Kenya Gibson Launches Campaign

04.2024

Kenya Gibson, who’s running against incumbent Ann-Frances Lambert for the Third District seat on City Council, launched her campaign on April 7, and she pulled no punches. Kenya is currently serving out her second term as the Third District School Board representative. 

“I think that accountability and transparency at the city level is critical,” she told a crowd of about 100 people gathered at a private residence in the 3200 block of Woodrow Avenue on Richmond’s Northsdide. “The number one crisis we have in the city is the cost of living crisis. This crisis is, I believe, fueled by the reality that we have city leadership that is elected with developer dollars.”

“And what does that mean?” she asked. “We see public housing that’s being privatized. It means that housing that is actually affordable for Richmonders to live in is being condemned. And that paves the way for, I believe, and I went to school for architecture school so I can say this, shoddily built soulless apartment complexes all over the city.”

And then to a round of applause, she added: “We don’t need any more Chipolte’s.”

Less than an hour before Kenya’s stump speech began, and just blocks away from the Woodrow address, scores of people had gathered at Richmond Community Hospital in an effort to preserve this important, iconic structure from demolition. 

“I feel really strongly that we don’t own our history,” Kenya told the crowd during her campaign launch. “The history of the City is something that we are supposed to be protecting, and so making sure important buildings continue to stay there like Richmond Community Hospital on Overbrook. This is important work to do.”

She concluded her stump speech saying: “I’m promising that I will work with you all, and that together we will make Richmond, the Richmond that we deserve. I can pull in people to show up and to demand that City Council do the right thing.”