Richmond owes its poorest areas

Shane Wade
Opinion Editor

Every day, I hear people express their love of the beauty of Richmond, from the local shops of Carytown to the bustling downtown and cobblestone streets of Shockoe Bottom.
But every day, I see the plight and blight of Richmond’s downtrodden, from the typical urban decay every city suffers to the abandoned homes and storefronts of Jackson Ward. Although the City of Richmond and VCU are doing their part, renovating areas, building new condos and apartments and generally re-constructing the core of Richmond, it is the outskirts, the overgrown lots and the urban wastelands of former Richmond that need the most attention.
In their efforts to beautify and improve the city, Richmond has risked whitewashing its history and invoking gentrification. With this year being the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War and the “Year of Freedom,” Mayor Jones and the Richmond City Council need to recognize and bring overdue attention to Richmond’s proverbial darkness, those areas in great need of economic investment.
Richmond is a majority minority city, but it hardly seems like that because the city doesn’t do enough to promote minority businesses. Last month, the Richmond Times Dispatch reported on how, when the city auditor, Umesh Dalal, released a report regarding the office of Minority Business Development, he and his department detailed a number of deficiencies in the program.
The audit found that “Richmond spends all of its money for minority business subcontractors on just 20 percent of the firms registered with the city,” and that only 1 percent of the 1,300 plus minority-owned businesses in Richmond received 49 percent of the city’s patronage over an 18-month period. The audit also found that only 39 percent of participating minority firms are based within the city limits.
While funding spent on minority contracts has increased from $14 million in 2009 to $37 million in 2012, according to Chief Administrative Officer Byron C. Marshall, it’s important for city residents to see where and how the money for those contracts are being distributed. The promotion of minority-owned businesses helps revitalize and heal the reputation of slavery and oppression the city once held.
Reinvestments in the local community, rather than the construction of newer facilities and structures to attract outsiders to Richmond, are needed to secure residents that feel slighted, as well as to help decrease the prevalent homeless population evident within the city.
When it comes to Richmond, particular the VCU area, homelessness is the elephant in the room that no one wants to address. Denial of a problem is no solution to a problem. Displacing homeless people from Monroe Park by renovating it, as the City Council wishes to do, just pushes the responsibility to act back onto the city.
Thankfully, VCU just invested millions of dollars into the ASPIRE service-learning program. Program participants, instead of venturing far out into the city for projects that won’t affect on-campus life, can instead concentrate and react to an issue right here on campus.
One of the goals of a city to engage the citizenry populace and give back to community in a meaningful way that address the affected areas in a holistic manner, so as not to slight any particular populace.
When I talk about reinvesting in the community and engaging the community, I’m not talking about multi-million dollar art museum projects, parking garages, patronizing small businesses or fixing roads: I’m talking about getting into neighborhoods, repairing abandoned buildings and giving them new purposes, and making sure the in-place structures and buildings aren’t being wasted.
That’s how Richmond can avoid gentrification and that’s how Richmond can build a community that is presently aware of its past. Stop building new buildings and start renovating the unused. Stop bringing in new businesses and invest in local businesses. CT