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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

GRTC Connects: Route 2 – Northside to Forest Hill

Wyatt Gordon | January 2, 2020

Topics: Brookland Park Boulevard, Brookland Park Historic District, Cafe Nostra, forest hill, Forest Hill Avenue, Forest Hill Park, gentrification, gentrification in Richmond, GRTC, GRTC Connects, Melissa Vaughn, Northside, Richmond and Manchester Railway Company, RVA Dirt, Westover Plantation, William Byrd III

The ninth installment in 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.

Northside:

If one were to make a Northside bingo game, the word that would be at the very center of the board — the freebie — would be “potential.” Whether you live, work, or just hang out at one of the area’s charming breweries, cafés, or restaurants, the waves of change lapping at each and every neighborhood are almost palpable. 

Like the East End, “Northside” represents an amalgamation of many distinct neighborhoods, ranging from Highland Park to Bellevue and from Ginter Park to Gilpin. However, the one stretch of Northside that best encapsulates the area’s economic, demographic, and cultural change is Brookland Park Boulevard.

As streetcars stretched ever further north from Richmond’s downtown, developers plotted out leafy neighborhoods, often called “parks,” along each trolley line. The new residents enjoyed their easy connectivity to the downtown via the streetcars, but still wanted neighborhood establishments to cater to their needs. Thus in each development a commercial strip was set aside: MacArthur Avenue in Bellevue, Six Points in Highland Park, and Brookland Park Boulevard at the heart of it all.

Sandwiched between the wealthy neighborhoods of Battery Park, Ginter Park Terrace, Barton Heights, and the eponymous Brookland Park, this boulevard became one of Richmond’s premier commercial corridors, featuring banks, boutiques, bakeries, and even a theater. The former affluence is visible in the stately bungalows and American Foursquare architecture that permeates the surrounding neighborhoods. 

The spread at Shrimps. Photo by Wyatt Gordon.

The White flight and suburbanization of the post-WWII era drained the area of its prosperity as residents abandoned property and fled the city en masse, seeking to raise their children in the “right” (read: mostly White) communities. Disinvestment and the prioritization of the personal automobile further damaged the corridor through razed storefronts and the addition of hideous parking lots.

The establishment of the Brookland Park Historic District in 2003 and the corresponding historic rehabilitation tax credits provided the first chance at rejuvenating the corridor for the Black residents and business owners working to spruce up the boulevard. Over the past five years, those seeds of growth have begun to blossom into a coterie of small businesses along the corridor, including Shrimps, Boogaloos, Michaela’s Quality Bake Shop, and Nomad Deli.

The more recent openings of a yoga studio, dog groomer, and coffee shop demonstrate that it’s not just longtime residents who see the potential of Brookland Park Boulevard. The claim that this will become a second Carytown both excites and worries nearby residents, depending on where they rank on the socio-economic ladder.

The proliferation of brightly painted front doors, state school flags hanging from porches, and fenced-in backyards serve as canaries in the coal mine of displacement. In 2012 only three percent of Barton Heights residents were White. Since then sixty-eight percent of home-buyers have been White, however. In another generation, much of Northside may become prohibitively expensive to those who pioneered the area’s restoration.

Although gentrification has made this beloved Northside corridor safer (minus the wild speeding and lack of pedestrian amenities), without changes to liberalize the surrounding neighborhoods’ zoning from single-family use only, many existing residents will be priced out of their homes. Ending the ban on multi-family zoning across Richmond, legalizing accessory dwelling units, and introducing ten-year averages of property values for taxing could all weaken the tide of displacement and foster a more inclusive Northside. If Richmond does nothing, then most current residents will be pushed into the counties before they ever get to enjoy Brookland Park Boulevard’s full revitalization. 

Melissa Vaughn. Photo by Wyatt Gordon.

The Ride:

On Saturday mornings Brookland Park Boulevard can feel like a ghost town. Even the confusingly named Café Nostra — which often feels like a reluctant outpost of Black Hand Coffee Co. rather than a true coffee house — was empty save the singular employee behind the counter. With a smile and a joke about the lack of customers, we had our coffees in hand and were ready to catch the Greater Richmond Transit Company’s Route 2 southward.

Joining me for this month’s ride was long time Northsider, WRIR Volunteer Coordinator, and co-founder of RVA Dirt, Melissa “Busy Bee” Vaughn.  Although we wanted the 2A or 2B that pass by Forest Hill Park, we were unwilling to wait another fifteen minutes and hopped on the 2C. 

The 2C to the McGuire VA Hospital runs once every thirty minutes. The 2A and 2B that deliver passengers to Stony Point and Chippenham, respectively, only run once per hour. The overlap of these two until Westover Hills Boulevard creates a 30-minute frequency up to that point as well. This staggering of route variations allows the trunk of the line to have the desired fifteen-minute intervals, which studies show is the minimum frequency required at which people will choose to live car-free.

As we trundled through Barton Heights and Gilpin, the bus gradually picked up passengers until, by Broad Street, it was standing room only. The electronic display that shows the name of the next stop intermittently flashed the number for the housing crisis line hotline — an ingenious advertisement for anyone homeless who may have bought a bus ticket just to get out of the cold for a while. 

A zippy half-hour later we alighted the bus along Midlothian Turnpike (thanks to our choice of the 2C) and began to walk down Dundee to the heart of Forest Hill, where its eponymously named avenue intersects with Semmes Avenue. After passing houses ranging from quirky to charming and downright spooky, we came to the stop in front of WPA’s Southside bakery.

Here the bench and trash can amenities GRTC installed are an inexplicable 50-plus feet from the actual stop. The inconvenience to riders waiting on the bus is clear. The reason the stop got moved so far away from its amenities will likely remain a mystery in perpetuity.

Forest Hill:

Anyone could guess the history of Forest Hill from 1728 to 1889. It should come as no surprise that a large swath of land just beyond city limits was owned by a series of entitled White men who took advantage of slave labor to build palatial abodes upon the grounds of their country residence.

It is only after William Byrd III squandered his family’s immense inherited wealth on gambling, bad investments and the boondoggle that is the mansion at Westover Plantation does the story of Forest Hill’s history get good. In an attempt to avoid bankruptcy, Byrd sold his family’s 179,000 acres of Virginia land and hundreds of enslaved people, but was still unable to fully pay off his creditors. Despondent, he committed suicide, leaving his wife and fifteen children to fend for themselves.

His vast estate on the southern bank of the James eventually landed in the lap of the Richmond and Manchester Railway Company. Seeing a chance to expand, in 1890 the company extended their Semmes Avenue line all the way down Forest Hill Avenue to 41st Street. From Manchester out to today’s Forest Hill Park, frame bungalows and homes built in the Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, and Mission Revival styles sprouted up along the route. 

To incentivize ridership on their new route, the railway company employed an unorthodox tactic: they constructed Richmond’s first ever amusement park. Long before the dawn of King’s Dominion, River City residents would hop a streetcar south to ride the roller coaster and enjoy a day of merriment at Forest Hill Park. Beyond the big-ticket rollercoaster, the attractions on offer eventually grew to include a fun house, a carousel, a swimming area, a skating rink, a dance hall, a penny arcade, a golf course, a bath house, outdoor “moving pictures,” and even a boating lake in the former quarry on the premises.

The Great Depression heralded the end of Richmond’s first rollercoaster, and the railway company ceded the land to the City to become a public park. Between 1935 and 1943, craftsmen and stone masons sent by Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration tore down the wooden amusement structures, paved the park’s paths, and even planted an azalea garden. The work completed in that era laid the foundation for what has become Southside’s largest and most beloved greenspace.

Over the years Forest Hill has garnered a reputation as a placid, verdant corner of the city filled with large lots, quiet streets, and tidy single-family homes. The attractiveness of both its reputation and its location, however, look set to add a denser, more lively flair to the area.

Forest Hill. Photo via Wikimedia

Later this year, developers Birck Turnbull and Charles Bice will open a new mixed-use project at the intersection of Forest Hill Avenue and Westover Hills Boulevard, at the junction of GRTC’s Route 2 and Route 20. The new development will bring 38 apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space to what is currently a vacant lot. Anchoring the project are some popular Richmond brands: Charm School Social Club, a Boho Yoga Studio, Stella’s Grocery, The Veil Brewing Co, and Blanchard’s second café.

After decades of disinvestment and depopulation, it’s clear that Richmond is on the rise. The economic pressure of a growing local economy and job market mean Northside and Forest Hill are in flux. By channeling development onto two of the area’s busiest corridors, Forest Hill is charting the way forward for Richmond to accommodate our city’s growing population.

As a city, we face a choice as to what our future development looks like. We can either do nothing and thus allow the displacement of many of our longtime friends and neighbors, or we can change our zoning to be more inclusive and repurpose underutilized lots to build new housing along transit routes. Nothing can stop the gentrification of our city (and we shouldn’t even want to), but we as Richmonders get to choose our path forward: displacement or density.

Top Photo courtesy Architecture Richmond. Historic photos via The Valentine archives.

Meet The Savviest, Shadiest Pundits In The City: RVA Dirt

Wyatt Gordon | February 1, 2019

Topics: Francesca Leigh-Davis, Jessee Perry, Melissa Vaughn, Municipal Mania, Richmond city council, RVA Dirt, WRIR

The combination of a failed run for school board, a casual post on the Nextdoor app, and an NAACP meeting may seem like the add up to an unlikely origin story for Richmond’s most talked about new radio show. However, taking the mundane machinations of city government and injecting them with personality and civic spirit could practically be the mission statement of RVA Dirt’s Municipal Mania.

Two years ago, Melissa Vaughn — the volunteer coordinator for WRIR 97.3 — posted on the Nextdoor app hoping to start a community conversation about the 2016 elections in the River City. Northside resident and, at that time, School Board hopeful Jessee Perry immediately responded. By the time they were engaged in a mutually passionate diatribe against political signs on abandoned houses, the two ladies knew they were onto something; if the lack of municipal engagement in Richmond could get them both so worked up, then there must be other Richmonders passionate about improving local politics.

That’s when Francesca Leigh-Davis, floral designer and Twitter neophyte, found Melissa and Jessee. Fran launched her Twitter presence shortly after the ascension of the Black Lives Matter movement into popular parlance, and began weighing in on Richmond’s long legacy of racial injustice. When the three finally met in person at an NAACP meeting on local government, the chemistry was irresistible, and RVA Dirt was born.

The ladies of RVA Dirt don’t see themselves as revolutionaries. “Most of the stuff we say on our show, Municipal Mania, is already said behind closed doors. It just never makes it to the public,” explains Perry.

“Our goal is to vocalize non-mainstream opinions to make space for other people to take new and interesting positions on local issues, because there’s not enough of that in Richmond right now,” elaborates Vaughn.

A lot of the “dirt” they dish out would be easily available on the website of any other American capital city. In fact, the members of RVA Dirt frequently find themselves inundated with private messages from people — even sometimes city officials themselves — in search of official documents and plans. Richmondgov.com’s many broken links are a perennial source of frustration; all three cackle as they recount the numerous pages on the city’s website which still have former Mayor Dwight Jones’ name on them.

“I would’ve expected elected officials to be a lot more scared to meet with us, because a misstep while talking with us could theoretically hurt them,” explains Vaughn. “But the attacks we get are actually from members of the community, mostly white men.”

The solidarity of RVA Dirt’s triumvirate serves as a model for other community members looking to overcome Richmond’s deepest social cleavage: race. “As a black woman I find my voice has to be magnified to be heard,” explains Leigh-Davis. “I need the allyship of Jessee and Melissa, because I’m only allowed to be angry when it’s funny. Many things come off differently from her as a white woman than from me as a black woman.”

The three ladies’ diverse perspectives and backgrounds not only allow them to cover the city’s shenanigans from a wide range of angles, they have arguably made RVA Dirt into the epicenter of local political discussion. Since beginning to live-tweet city council sessions, they’ve noticed attendance and community participation climbing. Even those unable to or uninterested in going to the council meeting in person are able to follow all the drama of the week’s session via the group’s lively twitter thread. This week, they covered drier policy changes like the new scooter ordinance, the long-awaited approval of the Brook Road bike lane, and the expansion of VCU Police’s jurisdiction with as much gusto as the controversial comments by Councilwoman Trammel referencing “Hispanic-speaking” people and disparaging renters.

“We enjoy local politics — because it’s emotional for a lot of people, and they get turned off when we say something negative about people they’re supporting, but we just wanna talk about the facts,” explains Perry. Despite the criticism, “there’s a constant reaffirmation that this is needed in the city,” added Vaughn. “People are so starved for this information and don’t have time to pursue it themselves.”

Their dedication to encouraging civic activism and service as a new watchdog of local government earned them a spot last year on Style Weekly’s Top 40 Under 40 list of youthful Richmonders shaking up the city. In 2017, Melissa wrote on Jessee’s calendar under her own (38th) birthday: “just two years to make 40 under 40,” but when what had been nothing more than a long-running inside joke became reality, all three were taken by surprise.

The ladies of RVA Dirt hope to build off this momentum in 2019 and convert their brand into full-time paid positions. With Vaughn’s skills in administrative work and audio production, Perry’s expertise in messaging and communications, and Leigh-Davis’s experience in event planning, they hope to figure out a way to get paid to gather and share the critical civic information they currently do for free. In the meantime, those who would like to support their work are encouraged to contribute to the RVA Dirt Patreon, where different levels of support earn sponsors varying levels of access, ranging from blooper reels to extended original content and in-person, snack-fueled meet and greets.

For now the ladies of RVA Dirt are content with the positive impact their work is having on the city and the interesting opportunities it affords them.  “I love former councilman Chuck Richardson, and to have his number in my phone and him leaving me voicemails is just cool,” gushes Leigh-Davis. Perry’s favorite moment, when she coined Councilman Chris Hilbert’s nickname, “Chillbert,” after suggesting a “Netflix and Chillbert” campaign event, perfectly represents RVA Dirt’s goal: “We like to use humor to keep people engaged.”

You can learn more about your government through facts, interviews, analymaisis, and plenty of snark with the RVA Dirt girls on WRIR 97.3 every Wednesday from 11AM-12PM or check out past episodes on their SoundCloud.  You can also get tickets to join Francesca, Jessee & Melissa at WRIR’s 14th Anniversary Party on February 1st where they will be the emcees.

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