The Year in Review

A proposal by Chesterfield County’s Economic Development Authority to purchase and rezone 1,750 acres from residential/mixed-use to heavy industrial in hopes of attracting an unspecified manufacturing company derailed in May after fierce public opposition. The project would have forced some residents along the periphery of the rezoned property to relocate to accommodate a new rail line and thoroughfare.

Activism led by the grass-roots group Bermuda Advocates for Responsible Development (see our June article “Faces of the Resistance”) prompted the development authority to withdraw its rezoning application and raised questions about the transparency of EDAs in Virginia.

In June, Richmond’s First Unitarian Universalist Church announced the first public case of an undocumented immigrant taking sanctuary at a house of worship in Virginia. As we reported in our October story “Within These Walls,” Abbie Arevalo Herrera has been living at the church with her two children to avoid deportation to Honduras, where she says her former common-law husband abused her and threatened her life. As Arevalo continues to pursue asylum, she and her attorney, Alina Kilpatrick, have jumped to the forefront of the debate on immigration during the era of Trump. In October, Richmond-area resident Maria Chavalan Sut of Guatemala also took refuge, at Wesley Memorial Church in Charlottesville.

In July, a little more than a year after Mayor Levar Stoney formed the Monument Avenue Commission to offer guidance on the future of Richmond’s Confederate statues, the body released a 115-page report with recommendations (see our July 2 online article “The State of the Statues,” among others). The commission said new signs could provide context for monuments, and contemporary works could be commissioned along Monument Avenue. The commission also suggested removing the Jefferson Davis statue, pending litigation or changes in state law that the city “may choose to support.” It doesn’t look like the Confederate president’s likeness is going away anytime soon, however. In October, Richmond City Council rejected a resolution that would have allowed the city to seek authority from the General Assembly to decide what to do with the statues, some of which are state property.

We examined law enforcement issues in a three-part series that concluded in April with “Under Fire,” an in-depth look at local police departments’ use-of-force policies. About a month later, high school biology teacher and Virginia Commonwealth University graduate Marcus-David Peters, who was naked and acting erratically, died after being shot twice by Richmond police officer Michael Nyantakyi near Interstate 95. Peters’ death sparked protests calling for increased transparency and accountability among police departments, rallying around the cry for “help not death,” championed by Peters’ sister, Princess Blanding. In late May, about two weeks after the incident took place, Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, who plans to retire Dec. 31, took the unusual step of releasing the officer’s body-worn camera footage to the public. On Aug. 31, Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Herring announced that Nyantakyi would not face charges in Peters’ death.