Richmond’s population on the grow By Jeremy M. Lazarus
The last time majority-black Richmond recorded more than 221,000 residents was 1979, a time when the city’s population was shrinking from “white flight” to the suburbs. The city’s population peaked at 250,000
people in 1970 following the annexation of part of Chesterfield County. But almost immediately the population began to fall as Please turn to A5
Richmond Free Press
VOL. 24 NO. 35
© 2015 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
ee Fr
Fr ee
More people want to live in Richmond. For the first time in nearly four decades, based on the current rate of growth, Rich-
mond’s population could top 221,000 people when the U.S. Census Bureau releases its new city and county population estimates in January — up at least 17,000 people from the official 2010 census.
August 27-29, 2015
‘Why is this happening?’ Newborn baby taken from mother in hospital
Bike races hit bumps on the way to big start
By Jeremy M. Lazarus
“I was way beyond up upset. All I could think is ‘why is this happening?’ I never got any explanation. They just came in and took my baby.” So said 41-year-old Jane Doe in the wake of a shocking action: Richmond Department of Social Services employees, with police in tow, seized her healthy newborn daughter at Henrico Doctors’ Hospital where she was born. (The names of the mother, father and daughter are being withheld to protect their privacy.) Since Wednesday, Aug. 19, when the social workers came, Ms. Doe has not even been allowed to see her baby, who has been placed with a foster family who have no relation to her. The father also has not been permitted contact with his child. Ms. Doe said she was even barred from providing pumped breast milk for the child because she said a social worker told her that her milk was causing the baby to have diarrhea, which seems to fly in the face of the current government campaign to
By Joey Matthews
The city’s grand plan to showcase itself to the world for the 2015 UCI Road World Championships is hitting some speed bumps. First, there are lingering money issues. Richmond 2015 — the organizing group for the bike races that will run from Sept. 19 through 27 — acknowledged this week it is still about 15 percent or about $3.15 million shy of the $21 million needed to pay for the event. The group hopes to collect most of the remaining funds from the sale of merchandise, concession fees, beer sales, VIP tickets and TV rights fees, Paul Shanks, the Richmond 2015 spokesperson, told the Free Press on Tuesday. Next, a bike share system the city hoped to launch prior to the world championships remains stalled. The system would have allowed people to pay a fee and check out bicycles from docking stations, returning them after their usage time ended. The city, state and federal entities that are helping to pay the cost have yet to ink an agreement on the project. Until there is a deal, the city cannot award a contract to a bike share vendor. Officials have said it could take months for an accord to be reached. The latest snafu: Monroe Park has been dropped as a gathering site for race spectators. It was to have giant-screen TVs, food, beverages and entertainment in hopes of attracting thousands of students from nearby Virginia Commonwealth University and residents from neighboring communities. The loss could reduce the number of local people who could be counted for attendance purposes. Richmond hopes that up to 50,000 people a day from this area and beyond will turn out to view the competition. Race officials said a sponsor to fund the cost of the Monroe Park viewing site decided instead to help fund another space along the route. Race officials said they still believe throngs of fans will converge on Monroe Park to socialize and cheer on racers, but it is less certain now. Still, the loss of Monroe Park is an embarrassment to the city, which spent $73,000 to install new cement sidewalks in and around the park and damaged 300 feet of the park’s underground irrigation system in the process. That spending now appears to have been a waste of money. Mayor Dwight C. Jones and his then-
Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Celebrating ‘The Black Cyclone’ This new mural in Jackson Ward pays homage to forgotten American cycling superstar — Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor. Richmond artist Sir James Thornhill created the colorful mural featuring the two-wheel racing phenom. Location: 1st and Marshall streets. Dubbed “The Black Cyclone,” Mr. Taylor broke the color barrier in the sport in the 1890s when bike racing was a big deal in this country and Europe. Despite bigoted competitors attempts to injure him, he ranked as the fastest cyclist in the world into the early 1900s. The cycling Hall of Famer set seven world records and won 117 of his 168 races, while placing second in the rest. He reportedly earned $30,000 a year in his prime, an immense sum for the period.
Minimum pay rising as area businesses compete for workers
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
A mother cuddles her newborn before a city social worker arrived to take the baby.
Sources: Upset GRTC drivers slow bus service Free Press staff report
Richard Walker is seeing more job opportunities with higher pay in the Richmond area. “I got a call from a jobseeker Monday and directed him to Chipotle,” said Mr. Walker, head of Bridging the Gap in Virginia, which aids ex-offenders. “I heard they were hiring a lot of people at good wages.” Indeed, they are, along with other Richmond area restaurants, stores and other businesses, signaling a recovering economy. And the competition for workers is starting to force businesses to offer wages far higher than the federal and state minimum of $7.25 an hour. Two years ago, many people thought fast food workers demonstrating for a $15 minimum wage were crazy. And Virginia’s Republican-dominated General Assembly called raising the minimum wage a job-killer. But with demand for lower-wage workers heating up, many businesses are ratch-
GRTC drivers, angry over a delay in receiving a pay raise, began an unsanctioned work action this week. According to sources, drivers have been refusing to work overtime while some have called in sick or failed to show up. The result is that buses have been parked rather than going out on routes, creating disruption for riders trying to get to work, make other appointments or return home. On one day this week, the runs for the Jefferson 45 route from Church Hill into Downtown started three hours late, according to a source. Carrie Rose Pace, a GRTC spokesperson, denied that bus service was being disrupted. “I’m not aware of any of that happening,” she told the Free Press on Wednesday. The action is taking place even as GRTC officials and Frank Tunstall III, president and business agent for Local
Please turn to A5
Please turn to A4
By Joey Matthews
Please turn to A5
‘Doing God’s work’ at The Healing Place By Joey Matthews
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
Al Jackson, the program director at The Healing Place.
Al Jackson drank alcohol, snorted cocaine and smoked crack cocaine for 24 years. “I was suicidal, I was lost and I had no hope,” he recalls of those dark days. Today, he’s celebrating 15 years of sobriety and serves as the program director at The Healing Place on South Side. It is a long-term recovery facility for Richmond area men 18 and older who are seeking treatment for alcoholism or drug addiction. “It’s not about me,” said Mr. Jackson, who oversees recovery programs at the facility at 700 Dinwiddie Ave. “It’s about helping those men coming behind me. I’ve been where they’ve been. I see this as doing God’s work. He has restored me back to sanity.” He says he got sober after he entered The Healing Place program in Louisville, Ky. “I was pretty much in the gutter by then,” he said. “My life has never been the same since then,” he said.
Mr. Jackson is now married with children and grandchildren. He has been in his leadership post at the Richmond Healing Place for 10 years. The Healing Place operates under the umbrella of CARITAS, a Richmond-based shelter provider for homeless people. The facility opened in 2005 after the Richmond
Task Force on Homelessness identified a major need for addiction recovery resources for homeless men in Richmond, according to The Healing Place website. Men usually stay from eight to 10 months in Please turn to A4
He’s helping released jail inmates get services By Joey Matthews
Devon Simmons said he gets deep satisfaction from helping inmates leaving local jails gain a new lease on life. “Instead of warehousing them, we need to provide them with more services to give them a better chance to succeed after they are released,” he said. The 30-year-old Buffalo, N.Y., native has that opportunity in his position as the first state re-entry coordinator in the office of Virginia Attorney General Please turn to A4
Mr. Simmons