PETERSBURG, Va. (WRIC) — Governor Glenn Youngkin visited the Tri-Cities area today to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his “Partnership for Petersburg” initiative.
When reflecting on the project’s progress, the governor made it very clear that there’s no “singular magic wand” to entirely transform the city. He said the initiative is about pouring effort across the board and seeing how it all comes together to propel the city forward in the long term.
The six-pillar effort addresses education, crime, economic development and more. According to city leaders, promises made last year were kept, but that doesn’t mean the effort is anywhere near finished.
“We can do more and we can go faster,” Governor Youngkin said.
The governor announced plans to bring an Amazon mobile grocery store to the area and a new athletic training facility at Petersburg High School, but those are just stepping stones.
When asked about which pillars saw the most progress and which areas need the most improvement, Governor Youngkin doubled down and said it’s more about the big picture impact — but one effort did draw particularly heavy attention.
“At the heart of this, of everything, was our primary effort on crime and public safety,” Youngkin said.
Leaders shared that the city’s police force saw about a 20% increase in staffing and the crime rate is down 33% since last year. However, with recent incidents of violence continuing to happen across the city, like the shooting deaths of two Virginia State University students, there’s still work to be done.
“We have to stay so laser focused on making sure that we continue to make progress on crime,” Youngkin said.
The governor also recognized that Petersburg students in grades 3 through 8 have fallen behind in critical curricular areas such as reading. While addressing chronic absenteeism and learning loss is a work in progress, Youngkin re-emphasized ongoing partnerships with nearby universities and the money in his recently signed budget allocated specifically to supporting education. However, with more than 50 initiatives in place, Youngkin said it’s not about throwing money at the problem — he believes the heart of real progress is having a plan.
“I think this is a blueprint,” Youngkin said. “I think this is truly the way that we can fundamentally impact the future, particularly in parts of Virginia and hopefully the nation, if other folks will pick it up that have been left behind and deserve the opportunity to catch back up.”
The governor also hinted that there’s a partnership initiative for another Virginia city in the works.
