Illustration by Erin Bushnell
Highs
A new home for legislators
Six years after demolition began and three years since COVID-19 upended the project’s original timeframe, the Virginia General Assembly has a new home, and members and staffers can decamp from the Pocahontas Building, which is next in line to be demolished. The 414,000-square-foot, $300 million structure preserves a circa-1912 facade from the oldest of three buildings that were combined to form the previous General Assembly Building.
VCU opens Children’s Tower
Another impressive structure opened in 2023: the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s Children’s Tower. The $420 million building, covering almost a million square feet of downtown Richmond, broke ground in 2019 and opened this past March. It offers pediatric inpatient, emergency and trauma care, and it features playrooms, teen lounges, a family gym, interactive installations, performance space and family lounges to make patients and their families more comfortable.
Diamond District deal minted
For a moment it looked like the Flying Squirrels might have to leave Richmond. Major League Baseball had set a 2025 deadline for new stadium standards that The Diamond doesn’t meet, and the Diamond District development deal appeared to have no traction. In May, however, the Squirrely Gates opened and plans for a new stadium, a mixed-use neighborhood and a park shone forth for 2026, as did hopes the plan will revitalize a part of the city that badly needs it.
City finds a new police chief
Since trust in the Richmond Police Department eroded with its handling of the city’s George Floyd protests and the debunking of its announcement that it had thwarted a mass shooting plot in 2022, it’s encouraging to see Chief Rick Edwards, who took the job in July, receive a warm welcome as he works to rebuild trust and a depleted police force that unionized in May.
School names updated
Four Richmond schools — McClenney Elementary, Harrison-Jones Elementary, Dogwood Middle and Richmond High School for the Arts — dropped their connections to Confederate veterans and a slaveholding Founding Father with name changes that took effect in June. It’s another important step in the effort to redefine Richmond beyond its role as the capital of the Confederacy and in Massive Resistance.
Burning issue
Plans for a three-story fire training facility next to the Hickory Hill Community Center in South Side drew protests from locals and environmentalists, as well as a lawsuit. The tower was rejected by the planning commission but approved by City Council. The compromise, as Mayor Levar Stoney put it, moves the burn tower to Sandston while maintaining training sessions at Hickory Hill. It’s a solution that helps maintain the neighboring Serene Wildlife Sanctuary and aligns with the city’s RVAgreen 2050 plan.
Petersburg plan marks first year
Gov. Glenn Youngkin may have raised a few skeptical eyebrows in declaring he wants to improve Petersburg, but a year into the Partnership for Petersburg, it appears to be taking steps forward. That includes $25,000 grants awarded to 20 local businesses, concentrated efforts to address crime rates and initiatives to improve health outcomes — actions designed to fight generations of pain in the city. Mayor Samuel Parham told The Washington Post that Youngkin has done “more than any other elected official” to focus resources on Petersburg.
Dirtwoman remembered
Upset that an iron plaque honoring Donnie Corker, the Oregon Hill native known as “Dirtwoman,” that they installed shortly after his death in 2017 had rusted over, Chris Dovi and Dan Resler set out to upgrade their tribute so that it could withstand the elements. A laser-cut steel plate was welded to the plaque in January. The memorial, installed near Corker’s family home, adds a vivid, enduring reminder of one of Richmond’s colorful characters.
A banner year for city sports
Dare we call Richmond a sports town despite the absence of a top-level team? The Flying Squirrels saw their best attendance total since 2013 — 428,541 — says Trey Wilson, director of communications and broadcasting, and an average attendance of 6,396, good for the best in Double-A and 14th best of all 120 Minor League Baseball teams. And despite a 6-11-15 record this past season, the Richmond Kickers drew an average of 4,786 fans to each game and a total of 76,577 this season, according to Soccer Stadium Digest, and their last home game drew a sellout crowd of 6,000.
Lows
Deaths near Monroe Park
Several horrifying tragedies occurred less than a mile apart near Monroe Park this year. On June 6, Huguenot High School graduate Shawn Jackson and his stepfather, Renzo Smith, were shot and killed following graduation ceremonies outside the Altria Theater. The first-degree murder case against Amari Pollard, who appeared to have a longstanding dispute with Jackson, is set for trial in February. And two Virginia Commonwealth University students were killed by vehicles in unrelated incidents on West Main Street: Mahrokh Khan in January and Shawn Soares in May. VCU says it “will enact meaningful change to the city streets on and adjacent to campus through our partnership with the city.”
Mold blights city schools
The problems for Richmond Public Schools, students and staff keep coming. This year’s discovery of mold at T.C. Boushall Middle School, opened in 1986; a Clark Springs Elementary School building; and the trailers hosting William Fox Elementary, still rebuilding after a 2022 fire, underscore the findings of a July report by the General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission that Virginia is underfunding its public schools by billions of dollars.
Sales tax holiday delay
A back-to-school sales tax holiday has been held on the first Friday of August every year since 2015, but a bill to renew the holiday was never introduced, so the provision expired in July. The sales tax holiday eventually returned Oct. 20-22, nine weeks after school started for most students in the Richmond area.
Stifling voices
Book bans and challenges proliferated in 2023. According to the American Library Association, 356 titles were challenged in Virginia over the first eight months of the year, double last year’s total of 182. This year’s wave of ban requests has cited a 2022 law — some incorrectly, says its sponsor, state Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant — that requires parental notification over sexually explicit content.
The news hits keep coming
2023 was another tough year for local news. In February, the Chesterfield Observer closed after 25 years. In June, six Lee Enterprises-owned papers in Virginia were reduced to three editions per week, delivered not by carriers but through the U.S. Postal Service. In July, Richmond Times-Dispatch Sports Editor Michael Phillips was let go after 17 years at the paper. And in August, Central Virginia lost one of the region’s most dedicated high school sports writers when John Harvey of The Daily Progress unexpectedly died.
Hard to Call
Lost in the haze
As we wrote in July, the future for marijuana growers and manufacturers is messy, especially now that a new law appears to backpedal on the state’s marijuana legalization efforts in 2021. A lawsuit that seeks to put the law on hold, arguing that it violates interstate commerce and impedes industrial hemp manufacturing and medical use, was dealt a blow in October when a federal judge said cannabis derivative delta-8 represents “a credible threat” to Virginians, rejecting plaintiffs’ requests for a preliminary injunction. With control of the House and Senate, Democrats will need to work with the governor to find a solution.
‘Rich Men’ strikes gold
A wave of support from conservative media outlets improbably sent Farmville resident Christopher Anthony Lunsford — performing as Oliver Anthony — to No. 1 on iTunes and Billboard’s Hot 100 in August with his song “Rich Men North of Richmond,” in which he rails against wealthy politicians, high taxes, “welfare queens” and human trafficking. Billboard notes that he is “the first artist ever to launch atop the list with no prior chart history in any form.” Anthony says he’s recording his first album in January.
Casino referendum
The massive effort to sell Richmond voters on the Richmond Grand Resort and Casino — nearly $10 million spent and promises of funding for child care and new and upgraded parks — fell flat on Nov. 7. Will city officials find a new way to make good on the proposals that would have used revenue from the casino?
