Another followup editorial…
Once the media inquiries started to come in, the City (Parks & Rec?) finally responded with a blanket statement:

For public safety and crowd control, on Amphitheatre concert days the Richmond Police Department closes Brown’s Island Way at S. 2nd Street and Tredegar Street and closes Tredegar Street between 5th and Brown’s Island Way, to vehicular traffic. This closure with the addition of closing the Tredegar Street parking lot helps ensure effective traffic and crowd management by providing organized staging zones, designated parking for staff and volunteers, and safe pedestrian access.

The City has entered into a paid, month-to-month trial lease agreement with Allianz Amphitheater/ Live Nation, granting use of the 60 parking spaces in the Belle Isle parking lot on select specific days and times to support event operations. This parking lot closure is a similar model used for RiverRock and Folk festival. The Tredegar Street Belle Isle parking lot is partially owned by the City of Richmond and Venture Richmond. Venture Richmond has also approved the use of their section of the parking lot for this endeavor.

Remaining dates that the Belle Isle parking lot will be offline for the month of July are:
Tuesday, July 15 (8:00 AM – 12:00 AM)
Wednesday, July 16 (8:00 AM – 12:00 AM)
Thursday, July 17 (8:00 AM – 12:00 AM)
Saturday, July 19 (1:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
Thursday, July 24 (1:00 PM – 12:00 AM)
Saturday, July 26 (1:00 PM – 12:00 AM)

Many of Richmond’s reporters did their usual copying and pasting of this press statement, and sadly, as expected, some added, in a very ‘Trumpian’ fashion, their own complaints about ‘complainers’ who challenged this ‘big, beautiful’ new amphitheater and the might of Venture Richmond. ‘How dare citizens speak up!’ was the chastising tone.

A couple of problems with this-

First of all, closing the Belle Isle Parking lot is contrary to the Venture Richmond lease agreement.

Secondly, they are closing the parking lot for entire days, and also from 12 noon other days, for employee parking, so this has little to do with security during events.

Brown’s Island Way is kept open most of the day. The Dominion Energy headquarters is at the end of Tredegar St. and these employees, of course, need access through Brown’s Island Way. This lot is not being closed for security, but to provide parking for amphitheater employees. (Or is there more to it? Neighbors who attended last night’s concert said that lot attendants told them that they are selling the lot as “VIP parking”, at least for last night’s show.)

Thirdly, the Allianz amphitheater is being given over $30 million in City subsidies and is a for-profit enterprise. They can well afford to rent another lot for their employees without depriving public use of the Belle Isle parking lot.

This parking lot closure is not similar to RiverRock and the Folk Festival, which are free non-profit events organized by Venture Richmond. Venture Richmond’s lease specifically allows them to close the Belle Isle parking lot for limited events, like the Folk Festival, that are organized by Venture Richmond. The Allianz amphitheater, by contrast is a private for-profit venue which is charging handsome prices for admittance and food. The Allianz events are not organized by Venture Richmond.

One point that may have been overlooked in all of this is that this lot is incredibly important for disabled access to Belle Isle. Southside access to the park is not the same.
Again, taking the only parking lot for Richmond’s most popular park for private functions is outrageous!

Lastly, if the lot is owned by the City of Richmond and Venture Richmond then is it a public parking lot or not? Upon further investigation, the land is owned by the City’s Department of Public Works. PUBLIC!

This is not the first time that the neighbors have fought to keep the Belle Isle parking lot open to the public for visiting the park.
In March 2021 a sign went up on the Belle Isle parking lot closing it to the public.

Oregon Hill residents immediately protested and pointed out that this was contrary to the Venture Richmond lease, and the lot was re-opened to the public the next day.
Now, once again, Venture Richmond is trying to close the only parking lot for Belle Isle for private functions.

It would be nice if local reporters could get off their duffs and not just reiterate whatever the local PTB (“Powers That Be”) feed them.
People complain about ‘complainers’, but there is more at stake than people think.