Jackson Ward, Richmond’s National Landmark and Historic District of brick row houses, churches and museums, small black-owned businesses, murals and parks, porches and gardens, is under attack.

Witness “The Penny.” This six-story, 166-unit apartment building occupies one-third of the north side of West Marshall Street between 1st Street and Adams and, according to its website, “ushers in the next 100 years of Jackson Ward living.”

Anyone walking past these apartments is rebuffed by a fitness center (tenants only, no trespassing), cage-style fenced courtyard and finally the “restaurant space” with mirror windows that houses its developers, SNP Properties.

Those same visionaries are now breaking ground for “The Admiral” in the parking lot at North 2nd Street and Marshall. This 12-story, waffle-iron-style mixed-use tower twice the size of The Penny plops 254 apartments with nearly 11,000 square feet of commercial space and 190 parking spots into the heart of the Historic Jackson Ward business district.

 How does a developer get City approval for a project in our Old and Historic District that snubs neighborhood residents and sneezes at the City’s own Richmond300 Plan? “By right” is not an answer. It’s a passing of the buck.

Did the Department of Planning and Development—the Land Use and the Zoning Administration—ignore their own guidelines to “protect the character, quality, and history of the city,” and to “support, protect and enhance neighborhood character”?

Will the City of Richmond do anything to stop the ongoing degradation of this National Historic Landmark Black neighborhood? Are there no actual protections in place?

Is there no political will to preserve and nurture the architecture, history and culture of the Black Wall Street and Harlem of the South?

Since the end of World War II, Jackson Ward has managed to survive political betrayal and public works—interstate highways and housing projects.

What needs to be done for Jackson Ward to survive now?

LAURANCE WIEDER

Richmond