RICHMOND, Va. — Catie Beck sits down for an extensive interview with Levar Stoney, the former Richmond mayor who is now running for lieutenant governor of Virginia, on the latest episode of "Untold – A WTVR Podcast."
Stoney spoke openly about his childhood and how his life changed forever when his mother agreed to let his grandmother move him from New York to Virginia.
“I was born to a couple of unwed teenagers. My mother was 16, my father was 18. And I always remind people that it was my grandmother who intervened in my life,” said Stoney. “She's my superhero. She's my guardian angel to this day, and she raised me. She treated me as if I were one of her own. In 1988, my family moved to Virginia. My uncle, who still resides to this day in Newport News, told my grandmother that she should move the boys, me and my brother, down to Virginia because there would be more opportunity for us. We were on Long Island, and let's just say it was not a situation where he saw us being successful. And my grandmother had to go to my mother and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to take the boys.’”
Watch: Levar Stoney: 'I was born to a couple of unwed teenagers'
In 2016, Stoney was elected the youngest mayor in the history of Richmond. He led City Hall for eight years, the most challenging of which was 2020, when he faced both the COVID-19 pandemic and the protests and riots that erupted after the death of George Floyd.
“At the time [people were saying], ‘Well, you need to choose a team.’ And I was like, excuse me, what do you mean by that? Well, you need to choose. Are you on the side of the police, or are you on the side of the protesters? And I was like, oh, I'm gonna choose Richmond, right? I'm gonna do my job and lead. And my job during that time was to provide order, to provide direction, and also be the authority to bring normalcy back to the city.”
Watch: Levar Stoney on 2020 Richmond police protests and riots
Catie also asked Stoney about what it was like to watch the Richmond water crisis unfold earlier this year, just days after he left office, and if he thinks anything could or should have been done differently to prevent it.
“I wasn't there on January 6, so I don't have any knowledge of what occurred on that day. The only knowledge I have is what our news media has reported, what the HNTB report has stated from the city, or the report from the county, or the report from the state, as well as many, many different reports,” said Stoney. “And what it seems to me is fair to say that the systems used as a backup in case of an emergency should have been tested before the storm.”
Watch: Levar Stoney on what he knew ahead of Richmond water crisis
Regarding his current campaign, Stoney said he wants to be known as the candidate who stands up for Virginia workers and stands against the policies of former President Donald Trump.
“There is a lot of uncertainty amid all this chaos that's occurring right here,” said Stoney. “And here's the thing: what I heard from people years ago is they were looking for some normalcy, and that is not what you're seeing here. People recognize that, yeah, maybe government can become too bloated, and you need to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse, but it's about the how. Cutting thousands of jobs just willy-nilly without any strategic plan or idea behind it can be very damaging to the Virginia economy.”
Watch: Levar Stoney on Trump administration changes impacting Virginia
Beck and Stoney also discussed the city’s handling of one of the more high-profile criminal cases in recent years: the 2022 arrests of two Guatemalan immigrants who were taken into custody and publicly named after someone called police and claimed the men were plotting to commit a mass shooting at Dogwood Dell on the Fourth of July. It was a case that ultimately fell apart in court.
"If you look back at it, it was not what we thought it was, as more details and more information came in,” said Stoney. “Did the call happen? Yes, all those things happened. But was it strong enough to say that, you know, there was a mass shooting? Probably not.”
Watch: Levar Stoney on alleged July 4 Richmond mass shooting plot
Watch the latest episode of “Untold – A WTVR Podcast” at the top of this page. You can also find us on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
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