Talk:Richmond, Virginia

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Good article Richmond, Virginia has been listed as one of the Geography and places good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can delist it, or ask for a reassessment.
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To-do list for Richmond, Virginia: edit · history · watch · refresh
  • expand lead/intro section to summarize article better.
  • remove/reduce red links.
  • copyediting; to improve wikification and grammar usage (see automated peer review for help on this one).
  • add proper citations where necessary.
  • Needs photos for some critical sections; 'economy', 'annual culture events and fairs', 'media', 'sports', 'religion', 'education'.
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[edit] question

well i am asking why is richmond the capital of VA —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.188.148.44 (talk)

From the article's history section: "In 1780, Virginia’s state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to Richmond because it was less vulnerable to attack by the British." Additionally, it is also more centrally-located in Virginia than Williamsburg is. Dr. Cash 01:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Prominent distinctions?

I've removed the following paragraph from the lead section of the article. It was added by 71.207.130.170 (IP address belongs to comcast.net in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It mainly contains minorly interesting and rather trivial information from a trade publication. While the source technically meets wikipedia's WP:RS guidelines, it's not a major media publication, and largely reflects the opinion of the publication's editorial board. At best, I don't think it belongs in the lead; maybe a brief note under economy, maybe,... but not the lead. Dr. Cash 03:32, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Richmond landed three prominent distinctions in FDI Magazine’s 2007 survey “North American Cities of the Future." Richmond was named the 5th best large city for quality of life, the 4th best large city for development and investment promotion and the 3rd best large city for human resources. [1]

[edit] Tikvat Israel and Ukrop's

I have tried to tidy this up a bit, but there is still a disproportianately large amount of info on this synagogue. Numerous lengthy paragraphs detailing the entire history and the building are totally unnecessary. It isn't as though Richmond is a predominantly Messianic Jewish city. It really needs to be trimmed down more to reflect its real relative prominence in the city. I also removed the sentence claiming Ukrop's supermarkets banned GWAR and Howard Stern. They might publicly come out against certain entertainment acts, but they are just a supermarket chain, not a government entity of any kind; they can't just ban them on their own. The Ukrops are more powerful in Richmond than your average citizen, and their influence was probably a factor, but they are still private citizens, so they can't just go around shutting down anyone they disagree with. 71.63.119.49 15:56, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

I removed more information on the Messianic synagogue, which appeared to be copied and pasted (plagiarized) from the Tikvat Israel website.71.63.119.49 16:03, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] cable tv services in media section

I removed the following information from the 'media' section of the article:

Comcast was formerly the only cable television provider for the Richmond area, until May 2006, when Cavalier Telephone and TV began providing cable television services.[2] In the city and its northern suburban counties, Comcast is the successor to the franchise originally held by Continental Cablevision, then MediaOne, then AT&T Broadband, before Comcast acquired AT&T Broadband.
DirecTV and Dish Network are also very popular as an alternative to cable television in Richmond.
Comcast also provides Broadband internet access. Other providers offer DSL service in Richmond including Verizon and Cavalier, who also offer land-line telephone services.

For one, cable television service is not a utility in any city, and subscription to it is completely optional and voluntary. Unlike the local television stations which provide local content and news to the community, these cable & satellite tv providers are not unique to Richmond, and available in many communities. While they do provide local access channels to local governments, just about every provider does this in every community, as part of the rights of access agreements with the governments -- this is non-notable. Furthermore, including mention of this information is really starting to look like spam and advertising for the companies in question, which goes against the purpose of wikipedia. Dr. Cash 20:01, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] consumer markets

Richmond is known as one of the most politically and socially conservative consumer markets in the country. Consequently, it is often used as a test-market for new consumer products to identify strengths and weaknesses that will appear in a national deployment.

I removed the above-mentioned statement from the 'economy' section of the article. I am unable to find a source for it, and it sounds like blatantly obvious POV. Dr. Cash 21:59, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV regarding Belle Isle removed

It also has become a typical hangout for teenagers to smoke marijuana and drink alcohol. The park is not very accessable to law enforcement, thus leading teenagers to quickly take advantage of this. The water and scenery provide a peaceful environment as the kids light up there joints and sit on "Dead Rock" (a rock painted in the honor of the band The Greatful Dead).

I removed the above statement, which was added by an anonymous editor, from the article. It violates wikipedia's NPOV guidelines, and is not verifiable. Dr. Cash 03:10, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

-- Surprised there's no mention of the crime. I've been here for 11 days so far on business, and haven't seen a single neighborhood that I would walk in after like 3pm. Most everywhere seems to be dirty, violent, and shady, and there's a very heavy law enforcement presence everywhere, you feel like you're in a warzone just waiting to explode. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.155.114.132 (talk) 15:25, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

--Umm not sure what part of town you are at, but I suggest opening your eyes and taking another look around. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.127.3.207 (talk) 02:23, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Religion section

The religion section seems like a big, jumbled mess. It may just need some editing, or it may need large sections scrapped altogether (the section is twice as long as the religion section of cities ten times the size of Richmond). Also, certain religions/denominations seem to dominate the section. Just a thought on how to improve an otherwise pretty well-written and maintained article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.172.161.194 (talk) 15:20, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

The infobox is all messed up and not in the box when you look at the page. Can somebody fix it? Gtbob12 (talk) 17:19, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

It had been vandalized. Hopefully I've fixed it. --Nlu (talk) 17:44, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Richmond Braves

I don't have time right now to research all the details, but I'm pretty sure it was confirmed yesterday that they are leaving by 2009 to play in Georgia. --Ticallion (talk) 18:51, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] nicknames

I've reverted several recent additions to the city nickname field in the infobox. The field there is for the "official" city nicknames used by travel & tourism offices, not for some of the local colloquialisms that very small, minority segments of the population seem to have adopted at various times. 'RVA' and 'the 804' fall under this category. Please understand the difference between the official "nickname" and a "colloquialism"; we've actually discussed this before if you look in the archives.

'The mond' and 'mecca', I have never even heard of after living in Richmond for 20 years, so IF they are used, the part of the population that uses them must be a very, very small minority, and not even worth mentioning in something like this. Dr. Cash (talk) 01:39, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

In fact, I have lived here for twenty years too, went to Hampden-Sydney with many other Richmonders and fellow Virginians, and "the Mond" is pretty much the highest used nickname of them all. --MorrisS (talk) 16:45, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

I'm going to disagree with you quite strongly on that statement, and have reverted you. I have NEVER heard 'The Mond' used outside of Wikipedia. Ever. A google search for "The Mond" or "The 'Mond" doesn't even turn up anything remotely having anything to do with Richmond. Not even in the first several pages of searches. You're going to have to come up with a more concrete citation before this can even be considered for inclusion in this article -- and blog posts aren't reliable sources. Dr. Cash (talk) 16:57, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
I should also point out that, even if you do find a reliable source, it does NOT go under 'nicknames', because it's not a nickname. The field in the infobox is reserved for "official" nicknames only, not random colloquialisms used by very small and isolated subsets of the population. Dr. Cash (talk) 17:04, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] RVA magazine

I removed mention of RVA magazine from the article. It is not a "major media source", and is more of a tourist brochure that's somewhat regularly published. As such, I don't think it belongs in the article. Dr. Cash (talk) 20:39, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Crime

Should a section be added? When compared statistically with population differences factored in, Richmond has about as high a murder. rape, theft, and assault rate as the highest rated cities in the US. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.209.233.100 (talk) 15:07, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

It's usually most applicable to include crime statistics with the demographics section. It could also be a subsection with there. But not as a main section, no. Dr. Cash (talk) 16:28, 2 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] City capitalization

Why is the word "city" capitalized in the title of this article? Tuf-Kat (talk) 06:49, 6 April 2008 (UTC)

The article has always been named, simply, Richmond, Virginia. A relatively new and inexperienced user moved it to Richmond, Virginia (City), citing a need to distinguish it from Richmond County, Virginia. The move did not adhere to the manual of style and I have moved it back, adding a dab link to the very top of the article. Dr. Cash (talk) 00:17, 7 April 2008 (UTC)