All results / Stories / Jeremy M. Lazarus
African dance company eyeing former Jackson Ward church building
Could the vacant former Sharon Baptist Church in Jackson Ward become a performing arts center for an African dance company and other arts groups?
Larus Park water sale on track for approval
A controversial City Hall plan to sell more water to Chesterfield County appears to be on track to win Richmond City Council approval now that a key member is supportive.
Jackson Ward hotel project dies after dispute with RRHA over land price
In the summer of 2019, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority awarded a Black-led development team the right to build a 115-room hotel, at least 63 apartments and a retail store on 3.4 acres in Jackson Ward.
City day care program rolls out with waiting list
The new school year launched Tuesday with all classes online in Richmond, but the promise of a robust, city-supported day care program for children of working parents and for parents with weak links to the internet has yet to be fulfilled — and it is unclear when it will be.
Election Day less than smooth for local voter
Eugene M. Price finally has been told his vote will count, six days after the Nov. 8 election. The 73-year-old Richmond auto mechanic said Monday he got a call from the city Voter Registrar’s Office telling him that the provisional ballot he cast was accepted and would be included in the city’s total vote after it was determined that he was properly registered to vote and that his name should have been on the voter rolls.
$1 City selling home sites for low, moderate income families
Vacant property for $1. That’s the price that City Hall is setting to clear out its inventory of home sites and to help cut the future purchase price of the houses to be built on them. This effort also will help finish partially completed developments that have been on hold since the economic recession began in 2008. In a first step, at least 16 lots are being prepared for sale, primarily in Southern Barton Heights. A few lots in Swansboro on South Side and in Newtowne West near Virginia Union University also are part of the sale. The board of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, the properties’ nominal owner, helped clear the way by approving the transfer of the properties to the city at its meeting last week.
State vital records now online
Millions of individual records of births, deaths, marriages and divorces in Virginia in the past 100 years are now available online, Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced this week.
Explanations sought on City Council's consulting contract cost
When a divided Richmond City Council voted 5-4 on Dec. 9 to proceed with hiring C.H. Johnson Consulting to review the $1.5 billion Richmond Coliseum replacement plan, most members had no idea that the company’s bid had come in 13 percent higher than the amount council had approved to pay a consultant.
City rejects South Side church bid for abandoned school
A church that has competed to buy the long vacant Oak Grove Elementary School property in South Side has been eliminated from contention — leaving an apartment developer as the only bidder with an offer still under review.
City property values on the rise in many areas
Richmond’s land book of assessed values shows why affordable housing is now a big issue.
Child care a major issue as RPS officials grapple with reopening plan
A 3-foot change could help working parents — most notably single mothers — keep their jobs or avoid the cost of expensive day care.
After two-year derailment, Jackson Place apparently back on track
The city’s housing authority is poised to revive a potential $35 million development project for Jackson Place at 2nd and Duval streets in Jackson Ward.
Church to become regional private school for children with disabilities
A former church is about to become the new home of a regional private school that serves children with autism and other mental challenges.
Petersburg employees credited with helping during city’s crunch
Two Petersburg Public Works managers are being credited with repairing trucks and equipment for their department that the city could not afford to fix.
City council extends tax deadline, provides winning formula for babies
Richmond residents have gained a 60-day extension on the deadline to pay vehicle taxes and the city license fee on vehicles, and hundreds of Richmond mothers frantically seeking to buy baby formula will gain significant help through a new initiative.
‘We can no longer remain silent’
Coalition wants Bon Secours to increase investments in area’s poor communities
Sparked by a New York Times expose, a new coalition hopes to rally the East End community to pressure nonprofit Bon Secours Mercy Health to rebuild critical care services at Richmond Community Hospital and better meet the health needs of low-income communities.
$200M loss spurs City Council to revise real estate tax abatement program
For at least two decades, Richmond has primed the redevelopment pump by allowing individuals and companies that improve aging houses, apartment buildings and commercial properties to pay reduced property taxes over 10 years without any restrictions.
‘It is immoral to profit off the backs of Black and Brown residents under the guise of health care’
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s response to New York Times report on Bon Secours
Calling the practice “immoral,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney this week called on the federal government to crack down on nonprofit hospitals’ diversion of savings on medications away from the low-income communities it was designed to benefit. Mayor Stoney issued his call for reform of the program known as Section 340B in reaction to a stunning New York Times article citing Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Richmond operations as a prime example of the misuse of the revenue from the drug pricing program.
Foundation poised with cash to purchase Woodland Cemetery
The Evergreen Restoration Foundation has raised the $50,000 needed to purchase Woodland Cemetery, a historic African-American cemetery in Henrico County that is the burial ground of Arthur Ashe Jr., the Richmond-born tennis great and humanitarian.
City expands plans for enslaved African memorial site in Shockoe Bottom
City Hall is moving to expand the space designated for a long talked about memorial to slavery in Shockoe Bottom well before development begins on what the city has dubbed the Enslaved African Heritage Campus.
