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Lewis picks up WCLM endorsement

09/11/2009 6:29 AM by

City Council 7th District candidate Deanna Lewis appeared on WCLM 1450AM this past Wednesday and took calls on Echo Harbor, vacant houses, Fulton Bottom, development in Shockoe Bottom, racial barriers, graffiti, affordable housing, the Church Hill Reunion, and more, and in the process picked up the endorsement of WCLM owner Preston Brown.

Listen to the WCLM 1450AM interview:

Screen shot 2009-09-10 at 7.56.18 PM

In the first of what I hope to be a complete set of interviews with all 6 of the City Council 7th District candidates, I recently sat down with Ms.Lewis at Captain Buzzy’s.

Engaging to speak with, Lewis promotes herself as “somebody to give the people a voice” and as standing against politics-as-usual in the district. In discussion of the area, she repeatedly cites feedback that she’s gotten while out in the community. Towards getting more exposure, Lewis has published an aggressive grassroots meet&greet schedule over the coming weeks.

Saying that the next 3 years are formative for the area, one of Lewis’ main themes is a call for responsible development and to revitalize the East End. She describes a need to preserve the historic nature and character of the area. While stating that she is “absolutely pro-development”, has stepped out as a foe of the Echo Harbor development due to its impact on “this historic view of the James”.

Calling council’s February overturning of CAR’s rejection of the Oakwood Heights design politically motivated rather than fact based, she says of ties between former district representative Delores McQuinn and developer Margaret Freund, “it was suspect”. Lewis dug into the campaign contributions to McQuinn from Freund in a guest post here back in June.

Perhaps lacking in directly civic experience, Lewis has in the past managed real estate corporate offices and a financial planning firm. Now self-employed as an artist, Lewis has recently worked in Richmond restoring investment properties.


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