Who’s Got Your Vote: Meet Andreas Addision

Rich: Welcome to RVA’s Got Issues, a podcast about politics and public affairs in and around Richmond, Virginia. I’m your host, Rich Marr. On this special election episode, RVA’s Got Issues with the Richmond mayoral election. Five candidates are vying to be Richmond’s next mayor. Each one wants to be the key decision maker that will shape the future of the city and the region. We’ll sit down with the candidates for an in-depth conversation about who they are, what they plan to do, and why they should be the choice of Richmond’s voters in November. We’re joined now by Andreas Addison, a small business owner and the current Richmond City Council representative for the 1st district. Welcome Andreas.

Addison: I am glad to be here.

Q: So, Andreas, you didn’t grow up in the city. You actually grew up in a rural part of Shenandoah. Now you’re a city boy, right? A city resident. A representative. I mean, you worked for the city for a while. Let’s, let’s go back to that. What drew you to the city? What drew you to work here and to live here?

Andreas: You know, I was a Virginia Tech student, and I was studying political science. And when I graduated in 2004, I really wanted to continue my work as a public servant or actually really just use my degree because not many people use their political science degree in the field of politics.

Q: I know tell my students you can, but they don’t always do it.

A: Yes. And so, I really looked at an opportunity to move to the capital of the Commonwealth. And so, at the time I was just worked in restaurants. I was a waiter and bartender and so I thought I could do that pretty much anywhere. So, I moved to Richmond and in that move really started applying for jobs and starting to find ways into government. Three years later, I landed a job as a Management Analyst 2 under Governor Wilder’s Administration and was really thrust into, you know, he came in to try to change things in City Hall and I quickly found that that was a really great energy around that. And so, we worked on kind of trying to start the 311 call center and work on some other government projects, but then, you know, Dwight Jones came in, I worked throughout his administration and a lot of times it was about innovation and operations and poverty work. And what really stood out to me was a lot of times when we looked at poverty, I was able to look back at my childhood. And I was, grew up on free lunch. I grew up with, you know, SNAP, TANF, WIC, it was food stamps at the time for me and got social security checks from my handicapped father. And so, through that experience, when I looked at what was dealing in Richmond, I saw a difference, I had a lot of opportunities and access, I was, you know, part of a community, I was not separated and isolated. So, when I looked at Richmond and their poverty, I also learned about its diversity. You know, racial past of creating public housing neighborhoods in isolation and then realizing that this issue we’re trying to solve today has been going on for a long time. And so, you realize it’s the built environment. It’s investment from the public sector. It’s all the things I learned about in college, about what good political science leadership can do. And so that’s really what started my career. And that’s where I think catapulted me to want to run for city council, because I wanted to be part of the

Q: Yeah, and you’ve written about this, right? You used to run a blog that we could tell the kids later what blogs were, but you’ve kind of articulated a philosophy there, right? Like, I think the term you used was like a Kurt Vonnegut term, like a karass. Is that the idea? What does that mean to you? Like, how does that work and fit into the experiences you had?

Andreas: So, in the Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, there’s a phrase used throughout the book called karass. And a karass is a group of individuals who are unknowingly connected, but they just haven’t been found yet. Right? So, we haven’t had the introduction. And so, cultivating the karass is what my phrase has been. And I think in that capacity, it’s really understanding that there are people all throughout our community that have a passion, that have an idea, that have a desire to wanna make a difference. But sometimes I just don’t know how or they don’t know who to talk to, and it’s our job to go find each other. And that’s the whole purpose of what the book was about. But more importantly, that’s what it means to be innovative in government, innovative in the public sector. And so, when I talk about cultivating the karass, it’s, you know, going out to ride the bus. It’s going to sit in a lobby waiting with other people for social services to observe and listen and talk. It’s a way to go find what is going on around your city and then take those ideas and take those individuals and engage with them to find out what’s next. And that’s really been a big part of what I think has been my last 16 years as a public servant.

Q: And so, during this journey, right, with the karass, you, it wasn’t a straight line, right? You’ve run into issues. And so, on the blog that you wrote, right, you documented a time. Where you really thought about leaving, right? You were so frustrated with city government, with your experiences that you had maybe another opportunity. What, what happened there? And why didn’t you leave?

A: So, it was probably the biggest project I ever led, and it was one of my proudest moments was Code for America It was a project focusing on improving access to health care for uninsured residents in Richmond. This is 2015 so this is before Medicaid expansion. So, I was out in the community working on this project, very competitive application process. Had the mayor’s support, had leadership support, and when it came time to actually getting the funding in line, I was left with an empty bag. And I really felt that, you know, this is not a hard funding project. It’s in line with exactly what you care about with addressing poverty concerns and access to services. And I just got fed up of being told no every time. I got fed up with bureaucracy, finding a reason to just put a wet towel on a really bright new idea. And so, I got, I put my out there. And a friend of mine who was I was the Chief Innovation Officer in Kansas City, was leaving for another job in LA. And so that was an amazing opportunity. So, I applied for it, and I literally applied for it literally out of frustration. And low and behold over the next four weeks I went from like the phone interview one, the phone interview two, the screen interview, and then booking a flight to go for an in-person interview. And I quickly realized this could be my next step in my career, but do I want it? And what I really came back and had to wrestle with was, do I want the title in a new city, or do I want to do the work here in Richmond? And that’s really what I think was a big catalyst for why I ran for city council, was I’ve been involved with Richmond for longer than I could imagine, and I didn’t want to give up on the city because I don’t think me leaving would help it any further. And I think it’d be just another example of someone using Richmond as a stepping stone or getting frustrated and leaving to go somewhere else to do the work that they really care about. And so, I took the other route. And that’s where I am today.

A: So, you, instead of sort of taking your bag to another place and trying to work on issues there, you thought, I’m going to do another path here, right? So instead of staying in city government, I’m going to try and take this other role on city council, right? So, what was it about that role that was attractive to you?

A: Because that’s where policy and budget and programs come from. That’s where change really originates and if you look at the form of government and how things really happen, you know, the effectiveness of the mayor is their collaboration and cooperation with city council because at the end of the day, that’s where the vote happens. No matter what goes on in City Hall, what priorities you want to focus on, if city council does not fully support or you’re able to get five votes of the nine, then you really can’t move forward with it. So that’s where I saw an opportunity to kind of put my flag in the ground and really start working on some good policies and really lead some initiatives and change and as a former employee, I knew some of the barriers in the way of really I think strengthening our workforce. And so, there are challenges of the benefits. There are challenges with you know our retirement system did not attract or align with the regional. And so, people would want to apply for a job that would be great in that role, but their retirement benefits from the state or other local office didn’t transfer in and they got a family and reasons so, they would deny the job. And I heard that time and time again and so, what did I do? I focused on addressing that exact concern because I knew how important it was for me on the other side, I needed support. I need those innovative, creative professionals to want to lead the change. And so, what I want to do is make Richmond attractive as a place to do that. And so, what I did was I really came into office to remove these barriers and remove these challenges as an employee that were in the way. And more importantly, focusing on how we can invest in the future.

Q: So, let’s talk about that sort of future focus because you talk a lot about civic innovation, right? Civic technology. You have sometimes this kind of like, you know, I think there’s a lot of great technical knowledge that you can bring from your experience. You know, things like the helpline, you think about open data, you’ve talked about, you know, competition to streamline government but I think some people might wonder, right, is this too technical? Is this what the approach that we need? Can you solve issues of equity through technology or technical solutions? So, what would you say to someone who would say that your approach isn’t the right fit for an entire issue like the North/South divide in Richmond or the rich/poor divide in Richmond?

A: So, I think the biggest piece is to understand that, you know, city government is probably the biggest creator of data and information that you can analyze and figure out what’s really going on but we never look at it that way. We always look at it as it’s in some, you know, mainframe system or in someone’s computer. But we are the creator of data, and it can be from a building permit, or it can show a lack of building permits. It can be the age of streets that we haven’t paved. It could be sidewalks. It could be schools. It could be demographic information. But combined, what we can see is a story. And over time, that story can share and lens into what really needs to happen or what’s missing. And a lot of times, that was one of the things I learned when I did the call center under Dwight Jones. It was called IMPACT. Mayors always like to change the name. But under IMPACT, what I learned was, 311 was led by the C ClickFix, and C ClickFix was an app that just worked on your mobile phone. It was only eight request types. But one of my first reports I gave to city leadership was a map of all the requests over a six-month period of time. And they looked at it and were very intent on like, okay, here’s the issues with, with potholes and here’s the issues with, you know, bulk trash and here’s the issues with, you know, abandoned cars. And I said, you’re missing one point. And they’re like, what? And I go, where is the data not coming in? And where are the neighborhoods where people aren’t using this? Do you think they don’t have potholes? Or do you think they don’t trust government is going to respond to fix this pothole? And what they then shifted was, no, yeah, show me a map that is where no one’s using it. And what we found was it was a lot of the public housing, lower income neighborhoods. And so, the question then came into, is it too technical? Is it that because you need to have a mobile phone? That people don’t know this exists. You have to have a laptop. You don’t know this exists. And so, what we found was that there are technical barriers, but it took technology and information to tell us that there is a technical issue. So, when people critique that, hey, this solution of technology or open data and transparency might not be how you get to that solution, I would argue it’s actually how you find what you don’t know. And the biggest problem I think in public sector and especially with public policy is a lot of times you use our experiences to shape what we think is needed, but sometimes what you don’t know is your biggest enemy. And what you don’t know you don’t know gets in the way of the actual impact you want to create. And so, I believe that you need to have all the above. The technical skills, the ability to be a technocrat and get the job.

Q: But how do you, as mayor, resist the other kinds of pressures on mayors, on administrations, on cities, to direct your resources elsewhere? Say, to a casino, or to an arena, right? These sort of big projects that draw the attention of the public. You know, not just the government, but right, the powerful people outside government who make stuff happen in the city. So how do you resist that and say, no, actually, let’s direct ourselves to something else?

A: I think the administration needs to focus on the community first. I think economic development has been a misnomer for the Richmond as a whole. I think when you look at what we can invest in for creating jobs and housing and, you know, vibrant, thriving neighborhoods is what we economic development should be about because economic development is really about housing. It’s really about creating density where we want to see new housing and new opportunities and that’s where I think if we focus first on those areas. You can look at Northside. Chamberlayne Avenue is an opportunity to develop and invest in opportunities for the Northsouth BRT. We can go to south side and look at Richmond highway. We can look at Midlothain turnpike and hall street and we can see a lot of opportunity to create the things we want to see changed. If that’s our focus for economic development first, and those plans are in place day one, and we’re working through a 10-year plan of how we’re going to create that. If another big economic development shiny project comes along, we’ll deal with that, but our focus should be first on doing those projects. I believe our resources should be allocated and defined to help address and make those plans happen, and we’ve never had that. I’ve worked in City Hall for the last 16 years, and in that experience, I’ve always seen big, shiny projects suck up all the resources. City attorney staff, economic development staff, planning staff, you name it, is all focused just on that project, and nothing else can happen. It stymies everything else we need to do. As mayor, you will see me focus getting away from that aspect, put those projects on the EDAs. If you want to come in and do this type of project, then you need to invest in the resources and staff and talent to make that project possible. Don’t absorb all of my staff cause we’ve got neighborhoods to develop. We’ve got quality of life to improve. And that’s what my focus will be.

Q: And so, let’s say you do train your staff on these kinds of neighborhood investment projects. How do you involve, get the community themselves involved, right? Because that could still be elite imposing on a neighborhood. So, how do you get the folks who are affected, involved, and engaged, and trusting that the government has their best interest at heart?

A: So, one of the first things I did at my first term was I started participatory budgeting. The “People’s Budget of Richmond” is what it’s being called. It’s starting out this fall and it democratizes 3 million in our budget. And it puts it in the hands of the residents to say, I want to see this park bench. I want to see this playground fixed. I want new streetlights. You know, I want a basketball court put in, whatever the thing that the neighborhood sees as a priority. And then they vote on what their priority for the projects are, and that’s one way I think we can start really meeting people where they live. I want to build on that, and I want to create neighborhood investment plans, really focusing on areas that don’t define by a political boundary of a district, but more about a neighborhood, and really thinking through how do we connect schools with libraries, community facilities, parks and playgrounds, and all the things a neighborhood needs? Can you walk to them all? Is it safe in the evening? Can you get there in a safe manner as a whole? That’s the investment we need to make as a city. But meeting people where they live is what they want to see. I also think they just want to see government identify what they care about and if they come in and fix sidewalks and plant new trees and make sure the streetlights work. That’s what basic government should do and if we do that ahead of time now, they’ll go, okay, you are investing where I live now let me see what else we can do and that has to be a back-and-forth aspect. I teach at UVA, and I teach a class on entrepreneurship and the first class I always tell my students you got to focus on empathy and trust and trust is a bridge built between two people over time until it’s strong enough to carry the truth across and what that takes is building each side back and forth. They have to see that you care and will invest where you put your money for them and back and forth until you can really get to the root cause of what they really care about. That takes time and I don’t think we’ve ever given them, the people of Richmond, enough time to have that conversation.

Q: So, Andreas, we were talking about trust before. It is a key ingredient for any mayor, but especially in Richmond. And there’s been some high-profile stories lately, meals taxes, finance departments, some others that may weaken residents’ faith in city government. So how do you plan on rebuilding that trust?

A: You know, I think one of the biggest things I’ve seen over my 16-year arc in city government has been, you know, understanding that we don’t invest in our people. And we don’t invest enough in our processes and technology. And I mean technology in terms of just keeping up with the current systems we have. I’m not talking about like being all new. So when I look around at my 2012 employee survey that I led when I worked in City Hall, a lot of the biggest issues were I don’t have enough training, I don’t have enough information, and I don’t have the right systems in place to do my job. And that was a common aspect across all departments 12 years ago. And when you saw the issue with the finance employees that were let go and fired a couple weeks ago, the things they said were the problems were, I don’t have enough information to do my job. I’m not trained properly in the systems. I don’t work together. And so, when you look at that arc, you realize, have we done enough to truly modernize our processes? The biggest thing I feel is that we’ve created a workforce around paper. We’ve created a workforce around solving problems rather than, you know, being preventative and thinking ahead of time. And so, what I look at fixing this trust in City Hall is it should work. Just last night after a forum, a woman said, I’ve been trying for four months to find out how much I owe on my personal property car tax bill, and I cannot get an answer. Are you going to have penalties, fees, and interest because you couldn’t get back to me on my number? I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know how much to pay. And if these are the basic systems of accounts payable and accounts receivable, then we’ve got to focus on just making the basic things available. The other piece of it, too, is there’s good work that people do every day. I want to remind people what’s going on across the entire city. Just because you might not see a city truck in front of your house or where you work, there’s things going on every day. I was reminded of a visit I did to Marty Walsh, former mayor of Boston.

And in 2016 I did a project with Boston as a consultant and in his office he had this rotating screen and it showed, real time, streets that were closed, paving, sidewalks, 911 calls, top calls for service in the call center, and there’s several other screens. But what he said was, I want to know right now, what’s the pulse of our taxpayer dollars at work? I want to be able to know what’s in process today, so that I know that things are working. And when you think about that view, he said to me, he goes, I launched this website several months ago and when it first launched, everyone looked at it. Now, it’s barely anybody, but it matters that people know if I have a question, I can go find an answer and everybody wants to not have to call somebody or email somebody. If they can find the answer themselves, they’re better off. And how can we make government be the way of just giving you the information you want to know? If there’s a building permit down the street from where you live, do you want to know what it is, it’s public information. Let’s make it public. We have an entire, literally journalistic aspect of Richmond BizSense that focuses on the cutting-edge articles because they’re the first to publish the building permit we know we have. Why not just make it public? Why not just make the process what it should be? So, people know what’s going on. I think there’s some really good basic level things we can do to restore some trust and restore that back. The other part though is with restaurants. You know, one of the biggest things we did in 2018 when the meals tax rate was increased was we asked specifically as council to improve the accessibility for people to make those payments, get a credit card discount for how much it costs them to recapture that money. And all these steps along the way that we expected as part of the approval. Now, we’re finding out they aren’t really being followed. There’s issues with communication and the fact that even right after that was approved, there are businesses that were paying taxes when that change happened, that were now accruing penalties, fees, and interest for that many years without any communication. That is not good government. I don’t want to hear a situation where we’re not thinking about the customers, more importantly, the businesses we depend on, that put us on top 10 destination lists and treating them like we’ve been seeing them and treating the last six months. That’s the first thing I’ll fix. And as a small business owner, I know firsthand how difficult it can be to work with City Hall and that’s one step I’ll do day one to fix.

Q: I mean, have you had experiences as a small business owner, like direct experiences with City Hall that were, were painful?

A: My building permit process. I was delayed nine months to figure out where to put a bathroom and an ADA ramp. Basic needs for any warehouse to be converted into a new use. It seemed like it was the first time, and I know that they’re doing them all over the place. And so that was one example that delayed me by 18 months to open and as a small business almost tanked my business dream. And so, I understand that frustration, but more importantly, I want to really fix that. No one knew that I was Councilman Addison doing this project. It was another business that came in. The other thing that was alarming, too, was when I went to submit my application for my business license, the person was surprised in the counter that I had all the right information with me. And she said, usually it takes two to three visits for someone to get their business license application submitted. And I said, why? And she goes, it’s really complicated, this form is old, it’s been copied over, it’s not the original version. And there I said, there’s an easy opportunity to fix that. And the other piece that I want to add to that relationship of what I saw too is, and this is something I’ve asked economic development and finance departments to do together. We survey every business, every year, when you renew your business license. And it’s done by the Department of Finance. But there’s a ton of opportunity to ask questions like, have you added staff? Are you looking for investment opportunities? Are you looking for a second location or to move to a bigger place? We could do a survey of every business active in the city every year to better meet their needs. If we want to grow and create opportunities that support our businesses, engage with them, go meet them where they’re at, ask what needs they have, and then meet that need in our next budget. And when I proposed that, the problem came, well, finance department says, that’s not my job. And economic development goes, well, I don’t have the survey instrument, and if we put one out, no one follows it. And I’m going, what better way to mirror those things together? But then it became, well, who’s going to own the process? And there’s where bureaucracy always kills good ideas. And as mayor, because I’ve been stymied as that as an employee, will not let that stand. I will know there’s going to be opposition. It’s going to be called work. It’s going to be called change. But the only thing that’s constant in anything in government is going to be change under my leadership.

Q: But that’s painful, right? Change can be painful, and you know, there’s been some discussion among, you know, candidates for mayor about changes at City Hall, possibly changing personnel. I mean, you’ve quoted, I think when you’re writing a, we’re talking about a former boss who said, like, if you can’t change the people change the people, right? So, what did you mean when you say this? Are you thinking that we’re going to need big changes at City Hall?

A: You know, I think when I follow, you know, soccer and especially English Premier League soccer. And so whenever new coach comes in, right, you’re changing the techniques, you’re changing the approach, the strategy of how the players work together on the pitch. You’re changing a lot of things. What that requires is your trainers are different. Your different specialties of coaches need to be shifted. If you’re going in a new direction, you can’t maintain everything that was there before. And so, what I’m coming in when I’m saying changing the people, it’s more about making sure that it’s the right people to lead the change that I want to see happen. And so, when I talk about economic development, investing in neighborhoods, do we have the right planning staff? Do we have the right economic development real estate professionals? Do we have the right resources to come in and see the opportunity and capture it. And that’s the thing I feel when I look around the room. I might not get that answer and it’s no one’s I think problem. We had a lot of issues to fix from the last 20 years. We’ve made a lot of progress. It doesn’t mean anyone’s bad at their job. It just means are you the right person to do what the changes that I’m running on bringing to the city to be done? And that’s where some of the answers about a CAO and city manager came in. When I go below that, I don’t want to make that decision for that new person. I want to make that decision with the new person. What are the skill sets you need in the job of running this city to the expectation that I want to bring as the mayor that I didn’t have for my 16 years of being in City Hall that I want to see the city have. I want to bring that change and that’s kind of what I mean is I don’t want to make the decisions of these people are being fired. I’m replacing this. Everyone’s out, but I do want to make it be that you have to earn your job. You have to show that you’re going to be willing to work for the change that I want to bring.

Q: So, another issue that’s really been important, and is important. I think it’s rightly discussed in the campaign is housing. All the candidates agree we need some reform to address the housing crisis in Richmond, but everyone seems to have a slightly different approach. You focus on getting people experiencing homeless into permanent housing. Making it easier for those in housing to make critical repairs on their home. Why are you taking this approach to housing?

A: You know, the biggest thing I hear across any district at any income level across the city during this campaign has been I’m struggling to make my ends meet because my taxes keep going up. People are struggling with an economy of jobs that we have in the city, keeping up with the rising housing costs. And that could be for renters and homeowners. And so, when I focus on my seven-point housing plan of policy recommendations to truly elevate what we’re going to do as a city about housing, while we can look at building new affordability across the city, a lot of that’s going to be multifamily apartments. That’s going to take two to three years from today to hit the ground running. So, while we focus on that and find places, we want to build those. The people that live adjacent to those neighborhoods right now are having a hard time. That’s why a big part of my campaign is a tax reform proposal to really shift how we tax real estate. More importantly, how do we create an opportunity to activate those more than 1,000 vacant blighted empty parcels and create vibrant, new thriving neighborhoods while not displacing neighbors to it. If your housing assessment goes up because your neighbor bought and sold a house, good for you. I shouldn’t be taxing you every year more and more because your neighbor sold their house. I should not punish you because you’re staying in the house that you invested in 10 years ago. And so right now, that’s what I’m focusing on. And last week, I knocked on this amazing woman’s door in Southside and she told me the same story. She’s widowed, she’s late 80s, and she just has some basic home repairs she can’t do. One of my biggest capacity opportunities for the city is workforce development. More importantly, the future of workforce. So, when I talk to the unions, the trades, the skills, the labor organizations, we can do labor agreements where they can do opportunities to, as they’re being apprentice trained, do maintenance work in elderly homes. And imagine the opportunity for someone who is living on a fixed income, who is having to pay more in taxes and needs to get their,you know, front porch fixed or a leaky roof or some other electrical upgrades or maybe convert from oil or gas to electric for more energy efficiency. So, they’re not energy burdened in their bills. You know, who can actually afford to pay that? Well, their house is worth more, but will a bank let them lend on that? Probably not. There’s a way we can work together on addressing that issue and I believe there are a lot of people that I want to age in place, but maybe aren’t going to be able to afford to given the situation of some of the aging infrastructure we have. So, let’s fix that. Let’s employ and activate a workforce to help meet that need and that’s what I think is the biggest opportunity It’s keeping people in the housing. They already have.

Q: Okay. So what? Let’s extend that out to the sort of most vulnerable folks, right? The high eviction rates in Richmond, right? Nationally, one of the top ranked cities in terms of evictions. How do you reduce that, you know, briefly without having to, you know, I don’t know, just let people not pay rent or not leave their house, right?

A: You know, I think this is an issue that’s been really close to my heart. When I saw the eviction lab, RVA eviction lab study that showed the really underbelly of what’s really going on with evictions across the city. You know, I engage with them, and I engaged with the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, went to the eviction court and sat in the courtroom during eviction docket day and was really just, you know, struck by just how many people were in there waiting to be told whether they have to leave their house or not. And realizing that the process at that point had been eight, nine weeks in that way of getting to the court date. And what we then found through my conversations with Marty Wegbright, who just recently retired from CVLIS, was we need a right to counsel. And we need to provide a right to counsel for those facing eviction and it’s not meant to be like let’s lawyer up all the people facing eviction to attack the landlords. It’s meant to be what are the things we need to put in place, policies, funding, support, to keep you in your house to not pay the landlord what’s owed and rent and make sure that the house you’re in is that to a good enough standard that it should be still livable?

Q: I mean, so lawyers cost money, right, and even public defenders, right? Even housing companies. How do we pay for all this stuff? Like, is there actually money in here to do this kind of tax reform, to do this kind of, you know, eviction services and resources? Where do we get the money for that?

A: You know, this is always the question that’s said by my, my opponents on the mayor campaign for the forums, but I think what we see now is there’s a revenue strategy around understanding how a city makes a dollar. And when I think about a new program addressing a big need, just in July, there was 2,100 eviction cases filed in the courts in Richmond. And so, we have a still a pressing issue on housing stability. I put $500,000 in this budget, I asked for $5 million, they erased a zero, so I got $500,000 to start the program. And it’s my hope that by working in the capacity of getting this started, we’ll see exactly how much resources are needed. Yes, lawyers cost money, but it also costs money if we start evicting people and realizing that where are they going to live?

How are they going to be able to get to that next job? How are they going to be able to keep that job? If they don’t have a place to go to sleep at night, and a place to have food and to take care of themselves. And so, there’s a bigger cost if we don’t do anything about it, and I think we’re starting to see that. When I look at our budget and I think about investment in programs and initiatives like this, there is federal money, there are state money, there are grants from foundations and organizations. I do not think we’re getting or actively pursuing. And so, when I look at our city budget, I think we have to look at how we grow our budget. And so, when I think about a real estate tax reform, the biggest thing I think we have is an opportunity. There is a parcel behind where my gym is located that was 10 years ago worth $100,000. We rezoned it. And it’s now worth 4 million. So, if you think about how we can do zoning as a tool to generate revenue, it supports the housing crisis needs we have.

It supports workforce opportunities. It creates the need for opener for developing a new neighborhood. If I can create an empty parcel that was worth $100,000 and by zoning it for the building that’s now on it, create $4 million of value, I think we are going to be able to be fine with our revenues.

Q: And so, what do you say to someone…someof this sounds like, you know, like if you’re getting $500,000 instead of 5 million, right? Sometimes you have to start small. What do you say to folks who might be frustrated by the pace of change, right, or folks who might be left out by that change, still waiting for the change to come to them?

A: That’s my biggest concern about the lack of funding for the right to counsel for evictions is we know how big of a problem it is and we know how important this intervention point can be because it keeps people housed, it keeps them in their capacity of living in their apartment and their landlord paid, and also creates an opportunity to understand what’s really going on. Are you facing eviction because of a sickness, an illness, a loss of a job? What was really going on? And until we know what the causes for some people might be across a broader spectrum, I don’t know how to intervene and address that concern. But I do believe we need to focus on the economy of a city, more importantly, workforce, and creating access to the skills for good paying jobs that are going to be providing benefits at a really competitive wage and not living wage. I mean, better than living wage jobs. And I don’t think we’re really talking about the economy of elevating people out of poverty through those opportunities. So, when I think about elevating the rising tide lifts all ships kind of mantra. That is what this is going to take. And I don’t think we have ever had a real mayor come in with an economic focus of what is it going to take to adjust housing, adjust taxes, make sure we are competitive in the region, and elevate the opportunities to invest in our future. A lot of the investments we’ve been making are fixing the past. And I think we’re at a point now where we need to really look forward because there’s more value. There’s more opportunity. There’s more potential in front of us than trying to make sure we catch up from behind.

Q: So, you also, you know, speaking of this kind of experiential approach you sometimes take and get out there. You’ve made walkability, transportation, transit, one of your signature issues, including participating in “No Car November, “right? You take a month off from having a car and see how that gets around. What did you learn from that experience?

A: You know, I’m fortunate enough to live in the Museum District and I can walk and bike to a lot of places. Pulse bus stop and Scott’s Addition is literally about three quarters of a mile from my house. And on most city council days, I will walk to the bus and take it down to City Hall because it’s quick and easy. I don’t have to deal with traffic or parking. And it’s actually been very beneficial. But I’m lucky because I have access to that. I also live in a very, you know, mature neighborhood that has sidewalks and walkability and traffic lights and pedestrian support. When I take the bus down like a 1C and go through Hull Street down to Southside, it’s a very different experience. And I think those experiences are what this is all about. is getting on the bus and talking to people. And so, when I go on a bus ride and I had a friend, Silly Genius, who was one of our wall muralists here, take me on a bus ride to Southside. And in that experience, he told me a story about what it means to live in Southside, and he pointed out the bus stops that don’t have a sidewalk. He pointed out where there’s no infrastructure, there’s no shelter. And he’s like, the bus frequency after hours is every 30 minutes. But after hours is for working people, not shift people. And there’s a disrespect of those who have other job types that don’t have the same benefit. So, when the schedule of our buses shifts from 8 to 5 as a priority and now gets into later hours where they need it to get to or from work and they don’t have a shelter, they don’t have a roof over their head to wait for that bus that comes every 30 minutes, we’re missing the mark. And so, these are the stories that I need to not just hear, but I need to see. And so, we got out at a couple of those stops and waited for the bus to experience, this is what people do every day. And that’s the story that I need to have. And I think every mayor I would challenge to say, you know, who rides the bus? Who rides the bike? Who actually goes other neighborhoods to observe and see and listen? Not because you want to for this race, but because you need to understand what’s really going on across our city. I’ve been doing that for the last eight years, so much so that when I did “No Car November, “I actually sold my car, and my wife and I only share one car together, because I think that experience now elevates the reason why it’s a modern city. I want to build, and I want to make sure I do that from an experiential, lived experience.

Q: So, what do you think people get wrong about you as a candidate?

Andreas: You know, I think, what I hear the most is I’m the first district candidate. I’m  from means and resources and I’ve always had this ambition of politics, et cetera, but what really comes into the fold is when I talk about my childhood and growing up, you know, with a, you know, hardworking stepdad at work maintenance with a, with a mom, who did waitress work or part time jobs here and there when she could find work. Grew up on a farm surrounded by, you know, a bunch of rural land and grew up in her very humble beginnings and was self-taught for three years when I was homeschooled from, you know, sixth to ninth grade. And through those experiences, I feel like those shaped me to want to go to college and my parents didn’t push me to and so when people realize like today what you see before you is a put together guy in a suit, who owns a business teaches at UVA, and all these things, like that’s been a really hard worked earned experience and that’s what I think is different than what people expect when they see me when they learn about how I got here and that’s the thing that I think you when you look at my policy priorities the work I’ve done on city council my willingness to out of a car, ride my bike, walk the neighborhoods, get on the bus, is because that’s what I did in college. I didn’t have a car in college. I worked my way through college. My experience was meant to be, when I needed to go get groceries, I took the bus. And I went to and from the bus, and that was what I did. So, that was something that’s normal for me. And a lot of people don’t expect that from me, but when they hear that story, things now make sense. They go, that’s why you care about affordable housing. That’s why you care about transit. This is why you care about, you know, bike lanes and pedestrian safety. So, what happens now is that curiosity around who I am is now, I think, elevating my, my status of being a really good mayor candidate because I can relate to a lot of people, especially working families.

Q: So, what’s something, kind of flip side of that question is, what’s something kind of not so political about you that nobody knows about you, or you haven’t really had a chance to talk about while on the campaign trail?

Andreas: So, this is the question. This is an interesting question. So, there’s a very little known fact about me that will now be public. Everyone to know. So, my senior year at Virginia Tech, a friend of mine asked me to try out for the cheerleading squad. And so, I had no gymnastic experience. I had no real anything in regards to cheerleading experience. So, I showed up completely green eyed to tryouts. And over the next four days, learned how to stunt with a cheerleader. Learned how to catch and throw and do the things that were needed. Rigorous tests, hard days. And I made the team. There were four spots, and there were about 20 of us in the room.

Q: I take it you didn’t drop anybody.

A: I didn’t drop anybody. Actually, that’s what my coach said was the biggest thing that they liked, was that I anticipated a fall and was able to prepare myself for it, but most people just go, oh crap, there they are on the floor. So that was one thing that kind of stood out. So, I walked on to a Division 1 cheerleading squad, and then was on JV. And then to work my way, I did some football games, and then over the course of the year went from men’s basketball, women’s basketball, volleyball, to cheering in Madison Square Garden, and then cheering in the national cheerleading competition as part of our actual competition as a team. So, in that one year, I walked through from walk on, no experience, to then getting a varsity letter in a Division I sport. So, I actually have a letterman jacket with one little thing on it. It’s the little, the horn that we would yell into that’s on my jacket. I don’t actually have the thing on it, but one of the things I feel that story tells about me is I’m willing to go into something that’s unknown. Maybe uncomfortable or learn the experience and figure it out and try and fail and figure out again. And that’s what I learned through that experience, trying out for cheerleading. And more importantly, when I was in the role, then working harder to get better and understanding the things of learning from others, asking questions, being inquisitive around, how did you do that? How do I do that? What do I need to do differently? What am I doing wrong? And those curiosities are what prepared me to get to the place where then I was trusted to be on the national cheerleading competition squad. And I did the same thing when I ran for City Council. I did the same thing when I was an employee in City Hall. You gave me a problem or a project or an opportunity. Figure it out. I had no experience going into this thing, how to make this work. But what did I do? Figure it out. Ask questions. That’s why I built such an interesting network of people across the country. Peers that were innovators of government. I am friends with mayors and city council representatives and leadership. All over the country. People that I talk to on a monthly basis. Especially in my role with the National League of Cities. I’m on their Board of Directors. I think one of the things I’ve recognized is that I’ve been selected by my peers’ time and time again to lead amongst what they are doing. I was selected by the members of the GRTC board to be the vice chair. I’ve been selected by my peers around the state of Virginia to be the chair of Virginia First Cities. And then in the national league of cities, I was selected by my peers to be one of their board of directors, which is one of 45 people from the 4,800 members they have to be voted into that capacity. So, I’ve been trusted to make leadership roles. And I think that’s because of what I did as a cheerleader, that experience has shaped people. They see me as the person who’s going to figure it out. He’s going to come through that end at the end of the day with good ideas and passion, and more importantly, the ability of understanding what it’s gonna take to get it done.

Rich: Andreas Addison is running for mayor of Richmond. Thanks so much, Andreas.

Addison: Thank you.

Rich: If you’d like to hear more about the important issues facing RVA, I hope you’ll subscribe to our podcast at our website, rvasgotissues.vpm.org. You can find all my interviews with all five mayoral candidates on YouTube, VPM.org, or wherever you find your podcasts. I’m Rich Meagher. Thanks for watching.