Black Pride RVA B2
Richmond Free Press © 2018 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 27 NO. 30
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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Meet winner of national poetry award B1
July 26-28, 2018
Economic injustice? Report shows city spending with minority-owned businesses has dropped nearly 48 percent since 2014 By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
Gwendolyn Harris holds a notice from Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority telling her she must come to the Creighton Court management office to sign a lease amendment that embodies the new regulation banning smoking.
Nerves on edge as smoking ban takes effect in RRHA housing By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Gwendolyn Harris doesn’t smoke. But the 54-year-old Creighton Court resident is concerned that friends in the East End public housing community who do soon may have to choose between their nicotine habit or facing fines and potential eviction. She expressed her concern just days before a smoking ban goes into effect Monday, July 30, at government-owned housing in Richmond and across the country.
Ms. Harris is one of the few residents to publicly oppose the ban on smoking inside public housing apartments and within 25 feet of any window, door, balcony or staircase of such property. “I agree that smoking is an addiction and that the (Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority’s) offer of help to those residents to quit was a great gesture,” Ms. Harris stated in a letter to the Free Press. Please turn to A4
From the mayor’s office to key positions at City Hall, African-Americans continue to play big roles in Richmond’s government. But the issue of city spending with black businesses and the promotion of black inclusion, inexplicably, appears to be taking a backseat to other priorities, with Mayor Levar M. Stoney having publicly spoken little about inclusion and economic justice during his 18-month tenure. Evidence of the City Hall retreat on black business inclusion can be found in the annual reports on the share of city spending with minority businesses. Four years ago, City Hall reported buying 15 percent of its goods and services from minority businesses, the largest percentage in years, according to a review of city data dating to the 1990s. But since that 2014 peak, businesses owned by AfricanAmericans, Asian-Americans, Latinos and Native Americans have seen their share of city procurement slide backward, dropping to 9 percent in 2017, the most recent year for which city data is available. Mayor Stoney’s first year in office also was 2017. In actual dollars, the city’s spending with minority businesses declined from $54.2 million in 2014 to $28.2 million in 2017, a nearly 48 percent drop, data from the city’s Office of Minority Business Development show. African-American-owned businesses, which yearly win 70 percent to 80 percent of
Sen. Kaine, GOP opponent spar during first campaign debate Free Press wire report
Steve Helber/Associated Press
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, left, gestures during the debate last Saturday with his Republican opponent, Corey Stewart. The event, held at The Homestead resort in Hot Springs, was sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association.
HOT SPRINGS Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican Corey Stewart, candidates in Virginia’s U.S. Senate race, had a quarrelsome first debate last Saturday, with President Trump serving as a frequent focal point of the sparring. Mr. Stewart, an outspoken acolyte of President Trump and one-time state chairman of Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, accused Sen. Kaine of being an ineffective elitist who puts his opposition to the president above all other considerations. He said Trumpbacked tax cuts and increases in military spending were helping Virginia’s working class and chided Sen. Kaine for not being more supportive. “Whether it’s good for Virginia or bad for Virginia, he opposes everything that President Trump does automatically,” Mr. Stewart said. Sen. Kaine, a former vice presiden-
tial candidate seeking his second term in Washington, said he has worked with Mr. Trump on areas of common agreement but always puts Virginia’s interests first. Sen. Kaine said he is a needed check against the president. The debate, sponsored by the Virginia Bar Association and held at the posh Homestead Resort in Bath County, featured plenty of sharp exchanges and was often punctuated by boos and jeers from the crowd. Previous VBA debates have been much more staid. The audience burst into laughter when Mr. Stewart said President Trump was “standing up” to Russia. “If there’s anything that demonstrates the difference between us, it’s Corey Stewart standing up here and saying that President Trump is standing up to the Russians,” Sen. Kaine said. “President Trump is caving to the Russians.”
The Richmond Police Department has turned over its report on the investigation of the fatal shooting of Marcus-David Peters to the Richmond Commonwealth’s
Attorney’s Office. Now it’s up to Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring to determine whether Officer Michael Nyantakyi will be charged criminally or whether his actions in shooting the high school biology
contracts to African-American businesses, or 6.8 percent of the city’s $304 million in spending. The decline in such spending came despite the work of the OMBD. Patricia Foster, who directs the office, stated, “OMBD’s programs and services are focused on increasing MBE participating and helping minority businesses grow.” That includes providing technical assistance classes, hosting business conferences, conducting Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Richmond City Council doesn’t want the city to be responsible for any additional expenses for the Washington NFL team training camp at 2401 W. Leigh St.
Officials mum on future of training camp By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Will Washington’s pro football team hold a summer training camp in Richmond after 2020? That question is still unanswered as the NFL team returns to Virginia’s capital for the sixth season Thursday to begin a 19-day stay that will be capped by a youth football program on Tuesday, Aug. 14. Top officials in City Hall said Monday no new deal has been reached that would keep the team coming back after 2020, but talks with the team are continuing. The team agreed to hold its training camp in Richmond for eight seasons; its first visit was in 2013. “There was no requirement that a new deal be reached this month, as has been reported,” one key official said. “The team and the city only were required to hold a meeting before the end of this month, and that requirement was met. At this point, negotiations are ongoing.” Publicly, there has been no word from the football team, Mayor Levar M. Stoney or the city’s Economic Development Authority, Please turn to A4
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Police send Peters shooting report to commonwealth’s attorney By Ronald E. Carrington
the city’s spending with minority businesses, have seen city purchases from their businesses drop by 43 percent, according to the OMBD data. African-American businesses were awarded $36.4 million worth of city contracts in 2014 or about 10.3 percent of the city’s $352.2 million in procurement spending that year. In 2017, city spending with African-Americans had dropped $16 million from the peak. That year, the city awarded $20.6 million worth of
teacher were justified. Police officials said the report by the department’s Force Investigation Team was submitted on Monday and includes Please turn to A4
Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press
No ducks, just geese Elizabeth Rodriguez and her son, Carlos, 6, introduce the family’s latest addition, 9-month-old Jake, to a gaggle of geese last Sunday. The family was strolling in Byrd Park, feeding the ducks and geese.