THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 19, 1995 TAG: 9501170120
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
It has become a regular event.
Every few City Council meetings, Vice Mayor Paul R. Riddick lets fly with a blistering attack on what he views as the authoritarian, elitist or corrupt ways of the council and city government.
He did it again last week.
At the end of an uneventful meeting, Riddick delivered some of the strongest words heard in the chamber, perhaps in years. He accused the council and the city of favoring big, rich and powerful people or businesses over the smaller and less well-connected.
``We are going to be a small, cronyism-filled, good-old-boy, racist, backward Southern town'' unless the city changes, Riddick said. ``I'm sick and tired of this good-old-boy attitude. We're going to change, or we're going to have to wait until people move off this council or die.''
Beside Riddick sat Councilman and former Mayor Mason C. Andrews, who has served on the council 20 years and at 75 is the oldest member of the council.
Riddick's charges raise questions about whether the city is injuring or ignoring members or groups of its community, or whether Riddick of off-base in his charges. Regardless of their merit, Riddick's angry attacks have the potential to divide the council and end its relative harmony.
The outburst was loosely prompted by a black man who has been seeking to interest the city in a business venture for almost a decade.
The man, Richard James, wants to put an electronic sign downtown, possibly along Waterside Drive. Under the deal, James would pay the costs of erecting the sign. In return, the city would allow the sign to be used for commercial advertising as well as public service announcements.
The proposal has been debated in City Hall since the late 1980s. Riddick says the proposal has not received the attention it deserves because James is not white and not inside the elite circles of Norfolk business and politics.
But other council members see the issue differently. James was attempting to persuade the city to allow public property to be used for private profit. The city had no obligation to buy what this man was selling.
``The public space belongs to the public,'' Andrews said. Waterside Drive may not be the right space for any type of sign, Andrews said, ``with or without commercial advertising.''
City Manager James B. Oliver said the issue had been debated for so long because the council had never agreed on the issue.
``I think there is no question that the City Council has been divided for 20 years over whether to allow signs of any type, public or private, downtown,'' Oliver said.
But to Riddick, James' perseverance over many years symbolized the city's inattention to minorities, small-business people and others outside the loop of power.
``This city has continually lost business because a small group of people don't see the value of the minority community's dollar,'' Riddick said.
Norfolk, Riddick said, goes deeply into debt to back projects like MacArthur Center shopping mall but spurs the smaller businesses that could be helped if similar efforts were taken on their behalf.
``Norfolk is losing by leaps and bounds by not promoting small business,'' Riddick said.
Unlike many midsized cities, Riddick said, Norfolk lacks an African-American-centered business district.
``The solution is to let people like this young man get into business,'' Riddick said. ``We can't run this city like a teeny, tiny town.''
Riddick also had spoken before the council meeting in its informal session along similar lines of thought. In the informal session, Riddick sharply criticized the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority. He said the NRHA did not share the dispersal of federal funds in the form of Community Development Block Grants but held the authority for spending the money tightly in check. The NRHA should allow more outside groups to have a hand in deciding how this money, which is millions annually, is spent, Riddick said.
But to other council members, Riddick's remarks fit into a pattern of what they say is too quickly alleging racism or corruption when someone disagrees with him. Shortly after Riddick's speech, Mayor Paul Fraim, a sometime ally of Riddick, said he felt compelled to respond.
``Why do you feel the need to preach to the city and beat on the other members of the council,'' Fraim asked Riddick. ``I don't think you have seen an exhibition by any member of this council of what you call racism. We do damage to this city and council when we beat on ourselves. I would like to disassociate myself from the remarks of the vice mayor.''
In an interview after the meeting, Riddick said he was talking not just about black people but all smaller members of the community who are overlooked or shoved aside. For example, Riddick said he believed the city would eventually try to turn 35th Street, now the business street of Park Place, into a four-lane highway to serve the expansion of the Virginia Zoo down the street.
Despite the vehemence of Riddick's words, council members are still talking to each other. The council has not disintegrated into publicly warring factions, as has happened at times in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. After the meeting, Andrews talked quietly with Riddick. ILLUSTRATION: File photo by MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN
``Norfolk is losing by leaps and bounds by not promoting small
business,'' Vice Mayor Paul R. Riddick said last week.
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK CITY COUNCIL by CNB