A scene from the Oct. 9 meeting at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to discuss renaming the Boulevard in honor of Richmond native, tennis champion and activist Arthur Ashe (Photo by Sarah King)
Second District Councilwoman Kim Gray’s proposed ordinance to rename the Boulevard was continued to the Dec. 18 Land Use, Housing and Transportation standing committee meeting after Gray asked for a 60-day continuance.
The ordinance, which proposes renaming the Boulevard to the “Arthur Ashe Boulevard” in honor of the world-famous tennis icon and River City native, was on Tuesday’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation meeting agenda, but the committee voted 3-0 in favor of the continuance after Gray asked her colleagues for more time to solicit more input from residents.
“In light of conversations I’ve had over the weekend, and a desire to have a longer dialogue and actually walk the Boulevard and meet with residents, I’d like to continue,” Gray said at the beginning of the committee meeting. “Having said that, this 60-day continuance would allow for a 90-day period for this to be out and be reviewed, and so that’s what I would like to allow for.”
The committee will next revisit the ordinance at its Dec. 18 meeting, but if the body votes to forward the proposal to the full council, it would not be considered until after the new year when the full chamber reconvenes for its Jan. 14, 2019, meeting.
Gray introduced the ordinance in early September after Ashe’s nephew, David Harris, asked for her support in honoring his uncle’s legacy. The item was initially scheduled for the full council’s consideration on its Nov. 13 agenda, but the renaming was met with significant resistance — mostly from residents of the Boulevard — at a well-attended community meeting at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts last week.
More than a dozen audience members left the chambers, after the 60-day continuance passed within minutes of Tuesday’s meeting starting, before committee chairwoman and Sixth District council representative Ellen Robertson called for public comment.
“We must do better than this,” said Second District resident Betty Booker. “Democratic leaders who represent the people involve as many citizens as possible, especially when subjects are uncomfortable.”
Booker, a Boulevard resident of more than 40 years, was one of two speakers to address the committee during public comment, and the only speaker to address the Boulevard proposal.
“Why, then, was the Boulevard Historic Association and District excluded from discussion about the renaming of our neighborhood?” Booker continued. “It’s more than a street, it’s a neighborhood.”
Booker went on to express frustration that Council did not notify or seek input from property owners or businesses in the Boulevard historic district or the Museum District Association, of which Booker says many residents are members.
“Instead, one community activist on the Boulevard was told by her cleaning service several weeks ago,” Booker continued. “That is insufficient time for all people affected to develop a win-win solution to maintaining our identity as a historic district and honoring Mr. Ashe.”
At the event last week, called to elicit feedback, Booker said Boulevard residents discovered “that peripheral neighborhood associations and state entities had been consulted for months,” but not the Boulevard residents directly involved.
The Oct. 9 meeting at the VMFA was attended by more than 150 people, many of whom spoke in favor of the proposal and even knew Ashe personally. Others, mostly Boulevard residents, expressed a variety of frustrations with the idea of renaming the thoroughfare running from Byrd Park to the intersection of Brookland Parkway and Westwood Avenue.
Gray’s proposal is the third attempt to rename the Boulevard in honor of Ashe, who was born in Richmond in the early 1940s and practiced at the now-defunct Brook Field Park tennis courts in North Side. The first Boulevard renaming attempt took place in 1993, three years before a statue was erected on Monument Avenue in Ashe’s honor; the second unsuccessful attempt was in 2003.
At the VMFA meeting, representatives for the Scott’s Addition Boulevard Association, Monument Avenue Preservation Society and West Grace Street Association spoke in favor of the renaming.
“We chose to live in the city instead of the suburbs because of our commitment to inclusivity and healing,” Booker said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Ms. Gray, thank you very much for agreeing to a 60-day discussion so everybody can be involved; we’re quite eager to do both, honoring Mr. Ashe and his family, and also dealing in an open way with what we have. I close with this: We can do this. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
