Photo courtesy of the mayor's office
Richmond Mayor Dwight C. Jones
12 — Number of times Mayor Dwight C. Jones uttered “resurgent” or “resurgence” in his 24-minute speech. “My friends,” Jones told an audience of a few hundred in the auditorium of the new Huguenot High School, “the state of this city is resurgent.”
7 — Number of times the mayor mentioned schools or the school board.
6 — Number of direct mentions or allusions to the 2015 UCI Road World Championships throughout the night, including a promotional video and remarks from the opening speaker. The races, scheduled for Sept. 19-27, are expected to bring 400,000 on-site spectators to the region.
5 — Number of consecutive years the city has seen a “violent crime reduction,” according to the mayor, who added that violent crime is at “the lowest rate we’ve seen since I’ve lived in Richmond.” Jones did not mention that total homicides tallied higher in 2014 than 2013.
3 — Number of mentions of the planned Broad Street Bus Rapid Transit line, which will connect Rocketts Landing and Willow Lawn. The project earned a $25 million grant last year and is expected to be complete in 2017.
2 — Number of times the mayor mentioned or alluded to Stone Brewing, which he described as “the country’s coolest craft brewery.” He added that construction on the $74 million project will begin next week.
1 — Number of jokes the mayor made about how bad the Washington Redskins are. “We hoped that NFL players in Richmond might get a chance to go to the Super Bowl. Well, that’s happening on Sunday. It might not be our hometown team, but we’ve now shown the training camp in Richmond can lead to a Super Bowl appearance,” Jones joked, referencing the New England Patriots, who will face the Seattle Seahawks this weekend. The team spent several days last summer practicing with the Redskins at the training camp facility on West Leigh Street.
0 — Number of substantial updates on the Shockoe Bottom Baseball Stadium Plan. “I recently heard someone say, Richmond is a place where good ideas go to die,” Jones told the audience. “There’s only one right answer to people who say that: You’re either part of the solution, or you’re part of the problem … That’s just one reason why important projects can take time here. And so while I know many of you want to hear an update on baseball tonight, I won’t have an update until the time is right.”
