Navy Hill was demolished by developers whose haste to increase their profit margins at the expense of communities of color led to the destruction of a neighborhood, its institutions, its public schools, and portions of its legacy.
Today, Richmond’s leadership plans the large-scale demolition of public housing courts in concert with the construction of new complex of predominantly upper-income housing developments led by a man known to promote neoconfederate revisionism and accused of environmental racism in the historic Black community of Union Hill.
The destruction of public housing and the threat to the people of Union Hill reveal the legacy of systemic racism at the core of this project. We cannot continue to drive the displacement of Black communities while fueling the profit margins of wealthy developers. What was lost in Navy Hill cannot be rebuilt by Tom Farrell.
As Richard Meagher put it: “There seems to be very little real understanding of this history in the developers’ plans, in the way the city has embraced them, and in the use of Navy Hill as a shield for this project. RVA cannot ‘bring back’ Navy Hill by doubling down on the mistakes of the past.”
Read more of his analysis at bit.ly/WhyNavyHill
