Many have attributed the rates of change in terms of demographics in the City of Richmond to a racial narrative in terms of the exodus of white families from the city stemming from the failed opposition to integration of public schools and failed opposition to busing in the 1970's. The direct impact of this exodus was a massive wealth transfer to suburbia. The city did little in truth to keep families having failed to solve much the issues the city has always faced. City politics have long been dominated by the liberal progressive ideologies set in the constructs of the failed welfare state.
Even with the exodus from the 1960's to 1990's and the decrease in population and decline in the number of students attending the Richmond Public School System, the city failed to invest in its schools for decades. In fact, today the city still faces remnants of the failed 1950's model of schools and has failed to innovate and transform its school system as many of its surrounding neighbors. Much of that failure was a direct result of the failure to attract young families to Richmond and increase its tax base.
This began to change for Richmond when the messaging changed. Decades after integration and busing disputes, the city moved in the direction of new economic development as a priority attracting growth in the core center of the city. Much of this was in partnership with Virginia Commonwealth University, which during the last thirty years has grown exponentially across the city and drawn hundreds of thousands to the city. The city appeared poised to put the wounds of the past behind it and move Richmond forward as other southern cities like Charlotte and Atlanta has eclipsed it post integration.
Workers and young people began to return to the city as the city concentrated on growing its sports, entertainment and cultural footprint. In the last decade no urban locality in Virginia has captured the craft beer boom than Richmond which has revitalized areas like Scott's Addition long void from any activity. The city continued to attract people to return to the city as areas of the city were completely revitalized. Church Hill was an area that was directly impacted with the exit of white residents but in the last twenty years has seen a complete turn around as thousands of homes have been revitalized attracting Virginians to the historic area. The Manchester District has also undergone a complete transformation on the south city area across the James River.
The James River has always been magnet for Virginians and the city had done a great job in attracting events however the wounds of the past never seem to close when it came to city politics. Politics in the city has always kept the city moving forward with one hand tied behind its back. The city has never sought to capitalize on its rich history like Williamsburg, VA or Charleston, SC. Both cities much smaller than Richmond have capitalized significantly from hospitality and tourism from history. Williamsburg, VA has focused on American Revolutionary history and Charleston, SC Civil War and antebellum history.
Richmond has a population of 232,000 up from 204,000 in 2010 and has been on upward population growth rate of about 13%. The greater Richmond area which the city relies on for much of its sales and food tax revenue has a population of 1.3 million.
Charleston, SC has become a premiere Civil War destination in the South. This taken in consideration that Richmond was the actual Capital of the Confederacy is quite amazing. The case study examining the two cities is long overdue in seeking to understand how using history to drive economic development and attracting visitors. Charleston has far surpassed Richmond in this regard not due to the visitor sites or programs as much as they have overcome the divisive nature of city politics where Richmond has not. The revenue that Richmond has always left on the table as a direct result of its inability to fully embrace the city's history in truth has always hindered the city. The city never healed not because of its citizens but rather because of the entrenched "slave mentality" of its politics. Politicians both black and white in Richmond have always placed civil war era history at arms length and merely acknowledging it on the edges whether regarding a new site or museum. Each and every time anything having to deal with the "Confederate" past or actually acknowledging it for the purpose of economic development always traveled down the path of slavery debates and social justice.
The city has long failed to understand that using history no matter how controversial could benefit the future generations of the city especially in terms of focusing generated revenue increases on education and the public school system that continues to lag other areas in Virginia. City politics has always been rear view mirror centric which is very small compared to looking forward and using city history to move the city forward unified. This failure has contributed to where we are today more so than any other. The failure to communicate and educate people that Monument Avenue and all the historical sites centered around the Civil War period are merely vehicles of understanding and a means of generating the very revenue required to transform education in the city. Instead, the city has determined to bury its past and the city itself in terms of the Civil War will become nothing more than a burial ground or cemetery for Virginia history.
Richmond has handed over the entire Civil War story to places like Charleston, SC. Richmond has determined to remove all Civil War monuments from within its city limits and ultimately will change the name of Monument Avenue. The removal has created and even greater divide among Virginians as Mayor Levar Stoney has clearly violated to law regarding the manner in which he has determined to remove monuments across the city. Stoney has permitted protesters and rioters to ravage Richmond for over a month and in particular provided license for protesters to deface monuments with graffiti and topple them without consequence. This aspect has started to alienate those that have long supported the cultural and charitable endeavors in the city.
The question now remains what will this turmoil and political induced depression have on the city economy that stems directly from the city's fecklessness. We will see another shift in population out of the city welcomed by neighboring localities who continue to outperform the city it terms of elementary and secondary education? Will property values now decline in the The Fan District or west city areas along Monument Avenue as a direct result to the continued changes to the "historic district"? Has the violence and looting in the city caused many to question raising there families in a city that remains unable to address said violence?
Richmond has of course seen this before. Politics has always created a wedge in the city. The reality that Mayor Stoney and the City Council faces is the issue that the "old white money" is declining. The age demographics of long standing Richmonders that have remained residents their whole lives and contributed to the city is declining rapidly. The very people who helped bring about the cultural advancements in the city frankly are now entering their eighties and nineties. Will their children and grandchildren wish to support this new path the city has determined to take?
What happens to Richmond when the "old white money" is gone? Where is the money to support programs in the city whether they been social programs or cultural programs long supported by the "affluent whites" of Richmond when that funding no longer exists? Will Richmond simply seek outside money to support its new vision? The same sources that have founded the likes of many Democratic politicians in the city?
Given the city politicians have made social justice a pure racial identity initiative there is no way of knowing whether the response to such will result in the same patterns of flight from the city in the past.
Really good map illustrating movements out of the City of Richmond in the past mostly to the suburban localities of Henrico and Chesterfield Counties that border the city and a direct result as well to annexation of parts of suburbia back into the city limits over the years.
"White flight"- the phenomenon of white people moving out of urban areas and into suburban areas.
Consider this from a mere two years ago and how it characterizes the city dynamics. This illustrates the total focus of city politics and its inability to move past history instead seeking to remain bogged down in the same racial tension of old.
From Richmond Free Press 2018 -
Richmond, segregation and paternalistic white supremacy
Segregation is no stranger to Richmond. Intentional measures to provoke racial animosity have been in place in Virginia since the early days of American settlement. Such measures include racial slavery, slave codes, racial terrorism, “racial purity” laws, Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement efforts, xenophobic politics, discriminatory banking practices and commercialization of racial myths and stereotypes, among many others.
Given what we know about the history of this city, there is no doubt Richmond has borne or bore witness to most every kind of racist and segregationist practice imaginable.
Today, we see segregation continue in Richmond, not because of any overt command to segregate, but because of the legacy that the aforementioned practices have left us.
The growth of Richmond’s population in the past decades is mostly because of immigration to this city. This can be at least partially correlated with the growth of Virginia Commonwealth University in the past years.
Transplants of young people from affluent areas of Virginia and elsewhere has certainly been an economic boon to some parts of the city, but a marked division exists between this population and Richmond’s long-standing African-American population. The children and grandchildren of those who took part in 20th century “white flight” suburbanization are coming back to Richmond. And although these young people typically have more open minds than did their progenitors, they undoubtedly are affected by prejudice.
Segregation can be seen all over Richmond. Highways, roads and bodies of water bound neighborhoods and areas clearly separated by race and class. It exists in the distribution of resources and opportunity, such as access to fresh food and affordable transportation. It may be seen in blatant inequity in housing, which gentrification perpetuates. It pervades our city’s education systems. It can even be seen in local elections and in how people align themselves in local politics.
There is an unfortunate tradition of racial, historical and cultural ignorance among those of privileged economic and racial status in America, Virginia and Richmond. Such ignorance perpetuates the white supremacist hierarchy that has ruled this city for centuries.
Those young people flocking to this city, especially those who come to participate in civil service and social justice initiatives to make Richmond a “better place,” must check themselves and their privilege, lest they wish to perpetuate the paternalist, white supremacist condition that has too long called Richmond home. One need not have faith in a religion to believe in the need to evict this devil.
Talk to your neighbors, and love your neighbor as yourself.
NICHOLAS BUFFIN
If Richmond is to prevent major impacts to the cities future, city politicians would be wise to concentrate more on the those that share inn its vision than those that are opposed to it. Each and every response provided by the city can be characterized as nothing more than playing to the lowest denominator. Maybe that is how one wins votes but that is not how one goes about healing a city.
The city has an upward challenge in convincing citizens why they should stay residents, why suburbia should patron the city or why tourists should continue to visit Richmond. There are calls for needing a new Mayor now resonating however, Richmond needs right now are hardly a Mayor and more of a "brand ambassador" that can save the image of the city and prevent the city from falling into the same traps it did in the 1980's.
We used to visit Richmond often. Now it's just a place we drive through on the way to South Carolina.
ReplyDeleteWe used to visit Richmond often. Now it's just a place we drive through on the way to South Carolina.
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