State of the City Welcome: "Southside is a world."

Tonight is historic. This is the first State of the City ever held in a community center, and that is not a small thing. Too often, we rent out rooms that reflect our partners, not our people. Tonight, we came home!

And that choice matters because place has always mattered in this city. In the 1930s, the federal government drew maps. You know the ones: color-coded and signaling that anything that was Black should be deemed hazardous. Red lines, drawn around communities like this one.

That wasn't an accident. Racial segregation was engineered. Black communities were zoned into certain areas, blocked from moving, and deliverately cut off from homeownership, one of the greatest wealth-building tools in American history. Then came annexation, which robbed communities of the very investments that were due to them.

Those decisions didn't just shape the past. look around. Those same redlined neighborhoods are still lower-income, still more segregated, still under-resourced. The map changed, but the reality didn't.

But let me tell you what else resides here. Because the Southside is not a wound. It is a world.

This is the most diverse corner of this entire city. If you walk these corridors and neighborhoods, you will hear languages from every continent, smell food that tells the story of migration and sacrificed. Latino families. African immigrants. Asian communities. Black families whose roots in this city run deeper than any policy ever could. All of it, Southside.

Working-class people who showed up every day to DuPont, to Phillip Morris, and built wealth that flowed out of this community, not into it. Immigrant families came here chasing the American Dream, only to be met with racism and misunderstanding. That's not a coincidence. That's intentional extraction. That's neglect by design.

And the culture? Undeniable. This is the Southside that gave us D'Angelo. That gave us DJ Lonnie B. Both products of Richmond Public Schools. The art, the music, the food, and the faith didn't come from nowhere. It came from the people on the Southside, despite everything stacked against them.

When a neighborhood is underfunded long enough, the systems stack, resulting in fewer jobs, lower-performing schools, limited healthcare, and aging infrastructure. Not because of the people. Because of the policy.

But here's what policy never could account for: the people themselves. Our young people are watching their community's identity change right before their eyes, still expected to go along to get along, and yet they are still rising! I don't see them as victims. I see them as geniuses.

Living on the Southside gives you a different perspective. I don't just see what's here, I see what's overlooked. But I also see the beauty. And I see an inclusive future, built by the people, and led by the people.

We need development, but we need to do it right. Land justice is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Because people cannot build wealth when their expenses exceed their income, and the system was never built to let them catch up.

The state of this city depends on what happens next in Southside. How we build. How we invest. How we reconcile the past with the present. And how we show up for the future.

I see a Southside that doesn't just survive the next chapter of this city's story. I see a Southside that writes it.

So let tonight be more than a conversation. Let it be a commitment. A commitment to our young people that we won't leave them in a city that forgot them. A commitment to our elders that their sacrifices were not in vain. And a commitment to each other that we will build something worth staying for.

The Southside has always been here. Now it's time for this city to show up for us.

Thank you.

The Night in Photos

Photo description from left to right - top to bottom:

• 12 On Your Side's Andrew Frieden sets the tone for the evening as he kicks off the State of the City and welcomes Mayor Danny Avula.
• Angie Rodgers and Rebecca Street join Mayor Avula for a fireside chat on the Thriving Economy pillar of the Mayoral Action Plan (MAP).
• Nutzy and Nutasha entertaining the crowd and tossing out freebies to lucky attendees.
• A special tribute is paid to the late Bill Martin, beloved Director of The Valentine.
• Mayor Avula sits down with Josh Epperson, history writer, and Meg Hughes of The Valentine for a meaningful conversation about storytelling and Richmond's history.
• Karen O'Brien of CARITAS joins the fireside chat on the Thriving Neighborhoods pillar.
• Poet Laureate Joanna Lee moves the room with an original poem written as a love letter to the City.
• Mayor Danny Avula addresses the crowd at his very first State of the City.
• Mayor Avula welcomes his dear friend and mentor, Pastor Don Coleman, to the stage for a few words of wisdom and encouragement.
• Guests were treated to mini charcuterie boards following the event.
• Backstage, Mayor Avula's team reviews the script and run of show with Andrew Frieden.
• Councilmember Nicole Jones takes the stage and delivers a heartfelt welcome to Southside.
• The Virginia Union University Gospel Choir brings the house down with two powerful performances.
• Tom Fitzpatrick (Housing Opportunities Made Equal) and Jovan Burton (Partnership for Housing Affordability) join Mayor Avula for an important conversation on the state of housing in Richmond.

Follow us here!