THE DOWNTOWN PLAN: NAMING THE ELEPHANT

It's funny how a little controversy attracts the media.

Tonight's work-in-progress presentation for the new Downtown Plan started with a welcome from Rachel Flynn, the city's director of community development, and a somewhat uninspired nickel speech from Mayor L. Douglas Wilder. Which meant that for the first 20 minutes no one talked about the elephant in the room.

Even though everyone with a pen or camera was looking for it. Style was there. Richmond Magazine was there. The Richmond Free Press was there. The Times-Dispatch was there. All three local TV news teams made an appearance. Even the bloggers were there -- though they were mostly there for the news, not the controversy.

It took Victor Dover, principal of Miami-based urban planning firm Dover Kohl, to acknowledge the elephant, and to apologize for it.

"It also needs to be said that this project was imperfect, despite the intentions," Dover said. "The cross-section, the representation of the community was not all it could be."

As he spoke, the elephant appeared on a large projector screen behind Dover -- the front page of this week's Richmond Free Press with it's screaming headline, "Sea of Whiteness."

It was no small thing for Dover to step forward and acknowledge that Richmond's African-American community was under-represented during the week-long public planning process. It is unfortunate that it took the planner from Miami to confront what the politicians from Richmond would not.

One reality of the week is that many people were under-represented. African-Americans, small business owners, artists and designers, suburbanites and commuters, immigrants and students.

The other reality of the week is that the City of Richmond owns the first reality. The Department of Community Development and Venture Richmond, despite their best intentions, started late and delivered light on the civic engagement front. Richmond's City Council had a paltry 33% turnout for the public kick-off and hands-on design portion of the week -- and then had the gall to cry foul during Monday night's City Council meeting when the issue of race began to surface. The mayor's own PR office stayed on the sidelines during the entire process, which is only ironic when you know that it took that office less than 24 hours to blast forth with a press release screaming, "Three of Richmond City Council's own make Style Magazine's Power List."

Ah, we speak of public inclusion and release media statements championing exclusivity. That's entertainment -- of a somewhat pathetic nature.

But here's some good news about the process:

• Significantly more people -- of all races and social classes -- turned out for the public events for this Downtown Plan than for any previous plan developed in the past 30 years.
• The media coverage of the event over the past several days -- while several weeks late -- has increased dramatically, and has been mostly positive.
• The process didn't collapse under the controversy -- a rarity in Richmond.
• The Department of Community Development contracted to bring Dover Kohl back for another round of hands-on public design input later in the summer. You can bet the Mayor's press office will be sending out media releases for that event.

In the end, a messy process generated surprising outcomes -- a good draft plan, an expanded process for public involvement, and three events in the past week that attracted hundreds of Richmonders to a visionary discussion of what Richmond can be in the future.

If only others can learn to let go of what was in the past.