBD supply store is set to open in Richmond in the coming weeks. Happy Trees Agricultural Supply in Scott’s Addition is the brainchild of Josiah Ickes and Chris Haynie, who are both firm believers in the medicinal benefits of CBD — and wanted to create a space for the Richmond community to be able to learn about it.

“We wanted to have a community-based approach to CBD production, CBD consultation, and all things CBD,” said Ickes. “It is the community’s medicine.” 

Photo courtesy Happy Trees Agricultural Supply

The new storefront is located at 1020 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. Ickes said that in the Richmond area, there is not currently a place to get all the expertise and advice for growing your own food and medicine that Happy Trees will be able to dispense. 

“We wanted to create a one-stop shop to get all of the supplies, advice, or consultation you need,” he said. “We’ll also be teaching monthly classes on one skill or another. We want to bring in the brightest minds and best technology to find the best ways to grow food and medicine, and help to tackle climate change.” 

Ickes said that he became interested in the CBD industry because of the medical benefits of CBD, and the sustainability that growing food and medicine teaches in general. While it’s always going to be what catches people’s attention first, Happy Trees does not solely focus on CBD; they’re focused on teaching growing and sustainability as well.

“If this COVID-19 thing has shown us anything, it’s that we need a lot of options for food. When people are clearing out the shelves and people are scared, certain things aren’t available,” Ickes said. “So if they can learn to grow things themselves and be self-sustainable, then they have that technique.” 

Photo courtesy Happy Trees Agricultural Supply

Since part of their goal is to be community-focused, Ickes and Haynie have kept their whole CBD supply chain as Virginia-based as possible.

“I ended up partnering with a friend of mine in Powhatan,” said Haynie. “He had a hemp license and was growing basil at his property, but the basil didn’t work out. He asked me to help him start a small hemp operation in his greenhouse, and we ended up planting far too many for this season.” 

According to Ickes, this is what sets their CBD apart from other places to obtain CBD products, like smoke shops and convenience stores. 

“You don’t know where that stuff comes from,” said Ickes. “We know where ours does, even back to the farm.”

“I’m a registered agent under my farm partner’s hemp license,” said Haynie. “We produce at his location, which has been vetted by VDACS (Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services). They make you send in GPS coordinates for your fields, and file planting reports, which tells them what you’re growing and when you’ll harvest it. We felt that the best way to deliver the product to the community would be a retail store.” 

When it comes to regulations on CBD and hemp-based products, Haynie’s looking positively toward the future. Recent legislation has come in Virginia this year that regulates the growing market for CBD in the Commonwealth. 

Photo courtesy Happy Trees Agricultural Supply

“Virginia did a good thing when they set up the hemp regulations,” Haynie said. “Some other places [made] farmers jump through a ridiculous amount of hoops, to the point where it was discouraging. The state of Virginia fell back on our heritage as agricultural producers, and said, ‘You know what, guys? These are the rules. Do what you’re supposed to do, and we’re not going to make it hard for you.’”

Happy Trees was set to open on June 1, but they have decided to wait a little longer amidst recent events and large protests in the city. Keep up with them on Facebook and Instagram for updates to learn more about agriculture and sustainability in Richmond. 

Top Photo courtesy Happy Trees Agricultural Supply

It’s On: Richmond’s Next Mayor Must Deal With A Changing City

Rich Meagher | March 9, 2020

Topics: Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Democratic Party of Virginia, Election 2020, Justin Griffin, Kim Gray, Levar Stoney, Navy Hill, Paul Goldman, Richmond city council, Richmond For All, Richmond mayoral race, RVA Dirt, Terry McAuliffe

While the presidential election remains at the forefront of news coverage, Rich Meagher reminds us that for Richmonders, the most important election of 2020 might be that of the city’s next mayor.

Everything is politics these days. Thanks to the Democratic Party’s takeover of the state legislature, we’ve seen more laws than we can follow. Super Tuesday brought a gaggle of Presidential candidates to Virginia, and helped reset the race for the Democratic nomination. Richmonders might not have had time to catch their breath, let alone think about what might be the most important political question this year:

Who will be Richmond’s next Mayor?

Second District Councilwoman Kim Gray made her long-rumored campaign official when she announced her candidacy on Sunday. Local lawyer Justin Griffin, who was a vocal critic of the recent Navy Hill arena development plan, is “exploring” a run. And at least according to one report, another Navy Hill critic, longtime political operator Paul Goldman, is collecting signatures as well. Others may step up before the June 9 filing deadline. And then of course there’s the incumbent, Levar Stoney, who will certainly run for a second term.

All of these candidates will have to reckon with a city that is, in many ways, transforming before our eyes. The same old political formations exist, but they are overlaid with new power sources and new voices.

The Mayor just learned this lesson the hard way, with the aforementioned two words he is bound to hear a lot this fall on the campaign trail: Navy Hill.

The downtown development plan was supposed to restore the eponymous neighborhood to its former glory, as well as to help secure for Stoney a second term and a political future. Instead Navy Hill was blocked by a coalition of City Council members, including the Mayor’s now-opponent Kim Gray.

The Richmond Coliseum, which sits at the center of the proposed Navy Hill development. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe

The Mayor and the plan’s developers tried to force Navy Hill through in the same way that these development plans have always worked in the past. First you bring city elites on board – not just the Mayor, but familiar white business leaders (Tom Farrell, Bill Goodwin, C.T. Hill, Marty Barrington). You recruit support from black political leaders like former Council President Michelle Mosby, and enlist respected local non-profits like the Better Housing Coalition. You leverage these folks (and your tremendous wealth) to put pressure on City Council from above and below. Political scientists call this “growth machine” politics, and it typically gets your plan through.

Only this time it didn’t work.

The city has changed, and not just in the number of beer bros and tattoos. There is a new political class forming in the city – younger, with varied influences.

We saw the first obvious signs of this change when the city’s Democratic organization was forced by the state party to throw out its election results. J.J. Minor, a longtime power broker in the city, was forced out in favor of new blood. (Minor, the son of state legislator Dolores McQuinn, is a key Stoney ally and stumped hard for Navy Hill.)

More recently, opposition to Navy Hill, public housing “reform,” and other city policies led to the formation of Richmond for All, a biracial coalition including prominent voices like WRIR radio host Chelsea Higgs Wise and School Board member Kenya Gibson. The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), energized nationally by the Bernie Sanders campaign, have a vocal city chapter centered on VCU. A cadre of young citizen watchdogs, led by Francesca Leigh-Davis and Melissa Vaughan of RVADirt, live-tweet public meetings and share information.

A special election for the City Council’s 5th district seat last year featured some of these new voices. The district’s voters rejected older faces like former Council member Chuck Richardson and former Stoney advisor Thad Williamson in favor of millennial Stephanie Lynch. Former VCU DSA head Nick Da Silva also won significant support. It’s not exactly “a little child shall lead them,” but the city seems to want something new.

Now this November’s election looms over this changing political landscape.

Mayor Stoney has to try to mobilize citizens to keep him in office, and yet many voters were alienated by his two-year adventure with the Navy Hill developers. He has a number of other accomplishments he can run on, despite Navy Hill’s implosion. He had a lot to talk about in his state of the city address earlier this year, for example, including new aftercare programs for city kids and school construction.

Stoney reminded us of his powerful friends this past week as he appeared with former Governor Terry McAuliffe to endorse Joe Biden ahead of Virginia’s presidential primary. Stoney even had a fun viral moment when he and his mentor were trapped in an elevator for 30 minutes. (Trapped in an enclosed space with T-Mac: the worst nightmare of every Virginia Republican… and more than a few Democrats.)

But statewide Democratic officials are not city voters. Stoney will certainly retain the relentless positivity that is his trademark, but can his formidable skills and backing overcome the noise from his failed development plan?

Councilwoman Gray has her own baggage, particularly with what some critics think is an abrasive personality and an inconsistent voting record where her wealthy Second District constituents are concerned. These criticisms should be blunted by her lead role in the “Gang of 5” opposition to Navy Hill, as well as her successful efforts to push through the renaming of Arthur Ashe Boulevard. 

Photo via Arthur Ashe Boulevard Initiative/Facebook

Griffin is more of a wildcard. His principled opposition to Navy Hill made him a frequent presence in various media, social and otherwise, over the past year, and he seems to want to parlay a brand of common sense criticism into the Mayor’s office. But he’ll need more than complaints about city services to overcome both Gray and Stoney’s considerable advantages as incumbent public officials.

One thing Navy Hill’s failure has demonstrated is clear: the path to victory, as well as the way forward in governing the city, is much harder than it used to be. New forces are challenging Richmond’s old power structure, and anyone who wants to be Mayor should plan accordingly.

Top Image: Levar Stoney, photo via Facebook; Kim Gray, photo via Facebook; Justin Griffin, photo via Facebook; Paul Goldman, photo via Twitter

A More Complete History

Jayla McNeill | July 11, 2019

Topics: african american history, American Evolution 1619-2019, Arthur Ashe Boulevard, David Harris Jr., Determined, Karen Sherry, Ralph Northam, Virginia Museum Of History & Culture

Virginia Museum Of History and Culture’s Determined exhibit sheds light on four hundred years of black Virginians’ struggles to be seen as equal.

The Virginia Museum of History and Culture’s latest exhibit, Determined: The 400 Year Struggle for Black Equality, sets out to educate and inspire the public by highlighting the hardships, resiliency, and triumphs of African Americans throughout history. 

“African American history, black history, is American history. And the way that we teach that history is inadequate (and) inaccurate,” said Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Saturday, June 22, during the dedication ceremony for Arthur Ashe Boulevard. “(That) makes exhibits like this all the more important as we continue the work to rewrite the narrative.” 

The exhibition is part of American Evolution, a 2019 statewide commemoration of the events of 1619 in Virginia. These included the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English-occupied North America to Fort Monroe. The opening of Determined coincided with the dedication of Arthur Ashe Boulevard on June 22, and will remain on display until March 29, 2020. 

During his speech at the dedication, Ashe’s nephew David Harris Jr, shared his thoughts on the museum’s new exhibit. 

“There are many who avoided this building right here behind me because of what is inside,” said Harris, referencing the fact that parts of the museum were originally built in 1913 as a shrine to Confederate dead. “I want you to consider this building as now fully integrated by the city of Richmond.” 

Photo via Virginia Historical Society/Facebook

The exhibit features approximately 100 artifacts, as well as text, graphics, and an interactive section. Throughout the exhibit, historical information is punctuated with questions designed to prompt visitors to reflect upon the reality of slavery, racism, and the systemic oppression of black Americans. 

“Black history in Virginia is very complex and multifaceted,” said Karen Sherry, the curator at the Virginia Museum of History Culture.

“One unifying thread across this long chronology is that black people have been fighting for freedom from enslavement and oppression,” said Sherry. “[African Americans] have been struggling for equal rights and equal justice and equal access to opportunities” and “other forms of equity and full consideration of their humanity.”

Sherry said arriving at the title of the exhibit was a not an easy task. 

“Coming up with a word like ‘determined’ that encapsulates 400 years of African American history in Virginia, that was a big challenge,” she said. 

Then, over the course of her research, Sherry came across the text of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s final speech, where he discussed the need for the civil rights movement. 

“[King] said that the civil rights movement was not about getting into arguments with anybody,” said Sherry. “He talked about how ‘we are determined to gain our rightful place in God’s world. . . we are determined to be people.’” 

Photo via VirginiaHistory.org

She said King’s use of the phrase ‘determined’ “resonated” and “struck” her.

“‘Determined embodies the strength, the resilience, the courage, the agency of black people across history,” said Sherry. “The word also connotes a sense of predetermination, of the way that a person’s position and status in American society is often determined by the color of one’s skin.” 

According to Sherry, the exhibit is organized chronologically so visitors can “see the development of certain historical forces over time… track changes, and compare” progress from generation to generation. 

An important theme of Determined is the struggle for social and political equality. The exhibit is organized into four eras: “First Generations,” covering the years from 1619 to 1775; “Slavery At High Tide,” from 1775 to 1865; “Progress and Backlash,” from 1865 to 1950; and “Equality Achieved?,” from 1950 to present day.  Determined also includes an interactive section, in order to broaden the scope of the exhibit and create room for visitors to share their own stories.

Furthermore, Sherry said, the exhibition focuses upon 30 “key individuals” who are representative of  the “diversity of black Virginians” as well as their experiences and accomplishments. 

“These 30 individuals have what I think are very inspiring and incredible individual stories,” said Sherry. “Yet they are stories that also reflect broader historical trends and phenomena.”

A few examples of the individuals included in the exhibit are: 

  • Angela, one the first Africans brought to Virginia in 1619. 
  • Anne Spencer (1882 – 1975), a well-known poet and activist. During the Harlem Renaissance, Spencer was often visited by prominent humanitarians and activists, such as W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Langston Hughes. 
  • Zyahna Bryant (2002 – ), a student who, when a freshman at Charlottesville High School, began a petition to the City Council asking the city to remove a monument dedicated to Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Because of this petition, white supremacist groups held rallies in Charlottesville that culminated in the Unite The Right event that left Heather Heyer dead in 2017.
Photo by Morgan Edwards

“We recognize that one exhibit cannot cover the full richness and complexity of 400 years of black history in Virginia,” said Sherry. “We want people to think about today and tomorrow, what we need to do as a nation to push ourselves to be better, to push ourselves to a state of true and meaningful equality.”

Determined is the first exhibit Sherry has curated at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, and she hopes that visitors will walk away with a sense of new or renewed appreciation for African American history. 

“Despite the phenomenal progress we’ve made as a society, despite the phenomenal achievements of black Americans, we are still faced with daily reminders that inequities still exist,” said Sherry. “America is a society that still struggles with systemic racism [and] socioeconomic disparities between white people and people of color.”

During the dedication of Arthur Ashe Boulevard, Governor Northam, who was embroiled in his own scandal earlier this year after a racially offensive college yearbook photo of him surfaced, said that exhibits like this are necessary in order to better educate and empower the public. 

“I am grateful for the Virginia Museum of History and Culture for taking up this important conversation,” said Northam. “We need to continue to have this kind of dialogue — because when we know more, we can do more.”

“I very much hope that visitors who come through the exhibition (are) inspired and determined to continue the fight and to continue pushing our society towards our ideal of universal equality,” said Sherry. 

Determined: The 400-Year Struggle For Black Equality is currently on display at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, located at 428 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd. The exhibit is open 10 AM to 5 PM daily, and will be on display through March 29, 2020. A piece of advice for all those planning to visit the exhibit – make sure you bring a notebook along so you can fill it up with information that has been left out of Virginia’s history textbooks.

Top Photo by Morgan Edwards

A Cause For Celebration: The Dedication of Arthur Ashe Boulevard

Jayla McNeill | June 28, 2019

Topics: Arthur Ashe, Arthur Ashe Boulevard, David Harris Jr., dedication ceremony, Determined, Donald McEachin, John Lewis, Levar Stoney, Ralph Northam, State Of Black America town hall, Virginia Museum Of History & Culture

Last weekend, government officials, civil rights leaders, and people from all across Virginia joined together to celebrate Richmond’s next step toward racial reconciliation.

It took nearly 30 years, but Richmond has officially renamed the street once known simply as Boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard, in a symbolic action that elected officials hope will help advance Richmond towards becoming a more racially inclusive and representative city. Last weekend, the city celebrated on a bright, sunny Saturday morning with a dedication ceremony on the steps of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

“This stretch of State Route 161 will never be the same after today,” Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said at the event. “Today Route 161 is getting an upgrade.”

Mayor Levar Stoney. Photo by Morgan Edwards

“By naming this boulevard here today after Arthur Ashe we are once again parting with our darker past and embracing our brighter future,” Stoney continued. “We are making a pledge, that’s not simply in paint and steel street signs, but in our hearts.”

Hundreds of people gathered on the lawn of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture on Saturday in near 90 degree heat to witness the dedication of Arthur Ashe Boulevard and celebrate Richmond’s latest step toward racial reconciliation. 

Leslie Stevenson from Glen Allen, Virginia said that attending the event felt like “witnessing history.” 

“It was amazing,” said Stevenson. “I think everything was done really well… I think [the dedication] is just great for the community. I love how it’s brought the community together.” 

Photo by Morgan Edwards

According to Stoney, renaming the boulevard is an action that “brings both symbolic and real change” to the citizens of Richmond. 

“Our city is transforming — it is changing its future and triumphing over its past.” 

During the event, the Elegba Folklore Society gave two performances; the first kicked off the day’s celebrations and the second performance was given just before the unveiling countdown.

Additionally, the Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church choir performed during the event. Sixth Mount Zion was founded in 1867 by Reverend John Jasper, for African-Americans after the Civil War. 

Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church choir. Photo by Morgan Edwards

In addition to Stoney, several other elected officials, including Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, Senator Tim Kaine, and Congressmen Donald McEachin gathered on the steps of the museum to share in the commemoration. 

Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a noted civil rights leader who helped organize the 1963 March On Washington and was one of the original Freedom Riders, gave the keynote address. As he walked up to the mic, Lewis received a standing ovation from the crowd. Lewis then began an impassioned speech in which he urged the public to fight and speak up against injustices by getting into “good trouble, necessary trouble.” 

Senator Tim Kaine described the boulevard as “a principle gateway into our city: and described the renaming as an “act of healing.”

“Naming is important, this is not a minor thing we are doing today,” said Kaine. “So many of the names that we live with were chosen by a tiny, tiny subset of people who do not represent the full community of our city, or state, or nation today. This is an act to rectify that.”

“Arthur Ashe Boulevard is a name chosen by and ably representing Richmond’s full community and that makes this a very great day for our city and hopefully a day that will be followed by many more such days.” 

Congressman John Lewis. Photo by Morgan Edwards.

The new signs bearing the name “Arthur Ashe Boulevard” were unveiled on the steps of the Virginia Museum of History and Culture after a loud group countdown, at the end of which cannons shot purple streamers into the air.

Arthur Ashe was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1943. He was the first and only African-American male tennis player to win the U.S Open, Wimbledon, and the Australian Open. In 1968 he was ranked the number one tennis player in the world by the United States Lawn Tennis Association — the first African-American to be named so. Ashe is not only remembered for his accomplishments as a tennis player, but is also as an author, activist and humanitarian. 

Growing up in Richmond, Virginia during the era of ‘separate but equal’, Ashe faced racial discrmination, exclusion, prejudice and segregation. As a child he was denied access to the tennis courts at Byrd Park, which was deemed whites only. As a result, Ashe had to practice on the segregated courts near his home instead. As a kid, he was also forbidden from competing against white youth in Richmond, and was unable to practice on the whites-only indoor courts. 

During his career and throughout his retirement, Ashe was a zealous advocate for civil rights and racial equality worldwide. He worked to break down color lines and racial barriers in athletics and promote social change. 

In addition to fighting racial discriminaion at home, Ashe also protested against apartheid, a political system of institutionalized racial segregation,  in South Africa. 

“Despite the adversity he faced right here in his hometown, by sheer talent courage (and) perseverance, Arthur Ashe brought change to the game of tennis, he brought change to this country…. And he brought change to this world,” said Stoney. 

Governor Ralph Northam. Photo by Morgan Edwards.

Unfortunately, Ashe’s health issues forced him to retire early. He underwent his first heart bypass surgery in 1979 at the age of 36. Then in 1983, he had to undergo a second bypass surgery and contracted HIV following a blood transfusion. In 1993, Ashe founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, helping to raise awareness and combat the misconceptions and stigma surrounding the disease. 

During his retirement, Ashe also worked on a number of advocacy projects, and helped found the Association of Tennis Professionals and the National Junior Tennis League. 

After his death on February 10, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. 

“Today we also honor a man who challenged the limitations society placed on men of his skin color and by doing so advanced the struggle for equality,” Governor Northam said Saturday.  

“By breaking down racial barriers in tennis, Arthur Ashe achieved much more than sports fame. That legacy is why we are here to honor him today.”

Renaming the boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard, was an idea that was previously introduced and defeated in 1993 and 2003. The latest and finally successful effort to rename the street was carried by Councilwoman Kim Gray.

David Harris Jr. Photo by Morgan Edwards.

David Harris Jr., Arthur Ashe’s nephew, who was also instrumental in the renewed push for the boulevard’s renaming, took the mic Saturday and shared an emotional speech with the crowd. 

“Richmond, this is truly a spectacular and momentous day,” said Harris. “Today we are letting the world know racism, discrimination, exclusionary tactics, lack of investment in our children, education, and people is bankrupt.”

The dedication also coincided with the opening of a new exhibit, Determined: The 400 year struggle for Black Equality, at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, which will run until March 20, 2020. The museum exhibit is part of the American Evolution program, a General Assembly program that recognizes the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans at Fort Monroe in 1619. According to American Evolution, they “partnered with the Virginia Museum of History and Culture to commission Determined to explore the African-American experience” in Virginia.

Virginia Congressmen Bobby Scott and Donald McEachin at the State Of Black America town hall meeting. Photo by Morgan Edwards.

Later that evening, members of the Congressional Black Caucus held a State of Black America town hall meeting to discuss various issues affecting the African-American and black community in America today. 

According to Mayor Stoney, June 22, 2019 is a day that represents hope for a new Richmond with a brighter and more inclusive future. 

“And now at the intersection of our city’s past and present, it is our duty to take the next steps in our journey down the right path to lead the way for future generations,” said Stoney.

 “We already have a map with a road to follow that will take us in the right direction. Let us follow it together. It’s called Arthur Ashe Boulevard.”

Top photo by Morgan Edwards

GRTC Connects: Route 20 – City Stadium to the Diamond

Wyatt Gordon | June 27, 2019

Topics: Arthur Ashe Boulevard, city stadium, GRTC, GRTC Connects, parking lots, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Richmond kickers, The Diamond

The fourth installment of a monthly series in which a hometown Richmonder who has spent over a decade abroad explores the many different neighborhoods accessible by GRTC bus lines to discover the ways transit connects us all.

City Stadium:

Stranded in the triangle of land between the Powhite Parkway, the Downtown Expressway, and the place where they intertwine lies a quaint and oft-forgotten neighborhood of mostly one-story shotgun houses.  This charmingly demure part of town rarely receives any attention (or visitors) outside of the roughly dozen nights a year it hosts the fans of what has become a popular local institution. The neighborhood itself would lack a name were it not for its largest resident: City Stadium.

The University of Richmond constructed the stadium in 1929 at a cost of just $80,000 to serve as the home field for its football team.  Although considered small for today’s era of mega-stadiums, ninety years ago an arena that seats approximately 22,000 people would have been considered luxuriously capacious. Unglamorous as some may find it, the Richmond Kickers have declared City Stadium home, securing a 40-year lease on the property from the city in 2016. In exchange, the Kickers will invest $20 million worth of upgrades into the venue. Such forward thinking seems to come easily to the Kickers — a team that has built itself from the ground up over the past two and a half decades.

Founded in 1993, the Richmond Kickers are tied with the Charleston Battery as the oldest continuously-run soccer team in the country.  A year after the Kickers moved in to City Stadium (known as U of R Stadium until 2010 when the Spiders ended their lease and moved back onto campus), Richmond hosted the qualifying match for the North, Central American & Caribbean section of the 1998 FIFA World Cup. The match attracted thousands of fans and put Virginia’s sole professional soccer team on the map.

Since the early years, the Kickers have more than quadrupled their average attendance. With the increasing popularity and inclusive spirit of the sport, the team believes investing in outreach could one day make them Richmonders’ top team to cheer for. The first demographic the Kickers targeted is the region’s skyrocketing Latinx population. Last season’s hosting of RCD Espanyol from the beloved La Liga proved a true coup, drawing huge crowds and marking the first time a team from Spain’s top flight appeared in Virginia.

This year the Kickers transformed their June 1st home game against North Texas SC into a Pride Night themed overture to Virginia’s LGBTQ+ community.  Live music, happy hour deals, and an auction of rainbow warmup jerseys that benefited Health Brigade added up to a strong effort by the Kickers’ management to make queer Richmonders feel not only welcome but celebrated.

Photo by Suzanne Velasco

The River City Red Army — a ragtag group of rabid fans who typically take over Section O of the stadium — took their dedication to inclusion a step further when they set off a rainbow-colored smoke bomb at the start of the game, instead of the usual bright red of the Kickers’ jerseys. The Red Army isn’t just making a show of supporting Richmond’s LGBTQ population, they are putting their money where their mouth is through a Prideraiser campaign to donate $200 per goal to Diversity Richmond for every goal the team scores during Pride Month. 

With over 4,500 attendees on Pride Night — a strong showing for Richmond’s soccer club — the Kickers’ embrace of our region’s growing diversity seems to be paying off. Just as City Stadium becomes an ever more popular destination, so too will homebuyers increasingly flock to the Stadium neighborhood, a surprisingly affordable pocket of the city whose proximity to Carytown and small-town feel cannot go ignored forever.

The Ride:

Standing at the corner of Freeman Avenue and Maplewood Road adjacent to the gravel-strewn expanse that serves as City Stadium’s parking lot, it struck me how convenient it must be to take the bus to a Kickers game. In just eight minutes, Route 20 will take you to or from the Science Museum Pulse Station. The same could be said of the Diamond, just a 15-minute walk or a 10-minute bus ride from that same Pulse stop.

Increasing the frequency of the 20 to 15 minutes rather than 30, or even changing the schedule to five- or ten-minute intervals during the hour or two before and after Kickers’ and Flying Squirrels’ home games may be enough to convince more city dwellers to ditch their cars in favor of transit. The Kickers’ small gravel lot isn’t a huge eyesore and doesn’t contribute to our city’s terrible urban heat island; however, the Diamond (mis)manages its footprint on the city very differently.

The overwhelming majority of the area surrounding the Diamond is wasted on endless asphalt. More successful sports arenas strategically surround themselves with the dense housing, retail, offices, and greenspace needed to activate the neighborhood beyond the few dozen days a year the team is in town.  

Venues like our capital’s Nationals Park, or Boston’s Fenway Park, have reinvigorated entire neighborhoods. It doesn’t take much imagination to envision an alternate future for the Boulevard, similar to the rapid development of D.C.’s Navy Yard. Repurposing industrial and unused land has the added bonus of not displacing anyone, an increasing concern for the city.

As I pondered ways to manage the symptoms and side effects of gentrification, I checked the GRTC app (powered by Google Maps) and Transit App to figure out when the next bus would come. GRTC estimated a 20-minute wait while Transit predicted just five. Exactly five minutes later the 20 arrived, providing more evidence that GRTC should cut the budget for its app and invest the savings in increasing coverage or frequency of service.

In just 17 minutes, the 20 zipped its way northward to the Diamond through Carytown, past Cary Street Station, up Robinson Street in the Fan, and through the southeastern corner of Scott’s Addition, passing some of Richmond’s choicest watering holes. The two sports arenas and the plethora of dive bars and small eateries along the route make the 20 an ideal bus for an evening out on the town, whether it’s a game with your friends or a date with your boo.

The Diamond:

Sometimes nomenclature can be so important to us that we duke it out for decades until we decide what to call something. Other times, a name can sit on a map for a century and a half without anyone speaking it or even knowing its providence. Such is the duality surrounding Richmond’s second stadium: the Diamond.  

The formal name of this post-industrial area bounded by I-95/64 to the North and the CSX line to the South is Acca Yard. Assumptions the name must be a long-forgotten railroad acronym for something like the “Atlantic Coastal Connection Area” are unfounded.  

According to the Virginia Historical Society, this part of Richmond was once owned by Preston Belvin, a successful furniture manufacturer. As the head of the local Shriners chapter, Belvin named his farm where he raised Arabian racehorses after the ancient Palestinian city of Akka, which is today Acre in Israel. When he sold his farm at the turn of the nineteenth century, the railroad simply kept the eccentric name which still floats above the area — largely ignored — on Google Maps.

Photo via Arthur Ashe Boulevard Initiative/Facebook

Far from being a nonissue, the renaming of the Diamond’s main corridor, the Boulevard, proved to be a three decade long endeavor.  After Arthur Ashe’s passing from HIV/AIDS in 1993, his family and many admirers made multiple attempts to rename the Boulevard in his honor.  The third time was the charm, thanks to a healthy does of white guilt following the blackface revelations of our Commonwealth’s Governor and Attorney General as well as the diligent work of City Councilmember Kim Gray, who introduced the measure and represents the area, yet was relegated to a mere prop at the celebratory ceremonies in favor of a lineup of all male speakers.

Despite the recent revelry now that Richmond has finally dedicated one of its most prominent promenades to a black man — 400 years after the first enslaved Africans were brought to these shores in chains, there is another positive renaming of sorts this area is known for: the Flying Squirrels. In 2008, the Richmond Braves ended 42 years of problematic chanting and chopping the air like fans’ forearms were tomahawks and moved to Gwinnet County, Georgia in a hissyfit after the city’s plans to build a new stadium in Shockoe Bottom collapsed.

Two years later the Flying Squirrels swooped in. Despite their overly gendered mascot duo of Nutzy and Nutasha, the Squirrels’ irreverent approach to America’s national pastime has resonated with Richmonders who seem to enjoy going to a game more as an excuse for a beer and a hotdog than as an opportunity to watch athletics in action. The team consistently fills up two thirds of the roughly 9,000 seats available since large advertising banners began occupying the upper quarter of the arena.  

To chart a future course towards sold out games the Squirrels are following the same playbook as the Kickers: outreach to the relatively untapped markets of potential Latinx and LGBTQ fans. Every Friday home game this season, Richmond’s baseball team has been transforming into Las Ardillas Voladoras (“the Flying Squirrels” in Spanish) in an effort to draw in our region’s booming Latino population.

With Virginia Pride as their ally, tonight the Squirrels hope to knock their queer outreach out of the park with their first-ever Pride Night at the Diamond. Even if the game is no good, this evening’s debut of the 2019 Pride Guide by GayRVA and Virginia Pride means attendees will at least receive some interesting reading material. However, with ticket pre-sales already scraping 4,000, the event looks set to be one of the Squirrels’ biggest nights of the year; similarly, the Kickers’ Pride Night proved to be their second-best attended of the season.

Richmond’s two largest sports arenas have an outsized impact on our city, just as the Kickers and Flying Squirrels play a central role in the cultural branding of the Commonwealth’s capital. The success or failure of these athletic franchises will play a crucial role in the development of the neighborhoods which host them. The increasing popularity of the Kickers has the potential to bring a wave of revitalization to one of the sleepiest swathes of the city — or it could result in rising rents and displacement for Stadium’s overwhelmingly elderly population.  

A deal to relocate ABC’s headquarters to Hanover County could provide the required space for a new ballpark, transforming the Diamond into the mixed-use multi-modal neighborhood Scott’s Addition pretends to be. Or such a deal could simply lead to a bigger ballpark with more impermeable asphalt parking lots, and doom the Diamond to be as dead most days as it is now.  

Whether you attend a game or not, Richmond’s two local sports teams will continue to shape the fabric and culture of our city.

You can support Richmond’s teams by going out to a game. Get your tickets for the Richmond Kickers and the Flying Squirrels today!

Photos by Wyatt Gordon, except where noted

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