June 29 july 1, 2017 issue

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Ramadan ends B4

Personality takes the lead B1

Richmond Free Press

VOL. 26 NO. 26

New Coliseum in the works? By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Where would the money come from? That was the unanswered question in 2011 when former Mayor Dwight C. Jones unveiled a $147 million proposal that went nowhere to replace the aging Richmond Coliseum — still the area’s largest single site for major concerts, religious gatherings and other events. And it is still the question today, according to members of City Council and others after public disclosure this week that a study group led by Dominion Energy’s Executive Chairman and CEO Thomas F. Farrell II is working behind the scenes on a new proposal. The onMr. Farrell line business news site, Richmond BizSense, broke the story on Tuesday. According to reports, Dominion, Altria and other corporate entities consider replacement of the Richmond Coliseum a major priority for the Richmond area. Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney has expressed interest, noting in a statement through spokesman Jim Nolan that “the Coliseum is a public asset that has become a public liability, costing taxpayers $1.6 million a year.” The subsidy has gone up as the operators, SMG/Johnson Inc., struggle to find bookings. Between now and December, only 20 dates are filled, according to the Coliseum’s published schedule. Fifteen of the dates involve regional gatherings of Jehovah’s Witnesses this summer. Another day is set aside for a different religious group’s event, and there is a fall spePlease turn to A4

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JUNE 29-JULY 1, 2017

‘Tear those statues down’

Richmonders decry mayor’s plan to put Confederate statues ‘in context’

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Charlene Harris holds her great-granddaughter, 14-month-old Kayla Love, outside her home, right, on Colorado Avenue in Randolph, where her family has lived since 1968. Despite surrounding properties being vacant and boarded up, Ms. Harris wanted to buy her home, but she’ll be moving in a few days.

Prospect of home ownership escapes 70-year-old Randolph resident By Jeremy M. Lazarus

“It’s just not fair that I cannot live out my days here.”

tions of my family have lived here. My mother moved here in 1968, and her Charlene C. Harris hoped to buy children have stayed here at various the home in Randolph that she and her times, including me, my brother and family have rented for nearly 50 years three sisters. from the Richmond Redevelopment “My son and my daughter have lived and Housing Authority. here, and now my great-granddaughter — Charlene C. Harris Instead, the retired state employee is staying with me. It’s just not fair is packing up and preparing to move from the two-bedroom, that I cannot live out my days here,” she said. brick home at 1600 Colorado Ave. to an apartment complex Ms. Harris, who plans to move in two weeks, is among the in South Side. last of seven families living in RRHA’s scattered site homes. “It won’t be the same,” said Ms. Harris, 70, who admits All will be out soon, RRHA said. being anxious about the move. “I love this house. It holds a lot of memories. Four generaPlease turn to A4

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Ora Lomax is still fuming over Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s plans for dealing with the stone and bronze figures that have been defining symbols of Richmond for generations — the statues of Confederate defenders of slavery that punctuate Monument Avenue. A civil rights activist and NAACP stalwart for 60 years, Ms. Lomax is irked about the direction the mayor is taking when it comes to handling the statues she regards as symbols of hate, discrimination and bigotry. Unlike mayors in cities across the South who are pushing to have Confederate statues removed from public spaces, Mayor Stoney last week announced the creation of a commission to “put the statues in context,” while also rejecting any effort to remove the century-old figures. “For some reason,” Ms. Lomax said, “he thinks those statues aren’t bothering anyone. “Well they bother me, and they bother anyone who knows their history,” said Ms. Lomax, who can remember being forced to ride in the back of GRTC buses because of her skin color and who was on the front lines of the 1960s battles to desegregate Richmond lunch counters and clothing stores. To her, the mayor is trying to straddle a fence, rather than doing what’s right. And that would be “to tear those statues down,” she said. “We need to get rid of them, not tolerate them.” A longtime adviser and leader of NAACP youth programs, Ms. Lomax said every time she sees those statues, she is reminded of the battles she and others fought to break down barriers and pave the way for younger people like the 36-year-old mayor. Please turn to A4

Richmond Police to revive Midnight Basketball By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The once popular Midnight Basketball League is about to be revived in Richmond. The city police department is bringing back the program as a softer element of its crime-fighting strategy.

The department plans to launch a six-week program to begin in about three weeks and continue through the end of August, with play several nights a week, beginning about 8 p.m. and ending around midnight. Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Lucy Maceyka, left, and Azaria Wilkins-Newton, both 8, confer in a web-building class on Tuesday at CodeVA’s summer camp in Downtown.

Children crack CodeVA

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Ready to roll Shy’Tia Henry, 5, takes off with the help of Corey “Cool” Brown of Petersburg as she tries out her new bike last Saturday at the Fairfield Court Community Day. She won one of several bicycles that were raffled off during the neighborhood event. Mr. Brown is a member of one of the motorcycle clubs that sponsored the bike giveaway. Location: 2300 block of North 25th Street.

A diverse group of 281 youngsters ages 6 to 14 will spend part of their summer vacation learning the basics of computer science in a Downtown storefront. Divided into groups of six to 10, they’ll each spend three hours a day for a week or two in the unique summer camps of CodeVA, a Richmond-based group led by husband-wife team Chris and Rebecca Dovi that seeks to spread computer knowledge to students and teachers. The summer camps are held at CodeVA’s headquarters at 300 E. Broad St., a renovated building that also includes a basement theater and

second-floor apartments. “We use an arts-integrated curriculum to introduce kids to the concepts and vocabulary of computer science,” said Margaret M. “Maggie” Smith, a veteran community arts educator who has run the camps since 2014 as CodeVA’s director of children’s programming. She oversees 12 instructors who handle the classes using age-appropriate computer language for participants who range from rising first-graders to rising eighth-graders. “We encourage our students to think it is fun,” Ms. Smith said, and to “make them feel comfortable” using a computer language. Instead of talking about STEM,

the acronym for science, technology, engineering and math, that she said has become a turnoff for kids, she talks programming. “Kids ears perk up when they hear that,” she said. Even though the classes are described as play, the students without realizing it are absorbing “important concepts of serious software development,” she said. This is the fourth summer that CodeVA has offered the one- and two-week summer camps for a mix of Richmond area students, some of whose parents cover the $150-a-week tuition and others whose tuition is Please turn to A4


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