Richmond Times Dispatch
Dec 26, 2004

Flood of good will
Hard-hit Bottom Businesses Ride a Wave of Help
Bob Rayner

If we've learned anything about the American character in the past few years, it may be that from disaster and tragedy springs remarkable, unexpected and often inspiring behavior.

We witnessed it after the Sept. 11 attacks. We read about it just last week after the appalling explosion in Mosul.

And we've seen it right here - on less heroic scale, to be sure - in the months after the damaging floods that swept through Richmond on Aug. 30, compliments of Tropical Storm Gaston.

The floodwaters managed to focus much of their fury on one of the city's most vibrant - and fragile - districts.

Shockoe Bottom, where Richmond was born, has transformed, ever so slowly, from a declining industrial neighborhood into an urban haven of bars, restaurants and businesses, many devoted to creative pursuits.

The area's renaissance seemed to be gaining momentum in recent years as a steady stream of studios, advertising agencies, filmmakers, editors, writers, musicians, photographers and architects settled into the refurbished warehouses and factories, adding a daytime bustle to the Bottom's already busy nightlife.

Has been adding businesses
The Bottom has been filling up with new businesses, almost all of them small and locally owned. In many cases, their work reached far beyond Richmond and represented a small seed in the city's bid to build a reputation as an important player in the creative industries

So it came as an especially sharp shock when several blocks in the Bottom, and nearly 50 businesses, were virtually, and sometimes literally, washed away by Gaston's torrents.

Federal assistance proved to be of little help to many of these small, undercapitalized enterprises. The city pitched in about $325,000, mostly to Bottom businesses. Welcome relief no doubt, but just a drop in the bucket in an area that sustained millions in damage.

So here's where the remarkable part comes in.

The business community jumped in feet first.

A close look at the devastation
A lot of the creative companies in the area escaped with minimal damage, but they got a close-up view of the devastation that hit many of their neighbors. So they decided to do something.

"This is such a unique neighborhood. It's so important for the city," said Kristin O'Connor, owner of Rainmaker Studios. "There's a vibrant creative community down here."

O'Connor's business, in the Superior Production Exchange on East Franklin Street, emerged from the flood largely unscathed. But she recognized an immediate need to help nearby businesses that were not so fortunate. She started making calls.
At the same time, Carlos Chafin and Robbin Thompson of In Your Ear Music and Recording Services on East Broad Street began surveying the damage.

Like O'Connor's business, their studio had escaped the floodwaters. And they, too, realized that a lot of neighboring businesses were facing a long battle to stay afloat.
"These businesses are living under a cloud. You've got people who pumped all of their money, their life savings, into them. You have a flood and then there's no clientele for two weeks," Chafin said after the flood.

A lot of small businesses wouldn't be able to survive that kind of hit, Chafin said. "These people need to eat."

It didn't take long for Chafin and O'Connor to join forces - and bring a lot more people along with them.

"It became a true grass-roots community effort," O'Connor said.

The goals were two-fold. First, let people know that Shockoe Bottom was still in business. Many of the bars and restaurants that remained open, or managed to make repairs and open up a few days after the flood, were suffering a drought of customers.

People simply didn't want to venture down to the Bottom. Plus, some of the biggest draws in the area - Havana'59, Bottoms Up and River City Diner - were out of commission for months.

A hastily arranged group of writers, producers, editors and directors put together an ad campaign that urged people to return to the Bottom.

Businesses contributed money and air time so the spots could run on local stations. Customers began to trickle back to the Bottom.

Next, the area's creative community, working with the River District Alliance, organized the Shockoe Relief Fund to raise money for the damaged businesses.

An ad campaign for the fund followed shortly, of course. Last month, local bands Cracker, Camper Van Beethoven and Carbon Leaf volunteered for a benefit concert in the Bottom. A couple of weeks ago, the Superior Production Exchange held a Rodney Dangerfield film festival to raise money for the fund.

Help began pouring in from all over town. The Martin Agency and Big River Advertising created logos for the ad campaigns. Civic organizations donated money to buy media time. Dozens of people and firms from the advertising community chipped in, contributing sweat and inspiration.

O'Connor estimates the value of donated services and products at $200,000. She points to a list of contributors that's simply too long to reproduce in this space.

The word spread well beyond the Bottom. In November, Capital One Financial Corp. contributed $300,000 to the relief fund. On Thursday, Philip Morris USA chipped in $200,000, pushing the total to about $560,000.

"The Bottom really suffered a double whammy," said John Woodward, the city's economic-development director.

"Nearly 50 businesses suffered significant or catastrophic damage. But even the ones that were able to scratch and claw back open suffered a second whammy because some people think the whole area is still shut down, so their traffic diminished."

The customers are coming back, he said, but often not to pre-flood levels yet.
"The advertising has helped tremendously," Woodward said. "The local creative industry has really stepped up to the plate."

Not all of the good deeds were coordinated. Stephen Letchford of VHB Inc., a civil-engineering and surveying company, said it received some essential help from JE Liesfeld Contractor Inc. right after the flood.

The local general contractor braved the mud and muck to helped VHB move its equipment out of its offices on South 15th Street, allowing the company to set up shop temporarily in Williamsburg. VHB is back in its Richmond digs now.

"Otherwise, we would have been out of business for at least a week," Letchford said.
About a dozen Bottom businesses are still closed, and others are struggling to overcome the financial detritus left by the raging waters.

Tax-deductible donations to the Shockoe Relief Fund are being accepted through Dec. 31.

Checks can be made out to the Richmond Economic Development Corp. (write "Shockoe Relief Fund" on the memo line) and sent to the Richmond Economic Development Corp., 411 E. Franklin St., Suite 203, Richmond VA 23219.

Early next year, the fund will begin distributing money. A RECD panel made up of area business leaders will decide, with some input from the city's economic-development office, how much each applicant will receive.

The money won't solve all the problems in Shockoe Bottom. Several of the area's biggest draws are still a few months away from reopening.

But things are looking up in the Bottom. And the businesses down there deserve a lot of the credit for that.