Greening Southside

The Greening of Southside Richmond is a Team Effort

In Southside Richmond, an urban landscape that lies due south of where the James River meanders through Virginia’s State Capitol, the average heat index during the month of July can reach a blistering 108.7°F. City officials and environmental groups in this area, which was impacted by minority housing discrimination in the past, are working together to plant 650 trees by early 2023 to create healthier living conditions for predominantly African American and Hispanic neighborhoods located along the Jefferson Davis highway corridor.
Partners of the Greening Southside Richmond project hope to improve the health and quality of life for citizens living in neighborhoods that suffer from extreme heat, while also boosting air quality and reducing water pollution in the James River.The Details are in the DataThe Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) worked closely with the City of Richmond Office of Sustainability to secure funding for the Greening Southside Richmond project. The Sustainability Office’s RVAgreen 2050 Climate Equity Index identified census tracts that needed to decrease temperatures and improve the overall health of residents. The interactive tool, which can be used to explore factors that make the city’s communities more susceptible to harm, provided important data for areas in Southside that were identified as urban heat islands with residents at a higher risk for health issues.“We are looking at climate risk and how it intersects with illnesses like Coronavirus, or even Asthma. There is a real health equity issue in Southside,” said Kendra Norrell, Community Outreach Coordinator, Office of Sustainability, City of Richmond. “We want to improve urban heat islands and reduce the temperature and also improve air quality.”The Climate Equity Index data helped the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), a non-profit organization devoted to the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay, to secure a $227,467 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). The CBF will work with a number partners and Southside communities to transform asphalt and concrete into green space around community centers, churches, schools, and throughout neighborhoods."Richmond is excited to be partners in the NFWF Greening Southside Richmond Project. Our partnership includes not only funding, but the valuable work from the Office of Sustainability and their Climate Equity Index, which identifies communities in Southside that will benefit from this project,” said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney.The Benefits of Shade
The City of Richmond’s goal to increase the tree canopy city-wide to 60 percent and 30 percent within all neighborhoods will be aided by the new tree-planting initiative. Prioritizing Southside Richmond, which has a high heat vulnerability index rating and low tree canopy coverage, will provide additional benefits beyond lowering the temperatures of urban heat islands in that area.“Some of the perks include decreased energy bills, improved air quality, and enhanced stormwater management for runoff that flows into streams, the James River, and the Chesapeake Bay,” said Ann Jurczyk, Virginia Director of Outreach and Advocacy for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.Paying It ForwardEarlier this year, Mayor Levar Stoney announced a new initiative to expand urban parks and increase green space within the city so residents would be within a 10-minute walk to a park. The Greening Southside Richmond project will help close this gap in a city where six percent of the land is used for parks and recreation, compared to 15 percent nationally.“Supplementing this work, the Green Team has identified five new parks in Southside connecting more Richmonders, equitably, to green spaces that the community will design, said Mayor Stoney. “These efforts all help the city we love by contributing to a better quality of life for all Richmonders, and a healthier, more resilient Richmond.”Richmond’s Office of Sustainability is actively involved in moving the Greening Southside Richmond project forward, as well as additional pilot projects, serving as a model for other urban planners and sustainability offices."There is a national network of urban sustainability coordinators and we are sharing our dashboard with all of them. I believe this is one of the only public-facing tools for others to see,” said Norell.“We learn from each NFWF grant and bring that knowledge forward. We are fortunate to have an institutional memory and CBF receives ongoing NFWF grants for this tree canopy work,” said Jurczyk. “We hope to pass on our repository of learnings and program reports to the next person who picks up the project. I would love to see this program scale up across Richmond to ensure health equity across the city.”