Thread by @RVAdirt

At the end of the Economic Development Chat & Learn, people wrote down what they want to see as “table stakes” for our city’s growth through economic development in categories of economic stability, housing, financing, and social/community context. Some are questions we need 🧜🏻‍♀️

answered up front through every project. Other comments are specific asks. From my perspective, the overall sense of the meeting is that communities need to be included from the beginning before a RFP gets issues to negotiate and advocate for their own interests. 🧜🏻‍♀️

People seem to be tired of reliance on gatekeepers for access to self-advocacy and government. People want a clear pathway for all to know how to initiate being involved and heard for themselves. People want respectful communications, not sales pitches. 🧜🏻‍♀️

Each category had a different color notecard.
Pink: economic stability
Yellow: financing
Green: housing
Orange: social/community context

If people wrote their name/contact information, I have blacked it out in the pictures to follow. 🧜🏻‍♀️

In the coming days, we will aggregate these comments into a document to post on our website. We will also post audio and video from the meeting as soon as possible. 🧜🏻‍♀️

Community comments on Economic Stablility.

Community comments on Economic Stablility.

Community comments on Economic Stablility.

Community comments on Economic Stablility.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Social/Community Context.

Community Comments on Housing.

Community Comments on Housing.

Community Comments on Housing.

Community Comments on Housing.

Community Comments on Housing.

Community Comments on Financing.

Community Comments on Financing.

Community Comments on Financing.

Those are all of the notecard comments we received last night. Please feel free to add your comments, thoughts, and input to this thread.

It is not too late to be heard and involved with this economic development proposal! 🧜🏻‍♀️

But also, from here, we have to figure out as a community how to work together with our elected officials to establish a process so in the future we aren’t fighting to retrofit a proposal with community needs. How can we empower the larger Richmond community to 🧜🏻‍♀️

have their needs heard even before development is proposed. To me that means empowering community by codifying community input into the beginning of economic development projects of all sizes AND providing access to resources/training/space to work together as a community. 🧜🏻‍♀️

That said, thank you again to everyone who came out last night and continue to come out in the future. We’ll be back with more from last night soon. ❤️🧜🏻‍♀️

@threadreaderapp unroll please!