VSU wins CIAA title A7
Meet the new state NAACP president B1
Richmond Free Press © 2017 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
VOL. 26 NO. 46
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
www.richmondfreepress.com
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c e l e b rating o u r 2 5 th A nniv e r s ar y
November 16-18, 2017
Teaching pays off VUU fires football coach
Inspiring 8th-grade teacher at Richmond’s Lucille M. Brown Middle School wins $25,000 national ‘Oscars of teaching’ award By Ronald E. Carrington
By Fred Jeter
Coach Mark James has been fired after four productive seasons as Virginia Union University’s head football coach. The question now is, “Why?” The record alone offers few clues. Coach James posted a 26-15 record — 20-8 in the CIAA — leading the team to contention Mr. James for the CIAA Northern Division title each year and guiding the Panthers to their first NCAA football appearance since 1991. VUU Athletic Director Joe Taylor suggested it was what fans didn’t see that led to the dismissal. “Coaching football isn’t just about showing up on game day,” Mr. Taylor said. “A coach’s main responsibility is preparing young men for life. The discipline could have been stronger.” Mr. Taylor declined to offer specifics. There was one ugly incident this season when VUU players and coaches knocked electronic equipPlease turn to A4
Courtesy of the Milken Family Foundation
Ryan James, the 29-year-old middle school teacher and winner of the $25,000 Milken Educator Award, is congratulated after Wednesday’s surprise announcement by Lucille M. Brown, former Richmond Public Schools superintendent. The South Side school where Mr. James teaches is named in her honor.
Recount expected in 3 House of Delegates races By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Democrats remain two seats short of taking control of the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates based on official local counts completed Tuesday. With recounts anticipated for at least three seats for which Republicans barely edged their
Democratic rivals, it could be December before Virginians will officially know whether the General Assembly’s lower chamber will remain in GOP hands. As it stands now, Republicans are clinging to a 51-49 margin, a far cry from the dominating 66 seats the GOP
Troubled Essex Village apartments sold, renamed By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Essex Village, once labeled Henrico County’s worst apartment complex, is now in the hands of a successful African-American property investment and development firm based in Baltimore. Ernst Valery, founder and president of Ernst Valery Investments, completed the purchase of the 496-unit complex located off Laburnum Avenue near the Richmond Raceway. Mr. Valery has renamed the complex the Maggie Lena Walker Apartments after buy-
ing the complex for $42.5 million, or about $85,000 a unit. The purchase apparently was completed in the past two weeks after the previous owners, Essex VA Investors LLC, completed improvements the county demanded. The purchase was approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides millions of dollars each year in rent subsidies for low-income residents of the complex. Mr. Valery is talking about major renovations Please turn to A4
held in the last session. Still, the Democrats’ pickup of 15 seats is viewed as remarkable by political experts. It did not happen by accident, said Joshua Ulibarri of the New York-based Lake Research Partners, a group the state Democratic Party employed to help guide the election battle. Speaking to reporters last week, Mr. Ulibarri said that one key to the array of Democratic victories is the fact the party was relatively united. He said polling after primary elections in June showed that “the party came together relatively quickly.” Lake Research polling found that within weeks, 80 percent of Democrats were supportive of the statewide ticket of Ralph Northam for governor, Justin Fairfax for lieutenant governor and Mark Herring for attorney general. He said that was a far higher percentage than in 2013 when Please turn to A4
The mystery and hush filling the gymnasium at Richmond’s Lucille M. Brown Middle School on Wednesday morning became a cacophony of cheers and applause when teacher Ryan James was announced the winner of the $25,000 Milken Educator Award. As Lowell Milken, co-founder of the Milken Family Foundation that created the national award honoring teaching excellence and innovation, announced the winner, cheerleaders shook pompoms and students cheered, clapped and stomped their feet on the bleachers, giving their teacher-hero an ovation befitting a rock star. After hugging his mother, the surprised and tearful Mr. James, a 29-year-old, eighth-grade history and social studies teacher, slowly descended from the top of the bleachers and stood silently in front of the assembled crowd. He wiped tears from his eyes as students, schools officials and a bevy of special guests, including Gov. Terry McAuliffe, state Secretary of Education Dietra Trent, and former Virginia First Lady and state Secretary of Education Ann Holton, continued applauding, showing their overwhelming approval. This, after all, was the prestigious Milken Award, described as the “Oscars of teaching,” by Teaching magazine. And of 45 honorees across the country this year, Mr. James is the only winner from Virginia. “I wish my grandfather was here,” Mr. James told the audience gathered for the surprise assembly, fighting back the emotions of the moment. “He would have been so, so proud.” “I just thought about all of the hard work over the years, all of the people who helped me and the reason I’m still here,” Mr. James said in a brief interview after accepting the $25,000 prize. “They (the students and faculty) just keep me going through all of the trials and tribulations as the hard work continues to pay off. I know why God has put me here.” Winners of the Milken Award cannot apply for the recognition. Nor can they know they are under consideration, according to the foundation. Candidates are identified through a confidential selection process. They are reviewed by panels appointed by state departments of education based on what they have achieved and “for the promise of what they will accomplish,” the foundation stated. Only the most exceptional educators are recommended for the award. The winners are then selected by the Milken Family Foundation, which has funded $68 million in monetary awards to educators since starting the recognition in 1987. Mr. James now becomes part of the Milken Educator Network Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellers/Richmond Free Press
Rooting for Mom Glenn Johnson and his daughters, Lena, 9, left, and Zora, 12, cheer the runners in last Saturday’s Richmond Marathon on 5th Street near the Downtown finish line. The family was waiting to spot their wife and mom, Sadeqa, and to give encouragement for the final leg of the course. Please see story on the race, more photos, Page A10.
Mayor pushes private development of new Coliseum By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
This view of the 13,500-seat Richmond Coliseum was taken from the 18th floor Observation Deck at City Hall. Other buildings, from left, are the Federal Building and Altria’s Philip Morris Center for Research and Technology. The city wants to find developers to replace the Coliseum with a larger, modern arena.
A pie-in-the-sky fantasy or a realistic prospect for overhauling the Coliseum area of Downtown? That question remains to be answered in the wake of Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s call for companies to provide plans for revitalizing the 10-block area from 5th to 10th streets between Marshall and Leigh streets. With the development of the city’s Boulevard property stalled and uncertainty surrounding financing to modernize city schools, the mayor is turning to this new area in a bid to get a major project started. The centerpiece of the latest proposal: Development of a privately owned, 17,500-seat arena to replace the 13,500-seat city facility that is considered obsolete after 46 years.
Mayor Stoney said the Richmond Coliseum is leeching $1.5 million a year from the city budget. That would disappear, he said, if a private entity builds and operates a new facility that could cost at least $200 million. His proposal also calls for companies to develop a new 400-room hotel near the Greater Richmond Convention Center; renovate the historic, but moldering Blues Armory at 6th and Marshall streets into an entertainment and restaurant venue; and build apartments or other high-rise residential quarters that would include some units considered affordable or that would carry reduced rents. The plan was unveiled last Thursday and dubbed “North of Broad/Downtown Neighborhood Redevelopment Project.” Please turn to A4