Black History Month B4
Richmond Free Press
VOL. 29 NO. 5
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RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
No go Ms. Gray
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
The $1.5 billion Coliseum replacement plan is dead. Five members of Richmond City Council sounded the death knell Monday night by introducing a resolution calling on Mayor Levar M. Stoney to withdraw the ordinances regarding the project he presented last summer and to work with City Council to create a plan for developing the city-owned property near City Hall that could generate public support.
Mr. Hilbert
Ms. Larson
Ms. Lynch
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Helping brain injury victims B1
JANUARY 30-February 1, 2020
Ms. Trammell
5 City Council members ask Mayor Stoney to withdraw the $1.5B Coliseum replacement and Downtown redevelopment plan, a major signal he doesn’t have the votes needed for approval
The rebuff echoes the council’s show of opposition that doomed Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ plan to build a baseball stadium in Shockoe Bottom and led him to withdraw the proposal in May 2014 ahead of the vote. And it also confirms that the project does not have the seven votes needed to win approval from the nine-member council. Council members signing the resolution that will be considered Monday, Feb. 3, are Kim B. Gray, 2nd District; Chris A. Hilbert, 3rd District; Kristen N. Larson, 4th District; Stephanie A.
Lynch, 5th District; and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District. Mayor Stoney quickly rejected any notion of withdrawing the plan and accused the five council members of trying to avoid publicly voting against the Navy Hill plan during an
election year. The Navy Hill District Corp., led by Thomas F. “Tom” Farrell II, Dominion Energy’s top executive, designed the plan being pushed by Please turn to A4
Mayor eschews status quo, urges city to think bigger in State of City address By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Stop being afraid to do something great. That’s Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s response to the opposition to the $1.5 billion Coliseum replacement plan that so far has failed to gain widespread public support. Refusing to believe that the massive plan is being rejected, the mayor used his third State of the City address Tuesday night to defend the proposal while also touting his accomplishments since taking office in 2017. He also announced new initiatives, including plans to develop up to 10 new city parks and an affordable housing plan. The crux of his speech, though, was a ringing defense of the Downtown redevelopment plan he sees as transforming a big section of underused Downtown real estate near City Hall. He vowed to fight to the bitter end Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press for the project despite facing certain Mayor Levar M. Stoney offers ringing defense of his Coliseum replacement and Downtown defeat now that five members of City redevelopment plan during his State of the City Council have said they plan to vote address Tuesday. Location: Virginia Museum of History & Culture on Arthur Ashe Boulevard.
Please turn to A4
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Lobbying for their future Kenneth Henderson II, 4, left, and Zachary Watters, 3, lend their voices to a rally for more state funding for teachers and public education on Monday at the Bell Tower at Capitol Square in Downtown. The youngsters were attending the “Fund Our Future” rally with their mothers, Anasa Johnson and Ashleigh Watters, who are teachers with Richmond Public Schools and Petersburg Public Schools, respectively. Please see story, A5.
Questions, lawsuit arise as Va. ratifies ERA
At ‘Camp Cathy’ tent city for the homeless, people live by the rules By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Rhonda L. Sneed is proud of creating the most affordable housing community in Richmond — a tent city located on Oliver Hill Way across the street from the Richmond Justice Center. A small determined woman with a mop of curly hair, the 60-year-old New York native who was a Richmond Free Press Personality in January 2018 is leading a cadre of volunteers and benefactors to provide the free housing to about 80 people who have no other place to go and have too little money to afford better. To the embarrassment of city officials, the tents are set up in neat rows in a grassy area next to the Annie Giles Community Resource Center, where the city and its partner, Commonwealth Catholic Charities, provide emergency shelter Please turn to A4
Free Press wire report
Jeremy Lazarus/Richmond Free Press
Svondai N. Brown, left, assists Rhonda L. Sneed in laying out supplies for residents of “Camp Cathy,” a homeless tent city on Oliver Hill Way. Ms. Sneed, founder and leader of Blessing Warriors RVA, began setting up tents in September to improve living conditions and provide more order for those at the site in Shockoe Valley.
Kobe Bryant’s legacy felt in Richmond, around the world Free Press staff, wire report
Kobe Bryant
Purple and gold-themed tributes of praise have sprung up as Richmond and communities in Virginia and around the world recognize the life and accomplishments of the late basketball star Kobe Bryant, an 18-time All-Star who won five NBA championships during his 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. In Richmond, United Communities Against Crime, in cooperation with the Black Top Kings & Queens and Balloons & Things, will hold a citywide memorial service 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 31, in memory of Mr. Bryant, 41, and his daughter, Gianna, 13, who perished Sunday with seven others in a helicopter crash in Southern
California. The memorial service will be held at the Black Top Kings & Queens Sports Academy, 318 W. 19th St. in South Side. People are asked to wear their Kobe Bryant jerseys and other Lakers paraphernalia. City officials and local clergy are expected to speak and share their thoughts about Mr. Bryant and his legacy, according to Charles D. Willis, executive director of United Communities Against Crime. “We look for folks to come out, to have an opportunity to grieve, to mourn, to come together as a city collectively,” Mr. Willis said Please turn to A8
The Rev. T.C. Millner Sr.
A floral tribute to Kobe Bryant stands in Martinsville’s downtown.
Virginia became the last state needed to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment on Tuesday as the state Senate approved on a 27-12 vote a House of Delegates resolution endorsing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution stating that the rights of women “shall not be denied or abridged” because of their gender. The vote sets the stage for Gov. Ralph S. Northam to sign the bill, as well as a legal battle over the amendment’s future. “Finally, women have a place in our nation’s founding document,” said House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn. Constitutional amendments must be ratified by threequarters of the states, or 38, before ratification. But the ERA’s future is uncertain, in part, because of a 1982 deadline for ratification enacted by Congress decades ago. On Tuesday, the National Archives and Records Administration reiterated that it would not immediately take any action to certify the measure’s adopPlease turn to A4