Thank You

Thanks for “With This Ring,” about lesbian and gay people being married [July 31]. It was very well written and informative.

Mary Gay Hutcherson

Fight the Power

I’m thankful for philosophers like Eugene Mills [Back Page, Aug. 21] who help us see through the cynical fog of corporate manipulation and misinformation. Without them we might swallow Dominion’s PR baloney and surrender a river view (meant for all to enjoy) to a few executive fat cats. Will the greedy ever be satisfied?

Mills’ expose of Times-Dispatch “thinking” is amusing and enlightening, but we should expect the T-D to back Dominion. The paper has always been the friend of powerful elites, not a paper for honest, hardworking folk.

Jefferson said that eternal vigilance is the price of liberty and Mills urges us to “distrust and verify” — both are good advice in this age of cancerous corporate power.

Kudos to Style and Mr. Mills for speaking truth to power.

Lee Carleton

The writer is a frequent contributor to Style’s Back Page.

Thanks for Your Courage

While I am aware of the disclaimer regarding support or otherwise, I nonetheless feel that Style Weekly has showed journalistic courage for printing the recent Back Page by Eugene Mills regarding Dominion Resources.

I am also equally impressed by Mr. Mills being willing to even suggest the possibility of “duplicity” by so powerful a force in the community and hope that he is either tenured or is ready for a job change, which might be a result of his expressing a point of view which may be received with some consternation by members of that corporation and certain of Virginia’s public servants.

Interestingly, I find Mr. Mills’ choice of the word “duplicity” to be rather gentlemanly. In other venues, it would not surprise me to have seen a somewhat stronger noun used. The “L” word, perhaps? One can only wonder how this tale will end.

Cary Cohen

Richmond Fears Success

Dominion Resources, a respected Fortune 500 company with a large presence and long history in Central Virginia, proposes to move at least 900 employees from the suburbs to downtown.

Most cities would embrace this development as great news, an economic windfall. Not Richmond or its residents. Richmond, fearful of successful businesses and the bounty they can bring to a community, makes it as difficult as possible to do business in the city.

Wake up, Richmond, or one day there may be lots of empty streets and buildings downtown.

Roger Higgins

Group Is Fighting Derelict Properties

Historic Richmond Foundation is all too familiar with the frustrations expressed in the recent article about the Church Hill property owner and damages to his restoration efforts being caused by poorly maintained adjoining property [“The House Next Door,” Aug. 14]. Nearly 50 years ago HRF began purchasing and restoring houses in Church Hill. Adjoining-property problems were an issue then and continue to be so today.

HRF has, and is, aggressively working on several fronts to address the derelict property dilemma. HRF has had dialogue with Mayor Kaine to secure city support for HRF’s initiatives. HRF, alone, has pursued statewide legislation that would allow derelict and abandoned properties to be acquired and appropriately and equitably conveyed to responsive new ownership. Not surprisingly, this has been a challenging task. HRF’s efforts during the last legislative session to push for improvements to earlier HRF-led legislation were not successful. We will continue to push for ways and means to address the situation noted in the Style Weekly article.

HRF is also working closely with the city’s commissioner of buildings on the related issue of demolition by neglect in established Old and Historic Districts. [Commissioner] Claude Cooper and his staff have been tremendously helpful and supportive, but they can only do so much under current laws.

Hopefully, the individuals and collective energies of those who understand the numerous benefits of historic preservation to the Richmond community will cause the adoption of much-needed and overdue legislation.

Don Charles

Executive Director, Historic Richmond Foundation