Some teams grew stronger out of necessity, like the Shockoe Bottom business owners who worked to fight crime and rebuild after disaster. Or the emergency responders who dealt with fire, flood and booms.
Some teams grew weaker, like Mayor Rudy McCollum, the outgoing Richmond City Council and City Manager Calvin Jamison.
There were unspoken mergers, like a Richmond School Board trio that always seemed to go against the grain. And ones that started out secret, like the members of the Richmond Ballpark Initiative.
Richmond voters rallied together. Gwen Hedgepeth supporters stood by her side. North Side residents worried together. And downtown boosters boosted together.
All teams end up with a score. We hand one out every week, rating five events from -10 to +10 in an effort to gauge the spirit of the city. In our annual exercise, we crunch the numbers to find the score for the year.
2004 gets a 0. All things considered, sometimes it’s nice to balance out.
