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New GRTC Chief Outlines Five Strategies to Grow Public Transportation

VCU CNS | October 14, 2019

Topics: bus routes, city planning, Greater RVA Transit Vision Plan, GRTC, GRTC Pulse, Julie Timm, Navy Hill Redevelopment project, public transit, vcu

Increasing overall reliability, creating partnerships, and making our public transit system truly regional are among the foremost goals of new GRTC CEO Julie Timm.

The new CEO of Greater Richmond Transit Co. has a vision of how to build on its recent breakthrough success of increased ridership, and it involves boosting regional commitment.

CEO Julie Timm, a Hampton Roads native, returned to Virginia after serving three years as the chief development officer for Nashville Metropolitan Transit Authority and Regional Transportation Authority of Middle Tennessee. On September 23, she turned her focus toward continuing the growth of public transportation in the Richmond area. GRTC is increasing its numbers of passengers, dodging a national trend of declining ridership.

From 2014 to 2017 bus ridership nationally dropped by more than half a billion riders, according to a 2017 report by the National Transit Database. But GRTC reported over 16 percent growth in the past fiscal year, according to its ridership trends report.

Timm wants the regional network to become more dynamic and target cluttered streets.

“We definitely have traffic issues here. But I think this is the right time to be addressing them,” she said. “If you wait until you have gridlocked traffic to try and address where the cars go, the cars are already here, and you can’t address it anymore.”

In an interview with Capital News Service, Timm detailed five key components that she thinks will help the region build its public transportation and offset vehicle congestion: partnerships, developing a true regional transportation system, investment from local governments, improving service reliability, and transit-centered development.

*Julie Timm, new CEO of GRTC. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS*

Forming Partnerships

Timm acknowledged Richmond’s recent double-digit population growth and its impact on traffic. She believes it is vital that GRTC connects with local and state government, educational institutions, public services, and private businesses to ensure that as the city grows, so does the accessibility to transportation services.

“If we don’t address how to move in an integrated way of all the different modes and how they share our limited infrastructure we can find ourselves gridlocked,” Timm said. “When you have the city or the state, or you have agencies who provide benefits to people for transportation, it reduces their barriers to be able to work, live, and play.”

For instance, with the partnership between GRTC and Virginia Commonwealth University, VCU students, faculty, and staff can ride the bus for free through a three-year deal. The university sealed the negotiation in June for $4.6 million, paid to GRTC in three annual, increasing payments.

According to VCU, over 95 percent of students and employees expressed support for continuing the GRTC service. The VCU community accounts for approximately 12 percent of GRTC’s total ridership, averaging 87,400 trips a month, the university said.

Partnerships like this help with vehicle congestion and also provide economic relief to citizens, Timm said.

“To be able to provide those benefits to people, it supports their ability to maintain their housing and their jobs and their education,” she said. “I just can’t speak highly enough about how important it is for people to come on board and provide those benefits to the community in partnership with GRTC.”

*VCU/VUU Pulse Station. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS*

Regional Transportation System

GRTC serves the city of Richmond, and Henrico and Chesterfield counties. The organization is “handcuffed” because it is not an independent authority, Timm said. It operates under policies set by its Board of Directors, which consists of six members who serve one-year terms but are eligible for annual reappointment. Three are appointed by Richmond City Council; three are appointed by the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors.

The organization’s internal structure restrains its expansion, Timm said, and those issues have to be addressed in order to become a true regional transportation authority — or to partner with one.

“How we do that and how we move forward is something that needs to be established by the board and by our partners and by the state legislature in combination,” she said.

Timm said the groundwork must begin soon. “I’m hoping that we can have an answer over the next year in the development of a regional system that we can all embrace, we can all buy into and that everyone’s voice can be heard in it,” she said.

Investment from Local Government

GRTC generates revenue from bus fares and through advertising. The agency also receives money from federal, state, and local government entities such as the Federal Transit Administration, Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield. In some cases, money that comes from these sources can only be used for certain purposes.

But it is local funding from the districts covered by GRTC that is so vital for the company’s growth.

“We can’t function without that local funding because the money that we receive from state and federal sources requires a local match,” she said.

Timm pointed to Henrico as an example of how impactful local funding can be. Henrico recently budgeted its largest transit investment in 25 years, resulting in a 400 percent increase in the county’s ridership across all routes, according to GRTC’s 2018 annual report.

*Bus Stop for GRTC Buses. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS*

Reliability of the Service

A big challenge Timm believes GRTC faces is the perception of public transportation. The organization is working to change those views.

“People, sometimes, when they think about public transit, they think about the buses from 50 years ago,” she said. “They think about the school buses they rode that used a lot of diesel.”

Providing a reliable service that offers accessibility, safety, and consistency is the key Timm believes will help change the culture of public transportation.

“To have that level of frequency, that level of reliability, you will see people respond to it and people will start using it,” she said.

Rider Marina Williams said she celebrates the efficiency of the Pulse line, which runs every 10 minutes in the day over a 7.6-mile loop through Richmond and parts of Henrico. Williams said the other lines aren’t as convenient.

“I wish they had more buses on some routes,” Williams said. “It is very inconvenient to rely on buses every 30 minutes.”

Church Hill resident Marcel Cheatham agreed that the Pulse is a good service and that other lines are plagued by too many delays. “It takes me two hours to get to work and two hours to get back; the buses don’t stop frequently enough,” he said. “They need more buses.”

Timm agreed that many routes need to run more frequently and for longer hours.

“Of course, we can only provide as much service as we have funding for and for which we can show there is good demand to serve our current and future riders,” she said.

She said they are looking for opportunities to increase service to help passengers access a variety of resources.

*Inside Pulse. Photo by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS*

Timely Planning of City Development

As the city population grows, so do its businesses, services, housing and infrastructure. Timm urges local leaders and developers to include and prioritize transportation access in their planning. Timm hopes development will target high density corridors where GRTC already has infrastructure in place or can connect to it.

“As we look to grow, and as we look to provide that access, think about mobility first, think about it as part of an integral part of the process. Not later,” she said.

Timm appreciated that Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney factored in public transportation in the Navy Hill redevelopment project with the proposed GRTC Transit Center. The project is still under review by Richmond City Council, but it includes a 65,000-square-foot connection hub for bus passengers that would replace the current temporary transfer center on 9th Street. GRTC was already seeking a large space to build a “multi-modal transportation hub” that could help streamline and coordinate scheduling and provide a secure place for waiting passengers.

“I think it is amazing and exciting that it is part of the conversation,” Timm said. “Too many times you see development and infrastructure and cities grow without having the conversation for how to embrace transit.”

GRTC has concluded the first stage of the Greater RVA Transit Vision Plan and is now under consultant review before the second stage starts, according to spokesperson Carrie Rose Pace. Part of the review is identifying incremental goals that can be implemented in the next five to six years over current service areas in Chesterfield, Henrico, and Richmond, Rose Pace said.

Timm’s watch is just beginning, but she is optimistic that GRTC can provide the public transportation Richmond wants and needs.

“It’s important to show that when you provide good, frequent, reliable transit … people will use it,” she said. “Slowingly reducing the barriers of how public transportation is perceived will help the growth of ridership.”

Written by Mario Sequeira Quesada, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Pulse arriving at Willow Lawn Station, by Mario Sequeira Quesada, via CNS

Controlled By History: ICA’s Great Force Examines Race In The United States

Jonah Schuhart | October 10, 2019

Topics: Amber Esseiva, Charlotte Lagarde, Colonial White, Great Force, Institute For Contemporary Art, James Baldwin, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Pope.L, race relations, Racial Imaginary Institute, Shani Peters, vcu, Xaviera Simmons

Great Force, a group exhibition at VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art, focuses on the way our complex history continues to affect race relations in 21st century America.

VCU’s Institute for Contemporary Art is displaying a brand new exhibition that discusses racial perspectives and relations in modern America. Great Force opened to the public on Friday, October 4, and features over a dozen different films, sculptures, paintings, and other artworks from over two dozen different artists.

The exhibition tackles themes such as personal and historical bias, social inequality and, most of all, race. These themes are informed by 20th century African American novelist James Baldwin’s idea of history as a “great force” that “we carry… with us” and are “unconsciously controlled by.” They also draw from the early Civil Rights Movement’s idea of a “color line” that separates races in America both socially and economically.

“[Baldwin] is so major in the way that he allowed the world, through beautiful language and style, to see the complexities that are the United States,” said Great Force curator Amber Esseiva.

*Pope.L’s* “*The Great White Way, 22 Miles, 5 Years, 1 Street (Segment #1: December 29, 2001)” Via Mitchell-Innes and Nash*

Great Force takes up three full galleries at the ICA. All of the galleries contain a mixture of different art forms and styles. The top floor features pieces such as “17,195 Sunrises” by Shani Peters, a portrait made of overlayed colors and photos from events like the 1992 LA Riots and the Million Man March. It is named after the amount of sunrises that occurred between the first public use of the phrase “Black Power” and the first public use of the phrase “Black Lives Matter.”

The second floor also has more interactive pieces, such as Claudia Rankine’s “Racial Imaginary Institute,” a small library tucked into the back corner of the gallery. It features a wide collection of books written by a wide range of authors, from Civil Rights leaders to other artists in the exhibition.

Another interactive piece in this gallery is “Colonial White” by Charlotte Lagarde. Each picture in this collection was taken by a different Richmond resident. All of them show the photographer’s hand holding a paint swatch named “Colonial White” in front of important Richmond landmarks that they believe speak about whiteness in America.

*Charlotte Lagarde, “Colonial White,” 2017-ongoing, digital print. (Photo: S. Leo Chiang) Via VCU News*

The bottom floor gallery is the largest, and it shows off the largest pieces in this exhibition. One such piece, “Let Freedom Ring” by Paul Stephen Benjamin, is a structure of old, stacked TVs. It takes up the entire back section of the gallery, and the sound of African-American singer Marian Anderson, from her 1939 performance in front of the Lincoln Memorial, can be heard blaring from its speakers across the whole gallery. Anderson was forced to sing in front of the Lincoln Memorial when the Daughters Of The American Revolution refused to allow her to sing at DC’s Constitution Hall because she was black.

A similar piece called “Capture,” by Xaviera Simmons, has three screens that display 60 different one-minute videos. Some of these videos are full animations, others are simply text displaying the names of slave owners and the number of slaves they owned.

“There’s a few different exercises in the film,” said Simmons. “A lot to do with labor. A lot to do with putting actual names to people.”

Great Force will remain on display through January 5 at VCU’s Institute For Contemporary Art, located at 601 W. Broad St. In addition to the artwork, the ICA will be presenting a series of events related to Great Force during the coming weeks, including an opera by Richard Kenny entitled Touch Of Elegance, which was specifically commissioned by the ICA. For the full list of Great Force events, visit the ICA’s website.

Top Image: Paul Stephen Benjamin, “Let Freedom Ring.” Installation view of Great Force at ICA at VCU. Photo by David Hale. Courtesy of the artist.

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Women’s Equality

Arianna Coghill | October 3, 2019

Topics: constitutional amendments, Equal Rights Amendment, General Assembly, IScream4Equality, US Constitution, va ratify era, vcu

Last week, VA Ratify ERA brought their #IScream4Equality tour to VCU’s campus — in the form of delicious ice cream.

VA Ratify ERA’s team of volunteers handed out ice cream to Virginia Commonwealth University students on Wednesday. But this act was about more than just beating the heat — it was about beating the prolonged injustice that has resulted with Virginia’s failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.

At the heart of it the action on the VCU campus was VA Ratify ERA volunteer Donna L. Granski, who has a take-no-prisoners attitude and a plucky stick-to-itiveness that’s infectious.74-year-old Granski is 5’2″ of pure, unbridled passion. She approached students with a welcoming grin from ear to ear, asking them if they’ve registered to vote.

“We want women in the Constitution!” Granski chanted.

Granski, a member of the League of Women Voters, has been fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) for 42 years. She’s been a part of numerous marches, protests, and vigils, and has even been spat on, while championing for equal rights. She has two granddaughters, a daughter, and a daughter-in-law that are always at the forefront of her mind as she works toward her goal of equal rights for women — one that would be significantly furthered if the ERA were to become part of the United States Constitution.

At VCU, Helen Ready’s 1971 single “I Am Woman” played over a loudspeaker as Granski sang along at the top of her lungs.

“I am strong.”

“I am invincible.”

“I am woman.”

According to Granski, this song was hailed as an anthem when the ERA was making its way through Congress in the seventies.

The voting rights organization is taking their lilac van on an 11-week #IScream4Equality tour across Virginia. Their goal is to spread awareness of Virginia’s failure to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and encourage residents to register in time for the upcoming November election.

The Equal Rights Amendment is a proposed Constitutional amendment that would guarantee equal rights for men and women. In order for it to become an official amendment to the Constitution, at least three fourths of the states must ratify it.

The amendment was first proposed in December 1923. It took nearly 50 years after that initial introduction for it to be approved by Congress, which finally took place in 1972. After that, it needed to be ratified by 38 of the 50 states individually, as specified in the Constitution. However, it only received 35 ratifications before a deadline of June 30, 1982, set by a joint resolution of Congress. Therefore, it was never officially added to the Constitution.

However, Equal Rights Amendment advocates have pursued a “three-state strategy” over the past two decades, spurred by the ratification in 1992 of the Twenty-Seventh Amendment to the Constitution, which had been pending at the state level since 1789 — over 200 years. The question of whether Congress has the power to set a deadline for ratification has never been settled, as the deadline is not in the Constitution.

Virginia reconsidered ratification in the 2014 General Assembly session, in which the amendment was passed by the state Senate but failed in the House Of Delegates. Since then, Nevada ratified the amendment in 2017 and Illinois ratified it in 2018. Therefore, only one state remains to reach the required 38 states and force legal consideration of whether or not the ERA can legally be added to the Constitution.

The amendment was reintroduced in Virginia’s General Assembly this year, but failed once again to pass in the House Of Delegates — this time by a single vote. With all 140 seats in Virginia’s General Assembly up for election this November, attention from pro-ERA groups has focused heavily on the Commonwealth.

If ratified, the amendment would end the legal distinction between men and women in terms of employment, divorce, and property ownership.

“It’s been such a long time coming,” said volunteer Kathy Cade. “It’s not just about women’s rights. Women’s rights are all of our rights.”

Additional reporting by Marilyn Drew Necci. Top Photo via VA Ratify ERA/Facebook

Legislators Continue to Address High Eviction Rates in Virginia

VCU CNS | October 2, 2019

Topics: eviction crisis, eviction rates, Jackson Ward, Jennifer McClellan, Matthew Desmond, racist housing policies, redlining, RVA Eviction Lab, Six Points Innovation Center, vcu, VCU Common Book, Virginia commonwealth university, Virginia Poverty Law Center

One in ten Richmonders who rent faced eviction notices in 2016. We all know this is a problem, and Virginia’s legislators are searching for ways to fix it.

Scholars, lawyers and lawmakers are still grappling with high eviction rates in Virginia and how to enact solutions. A panel Thursday at Virginia Commonwealth University addressed the Eviction Lab at Princeton University’s findings that five cities in Virginia ranked in the top 10 for national eviction rates, including Richmond, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk and Chesapeake.

The local eviction rates ranged from 11.4 percent in Richmond to 7.9 percent in Chesapeake. The rate represents the number of evictions per 100 rental homes in an area.

About 150 people attended the event, which included three panelists: Six Points Innovation Center director Jackie Washington, Virginia Poverty Law Center attorney Phil Storey, and Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond.

From left: Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, Jackie Washington, Phil Storey, and moderator Megan Pauly at “Eviction Beyond the Numbers: Community Impacts and Policy Landscape of Housing Instability” (Photo by VCU CNS)

McClellan highlighted seven bills that passed the recent General Assembly session and were signed into law. The legislation included bills that made written leases required, reduced the number of eviction cases a landlord could file, created the opportunity for tenants to submit unpaid rent and fees prior to eviction, and allowed tenants to recover their possessions.

“This is not really a partisan issue,” McClellan said. “Where there is disagreement, it’s really sort of the landlords versus tenants, and I don’t mean to say that all landlords are bad or all landlords are predatory.” Of the seven housing laws signed by the governor last session, four were introduced by Democrats and three by Republicans.

McClellan also said in a phone interview after the event that more bills to address eviction, including a bill to address the habitability of a rental property, are in the drafting and planning stages now.

Though legislators passed a flurry of bills last session to reform landlord and tenant laws, Storey said “way too many people are on the knife’s edge because of the way the system is designed.”

Much of the discussion at the panel held at VCU’s W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts centered around how tenants fall behind on rent payments.

“Two-thirds of the people who call our hotline are behind on rent, with the average caller being around two and a half months back,” Storey said.

Storey also said that on average their clients are paying 58 percent of their monthly gross income to rent, with some paying as much as 70 percent.

Panelists also discussed the link between discriminatory housing policies and the eviction rate today, which according to the RVA Eviction Lab increases as the share of the African American population in a neighborhood increases. Washington highlighted historic redlining in Richmond’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, where banks would avoid making real estate investments based on neighborhood demographics, as “an intentionally racist housing policy.”

“If we don’t connect the dots from historic housing policy, then we just might miss it,” Washington said. “But those who experience it will never miss it. Folks of color will always know that it’s racist.”

Storey agreed, saying that “things that seem sort of natural and immutable are often not, and are based in some pretty ugly root causes.”

*Dr. Benjamin Teresa, co-director of the RVA Eviction Lab, introduced the panel “Eviction Beyond the Numbers: Community Impacts and Policy Landscape of Housing Instability” (Photo by VCU CNS)*

The panel was sponsored by VCU’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs, VCU University College, and Virginia’s home for Public Media. The panelists were introduced by Benjamin Teresa and Kathryn Howell, co-directors of the RVA Eviction Lab at VCU, which opened this year and provides eviction data and research.

“One of the goals of the lab is to do research that is relevant to Richmond and other cities in Virginia, as well as outside of the state,” Teresa said.

The panel was connected to this year’s VCU Common Book, a program that selects a new book each year for incoming freshmen. The initiative is intended to foster awareness and engagement around important issues.

Incoming freshmen received a copy of Evicted, a book by Matthew Desmond, the founder of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Freshman-level courses incorporate the book into coursework and discussion. Desmond is scheduled to visit VCU on Oct. 16.

Candidates from many Virginia House and Senate districts will have a chance to weigh in on evictions at a forum on Oct. 10. Candidates from 11 House districts and from six Senate districts have been invited to participate, though the list of confirmed attendees has not been released yet.

The event will be moderated by VPM and held at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

Written by Jason Boleman, Capital News Service. Top Photo: Attendees marked where they live on eviction maps of Richmond neighborhoods in the lobby of the W.E. Singleton Center for the Performing Arts. Photo via VCU CNS

Gone But Not Forgotten: A Sisterhood That Lives Forever

Christopher Brown | September 26, 2019

Topics: art, black art, black poets, ICA, Institute for Contemporary art VCU, maya angelou, nikki giovanni, poetry, The Bluest Eye, the pieces i am, toni morrison, vcu

After Toni Morrison’s passing, her close friend and poet Nikki Giovanni reflected on their story at the Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU.

Picture this: the year is 1970, and author Toni Morrison just published her first book, The Bluest Eye. The book is gaining nationwide attention from critics and readers alike. One reader in particular is fascinated by the novel, especially due to the deep level of storytelling — particularly impressive in Morrison’s first published book. That reader wanted to meet Morrison in person and get to know her on a personal level… so she “stalked” her.

As it happens, that reader was renowned poet Nikki Giovanni. Both she and Morrison happened to live in New York City at the time. Giovanni found out where Morrison’s office was, walked from her apartment on 92nd Street to the office on 52nd Street location, stood outside, and waited for Morrison.

“One thing about me, I can wait for forever,” Giovanni said of her story waiting for Morrison. The two eventually met that day, and thus began a sisterhood that transcends life itself.

Even now, in 2019, Giovanni still talks fondly of that day. Despite age and medical issues affecting her mind, her memories of her friend remain unfazed.

On Wednesday, September 11th, VCU’s Institute of Contemporary Art hosted a screening of the documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. It was at this event where Giovanni told the story of her first meeting with Morrison, who passed away in August at the age of 88. The post-screening discussion with Giovanni focused on her lifelong friendship with Morrison, and the way they inspired each other during difficult times.

“When [my mother] died, I called Toni… I’m sad and I needed some advice,” Giovanni recalled. “[I asked her] ‘What should I do?’ and she said, ‘Write.’ I wrote a poem for Toni.”

A mixture of happiness and sadness filled Giovanni’s voice when she shared memories of herself and Morrison. The audience was made up of strangers to their world, but nonetheless felt the waves of emotions as they filled the room. One memory took Giovanni back to 2012, when she, Morrison, and Maya Angelou, among others, were hosted by Virginia Tech as they paid tribute to the author after she lost her son two years prior.

“What I wanted was that we give back something to Toni,” Giovanni said of the event. “What we wanted was, ‘Could you come and read your favorite Toni Morrison?’”

The event was magical but bittersweet for the sisterhood of writers, as Angelou would pass two years later — and eventually the honoree, Toni Morrison, passed on as well.

“What she said that struck us all,” Giovanni said, “was, ‘If nothing else ever happens for me in my public life, this does it for me.’ It brought tears to my eyes.”

Giovanni’s love for her “sister” is a prime example of the effect that Toni Morrison had on her friends, family, and fans, both in her writing and her presence. In The Pieces I Am, activists and writers like Sonia Sanchez and Angela Davis got emotional when discussing the magnitude of Morrison’s legacy.

Now in her late 70s, Giovanni has survived two battles with cancer and a stroke, and yet, she is one of the few writers of this powerful black sisterhood that’s still alive. Moments like this event at the ICA, or the 2012 tribute at Virginia Tech, are rare treats, giving the public a glimpse of how special and important this sisterhood was and is — to Giovanni, to Morrison, and to many others.

ICA cinema hosts films every second Wednesday at 7 p.m and is free and open to the public.

Top Photo by Christopher Brown

The VCU Free Store: Exactly What It Sounds Like

Jonah Schuhart | September 23, 2019

Topics: college, free store, goodwill, housing, Shopping, Student, student discounts, thrift, thrifting, vcu, vcu free store

The VCU Free Store isn’t large, but it still contains plenty of useful items, from books to kitchen appliances. And — if you’re a VCU student — it’s all free.

There may not be such a thing as a free lunch, but right now there could be such a thing as a free microwave that makes cheap lunches cheaper for VCU students. This is thanks to the new VCU Free Store — a sort of mini-Goodwill nestled in the back of the VCU Rambikes building on 201 North Belvidere Street.

The store contains everything from old vinyl records, school supplies, kitchen appliances, and (hopefully) unopened hygiene products donated from VCU students and local businesses. These items are available to any registered VCU student, faculty, or staff member, according to the VCU Office of Sustainability Website. There are also limitations on how many items customers can take from the store.

“The items in the Free Store are organized by a tier, and those tiers are based on the value of the items,” said VCU Director of Sustainability Erin Stanforth.

*Photo by Brian McNeill, via VCU* *University Public Affairs*

The tiers are numbered one through four. Items valued below $25 belong in tiers one and two, and customers are allowed to take multiple of these items each week. On the other hand, people can only have one tier three item per week, and are limited to a strict single tier four (any item valued above $50) item per semester.

The VCU Free Store tracks the amount of items each person takes by having customers fill out a form with their name and student or employee number (V-Number) before taking an item from the store. They also use this tracking system to keep tabs on what items people take and donate. Special store credit can be given to people who donate particular useful items.

“Let’s say you brought me 15 textbooks and two mini-fridges, and you wanted a computer and a television,” said Stanforth. “It’s possible that we could give you credit towards higher-value items than you would normally have.”

Any person interested in donating an item just has to bring it to the Free Store and sign a donation waiver. The Free Store accepts donations from Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm.

Stanforth came up with the idea for the Free Store in 2018. She and others noticed the amount of appliances students threw out in the West Grace Resident Halls while moving away.

“It took us about a year to really understand where all that stuff was collected, how we could mobilize… to move that stuff, and how much stuff we were really talking about,” said Stanforth.

After that, Stanforth and the Office of Sustainability — with help from VCU Residential Life and Housing and Goodwill — began collecting items from the West Grace resident Halls. For the first ten days of May 2019, students could donate items by dropping them in special bins, a system inspired by Goodwill’s own donation bins.

With those items, along with many more donated by Dominion Energy, Stanforth and the Office of Sustainability gathered more than enough items to open the VCU Free Store. The Free Store officially opened on August 19, and is now open twice a week, on Wednesdays from 10am to 5pm and Fridays from 10am to 1pm.

With the VCU Free Store, VCU’s Office Of Sustainability not only helps make VCU’s campus more sustainable by giving students’ unwanted leftovers somewhere to go besides the trash, it also helps newly-arriving students tackle the brave new world of student housing. Easing the college adjustment period while reducing and re-using products — what could be better?

Top Photo by Brian McNeill, via VCU University Public Affairs