Richmond, Va. often leaves me running hot and cold. It's a naturally beautiful city, sitting on the James River. If you visit Belle Isle, you'd swear you were in the mountains and not in the middle of the city. It's got a great music scene (these guys used to play there often), a great arts scene, some great neighborhoods. And a skyline better than any city of about 200,000 should really have.
But...
While it didn't suffer the outright evils of Bull Connor in Birmingham and the rest of the South, the legacy of race sits over the city like humidity on a summer afternoon. Seemingly innocuous things (the Ashe statue, the murals) become a pretext for, ahem, discussions, on race. There was a point in time that Richmond's stature in the South was greater than Atlanta or Charlotte. Some still think that, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. And it can be quite provincial.
When Richmond hits the national headlines, it's usually not good news. Sometimes it's quirky, like...
And now, Michael Vick. The circus surrounding his troubles pulls into the Capital City today, complete with satellite trucks, national news people, and protesters. And one more notch in the quirk belt of the city. Oh well. Maybe the visitors will enjoy some barbecue. Except the PETA folks.
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