By Whittney Evans, VPM
RISC and Diversity Richmond recently held candidate forums — and more are scheduled.
Richmond’s five mayoral candidates are getting plenty of facetime with voters ahead of the November election: There are roughly 10 mayoral forums planned in the community over the next two months.
One held late in August at the Second Baptist Church Southside drew several hundred voters. It was organized by Richmonders Involved to Strengthen our Communities — a network of religious-based community organizations focused on social justice issues, specifically housing and gun violence.
VPM News checked in with voters at the event to find out their perspective on both the issues and the candidates.
Many, like Sarah Scarbrough, are still undecided. Scarbrough is director of Real Life, which provides housing for people in recovery or transitioning from incarceration.
“A lot of the messaging that all of the candidates have is very similar,” she said. “It seems like they have a very proactive and progressive mind frame, and it seems as if all of these candidates are fully on board to kind of think outside of the box, partner with the community and do some new things to bring a new vibe and new solutions to the city. Every time I thought I was going one way towards a candidate, another one would speak, and you know, it’s a tough decision.”
Rebecca Adams
I feel very happy with the whole realm of them, frankly. I’ve probably narrowed down a little bit, but I’m not totally sure at this point. Gun violence, education, those two are greatest for me. And of course housing. All of this is so intermingled as far as solving the problems.
Denzel Mitchell
My big priority is housing and making sure people have a stable place to live.
I think Danny Avula’s gonna be the best option. All the candidates have similar priorities.
But when it comes to the experience of getting those priorities done, we need someone who’s actually run a large agency, and Danny’s done it when he was public health commissioner, when he was leading the vaccine effort and when he was leading the Department of Social Services. And as he said, he’s made slow systems work better. He’s made slow systems more effective and more transparent. And that’s exactly what we need.
Sheila Chandler
I thought I sort of knew who I was gonna vote for. But after hearing them, I got a couple I need to think about that were not on my radar.
What are my top issues?
Well, we’re here at the RISC meeting, and my husband’s on the board for RISC. So, the gun violence issue, affordable housing. The other one that got mentioned a lot is education. We live in the city of Richmond; we live in the Museum District, and we have friends who teach in the schools. And I don’t know why the schools aren’t better.
I do like the candidates who talk about things that they have specifically done in terms of solutions, not just tell me, “Oh, I’m going to do something about education.”
Well, OK, every single candidate is going to say that. That’s why I wanted to hear some specifics, too, about what have you done.
Tram Nguyen, co-executive director of New Virginia Majority, was also there. Her organization has endorsed first-time candidate Harrison Roday.
Tram Nguyen
A lot of folks who are in an elected office may not have had an elected experience before. But it’s the values that they bring to the table and where they come from in terms of their approaches to solutions and their willingness to work alongside the residents and the constituents that they are elected to serve.
“The community members that we work with — primarily lower-income, communities of color — are deeply involved in the process. And so, they asked all of the candidates questions about issues that are important to them: housing, education, etc. And they meet with these candidates, and we ultimately endorsed Harrison because our members felt like he really listened to them, deeply listened to the issues that they were facing and had real compelling conversations with them around what solutions could be offered. They felt like he would really give them a seat at the table.
Housing has been our No. 1 issue in Richmond — and it’s not just about affordable housing, but it’s about safe and secure housing.
A lot of our community members live in Southside, in apartment complexes that have been dilapidated and rundown. And landlords have not been listening to them. And so, that’s been a really big concern.
Kasey Miller
I want someone who’s gonna be able to focus on, one, ensuring that we have the appropriate amount of housing for the folks that are here, and then the continuation of growth that we want. And then really encouraging local businesses to thrive here.
It would help if you’re not friends with people who want to be incentivized by you being in that position of power. From my understanding, that’s been an unfortunate thing that’s occurred.
I’m still open and listening to what other people say. I’m hearing some good things, but it’s nothing to win me over fully or anything yet.
Tishayla Williams
I’m interested to know what the issues are. I’ve been living in Richmond for about a year and a half. I’m glad that I came, because [I’ve been] looking at each candidate’s stance on the website, but actually seeing them in person was a lot better. Because I feel like, one, I got a better sense of their personality and, two, I think I got a better sense of who I think is more feasible for the job.
Out of all of them, it would be between Michelle [Mosby] and [Andreas] Addison, and that wasn’t the two I was originally going for. I think they have more of a pulse of what’s going on in the city.
Roday did good as well. But we don’t know as much about him. He’s a newcomer to politics, I guess. I think that’s an area we’re missing.
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