Richmond, Virginia
Richmond (/ˈrɪtʃmənd/ RICH-mənd) is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city since 1871. The city's population in the 2020 census was 226,610, up from 204,214 in 2010,[7] making it Virginia's fourth-most populous city.[8] The Richmond metropolitan area, with over 1.3 million residents, is the Commonwealth's third-most populous.
Not to be confused with Richmond County, Virginia.
Richmond
United States
62.57 sq mi (162.05 km2)
59.92 sq mi (155.20 km2)
2.65 sq mi (6.85 km2)
213 ft (65 m)
226,610
3,782/sq mi (1,484.75/km2)
1,059,150 (US: 44th)
2,067.3/sq mi (798.2/km2)
1,339,182 (US: 44th)
Richmonder
$93.615 billion (2022)
51-67000[6]
1499957[4]
Richmond is located at the James River's fall line, 44 mi (71 km) west of Williamsburg, 66 mi (106 km) east of Charlottesville, 91 mi (146 km) east of Lynchburg and 92 mi (148 km) south of Washington, D.C. Surrounded by Henrico and Chesterfield counties, Richmond is at the intersection of Interstate 95 and Interstate 64 and encircled by Interstate 295, Virginia State Route 150 and Virginia State Route 288. Major suburbs include Midlothian to the southwest, Chesterfield to the south, Varina to the southeast, Sandston to the east, Glen Allen to the north and west, Short Pump to the west, and Mechanicsville to the northeast.[9][10]
Richmond was an important village in the Powhatan Confederacy and was briefly settled by English colonists from Jamestown from 1609 to 1611.[11][12] Founded in 1737, it replaced Williamsburg as the capital of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia in 1780. During the Revolutionary War period, several notable events occurred in the city, including Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech in 1775 at St. John's Church and the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom written by Thomas Jefferson. During the American Civil War, Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America. The Jackson Ward neighborhood is the city's traditional hub of African American commerce and culture, once known as the "Black Wall Street of America" and the "Harlem of the South."[13] At the beginning of the 20th century, Richmond had one of the world's first successful electric streetcar systems.
Law, finance, and government primarily drive Richmond's economy. The downtown area is home to federal, state, and local governmental agencies as well as notable legal and banking firms. The greater metropolitan area includes several Fortune 500 companies: Performance Food Group, Altria, CarMax, Dominion Energy, Markel, Owens and Minor, Genworth Financial, and ARKO Corp.[14][15][16] The city is home to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit and a Federal Reserve Bank (one of 13 such courts and one of 12 such banks).
Richmond city government consists of a city council with representatives from nine districts serving in a legislative and oversight capacity, as well as a popularly elected, at-large mayor serving as head of the executive branch. Citizens in each of the nine districts elect one council representative each to serve a four-year term. Beginning with the November 2008 election Council terms was lengthened to four years. The city council elects from among its members one member to serve as Council President and one to serve as Council Vice President. The city council meets at City Hall, located at 900 E. Broad St., 2nd Floor, on the second and fourth Mondays of every month, except August.
In 1977, a federal district court ruled in favor of Curtis Holt Jr. who had claimed the council's existing election process — an at large voting system — was racially biased. The verdict required the city to rebuild its council into nine distinct wards. Within the year the city council switched from majority white to majority black, reflecting the city's populace. This new city council elected Richmond's first black mayor, Henry L. Marsh.
Richmond's government changed in 2004 from a council-manager form of government with a mayor elected by and from the council to an at-large, popularly elected mayor. Unlike most major cities, in order to be elected, a mayoral candidate must win a plurality of the vote in five of the city's nine council districts. If no one crosses that threshold, a runoff is held between the two top finishers in the first round. This was implemented as a compromise in order to address concerns that better-organized and wealthier white voters could have undue influence.[174] In a landslide election, incumbent mayor Rudy McCollum was defeated by L. Douglas Wilder, who previously served Virginia as the first elected African American governor in the United States since Reconstruction. The current mayor of Richmond is Levar Stoney who was elected in 2016.[175] The mayor is not a part of the Richmond City Council.
As of 2021, the Richmond City Council consisted of:
[176]
Richmond's sister cities are:[192]