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Bill Banning Handheld Cellphone Use While Driving Clears House & Senate

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Invest in a phone mount now; once this bill is signed into law by Governor Northam, Virginia will become a hands-free driving state.

The state Senate voted Tuesday in favor of a bill that would prohibit holding a phone while driving a motor vehicle on Virginia roadways and which implements a penalty for the traffic violation.

House Bill 874 will head to the desk of Gov. Ralph Northam, who has voiced support for prohibiting the use of handheld cellphones while driving. The measure, sponsored by Del. Jeff Bourne, D-Richmond, would go into effect at the start of 2021.

“I’m happy that HB874 passed 29-9 in the Senate,” Bourne said in an email. “HB874 will make our roadways safer for all Virginians by prohibiting drivers from holding a cell phone while driving a motor vehicle.”

The House of Delegates approved the bill Feb. 5 with a 72-24 vote after incorporating four bills with similar proposals. Violations of the measures in HB 874 would result in a fine of $125 for the first offense and $250 for subsequent offenses. If a violation occurs in a highway work zone, there would be a mandatory fee of $250.

Bourne said the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, of which he is a member, supports making Virginia roadways safer without risking “disparate application of law.”

“We were happy to work with Drive Smart Virginia to improve the legislation to ensure that the new law is applied fairly and equitably,” Bourne said.

Hands-free driving garners bicameral and bipartisan support, according to Brantley Tyndall, director of outreach for Bike Walk RVA. He said the defeat of previous bills with similar measures in past years was deflating, but that Bourne’s latest proposal reworked the language to make it successful.

“Bike Walk RVA is happy to see leadership from our area, namely chief patron Delegate Jeff Bourne, choosing to lead this issue on the House side with his bill HB 874,” Tyndall said in an email.

House Bill 874 would prohibit holding a cellphone while driving a motor vehicle. Photo by Andrew Ringle

Tyndall called Bourne’s bill a “commonsense safety measure” and said he was glad to see support for the bill from old and new leadership in the General Assembly.

“We can all feel a part of saving dozens or hundreds of lives over the next few years, including the one out of every six traffic fatalities that is a person walking or biking,” Tyndall said.

Current law prohibits reading or typing messages on a personal communications device while driving. However, holding such a device is legal, except while driving in a work zone.

The bill would not apply to emergency vehicle drivers, such as police officers and firefighters, nor employees of the Department of Transportation while performing official duties. It would also exempt drivers who are parked legally or at a full stop.

Last fall, Richmond City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to ban using mobile devices while driving. With a signature from Northam, HB 874 would make the same policy statewide law.

Senate Bill 932 proposed adding school zones to the list of areas where holding a phone while driving is prohibited, which is more limited than HB 874’s proposal. SB 932 failed to advance from a House subcommittee on Monday. 

Richmond Police Chief Will Smith said during a press conference in January that his department supports HB 874 and that anyone with children shouldn’t be surprised by the proposal.

“One of the very first things that we all talk about with our kids is, ‘make sure that you leave your phone out of your hand and don’t text, don’t call until you get to your destination,’” Smith said. “Yet we, as an adult society, tend not to obey our own advice.”

Written by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

A Ban On Conversion Therapy Has Now Passed Both Houses of the General Assembly

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Virginia’s as close as it’s ever been to banning conversion therapy for minors. And it seems likely we’ll get there before the end of the current General Assembly session.

On January 24, Virginia Senator Scott Surovell’s bill banning conversion therapy for minors passed the Senate. And on Monday, February 3, Delegate Patrick Hope’s similar bill passed the House of Delegates. These two advances put Virginia closer to passing a full ban on conversion therapy than it’s ever been. And it’s only taken the General Assembly’s transfer to Democratic control to make it happen.

In previous years, when Republicans controlled both houses of the state legislature, bills banning conversion therapy were repeatedly struck down, often never making it to a floor vote in the House Of Delegates. Advocates for the ban have instead had to work through other means.

They’ve been successful to an extent — the Virginia Board of Psychology and multiple state agencies within the Department of Health Professions have released guidance stating that conversion therapy is a violation of standard practice. Additionally, both Richmond and Virginia Beach City Councils have passed resolutions asking the General Assembly to enact a ban on conversion therapy.

While the bills must still go through the reconciliation process, in which each House passes the other’s bill and the bills are combined into one that can be sent to the governor for signing, the bills passed their biggest hurdle just by getting the initial votes needed to pass each house of the General Assembly. And Adam Trimmer, Virginia ambassador for anti-conversion therapy group Born Perfect, was grateful to see that happen.

“When I think about my experience, I get pretty angry,” Trimmer told WTVR, referring to his own experience undergoing conversion therapy. “I had years of my life taken away from me, and I’m excited that doesn’t have to happen with youth anymore.”

Top Photo By Varmin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia

Navy Hill: From Thriving Black Community to Debated Redevelopment

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Richmond’s Navy Hill neighborhood was demolished to make way for interstates. Can a hotly debated city redevelopment plan make it a community once again?

Before it was the name of a downtown development plan, Navy Hill was the neighborhood Faithe Norrell called home. 

“I just remember it as a really warm community, where everyone wanted to know your accomplishments,” said Norrell, a retired educator who worked with Richmond Public Schools for 28 years. “A very nurturing community.”

Situated north of Broad Street between Third and 13th streets, Navy Hill got its name after plans were made to erect a memorial in the area for those who fought in the War of 1812, which was primarily a naval war. At first, Navy Hill was largely populated by German immigrants, but by the turn of the 20th century, it was one of Richmond’s most prominent black neighborhoods, along with nearby Jackson Ward and Carver. 

Norrell remembers Navy Hill as a neighborhood with a strong sense of community and equality. She recalls going for walks every morning with her “auntie” and stopping by to see friends. 

“There were professional people living there and people that were housekeepers, like my sisters… it was a financially diverse group of people, but everybody was treated equally,” Norrell continued. “You were as respectful to a custodian as you were to the doctor. You were raised to do that.” 

Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, an actor and tap dancer famous for dancing alongside Shirley Temple in the 1930s, called Navy Hill home. Navy Hill was also home to other notable residents, including Maggie Lena Walker, the first black woman to charter a bank and serve as bank president in the United States. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service.

An interstate runs through it

Many of those who owned businesses in Jackson Ward would return home to Navy Hill at night. In fact, Navy Hill was significant in that many leaders of Richmond’s black community made their homes in the neighborhood. Maggie Walker, the first black woman to charter a bank in the U.S., lived in Navy Hill before she relocated to Jackson Ward. In the era of Jim Crow, Walker helped to foster entrepreneurship in Richmond’s black community. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, famous for tap dancing alongside Shirley Temple in four 1930s films, had a home in Navy Hill. A Bojangles statue perches at a busy intersection in nearby Jackson Ward, where he is credited with putting up the funds to install a stoplight.

Norrell’s grandfather, Albert V. Norrell, was a longtime resident of Navy Hill. His Navy Hill home was located at 1015 N. Seventh St., where her aunts also lived. 

Originally born enslaved, Albert V. Norrell taught in Richmond for 66 years, including at Navy Hill School, which for many years was the only school in Richmond with black faculty. A school in Richmond’s Northside was renamed Albert V. Norrell School. 

“One of his direct descendants taught in Richmond Public Schools until I retired in 2017,” Faithe Norrell said. “For 133 years, he had a direct descendant teaching or administrating in Richmond … we say it was our family business.” 

Though Faithe Norrell left Navy Hill in 1951, her connections to the neighborhood were strong throughout the 1950s and 1960s. She would visit with her aunts, who babysat her. 

“I just remembered the joy of being there,” Faithe Norrell said. “My family actually owned about four houses on that street, so we would just go from house to house.” 

A walk through Navy Hill today reveals a different neighborhood than the one Norrell remembers. In the remaining part of Navy Hill where homes, churches, and an elementary school once stood, Reynolds Community College and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Medical Center campuses now dominate the landscape. The Richmond Coliseum — which was closed in 2018 — and the historic Blues Armory stand unused. 1015 N. Seventh St. has been replaced with a small parking lot. 

“Individual citizens must be inconvenienced for the good of the community.” 

Construction of Interstates 64 and 95 destroyed Navy Hill in the 1950s and 1960s. An article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch from Aug. 2, 1955, details how the Richmond-Petersburg Turnpike — now a portion of I-95 — would help people outside of Richmond make it into the city faster, and those living in the city would benefit from reduced traffic. But the story also noted that those living in the path of the road would be displaced.

“Unfortunately, the demolition of scores of dwellings and business places will create difficult problems for some of the persons involved,” the article read. “This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, when individual citizens must be inconvenienced for the good of the community.” 

Another RT-D article later that month reported that 726 buildings, 526 of which were homes, were to be torn down to make way for the interstate. 

Then on Oct. 29 of the same year, a RT-D report noted that about 1,000 families in the Navy Hill area would be displaced by the construction of the interstate. 

Navy Hill School was demolished in the 1960s. 

“Because of gradual disappearance of residences in the section, what with the highway construction, there appears to be no other reason for the erection of another school,” an article appearing in the Sept. 14, 1965, edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The next week, another story in the RT-D noted that Navy Hill School would be demolished “to make way for an interchange of Interstate Rt. 64.” 

In 1966, Norrell’s family was displaced from Navy Hill. She said her family was so rooted in the community that many of them died within a year or two after being forced to move to another part of the city.

“You can’t kill a whole segment of people’s culture,” she said. “I’m sure when you’re planning things you can find a different route or a different way to build without having to destroy a neighborhood.” 

The Richmond Coliseum opened in 1971 and is capable of holding 13,500 people. It has been defunct since the end of 2018. With the Navy Hill Redevelopment Plan, the Coliseum would be replaced by a new arena. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service.

Development on the horizon

In November 2018, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney proposed a $1.5 billion project to redevelop the Navy Hill neighborhood. A new hotel, a GRTC transit center, and a $325 million, 17,500-seat arena to replace the Coliseum are all part of the Navy Hill Development Project. According to the Navy Hill website, no taxes will be raised to fund the project. Private investors will pay for the development.

The city will borrow money to pay for an arena to replace the Coliseum, and tax increment financing, called a TIF, will be used to pay back the loans. The city has created an 80-block TIF district where incoming tax revenue would be frozen at current levels and any additional tax revenue go toward paying back the arena loan. 

Jim Nolan, press secretary to Stoney, said in a statement to Capital News Service that the Navy Hill Development Project will “rejuvenate” the downtown neighborhood while also bringing in a projected $1 billion in surplus revenue that will go toward funding schools, housing, and infrastructure.

“We believe the project will greatly benefit the city because it will create thousands of jobs, build hundreds of units of affordable housing and a new transit center, include a goal of $300 million in minority business participation, and produce a new publicly-owned arena to replace the 1970s era Richmond Coliseum, once a public asset, now a public liability,” Nolan stated. 

Plans to redevelop Navy Hill have been controversial. Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder wrote on Facebook last month: “when I now read of the ‘rehabilitation of Navy Hill,’ I ask how can you rehabilitate that which has been destroyed?” 

Justin Griffin, an attorney in Richmond with a background in accounting and economics, said he started the website called NoColiseum.com to bring attention to problems he sees with the proposed development.

“It’s pretty obvious from reading these financial projections — they’re just absurd and overstated,” Griffin said. 

“If we were having an honest conversation … I think we would have a vast majority say, ‘No, you can’t afford that right now, we should put our focus and our money into schools and roads and the other city services that need to be caught up on here in Richmond.’”

Now defunct, the Blues Armory once housed the Richmond Light Infantry Blues. With the Navy Hill Development Project, the Blues Armory will house a market and a live music venue. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service.

At least two members of the Richmond City Council — Kim Gray, 2nd District, and Reva Trammell, 8th District — have voiced clear opposition to the project. Councilmember Stephanie Lynch, who won a special election in November to replace Parker Agelasto in the 5th District, said previously that she doesn’t support the project in its current form.

Griffin said the new arena and the Navy Hill Development Project are technically two separate projects, but are inextricably linked. 

“They will not consider anything without an arena … it’s the arena which taxpayers are going to pay for, that is going to drive people and dollars into the private developments,” Griffin said. “The people are going to own the thing that is most likely a liability.”

Griffin said that projects like this do not typically work, citing the Kansas City Power and Light District in Kansas City, Missouri. 

“If you actually look into the Power and Light District, it might appear successful,” Griffin said, noting that people do visit the district. “But from a standpoint that it actually makes a profit for the city and has benefited the people of Kansas City, it has not.”

City financial advisors Davenport and Company state that TIFs have been used across Virginia, including for development of Short Pump Town Center in Henrico County and Stone Bridge in Chesterfield County, a new development in the former Cloverleaf Mall. They say the funding approach has been used several thousand times, which “underscores the relative success of this structure.”

As part of the arrangement with the city, NH District Corp. developers said the project will include 480 affordable housing units, with projected rents ranging from $1,001 for a studio apartment to $1,717 for a two-bedroom apartment in 2023. 

Stoney has called the project “the largest economic empowerment project in our history.” 

Albert V. Norrell lived at 1015 N 7th St. His granddaughter, Faithe Norrell, spent time at the house when she was being babysat by her aunts. Today, a parking lot exists where the house once was. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service.

Meanwhile, Norrell said she would like to see Navy Hill become a neighborhood again. She also said she’d like to see any revenue that comes from a redeveloped Navy Hill be earmarked to improve public schools.

“So many people are being displaced in Jackson Ward because of gentrification … it’d be very rewarding for me to be able to see people move back into Navy Hill and make it a community again, because that’s what it was — a community of friends and neighbors.”

Written by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Interstate 95 runs through what was once Navy Hill. Construction of I-95 displaced many families living in Navy Hill. The destruction of Navy Hill is generally attributed to the construction of I-95. Photo by Jimmy O’Keefe, Capital News Service.

Democrat Majority Could Bring Monumental Change to Confederate Symbols

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Under the Dillon Rule, all decisions made by Virginia localities must be authorized by the General Assembly. Thus far, the GA has not allowed Richmond and other VA cities to remove Confederate monuments. But a new Democratic majority may change all that in 2020.

Virginia has 110 Confederate monuments, many of which are housed in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. Among the most notable are the five towering monuments of Confederate leaders lining Monument Avenue. Others live in neighborhoods across the city from Church Hill to Bellevue.

The city is home to significant Civil War buildings, including the American Civil War Museum and White House of the Confederacy. Street names such as Confederate Avenue inhabit the Northside, while Jefferson Davis Highway, named for the president of the Confederacy, runs along the city and throughout the state. Schools such as John B. Cary Elementary — named after a Confederate soldier who later served as his district’s superintendent — and George Mason Elementary — named after a slave-owning Founding Father — still exist, even though concern for renaming the schools has been articulated. 

In recent years, residents have been pushing for the Monument Avenue monuments to come down. But the statues, which represent the dark and violent history of slavery for some Virginians and their families, stand tall, staring down the median of a prominent and busy avenue. This is in part because the power to remove the monuments has been denied to localities under the Dillon Rule, which allows the state to limit the powers of local governments. However, a new Democratic majority in Virginia’s state legislature may open the door to more local government control — and perhaps the removal of the monuments.

The Dillon Rule is derived from the 1868 written decision by Judge John Dillon of Iowa. Dillon identified local governments as political subdivisions of the state government. According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, 39 states apply the Dillon Rule to some capacity. Thirty-one apply it to all localities, while eight use the rule for only certain municipalities. The Virginia Supreme Court adopted the Dillon Rule in 1896.

James Ewell Brown (J. E. B.) Stuart was commander of the Cavalry Corps of Lee’s army during the Civil War. Photo by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service

Because Virginia law states that localities cannot remove war monuments after they have been established, the Dillon Rule has prevented localities such as Richmond and Charlottesville from passing measures to remove their Confederate monuments.

When the General Assembly resumes session in January, a Democratic majority would make it easier for legislators to make a new law stating that local governments have the power to remove Confederate monuments, or a law that bans them outright. John Aughenbaugh, assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, said a new law is a way he could see localities gain the power to make their own decisions about the monuments.

“I don’t think many members of the General Assembly want to get blamed for upsetting those who still like the monuments,” Aughenbaugh said. “But they’ll be willing to go ahead and give the local governments the authority to make that decision on their own.”

Jim Nolan, press secretary for Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney, said that increasing local authority has been a legislative priority for the mayor and will remain one heading into the 2020 General Assembly session. He said the mayor believes the General Assembly should grant authority to allow localities to determine the future of Confederate monuments. 

“Cities should have the right to choose if they want to contextualize or permanently remove monuments,” Nolan said.

In recent years, the Richmond City Council voted against two resolutions brought by Councilman Michael Jones requesting that state lawmakers give the city authority on what to do with the monuments. The resolutions would have put pressure on lawmakers to give the city authority. However, the General Assembly is not the only avenue for localities to gain the power to remove their monuments. Aughenbaugh said he predicts a locality will sue for the right to remove their monuments and the Virginia Supreme Court will be the deciding body. 

Jefferson Davis’ is the only monument that the Monument Avenue Commission recommended be torn down completely. Davis was the president of the Confederacy, and his monument is the most explicit in its veneration of the “Lost Cause,” the idea that the Confederate cause was just, heroic and ethical. Photo by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service.

One city has already brought such a suit. Earlier this year, Norfolk filed a lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Virginia, arguing that requiring the city to keep a Confederate monument was contrary to their freedom of speech. The suit has not been decided yet.

More than 1,800 Confederate symbols stand in 22 states as of February, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Virginia, with 262 Confederate symbols, has more than any other state and has removed 17 of its symbols since the racially-charged Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting in which nine African-Americans were murdered, the organization said.

For decades, Richmond has sought to offset Confederate symbols. In 1996, a sixth statue was added to Monument Avenue depicting Arthur Ashe, an African American tennis champion from Richmond. Earlier this year the Richmond City Council voted to rename the Boulevard to Arthur Ashe Boulevard. J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School was renamed Barack Obama Elementary after a 6-1 vote by the Richmond Public School Board in 2018. In December, Richmond’s Virginia Museum of Fine Arts unveiled, in front of a welcoming crowd, Kehinde Wiley’s statue “Rumors of War,” which depicts a black man in classic equestrian portraiture — a response to the monuments on Monument Avenue.

Virginia has been center stage in the national debate regarding the potential removal of Confederate monuments. In August 2017, the nation was rocked with news of violent clashes in Charlottesville. A “Unite the Right” rally and counter-demonstration were the climax of a months-long battle over the fate of a Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee statue that the Charlottesville City Council voted to remove. At the protest, James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist who traveled from Ohio to the event, drove his car into a crowd, killing counter-protester Heather Heyer and injuring 19 others. The night before the protest, participants gathered in the park with tiki torches and chanted slogans including the Nazi-associated phrase “blood and soil.”

After the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting, Stoney created the Monument Avenue Commission in 2017 in hopes of creating new ways to remember Richmond’s history while addressing the past memorialized on Monument Avenue. Its first meeting took place days before Heyer died counter-protesting in Charlottesville.

“Richmond has a long, complex and conflicted history, and the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue represents a shameful part of our past,” Stoney said in the commission’s 117-page report. “The majority of the public acknowledges Monument Avenue cannot and should not remain exactly as it is. Change is needed and desired.” 

J. Hunter Dabney walks past the Robert E. Lee Monument. Robert E. Lee was a Confederate general. His monument was unveiled in 1890 and was the the first of the monuments to go up. Photo by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service.

After 11 months of public deliberation, the commission suggested solutions, which included:

  •  Moving the monuments to a museum and creating a permanent exhibit, including a deeper historical look into the history of the monuments by creating a mobile app and a film that ensures historical accuracy.
  • Adding permanent signage that reflects the historic, biographical, artistic, and changing meaning over time for each monument.
  • Erecting a monument that pays homage to the resilience of the formerly enslaved.
  • Having local artists create contemporary pieces that bring new meaning to Monument Avenue.
  • Removing the Jefferson Davis statue.

The city cannot implement these suggestions, however, if state law overrides local laws. 

House Bill 2377 was introduced by former Del. David Toscano, D-Charlottesville, in the 2019 General Assembly session. It would have given localities the power to remove or add context to their monuments, but it did not pass the then-Republican majority House.

For those who oppose the monuments, hope is on the rise. Democrats hold both chambers of the General Assembly as well as the governorship after the Nov. 5 elections — a power that has not been seen in over 20 years. Several of the newly elected legislators have spoken out against the monuments, including Democratic Sen.-elect Ghazala Hashmi, Democratic Del.-elect Sally Husdon, and Del. Jay Jones, D-Norfolk. Hudson plans to introduce legislation very similar to Toscano’s bill — Jones said he will co-sponsor the legislation.

In November, Jones tweeted: “The ‘monuments’ are nothing more than vestigial symbols of oppression and hate that need to come down – ESPECIALLY if it is the locality’s choice. We’re moving VA into the 21st century rather than ‘honoring’ the failures of the 19th.”

In 1895 the city purchased a lot at the intersection of Broad Street, Adams Street, and Brook Road for the J.E.B. Stuart monument. The location, at the terminus of Brook Turnpike, was where Stuart was shot and killed. That site became home to a statue of African-American businesswoman Maggie L. Walker in 2017. Photo by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service

This was not the first time Jones touched on this subject. During Black History month in February, following Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal, Jones stood in front of the House of Delegates and made a personal speech. 

Jones talked about “two Virginias,” a white one and a black one, and how they have existed “in parallel along the same arc of history, frequently intersecting, but never running together as one. Two different experiences, born from the same beginning four hundred years ago and still never merged into one shared story.” 

According to Jones, “glorification of the Confederacy via monuments and flags in public spaces,” are examples of how white Virginians “consciously or unconsciously attempted to demonstrate its power over black Virginians.”

In describing the racially-charged differences between Virginians, Jones said, “It seems that we have not come far enough to understand the hurt and pain and the effect on those who grew up in the shadow of separate but not equal. Thirty years on, throughout the duration of my life, we are still struggling mightily with race in our state.”

If localities are given the authority to legislate the fate of their monuments, Nolan said Stoney and his administration will ask the city’s History and Culture Commission to make recommendations and commit to following a process in accordance to solutions provided by the Monument Avenue Commission.

Written by McKenzie Lambert and Susan Shibut, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Monument Avenue has five Confederate monuments and one statue of Richmond-native tennis champion Arthur Ashe on its median. Photo by Susan Shibut, Capital News Service.

Councilman’s ‘No Car November’ Challenge Informs Safer Streets Legislation

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Richmond’s First District City Councilman, Andreas Addison, spent all of November commuting throughout the city by foot and bus. What he learned has fueled a slate of new, pedestrian-friendly ordinances he wants City Council to pass.

If there’s one thing 1st District Councilman Andreas Addison noticed during his one month without a car, it’s that crosswalks can be a “conflict zone” for drivers trying to turn right on red and pedestrians trying to cross.

What he described is echoed by others, and the councilman said such encounters informed his latest set of proposed regulations.

“It was really kind of a reassuring observational challenge to see what needs to really be done to make our streets safer,” Addison said.

For all of November, he made his average seven-mile commute around City Hall, the Fan, and the Museum District without his car — barring three trips, according to his blog, to Ashland, to run errands and to prepare for Thanksgiving. 

He would often stop at nearby coffee shops for work and meetings, and he rode the GRTC Pulse, a 7.6-mile circuitous route traveling a wide swath of Richmond and parts of Henrico County, whenever possible.

“I’m fortunate enough to be able to work remotely, so I can work from pretty much anywhere that I have Wi-Fi access, which is helpful,” Addison said.

Photo by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service

He introduced the Streets for All omnibus package in November, in the midst of his carless month. Some key ideas in Addison’s five proposed resolutions and five ordinances included:

  • Banning right turns at red lights on city streets
  • Allowing bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs
  • At least $1 million for the city’s Vision Zero traffic safety program
  • Reduced speed limits on Patterson Avenue and Libbie Avenue, from 35 mph to 25 mph
  • $60 fines for parking in bike lanes

On Monday, December 9, City Council adopted three of Addison’s resolutions: 

  • RES 2019-R065: To improve the city’s pedestrian infrastructure by giving pedestrians a head start at crosswalks with stoplights, creating sidewalks and bike lanes at new developments, installing pedestrian safety signs and considering ride-share loading zones along commercial routes.
  • RES 2019-R066: For the collection and analysis of certain data to be used to support the Vision Zero traffic safety plan, including continued installation of pedestrian crossing signals at high volume city intersections, expanding and funding the Safe Route to School program into all of the city’s public schools, and working with the Richmond School Board to incorporate Vision Zero principles into school transportation policies.
  • RES 2019-R067: To secure increased funding for Vision Zero
    • The impact statement from the Safe and Healthy Streets Commission attached to this resolution recommends approximately $3 million in funding to pay for creating two Richmond Police Department traffic enforcement units, as well as hiring eight senior construction inspectors at the Department of Public Works to monitor and enforce work-in-street permits, six parking officers to improve neighborhood safety, and five DPW technicians to maintain traffic safety assets.

Now, Addison is hoping his colleagues approve two resolutions that were continued to Jan. 27. One would create zones where right turns on red are banned, and allow bicyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and red lights as stop signs. The other would confirm council’s support for goals in alignment with Vision Zero, such as reducing the use of vehicles as a primary transportation mode by 50 percent within 12 years of the adoption.

“One of the biggest observations I had was that most drivers don’t treat crosswalks as a place for pedestrians to be safe in,” Addison said. “That creates a lot of conflict for pedestrians when that is their time and their place to cross.”

Addison said illegal parking near intersections further impedes visibility for motorists, causing some to drive into crosswalks to look before turning.

“For me, that’s been a big thing … that I felt myself being victim to a lot,” Addison said. “Seeing that I was not treated as someone who should be walking here, even though it’s by crosswalk.”

Addison used the Pulse stops during his commute to reach meetings downtown.

“I found it really convenient being able to use Pulse for that,” he said. “However, I’m also lucky that I have access to Pulse, because that’s not how all the bus lines work. In Southside, it would be very difficult for me to do that.”

Photo by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service

The councilman said in a tweet that he missed more than one bus while trying to cross the street.

“For being touted as #RVA multi-modal transportation hub, crossing the street as a pedestrian to get to the Pulse stop at Main Street Station is near impossible,” Addison said in another tweet. “I watched as the bus drove by while I stood in the rain for three minutes trying to cross the street.”

RVA Rapid Transit Director Ross Catrow said in an email that one of the best ways to see positive change in transportation policy is to get elected leaders out of their vehicles and onto buses, bikes, and sidewalks.

“It’s great to see Councilmember Addison commit to a car-free November,” Catrow said, “and a lot of the things he experienced and tweeted about were issues that face Richmond’s bus riders every day.”

Social media challenges aren’t usually effective in raising awareness toward pedestrian safety, Catrow said, but Addison’s participation in the #NoCarNovember challenge “could have a larger impact,” since he is one of nine people in the city who can introduce new legislation.

More funding for GRTC and newer bike lanes are among things Catrow said he wants Addison and other elected officials to work toward, as well as laws that would prevent closing sidewalks and bike lanes without providing an additional path during the closure.

Addison said the needle moves slowly when it comes to solving the challenges that make Richmond’s streets unsafe, but that it starts with getting everyone involved in a conversation.

“I wanted to get away from the one-off, where the 1st District is advocating for what they want — high-visibility crosswalks and new traffic lights or whatever — versus Southside, who just needs sidewalks,” Addison said. “And so for me, it’s kind of elevating the conversation around not just what you and I need individually, but what we need as a city to truly get that done.”

Written by Andrew Ringle, Capital News Service. Top Photo by Andrew Ringle.

Six Candidates For City Council Duke It Out In 5th District Community Forum

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Richmond Mayorathon’s Focus On The 5th forum was a game-show style event featuring half a dozen candidates competing for the 5th District’s seat on Richmond’s City Council.

Six candidates running to replace 5th District Councilman Parker Agelasto attended a special forum at the Randolph Community Center on Grayland Ave. this past Thursday. Each Candidate got a chance to voice their platform directly to 5th District residents. 

The event, called “A Focus on the 5th,” was put together by Richmond Mayorathon, an organization made up of over 17 smaller community organizations. They planned the event to work like a game show — each candidate had only 90 seconds to answer a question, and they all had a handful of “challenge flags” which they could spend to answer questions not directed towards them. 

Topics for the questions included Transportation, Public Safety, the Environment, and the notorious Coliseum Redevelopment Plan. Attendees of the forum were also encouraged to write their own questions on a notecard for candidates to answer. 

“I think we need to give every opportunity for people to hear what we’re talking about…” said Candidate Nicholas Da Silva. “They put on a very community-centered forum here tonight, so I thought it was valuable to come.” 

Of the eight candidates running to replace Agelasto this November, only six attended the event. They were Nicholas Da Silva, Stephanie Lynch, Jer’Mykeal McCoy, Robin Mines, Chuck Richardson and Thad Williamson. Absent were Mamie Taylor and Graham Sturm, the latter of whom announced his withdrawal from the race shortly after this event.

One of the most heated topics of the forum included the North of Broad Development Proposal, also called the Coliseum Plan. The proposal plans to rebuild the Richmond Coliseum, along with a redevelopment of a large portion of downtown. The plan is set to cost $1.5 billion, and was the only topic which had a question directed to every candidate in the room. Only Thad Williams supported the proposal. 

“We have 30 thousand adults of working age living in poverty,” said Williams. “”To have several thousand new jobs downtown… would be potentially life-changing.”

However, most of the other candidates strongly opposed the proposal, and criticized its lack of community involvement.

“From the beginning it has been pushed through every level of input or government design,” said Da Silva.

The forum ended after nine rounds of questions. In addition to publicly voicing their views at the forum, each of the candidates also answered many of the questions on the Richmond Mayorathon website. 

The special election to decide the next 5th District Councilmember is being held on November 5, after current Councilman Parker Agelasto was forced to resign after moving out of the 5th District.

Photos: Richmond Mayorathon, via Flickr