Archive for November, 2006

Do They Walk the Walk?

Monday, November 27th, 2006

Has Richmond City Council really improved since the days of incarcerated councilpeople, backroom tax hike deals and PayGo scandals — do the people at City Hall truly want open and honest government?

We’ll get a big clue tonight.

Ellen Robertson, the councilperson for the 6th district, has introduced an ordinance that essentially makes all of the city’s various advisory “citizen committees” open and accountable to taxpapers.

Ord. No. 2006-157 (Patron: Mrs. Robertson) — To amend *** the *** Code *** to provide for rules governing advisory committees to require that such *** committees *** be open to the public *** post meeting notices *** record written minutes *** and report annually *** to *** the council ***.

Ellen Robertson’s record on transparency is decidedly mixed, no doubt, but her ordinance is a sound and common-sense move. How will your city councilperson vote?

Posted in Richmond in the news, moments of civic brilliance | No Comments »

CenterScheme

Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006

Well, it looks like the expensive branding consultants have been busy. Thanks to their feverish efforts — no doubt working late into the night and on weekends — Richmond’s controversial “Hole in the Ground” finally has an official name.

CenterStage.

Yep, identical to Baltimore’s performing arts center.

… and the same name as the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation’s old newsletter.

Quite a racket, that branding. Eh?

The Foundation (VAPAF) is currently claiming to have “raised” $45 million toward the opening of this CenterStage. Of course, most of this capital is public money they hope to obtain from Richmond city taxpayers while still retaining complete ownership of the Carpenter Center. On that score, the Foundation is so proud of its ongoing private fundraising effort that it refuses to disclose verifiable details about it. The last time VAPAF told the city to trust them and that everything was hunky-dory, Richmond found out, too late, that the group’s $68.8 million in claims turned out to be less than $1 million in reality.

So, for old times sake, you might want to have a pen handy when you read yesterday’s Times-Dispatch story on all of this. Feel free to write down the many questions that pop up in your head that are never addressed. And remember: it’s only millions in city tax dollars being wasted by a secretive, quasi-governmental entity that still doesn’t know what in the hell it is doing. That’s all. Don’t worry, be happy…

Excerpts below. Emphasis mine:

The planned arts center in downtown Richmond that once was touted as a statewide project now has a city-focused name.

The complex, which is being funded largely by city taxpayers, will be known as Richmond CenterStage.

It will include the Carpenter Center and several smaller venues, assuming that $9 million in private funds can be raised by the end of next month.

“Richmond is the center of the metropolitan area. This is for all of the metropolitan area, but it’s in the center city,” said Susan H. Fitz-Hugh, a member of the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation’s board of directors.

The complex had been tentatively called the Virginia Performing Arts Center, although project leaders had hoped to attract a private donation big enough to spur a name change. No such gift has yet materialized.

J. Robert Mooney, acting executive director of the arts foundation, said yesterday that the Richmond CenterStage name emerged after branding studies. CenterStage also was the name of the arts foundation’s old newsletter.

“We’re trying to be more geographically focused,” Mooney said.

The foundation also announced the names of two smaller venues at Richmond CenterStage. A 200-seat theater will be called the Libby Gottwald Community Playhouse in honor of the late Elisabeth Shelton Gottwald, a philanthropist and civic leader and the wife of Floyd Dewey Gottwald Jr., former chairman of the Ethyl and Albemarle corporations.

A multipurpose hall intended largely for local artists will be called Rhythm Hall. The hall, community playhouse and an arts-education center are planned for a home along East Grace Street in what is left of the former Thalhimers building, near Seventh Street.

So far, $11 million of the $20 million needed for those facilities has been raised from private donors, Mooney said. The foundation reports having raised the $45 million needed to renovate and expand the Carpenter Center.

The foundation announced three pledges totaling $2.5 million, but Mooney would not say which ones were recent. Dominion Resources Inc. promised $1.5 million, while Austin Ligon and an unnamed local foundation each committed $500,000.

The foundation has spent the past year working with a city committee to scale back the downtown project. The committee faces a Dec. 31 deadline to submit its final report to Mayor L. Douglas Wilder.

Construction is expected to start next year and finish by fall 2009.

W. Jerrold Samford, chairman of the Alliance for the Performing Arts, which represents about 30 local arts groups, said he believes the name Richmond CenterStage projects warmth and activity.

He acknowledged it could suggest an emphasis on professional theater that is not expected at the complex, but he noted that “lots of things are on stage, not just theater.”

Jean Boone, a member of the arts foundation board and the city’s arts committee, said she considers the name a little lackluster and noted there’s a CenterStage theater in Baltimore. “It’s not terribly original,” she said.

How’d you do?

Were these among the questions you jotted down?

1. Who did this study to rename the center, at what cost, and from what source was it paid (public or private funds)?

2. Do these branding experts see any confusion at all in potential patrons sorting out Carpenter Center vs. CenterStage?

3. Did the Commonwealth have an expectation that “Virginia” would be included as part of the name? Were state representatives consulted?

4. Can we assume from this story that no huge naming gift is expected… ever?

5. Can we assume from this story that, no matter what happens next month, the city will be funding this endeavor into perpetuity?

6. Does Richmond really intend on giving $25 million to the Foundation with no strings attached? Or are improvements to schools, sewers, jails, flood plans, etc. more important to fund at this time?

7. The Foundation has already wasted more than $7 million in tax dollars. What Richmond got in return was three years of high executive salaries, a slew of consultant expenses, a huge mudpit in the middle of downtown and a closed, boarded-up Carpenter Center. Will anyone involved with the Foundation ever be held accountable… or subject to serious oversight?

8. Does Jean Boone not realize that she has been a part of something called a “Performing Arts Committee” for more than a year and that she could’ve asked for public input into an “exciting” new name at any time?

9. If this complex will serve the entire metropolitan region, as the quoted VAPAF board member asserts, why is it not being regionally funded?

10. Is the mayor really going to stand for this?

UPDATE: Thanks to Richmond.com, we now know who is responsible for coming up with the brilliant name of “CenterStage.” A company called Brightmark can take the credit. They interviewed a whopping 90 Richmonders — I bet you can guess which ones — to justify their groundbreaking conclusion.

Emphasis mine:

The one-on-one sessions that Brightmark conducted with Richmond citizens, Mooney said, confirmed the foundation’s belief that the arts complex was really about the city’s citizens. And the name - Richmond CenterStage - is meant to connote that the complex is in the center of the city and the arts district, Mooney said.

… as opposed to, say, the planet Mars?

Posted in sheer terror, something smells funny in here | No Comments »

Gone to Lunch

Monday, November 20th, 2006

Please forgive the silence. Your humble narrator is in the middle of what some might call a blogging siesta; a momentary respite from the world of WordPress. While we re-gather our sensibilities, please enjoy a still-relevant “Save Richmond Classic.”

Today, we present a little fable-dispeller from earlier this year titled “Myth of the Performing Arts Center: Doug Did It!”

This blast from the past, which traces the blame game surrounding Richmond’s downtown “hole in the ground,” is a can’t-fail conversation-starter, perfect for cocktail parties, rotary functions, even future Richmond City Council meetings. Enjoy!

Posted in the free press, whiners with websites | No Comments »

The Beautiful Blue Dot

Saturday, November 11th, 2006

Here are 10 random thoughts on a most memorable Election season:

10. Arizona is more tolerant than Virginia. ‘Nuff said.

9. Do whiny teeth taste good?: Jim Webb bests George “Something in my Throat” Allen in the Virginia senate race, handing control of the U.S. Senate to the Democrats. A most improbable challenger against a nearly-unbeatable incumbent. But we said it early on: It was going to take a conservative to beat an ultra-conservative in Virginia, even with an unpopular ultra-conservative President.

8. … and the slow-counting votes of the City of Richmond reportedly assist in putting Jim Webb over the top at the very end. If you’ll recall, a host of Richmond-area blogs (including this humble space) pleaded with Webb’s campaign to begin holding rallies to shore up his support in R-Town and not simply to rely on Northern Virginia votes. Look at the map — we’re like a beautiful blue dot in a sea of red. Like a piece of icing.

[And, yes, you people who would deny me my election day illusions: I know that Richmond City would have voted blue no matter what. But Allen didn't win the surrounding counties in a cakewalk, by any means.]

7. While Virginia shows great horsesense in voting Allen out of office, voters choose to remain with status quo GOP incumbents in most of the House races. Ah, the power of constituent politics.

6. Does anyone remember when Virginia led the nation in visionary leadership, rather than trailed the country by stubbornly clinging to outmoded, failed models of governing? That’s a rhetorical question.

5. Speaking of outmoded ideas, Bruce “the Business Community” Tyler wins over Paul Goldman (and Tom Vance and Dan Wilkins and Mark Pounders) in Richmond’s contentious First District council race.

4. Prediction: Newly-elected councilperson Tyler will soon propose yet another “feet to the fire” fundraising extension for his friends in the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation. He will announce that he is confident that the Carpenter Center can reopen by at least the year 2020, “maybe sooner.” Projected future quote: “No, seriously, if we just let them raise the money, they can raise the money. But until they do raise it, the Foundation is probably going to need a little loan. Say, $20-$30 mil.” Stay tuned…

3. Reva Trammell takes over her old city council seat in a rematch with Jackie Jackson in the 8th — leading a petulant Manoli “Booty Told Me to Call” Loupassi to lecture the people of that district, with a straight face, about how he defines”good government” and “not good government.” Remember: If you are scoring at home using Loupassi’s recent yardsticks, supporting homophobic head cases like Brad Marrs and making robo attack calls is “good government.” Anyone who would stray from the strict doctrine of Manny’s GOP bosses in the “business community” — Katherine Waddell, Paul Goldman and, now, Reva Trammell — is a practitioner of “not so good government.” Of course, “Ol’ Loup” knows full well why Trammell won and Jackson lost: Basic constituent politics. “I think people tried to make me Reva,” Jackie Jackson told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “They tried to make me show up at people’s housing when people were shot or show up at crime scenes, and that just wasn’t who I was.” Case closed.

2. In addition to Trammell’s victory, Doug Conner will take over the 9th district seat from Eugene Mason. I say any shake up in the council is a good thing given the scary prospects of a Council President Graziano or Council President Pantele — and one of those will probably happen anyway. I wasn’t the only one who thought the clearly mediocre, follow-the-crowd-while-chasing-the-skirts Mason slept through half of the council sessions. Good riddance.

1. It is worth following the post-election coverage just to read the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Ross Mackenzie whine about Richmond’s blogging community (it seems that blogs “polarize the electorate and push it into niches too often sanctuaries of the mean”). You know which”mean” blogs he is referring to— those that covered local politics far more consistently than the mainstream news organizations this go around. Coming from a man whose editorial sanctuary waged an election week propaganda assault against Jim Webb that was disgraceful even by its own previously rotten standards, this isn’t just normal whining. This is classic, priceless, I-was-just-forced-to-swallow-my-whining-teeth whining. This is Do-as-I-Say-Not-As-I’ve-Done-For-Decades whining. Admit it: Being schooled by Ross Mackenzie on the subject of “niceness” is not unlike having Paris Hilton lecture you on proper public decorum. It is at least as disorienting as having Manoli Loupassi wave a finger in your face while pontificating on “good government.”

I think I know what Ross is getting at, though. To do it the RTD way, one must combine “meanness” with a logic so skewed and distorted that it turns into mental gloop with the intellectual consistency of Squid Soup. Like in yesterday’s paper, where it is implied that young people who use MySpace and Friendster as social communication tools are stupid. The proof? F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote “The Great Gatsby” when he was in his ’20s and these people on MySpace did not.

Um…

Not to be “mean,” Ross, but when did you say you were retiring?

Posted in Richmond in the news | No Comments »

The Future in the Balance

Monday, November 6th, 2006

Final thoughts on the big day tomorrow, and some things to consider before entering the voting booth:

1. As important as the Webb-Allen race is to the future of Virginia, I believe that the final vote tally on the so-called “Marriage Amendment” is just as important. The writing of hatred and intolerance into our state constitution would send a mighty signal to both outsiders (hello big 2007 tourism push!) and in-state residents who believe in equality and diversity. But whichever way it turns out, we already know who the real losers are here in Metro Richmond when it comes to this proposed amendment — those businesses and business co-ops that continue to invite outside voices of tolerance to the city (at great expense) to preach about fostering a climate of creativity and modernity. These deep-pocketed forum sponsors and wine-sipping lip-servers seem to have infinite resources when it comes to talking the talk. Those forces have been strangely silent when it comes to walking the walk. There is a word for this and it is hypocrisy.

2. A vote to return Eric Cantor to the House of Representatives is a vote for Dennis Hastert and the more egregious impulses of the worst, most corrupt, laziest Congress in American history. The national Dems may have underfunded and disregarded Cantor’s opponent James Nachman, but Nachman deserves your vote. House speaker Hastert’s hand-picked protege Cantor was not only one of the lobbyist-suckling “Abramoff Gang,” he has consistently shown himself to be a strident voice for intolerance (see marriage amendment above) and a slavish waterboy for corporate waste and corruption. Send him packing.

3. I don’t think it is an understatement to say that what happens in the Virginia senatorial campaign race will determine whether the U.S. Senate remains in GOP hands. If you actually think that James Webb is a “dirty” book writer or a “Nancy Pelosi liberal,” you either haven’t read his books… or know absolutely nothing about his stance on the issues other than what Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh has told you. For the record, I don’t agree with Webb on everything he stands for. But I agree with the Washington Post’s assessment of things, when that newspaper endorsed Webb over George Allen in the race [excerpt below]:

Mr. Allen lacks [Webb's] independent-mindedness. He has spent his time in the Senate in lock step with the Bush administration, embracing tax cuts that have imperiled the nation’s fiscal health; subsidies for oil and gas companies that hardly needed the help; prisoner detention policies that have undercut America’s image abroad; and restrictions on embryonic stem cell research despite its medical potential.

Many of the initiatives that Mr. Allen has undertaken in the Senate are the easy stuff — relatively noncontroversial measures that lavish money and favors on his constituents. Nothing wrong with that, if it’s part of a broader record of accomplishment. But while Mr. Allen has proposed some worthwhile bills — for instance, to expand investment in nanotechnology and to help historically black colleges and universities upgrade their telecommunications infrastructure — his legislative contributions have been marginal at best. He is no one’s idea of a heavyweight in the Senate.

Virginians deserve better and more enlightened representation. Mr. Webb offers that hope.

Hear, Hear!!!

4. I have to admit that I disagree with those who say that Richmond’s City Council is “better” than it was before. Maybe on the surface. All I see are people willing to use taxpayer funds to fund their own campaign propaganda, to use their votes and their influence to service their biggest campaign contributors and to pay attention to their constituents only when there is an election currently before them. It’s nice to see candidate Patrick Kjellberg finally wake up in the 2nd district and begin hammering Bill “Party Patrol” Pantele on his consistent enabling of the wasteful and secretive Virginia Performing Arts Foundation. On that issue alone — either we have standards in this community when it comes to accountability and fiscal responsibility or we don’t — he deserves your vote. Ellen Robertson (6th), Delores McQuinn (7th), Jackie Jackson (8th) and Eugene Mason (9th) have also reneged on their duties when it comes to aiding these kind of insider deals — the net result of their efforts (or inaction) will be millions potentially wasted at a time when Richmond has some serious choices to make involving the use of city resources. Ask yourself what our community’s priorites should be before you cast your vote for any of those people. (And a vote for Silver Persinger in the 5th would send a strong signal to Marty Jewell that he needs to fully live up to his campaign rhetoric when his future council votes are cast — go Silver!)

In the 1st District, where I reside, the choice for which candidate doesn’t deserve to be elected is clear. A vote for Bruce Tyler is an affirmation that Richmond should continue to be run from the smoky back room, and ultimately controlled by a small cabal of unelected business leaders — many of them from Chesterfield County. As River City Rapids recently revealed, Tyler sent a special campaign mailer to residents in the affluent Windsor Farms area promising them special designation if elected. He sent the citizens in other sectors no such special letters of patronage. How much more proof do you need that the “business community” candidate would serve as the council representative for an elite few?

It’s no secret that I’m supporting Democrat Paul Goldman in the race — the underhanded effort by “Booty” Armstrong and his “business community” to undermine Goldman’s campaign says much about how desperate Tyler’s well-heeled supporters are to install him as “their” rep. Paul Goldman is not only the most outspoken, he’s the most qualified. But 1st District voters who are uncertain about Goldman also have other viable choices on the ballot. I have consistently been impressed by Tom Vance, a straight-shooter who is able to balance a “business-friendly” philosophy with common sense and actual ideas (such as his reasonable notions about the Landmark Theatre and Virginia Commonwealth University). The district can count itself lucky to have actual choices available to them in this race. Other districts are stuck with the likes of Kathy Graziano (4th) no matter what they do.

Tuesday is a big day indeed — for the city, for Virginia and for the nation. Cast your vote wisely and well.

Posted in Richmond in the news, come the revolution... | No Comments »

Wrong for 150 Years

Sunday, November 5th, 2006

Since the earliest days of this blog, Save Richmond has asserted that the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial page is intellectually dishonest. This has almost nothing to do with its being conservative — some conservative political writing is excellent and worthy of your attention. But the RTD propaganda department has consistently shown itself to be a shilling mouthpiece for the rightest wing of the Republican party and an enabler for the worst products of Richmond’s status quo.

If you needed proof of that, just look at their “coverage” this past week: an avalanche of increasingly shrill and hysterical editorials against James Webb. Today, we are treated to another Ross Mackenzie “hit” piece on the Democratic candidate, this time emblazoned (in the print edition) with a huge grainy photograph of senate candidate Webb with their favorite punching bag, Hillary Clinton. [And as Snoopy points out at River City Rapids, all of this is accompanied by a tortured explanation of the op ed page's endorsement "process."]

Shameful? Yes. Independent? Are you joking? Out of character? Sadly, no.

Don’t forget that this same editorial team came out against Governor Tim Kaine in similar fashion. If you want to go back further, please note that it was this paper’s editorial page that aided and abetted racism and segregation in the 1960s.

And we simply can’t forget their most notorious endorsement: The 1989 “giant inky squid” attack on L. Douglas Wilder before he became the first elected African-American governor since Reconstruction. We present that wonderful piece of reasoning yet again, if only to show you how these people have been consistently wrong — and relentlessly partisan — for 150 years. They are wrong again this election cycle too. At least they are consistent.

You can read that 1989 editorial comparing Wilder to a squid here. A key excerpt:

Doug Wilder is a mass of contradictions—unreliable, wishy-washy, and squishy-soft. Regarding such key issues as taxes, drugs, VMI, even abortion, he refuses to take a straightforward stand. On the issues, Wilder has behaved like a giant squid—concealing many of his positions in a vast inky cloud.

Richmond Talks Back has an excellent essay on “The Curious Political Vocabulary of Ross Mackenzie.” That most-worthy blog also has another critical essay on the paper’s asinine endorsement process that is well worth reading.

Posted in politricks, the free press | No Comments »

The Answers

Saturday, November 4th, 2006

Hooray for Snoopy!

They say it couldn’t be done, but the mastermind behind the excellent River City Rapids blog has convinced four of the five 1st District City Council candidates — Paul Goldman, Mark Pounders, Bruce Tyler and Tom Vance — to answer detailed questions and give voters an upclose look at their priorities and how they would govern. You can access these interviews right here. I daresay that any voter who hopes to go beyond the deluge of campaign mailers, yard signs, tired rhetoric and smear-tactic robo calls to get straight to the burning issues facing the city needs to read these responses to Snoop’s queries. (As for missing candidate Dan Wilkins, what’s the deal, Dan?)

Here are some short excerpts below — highlighting one of the hot-burning topics that we’ve been writing about here at Save Richmond: The Virginia Performing Arts Foundation’s never-ending arts center debacle. Pay attention to which politician avoids the question and which friend of the “business community” plans to continue enabling and endlessly funding the secretive, wasteful Foundation if elected — and at the city’s expense. If either of these two answers shows “fiscal responsibility” or “independent leadership,” then Little Milton was right: Mona Lisa was a man.

As a member of Council, would you vote to appropriate the $23 million in promised public funds for the arts center project if the city does not regain ownership of the land? Should the city request a detailed itemization of the costs for the Carpenter Center before allocating the funds?

Paul Goldman: The days of giving away the public’s money and keeping your fingers crossed is over. The whole Stop Goldman campaign being run against me is based on the fact that I am not beholden to any person or group, that I have the knowledge and ability to hold people accountable in a way never before done by City Council.

The Mayor, in creating his Arts Committee, said certain questions would be answered before the City could justify going into debt and putting in tens of millions for this project. Of course he is right to protect the public’s money. Those questions have yet to be answered.

Ownership issues are only some of the outstanding matters. The oversight of the construction is one of those outstanding issues, since the wrong process can cost taxpayers millions, at least potentially. I will not support giving money to a private group and crossing your fingers in hope they spend it right. We have done that repeatedly with the people’s money and have lost millions.

Mark Pounders: This has always been a complicated question and without having a defined plan in place, I do not feel that it would be fair to blanketly answer the first part of the question. There are a great deal of “what if’s.” As for the second part the answer is, yes.

Bruce Tyler: I would prefer that the City of Richmond not own the land (building) for the arts center and that it remains in the hands of a non-profit entity. I believe the City has it’s plate full with other projects (as outlined by the City of the Future) and we need to let the citizens of the our metropolitan area fund this project.

That being said , if the City of Richmond funds the Carpenter Center I would expect a detailed breakdown of the all of the funds allocated for this project. With my experience as an architect, services on non-profit boards and my business experiences I will be able to look at the project financials to determine if the funds are being spent appropriately.

Tom Vance: No, I wouldn’t. I like the idea of the City owning it then leasing it to the VAPAF. I haven’t seen anything to give me a warm feeling about how the VAPAF spends its money. Not that they can’t, just that they haven’t. Now on the other hand I have been very impressed with Dr. Trani’s work in developing and revitalizing VCU’s surrounding area. I have suggested that Richmond consider giving the Landmark Theater to VCU - think about it - in the RTD 2 weeks ago there was a great rendering of the Monroe Park area and VCU’s plans - and there in the background is the Landmark with its sad marquis. VCU is here for the long haul and certainly seems up for helping Richmond, let’s see if they’re up for one more project.

A detailed itemization and timeline for completion is requisite to funding any project, not just the Carpenter Center. Those in leadership on the VAPAF certainly wouldn’t run their businesses (or those in which they invest) without one.

Posted in Richmond in the news, the free press | No Comments »

Wilder Defends Goldman

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

In the 1st District City Council robo-call wars, I think it’s safe to say that the biggest, loudest and most surprising telephone message was delivered to voters this evening:

Hi, I’m Doug Wilder. Three years ago I defended 1st District Republican Tom Bliley from false attacks. You deserve the truth — this year the false attacks come from Republican Bruce Tyler’s campaign. They say that independent democrat Paul Goldman didn’t help Munford Elementary. That’s not true. Paul’s the one who convinced me and City Council to fix Munford and other 1st District schools.

Perhaps the mayor finally realized that, while the ongoing Bruce Tyler-Manoli Loupassi-”Booty” Armstrong smear campaign has been aimed squarely at Paul Goldman’s candidacy, the real target of their robo calls and expensive campaign mailers is the elected mayor’s pledge to reform Richmond and give power back to all city taxpayers — not just millionaire developers, grocery store magnates and bow-tied investment strategists.

While this call on behalf of Paul Goldman isn’t an endorsement per se, I daresay that it is the closest thing to it. And given the bad blood that has developed between the mayor and his former campaign chief / advisor Goldman in recent months, I’d say the message was heartfelt (does Wilder ever do anything he doesn’t want to do?).

I certainly didn’t see this one coming. “Booty”’s gang probably didn’t either. Good one, Mr. Mayor.

Posted in moments of civic brilliance | No Comments »

Desperation Time in the 1st District

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

For a prime example of just how desperate “the business community” is to stop Paul Goldman’s candidacy in the 1st District City Council race, all one need do is pick up the telephone when it rings.

Early Thursday evening, voters received a somewhat hysterical “robo call” from current 1st District office holder and all-purpose “Who Runs Richmond” waterboy Manoli Loupassi, pleading with the district’s voters to elect Bruce Tyler:

“With the election on Tuesday, I’m asking you to join me in voting for Bruce Tyler to replace me on city council. It’s critical that we unite behind Bruce Tyler because we face the prospect of electing Paul Goldman, a divisive figure who repeatedly attacks Richmond’s most respected business leaders. Right now, the race is between Bruce Tyler and Paul Goldman. This is Manoli Loupassi, reminding you to vote for Bruce Tyler on Tuesday. This call is paid for by Bruce Tyler For City Council.”

Loupassi’s phone message came the same day many in the 1st District received a slick mailer that went on and on about how “independent” Bruce Tyler, the “business community”’s candidate, is. Uh-huh. Sure.

It’s worth recalling that Manoli Loupassi pledged not to endorse anyone for 1st District City Councilman at the beginning of the race. I guess the pile of cold hard campaign cash offered up by “Booty” Armstrong, Chesterfield developers and bitter ex-Virginia Performing Arts Foundation executives overruled all of his previous promises and convictions. It seems that the “honorable” Mr. Loupassi is hoping to become the next Virginia delegate for the 68th district. His fundraising prowess speaks for itself — and this success is largely due to ol’ Loup’s longstanding, ah, willingness to please favored constituents, even when that involves raising your taxes.

Like this special gift he gave his friends in 2003, a little something that you and I have to contend with each and every time we buy a meal in the city of Richmond:

“I’m going to support [raising the meals tax]. It is a decision I have reached after a tremendous amount of thought about all the issues — as everyone knows, I’m not sure this is how we should have funded [the performing arts center]… Things are very rapidly turning a corner [in Richmond]— Mr. City Manager, you should be commended for the work that you’ve done.” —Councilman G. Manoli Loupassi, Richmond City Council, July 2003

If you got Manoli’s gravely-voiced message tonight, save it to put in the time capsule. It’s desperation time for the city’s “old guard” — their vision of Richmond city government as a fertile field of connected “deals” and insider-trades at the expense of the rest of us hangs in the balance. Listening to Loupassi’s spiel, you can practically feel the beads of sweat coming off of the faces of those who still hope to “run” Richmond. He’s right about one thing: This one race is about the future of the city — whether we go backward to the recent past when a small cabal of unelected insiders determined public policy behind closed doors… or not.

Luckily, Paul Goldman is no stranger to the world of political ambushes. He had his own “robo call” out, answering Loupassi’s shameful attack, within hours. This counterpunch featured Richmond Circuit Court Clerk (and 1st District resident) Bevill Dean, who lamented the fact that Goldman was getting bushwacked in such a crass and unfair manner (remember that Mr. Loupassi had formerly claimed that Goldman’s plan to overhaul Richmond’s school system was “brilliant”). Mr. Dean told voters that asking tough questions about the affordability of a $100 million arts center is hardly anti-business. It is in fact “pro-taxpayer.”

Apparently, there are some people in the 1st District who have to be reminded of such things.

[And if you want to know why issues surrounding the Virginia Performing Arts Foundation are still so important, from accountability to financing, look no further than today's Times-Dispatch story on the latest announcement from the Foundation concerning its future plans — #197 in an ever-shifty series. Please note the many discrepancies between the Foundation's latest financial report and reality... the latest promises that there will be details "next month" while other assertions go curiously unverified... the continued shameless pandering to "the children"... the ongoing battle over who will "control" the Carpenter Center and how the Foundation hopes to spend more than $20 million of "City of the Future" money while still maintaining ownership and complete stewardship of the historic theatre. It's still quite a boondoggle, folks, and don't think who will be elected to sit on the next council isn't relevant to how everything will turn out. I've said it before and I'll say it again: If this scheme is allowed to fly, with no checks and balances and with the public shut out of the process, then Richmond will officially have no standard for future public-private deals. It's just that simple.]

In the end, as this blog has predicted all along, the 1st District race is coming down to the Foundation and the millions in taxpayer money that have been wasted by Bruce Tyler’s well-heeled supporters— and the millions they believe are waiting to be played with still. If you haven’t noticed by now, they get by with a little help from their friends.

Posted in our social betters, politricks | No Comments »

Still at the Crossroads

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

In its current issue, Style Weekly puts recent events involving the city’s “business community” into wide-screen perspective.

The piece mentions Richmond At the Crossroads,” a 1993 consultant’s study that will be familiar to longtime Save Richmond readers — one of many such studies that R-Town’s “business community” has commissioned over the years with findings and recommendations that have either been totally ignored or (in this case) forgotten about and misinterpreted.

Excerpts:

New Connections
How the business community lost its hold on city politics.
by Scott Bass

The decentralization of city politics and the creation of the ward system in the late 1970s systematically changed how Richmond’s business elite influenced city politics, Moeser says. Before the nine districts were created, the city’s corporate power brokers routinely handpicked City Council candidates and controlled City Hall with an iron fist.

By the mid-1990s, after North Carolina’s historic takeover of Richmond’s biggest banks, the business community slowly became even more disconnected. With the banks went some of the biggest law firms. Meanwhile, the tobacco industry was spiraling into a slow but steady decline.

Then came the Calvin Jamison years. Jamison, Richmond’s former city manager, had been a human-resources executive at Ethyl Corp. He was handpicked by former Richmond Mayor Timothy Kaine to take over City Hall.

In return, Jamison reconnected Richmond’s remaining corporate power brokers with city government. Through the political and business nonprofit group Richmond Renaissance, the business community, in many respects, took the lead on economic development projects, helping to create the Greater Richmond Convention Center and the Broad Street Community Development Authority, which issued millions of dollars in bonds to tear down 6th Street Marketplace and spruce up East Broad Street.

But Jamison left in December 2004, and the business community since has been in a more perverse state of flux. The relationship effectively ended when Mayor L. Douglas Wilder took office nearly two years ago. As Wilder dismantled the last major business community project, the downtown performing arts center, the result was the end of Richmond Renaissance, which no longer initiates economic development projects for the city and has since been rolled into a new organization called Venture Richmond.

It also meant tossing aside the manifesto created by James A. Crupi, a consultant hired by the business community in the early 1990s to gauge just how the city’s corporate fathers could become more involved in the city’s development. Crupi spent two months interviewing Richmond’s business leaders before issuing his 1993 report, “Back to the Future: Richmond at the Crossroads.”

In his assessment of Richmond, Crupi underscored the need for the city’s leaders to become more involved in the economic development of the city.

Of Richmond he wrote: “Its business community has seen the passing of an older generation of leaders who nurtured their business growth alongside of that of Richmond, and whose influence over the city’s political process was pervasive. That passage, along with changed economic circumstances, has left in its wake a disparate group of business leaders.”

In the last few weeks, the collective soul of the business community, if there is such a thing, has become even more active in the City Council races, and it’s manifested itself most visibly in the five-way race for 1st District. There, three of the city’s most prominent businessmen, Beverley W. “Booty” Armstrong, S. Buford Scott and Henry Valentine II, sent a campaign letter urging support for candidate Bruce Tyler as “the one candidate for City Council who has the business experience Richmond needs now.”

It may go down as ineffectual, but the response is significant for what it represents. In a rare move, three well-known campaign backers decided to discard the old Richmond way of doing things — remaining behind the scenes — and put themselves front and center in a hotly contested race.

Without City Hall, the public arena may be the only way for the business community to become involved in local politics.

While I would argue that backroom wheeling-dealing is still the method of choice for the city’s unelected power-brokers, there’s no doubt that this thoughtful piece offers up some interesting perspective on recent events. It also confirms what Save Richmond has been writing on these pages for some time — that the recent campaign to influence the 1st District City Council race and appoint Bruce Tyler to Council is all about keeping alive those closed-door “deals” benefiting an elite few that the rest of us always have to pay for.

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