House Show Community The Richmond Riverfront Plan

THE RICHMOND RIVERFRONT PLAN

the JAMes riVer hAs AlwAys been A CentrAl part of Richmond’s culture and youth, providing an escape into nature from the hectic city life. For years, the James has been underfunded and left to time, causing high pollution levels and a kind of general dirtiness. With an 830-acre project area, the Richmond Riverfront Plan offers to halt this negative build up and to reinvigorate both Richmond and the James River with both beauty and cultural power. Working as a foundation for the World Road Cycling Championships (Worlds), the Richmond Riverfront Plan will transform the already wonderful James River into a beautifully designed “great, wet Central Park.” With this awesome tourist attraction coming to fruition just in time for Worlds, which is the second biggest bike race other than the Tour de France, there is no telling how much good this renovation will do for the city of Richmond.

Instead of just taking all the good land around the James River and developing it into expensive high rise apartments, the City of Richmond is using a combination of green spaces, better foot paths and general infrastructural developments to harness the Richmond’s most powerful “green” resource and create a nature filled center to our “hip” city. As a huge fan of both Richmond and the James River, I am very excited to see what effects these wonderful changes will have on our great river city. From a city not known for its environmental standards, this game-changing plan will have almost exclusively positive impacts on our city life and especially our river life.

BY DANIEL POTES