At Grid, we believe that everyone in Richmond has a superpower – a unique combination of personality traits and aptitudes that they bring effortless to everything they do. What’s your superpower and how will you share it with RVA?

After 30 years of community planning and architecture, I can review proposals and offer professional critiques and recommendations with clarity and innovation. I can see the essence of a problem eliminating months of community controversy, monetary waste, and misguided professional consultants. I can see it coming; the challenge is trying to stop the fragmented wasteful outcomes.

 

Journalist and Congresswoman Clare Booth Luce once told John F. Kennedy that “a great man is a sentence.” Can you sum up your purpose in a single line? Let’s hear your sentence.

A community elder who despite being marginalized worked hard, succeeded, and made a difference.

 

Let’s chat conflict, how do you handle it and how do you make sure you’re listening effectively to others when conflict arises?

One should first approach a person with respect and empathy. Offer what you feel is clearly logical. Then give them time to reflect on the truth of the matter while you too reflect on their new perspective. Henry Marsh once told me, “Politics is the art of compromise.” Ask how can we make it better than the sum of our efforts?

 

What defines good citizenship and how do you model it?

Good citizenship can be found in the Christian Bible, Hebrew Bible, Qur’an, and Far East philosophy. In your heart you always know what is right. Just follow through and be who you are. How will I show good leadership as mayor? Most people say that if I just show others my seasoned personality, I will win this election.

 

Tell us a story about a solution to a problem in Richmond that you made better, faster, smarter, and less expensive.

I have offered a master plan for North Boulevard that will save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in developer studies and false starts. I estimate at least $300,000. Let’s have a new, environmentally-efficient stadium on a self-sustaining city grid that maximizes land use and tax dollars to schools. As mayor, I will have the authority to negotiate this matter and get it behind us.

 

We’re proud of our makers and doers in Richmond. People who roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. Tell us about the last thing you made with your hands or created.

My hands are an integral part of how I process and sculpt information. Daily, I utilize 3D software and computer-aided graphics in my office to explore community design and building development solutions that are cost-effective and innovative. This skill will prove useful in mayoral presentations.

 

If you could change one event in Richmond over the past ten years, what would it be?

I ran against Doug Wilder and Dwight Jones. I told you so then, but you just had to have the guys with name recognition versus actual community planning skills. I should have run for mayor four years ago!

 

Who is your favorite Richmond mayor of all time, and why?

My neighbor, friend, and mentor Mayor Walter Kenny.

 

If you could paint a mural depicting the future of Richmond, what would you paint and where would you paint it?                                                                                                                               

 

I would paint it in the City Hall main lobby. It would act as a graphic master plan showing the importance and values to strive for over the next 50 years, with special emphasis on people, not projects. Presently the lobby is a wasted community education space. I would illustrate how all citizens contribute to the growth of this city, illustrating even in the toughest, misguided times, there are still good people doing the right thing despite hardship and public opinion. The mural would communicate how we have reconciled to move forward. I would title it: “Richmond: Righteous History, Righteous People.”

 

Vitals:

Hometown: Richmond

Neighborhood: Eastview, Church Hill  

Favorite Way to Volunteer: GroundworkRVA

Listening Style: Large-screen TV connected to Internet

Preferred Mode of Transportation: 2004 two-seat, convertible sports car

Best Locally Made Product: Local minority fabricators, landscapers, contractors, and services providers

Favorite Spot on the River: A future south-shore, sandy rapids beach below the SunTrust corporate center.

Go-To Restaurant: River City Diner or Sweet Teas

The Book You’ve Gifted Most to Others: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel by Jeff Kinney

Three achievable goals that you plan to champion over the next year, regardless of who becomes mayor? 

• Volunteer to be a mentor and program oversight board member in Richmond Public Schools
• Develop a comprehensive people and places master plan with the Eastview Civic League and citizens of Eastview, Church Hill, which will bring jobs and training to our community
• Enjoy my family, first two baby grandchildren, and Mt. Tabor Baptist Church, here in Church Hill: the center of the known universe