The Richmond City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved giving the Pogo Park group $3 million to help finish their Harbour 8 project, but the decision didn’t come easily. There was a tense discussion of whether the city should help pay for it and what the funding conditions should be.
Pogo Park, a nonprofit community development organization that converts blighted city parks into safe green children’s play spaces, has been working since 2013 with local residents to transform the two-block Harbour-8 Park into a comprehensive fun zone that includes a 25-foot, three-story transparent climbing structure, a tot lot, a commercial kitchen and a 100-foot zip line mounted on a rubber surface hand-crafted by team members to look like a volcano.
The new park’s building, dubbed Harbour Hall, will also be the county’s first resiliency center able to provide shelter to residents during inclement weather, a natural disaster or an emergency.
The park sits along the Richmond Greenway between Harbour Way and South 8th Street. In the last decade, the Greenway has seen improvements thanks to various nonprofits, including Pogo Park, that comprise the Friends of the Richmond Greenway (FORG).
The city’s contribution to the $28 million project is contingent upon Pogo Park meeting a number of requirements by Oct. 31. The city will finalize a Memorandum of Understanding, resolve questions on the final project budget, confirm grant deadlines and hold formal meetings to “align on project roles, responsibilities, and expectations for this City-owned property” before funds can be spent.
The first phase of the park is expected to be open by July, Toody Maher, executive director of Pogo Park, told Richmondside in April.
Since then, Maher, alongside Pogo Park employees and supporters, has attended recent council meetings lobbying for the city to provide $3 million as leverage to encourage donations from philanthropic organizations. Tuesday night’s proposal was made by District 1 and 2 council members Jamelia Brown and Vice Mayor Cesar Zepeda, who represents the park’s district.
According to Maher, Pogo Park raised the money to buy the Harbour-8 Park property and then sold it to the city at cost.
“The city, for a $3 million investment, would be getting a $28 million park,” Maher told the council Tuesday night, adding that the park will be a “force multiplier” for other Greenway improvement projects, such as Unity Park and Dirt World, as well as for the city’s Transformative Communities Climate (TCC) Grant for street projects.
Council member says it’s ‘painfully pathetic’ that city hasn’t yet rebuilt MLK Jr. Community Center
District 3 council member Doria Robinson, whose district borders the park’s Harbour Way location and who is affiliated with nonprofit organizations Urban Tilth and Rich City Rides, which also belong to FORG, commended Pogo Park for its work but expressed frustration that the city hasn’t rebuilt the former Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center.
The rebuilding of the MLK Jr. Community Center, which was next to Nystrom Elementary School until it was demolished in 2010, has long been on the city’s capital to-do list. Robinson has been an advocate for it since her 2022 election and in 2023 announced the city had found $200,000 in funding to jumpstart the effort.
“I have deep, deep, deep relationships with that center and yet it’s been 20 years since we promised to bring that back but somehow every year we can’t find the will to do it. But we can find the will for everything else. It’s just painful,” Robinson said. “I’m not saying this is not a good project. I’m glad it is a city-owned asset. The Greenway is great and we are doing projects that are investing there too. I just think that it’s just painfully pathetic that the city can’t find the will to fulfill that promise.”
District 5 council member Sue Wilson asked Maher why Pogo Park can’t raise the money via philanthropic donations. Maher said that they’ve hit a wall, with funders asking why the city wasn’t contributing money.
“So we have $6 million left (to raise) and the $3 million is going to really help us leverage,” Maher said. “We have donors who are waiting for this vote to take a look at what is happening because they are saying ‘Hey the city has extra funding for Boorman Park and Shields Reid Park. Why is Harbour 8 all on us?’ Part of that is just real talk from philanthropy.”
Robinson, Wilson and District 6 council member Claudia Jimenez said that they support the project but wanted additional information about how the partnership would work between the city and Pogo Park.
When asked where the money would come from, City Manager Shasa Curl said one possibility is to reallocate money that is currently earmarked for the purchase of three HVAC units in 2026. The needs of those buildings must first be assessed so the purchase and installation could be postponed with funds rerouted to the Pogo Park project.
Brown said all the information the three council members were asking for was in the agenda report and pushed back on Robinson’s comments about the MLK Jr. Community Center, saying that it is unfair to compare the two.
“It’s disheartening to hear this project being compared to MLK,” Brown said. “I think that merging into this conversation is taking away from the essence of what Harbour 8 is going to bring to our community. There’s no doubt in my mind that, if this $3 million is not allocated, Ms. Toody is not going to get the job done.”
Brown also commended Maher and Pogo Park, saying that the area around Pogo Park’s Elm Playlot, its first park project, is now drastically improved compared to the rest of the neighborhood. She also mentioned that Harbour park ranked as a high priority based on a scoring system the city uses to make more equitable project funding decisions.
“You can see there is love being poured into that area, and I want you to continue to pour more love into our areas. It seems to me that when there is something someone doesn’t like we tend to find any reason to avoid it or to oppose it,” Brown said. “But now once the equity is at the forefront we want to renege? That’s not how it goes… We know where we should be putting this money and we know we should be backing Ms. Toody.”
