How will the next mayor shape VCU?

As student excitement for the upcoming presidential election mounts, some of Richmond’s mayoral candidates fear their race might be lost in the hype.

Robert Grey, Lawrence Williams, Dwight Jones and Bill Pantele, the four candidates running to replace Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, are proposing a wide range of initiatives and platforms that will indelibly impact the scope of VCU’s future.

University Expansion

“Some people joke that (university President Eugene P.) Trani was the actual mayor of the city of Richmond,” Williams said. “It’s like a schoolyard fight. If you look at the end of the day, it’s pretty obvious Trani won.”

With both Trani and Wilder’s positions expiring at relatively the same time, the future of VCU’s expansion and reshaping that has marked the past decade remains uncertain.

“I think VCU has been a very important catalyst in transforming downtown Richmond and going west,” Grey said. “It has taken some areas that were blighted and made them safe and clean and more attractive.”

While all the candidates seem to agree that VCU has been a vital force in renovating and rebuilding parts of Richmond, the candidates also suggest VCU should work closer with Richmond on future projects.

“VCU and city of Richmond have fortunes that overlap,” Pantele said during a mayoral forum in September. “We need a partnership agreement.”

Candidates Williams and Jones both suggested satellite campuses should be considered for future VCU expansion.

“As we go forward it might be necessary for VCU to look into some regional (satellite) campuses, rather than all the campus being downtown,” Jones said. “I’m not sure that the city can absorb the expansion.”

Williams stressed the need for the city to diversify future development and prevent Richmond from becoming a college town.

“They (VCU) need to think in terms of slowing down the bricks and mortar, and focusing more on the academic quality of their product,” Williams said. “And they can do that now. The house is built. Now it’s time to raise the family.”

Safety

With the fear of crime increasing across campus after the shooting of two VCU students, safety is becoming a top priority for everyone in the area.

The security extends to the agendas of the candidates, who all propose a different approach. Jones and Pantele emphasize the need for a greater police force in the city.

“A lot of the students at the university said to me that they think there needs to be a greater police presence . and perhaps a greater relationship between the Richmond police and the VCU police force,” Jones said. “I think that’s a good idea, something that I’d be willing to work on with them.”

Pantele stresses the need for not only a larger police force, but one with a greater street-level presence.

“Not just more officers in patrol cars, but officers on bicycles, segways and walking amongst our citizens,” Pantele stated on his Web site.

Grey said the solution lies not just in increasing the police force, but monitoring its activity to ensure it is responsive to citizen requests.

“I think that’s how you make safer neighborhoods,” Grey said. “When people request us to be there, I think we’ve got to figure out not only how to be there but let people know we’re there.”

Grey said citizens can accomplish this through the city Web site, monitoring requests and the police response.

As an architect with a background in urban and community planning, Williams said the answer to crime lies in reshaping neighborhoods around campus, citing the surrounding areas of Carver and Randolph.

“As mayor I will focus not just on the police protection issue but also creating environments that are safe,” Williams said.

Williams wants to redesign the neighborhoods in terms of defensible-space, an urban-planning term that refers to the mitigation of crime and delinquency through environmental design.

Williams said he wanted “areas that are open, with no dark corners.”