Back to Normal
“I can’t wait to get back to normal,” was a refrain often heard during the first few months of quarantine. Then the tragic and unthinkable, yet painfully familiar, footage of the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks surfaced on our screens. We all had an unconscionably overdue reckoning. Outcomes are different depending upon the color of your skin or the zip code of your address.
No seeker, no pilgrim, no innovator, no artist, no dreamer, no designer, no builder, no believer desires to go back. The only way forward is forward. We at BridgePark honor and uplift those in our community who have rejected normal and transformed this reckoning into a revolution. Normal is a crisis. Back to normal is an abject failure.
“Daddy changed the world! Daddy changed the world!”
-- Gianna Floyd
As we topple the many symbols of oppression, let’s also target the many systems of oppression. From our perspective, foremost among those is the built environment. Colonialism, agricultural clearing, enslavement, war, segregation, policing, redlining, restrictive covenants, annexation, urban renewal, white flight, and disinvestment in black communities are visible everywhere in Richmond.
BridgePark believes we can build it back better. We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a more equitable, sustainable, resilient region. Black and brown folks have long shown a vibrancy, resiliency, and moral compass we can aspire to achieve as a free, united City.
We seek to ascend all our people and advance all our community with a renewed sense of urgency guided by our long-established values.
Access
We include diverse people and perspectives in our planning and programming. We seek a park that is appealing, available, and accessible to all people.
Community
We believe in and pursue the power of place to celebrate our culture and promote fellowship, understanding and growth.
Education
We prioritize educational opportunities. We recognize and seize a unique platform for learning.
In 2013, we adopted the three core values above. In 2015, we developed an extensive education and workforce development curriculum to empower our community’s young people and inform ourselves through their inspiration, ideas, and intellect. In 2017, we expanded the equity lens and proposed footprint of BridgePark to focus on breaches in our cityscape created by years of racist planning and policy. In 2019, we collaborated with Dr. Julian Hayter to develop a “Reimagining Richmond” course at the University of Richmond to examine the true history of Richmond, with a focus on the urban environment and a view to the future. In 2019, we also collaborated with urban planner, Shekinah Mitchell, in creating some frameworks for equitable development. We undertake to do more and share more.
The platform for learning we set out to create is not just a physical space but a forum for forward. In 2020, we will share lessons we have learned in careful study of our City’s history (inside and outside the classroom) and constant communication with our neighbors. A substantial portion of those lessons were learned from our BIPOC leaders. We think you should know them too. Follow us here for more.
We hope these hard truths will ease a path to the future, a path that connects us all, celebrates us all, and supports us all.
We will continue to listen to you, learn alongside you, and grow with you; especially the heretofore unseen and unheard and young; and particularly, Gianna.
In solidarity,