RICHMOND, Va. -- People rely heavily on their local governments to provide public safety, good schools, and services like trash pickup and road maintenance. Recent decisions by the City of Richmond have some neighbors calling into question whether the process of choosing which streets get paved is a fair one.
"Potholes. You can fall in them potholes. Yeah they’re bad," warned one South Richmond resident.
"My mom, she came through here the other day and she hit a pothole and it flattened her tire," added another.
The neighborhood in question sits south of the river along Decatur Street. While portions of the street remained untouched by city work crews, there was one stretch that recently received a make over complete with fresh pavement.
A picture taken in front of the mayor's church, of newly paved road.
The section of Decatur Street that got the makeover is the section where Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones' First Baptist Church of South Richmond is located.
It was repaved in December, despite the fact Decatur Street was not listed on this 2015 paving schedule.
When questioned about the unscheduled paving, Richmond Department of Public Works spokesperson Sharon North said the list was somewhat "fluid." Some streets got added, while others were removed.
A notice was sent to neighbors in December regarding the closure of Decatur between Jefferson Davis Highway and Commerce Road for repaving.
"It makes me very suspicious," said Lisa Shaw, who lives nearby the church on an unpaved portion of Decatur Street. "If you’re going to do it there, why not do the whole Decatur? You've got kids playing here and there."
A picture taken of Decatur, further away from mayor's church
"I'm wondering why? Why are our streets looking like this and theirs is all paved and clean," she asked.
Following his State of the City address last week, Chelsea Rarrick brought those concerns to the mayor's attention.
"What do you have to say to constituents who have a lot of questions about that?" Rarrick asked.
"I would say to them that I don’t do the paving," Mayor Jones responded. "I'm not in charge of what streets get paved."
"I know it wasn’t initially on the paving schedule for 2015, do you know anything about that?" Rarrick asked.
"Why it was moved up ?" the mayor replied. "I do not. I do not.”
The street paving questions were raised as Richmond's Department of Public Works Director Emmanuel Adediran has come under fire for working on city time to help build the mayor's new church. Adediran also serves an assistant pastor at Jones’ church.
