If your mailing address is Richmond, Virginia, but you live most anywhere in Henrico County, your address will soon change to Henrico, Virginia. Why? Henrico County loses millions of dollars every year to the City of Richmond. Big corporate chains that are based outside of the area think that because the mailing address is Richmond, the taxes should be paid there. This adds up quickly. Well that’s interesting enough alone. But it gets better.
Henrico County sent out a mail survey asking residents if they wanted to change the name to Henrico or leave it Richmond. They also did a TV ad campaign. Fair enough. What I don’t get is that Richmond did an ad, too! Richmond Mayor Doug Wilder (leave it to him) decided it would be a competition and fought to keep the undeserved money in the city! Then again this is Doug Wilder we are talking about here. Should we be surprised in the least? He needs to go.
Well who didn’t see this coming? Surprise! Apparently Richmond is losing it’s minor league baseball team, the Richmond Braves. Mayor Doug Wilder is most likely to blame. The city scrapped plans to build a new stadium that would have almost certainly gotten the Braves to stay in Richmond. It was supposed to be constructed either in Shockoe Bottom or the riverfront, either of which would have greatly enhanced the city’s charm and character. Doug Wilder, while facilitating new programs and initiatives to improve the city in many ways, has also hurt it in many others. This is probably one of the biggest.