Making a Difference One Step at a Time

What do we do now?

While that question could easily apply to every aspect of life, love and cookie baking, for Thursday night's event at the Main Library - "RVA Together: What Do We Do Now?" - it applied to what the city needs to do now that we've elected a mayor who can hopefully bridge our race, class and appalling administration issues.

Despite the polar vortex, I insisted on walking and Mac (who'd warned me she'd look like Cousin It because of all her layers) and I had no problem scoring seats in the second row as moderator (and Randolph Macon prof) Richard Meagher warned us that the library had a fire drill scheduled, but that we should sit tight if it went off.

Of course, that goes against everything we were taught in elementary school, but it mattered not because they somehow managed to get the library to cancel the drill.

Including moderator Richard, the panel was half black and half white (nice to see for a change and completely appropriate given the evening's purpose) and included activist Sean Smith and human rights activist Lorraine Wright, along with three members of Stoney's transition team, namely everyone's City Council hero Jon Baliles, school board chair Jeff Bourne, and UR prof Thad Williamson.

If only the audience had been that diverse, but, alas, it skewed far too white.

Each panelist got 5 minutes to share their thoughts and Smith got the evening off to a firebrand start with his call to mobilize, a strident appeal without apology. I understood exactly where he was coming from, but I couldn't speak for everyone.

Standing so he could move about, Baliles exhorted us to get involved by stepping out of our comfort zone and volunteering in a public housing neighborhood. "Make a difference one step at a time."

Bourne (who won the best socks award, hands down) told people to get involved to address the systemic problems with our mediocre school system because until children are shown the caring and consistency they're not getting at home, nothing will change.

Williamson explained that poverty and education are basically the same issue and praised the current mayor's Community Wealth Building initiative as a way to address inherent inequalities, albeit slowly.

Like Baliles, Wright stood to deliver her heated message about how we must be truthful about our own role in what's happening with our city, even going so far as to call out school superintendent Bourne for mishandling of an autistic student's expulsion ("Silence is permission"). She was very clear that we need to start holding our elected officials accountable, particularly the mess that is the General Assembly.

All in all, it was a diverse panel of very change-minded people coming at our next course of action with different agendas.

Where things really got interesting was when audience members got up to speak or ask questions and while they were directed to ask about action items for the new administration, many just wanted to express opinions.

One white woman couldn't understand why everyone didn't just focus on how much better Richmond is now than it used to be, a point that drew ire from panelists who pointed out that people who are scraping by to pay rent and put food on the table don't have the time or energy to partake of our city's vibrant food scene, impressive art presence or ridiculously over-hyped brewery growth.

Wright brilliantly brought up Maslow's hierarchy of needs, explaining politely to the woman that many people weren't even aware of that stuff, much less able to participate in it, while Smith made clear that her viewpoint comes from a position of privilege.

Of course, there were crazies, too, like the older black woman who rambled about spanking kids to teach them, the folly of letting TV raise them and questioning why Richmond had legalized pot ("No, ma'am, it didn't," she was told). The panel heard her out, but no commentary was offered because none was required.

A black man brought up how different the school experience was for a student of color than one who was white, a point born out by countless studies and the school-to-prison pipeline.

A young black woman who'd run for City Council in my neighborhood asked each panelist if they thought we are in our own Civil Rights period and, if so, whose civil rights they were concerned about. Most panelists claimed to not understand the question.

Most stirring was a black woman from Highland Park who'd noticed that kids in her neighborhood faced a gap between free lunches at school and a free lunch summer program, so she and some neighbors banded together to offer it, along with a summer day program giving them something to do.

Rather than asking about an action item, she neatly summed up the best answer of all: when you see a need, figure out how you can address it.

By the time we got to the last guy in line, his question had been answered, but he made a good period to the evening by summing up what he'd heard while waiting for his turn.

Everyone on the panel suggested getting involved in a poor neighborhood, doing whatever is needed. Contact schools, community centers and after-school programs, but make a difference in the life of a child if you want to see a better Richmond.

I've long believed that every societal problem can be traced back to poor parenting and until we start teaching teenagers how to parent, we can hardly expect them to instinctively know how to shape a human life because it's not only challenging, it's a 24/7 job and too few parents give it that devotion.

Caring and consistency really do determine how a little person views the world and his or her place in it.

My fervent wish is that our new mayor places laser-like attention on ensuring that every child of every color and economic class is treated like the worthwhile future Richmond resident he/she is from birth. Without a shift in that priority, we are doomed to repeat the cycle and no amount of First Friday artwalks and breweries will matter.

What do we do now? Holding the privileged white people accountable would be a fine start, don't you think?

Get on the Bus

Some people get it and some people don't.

I rearranged my plans so I wouldn't miss any of tonight's "Create the Vote: A Mayoral Forum on Tapping RVA's Creative Culture," not because I hadn't just seen a mayoral forum less than two weeks ago (I had) but because the issue of growing Richmond's creative culture worries me.

You can be sure I don't want to hear candidates talking about making us over into the next Austin or Portland or, inexplicably, New Orleans, not because there's anything wrong with those places but because the thought of Richmond becoming like any of them depresses me.

When moderator Michael Paul Williams asked the six-person panel of Baliles, Berry, Junes, Morrissey, Stoney and Williams, "What's it going to take to get us to the next level?" the all-important answer came from a familiar voice in the audience.

"We are there!" community activist and musician Laney Sullivan called out, putting into words exactly what I had been thinking.

Granted, our schools aren't there and we'd do future generations a real service if we could finally fix them and put into place more art-based cirriculums to ensure that creativity is encouraged from childhood.

But the creativity of our scene, to my way of thinking, needs no self-aggrandizement, no grand scale advertising campaign, no push to have more branded events.

That's not who Richmond is and I pray (despite being a card-carrying heathen) that it's not what future mayors plan to wrestle our offbeat little DIY city into becoming.

Sorry, Jack Berry, but we're not a South by Southwest kind of a town and calling local arts groups "avant garde" makes you sound like Grandpa shaking his fist at some new-fangled sprinkler.

Tsk, task, Lawrence Williams, you haven't been inside the November Theater- a bastion of the local art scene - since you were 3 years old and it was still segregated?

And, really, Bobby Junes, it's not the folk concert but the Folk Fest you claimed to attend, albeit only on the non-rainy days of the event.

I'll admit I'm bothered, Levar Stoney, when you say that the mayor should be creative about bringing in money for the arts because I wonder if that means more backing from Dominion Power and others with questionable practices.

As for you, Joe Morrissey, I accept tonight's apology for your stupidity 27 years ago in voting against art you considered obscene at 1708 Gallery, but I can't accept a 57-year old man preying on a 17-year old employee.

What I can embrace is Jon Balile's statement that the creative community should be used to make city decisions. He's right because they are the people responsible for moving the scene forward and making Richmond the highly desirable place touted by everyone from the New York Times to USA Today.

The forum took place in front of the set for Virginia Repertory's production of "1776," providing a suitably political but, more importantly, creative backdrop for tonight's discussion. Even the timer sound that alerted candidates that they'd run on too long was a military-sounding drum roll.

Despite everything going off without a hitch, the format was deeply flawed.

Every question began at one end of the row of candidates or the other, meaning that Baliles and Williams had the unenviable task of answering two questions in a row every single time and not one of the other candidates - Berry, Junes, Morrissey and Stoney - ever had to be first out of the gate with their thoughts.

Is the audience as impressed with you when all you do is piggyback on your predecessors' answers? They are not.

I emphatically agree with Baliles that our homegrown creative spirit is what the city needs to get behind. While not quite as masterfully metaphoric as Prince's "Little Red Corvette," his comment drove the point home well. "The city needs to get out of the way and let the creative community drive the bus."

The funny part is, he had to be saying that for the benefit of audience members who aren't regularly involved in the local scene.

Because anyone who is participating knows that, in essence, the creatives have already been reshaping Richmond from the butt of jokes (How many Richmonders does it take to change a light bulb or, well, anything? A dozen: one to change the bulb and 11 to talk about how great the old bulb, or way of doing things, was) to a vibrant, inclusive scene that welcomes anyone wanting to be part of it.

Creatives of all kinds - artists, brewers, musicians, filmmakers, chefs, muralists, bartenders, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers - have been driving the bus for at least the past five or six years, whether the mainstream population was noticing or not.

I say that as someone who's not only been participating, but documenting the scene for 7 years Look back at my blog posts from 2009 or 2010 and you'll see a steady increase in the sheer number, much less the variety and quality, of offerings of every kind in Richmond.

All brought to life by passionate people who loved this city and wanted to contribute in a way that was meaningful to them and, as it turned out, to a whole lot more people they didn't even know.

Next level? We don't need no stinkin' next level when it comes to the creative community. We're there.

Wouldn't it be grand to elect Jon Baliles and have a mayor willing to gas up the bus and keep it in good repair so the real talent can continue driving it?

We Built This City

The Presidential debate's got nothing on the Richmond Mayorathon.

Did the Clinton/Trump shindig begin with the director of a top ten museum clutching a doll representing "The Scream" while bragging about the upcoming Edvard Munch/Jasper Johns show? I'm afraid it didn't.

Did the national event have not one but two women moderators? It did not. Nor did it have a moderator who repeatedly called out candidates who rambled without answering the question, although she wasn't consistent about it, letting some people off the hook.

Did the prez debate begin with each candidate walking out to his or her own self-selected theme song? I don't think so and although some choices were regrettably trite - "I am the Champion, "Fight Song" or ~shudder~ Dave Matthews Band - it established early on that Richmond was doing this debate thing in our usual DIY way.

Did the unpleasant big business candidate in Monday's debate get showered in a spontaneous chorus of "boos" from the crowd when he went self-servingly off-topic in the very first question of the evening like RVA's unpleasant big business candidate did tonight? No such luck.

Did the main event have a pedophile on the dais main-splaining about how, despite being known as a fighter, he works well with others to accomplish things? Um, nope.

Well, did the televised debate have a candidate who would answer a question about the city's defects by saying, "The biggest weakness is Miss Mosby not being mayor" or fake pout because she wasn't getting enough applause?

And am I the only voter concerned about a would-be mayor referring to herself in the third person?

You don't think Monday's moderator would have had the balls to pull a speed round titled "Team of Rivals" and ask each candidate to say what person running they'd pick to be part of their team and in what capacity, do you?

Or have a candidate so clueless he would respond, "I'd pick a name out of a hat" when asked to choose a specific person, or another who could - with a straight face, mind you - refer to corporate pimp Berry as a "fine southern gentleman"?

It is to laugh.

Where tonight's local version of democracy in action aligned with the all-important Presidential debate was that there was clearly one candidate who'd prepared scrupulously to talk issues and past record and, best of all, even bring humor to the table while others were known to traffic in run-on sentences, platitudes and meaningless rah-rah.

On the subject of transit and how to sell regional transit to the counties, Jon Baliles pointed to the Broad Street corridor labeled in purple on the map and said, "We need to convince the people along the purple route that bus is not a four-letter word."

Boom. And, make no mistake, by "people," he means NIMBY-type white people.

Asked about increasing the city's walkability and bikability, Baliles reminded the sold-out crowd that, "Everyone knows Richmonders are equally bad at walking, biking and driving." Affirmations like we were in church abounded.

Even when reminiscing about the James when he was a boy growing up in Stratford Hills, he managed to elicit a laugh when he said, "Back then, you didn't go in the river for fear you'd grow a second head."

No, where the Presidential debate and Richmond's Mayorathon dovetailed was that any sentient voter could plainly see there was only one viable option to lead. Even the other candidates knew it.

When asked about who they'd want on their team if elected, three of them chose Baliles. Duh. Let's hope Richmond voters in five districts are that savvy in November.

Next to me was a couple who moved to the Fan from London two weeks ago with a table and chairs ("It's a long story," they said in unison when I asked), yet here they were, out trying to learn about the people who want to run their adopted city.

Leaning in, he asked me, "We're new here. Is there a runoff if no one candidate gets at east 50% of the vote?"

I explained that if no candidate gets a majority in at least 5 of the 9 districts, there most certainly is a runoff and he seemed satisfied with that as we exited the auditorium.

Using the warm, humid and breezy night that we agreed felt like beach weather as an excuse, Mac and I ditched the post-debate reception at the museum for the greener pastures of Meadow and Park, where we could hear Janis Joplin blaring from Garnett's open windows and doors from a block away.

Inside, the air was every bit as beach-like as outside, but the music was even more enjoyable at close range and we could sup and sip while rehashing Richmond's political spectacle and the folly of a proposed riverfront project to turn the wilderness of one of our favorite walking destinations, Chapel Island, into a manicured, concrete "park."

Our sense of being at peace with the world eating strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting in the soft night air while Jefferson Airplane blared only encouraged us to believe that yes, we can elect a mayor who will move Richmond forward without selling out or diluting what makes this place so distinctive and livable.

He's only got one head, but tonight proved that was plenty. Baliles is our guy. Even the Londoners said so.