Every month, we are given the great opportunity to compile a snapshot in time of the people, places, celebrations and controversies within the Richmond region.
Some months are harder to quantify than others. February 2019 surely has fallen into that category.
As national news headlines about our state’s top leaders swirled almost hourly, we completed this 40th anniversary issue under a cloud of uncertainty and amid another public reckoning.
To mark previous magazine milestones, we’ve told the history of the magazine, shared our editorial bloopers over the years and penned more than a few “where are they now” pieces. (See them at richmondmag.com/40thanniversary.)
For this turn, we went back to our founding year — 1979 — and dug in. What we pulled out helps, we hope, to explain what we relish about the Richmond region today, and a lot about what still desperately needs to happen here.
In 2004, our 25th anniversary, a handful of staff members met the founder of Texas Monthly, Mike Levy. He underscored that people ultimately care the most about what’s going on in their own backyards. “City magazines will always have a niche,” he said. “The question is quality. They have to be competitive for people’s time.” In response, I wrote that we would continue to get louder, visually and editorially, to better serve the region.
We also needed to better reflect the region within our office walls, and we still have more to do. Through the experiences and opinions of a more diverse group of freelancers, editors and artists, Richmond magazine now means Richmond to more readers.
And that’s also what Feb. 11’s renaming of the Boulevard for Arthur Ashe Jr. represents — a Richmond for more Richmonders to celebrate, a city that can do the right thing when all eyes are upon it and, more importantly, when they aren’t.
A Hushed Thank You
We would like to recognize those who hang out in quiet places for their help with this anniversary issue: the Valentine’s Meg Hughes for her 1979 database search; Times-Dispatch archivist Nicole Kappatos for image permissions; the librarians at the Richmond Public Library who worked their first Sunday in 30 years and pulled out a literal cartload of newspaper clipping files; the keepers of the city directories and broadsides at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture; and the reporters, editors and freelancers at iterations of Richmond magazine, Richmond Lifestyle magazine, Style Weekly, the Richmond Free Press, the Richmond News Leader, the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Richmond Mercury. By being in the room and recording what was happening, you all help us piece together today.
