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Making Art That Heals

Carley Welch | August 19, 2020

Topics: art, jade, Jay Bordeaux, local artists, magenta, richmond va artists, richmond va galleries, Virginia State University

Jay Bordeaux’s latest series is bigger than the color that bears its name. “MAGENTA.” represents spiritual harmony, spiritual balance, and universal harmony, and it’s here to help us find clarity. 

Jay Bordeaux, a local Richmond artist and creator of Bordeaux Artwork, doesn’t have just one medium. He draws, he paints, and he creates digital artwork. His work can be found on anything from canvasses and t-shirts to murals brightening the streets of Richmond. 

Bordeaux became interested in art as a young child because his mother was a preschool teacher, but didn’t consider himself a “professional” artist until he attended Virginia State University. Bordeaux originally went to VSU in hopes of pursuing a degree in business. This didn’t work out for him, as he became terribly bored with the subject. It also didn’t help that this field of study required him to dress in a suit every Wednesday, and as he owned only one suit at the time, this got old quickly. 

Image by Jay Bordeaux

Not knowing what to do or where to go from there, unhappy with his projected career path, Bordeaux called his mother. She urged him to change his major. 

“I called my mom, the same person who got me started [in art],” Bordeaux said. “She said, ‘What about being an art major?’ I had thought nothing about it, as much as [I was] sketching. I would have my sketchbook and do my sketches, but then I’d just go about my way.” 

After changing majors, Bordeaux became inspired by Black comic novelist and illustrator John Jennings when he visited VSU showcasing his work. Seeing Jennings and his work sparked a change in Bordeaux, which ignited his passion to become a professional artist. 

“I saw his comic book work, and it changed my entire life,” Bordeaux said. “It’s such an amazing feeling, being in a Black school, to see a Black artist come by, with this amazing show that had been around the world. It was a great experience, and it lit my fire.” 

With a new passion and extensive skill set, ranging from painting to sculpting, pastels, and more, Bordeaux continued to create. He began showing his art in galleries and shows around Richmond in 2015. 

Bordeaux has two “art therapy” series. One is titled Jade ‘16, and the other MAGENTA. The inspiration for both came from love and loss in family relationships. 

Image by Jay Bordeaux

Jade ’16, which was showcased in a solo gallery exhibit in Richmond, is named after a jade stone that belonged to his late grandmother, and includes a variety of vibrant portraits of people and animals — all with different vibes, but with the central theme of spirituality and healing. 

“The jade stone has a healing property,” Bordeaux said. “It gives you good fortune.” 

While facing the loss of his grandmother, Bordeaux also received news that his father was diagnosed with leukemia. A year after his father was diagnosed, Bordeaux said he became his father’s caregiver. This was when he drew inspiration for his latest series, MAGENTA. Turning the pain into inspiration, he turned out this project in just three weeks.

Spending time looking after his father in waiting rooms and hospitals from 5:30am to 9pm most days, the neon vibe of MAGENTA. didn’t happen intentionally. 

“I had to find something to do, but I only had highlighters in my bag — a couple pink, maybe one blue, one orange, all the way on the verge of being dried out,” Bordeaux said. “I just started drawing these portraits. I printed about 53 while I was initially taking care of my dad — going to check on him, then going back to the lobby to draw.” 

Initially, the project revolved around the color pink, because that was the only viable highlighter he had. Bordeaux switched to magenta because one of his friends, fellow Richmond artist Bobby Bacardi, had just released a project revolving around the color pink. He didn’t want to copy his friend’s work. 

The color change ended up working in his favor. 

“The color magenta represents spiritual harmony, spiritual balance, and universal harmony,” Bordeaux said. “It was exactly what I was trying to gain at that time — clarity — and this was the color that truly represented that. I dove deeper than I did with Jade because magenta became a utopia, a certain Nirvana for me to achieve. I created my work feeling like I was getting closer to achieving my peace.” 

Image by Jay Bordeaux

The portraits making up MAGENTA. are digital, and done on an iPhone through the app Procreate. Each portrait features someone who inspires Bordeaux. These inspirations range from Michael Jordan and the late Kobe Bryant to Bordeaux’s loved ones, as well as artists who inspire him. 

“When you see MAGENTA. 200 years down the line — [like] in school books, when we review artwork like we review Picasso’s color period — you’ll see the people I grew up with,” Bordeaux said. “The people that I looked up to. The people I love. I’m taking them with me. There’s a lot of people in Virginia, but there are [also] a lot that are my friends.” 

After two years working on MAGENTA., Bordeaux is still adding to the project. He hasn’t yet showcased his work due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, he said, he hopes that come October he’ll be able to show it in a half-virtual and half-in-person manner. Though the show will be smaller than his Jade ’16 show, which brought in more than 500 people, Bordeaux hopes MAGENTA. will generate energy. He describes the project as “getting to the magnum opus of your life.” 

The pandemic has prevented Bordeaux showcasing his latest project, but it has brought him new opportunities, like the chance to illustrate a children’s book by a friend. The book is about what a post-COVID world will look like, and hopes to help children adjust to a world full of unpredictability. It revolves around a child maneuvering through everyday life after a pandemic. 

“I would not have even dreamed of being an illustrator before COVID,” Bordeaux said. “It was unexpected, and so amazing.” 

To keep up with Bordeaux and his latest work, find him on Instagram or check out his full body of art on his website. 

Virginia Colleges React To Coronavirus Pandemic

VCU CNS | March 12, 2020

Topics: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Christopher Newport University, coronavirus, James Madison University, Longwood University, Norfolk State University, Old Dominion University, Pandemic, Radford University, University of Richmond, University Of Virginia, vcu, Virginia colleges, Virginia commonwealth university, Virginia Department of Health, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, William & Mary

Extending spring break, cancelling campus events, and holding classes online are some of the ways colleges in Virginia are attempting to slow the spread of the coronavirus within their student body, faculty, and staff.

Virginia colleges and universities are extending spring break and adapting online classes amid the new coronavirus — along with more than 100 universities nationwide and still counting — after the flu-like illness was declared a world pandemic on Wednesday.

There are nine presumptive positive COVID-19 cases in Virginia, according to the Virginia Department of Health. Most of them are in Northern Virginia, with one confirmed case in Central Virginia.

Professors are quickly pivoting to get material online, and some schools, like Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, are offering resources to help teachers adjust. Many students have expressed concern over lack of digital equipment and internet access.

Most universities are cancelling events with more than 100 attendees and have online resources for students to access updated information. Many colleges have canceled in-person classes, but faculty and staff will continue to work on campus. Below is a sample of universities that have changed schedules to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. 

Outbreak response in action: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staff support the COVID-19 response in the CDC’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Photo from the Centers for Disease Control, used with permission.

James Madison University will extend their spring break until March 23 and will teach online classes until April 5. JMU President Jonathan Alger said in a release that students will be updated on the remainder of the semester on March 27.

Longwood University will be closed until March 18, cancelling in-person classes and events following a presumptive positive diagnosis for a Longwood student on Wednesday. In a release, Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley said faculty would continue to prepare for the possibility of online classes.

Norfolk State University extended spring break until March 23 and will teach classes online until April 6. University residences will reopen March 22.

Old Dominion University will resume classes online on March 23 after an extended spring break. ODU President John Broderick said in a statement posted on Facebook that the school would monitor the situation and reassess on April 6. 

Radford University extended its spring break for an additional week and plans to teach online until April 17, according to the university’s website. The university – as most academic institutions are doing – asked that faculty, staff and students complete voluntary travel declaration forms.

“The information will be shared with local health officials as needed on a case-by-case basis,” Radford President Brian Hemphill said in a release. “For those who traveled, the University may ask individuals to self-monitor or self-isolate for two weeks, depending upon the locations that were visited and the activities that were engaged in.”

University of Richmond extended spring break, cancelling classes from March 16-20, and will hold online classes until at least April 3.

The school’s website states that students with extenuating circumstances, such as international students, can submit a petition to stay in on-campus housing, although access to student services and facilities will be limited.

University of Virginia students will also move to online courses starting on March 19, according to a release from U.Va. President James Ryan posted on Wednesday.

“We will not be holding classes on Grounds for the foreseeable future, quite possibly through the end of the semester,” Ryan said in a release. “We will reassess after April 5 at the earliest and periodically after that date.”

Photo via VCU-CNS

Virginia Commonwealth University announced Wednesday that it will extend its spring break for an additional week. When the semester resumes on March 23, classes will be taught remotely for the “foreseeable future.” Classrooms are expected to use digital tools such as Blackboard, videoconferencing and online programs. 

The release from VCU President Michael Rao said details regarding on-campus housing, student services and dining plans are forthcoming.

“I also want to take this opportunity to thank you for being mindful and respectful of others during this outbreak, which is not limited to any particular age group, geographic region, nationality, ethnicity or race,” Rao said.

Virginia Tech’s spring break is extended to March 23, with a transition to online courses for the remainder of the semester. All events with over 100 people are cancelled through at least April 30, though May commencement plans are still in place. 

“Our campus administrators, public health experts, and community leaders have been continuously engaged in monitoring the situation in Blacksburg, across Virginia, and around the world,” a release stated. “In consultation with our partners in the Virginia Department of Health, we are adopting a range of principle-based actions, effective immediately.”

William & Mary will start online classes March 23, after an extended spring break, to continue until at least April 1. University events are cancelled until April 3.

Virginia State University announced Wednesday that it will cancel or modify all scheduled events for the next 30 days. Modifications include pre packaged options in dining halls and livestreams for events, like the Mr. and Miss VSU Pageant and student government activities. Christopher Newport University took a similar approach, by rerouting study abroad plans and limiting serve-served food, according to its website. 

A few colleges remain open at this time: Liberty, Regent, and Hampton universities, and Reynolds Community College.

Transmission electron microscopic image of an isolate from the first U.S. case of COVID-19, formerly known as 2019-nCoV. The spherical viral particles, colorized blue, contain cross-sections through the viral genome, seen as black dots. Photo from the Centers for Disease Control, used with permission.

As of Wednesday, there are 938 confirmed and presumed positive COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bulk of cases are in Washington, California and New York. The infection has caused 29 deaths in the states. Worldwide, more than 118,300 people have the infection, including over 80,900 individuals living in mainland China. The outbreak has killed 4,292, reported the World Health Organization.

For more information about COVID-19 in Virginia, visit www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus.

Written by Hannah Eason, Capital News Service. Top Photo via VCU-CNS

Fighting For Food Justice In A Gentrified Richmond

Cat Modlin-Jackson | April 23, 2019

Topics: community gardens, Duron Chavis, Housing Opportunities Made Equal, Kinfolk Community Empowerment Center, Leonard Githinji, Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, McDonough Community Garden, Randolph Farm, redlining, Richmond Food Justice Alliance, Richmond Food Justice Corridor, urban agriculture, Virginia State University

You’ve seen the community gardens, the small farms springing up in the city, the folks standing out on the side of busy streets sowing the seeds of tomorrow’s harvest. Some of these spaces are emerging in areas where families have to travel several miles before reaching a grocery store. But what’s striking about a lot of these green spaces is not their urban existence; it’s the people taking care of the land.

Across the city, gardens have emerged in communities of color, but the stewards don’t always match the neighborhood demographic. Without representation and community ownership, are these spaces making the food system more equitable? Not according to food justice activists like Duron Chavis, Manager of Community Engagement at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.

Since 2002, Chavis has served as a community advocate in the Richmond metro region. When Chavis graduated from Virginia State University with a degree in mass communications, he had no idea he’d become a champion of regional food justice. He became invested after meeting farmers through starting Happily Natural Day, a festival he founded in 2003 while working at the Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia.

Almost ten years later, in 2012, Chavis started the McDonough Community Garden in Southside. He had just moved to that part of the neighborhood and he was eager to grow. He spent a great deal of time talking to his neighbors and working with the city to transform an underutilized plot of land into a community garden through the city’s Richmond Grows Gardens program. He toiled in the garden after work and on weekends, taking care to engage with folks who walked by. Chavis has since moved from the neighborhood, but seven years later, the McDonough Garden is still a place where folks can grow, congregate, listen to music, and revel in the outdoors.

“It’s everybody’s space,” he says.

As an urban agriculturalist, Chavis’s goal is to realize equitable food systems by way of education, communication, and collaboration.

Food justice, says Chavis, necessitates equity and ownership. It’s not just about building gardens; it’s about empowering communities with the tools to take control of their own food system, which includes helping establish grow-spaces.

“What [food justice] means to me is that communities have ownership of the means of production, distribution, consumption, processing, and waste management,” he explains.

Duron Chavis.

Chavis is a busy man. In addition to coordinating a community storytelling project that will showcase the work of urban agriculturalists, Chavis spent the last weeks of winter reviewing applications for the fourth cohort of the Lewis Ginter Urban Gardener training program, an initiative that teaches aspiring gardeners how to both build relationships and develop green spaces in communities. The group will work with two faith-based organizations and the Richmond Association of Black Social Workers to create an agricultural space on the border of Richmond’s East End and Henrico.

The review process is selective. Only 16 people are chosen from a pool of more than 40 applicants. Chavis strives to create as inclusive a team as possible, which means taking into account applicants’ race, gender, sexuality, religious perspective, ability, income, and education. Given the importance of establishing trust when doing community work, garden program applicants who are from the neighborhood are given priority.

“We try to make sure the cohort has as much difference as possible, so that when people are in the room, they get the experience of having to build community across difference,” says Chavis. “[This] is important because it’s a skill to be able to work with people who don’t have your shared lived experience.”

The Lewis Ginter Urban Gardener training program is designed to probe the systemic disparities that have perpetuated food insecurity in neighborhoods and households across the country.

“My conversation is about racial equity,” says Chavis.

“For the Ginter Urban Gardener program, the first thing we talk about is race and place,” he says. “It’s not just that they don’t have grocery stores, it’s also that they don’t have affordable housing. It’s also that these areas have high levels of police intervention. There are also places with high eviction rates. All of this is about racism and focusing on the urban center.”

McDonough Community Garden.

Injustice rooted in redlining, poverty, and gentrification

Today in Richmond, it’s easy to find cheap or free garden land in areas with lower property values, which tend to be in communities of color. Perhaps that’s why predominately white-run organizations have established farms in the rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods of Church Hill and Manchester.

Food grown in these spaces may or may not be an alternative to the grocery store for residents with lower incomes. But the lack of accessible fresh food from nearby grocery stores is only part of the problem in food-insecure areas. The history of racism and poverty that beleaguers these neighborhoods is as much a part of the picture as the land in the frame.

Chavis says food justice goes beyond building gardens in so-called food deserts, which the USDA defines as areas where fresh and healthful foods are inaccessible. It means having conversations about the history of why and how power has been stripped from communities.

To understand the relationship between urban agriculture, gentrification, and food sovereignty, we have to step back to the 1930s, when redlining effectively made it impossible for Black families to get home loans and amass wealth. As a result, few could afford to purchase, rehabilitate or repair their home, explains Brian Koziol, Director of Research and Policy at Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia. Even after the Fair Housing Act made housing discrimination illegal in 1968, white flight and systemic racism served to perpetuate the wealth gap that exists today between whites and people of color.

Due to the increase in wealth disparities, explains Koziol, “people in poverty aren’t able to maintain property. And without access to credit, there’s no ability to maintain and reinvest in property.”

This was further exacerbated by the years leading up to the housing crisis, when the percentage of subprime loans to African American households was 28 percent higher than those to white households, says Koziol.

In 2009, the wealth gap between white and African American households was $236,000, according to a longitudinal study conducted at the Brandeis University Institute on Assets and Social Policy. Researchers found that years of home ownership were the foremost contributor to a racial wealth gap that had increased by 178% since 1989. Per the study, “Residential segregation by government design has a long legacy in this country and underpins many of the challenges African-American families face in buying homes and increasing equity.”

In Richmond, 86 percent of communities redlined with the label “hazardous” by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation in the 1930s remain low-to-moderate income; 90 percent of these neighborhoods have majority-minority populations, according to researchers at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition.

“Historically, over time, people of color in this country have been a vehicle for wealth extraction, either through labor or paying rent,” Koziol explains. “Systemically, it’s an issue of keeping people in a state of poverty through wealth extraction and resource extraction.”

“In terms of property values, what we’re seeing now is gentrification in a number of neighborhoods that have historically been redlined and disinvested,” he adds. “Those property values are going up so, without really beating around the bush, property values are, by and large, tied to whiteness.”

Chavis says this history is ignored by many white-run non-profits operating in communities of color.

“Right now in Richmond we don’t have food justice,” he says. “We have a lot of representatives of communities that are not from those areas making a lot of money off of increasing access to healthy food… none of them are doing work around racial equity, explicitly or intentionally.”

Food justice goes beyond food

In order for change to be realized, there has to be a shift in narrative, says Art Burton, founder of Kinfolk Community Empowerment Center and the Food Justice Corridor. “Food justice is about opportunities, not problems,” he offers.

Since 2015 Burton has overseen the Food Justice Corridor, a stretch of land that encompasses four public housing communities in the East End and an expanse running northwest between Mechanicsville Turnpike and Creighton Road. The corridor operates in a space that some would label a food desert, but Burton, who’s been farming since childhood, takes issue with that term.

“Maybe we have an issue with people not knowing the importance of eating healthy. Maybe we have an issue with people not knowing how to access healthy foods. But we don’t have a food desert,” said Burton in a TED Talk.

The term ‘food desert’ “implies that nothing can grow there and that it’s a recurring problem, and that’s not what these spaces are,” adds Victoria Lynn, of the Richmond Food Justice Alliance, a partner organization within the Food Justice Corridor. The resources are often there, say Lynn and Burton — sometimes it’s just a matter of making those connections.

That’s what the Food Justice Corridor has set out to do: facilitate access for food in a way that goes beyond putting vegetables in the refrigerator. The idea is to promote a “culture of health” by helping people connect with resources that can alleviate inequities deeply rooted in systemic racism. That includes access to housing, alternatives to youth incarceration, and means for reentry after incarceration.

“This is about ownership,” says Burton. “It’s not about all that’s wrong.”

Urban agriculture, says Burton, is just one mechanism used to facilitate an equitable food system. “It’s a community engagement tool,” he explains.

Burton acknowledges competition for funding in the field of urban agriculture non-profits. Larger, well connected organizations make it difficult for grassroots non-profits like Kinfolk to compete for funding. “The money is running laterally to well funded white organizations,” he explains. That’s why Burton, who has worked as a community organizer for decades, is working to streamline a coalition of Black-run non-profits across the city. “We have to get all of the organizations [to spread] the same message of what we’re doing and why.”

Dr. Leonard Githinji on VSU’s Randolph Farm.

What will it take to realize a food-just Richmond?

Chavis is excited about the opportunities flourishing across the region. He points to Burton and Lynn’s work, as well as that unfolding at Virginia State University, where Dr. Leonard Githinji runs a Sustainable Urban Agriculture Certificate Program on the university’s Randolph Farm.

“Food justice is a situation where everybody should have access to affordable, fresh food wherever they are,” says Githinji in a greenhouse. Under that hot roof, students will learn permaculture fundamentals like aquaculture. They’ll raise chickens and orchards. And, if Githinji has his druthers, they’ll take away skills that they can use to promote food access and security in their communities.

“This is how you build community,” says Chavis. “Give people access to the resources and work with them, support them, and watch them figure it out on their own.”

All photos by Cat Modlin-Jackson. Top Photo: Food growing in a greenhouse on Randolph Farm.

Community Advocates Fight To Keep Amtrak Station Near Virginia State University In Ettrick

Jayla McNeill | March 28, 2019

Topics: Amtrak, Colonial Heights, Ettrick, Federal Rail Administration, rail service, train stations, Virginia State University

A federal proposal to move the Ettrick Amtrak station to Colonial Heights has caused concern from both Congressional representatives and community advocates from Virginia State University.

For over 30 years, Amtrak has served the Petersburg area through the train station located at 3516 South Street in Ettrick. A small community just west of Petersburg, Ettrick is the home of Virginia State University; unsurprisingly, the Amtrak station there sees quite a bit of traffic each year from VSU students commuting to and from the university. But a new federal proposal suggests that the Ettrick station should be closed in order to build a new, larger Amtrak station in Colonial Heights, and this proposal has raised quite a bit of concern among community advocates in the area.

“To move the station out of walking distance for the students who really comprise a high percentage of the annual ridership . . .would be disadvantageous not only to our students, but to Amtrak itself,” said Rev. Delano Douglas, the campus minister at VSU and a leader of the Concerned Citizens of Ettrick, a community advocacy group.

The Amtrak station in Ettrick was built in 1955 and is located at the southeastern end of Chesterfield County. According to data from Amtrak, the station had an annual ridership of over 30,000 in 2017, and collected a revenue of nearly $2 million.

Several years ago, the Federal Railroad administration found that the current station at Ettrick is out of compliance with federal code and is too small for its annual ridership. The agency then proposed building a new, larger Amtrak station to accommodate future growth. In addition, the agency also has future plans to add a high-speed rail system at the station, which would could connect riders to areas such as North Carolina and Washington D.C.

Ettrick train station. Via Railfan Guides US

The Federal Railroad Association explored four sites for the new station — Dinwiddie, Petersburg, Chesterfield, and Colonial Heights. However, the debate has been focused upon two sites: the existing station in Ettrick, and Boulevard in Colonial Heights. If the new station is built in Colonial Heights (or another new location), the Ettrick station will be shut down.

After conducting an extensive 563 page study, the agency suggested that Colonial Heights is the “preferred alternative” for the new station. According to the study, this site — located along Boulevard, the main north-south thoroughfare in Colonial Heights — is best suited to handle ridership growth and is conveniently located along U.S. Route 1 and I-95. If relocated to this site, the station would serve the Tri-Cities of Colonial Heights, Hopewell, and Petersburg.

However, advocacy groups and community leaders in Chesterfield County and at VSU are fighting against the relocation, concerned that the relocation of the station would both deprive the historic village of Ettrick of a valuable source of revenue and negatively impact VSU students who depend on the station for transportation. The advocates would prefer that the government either update the existing Ettrick station or build a new one at the station’s current location.

While the federal study claimed that the Boulevard site is still near VSU, the Concerned Citizens of Ettrick stated that the increased distance between the Colonial Heights location and VSU would be harmful to students.

“There are a number of students who use foot traffic to get from campus to the station and who use the station frequently to get home during breaks and other forms of travel,” said Douglas. The current Ettrick station is located less than a mile from VSU’s campus, while the proposed location in Colonial Heights would be around three miles away.

Speaking to the Prince George Journal, VSU President, Makola Abdullah, Ph.D., said that “roughly 1,000 underclassmen, approximately 20 percent” of VSU students routinely use the Ettrick station for transportation.

According to Douglas, if the government were to move the station to a new location they would be doing so at the expense of students who use the station to get back and forth to their educational institution.

“If there were no other reason to keep [the station] where it is, access to education, I think, should be a prime issue for discussion.”

The proximity of the site in Boulevard to major transportation routes such as I-95 was an important factor in the FRA’s conclusion that Colonial Heights would be the best location for the new station.

Douglas pointed out that, unlike those who are driving to the station, freshman students at VSU are not allowed to have cars on campus, and therefore, it would be costly and inconvenient for them to travel to the Colonial Heights location.

“Persons who are going to get to the station in automobiles are not going to be disadvantaged by the additional mile of transportation that it takes to get to the Ettrick site,” Douglas said. “However, when you have students who are walking to the station, they don’t drive, so they will be disenfranchised. What you do is you add an expense to students who either need to Uber, Lyft, or taxi their way to the station if it’s in Colonial Heights.”

Douglas also stated that keeping the station in Ettrick could also spur economic growth in the area. He said that the updated station might promote increased community involvement,  produce “concession fights” and encourage new businesses to move to the area.

“[It is] an opportunity for people to have interaction with [Ettrick] village if they get off,” said Douglas. “That could potentially create some economic impetus there.”

Building a new station at Ettrick is estimated to be the cheapest plan, projected to cost $9 million. At other sites, the project could cost up to $17 million. In an effort to block relocation, Chesterfield County has already committed to spending the $7 million to $9 million needed to build the new station if the federal government agrees to keep it in Ettrick, according to the Chesterfield Observer.

Douglas said that the Concerned Citizens of Ettrick have received a “tremendous level of support” on this issue. Several governmental officials such as U.S. Congressman Donald McEachin and Senator Tim Kaine have voiced their support for keeping the station at its current location in Ettrick.

In a letter to the FRA, Kaine cited several “factors” that support the redevelopment of the current Ettrick station.

“These include the cost savings of maintaining an existing station and a proven ridership, as well as the higher costs of building new stations and lower levels of committed local funding for other discussed sites,” stated Kaine.

McEachin expressed his opposition to the station’s relocation in multiple letters.

“I have repeatedly, publicly stated my support . . . for the Amtrak station to remain in Ettrick,” stated McEachin. “This Ettrick station serves the campus community of Virginia State University, the service men and women at Fort Lee and the residents of the village of Ettrick with an ever-increasing ridership.”

“I hope the Federal Rail Administration will review and revisit this issue,” stated McEachin, “and join us in helping Ettrick and the surrounding area become the thriving community it can be.”

Ettrick train station, viewed from the platform. By Christopher Ziemnowicz, Own work, Public Domain/via Wikimedia

While the county awaits the final decision of the Federal Rail Administration (FRA), it has submitted grant proposals to update the current station, in order to increase safety and bring it into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The proposal is still under review by the state department of rail and public transportation.

“I think any area involvement in that station is a plus,” said Douglas. “The station has served the village for a number of years, and again, it has been the location that has prompted growth in ridership.”

According to Douglas, the station in Ettrick is “a source of pride” for the Chesterfield Community as well as a vital resource.

“It’s a major gateway or pathway to transportation to other areas,” said Douglas. “Nothing wrong with keeping that located in the village of Ettrick.”

Top photo via Railfan Guides US

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