The following is an extended version of the candidate interview that appears in the October issue of Richmond magazine and has been edited for length and clarity.
Photo by Jay Paul
Richmond magazine: Why did you decide to run for reelection?
Levar Stoney: When I ran for mayor in 2016, the focus [was] on public education and we’ve made a lot of headway in terms of investing in our children [with] historical investments in public education. Now, 57 cents on every real estate tax dollar goes to public education, [and we've recently completed] three new schools in the city of Richmond, as well. Public ed has seen a $30 million increase under my leadership, and now, every elementary schooler and middle schooler has access to an after-school program. We've made some headway in housing as well: We’ve tripled the Affordable Housing Trust Fund [and] we've created the Eviction Diversion Program. A number of these items have always been centered around my values — righting wrongs and giving a voice to the voiceless — but what I see after roughly the end of four years is that the work is incomplete. There's still more for us to do and I believe the next four years are critical because in this moment that we're having as a country, if the racial gaps are still as wide as they are today, whether the achievement gap or housing or wealth, then this moment we're having currently is all for naught. That's why the next four years are critical, and I want to make sure that I lead the city through all of it.
RM: How has the pandemic impacted your ability to campaign and meet Richmonders?
Stoney: I am a people person. I love retail politics and being able to campaign in someone's home or knocking on their door, but that's not possible with a pandemic. I think, of all people, I have to be the model of public health and that’s what I've been trying to do for the last five months. I think we’ve learned to utilize technology even better and so that will be a big part of my campaign, but this is still going to center around people at the end of the day, so we're going to find other ways to reach them. Whether it's over the phone or through Zoom, we're going to definitely continue this conversation with Richmonders. What I’m most fearful of is Donald Trump and the Postal Service. Donald Trump is saying that he's thinking about pulling dollars from the Postal Service, and that could delay a ballot getting to a voter or their ballot getting back to the registrar's office. That's a problem that we should all be worried about, and that's really the only threat out there that I am concerned with as we approach Election Day.
RM: Do you have any concerns about how the ongoing pandemic will affect voter turnout on election day?
Stoney: I do, because I believe there are leaders willing to play politics with the Postal Service and whether a person should be able to have access to a ballot that they can mail in. I do have concerns about that, but there are enough fired up people here in the city of Richmond ready to vote Donald Trump out of office and I feel confident that people are going to come out to vote.
RM: How would you lead Richmond out of COVID-19 relief and into recovery over the next four years?
Stoney: Public health and public safety [must] be first, and so no one should be without a home in this most critical and desperate moment in our city’s history. That’s why I’ve funded the Eviction Diversion Program and rental assistance programs with up to $14 million, and we’re likely going to have to do more as you think about the recovery. We've already provided $1 million to the disaster loan program for small businesses, and now we’re asking businesses to turn those into grants. This is just a way that we’re trying to help businesses get back on their feet after they've gone through the pandemic and also some social unrest.
We're going to continue to focus on testing, that's the only way that you build back the confidence of every resident to go back to what was known as their regular lives. This is certainly going to be a new normal, and as I think about the new normal, we have to think about how we go about ‘building back better,’ as Vice President Biden has said. That means doing this intentional work with an equitable lens, so focusing on public education, I'd like to see us focus on pre-K moving forward. Every child should have access to preschool education in the city of Richmond and I want to make that happen over the next four years. Then, we’ve also got to think of a stimulus for ourselves and not depend necessarily on the federal government, and that stimulus could be all the parcels of land that we own here in the city of Richmond. How do you go about redeveloping those parcels so they can bring in new tax dollars in the city of Richmond [that] we can pour into programs for those who've been long marginalized in our city?
RM: How would you help small and minority-owned businesses recover from the pandemic?
Stoney: Once again, this speaks to equity. What I hear from small minority-owned businesses, particularly Black and brown-owned businesses, is that they just want an opportunity to compete with a level playing field. What I’ve funded currently is a disparity study as part of our equity work and then what I’d like to do is, using that disparity study, we should consider a sheltered market program. This would be an affirmative procurement initiative to set aside contracts for small minority-owned businesses right here in the city of Richmond. There's no reason why, as we continue to grow as a city, that we can’t grow small minority-owned businesses as well, just like places like Charlotte and Atlanta.
RM: Alongside the pandemic, this summer’s protests have brought disparities related to race and policing to the forefront. What would you do to reshape policing in the city?
Stoney: I’m a believer that we need to reimagine the way that we deliver public safety in our community. That’s why I initiated the work of the Task Force on Reimagining Public Safety. We’re going to get some recommendations from them soon initially, and they’re going to do even more thorough work on how we deliver on our promise to reimagine [policing]. For me, that means we have to answer the question: Do we need an officer to show up for every call that 911 receives? The answer to me is no. The work in designing a Marcus Alert is very, very important, so we're committed to that and we're committed to oversight as well with the civilian review board and we've already strengthened our chokehold policies and the duty to intervene policy as well. Moving forward, I think we have to fund the reforms that we want to see, so [if] we want to see more support around behavioral health and mental health, then we have to fund that. If we want to see more training for our police officers around [Crisis Intervention Team programs], we have to fund that and I'm committed to doing so to bring about the change in policing that we want to see in this community.
RM: What are your thoughts on demands raised by protesters to defund the police?
Stoney: I believe we need to reform and reimagine policing. I think we have to fund the reforms we want to see in policing, and we need to have the courage to do so and be committed to it. I just don't believe that departments and agencies become more effective when they're cut, and just because we cut a department doesn't mean that we are ripping out systemic racism. That's where the reimagining part comes alongside the community. If we really want to be committed to this, we have to reimagine the way our department works and that's where I think we should keep our focus.
RM: Although it was overshadowed by COVID-19, the Navy Hill redevelopment plan was one of the biggest local stories of the last year. What lessons did you learn from that process, and how would you improve the Navy Hill area in a more equitable way?
Stoney: The need for developing that part of our city is still there. If you look at our downtown core, it is underpopulated and underdeveloped and Navy Hill would’ve changed the landscape of downtown. I mean, I wish we would’ve had 10,000 jobs in the pipeline right now with the pandemic and the recession ongoing at the moment. Nonetheless, what I’ve learned is that if we had more intentional and more robust community engagement, I think the outcome may have been a little bit different. What we recognized after the debate over Navy Hill is that we have to strengthen our community engagement muscle as a city, and that is going to be my focus over the next four years. [I think] the techniques that have been used around the Richmond 300 planning can be used again on future economic development efforts. Through the Richmond 300 work, we've heard that roughly 60% or more people [who were surveyed] want an arena in downtown Richmond. It would have been good to have known that prior to the issuance of the RFP. That’s the sort of work that we have to do moving forward. We have to do that in the beginning and not after the fact, and that’s what we’re going to be committed to.
RM: Kids across the city are returning to remote learning this fall, but parents have raised concerns around widening learning gaps in the virtual setting. How would you address those concerns?
Stoney: Recently, I took a walk in Mosby Court to talk to parents of RPS students, and I wanted to just survey them on what their needs are during this uncertain time with their kids going back to school virtually. What I heard from a number of parents is they asked, ‘How am I going to work moving forward? I want my kids to get a quality public education, but what I'm really worried about is paying my bills and keeping a roof over my family's head.’ That's why we launched the survey for emergency childcare options for our families, because that's a serious worry for a lot of parents. They want to keep their children safe, but they also want to be able to keep a roof over their family's heads, so that's something that I'm going to be focusing on in conjunction with our friends in the philanthropic sector and RPS. If a family has to worry about whether they're going to be able to make the rent, if they’re worried about eviction, that’s also going to have an impact on whether or not a child is going to do well in school, so these are some serious concerns that city government [will need to address] to invest in our families. I know that schools are going to handle their curriculum, I’ve got to make sure that our families have a place [where] our kids can feel safe and learn.
RM: Richmond schools face a bevy of challenges that existed well before the pandemic like racially segregated student bases and low graduation and accreditation rates. How would you work to improve the city’s schools during your next four years as mayor?
Stoney: When I talk about this moment that we’re in right now, this is what I’m talking about, because if the gaps that we have in public education in the city of Richmond remain the same 10 years from now, then Richmond missed our moment. For me, it has to be more than having a Black Lives Matter yard sign and [living] out in the West End or some of our wealthy neighborhoods. You have to be committed to ensuring that Black lives actually matter, so when it comes down to rezoning, we have to be less talk and be more committed to actually integrating our schools. I'm a champion for a lot of what the school board has been trying to do, we just have to be bolder and more intentional about it. My No. 1 priority in my next term is going to be universal pre-K. The fact that 59% of children arrive on day one in kindergarten unprepared to learn is a problem and we need to do everything we can to mitigate that. I think the best way to do so is to get in front of a child when they're three and four years old. That will change the educational achievement gap and it has to be of utmost priority for not just me, but for members of the city council, for members of the school board and our community at large.
RM: How would you work to curb evictions and expand safe and affordable rental housing in the city?
Stoney: In order to provide more affordable housing in the city, we have to be committed to growth and we need affordable housing in all corners of the city, in every neighborhood. We can't say that we support Black Lives Matter but we don't want affordable housing in our backyard. During my time as mayor, I’ve tripled the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and I created the Eviction Diversion Program after we heard that we were No. 2 in the country for one of the highest eviction rates. Moving forward, we have to put more dollars behind the Eviction Diversion Program. I've put $14 million over the course of the last year behind it using CARES Act dollars, but we’ve got to do more because this eviction catastrophe is definitely on the horizon. It's my hope that we continue to receive the help of the courts in mitigating this issue, but it's going to take all of us moving in the same direction to make sure people stay in their homes.
RM: After years of debate, city-owned Confederate statues are gone from Monument Avenue. What do you think the city should do to replace them and tell the story more fully?
Stoney: My priority will be the memorialization of the enslaved that helped build this city down in Shockoe Bottom. However, we are going to have to tackle the issue around what's next on Monument Avenue after the removal of all the monuments, which includes the Robert E. Lee [statue]. We will engage in robust community conversation, not just with the neighbors, but with a broad spectrum of the community to hear about what they want to see on Monument Avenue, and what I've heard is that folks want an inclusive, welcoming space for all. Whether that's fountains, whether that's accomplished through more park and green space, that's what I'm hearing a lot of from our residents and I'm committed to that process once the last monument is removed.
RM: What makes you the right person for the job?
Stoney: I’ve been tested. I’m still the same kid who is the son of a janitor and was raised by his grandmother, and I see my work through their eyes. That’s the lens I use to govern, and if there’s anyone better to bring about true change and equity for those who've been long marginalized in the city, I believe it's me and this administration. We've already done a lot of that work. We want to complete and finish that work, but there is no doubt I've been tested and that I'm the most experienced candidate in this race, so I'm here to finish the job.
