Part summary and part pep rally: Petersburg celebrates 'Partnership' anniversary

PETERSBURG – The city and the Youngkin administration commemorated the one-year anniversary of “Partnership for Petersburg” Wednesday with an event that was part summary of the first year and part pep rally for its future.

Some in the overflow crowd at the Petersburg Public Library showed up hoping to hear who would run the long-awaited grocery store at the proposed mixed-use development on the former Southside Regional Medical Center site. While Gov. Glenn Youngkin alluded to the plans for the Sycamore Grove development to be anchored by that grocery store, he did not reveal who would run that anchor store.

Groceries were still on the list for Wednesday, however. Youngkin announced that a group led by Amazon would operate a mobile grocery store that could be taken to all parts of the city and surrounding area. Amazon is known for being the world’s largest online retailer, but it also owns the Whole Foods Supermarket chain.

Aetna and Comcast are also involved in that project.

“I think I just pre-empted Amazon’s announcement on this,” Youngkin quipped moments later.

One year ago, the library was the scene of the launch of Partnership for Petersburg, a multi-faceted program aimed at rectifying issues in areas such as public safety and public health, education and economic development, housing, and transportation. When first organized, there were 40 initiatives identified with 60 local, state and private-business partners pledged to assist. That list has now grown to 60 initiatives and 90 partners.

Some programs, such as the Urban Baby Beginnings for expectant mothers and the after-school programs at the Petersburg Family YMCA, have been activated. Others are in various stages of development.

Youngkin said just because some of the initiatives are not quite tactile, that does not mean they are not as important or going to die on the vine. Over the remaining two years of his administration – Virginia governors are limited by the state constitution to one term – Youngkin said an all-out effort will be done to get all the projects up and running.

Youngkin noted some accomplishments tied to the partnership. For example, non-homicide violent crime has dropped more than a third, he said, and Petersburg Police’s job vacancies were diminishing. The department’s two newest hires joined him on the stage in the library auditorium.

The governor also noted that a mobile healthcare initiative provided services to 236 city residents since its inception earlier in the year.

One of the more visible accomplishments of the partnership was the late 2022 leveling of the former Ramada Inn building on East Washington Street at Interstate 95. That was brought up several times during the ceremony, and each mention drew applause.

‘The city that Virginia forgot’

A winding theme through all speeches made at the library was that Petersburg had been neglected by the state for decades. Because of that inattention, city resources dried up but the need for those resources increased.

“Petersburg became the city that Virginia forgot,” Del. Kim Taylor, R-Dinwiddie County, told the crowd.

“Petersburg has been feeling a lot of pain,” Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle Sears said. She likened it to the treatment of a skin cut – do you just air it out and let oxygen heal it, or do you put a bandage over it?

“Petersburg kept airing out the pain and kept asking for help,” Sears said. “Now, we are stopping the pain and starting the healing.”

Even though the Youngkin administration started the partnership, Youngkin reminded the audience that it is not a state-run program. Nor is it a locally run program.

“It’s not led by government,” he said. “It is led by Petersburg and the people who live here.”

Several speakers Wednesday spoke on some of the tangibles that already are visible. One of them was Anjolaoluwa “Princess” Ajayi-Odukoye, who brought her newborn daughter Esther on stage to talk about the help she got from Urban Baby Beginnings.

UBB is an advocacy program for expectant and new mothers, offering such services as access to doulas. While UBB founder and executive director Stephanie Spencer held Esther, Ajayi-Odukoye gave a shout-out to her doula, who was in the audience.

“Any time I texted her, she was always there to help,” Ajayi-Odukoye said, calling the entire UBB experience “encouraging.”

Shalonda Venable-Royster, whose daughter attends elementary school in Petersburg and participates in the YMCA program, said that experience has prompted her daughter not to follow in the career footsteps of her parents or grandparents.

“She wants to be a YMCA counselor,” Venable-Royster told the crowd.

Keelyn Graves, a Petersburg resident and senior at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, served as a student intern for the first year of the partnership. He worked with both the governor’s office and the city on the many initiatives, and he told the crowd he was “thrilled to talk about it,” particularly the effect it could have on Petersburg’s young people.

“This is a program providing choices to dream, aspire and believe,” Graves said. He called youth “the bedrock” of Petersburg.

Following the litany of speakers, the crowd then spilled out into the library parking lot where food trucks were waiting to serve them lunch and a deejay provided a musical backdrop. Youngkin stopped by six tables, each representing a “pillar” of the partnership program and heard updates from people staffing those tables.

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Governor joins Petersburg in 'Partnership' anniversary celebration